The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. The Idea of Christ in Egyptian Spiritual Life

[ 1 ] Hardly anything can make as profound an impression as the Egyptian concept of eternity—that human beings can embark on the path to eternity. And on the other hand, there is hardly any other instance of such complete agreement between two spiritual figures in every detail as we have been able to observe between Buddha on the one hand and the figure of Christ on the other.

[ 2 ] However, anyone who were to go even further back into the ancient concepts of Indian religion would find that the Buddha, as a personality—as he appears to us and as he is conceived in Indian religion—is merely the last Buddha [of many]. It is therefore more a matter of a recurrence than of the first appearance of a [figure of this nature]. Among Christians, this idea has been lost, since they know only the one. We cannot trace the various figures of the Buddha in the history of Indian religion.

[ 3 ] We can only gain insight into the origins of the Christian world once we have gained a clear understanding of the origins of the Judeo-Christian concept, to the extent that this is possible through [esoteric]-mystical contemplation. In particular, we will come to understand how this concept of Christ, which was alive in the Egyptian religion, was transformed into a historical event.

[ 4 ] The Egyptian concept of Christ is presented to us in such a way that anyone deemed suitable by the Egyptian priesthood and who, through his or her gifts, was able to awaken the capacity to undertake the ascent, was subjected to the process of initiation by the Egyptian priests, the deeply initiated ones.

[ 5 ] What does this process of initiation mean? One must first be clear about what the fundamental idea behind initiation is. According to the beliefs of the Egyptian priesthood, it was intended to introduce people to the deepest mysteries of existence, to the primordial mysteries of the world. It therefore involves the initiation of those who were admitted to the rite into what the Egyptian priests carefully kept hidden from the general public and revealed only to those who wished to make progress. Anyone who, within the Egyptian priestly schools and cults, wished to rise to the highest truths that could be imparted there or to descend into the depths of the world’s mysteries could do so only by following a precisely prescribed path, because it was believed that only those who had passed through the entire sequence of stages could possess the inner life necessary to hold certain insights vividly within themselves.

[ 6 ] In abstract terms, this is the fundamental idea that leads to Egyptian initiation. It was believed that the individual in question should not merely receive spiritual teachings or spiritual vessels—the absorption of which required only the ability to think logically—but rather, it was believed that his entire physical being should also be transformed so that his entire sensory perception would serve the spirit to a much greater degree than was the case with others.

[ 7 ] The spiritual process that took place when a disciple was to be initiated into the mysteries was in many ways reminiscent of the Eleusinian drama of the Greeks and the ancient Osiris drama. The entire myth of Osiris and Isis—into which the ancient priests had infused true—I say not merely fantasy, but—imagination and insight into the deepest mysteries of the world—was intended to put into practice what would lead one into this wisdom.

[ 8 ] Cosmological, physiological, and astronomical considerations were not considered sufficient. It was believed that the entire human body needed to be transformed; it was believed that human beings needed to adopt an entirely different worldview. There was no belief that human beings are born with fully developed abilities, as Western science holds. It was believed that human beings, just as they have developed step by step up to the present, must continue to be guided forward so that life is not lost. The task, therefore, is to transform body and spirit in such a way that human beings can not only understand the highest insights logically and abstractly, but can also experience the deepest [life] of the world.

[ 9 ] The priest depicted the entire course of world history through three symbols. First, through the symbol of the pyramid. It has four sides. These correspond to the four elements: earth, fire, water, and air. At the top, these sides converge at a single point. Each side is thus represented by a triangle, within which the priest saw the three worlds depicted.

[ 10 ] In the pyramid, he saw physical nature, the primordial elements [and their] composition. In the Sphinx, where animal and human are united, he saw the symbol of the Incarnation. The belief that an organic evolution from animal to human took place is once again a theosophical view today.

[ 11 ] Finally, in the phoenix, which is consumed by fire and then rises again from the ashes. It is the symbol of the soul. It is composed of the [mythical] primordial spirit, the [materialistic] skeleton of the world, the purely natural existence of the intermediate stages, and the human soul, which is, as it were, meant to redeem the spirit from nature. This development unfolds in three stages: the primordial spirit, the human soul, and then nature.

[ 12 ] The individual is now included, integrated into this entire chain of development, and—as the Egyptian priests clearly understood—he should use his life not only to understand the world, but also to advance it a step further. For they believed that when a person is aware of this immense responsibility, he must not merely accept life as it is, but must use it to perform divine deeds through his work, thereby continuing the deeds of the gods.

[ 13 ] The initiation was performed on those who had reached a sufficiently high level—those who had progressed as far as I have just indicated. This initiation is nothing more than a reenactment of the ancient myth of Isis and Osiris. We know that Osiris is one of the oldest gods of heaven and earth. Together with Isis, he rules heaven and earth. “Osirises can also incarnate in human form, so that they once lived as real human beings. They are said to have ruled on our Earth before the Hyksos invaded. They are therefore identical to the incarnated deities. Later, however, they all withdrew into the service of God. That which was once worldly withdrew and came to be worshipped in religious service.

[ 14 ] Osiris is murdered by his brother Seth-Typhon, who is the god of the abyss and fire. Through trickery, the god Seth-Typhon managed to murder Osiris [inside a coffin]. Then he was dismembered and his body parts were scattered throughout the world.

[ 15 ] When Isis realized this, she equipped a ship and set out to gather the pieces back together. Wherever she found a piece, she built a church on that spot where that piece could be worshipped. Then she also found the heart again and was able to revive it through her love. It is just like in the Greek myth of Dionysus, where the heart also drove the story forward. Once again, the god Osiris is raised from the dead through her love; once again, [Isis] sees his head; once again, a ray of light shines.

[ 16 ] Through the ray of light—that is, love—she gives birth to her son Horus, who is thus, in a sense, a son born of a virgin. He [replaces] his father. Isis and Horus continue to reign. Isis is even able to celebrate [the resurrection of Osiris] in a new body. Above his coffin, something takes place that has been performed time and again as a kind of religious service. Thus we are told that while her son Horus rules over the people on Earth—even though, in terms of his sojourn, he is completing his earthly journey—he also sits, as it were, at the right hand of the Father.

[ 17 ] I mean, the god Horus appears to us as the one who, in a spiritual sense, permeates the entire world and, according to the view of the Egyptian priests, constitutes the soul of the world. This is a view that not only existed as a myth but was also dramatically enacted in an immensely magnificent and solemn manner for those who were to be initiated into the Egyptian priesthood. Once the imagination had been trained through these vivid images and the human spirit had taken on a form in which it could fully express itself, and fully lose itself in the cosmic dust, and the god Osiris could rise and be reborn on the other side—once the student had become attuned to these concepts, only then could he be led beyond the myth; only then was he shown what the myth contains; only then was he told that it is nothing other than the Logos itself, which has poured itself out into the infinite cosmic sea.

[ 18 ] As a symbol of the Spirit being poured out into the infinite ocean of the world—matter was represented as a lake—the ceremonies were performed at locations where there was a lake, which represented the ocean of the world in which the World Spirit had become matter.

[ 19 ] Horaus was said to be nothing other than the divine-human soul, which has been poured out into matter and is meant to restore matter to its primordial state. This truth—both cosmological and pertaining to the individual human being—was passed down to the disciple. If he had not merely absorbed it in an abstract way, but had truly made it a part of himself, then he was deemed worthy, for he did not merely grasp the external, intellectual aspect, but comprehended the great sanctity of cosmology as something sublime, through which he believed himself to have become a better person.

[ 20 ] Only when the student was ready were the actual processes carried out with him; only then was he to learn that, as a human being, he is not only called to recognize and to be introduced to knowledge, but that this knowledge must give rise to life.

[ 21 ] This is expressed in a profound symbol in the Osiris myth and, in particular, in the cult. In it, Isis and Horus were depicted as figures lying on the ground with their hands outstretched to the sides. Beneath them they placed the cross [...]. This was the symbol of the resurrection of that which had returned to dust. In the cross, we find the same concept as in Platonic philosophy, in which God, the Universal Spirit, is crucified. Here it becomes both a symbol and the agent of resurrection. Passing through the cross, at the coffin of Osiris, he will rise again and reign anew.

[ 22 ] This process took place for centuries in the Egyptian “temples.” The young priest was indeed initiated into a new world. Mere recognition would be something selfish. But the moment a person realizes that he is merely taking a small step forward in his development, he comes to understand that he has actively contributed to bringing the deity back from its veil into its original form.

[ 23 ] As soon as he arrived here, the priest was to be shown that he must not only recognize matter but also penetrate it, that he must deify matter, that he must not merely keep the Spirit to himself, but must proceed from the Spirit and pour it out for the salvation of matter.

[ 24 ] This is one of the most important acts, which should be indelibly inscribed into the soul of one who seeks initiation. Only when this act had been completed, only when the person had understood, both physically and spiritually, that he was to represent a symbol—one that, according to Egyptian conception, is meant to represent eternity and the essence of eternity— only when the student had grasped that, as a human being in this life, he had nothing else to represent but a symbol of these eternal cosmic processes—only then was he capable and worthy to set out on the path that was the path of Egyptian initiation.

[ 25 ] This process actually consisted of the person allowing the process of reawakening to take place within himself, even on the physical level. This is the stage the Egyptian priests had reached, and this is also what made the deepest impression on their students. They put the student into a three-day sleep. They completely liberated the organism. The spirit was to live on its own [during this time] and then take possession of its body anew. And then, when it took possession of the body again, it possessed the body in a new, spiritualized way. That is why the one seeking initiation was asked to lie down on a wooden cross or simply lie down on the ground and spread out his arms. He was left in this position for three days. The fact that he regarded himself as a living symbol of the Resurrection was symbolized by his being carried toward the rising morning sun. The rising morning sun awakened the one who had been dead to life for three days to a new existence.

[ 26 ] Now we must give credence to the revelations we have, for what I am about to say cannot be proven experimentally. Now he had passed through the gate of death. Now he was worthy to be initiated into the deepest mysteries. This process, which made him a symbol and through which the individual, small “I” was extinguished—it was this process that placed him in the service of the divine world order. He had become a symbol of the eternal, great reality of the world.

[ 27 ] Through this, man has practically experienced what Jakob Böhme meant when he said: “Whoever does not die before he dies will perish when he dies.” Because his spirit was able to leave the body and take possession of it again, he was able to embark on the path to deification—to becoming Osiris himself—in an entirely different way. We have seen, according to the concepts of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, how the Egyptians conceived of eternal life in contrast to physical-sensual existence; we have seen how this initiation was brought about.

[ 28 ] The task now is to make this priest a servant of humanity, so that even in this life he might advance a step further along the Path of Osiris—not merely to pass on truth, but to prepare and transform his spirit, so that what for others is merely external truth was for him a sacred truth linked to entirely different feelings and sensibilities. In fact, an Egyptian priest was something entirely different from any other human being. He was a person who led a spiritualized, an internalized life, because he had undergone the process of descending into the realm of the dead. He had left his body and had been in the realms of infinity, and after three days he had taken possession of his body once more, awakened by the rising sun and by the Father of Heaven and Earth, the god Ra. This process, which signifies initiation at the lowest level, was undoubtedly what the Essenes also lived out to a higher degree. They were familiar with the initiation process and undoubtedly adopted it along with the beliefs and customs of Egypt.

[ 29 ] The question now is: Why, and how did it come to pass that, at that time, this ancient form of religion underwent such a deepening that the undoubtedly much more exoteric Jewish worship came to resemble the magnificent religious ceremonies of the Egyptians?

[ 30 ] At first glance, there are no historical or external clues to be found. The same foundation led to the birth of a Buddha so-and-so many hundred years ago, and the same foundation later led to the birth of a Christ. We must be clear that the entire Jewish spiritual life grew out of Egyptian spiritual life. Anyone who follows the first chapters of Genesis and examines the commandments in the Egyptian Book of the Dead will find the same striking correspondence as that between Buddha and Jesus, which I mentioned recently. In the first five chapters of Genesis, one finds what was common practice in the Egyptian priestly world. We must, however, be clear about the path by which Genesis came to the Jews and how it was passed down by them.

[ 31 ] One thing must be clear to anyone who understands how to read Genesis: Moses must have known the Decalogue [in advance] in the form in which he presented it. This follows from the remarkable correspondence we find between the Decalogue and the commandments of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. And we must realize that in ancient Egypt, this knowledge was imparted in no other way than through initiation.

[ 32 ] Moses was an initiate. His task was to create other initiates within the Jewish priesthood. I will now show how, even in superficial details, there is a similarity between Genesis and the ancient Egyptian myths. I will point out one external feature that will speak volumes about the whole. You will see how the myths have been transformed. However, a full argument would take us far too far afield here.

[ 33 ] The Osiris myth features Osiris on one side and Seth-Typhon on the other. Both are a kind of pair of brothers. They are hostile toward one another. Both are descended from the heavens. They are sons of the heavens. They are presented as incarnate deities. Alongside Osiris, we have Seth-Typhon. This pair of brothers also appears in Genesis as Cain and Abel.

[ 34 ] The fact that we still find traces of the Egyptian priestly religion in Genesis is proven by the passage in the fifth chapter, which deals with the human race. Adam was 130 years old, fathered a son, and named him Seth. It is the same figure. In him, they see a true son of Adam. In Adam, we can recognize only a kind of god-man—in fact, merely a more humanized version of Ra, the supreme god of the heavens. His sons are to be equated with the sons of Ra. [In the Seth of the Cain-and-Abel story, we should see the Seth of the Osiris myth.] This correspondence is no coincidence. It is clear that we are dealing with a profound correspondence.

[ 35 ] I have cited this only to illustrate the method. One can recognize the ancient Egyptian priestly religion in Genesis. This is how Genesis came into being. The Egyptian priestly religion has been lost, but was later reconstructed from what had been passed down through tradition. That is why it is difficult for us to discern its original form from what Moses has handed down to us. But within the Egyptian priestly religion, we can do so. When we reconstruct it, it corresponds to the ancient mythic forms—the very oldest forms—so that we are in fact just as surprised by this as we were by the correspondence between the life of Buddha and the life of Christ.

[ 36 ] This reflection will shed light on the true reason behind the emergence of the figure of Christ. If we go back to the sacred books of the Indians, which were completed two thousand years before the birth of Christ, we find a most remarkable legend that comes to us in the form of the Indian Vedic literature. It introduces us to the entire Indian worldview. There we find the legend of [Adhima] and [Heva]. The two were created as human beings in Paradise on Ceylon. They are presented to us in a state of complete innocence. A serpent approaches them. It says to them: “Why do you wish to remain within these realms?” They then wander through these regions, and [Adhima] says to [Heva]: “Let us go and see what kind of land that is which we see in the distance.” - The serpent had also urged them on, saying: “When you get there, you will be like Brahma and come to know the deepest secrets of the world.” - All of this seems marvelous to them. But when they arrive, the whole scene dissolves into a kind of mirage, and they find themselves in harsh, desolate lands. However, they are comforted by Brahma, who tells them—after the world had appeared to them as a formless reflection—“I will send Vishnu to you.”

[ 37 ] It is the same thing we find in Genesis as God’s prophecy foretelling the coming of Christ. You can also find the legends of the ancient Vedic literature in Genesis. This legend is intimately connected with the Indian worldview. This Adam-and-Eve myth is in the deepest harmony with the teaching that has been passed down all the way to Buddhism and became personified in the Buddha—the worldview that what we perceive with our senses is, in essence, a mirage, an illusion, a deceptive image—and that human beings have an entirely different goal in the Eternal, in Nirvana. Anything other than Nirvana is a vain illusion.

[ 38 ] God Himself became human; that is the meaning of the ancient myths. Brahma creates the first human in His own image. It is Brahma who incarnates in the primordial human. The primordial human couple then descends further. They continue to unite with matter, and from the imprinting of the spirit upon the dust arises that life which we recognize as human life.

[ 39 ] This human life is meaningless, for its sole purpose is to give birth to the Divine once more. But it is a sacrifice to descend in order to permeate matter. [Brahma] must descend in order to attain his true, great life. This is expressed in the ancient Indian myth and is also reflected in the Indian worldview, which regards everything in the world as illusory.

[ 40 ] So you also have a similar harmony between the ancient myths of the Vedas and the [Jewish] worldview. They are in complete agreement with one another.

[ 41 ] To comprehend this view of the world’s insubstantiality—of its mere illusory nature—was one of the insights that was to be taught to the initiate in a vivid manner. He was not to see that which was visible in a crude, coarse way. But what [uninitiated] people do not see—that is what he was to see. Wherever one goes back to the mystical sources—be it in the ancient Vedas or in Genesis—wherever a deeper understanding exists, there is also the realization that we are dealing—as in Indian thought—with a mere mirage. [And this can only become] what it must become when the Deity appears in its form and when humanity not only contributes to bringing insights into the world but also permeates matter with spirit, so that not only does the spirit come alive, but matter, too, comes alive together with the spirit.

[ 42 ] That God Himself has become dust—this is the fault of the serpent, which must take on dust again and again. That which is born of dust is nothing other than the Deity incarnating within matter and striving to emerge from it once more. We are dealing here with something that is not merely a fall, but a sacrifice. The deity itself pours itself out in order to be redeemed once more. This fall is depicted to us. The serpent is nothing other than the counter-image of the deity; it is the deity in another form. That is why the serpent is the symbol of the initiation process in all religions. It consists in the fact that human beings not only recognize, but through this recognition redeem matter from its mere material existence, giving birth to the spirit from mere matter. The serpent is the symbol of this process.

[ 43 ] Goethe also used the symbol of the serpent in Märchen, but only after he had become familiar with mystical symbols. In the myth of the Fall, we are dealing with a worldview that we can trace both in the ancient Egyptian priestly traditions and in Genesis. We are dealing here with ancient conceptions from which Buddhism and Christianity subsequently emerged. And when we look at the Egyptian priestly religion, we are dealing with a deification of humanity—as [in the case of] Heraclitus.

[ 44 ] This becoming immortal, this becoming divine, was the task symbolized by the three-day burial and the process of resurrection. We see this process come to life again as a historical event in the story of Christ. We see what everyone who wished to be initiated into the Egyptian mysteries had to undergo—the coming to life after receiving the symbol of the cross—manifested [in the Christ event] in full [public view] in a single individual.

[ 45 ] This could only have taken place in a time and within a community that had laid the groundwork—as in the Essene movement—and that was able to understand what was happening there. From this we see that a necessary process was taking place—a process that must always occur when one can say—as was the case with John the Baptist—“This is the Christ,” just as Brahma was able to say of the Buddha. Therefore, the groundwork had to be laid.

[ 46 ] In Essene thought, there lived the belief [of the Egyptian initiates] that a human being could become divine by stepping before the judgment seats of Osiris in order to become a god himself. This highest task that humanity sets for itself—to experience it once as a historical event and to see it as something enduring—is what we encounter at the very core of Essene teaching.

[ 47 ] Now we come to the point of examining this. You must bear in mind that what took place within the Egyptian priest centuries ago—what occurred in countless people—unfolded in a single event, but in such a way that we can recognize in it precisely the plan of the Egyptian concept of eternity.

[ 48 ] Let me add this one point so that we have a starting point for next time: namely, that whoever sought entry through the Gate of Death to enter the Land of Osiris had to undergo a series of trials. He is led before 42 judges of the dead. These are none other than the “people who have become Osiris” in the realm of the dead—people who once lived and have already “become Osiris.” He appears before them, so that the one who seeks the afterlife stands before his most distinguished ancestors. And the one who is called to “become Osiris” is nothing other than a new form, a renewed form, a link in the forty-two-membered chain.

[ 49 ] This series plays a role in the Essene community. It is nothing other than what already existed here on Earth. These 42 judges of the dead now appear to us in the Gospel right at the beginning in a transformed form. They are none other than the 42 ancestors of Jesus. He has become “Osiris,” the forty-second in the line. It is he who is called to judge the living and the dead. That is why the most important patriarchs of the human race are also listed as the patriarchs of Jesus. This is a direct adaptation of an Essene tradition that can be traced directly in the Gospel of Matthew. It is nothing other than the translation of the judges of the dead into the Egyptian worldview.

[ 50 ] We may notice that, immediately after the genealogy is presented, we are confronted with the incarnation of Jesus: “[Matthew] records: Jacob begat Joseph,” and so on. We will examine and explore the reason for this next time.

[Q&A:]

[ 52 ] I just wanted to point out that we are dealing with two genealogies. One has been influenced by the Essene perspective, while the other—according to Matthew—belongs to a different conceptual framework and has become linked to it.

[ 53 ] 42 segments = 3 times 14 = 6 times 7—at the boundary of the sixth round and at the entrance to the seventh round. The seven parts into which the ancient Egyptians divided the human being. The number 7 is not sacred simply because it is the number seven, but because they recognized in it the mystery of the world. It is therefore not superstition. Development is a continuous overcoming of matter by the spirit. Just as the globe once bore no humans but now supports human life, so these humans will continue to develop and progress toward greater spirituality.