Last time I spoke about the conversation, the infamous conversation, between Trump and Zelensky in The Oval Office. And afterward, a primordial image appeared before my mind\u2019s eye. I would not have known this primordial image if I had not read about it in Rudolf Steiner\u2019s works. Specifically, in a series of lectures from 1913 in The Hague, where he speaks about the effect of inner development on the different components of the human being. At a certain point, he speaks about the soul and explains that the soul is, in fact, the great egoist within man, which has the tendency to relate everything to itself and completely immerse itself in personal interest. But the task of the soul is to overcome this and transform itself into a being that consists entirely of love.<\/p>\n
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You can well imagine that this does not simply happen within a single lifetime. But when you begin an inner development, you start working on this. And then he gives two extremes along which one can go astray. So, the soul is the great egoist, ideally seeks the middle ground, but has a strong tendency to deviate from it due to egoism. And what is remarkable here is that Steiner describes that the path to love is not one of self-denial, not the abandonment of oneself, but rather the expansion of one\u2019s own interest to such an extent that it becomes the interest of the world.<\/p>\n
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And last week, I saw this contrast in Trump and Zelensky\u2014that this is indeed something you see in Trump, that he enlarges his own interest, or one could also say his ego, to the size of the entire world. But there is a certain erroneous path connected to this, and that is when, in the continuous expansion of personal interest into a world interest, personal power is carried along. That is, of course, a fact\u2014you see it, and it can certainly be expected in external politics as well, that people who attain positions such as the American president engage in an expansion of power and that the ego is carried along in this, the ego in the sense of self-interest.<\/p>\n
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So, in essence, you then see the primordial image of human development\u2014how it can be thrown off balance, as it were\u2014where you have someone who is a ruler, who does indeed intend to do good for the whole world, but of course also says “America first,” in which personal interest plays a major role and is therefore included.<\/p>\n
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Now, Rudolf Steiner describes this in that lecture as the primordial image of Amfortas. And Amfortas\u2014I do not know if you, as a viewer of these videos, are familiar with the Grail legend\u2014but Amfortas, in that legend, in what I would call the primordial legend, is a Fisher King. And the image there is\u2014of course, there is some resemblance to a man on Earth who was also associated with fishermen but did not become a king and did not aspire to be one. This Fisher King, Amfortas, truly rules over his people with power. And that is what is problematic in the soul as the primordial image of Amfortas.<\/p>\n
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Opposite him stands the fool\u2014a young man who is undeveloped with regard to the world\u2019s reality. He has not learned to understand what is at play in the world and how to deal with it. He has received some rules, but he does not grasp how they should be lived in the reality of the world. That is the other way of straying from the middle. That means that, in itself, you do serve something that is good, but at the same time, you are insufficiently aware of the principles that govern the world. That, says Rudolf Steiner, is the undeveloped Percival. Ultimately, he does become the Grail King, but it is a very long journey. And that journey is so long precisely because he does not know how to deal with Amfortas.<\/p>\n
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And I suddenly saw this in the conversation in the Oval Office. Of course, I had already said it in a way, but at that moment, I had not yet seen this primordial image. It came to me afterward\u2014that realization that there is a powerful ruler with whom one must interact in a particular way, someone to whom you cannot dictate laws, but whom you must be able to approach with questions. So, you should approach such a person with inquiry, caution, and, in this case, also a certain gratitude\u2014even if that gratitude is later criticized. That is how you should handle such a situation.<\/p>\n
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And so, in dealing with a powerful ruler with an ego as vast as the entire world, one who has not set aside his self-interest, you should know that you cannot interact with him in the usual way. You must have a certain skill in how to handle such a person. In this case, that would have meant taking a much more inquisitive approach rather than arriving with a preconceived demand that you keep hammering on.<\/p>\n
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Amfortas and Percival\u2014primordial images that exist within every human soul. Even if you are not the President of the United States, you are still, in some way, a small, selfish ruler, and you are also, somewhere, a fool\u2014always. So, self-education, in the sense of knowing how to conduct yourself in different situations, is itself an art. One might argue that this is mere inauthenticity, that one should be the same everywhere. Yes, you can be yourself everywhere, but you must understand in what way you can manifest that self in different situations. You simply cannot always act as you please.<\/p>\n
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And what still remains a mystery to me is: what is the primordial image for Europe, which then takes this wandering fool into its arms and, with an enormous overkill, seeks to protect him\u2014not so much him personally, but rather his cause? One can understand it, yet also not understand it, and one would like to discern a primordial image of what is truly happening here.<\/p>\n
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Of course, one can maintain all sorts of theories\u2014that history unfolded in such and such a way, that there are certain intentions or ambitions at play. That may all be true, but we are also witnessing primordial images here. And in the Grail legend, that is an exalted primordial image\u2014one that, in the end, could unfold among highly developed individuals. What we see in everyday life are degraded, decadent versions of it, yet they remain developmental processes that still point to these primordial images.<\/p>\n
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So the question is: what exactly is Europe doing? When you look at a map\u2014America in the West, China and Japan in the East\u2014you see Europe in the middle. One could say that the primordial image for Europe should be the middle path: keeping that egoism, which characterizes the soul, under control\u2014not through selfish expansion of power, nor through foolishness, but through a self-aware, wise engagement with both opposing forces. Well, I don\u2019t believe we can say that we see this\u2014but then, what do we see? And for now, that remains a mystery to me. If I find the answer, I will tell you, but at this moment, I truly do not see it. What I do see is a drama\u2014a European drama.<\/p>\n
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Because Europe\u2014and I have recorded a video about this before, written about it, and given lectures on it in the Netherlands\u2014Europe, in our time, is supposed to be the bearer of human culture and art. At least, that is what it should be. Also, let\u2019s say, of a new spirituality. That should be Europe\u2019s defining characteristic.<\/p>\n
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And when you read the various reports, hear them, and see them, you notice that there is growing opposition to these vast defense expenditures because all the money is flowing in that direction, weakening Europe\u2019s social welfare systems\u2014the very ones we have so beautifully built. But what I have not heard anywhere, truly nowhere, and what cries out in my soul, is that Europe, as a middle continent, should be the representative of spirituality, art, and culture. It has done so in the past. Think of the Renaissance and the period that followed, think of the great German idealists, think of composers like Bach\u2014but let\u2019s not forget the English, French, and Italian composers either. That is Europe.<\/p>\n
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And that has been utterly silenced. And that is something that causes incredible pain\u2014that we, as Europeans, concern ourselves with social welfare, with money, with the economy, with healthcare, but not with what should be the core of European civilization: culture.<\/p>\n
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And one wonders: when will the moment come when someone rises up, someone with a certain level of power, and says, *But wasn\u2019t this supposed to be our mission?* And now we are pouring money into the arms industry. Of course, it is terrible that there is no longer as much money for social welfare. That is a disaster. But the other disaster\u2014the loss of culture, through which we become decadent\u2014has been happening for much, much longer, and not a single word is spoken about it.<\/p>\n
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Europe, caught between East and West, will be crushed if it does not rediscover its own identity. What nonsense to talk about the arms industry! How is it possible that Europe, which was so far along the path to becoming a region of peace, has now succumbed to fear over something that, for now, remains a fantasy?<\/p>\n
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When will Europe realize what its true purpose is between East and West? I do not believe that the arms industry can avert any calamity. That will only be possible when the very essence of Europe unfolds itself.<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s all for now.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last time I spoke about the conversation, the infamous conversation, between Trump and Zelensky in The Oval Office. And afterward, a primordial image appeared before my mind\u2019s eye. I would not have known this primordial image if I had not read about it in Rudolf Steiner\u2019s works. Specifically, in a series of lectures from 1913 in The Hague, where he speaks about the effect of inner development on the different components of the human being. At a certain point, he speaks about the soul and explains that the soul is, in fact, the great egoist within man, which has the tendency to relate everything to itself and completely immerse itself in personal interest. But the task of the soul is to overcome this and transform itself into a being that consists entirely of love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You can well imagine that this does not simply happen within a single lifetime. But when you begin an inner development, you start working on this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ongecategoriseerd"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5397,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions\/5397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miekemosmuller.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}