The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] Today we will focus on the more occult aspect of yesterday’s discussion. The four post-Atlantean cultures were, so to speak, meant to reflect in the souls of human beings the great cosmic processes as they unfolded in the course of time, whereas in our cultural epoch—beginning in the 13th and 14th centuries—we no longer have such a reflection, for what takes place externally in human development can be traced back to deeper causes.

[ 2 ] We know how the etheric bodies of the great Atlantean initiates were preserved for the seven holy Rishis, and we also know how the etheric and astral bodies of Zarathustra were interwoven with those of Moses and Hermes. Throughout the ages, there has always been the possibility that such etheric bodies—which had been worked through and prepared by the initiates—would continue to be used in the spiritual economy of the world. Other things also took place. For particularly important personalities, such etheric bodies are formed in the higher worlds. If someone was particularly important for humanity’s mission, such an etheric or astral body was woven in the higher worlds and imprinted upon these special personalities.

[ 3 ] This is what happened with Shem, who is in fact connected to the entire Semitic tribe. A special etheric body was formed for such a progenitor. As a result, Shem was a kind of split personality. As incredible as it may seem to modern human understanding, a personality like Shem appeared to the clairvoyant as an ordinary human being with his aura—but as if a higher being, descending from higher worlds, were filling his etheric body, and the aura of this human being thereby served as a mediator between this personality and the higher worlds. Such a divine being, however, possesses very special power when dwelling within a human being. It can then multiply such an etheric body, and these multiplied etheric bodies form a fabric that is woven into the descendants time and again. Thus, the descendants of Sem were imbued with the images of his etheric body. But the etheric body of Shem himself—not just the multiplied images—was also preserved in the Mysteries. And a personality who was to receive a special mission had to use this etheric body in order to be able to communicate fully with the Semitic people, just as a highly educated European, for example, would have to learn the language of the Hottentots in order to communicate with them. The individual who had a special mission therefore had to carry within himself the actual etheric body of Shem in order to make himself understood by the Semitic people. One such individual, for example, was Melchizedek, who could reveal himself to Abraham only in the etheric body of Shem.

[ 4 ] And now we must ask ourselves: If we are only now, in the fifth post-Atlantic cultural period, able to develop an understanding of Christianity, what was it like during the rest of the Greco-Latin era, which lasted well into the 13th and 14th centuries?

[ 5 ] A mysterious occult process takes place there. Christ lived for only three years in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, who was such a highly developed individual that he was able to leave the physical world at the age of thirty to enter the spiritual world at the moment when the dove appeared above his head. The three highly developed bodies are now filled by the Christ Individuality through the fact that this Christ Individuality lives within the physical human body. These bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, invisible to the physical eye, are now being multiplied in a manner similar to how the etheric body of Sem was multiplied at that time, so that from the moment of his death on the cross onward, images of the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth now exist. This has nothing to do with his “I”; that, after all, entered the spiritual world and has since incarnated again and again.

[ 6 ] In the first centuries following the events surrounding Jesus, we see that Christian writers were still drawing on the oral traditions handed down by the disciples of the apostles. They placed great emphasis on physical transmission. However, later centuries could not have relied on this alone. Beginning in the 6th and 7th centuries, an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth began to be woven into the teachings of particularly outstanding Christian preachers. Augustine was such a person. He had to endure tremendous struggles in his youth. But then the impulse of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth began to take effect within him in a significant way, and only then did he begin to develop Christian mysticism from within himself. We can only understand his writings in this light.

[ 7 ] Many prominent figures have walked the earth, carrying within themselves such a copy. Columban, Gallus, Patrick—they all carried within themselves such an image of the etheric body, and it was precisely because of this that they were able to spread Christianity. In this way, a bridge could be built from the Christ event to the era that followed.

[ 8 ] And now, in the 11th and 12th centuries, we see people who have the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth interwoven with their own. One such figure was Francis of Assisi. When we trace his life, much of it will seem incomprehensible to us; but we can understand precisely his impulses of humility and Christian devotion when we realize that such a mystery lived within him. Through such interweaving of the astral body, people in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries became heralds of Christianity. They thus received Christianity through grace.

[ 9 ] The “I” of Jesus of Nazareth did indeed leave the three bodies at the baptism by John; yet an image of this “I,” like a seal impression, remained in the three bodies. The Christ-essence takes possession of these three bodies, but also of something else that remains as an imprint of the Jesus “I.” Something like a “copy” of Jesus’s “I” becomes interwoven, beginning in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, into those people who now begin to speak of an “inner Christ.” Meister Eckhart and Tauler then speak from their own experience of this “I-imprint” of Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 10 ] There are still many people today who carry within themselves something akin to copies of the various physical forms of Jesus of Nazareth, but these will no longer be the leading figures. We are seeing more and more how, in our fifth period, there are people who must rely on themselves, on their own “I.” Such inspired individuals are becoming increasingly rare. Therefore, provision had to be made to ensure that a spiritual current would arise in our fifth epoch, one that would guarantee that spiritual insights could continue to reach humanity. Provision had to be made for those who rely on their mere human ego by those individualities who could look into the future. We are told in one such legend that the vessel in which Christ Jesus had taken the Last Supper with his disciples was preserved. This is the legend of the Holy Grail, and we see in the tale of Parzival a typical expression of a disciple’s path in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch. There was one thing Parzival failed to do: He had been told, in fact, not to ask too many questions. This is the crucial transition from the old age to the new: In ancient India, the disciple was required to practice as passive a surrender as possible; later, this was also the case with Augustine and Francis of Assisi. All these humble people drew inspiration from what lived within them, from what was woven into their very being. Now, however, the “I” must carry the question within itself. Any soul today that simply passively accepts what is given to it will not thereby transcend itself. It can then only observe what is happening in the physical world around it. Today, the soul must ask questions; it must rise above itself and grow beyond itself. Today, the soul must ask questions, just as Parzival once had to ask about the mysteries of the Grail Castle.

[ 11 ] Thus, spiritual research today begins only where the questioning takes place. The souls who are inspired today by external science to ask questions, who ask and seek—these are the Parzival souls. Thus has the Mystery movement been initiated—the much-maligned Rosicrucian training, which does not rely on any traditional wisdom, even as it gratefully accepts the traditions. But what constitutes the Rosicrucian spiritual tradition today has been directly explored in the higher worlds with the spiritual eye and through the means that the student himself is taught to use. Not because this or that is written in ancient books, or because this or that person believed this or that, but rather, the wisdom discovered today is proclaimed through the Rosicrucian spiritual tradition. And this was gradually prepared in the Rosicrucian schools, which were founded in the 13th and 14th centuries by the individual known as Christian Rosenkreutz.

[ 12 ] Thus, this body of wisdom can be proclaimed today as Theosophy. Today, there are simply no longer people who, without any effort on their part, have instilled in them that which inspires them from within. Today, people who feel that Theosophy speaks to their hearts should be the ones to approach it. There should be no campaigning for Theosophy; everyone should come to Theosophy through their own free impulse, by being vividly moved by spiritual knowledge.

[ 13 ] In this way, through this theosophical-Rosicrucian spiritual current, we draw back to ourselves whatever remains of the copies of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, those who prepare themselves will draw into their souls the image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth. Because their inner being is like a seal impression of the I of Jesus, such a person will absorb the Christ principle into their soul. — In this way, Rosicrucianism prepares something positive. Theosophy is meant to become life, and the soul that truly absorbs it is gradually transformed. To absorb theosophy means to transform the soul in such a way that it can attain an understanding of Christ.

[ 14 ] The theosophist makes himself a living recipient of what is given to Moses and Paul in the Yahweh-Christ revelation. Thus it is stated in the fifth letter of the Apocalypse that the people of the fifth cultural epoch are those who truly take in what will then become a matter of course for the cultural period of the Church of Philadelphia. The wisdom of the fifth cultural period will blossom as a flower of love in the sixth cultural period.

[ 15 ] Humanity today is called upon to embrace something new and divine within itself and thereby resume its ascent into the spiritual world. The theosophical doctrine of evolution is being communicated; it is not meant to be believed, but rather humanity is to come to understand it through its own power of judgment. It is proclaimed to those who carry within themselves the seed of the Parzival nature. And it is not proclaimed locally, nor in a specific place; rather, from among all of humanity, those who hear the call of spiritual wisdom will be brought together.