The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Gospel of John III

[ 1 ] The individual concepts in the Gospel of John are so profound that we can only understand this text correctly and in its entirety once we have established a sufficient foundation for doing so through our knowledge of our planet’s evolution.

[ 2 ] There is a remarkable parallel between the beginning of the Gospel of John and that of the Bible. The Bible states: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” and the Gospel of John begins: “In the beginning was the Word.” These first words set the tone for the entire Gospel of John. The evolution of the Earth can only be properly understood if we bear in mind that the same laws apply to it as to the evolution of the individual human being. From the perspective of spiritual science, the planet visible to us is merely the body of the spirit dwelling within it. This spiritual being undergoes repeated incarnations just as a human being does. From the perspective of spiritual research, three incarnations are discernible before the Earth reached its present state. This is not to say that it did not undergo other incarnations before that; but for the highest clairvoyant, only three previous incarnations and three subsequent ones are discernible. Together with the present incarnation, this makes seven. There is no superstition in this number seven. When I stand in a distant field, I see equally far in all directions. It is similar with the clairvoyant; he, too, sees equally far both forward and backward in time. In esoteric science, these seven incarnations of the Earth are called: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. These names denote only states of one and the same entity.

[ 3 ] Saturn represents a state of our Earth that lies in the distant past. The present planet Saturn is to the present Earth as a child is to an old man. The Earth was once in the Saturn state, just as the old man was once a child. Nor should the following incarnation be understood to mean that humanity will ever walk upon Jupiter; rather, in its next incarnation, the Earth will reach the state in which the present-day planet Jupiter currently finds itself.

[ 4 ] Between two planetary incarnations lies a kind of celestial or spiritual Devachan, a Pralaya. The time between two planetary states—just as, for humans, the time between two earthly lives—is not a time of rest, but a time of spiritual activity and preparation for the near future, for the next life. Outwardly, this state appears to be one of twilight. When the Earth emerged from Pralaya to transition into the Saturn state, it was not as it is today. If one could mix together everything that constitutes the substance and essence of the Earth, Sun, and Moon and form a single body from it, one would obtain what constituted the Earth when it emerged from that twilight darkness into the Saturn state. It did not emerge as a body abandoned by beings. Humanity as we know it today was already present there, but in a state adapted to that of the planet. On Saturn, the first rudiments of the physical body were formed. We gain an idea of the physical nature of human beings at that time when we try to comprehend the material state of the planet. On Saturn, there were no such states of physicality as we encounter today. There were no solid, liquid, or gaseous substances; rather, matter was in a state that today’s physicists would no longer even recognize as physical.

[ 5 ] Esoteric science recognizes four states of matter: earth, water, air, and fire or heat. Earth refers to everything that is solid; thus, even frozen water or ice is considered earth in esoteric science. Water is everything that is liquid; thus, molten iron or stone is also water. Air is everything that is gaseous, including water vapor. According to the current view of physicists, fire or heat is merely a property of matter—specifically, an extremely rapid vibration of its smallest particles. For esoteric science, however, heat is also a form of matter, only much finer than air. According to the Secret Science, when a body is heated, it absorbs heat matter; when it cools, it releases heat matter. Heat matter can condense into air, air into water, and water into earth. All substances once existed as mere heat matter. When the Earth was in its Saturn state, there was only heat matter.

[ 6 ] The initial form of the human body was also composed solely of thermal substance, though some organs were already beginning to take shape. But not only was the seed of the physical body present, but also the spirit—the deepest inner core of the human being, the spiritual man, or Atma. This spiritual man rested in the bosom of the Deity, which formed the spiritual atmosphere of Saturn. He was no more an independent being than our finger is. Only at the end of the Volcanic Period will he become independent.

[ 7 ] In the epoch that followed—the Solar Period—matter, including human bodies, had condensed from a state of heat into an air-like state. Consequently, in addition to the existing physical body, the etheric body developed in human beings, and on the spiritual side, the Divine, so to speak, descended one level to form the life spirit, or Buddhi.

[ 8 ] During the lunar period, matter condenses into a liquid state, and the densest substance could be compared to wax in terms of its consistency. Human beings also continued to evolve, and on the one hand the astral body developed, and on the other, from the spiritual side, the spiritual self or Manas. However, humans at that time did not yet possess an “I”; they were comparable to present-day animals, differing from them only in appearance.

[ 9 ] When, after the period of rest that followed the lunar phase, the Earth reemerged into its current stage of development, it contained within itself the substances and beings that make up the present Sun, Earth, and Moon. On the material side, the human being had become so refined that his astral body was able to receive an “I,” as this astral body took shape as a vehicle for the “I.” On the other hand, the spirit had become so condensed that, like a drop of water, it could, as the “I,” impregnate the lower bodies.

[ 10 ] The first significant cosmic event is the separation of the Sun from the Earth. This separation was necessary to provide a suitable setting for the higher spiritual beings who had been connected to humanity until then and had now matured to a higher level of activity. These higher beings had already attained the goal of human evolution during the Saturn period. At that time, they were already at the stage of development that humanity will not reach until the distant volcanic period of Earth. Still other higher beings had, during Earth’s earlier solar state, reached the level of development that humanity will attain during the Venus period. It is these latter beings who now send us their power along with the physical sunlight. Both types of beings separated from Earth and, taking with them the finest forces and substances, formed the present Sun.

[ 11 ] It was a bleak time when the Sun had separated from the Earth, while the Moon was still within it. Humanity faced the threat of dissolving into mere form, the withering away of all that was spiritual and of all possibilities for development. Had the sun and the earth remained connected, they would have brought about such a rapid spiritual development in humankind that people would not have been able to develop physically. Had the forces of the moon remained connected to the forces of the earth, all life would have solidified into mere form. Human beings would have become statues; a “crystallized human race,” as Goethe says in Faust II, would have come into being.

[ 12 ] By separating the forces of the Sun and the Moon from the Earth, the balance between life and form that was necessary for humanity’s development was established. It is only because these forces now act upon human beings from the outside that humans can develop properly. The forces coming from the Sun create and nourish life. What molds this life into solid forms comes from the Moon. We owe the Moon the formation of the physical body as we have it today; but what sinks into this body—life itself—comes from the Sun.

[ 13 ] These two currents of the Sun and the Moon always act in the correct manner because one of the solar beings has united with the Moon. The beings who stood on the level of the gods departed with the Sun; however, one of these beings separated itself and took up residence in the present-day Moon. This spirit connected to the Moon is called Jehovah, the God of Form or the Lunar Deity. This God, Jehovah or Yahweh, fashioned the three bodies of the human being so that they became capable of receiving the I-drop. Jehovah fashioned the human body in his image: “In the image of God he created him” (Genesis 1:27).

[ 14 ] This doctrine of evolution formed the foundation of the knowledge of the mystery schools of all ages. In the Christian mystery school of Dionysius the Areopagite, the student was taught this in roughly the following manner: Consider the realms of living beings on Earth. You see the stones. They are silent. They express nothing of their suffering or joy. Look at the plants. They, too, are silent; they, too, express nothing of suffering or joy. Animals have risen above this silence. If you were to observe their evolution with a spiritually sharpened gaze, you would see that the sounds of animals from a distant past express the very same thing that resounds throughout the cosmos. The closer you ascend toward humanity, the more you will find that sound becomes an expression of their own pain and pleasure. Only to human beings is it given to imbue sound with that which emanates from the individual spirit. The animal roars out what is happening in nature; but sound became speech when Yahweh had fashioned human bodies in such a way that the spiritual entities of the sun could immerse themselves within them. When sound becomes speech, the spirit resounds within the astral body. Meaning and significance were imbued into sound when the higher solar powers penetrated the forms that had been fashioned by Yahweh. When the first word resounded within humankind, that was its true spiritual beginning.

[ 15 ] Here we have reached the point that the Evangelist touches upon in Chapter 1, Verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word...” The supreme Spirit, who is connected to the Sun and who sent the “I”s to Earth, is called Christ in the Esoteric Teaching; however, the “I”s, as members of the Solar Logos, flowed into the forms only gradually. The light streamed forth from the Solar Logos, but few received it in those ancient times; yet those who did receive it became different from their fellow human beings. They were called the children of God or the sons of God (Chapter 1, Verse 12). They consisted of four parts: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I”—even though the fourth, the youngest part, was still weak and obscure. But the light is meant to come to all people; it simply takes time. Verses eight through fourteen point this out. There were, however, individual people who had already received the light to a high degree, so that they knew of it and could bear witness to it. They taught others. Those who, from their own experience and not taught by others, bore witness to the light and pointed out that one would come who would bring the light to all for the first time—these are called “John” in the Esoteric Teaching (chapters 6 and 7). The author of the Gospel of John is such a “John.” In Chapter 1, verse 18, it says: “No one has ever seen God…,” meaning no one before John, for it was only with Jesus Christ that God was personified. The greatest event in the evolution of the cosmos and humanity is the event at Golgotha.