The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] In our reflections on the Apocalypse, we have reached the point that leads us to what is known as the third letter. This third letter presents to us—just as we saw with the first two letters—the mystery of the development of a specific geographical territory, so to speak. To follow the train of thought that follows, we must once again briefly remind ourselves of the fundamental thrust and purpose of the Book of Revelation.

[ 2 ] We have seen that the Apocalypse is, first and foremost, a book of initiation that describes the stages a person seeking initiation must go through if they wish to evolve upward to the highest level of perception of the spiritual world. We have seen that the first stage is to be regarded as a comprehensive understanding of the physical plane in all its aspects, after which one must ascend to the astral plane and then to the Devachan plane. It has become clear to us that the person who ascends to the astral plane is surrounded by a world of images—images that, compared to what we, in our limited language, call “images,” are far more real and far more tangible than anything that exists here. These images, which the seer experiences, are the fundamental forces of the physical world. The physical world is shaped out of this world of images. Once a person has worked his way up to the astral plane, he ascends to the Devachan plane; its world of images is permeated by the so-called “sphere sounds,” which constitute the inner essence of things themselves. When the seer ascends from the astral plane to the Devachan plane, he hears for the first time what the Pythagorean school called “sphere music.” This is expressed only in an outwardly abstract way in what we call higher numbers. But what are ordinary numbers and measures? What are the numbers the physicist speaks of when he observes wave motion, when he speaks of vibrations and waveforms—what is that compared to what our ear perceives when it hears the sounds themselves? What is written in philosophical books about “numerical mysticism” is nothing more than gibberish; but what the Pythagoreans mean is what the seer perceives when the spiritual ear is open, when it hears the sounds that cause the wave motion or that which is expressed in such wave motion. The Devachanic world is not somewhere else. You can remain standing in the very same place, and you can experience the physical world sinking away and coming alive with colors and forms—and then you can experience this world of light being permeated by sounds.

[ 3 ] You will find a description of how Christian mysticism portrays the Devachanic world in the Book of Revelation! If you rise to that exalted state, like the servant of the Lord, you will first experience what is taking place on the physical plane. — This is depicted to us, in a certain sense, in the seven letters to the seven churches, and the enlightenment we have attained through our understanding of the physical plane is symbolized in the seven seals. As a person ascends to the astral plane, they experience the world of images and forms bathed in light. This is shown to us in the image of the man surrounded by the four living creatures and of the Lamb receiving the book with the seven seals from his hand. As these pictorial seals are unsealed, the astral world unfolds before us, and the trumpeting angels symbolize the harmony of the spheres on the Devachan plane.

[ 4 ] Thus, the Apocalypse presents itself to you as a book of initiation. Such a book, however, is always at the same time a prophetic book, and this is to be understood in the sense that the one who experiences the events of the astral and devachan planes also experiences events of the future at the same time, so that a profound mystery of the future is hidden here. What exists on a higher plane in the present will exist on the physical plane in the future. If you were to transport yourself with the seer to the astral plane at this moment, the seer could only ascend to that world if his spiritual eye were open. Imagine everything you experience on the astral plane condensed, solidified like water into ice—then you have the state in which your own physical world will be in the near future. What is astral present today is physical future, so the seer can see the future state of humanity today on the astral plane. Initiation means, at the same time, penetrating the mysteries of future events. Thus, the Apocalypse is, first, a book of initiation and, second, a prophetic book. Let us now examine this prophetic wisdom more closely and see how it captures the meaning of humanity’s development.

[ 5 ] You have heard that the Book of Revelation points to some truly dire conditions on our Earth—truly devastating conditions. We have just considered the role of theosophy within the evolution of humanity. Let us now look at the future: There will be terrible conditions that will devastate the Earth; humanity will be in a moral state that will allow selfishness to reach such heights that today’s situation will seem like child’s play by comparison. And what, then—one might ask—will become of today’s souls in the future? Are they to be condemned to incarnate within a lowly humanity, within an evil race?—We must answer that with a decisive “No.”

[ 6 ] A wonderful legend describes precisely the state of the soul’s development. The soul follows a different path of development than the human body. You can understand the difference between the development of the soul and that of a race by looking back at the past. The souls were incarnated many times in the Atlantean race; they were all Atlanteans at that time. The souls have evolved, while the human bodies that have remained behind belong to races that have fallen into decadence and are in decline. The souls leave the racial bodies and ascend to higher races. The human bodies, which are tainted by fundamental evil, will not contain the souls that strive to rise beyond their present state to a higher one. The souls that undergo their development—that rise above themselves—will have earned new, different kinds of bodies in the sixth root race. But there is something that, in Christian esotericism, is called the fusion of the human being with his race. If you have before you a person who says to himself: “I want to rise above what I am capable of giving today to something higher!”—and, in contrast, another who says: “I will remain living within what surrounds me today!”—then there is a great difference. Those who do not strive to transcend the present configuration merge with the race; they will be condemned to carry on the bodies of the later, less developed races.

[ 7 ] When we look to the great leaders of humanity—who are its pathfinders—we look up to them as the guides who show us the way by which we can emerge from the process of racial evolution to dwell in the future in bodies of greater perfection. The fact that human beings can say, “I want to stop!” is expressed in the legend that has been around for a long time and has been subject to a wide variety of interpretations, but which can only be clarified through theosophy. Imagine the Pathfinder whom we call Jesus Christ, who points to that very point we have just discussed in the Book of Revelation and to which he points most emphatically: the passage in which he speaks of overcoming death. — If you find a human soul sitting by the wayside, unwilling to know anything of this—what does it do? It must be born again and again into the human race because it has rejected the Savior’s guidance. — This tragedy is expressed in the legend of Ahasver; Ahasver, the eternal Jew, has brought his fate upon himself because he has rejected the Savior.

[ 8 ] We must therefore distinguish between the evolution of the soul and the evolution of the race, and we are shown how souls rise higher and higher—but we are also shown how races sink lower and lower, in a terrible way. |

[ 9 ] We have now examined how the present-day developments are described to us in the seven letters. We can think of the letters as being addressed to seven congregations around the world.

[ 10 ] If we divide our Earth geographically into seven circles, each one corresponds to a specific letter. The first territory is one in which modern human beings work especially hard to bring their physical bodies to perfection so that they may be elevated to a higher form. The second is one where the etheric body is nurtured, and the third, where the astral body is nurtured. Thus, among the territories, you must seek one aspect in one part and another in the other. Imagine these regions distributed across the Earth. What we call different peoples each nurture and care for different parts in particular; one people focuses especially on the physical aspect, another on a different one. However, we have mentioned that it is not true when someone says that only the astral body is nurtured in one place, or only the physical body in another. In our various incarnations, we must, with our souls, successively undergo what applies to the individual regions, and the seven letters are thus addressed to every human being, as each must pass through the seven stages of development. The letter to the church in Ephesus is addressed to the realm where the physical body in particular is nurtured, and certain words wonderfully characterize this very aspect. The third letter to the church in Pergamum is addressed to the realm where the astral body is particularly nurtured.

[ 11 ] Let us bring together various individual facts that we have discovered over time. Human development proceeds in such a way that the “I” works its way down into the astral body, spiritualizing it, and that we refer to the part we work on from the “I” as the “spiritual self” or “Manas.” “Cultivating the astral body,” therefore, means working Manas into it. To the extent that you have cultivated your astral body, to that extent have you worked Manas into it. In Christian esotericism, the word “manna” refers to the same thing as “Manas,” and what is alluded to in the Bible as “manna” is precisely what we mean when we speak of the inflow of the Manasic nature. |

[ 12 ] Let us read from the third letter: “He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: To him who overcomes, I will give him to eat of the hidden manna.” (Rev. 2:17) So this is clearly stated; and in each letter, we have also indicated the flip side—that whoever does not undergo this development brings the body down, leading it into decline. In Christian esotericism, the decline of the astral body is even indicated in a very radical way.

[ 13 ] During the Lemurian epoch, the higher soul-principle descended into the three human members. Remember, too, that at that time, human nature was at a level roughly slightly higher than that of our most advanced animals today. From that time on, human beings have continually worked on developing their astral body, since the soul was dependent on this body, which, when the soul first entered it, was almost at the level of animality. The progress of humanity consists precisely in this: that it works on the astral body, purifying the animalistic emotions and instincts.

[ 14 ] Let us assume the opposite for a moment; then the result is not that the astral body remains stationary, but that it sinks into a state deeper than it was at that time, and this neglect is portrayed as the temptations of Satan. For the Christian esotericist, “Satan” is a being who tempts him not to elevate his astral body, but to bring it down. If the apocalyptic writer wishes to describe the flip side, he will say: If you develop the astral body, you will partake of the heavenly manna; but there are also realms that do not nurture the astral body—they suffer the temptations of Satan. He describes this pulling down of the astral body as follows: “I know what you are doing, and where you live—where Satan’s throne is.” (Rev. 2:13)

[ 15 ] Similarly, the fourth letter—to the church in Thyatira—is addressed to the realm where humanity’s sense of self is expressed. This “I” plays a major role for all those who seek to degrade human nature. In Central European esotericism in particular, the “I” is generally portrayed as the center, as the truly active and working force within the human being. The human being is, as it were, a confluence of forces that converge in his astral body, etheric body, and physical body, and the “I” is depicted as that which works within these three members. In Germanic mythology, this is represented by the tree, which is the World Ash, the symbol of the threefold human nature. The center of this threefold human nature is the “I”; by integrating itself, it sustains the entire tree of human becoming and growth. “Ygg” is the ancient term for becoming and growth. You find this in ancient linguistic forms as a designation for that which is integrated. The World Ash is called “Yggdrasil.” Yggdrasil means the “supporting ‘I,’” and the name of the god associated with the formation of the “I” is also derived from this. In the course of evolution, human beings first learned to inhale; which is connected in Hebrew to the word “Jehovah.” In Old High German, this corresponds to Odin, who is a god of the wind who races through the storm. “Jach” (Yahweh) is “the One Who Blows,” and when we speak of Wotan and his army rushing through the storm, we are speaking of the breath that was necessary for the formation of the “I.” In Christian esotericism, this word—as the name for the eternal aspect of human nature—is accorded a very special significance, and it is therefore depicted as that which sustains the other bodies, forming their center. Just bring one passage from the German translation to mind: “And he shall shepherd them with an iron rod, and as a potter’s vessel shall he shatter them, just as I have received from my Father, and I will give him the Morning Star.” (Rev. 2:27–28) This “I” signifies the same thing as the proper name of Christ Jesus, where the word “I” recurs in almost every sentence to indicate that it is the Eternal One within human nature. Thus, you can see throughout that this is precisely what I have said.

[ 16 ] I would like to cite just one more very special passage. The sixth letter must be addressed to the community where the Budhi is cultivated in a very special way. What does that mean? When Manas is cultivated in a very special way and a person has become a knower, then what he has known up to that point will flow into his living feeling; it will become a natural sensation for him, it will become his passion. If you realize that what is right must happen, that what is right must live, if you realize that humanity cannot live without beauty and goodness, then you are on the path to the development of Budhi. If the Higher has become your second nature, if your soul is completely imbued with enthusiasm for the Beautiful and the True, then you are on the path to Budhi. Budhi draws its substance from feeling, and Atma from the will. And once humanity has reached the point of having realized enthusiasm for the Good, then what is called the Christian ideal of brotherhood will have come to pass. This sixth territory can only derive its name from the idea of brotherhood, and “Philadelphia” is the city of brotherly love. If you look up the relevant passage, you will read that this city is described as follows: “I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have little strength, and you have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” (Rev. 3:8) It has not denied the name that comes from the duties of brotherhood.

[ 17 ] The Seventh is derived from the Atma, the breath of man. When a person has progressed as far as the breath, when the “I” has worked its way down to the physical body—perhaps you know that in Christian esotericism this is designated by the word “Amen”—then the esotericist, when speaking of it, will refer to the Amen: “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: Thus says Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation.” (Rev. 3:14)

[ 18 ] I was only able to pick out a few words; if we could discuss everything, it would show you that the seven letters contain messages relevant to our present time.

[ 19 ] Let us now move from the past to the future. Let us ask ourselves: How does the apocalyptic thinker envision the future? The apocalyptic thinker says, in this vein: What you can see today on the astral plane is nothing other than the shaping of humanity’s physical future; so look at what is on the astral plane, and you will experience the future of humanity. There is no future that does not emerge from the present. — You know that human beings are enveloped in an astral body that permeates this physical body, and that within it lie sense organs that are entirely different from the sense organs in the physical body. You know we are speaking here of the lotus flowers or wheels. What human beings can develop today as such astral senses, the human physical body will possess as physical senses in the future. The astral is on its way to becoming physical. How, then, does the human being of today form those future organs that are astral only today? — Through the work they do today on the physical plane in the spirit of truth, beauty, and goodness. Today’s work and actions form the foundation for the organs of the future. — There was a time when human beings did not yet have eyes; they could not perceive light or color. Human beings acquired eyes through their activities at that time—they had different organs back then—; by turning toward the light, they developed their eyes. Action in the present is destiny in the future; the actions of the past were such that eyes came into being, and from your actions today will arise the sense organs of the future. A person who acts in accordance with the True, the Beautiful, and the Good will have normal organs in the future; if they resist the True, the Beautiful, and the Good, they will have deformed organs in the future. It is impossible to erase what we do in the present. An action laid down in the present to manifest in the future is called “sealed” in Christian esotericism. In the context of Christian esotericism, one says: You have an eye today that did not exist back then; but you did this and that; your eye was “sealed,” now it is “unsealed”—your eye is the unsealed result of your past deeds. — Now we have the sealing of that which will be unsealed in the future on the physical plane. For those who look only at the physical plane, evolution is a book sealed with seven seals. To those who look toward the astral plane, all future organs are already revealed as potential; the organs unfold before them as images. Here the esotericist would say: If you look toward the center, which is called the Lamb, the Lamb will place the book into your hand, and the book will unseal itself in such a way that what will take shape in the future can only be expressed in images. Therefore, what may come to pass is expressed, piece by piece, through images. In the first seal, a future state is symbolically expressed by a horse; another by the second horse, and so on. To unravel the meaning, let us single out one—say, the third horse—that is, the image that appears when the third seal is broken. This is how it is presented to us: “And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and behold, a black horse. And the one sitting on it had a pair of scales in his hand.” (Rev. 6:5)

[ 20 ] What does that mean? It means that the image depicts a future state of humanity that arises from the development of the third component of human nature—the astral body—where the “I” works on this astral body and purifies it. The unpurified astral body is one that knows only itself, for which everything that does not belong to it is repulsive, and the purified one is the one to which everything is to be granted with the proper balance. If we purify the astral body in the proper way, we will come to the point where an organ will develop, which is symbolically represented by the image of a rider holding a scale. From a person’s righteous deeds in the present, an astral organ will develop, and this is depicted here figuratively. We could go through the other images in the same way and would see how inaccurate the common explanation is.

[ 21 ] When the fifth seal is opened, we are told something significant: “And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had borne.” (Rev. 6:9) — What happens to a soul that is developing toward the fifth stage? It is slain in its lower soul; whatever impurity clings to the human being is cast off, and the soul thus appears clothed in innocence: “And to each of them was given a white robe...” (Rev. 6:11) The soul is white—it has become innocent—when it has developed up to the fifth stage.

[ 22 ] If we were to ascend even further, we would reach the point where the astral images give way to the Devachanic realm, to the sounding of the trumpets. The Ahasver people constitute one group of humanity; the others will be those who are able to enter into other beings. Now it will seem self-evident to us that what has been left behind must be described as repulsive images. While the souls that have developed further hear the trumpets, the others will have reached the pinnacle of egoistic development. The advanced ones, who have developed their souls, will live as high initiates do today.

[ 23 ] I have told you that the initiate must pass through various stages, that he must transform not only the astral body to some extent, but also the etheric body and even, to some extent, the physical body. In the past, the initiate was kept in a state for three and a half days in which his etheric body was outside his physical body and the physical body lay as if dead; then the etheric body was guided through the higher world by the hierophant.

[ 24 ] What the initiate experiences in the present, the apocalyptic writer will also describe to us as something similar to the initiation process that takes place over three and a half days. Remember that there is indeed a passage in the Apocalypse where it says that two witnesses of the Deity appear, who lay as if dead for three and a half days and then came back to life. “And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and send gifts to one another; for these two prophets had tormented those who dwell on the earth. And after three and a half days, the Spirit of Life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who saw them.” (Rev. 11:10–11) These are two—aside from the human leader—who could be seen by people. Here, you have described an initiation process. You can see how everything fits together.

[ 25 ] Now, here is another fact that will show you how deeply the apocalyptic thinker has penetrated the mysteries of the world. The best way for me to illustrate this is by referring to the Golden Legend, which plays a particularly significant role in Christian esotericism.

[ 26 ] We are told that Seth was able to journey to Paradise, that he was allowed to pass by the cherub with the whirling sword, and that he entered Paradise. There he witnessed a vision in which the two trees—the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge—had grown together at their crowns. From this fused tree, Seth took a seed, which he placed in the mouth of his father Adam after he had died; from it grew a tree with three trunks, and the three trunks provided wood for various purposes. Of particular importance, however, is that Seth could see a kind of fiery script forming in the branches; there were the words: “Ejeh, Ascher, Ejeh,” which mean: “I am who was, who is, and who will be.” The wood of this tree was then used for the staff with which Moses performed his miracles; the wood was used in the construction of Solomon’s Temple; then for a bridge over the Pool of Bethesda, across which Jesus Christ walked; and finally, the wood was also used to construct the cross. What do the two symbols—the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge—actually mean? What does their intertwining signify? What does the tree signify, from which even the cross itself is made?

[ 27 ] The fact that Seth was able to enter Paradise means nothing other than that he was made an initiate, that he was able to penetrate the mysteries that were closed to others. And now we ask ourselves: What do the trees he saw signify? This is what is found in every human nature, what is present in every individual.

[ 28 ] How did human beings become beings capable of cognition? This is connected with the inhalation of air through the lungs, where the deoxygenated blue blood is transformed into oxygenated red blood. Through this process, human beings were able to take in the breath of God. This is the formation of the “I”: under the inflow of the breath of God, through which human beings became souls capable of cognition. A real tree is integrated into the human being, which you can still see today if you study the human being: the blood tree, which you can see in the aorta and which branches out throughout the entire human being. No being in the world can become a knowing being unless, like the human being, it can absorb the oxygen from the air that is necessary to form red blood, so that through the red blood the human being can take in the tree of knowledge within itself.

[ 29 ] The other tree of the blue blood vessels has been wrested from humanity in terms of the exercise of dominion. It contains the spent blue blood, which is a substance of death. Before humanity descended from the bosom of the Deity, this was the Tree of Life. By becoming an earthly being, humanity divided itself into two parts: the red and the blue blood vessel systems. The blue blood flows upward to the heart and must unite with what the plants provide. Humans exhale carbon dioxide; plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. Thus, human breathing—which expresses itself in its true selfhood—is a devouring of the red and blue blood trees. But this is possible only if human beings have a tool, and that tool is the plant, without which human beings could not live; it is through this that we can devour the blue and red blood trees.

[ 30 ] This is the alchemy of human nature: that in the future, human beings will be able to accomplish within their own consciousness what plants do for them today. What is outside of human beings today will be absorbed within their physical bodies once they have taken the entire plant world into themselves, once they have expanded their consciousness to encompass the entire plant world. This is the future state of humanity. Then, externally, in the nature that surrounds us, something entirely different will exist.

[ 31 ] As we change, so does our entire cosmos. Past states return at a higher level. There was a time when the Earth and the Sun were united. Back then, humanity existed within the nature of the Sun, but it was the state of the nature of Mars that humanity left behind by entering the physical body—a state it will, however, reach again. At that time, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge were intertwined; at that time, humanity required no external tools. But this will once again be the case in the future. What humanity will have achieved by then is always symbolized by depicting the Sun and then symbolizing the more highly developed Earth with the more highly developed human nature; and what brings humanity to that point is the union of its red and blue bloodstreams through expanded consciousness. This is symbolized by two metal pillars—these are the two blood streams—and the sun is what will be when the ... [gap in the postscript.] Then the blue blood tree will no longer be a tree of death.

[ 32 ] The seer must perceive this state in the astral signs. When the apocalyptic writer describes this state, he must do so figuratively: “And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven; he was clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.” (Rev. 10:1) So here you have this state. Thus, the entire Apocalypse is composed of occult signs.

[ 33 ] Christian esotericism suggests that the Earth is seen as the body of Christ Jesus. When Christian esotericism speaks of the body of Christ, it is referring to the planetary body of the Earth. Therefore, you must take this saying literally: “He who eats my bread tramples me underfoot.” (John 13:18) By eating the bread of the Earth, man tramples it underfoot.

[ 34 ] If that is the case, then the apocalyptic thinker may say something else as well. We have seen that Seth was an initiate. Abel was the man of God who voluntarily sustained himself from what was given to him. Cain was a farmer who produced for himself what he needed. We speak of two lines of development: one is the Seth or Abel line, and the other includes those who must transform everything themselves. They have a long task ahead of them; therefore, agriculture has always been the symbol for those who transform the earth. Opposite one another stand the children of Abel or Seth and the servants of Cain, who are the followers of Cain or the people of Cain. Those to whom it had been revealed from the beginning saw from the beginning; but even those who work diligently and strive earnestly will become initiates and behold the One who is the Spirit of the Earth, the planetary Spirit of the Earth. If the apocalyptic writer wishes to suggest that the planetary spirit can be seen by those who themselves are reshaping the Earth, he will say: All eyes will see Christ Jesus—even those who have pierced the Earth. That is why the apocalyptic writer says right at the beginning: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who have pierced him.” (Rev. 1:7) This is at the same time the key phrase, the very core word, which we can cite as the leitmotif of the Apocalypse. It is precisely this most profound statement that shows us that this Book of Revelation is truly a prophetic book, and that we can interpret what is set forth here in symbols as the future. It is our task as theosophists to see all that Christ Jesus could not yet say at that time, because people were not yet able to understand it; but He pointed to it through symbols.

[ 35 ] What has been imbued into these symbols by Christ Jesus must become clear to us in the context of the theosophical world current, and this must be symbolically before our eyes in the coming days at the Congress through the seven apocalyptic seals, the motifs of the column capitals, and the five planetary seals, which we find as vignettes in the program booklet. These five vignettes here are not invented; rather, they are five vignettes from occult scripture. Whoever learns to understand every line, every curve, and every stroke has grasped something of how human evolution is written in the occult language of symbols. Theosophy must point to such an occult language of symbols.

[ 36 ] We come together to engage in the work of gaining insight. Everything else follows naturally from this work of insight. Therefore, the commandment, “You shall love your brother”—is just as if you were to say to the stove, “Your task is to heat the room!”—that won’t make the room warm. But if you put wood in it, it will heat the room on its own, without you having to tell it to.

[ 37 ] When you engage in the work of knowledge, you kindle the human soul, and this in turn leads to the great work of brotherhood among humankind. A society that leads to the work of esoteric knowledge must be the Theosophical Society; otherwise, it cannot flourish. If we take some of these ideas to heart, we will also, on the occasion of this Congress, do something of what the Theosophical Movement must do. If Theosophy is indeed connected to what is hinted at in the wondrous Book of Revelation, then we must also do our part to break the seals ourselves. Only when we open the seals of the books given to us by the great individuals within our Society will we strive toward what the Theosophical Society must be if it is to be a true cultural current within the present.