The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. About the Lost Temple and the One to Be Rebuilt in the Context of the Legend of the True Cross or Golden Legend

[ 1 ] Some further considerations about the lost temple. We have to regard the Temple of Solomon as the greatest symbol. The first thing to do is to understand this symbol. From the Bible you know how it came about. We are not dealing here with mere symbols, but with actual external truths, which at the same time express a deep world-historical symbolism. And those who built the temple were aware of what they wanted to express by doing so.

[ 2 ] Let us visualize why the Temple was built. And you will see that every word the Bible says about it is a deeply significant symbol. You only have to consider the time in which the building took place. Above all, let us keep in mind the biblical word for what the Temple is to be. Yahweh says to David: "A house for my name." - So a house for the name "Yahweh". And now let us realize what the name "Yahweh" means.

[ 3 ] At a certain point, ancient Judaism became aware of the sacredness of the name "Yahweh". What does that mean? At a certain time in his life, the child learns to use the word "I". Before that, he regards himself as a thing. Just as he names other things, he also names himself with an objective name. It is only later that he learns to use the word "I". For great minds, the moment when they experience the "I" within themselves for the first time in their lives, when they become aware of it for the first time, is something meaningful. Jean Paul recounts this event from his own life. As a young boy, he once stood in the yard of a barn; there he experienced his self for the first time. And this moment was so clear and solemn to him that he says of it: "As if in the veiled holy of holies, I gazed into my innermost being."

[ 4 ] Humanity has developed through many races and until the Atlantean period, all perceived themselves objectively; it was only during the Atlantean race that man developed to the point where he could say "I" to himself. The ancient Jews formulated this into a teaching.

[ 5 ] Man has passed through the kingdoms of nature. Self-consciousness arose in him last. The astral, etheric and physical bodies and the self together form the Pythagorean square. And Judaism added to this the divine self, which comes to us from above, in contrast to the self from below. Thus the square became a pentagon. Judaism felt that the Lord of its people was something sacred and therefore it was a sacred act to pronounce the "name". While other names, such as Elohim or Adonai, became more and more popular, only the anointed priest in the Holy of Holies was allowed to pronounce the name "Yahweh". It was in the time of Solomon that ancient Judaism arrived at the sacredness of the name of Yahweh, at this "I" that can dwell in man. We must take Yahweh's injunction to human beings as one that wanted to make man himself a temple of the Holy God. Now we have a new conception of the deity, namely: to make the God who is hidden in the human breast, in the deepest sanctuary of the human self, the moral God. The human body thus became a great symbol for the Holy of Holies.

[ 6 ] And now an external symbol was to be erected because man is a house of God. The temple was to be a symbol, the personification of one's own human body. Therefore, the builders were called - Hiram-Abiff - who understood the secular arts and were able to transform man himself into a god. Two images in the Bible are associated with this: one is Noah's Ark, the other the Temple of Solomon. Both are the same in a way and yet fundamentally different. Noah's Ark was built so that man could save himself into his present state of existence. Before Noah, man lived in the Atlantean and Lemurian periods. He had not yet built the ship with which he could cross the waters of the astral into earthly existence. Man came from the waters of the astral; Noah's Ark carries him over. The ark represents the building that the unconscious divine powers had built. There are dimensions according to which the measurements of the ark correspond with the measurements of the human body and with the measurements of the Temple of Solomon.

[ 7 ] Man has outgrown Noah's Ark, and now he himself should surround the higher self with a house that has been created by his spirit, by his wisdom, by Solomon's wisdom.

[8] We enter the Temple of Solomon. The gate is already characteristic. The square was an ancient symbol. Today, man has emerged from the state of fourness into the state of fivehood as the five-membered human being who becomes aware of his higher self. The inner divine temple is shaped to enclose the five-membered human being. The square is sacred. The gate, the roof and the side posts together form a pentagon. When man awakens from the state of fourness, that is, when he enters within (the within being the most important part of the temple), there is seen an altar of sorts; we behold two cherubs, like two guardian spirits hovering over the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy of Holies; for the fifth principle, which has not yet descended, is to be protected by the two higher entities - Buddhi and Atma. This is the entrance to the manasic development of man.

[ 9 ] The entire interior is lined with gold because gold has always been the symbol of wisdom. Now wisdom enters the manasic stage. We find palm leaves as the symbol of peace. This represents a certain epoch of man and is presented here as something that only came into expression later, in Christianity. Now the temple leaders had kept it in themselves and in this way expressed something here that was decided for later.

[ 10 ] Later, in the Middle Ages, the idea of Solomon's Temple was revived by the Knights Templar, who wanted to carry the idea of the Temple to the Occident. But the Knights Templar were not understood at the time. (Against Grand Master Jacques de Molay.) If we want to understand the Templars, we must look deeply into the history of humanity. The accusations against the Templars in the trial records are based on a great misunderstanding. The Templars said at the time: Everything we have experienced so far is a preparation for what the Redeemer wanted. For they said: There is a future for Christianity, a new task. And we have the task of preparing the various sects of the Middle Ages and people in general for that future, when Christianity will arise in a new clarity, in that which the Redeemer actually wanted. We have seen Christianity emerging in the fourth sub-race, developing in the fifth, but only celebrating its resurrection in the sixth. We have to prepare for that. We have to guide people's souls in such a way that a genuine, true, pure Christianity is expressed, in which the name of the Most High has its abode.

[ 11 ] Jerusalem was to become the center and from there the secret of the relationship between man and Christ was to flow out into the world. What was represented symbolically in the Temple was to become a living reality. It was said of the Templars, and they were reproached for it, that they had established a certain service around the stars, as well as a service around the sun. Behind it, however, lies a great mystery. The sacrifice of the Mass was originally nothing other than a great mystery. The Mass was divided into two parts: the so-called Little Mass, in which all were allowed to participate. When the uninitiated had left, the Great Mass followed, intended only for those who wished to undergo the occult training and enter the Path. In this great mass, the abbetation of the apostolicum took place first; then the development of Christianity in the whole world was shown, and how Christianity is connected with the great course of world development.

[ 12 ] The facts of the earth were not always the same as they are today, but our earth was once connected to the sun and the moon. The sun split off, as it were, and then shone on our earth from the outside; then the moon split off. So the earth used to be a completely different kind of dwelling place for man. In those days man was still quite different physically. Man's whole life on earth changed, however, when the sun and moon separated from the earth. Only then did birth and death come into being; only then did reincarnation occur; only then did the human ego, the individuality, descend into the physical body and reincarnate in continuous succession. This will one day come to an end. The earth will again connect with the sun, and then man will be able to live his further development on the sun. We have a certain ladder of stages of how man goes together with the sun. Such things are related to the progression of the sun across the vault of heaven.

[ 13 ] Now everything that happens in the world is briefly repeated again in the following stages. Everything has been repeated, including the development of the globes in the first, second and third root races. Then man entered incarnation. From the second to the third root race, the sun split off, and in the third, the moon. Now the earth is developing from the third to the sixth root race, where the sun will be connected to the earth again. Then a new epoch will begin, when man will have reached a much higher level and will no longer incarnate.

[ 14 ] This teaching about the course of evolution was passed on to the world as a religion in the form of the story of Noah's Ark. What was to happen in the future was anticipated in the teaching. The unification of the Sun with the Earth is foretold in the appearance of Christ on Earth. With such teachings and so forth, it is always the same: for some time, what happens is a repetition of the past. Then the teaching begins to be a prediction for the future. The individual sub-races are now connected with the course of the sun in the celestial vault in relation to the development of the levels of consciousness of the peoples. If you draw a piece of the zodiac, you get a picture of the path of the sun across the vault of heaven.

[ 15 ] You know that the time in which the third sub-race was replaced by the fourth is associated with the sign of Aries or the Lamb. The Assyrian-Babylonian age summarized what was remarkable for its time in the sign of Taurus, the preceding Persian age is marked by the constellation of Gemini. And if we went back even further, we would come to the age of Sanskrit culture with Cancer. This time, in which the Sun rose in Cancer on the day of the beginning of spring, became a time of reversal for humanity. Atlantis had sunk and the first sub-race of the fifth root race had arisen. This turning point was designated by Cancer. The next epoch begins when the Sun rises in Gemini. The further course of history leads us into the Near Eastern-Egyptian culture, when the Sun rises in Taurus. And as the sun advances even further, the fourth sub-race begins, which Greek mythology associates with the ram, with the lamb. (The Jason saga of bringing over the ram skin.) Even in the early days of Christianity, the savior himself was depicted as a lamb. He calls himself the Lamb.

[ 16 ] We have followed the time of the first to the fourth sub-races. The sun progressed in the sky, and now that we ourselves have reached a critical point, we enter the sign of Pisces. Then the time will come, in the time of the sixth sub-race, when people will be so purified inwardly that they themselves will be a temple for the Divine. Then the sun will enter the sign of Aquarius. Thus the sun, which is actually only the external expression of our own spiritual life, makes its course across the vault of heaven. When the sun rises in Aquarius at the beginning of spring, it will only then be understood in its full clarity.

[ 17 ] And so the great mass was celebrated, after the uninitiated had been removed. To those who remained, it was explained that Christianity, which had begun as a seed, would in the future bear something quite different as its fruit, and that "Aquarius" referred to John, who, like a mustard seed, had spread Christianity as a seed. Aquarius or the Water Bearer means the same as John, who baptized with water to prepare people to receive the baptism of fire from the Christ. That a "John-Aquarius" will come who will first make the old John the truth and proclaim a Christ who will renew the temple when the great moment has come when the Christ will speak to humanity again, understanding this moment was taught in the depths of the Templar mysteries.

[ 18 ] And further the Templars said: Now we are at a time when people are not yet ready to understand the great teaching, nor must we prepare them for John the Baptist, who baptizes with water. The cross was placed before the one who wanted to become a Templar, and he was told: You shall now deny this cross in order to understand it later, first become a Peter, first like Peter, the rock that denied the Lord, deny the teaching. This was taught as a pre-school to the future Templar. Let us keep this learning of the Peter stage in mind.

[ 19 ] The wider circles understand so little about all this that they are not even able to interpret the letters on the cross in the right way. P/a/o speaks of the world soul being crucified on the cross of the world body. The cross symbolized the four elements. The plant, animal and human kingdoms are built with the four elements. On the cross are: Jam = water – James; Nour = fire, which refers to Christ himself; Ruach = air, symbol for John; and the fourth, Jabeschah = earth, rock, for Peter. J Jabeschah Peter: earth

[ 20 ] Thus, the same thing is written on the cross as is expressed in the names of the [three] apostles, while the single name "J.N.R.J." means Christ himself. "Earth" is where Christianity itself was to be brought next, to that temple where man has brought himself, to be a covering for the higher. But this temple... [gap in the text, see notes].

[ 21 ] Twice the cock crows, which is the symbol for man's lower self and also for his higher self. The first time the cock crows when man descends and materializes in the material world; the second time when he ascends again, when he has learned to understand the Christ, when Aquarius has appeared. That will be in the sixth sub-race. Then man will understand in spirit what he is to become. The I will then have reached a certain stage when, in the highest sense, what the Temple of Solomon represents has been realized, when man himself is a temple for "Yahweh".

[ 22 ] But before that, the human being still has to undergo three stages of purification. The ego is in a threefold covering: first in the astral body, secondly in the etheric body, thirdly in the physical body. While we are in the astral body, we have denied the divine ego for the first time, in the etheric body for the second time, and in the physical body for the third time. The first crowing of the cock marks the threefold denial through the threefold envelopment of man. And when he has then passed through the three bodies, when the I has found its greatest symbolic realization in Christ, then the cock crows for the second time.

[ 23 ] This struggle to truly understand Christ – first going through the Peter stage – none of the Templars who were tortured at that time could make these deep ideas clear to the judges.

[ 24 ] So the Templars first came to it as if they had renounced the cross. After all this had been explained to the Templar, he was shown a symbolic figure of the divine being in a venerable male form with a large beard. (Symbol of the Father.) When men have developed themselves and received their own guides in the Masters, when there will be those who can guide men, then the Master will stand before men as the Word of the guiding Father, who leads men to the comprehension of the Christ.

[ 25 ] And then the Templars were told: when they have understood this, then they are ready to help build the great temple of the world. They must help to arrange everything so that the great building is a dwelling place for our actual deeper self, our inner Ark of the Covenant.

[ 26 ] When we survey all this, we have images that have great significance. And the one in whose soul these images gain life will mature more and more into the disciple of those great masters who prepare this construction of the temple of humanity. And such great ideas work as forces in our soul that we undergo the purification that is to lead us to the living life in the spirit.

[ 27 ] This medieval trend, which appears among the Knights Templar, can also be found in two Round Tables, that of King Arthur and that of the Holy Grail. The old secularism was to be found in King Arthur's Round Table, while the actual spiritual of the Christian knighthood was to be prepared in that of the guardians of the secret of the Holy Grail. It is remarkable how objectively and calmly people in the Middle Ages thought about the rising power (fruit) and external form of Christianity.

[ 28 ] If you follow the teachings of the Templars, there is something at the center that was revered as something feminine. This feminine was called the divine Sophia, the divine wisdom. Manas is the fifth principle, the spiritual self of man, which is to merge, to whom a temple was to be built. And just as the pentagon of the entrance to Solomon's Temple characterizes the five-fold human being, so does this feminine characterizes the wisdom of the Middle Ages. Dante wanted to depict nothing other than this wisdom with his "Beatrice". Only those who understand Dante's "Divine Comedy" from this point of view will understand it. That is why you will also find the same symbols in Dante that are expressed by the Templars, the Christian knighthoods, the Grail knights, and so on. Everything that is to happen is prepared long in advance by the great initiates, who say what is to happen in the future in the way it is done in the Apocalypse, so that the souls are prepared for this event.

[29] According to the legend, we have two currents at the beginning of the human race: the children of Cain, who were begotten by one of the Elohim with Eve, and the children of the world, in whom we find the great arts and external sciences. That is the one current that was outlawed and then was to be sanctified by Christianity when the fifth principle came into the world. The other current are the children of God, who have brought man to the point of grasping the fifth principle. These are the ones created by Adam. Then the sons of Cain were called upon to enclose in a shell what the sons of God, the Abel Seth children, had created.

[ 30 ] The holy name of Yahweh is enshrined in the Ark of the Covenant. But that which is to reshape the world, that which is to create the covering for the Holy of Holies, is to be restored by the sons of Cain. God created the human body, in which the human ego arises and initially destroys this temple. Man can only save himself if he first builds the house that carries him over the waters of passion, if he builds Noah's Ark. Man must rebuild this house. So build on the outside what came into the world as the children of Cain, and what the children of God have brought, build on the inside.

[ 31 ] At the dawn of our race, these two currents were already in evidence... [gap in the text, see notes].

[ 32 ] We can understand Theosophy only if we consider it as a testament, which, as the Temple of Solomon was depicted and what is to be expected in the future, is to be prepared. We are to prepare the new covenant in place of the old covenant. The old one is the covenant of the creative God, where the Divine works on the human temple. The new one is the one where man himself wraps the temple of wisdom around the Divine, where he recreates it so that this ego may find a refuge on this earth when it rises, liberated from matter.

[ 33 ] Such is the depth of the symbols and such was the education that the Templars wanted to give to humanity. The Rosicrucians are nothing more than the continuers of the Templar Order; they want nothing more than the Knights Templar and what Theosophy wants: they all work on the great temple of humanity.