The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eighth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we concluded from our reflections that the Christ impulse, after it had once worked through the person of Jesus of Nazareth, became united with the evolution of the Earth. And now it is such a powerful impulse within the development of humanity on Earth that it affects people today just as that procedure—which is becoming ever more dangerous for human life—once did: the separation of the etheric body from the physical body for three and a half days during initiation. The Christ impulse exerts an effect as powerful as that of such an abnormality with regard to consciousness.

[ 2 ] Now you must realize that, in fact, such a transformation could only take root slowly and gradually in human evolution; it could not occur with such intensity and force right from the start. Therefore, it was necessary to create a kind of transition in the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus remained in a death-like state for three and a half days. Nevertheless, you must be clear that this state was still somewhat different from the one the ancient initiates had undergone. Lazarus’s state was not, after all, artificially induced by the initiator as in ancient times, when—through processes I am not at liberty to describe here—the etheric body was extracted from the physical body. It happened, we might say, in a more natural way. You can see from the Gospel itself that Christ had already been associating with Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary, for some time, for it says there (11:3): “The Lord loved him”—that is to say, Christ Jesus had long since exerted a great and powerful influence on Lazarus, who had been sufficiently prepared and made ready for it. And the result was that, in Lazarus’s case, it was not necessary to artificially induce a three-and-a-half-day trance during the initiation; rather, it came about entirely of its own accord under the powerful influence of the Christ impulse. Lazarus was thus, so to speak, as good as dead to the outside world for three and a half days, even though during this time he had experienced what was most important, so that only the final act—the raising from the dead—was performed by Christ. And anyone who is familiar with what took place there can still recognize the echo of the ancient initiation rite in the words used by Christ Jesus:

“Lazare, come out!”

[ 3 ] And Lazarus, who was raised from the dead, was, as we have seen, John—or, more precisely, the writer of the Gospel of John—that is, the one who, as it were, as the first initiate in the Christian sense, was able to bring the gospel of the essence of Christ into the world.

[ 4 ] We may therefore assume from the outset that this Gospel of John—which is so maltreated by today’s purely historical-critical theological scholarship and is portrayed merely as a lyrical hymn, as a subjective expression of this writer—will allow us to glimpse into the deepest mysteries of the Christ impulse. Today, for the materialists in biblical scholarship, this Gospel of John is a stumbling block when compared to the other three, the so-called Synoptic Gospels. The image of Christ that they construct based on the first three Gospels is, after all, so very flattering to the learned gentlemen of our time. The phrase has even been used—and this has come from theological circles as well—that we are dealing with the “simple man from Nazareth.” And it is emphasized time and again that one can gain an image of Christ as perhaps the noblest being who ever walked the earth, but still only the image of a human being. Indeed, there is even a tendency to simplify this image as much as possible, and one hears it said that there was also a Plato, a Socrates, and other great figures. It is also acknowledged that there are differences in degree among them.

[ 5 ] Of course, the image of Christ presented to us in the Gospel of John is very different from that! Right at the beginning, it is stated that what dwelt in the body of Jesus of Nazareth for three years was the Logos, the eternal Word—or, to use another term for it, the eternal creative wisdom. This is beyond the comprehension of our time—that a human being, at the age of thirty, is so mature that he is capable of sacrificing his own self and taking on another being, a being that is utterly superhuman in nature: the Christ whom Zarathustra addressed as Ahura Mazdao. Therefore, such theological-critical scholars believe that the author of the Gospel of John merely sought, in a kind of lyrical hymn, to describe his own relationship to his Christ, and nothing else. On the one hand, there is the Gospel of John, and on the other, the three other Gospels; but if one wishes to form an average picture of Christ, one can still portray the “simple man,” albeit with historical grandeur. Modern scholars do not like the idea that one should see a divine being in Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 6 ] The Akashic Records reveal that, by the age of thirty, the individual we refer to as Jesus of Nazareth had, through everything he had experienced in his previous incarnations, attained such a level of maturity that he was able to sacrifice his own ego. For this is what happened: when this Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John, he was able to make the decision, as the “I”—the fourth member of the human being—to step out of the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. And now there was a noble vessel—a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body imbued with the purest, most highly developed “I.” It was like a pure vessel, and at the baptism by John, it was able to receive the Christ, the eternal Logos, the creative wisdom. This is what the Akashic Records tell us. And this is what we recognize, if we are only willing, in the account of the Gospel of John.

[ 7 ] But don’t we need to grapple with what our materialistic age believes? Perhaps some of you will be surprised that I speak of theologians—that is, people who speak of the spiritual—as if they were materialistic thinkers. But the point is not what someone believes or what they research, but how they research it, regardless of the content. Anyone who wants nothing to do with what concerns us here, who wants nothing to do with a spiritual world and looks only at what exists externally in the material world—documents and so on—and thereby seeks to form a picture of the world, is a materialist. It all comes down to the methods of research. But we must still grapple with this.

[ 8 ] If you read the Gospels, you will see that there are certain contradictions in them. However, with regard to the main points—what we can describe as the essentials based on the Akashic Records—we can say that they agree in a striking way. First of all, they agree regarding the baptism by John himself. And it is clear from all four Gospels that the writers of these Gospels attach the greatest possible importance to the baptism by John of Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore, they agree on the fact of the crucifixion and the fact of the resurrection. These are precisely the facts that are the most wondrous of all to today’s materialistic thinker. So there is no contradiction regarding these points. But how should we deal with the other apparent contradictions?

[ 9 ] First, we have two Gospel writers: Mark and John. They both begin with the baptism of John. They recount the last three years of the ministry of Christ Jesus—that is, only what took place after the Christ Spirit had already taken possession of the threefold body of Jesus of Nazareth: his physical body, etheric body, and astral body. Then we have the two Gospels according to Matthew and Luke. In a certain sense, they also trace the earlier history—which, in our understanding, would correspond to the history of Jesus of Nazareth in the Akashic Records prior to his self-sacrifice for the Christ. And right from the start, those who are looking for contradictions are confronted with the fact that Matthew presents a genealogy tracing back to Abraham, whereas Luke provides a genealogy tracing back to Adam and from Adam to Adam’s father, all the way to God Himself. Another contradiction would then arise from the fact that, according to Matthew, three wise men or magi, guided by a star, come to greet the newborn Jesus, while Luke tells of the vision the shepherds have, of the shepherds’ worship, and of the presentation in the temple; whereas Matthew, in turn, reports on the persecution by Herod, the flight to Egypt, and the return. These and many other details could be viewed as contradictions. We can address them if we examine a little more closely the facts provided to us—independently of the Gospels—through reading the Akashic Records.

[ 10 ] The Akashic Records tell us that Jesus of Nazareth was born around the time indicated in the Bible—a difference of a few years is immaterial—and that within the body of Jesus of Nazareth lived an individual who, in previous incarnations, had already attained high levels of initiation and gained profound insights into the spiritual world. Indeed, the Akashic Records tell us even more, and for now I will only touch on the broad outlines of what they say. The Akashic Records, which provide the only true history, tell us that the one who appeared as Jesus of Nazareth had, in his earlier incarnations, undergone a wide variety of initiations in the most diverse regions. And it leads us back to the fact that this later bearer of the name Jesus of Nazareth had originally attained a high, significant level of initiation and a high, meaningful influence within the Persian world. Thus, the Akashic Records show us how this individuality, which was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, had already been active within the spiritual world of ancient Persia, how it had looked up to the sun and addressed the great Sun Spirit as Ahura Mazdao.

[ 11 ] Now we must be clear that Christ has entered into the bodies of this very same individuality that had gone through such incarnations. What does this mean: that Christ has entered into the bodies of this individuality? It means nothing other than that Christ made use of these three bodies for His work—the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. Everything we think, everything we express in words, and everything we sense and feel is connected to our astral body. It is the vehicle for all of this. For thirty years, Jesus of Nazareth had lived as the “I” within this astral body, imparting to it everything he had experienced and absorbed within himself during earlier incarnations. In what sense, then, did this astral body have to shape its thoughts? It had to shape them in such a way that it conformed to and became one with the individuality that had dwelt within it for thirty years. When Zarathustra in ancient Persia had looked up at the sun and spoken of Ahura Mazdao, this had become imprinted on the astral body. Christ ascended into this astral body. Was it not, then, entirely natural that when Christ needed thought-images or expressions of feeling, he could only clothe them in whatever his astral body offered him, whatever they might be? For if you wear a gray coat, you appear to the outside world in a gray coat! Christ appeared to the outside world in the body of Jesus of Nazareth—in his physical body, etheric body, and astral body—so that his thoughts and feelings were colored by the thought- and feeling-images that were present in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Is it any wonder, then, that in his sayings we hear echoes of the ancient Persian expressions, and that in the Gospel of John we hear echoes of the expressions already used in the ancient Persian initiation! For the impulse that was in Christ was indeed passed on to the disciple, to the resurrected Lazarus. Thus, the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth speaks to us, as it were, through John in his Gospel. And is it any wonder that we hear echoes of Persian there, that expressions are used which resonate with the ancient Persian initiation and its ways of forming thought? Now, in Persia, not only were the spirits united in the sun addressed as Ahura Mazdao, but in a certain sense the term “Vohumanu” was used for the sun spirits—that is, the creative word or the creative spirit. The Logos, in the sense of creative power, is first used in the Persian initiation. And this appears to us again right in the first verse of the Gospel of John. We will understand many other things in the Gospel of John once we know that Christ himself spoke through an astral body that had served Jesus of Nazareth for thirty years, and that this individuality was the reincarnation of an ancient Persian initiate. And so I could point out many things to you in the Gospel of John, and you would see how it becomes understandable that precisely this most intimate Gospel, where it uses words that pertain to the mysteries of initiation, echoes the Persian mode of expression as it was carried forward into later times.

[ 12 ] What, then, about the other evangelists? If we want to understand this, we must recall some of what we have already covered in our previous reflections.

[ 13 ] We have already heard that there were high spiritual beings who, when the Earth separated from the Sun, shifted their sphere of activity to the Sun itself. We have pointed out that the outer astral forms of these high spiritual beings, who have elevated themselves toward the Sun, were, in a sense, the spiritual counterparts of certain animal forms here on Earth. First there was the form of the Spirit of the Bull, the spiritual counterpart of those animal natures whose essential characteristic in their development is what one might call the nutritional and digestive system. The spiritual counterpart is, of course, something spiritually exalted; the earthly image may appear to be something quite lowly. So we have high spiritual beings who have transferred their sphere of activity to the Sun and from there influence the sphere of the Earth, appearing there as the Bull Spirits. Others appear as lion spirits, whose counterpart is found in those animal forms that have developed, above all, the organs of the heart and blood circulation. Then we have spiritual beings who are counterparts of what we encounter in the eagle nature within the animal kingdom—the eagle spirits. And finally, we have spiritual beings who, as it were, harmoniously unite the other natures as in a great synthesis—the human spirits. These were, in a certain sense, the most advanced.

[ 14 ] Now let us turn from there to the ancient initiation. It gave human beings the opportunity to see, face to face, the high spiritual beings who had gone before them. But depending on whether the ancient people had descended from Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, or Venus in accordance with the conditions of those times, they had to be initiated in different ways. That is why there were also a wide variety of oracle sites in Atlantis. There were oracles whose spiritual vision was primarily attuned to seeing those spirits we have characterized as the eagle spirits, while others saw the lion spirits, others the bull spirits, and still others the human spirits. This depended on the specific nature of the people to be initiated. This diversity was, after all, one of the distinctive features of the Atlantean era, and its echoes persisted well into our post-Atlantean era. Thus, in the Near East and in Egypt, you could find mystery sites where initiations were conducted in such a way that the initiates saw the high spiritual beings as bull spirits or as eagle spirits.

[ 15 ] Out of the mysteries, external culture then emerged. Those who were able to see the high spiritual beings in the form of a lion also created, within the lion’s body, a kind of image of what they had seen. However, they said: “These spirits are involved in the development of the human being,” and so they gave the lion’s body a human head. This later became the sphinx. Those who saw the spiritual counterparts as bull spirits expressed this by proclaiming their testimony of the spiritual world through the introduction of bull worship, which eventually led, on the one hand, to the worship of the Apis bull in Egypt and, on the other hand, to the worship of the Persian Mithraic bull. For what we find in the external cult practices of various peoples has flowed out of the initiation rites.

[ 16 ] Thus, there were initiates everywhere who, in their spiritual vision, were more attuned to the bull spirits, others who were more attuned to the eagle spirits, and so on. In a certain sense, we can also describe the difference between the various types of initiation. For example, those who were initiated in such a way that the spiritual beings appeared to them in the form of bull spirits were specifically instructed in those aspects of human nature that, so to speak, contained the mysteries connected with the glandular system and the etheric body. And they were initiated into yet another realm of human nature: that which, so to speak, binds the human being firmly to the earth, that which is forged to the earth. All those who were initiated into the mysteries of Taurus understood this.

[ 17 ] Let us try to put ourselves in the mindset of such an initiate. These initiates had received roughly the following teaching from their great teachers: Human beings have descended from divine heights. The first human beings were the descendants of divine-spiritual beings. Therefore, they led the first human beings back to their Father-God. Thus, human beings came down to Earth, passing from one earthly form to another. These people were particularly interested in what was bound to the Earth, and they took an interest in everything that people had experienced back then, when they counted the divine-spiritual beings among their fathers. — This was the case with the Taurus Initiates.

[ 18 ] The situation was different for those initiated into the mystery of the eagle. They saw those spiritual beings that relate to human beings in a very peculiar way. But to understand this, we must at least say a few words about the spiritual nature of birds.

[ 19 ] In the animals, which rank below humans because of their lower functions, we see beings that have, so to speak, hardened too early—beings that have not maintained their physical substance in a soft and supple state until the moment when they could have been incorporated into human form. In the bird kingdom, however, we find beings who, while not having assumed the lowest functions, have nevertheless skipped over the intermediate stage. They have, as it were, not descended deeply enough; they initially maintained themselves in substances that were too soft, while the others lived in substances that were too hard. And as evolution continued further and further, external circumstances forced them to become denser. Thus they were densified in a way that corresponds to a nature that is too soft—one that has not descended far enough to Earth. This is, admittedly, a crude and popular way of putting it, but it corresponds to the facts. Corresponding to these bird-like natures as archetypes are those spiritual beings who have also crossed the threshold upward, who have preserved themselves in a spiritual substance that is too soft, and who therefore, in their progress, have, as it were, soared beyond what they could have become at a certain point in time. They diverge upward, while the rest diverge downward. In a sense, the lion spirits and the harmonious spirits—who adhered precisely to the right moment—stand in the middle; these are the human spirits.

[ 20 ] We have already seen how those who had received some aspect of the ancient initiation perceived the Christ event. They had previously been able to glimpse into the spiritual world, in a way that corresponded to their specific initiation. Those who had received the Taurus initiation—let us say, the initiates of a large part of the land of Egypt—knew: We can look up into the spiritual world; therefore, the high spiritual beings also appear to us in the counterparts to the Taurus nature in human beings. But now, said those who had drawn near to the Christ impulse, now what has appeared to us in its true form is the Ruler of the spiritual realm. What we had always seen before—what we had ascended to through the stages of our initiation—had presented us with a foreshadowing of the Christ. It is Christ whom we must place within what we saw before. When we recall all that we have seen—what the spiritual worlds have gradually revealed to us—where would it have led us if we had already been at the appropriate level back then? It would have led us to Christ! — Such an initiate described the journey into the spiritual world in terms of the Bull Initiation. But then he said: “The Truth that is within it is Christ.” — And a Lion initiate and an Eagle initiate spoke in the same way.

[ 21 ] All of these initiation mysteries had their own specific rules regarding how the initiate was to be led into the spiritual world. The rituals differed depending on how one was to enter the spiritual world. And particularly in the Near East and in Egypt, there were the most diverse variations of the mysteries, where it was especially common to guide the initiates in such a way that they ultimately reached the nature of the bull, and there were initiations that led to the vision of the lion spirits, and so on.

[ 22 ] Now, from this perspective, let us consider those who, through earlier initiations of the most varied kinds, had matured to the point of being able to feel the Christ impulse and to grasp Christ in the proper way. Let us consider an initiate who has passed through those stages that have led him to the vision of the human spirit. Such an initiate could say to himself: The true ruler of the spiritual world has appeared to me—it is Christ who lived in Jesus of Nazareth! What led me to this? My former initiation! He knew the path that leads to the vision of the human spirit. Thus he describes what a person experiences in order to attain initiation and to be able to recognize the Christ nature at all. He knew initiation as it was prescribed in those mysteries that led to human initiation. That is why the high initiate, who was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, appeared to him in the image of the mysteries he had undergone and come to know; and he described him as he himself viewed the matter. This is the case in the account according to Matthew. Therefore, an older tradition was certainly correct in associating the writer of the Gospel of Matthew with the figure depicted in the four symbols shown to you here on the capitals of the columns to the right and left, which we refer to as the Symbolum of Man. An older tradition identifies the writer of the Gospel according to Matthew with the Human Spirit. This stems from the fact that the writer of the Gospel of Matthew, so to speak, regarded his initiation into the Mystery of Man as his own starting point. For in the time when the Gospels were written, it was not yet customary to write biographies as we do today. At that time, what seemed most essential to people was that there was a highly initiated individual who had taken Christ into himself. How one becomes an initiate, and what one must go through as an initiate—that was what mattered most to them. Therefore, they skip over the day-to-day external events that seem so important to biographers today.

[ 23 ] What lengths a biographer will go to these days just to get enough material! Once, the “Swabian Vischer,” Friedrich Theodor Vischer, used a very apt analogy about a learned gentleman to satirize the way biographies are written today. He said: Once upon a time, a young scholar set out to write a doctoral dissertation—specifically, one on Goethe. First, he began the preliminary work and gathered everything he could possibly need. But since he wasn’t satisfied with that, he went up to every attic in every city where Goethe had lived, rummaged around there, and searched every other room as well. Everywhere he swept dust out of every corner and knocked over foul-smelling trash barrels in order to find anything that might still be found, all so he could then write a dissertation titled “On the Connection Between Mrs. Christiane von Goethe’s Frostbites and the Mythological, Allegorical, and Symbolic Figures in the Second Part of Faust”! Admittedly, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but in spirit it applies to today’s biographers. The writers who want to write about Goethe rummage through all sorts of rubbish heaps to write their biographies. They no longer know the meaning of the word “discretion.”

[ 24 ] Those who described Jesus of Nazareth in their Gospels, however, portrayed him differently. To them, all external events paled in comparison to the stages that Jesus of Nazareth had to go through as an initiate. They described this, though each in his own way, according to what he knew.

[ 25 ] Matthew describes it in the manner of the initiates who had been initiated into the human spirit. This initiation was closely related to Egyptian wisdom. — And now we can also understand how the author of the Gospel according to Luke arrived at his distinctive account. He was one who, in his earlier incarnations, had attained initiations that led to the Spirit of the Bull. He was able to describe what such an initiation entailed; he could say: A great initiate must have gone through these stages! And he described it in its characteristic tone. He was one of those who had previously lived primarily within the Egyptian mysteries. Therefore, it is no surprise to us that he highlights precisely that aspect which, so to speak, reveals the more Egyptian character of the initiation. Let us consider the writer of the Gospel of Luke in light of what we have now gained from this perspective. He said to himself: In that individuality that was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth lived a high-ranking initiate. I have come to understand how one progresses through the Egyptian mysteries to the Bull Initiation. I know that. — This particular kind of initiation was especially present in his mind. And now he said to himself: “The one who has become as high an initiate as Jesus of Nazareth has, in his earlier incarnations, undergone an Egyptian initiation in addition to all his other initiations.” - So in Jesus of Nazareth we have an initiate who has undergone the Egyptian initiation. The other evangelists knew this, of course. But it did not strike them as particularly important, because they were not so familiar with the initiation from this perspective. That is why no particular trait of Jesus of Nazareth caught their attention.

[ 26 ] I said already in the first few hours: When a person has undergone an initiation in the past, something special happens to them when they reappear. Very specific events then occur that appear, in the outer world, to be a repetition of what one has experienced before. Let’s suppose a person underwent an initiation in ancient Ireland; then an external life event would now have to remind them of that ancient Irish initiation. This would manifest, for example, in their being prompted by an external event to take a trip to Ireland. Those familiar with the Irish initiation will notice that the person in question is traveling to Ireland. Those unfamiliar with it will not regard this as a significant detail.

[ 27 ] The individuality that lived within Jesus of Nazareth had also been initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. Hence the journey to Egypt. To whom, then, must this “flight to Egypt” have been particularly striking? To the one who knew it from his own life, and such a person therefore also described this particular journey because he knew what it meant. It is described in the Gospel of Matthew because the writer knew from his own initiation what a journey to Egypt had meant for many initiates in ancient times. And now that you know that the author of the Gospel of Luke was a person who was particularly familiar with the initiation from the Egyptian mysteries leading to the Service of the Bull, you will not find it unreasonable that an older tradition associates the author of the Gospel of Luke with the symbol of the bull. For good reasons—which there is not enough time to elaborate on here—he does not describe a journey to Egypt. But he does mention such typical events whose significance could best be assessed by someone familiar with the Egyptian initiation. The author of the Gospel of Matthew describes the connections between Jesus of Nazareth and Egypt in a more superficial manner through the journey to Egypt. The author of the Gospel of Luke views all the events he describes in the spirit imparted by an Egyptian initiation.

[ 28 ] Now let us consider the author of the Gospel according to Mark. He omits all the background history and focuses specifically on describing the ministry of Christ in the body of Jesus of Nazareth over a period of three years. In this regard, the Gospel of Mark is in complete agreement with the Gospel of John. The author of the Gospel of Mark underwent an initiation that is very similar to those of the Near East, and even to the Greek initiations—if we may put it that way—the European-Asian-pagan initiations, which were the most advanced of their time. They are all reflected in the external world in such a way that a person of high stature—one who is, in a certain sense, initiated—owes his origin not merely to a natural event but to a supernatural one. Remember that the admirers of Plato, who sought to conceive of him in the proper way, had no particular interest in who Plato’s biological father was. To them, Plato’s spiritual nature outshone everything else. Therefore, they said: That which lived as the soul of Plato within the body of Plato—this Plato is born to us as a lofty spiritual being who enlivens lower humanity. And so they attributed the birth of the Plato who was precious to them—the awakened Plato—to the god Apollo. To them, Plato was a son of Apollo. In these mysteries in particular, it was customary not to concern oneself particularly with the previous life of the person in question, but rather to focus on the moment when the individual became what is so often mentioned in the Gospels: a son of the gods, a son of God. Plato, a son of God! This is how he was described by those who were his noblest admirers and his noblest connoisseurs.

[ 29 ] We must be clear about what significance such a description had for the human lives of these Sons of the Gods on Earth. It was precisely during the fourth epoch that human beings became most attuned to the physical-sensory world and grew to love this Earth. They loved the ancient gods because they could depict how the leading sons of the Earth were, in fact, Sons of the Gods. That which walked upon the Earth was to be portrayed in this way.

[ 30 ] The writer of the Gospel of Mark was one such person. He therefore begins by describing what took place after John’s baptism. An initiation such as that undergone by the writer of the Gospel of Mark led to the recognition of the higher world through the image of the lion spirit. This is why an ancient tradition associates the writer of the Gospel of Mark with the symbol of the lion. And now let us look back once more at what we have already touched upon today—the Gospel of John.

[ 31 ] We have said: The one who wrote the Gospel of John was initiated by Christ Jesus himself. This enabled him to offer something that contains, so to speak, the seed not only for the present-day effectiveness of the Christ impulse, but also for the effectiveness of the Christ impulse far into the future. He proclaims something that will remain valid far into the future. He is one of the Eagle Initiates who had transcended the ordinary stage. The writer of Mark presents what was normal for that time. What extends beyond that time, what shows us how Christ will work in the farthest future, what soars above all that is bound to the earth—we find this in John. That is why tradition associates John with the symbol of the eagle.

[ 32 ] Thus you can see that such an ancient tradition—which the Evangelists combine with what constituted, so to speak, the very essence of their own existing initiation—is by no means based on mere fantasy, but rather that it springs from the deepest foundations of Christian development. One must look so deeply into these events. Then one will understand that the greatest, most extraordinary events in the life of Christ are described in the same way, yet that each of the evangelists portrays Jesus Christ as he understands him according to the nature of his own initiation. I have already alluded to this in my book Christianity as a Mystical Fact, but only in a way suitable for an audience not yet prepared for such concepts, since it was written at the beginning of our development in spiritual science. In that work, consideration was given to the lack of understanding in our time regarding the actual occult facts.

[ 33 ] Thus we understand that Christ is revealed to us from four different perspectives: through each of the Gospel writers, from the perspective he knew best. You will surely believe that Christ has many facets, given the powerful inspiration he has provided. But what I said was this: There is one thing found in all the Gospels—the descent of the Christ-being itself from divine-spiritual heights at the baptism by John, and that this Christ-being dwelt in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, passed through death on the cross, and conquered that death. We will have to delve even more deeply into this very mystery. Let us approach this death on the cross today by first asking: What characterizes the death on the cross for this Christ-being? We must say: It is characterized by the fact that it is an event that makes no distinction between life before and life after. This is the essence of Christ’s death: that Christ did not become someone else through death, that he remains the same, that he was One who embodies death in its insignificance. Thus, those who were able to know the essence of Christ’s death always held fast to the living Christ.

[ 34 ] From this perspective, what, then, is the event at Damascus, where the one who had previously been Saul became Paul? Paul knew from what he had learned earlier that the Spirit—who was first sought by Zarathustra as Ahura Mazdao upon the sun, and who was then beheld by Moses in the burning bush and in the fire on Mount Sinai—was gradually drawing near to the earth. And he also knew that this Spirit had to enter a human body. But while he was still Saul, Paul could not have grasped that this human being, who was to bear the Christ within himself, would have to suffer a shameful death on the cross! He could only imagine that the Christ, when he came, would have to triumph, that he would have to remain in all that the earth possesses once he had set foot on it. He could not conceive of the one who hung on the cross as the bearer of Christ. This is the essence of Paul’s view before Saul became Paul. And the death on the cross—the shameful death on the cross with all that it entails—is what initially prevented Paul from acknowledging that Christ had indeed already been on earth. So what had to happen? Something had to happen to Paul so that, at a certain moment, he could become convinced: The individual who hung on the cross in the body of Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ; the Christ had been present on earth! Paul became clairvoyant through the event at Damascus. There he was able to convince himself.

[ 35 ] When a clairvoyant looked into the spiritual world, it appeared to have changed after the event at Golgotha. Previously, Christ could be found in the spiritual worlds. Since the event at Golgotha, Christ could be found in the Earth’s aura. Before the event at Golgotha, Christ was not to be seen there, but afterward He could be seen in the Earth’s aura. That is the difference. And Saul said to himself: If I am clairvoyant, I can convince myself that the one who hung on the cross and lived as Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ who is now in the Earth’s aura. — And he saw in the Earth’s aura the very same thing that Zarathustra had first seen on the sun as Ahura Mazdao. Now he knew: The one who was on the cross has risen. Therefore, he could now say: Christ has risen; he has appeared to me, just as he appeared to Cephas, the other brothers, and the five hundred at once! And now he became the herald of the living Christ, for whom death does not have the same meaning as it does for other people.

[ 36 ] Anyone familiar with this event will, when the death on the cross—when the death of Christ in this very form—is called into question, agree with another Swabian who, in his Urchristentum (Primitive Christianity), has compiled with the utmost historical precision what constitutes the most certain facts of what we know about it. Gfrörer—it is he—has rightly emphasized the crucifixion in particular. And one can agree with him in a certain sense when, in his somewhat sarcastic manner, he expresses himself by saying: He would look anyone who contradicted him on this point squarely in the face and ask them if they weren’t a little off their rocker!

[ 37 ] This is part of the most certain foundation of Christianity: this death on the cross and what we will describe tomorrow as the resurrection and as the effect of the words, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age!” And this is what constituted Paul’s proclamation. He could therefore say: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain!” Paul links Christianity to the resurrection of Christ. It is, so to speak, only in our time that people are once again beginning to reflect a little on these matters—where this issue is not treated as a theological controversy but as a matter of life and death for Christianity. The great philosopher S0Jowjow therefore essentially takes a completely Pauline stance when he emphasizes: Everything in Christianity hinges on the idea of the Resurrection, and a Christianity of the future is impossible if the idea of the Resurrection is not believed and not grasped. — And in his own way, he echoes the words of Paul: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain.” Then the Christ impulse is impossible. There would be no Christianity without the risen, living Christ!

[ 38 ] It is characteristic—and therefore worth emphasizing—that certain profound thinkers, drawing solely on their philosophy and without any recourse to the occult, come to recognize just how true this saying of St. Paul is. If one engages with such thinkers even a little, one sees: There are already, in our time, people who are forming concepts of what a future human conviction and human worldview must be—precisely what spiritual science must provide. But those who lack spiritual science cannot achieve more than an empty conceptual vessel. This is also the case with the profound thinker Soloviev. The systems of his philosophy are like vessels of concepts, and what must be poured into them is that which they already yearn for, for which they have already shaped their form—but which they do not possess, and which can come solely from the anthroposophical movement. It will pour that living water—the revelations about the facts of the spiritual world, the occult—into these vessels. This will bring the spiritual-scientific worldview to the finest minds, who are already showing today that they need it, and whose tragedy lies in the fact that they have not been able to obtain it. We can literally use this phrase for these minds: They are thirsting for anthroposophy! They have not been able to find it. Through the anthroposophical movement, what can form clear, distinct, and true conceptions of the most important events—such as the Christ event and the Mystery of Golgotha—is to flow into the vessels they have prepared. Only anthroposophy, or spiritual research, can enlighten us on this matter with its revelations about the realms of the spiritual worlds. Indeed, the Mystery of Golgotha can be understood in our present time only through anthroposophy, through spiritual research!