Flagellation

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William-Adolphe Bouguereau: The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 1880

The flagellation is, in the mystical re-experiencing of the descriptions of John's Gospel (John 19:1), the second stage of Christian initiation and can lead up to a corresponding stigmatisation.

„The flagellation: At this stage man learns to resist the scourge of life. Life brings us sufferings of all kinds: physical and moral, intellectual and spiritual. In this stage, the disciple feels life as a terrible and incessant ordeal. He must endure it with perfect equanimity of soul and stoic courage. He must no longer know any fear, be it physical or moral. Once he has become fearless, he sees the scene of the flagellation in a dream. In the course of another vision he sees himself being flagellated instead of Christ. This event is accompanied by certain bodily symptoms and is transmitted to the whole feeling of life and love by an increase in the whole faculty of sensation [...] Man acquires a feeling of love for all beings which enables him to live within nature.“ (Lit.:GA 94, p. 54f)

„When the disciple is so far along, then the teacher comes and says: Now you have to go into another sphere of feeling. Life brings suffering and pain from all sides. You must put yourself in a state where you can face all suffering and pain, as they come from all sides of the world, as an upright person, so that they cannot harm you. For weeks and months you must remain in these things. - Then comes a time when an astral symptom occurs. He sees himself in the vision of flagellation, and a similar sensation appears all over his body, which passes again, but which has such an effect that the disciple is permeated with this sensation all over his body. Thus he has made himself ripe to stand upright in the scourging blows of life.“ (Lit.:GA 97, p. 231f)

„The second stage consists in the disciple being told: You must develop another feeling in yourself. You must imagine how it would be if all the possible pains and sufferings of the world approached you, - feel how it would be if you were exposed to the onslaught of all possible obstacles, and you must put yourself in the feeling that you must stand upright even if all the misery of the world approaches you! Then, when the student has practised this sufficiently, there are again two symptoms: One is a feeling as if he were being beaten from all sides, and the second is that he has the "flagellation" before him in an astral vision. - I am telling something that hundreds of people have experienced, through which they have gained the ability to ascend to the spiritual worlds.“ (Lit.:GA 103, p. 191f)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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