The Rudolf Steiner Archive

14. On the Lost and to-be-Rebuilt Temple in Connection with the“ Legenda Crucis” or Golden Legend IV

The Allegory of the Lost and Regained Word in the Context of the Feast of Pentecost

[ 1 ] Among the allegories and symbols we intended to discuss during these sessions is the symbol of the so-called “lost and to-be-regained word.” We have spoken of the lost and to-be-regained temple. This makes it all the better for us to pick up on this today with a brief reflection on the lost and rediscovered Word, since this topic is somewhat connected to the symbolic meaning of the Feast of Pentecost. Admittedly, I already presented some of the ideas I will share today in a lecture a year ago. However, since there are some among us who may not have heard last year’s lecture, it is likely not unnecessary to revisit these points, especially since we are able to consider such matters each year and address them more thoroughly and in greater depth. Some things that it was not possible to say last year may be possible today, since we have learned new insights.

[ 2 ] The Feast of Pentecost is, in fact, connected to the symbol that is referred to—both in the Church and in Freemasonry—as the symbol of the lost and to-be-regained Word. In doing so, however, we touch upon Christian mysteries of truly extraordinary depth. We are thus once again addressing—and more thoroughly than was possible eight days ago—the mission of the wise Solomon and the full future significance of Christian truth.

[ 3 ] The Feast of Pentecost is connected to the conception of the innermost essence of the human being, as it existed in early Christianity but has gradually been lost in the various Western Christian churches. The Feast of Pentecost is the festival that is meant to remind people anew each year of their liberation—of what we call the freedom of the human soul.

[ 4 ] How did human beings actually come to possess what we call their freedom—that is, their ability to distinguish between good and evil, and to freely choose to do good or evil? You know that humanity has undergone a long series of developments before reaching the stage where it stands today, and that we have passed the midpoint of that development. Roughly in the middle of the Atlantean race, which preceded our own, lies the midpoint of all human development. We have now already passed this midpoint, and as a result, we are the first missionaries of the second half, the first heralds of an ascending arc. While humanity, up until the Atlantean era, was on a descending arc—in a sort of downward evolution—until it sank deepest into material life, it is now rising again toward spiritual evolution.

[ 5 ] What we humans did not possess before the middle of Earth’s evolution was the freedom to choose between good and evil. Nor can we speak of good and evil in the lower kingdoms of nature. It would be ridiculous to ask whether a mineral wants to crystallize or not. It crystallizes when the conditions are right. It would also be ridiculous to ask whether a lily wants to bloom or not, or to ask a lion whether it would voluntarily refrain from eating and killing other creatures. Only in the case of human beings, and only at our current stage of development, do we speak of what we call free will. We attribute the ability to distinguish between good and evil only to human beings. And how human beings came to possess this capacity for discernment is depicted in the Bible through the great symbol of the Fall, in the act of temptation where the Devil or Lucifer appears to Eve and persuades her to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Through this, freedom of choice came to human beings, and with it they embarked on the second part of their path of development. Just as we cannot speak of good and evil in relation to minerals, plants, and animals, so too can we not speak of freedom, good, and evil in relation to human beings prior to that midpoint in the development of the world. Another aspect is connected to this.

[ 6 ] In all esoteric teachings, our present world and everything associated with it is referred to as the cosmos of love. And this universe of love was preceded by the cosmos or universe of wisdom. Let us examine this in a somewhat deeper sense.

[ 7 ] As you know, cosmologically speaking, the Moon’s evolution preceded that of our Earth. An even earlier ancestor of our Earth was the Sun, and an even earlier one was Saturn. Humanity has gone through these three phases of evolution: Saturn, Sun, Moon. Our Earth has so far undergone three cycles, in which it repeated the Saturn phase in the first cycle, the Sun phase in the second cycle, and the Moon phase in the third cycle. Each such cycle begins with the planet developing within an extraordinarily fine substance, the mental substance. The Earth existed in such a substance when it began its fourth cycle—that is, the present cycle. Now it began, at first, to repeat the three preceding cycles: the Saturn cycle in the Arupa, the Sun cycle in the Rupa, and then, in the astral, the Moon cycle.

[ 8 ] Our Earth, then, went through earlier material states once again before reaching its current physical density. Before our present state, it was astral. We also refer to the astral globe as a kind of cosmos of wisdom. Each cosmos (globe) is in turn divided into seven periods. Thus, in our globe, we have seven racial cycles: the Polar, the Hyperborean, the Lemurian, the Atlantean, and then the Aryan race, in which we now find ourselves. The sixth and seventh races are yet to come. Then the Earth will return to the astral state. These racial cycles represent seven successive periods of our physical development on Earth. Likewise, its astral predecessor presents itself to us in seven successive periods corresponding to these seven races. However, it is not entirely correct to speak of “races” here. The forms that lived at that time cannot really be called races. To speak constantly of “races” takes the use of analogy too far. It was other forms that took shape. In esoteric terminology, these preceding astral periods are called the Kingdom of Wisdom, and their forms are called the seven periods of wisdom, during which the seven kings of wisdom—the seven kings of the dynasty of Solomon—reigned. For in each of these periods there lived a being of a nature similar to the soul of Solomon—to the soul that was incarnated in Solomon. This Cosmos of Wisdom was succeeded by the truly earthly cosmos, the Cosmos of Love.

[ 9 ] Now let us be clear about what, according to our understanding, happened during the formation of the Earth. When the Earth began to take shape, it was still united with the Sun and what we now call the Moon. Together with these two bodies, the Earth formed a single body. First, the Sun separated from the Earth. As a result, all life on Earth changed. Whereas previously there could be no question of death—because continuous material life existed—death now set in. It occurred in a manner similar to what we observe in a plant body composed of cells. As long as a plant consists of a single cell, no disintegration occurs when the next one is born. The situation is different when an entire organism is composed of parts. It disintegrates into its parts, and the individual part is no longer the whole life. Such a death occurred for the first time when the Sun separated from the Earth. As a consequence of the moon’s separation, the division of the sexes arose in the middle of the Lemurian race. The separation of the moon brought about the division of the male-female into purely male and purely female. Through this, human beings also acquired the form they now have in the world.

[ 10 ] What, then, happened during these important cosmic events, when first the Sun and then the Moon separated? If we wish to understand this clearly, it is worth noting that at that time the Earth was transforming from a very fine, yet already physical, matter into one that was becoming denser and denser. The first physical matter, in which all human beings on Earth existed, was etheric matter—a very fine substance, finer than our gas.

[ 11 ] We now distinguish three states of matter on our Earth: solids, liquids, and gases—which were formerly called “air.” Esoterically, we then distinguish four types of ether: first, the fire ether, which enables bodies to be permeated by heat; second, the light ether; third, the chemical ether, which causes atoms to combine according to certain numerical laws—the affinity of atoms—and fourth, the physical or life ether. Four types of ether, then, that animate the Earth. Essentially, the Earth initially developed within these types of ether. Then it condensed out of this ether. This condensation did not occur until the Lemurian epoch. Before that, we are dealing with the etheric Earth, which was still open to forces quite different from those of our present-day physical Earth. I would like to make this clear to you.

[ 12 ] When I say that this etheric earth was accessible to various forces, please understand that all living beings—plants, animals, and humans—were also accessible to these forces in their innermost being. The ether is open to what we refer to in esoteric language as the “Word,” the “World Word.” I can also illustrate to you, using a process of initiation, how the ether relates to what we call the “Word.” As you know, the human being consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and then the true “I.” The etheric body becomes visible when one visualizes the physical body. But the human being, as he is today, is not at all capable of influencing his physical body. He cannot move even the smallest blood cell. The physical body is governed by high cosmic forces. Today, it is higher beings who can exercise power here; human beings will be able to do so later. When human beings are able to master the forces of their own physical body—which the materialist refers to as “forces of nature”—then they will have become gods. To attribute this to them today would be idolatry, for in truth we are dealing with higher beings who influence the physical body.

[ 13 ] If human beings can master fire-etheric matter, they can master all physical reality. If they master the human physical body, then they can also master the rest of the physical world. This power is referred to as the Father force, as the “Father.” In other words, everything through which a being is connected to our Earth, through which it can master physical matter. When a human being is able to exert such Father forces even within the physical body, this is referred to as Atma. Thus, Atma is attributed to the physical realm.

[ 14 ] The second constituent element is the etheric body, which corresponds to the Son principle or the Logos, the “Word.” Just as the physical body is moved by ‘Atma,’ so too can this etheric body be moved by Buddhi, shaped internally, and set into vibration by the Son principle.

[ 15 ] The third member is the astral body. At first, we cannot control it either, and even today very few people have significant control over their astral body. To the extent that a person can control the astral body from within, we say that person is endowed with Manas.

[ 16 ] In the middle of the Lemurian epoch, human beings began to work on their astral bodies. If you could observe a human being at the stage where the Lemurian race began—that is, when it was hermaphroditic—you would find that their body is built up from the outside. From the middle of the Lemurian epoch onward, human beings began to work on their astral bodies themselves. Everything that a person works into it from the perspective of their “I”—everything they do through duties and commandments to overcome raw desires and passions—contributes to the refinement of the astral body. When he is then completely permeated by the work of his own “I,” we can no longer call it the astral body; it has become Manas. When the entire astral body has been transformed into Manas, the human being can begin to work into the etheric body, transforming it into Buddhi. What he works into it is nothing other than the individualized Word, which Christian esotericism also calls the “Son” or “Logos.” When the astral body becomes Manas, it is called the “Holy Spirit,” and when the physical body has become Atma, it is called the “Father.”

[ 17 ] What happens here on a small scale with human beings also happened on a grand scale with the world outside. These mysteries of the world were already enacted in the mysteries during initiation; they enacted something that human beings in general will only become in the distant future. Even in the Egyptian mysteries, only those who had fully developed their astral body could be initiated, so that the astral body could be completely guided by the “I.” Such a person stood before the initiating priest in this way: he had no influence over the physical body, nor over the etheric body; but his astral body was his own creation. He was then shown how he could influence the etheric and physical bodies. The physical body was placed in a lethargic state—it had to remain in this state for three days and three nights—and during this time the etheric body was lifted out. And since the initiate had become powerful with regard to the astral body, he could now gain the power to act upon the etheric body. He was able to learn to channel what he possessed in the astral realm into the etheric body. These were the three days of burial and resurrection in an etheric body that is completely permeated by what is called the Holy Spirit. Such an initiate was called a person endowed with the Logos, the “Word.” This “Word” is nothing other than wisdom, Manas, which has been woven into the astral body. Wisdom can never enter the etheric body unless the astral body has first been permeated by it.

[ 18 ] It was the same for the Earth. This process could not take place until the entire Earth had reached a certain stage in the astral realm. The state in which the initiate had to be in the Egyptian mysteries corresponds to this period of the astral globe, which I have described as the immediate predecessor of the Earth. This is the globe of wisdom. All wisdom is infused into it by the cosmic powers. And this infusion of wisdom into the Earth globe itself makes it possible that, after the separation of the Sun and the Moon from the Earth, something is once again infused from above, from higher spheres—just as in initiation on a small scale. Thus the process unfolded on a grand scale, just as it unfolded on a small scale during initiation.

[ 19 ] Seven times the astral globe of the Earth was ruled by the sages in the manner of Solomon. Then the Earth surrounded itself from the outside with the etheric body and crystallized, forming earthly matter. Then the “Word” was placed within it. This Word is then, as it were, buried in earthly matter, but it must be raised again. This is also the beautiful meaning behind the myth of the god Dionysus. The sacred wisdom of our earthly predecessor is embedded in all earthly beings of our earthly world. Take this as deeply as you possibly can. Consider the human etheric body, as every human being possesses it. If you view it as a clairvoyant, it has roughly the same form as the physical body. When a human dies, the physical body dissolves, and so does the etheric body; the physical body dissolves into the physical realm, and the etheric body into the general world ether. This etheric body, however, has been artfully constructed for human beings by the Wisdom that previously placed it there from the astral globe. This etheric body disintegrates after death. Only the etheric body that is built up from within is a living, eternally enduring one. It is the etheric body of the chela, and it does not dissolve after death. When you see a modern civilized person die, you can still see the etheric body for some time; then it dissolves. In the case of the chela, it remains. The chela’s renunciation of Devachan consists in the chela remaining on the astral plane and making use of his etheric body there. For ordinary people, a new etheric body must be formed at rebirth; the ability to build one is achieved in Devachan. The etheric body that the chela has built up from within is no longer lost, whereas the one built up from without by cosmic wisdom does dissolve again. The same is true of the etheric bodies of plants and animals. What is still the etheric body today has been built up from the cosmic forces that have flowed into it on this astral globe of our Earth. This wisdom, which you find in the astral Earth, is expressed in the myth of Dionysus.

[ 20 ] Now, during the Lemurian epoch, the denser substance was to take shape. The Father principle had to be woven into it. This is the last thing that took hold of our earthly materiality. What has been woven into it lies deeply hidden in the physical world. First, the Holy Spirit worked its way into astral matter. Then the spirit connected to astral matter worked its way into etheric matter—this is the Son; and then comes the Father, who governs physical density. Thus, the macrocosm is built up in three stages: Spirit, Son, and Father; and as human beings work their way upward again, they proceed from the Spirit through the Son to the Father. All of this takes place under guidance in the course of evolution on Earth.

[ 21 ] Up until the Lemurian period, the only development was external. Then this Trinity became integrated into our physical development. During the Aryan epoch, what had taken place earlier entered human consciousness as religion and was gradually repeated.

[ 22 ] We belong to the fifth subrace of the Aryan root race. Four other subraces preceded us. The first subrace is the ancient Indian one. This venerable ancient race was led by the holy Rishis. We can only form a faint idea of them. We know of their religion from the accounts that have come down to us through the Vedas. The teachings of the Rishis were far greater and more powerful than our present-day tradition of them. It was not until the third sub-race that records were made, which have been preserved for us in the Vedas. The original religion of the Rishis contained great traditions concerning the divine ancestors of humankind, the astral initiates of the dynasty of Solomon. The great intuitions—which bring not merely information and knowledge of the laws of the earth, but of the archetypes that created this wisdom itself—these archetypes lived in the spirit of the ancient Indian Rishis. That was the first religion, that of the Holy Spirit.

[ 23 ] The second religion was practiced in the Near East. There, as a repetition of what occurred when the Son first exerted his influence on Earth, the second principle was venerated. At the same time, the principle of the Son involves the casting down of certain beings. There is no higher evolution without others being cast down into the depths. The mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms have been cast down in this way. This is the great tragedy: whoever evolves to a higher level takes on an immense responsibility. Every saint necessitates that a large number of beings be cast down. If such a casting down did not take place, there would be no evolution. In order for a human being to evolve to a higher level, he must continually cast down beings. That is why all evolution is evil and reprehensible if it occurs out of self-interest; it is justified only for the sake of the evolution of other beings. Only those who wish to bring back up those who have been cast down are capable of evolution. Thus, the evolution that took place on Earth—and which had already been prepared on other celestial bodies—was linked to the endowment of the etheric body with the Logos, the Word, and to the casting down of other beings connected with Earth’s evolution. These were conceived as adversaries, as the Luciferic principle. Thus, we find this duality particularly in the Persian religion: the principle of good appearing alongside the principle of evil. When a human being—or any being, for that matter—works inwardly through the manas, this is a good thing. But evil always opposes them. Ormuzd and Ahriman are the names for good and evil in the Persian religion.

[ 24 ] The third stage appears among the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians, in whom there is a spiritual repetition of the third stage of divinity. Therefore, from that time onward, the triad—the Trinity of divinity—has been present among all peoples. The second subrace did not yet have a triune Godhead, and the first certainly did not. Now, within this triad, the ascent for all humanity is gradually being prepared. The initiates pave the way in advance ... [gap].

[ 25 ] In the first three subraces, these were religious reflections of what had been at work in the macrocosmic processes. Now a new structure emerges: first Wisdom, then the Son, and then the Father. The dawn of Wisdom occurred in the fourth subrace, among the Semitic people, who grew out of the third subrace and into the fourth, and from them Christianity then emerged. Among the initiates of the Jewish people, we find the entire course of past events on Earth—all the processes that have unfolded on a grand scale in the supermundane realm—repeated once more in the element of the intellect. There, what we call the lower spirit, Kama-Manas, develops; it must once again be endowed with a different power. This endowment, this impulse, is Christ Himself, the Word made flesh, who points to the future Word, when all human beings will be able to control their etheric body from within the astral body, if they move the Word within the etheric body in such a way that it becomes a living reality within them. The possibility of this future development is foreshadowed in the appearance of the Word made flesh in the fourth subrace. In order for the Logos to be incarnated in the etheric body, all of humanity must have attained mastery over the ether. This originated as a primal impulse from the Christ incarnated in the flesh. When a person has passed through the power of the Son, he comes to the Father.

[ 26 ] Now the steps must be climbed once more, through which all of humanity will gradually attain what, as it were, appeared in the flesh in Christ. Within the spirit that developed in Judaism, the higher Manas had to be kindled. Therefore, the new era begins with the descent of the Holy Spirit, who will guide humanity so that, in the sixth sub-race, what is today only hinted at in Christianity—the Christ principle—may find its fulfillment. “No one comes to the Father except through me,” says the Son. He sent the Spirit to humanity to prepare it for the time when good and evil will be separated in the sixth sub-race. Humanity would never have developed this impulse without that other influence, which we have called the so-called evil principle. Humanity had to be given free will; only then could its intellect be called upon to make a decision between good and evil. This influence of the descent of the Spirit takes place on the Feast of Pentecost.

[ 27 ] The Spirit, the Son, and the Father are, as it were, buried within the Earth: the Father in the physical body, the Son in the etheric body, and the Spirit in the astral body. But human beings have developed their “I” and have become self-aware. Now they must learn to work their way down to the physical plane. This will happen in the future. At the present time, human beings are working into their astral bodies. The symbol for this is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the minds of those who are to be the leaders of humanity. What has received this Spirit is something within the human being that is related to this Spirit,

[ 28 ] Before the Son could become effective—this was during the Hyperborean era—a part of the universal spiritual principle had to be split off, cast down, and set on a different course. This is expressed in the serpent, the symbol of knowledge, the Lucifer principle. It was this spark of the Spirit that made man a free being and enabled him to will the good of his own accord. This Spirit, which descended to humanity on the great Feast of Pentecost, is related to that Spirit which was cast down, and which is also embodied in Prometheus, who rekindled the spark so that our “I” might resolve to follow the Spirit, just as it will later follow the Son and, even later, the Father. Although human beings were capable of becoming evil, they could only be led back up to the world of the gods—from which they originated—at the very cost of having been capable of becoming evil. This is the connection between the Feast of Pentecost and the Luciferic principle. Therefore, the Feast of Pentecost is also the Feast of Prometheus and Freedom.

[ 29 ] Now you will also understand the connection between the seven Solomonic kings of the pre-earth—of whom King Solomon appears in the Bible as the descendant—and the sons of Cain. Wisdom was first imparted to humanity from outside. Then it was meant to well up from within. Solomon built the Temple, but only with the help of Hiram Abiff. In alliance with this son of Cain, he mastered the arts necessary for the construction of the Temple. Thus, the currents that flow separately in the world converge once more.

[ 30 ] When the Sun separated from the Earth, the Word was buried within the Earth. It will rise again when the Earth has progressed to the sixth root race. Humanity will raise this Word from the Earth. But first, the Spirit must dwell within him, the Spirit that causes the Word to resound within him. This is what the apostles attained at Pentecost. In Light on the Path it is written: “Acquire knowledge, and the language will come to you”—the language comes with true knowledge, which descends like the spark of fire upon the apostles at the holy feast of Pentecost. When the inner Word comes—which is kindred to the holy, divine Word and which sinks into all that is ethereal to enliven it—then the human being no longer speaks from within himself, but from the divine Spirit. Then he is a messenger of the Deity and proclaims, of his own free will, the inner Word of the Deity.

[ 31 ] Thus the inner Word came to life within the apostles; thus it worked through them. They proclaimed the fiery Word and felt themselves to be messengers of the Divinity. That is why the Holy Spirit hovers over them in the form of fiery tongues. They prepare humanity to receive the Logos. The great Initiate, Christ Jesus, led the way. The Holy Spirit followed and impregnated the astral bodies, so that they might mature and render their etheric bodies immortal. Once this is achieved, the Christ principle has entered humanity. This was also the view of the initiates, who spoke of it in a manner similar to Heraclitus: “When you have escaped the earthly and ascended into the free ether—in the faith of immortality—you will become an immortal spirit, having escaped death—the physical.”

[ 32 ] Every human being will reach this point in the middle of the sixth root race. For now, however, they are still subject to death because their etheric body has not yet attained immortality. Christianity contains the mystery of how human beings can gradually develop toward the resurrection of the etheric body. This third of the great feasts is connected here with the other two Christian feasts,

[ 33 ] I would like to explore here the infinite depth of the Feast of Pentecost and show how human beings gradually develop a living sense of their surroundings—that they are connected to all things around them and to everything that happens around them. The names of the days of the week reflect what has been happening around us.

[ 34 ] The best way for a person to celebrate Pentecost is to realize the profound truths that the sages have imbued in a festival such as Pentecost. And to celebrate a festival actually means to connect spiritually with the spirit of the world.