The New Covenant for the Becoming of the Tenth Hierarchy Thomas Mayer With the Christmas Conference 1923/24, a new covenant1 between humanity and the spiritual world was established. We human beings are now—together with the angelic hierarchies, those who have died, and the elemental beings—consciously co-shaping the future of earth evolution, on the way to the New Jupiter. Humanity has begun to enter into the status of a tenth angelic hierarchy. In the Foundation Stone Meditation, the central legacy of the Christmas Conference, the first three verses relate to the 3 x 3 angelic hierarchies. The fourth verse concerns human beings, the tenth hierarchy. However, it is not yet certain how many will enter into this new covenant. In the text of the Foundation Stone Meditation, the angelic hierarchies are certainly there for the new covenant, and the elemental beings are also certainly there for it and certainly hear it. Human beings are the sole uncertain factor: “May human beings hear it.” This new covenant between humanity and the spiritual world had to be a conscious act, otherwise it would not be a new covenant. That is why “occultism was made public.” The path of inner schooling toward experiencing the spiritual world is now open to all. In the same way, the previous secrets of the spiritual world, the occult, were also made accessible to everyone. He who seeks, finds. It is important to understand: This was a worldwide process. In India, during the same period, the yoga schools—which had been secret until then—were opened. Among the yoga masters, there was a discussion about whether this was right. Degradation, dilution was the concern on the one hand, historical necessity for consciousness to be able to evolve on the other. Buddhist esoteric masters also made their secrets accessible. Tibetan lamas came to the West. The same with the Sufis. Last but not least, the shamans and medicine men of indigenous peoples opened their doors. Rudolf Steiner completed the publication of occultism for the Western eso1 Ed. note: Bündnis—covenant or alliance.
teric current that flowed over the centuries from the Grail Movement, the School of Chartres, and the Rosicrucians into anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner was aware of this significance of the Christmas Conference. “World Turning Point of Time” was Steiner’s word for this. With this, the “karma of humanity” was to be brought into order again. Anthroposophist Ernst Lehrs reports on a conversation between Guenther Wachsmuth and Rudolf Steiner, where Steiner said (as he had often emphasized also during lectures on the Christmas Conference in the months thereafter): “With the Christmas Conference, anthroposophy has turned from a hitherto earthly affair into a cosmic one.”2 Ernst Lehrs further describes: To this, Rudolf Steiner added: [The Conference’s] effect on humanity therefore no longer depends on its being accepted on earth. While it would have most painful consequences for civilization on earth if this does not happen, for human beings themselves it would then become effective from another location, for example from the moon.3
What does it mean that “anthroposophy has become a cosmic affair”? To understand this, I published a 500page book in German in 2008: The Experience of Earth Transformation: Reports and Texts from a Contemporary Witness.4 Forty-two geomancers, who are adept at observing the supersensible sheaths of the earth, described how they had experienced the spiritual transformation of the earth around the turn of the millennium. New landscape organs, new etheric forces, and new elemental beings emerged; the angelic world changed and people gained new subtle perceptual possibilities. I think that these are the cosmic effects of the new covenant for which the Christmas Conference was a landmark. When I ask the elemental beings in nature today if they know the Foundation Stone Meditation, I always get a benevolent, self-evident nod back. They have all come to 2 Ernst Lehrs, Gelebte Erwartung (Mellinger, 1979), p. 268. Cited in: S.O. Prokofieff, May Human Beings Hear It! (Temple Lodge, 2004), p. 76. 3 Ibid. 4 Erlebnis Erdwandlung: Berichte und Texte einer Zeitzeugenschaft (Verlag Ch. Möllmann, 2008). december 2023 • 75
