The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Sixth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we spoke about how humanity already had great leaders during the era we have referred to as the Atlantean period of human development. We know from yesterday’s discussion that this period came to an end in a region of the Earth we call ancient Atlantis, which was located between present-day Europe and Africa on one side and the Americas on the other. And we also mentioned how different human life was back then, especially with regard to the state of human consciousness. We were able to gather from yesterday’s discussion that the consciousness humans possess today developed only gradually, and that humans began with a kind of twilight clairvoyance. And we know that people in the Atlantean era had a body composed of a substantially softer, more flexible, and more malleable substance than that of modern humans. Furthermore, as clairvoyant consciousness teaches us, we know that humans at that time were not yet capable of perceiving, for example, the solid objects that our eyes see today with such sharp contours. True, the Atlanteans could already perceive the objects of the external world—the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms—but only indistinctly, as if blurred. Just as one sees the streetlights outlined in color on a rather foggy autumn evening, so too did humans perceive something like colored rims around objects—“auras,” as they are called. These were the hints of the spiritual beings associated with those things. At certain times of the day, however, the perception of these spiritual beings was quite indistinct, but at other times—notably in the intermediate states between waking and sleeping—it was very clear.

[ 2 ] If we want to vividly imagine the consciousness of an ancient Atlantean, we must tell ourselves: He did not see a rose, for example, as clearly or with such sharp contours as we do today. Everything was blurred, fading into a haze and edged with colored fringes. Even during the day it was indistinct, but it became even more indistinct and disappeared entirely in the interval between waking and sleeping. Instead, however, the person perceived quite clearly what we must refer to as the spirit of the rose, the soul of the rose. And so it was with all objects in the environment.

[ 3 ] This further development consisted in the fact that external objects became increasingly distinct, while the perceptions of the spiritual entities associated with those objects became increasingly indistinct. In return, however, human beings developed their self-awareness more and more; they learned to feel more and more.

[ 4 ] Yesterday we identified the point in time when a distinct sense of the “I” emerged. We said that the etheric body came into alignment with the physical body as the last third of the Atlantean era drew near. You can imagine that leadership was also quite different before that. Such communication from person to person, in which one appeals to the judgment of another, did not exist at all in Atlantean times. In those days of twilight clairvoyance, communication was based on a subconscious influence passing from one person to another. Above all, what we know today only from the last, often overlooked and misunderstood remnants of that era was still very much present back then: it was a form of suggestion, a subconscious influence passing from person to person, which appealed only minimally to the active participation of the other soul. When we look back to the ancient times of Atlantis, we see that back then a powerful effect was exerted on another soul as soon as any image or sensation arose in a person’s soul and they directed their will toward another person. All influences were powerful, and the will to receive such influences was also powerful. Today, only remnants of this remain.

[ 5 ] Imagine that a person from back then had walked past another person while performing certain movements. The other person, who was watching, would have needed only to be a little weaker, and the result would have been that he would have wanted to copy and imitate all of those movements. Today, all that remains of this is something like an old heirloom: when one person yawns, the other who sees it also feels the urge to yawn. A much more intimate bond existed between people. This was because people lived in a completely different atmosphere than they do today. Today we live in air saturated with water only when it rains heavily. Back then, the air was constantly filled with dense water vapor. And in the early Atlantean period, human beings were no denser in substance than, say, certain gelatinous animals that live in the ocean today and are barely distinguishable from the surrounding water. That is what human beings were like, and they only gradually became more solid. But we already know that this human being was, after all, exposed to influences—not only from the actually guiding higher spiritual beings who either inhabited the Sun or were distributed among the various planets of our solar system, but also from the Luciferic spirits who influenced his astral body. And we have also described the nature of these influences. But we have also said that those who were to be the leaders of the Atlantean people had to combat these Luciferic influences within their own astral bodies. Because human beings at that time were still spiritually and clairvoyantly conscious, they also perceived all the spiritual influences that lived within them.

[ 6 ] Today, a person who knows nothing about spiritual science laughs when told, “The effects of the Luciferic spirits are at work in your astral body.” However, he does not realize that these beings have a much stronger influence on him than when he pays attention to them:

“The little folk never sense the devil,
even if he had them by the collar.”

[ 7 ] This is a very profound statement from Goethe’s Faust. And many materialistic influences would not exist today if people knew that the Luciferic influences have not yet all been driven out of human beings.

[ 8 ] At that time, the leaders and their students paid close attention to everything that aroused passions, instincts, and desires from a source that instilled in human beings a deeper interest in their physical and sensory surroundings than was beneficial for their further development in the universe. Thus, anyone who wished to develop into a leader had to, above all, practice this self-knowledge and keep a close watch on everything that might stem from Lucifer’s influence. He had to closely study these spiritual entities of Lucifer within his own astral body. In this way, he was able to keep them at bay. Through this, he saw the other, higher, guiding divine-spiritual beings—above all those who had shifted their own sphere of activity from Earth to the Sun or to the other planets. And indeed, depending on whether they had this or that lineage, human beings perceived this or that realm. There were human souls who, let us say, had come down from Mars. When these souls surrendered to the process of evolution and fought against the Luciferic influences within their own astral bodies, they were led to a higher degree of clairvoyance—a good, pure clairvoyance—and they saw the higher spiritual beings from the realm from which they themselves had descended, that is, the higher spiritual beings of Mars. Souls who had descended from the realm of Saturn came to see the beings of Saturn. The souls who had come from Jupiter or Venus beheld the beings of Jupiter or Venus. Every human being saw his or her corresponding realm.

[ 9 ] But the highest beings among humankind—those who had emerged from the Lunar Crisis—were gradually able to prepare themselves not only to see the spiritual beings of Mars, Jupiter, or Venus, but also the spiritual beings of the Sun itself, the high solar beings. Because the beings who were initiated had descended from the various planets, the worlds of those planets once again became visible to them in terms of their spiritual nature. Therefore, you will understand that there were institutions or establishments in ancient Atlantis where, for example, those of Martian origin were admitted—once they were ready—to study the mysteries of Mars. There were other places where those of Venusian descent learned the mysteries of Venus. If we refer to this later as an “oracle,” then in Atlantis we had a Mars oracle where the mysteries of Mars were explored, a Saturn oracle, a Jupiter oracle, a Venus oracle, and so on. The highest was the Sun oracle. And the highest of the initiates was the highest initiate of the Sun oracle.

[ 10 ] Because people were subject to suggestive influences and their wills were being influenced, the entire educational process was different as well. Let’s try to imagine how teachers and students interacted. Let us assume that there were spiritual teachers who, as if by grace, had received initiation. How did the later generations—the students—come to be initiated during the Atlantean era?

[ 11 ] We must imagine that, above all, those who were already initiated exerted a powerful influence—through their entire demeanor, through their very existence—on those who were predestined to become their disciples. No Atlantean initiate could reveal himself without those who were to become disciples immediately feeling the strings of their souls resonate within them, granting them the capacity for such discipleship. These were influences entirely beyond the realm of concrete, everyday consciousness, which passed from person to person in those days. And the kind of instruction we know today was not necessary back then. The entire interaction with the teacher—everything he did—worked in harmony with people’s capacity for imitation. Much was passed on unconsciously from the teacher to the student. Therefore, the most important thing was that those who were mature as a result of their previous life circumstances were initially merely introduced to the oracle sites and lived in the teachers’ vicinity. And by observing what the teachers did, and through the influence of feelings and sensations, they were prepared—prepared, however, over a long, long period of time. Then came the time when there was such a profound harmony between the soul of the teacher and the soul of the student that everything the teacher possessed within himself in terms of higher mysteries was transmitted to the student. That is how it was in ancient times. How was it, then, after the bond between the etheric body and the physical body had been established?

[ 12 ] Although during the Atlantean period the etheric body and the physical body had become completely aligned, the bond between the etheric body and the physical body was not yet very strong, and it took only a conscious effort on the part of the teacher to bring the etheric body forward again in a certain way. Although it was no longer possible—even when the right moment had come—for what was within the teacher to pass over to the student of its own accord, the teacher could still easily bring the student’s etheric body to the fore, and then the student could see the same things the teacher saw. Thus, when the etheric body was loosely connected to the physical body, it was possible to lift out the student’s etheric body, and then the master’s wisdom and clairvoyant perception were transferred to the student.

[ 13 ] Then came the great catastrophe that swept across the Atlantean continent. Massive upheavals in the atmosphere and oceans, along with violent tremors of the earth, caused the entire face of the earth to gradually change. Europe, Asia, and Africa—only a very small portion of which was land—rose out of the water, as did America. Atlantis disappeared. People migrated eastward and westward, and a wide variety of settlements sprang up.

[ 14 ] After this immense catastrophe, however, humanity had once again made progress. Once more, a change had taken place in the relationship between the etheric body and the physical body. Now, in the post-Atlantean era, there was a much stronger bond between the etheric body and the physical body in human beings. It was no longer possible for the Master to extract the etheric body through an impulse of will and to transmit every observation. Therefore, the initiation that led to insight into the spiritual world had to take on a different form—a form that can be described roughly as follows.

[ 15 ] The form of instruction that relied more on the direct spiritual influence from teacher to student gradually gave way to a form of instruction that slowly came to resemble what we understand by that term today. And the further the post-Atlantean era progressed, the more it came to resemble modern education. Just as there were oracles in the Atlantean era, so now the great leaders of humanity established institutions that contained echoes of the ancient Atlantean oracles. Mysteries and places of initiation arose in the post-Atlantean era. And just as suitable individuals were admitted to the oracles in Atlantean times, so were they now admitted into the mysteries. Since it was no longer possible to influence the students in the same way as before, they had to be carefully prepared through rigorous instruction.

[ 16 ] We therefore find such mysteries across all cultures throughout the ages. Whether you look back to the culture we know as the first post-Atlantean one, which took place in ancient India, or whether you turn to the culture of Zarathustra or that of the Egyptians and the Chaldeans, everywhere you will find that students were initiated into mysteries that were a middle ground between church and school. And there they were first rigorously instructed so that they might learn to think and feel not merely in relation to what existed in the sensory world, but also to what took place in the invisible, spiritual world.

[ 17 ] And we can describe exactly what was taught back then: for the most part, it is the same thing we come to know today as anthroposophy. That was the subject of study in the mysteries. However, it was more in keeping with the customs of that time and strictly regulated, unlike today, when—in a manner that is, at least in part, free—the mysteries of the higher worlds are communicated relatively quickly to those who are, in a certain sense, ready for them.

[ 18 ] At that time, instruction was strictly regulated. At the first level, for example, only a certain amount of knowledge was imparted, and everything else was kept completely hidden. Only after the student had processed this was he told what belonged to a higher level. By being prepared in this way, the student had concepts, ideas, sensations, and feelings implanted in his astral body that related to the spiritual world. In this way, he had also, in a certain sense, countered the influences of Lucifer. For everything that is communicated in terms of spiritual science refers to the higher worlds, not to the world in which Lucifer seeks to arouse interest among human beings, nor to the sensory world alone. Then, after the student had been prepared in this way, the time came when he was led to independent vision. He was to look into the spiritual world for himself. For this, it was necessary that the human being be able to reflect in the etheric body everything he had worked into his astral body. For it is only in this way that a person attains the ability to see into the spiritual world: by experiencing within themselves—through a certain feeling and sensibility regarding what they have learned—everything they have worked into their astral body so intensely that not only their astral body but also their denser etheric body is influenced by it. If the student was to ascend from learning to seeing, what had been taught to him had to bear fruit. Therefore, throughout the Indian, Persian, Egyptian, and Greek periods, learning was followed by a certain concluding act, which consisted of the following:

[ 19 ] The student was first prepared over a long period of time, not through study, but through what is called meditation and other exercises designed to develop inner composure, inner peace, and inner serenity. He was prepared to transform his astral body completely into a citizen of the spiritual worlds. And at the right moment, as the culmination of this development, he was then placed in a death-like state for three and a half days. Whereas in Atlantean times the etheric body was still so loosely attached to the physical body that it could be drawn out more easily, in the Mysteries the person now had to be placed in a death-like sleep. During this time, he was either placed in a coffin-like box or tied to a kind of cross or something similar. And the one referred to as the initiator, the hierophant, had the ability to act upon the astral body and, in particular, upon the etheric body, for the etheric body was drawn out through this procedure during that time. This is different from sleep. During sleep, the physical body and the etheric body remain in bed, while the astral body and the “I” are outside. Now, however, in the final act of initiation, the physical body remains lying down, and the etheric body is simply lifted out—at least for the greater part of the physical body—with only the lower parts remaining while the upper parts are lifted out—and the initiate is then in a death-like state. Everything that had previously been learned through meditation and other exercises was now imprinted into the etheric body in this state. During these three and a half days, the person truly journeyed through the spiritual worlds where the higher beings dwell. And after these three and a half days, the one who had initiated him called him back again—that is, he had the power to awaken him once more. The person in question then brought back with him the knowledge of the spiritual world. Now he could look into this spiritual world, and now he could become a messenger of the realities of the spiritual world to his fellow human beings, who were not yet mature enough to look into it themselves.

[ 20 ] Thus, the ancient teachers in pre-Christian times had been initiated into the depths of the mysteries. There, over the course of three and a half days, they were guided by the hierophant and became living witnesses to the fact that a spiritual life exists and that, beyond the physical world, there is a spiritual world to which human beings belong through their higher faculties and into which they are meant to grow.

[ 21 ] But evolution continued. What I have just described to you as an initiation was still most intensely present in the early period following the Atlantean catastrophe. However, the bond between the etheric body and the physical body grew ever stronger. Consequently, this process became increasingly dangerous, for people were becoming more and more accustomed to the physical sensory world with their entire consciousness. This, after all, is the purpose of human evolution: that people become accustomed to living in this physical world with all their inclinations and sympathies. It is humanity’s great progress that people have truly developed this love for the physical world.

[ 22 ] In the early days of post-Atlantean culture, there was still a living memory of the existence of a spiritual world. People said to one another: “We, as those born later, can still glimpse into the spiritual world of our ancestors.” — They still possessed a dim, twilight-like awareness. They knew where the truth of the world lay, where their true home was. What surrounds us in our everyday consciousness, they said, is like a veil cast over the truth; it conceals the spiritual world from us—it is maya, or illusion. — People did not immediately get used to what they could now see. It was not easy to grasp that they were to lose their awareness of the old spiritual world. This is the defining characteristic of the first post-Atlantean culture. That is why it was also easiest to introduce people to the spiritual realm, for they still had a lively inclination toward the spiritual world. Of course, it could not remain that way, for the mission of Earth consists in people growing to love the forces of the Earth and conquering the physical plane.

[ 23 ] If you could look into ancient India, you would find a spiritual life of immense depth. Making what the first ancient teachers were able to reveal to humanity understandable to people of today is only possible if one has undergone a study of spiritual science. For everyone else, the teachings of the great holy rishis are nonsense, folly, for they cannot even conceive that there is any meaning in what is being told to them about the mysteries of the spiritual world. From their point of view, they are of course right, for everyone is always right from their own point of view.

[ 24 ] Their spiritual insight was immense, but at that time they lacked the ability to use even the simplest tools. They provided for themselves in the most primitive way. There was no such thing as natural science—or what we call that today. For in everything that could be perceived on the physical plane, they saw Maya, the great illusion, and only in the elevation toward the great Solar Being or similar entities did they find what was real and true. But it could not remain that way. People had to gradually learn to love this Earth. Among the post-Atlantean peoples, there also had to be those who possessed the will to conquer the earthly realm. The first steps toward this were taken in the time of Zarathustra. A tremendous step forward is evident when we observe the transition from the ancient Indian to the ancient Persian. For Zarathustra, the outer world was no longer merely Maya or illusion. He showed people that what physically surrounds us has value, but that the spiritual lies behind it. Whereas, in the view of the ancient Indian, the flower was Maya and he sought the spirit behind the flower, Zarathustra said: This is something to be cherished, for it is a link in the total spirit of the universe. The material grows out of the spiritual. — And we have already pointed out that Zarathustra indicated that the physical sun is the stage for spiritual beings. But initiation was difficult. And for those who did not merely want to hear from the initiates that there is a spiritual world, but who wanted to look into the great solar aura themselves—for them, stricter initiation measures were required.

[ 25 ] Human life as a whole also changed little by little. And in the period that followed—the Egyptian-Chaldean culture—people came to master the physical world even more. Here, human beings are no longer concerned solely with a purely spiritual science that explores what lies beyond the physical. They observe the course of the stars and seek to discern, in the positions and movements of the stars—in what is outwardly visible—a script of the divine-spiritual beings. They recognize the will of the gods in the lines of writing that lead from one sensory object to another. In this way, he studies things in their relationships to one another. In Egypt, we see the emergence of a geometry that is applied to external things. Thus, humankind conquers the external world.

[ 26 ] The Greeks took this even further. There we see how that union comes about between what the soul experiences and external matter. When Pallas Athena or Zeus stand before us, what was first lived in the human soul has been imparted to the material form. What the human being has attained has, as it were, flowed out of him and into the sensory world.

[ 27 ] But just as human beings became more and more powerful in the sensory world and grew ever more attached to it with their souls, so too did they become increasingly estranged from the spiritual world in the time between death and rebirth. When the soul left an old Indian body and entered the spiritual world to undergo its development there until its new birth, the spiritual realm was still alive for it. For throughout his entire life, man yearned upward toward a spiritual world, and all his feelings were stirred by what he heard in the teachings about life in the spiritual worlds, even if he himself was not an initiate. Therefore, so to speak, when he passed through the gate of death, the spiritual world lay open before him—it became light and bright before him. But to the extent that human beings developed an affinity for the physical world, as they became more adept at navigating it, to that same extent the time between death and rebirth grew darker for them. And in Egyptian times, this had already progressed so far that we can observe through clairvoyant consciousness that it becomes dark and gloomy for the soul when it steps out of the body into the spiritual world, that the soul feels lonely and as if cut off from the other souls; and the soul experiences a frosty sensation when it feels lonely and cannot find common ground with other souls. And while the Greeks lived in an era when human beings, through such magnificent outward beauty in their culture, had made the earth something truly special, it was during the time between death and rebirth that things were darkest, gloomiest, and coldest for the souls. And it is no legend, but corresponds to reality, that when asked about his stay in the underworld, the noble Greek replied: “Better to be a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realm of shadows!”

[ 28 ] Thus we can say that, as civilization advanced, people became increasingly estranged from the spiritual world. The initiates who looked up into the higher realms of the spiritual world became ever rarer, for the process of initiation grew ever more dangerous. It became increasingly difficult to spend three and a half days in a death-like state and allow the etheric body to separate without death occurring.

[ 29 ] Now a renewal came about for the whole of human life through that impulse of which we have already spoken in recent days: through the Christ impulse. We have already described how Christ, the high Sun Spirit, gradually drew nearer to the Earth. We have seen how, in the time of Zarathustra, he still had to be sought in the sun as “Ahura Mazdao,” and how Moses was already able to see him in the burning bush and in the fire on Mount Sinai. He gradually entered the earthly sphere, which was to be transformed. At first, this Spirit was concerned with ensuring that human beings would come to recognize him here on Earth.

[ 30 ] What, then, was essentially involved in all the ancient initiations? That the etheric body had to be separated from the physical body. And even in the post-Atlantean initiations, the person had to be brought into a death-like state of sleep—that is, to be unconscious to physical consciousness. Through this, the person came under the dominion of another “I.” This was always part of the process. With his “I,” he was entirely under the dominion of the one who was his initiator, his initiator. In that state, he left his physical body entirely; he did not inhabit it and exerted no influence from his “I” upon his physical body.

[ 31 ] But this is the great goal of the Christ impulse: that human beings must undergo a development of the “I” that remains entirely within themselves, so that they do not need to descend into a state lower than that of the “I” in order to enter the higher worlds. For this to happen, it was necessary that, first of all, One offer Himself as a sacrifice in order to receive the Christ Spirit Himself into a human body. We have already pointed out that an initiate, having matured through many, many incarnations, became capable, from a certain point in his life onward, of removing his own “I” from within himself and receiving the Christ Spirit into himself. This is alluded to in the Gospel of John in the baptism of John at the Jordan. What, then, did this baptism actually signify?

[ 32 ] We know that this baptism was administered by the Forerunner, the herald of Christ Jesus—John the Baptist—to those whom he had prepared to receive Christ in the proper manner. Only when we consider that John baptized in order to prepare people to receive Christ in the proper way will we understand what the Gospel of John says about John’s baptism. If you imagine a modern baptism that is merely an imitation of the original symbol, you will not come to an understanding. It was not as simple as merely sprinkling water on a person; rather, it consisted of the person being completely immersed in the water, so that he lived under the water for a time—whether long or short. Let us try to clarify what this means by looking at the mystery of the human being.

[ 33 ] Think back to the fact that a human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the “I.” In the waking state, these four components are firmly united within the human being. During sleep, the physical body and the etheric body lie in bed, while the astral body and the “I” are outside. At death, the physical body remains behind as a corpse, the etheric body departs, and for a brief time the “I,” the astral body, and the etheric body are united. And for those who have heard even just a few of my lectures, it is already clear that at this moment a very specific experience occurs: the human being has his or her previous life spread out before them like a magnificent tableau; all the circumstances of life stand spatially side by side around the person. For the etheric body is also the bearer of memory, and during life it is only the physical body that prevents it from having all of this before it as well. After death, the physical body is shed; then everything the person experienced in their last life can enter their consciousness. Now, I have also already mentioned that such a review of one’s life occurs when a person is in any kind of mortal danger or is subjected to some other tremendous fright or shock. You already know from stories that when a person is close to drowning or falling down a mountain—and does not lose consciousness—they experience their entire life up to that point as if in a grand tableau. What a person experiences in such a dangerous situation—for example, when on the verge of drowning—is what almost everyone experienced during the baptism of John. The baptism consisted of the person remaining in the water long enough to relive their entire life up to that point. But what they experienced in this way was, of course, experienced as a spiritual image. And it turned out that in this abnormal state, what the spirit experienced connected, so to speak, with the rest of the spiritual world; and those who were pulled out again after John’s baptism knew: There is a spiritual world! In truth, what I have within me is something that can exist without the body. — After the baptism, the person was convinced that there is a world to which he belongs in spirit. So what had John the Baptist accomplished through this baptism?

[ 34 ] People had come to grow more and more attached to the physical world, to find themselves increasingly drawn to it, and to believe more and more that the physical is what is truly real. But those who came to John the Baptist experienced their own lives as spiritual. Once they were baptized, they knew: I am something more than what I am through my physical body. People’s consciousness had gradually developed in such a way that it was directed toward the physical world. John had awakened in those he baptized the awareness: There is a spiritual world; with a higher part of myself, I belong to this spiritual world. Therefore, you need only rephrase his words, and you have: Change the mindset that is directed toward the physical world! They changed their mindset when they truly received baptism in the right way. Then they knew: I have a spiritual aspect within me; my “I” belongs to the spiritual world. The human being had gained this conviction while still within the physical body. After all, no special procedure had taken place, as in an initiation. They had experienced this while still in the physical body. And through the way in which the entire teaching—which had existed since the time of Moses—was received and united with the soul, the entire experience of John’s baptism took on a special meaning.

[ 35 ] After baptism, the human being not only had the awareness: “I am one with the spiritual world”—but also recognized which spiritual world is drawing near to Earth. Such a person knew: What had been revealed to Moses as “ehjeh asher chjeh” in the burning bush and in the fire on Sinai permeates the Earth, and this spiritual world is correctly expressed by the words Yahweh or Jehovah, or “ehjeh asher ehjeh” or “I am who I am.” — Through John’s baptism, then, a person knew not only that he was one with the spiritual world, but he also knew: In this spiritual world lives the “I Am,” from whom I was born spiritually. — Thus, through baptism, John had prepared those he baptized. He had awakened this feeling, this sense, within them. Of course, there could only be a few. Most were, after all, too immature to experience this at the moment of immersion. But some recognized that the Spirit was drawing near, the One who was later called the Christ.

[ 36 ] Now try to compare what we have said today with what we discussed yesterday. What the ancient spiritual beings had brought about was a love based on blood ties and physical communion. But the Luciferic spirits wanted to make each person independent, based on their own personality and individuality. Lucifer and the high spiritual beings had worked together. Gradually, the ancient blood ties had loosened. You can trace this yourself through history. Look at the mix of peoples in the great Roman Empire. This was brought about by the fact that the ancient blood ties had loosened and everyone wanted, to a greater or lesser extent, to stand firmly on the ground of their own personality. But as a result, they had also lost their connection to the spiritual world; they had become intertwined with the physical world and had developed an affinity for the physical plane. To the extent that self-consciousness had increased through Lucifer, human beings had become intertwined with the physical world, and their lives had become barren between death and rebirth. Now John the Baptist had already prepared something great and significant for humankind. He had made it possible for human beings to remain within their own personalities, and—by immersing themselves in water—to find within their personalities the very same experience they had once known as “gods,” back when they themselves still lived in water, when water vapors and mists permeated the atmosphere. This experience in the divine worlds had now been repeated. Humanity, despite being an “I,” had been prepared to be led back to humanity as human beings, to be guided once more into the love that had now become spiritual.

[ 37 ] In this way, you have characterized the essence of the Christ event from another perspective. Christ represents the descent of the spiritual power of love onto our Earth, a power that is only now beginning to take effect. If we pursue this thought further on the basis of the Gospels of John and Luke, we will see how spiritual love is precisely the essence of the Christ impulse, and how through it the “I’s” that have been separated are brought together more and more—but in regard to the innermost core of their souls. From the very beginning, people could only intuit what Christ had become for the world. And today, very little of this has been realized, for the force of separation—the aftereffect of the Luciferic powers—is still present, and the Christ principle has been at work for only a short time. And even if people today seek unity in certain external areas of life, when it comes to the most intimate, the most important matters, they do not even begin to grasp—at most with their thoughts, with their intellect, and that is the very least—what harmony and the resonating of souls truly are. It is truly the case that Christianity is only just beginning its work. It will penetrate ever deeper into souls and ennoble the “I” more and more. It is precisely those nations that are still young today who realize this. They realize that they must align themselves with the Christ-force, that they must allow themselves to be permeated by the Christ-force if they wish to progress.

[ 38 ] One of our contemporaries in the East, who is the executor of the will of the great Russian philosopher Soloviev, has said: “Christianity must unite us as a people; otherwise we will lose our sense of self and, with it, any possibility of being a people at all!” A powerful statement that seems to have sprung from an instinctive interest in Christianity. But it also shows how necessary it is for Christianity to penetrate to the depths of the soul. Try, for a moment, to examine a phenomenon that is among the most radical—one that shows us that even the greatest and noblest of souls remain far removed, in the very depths of their innermost being, from what will one day take hold of them when Christianity has poured itself into the innermost thoughts, opinions, and feelings of the human soul. Think of Tolstoy and his work in recent decades, which, in its own way, seeks to uncover the true meaning of Christianity. One cannot help but have immense respect for such a thinker, especially in the West, where, through lengthy philosophical ramblings, entire libraries are filled, so to speak, with discussions of the very same things that Tolstoy sets forth in a grand and powerful manner in a book like On Life. There are passages in Tolstoy where certain great insights into theosophical truths are presented in a very straightforward way—insights that a Western European philosopher, however, cannot grasp so directly, and about which he would at least have to write a vast body of literature, because they convey something truly profound. In Tolstoy, we might say, something resonates that can be called the Christ impulse. Delve into his writings, and you will see that it is the Christ impulse that fills him. Now take his great contemporary, who is interesting for the very reason that he has risen from a comprehensive philosophical worldview to the very limits of such a truly visionary life that he surveys an entire epoch, so to speak, from a perspectival, apocalyptic vantage point. Even if his visions are distorted—precisely because the foundation is not a sound one—Soloviev nonetheless rises to a visionary perception of the future. He presents such a future perspective for the twentieth century. And if we engage with him, we find greatness and nobility, particularly with regard to Christianity. But he speaks of Tolstoy as if he were an enemy of Christianity, as if he were the Antichrist! Thus, today two people may believe, in their deepest thoughts, that they are giving their era the very best; they may act from the very depths of their souls and yet stand opposed to one another without understanding, so that one becomes the “anti” of the other! People today do not even consider that, if outer harmony and a life steeped in love are to be possible, the Christ impulse must have penetrated to the very depths, so that love for humanity must be something entirely different from what it is today, even among the noblest of spirits.

[ 39 ] The impulse that was first foretold and then entered the world is only at the beginning of its work and will need to be understood better and better. What, then, is lacking in our time for all those who call for Christianity and declare it a necessity, yet cannot bring it about? They lack anthroposophy, spiritual science—the modern way of understanding Christ! For Christ is so great that every epoch will have to find new means to recognize him. In earlier centuries, people used other ways and forms of seeking wisdom. Today, anthroposophy is necessary. And what we have today in anthroposophy will remain valid for a long time to come as a means of understanding Christ. For anthroposophy will prove to be something that stimulates all human faculties of cognition. Humanity will gradually grow into an understanding of Christ. And even the anthroposophical concept is, at first, only a transient concept. We are aware of this, and also of the fact that we will have to frame something great—which is currently expressed in transient concepts—in even greater concepts.