The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. The World-Historical Significance of the Blood Flowing on the Cross

[ 1 ] In eight days—that is, on Easter Monday—I would like to speak to you about the Mystery of Golgotha, and today we can perhaps do a little preparation for this reflection. Our discussion today will focus primarily on a passage from the New Testament that many find incomprehensible or at least difficult to understand. At the very least, it is evident that people do not associate this passage with the profound meaning that is indeed inherent in it when one delves into esoteric Christianity. At the same time, this phrase will introduce us even more deeply into the spirit and meaning of Christianity from another perspective. It is the phrase you know well: “All sins can be forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Spirit.”

[ 2 ] Indeed, the meaning of Christianity’s mission is expressed in such a word, and, fundamentally speaking, only the spiritual-scientific worldview is the proper instrument for revealing such a profound meaning as lies within this word. Those who are drawn to this worldview must become increasingly accustomed to learning about the great global mission of the spiritual science movement from a wide variety of perspectives, and the realization must increasingly gain ground in the world that this movement cannot exist to establish any new faith, or even a new sect or the like. The times in human development when entirely new creeds or new, distinct religions could be founded are over, and the future of religious development lies in the transformation of existing religions into one great, unified religion of humanity. The Movement for Spiritual Insight does not seek to preach a new religion to people. It merely aims to be an instrument for grasping and understanding the profound religious truths contained in the sacred texts.

[ 3 ] I have often pointed out here that the trend today, both in theological and other religious circles, is to trivialize religious truths and fail to grasp them deeply enough. How content people in such circles are today to view Jesus Christ as the “simple man from Nazareth”—a figure whom they certainly like to present as a higher ideal of humanity, like Socrates, Plato, Goethe, or Schiller—but they do not wish to elevate him too far above the average standard of humanity. Today, people are far from asking themselves whether something transcending all ordinary humanity dwelt within the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Modern humanity seems to have moved far beyond the old Gnostic question. The ancient Gnostic question sought to summon all human wisdom in order to understand what actually happened in the year 1 A.D. And so people are content to attempt to grasp a truth as great as the sin against the Holy Spirit with a few moral platitudes and some rather trivial statements.

[ 4 ] But religious texts are not meant to be interpreted trivially. There is no depth deep enough, nor any wisdom wise enough, to lift the veil that lies over them. Nor should anything be introduced into them when seeking to understand their deeper meaning. For the uneducated and unscientific person, it is not all that difficult; but it is also true that religious texts are so profound that no wisdom is sufficient to fully unravel their meaning. No mind is too simple to be deeply moved by the true religious texts. Nor is any wisdom too lofty to rise above a true religious text. From this perspective and with this mindset, let us undertake to explain such a word.

[ 5 ] First, let us clarify what is meant by the Holy Spirit in true esoteric Christianity, and what is meant by the other two aspects of the Godhead: the Son—the Word, the Logos—and the Father. One must not attempt to penetrate such matters through speculation or mere reflection. These matters are not meant for anyone to arbitrarily ascribe a meaning to them. This meaning has been imparted by those who are called Christian initiates, and we must now adhere to what has been taught in the schools of Christian initiates. Therefore, it is wrong to take the Bible at face value and speculate about what this or that word might mean. A true occultist would never do this. He proceeds differently, for he knows that there have been esoteric Christian schools of initiation where the deep meaning of the Christian scriptures has been taught. This meaning has never been taught in any other way, so there are no differing viewpoints regarding this teaching.

[ 6 ] If we are to focus on one thing that has perhaps come to the fore most prominently in this regard in the history of external events, it is the great esoteric Christian school that the Apostle Paul himself founded in Athens—the school of Dionysius the Areopagite. Scholars have become accustomed to speaking of a “Pseudo-Dionysius” because writings attributed to this name can be traced back only to the 6th century. Scholars cannot arrive at the correct conclusion on this point until they realize that customs have changed significantly over time. While today a person who has a clever thought cannot wait long enough for that thought to be set in print and sent out into the world, in earlier times, on the contrary, it was customary to strictly guard the most sacred truths from the general public, so as not to throw them in everyone’s face. Only those who were known and who had demonstrated that they could receive such truths in a worthy manner and with a sense of truthfulness—only they were permitted to receive such truths. At first, they were communicated only orally, because it was intended that whoever spoke such truths—or even revealed the corresponding facts before the eyes of the students—should impart the word only into devoted, genuine feelings and into warm, living hearts. What the students of such schools were to acquire was a certain mood, a certain disposition toward the highest truths.

[ 7 ] Today, it is generally believed that one can receive a truth in any given state of mind. This is not a criticism; it must be so—progress brings this with it. In those days, a different view prevailed. Back then, it mattered whether one received a mathematical or a physical truth in this or that state of mind. People were clearly aware that it was a matter of this particular mood, so that even the simple truths—which ultimately also reveal truths—were received in an elevated mood. They were accepted as a revelation of the divine world spirit. In this way, even mathematical truths—which were meant to teach one about the divine revelations concerning space—were taken in. The school placed great emphasis on fostering the right attitude and the right emotional world.

[ 8 ] This was also the case in Paul’s school, which revealed the highest truths only after thorough preparation. While Paul preached Christianity throughout the wider world, his disciples in Athens experienced the esoteric teachings. And because the spirit of the school endured over long periods of time, the bearer of the esoteric truth was always given the same name. The School of Athens continued for centuries, and the one who was the chief teacher—who was, in fact, the school’s most deeply initiated member—always bore the name Dionysius. Consequently, the one who recorded these teachings in the 6th century—once writing had become more common—also bore this name. Only those who know this can understand the significance of this for the School of Dionysius.

[ 9 ] Now, in the spirit of true Christianity, let us learn about the three words: Father, Son, and Spirit. We have already discussed what lies behind these three words in greater detail when considering the Lord’s Prayer from a different perspective. We have come to understand what is expressed of the Divine in the three higher aspects of human nature—Atman, Budhi, Manas. We have heard how these three higher realms of human nature are connected to the words “Name,” “Kingdom,” and “Will” in the Lord’s Prayer. Today we will examine these three human aspects from a different perspective, as is done in esoteric Christian training. Let us briefly recall the relationship between the lower and higher aspects of human nature. In this Christian training, it has always been taught that the human being consists of the physical body, the etheric or life body, and the astral body, and that within these three human bodies, the “I” lives as the innermost aspect of the human being. This was once the so-called Holy Fourfold, of which people always spoke in those days: the physical body, the etheric or life body, the astral body, and the “I.”

[ 10 ] Now we have also learned how, in the course of human evolution, these three bodies are transformed by the “I.” We have seen that the “I” must first transform the astral body, which is the vehicle of emotions, drives, passions, and sensations. One could also call this astral body the “body of consciousness.” Esoteric Christianity has also taught that the “I” is called upon, in the course of development, to increasingly refine and purify the astral body. And to the extent that a person has purified, cleansed, and refined the astral body, to that extent is it referred to in esoteric Christianity as the Holy Spirit within the human being. One could also say, using theosophical terminology: that part of the astral body which has been purified by the “I” is called, in esoteric Christianity, the part of the astral body touched by the Holy Spirit.

[ 11 ] We then know that the “I” also has a transforming, refining, and purifying effect on the etheric or life body. While in ordinary external, material, and spiritual life, moral and cultural life has a refining effect on the astral body, the only things that transform and refine the human etheric body are those elements that a person absorbs through religion and art, where they sense the eternal in its temporal form. The impulses of art have a stronger effect than moral education, stronger than what exists in humanity in the form of legal and political life, because the eternal and imperishable shines through the true work of art. But religious impulses have the strongest effect on the etheric body. Under the influence of such impulses, a part of the etheric body crystallizes out to transform into buddhi, into the Logos, the Word. In esoteric Christianity, this is called the Christ.

[ 12 ] In such a line of thought, we must always keep one thing in mind: that in pursuing spiritual science, we are not pursuing some abstract “theory,” nor something detached from the world and alien to life, but rather we are seeking within the spiritual realm that which enables us to have a direct, ennobling, and purifying effect on these bodies. Only when we are able to grasp the spiritual and carry it down into life through lived experience will we be able to permeate life from moment to moment and spiritualize it with what we have explored in the spiritual realm. Then we are engaging in practical spiritual knowledge. What matters is not intellectual speculation, but rather that the spirit flows into our culture. Therefore, it is also fitting, at a point such as this, where we speak of the transformation of human bodies, to draw attention to something practical—namely, what the contemplation of such statements actually seeks to tell us.

[ 13 ] When you stand in life with your consciousness and walk through the streets and across the market to let the influences of life affect you, to let the impressions flow into you, then what you experience will be only a part, a link in the chain of your overall experiences. Those who do not take this into account can never grasp life—and perhaps not even certain important mysteries of the most everyday life. Those who strive for spiritual knowledge must see more deeply than other people are able to see today with the ordinary external means of culture. Our various bodies—the etheric and astral bodies—also differ in that they are influenced in different ways by the external world. Thus, everything you consciously take in, everything to which you pay attention, and everything you are aware of as you pass it by in life—so that it enters your consciousness—everything you see outside or in your own room and that makes an impression on the astral body—all of this is expressed in surges and movements of the astral body. Everything you experience in your conscious life can be traced by an occult personality in the movements and currents and in everything that is expressed within the astral body.

[ 14 ] Now there are other influences on human beings—influences to which they do not usually give their full attention. I will put it more bluntly to make my point perfectly clear. When you walk through the streets of the city, you cannot give your full attention to the many things you pass by. There are many things that, afterward, you barely even realize you passed by. Just consider, for a moment, as you walk down a street, all the items displayed in the store windows to your left and right, and the people—and the clothes they were wearing—who passed you by! Did you pay attention to all these things? Certainly not. Yet everything to which you do not consciously direct your attention does not pass you by without leaving a trace; it still makes an impression on you. Furthermore, let’s suppose a person is looking at the pages of a humor magazine or a poster. What they follow with conscious attention is not all they are doing there. There are things on the pages of the humor magazine that they do not bring to consciousness, but which nevertheless make a certain impression on them. People say that these are impressions that remain below the threshold of consciousness. In reality, however, it is different. In reality, many—countless—things affect a person without them bringing them into consciousness, and these things that affect them without their conscious awareness sometimes have a deeper and more significant impact on them than those they do bring into consciousness, for they first affect their etheric body. You are constantly receiving impressions on your etheric body. It is set in motion; ripples and waves form—even if they are of a finer nature than those formed by the astral body in response to conscious impressions—but they are there.

[ 15 ] From this you can see how infinitely significant for the entire course of human development is that which human beings, when it comes down to it, are actually completely unaware of. Beneath the surface of our culture, forces are constantly influencing the present-day senses of humanity by acting directly—that is, bypassing the astral body—upon the etheric body and evoking images of lasting significance. Such things continually influence human beings beneath the surface of our culture. And this is where spiritual science must point to the finer foundations of our culture, where it must show how understanding can be brought into everyday life through an appreciation of the spiritual world.

[ 16 ] It’s simply this: One era has a completely different character and mindset than another. If one era has appallingly bad posters and satirical pamphlets—let’s say, those that descend into the base, the purely sensual, and are calculated to elicit sensations—and if another era lacks such pamphlets, then for the occult personality, these reflect the things that live in people’s inclinations and, as a rule, also in their temperaments and character traits. Even the conscience is a mirror of secret influences exerted upon human beings. Anyone wishing to study the conscience, as well as the temperament, mindset, and inclinations of the Central European population—or indeed the European population as a whole—in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries would, if proceeding in an occult manner, have to trace this mindset back to the architectural style, the style of paintings, and the other cultural elements that surrounded people’s souls. The mood of a soul walking through the streets—where everything to the left and right related to that soul—could have been quite different from what it is today, when one walks through the market and sees entirely different things all around. One must by no means disregard what lies deeper than consciousness, precisely because such impulses—which are connected to the great epochs of human development—exert a profound influence. One must therefore not underestimate the fact that, especially today, there are all sorts of things in the depths of our culture—as I have just indicated—in which the real and true foundations of materialistic feeling and perception lie. That is where they must be sought. And that is why one should not simply be regarded as reactionary if, from a deeper perspective, one wishes for the noble and the significant to find expression precisely in that which acts so deeply upon the human soul—that is, right down into the formative powers of the etheric body.

[ 17 ] So, as you can see, there is a way of looking at things that is not guided by the prejudices of the times, but by spiritual truths. And if one extends this perspective to the harmful things—to what the materialistic mindset produces in our everyday surroundings without people even paying attention to them—do you believe that theories and teachings will accomplish much if they do not delve down to these very things? If you know how the higher teachings of Christianity have been reflected in painting, you will not be surprised that they were also reflected in what constantly surrounded people, even when they had not directed their attention to it.

[ 18 ] Now let us consider what is called the Father in Christian esotericism. We know that it is the “I” that transforms not only the astral body, but also the etheric body and the physical body. Unconsciously, they are transformed by the human being, but the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body are transformed consciously by the esotericist or occultist, or when the person is undergoing esoteric training.

[ 19 ] Everything that affects only the astral body is merely a preparation for the actual esoteric training, for the actual occult training. Occult training begins when we learn to work our way into the etheric or life body, when a person is enabled, through the guidance provided by the occult teacher, to transform their temperaments, inclinations, and habits—when a person becomes a different person. Only then does insight into the true higher world arise—that a person becomes a different person. One can study physics theoretically, but that affects only the astral body. One can learn all sorts of things, but that affects only the astral body. Only when the teachings possess such impetus that they have a transforming effect on the human being do the organs form from within, enabling one to look into the higher world. This is how the transformation of the etheric body takes place, and this is also how the transformation of the physical body takes place. And because the physical body is transformed through the breathing process—through the rhythmic regulation of the breathing process—the physical body, illuminated by consciousness, is called Atman, the Atman. Christian esotericism calls this the Father.

[ 20 ] Thus, within Christian esotericism, we must distinguish between: the Holy Spirit—the Christian possesses as much of the Holy Spirit within himself as he has refined his astral body; then the Son, the Logos, the Word: the Christian possesses within himself as much of the Son, the Logos, the Word as he has transformed his etheric body; and thirdly, the Father: the Christian possesses within himself as much of the Father—only an initiate can consciously possess the Father within himself—as his physical body has been transformed and made eternal.

[ 21 ] Now, if we wish to distinguish between what constitutes sin or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, against the Son, or against the Father—and to grasp Christian terminology—we must recall the mission of Christianity as it was understood by the esoteric Christian teachers. I have often pointed out that the deeper mission of Christianity is expressed in the words: “Whoever does not leave father, mother, brother, and sister cannot be my disciple.” This is expressed differently in the words of Mark: “And his mother and his brothers came and stood outside, sent for him, and had him called. And the crowd was sitting around him. And they said to him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.’ And he answered them, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And he looked around at the disciples sitting in a circle around him and said, ‘Behold, these are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and my mother.’” — Similar words are also found in Luke: “He replied, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’”

[ 22 ] In these words we have expressed the true mission of Christianity. We will understand it when we reflect on the course of human development. This will also provide us with the best preparation for what we will discuss next Monday as the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 23 ] If we go far back in the course of human evolution, we come to that period in Earth’s development that we call the Lemurian era. As you know, we go back through the Atlantean era into the ancient Lemurian era. There we find the fourfold—we might say, semi-animal—human being, that human being who, although already consisting of the fourfold—physical body, etheric body, astral body, and the germ of the I—was not yet able to work even in the slightest upon his three sheaths. For the power necessary for human beings to work on their sheaths in the sense indicated had first to enter into these vehicles of human nature itself. That which you today call your “I”—which veils your soul, your deepest nature, which already contains something of what has been transformed by the three sheaths of the human being—was not yet present at that time; it was only then beginning to enter into the process of development. The “I” was still a hollow space, ready to receive what is today the deepest inner core of the human being—what is called the immortal part of the human being that passes through all incarnations, and which can transition with the Earth into another planetary existence. At that time, it was only just descending into the human vessel. Previously, it had been in the bosom of the Godhead; it formed a part of the divine nature.

[ 24 ] I have used this image before to describe how, back then, this animation of humanity took place—this pouring out of divine drops into the individual human forms. I said: Take a glass of water; there are many drops in it, forming a liquid mass of water. Now take a thousand little sponges and place them inside, so that each sponge absorbs a drop of water. Then we have dabbled many drops of water out of the glass, and we have distributed what previously flowed together as a unified whole within the glass among the various sponges. What is now within us—and what was previously in the bosom of the Divine, as part of an all-pervading element—was distributed at that time among the individual human bodies, so that today everyone has a drop of this unified divine substance within themselves. Through this, that which was previously merely a part of the general divine nature became individualized. Just as my ten fingers are limbs of my organism, so the souls that are now within human bodies are limbs of the Divinity. And just as if each finger were to become individualized—as if each finger were to receive its own life by surrounding itself with other sheaths—so the drops resting in the bosom of the Divinity became human inner beings.

[ 25 ] These inner human entities dwelt in the human bodies that had been prepared for them at that time. Those human bodies looked quite different back then than they do today. Perhaps no one would believe it anymore if I were to describe those human bodies that walked about, waiting to be animated by the Divine. Even though those listening to these lectures are accustomed to certain things, some would still be quite astonished if I were to describe what those bodies were like back then and how those forms—which would seem grotesque by today’s standards—have transformed into the bodies we see today. Who is responsible for the fact that they look the way they do today? It was the inner soul itself. The shape and form of this human soul worked from within. One gains an idea of how this soul worked by observing the last remnants of the soul’s formative development in the body of modern humans.

[ 26 ] Consider the feeling of shame; consider anxiety, fear, and terror! The feeling of shame causes a blush to rise to a person’s face; the face changes color. The same is true of anxiety, fear, and terror. In one case, the face turns red; in the other, it turns pale. In the lecture titled “Blood Is a Very Special Fluid,” I showed that blood is the outward expression of the inner workings of the individual human being. What is expressed there as the most intimate essence flows into the blood: Whoever has the blood has the “I,” and whoever has the “I” has the blood. That is why it is a very special fluid. But this applies only to warm-blooded creatures, in contrast to cold-blooded ones. Just as today, when we feel shame, fear, or terror, the “I” that experiences these feelings acts upon the blood and transforms the body in this clear, intimate way—as in the blush of shame and the pallor of fear—so too did it act back then. The effect on the blood was great and powerful in the early stages of human development. At that time, the blood intimately and precisely expressed the inner force that had entered the “I” as its divine content. Through this, the “I” was reflected across the races. Just as a person today can turn pale or red, so the inner feeling shaped the entire human body from within. When the human being was still soft—he did not yet have fingers at that time—the “I” shaped the form from within through the blood. Blood is what the human being still expresses today. The plastic, shaping force works from the “I,” indirectly through the blood, on the structure of the human body. Thus we come to know this blood as the bearer of the “I” in the most manifold forms.

[ 27 ] In other lectures, I have drawn attention to a secret hidden in the oldest accounts of the Bible: I have drawn attention to the image of Adam living for centuries. This is based on what we call “Nahehe,” marriage within the bloodline. We find it in the earliest ages of every people. Of course, we must go back very, very far. Everywhere we find small groups within the world’s population who are blood relatives, and marriages take place only within these small groups of blood relatives. This has an important consequence. To express what needs to be said more clearly, I once referred you to a conversation that Anzengruber had with Peter Rosegger. You will recall that Rosegger, who is a fine and beloved poet, depicts his peasants from an external perspective—he portrays them exactly as he presents them to us. Anzengruber, however, is the one who depicts them more vividly; he portrays his peasants in such a way that they stand firm and sure on their feet, as if chiseled, utterly true and certain. Once, the two poet friends went out together. Rosegger said to Anzengruber, “You’d be able to portray the farmers much better if you went out to the countryside and took a look at them for yourself.” Anzengruber replied, “I’ve never seen a farmer like that. But I portray them because it’s in my blood.” “My father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and even my uncles were farmers. And that’s in my blood.” — So Anzengruber didn’t need to have seen the farmers at all. It was in his blood, passed down through the generations, and that came through in his depictions of them.

[ 28 ] This shows how the spirit works through the bloodline, and how a limited “I” does not end with the individual, but rather grows stronger and extends through the father, grandfather, and so on. This was the case with the Anzengrubers because marriages there took place exclusively among farmers. A certain degree of awareness of this remained. The degree of this awareness was even much higher at the time of the earliest parts of the Bible. Back then, there was still a genuine memory, a recollection of the experiences of the forefathers. There was a time when people not only remembered what they themselves had experienced in their youth—as children and as young men—but also retained in their memory what their father and grandfather had done. As unbelievable as this may seem to people today, it is nonetheless true that in ancient times, when a small group bound by strict blood ties was maintained and when one was not permitted to marry outside the community without committing a sin, the “I” not only attained that consciousness of the peasant character, but the son would say of what his father, grandfather, and so on had experienced: “I have experienced it.” — It was thus the case that those who, nine centuries later, were descended from Adam said, with regard to Adam’s experiences: “I have experienced it.” It was a kind of group “I” that passed down through the generations. What was referred to as “Adam” or “Abraham” was precisely this passing down of the “I.”

[ 29 ] This is also what lies behind the descriptions in the first chapters of the Old Testament. From this, however, you can see that this blood is regarded as an outward expression of the inner creative soul. How did humanity lose this ability to look back through the generations? How were their consciousness and memory restricted to their own lives? They were restricted because their blood ties were broken. The old blood ties loosened; the closer circles gave way to broader ones. The small family circle expanded into a tribe, and the tribe into a people. Humanity could not have developed as far as it has except by families organizing themselves into tribes and tribes into peoples—except by breaking the close blood ties. Memory itself reaches back through the generations.

[ 30 ] If you recall how often I have said that memory has the etheric body as its vehicle, that it reproduces what finds expression in memory, then you will understand the connection between the blood and the etheric body. The “I” expresses itself into the etheric body by manifesting outwardly in surges of blood—in what rushes into the blood. But if you now recall that the one who wishes to become an initiate must work into the etheric body, then you will not be far from what is deeply connected to the mystery being of pre-Christian times. This mystery essence of pre-Christian times also has to do with blood. Today we will explore what all of this has to do with blood.

[ 31 ] We know that a person who was to receive pre-Christian initiation had to be prepared for it. We know how such an initiation took place. The initiate was given the task of transforming his existing character traits and habits, which then made him the person he needed to be in order to become an initiate. I have also said that the initiates trace their lineage back to the adepts of the ancient Atlantean era, and that the student, after being properly prepared, was placed entirely into a kind of sleep state for three and a half days—a sleep that made it possible to lift not only the astral body out of the physical body, but also the etheric body. The sage who initiated the student guided the entire procedure. The etheric body was lifted out, and this enabled the initiator to instill in the student the power to have spiritual experiences, so that he could gain a true insight into and experience of the higher world. Because the person had been prepared, the etheric body was set in motion, enabling the student to glimpse into the higher worlds. When he was then brought back, he was able to bear witness to the truth and reality of the spiritual world. One thing was essential here: the person had to attune his consciousness downward, to dampen it, and this dampening of consciousness was connected with the drawing out of the etheric body. He was entirely under the influence of the initiator.

[ 32 ] Now let us consider the process. Whatever existed in terms of laws, institutions, and social structures ultimately traced back to the initiation. At the pinnacle of the social structure stood the great initiator. It was from him that the goals and directions emanated. The disciples carried the revealed wisdom out into the world, and those who heard it outside the circle guided their lives by it and organized social life accordingly. Everything was under the authority of the initiation and the Initiator; everything depended on it. It was the principle of authority, founded on truth and wisdom, lived out to the highest degree and in the best sense. Only those who were the great, wise leaders of humanity were permitted to exercise such authority. And this took place without causing any harm to humanity in any way.

[ 33 ] The task now was to draw the etheric body out of the physical body in the proper way. This could not be done easily with every person. Anyone who tells you that this can be done with every person is describing things in abstract terms; they are not describing them truthfully. Achieving these things requires a long period of preparation. It was essential that the blood have the right composition. That is why such great importance was placed on ensuring that the priestly lineage did not intermarry with others. Over the course of centuries, preparations were made to ensure that there would always be a suitable descendant who could one day become a true initiate in this way. It was a treatment of the human body on a grand scale, in an immensely mysterious way—mysterious in the most beautiful sense of the word. The greatest initiates were prepared over the course of centuries with regard to their physical principle and the composition of their blood. This entire preparatory process for initiation is characteristic of pre-Christian initiation, but it could not always—it could not eternally—persist in the course of human development. For what was this principle of initiation connected to? It was connected to the clarity of the blood community. The closer we come to this, the more we arrive at principles of this nature.

[ 34 ] In the earliest times, therefore, initiation was based on the principle of blood ties. This principle was increasingly broken, from family to family, from tribe to tribe, from people to people. And now what is to come in the future was about to happen: that all such blood ties would be severed. For where did the principle of community exist that humanity possessed when it emerged from the bosom of the Divine? One could say it flowed through the blood, and if one wished to initiate a person, one simply had to take the blood into account.

[ 35 ] When warm blood made it possible for the “I” to integrate the divine soul character, the divine soul character flowed through the blood: “I am who was, who is, and who will be.” It is precisely the One who speaks as God Jehovah who says: “I am who was, who is, and who is to come.” — And where did He work most powerfully? He worked most powerfully in the blood. And how was a person guided when he was initiated? They were led through the treatment of their blood. These are the profound and far-reaching mysteries of antiquity. Anyone who regards Christianity merely as an external process misunderstands it. It was with full deliberation that my book was not titled *The Mysticism of Christianity* but *Christianity as a Mystical Fact*; that is to say, Christianity itself is a mystical fact and can only be understood if one knows that with the appearance of Christ Jesus, the entire spiritual configuration of our Earth has changed.

[ 36 ] Imagine yourself on a distant planet and picture that, as a seer, you could look down upon the Earth—upon its atmosphere, upon its astral body, upon what constitutes the Earth’s general astral body, and upon the seething, bubbling, surging, and undulating mass of the astral bodies of animals and humans. And then imagine that you could look down several centuries before the birth of Christ and trace the events all the way into the distant future. If you could follow this, you would see something peculiar. You would see that with the appearance of Christ Jesus, the astral atmosphere changes thoroughly, undergoes a powerful jolt, so that it takes on a different hue, a different coloration, for all time to come. Something new entered the earthly spiritual atmosphere. Anyone who does not acknowledge that there is now something spiritually different on Earth than there was millennia ago does not understand Christianity and its preparation. Only those who view it as a real and genuine new development know what happened at the beginning of Christianity.

[ 37 ] If you look at it this way, you will also find the expression for the transformation of the Earth in the spiritual realm and will have to say to yourself: All close blood ties are breaking; everything that has held people together in small blood-related communities is gradually breaking apart. The small brotherhoods will gradually expand into the great brotherhood that is to encompass all people on Earth, where every person calls every other person “brother,” where people “leave mother and father and brother and sister.” Everything that blood ties had created in a kind of group ego—an ego that transcends the ordinary ego—must disappear from the Earth. And when the Earth is ready to become a new astral sphere, then the fruit will have ripened, all bonds will have been broken, and a single great bond will encompass humanity. Christ Jesus took upon himself the task of providing the impulse and the power to establish this brotherhood. Hence, the mission of Christ Jesus and the ideal of Christianity are expressed in the words: “Whoever does not leave father, mother, brother, and sister cannot be my disciple.” Hence also the rejection: “This is not my mother; my mother and my brothers are those who do the will of my Father.” This is the new spirit that is to come into humanity in place of blood ties.

[ 38 ] I ask you to take what I am about to say not as a metaphor, not as a symbol, but as reality. Today’s materialistic humanity finds it difficult to regard such things as reality, yet they are indeed reality. And now let us consider the raised cross—above all, the blood flowing from the wounds. This blood flowing from the wounds—be clear about what it means in the context of world history! Why does it flow? Why is there any mention at all of the flowing blood of Christ Jesus? What has founded all smaller communities? What has united the small tribes? What must its significance lose within these narrow boundaries if all of humanity is to expand into a brotherhood? The blood. Once all of humanity has matured into a brotherhood, what affects the “I”—what pulsates within the “I”—can no longer depend on the blood. Therefore, through Christ’s wounds, the superfluous “I”-blood—the blood that prevents humanity from expanding its “I” into a universal “I”—must flow as selfish blood, as egotistical blood. It flows out. Do not regard this as a metaphor, but as reality. Consider the amount of blood that flowed from Christ’s wounds as the amount that had to flow so that blood might lose its tendency to form narrow communities and thereby gain the ability to spread the brotherhood throughout the entire earth.

[ 39 ] Perhaps no one has come as close to this mystery in exoteric terms as Richard Wagner did in his essay on the conception of *Parsifal*. There, an exotericist touches upon the deepest esoteric truths of the mysteries. If you look at it this way, you will see that the meaning of Christianity lies, on the one hand, in dissolving that which is bound up in tribes, families, and narrowly defined communities, and, on the other hand, in fragmenting people into individuals, so that the individual feels, on the one hand, as an individual and, on the other hand, once again as a member of the whole of humanity. These two things coexist as polarities. In ancient times, when small circles of kinship prevailed, people felt themselves to be members of the family, members of the tribe. And to the same extent that kinship dies out, individual autonomy will also grow and increase.

[ 40 ] You can see that the event at Golgotha had this effect from the fact that, from that point on—when the event was to encompass the entire earth—the religious impulse became of the utmost importance. Everything that happened there was prepared and is part of that preparation. The effect begins with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. When one speaks in such a way that words flow from the soul of the other—that is, no longer selfishly—this is best illustrated by the apostles speaking to all people in every tongue. In this way, the Holy Spirit prepares the way for what is to be accomplished through the blood of the Son, the Logos, the Christ.

[ 41 ] Now let us return to the old principle of initiation. It was the one based on authority. Everyone looked up to the initiates and received their inspiration from them. This principle of authority is ceasing to exist more and more. There is an apparent contradiction here: the fragmentation of humanity into individuals and the complete breaking down of that old principle of authority—and at the same time, the establishment of a complete brotherhood. How is it to be established? By grasping what has flowed forth as Spirit. What does it consist of? It was enough for the ancient initiator to possess all wisdom and truth and to allow them to flow into all of humanity. Now, it will suffice for the individual, elevated to the highest degree, to possess the truth. Every person must be the possessor of truth and wisdom. In those days, truth flowed from the highest peak into the individual, who had to attain it. The spread of wisdom must go hand in hand with development; the individualization of humanity must go hand in hand with the establishment of the great brotherhood of humanity. These two things cannot proceed side by side; they must go together.

[ 42 ] As we consider this, we gradually come to see the work of the Holy Spirit. As long as people heeded the one authority, they—as individuals—could entrust themselves to life. They could live within a close-knit circle. The authoritative leadership took care of the whole. He can no longer do so once the principle of authority is broken. Then each individual must ensure cohesion within the brotherhood. Each individual must be able to contribute to the social structure of the brotherhood. He must take in what is generally present, what every person brings to the table. What might that be? We need only recall how the ancient religions arose. All initiates possessed the same primordial wisdom of humanity. But as this wisdom was transmitted to individual people, it took on specific characteristics and various forms through the state, the clergy, and so on. Buddhism and Zoroastrianism arose in this way. The smaller the communities were, the more they had to specialize. Since the great brotherhood must be established, what the initiate knew must be able to flow out to all of humanity, so that now everyone can take care of for themselves what the initiates used to take care of.

[ 43 ] Thus wisdom flows down to all of humanity. Wisdom is one and the same. And so we see that in this wisdom, in this knowledge, we have that which is distributed among the individual, fragmented human beings who have “left father, mother, brother, sister, and child.” They will have these things again, precisely because wisdom is one and the same. The one who can understand that wisdom is one and the same understands the word of the Holy Spirit.

[ 44 ] But people have not yet reached that point, for they still say: “That is my point of view; that is what I believe; others are free to have a different point of view.” — This is a mindset that must be overcome. People had to be fragmented into the “I,” into egoism. They have not yet found union with the unified wisdom. People will find this by truly engaging with this unified wisdom and becoming as strongly individual as possible. Once they have attained the unified spirit of wisdom, they will outgrow the habit of saying, “That’s my point of view; that’s my opinion.” Only when one has realized that there is no particular standpoint in relation to the unified wisdom—that any adherence to a particular standpoint is nothing other than a sign that one has not advanced far enough—only then can one comprehend the idea of the Holy Spirit. Only the imperfect human being has a standpoint. The person who draws near to the Spirit of Wisdom has no standpoint. He knows that he must devote himself selflessly to the primal, pure Wisdom. Just as all plants turn toward the one sun, so will human beings unite and turn toward the One, because the one Spirit of Wisdom lives within them. If that which originally bound human beings together through blood has flowed forth from Christ, then Wisdom unites us once more in the brotherhood.

[ 45 ] This was expressed in such a marvelous way in the miracle of Pentecost that the apostles expanded the brotherhood into a covenant of humanity and spoke in a language that everyone could understand. This must be expressed more and more, and indeed at the highest level of individuality. We are all united by the Spirit of Truth. All other aspects of human nature will undergo their development much later, in other planetary incarnations. But that which will remain active and alive until the Earth has attained its perfection is the unifying wisdom that has been revealed to us—a wisdom that was once revealed only to the initiated. Whoever sins against this wisdom—against the wisdom that forms the brotherhood—cannot be forgiven for this sin, for thereby he hinders the Earth’s evolution; the Earth can only transition to the astral state when humanity is united in the brotherhood. It is the Spirit that unites humanity that has been poured out into the future. When we fill our astral body with this Spirit of unified wisdom, then we can receive it into the astral body of the Earth.

[ 46 ] Now we can understand: it is something in which the whole world can be united. Therefore, the essence of wisdom is positive theosophy, which must find expression in the spiritual-scientific worldview. This does not happen simply by telling people: “We must unite.” — It is not enough merely to preach brotherhood to humanity; mere moralizing is useless talk. Just as one must feed the stove with fuel if it is to become warm, so one must give wisdom to humanity; this unites them into a brotherhood. Speaking to people about brotherhood is like telling a stove to give off heat. Truly teaching—concept by concept, idea by idea—and conveying the wisdom of the world’s development and the nature of the human being: that is what moves us forward. Preaching compassion, and even feeling compassion, means nothing if one lacks wisdom. What good is it to someone who has fallen and broken a leg if fourteen people from the street gather around, overflowing with compassion and love, yet none of them can set the leg! All fourteen of them are of no use there. But the one who can do it—he can help when he comes, and he will do so if he is a spiritual being.

[ 47 ] Ethical principles arise all on their own; they do not need to be taught. But there is one wisdom about which there can be no dispute, against which there is no opposing viewpoint—the wisdom that in Christianity is described as that which completely transfigures and purifies the astral body—and it is this that must flow into humanity through the spiritual science movement. This is clearly stated in the mission of Christianity; it expresses the mission of Christianity.

[ 48 ] People are to become freer and freer, less and less bound by authority; they are to flow ever more toward the one, universal truth. The brotherhood of humanity will form all on its own when people come to recognize that one primal Christian saying—the freest, the highest Christian saying: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”—when people come to recognize this truth.

[ 49 ] There are no two occultists who can truly see and yet hold two different views. There are not two assertions about one and the same thing among those who are truly initiated. Nor will there be two thoughts on the matter once humanity has ascended to the path of human unification—brotherhood not as a word, but as an inner force!