The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Mystery of Golgotha

[ 1 ] The secret underlying the Mystery of Golgotha is one of the deepest secrets of world development. To understand it, we must use occult wisdom to look back thousands of years into the past of Earth’s evolution. This deeper penetration into the mystery of Golgotha is not contradicted by the fact that what Christ Jesus accomplished is meant to be understandable to every simple mind. That is indeed the case. But a full understanding of this greatest event on Earth must be drawn from the depths of mystery wisdom.

[ 2 ] In this lecture, then, our task will be to gain an understanding, from the very depths of the wisdom of the mysteries, of how something like the Mystery of Golgotha could have been possible. We must bear in mind that with the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, something occurred that truly marked a profound turning point in human history. We will understand this best if we answer the question: Who was Christ Jesus, really? For the occultist, this question breaks down into two parts. We must distinguish between the personality who lived in Palestine at that time and lived to be thirty years old, and what subsequently became of him.

[ 3 ] Jesus became the Christ in the thirtieth year of his life. In the average person, only small portions of the astral body, etheric body, and physical body have been transformed into Manas, Buddhi, and Atma—or the spiritual self, the life spirit, and the spiritual man. Jesus of Nazareth was a third-degree chela. As a result, his bodies were in a state of high purification. He had achieved complete purification, sanctification, and refinement in his astral body, etheric body, and physical body. When a chela has completed this purification of his three bodies, he becomes capable of sacrificing his “I” at a certain point in his life. At the age of thirty, the “I” of Jesus left the three bodies and passed into the astral world, leaving behind on Earth the sanctified three bodies, as it were hollowed out by the “I,” so that there was room within them for the higher Individuality. Thus, at the age of thirty, the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth made the great sacrifice of placing his purified bodies at the disposal of the Individuality of the Christ. Christ filled these three bodies. From this time onward, we speak of Christ Jesus, who walked the earth for three years and accomplished great deeds in the body of Jesus.

[ 4 ] To understand who the Christ was, we must go far back in the history of the Earth’s and humanity’s evolution. Before it became the Earth, the Earth was the ancient Moon, which is not the same as the present Moon, which is merely a fragment that broke off from the Earth. Before the Earth became the Moon, it was the Sun, and before that, Saturn. We must therefore be clear that billions of years ago there was once a celestial body in outer space: the ancient Saturn. A planet also evolves through various incarnations. Before our Earth became the Earth, it existed as Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon. Now let us first imagine ourselves on the Sun. There, the so-called fire spirits held the same rank that human beings hold on Earth today. However, they did not look like present-day human beings on the Sun. These high individualities underwent their human stage on the Sun under conditions entirely different from those under which human beings do so on Earth today. On the Moon, too, a host of beings passed through the human stage, who then came to Earth as higher beings: the lunar Pitris, Moon spirits, who have now already reached a higher stage than human beings; in Christian esotericism, they are called Angeloi, or angels. It was only on Earth that human beings became “human.” The next stage above them is occupied by the lunar Pitris. Above them still stand the fire spirits at a very high stage of development.

[ 5 ] We now turn to Earth, specifically to the state of the Lemurian race, which lived on a continent between present-day Asia, Africa, and Australia. At that time, there were physical beings on Earth that were higher than today’s animals but less developed than modern humans. These physical beings formed a kind of vessel, a dwelling. They would have fallen into decadence had they not been impregnated by higher beings. It was only then that souls entered the physical body of humans. These souls themselves prepared the later human body at that time. The human soul was formerly a part of higher spiritual beings. On Earth, these were the physical vessels of human bodies, into which higher beings from the spiritual worlds above allowed soul substance to flow. This soul substance was still connected to the spiritual worlds. It was like water poured drop by drop into a series of vessels. The beings who poured out this soul substance were those entities who had completed their incarnation on the Moon—the Moon spirits—who now stood one level higher than human beings and were able to pour a part of their being into humanity so that it could continue to develop. Through this, human beings became capable of increasingly transforming their physical organism. Human beings were able to rise from the earth, stand upright, walk, learn to speak, and become independent.

[ 6 ] There was a certain kinship among all these souls, for they did, after all, originate from shared spirits. All those who had each received a drop from a common entity showed great similarity. In the past, it was the members of a tribe who possessed such similar souls. Later, it was entire peoples—for example, the entire Egyptian people and the entire Jewish people. They had souls that had emerged from a common origin.

[ 7 ] What the Moon spirits had given to human beings was the spiritual self within them. Through this, human beings became self-aware beings, an “I.” But what the Moon spirits had been unable to give them could only be bestowed by a single, collective, even higher being—one that had already perfected its humanity on the Sun—a fire spirit.

[ 8 ] Many such fire spirits had developed on the Sun and were high spirits on Earth. One such fire spirit was called upon to pour out its essence over all of humanity. There existed a collective spirit for the entire Earth that could pour out the element of the solar spirits or fire spirits—Buddhi, or the life spirit—over all of humanity in all its parts. But during the Lemurian race and in the Atlantean era, human beings were not yet ready to receive anything of this solar spirit. In the Akashic Records, one can observe something most remarkable about that time: namely, that human beings consisted of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the spiritual self. However, the spiritual self was present within them only in a very faint way. Buddhi, or the life spirit, surrounded each individual, yet this could only be perceived in the astral realm. Everyone had such a Buddhi aura in the astral realm; but this Buddhi, which hovered around people from the outside, was not yet mature enough to penetrate them. It was a part of the one great Spirit of Fire, who had poured out his drops upon humanity; these simply could not yet penetrate into people. Through the work of the Christ on Earth, the capacities within human beings were developed so that they could receive what we call Buddhi into their Manas.

[ 9 ] What Christ did on Earth was prepared by the other great teachers who came before him—Buddha, the last Zarathustra, and Pythagoras—all of whom lived about six hundred years before Christ. These were spirits who had already made their own much of what had merely hovered around other people. They had received this spark of Christ into their “I”-self. Moses, too, belonged to these spirits. But other people had not yet received this spark into their “I”-self.

[ 10 ] What has entered the physical, etheric, and astral bodies of Jesus of Nazareth is this entire Spirit of Fire, the common source of all these sparks of spirit for humankind. This is the Christ, the one divine being who exists in this manner and in no other form on Earth. It entered into Jesus of Nazareth so that those who felt connected to Christ Jesus might receive the power to take in the Buddhi within themselves. With the appearance of Christ Jesus, the possibility of receiving the Buddhi begins. John called this the divine creative word. The divine creative word is this Spirit of Fire, which poured out its sparks into human beings.

[ 11 ] This had the following effect: While the moon spirits, through their influence, were able to bring about the formation of distinct tribes among humankind, Christ was a single Spirit for the entire earth, thereby uniting humankind into one family that encompassed the whole earth. While the differences among human beings were brought about by the various moon spirits pouring out their drops upon the earth, the unity of humanity, on the other hand, was brought about by the outpouring of Christ Jesus. That which unites human beings came to earth through Christ Jesus.

[ 12 ] When Christ speaks of the Last Judgment, He says in His prophecy: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory”—by which He means: when the drops of Christ have all flowed into humanity, when all people have become brothers—“then He will say to those on His right hand: ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.’ There will then be no other distinction among people than that between good and evil.

[ 13 ] He says to his disciples: “Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did for me.” This means that Christ Jesus is referring to the time when the drops he has poured out have been received by people in such a way that when one person stands before another, they know that the same substance lives within both of them. The power that made it possible for the Buddhi to be awakened in human beings at all—this power emanated from the life of Christ on Earth. Thus, we must regard Christ as the collective spirit of the Earth.

[ 14 ] If we were to look down upon Earth from a distant star over the course of many millennia, we would find a moment when Christ is working on Earth in such a way that all astral matter is permeated by Christ. Christ is the Earth Spirit, and the Earth is his body. Everything that lives, sprouts, and grows on Earth is Christ. He is in all the seeds, in all the trees, and in everything that grows and sprouts on Earth. That is why Christ had to point to the bread and say, “This is my body.” And regarding the juice of the grapes—the wine at the Last Supper was not yet fermented—he had to say, “This is my blood,” for the juice of the fruits of the earth is his blood. Humanity must therefore also appear to him as beings walking about on his body. That is why he also said to his disciples after the washing of the feet: “Whoever eats my bread tramples me underfoot.” This statement is to be taken literally in the sense that the earth is the body of Christ. Precisely because he makes himself the bearer of the earth’s evolution, a distant spirit would be able to see how more and more of his spirit flows into human beings—the drawing in of the substance of Christ Jesus into every single human being. In the end, such a spirit would see the entire earth transformed, bearing people who have become Christ-like—people deified through Christ. Only that which has not participated in this deification will be set aside as evil. It must await a later time for its development toward the good.

[ 15 ] All the various peoples before the coming of Christ on Earth had mysteries. The mysteries depicted what was to happen in the future. The disciples were prepared through long exercises so that they could undergo the burial ritual. The hierophant could then bring the initiate into a higher state of consciousness, where he was in a kind of deep sleep. In ancient times, consciousness always had to be suppressed if the divine within a person was to emerge. The soul was then guided through the regions of the spiritual world, and after three days, the person was revived by the Hierophant. He then felt like a new person. He was given a new name. He was then called a Son of God. |

[ 16 ] This entire process took place in the Mystery of Golgotha, out on the physical plane. Before that, the disciples had been enlivened by a Christ-spark, and they were told: One day, One will come who will make it possible for all people to become Christianized. One will truly be the Word made flesh. You can experience this for only three days, during which you will journey through the realms of heaven. But One will come who always journeys through the realms of heaven; He will bring the realms of heaven into the physical world.

[ 17 ] What the initiate experienced on the astral plane, Christ was to portray on the physical plane: that from the very beginning there has been a divine Word that poured out its drops upon humanity, but which the “I”-human beings were not yet able to receive. This is what John tells us—he who proclaims the “I-human,” who has been Christianized, who has received Christ; this is also what the “Word” means in John. He speaks of the Word that was on earth from the very beginning:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness to bear witness to the light, so that through him all might believe.

He was not the light, but a witness to the light.

For the true light, which enlightens every person, was to come into the world.

It was in the world, and the world was made through it, but the world did not recognize it.

It came to individual people (it came even to the “I”-people), but the individual people (the “I”-people) did not receive it. But those who did receive it were able to reveal themselves as children of God through it.

Those who believed in his name were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we heard his teaching—the teaching of the Father’s only Son, full of devotion and truth.

[ 18 ] For John, the word “devotion” in verse 14 means the same as Buddhi; “truth” is the Manas, wisdom, the spiritual self.

“John bears witness to him and proclaims clearly: ‘This was the one of whom I said, “After me will come the one who was before me, for he is my predecessor.” For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God with his own eyes. The only Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, has made him known.”

[ 19 ] Every initiation into the mysteries of the Spirit pointed to this manifestation of Christ Jesus. This initiation was present in yogic sleep, Orphic sleep, and Hermetic sleep. When the initiate awoke again in the body, when he could once more hear and speak with his physical senses, he uttered the words that in Hebrew read: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”—“My God, my God, how have you exalted me!”

[ 20 ] This was the initiation as it took place in ancient Judaism. During his three-day stay in the higher worlds, the initiate experienced the course of all future human development—what lay ahead for him in the future evolution of humanity. During these three days of vision, the future stages of human development were generally not seen in an abstract manner; rather, each stage was represented by a personality. The seer saw twelve personalities. They represented the twelve stages of soul development. Thus, the soul forces appeared before him as external personalities. At a certain point, the initiate saw a very specific scene unfold: He saw his own individuality transfigured to the stage where all of humanity is filled with Buddhi—where it will thus be Christianized. He saw God as himself, with the soul forces standing behind him. Immediately behind him stood John, who, as the final figure, heralds his own perfection. He saw himself transfigured, in a state he will attain when he is perfected; his soul forces personified, with the personality of John—who proclaims the Christ stage—representing their final stage of perfection. Then, during yogic sleep, these twelve figures arranged themselves into what was called the mystical communal meal. This represents the following: When a person sits there, surrounded by the soul forces, he says to himself: These are one with me; they have guided me through earthly evolution. I have walked onward on the feet of these apostles. — The meal expresses the communion of the twelve soul forces with the human being.

[ 21 ] The perfection of the human being consists in the lower powers falling away from him, leaving only the higher powers behind. Later on, the human being will no longer possess the lower forces—for example, the force of procreation. It is precisely the soul force of John that will have brought about the elevation of these forces into the loving heart. It will radiate streams of spiritual love. When Christ is within the human being, the heart is the most powerful organ within him. The lower soul force will then have been lifted up from the womb to the heart. Every initiate experienced this as the mystery of the heart. This found expression in the words: “My God, my God, how you have exalted me!”

[ 22 ] With the coming of Christ Jesus, the entire mystery—the entire experience—was now realized on the physical plane. At that time, there were brotherhoods in Palestine that had emerged from the ancient Essene order. These brotherhoods held such a meal as a symbol of the mystical Last Supper. The phrase “to partake of the Paschal Lamb” is a general expression for what took place at Easter. Jesus sat down to eat with the Twelve and instituted the Last Supper with the words: “At the end of the Earth’s evolution, all people will have received what I have brought to Earth; then this will be true: this is my body, this is my blood.” Then he said: “One of you will betray me. ” The betrayer is selfishness, the base desire. The disciple whom the Lord loved knew this, for he was reclining at his side. As long as this force is present there, it kills—sexual reproduction and death are mutually dependent—; this force, which lies in the sexual realm, rises higher within the body: into the heart. The disciple indicates this in the Gospel through his elevation to the heart. Just as it is certain that it is base desire that commits the betrayal, so it is also certain that the base force of the soul is lifted higher. “There was one among his disciples who was reclining on Jesus’ bosom—he leaned against Jesus’ chest.” This meant that all lower forces, all selfishness, had been raised up to the heart. Then Jesus repeated these words to his disciples: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”—“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.”

[ 23 ] What took place in the Mysteries was the same as what happened on Golgotha. Standing beneath the cross was the disciple whom the Lord loved, the one who had reclined on his lap at the Last Supper and had been lifted up to his breast. Standing there as well were the women: his mother, his mother’s sister Mary, and Mary Magdalene. The Gospel of John does not state that Jesus’ mother was named Mary; rather, his mother’s sister is named Mary. His mother’s name was Sophia.

[ 24 ] John baptized Jesus in the Jordan. Then a dove descends from heaven. At that moment, a spiritual conception takes place. The mother of Jesus, who is conceived here—who is she? The Chela Jesus of Nazareth, who at this moment divests himself of his ego; the highly developed Manas is fertilized, and the Buddhi enters into it. The highly developed Manas, which has received the Buddhi, is Wisdom, Sophia, the Mother, who is fertilized by Jesus’ Father. The name Mary, like Maja, generally signifies the mother’s name. It is written in Scripture: “The angel came to her and said, ‘Hail, O blessed one; behold, you will conceive and bear a son. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’ The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ Father; the dove that flies down fertilizes Sophia, who is within Jesus.

[ 25 ] The text should therefore be read as follows: “But standing by the cross of Jesus was his mother, Sophia.” He said to this mother, “Woman, behold, this is your son.” He had himself entrusted Sophia, who was within him, to John. He made him the son of Sophia and said, “This is your mother.” — “From now on, you must recognize Divine Wisdom as your mother and dedicate yourself solely to her.” What John wrote was this Divine Wisdom, Sophia, who is embodied in the Gospel of John itself. He received this knowledge directly from Jesus, and he is authorized by Christ to bring this wisdom to earth.

[ 26 ] The highest spirit of the earth had to be incarnated in a body. This body had to die, had to be killed; the blood had to flow. This signifies something special. Wherever there is blood, there is the Self. If all ancient communities of the Self are to cease to exist, then the Selfhood that resides in the blood must one day be sacrificed. All individual egos flow away with the blood of Christ on the cross. The blood of the tribal communities becomes a common human blood through the fact that, at that moment, the blood of Christ was sacrificed.

[ 27 ] Then something else happened that an astral observer could have witnessed in the astral atmosphere: The entire astral atmosphere of the Earth changed at the very moment he died, making possible events that had never been possible before. The sudden initiation—as in the case of Paul—would never have been possible before. It became possible because, through the flow of Christ’s blood, all of humanity has become a collective Self. At that time, the Self flowed from the blood of Jesus’ wounds. Only the three bodies remained hanging on the cross and were later revived by the Risen One. At the very moment the Christ left the body, the three bodies were so strong that they were able to speak the very words that the Transfigured One spoke after the initiation: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.”

[ 28 ] These words would have made it clear to anyone familiar with the wisdom of the mysteries that this was a mystery. With a slight alteration in the Hebrew text, this gave rise to the words of Scripture: “Eli, Eli, lama asabthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”