The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture Eighteen

[ 1 ] We have said repeatedly throughout these lectures that Christianity forms the decisive focal point of human development. All religions have their right to exist and were partial revelations of the Logos, but none has transformed the face of the world as much as Christianity. One can sense this influence, for example, in the words of the Gospel: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Those who have not seen are those who had no knowledge of the mysteries. Through Christianity, a substantial part of the ancient mysteries became public—such as the principal moral commandments and the immortality of the soul through resurrection or rebirth.

[ 2 ] Before Christianity, one could see the supernatural truth in the revelations, the rites, and the dramatic performances of the mysteries. But now, thanks to the divine person of Christ, one was permitted to believe in it. Throughout history, however, there has always been a distinction between the esoteric truth known to the initiated and its exoteric form, as adapted for the general public and expressed across all religions. The same is true of Christianity. What is written in the Gospels is the good news, proclaimed to the general public. But there was a deeper teaching, and this is contained in the Book of Revelation in the form of symbols.

[ 3 ] There is a way of reading the Apocalypse that can only be made public in our time. But it was cultivated in the Middle Ages in the occult schools of the Rosicrucians. Little importance was attached to the historical aspect of the book—that is, the manner of its composition, the question of its author, in short, everything that today constitutes the sole focus of theologians, who seek only to extract historical facts from this book. Contemporary critical theology knows only the outer shell of this book and ignores its core. The Rosicrucians focused on its prophetic aspect, its eternal truth.

[ 4 ] Occultism generally does not concern itself with the history of a single century or a single period, but rather with the inner history of human evolution as a whole. When it delves into the earliest manifestations of our planetary system, when it goes back to the plant-like and animal-like states of humankind, its horizon expands over millions of years to a future deified humanity. By then, the Earth itself will have changed in substance and form. But how can the distant future be foreseen? Is prophecy possible? It is possible because everything that is to happen physically already exists in embryo, in the womb of the archetypes, whose thoughts constitute the plan of our evolution. Nothing appears on the physical plane that was not first envisaged and preformed in broad outlines in the realm of Devachan. Nothing happens in the depths that has not previously existed in the heights. This is the way in which things come to pass. It depends on the freedom and initiative of individuals.

[ 5 ] Esoteric Christianity is not based on a vague and sentimental idealism, but on a concrete ideal drawn from knowledge of the higher worlds. It is the knowledge possessed by the author of the Book of Revelation, the great seer of Patmos, who revealed the future of humanity from a Christian perspective.

[ 6 ] Let us try to view this future according to the laws of the world’s creation, as we have set them forth above. Among the Rosicrucians, the student was first shown certain visions from the past and some from the future. Then, to help him interpret these visions, he was given the Book of Revelation. Let us do the same and consider how humankind has gradually become what it is today, and what future lies ahead.

[ 7 ] For example, we have spoken of the ancient Atlantic continent and of the Atlanteans, whose etheric body was far more developed than their physical body and who did not develop an initial sense of self until the end of their civilization. The successive post-Atlantean civilizations were:

[ 8 ] First: The pre-Vedic culture in South Asia, in India. That was the beginning of the Aryan cultures.

[ 9 ] Second: The Epoch of Zarathustra, encompassing the culture of ancient Persia.

[ 10 ] Third: Egyptian culture, the Age of Hermes, followed by the Chaldean and Semitic cultures. The first seeds of Christianity were sown in the bosom of the Hebrew people during this era.

[ 11 ] Fourth: The Greco-Latin cultural era, which witnessed the birth of Christianity.

[ 12 ] Fifth: A new era was taking shape during the period of the Migration of the Peoples and the conquests. The legacy of Greco-Latin culture was taken up by the peoples of the North: the Celts, the Germanic tribes, and the Slavs. It is the era in which we still live today. It is a slow transformation of the Greco-Latin cultural heritage through the powerful influence of the new peoples, under the mighty impulse of Christianity, with which the leaven of the East—brought to Europe by the Arabs—has mingled. The true goal of this cultural epoch is to adapt human beings completely to the physical plane by developing their reason and practical sense and immersing their intellect in physical matter in order to comprehend and master it. Amid this hard work—this astonishing achievement, which has now come to an end—humanity has momentarily forgotten the higher worlds from which it originated. By comparing our spiritual state, for example, with that of the Chaldeans, it is easy to see what we have gained and what we have lost. When a Chaldean magician gazed at the heavens—which for us represent merely a problem of celestial mechanics—he had a completely different idea, a completely different feeling, indeed, one might say, a completely different experience than we do. Where the modern astronomer sees nothing but a soulless machine, the magician sensed the deep harmony of the heavens as a divine, living being. When he gazed upon Mercury, Venus, the Moon, or the Sun, he saw not only the physical light of these celestial bodies; he perceived their souls as those of living beings, and he felt his own soul in connection with these great souls of the firmament. He perceived their influences as attraction and repulsion, as it were, a wondrous concert of divine currents of will, and the symphony of the cosmos resounded within him as a harmonious echo of the human microcosm. Thus, the music of the spheres was a reality that connected human beings with the heavens. — The superiority of the modern scholar is rooted in his knowledge of the physical world, of material matter. Spiritual science has descended to the physical plane. We know that well. But now the task is to regain knowledge of the astral plane and the spiritual world through clairvoyance.

[ 13 ] This descent into the material world was necessary so that the fifth epoch could fulfill its mission. Astral and spiritual clairvoyance had to be veiled so that the intellect could develop in the realm of the sensory world through precise, meticulous, mathematical observation of the physical world.

[ 14 ] But we must supplement the natural sciences with the humanities. Here is an example: People usually contrast Ptolemy’s celestial map with that of Copernicus, declaring the former to be erroneous. That is incorrect. Both are equally true. However, Ptolemy’s map refers to the astral plane, and on this plane, the Earth is at the center of the planets, and the Sun is itself a planet. Copernicus’s map refers to the physical plane, where the Sun is at the center. All truths are relative, depending on time and place. Ptolemy’s system will be rehabilitated in a future epoch.

[ 15 ] After our fifth epoch, another will follow—the sixth—which will relate to ours as the spiritually inclined soul relates to the rationally inclined soul. This epoch will foster the development of genius, clairvoyance, and the creative spirit. What will Christianity look like in this sixth epoch? For the ancient priest of pre-Christian times, there was a harmony between science and faith. Science and religion were one and the same thing. As the priest gazed at the firmament, he knew and felt that the soul was a drop of water that had fallen from the heavenly ocean and been guided down to Earth by the immeasurable currents of life that permeate space. Today, when our gaze has turned downward to the physical plane, faith requires a sanctuary, a religion. Hence the separation of science and faith. The devout veneration of the person of Christ, the God-man on Earth, has for a time taken the place of esoteric science and the mysteries. But in the sixth epoch, the two currents will unite. The mechanical science of the physical plane will rise to the heights of spiritual creative power. This will then be gnosis, or spiritual knowledge. This sixth epoch—radically different from our own—will be preceded by great, upheaving catastrophes. For this epoch will be just as spiritual as ours was materialistic, but this transformation can only take place through physical upheavals. In turn, everything that takes shape in the course of the sixth epoch will bring about the possibility of a seventh epoch, which will mark the end of these post-Atlantean cultures and will be characterized by living conditions entirely different from our own. This seventh epoch will end with a revolution of the elements, similar to the one that brought an end to the Atlantean continent, and the state that will then emerge will be one whose spirituality will have been prepared by the last two post-Atlantean periods.

[ 16 ] In total, these Aryan cultures thus span seven major epochs. We are gradually seeing the laws of evolution unfold. Human beings always first carry within themselves what they will later see around them. Everything that currently exists around us originated from us in a previous phase of evolution, back when our being was still connected to the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. This cosmic being, from which modern humanity and all the kingdoms of nature have sprung, is called Adam Kadmon in Kabbalah. This archetype of humanity contained within it all the diverse forms of human existence that currently represent the peoples and races of the world.

[ 17 ] What human beings possess today as the inner life of their souls—their thoughts and feelings—will likewise reveal itself to the outside world and become their environment. The future lies within the human heart. It is up to them to choose whether to shape that future for good or for ill. Just as it is true that humankind once left behind what today constitutes the animal world, so too will the evil that is within us today form a kind of degenerate humanity. At present, we can still more or less conceal the good or evil that is within us. A day will come when we will no longer be able to do so, when this good or this evil will be indelibly written on our foreheads, on our bodies, and even on the face of the earth. Then humanity will split into two races. Just as we encounter rocks or animals today, we will then encounter beings of pure malice and ugliness. In our day, only the clairvoyant can read the goodness or moral ugliness in beings. But when a person’s facial features become an expression of their karma, people will divide themselves naturally, according to the current to which they obviously belong: depending on whether the lower nature within them has been vanquished or whether it will triumph over the spirit. This distinction is already gradually beginning to take effect.

[ 18 ] If one wishes to understand the future by looking to the past and to work toward realizing the ideal of that future, one can see the outlines taking shape. A new race will emerge that will serve as the link between the people of the present and the spiritualized people of the future. However, one must distinguish between the evolution of races and that of souls. It is up to the freedom of each soul to evolve toward this outer form of a race whose character corresponds to the goodness it embodies. Only through the freedom of the will and the effort of the soul’s individuality will one belong to this race. Belonging to a race will no longer be inevitable for a soul, but rather the result of its development.

[ 19 ] The essence of Manichaean doctrine is that souls should prepare themselves from now on to transform the evil that will emerge in full force during the sixth epoch into good. In fact, it will be necessary for human souls to be strong enough to ward off the evil that will come to light through a spiritual alchemy of good.

[ 20 ] When the evolution of our planet Earth then goes through the previous phases of its development in reverse order, a union of the Earth with the Moon will first take place, followed by a union—a reunification—of this composite celestial body with the Sun. The reunification with the Moon will then coincide with the height of evil on Earth. In contrast, the union of the Earth with the Sun will mark the dawn of bliss, the reign of the chosen ones.

[ 21 ] Humanity will bear the mark of the seven great earthly phases. The book with the seven seals, mentioned in the Book of Revelation, will be opened. The woman clothed with the sun, who has the moon under her feet, refers to the time when the Earth will once again be united with the sun and the moon. The trumpets of the Last Judgment will sound, for the Earth will have reached the devachanic state, where sound, not light, will reign. The end of the Earth’s evolution will be marked by the Christ Principle, which will permeate all of humanity. Having become like Christ, people will gather around him as the flocks gather around the Lamb, and as the fruit of this evolution, the New Jerusalem will arise, representing the crowning achievement of the world.