The Luciferic Verses: The Daodejing and Chinese Esoteric History

"It is a significant, momentous fact that in the third millennium before Christ, an incarnation of Lucifer in the flesh actually took place in the east of Asia. And from this incarnation of Lucifer in the flesh- for this being became a teacher- there went forth what is described as the pre-Christian, pagan culture that still survived in the gnosis of the earliest Christian centuries." -Rudolf Steiner (The Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman) In the West today, Laozi- who lived sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BC- is perhaps the best-known (along with Confucius) ancient Chinese philosopher, owing to numerous modern renderings of his Daodejing (or Tao Te Ching). Eric Cunningham relates the substance of Laozi's classic work to modern philosophers and thinkers- especially Rudolf Steiner and his esoteric cosmology and philosophy, drawing significant and surprising parallels and contrasts with regard to Steiner's modern path of inner development and to aspects of popular culture. In