According to Occult Science, certain timelines are regressive, reflecting an earlier expression of humanity that was less individual and had not yet matured. Each timeline represents karmic lessons learned during its own cultural epoch. As of 2026, we are currently living in the Post-Atlantean epoch, which is the fifth cultural epoch. In every epoch, humanity undergoes major changes and spiritual shifts that work to aid us in our development. The goal is a forward progression that constitutes Spiritual liberation via the Spiritualization of our material form. It is only through this liberation that we may evolve upward through the Spiritual hierarchies in future epochs. Epochs themselves are not regressive. Later epochs recapitulate earlier states in a transformed way, but evolution as a whole is forward-moving. However, within that structure, free will still exists, and with it, the ability for humanity to regress in place of this evolution. So, what causes this regression, and what does it look like?
Causes of Regression
By and large, the most significant culprit behind the inability to progress Spiritually lies in either the rejection of God or the desire to take His place. When the Bible says that "pride comes before the fall," it is not only implying this on an individual level. The literal fall of earlier civilizations happened as a result of man's unchecked pride and spiritual ego.
Those who desire to "play God" understand that they can only do so successfully so long as they can confuse and disorient the masses long enough to pull it off. This confusion is administered through the subtle, repetitive inversions of genuine occult teachings. The masses receive controlled microdoses of "truth" via organized religion or New Age remixes of Occult Science, but with the veiling or even blatant perversion of critical cosmic wisdom. The "Old Ways" of being are repackaged and presented in ways that are palatable because they feel "so familiar," like the nostalgia of coming across an old childhood sweater. However nostalgic, they intentionally align us with our Spiritual adolescence, further delaying maturation through proper initiation.
Finally, after pride and inversion, much of our individual and collective Spiritual regression is traumagenic. Initiation is integration-based, and integration is the antithesis of fragmentation. In an esoteric sense, our wounds are like the "eye of the needle," the darkness that we must go through to experience genuine transformation. This is the Dark Night of the Soul, or the initiation of the Black Sun. It is not a singular event, but rather a lifelong journey and dedication to transformation that works cyclically. The eye of the needle is canonically a narrow path, meaning that passing through it requires us to leave behind that which no longer serves us in terms of our evolution. This does not refer to bypassing, but rather to integration through the darkness. That which is cast off is reabsorbed in a Higher, Spiritualized state.
When we are unable to alchemize this wounding and integrate it as a Higher substance, it is because we have become so identified with our pain that we make an idol of our victimization. Shame and pride consume us. This is the difference between experiencing this process as "fires of purification," vs as the metaphorical "lake of fire" where spiritual life dies and only pain endures. There is no way to bypass this painful process. Attempts to do so are rooted in a foundation of fantasy and dissociation. When moving forward is no longer an option due to pride, inversion, or trauma, the only things left to do are to go backwards or attempt to carve a new path. Either option results in regression and degeneration. To map out what this looks like in 2026, we need to first look at prior epochs.
Within the Anthroposophical framework, we see them outlined as follows:
Given that the physical body as we know it today does not come into form until the Lemurian epoch, we will begin there for the sake of structural continuity.
Lemuria
In the Lemurian epoch, we first see sex differentiation (the splitting of the Spiritually and physically androgenic into distinct male and female forms) as well as the incarnation of the "I" (still in an embryonic stage), where we begin to move away from the "group mind" we previously operated in, and toward the development of our Individuality. This was toward the very end of the Lemurian epoch, and we see more of this ego consciousness and development once we move into the Atlantean epoch. From the perspective of Rudolf Steiner, the development of our "I" or individuality is the central purpose of our time on earth. This can also be understood as the formation and liberation of the Spiritual Ego.
Atlantis
The Atlantean epoch is when the “I” becomes more realized, though still lacking in its maturity and not fully self-aware. It isn't until the event of Golgotha that we receive this consciousness through Christ and the impartation of the Etherization of The Blood. I speak more on this here; ( https://psychicsomatic.com/blogs/blog-posts/the-role-of-etherization-in-ascension-from-golgotha-to-glory?_pos=4&_sid=35f1594f2&_ss=r ) This was impacted by the fact that we were still primarily conscious in the spiritual realm, with greater clairvoyant and psychic capacities, and had not yet fully grounded our Spirituality into the physical as we do in our current epoch. This matters because we essentially had unchecked psychic power that we were attempting to wield with unmastered egos.
This power quickly soured into pride, greed, selfishness, and manipulation. Spiritual technologies became weapons of war instead of modalities for healing. Spiritual progression began to halt, and eventually regress as our pride and selfishness carried us farther and farther from God. We convinced ourselves that we were God and therefore did not need Him. While this regression brought about significant abuse and the rise of Dark Magic, eventually leading to the Fall of Atlantis, this was a necessary stage in our initiation, as it was intended to teach us valuable karmic lessons around that which is given vs. that which is earned through moral development and initiation.
Our Current Epoch
In 2026, we are living in the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch. Our psychic abilities are still present, but they are veiled...arising through grounding and Spiritual maturation. In my own work, I frequently emphasize the importance of the Nervous System as it relates to Etherization and Spiritual Development. Our culture is an expression or mirror of our deeper karmic themes as they relate to what must be integrated, individually and collectively. This is why we have seen a massive rise in Somatics, with the emphasis on the importance of embodiment within our Spiritual practice. As we Spiritually mature, we no longer see the body as something to bypass or escape. Rather, we understand the physical form as an expression of the Cosmos in every way, and navigate it as such. For this reason, we will begin to develop a far deeper understanding of Occult and Planetary Anatomy, especially entering into the Age of Aquarius. This marks a healthy return to Spiritual technology.
Every time we touch on a Higher aspect of humanity, we must understand that there is always a shadow aspect that represents the oppositional or regressive force that seeks to disrupt our evolution. While many are raising their Spiritual consciousness into maturity, any wounds left unintegrated from prior incarnations will come up and test us as we move through similar initiations within this incarnation. Aquarius is closely related to technology, and the Age of Aquarius will once again test our ability to integrate power without misunderstanding it or abusing it. We find ourselves now at a crossroads or "splitting of timelines" that will only continue to become more evident with time. This great divide is recognized as such: those who progress Spiritually, and those who choose regression. It should be noted that it is indeed a choice.
How do we recognize regressive ideologies?
In short, regression takes us backwards, back to our spiritual infancy. If Spiritual progression requires us to develop grounded Spirituality, then regressive ideologies will promote dissociation, disconnection from our identity as humans or from our physical form, rejection of Earth or the Earth epochs (includes promoting evolution as a physical trek from Earth to other spheres...), rejection of physical sex differentiation (as seen within Gender Ideology), elevation of the "group mind," obsession with the material, conflation of the material with the Spiritual....etc. Progression will always bear Spiritual fruit because evolution results in Moral development, not just material development.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” –Galatians 5:22–23
They mark the development of Higher-Heart impulses
They embrace & express nature, balance, wholeness & order
They promote loving one another, developing gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, self-control, gentleness, holiness, and patience.
I refer to the inversion of the Fruits of Spirit as the Fruits of Anti-Spirit, and define them as follows:
Associated with Ahriman (imbalanced) and the eighth sphere.
Symptoms of being rooted in pain & trauma.
They are the manifestation of deep, unhealed/unintegrated shame.
Often symptoms of entity attachment, thoughtforms/emotional egregores
They promote materialism, impatience, hatred, and violence.
They are lacking humanity, synthetic/subnatural.
We will recognize regressive and inverted ideologies by the fruit that they bear, and through discernment, may align ourselves accordingly with that which is progressive, life-giving, and grounded in reality!
