The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture Seventeen

[ 1 ] There are seven mysteries of life that, to this day, have never been discussed outside of occult fraternities. Only in the present era has it become possible to speak of them exoterically. They are also called the seven unspeakable or nameless mysteries.

[ 2 ] Let us try to speak about the fourth mystery, the [mystery of birth and] death.

[ 3 ] These are the secrets:

[ 4 ] First: The Secret of the Abyss.

[ 5 ] Second: The Mystery of Numbers. It can be studied in Pythagorean philosophy.

[ 6 ] Third: The Secret of Alchemy. This can be understood through the works of Paracelsus and Jakob Böhme.

[ 7 ] Fourth: The mystery [of birth and] death.

[ 8 ] Fifth: The mystery of evil, which is touched upon in the Book of Revelation.

[ 9 ] Sixth: The mystery of the Word, the Logos.

[ 10 ] Seventh: The mystery of godliness; it is the most deeply hidden mystery.

[ 11 ] Let us recall that on the planet that preceded our Earth—the ancient Moon—we distinguished three kingdoms of nature that are entirely different from the kingdoms on Earth. Our mineral kingdom did not yet exist. It was born out of the condensation and crystallization of the Moon’s mineral-vegetative substance. Our plant world sprang from the plant-animal aspect of the Moon’s evolution. And what is now the animal world originated from what was the animal-human on the Moon. We see, then, that each of these lunar kingdoms underwent a descent toward materialization on Earth. The same is true of the beings who stood above the animal-human on the Moon: the fire spirits. The people of that time breathed that fire just as we breathe the air today. That is why, in legends and myths, fire has, in a sense, remained the first manifestation of the gods. Goethe alludes to this in Faust when he says:

A little fiery breath, which I will prepare,
Will lift us swiftly from this earth.

[ 12 ] These fire spirits of the ancient moon manifest themselves in the air as part of the Earth’s evolution. They have thus also descended into a denser form of matter—the air that we currently breathe in and out. They are this air substance that lives around us and within us and envelops the Earth with its atmosphere.

[ 13 ] If these spirits have now descended to the element of air, if the lunar realms have thus undergone a process of involution, it is so that human beings, thanks to their activity, may rise to the state of deification. In fact, a dual movement has taken place within each of the two lunar realms: the lowest part has descended, while the part closest to us has ascended. Thus, the animal-man split into two groups, one of which, under the influence of the breathing and the activity of the fire spirits who had been transformed into air spirits, worked on the formation of its brain, while the group that remained behind descended into the animal kingdom. This division is reflected right down into the constitution of human beings themselves, whose lower part approaches the animal, while the upper part strives toward the spiritual. Depending on whether one or the other characteristic was more or less pronounced, two different types of human beings gradually emerged: one, in keeping with its lower nature, primarily bound to the earth; the other, more highly developed, detached from the earth. The former fell back into animality. The latter were able to receive the divine spark within themselves—the sense of self. Such is the relationship that actually exists between humans and animals, and in particular with apes. The physical counterpart to this spiritual development was the growth and unfolding of the human brain, which became a temple in which the divine could dwell.

[ 14 ] But if only this development had taken place, something would still have been missing. There would have been minerals, plants, animals, and even humans with developed brains, capable of reaching the present human form. But something would have remained at the lunar stage. On the ancient Moon, there was neither birth nor death.

[ 15 ] Imagine the structure of the human being without the physical body: there would be no death, and the renewal of the being would take place in a different way than through present-day birth. Parts of the astral body and the etheric body would be renewed through exchange, but their composition would remain constant. The center would remain unchanging; only the surfaces would be the site of exchange with the external environment. This was how it was on the Moon: human beings merely underwent metamorphoses—neither birth nor death, but a ceaseless transformation. But at this stage, they had not yet attained self-consciousness. The gods who had formed him were around him, behind him, but not within him. They were, in their turn, what the tree is to the branch or what the brain is to the hand. The hand moves, but the awareness of the movement lies in the brain. Man was a branch on the divine tree, and if his development on Earth had not altered this state, his brain would have been merely a blossom on that divine tree; his thoughts would have been reflected in the mirror of his physiognomy, but he would have known nothing of his own thoughts. Our Earth would have been a world of beings endowed with thoughts but not with self-awareness—a world of statues animated by the gods, and specifically by Yahweh or Jehovah. What happened to change the state of affairs, and how did humankind attain independence?

[ 16 ] If there are several classes in a school, there are children who progress through them all, and others who do not make it that far. The gods of Yahweh’s retinue were ready to descend into the human brain. But other spirits, who were among the fire spirits on the Moon, had not completed their evolution, and instead of penetrating the human brain on Earth, they united with the human astral body. This astral body consists of instincts, desires, and passions. It was into this realm that those fire spirits who had not attained their goal of evolution on the Moon withdrew. They found a dwelling place in the animal nature of human beings, where passions arise, and at the same time they imparted a higher impetus to these passions. They allowed enthusiasm to flow into the blood and into the astral body. The Jehovah gods had provided the pure, cold form of the idea; but through these spirits—which may be called Luciferic—human beings became capable of becoming enthusiastic about ideas and of passionately taking sides for or against them. If the Jehovah gods shaped the human brain, the Luciferian spirits linked that brain to the physical senses through the nerve pathways that terminate in the sensory organs. Lucifer lives within us just as long as Jehovah does.

[ 17 ] Everything that flows through the senses and gives human beings an objective awareness of their surroundings is owed to the Luciferic spirits. While human beings owe their life of thought to the gods, they owe it to Lucifer that they become aware of it. Lucifer lives in his astral body and is active in his sensory life, which is mediated through the nerves. That is why the serpent in Genesis says: “Your eyes will be opened.” — One can take these words literally, for over time the Luciferic spirits have opened up human beings’ senses.

[ 18 ] Consciousness becomes individualized through the senses. Without reference to the sensory world, human thoughts would be nothing but reflections of the divine—acts of faith, not of knowledge. The contradictions between faith and science stem from this dual origin of human thought. Faith turns to the eternal ideas, to the primordial mothers derived from the gods; science—the knowledge of the external world through the senses—comes from the Luciferic spirits. Humanity has become what it is by uniting the Luciferic principle with divine reason. This union of two opposing principles within humanity gives it the capacity for evil, but at the same time also the means to attain self-consciousness, to exercise critical judgment, and to be free. Only a being predisposed toward individualization could be aided by this contrast of elements within. Had human beings, upon descending into matter, received only the form bestowed by Jehovah, they would have remained impersonal. .

[ 19 ] Lucifer is thus the principle that allows human beings to truly become independent of the gods. Christ, or the Logos, who is revealed in human beings, is the principle that allows them, in turn, to ascend to divinity.

[ 20 ] In pre-Christian times, the human being was governed by the Jehovah principle, which gave him his form, and the Lucifer principle, which individualized him. He was torn between obedience to the law and the rebellion of the individual. But the Christ principle came to establish a balance between the two by teaching that the law—which had initially been given from without—is to be found within the individual himself. This is explained by Paul, who derives the Christian principle quite literally from freedom and love: the law governed the old covenant just as love governs the new. — We thus find in human beings three principles that are inseparable and necessary for their development: Jehovah, Lucifer, and Christ.

[ 21 ] But Christ Jesus is not merely an indefinite principle in the world. He is a being who appeared only once, at a specific moment in history. In human form, through his word and life, he revealed a state of perfection that all people will attain at the end of time through their own free will. He appeared at the height of a terrible crisis, when humanity’s downward trajectory of development was on the verge of reaching its lowest point in materialization.

[ 22 ] For the Christ principle to be awakened in human beings, it was necessary for it to manifest itself on earth in a human being and for Christ to have lived.

[ 23 ] Karma and Christ are the embodiment of the entire process of evolution. Karma is the law of cause and effect in the spiritual world; it is the spiral of evolution. The Christ Force intervenes in the evolution of this karmic line as a guiding axis. Since the arrival of the Christ on Earth, this force has been present at the core of every human soul.

[ 24 ] But if one sees karma as nothing more than a necessity imposed on human beings to make amends for their wrongs and atone for their errors through an unforgiving justice that operates from one incarnation to the next, then one lends credence to the occasional objection that the law of karma nullifies Christ’s role as Savior. In reality, karma is, on the one hand, the redemption of humankind through itself—through its own efforts, through its gradual ascent toward freedom over the course of reincarnations—and, on the other hand, that which brings humankind closer to Christ. For the Christ-force is the fundamental impulse that leads humanity, in freedom, toward the transformation of the unforgiving law, and the source of this impulse is the person and example of Jesus Christ. It is no longer necessary to view karma as a fate; rather, it must be understood as the necessary means to attain the highest freedom—life in Christ—a freedom that is not attained by distrusting the order of things, but by understanding it. Karma does not negate either grace or Christ; on the contrary, it finds them integrated into the whole of evolution.

[ 25 ] Another objection is one that can be raised from the perspective of Eastern wisdom. The idea of a savior who comes to humanity’s aid, it is said, suppresses the logical connections of karma and replaces the great universal law of evolution with the direct intervention of miraculous grace. It is only fair that the one who has committed the errors should also bear their weight.

[ 26 ] However, this is a misconception. Karma is the law of cause and effect in the spiritual world, just as mechanics is the law of cause and effect in the material world. At every moment of life, karma represents something like a businessman’s balance sheet—the exact total of debits and credits. With every action, whether good or bad, a person increases their debits or their credits. Anyone who refuses to admit to an act of free will would be like a businessman who refuses to take the risk of a new business venture and would always keep his balance sheet at the same level.

[ 27 ] A purely logical conception of karma would forbid us from helping a person in misfortune. But it is precisely there that fatalism would prove to be false, and the help we offer another of our own free will opens a new chapter in that person’s destiny. Our destinies are woven from such impulses, such acts of grace. But if we accept the idea of individual help, can we not also understand that someone who is capable of much more than we are can help not only a single person, but all people—indeed, can impart a new impulse to all of humanity? Well, such is the deed of a God made man, which did not occur to contradict the laws of karma, but to help bring them to fulfillment.

[ 28 ] Karma and the Christ complement each other like the means of salvation and the Savior. Through karma, the work of the Christ becomes a cosmic law, and through the Christ principle—the revealed Logos—karma achieves its goal: the liberation of souls to self-consciousness and their oneness with God. The law of destiny is gradual salvation; the Christ is the Savior.

[ 29 ] If people were to let these ideas take root within them, they would feel that they belong to one another and would understand the law that governs the occult brotherhoods: that each one suffers and lives for the other.

[ 30 ] In the future, we will reach a point where the principle of external salvation for every human being will coincide with the Savior’s work within the human being.

[ 31 ] It is not revelation, but the truth that sets people free: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

[ 32 ] The path of our development leads to freedom. When human beings have awakened within themselves all that is prophetically contained in the Christ principle, they will have become free. For while necessity is the law of the material world, freedom reigns in the spiritual world. Freedom is attained only gradually, and it will not manifest itself in its entirety within a person until that stage of his development when his nature is truly spiritualized.