The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture Seven

[ 1 ] Christianity plays a unique, decisive, and most essential role in human history. It is, so to speak, the central moment, the crux of the matter between involution and evolution. And that is why such a brilliant light radiates from it.

[ 2 ] Nowhere, however, does this light shine as vividly as in the Gospel of John. In fact, it is here alone that it appears in all its power. Undoubtedly, contemporary theology does not view this Gospel in this way. From a historical perspective, it is regarded as inferior—as, so to speak, apocryphal—compared to the three Synoptic Gospels. The mere fact that its origin has been attributed to the second century has led theologians of the critical school to regard it as a work of mystical poetry and Alexandrian philosophy.

[ 3 ] The esoteric science speaks quite differently of the Gospel of John. Throughout the Middle Ages, there were a number of brotherhoods that saw in it their ideal and the primary source of Christian truth. These brotherhoods called themselves the Brothers of St. John, the Albigensians, the Cathars, the Templars, and the Rosicrucians. They were all active in practical occultism and regarded this Gospel as their Bible, their breviary. One might even surmise that the legends of the Grail, of Parzival, and of Lohengrin originated with these brotherhoods and that they were the popular expression of their secret teachings.

[ 4 ] All the brothers of these various, yet kindred, orders regarded themselves as the forerunners of an individual Christianity, whose mystery they possessed and whose full realization was reserved for future times. They found this mystery solely in the Gospel of John. In it they found an eternal truth that adapts to all ages, a truth that fundamentally transforms the soul that receives it into its deepest core. The Gospel of John was not read as a literary work, but was seen as a means of initiation. To give an account of this, let us set aside for the moment the question of its historical value.

[ 5 ] The first fourteen verses of this Gospel were the subject of daily meditation and spiritual practice for the Rosicrucians. They were believed to have a magical effect, and indeed they do for the occultist. Such was their effect. By repeating them tirelessly at the same hour every day, one came to have, in a dream-like state of consciousness, a vision of all the events recounted in the Gospel and to experience them inwardly.

[ 6 ] In this way, for the Rosicrucians, the life of Christ signifies the resurrection of Christ at the very core of every soul through spiritual vision. Moreover, they believed equally in both the inner, real existence of Christ and his historical existence. For to recognize the inner Christ is, at the same time, to recognize the Christ who existed outwardly.

[ 7 ] A modern materialist might object: Does the fact that the Rosicrucians had such dreams also prove the real existence of Christ? — To this, the occultist replies: If there were no eye to see the sun, the sun would not exist; but if the sun were not in the sky, there would be no eye to see it either. For it is the sun that has, over the course of time, formed the eye and shaped it to perceive light. Thus, the Rosicrucian could say to himself: The Gospel of John has awakened your inner meaning, but without a living Christ, you could not let it live within you.

[ 8 ] The work of Christ Jesus can only be fully understood when one recognizes the difference between the ancient mysteries and the Christian mystery.

[ 9 ] The ancient mysteries were performed in the temple schools. The initiates were awakened souls. They learned to influence their etheric bodies; they were then “twice-born,” because they could perceive the truth in two ways: directly through dreams and astral visions, and indirectly through feeling and logic. The initiation they underwent signified three things: life, death, and resurrection. The initiate spent three days in the tomb, in a sarcophagus within the temple. His spirit was freed from the body. But on the third day, at the call of the hierophant, his spirit returned to his body from the world of the cosmos, where it had come to know the life of the universe. He was transformed and reborn. The greatest Greek writers spoke of these mysteries with enthusiasm and sacred reverence. Plato even said that only an initiate deserves the title “human being.” But this initiation truly finds its culmination in Christ. In Christ, the initiation of the emotional life is concentrated, just as ice is condensed water. What had been envisioned in the ancient mysteries is historically realized through Christ on the physical plane. The death of the initiates had been only a partial death in the etheric world. The death of Christ was a complete death on the physical plane.

[ 10 ] One can view the raising of Lazarus as a threshold motif, a kind of transition from ancient to Christian initiation. In the Gospel of John, John himself does not appear until after the account of Lazarus’s death. The disciple whom Jesus loved is also the highest initiate. He is the one who has passed through death and resurrection and has been raised by the voice of Christ himself. John—he is Lazarus, who rose from the grave after his initiation. John experienced the death of Christ. Such is the mystical path revealed by the depths of Christianity.

[ 11 ] The wedding at Cana, the account of which is also found in this Gospel, encompasses one of the profound mysteries of humanity’s spiritual history. It refers to the words of Hermes: “As above, so below.” At the wedding at Cana, water is turned into wine. This event carries a symbolic, universal meaning: in religious worship, the offering of water is to be temporarily replaced by the offering of wine.

[ 12 ] There was a time in human history when wine was still unknown. During the Vedic period, it was scarcely known. Now, as long as people did not drink alcoholic beverages, the concept of previous stages of existence and of multiple earthly lives was widespread, and no one doubted it. Ever since humanity began drinking wine, the idea of reincarnation quickly faded and eventually disappeared from the general consciousness. It was preserved only by the initiates, who abstained from drinking wine. For alcohol has a particular effect on the human organism, especially on the etheric body, where memory resides. Alcohol veils the memory, darkening it in its innermost depths. Wine brings about forgetfulness, as they say. This is not a superficial, momentary forgetfulness, but a deep and lasting forgetfulness—an eclipse of the power of memory in the etheric body. Thus, as people began to drink wine, they gradually lost their original sense of reincarnation.

[ 13 ] However, the belief in reincarnation and the law of karma had a powerful influence not only on the individual but also on his or her social sensibilities. It led them to accept the inequality of human living conditions. When the unfortunate Egyptian laborer worked on the pyramids, when the Hindu of the lowest caste built the gigantic temples in the heart of the mountains, he told himself that another existence would compensate him for the hard labor he had bravely endured, if he was good; he told himself that his master had already gone through similar trials, or that he would have to go through even harder trials later on if he doubted justice and harbored ill will.

[ 14 ] But as Christianity drew near, humanity was to pass through an epoch in which it would focus entirely on its earthly mission. It was to work toward the improvement of this life, the development of the intellect, and the rational, scientific understanding of nature. Accordingly, the awareness of reincarnation was to be lost for two thousand years. And the means employed for this purpose was wine.

[ 15 ] This is the profound reason for the veneration of Bacchus, the god of wine and drunkenness—a folk form of Dionysus from the ancient mysteries, which in itself had an entirely different meaning. This is also the symbolic meaning of the wedding at Cana. Water plays its role in the old sacrificial rite, while wine plays its role in the new. Christ’s words, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe,” refer to the new era of humanity, in which human beings, wholly devoted to their earthly tasks, are not to have either the memory of past incarnations or direct insight into the spiritual world.

[ 16 ] In the scene on Mount Tabor—the Transfiguration before Peter, James, and John—Christ leaves us a legacy. The disciples saw Him between Elijah and Moses. Elijah represents the path to truth, Moses represents truth itself, and Christ represents the life that unites the two. That is why He can say of Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

[ 17 ] Thus everything culminates and unites in Christ; everything receives its light and strength from Him; everything is transformed in Christ. He traces the past of the human soul back to its source and foresees its future up to its union with God. For Christianity is not merely a force of the past, but also a force for the future. Along with the Rosicrucians, the new spiritual science teaches about the inner Christ within every human being and the future Christ within all of humanity.