The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. Easter and Theosophy

[ 1 ] All festivals have a living significance in Theosophy, one that is also being rediscovered by the materialistic worldview. People today have become accustomed to convention. Yet we can recognize that ancient wisdom is what the Theosophical worldview is called.

[ 2 ] Our ancestors were endowed with different gifts; there was still a living connection to the sources of existence from which we ourselves come and to which we will return. Easter had taken on a new form through Christianity. It is the most venerable festival among all peoples. However, Easter did not first become a festival in the era of Christianity; it existed long before that. The goal to which one aspired could be attained in the mysteries; that which was to come into consciousness was embodied in the resurrection of faith. Empedocles describes it with the words: “When, leaving the body, you soar into the free ether—into the faith of resurrection—you will become an immortal spirit, having escaped death”

[ 3 ] [What runs through all of humanity as a collective consciousness and finds expression in its greatest representatives has been encapsulated in the Christian faith—the faith in the Resurrection.)

[ 4 ] This is most succinctly and most mysteriously found in the Easter faith at the mysterious sites [of the Mysteries]. Where the sun gains its power and triumphs over all the obstacles of nature—that is where I must lead you. We are led to the ancient pyramids] of the Egyptians, [to the sites of the Rishis]. There has truly been no great thinker who did not hold the belief in the Resurrection. Plato, Pythagoras, Giordano Bruno, and Nicholas of Cusa drew upon this belief in the Resurrection; it gave them their strength. The victory of the spirit over matter in the lowlands of the body? That is the faith stemming from the sacrificial cult of the ancient mysteries. The soul is the conqueror of the body. In spring, the sun gains new strength; then it triumphs over all obstacles in nature. The ancient Indian rishis did not merely teach; they created new human beings. Only those who, through outstanding qualities, bore witness to the spirit in the outer world were admitted to the Easter festival. A person had to practice virtue and cultivate intellectual powers and clarity of mind. He had to become so pure and practice virtue to such an extent that one could say he had become spiritualized. Those who were deemed good by the priests were admitted to the Easter festival, which is the festival of knowledge and transformation of human nature. It was intended to show them what happened to the initiates.

[ 5 ] When we consider the human body, only a part of it can be perceived by the eyes. But we also have the etheric body, which is not entirely like the physical body. If we visualize the physical body being sucked away, the space is filled with the second body, the etheric body, and the third, the astral body, [which surrounds and permeates the physical body like a swirl of mist]. These two surround the physical body, and within them dwells, as the fourth, [the “I” of] the human being.

[ 6 ] Let us consider human beings. They are concerned only with their self-knowledge and their astral body, which, however, can be purified. — When we look at an undeveloped person, their etheric and astral bodies express lower suffering; it tears at them. In the person who is conscious of moral duty, compassion for others arises; in this person, the colors green, bluish, violet, and reddish appear. Green represents the activity of thought. Bluish-violet is a sign of devotion and all [similar] feelings. The red coloring characterizes desire. Orange-yellow signifies ambition.

[ 7 ] The clairvoyant can discern the level a person has attained. When an undeveloped person begins to purify their thoughts, flickering shades of red appear. Through many incarnations, a person becomes astral within themselves; they cultivate and refine themselves. If a person is the creator of their astral body, then they have triumphed over death. If a person is not yet the master of their astral body, then the physical and astral bodies dissolve into the cosmic mist. At death, the soul is once again dissolved into the cosmos. The etheric body also dissolves. — Why do the bodies dissolve? Because human beings do not yet have power over their bodies. What human beings have achieved in their astral body is eternal. The purification they have undergone during their physical existence, they take with them, and upon their next incarnation, they bring these experiences with them once again. The etheric body is the bearer of life; during life in the physical realm, the physical body is the ruler. Human beings cannot simply become rulers of the life principle. They know nothing of the laws at work within the body—blood, kidneys, and so on. All these processes are essential to life. All physical processes affect the etheric body. Only when human beings are freed from their bodies do they embark on the path of life.

[ 8 ] The situation is different for the chela: for those who have undergone a transformation through the Mysteries, the etheric body does not disappear. The chela learns to work on his etheric body. Whoever begins to work on his etheric body, whoever has undergone initiation, will gain mastery over his etheric body. Human beings must work on their etheric body just as they previously worked on their physical body and their astral body. When, in the secret schools, the student experienced “death and rebirth,” he gained mastery over his astral body. The chela will triumph over death because he has submitted himself to the mysteries. The chela becomes insensitive to his physical body—which then no longer exerts dominion over him; the body has then become soft and supple.

[ 9 ] It is symbolic that the Myste is given a new name because he belongs to the higher worlds. Thus, the Myste appeared before his fellow human beings as a messenger; what now met him from without was a reflection of what stirred within him.

[ 10 ] The chela perceived the music of the spheres through the vibrations of the universe; it was his own perception. He had experienced immortality. For three days, the chela had to work on himself; then he could step before the people as a messenger, a prophet. Then he had experienced within himself the mysterious life, the great Word of the Logos, the spiritual tones, sounds, and vibrations of the universe: “When you leave the body and soar into the free ether, you will become an immortal spirit, having escaped death!”—Empedocles.

[ 11 ] Such mystics had lived in the coffin for three days, sustained by the living spirit of immortality. They had overcome death because they had animated their etheric body. It is not for nothing that one speaks of “sun heroes”; these are those who master their etheric body. Sun Heroes exist in all religious traditions. The sun we see is only a part of the total sun. The sun is spoken of as the “resounding one” that sends us life; it is the victory over darkness, the victory over matter. When the chela has become a Sun Hero, he says, “I have seen the sun shine at midnight.” He sees the sun through the solid matter of the Earth. This is not to be understood merely figuratively; the sun is a model for the hero who has learned to master his etheric body.

[ 12 ] Goethe’s *Faust* I, Prologue in Heaven: “The sun resounds, as in times of old, in a contest of song among the spheres of brotherhood.” And in “Faust” II: “Listen, listen to the storm of the Horae; resounding, the new day is already being born for the ears of the spirit.” Wherever an initiation has taken place, people speak of “sounds.”

[ 13 ] The words that Christianity offers us—“Blessed are those who believe, even though they do not see”—seek to emphasize the way in which a person has experienced initiation. Aristides, after experiencing initiation, says: “I feel the presence of the deity; my hand has touched it.” - Sophocles: “Only those who are initiated recognize the truth of immortality.” Those who had not yet been initiated placed their hope in the life to come. It would have been unthinkable for a slave to endure the hardship of his lot unless he could tell himself: Today I am a slave; in the next life I will be a king.

[ 14 ] All people are granted initiation; from this consciousness, a character takes shape. Such a person is also called a “poor man,” because he no longer possesses life; the Kingdom of God had dawned within him. Blessed are those who believe, even though they do not see. This saying will become clear to us when we recognize in the Easter Mystery a moment that did not exist before the appearance of Christ. This is what took place in Damascus: Saul became Paul. Who could have experienced this before Jesus Christ was there! No one could have experienced it—unless they had attended the mystery schools. All the teachings taught the same thing. But that is not what matters; what matters is that Christ was on earth.

[ 15 ] [Krishna,] Hermes, Moses, Zarathustra, Buddha, and all the other [venerable teachers] could say of themselves, “I am the Way and the Truth.” Christ, however, could say, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

[ 16 ] That is why no doctrine was left behind. What is significant is that Christ lived. He had truly appeared. What permeated the mystics when he had triumphed over death had become flesh. The Logos had become flesh and had lived—dwelt—among us. The Word, which had previously been heard only by the initiated, had become flesh. Until then, only the priests in the mystery temples had experienced this. What would later become clear to all people: that Christ lives had to unfold in the world.

[ 17 ] Out in the world, on the historical stage, something took place that had previously unfolded in the depths of mysteries and cults; what the individual had previously been allowed only to glimpse now became an event that unfolded before everyone’s eyes. The initiate knew the word that resounded there.

[ 18 ] What unfolded as a historical event had been foretold prophetically. The prophecy corresponded with what had taken place; it was now proof of immortality—it was [not] merely faith. The cross, which previously only the disciple had seen, was now erected before everyone’s eyes. Faith arose within Saul without his having entered the mystery schools. What arose within him was what a mystery school student had to attain through training.

[ 19 ] The Simplon and St. Gotthard tunnels would not have been possible if Leibniz and Newton had not lived before them.

[ 20 ] All of them limit faith to mystical facts—but now the deity itself had incarnated. Thus, the life of Jesus Christ had to unfold as a fact if such an event—one that would transform Paul—were to take place. —That is why I titled my book *Christianity as a Mystical Fact*.

[ 21 ] This is the essence of the mystery of Easter—it is not merely a matter of speaking of the “simple man from Nazareth,” but rather it is crucial that Christ Jesus lived, that he appeared in the flesh. It is the same thing that underlay all human beings before humanity descended into material density. That was the Fall, back when the world was founded. Then the Word underlies what was there before the world was, and what will be there when all external wisdom has perished. Paul first utters the word . Fichte says: “Let all of you, O rocks, fall upon me and destroy me …, for I am stronger than you when I fulfill my destiny.”

[ 22 ] This was the experience in the mystery schools: the initiate transcended the sensory realm and experienced that the Logos was there before the world was founded. He beheld the resounding Logos; he beheld life; he had attained the free ether. What he absorbed in the Mysteries, what permeated him, was the Word that was there before the world was founded. [This entire world is founded upon the Word, the divine Logos. This Word was there before the world was.] When the mystic was thus made immortal and completely sanctified, the Word lived within him.

[ 23 ] “My Father loved me before the world was founded …,” “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.”

[ 24 ] Composition of the Sun and the Moon. Astral body — Lunar body.

[ 25 ] The faith of Easter should give us the strength to look forward to the great Easter celebration, which is born of the deepest wisdom. These are events that overcome the darkness of existence, events that hold meaning for all who are imbued with them. When a person is illuminated by [gap in the transcript]

[ 26 ] The sun gains new strength in spring, a source of renewal in human beings, triumphing over the moon.