The Occult Significance of Forgiveness

A survey of recent history reveals a gloomy picture: an ongoing series of conflicts, wars and general turmoil. As a result of all this, the human emotional landscape has become littered with angry, bitter, and vengeful feelings. The modern justice system, preoccupied as it is with finding and proving guilt, does little to remedy this tragic situation. However, many individuals and groups are seeking ways to break the never-ending cycle of recrimination. When faced with the question of what we can do to change and improve the world, one of the most radical and challenging answers is to learn to begin forgiving others for what they have done to us. In this powerful and moving book, Prokofieff shows how the forces that lead to forgiveness can be developed consciously and freely. Without preaching a morality of forgiveness, he sets before us the spiritual facts that speak for themselves. From Tsarist Russia and the Nazi concentration camps to the early battles in the history of the Anthroposophical Society, the author offers striking examples of those who have been able to forgive frequently terrible crimes. He provides a multilayered analysis, pointing to the beneficial consequences of every act of forgiveness. As he develops his theme, the importance of forgiving—not simply for personal salvation, but for the advancement and benefit of human evolution—is revealed in all its healing truth.