The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Event at Golgotha. The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. The Spiritualized Fire

[ 1 ] One immediate benefit of such significant symbols of time as Easter is that they make our hearts and souls better equipped to look deeper and deeper into the mysteries of humanity and the human condition. And so let us once again bring before our mind’s eye the Eastern legend that shone before our souls yesterday—that legend of which we were already able to sense yesterday what it encompasses regarding this human enigma and human nature: the legend of Kashyapa, the great sage, the enlightened disciple of Shakyamuni, who had synthesized all the wisdom of the East with great insight and a tremendous impulse for action, and of whom it was rightly said that none of his successors were able to preserve even in the remotest sense what he had drawn from Shakyamuni’s deep wellspring of wisdom and—as the last to do so—had bestowed upon humanity from the primordial wisdom of the world.

[ 2 ] And the legend continues: When death drew near for Kashyapa and he sensed his Nirvana approaching, he went into a cave in a mountain. There he died with full consciousness, and his body remained incorruptible—untraceable to the outer world, but discoverable only by those who, through initiation, had become ripe to penetrate such mysteries. Kashyapa’s incorruptible body now rested, mysteriously hidden, in the mountain cave. And it was foretold that the Maitreya Buddha would appear as a new great proclaimer of primordial wisdom in a new form; and that, when he had ascended to the pinnacle of his earthly existence, he would go to the cave where Kashyapa’s body rests. He will touch it with his right hand, and a wondrous fire will descend from the universe, and Kashyapa’s incorruptible body will be seized by it and carried away into the higher, spiritual worlds.

[ 3 ] Thus, the Easterners who understand such wisdom await the reappearance of the Maitreya Buddha and his act upon the incorruptible body of Kashyapa. Will these two events come to pass? Will the Maitreya Buddha appear? Will Kashyapa’s incorruptible remains then be taken up by the wondrous, heavenly fire?—We will be able to sense the profound wisdom that lies within this through our true Easter sentiments when we seek out the wondrous fire that is to receive Kashyapa’s remains.

[ 4 ] Yesterday we saw how the Divinity reveals itself in our time through two poles: on the one hand, through the macrocosmic fire of lightning; on the other hand, through the microcosmic fire of blood. We have seen that Christ announced Himself to Moses in the burning bush and on Mount Sinai amid thunder and lightning. For no power other than Christ spoke to him the words, “I am who I am.” He gave the Ten Commandments from the lightning on Mount Sinai. In doing so, He prepared Himself {... apparent gap in the text}. Then he appeared at the microcosmic pole in Palestine. In the fire that lives within our blood is the same God who revealed himself in the heavenly fire and who then incarnated in the Mystery of Palestine in a human body, in order to permeate with his power the human blood, in which the human fire has its seat. And through this event—if we trace its consequences, in what it means for earthly existence—we will be able to find that blazing fire which will receive the remains of Kashyapa.

[ 5 ] The entire course of the universe consists in the material gradually becoming spiritualized. In the material fire of the burning bush and on Mount Sinai, an outward sign of God’s power appeared to Moses. Through the Christ event, however, this fire has been spiritualized. And now that the power of Christ has intervened in this earth, who then sees the burning spiritual fire? Who can perceive it? — The spiritual eye, which is opened by the Christ impulse itself and which the Christ impulse had awakened. It sees this physical fire of the burning bush as spiritualized. And after the Christ impulse had awakened the spiritual eye, this fire also began to act spiritually upon our world.

[ 6 ] When was this fire perceived again? It was perceived again when Saul’s enlightened eye—which had become clairvoyant—saw the heavenly fire shining on the road to Damascus and recognized the One who had accomplished the mystery of Golgotha. Thus both beheld the Christ: Moses in the material fire of the burning bush and in the lightning fire on Mount Sinai—and it can only be revealed to him inwardly that the Christ is speaking to him; but to Paul’s enlightened eye, the Christ reveals Himself from the spiritual, the spiritualized fire. Just as matter and spirit relate to one another in the becoming of the world, so too do the wondrous, material fire of the burning bush and of Sinai, and the miraculous apparition—the fire from the clouds that shone upon Saul, who had become Paul—relate to one another in the course of the world. And what has this event meant for the entire course of the world’s development?

[ 7 ] Let us look back on the great line of benefactors of humanity, the saviors of humanity—the great figures of humanity who were the outward expression of the avatars, of the divine-spiritual powers that descended from spiritual heights from epoch to epoch and took on human form, such as Vishnu, Krishna, and so on—who must appear so that humanity may find its way back to the spiritual worlds. In ancient times, humanity needed divine power to descend in order to find its way back. But through the Mystery of Golgotha, human beings have been given the ability to find within themselves the forces that can lift them up and lead them into the spiritual worlds. Christ descended deeper, much deeper than those leaders of the world and of humanity, for he not only brought heavenly forces into the earthly body, but he himself spiritualized this earthly body to such an extent that human beings could now, through these forces, find their way back into the spiritual worlds. The pre-Christian saviors redeemed humanity with divine powers. Christ redeemed humanity with human powers. But in doing so, these human powers have been placed before our souls in their primal form. What would have happened on our Earth if Christ had not appeared here? — Let us ask ourselves this serious, this profoundly significant question today.

[ 8 ] Savior after Savior could have descended from the spiritual worlds: in the end, they would have found only human beings down below, so entrenched in matter, so immersed in the physical world, that the pure, divine-spiritual forces could not have lifted humanity up again from this unholy, impure material world. And deeply saddened and grieving, the Eastern sages looked into the future, knowing this: the Maitreya Buddha will appear to renew the primordial wisdom of the world, but no disciple will be able to preserve that primordial wisdom. And if the course of the world were to continue in this way, the Maitreya Buddha would be preaching to deaf ears, and he would no longer be understood by human beings who were completely immersed in matter. What had become so material on Earth would have caused Kashyapa’s body to wither away, so that the Maitreya Buddha would no longer have been able to carry Kashyapa’s remains up to divine-spiritual heights. Deeply mourning, it was precisely those who understood Eastern wisdom most profoundly who looked into the future and wondered whether the Earth would still be capable of offering any understanding or feeling in response to the appearing Maitreya Buddha.

[ 9 ] A powerful heavenly force had to radiate into physical matter and sacrifice itself within it. It could not merely be a God in the guise of a human being; rather, it had to be a true human being with human powers who carries God within himself. The event of Golgotha had to take place so that the substance in which humanity is embedded might be prepared, purified, and refined, so that the material of this purified and sanctified substance might be suitable for the primordial wisdom to become comprehensible again for future incarnations. And humanity must now be led to understand how the event of Golgotha truly worked in this sense. For what has the event of Golgotha meant for humanity? How profoundly has it penetrated human beings and human existence?

[ 10 ] Let us let our gaze wander over twelve centuries! Let us look at the six centuries before the event at Golgotha and the six centuries after it. Let us take a look at certain events that unfolded in human souls during this time. Truly, one can hardly place anything greater or more significant before the sensitive human soul than those momentous moments preserved in the Buddha legend concerning the Buddha’s gradual enlightenment. He emerges from a royal setting. He was not born in a stable among poor shepherds. But that is not what should be emphasized; rather, it is that he leaves this royal setting and then finds what he had not found before: life in its various forms.

[ 11 ] He finds a child, weak and wretched. Suffering is the lot of the child in the existence into which it has entered through birth. He realized: Birth is suffering. — And furthermore, with his receptive soul, the Buddha sees a sick person, a person wasting away. This is what a person can become when carried into the earthly world by the thirst for existence: sickness is suffering. — He finds an old man whose body has become frail with age. What is it that life bestows upon a person, so that he gradually loses control of his limbs? Old age is suffering. - And he saw a corpse. Death stands before him with all its destruction and extinction of life: Death is suffering. - And the Buddha continues to explore life and says to himself: To be separated from what one loves is suffering; to be united with what one does not love is suffering; not to obtain what one desires is suffering.

[ 12 ] The teaching on suffering resounded, grand, powerful, and compelling, through the human heart and the human breast. Countless people learned the great truth of liberation from suffering through the quenching of the thirst for existence; they learned how they should yearn to transcend earthly, physical existence, how they should strive to move beyond earthly incarnations, and how only the quenching of the thirst for existence can lead to salvation and liberation from suffering. Truly, a supreme pinnacle of human development is set before our souls.

[ 13 ] And now let us cast our gaze over a period spanning twelve centuries—six hundred years before our era and six hundred years after our era. One thing must be emphasized here: in the midst of this period, the Mystery of Golgotha took place. From the age of the Buddha, let us now highlight just one thing: the corpse, and what the Buddha felt and taught upon seeing it. And six hundred years after the event at Golgotha: countless souls, countless eyes turned toward a cross on which a corpse hung; but from this corpse emanate for humanity the impulses that spiritualize life—the impulses through which death is conquered by life. It is the polar opposite of what the Buddha felt at the sight of a corpse.

[ 14 ] The Buddha saw a corpse and recognized in it the futility of life. The people who lived six hundred years after the event at Golgotha looked up with devout fervor at the corpse on the cross. To them, it was the sign of life, and the certainty dawned in their souls that existence is not suffering, but that it leads beyond death into bliss. Six centuries after the event at Golgotha, the body of Christ Jesus on the cross became a memorial to life, the resurrection of life, the overcoming of death and all suffering—just as, six hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha, the body had been the sign of recognition that suffering must befall the human being who enters the physical world driven by a thirst for existence. Never has there been a greater turning point in the entire development of humanity.

[ 15 ] If, six hundred years ago, entering the physical world was a source of suffering for human beings, how does the great truth of life’s suffering present itself to the soul now, after the events at Golgotha? How does it present itself to those who look up at the cross on Golgotha with understanding? Is birth suffering, as Buddha said? Those who look up at the cross on Golgotha with understanding, who feel connected to it, say to themselves: This birth leads human beings to an Earth that had the opportunity to clothe the Christ in its elements. - They long to set foot on this earth upon which the Christ walked. And through their connection with the Christ, a power arises in the soul that enables it to ascend into the spiritual worlds; the realization arises that birth is not suffering, but rather the gateway to finding the Savior, who also clothed Himself in the very same earthly substances that form the human physical body.

[ 16 ] Is illness suffering? — No! — so said those who understood the impulse of Golgotha in its true sense — no, illness is not suffering. Even if humanity today is still unable to understand what spiritual life truly is—the life that flows in with Christ—people will come to understand it in the future, and they will know that whoever allows the Christ impulse to flow through them, into whose innermost being the Christ power enters, can overcome all illness through the strong, healing powers they develop from within. For Christ is the great healer of humanity. Encompassed within His power is everything that, from the spiritual realm, truly develops the strong healing power capable of overcoming illness. Illness is not suffering. Illness is an opportunity to overcome an obstacle by developing the Christ-force within oneself.

[ 17 ] We must also come to terms with the trials of old age in the same way. The more our physical frailty increases, the more we can grow in spirit and gain mastery through the power of Christ dwelling within us. Old age is not suffering, for with each passing day we grow deeper into the spiritual world. And death, too, is not suffering, for it is conquered in the resurrection. Through the event at Golgotha, death has been conquered.

[ 18 ] Can separation from what we love still be a source of suffering? No! Souls imbued with the Christ force know that love can forge bonds from soul to soul across all material obstacles—bonds in the spiritual realm that are unbreakable. And there is nothing in life—between birth and death, and between death and new birth—to which we cannot find our way in the spiritual realm through the Christ impulse. It is inconceivable that, in the long run, if we allow ourselves to be permeated by the Christ impulse, we could ever be separated from those we love. Christ brings us together with those we love.

[ 19 ] And in the same way, “being united with that which we do not love” cannot be suffering, because the Christ impulse teaches us—when we receive it into our souls—to love everything in accordance with its proper measure. The Christ impulse shows us the way, and once we find this way, “being united with what we do not love” can never again be suffering, for there is nothing left that we do not embrace with love. — And “failing to attain what one desires” can no longer be suffering with Christ, for the human being’s sensations and feelings, his desires, are so purified and ennobled by the Christ impulse that people desire only what is meant to be theirs. They no longer suffer from what they lack; for if they are to lack something, it is for the sake of purification, and the power of Christ gives them the strength to perceive it as purification, and therefore it is no longer suffering either.

[ 20 ] So what, then, is the event of Golgotha? It is the gradual removal of the realities of suffering established by the Great Buddha. There is no greater impact on the becoming and being of the world than the event of Golgotha. Therefore, we can also understand that it continues to have an effect and exerts positive, powerful consequences for the future of humanity. Christ is the greatest Avatar who has descended to Earth, and when such a being descends into existence—as Christ did in Jesus of Nazareth—something mysterious and highly significant occurs: Just as on a small scale, when we plant a grain of wheat in the earth, it sprouts and stalks grow, bearing ears of wheat that carry many, many grains—images of the single grain of wheat we placed in the earth—so it is also in the spiritual world. For “all that is transitory is but a parable”—and in this multiplication of the grain of wheat we can see an image, a parable for the spiritual worlds.

[ 21 ] Once the event at Golgotha had taken place, something happened to the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth: through the power of the indwelling Christ, they were multiplied, and since then there have been many, many images of the astral body and the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth in the spiritual world. And these images continued to work.

[ 22 ] When a human individuality descends from spiritual heights into physical existence, it clothes itself in an etheric body and an astral body. But if there exists in the spiritual worlds something like the images of the etheric and astral bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, then something very special happens to those people whose karma allows it. If the karma of an individual permitted it—after the Mystery of Golgotha had been accomplished—an image of the etheric body or the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into that individual. This was the case in the first centuries of our era, for example, with Augustine. When this individual descended from spiritual heights and clothed itself in an etheric body, an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into its etheric body. It possessed its own astral body and I, but an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into its etheric body.

[ 23 ] Thus, what had enveloped the God-man of Palestine was transferred to other people, who were now to carry the impact of this great impulse forward to the rest of humanity. Because Augustine was dependent on his own “I” and his own astral body, he was exposed to all the doubts, all the vacillations, and all the errors that he found difficult to overcome; they arose from these still imperfect parts of his being. Everything he went through, he went through because of his misguided judgment and the errors of his “I.” But when he had struggled through, when his etheric body began to act, he encountered the forces that were interwoven within him from the image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth in his own etheric body. And now he became the one who could proclaim a portion of the great truths of the Mysteries to the West. Thus, there were many of those whom we know as the great bearers of Christianity in the West—who were called to carry on the work of Christianity in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and up to the 10th centuries—who were able to grasp the great ideas that served as models, having woven into their etheric bodies an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. That is why the great visions and exemplary ideas could dawn upon them—ideas that then found their artistic expression in the works of the great painters and sculptors.

[ 24 ] How did these exemplary models for the images that still delight us today come into being? They came into being when, through the interwoven image of the sanctified etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, the great enlightenments came to the people of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries of our era—enlightenments containing the essence of Christianity for which no historical traditions were needed. Along with the essence of the teaching about Christ, they received an interwoven image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, and they had no need for historical accounts of the facts of Christianity; they knew through inner enlightenment that Christ lives, because they carried a part of Jesus of Nazareth within themselves. They knew this just as Paul knew that Christ lives when he saw the Christ apparition in the spiritualized, blazing heavenly fire. Had Paul been converted up to that point by what was told about the events in Palestine? None of the events that could have been recounted to him were capable of transforming Saul into Paul, and yet the most important impetus for the outward spread of Christianity came from Paul—through him, who remained skeptical of the accounts on the physical plane but came to believe through an occult event that took place in the spiritual world. How strange are those who want Christianity without spiritual enlightenment! For Christianity would never have spread throughout the world without Paul’s spiritual enlightenment. The outward spread of Christianity owes its existence to a supernatural event.

[ 25 ] And once again, Christianity continued to spread in later times through those who, in the manner described, were able to experience Christ in inner enlightenment—and also to experience the historical Christ—because they carried within themselves what remained of the historical Christ and his physical forms. In the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, other people—if they were called to it by their karma and were ready—received images interwoven with the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Such people, who carried within themselves images of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, included, for example, Francis of Assisi, Elizabeth of Thuringia, and others. Without this knowledge, the lives of Francis of Assisi and Elizabeth of Thuringia, for example, are incomprehensible to us. Everything that seems so strange to us today in the life of Francis of Assisi stems from the fact that the “I” of Francis of Assisi was the human “I” of this human individuality; but all the humility, devotion, and fervor that we so admire in Francis of Assisi stem from the fact that an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into his own astral body. Such an image was woven into the astral bodies of many other personalities of that time. They become role models for us to aspire to when we know this. Anyone who gets to the bottom of the matter—how could they understand the life of Elizabeth of Thuringia if they did not know that woven into her was an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth? Many, many were called by this enduring Christ-force to carry this powerful impulse into posterity.

[ 26 ] But something else had also been preserved for even later times: countless images of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth have been preserved. Although his “I” had vanished from the three sheaths when the Christ took up residence within them, an image—an image further elevated by the Christ event—has remained, and this image of the “I” has been infinitely multiplied. In this image of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth, we have something that still exists today in the spiritual world. Yes, this image of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth can be found by people who have prepared themselves for it: this image, and with it the radiance of the Christ force and the Christ impulse that it carries within itself.

[ 27 ] The outward physical expression of the “I” is blood. This is a great mystery. Yet there have always been people who knew this and were aware of the fact that images of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth exist in the spiritual world. And there have always been people who, throughout the centuries since the event at Golgotha, have had to work in secret to ensure that humanity matures gradually, so that there might be people capable of receiving the images of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth—Christ—just as there have been people who have received images of his etheric and astral bodies. To this end, the secret had to be discovered as to how this “I” could be preserved in complete silence, within the depths of mystery, until the appropriate moment in the development of humanity and the Earth. To this end, a brotherhood of initiates was formed to safeguard this secret: the Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. It guarded this secret. This society has always existed. And it is said that their forefather took the cup that Christ Jesus had used at the Last Supper, and in this cup he collected the blood of the Redeemer that flowed from his wounds on the cross. He gathered the blood—the expression of the “I”—in this cup, in the Holy Grail. He kept the cup containing the Savior’s blood—the mystery of the image of the “I” of Jesus Christ—in a sacred place, within the Brotherhood, whose members, through their institutions and initiation, are the Brothers of the Holy Grail.

[ 28 ] The time has now come when these mysteries may be revealed, provided that people’s hearts are prepared through a spiritual life, so that they may rise to an understanding of this great mystery. When souls allow themselves to be inspired by spiritual science to understand such mysteries, when our souls become attuned to such understanding, then the souls become ready, in the presence of that holy chalice, to come to know the mystery of the Christ-Self, of the eternal Self, into which every human self can become. There it is, this mystery—people need only allow themselves to be called by spiritual science to understand this mystery as a fact, in order to receive the Christ-I in the presence of the Holy Grail. To do this, one must understand what took place there as a fact and accept it as such.

[ 29 ] But then, as people become increasingly prepared to receive the Christ-Self, the Christ-Self will pour itself more and more into their souls. They will then evolve upward to the level where their great role model, Christ Jesus, stood. Only then will people begin to understand to what extent Jesus Christ is the great model for humanity. And when humanity has understood this, it will begin to sense in its innermost being that the certainty, the truth of the eternity of life, emanates from the dead body on the wood of the cross at Golgotha. Those inspired and permeated by the Christ-Self—the Christians of the future—will understand even more. They will understand what only the enlightened have understood until now. They will not merely understand the Christ who passed through death, but they will understand the triumphant Christ of the Apocalypse, rising in spiritual fire, who has been foretold. And Easter can always be a symbol for us of the Risen One, a bond stretching from Christ on the cross to the triumphant Christ, the risen and exalted Christ, to the One who lifts all people up with Himself to the right hand of the Father.

[ 30 ] Thus, the Easter symbol points us toward the entire future of the earth, toward the future of humanity’s development, and in this way it serves as a pledge to us that those inspired by Christ will one day increasingly transform from “Saul-like” people into “Paul-like” people and will increasingly behold a spiritual fire. Truly, just as Christ appeared to Moses and to those who professed faith in him as a forerunner in the physical fire of the burning bush and the lightning on Sinai, so will Christ appear to us in a spiritualized fire of the future. “He is with us all days, even to the end of the world,” and he will appear in spiritual fire to those who have allowed their gaze to be enlightened by the event of Golgotha. People will behold him in the spiritual fire. First they have beheld him in another form; only then will they behold the true form of Christ in a spiritual fire.

[ 31 ] But because the Christ worked so deeply into earthly existence—right down into the physical skeletal structure—that which formed his body from the elements of the earth purified and sanctified this physical substance to such an extent that it can never again become what the sages of the East assumed in their sorrow—namely, that the Enlightened One of the future, the Maitreya Buddha, would find no people on Earth capable of rising to an understanding of him, because they had sunk too deeply into the material world. That is why the Christ was led to Golgotha—so that he might lead the substance back up to spiritual heights, so that the fire might not turn to slag on Earth, but might instead be spiritualized. Thus, when human beings themselves are spiritualized, they will once again understand the primordial wisdom of the world—the primordial wisdom from which they themselves once sprang, as from the spiritual world. Thus the Maitreya Buddha will find understanding on Earth—which he otherwise could not have found—after human beings have passed through an even deeper understanding. For we understand everything we learned in our youth better after we have matured through trials and can later look back on it. And so humanity will understand primordial wisdom by looking back upon it in the light of Christ through the event of Golgotha.

[ 32 ] And how, then, can Kashyapa’s incorruptible remains be saved, and where will they be taken? It is said that the Maitreya Buddha will appear and touch him with his right hand, and the body will be carried away in a blaze of fire.

[ 33 ] In the same fire that Paul saw on the road to Damascus, we must see the wondrous, spiritualized fire in which the body of Kashyapa is preserved. In this fire, all that is great and noble from the past will be preserved for the future. In the spiritualized fire in which Christ appeared to Paul, the imperishable body of Kashyapa will be preserved by the Maitreya Buddha. Thus we will see the great, the glorious, and the wise of all the past pouring in and flowing into that which has become humanity’s through the event at Golgotha.

[ 34 ] A resurrection of the Earth Spirit itself, a redemption of humanity, is symbolized for us by the Easter bells. This symbol has always inspired anyone who knew how to understand it to see how human beings rise to spiritual heights through the mystery of Easter. - It is not without significance that Faust, standing on the brink of death, is called back by the Easter bells to a new life that leads him to the great moment when, as he goes blind before his death, he says to himself: “Only within does a bright light shine.” Thus he is able to ascend into the spiritual worlds, where the noblest members of humanity are saved.

[ 35 ] Everything that has existed in the past is saved, purified, and preserved in the purified spirituality that has been poured out over the earth and into humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha, just as the imperishable body of Kashyapa, the great Eastern sage, in the wondrous fire, in the light of Christ that appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus.