The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. The Apocalypse

[ 1 ] We saw last time that the initiation process is the spiritual counterpart to the great world teachings on the origin of the cosmos, and that there is a strict correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm, so that we can literally see how the images of Genesis—which deal with cosmological concepts and contemplations of the universe—recur in the story of the Savior.

[ 2 ] The personality of Christ must be placed at the center in such a decisive way that it was not merely a consequence of Christ’s own messianic consciousness, but was also something that was characteristic of the entire era at that time. Throughout that entire era, there was a need to place a personality—a human being reborn at the heights of spiritual development—at the center of the world’s perspective, so that a profound need existed not only among those from whom the founding of Christianity originated, but was also present in the spirit of the age, not only in the Jewish people’s expectation of the Messiah, but also among the pagan peoples. Thus there was also an urge to stand before this personality, to see him. We see that one person or another could be regarded as such. Paganism created a veritable counter-image in Apollonius of Tyana. In paganism, he is perhaps as interesting a figure as Socrates, Plato, and so on. But he is of particular interest because there was a deliberate attempt to create a pagan-human deity who was to be set in opposition to Christ. There is, however, a clear difference between the worldview associated with Christ and that associated with Apollonius of Tyana. Apollonius is regarded as more than just a human being loved by God. Essentially, it is the same view that emerged from Jewish consciousness. I would say that, from the pagan perspective, while the divine nature is emphasized more in the case of Christ, in the case of Apollonius it is emphasized more that he is a human being who has attained divinity—a human being loved by God, not a god.

[ 3 ] And this man, beloved by God, appears to us merely as a later embodiment of Socrates and Plato. [Just as Plato had a special connection to the god of medicine, Asclepius, the son of Apollo, so too did Apollonius]: He was a healer, a sage, and prophecy is said to have been among his gifts as well. These ideas were formed from Pythagorean concepts. Just as these ideas live on among the people, continuing in a secret, mystical tradition, so too was Apollonius imagined as the reborn Plato, a savior.

[ 4 ] We are told that Apollonius undertook long journeys, during which he sought not so much to enrich his own wisdom—which was, after all, already at his disposal, since he stood at a higher stage of reincarnation—as to unite the various religions through a spiritual bond. He is credited with a cosmopolitan [religion-unifying] activity. He is said to have been among the Indians, the Persian magi, and the Egyptian priests. The Indian sages immediately recognized him as a deified personality. We are also told that he became acquainted with the Egyptian religion in its various forms, but that he had more to say to the Egyptian priests than they had to say to him. He was able to tell them that they should derive their religious concepts from India. He was able to show them their own essence reflected in the Indian tradition. Thus we see how Apollonius strove to perceive the common ground among the various religions, and so he appears to us today as the bearer of a genuine theosophical aspiration. He set himself the very task of seeking the common ground in all religions. Therefore, when we delve into his teachings, they appear to us as an essence distilled from all the religious teachings that existed at that time. He had gathered the essence from all of them. It is also a mature teaching. The idea of reincarnation appears to us to be enriched in the ancient Pythagorean sense.

[ 5 ] He speaks of folk religions as an external symbol of what they are truly meant to be. Apollonius draws attention to a very important concept that he could only have drawn from pagan mysticism. He points out that the various ritual acts performed with the mystic are not merely events representing the world process, but also representations of natural phenomena through symbolic acts. Thus, in Apollonius, a highly important concept emerges that leads us into the relationship that exists between Christianity and the era in which he lived. He shows that everything one can see around oneself, and also what is in the starry sky—the celestial bodies—can be regarded as symbols; that all of this is nothing other than a symbol of spiritual processes that govern the cosmic order. Those who heard my lecture the day before yesterday on Goethe’s Faust will recall that something similar was said there: Everything external, “everything transitory, is merely a parable.” This, then, is what Apollonius expresses. But it is the shared view of the entire era.

[ 6 ] I must point out a misunderstanding here, namely the belief that this magnificent symbolism between the small and the great world—between human beings and the small events of the world and the great mysteries of the world—is a product of the imagination. This doctrine took shape in our nineteenth century. In folk religions, we see the religion-creating fairy tale, the religion-creating imagination, which personifies the processes [in nature]—such as air currents, lightning, thunder, and so on—in manifold ways and forms gods. The laws that the stars follow are seen as the expression of a divine-spiritual world order. But within priestly theosophy itself, there was a firm conviction that when the sun is observed as it traverses the celestial vault, one must see more than just the process of its rushing across the sky. This process is merely a symbol for the process unfolding behind it. What the popular imagination originally held in an exoteric sense was later taught by the priest as a symbol. But the priest—we know that highly developed astronomy existed in the Assyrian Empire—did not see in the laws a dry, naturalistic law; rather, he saw in them the language of the deity, merely a symbol for the deeper spiritual process.

[ 7 ] For Apollonius of Tyana, the basic folk symbolism represented merely a preliminary stage. Those initiated into it later received a higher allegory. David Friedrich Strauss, Darwin, and others erred in claiming that the imagination [of the people] had conceived of lightning streaking through the clouds as a divine reality, and that it had then progressed from that to the gods—to Zeus and so on. But they claimed these were merely figments of the imagination, of folk mythology. In doing so, they stripped away everything religious. The [scientific] truth has taken its place. But this view has never been held within the mystical teachings. Even though there was an ascent from the concepts of folk religion to the scientific study of the movement of the stars, it was still the divine that was sought behind the phenomena. It was not what a person internalized that was meant to be a symbol for the external process—no, quite the opposite. Nature itself became a parable. In the mysticism of those centuries, we are dealing with exactly the opposite of what the materialist scholars of the nineteenth century imagine. They believe that what the ancients conceived of was merely a parable. No, it is precisely the other way around. The scientific conception is merely a parable for what lies behind it.

[ 8 ] Oriental scholars knew that Christianity drew from the same source as they did. For a long time, therefore, they regarded Christianity merely as a Persian sect.

[ 9 ] This entire context of the theosophical teaching—that the whole world is a parable of the eternal Divine [...]—is presented to us clearly and with particular depth in the Book of Revelation, which is nothing other than an interpretation of the ancient mysteries from a Christian perspective.

[ 10 ] First, however, I must preface this with a few remarks. I said that the entire external natural world was viewed as a parable, just as was the case with Assyrian-Babylonian and Persian scholars. They had a precise understanding of the laws observable in the movements of the celestial bodies. This will also be clear to a wider audience now that Professor Delitzsch’s lecture on “Babel and the Bible” has reached your ears. I could just as well have started with Asian concepts; one finds the same thing everywhere. Now, when science unearths things about which theosophy, for other reasons, must assert something different, we will nevertheless see confirmation through the excavations of Babylonian antiquities. The results of the excavations are presented in a clear and refined manner by Professor Delitzsch. I said that a portion of these views arose from Eastern priestly religions, which regard nature as a parable for the eternal and divine. This becomes clear when one turns to the Eastern religions. The Egyptians placed greater emphasis on grand monuments and expressed this outwardly, while the Easterners sought the allegory more in the [theoretical realm].

[ 11 ] If we examine the works of pagan writers, we see how the realization becomes increasingly clear that the teachings of astronomy are a language for the eternal word of the gods in the world. I wish to draw attention to just a few specific examples, which will shed light on the whole matter. [In the writings of Apollonius of Rhodes], and also in those of Plutarch—though only sparingly there—one finds precise allusions to this and to the world of myths—such as the myth of Heracles, the myth of the Golden Fleece—and so on, which I have already discussed previously. But we also see in the writings of the early Christians that these myths appeared to them as veils concealing great universal truths.

[ 12 ] We see that the sun, in its annual course and movement, symbolizes the ever-changing, fading, and renewing world. Given the limited time, I can only hint at what lies at the heart of this. It is not without reason that the twelve labors of Heracles have been associated with the twelve constellations of the zodiac. It is a repetition of what also takes place high in the heavens. The upper and the lower correspond to one another.

[ 13 ] If we examine these views, we find that great importance is placed on the fact that, with the annual arrival of spring, the sun—the god of light—was worshipped—just as in Theosophy, which sees the sun as symbolizing light and light as symbolizing truth. It was not the sun itself that was worshiped, but rather the sun served merely as a symbol. As the sun wanes, it was regarded as a symbol of nature’s eternal rebirth, of spiritual rebirth, and of the God who renews Himself over and over again.

[ 14 ] What the Egyptians saw in the celestial vault is also seen in the sun, which is renewed in spring. And the fact that the sun [in spring] is in the sign of the Lamb, the Ram, means: Through the Lamb, the sun gains power within the world order. This becomes a symbol of the Savior of the world. That is why we encounter the lamb, which signifies the rebirth of the sun in spring—the rebirth of the new god. For this reason, the beginning of spring was also designated as the point at which the young god is born. The Virgin of Sais gives birth to the new god Heracles.

[ 15 ] Where the legends do not entirely match, we can demonstrate where the changes originated. For these same legends are interpreted by pagan writers in such a way that nothing else can be found in them other than what can also be read in the sky. In the Serpent in the sky, the mystics of that time saw the symbol of the god’s descent into dark matter. You can see this symbolically represented by the sun’s passage through the Serpent. On December 21, in the middle of winter, when the days are getting longer, the sun enters the constellation of Sagittarius. In the middle of winter, the Virgin conceives the Child. Easter actually marks the Resurrection, the Redemption. That is when the sun enters the constellation of the Lamb [, the Ram]. In summer, the sun’s path reflects the Lion. What takes place within individual personalities first occurred in the celestial vault. Viewed in this way, the life course of individual personalities is a mystery of the eternal course of the world. In the Greek mysteries as well, and in the Orient and Persia, [Zeus] transforms into the Golden Fleece around this time.

[ 16 ] We see, then, that the sun’s passage through Aries is given to us as the Feast of the Resurrection. [Nonnus] mentions a relationship between Zeus and his son Dionysus. He is to ascend to his father and sit at his father’s right hand. Here you have the pagan version of the Christian creed. Christianity represents the new form of pagan teachings. It can be demonstrated that a large number of Christians have been influenced by pagan mysticism. These ideas recur time and again in Christianity. There is even an indication within Christianity itself that isolated figures from paganism turned to Christianity and then sought a symbolic expression to show that they were able to understand Christianity all the more deeply. This expression is found in the Gospel, where magi follow the stars to find the Christ. They read the stars, and all they had to do was follow what they had read in the stars. After following [the star], they see what has been given to Christianity. Christianity is represented there in a single human being. That is why the Indian scholar said: “In Christianity, we are dealing with nothing other than a Persian sect.”

[ 17 ] If one takes the sun myth and tries to interpret it on a personal level as the life story of an individual, then one can only conclude that Christians sought the truth—which had previously been sought in the vault of heaven—in a humanized way.

[ 18 ] The fact that the sun passes through the constellation of the Lamb, Aries, during Easter is quite natural [for that time]. In other, earlier times, the Ram was replaced by Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and so on. This is because these concepts developed at a time when the positions of the constellations were different [from today]. They are constantly shifting. Our astronomical data is no longer accurate even today. We can therefore say that Christianity was indeed born out of the ancient mysteries and religions. This is not a degradation, but merely demonstrates that it was a historical necessity.

[ 19 ] I have shown how the individual teachings were already foreshadowed in the East. What interests us most, however, is how they are woven into the Book of Revelation. Unless one grasps the underlying idea, it cannot be understood. It is impossible to understand that the world of ideas—the sum of [religious] feelings—already existed and reappears in a new form in Christianity. The author [of the Book of Revelation] was aware of this. He intended to convey nothing other than the ancient mystical mysteries. He says that everything he read there from the world of the stars has now unfolded as a direct experience in the life course of a single individual. What you previously saw unfolding only in a cosmic-historical context has become part of the life of a single human being. That is the fundamental idea of the Book of Revelation. We see how the ancient priestly conceptions confront us in all the descriptions: the seven trumpets, the seven seals, and so on. In all of this we see nothing other than the manifestation of ancient, long-existing mystical content, and what is presented to us in the Book of Revelation is nothing other than the fact that this matter has found its fulfillment in Christianity. At one point, I would like to show how this ancient teaching is presented there and how the new teaching is then connected to it—how the new teaching develops out of the old. I will address the earlier chapters later. First, the entire passage from the middle.

[ 20 ] Chapter 11: The Measurement of the Temple of God. Two Witnesses Killed and Brought Back to Life. [Gap in the transcript] The seventh trumpet.

[ 21 ] “1. And a reed like a measuring rod was given to me, and he said, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there. 2. But cast out the outer court of the temple and do not measure it. For it has been given over to the Gentiles, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. 3. And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. 4. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth. 5. And if anyone tries to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and consumes their enemies; and anyone who tries to harm them must be killed in this way. 6. They have the power to shut the sky so that it does not rain during the days of their prophecy, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they wish. 7. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the abyss will make war against them and will conquer them and kill them. 8. And their corpses will lie in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. 9. And some of the peoples, tribes, and languages will see their corpses for three and a half days and will not allow their corpses to be placed in graves. 10. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, feast, and send gifts to one another; for these two prophets had tormented those who dwell on the earth.” - Being born again is nothing other than being born again in the process of initiation. - 11. “And after three and a half days, the Spirit of Life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who saw them. 12. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up!’ And they ascended into heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. 13. And at that very hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; and seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14. “The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.” 15. And the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign from everlasting to everlasting.”

[ 22 ] The point being made here is that, whereas in the past only individuals were admitted, now, through Christ, the Good News is to be brought to all people.

[ 23 ] Chapter 12: The Woman Clothed with the Sun and the Dragon. Michael’s Battle with the Dragon: “1. And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2. And she was with child and cried out in her labor pains, and was in great distress as she was about to give birth. 3. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. 4. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she had given birth, he might devour her child. 5. And she gave birth to a son, a little boy, who was to rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that she might be nourished there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 7. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8. But they were defeated, and their place was no longer found in heaven. 9. And the great dragon was cast out—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world—and he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. 10. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now salvation and power and the kingdom of our God have come, and the authority of His Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been cast down, who accused them day and night before God.” 11. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even unto death. 12. Therefore, rejoice, O heaven, and you who dwell in it! Woe to those who dwell on the earth and on the sea! For the devil has come down to you, full of fury, knowing that he has little time. 13. And when the dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the little boy. 14. And the woman was given two wings like those of a great eagle, so that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she would be nourished for a time, times, and half a time, away from the presence of the serpent. 15. And the serpent spewed water like a river out of its mouth after the woman, to sweep her away. 16. But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth. 17. And the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

[ 24 ] The stream flowing from the serpent’s mouth symbolizes nothing other than the element through which man must pass in order to find his way back to God.

[ 25 ] Chapter 13: The Seven-Headed Beast from the Sea. “1. And I stood on the sand of the sea and saw a beast rising out of the sea, which had seven heads and ten horns, and on its horns were ten crowns, and on its heads were blasphemous names. 2. And the beast I saw was like a leopard, and its feet were like those of a bear, and its mouth was like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. 3. And I saw one of its heads as though it had been mortally wounded; but its mortal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled at the beast, 4. and they worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?” 5. And it was given to it a mouth to speak great things and blasphemies, and it was given to it to act for forty-two months. 6. And it opened its mouth to blaspheme God, to blaspheme His name and His dwelling place, and those who dwell in heaven. 7. And it was granted to it to make war against the saints and to conquer them; and it was granted to it authority over every tribe, language, and nation. 8. And all who dwell on the earth will worship it, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. 9. If anyone has ears, let him hear! 10. If anyone is to be put into prison, he will go into prison; if anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed with the sword. “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

[ 26 ] A two-horned animal from the earth.

[ 27 ] “11. And I saw another beast rising out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb’s, and it spoke like a dragon. 12. And it exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence; and it causes the earth and those who dwell on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound has been healed. 13. And it performs great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven in the sight of people; 14. And it deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs it has been given to perform in the presence of the beast; and it tells those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the beast that had the wound from the sword and had come to life. 15. And it was granted to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might speak and cause all who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16. And it causes all—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17. so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18. Here is wisdom! Let anyone who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred sixty-six.”

[ 28 ] The secret of the mysteries was made universal; it was revealed to all people. This is clearly evident in the symbol in the Book of Revelation of the four living creatures and the three powers that stand above them, so that we are confronted with seven powers. We are then told that ten kings—the kings of the new kingdom—will overcome these seven ancient powers. Now we must see what all this is meant to signify.

[ 29 ] First, I would like to explain it as it was presented in the ancient mysteries. Then you will recognize it for yourselves. The Apocalypse views the world and humanity as composed of seven principles. The four lower principles or powers are represented by the four beasts. These must be overcome. Through this overcoming of the lower, the three upper principles are established. Once this has been presented to us, we are shown how the entire sevenfold nature of the world and of humanity is scorched by fire, how the divine lightning strikes, and how the entire material realm—in which the sevenfold nature is immersed—is overcome once more. As the eighth stage, the actual material realm—evil itself—is truly destroyed. We are then shown that the fourth physical element appears as the conqueror alongside the three spiritual elements; the fourth physical element is taken up by the three spiritual elements, and then the three lower ones as well. The fourth element is the human being itself. Eagle, [Bull], Lion, and Human. Man represents nothing other than KamaRupa. The fourth, man, unites the three lower physical elements and the three upper ones and gives birth to three new ones from the three physical elements. The physical elements are, as it were, spiritually reborn. We thus have ten elements instead of seven. This is what the Apocalypse seeks to depict with the ten kings.

[ 30 ] These are indeed ancient mystical teachings, nothing other than what pagan beliefs already recognized. From the transformation and victory of the ten kings, we can see that they are meant to represent nothing other than the victory of the spiritual over the material, the victory of the mystery teachings.

[ 31 ] When the first six seals were opened, John saw four horses: a white horse, a red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse. Death and Hades followed them. “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had given.” This slaying symbolizes being born again in the Spirit and the slaying of the lower nature. Man must devour the book; he must become one with the book. The same idea is also hinted at by a Christian mystic, Angelus Silesius. He said: [“Friend, that is enough. If you wish to read more, then go and become the Scripture yourself, and the essence itself.”]—With this, he concludes his Cherubic Wanderer.

[ 32 ] The ancient mysteries served as a preparation for Christianity. Through the Lamb, they have been reborn. Those who cannot fully comprehend that they must move forward—that they must indeed seek physical death and spiritual resurrection in Christ—are not yet ready. These are the ones who need to be admonished.

[ 33 ] The Book of Revelation is one of the most important books of the New Testament. It cannot and must not be understood in any other way than as a fusion of Christian mystical truths with the ancient mysteries. It contains the ancient mysteries that have been reborn through Christianity.