The Rudolf Steiner Archive

1. Pentecost, the Feast of the Liberation of the Human Spirit

[ 1 ] It was to be expected that only a small congregation would gather today. Nevertheless, I have decided to hold this evening’s service in order to say a few words to those who are here today in connection with the Feast of Pentecost.

[ 2 ] Before I go into that, I would like to share with you one of the results of my last trip to London, namely that Mrs. Besant will most likely be visiting us here this fall. We will therefore have the opportunity to hear once again from a figure who ranks among the most significant spiritual forces of our time. The next two public lectures will be held at the Architektenhaus: one in eight days on Spiritism, and the following one on somnambulism and hypnotism. After that, the Monday meetings will resume regularly here. On Thursdays in the near future, I will speak on Theosophical Cosmology—specifically, on the concepts Theosophy offers regarding the formation of the universe. Those interested in these topics will hear a great deal that they may not yet be familiar with from standard Theosophical literature. I would like to give the lectures on the elements of Theosophy at a later date.

[ 3 ] What I am about to say today stems from an ancient occult tradition. Of course, it is impossible to cover this subject exhaustively today. Some things may even seem unbelievable. I therefore ask that you view today’s session as a story in which nothing is meant to be proven, but simply told.

[ 4 ] People these days celebrate their festivals without really having any idea what such festivals mean. In the newspapers—which for a large portion of our contemporaries are the primary source of education and enlightenment—one can read a wide variety of articles about such festivals, without the writers having any real understanding of what such a festival signifies. But for Theosophists, it is necessary to draw attention once again to the inner meaning. And so today I would like to point out the earliest seeds of such an ancient festival—the origin of the Feast of Pentecost.

[ 5 ] The Feast of Pentecost is one of the most significant and most difficult to understand feasts. In the Christian consciousness, it commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This event is described to us as a miraculous story: the Holy Spirit is said to have poured out upon Christ’s disciples and apostles, so that they began to speak in every possible tongue. This means that they found a way to reach every heart and could speak according to each person’s understanding. This is one meaning of the Feast of Pentecost. But if we want to understand it more thoroughly, we must go much deeper. The Feast of Pentecost—as a symbolic feast—is connected to the deepest mysteries, to the holiest spiritual treasures of humanity. That is why it is so difficult to speak about it. Nevertheless, I would like to point out at least a few things today.

[ 6 ] What the Feast of Pentecost actually symbolizes, what underlies it, and what it means in a deeper sense—all of this is recorded only in a manuscript located in the Vatican, in the Vatican Library, and guarded with the utmost care. This manuscript, however, does not speak of Pentecost itself, but rather of that for which Pentecost is merely the outward symbol. Hardly anyone has seen this manuscript who was not initiated into the deepest secrets of the Catholic Church or who was able to read it in the astral light. A copy of it is in the possession of a figure who has been greatly misunderstood by the world, but who is now beginning to become interesting to the historian. I could just as easily say “possessed” instead of “possesses,” but that would create ambiguity. Therefore, I say: a copy is in the possession of the Count of Saint-Germain, from whom likely the only information in the world about it originates.

[ 7 ] I would like to say just a few words about this from a theosophical perspective. We are led here to something that is deeply connected with evolution, with the development of humanity in the fifth root race. Human beings acquired the form they possess today during the third root race—the ancient Lemurian era—further developed it during the fourth root race—the time of ancient Atlantis—and then entered the fifth root race with the result of that development. Anyone who has heard my lectures on Atlantis will recall that the Greeks still had a vivid memory of that time.

[ 8 ] To gain some perspective, we must take a brief look at two currents within our fifth root race that are alive as hidden forces in people’s minds and often clash with one another: one current is found in its purest and clearest form in what we call the Egyptian, Indian, and Southern European worldviews. All later Judaism, as well as Christianity, contains elements of this. On the other hand, however, this has in turn mingled in our Europe with the other current, which lives in the worldview we find in ancient Persia and which—if we do not listen to what anthropologists and etymologists tell us, but instead delve deeper into the matter—we can trace stretching westward from Persia all the way to the regions of the Germanic peoples.

[ 9 ] I would like to argue that these two currents point to two important, two great spiritual intuitions that underlie them. One of these was most purely realized by the ancient Rishis. They gained insight into beings of a higher nature: the so-called Devas. Anyone who has undergone occult training, anyone capable of researching this field, knows what Devas are. These purely spiritual beings, who live in the astral and mental realms, have a dual nature, whereas human beings have a triune nature. For the human being consists of body, soul, and spirit. The nature of a Deva, however—as far as we can discern—consists only of soul and spirit. It may have other components, but even with occult training we cannot perceive them. A Deva possesses the spirit directly within itself. The Deva is a spirit endowed with a soul. What you cannot see in human beings—namely, the desires, instincts, passions, and wishes that dwell within them, but which are perceptible to those who have opened their spiritual senses as luminous manifestations—these soul forces, this soul-body of the human being, which constitutes the human being’s inner self and is supported by our physical body, constitute the lowest body of the devas. We can regard it as their body. Indian intuition focused primarily on the worship of these Devas. The Indian sees these Devas everywhere. He sees them as the creative forces when he looks behind the scenes of our worldly phenomena. This intuition underlies the southern worldview. In the Egyptian worldview, it finds great and powerful expression.

[ 10 ] The other intuition underlies ancient Persian mysticism and led to the worship of beings that are also of a dual nature: the Asuras. They, too, possess what we call a soul; but in a magnificent, titanic way, they have developed the physical body, which encompasses an organ of the soul. The Indian worldview, which adheres to the worship of the Devas, regards these Asuras as something subordinate, whereas those who adhered to the northern worldview were more attached to the Asuras, to physical nature. Consequently, here too a particular urge had developed to master the world of sensory phenomena in a material way—to master the world of reality through the perfection of technology to the highest degree, through the physical arts, and the like. Today there are no longer any people who adhere to the worship of the Asuras; but there are still many among us who possess something of this nature within themselves. This is the source of the inclination toward the material side of life, and it is the defining characteristic of the northern worldview belt. Anyone who adheres to purely materialistic principles can be certain that there is something in their nature that stems from these Asuras.

[ 11 ] A peculiar underlying sentiment then developed among the followers of the Asuras. It first took root in Persian spiritual life. The Persians developed a kind of fear of the Deva nature. They came to feel fear, aversion, and horror toward that which is purely spiritual—psychic. This has led to the great contrast we see today between the Persian and Indian worldviews. In the Persian worldview, what the Indian tradition regarded as evil or inferior was often worshiped, while what the Indians considered worthy of veneration was actively shunned. Thus, within the Persian worldview, this peculiar fundamental attitude arose toward a being who actually possesses a devic nature but who, within this worldview, is shunned and feared. In short, it is the image of Satan that appears in this worldview. Lucifer, the spiritual-soul being, becomes a being that inspires dread. Herein lies the origin of what exists as belief in the devil. This fundamental sentiment has also carried over into the modern worldview; particularly in the Middle Ages, the devil became a feared and shunned figure. Lucifer was thus formally shunned.

[ 12 ] We find clarification on this in the manuscript cited. If we trace the course of world evolution in accordance with it, we find that in the middle of the third, the Lemurian race, human beings clothed themselves in physical matter. It is a misconception for Theosophists to believe that reincarnation has no beginning and no end. Reincarnation began in the Lemurian era and will cease again at the beginning of the sixth race. It is merely a specific period in Earth’s evolution during which human beings reincarnate. This was preceded by an exceedingly spiritual state that did not require reincarnation, and it will be followed by another spiritual state that likewise does not necessitate reincarnation.

[ 13 ] The original incarnation in the third race consisted in the virgin human spirit—Atma—Buddhi—Manas—seeking its first physical embodiment, as it were. At that time, the physical development of our Earth, together with the animal-like beings, had not yet progressed far enough; the entire animal-human being could not yet have been ready to receive the human spirit. But a part—a certain group of animal-like beings—was already sufficiently developed for the seed of the human spirit to descend into these animal bodies, so that they could give form to the human body.

[ 14 ] Some of the individualities that incarnated at that time formed the small group of those who later spread throughout the world as so-called adepts. These were the original adepts, not those we today call initiates. Those we today call initiates had not yet undergone incarnation at that time. However, not all who could have found human-animal bodies incarnated at that time; only a portion did. Another group resisted the process of incarnation for specific reasons. They waited until the fourth race to do so. The Bible alludes to that time in a veiled and profound way: “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took wives from among them.”

[ 15 ] In other words, at that later point in time, an incarnation began for those who had been waiting. We call this group the “Sons of Wisdom,” and it almost seems as if there is a certain arrogance and pride in them. We will set aside, for now, the small exception of the ‘adepts,’ let us now set that aside. Had this other group also incarnated at that time, humanity would never have attained the clear consciousness in which it lives today. Humanity would have remained stuck in a dull, trance-like state of consciousness. It would have adopted the kind of consciousness you find today in hypnotized people, somnambulists, and so on. In short, people would have had to remain in a kind of dream-like state of consciousness. But they would then have lacked one thing that was extraordinarily important, if not the most important thing of all: the sense of freedom, the human being’s own decision regarding good and evil, arising from his own consciousness, from his “I.”

[ 16 ] Genesis describes this later incarnation—in the form it has already assumed under the influences stemming from that feeling I characterized by saying that there is a certain timidity toward the Deva—Genesis describes this later incarnation as the “Fall” of humanity, the Fall of Man. The Deva waited and descended only when physical humanity had already advanced one stage further, so that it might then take possession of the physical body and thereby develop a more mature consciousness than would have been the case earlier.

[ 17 ] Thus you can see that human beings have paid for their freedom by allowing their nature to deteriorate, because they waited to incarnate until their nature had descended into denser physiological states. A deep awareness of this fact has been preserved in Greek mythology. Had humanity incarnated earlier—as the Greek myth suggests—then what Zeus intended when humanity was still in “Paradise” would have come to pass: He wanted to make them happy, but as unconscious beings. Clear consciousness would then have resided solely with the gods, and humanity would have remained without a sense of freedom. The rebellion of the Luciferic spirit—the deva spirit within humanity—which sought to descend in order to evolve upward of its own accord through freedom, is symbolized in the legend of Prometheus. He, however, must atone for his endeavor by having an eagle—as a symbol of desire—constantly gnawing at his liver, thereby causing him the most terrible pain.

[ 18 ] Humanity has thus descended further and must now achieve—through the clear consciousness of freedom—what it would otherwise have attained through magical arts and powers. But because it has descended further, it must also endure pain and suffering. The Bible also alludes to this with the words: “In pain you shall bring forth children; in the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread”—and so on. This means nothing other than that human beings must lift themselves up again with the help of culture.

[ 19 ] Greek mythology symbolized, in the figure of Prometheus, the representatives of humanity striving for culture through struggles for freedom. In him, it portrayed both the suffering human being and the liberator. The one who brings about Prometheus’s liberation is Heracles, of whom we are told that he was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. Anyone who descended into the underworld was an initiate, for the descent into the underworld is the technical term for initiation. This journey to the underworld is described to us by Heracles, Odysseus, and all those whom we recognize as initiates—those who now seek to lead humanity, within the context of its present development, to the source of primordial wisdom and to spiritual life.

[ 20 ] If humanity had remained at the stage of the third race, we would be dream-people today. Through his devic nature, man has fertilized his lower nature. Out of his self-awareness and his sense of freedom, he must now redevelop that spark of consciousness which he brought down at that time in justified exuberance—that is, the spiritual insight he did not strive for in his earlier, unfree state. Within human nature itself lies that satanic rebellion which, as a Luciferic striving, is nevertheless the very guarantee of our freedom. And out of this freedom we develop spiritual life once more. This spiritual life is to be rekindled within the humanity of the fifth race. Once again, this consciousness is to emanate from the Initiates. It is to be not a dreamlike consciousness, but a clear one. The Herculeses of the spirit—the Initiates—are the ones who advance humanity and reveal to it the hidden Deva-nature, the knowledge of the spiritual. This has also been the aspiration of all great founders of religions: to restore to humanity the knowledge of the spiritual that it has lost in its physiological life. The Atlanteans had a highly developed physical culture, and our fifth race still retains much of that materialistic life within itself. The materialistic culture of our time shows us how deeply humanity has become entangled in purely physical-physiological nature, just as Prometheus was bound in his chains. But it is equally certain that the vulture—the symbol of desire that gnaws at our liver—will be banished by the spiritual human being. This is where the Initiates seek to lead self-aware humanity through movements such as the Theosophical Society, so that humanity may rise again in complete freedom.

[ 21 ] The point in time that we must recognize as the moment when spiritual life began to flow into self-conscious humanity is clearly indicated in the Gospel, in the New Testament. In the most profound Gospel—one that is misunderstood by contemporary theology—the Gospel of John, where it is recounted that Jesus attended the Feast of Tabernacles, this moment is alluded to. The founder of Christianity speaks there of pouring out spiritual life upon humanity. It is a remarkable passage. The Feast of Tabernacles, after all, consisted of going to a spring from which water flowed. There, a festival developed that signified that human beings should once again reflect on the spiritual, on the deva-nature, and on spiritual striving. The water that was drawn there was a reminder of the soul-spiritual realm. After repeatedly declining to go, Jesus does attend the festival after all. And on the last day of the festival, the following occurs (John 7:37): On the last day of the festival, which was the most glorious—so it is said—Jesus stood up and said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!”—Those who drank were celebrating a festival commemorating spiritual life. But Jesus associates something else with this as well, and John alludes to it with the words: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive; for the Holy Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

[ 22 ] Here, then, is an allusion to the mystery of Pentecost, an allusion to the fact that humanity must wait for this Holy Spirit of spiritual life. When the time comes that human beings can kindle the spark of spiritual life within themselves, when the physiological nature of human beings can attempt the ascent of its own accord, then the Holy Spirit will come upon humanity—the time of spiritual awakening.

[ 23 ] Human beings have descended all the way into the physical body, so that—in contrast to the devic nature—they consist of three principles: spirit, soul, and body. The deva stands higher than human beings, but does not have to overcome physical nature as human beings do. This physical nature must be transfigured so that it can receive spiritual life. Human beings’ physiological consciousness—the physical body as it exists today—must itself kindle the spark of spiritual life within itself in freedom.

[ 24 ] The sacrifice of Christ is an example of how human beings can develop a higher consciousness from within physical life. The lower self lives in the physical body; but it must be stirred into action so that the higher self may develop. Only then can the streams of living water flow from this physical body as well. Only then can the Spirit appear; only then can the Spirit pour itself out. Man, as the “I,” must become as dead as this to this physiological life.

[ 25 ] Herein lies the true essence of Christianity and also the deeper mystery of the Feast of Pentecost. Human beings live, at first, within their lower organism, in a consciousness permeated by desires. They are meant to live there, for only this consciousness could give them freedom that is sure of its goal. But they must not remain there; rather, they must raise their “I” up to the Deva-nature. He is to bring forth the Deva within himself, to give birth to the Deva, who will then be a Spirit of Salvation, a Holy Spirit. To do this, however, he must consciously sacrifice his earthly body; to do this, he must experience the “Die and Become,” so that he does not remain “a gloomy guest” on this “dark earth.”

[ 26 ] Thus, the mystery of Easter, in connection with the mystery of Pentecost, presents us with a complete whole: how the human “I” in the great representative divests itself of the lower, living “I,” how it dies away in order to completely transfigure physical nature and return it to the divine powers. The Ascension is the symbol of this. When a person has transfigured this physical body and returned it to the spiritual realm, then he is ready for spiritual life to pour into him, so that he may experience what, according to the explanation of humanity’s greatest representative, is called the “outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” That is why it is also said: “There are three that bear witness on earth: the blood, the water, and the Spirit.” — The Feast of Pentecost is the outpouring of the Spirit upon humanity.

[ 27 ] The ultimate goal of evolution is symbolically expressed in the Feast of Pentecost, namely, that human beings should progress from intellectual life back to a spiritual life. Just as Prometheus was freed from his sufferings by Heracles, so will human beings be freed through the power of the spirit. By descending into matter, humanity has attained self-consciousness. By ascending once more, humanity will become a self-conscious Deva. Those who worshiped the Asuras and regarded the Devas as something satanic—those who do not wish to penetrate to the innermost depths—have portrayed this descent as something diabolical.

[ 28 ] This, too, is hinted at in Greek mythology. The representative of the unfree states of consciousness is Epimetheus—the Pensive One—who does not wish to attain salvation of his own free will, and is thus the adversary of Prometheus. Zeus gives him the Pandora’s box, whose contents—suffering and plagues—rain down upon humanity when it is opened. The only thing left inside as a final gift is the hope that, in a future state, he too will attain this higher, clear consciousness. He is left with the hope of liberation. Prometheus advises against accepting the dubious gift from the god Zeus. Epimetheus does not obey his brother; instead, he accepts the gift. The gift given to Epimetheus is less important than that given to his brother Prometheus.

[ 29 ] Thus we see that people live their lives along two distinct paths. One group consists of those who hold fast to the sense of freedom and—despite the danger involved in developing the spiritual—seek it nonetheless in freedom. The others are those who find satisfaction in a dull, unthinking existence and blind faith, and who sense something dangerous in humanity’s Luciferic striving. Those who established the outward forms of the church have distorted the deepest Luciferic striving. The ancient teachings on this subject are contained in secret manuscripts that hardly anyone has ever seen in hidden chambers. They are accessible only to a select few who are able to see them in astral light, and to a few other initiates. It is indeed a dangerous path, but it is the only one that leads to the sublime goal of freedom.

[ 30 ] The human spirit should be a liberated one, not a dull one. This is also what Christianity seeks. Salvation and healing are connected to holiness. A spirit that is holy heals and liberates from suffering and afflictions. A person is healthy and free when he is snatched away from enslavement to the physiological, when he is liberated from the physiological. For only the liberated spirit is healthy—the one whose body is no longer gnawed at by an eagle.

[ 31 ] Thus, the Feast of Pentecost should be understood as a symbol of the liberation of the human spirit, as the great symbol of humanity’s struggle for freedom, for a consciousness in freedom.

[ 32 ] If Easter is a celebration of resurrection in nature, then Pentecost is a symbol of the awakening of the human spirit, the festival of those who know and understand, and—imbued with this awareness—seek freedom.

[ 33 ] Those spiritual movements in modern times that lead to the perception of the spiritual world while maintaining clear waking consciousness—not in a trance, not under hypnosis—are the ones that lead to the recognition of such a significant symbol. The clear awareness that only the Spirit liberates—that is what unites us in the Theosophical Society. It is not the word alone, but the Spirit that gives it its meaning. The Spirit that emanates from the great Masters, that flows through the few who can say, “I know that they are there”—the great Adepts who are the founders of the spiritual movement, not of the Society—pours into our present-day culture and provides it with the impetus for the future.

[ 34 ] Let a spark of understanding for this Holy Spirit flow once more into the misunderstood Feast of Pentecost, and it will be revitalized and regain its meaning. We are meant to live in a meaningful world. Those who celebrate festivals thoughtlessly do so as followers of Epimetheus. Human beings must see what connects us to our surroundings and also to what is invisible in nature. We should know where we stand. For we humans are not destined for a dreamlike, half-hearted, dull existence, but rather for the free, fully conscious unfolding of our entire being.