The Rudolf Steiner Archive

14. On the Lost and Restored Temple in Connection with the Legend of the Cross or the Golden Legend IV

The Allegory of the Lost and Regained Word in Connection with the Feast of Pentecost

[ 1 ] Among the allegories and symbols we wanted to discuss in these hours is also the symbol of the so-called lost and regained word. We have spoken of the lost and regained temple. This will enable us to continue today with a brief consideration of the lost and regained word, insofar as this theme is somewhat related to the symbolic meaning of the feast of Pentecost. I already mentioned some of the things I will say today in my lecture a year ago. However, since there are some among us who may not have heard last year's lecture, it may not be unnecessary to refer to these things again, especially since we are able to consider such matters every year and deal with them more thoroughly and in greater depth. Some things that could not be said last year may be possible today, as we have learned a few things.

[ 2 ] The feast of Pentecost is connected with the symbol that is referred to in both the Church and Freemasonry as the symbol of the lost and regained word. In doing so, however, we touch upon Christian mysteries of truly extraordinary depth. We touch once again, and more thoroughly than was possible eight days ago, upon the mission and calling of the wise Solomon and the entire future significance of Christian truth.

[ 3 ] The feast of Pentecost is connected with the conception of the innermost essence of man as it existed in early Christianity, but which has gradually been lost to Christianity as it lives in the various churches of the West. The feast of Pentecost is the feast which is intended to remind man every year anew of his liberation, of what we call the freedom of the human soul.

[ 4 ] How did man actually come to what we call his freedom, that is, his ability to distinguish between good and evil, to do good or evil in freedom? You know that man has undergone a long series of developments before reaching the stage he is at today, and that we have passed the middle of this development. Approximately in the middle of the Atlantean race, which preceded our race, lies also the middle of the entire human development. Now we have already passed this middle point, and thereby we are the first missionaries of the second half, the first messengers of an ascending arc. While humanity was on the descending arc, in a kind of downward development, until it sank deepest into material life in the Atlantean epoch, it is now rising again toward spiritual development.

[ 5 ] What we humans did not possess before the middle of our Earth's development was the freedom to choose between good and evil. In the lower realms of nature, we cannot speak of good and evil. 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 the lily wants to bloom or not, or to ask the lion whether it voluntarily refrains from eating and killing other beings. Only in humans and only in our phase of development do we speak of what we call freedom of choice. We attribute the ability to distinguish between good and evil to human beings alone. And how human beings came to possess this ability is depicted in the Bible in the great symbol of the Fall, in the act of seduction where the devil or Lucifer appears to Eve and persuades her to eat from the tree of knowledge. This gave humans freedom of choice, and with it they embarked on the second part of their path of development. Just as we cannot ask about good and evil in minerals, plants, and animals, we cannot ask about freedom, good, and evil in humans before the middle of world development. This is connected to something else.

[ 6 ] In all esotericism, our present world and everything connected with it is described as the cosmos of love. And this universe of love was preceded by the cosmos or universe of wisdom. Let us consider this in a somewhat deeper sense.

[ 7 ] You know that, cosmologically speaking, the development of our Earth was preceded by the development of the moon. An even earlier ancestor of our Earth was the sun, and an even earlier one was Saturn. Human beings have gone through these three phases of development: Saturn, Sun, Moon. Our Earth has gone through three cycles so far, repeating the Saturn development in the first round, the Sun development in the second round, and the Moon development in the third round. Each such round begins with the planet developing in an extremely fine substance, the mental substance. The Earth existed in such a substance when it began its fourth round, i.e., the present cycle. Now it began to repeat the three previous rounds: the Saturn cycle in Arupa, the Sun cycle in Rupa, and then in the astral realm the Moon round or Moon cycle.

[ 8 ] Our Earth thus passed through earlier material states once again before reaching its present 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, we have seven racial cycles in our globe: the Polar, Hyperborean, Lemurian, Atlantean, and then the Aryan race, in which we are now. 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. Similarly, the 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 always speak of races goes too far in the use of analogy. It was other forms that were formed. In esoteric language, these preceding astral periods are called the realm of wisdom, and their forms are called the seven periods of wisdom, in which the seven kings of wisdom, the seven kings of the dynasty of Solomon, ruled. For in each of these periods there lived a being of a similar nature to the soul of Solomon, as the soul was that incarnated in Solomon. This cosmos of wisdom was replaced by the actual earthly cosmos, the cosmos of love.

[ 9 ] Now let us be clear about what happened during the formation of the Earth according to our understanding. When the Earth began to form, it was still united with the Sun and what we now call the Moon. With these two bodies, the Earth formed a single body. First, the Sun separated from the Earth. This changed all life on Earth. Whereas previously there could be no question of death because material life continued, now death came into being. It took the form we know from plant bodies, which are composed of cells. As long as a plant consists of a single cell, no decay occurs when the next one is born. It is different when an entire organism is composed of many cells. It disintegrates into its parts, and the individual part is no longer the whole life. Such death occurred for the first time when the sun separated from the earth. As a result of the separation of the moon, the division of the sexes arose in the middle of the Lemurian race. The separation of the moon caused the division of the male-female into only male and only female. This also gave human beings the form they now have in the world.

[ 10 ] What happened during these important cosmic events, when first the sun and then the moon separated? If we want to understand this, it is helpful to point out that at that time the earth was transforming from a very thin but already physical matter into an increasingly dense matter. The first physical matter in which all human beings existed on Earth was etheric matter, a very fine matter, finer than our gas.

[ 11 ] We now distinguish between three types of matter on our Earth: solid, liquid, and then gaseous bodies, which used to be called air. Then, esoterically, we distinguish between four types of ether: first, the fire ether, which causes bodies to be permeated with heat; second, the light ether; third, the chemical ether, which causes atoms to mix according to certain numerical laws—the elective affinity of atoms—and fourth, the physical or life ether. So there are four types of ether that animate the earth. Essentially, the earth first developed in these types of ether. Then it condensed out of this ether. This condensation only took place during the Lemurian epoch. Before that, we are dealing with the etheric earth, which was accessible to forces that were completely different from those of our physical earth today. I would like to make this clear to you.

[ 12 ] When I say that this etheric earth was accessible to various forces, you must understand that all beings, whether plants, animals, or humans, were also accessible to these forces in their innermost being. The ether is accessible to what we refer to in esoteric language as the “word,” the “world word.” I can also explain to you, using a process of initiation, how the ether relates to what we call the “word.” As you know, human beings consist of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, and then of the actual I. The etheric body becomes visible when one suggests away the physical body. But human beings, as they are today, are completely unable to influence their physical bodies. They cannot move even the smallest blood cell. The physical body is controlled by higher cosmic forces. Today, it is higher beings that exercise power here; human beings will be able to do so later. When humans are able to control the forces of their own physical body, which materialists refer to as forces of nature, 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 ] When humans are able to control the fire-etheric matter, they will be able to control everything physical. If they master the human physical, then they can also master the rest of the physical. This power is called the father power, the “father.” Everything, therefore, through which a being is connected to our earth, through which it can master physical matter. When a human being is able to exercise such father powers into the physical body, this is called the Atma. Thus, Atma is assigned to the physical.

[ 14 ] The second part of the being 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 this etheric body can 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 very few people today have any significant power over their astral body. To the extent that a person can control the astral body from within, we say that they are endowed with manas.

[ 16 ] In the middle of the Lemurian period, human beings began to work on their astral body. If you could observe a human being at the stage where the Lemurian race began, that is, hermaphroditic, you would find that their body is built from the outside. Since the middle of the Lemurian period, human beings have begun to work on their astral body themselves. Everything that humans work into themselves from their ego, everything they do through duties and commandments to overcome raw desires and passions, contributes to the refinement of the astral body. When they are then completely permeated with the work of their own ego, we can no longer call them astral bodies; they have become manas. When the entire astral body has been transformed into manas, human beings can begin to work on 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, she calls this the “Holy Spirit,” and when the physical body has become Atma, she calls this “Father.”

[ 17 ] What happens here in miniature with the human being also happened on a larger scale with the world outside. These world secrets were already performed in the mysteries during initiation; something was accomplished that human beings in general will only achieve in a distant future. Even in the Egyptian mysteries, only those who had worked through their entire astral body so that it could be completely guided by the I could be initiated. Such a person stood before the initiation priest: they had no influence on the physical body or the etheric body, but their astral body was their own creation. Now he was shown how he could influence the etheric and physical bodies. The physical body was put into 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 in relation to the astral body, he could now gain the power to influence the etheric body. He could learn to let what he had in the astral body influence the etheric body. These were the three days of burial and resurrection in an etheric body 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 the wisdom, manas, that is worked into the astral body. Wisdom can never enter the etheric body unless the astral body is first permeated with it.

[ 18 ] It was the same for the earth. Before the whole earth had reached this stage in the astral, this process could not take place. The state in which the initiate had to be in the Egyptian mysteries corresponds to this period of the astral globe, which I have spoken of as the immediate predecessor of the earth. This is the globe of wisdom. All wisdom is worked 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 moon from the Earth, something is worked into it again from above, from higher spheres, as in the initiation in the small. Thus the process took place in the large as it did in the small during the initiation.

[ 19 ] Seven times the astral globe of the Earth was ruled by the wise men in the manner of Solomon. Then the Earth surrounded itself from outside with the etheric body and crystallized, constituting earthly matter. Then the “Word” was placed within it. This Word is then buried in earthly matter, but it must be resurrected again. This is also the beautiful meaning of the myth of the god Dionysus. The sacred wisdom of our earthly predecessor is placed within all earthly beings in our earthly world. Take this in as deeply as you can. Consider the human etheric body, which every human being has. If you view it as a clairvoyant, it has approximately the same shape as the physical body. When a human being dies, the physical body dissolves and so does the etheric body; the physical body dissolves into the physical world and the etheric body dissolves into the general world ether. However, this etheric body has been ingeniously 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 alive and eternal. It is the etheric body of the chela, and it does not dissolve after death. When you see a person of today's culture die, you see the etheric body for some time, then it dissolves. With the chela, it remains. The chela's renunciation of Devachan consists in the fact that the chela remains on the astral plane and makes use of his etheric body there. In ordinary human beings, a new etheric body must be formed at rebirth; the ability to build one is attained in Devachan. The etheric body that the chela has built up from within is no longer lost, but the one built up from outside by cosmic wisdom does dissolve again. The same is true of the etheric bodies of plants and animals. What is still etheric body today has been built up from the cosmic forces that 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, in the Lemurian epoch, the denser had to develop. The father principle had to be worked into it. That is the last thing that took hold of our earthly materiality. What has been worked into it is deeply hidden in the physical world. First, the Holy Spirit worked its way into the astral matter. Then the spirit connected with the astral matter worked its way into the etheric matter; this is the Son; and then comes the Father, who rules over physical density. Thus, the macrocosm is built up in three stages: Spirit, Son, and Father, and man, by working his way up again, goes from the Spirit through the Son to the Father. All this happens under guidance in the evolution on Earth.

[ 21 ] Until the Lemurian epoch, only external development took place. Then this trinity entered into our physical development. In the Aryan epoch, what had previously taken place entered into the consciousness of human beings as religion and was repeated in stages.

[ 22 ] We are in the fifth sub-race of the Aryan root race. Four other sub-races preceded us. The first sub-race is the ancient Indian race. This venerable old race was led by the holy Rishis. We can only form a faint idea of them. We know about their religion from the information handed down to us in the Vedas. The teachings of the Rishis were much greater and more powerful than our present-day tradition. It was only during the third sub-race that records were made which have been preserved for us in the Vedas. The original religion of the Rishis had great traditions from the divine ancestors of mankind, the astral initiates of the dynasty of Solomon. The great intuitions, which bring not only knowledge and understanding of the laws of the earth, but also of the archetypes that created this wisdom itself, lived in the spirit of the ancient Indian Rishis. This was the first religion, that of the Holy Spirit.

[ 23 ] The second religion was cultivated in the Near East. There, as a repetition of the first time the Son asserted his influence on Earth, the second principle was revered. At the same time, the Son principle brings about the casting down of certain beings. There is no higher development without others being cast down into the depths. The mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms were cast down in this way. It is the great tragedy that those who develop higher take on an enormous responsibility. Every saint causes a large number of beings to be cast down. If such a pushing down did not take place, there would be no development. In order for a human being to develop higher, he must continually push beings down. That is why all development is bad and reprehensible if it is done out of self-interest; it is only justified for the sake of the development of other beings. Only those who want to lift up those who have been cast down are capable of development. Such was the development that took place on earth, which had already been prepared on other worlds, the development of endowing the etheric body with the Logos, the Word, connected with the casting down of other beings connected with the development of the earth. This was imagined as an adversary, as the Luciferic principle. Thus, in the Persian religion, we find this duality: the principle of good and the principle of evil. When a human being, or any being for that matter, works manasically within themselves, this is good. But evil always opposes them. Ormuzd and Ahriman are the names for good and evil in the Persian religion.

[ 24 ] The third stage appears to us in the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians, in whom there is a spiritual repetition of the third stage of the Godhead. That is why, since that time, we encounter the trinity, the triune Godhead, in all peoples. The second subrace did not yet have a triune Godhead, and the first certainly did not. Now, in this triune form, the ascent for the whole of humanity is gradually being prepared. The initiates are paving the way ahead ... [gap].

[ 25 ] In the first three sub-races, these were religious reflections of what had been at work in the macrocosmic processes. Now a new structure is emerging: first wisdom, then the Son, and then the Father. The dawning of wisdom took place in the fourth sub-race, in the Semitic people, which grew out of the third sub-race into the fourth, and out of this grew Christianity. Among the initiates of the Jewish people, we find the entire course of events that have taken place on earth, all the events that have taken place in the great super-earthly realm, repeated once again in the element of the intellect. There develops what we call the lower spirit, Kama-Manas, which must be endowed with a different power. This endowment, this impact, is Christ himself, the Word made flesh, pointing to the future Word, when all human beings will be able to control their etheric body from their astral body if they move the Word in their etheric body in such a way that it becomes alive within them. The possibility of this development in the future is anticipated in the appearance of the Word incarnated in the fourth subrace. In order for the Logos to be incarnated in the etheric body, the whole of humanity must have gained dominion over the ether. This emanated as a primal impulse from the Christ incarnated in the flesh. When man has passed through the power of the Son, he comes to the Father.

[ 26 ] Now the steps must be climbed again, through which the whole of humanity will gradually attain what appeared, as it were, in Christ in the flesh. In 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 lead people to the point where, in the sixth sub-race, what is only hinted at in Christianity today, the Christ principle, will find its completion. “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 would separate 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, so that its intellect could be called upon to decide between good and evil. This impact of the descent of the Spirit takes place at Pentecost.

[ 27 ] The Spirit, the Son, and the Father are buried in the earth: the Father in the physical body, the Son in the etheric body, and the Spirit in the astral body. But man has developed his “I” and has become self-conscious. Now he must learn to work down to the physical. That will be in the future. In 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 in human beings that is related to this spirit.

[ 28 ] Before the Son could become effective—that was in the Hyperborean age—a part of the general spirit principle had to be split off, cast down, and take other paths. This is expressed in the serpent, the symbol of knowledge, the Lucifer principle. It was this spark of spirit that made human beings free beings and enabled them to will the good of their own accord. This spirit, which descended to humanity at the great feast of Pentecost, is related to the spirit that was cast down and is also embodied in Prometheus, who rekindled the spark so that our ego could decide to follow the spirit, as it would later follow the Son and still later the Father. Man could indeed become evil, but on the other hand, it was only at the cost of becoming evil that he could be led back up to the world of the gods from whence he came. This is the connection between the feast of Pentecost and the Luciferic principle. That is why 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 handed down to humanity from outside. Then it was to spring from within. Solomon built the temple, but only with the help of Hiram Abiff. With this son of Cain in his alliance, he acquired the arts necessary for building the temple. Thus, the currents that run separately in the world come together again.

[ 30 ] When the sun separated from the earth, the word was buried in the earth. It will rise again when the earth has progressed to the sixth root race. Man will raise this word from the earth. But first the spirit must live in him that allows the word to resound within him. This is what the apostles achieved at Pentecost. In “Light on the Way” it says: “Acquire knowledge, and language will come to you” — 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 related to the holy, divine word and sinks into everything ethereal to enliven it, then man no longer speaks from himself, but from the divine spirit. Then he is a messenger of the Godhead and proclaims the inner word of the Godhead of his own free will.

[ 31 ] Thus the inner word became alive in the apostles; thus it worked out of them. They proclaimed the fiery word and felt themselves to be messengers of the Deity. 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 went before. The Holy Spirit followed and fertilized the astral bodies so that they became ripe to make their etheric body immortal. Once this is achieved, the Christ principle will have entered humanity. This was also the belief of the initiates, who spoke of it in a manner similar to Heraclitus: When you have escaped the earthly realm and ascended to the free ether—in the belief of immortality—you will become an immortal spirit, having escaped death, the physical realm.

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

[ 33 ] I wanted to explain here the infinite depth of the feast of Pentecost and show how human beings gradually acquire a living feeling for their environment, that they are related to everything around them and to everything that is happening around them. In the names of the days of the week you will find recorded what has happened around us.

[ 34 ] People celebrate Pentecost best when they realize what profound truths the wise men have placed in a festival such as Pentecost. And to celebrate a festival actually means to connect with the world spirit in one's mind.