The polymath, Douglas Gabriel, has just released his freely accessible e-book of 136 pages entitled Spirit Awakening Through Novalis (2018)(https://neoanthroposophy.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/spirit-awakening-through-novalis2.pdf ).
"Novalis"—poet, author, mystic, and philosopher of Early German Romanticism—was born Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenburg on May 2, 1772, in Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony. Gabriel relates that according to Rudolf Steiner, Novalis was the oldest of souls among us. He had lived countless lives. Previous incarnations include Elijah, Elias, Phineas, John the Baptist—even stretching back to Adam himself.
Gabriel writes:
According to Steiner, Novalis can write about the most profound foundations of life because he was there when those foundations were laid. The most important moments in Christian history can be understood through Novalis because of his central role in the enactment of the mysteries of Christianity. Of course, the reader is free to surmise what you will out of pure study of Novalis’ work, but it is often found that an inner question about the works of this author arises, “From what source can such wisdom flow?”
It is worth citing Gabriel's summary of Novalis' incredible significance for humanity today:
Novalis is also aware of the stupendous truth that since the
Event of Golgotha the
Being we call Christ has been the planetary Spirit of the Earth, the Spirit by
whom
the Earth's body will gradually be transformed. A wonderful vista of the future
opens out before Novalis. He sees the Earth transfigured; he sees the present
Earth in which the residue of ancient times is still contained, transformed
into the Body of Christ; he sees the waters of the Earth permeated with Christ’s
Blood, and he sees the solid rocks as Christ’s Flesh. He sees the body of the
Earth gradually becoming the Body of Christ; he sees the Earth and Christ
miraculously made one; he sees the Earth in future time as a great organism
enshrining man, an organism whose soul is Christ. In this sense, and out of his
deep insight into occult truths, Novalis speaks of Christ as the Son of Man.
Just as in a certain sense men are the ‘Sons of the Gods,’ that is to say of
the ancient Gods who through untold millions of years have molded and shaped
our planet, who have built the bodies in which we live and the ground upon
which we move, so, by overcoming earthly things, man's task is to build, through
his own powers, an Earth that will be the body of the new God, the God of the
future.
And whereas the men of old looked back to the primeval Gods, yearning to be united with them in death, Novalis recognizes the God who in time to come will have as his body all that is best in us and that we can offer to Him. In Christ, he sees the Being to whom humanity offers itself in order that this Being may have a body. He recognizes Christ as the ‘Son of Man’ in this higher, cosmological sense. He speaks of Christ as the ‘God of the future.’ All these experiences and perceptions are so pregnant with meaning that they are well able to kindle the true mood of Christmas in our souls.
…And so, we see how in the supremely gifted Novalis, feelings free of all denominational bias quicken to life at the portrayal of this holy Mystery which was enacted at the first Christmas and is repeated at every Christmastide. It is the
Mystery of the ancient Initiates, represented by the Magi, bringing their offerings to the new Mystery. The Wise Men, who are bearers of the wisdom of times past, make their offerings to that which is to go forward into the future, that which, in a human being, will one day harbor the power by which all worlds connected with the Earth are pervaded. Novalis experienced the Christ Mystery, the Mary Mystery, in relation to the Cosmic Mystery, the light of which shone before his eyes of soul as it had shone at the first Christmas, when Beings who had not descended to the physical plane proclaimed the union between a cosmic and an earthly Power, which can become a reality in human hearts and in the Cosmos itself when the human heart unites with Christ. The Egyptian proclamation: ‘The God with whom you must be united dwells in the world that can be reached only after death’, holds good no longer. For now, the God with whom man must be united lives among us here, between birth and death; and men can find Him when they unite their hearts and souls with Him in this world. Thus, in the first Holy Night of Christendom the strain resounded: Revelation in the Heights to God, Quiet and peace through all the Earth, Blessed joy in Men.
And whereas the men of old looked back to the primeval Gods, yearning to be united with them in death, Novalis recognizes the God who in time to come will have as his body all that is best in us and that we can offer to Him. In Christ, he sees the Being to whom humanity offers itself in order that this Being may have a body. He recognizes Christ as the ‘Son of Man’ in this higher, cosmological sense. He speaks of Christ as the ‘God of the future.’ All these experiences and perceptions are so pregnant with meaning that they are well able to kindle the true mood of Christmas in our souls.
…And so, we see how in the supremely gifted Novalis, feelings free of all denominational bias quicken to life at the portrayal of this holy Mystery which was enacted at the first Christmas and is repeated at every Christmastide. It is the
Mystery of the ancient Initiates, represented by the Magi, bringing their offerings to the new Mystery. The Wise Men, who are bearers of the wisdom of times past, make their offerings to that which is to go forward into the future, that which, in a human being, will one day harbor the power by which all worlds connected with the Earth are pervaded. Novalis experienced the Christ Mystery, the Mary Mystery, in relation to the Cosmic Mystery, the light of which shone before his eyes of soul as it had shone at the first Christmas, when Beings who had not descended to the physical plane proclaimed the union between a cosmic and an earthly Power, which can become a reality in human hearts and in the Cosmos itself when the human heart unites with Christ. The Egyptian proclamation: ‘The God with whom you must be united dwells in the world that can be reached only after death’, holds good no longer. For now, the God with whom man must be united lives among us here, between birth and death; and men can find Him when they unite their hearts and souls with Him in this world. Thus, in the first Holy Night of Christendom the strain resounded: Revelation in the Heights to God, Quiet and peace through all the Earth, Blessed joy in Men.
— Gabriel, D., Spirit Awakening Through Novalis (2018) pp.13-14
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"There is no religion that is not Christianity." — Novalis
Far from a conceit, like thunder this proclamation of Novalis blasts and echoes an unstoppable planetary truth.
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