The Rudolf Steiner Archive

66. Summary of the Previous Presentations

[ 1 ] We can understand the Apocalypse only if we accept the fundamental nature of Christianity as a mystical reality. This fundamental nature is encapsulated in the words: “Blessed are those who believe without seeing.” What once took place within the crypts has now been carried out onto the stage of world history itself. The ancient mystery was revealed in Christianity: that which is a mystery at one time becomes manifest at other [times]. The Gospels reproduce the content of ancient mystery texts; the account of future events is contained in the Apocalypse of John.

[ 2 ] Anyone who wants to understand the spirit of such writings must, above all, know how religions work.

[ 3 ] Today, there is a widespread belief that the simple word contains the truth, and there is a reluctance to elevate the spirit. Nothing is to be said against the simplicity of the word; but the inner power from which such speech flows springs from the highest realms of the spirit. Not everyone could speak of the revelations of the highest realms. The Church Father possessed the power, the might of [gap in the text]

[ 4 ] The Apocalypse describes a destiny perceived through the mystery. A lower initiation is sufficient to see across a root race; a higher one is necessary to see across many. To shape an Apocalypse, the third degree of chelaship is required. In the realm of highly developed astral vision, the destiny of a root race unfolds before us. From the fourth chapter onward, the Apocalypse is devachanic vision. The author of the Apocalypse surveyed the period up to the middle of the Lemurian race and the future as far as the point where sexuality has ceased. The higher experiences are not distinct from one another. No two initiates ever report in different ways. The initiates of all ages spoke just as the author of the Apocalypse did. In the Apocalypse, the author speaks from a Christian perspective.

[ 5 ] Let's take a look back at how the races were designed.

[ 6 ] Before the Lemurian race, there existed a form of humanity that appeared quite differently. The etheric body had not yet condensed; it did not walk on the ground but floated through the Earth, which was itself ethereal. Its organs were luminous. - At the beginning of the Lemurian race, human beings incarnated in fiery clouds. - Esotericists refer to that transition from subtle to physical matter—those beings that developed into physical density—as the “eagle state” of humanity. The eagle, then, is the human being who has evolved upward from the ether into physical matter.

[ 7 ] Among the Atlanteans, human beings possessed a heightened life force; they could master prana and utilize the seed force. During the present race, which has existed for approximately thirteen million years, they have mastered only the physical body. Later, he will regain mastery over the etheric and astral bodies.

[ 8 ] This second stage, in which the human being still has dominion over the etheric body, is referred to by esotericists as the “lion-man.”

[ 9 ] The bull is regarded as the symbol of the Aryan, the human being who has descended entirely into the physical realm.

[ 10 ] This refers to three very specific, successive stages of human history.

[ 11 ] Anyone who has learned symbolic language understands it; they know what the specific symbols mean.

[ 12 ] A commonly used symbol consists of two interlocking triangles: an eagle at the top, a lion on the left, and a bull on the right; in the center is a human face. This signifies that there is a triangle below that characterizes past states. The three angles therefore initially remain [gap in the text]

[ 13 ] At the center is the inner self, the true, enduring essence. The four essential qualities that make a person truly human are represented by the two intertwined triangles.

[ 14 ] These three animals appear wherever the development of the human being is discussed. But in the Apocalypse of John, they are discussed in a special way. The apocalyptic writer transcends the veils that separate him from the earlier stages. In order for him to be able to transport himself back while still seeing, the earlier organs must be revitalized. He must bestow upon them the ability to see, to gaze. Eye, whole eye.

[ 15 ] Only those who have an eye for ascension and the use of the higher bodies can comprehend the future stages. We are now in the stage of purely physical intellect. This intellect necessitates a certain moral code and a certain religion. Essentially, the individual must seek his happiness at the expense of others. Indeed, anyone who strives for the higher must rise above others. In the occult school, there are three words that denote the new age. They are:

[ 16 ] Brotherly Love: Love of Community as a Moral Ideal.

[ 17 ] Pneumatology: the study of the spirit and spiritual matters as the decisive factor: the scientific ideal.

[ 18 ] The principle of religious freedom: self-governance in religious matters.

[ 19 ] This will be the sixth race.

[ 20 ] A well-known occult law states that, in certain cycles of time, what has happened before is repeated. The Eagle, the Bull, and the Lion were repeated in the first three sub-races. The fourth sub-race is called “Man.” Christianity arose within it.

[ 21 ] The people of the first subrace, the Indian people, had expressed the culture of thought—the highest deification of thought. It had to repeat, in a condensed form, what the Lemurian had experienced. The Lemurian was a person of feeling; the Indian thought in terms of feelings. What thought radiates into feelings can be found in the ancient Vedic culture—for the Indian, thought takes hold of the feelings. In cultures where thought is more closely linked to memory, we find the heroic culture and the long catalogs that fostered memory. Much was recorded. And from the records of the ancient Persians, the Magi, and the Chaldeans, the almanacs emerged. From these developed astronomy, astrology, technology, mathematics, and so on.

[ 22 ] This is how humankind came to be the race that understood what it means to say: “God has come to life within humankind itself.”

[ 23 ] The first race was the most prone to decline. Their perception is not yet strong enough for the thought to truly become internalized.

[ 24 ] Every day that one delves anew into the Vedanta is a source of fresh admiration. On the other hand, we are confronted with the most abject idolatry into which the people have fallen. But the great virtues of humankind are always accompanied by their greatest dark sides. The apocalyptic writer seeks to make this phenomenon understandable to us through the church in Ephesus, symbolized by the Nicolaitan sect; it is meant to show us how, in the fifth root race, the most external coexists alongside the Most High.

[ 25 ] Let us consider how early Christians viewed their faith.

[ 26 ] “There are three who begot on earth, and three in heaven.” Atma, Buddhi, Manas. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[ 27 ] Early Christians would have rejected the idea of speaking about the Father. They believed they could know the Father only through the Son, through the Word: “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

[ 28 ] The highest level to which a human being can rise is thought, the mental realm. It is characteristic of earthly human beings that they live simultaneously in three worlds: the spiritual, the psychological, and the physical—but are conscious only in the physical world.

[ 29 ] The highest principle for all religions was the will that created the world. When human beings wish to express a thought through the will, they do so first and foremost through the Word. The Word is the expression of the Spirit through the will. Thus the Christian said: The Father expressed His Spirit in the world through the power of the Word. This is the second person of the Trinity; the third is the Holy Spirit, who is expressed in the Word. The world is the embodiment of the Spirit and came into being through the Word of God, just as sound waves arise from human speech. This Word is to be conceived as the second person, as the highest being, far more personal than human individuality. For the early Christians, this supreme being became human in the One whom they recognized as the proclaimer of the Gospel. Anyone who does not understand this, or who attempts to interpret the Word made flesh, cannot put themselves in the mindset of the early Christians. That the Christian has ascended to devachanic vision is clear to anyone who understands how to read the Gospel.

[ 30 ] The life of Christ has another essential aspect that distinguishes it from the life of the Buddha, and the first Initiates understood this. Time is suspended; the past is present: such is the nature of Devachan. At the Transfiguration of Christ, the three disciples were lifted up to a devachanic vision. —

[ 31 ] Here we have something that is not found in the life of the Buddha. The Buddha became radiant ... and here it ends. The life of Christ begins its most significant era with this fact. Thus the early Christians said: We well understand the foreshadowing of what is now fulfilled through the ancient religions... But blessed are those who believe without seeing.

[ 32 ] What was once achieved by beholding the great truths of the world within the crypts could now also be experienced by those who simply believe. The Mystery has been brought out into the open arena of the world. The Cross of Golgotha is that very same act, erected before everyone’s eyes. The ancient mystery teachings had to be presented to the world in a popular form. A step has been taken that leads further than the ancient religions.