Akashic Records

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In parts of esotericism , especially in modern or Anglo-Indian theosophy and in anthroposophy , the Akashic Chronicle describes the idea of ​​a supersensible “ book of life ” that contains an all-encompassing world memory in immaterial form. There are also older notions of such a "world memory" (as in Neoplatonism , in Christian tradition and in pre- modern esotericism), but the term "Akashic records" in this form is of modern theosophical origin . In the German-speaking area, it was mainly known through Rudolf Steiner . Esotericists like Steiner and recently soothsayers took or claim to be able to “read” the Akashic Chronicle.

etymology

The term Akasha ( Sanskrit : आकाश ākāśa , also akascha , akasa and akaça ; Pāḷi : ākāsa) stands for heaven, space or ether ; In Hindu philosophy and Ayurveda , Akasha (' ether ') denotes one of the five elements alongside Prithivi ('earth'), Vata ('air'), Agni ('fire') and Ap ('water') ( cf.Vaisheshika ). In Buddhism , ākāsa is used as a term for limited space ( ākāsa-dhātu ) or unlimited space ( ajatākāsa ).

Concept history

The idea of ​​a world memory has a long tradition in Europe and can be found, for example, in Plotinus (approx. 205–270), Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and Paracelsus (1493–1541) as well as in rudiments in Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535) ), Éliphas Lévi (1810–1875) and Eduard von Hartmann (1842–1906). According to the Indologist and religious scholar Helmuth von Glasenapp , it is originally of occidental origin and, regardless of the use of the Sanskrit word akasha, alien to traditional Indian thought.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), the founder of modern theosophy, spoke in the first volume of her work Isis Unveiled ( Isis unveiled ) of “metaphysical tablets”, “ daguerreotypes , printed on the astral light”, in the notes “of everything what was, is or will ever be ”and which would be“ presented to the eye of the seer and prophet as a living image ”.

The use of the term "Akasha Chronicle" ( akashic records ) is first proven in the theosophist Charles W. Leadbeater (1847-1934) in his 1899 published Clairvoyance . Under other names (such as "astral projections" or "astral visions"), access to an imagined world memory has been a popular subject of esoteric teachings in and around the Theosophical Society since the late 19th century ( Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ).

Anthroposophy

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), then head of the German section of the Adyar Theosophical Society , used the term mainly in the series of essays From the Akashic Chronicle published between 1904 and 1908 . The associated idea of ​​being able to perceive past events supernaturally remained essential for his thinking later on, for example as a "backward-looking clairvoyant view". He regarded the reporting of some factual details as a complementary type of what had emerged from the "Akashic Chronicle Research". Primarily it was not about "external actual history", but about the "supersensible" itself. So he wanted to write a kind of history of the soul in From the Akashic Chronicle , and he claimed the inner truth ("spirit knowledge") of Christianity to have seen. He understood the inspiration of the Bible as "that it must have been written by someone who can also look at the Akashic records."

According to Steiner, “reading” the Akasha Chronicle requires ascent into the sphere of “ intuition ” - for Steiner the highest of three levels of supernatural knowledge. It includes memories of previous incarnations and means putting yourself into a "consciousness that goes beyond that of an individual person". Building on earlier forms of collective memory, a biographical memory could thus be expanded into a human memory. This will be "an opportunity to understand the development impulse underlying human history" and to take responsibility for future global development.

According to the anthroposophical view, Steiner's reports are generally understandable descriptions of a supernatural reality that is only accessible after meditative training. In his writings How to Get Knowledge of Higher Worlds (1904) or The Secret Science in Outline (1910), Steiner claimed to be able to make this path of knowledge accessible to everyone in principle.

Other uses

In addition to Leadbeater, other English-speaking theosophists stated that they could read the Akashic Records, including Levi H. Dowling (1844-1911), Annie Besant (1847-1933) and Alice Bailey (1880-1949). Other influential "readers" of the Chronicle were the Rosicrucian Max Heindel (1865-1919) and the "sleeping prophet" Edgar Cayce (1877-1945). Also in the New Age the term "Akashic Chronicle" was taken up often, for example by Shirley MacLaine in Out on a Limb (1983), by Janet and Stewart Farrar in The Witches' Way (1984), by Marian Green in Experiments in Aquarian Magic (1985) and by Henry Reed in Edgar Cayce on Mysteries of the Mind (1989). Newer performers are Penny McLean and Ulla von Bernus .

There are many English books on the market today that offer information from the Akashic Chronicle or provide instructions for reading this chronicle yourself. In contrast to the main traditional use of the term, for example by Steiner, "reading" in the Akashic Chronicle is also related to the future among today's esotericists, for example to justify fortune-telling or as a background for Indian palm leaf libraries in which the life stories of all their future visitors are kept should be.

Critical classification

In the opinion of the religious scholar Hartmut Zinser , alleged findings about and from the Akashic Chronicle are statements of faith in the religious sense, but their beliefs are denied by being presented as objective facts. Esotericists like Rudolf Steiner would thus be subject to "one of the fundamental epistemological errors of modern occultism : not, at least not sufficiently, to differentiate between perception (here: the soul experiences) and interpretation (as a supersensible world)."

According to Rudolf Steiner's readings in the Akasha Chronicle, it was already in the year 7227 BC. A "primeval Indian cultural epoch", which started from 5067 BC. From an "ancient Persian cultural epoch" and from 2907 BC Is said to have been replaced by an "Egyptian-Chaldean cultural epoch". The religious scholar Julia Iwersen considers this summary to be unrealistic, since the cultural developments in Egypt and Mesopotamia were very different and there is no evidence of advanced cultures before 3000 BC. There. Iwersen considers the “ancient Indian cultural epoch” propagated by Steiner to be an embarrassing solution from Steiner, who had adopted his historical picture of Blavatsky's information from the Dzyan , because Blavatsky had moved the place of origin of esoteric wisdom from Egypt to India in her writings over time.

Furthermore, critics complain that many assertions already show contradictions in hermeneutic text analysis or are incompatible with the established state of the corresponding specialist sciences. Levi H. Dowling, for example, derived implausible statements about Jesus Christ from the Akasha Chronicle: he is said to have made extensive journeys about which nothing is known either according to historical-critical exegesis or general history . Thus, the value of such publications can only be measured by their poetic performance, not by their realism.

literature

  • Daniel Meurois-Givaudan: Essener Visions. New revelations from the Akashic Records . Hugendubel, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89631-267-7
  • Andreas Neider: The evolution of memory and recollection. Reading the Akashic Records . Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-7725-1752-5
  • Rudolf Steiner: Reading in the Akasha Chronicle. Selected texts . Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach 2008, ISBN 978-3-7274-5378-6
  • Kevin J. Todeschi: Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records. The Book of Life . ARE Press, Virginia Beach 1997, ISBN 0-87604-401-1
  • Siglinda Oppelt: Akasha Chronicle. Your book of life. EchnAton Verlag, Ramerberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-96442-022-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ for example in the Missa pro defunctis from the Missale curiale of 1472 or the Missale Romanum of 1570 of the Roman Catholic Church. Regarding the concept of a “book of works” in which all deeds for the Last Judgment are kept, as well as a providence cf. also Andreas Neider: The evolution of memory and memory , Stuttgart 2008, p. 21f.
  2. ↑ ākāsa from Brief Handbook of Buddhist Teachings and Terms of Nyanatiloka
  3. ↑ ākāsa from Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines by Nynatiloka
  4. ↑ Helmuth von Glasenapp: The India picture of German thinkers , Stuttgart 1960, p. 199f. For the European tradition of the term, see Heinz Robert Schlette: Weltseele - Geschichte und Hermeneutik , Frankfurt / Main 1993
  5. ^ HP Blavatsky: Isis unveiled ; Pp. 178-185
  6. ^ Helmut Zander : Anthroposophy in Germany. Theosophical worldview and social practice 1884–1945 , Göttingen 2007, p. 623
  7. ↑ Zander, S. 622f
  8. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: From Akashic Research. The Fifth Gospel Lecture in Kristiana (Oslo), October 2, 1913 ; GA 148, p. 23
  9. ↑ ibid., Lecture in Munich, December 8, 1913, p. 243ff.
  10. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: Reading in the Akasha Chronicle - Selected Texts ; Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 2008, p. 30
  11. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: From the Akasha Chronicle (= GA 11), Dornach 1969, p. 24
  12. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: My course of life ; GA 28, 9th edition, Dornach 2000, p. 365f
  13. ^ Rudolf Steiner: The Gospel of John in relation to the three other Gospels (GA 112); quoted from: Reading in the Akasha Chronicle , p. 38f
  14. ↑ Andreas Neider: The evolution of memory and memory. Reading the Akashic Records . Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 2008, pp. 42, 164.
  15. ↑ Andreas Neider: The evolution of memory and memory. Reading the Akashic Records . Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 2008, pp. 30, 168, 182, 184.
  16. ↑ see his Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ (1908), full text under Sacred Texts
  17. ↑ Information from Wouter J. Hanegraaff : Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought , Leiden 1996, p. 255
  18. ↑ E.g. Annett Friedrich: Ways of Fate - Phenomenon Palm Leaf Libraries , 2nd A. 2004
  19. ↑ Hartmut Zinser: Rudolf Steiner's "Secret and Spiritual Science" as modern esotericism , lecture manuscript ( Memento from July 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 180 kB), 2006, p. 7
  20. ↑ Julia Iwersen: Ways of esotericism - ideas and goals . Herder, Freiburg 2003, ISBN 3-451-04940-6 . P. 159.