The Rudolf Steiner Archive

First Lecture

[ 1 ] A specific festival was celebrated on this very day of the year by a large portion of humanity striving for spiritual growth. And those of us here in this city who call ourselves friends of the anthroposophical movement have placed particular importance on this series of lectures beginning precisely on this day, St. John’s Day. The day of the year designated for this was already a festival in ancient Persia. There, on a day that would correspond roughly to a day in June today, they celebrated the festival of what was known as the “baptism of water and fire.” In ancient Rome, the festival of Vesta was celebrated on a similar day in June; this, too, was a festival of fire baptism. And if we go back to the time of European culture before Christianity and to those times when Christianity had not yet spread, we find yet another such June festival—a festival that coincided with the time when the days had become longest and the nights shortest, when the days begin to grow shorter again, and when the sun, in turn, begins to lose some of the power it bestows upon all growth and flourishing on Earth. To our European ancestors, this June festival appeared as a decline, a gradual fading away of the god Baldur, whom they associated with the sun. And in Christian times, this June festival gradually became the Feast of St. John, celebrating the Forerunner of Christ Jesus. Thus, it can also serve as a starting point for us, in a sense, for the reflections we intend to make over the next few days on this most significant event in human development, which we call the Deed of Christ Jesus. This Deed, its full significance for human development, and how it is presented first and foremost in the most significant Christian text, the Gospel of John, and then, in comparison with it, in the other Gospels—the contemplation of all this will be the subject of this lecture series. St. John’s Day reminds us that this greatest individuality to have taken part in human development was preceded by a forerunner. This brings us straight to an important point that we must, so to speak, place at the starting point of our lectures as a kind of forerunner in our reflections. In the course of human development, profoundly significant events occur time and again that shed a brighter light than other events. From epoch to epoch, we see how such essential events are recorded in history. And time and again we are told that there are people who, in a certain sense, can foresee and foretell such events. This also makes it clear that these events are not arbitrary, but that the one who looks into the whole meaning and the whole spirit of human history knows how such events must come about, and how he himself must work—must work preparatorily—so that they can occur.

[ 2 ] In the coming days, we will have many more opportunities to speak about the forerunner of Christ Jesus. Today, however, we will initially consider him only from the perspective that he was one of those who, through special spiritual gifts, could gain a deeper insight into the context of human evolution and thereby knew that there are outstanding moments within this evolution. For this reason, he was well-suited to pave the way for Christ Jesus. But when we turn our attention to Christ Jesus himself—to get straight to the main subject of our consideration, so to speak—we must realize that it is truly no coincidence that a large part of humanity divides the course of history into an era before the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth and an era after it. In this way, this portion of humanity demonstrates that it has a sense of the profound significance of the Christ Mystery. But what is true, what is real, must be proclaimed again and again in new forms and to new generations of humanity. For the needs of humanity change from time to time. In a certain sense, our time needs a new proclamation of this greatest event in the earthly development of humanity—the Christ event—and this proclamation is what anthroposophy aims to be.

[ 3 ] This anthroposophical proclamation of the Christ Mystery is nothing new in terms of content, not even for us. It is, however, something new in terms of form. For what will be spoken here in the coming days has been spoken for centuries in more restricted circles, even within our own culture and spiritual life. There is only one thing that distinguishes today’s proclamation from all previous ones: that it is now able to speak to a wider audience. Those smaller circles in which the same proclamation has resounded for centuries within our European spiritual life had recognized as their symbol the very same sign that faces you here [in the lecture hall]—the Rose Cross. And so, now that this proclamation is being presented to a wider audience in our time, the Rose Cross may once again be regarded as the symbol of this proclamation. Let me first characterize, once again in symbolic terms, the general basis upon which this Rosicrucian proclamation concerning Christ Jesus rests.

[ 4 ] The Rosicrucians are a community that, since the fourteenth century, has cultivated a spiritual—a truly spiritual—Christianity within European intellectual life. This Rosicrucian society, which—setting aside all external historical forms—sought to reveal the deepest truth of Christianity to its adherents, always referred to its adherents as “John Christians.” If we come to understand the term “John Christians,” then we will be able to grasp—if not intellectually explain, then at least intuitively comprehend—the entire spirit and attitude of the following lectures.

[ 5 ] As you know, the Gospel of John—this magnificent record of the human race—begins with the words: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1).

[ 6 ] The Word—or the Logos—was therefore with God in the very beginning. And it is further said of Him that the light shone into the darkness, and that the darkness at first did not comprehend the light; that this light was in the: world, that it was among people, but that only a small number of these people were able to comprehend the light. Then the Word, who had become flesh, appeared as a human being, in a human being whose forerunner was John the Baptist. And now we see how those who have grasped something of the significance of this manifestation of Christ on earth strive to understand what Christ actually is, and how the writer of the Gospel of John immediately points out that what lived in Jesus of Nazareth as his deepest essence was nothing other than that from which all other beings around us also arose, —that it was the living Spirit, the living Word, the Logos itself.

[ 7 ] But the other evangelists, too, each in his own way, have sought to portray what actually appeared in Jesus of Nazareth. For example, we see how the author of the Gospel of Luke strives to show that something quite extraordinary occurred when, through the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist, the Spirit united with the body of Jesus of Nazareth. And then the author of the Gospel of Luke goes on to show us how this Jesus of Nazareth is the descendant of ancestors who go back far, far into the past. We are told that the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth goes back to David, to Abraham, to Adam—indeed, all the way to God Himself. Note that the Gospel of Luke consistently points this out: Jesus of Nazareth was the son of Joseph; Joseph was the son of Eli, who was a son of Matthat… then: he was a son of David; and it goes on to say: he was a son of Adam, and Adam was God’s! This means that the author of the Gospel of Luke places special emphasis on the fact that this Jesus of Nazareth—with whom the Spirit was united at John’s baptism—has a direct line of descent all the way back to the one whom he calls the Father of Adam, God. Such things must certainly be taken literally.

[ 8 ] The Gospel of Matthew attempts to trace the lineage of this Jesus of Nazareth all the way back to Abraham, to whom God revealed Himself.

[ 9 ] Through this, and through many other things as well—through the many words we find in the Gospels—the individuality that is the bearer of Christ, and the entire manifestation of Christ, is presented as not merely one of the greatest, but as the greatest of all manifestations in the development of humanity. This undoubtedly expresses what can be said in simple terms as follows: If Christ Jesus is regarded by those who sense his greatness as the most important manifestation in the development of humanity on Earth, then this Christ Jesus must somehow be connected to what is most essential and most sacred within human beings themselves. There must therefore be something within human beings themselves that can be directly related to the Christ event. Could we not then raise the question: If Christ Jesus is truly, according to the Gospels, the most significant event in human development, must there not be something to be found everywhere, in every single human soul, that relates to Christ Jesus?

[ 10 ] This is also what was most important and essential, particularly to the Johannine Christians of the Rosicrucian societies: that within every human soul there is something that bears a direct connection to, and relates to, what took place in Palestine through Christ Jesus. And if the Christ Jesus can be called the greatest event for humanity, then that which corresponds to the Christ event in the human soul must also be the greatest and most significant. What could that be? The Rosicrucian disciples answered this question: For every human soul, there is something that is described by the words “awakening,” “rebirth,” or “initiation.” Let us see what is meant by these words.

[ 11 ] When we turn our attention to the various things around us—the things our eyes see and our hands touch—we see how these things come into being and pass away. We see how a flower blooms and withers, how all the vegetation of the year springs up and then fades away. And even though there are things in the world, such as mountains and rocks, that seem to defy the centuries, the proverb “Constant dripping wears away the stone” expresses the fact that the human soul has a sense that even the majestic rocks and mountains are subject to the laws of transience. And human beings know: that which is itself composed of the elements comes into being and passes away; that which human beings call not only their physicality but also their “transient self” comes into being and passes away. But those who know how to enter a spiritual world also know that, although human beings do not penetrate this spiritual world through their eyes, ears, or other senses, they can reach it through the path of awakening, rebirth, and initiation. And what is reborn?

[ 12 ] When a person looks within, they ultimately come to say: What I encounter within myself is that to which I say “I.” This “I” is distinct from all things in the external world simply by its name. To every object in the external world, one can assign a name from the outside: anyone can call the table “table” and the clock “clock.” But the name “I” can never sound in our ears if it is to refer to ourselves; for the “I” must be uttered within. To everyone else, we are a “you.” Through this alone, a person realizes how this “I” essence differs from everything else within and around them. But now comes what spiritual researchers of all ages have repeatedly emphasized to humanity based on their own experiences: that within this “I,” another, higher “I” is born—born just as a child is born of its mother.

[ 13 ] When we encounter a human being in the course of their life, we can say: We first see them as a child, looking at things with a sense of awkwardness in relation to their external environment; then, little by little, they learn to understand things, gradually become more discerning, and grow in intellect and will; we see how a person gains in strength and energy. But there are people who do not merely develop in this way; rather, there have always been those who attain a higher level of development beyond the ordinary—those who come to find, so to speak, a second self that is able to say “you” to the first self, just as the self itself says “you” to the outside world and to its body, and which, in a sense, looks down upon this first self.

[ 14 ] Thus it stands before the human soul as an ideal, and thus it becomes a reality for those who follow the instructions of spiritual researchers and say to themselves: The “I” that I have known until now participates in the entire external world; it is transient along with the external world. But within me slumbers a second “I,” of which people are not aware but can become aware, and which is just as connected to the imperishable as the first “I” is connected to the transitory and temporal. And through rebirth, this higher self can look into a spiritual world just as the lower self can look into the sensory world through the senses—eyes, ears, and so on. What is called awakening, rebirth, or initiation is the greatest event in the life of the human soul, even according to the view of those who called themselves followers of the Rosicrucians. They knew that this event of the rebirth of the higher Self—which can look down upon the lower self just as a human being looks upon external forms—must be connected to the event of Christ Jesus. That is to say, just as a rebirth can take place for the individual human being within the course of his or her development, so too has a rebirth occurred for all of humanity through Christ Jesus. What is for the individual a inner, so to speak, mystical-spiritual event—which he can experience as the birth of his higher self—has occurred in the outer world, in history, for all of humanity through the event in Palestine brought about by Christ Jesus.

[ 15 ] How did this appear, for example, to someone like the author of the Gospel of Luke? He could say to himself: The family tree of Jesus of Nazareth traces back all the way to Adam and to God Himself. What is humanity today—what dwells today within the physical human body—once descended from divine-spiritual heights; it is born of the Spirit; it was once with God. Adam was the one who was sent down from the spiritual heights into matter; in this sense, he is the Son of God. “There was once a divine-spiritual realm,” the writer of the Gospel of Luke told himself; “this condensed, as it were, into the transitory earthly realm: Adam came into being. Adam was an earthly image of the Son of God, and from Adam descend the human beings who dwell in physical bodies.” And in this Jesus of Nazareth lived, in a special way, not only what lives in every human being and what else is within the human being, but there lived in him something whose essence can only be grasped when one becomes aware that the essential nature of the human being is of divine origin. In Jesus of Nazareth, something of this divine origin is still discernible. The writer of the Gospel of Luke therefore feels compelled to say: Look at the one who was baptized by John. He bears special marks of the Divine from which Adam originally descended. This can be renewed in him. Just as God descended into matter and, as God, disappeared into the human race, so He appears again. Humanity could be reborn in its innermost, divine essence through Jesus of Nazareth. — The writer of the Gospel of Luke meant to say: If we trace the family tree of Jesus of Nazareth back to its origin, we find the divine origin and the qualities of the Son of God in him in a renewed way—and to a greater extent than had ever been possible in humanity up to that point.

[ 16 ] And the author of the Gospel of John emphasized even more strongly that something divine lives within human beings, and that this divine aspect appeared in its most magnificent form as God and the Logos Himself. The God who was, as it were, buried in matter is reborn as God in Jesus of Nazareth—that is what those who began their Gospels in this way intended to say.

[ 17 ] And those who wished to carry on the wisdom of these Gospels—what did they say? What did the Johannine Christians say? They said: Within each individual there is a great, momentous event that can be called the rebirth of the higher self. Just as a child is born of the mother, so the divine Self is born of the human being. Initiation, the awakening, is possible, and once it has occurred—so said those who understood something of it—then something else becomes important rather than what was important before. Let us use a comparison to better understand what becomes important here.

[ 18 ] Let us imagine that we have before us a person who has reached the age of seventy, but who is an awakened being who has attained his Higher Self. And let us imagine that it was in his fortieth year that he experienced rebirth—the awakening of his Higher Self. If someone had approached him at that time and wanted to describe his life, they could have said: “I have before me a person who has just given birth to his higher Self. This is the same person I knew five years ago in this situation, and in that situation ten years ago.” - And if he had wanted to describe the identity of this person to us, if he had wanted to show us that this person had a very special starting point even at birth, then he would trace the years back from the age of forty in relation to his physical existence, and describe this physical existence—as it pertains to the matter—in the sense of one who speaks from the standpoint of spiritual science. But at the age of forty, a higher Self is born within this person. From now on, the higher Self overshadows all aspects of life. Now this is a new person. Now what came before is no longer important to us; now the main thing is that we recognize, above all, how the higher Self grows and develops from year to year. When this person has reached the age of seventy, we would then inquire about the path the higher Self has taken from the age of forty to the age of seventy. And it would be important for us that it is the genuine spiritual Self that he presents to us in his seventieth year, if we acknowledge what was born in this person’s soul thirty years ago. - This is how the Gospel writers proceeded, and this is how, in connection with this, the Johannine Christians of the Rosicrucian movement proceeded with the being we call Christ Jesus.

[ 19 ] The Gospel writers had set themselves the task of first showing that Christ Jesus has his origin in the primordial spirit of the world, in God Himself. The God who has lived hidden within all of humanity is particularly evident in Christ Jesus. This is the same God of whom the Gospel of John says that He was there in the beginning, from the very start. The Gospel writers were concerned with showing that this very God was present in Jesus of Nazareth. But those who, right up to our own time, were called upon to carry on the eternal wisdom now had the task of showing how the higher Self of human beings—the divine spirit of humanity, which was born in Jesus of Nazareth through the events in Palestine—has remained the same and been preserved in all those who have had the right understanding of it.

[ 20 ] Just as we described the person we used for comparison—who gave birth to his higher self at the age of forty—so too did the Gospel writers describe God within humanity up to the events in Palestine: how God developed, how He was reborn, and so on. But those who had to demonstrate that they were the successors of the Gospel writers had to point out that this is the time of the rebirth of the Higher Self, when one is concerned solely with the spiritual aspect, which now outshines everything else. Those who called themselves Johannine Christians and took the Rose Cross as their symbol said: It is precisely that which has been reborn for humanity as the mystery of this higher Self of humanity that has been preserved. This has been preserved by that closer community that originated from Rosicrucianism. This continuity is symbolically alluded to: that sacred chalice from which Christ Jesus ate and drank with his disciples—known as the “Holy Grail”—and in which the blood flowing from the wound was collected by Joseph of Arimathea—is, as the story goes, said to have been brought to Europe by angels. A temple was built for it, and the Rosicrucians became the guardians of what was contained within the vessel—that is, of what constituted the essence of the reborn God. The mystery of the reborn God reigned among humanity: this is the Grail Mystery.

[ 21 ] This is the mystery that is presented as a new Gospel, and of which it is said: We look up to a sage such as the author of the Gospel of John, who was able to say: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That which was with God in the very beginning has been reborn in the One whom we saw suffer and die on Golgotha, and who rose again. —This continuity of the divine principle throughout all ages, and the rebirth of this divine principle—that is what the author of the Gospel of John sought to portray. But all who sought to portray this knew: That which was from the beginning has been preserved. In the beginning was the Mystery of the higher human “I”; it was preserved in the Grail; it remained connected to the Grail, and in the Grail lives the “I” that is connected to the Eternal and Immortal, just as the lower “I” is connected to the transitory and mortal. And whoever knows the mystery of the Holy Grail knows that from the wood of the cross springs forth the life that sprouts anew, the immortal “I,” symbolized by the roses on the black wood of the cross. Thus, the mystery of the Rose Cross is something that can be seen as a continuation of the Gospel of John. And with regard to the Gospel of John and what it continues, we can say the following words:

[ 22 ] “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 came into being through it, and without it nothing that has come into being came into being. In it was life, and that life was the light of humanity. And the light shone into the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.”

[ 23 ] Only a few of those who had a share in what was not born of the flesh understood the light that shone in the darkness. But the light became flesh and dwelt among people in the form of Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 24 ] Now, in keeping with the spirit of the Gospel of John, one could say: And that which lived as Christ within Jesus of Nazareth was the higher divine Self of all humanity—of God, who was reborn and became incarnate in Adam as his image. This reborn human Self continued as a sacred mystery, was preserved under the symbol of the Rose Cross, and is proclaimed today as the mystery of the Holy Grail, as the Rose Cross.

[ 25 ] That which can be born in every human soul as the higher Self points us toward the rebirth of the divine Self in the evolution of all humanity through the events in Palestine. Just as the higher self is born in every single human being, so too is the higher self of all humanity—the divine self—born in Palestine, and it is preserved and further developed in what lies behind the symbol of the Rose Cross. But when we consider human development, we find not only this one great event—the rebirth of the higher self—but, in addition to this one great event, a multitude of smaller ones. Before a human being can give birth to their higher Self—before this great, all-encompassing, penetrating experience can take place for the soul—the birth of the immortal Self within the mortal—comprehensive preliminary stages must be traversed. A person must prepare himself in the most varied ways. And when he has had within himself that great experience through which he says to himself: “Now I feel something within me, now I know something within me that looks down upon my ordinary self, just as my ordinary self looks down upon sensory things; now I am a second within the first”; now I have ascended into those realms where I am united with the divine beings”—once a person has had this experience, other, further stages follow that they must pass through; these are of a different nature than the preliminary stages, but they too must be traversed.

[ 26 ] So we have this one great, momentous event: the birth of the higher Self within each individual human being. But we also have such a birth within humanity as a whole: the rebirth of the divine Self. And then there are preparatory stages leading up to it, and stages that must follow this momentous event. Looking back from the Christ Event, we see the preparatory stages. There we observe other great phenomena within human evolution; we see how this Christ Event gradually approaches, as the writer of the Gospel of Luke put it: At first there was a God, a spiritual being in the spiritual realms. It descended into the material world and became human, became humanity. — In human beings, as they developed, one could indeed see that God was their foundation. But one could not see God if one looked at human development with only the outer, physical eyes. God was, so to speak, behind the earthly, physical world, and there He was seen by those who knew where He was, who could look into His realms.

[ 27 ] Let us go back to the first civilization that emerged after a great catastrophe—the ancient Indian civilization. There we see seven great holy teachers, known as the holy Rishis. They point upward to a higher being, of whom they said: “Our wisdom can sense this exalted being, but our wisdom cannot see this exalted being!” The seven holy rishis see much. But beyond their sphere lies this exalted being, whom they called “Vishva Karman.” And Vishva Karman is a being who, though he filled the spiritual world, was beyond what the clairvoyant human eye could otherwise perceive in those times. Then came the culture named after its great leader, Zarathustra, and Zarathustra said to those he was to guide: When the clairvoyant eye looks upon the things of the world—upon minerals, plants, animals, and human beings—it sees all manner of spiritual beings behind these things. But the spiritual being to whom human beings owe their very existence—the one who must one day live within the deepest self of the human being—cannot yet be seen when one looks at the things of the earth, neither with physical eyes nor with clairvoyant eyes. - But when Zarathustra directed his clairvoyant gaze upward toward the sun, then—he said—one sees not only the sun, but just as one sees an aura surrounding a human being, so too does one see the great solar aura, Ahura Mazdao, surrounding the sun. — And it is the great solar aura that, in a way to be described later, brought forth humankind. Humanity is the image of the solar spirit, Ahura Mazdao. But Ahura Mazdao did not yet dwell on Earth.

[ 28 ] And then comes the time when the person who is becoming clairvoyant begins to see Ahura Mazdao in everything that surrounds him on Earth. The great moment has arrived when what was not yet possible in Zarathustra’s time has become possible. When Zarathustra’s clairvoyant eye opened and he could see what manifested itself in the earthly lightning and in the thunder, it was not Ahura Mazdao; it was not the great Sun Spirit, who is the archetype of humanity. But when he turned toward the sun, he saw Ahura Mazdao. — When Zarathustra had found a successor in Moses, Moses’ clairvoyant eye opened, and he was then able to see in the burning bush and in the fire on Sinai that Spirit who revealed Himself to him as “Ehjeh ascher ehjeh,” as “I am who was, who is, and who will be”—Yahweh or Jehovah. What had happened there?

[ 29 ] Ever since that ancient time, since the appearance of Zarathustra, before Moses appeared on Earth, the Spirit—which had previously resided only on the Sun—had descended to Earth. It shone in the burning bush; it shone forth in the fire of Sinai. It was present in the elements of the Earth. And after some time, the Spirit whom the great Rishis had sensed—but of whom they had to say, “Our clairvoyance cannot yet see him”—the Spirit whom Zarathustra had to seek on the sun, who revealed Himself to Moses in lightning and thunder, had appeared in a human being: Jesus of Nazareth. Such was the course of development: descending from the cosmos, first to the physical elements, then into a human body; only then was the divine Self—from which humanity originated and to which the writer of the Gospel of Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth—reborn. Thus the great event of the rebirth of God in humanity had taken place.

[ 30 ] Here we look back at the preliminary stages. Humanity, too, has gone through these preliminary stages. And those who had advanced alongside humanity as its earlier leaders—they, too, had to go through these preliminary stages until one of them had progressed far enough to become the bearer of the Christ. Thus we see how the development of humanity presents itself to spiritual contemplation.

[ 31 ] And there is something else that is important. What the holy Rishis revered as Vishva Karman, what Zarathustra addressed as the Ahura Mazdao of the sun, what Moses revered as “ehjeh ascher ehjeh”—all of this had to appear in a single human being, in Jesus of Nazareth, within the limitations of earthly humanity. It had to come to this. But for such a high being to dwell within a human being like Jesus of Nazareth, many factors were necessary. For this to happen, Jesus of Nazareth himself had to be at a high level of development. Not just anyone could become the vessel for such a being, which comes into the world in the manner described.

[ 32 ] Now we who have turned to spiritual science know that reincarnation exists. Therefore, we must realize that Jesus of Nazareth—not the Christ—had many incarnations behind him, and that he had passed through the most diverse stages in his earlier incarnations before he could become Jesus of Nazareth. This means nothing other than that Jesus of Nazareth himself had to become a high-ranking initiate before he could become the bearer of the Christ. Now, when a high-ranking initiate is born, how does such a birth and the subsequent life differ from the birth and subsequent life of an ordinary human being? In general, one can assume that when a human being is born, they are shaped—even if only approximately—by what comes from a previous incarnation. But this is not the case with an initiate. The initiate could not be a guide to humanity if he possessed within himself only what corresponds entirely to the outer form. For a human being must build his outer form according to the conditions of his external environment. When an initiate is born, a high soul must enter his body—a soul that has already experienced great things in the world in earlier times. That is why there is a legend among all such people that their birth took place differently than that of other human beings. Why and how?

[ 33 ] We have already touched on the question “Why?”: because a comprehensive “I,” which has already undergone the most significant experiences in the past, unites with the body. But at first, the body cannot accommodate what seeks to incarnate itself as the spiritual nature within that body. Therefore, in the case of a being who, as a high-ranking initiate, incarnates into a mortal human being, it is necessary that—more so than with any other human being—the reincarnating “I” hover around the physical form from the very beginning. While in an ordinary human being the physical form soon after birth resembles and is adapted to the spiritual form or the human aura, the human aura of an initiate who is being reborn is luminous. It is the spiritual part that announces that there is more here than can be seen in the ordinary sense. What does this spiritual aspect announce? It announces that not only has a child been born into the physical world, but that something has taken place in the spiritual world! This is what the stories associated with all reborn initiates are meant to convey: Not only is a child born; but something is born in the spiritual realm that cannot be encompassed by what is born down here. — But who recognizes this? Only those who themselves possess a clairvoyant eye for the spiritual world can recognize it. That is why it is told that at the birth of the Buddha, an initiate recognized that an event was taking place here that was different from what usually occurs at the birth of a human being. That is why it is told of Jesus of Nazareth that John the Baptist had to forerun him.

[ 34 ] Anyone who has insight into the spiritual worlds knows that the initiate must come and be reborn, and knows that this is an event in the spiritual world. But the three kings from the East, who came to offer gifts at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, knew this as well. And the same is also depicted by the initiated priest in the temple, who says: “Now I am ready to die, since my eyes have seen the one who will be the salvation of humanity!”

[ 35 ] Thus we see that we must make a clear distinction here: We have a high-ranking initiate who is reborn as Jesus of Nazareth, of whose birth it must be said: “A child will be born.” But with this child there appears something that will not be encompassed by the child’s physical body. — And then, with this Jesus of Nazareth, we have at the same time something that has significance in the spiritual world, something that will gradually develop within this body until it reaches a point where the body is ripe for this spirit. But when this body was ready for this spirit, the event took place in which John the Baptist approached Jesus of Nazareth, and in which a higher spirit descended, with whom Jesus of Nazareth united, and in which the Christ entered into Jesus of Nazareth. And then the one who, as John the Baptist, was the forerunner of Christ Jesus, could say: “I came into the world.” I was the one who prepared the way for a Higher Being. With my outer mouth I proclaimed that the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is near, and that people should change their ways. I came among people and was able to speak of how a special impulse would come into humanity. Just as the sun rises higher in the spring to announce that something new is sprouting, so I appeared to announce that which is sprouting within humanity as the reborn human I!

[ 36 ] But when the human aspect in Jesus of Nazareth had reached its highest point—so that the human body of Jesus of Nazareth was an expression of the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth—he also became ready to receive the Christ within himself through the baptism of John. The body of Jesus of Nazareth had unfolded like the bright sun on St. John’s Day in June. This had been foretold. Then the Spirit was to be born out of the darkness like the sun, which gains more and more strength up to St. John’s Day, growing ever larger and larger, and then begins to wane. Such was the message the Baptist was to proclaim. He was to proclaim how the sun rises in ever-greater splendor until the point where he could say: “The One whom the ancient prophets promised, who from the spiritual realms has been called the Son of the spiritual realms—He has appeared!” — John the Baptist worked up to that point. But then, when the days grow shorter again, when darkness once more takes hold, the inner light of the Spirit is to shine through these preparations; it is to grow ever brighter and brighter, just as Christ shines forth in Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 37 ] This is how John saw Jesus of Nazareth approaching. And he perceived the growth of Jesus of Nazareth as his own waning, and as the rising of the sun. “From now on I will diminish,” he says, “just as the sun wanes from the day of St. John onward. But he will increase—he, the spiritual sun—and shine forth from the eclipse!” — Thus he announced himself. Thus began the rebirth of the human “I,” upon which depends the rebirth of every individual higher human “I” within humanity.

[ 38 ] This characterizes the most important event in the development of the individual human being: the rebirth of that which can emerge from the ordinary “I” as the immortal self. It is linked to the greatest event of all—the Christ event—to which the following hours will now be devoted.