The Rudolf Steiner Archive

65. Apocalypse V

[ 1 ] You have seen that we can only truly understand the Apocalypse if the fundamental nature of the Christian, mystical reality is presented in its proper light. We have taken up the saying, “Blessed are those who believe, even though they do not see,” in order to illustrate this fundamental nature.

[ 2 ] What was beheld by the initiates in the centuries before Christianity was established—what took place in the depths of the mystery grottoes and temples—became, as we have seen, a fact of world history; it was carried out onto the grand stage of world history. The story of the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension—these phases of the mystical life, as the initiate beheld them in the mystery temples after proper preparation—could now be believed by the faithful as a historical fact. Thus, what had previously been a secret or mystery had become a matter of faith, proclaimed, and turned into the Gospel. The Gospel, therefore, contains nothing other than the content of the ancient mystery texts. Previously, the content of the Gospel of John in particular—from the thirteenth chapter onward to the end—had been proclaimed to the initiated in the hidden books of the mysteries. But now it was proclaimed to the whole world, even to those who could not be convinced of the mysteries directly through psychic or mystical insight. Blessed were those who did not see and yet believed. Thus, the ancient mystery was unveiled through Christianity. The Gospel had become the revelation of the ancient mystery books.

[ 3 ] But what was a mystery at one time and became revealed at another—if it had occurred at the same time—would be, in substance, one and the same thing. What later became revealed to the whole world had always already been proclaimed in the mysteries in earlier times, when humanity [outside the mystery schools] was not yet ready for it. What had become a revealed mystery as the Gospel at the time of the proclamation of Christianity in the first Christian centuries had previously been hidden. In contrast, in the early days of Christianity, the mystery reappears as a revelation intended to prepare for a very distant future. The account of the events of that very distant future is contained in the Apocalypse of John the Theologian. And now let us see how.

[ 4 ] We are all familiar with the evolution of the fifth root race of humanity through its various sub-races. We know that the subrace of the Aryan race in which Christianity arose was the fourth subrace, and that we ourselves are now living in the fifth subrace, which will be succeeded by the sixth. To understand what is written in the Apocalypse, let us take a look at the evolution as we must conceive it, based on our current theosophical Apocalypse, regarding the future of the next race and the remainder of our own fifth cultural epoch.

[ 5 ] Let us return once more to the statement: With Christianity, the preceding mysteries have been revealed to a certain extent. The fourth sub-race[—the Greco-Latin cultural epoch—] was initially concerned with—and it was its task—to establish this faith in Christianity as a mystical reality, this faith in this great mystery unfolding on the stage of world history. Now came the fifth sub-race, our own; it is the sub-race of the intellect, which seeks to comprehend everything. Comprehending, explaining, and understanding are the tasks of our epoch. This epoch will have fulfilled its task when everything that is possible for the intellect to comprehend has been comprehended. The leadership of our subrace will have fulfilled its task when it has guided us to the point where the intellect comprehends and understands what was previously believed, so that we can explain it. This apocalypse of our fifth subrace is presented to us in such a way that we are told: A time will come when the personality who founded Christianity, the mystical Lamb, will unseal the book with the seven seals. What was mere faith remained sealed. Gradually, however, the seven seals will fall from the book, which was previously merely a book of faith and therefore a book closed to the intellect.

[ 6 ] What does this book contain? This book contains the mysteries of successive developments—the seven mysteries that repeat themselves over and over again in every cycle of evolution and every racial development, as well as in all other cyclical developments—including those within human beings. Let us take a look at how these seven mysteries manifest themselves in human beings. I need only shed a little light on a few of these secrets, and you will immediately see what they are all about.

[ 7 ] Consider the human being as he appears to us in seven parts according to the Theosophical classification. First, the physical body, into which he enters to carry out his earthly journey. This is the first step: the emergence into the world. The second is the assimilation into the so-called life principle. In prana, through which beings come to life, they enter the realm of struggle, the realm of war of all against all, the realm in which individuality is pitted against individuality. In order for this struggle—this pitting of individuality against individuality—to be brought into outward harmony, it is necessary for the human will to bring justice into this realm of struggle. Justice, however, is not the sole creator of harmony in the external world. What must be brought into it appears precisely at the fourth stage, where man not only establishes justice externally, but where he permeates external justice with the principle of love, which shines down from above, from the higher principles.

[ 8 ] If, on the other hand, you consider the opening of the seven seals in the Book of Revelation, you will see that we are dealing with something very similar:

And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and the one sitting on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. [Rev 6:2]

[ 9 ] First, we have the transition into materialization.

And when it opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come and see!” And another horse came out, a red one, and the one who sat on it was given the power to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another; and he was given a great sword. [Rev 6:3–4]

[ 10 ] Here, particularity struggles against particularity within the principle of life.

And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and the one sitting on it had a pair of scales in his hand. [Rev 6:5]

[ 11 ] — the scales of justice.

And I heard a voice among the four living creatures saying, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; but do not harm the oil and the wine.” [Rev 6:6]

And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come and see!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and the one sitting on it was named Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given power to kill a fourth of those on the earth—with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. [Rev 6:7–8]

[ 12 ] The lower nature is put to death; the higher nature emerges. The lower nature dies so that the higher spiritual nature may be redeemed.

[ 13 ] If we apply this image not to the individual human being but to the fifth race, it is set out to fulfill its mission: to redeem the second subrace, which was the warlike one. We thus enter the era of conflict among the individual peoples. Then comes the Kingdom of Justice, the kingdom that, according to the biblical historian, is counted from Abraham. There you will find the gradual rise of the third principle, justice. The fourth principle refers to the advent of Christianity itself. The victory of love over death is a higher kingdom than the kingdom of mere justice.

[ 14 ] Then the kingdom corresponding to the fifth subrace will come. When this kingdom comes to an end, it will understand the entire mission of the fifth root race. It will understand from within what could previously only be believed from the outside. With this, the seals that have kept the rest of the world’s understanding locked away will also fall. The world will become an open book. When the fifth cultural epoch is complete, the world will lie before our minds like an open book.

[ 15 ] Afterward, calm descends. This is nothing other than the hour in which the sixth sub-race prepares itself. The seals have been broken; the truths lie open before people’s eyes. And this will be the defining characteristic of the people of the sixth subrace: that the truths lie open before people’s eyes, that they no longer need to be believed or grasped by the intellect, but rather that they are seen with the eyes, perceived with an intuitive spirit. This is how the truths will present themselves to people in the sixth cultural epoch. Humanity will have reached a higher level in this sixth cultural epoch.

[ 16 ] At an even higher level, human beings will once again experience the unveiling, the revelation of the mysteries. This renewed revelation of the mysteries is depicted in the Book of Revelation as the trumpeting of the angels. How clearly the truths will then be revealed—not merely as in a book, but in such a way that they speak to us from all sides. The truths will not be like a thought, but like a loud voice. That is what the trumpeting of the angels means. And when the trumpeting of the angels is described to us, it is as if the spirit of the sixth subrace is emerging. We will examine this in more detail another time.

[ 17 ] If you follow the entire course of development from there, you will see that even those important points that will arise in the course of the development of the sixth sub-race are touched upon in the Apocalypse, including the most important point, which can be characterized by the fact that people will be enlightened in a completely different way regarding the nature of good and evil. Since the truths will be plain to see, the very nature of good and the nature of evil will be revealed to people. They will learn to read the ledger of their karma. This is the pivotal moment that will come for the people of the sixth cultural epoch, when the law of karma will become second nature to them and an awareness of justice will take hold. Thus, those who embrace such awareness will then pass over to continue the next root race.

[ 18 ] A major, significant event then takes place in this next root race. It has already been prepared by the recognition of good and evil, and it will be prepared to an even greater degree during the sixth subrace; for something entirely different occurs there, and we must understand this if we are to understand the Apocalypse. We recall that the way in which present-day humanity lives is not an absolute; that it arose at a certain point; that it became sexual in the middle of the Lemurian race. It was not until the middle of the Lemurian epoch that this form of reproduction began among humanity, along with this way of living together, as it is now. What we now call birth and death first entered human existence at that time. Before that, the way life unfolded was entirely different. With birth and death came individual karma, as well as reincarnation or re-embodiment. Everything we now describe and recognize as reincarnation and karma, and as the course of the individual human life between birth and death, only began in the middle of the Lemurian epoch. It was then that human beings first assumed the form in which they currently incarnate. Before that, they had different forms. This form, once it began—this cycle of birth and death and this repeated reincarnation—will all come to an end. Just as it began in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, so will it come to an end in the middle of the sixth root race. At that time, for a portion of humanity that will by then have attained the corresponding stage of development—those who are called the “firstfruits of humanity” in the Apocalypse—the state that existed at a lower stage before the Lemurian era will return. At that time, human beings were still asexual and not yet entangled in birth and death. This will return after human beings have completed their period of learning through reincarnations. The time will come when they will once again possess, on a higher level, that spirituality—freed from the immediate, present physical form—which they previously had on a lower level.

[ 19 ] Now—and you must understand this clearly—in Christian esotericism, the beings who weave and work in the evolution of the world, shaping it in the most diverse spheres, are called angels. These beings are higher than present-day human beings. Human beings act upon the Earth, but human beings themselves were brought into being by higher beings. That which must be accomplished in the world’s development by higher beings—that which is, therefore, of a higher order—Christian esotericism posits as being brought about by beings it calls angels. In theosophical teaching, we speak of the dhyanic nature, which, in its power and wisdom, transcends human development. Now, Christian esotericism calls those formers—who do not exist on our level of consciousness and activity, who are higher beings—angels; and it refers to the angel who, during the Lemurian epoch, in the middle of that period, formed the human form as the Archangel Michael. Michael is the former of the human form, as it is subject to birth and death and to sexuality. Because human beings have entered into birth and death, and because the angel of form, Michael, has given them this very form, there has—just as polarity exists in the world in general—arisen on the other side Michael’s adversary, who is always at work in the course of evolution and who is called the dragon or the serpent in Christian esotericism. If, therefore, one views human evolution since the middle of the Lemurian epoch as a struggle between the Archangel Michael and the dragon, then in the middle of the sixth root race this struggle must enter a new stage. The purest form must be attained in the human form; humanity must have reached its goal with regard to the human form. Everything that was a hindrance must be overcome. This battle, which takes place in the middle of the sixth root race, is described in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation.

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought back, but they did not prevail, nor was their place found in heaven any longer. 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. [Rev 12:7–9]

[ 20 ] In the beginning, the human being had to assume the human form and had to take upon itself what that form entailed, overcoming it on its own during the course of its development. Human beings had to take upon themselves sexuality, birth, and death. As hermaphrodites—as asexual beings—human beings entered the course of evolution and became bisexual, becoming male and female. Asexuality will have to reappear in the middle of the sixth root race.

[ 21 ] If you continue reading the Book of Revelation, you will find the whole story described in more detail in chapter 14.

And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of rushing waters and like the sound of a mighty thunder; and the voice I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.

And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins and follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from among mankind as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. [Rev 14:24]

[ 22 ] This mystical reality of returning to divinity is expressed in this passage from the Book of Revelation. Here you will find a description of everything that is necessarily connected with it: that birth and death have been overcome, and that the first new resurrection is being celebrated. The other dead, however, will not come back to life. In chapter 21, verse 4, it is stated:

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore; for the former things have passed away. [Rev 21:4]

[ 23 ] When human beings have developed to their highest flowering, then—in these elevated states—they will no longer suffer. Human beings will then have reached the highest stage of their sevenfold division. The distinctiveness that was achieved precisely through the form of matter—as it emerged in the middle of the Lemurian epoch—will have reached its grossest expression. Human beings will no longer be confined within this physical body, which can gain knowledge of the external world only through the gates of the senses. He will have other, new senses. You will find this depicted in the Book of Revelation by the fact that it will no longer be necessary for the sun and moon to shine, because a different kind of perception will come into being for human beings. It goes on to say that a new city will come to Earth for human beings.

[ 24 ] What is meant by a “new city” here? People have evolved to inhabit their present dwellings. There is an esoteric term for humanity’s present dwellings. What are humanity’s present dwellings? They are the sum of all human bodies, and every human body is a house within this one great city of humanity, in which all dwell. In Christian esotericism, every body is regarded as a house in which the soul dwells. Now, the human community in the form in which it existed in the middle of the Lemurian epoch is called the “Old Jerusalem.” The form in which this city of humanity existed at the time Christianity was founded is called the “Middle Jerusalem,” and the form that will then exist in the middle of the sixth root race is called the “New Jerusalem.”

[ 25 ] The Book of Revelation once again describes the foundation of this New Jerusalem, and it does so in such a way that even the most skeptical person must understand what is being described. What answer will we be given when we ask: What will the houses be like? The author of Revelation tells us:

And the one who spoke to me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.

The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as its width. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be twelve thousand stadia. The length, width, and height of the city are equal.

And he measured its wall—one hundred forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, which the angel has. [Rev 21:15–17]

[ 26 ] The city is found to be on a human scale. This is the scale that humankind will one day attain; humankind will develop to this scale by the sixth root race.

[ 27 ] So, you see, the Gospel became the revealed mystery of ancient times. The Apocalypse is the new mystery of early Christian times. Just as the ancient mysteries contained the birth, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of the human being—just as this mystical suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven were the content of the ancient mysteries, which was revealed in the Gospel—so the Apocalypse contains the new mystery of humanity’s future as found in the early Christian mysteries. The Apocalypse of John the Theologian is nothing other than what was taught and interpreted in the early Christian mysteries.

[ 28 ] Just as you would find in the Greek mysteries, where the prelude to Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection is celebrated in the mystery temple in the form of Dionysus—who is depicted as suffering, being dismembered, and being exalted—the mystery consists precisely in the fact that the secret is imparted to the initiates so that they may prepare the way for it. Thus, in the early Christian mysteries, the first Christians—who experienced this great event as a world-historical one—were taught what was to be prepared through Christian education.

[ 29 ] And this, in turn, ties in with theosophy’s view of esoteric Christianity. We know that the account of what took place in Palestine—called the “Gospel” or the “Good News”—is exoteric. However, teachings were also imparted in the Christian mysteries: After the Resurrection, Christ instructed intimate disciples for many years in the early Christian mysteries, and the teachings imparted there are contained in the Apocalypse. The interpretation was one that we are only now able to provide again through Theosophy. However, the Book of Revelation was interpreted in our theosophical sense. This is precisely what is meant by the introduction provided by the theologian John himself. He states quite clearly who appears to him: He is visited by the One who was the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega—the One who alone is as pure as humanity was before entering the course of evolution in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, and as humanity will be again after it emerges from the course of evolution in the middle of the sixth root race: This is Christ, the First before the beginning of birth and death and the Last after birth and death have come to an end. The First and the Last reveal here, too, at the midpoint of evolution, the Christian mystery, the mystery of the sixth root race.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. [Rev 1:10]

[ 30 ] As a close disciple, he has been granted the special grace of hearing the trumpets even now. At this time, as Christianity is taking root, this is a foreshadowing. The voice spoke:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Write down what you see in a book and send it to the churches in Asia: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

And I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the seven lampstands was one like a son of man, clothed in a long robe and girded across the chest with a golden sash.

His head and his hair were white like white wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire.

And his feet were like burnished bronze, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. [Rev 1:11–15]

[ 31 ] This is the description offered by the mystical seer—even of the first incarnation, of the first descent into matter, where matter is not yet so densely condensed, where the eyes still shine, are still active, and are not merely gateways to the outside world; and then again, where the solid matter of the entire physical world gave way to liquid matter, where it is as fluid as molten metal.

[ 32 ] That, you see—we will hear more about the details later—is what is embodied in the Apocalypse, in the language used in books on the Mysteries. And at the same time, you can see in this the essence of the mystery, which consists in the fact that what is to be revealed to the majority only later is first proclaimed to a select few initiates. There are no secrets, no secret truths, that do not at some point become revealed secrets, revealed truths. They can only be revealed when people are ready for them. And for them to become ready—that is why there must be individuals who guide humanity. These are initiated into the mysteries into which others will only be initiated later. Only those who know the goal can lead others toward it. Only those who knew the goal could prophesy Christianity as prophets. To proclaim the Gospel from the mysteries is to prophesy. At the same time, what may one day become the common heritage of all in the distant future should be revealed to people.

[ 33 ] This is the course of spiritual world history; this is evolution in world history, shrouded by circumstances of which we can no longer speak today. The great laws of human development were initially shrouded. Over time, they are being unwrapped and evolving. Mystery after mystery is revealed. What was once known and guarded only by initiates will become apparent over time; it will be revealed. That which was initially sealed will be unsealed; what the eyes have read will later resound to the open spiritual ear like a revelation from outside, from the external world, as if through a trumpet.

From the Q&A section

[Mr. Schouten asks a few questions about the fourth dimension]

[ 34 ] I plan to give a lecture on the fourth dimension, and—following up on Mr. Schouten’s remarks—I would like to try here as well to provide an illustration of this fourth dimension. It will be better if I speak about the fourth dimension in connection with the direct experiment.

Is the theologian John the same person as the author of the Gospel of John?

[ 35 ] The author of the Gospel of John was Jesus’ closest disciple. This enabled him to convey the deepest essence of the teaching. Today, most people cannot understand it. As it says in the nineteenth chapter:

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” [John 19:25–26]

[ 36 ] To love a disciple is to be an initiator. Then he says to the disciple:

“Behold, this is your mother,” and from that hour the disciple took her into his home. John 19:27]

[ 37 ] This is a significant passage. Here you learn that the mother could not have been named Mary. John never refers to Jesus’ mother as Mary. Here is another passage from the second chapter.

And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.” [John 2:3–4]

[ 38 ] I would just like to briefly note that this implies that the mother of Jesus is hinting at something very special here. She is the spiritual substance from which he creates his work. Ancient Judaism—which was to become Christianity—referred to Jesus as its mother once he had become a Christian. This mission of his people calls to him—calls to him first—when he is to turn the water into wine. Then he says, “Woman, my hour has not yet come.” The Jewish people were entrusted to the Son of the Jewish people with the words, “Behold, this is your mother.” It is this John who later wrote the Gospel and the Book of Revelation.

Can't the long process of development actually be shortened through the fraternal cooperation of human beings?

[ 39 ] Through the brotherly cooperation of human beings, the long period of development can indeed be shortened. Years are not of equal length on the higher planes. Only on the physical plane are years of equal length. Just imagine whether you would even have a measure of time at all if you no longer had physical events. Or imagine if the sun were to move faster—then the years would become shorter.

Is the Theosophical Society also based on evolution?

[ 40 ] The Theosophical Society is founded on the principle of evolution.

What do the words “What will happen soon?” mean?

[ 41 ] This is a passage that essentially says what you will soon achieve.

What is meant by the “Communion of Saints”?

[ 42 ] The “Communion of Saints” is the great brotherhood of the Masters, the Adepts. It is easy for those who know nothing about them to make derisive remarks, which has indeed happened often enough. The higher individualities are united in brotherhoods. These are a foreshadowing of what all of humanity will achieve in the middle of the sixth root race. And it is this principle of brotherhood that is to be achieved in the sixth root race—a goal that can only be attained through the emergence of the spiritual from the physical-material. This Community of Saints is what is presented as the next stage of development. Spiritual evolution has two stages: becoming blessed and becoming holy. “Blessed” is derived from “soul.” The Eight Beatitudes are a guide to becoming blessed within oneself. But in order to find blessedness outside oneself, one must become holy. The saints live in absolute communion.