The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eleventh lecture

[ 1 ] From the lectures given so far in this series, it will have become abundantly clear to you that, according to spiritual scientific research, the Christ event must be regarded as the most essential factor in the entire development of humanity, and that we must see in the Christ event something that has brought about a completely new direction for the development of the Earth as a whole. So we had to say: Through the Mystery of Golgotha, through the events in Palestine, and everything connected with them before and after, something entirely new has entered into the development of humanity, and the course of human development would have been fundamentally different had the Christ event not taken place. If we want to understand the Mystery of Golgotha, we must take a closer look at the intimate details of Christ’s own development.

[ 2 ] Of course, even in fourteen lectures on a subject that would encompass the entire world, it is impossible to say everything. You can already see this hinted at by the author of the Gospel of John: that there is still much more to be said, but the world could not produce enough books to say everything that needs to be said. Thus, you cannot expect that fourteen lectures will cover everything related to the Christ event and its account in the Gospel of John and the other Gospels associated with it.

[ 3 ] Yesterday and the day before yesterday, we saw how, through the indwelling of the “Christ Spirit,” the Christ Individuality, in the threefold body of Jesus of Nazareth, what is described in the Gospel of John—up to and including the chapter on the raising of Lazarus—was gradually brought about. Thus we have seen that Christ gradually had to form within Himself the threefold physicality—the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body—which had been sacrificed to Him by the great initiate Jesus of Nazareth. However, we will only be able to understand what Christ actually accomplished within the threefold body of Jesus of Nazareth if we first bring to mind the relationship between the individual members of the human being’s being.

[ 4 ] So far we have only outlined in broad strokes that, in the waking state, human beings appear to clairvoyant consciousness in such a way that the physical body, the etheric or life body, the astral body, and the I interpenetrate one another, forming an interpenetrating whole; that at night, when one remains in bed, the physical body and the etheric body and that the astral body and the “I” are set apart. Now, in order to describe the Mystery of Golgotha more precisely, we must ask ourselves today: What exactly is the nature of the interpenetration of the four members of the human being in the waking state? That is to say, how do the I and the astral body actually penetrate the etheric body and the physical body in the morning when a person wakes up? It will be best if I illustrate this for you with a schematic drawing.

[ 5 ] Let us assume, for the sake of simplicity, that in this diagram below we have the human physical body, and above it we have the human etheric body. In the morning, when the astral body and the “I” enter this physical body and etheric body from the spiritual world, this happens in such a way that, essentially—and I ask you to pay close attention to this word!—the astral body enters the etheric body and the “I” enters the physical body. Thus, in this diagram, the horizontal lines represent the astral body and the etheric body, and the vertical lines represent the “I” and the physical body.

[ 6 ] I said “essentially” because, of course, everything interpenetrates within the human being, so that one can also say: The “I” is also present in the etheric body, and so on. As it is meant here, this is indirectly the case—essentially. If we consider the strongest interpenetration, then what I have sketched for you here applies.

[ 7 ] Now let us ask ourselves: What actually happened at the baptism by John? At the baptism by John, as we have said, the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth emerged from the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body, leaving this threefold sheath behind for the Christ Being. Thus we may schematically depict what remained of Jesus of Nazareth as the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. The “I” had left the physical body. In place of this “I” of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ Being entered this threefold sheath—essentially, and primarily, into the physical body. With this, however, we have touched upon the edge of a profound mystery. For when we now consider what actually happened there, we must say: What happened there touches upon all those great human conditions that we have alluded to in recent days.

[ 8 ] I have hinted to you in recent days that everything that is general in human beings—that which, so to speak, makes people within a certain group similar—lies in the feminine element of heredity. I have told you that, through women, what is passed down from generation to generation is that which—if we look at outward appearances—would make one face resemble another within a people. Through the male element, what is passed down from generation to generation is that which distinguishes one human being from another, that which makes him an individual being here on Earth, that which establishes his “I” on its own foundation. Those spirits who are in contact with the spiritual world have always sensed this correctly. And it is only when a person delves into these depths of world realities that he truly comes to know and appreciate what great people—who had a connection to the spiritual world—have said.

[ 9 ] Let us look once more at the first schematic diagram. A person says to themselves: An etheric body lives within me, and within this etheric body is the astral body. The astral body is the bearer of perceptions, ideas, thoughts, sensations, and feelings; it lives within the etheric body. But we have seen that the etheric body is what, so to speak, works upon the physical body to the fullest extent—it contains the forces that shape the physical body. We must therefore say: Within this etheric body, when it is permeated by the astral body, lies everything that shapes the human being into a human being—that which imparts a specific form to him, so to speak, from within, from his spiritual aspects. What makes one human being like another, then, comes from what acts within him—that which is not merely external, that which is not attached to the physical body, but rather to the etheric body and the astral body. For these are the inner members. Therefore, a person who looks into such matters will feel that what permeates their etheric and astral bodies comes from the maternal element. But as for what gives their physical body this specific form—which is imposed upon it by the “I,” by the “I” within the physical body—a person must recognize that this is a paternal inheritance.

“From my father I got my stature,
A serious approach to life,
From my dear mother, her cheerful nature
And a love of storytelling,”

[ 10 ] says Goethe. And as you can see, this is an interpretation of what I have sketched out for you as a schematic figure. “From my father I have my stature”—that is, what emerges from the “I”; from my mother, the ideas, the gift of storytelling—that lies in the etheric body and the astral body. The sayings of great minds are far from being understood when one believes one has understood them through trivial human notions.

[ 11 ] But now we must apply what we have just illustrated to the Christ event. We must raise the question from this perspective: What would have happened to humanity if the Christ event had not taken place?

[ 12 ] If the Christ event had not taken place, the course of human development would have continued as we have seen it begin in the post-Atlantean epoch. We have seen that in ancient times, at the very foundation of human culture, there prevailed a love that was closely bound to the ties of tribal kinship and blood relations. People loved one another because they were related by blood. And we have seen how, as humanity progressed, this bond of blood was increasingly severed. Now let us trace our way from the earliest times of human development up to the time when Christ Jesus appeared.

[ 13 ] While from the earliest times onward marriages were contracted within the same tribe, you will find that during the Roman era —and this is the time when the Christ event took place—marriages between close relatives were increasingly broken, as the most diverse peoples were intermingled precisely by the Roman campaigns, and as marriages between distant relatives had to take the place of marriages between close relatives to the greatest extent. Blood ties had to be severed more and more in the course of human development, because human beings were destined to stand on their own two feet.

[ 14 ] Let us suppose that Christ had not come to infuse new strength, to replace the old blood-based love with a new, spiritual love. What would have happened then? Then that which brings people together—love—would have gradually faded away across the globe; what unites people in love would have died out in human nature. Without the Christ, the human race would have come to gradually witness the death of love among themselves. People would be driven into isolated individuality. If one views things solely through the lens of external science, one naturally does not see that profound truths underlie them. If you were to examine—not with chemical means, but with the methods available to spiritual research—the blood of people today and of people from several millennia before the appearance of Christ, you would find that this blood has changed, that it has taken on a character that makes it less and less capable of carrying love.

[ 15 ] How, then, must the course of future development have appeared to a discerning person of ancient times—one who could look deeply into the course of human evolution and who knew how to prophesy what would come to pass if only the single direction that had been developing since time immemorial had continued without the Christ event? How must the course of future development have appeared to such a deeply initiated person? What images must he have painted before the human soul if he wanted to hint at what would happen in the future if, as blood ties were lost, spiritual love—the love of Christ—did not take their place to the same extent? He had to say: If people become more and more isolated from one another, if each person becomes increasingly hardened within their own ego, if the dividing lines separating soul from soul grow ever stronger, so that soul can understand soul less and less, then people in the outer world will increasingly fall into strife and discord; the conflict of all against all on Earth will take the place of love. That would have been the result had human evolution taken place without the Christ event. All people would have been hopelessly exposed to the conflict of all against all—a conflict that will indeed come to pass, but only for those who have not imbued themselves with the Christ principle in the proper way. Thus, such a prophetic seer beheld an end to Earth’s evolution that filled his soul with dread. He saw: Since the soul can no longer understand the soul, the soul must rage against the soul!

[ 16 ] I have told you in recent days that people can only be brought together little by little through the Christ principle. I have shown you, using an example, how two noble spirits are so at odds in their views that one—Tolstoy—believes he is proclaiming the true Christ, while the other—Soloviev—believes he is proclaiming the true Christ, and that in doing so, one regards the other as the Antichrist. For Soloviev regards Tolstoy as the Antichrist. What at first is a conflict of opinions between soul and soul would gradually find expression in the outer world—that is, man would rage against man. Such is the demand of the development of the blood.

[ 17 ] Do not object by saying that, despite the Christ event, we still see strife and discord today, and that we are far from any realization of Christian love. I have already told you that we are only at the beginning of Christian development. The great impulse was given that, as Earth’s development continues, Christ will take root in human souls and bring them together spiritually. What still exists today in the form of strife and discord—and what will also lead to even greater excesses—stems from the fact that humanity has as yet been permeated only to the very slightest degree by the true Christ principle. What has existed in humanity since time immemorial continues to prevail. This can only be overcome slowly and gradually. We are seeing the Christ impulse flow into humanity slowly and gradually.

[ 18 ] This, then, is what someone who, in pre-Christian times, had clairvoyantly perceived the course of human development would have foreseen. He could have said: I have received the last remnants of the ancient power of clairvoyance. You humans once had the ability, in ancient times, to glimpse into the spiritual world through a dim, twilight-like clairvoyance. That has gradually faded away. But there still remains—like heirlooms from those ancient times—the possibility of glimpsing into the spiritual world in abnormal states of consciousness, in dreamlike states. There, a person can still see something of what lies behind the outer surface of things. — All the ancient legends, fairy tales, and myths—which truly contain deeper wisdom than modern science—tell of the extent to which the gift of entering special states once existed. Call it a dream, but in this dream, events were foretold. Yet not in such a way that humanity would be sufficiently protected by the ancient wisdom from the conflict of all against all. The ancient sage denied this, and he denied it in the strongest possible terms. He said: We have received an ancient wisdom. Back then, in the Atlantean era, people perceived these states in altered states of consciousness. Even now, individual people can still perceive them when they are placed in altered states of consciousness. There, what will happen in the near future is foretold. — But what was foretold in those dreams offered people no certainty; it was deceptive and will become more and more deceptive. Thus taught the teacher of the pre-Christian era, and thus he presented it to the people.

[ 19 ] That is why it is important that, when one recognizes the full intensity and power of the Christ impulse, one comes to understand a great truth. One must realize: Without the Christ impulse, the isolation and separation of human beings, and the pitting of people against one another, would bring about something like a struggle for existence—which is also argued today by a materialistic-Darwinian theory—a struggle for existence such as prevails in the animal kingdom, but which should not prevail in the human world. One could speak grotesquely and say: At the end of the Earth’s days, the Earth will one day present the very picture that certain materialists, in the spirit of a Darwinian theory, paint of humanity—a picture they derive from the animal world! Today, however, this theory, when applied to humanity, is false. It is true for the animal kingdom, precisely because no such impulse exists in the animal kingdom that transforms strife into love. Christ, through His deeds as a spiritual force within humanity, will refute all materialistic Darwinism!

[ 20 ] However, in order to understand this, one must realize that people can only cease to be at odds with one another in the external sensory world—through their differing opinions, feelings, and actions—if they combat within themselves and resolve within themselves that which would otherwise radiate into the external world. The person who first combats what needs to be combated within himself—who establishes harmony within himself between the various aspects of his being—will not fight against the other opinion in another’s soul. He will face the external world not as a fighter but as one who loves. The point is to redirect the conflict from the outside to the inner self. The forces at work within human nature must contend with one another internally. We must view two opposing opinions in such a way that we say: This is one opinion; one may hold it. This is the other opinion; one may hold it. But if I recognize only one opinion as valid, if I regard only what I want as valid, and oppose the other opinion, then I enter into conflict on the physical plane. To insist only on my own opinion is to be selfish. To regard my own action as the only valid one is to be selfish.

[ 21 ] Let us suppose that I take the other person’s opinion to heart and seek to create harmony within myself; then I will relate to the other person in an entirely different way. Only then will I begin to truly understand him. We could also describe the progress of human development as the transformation of external conflict into a harmonization of a person’s inner forces. Through Christ, humanity had to be given the opportunity to achieve inner harmony—to find within themselves the ability to harmonize the conflicting forces within their own being. Christ gives people the strength to first resolve the conflict within themselves. Without Christ, this is never possible. And the ancient, pre-Christian people rightly regarded one thing as the most terrible in relation to external conflict: the child’s conflict against father and mother. And in the times when people knew how things would develop without the Christ impulse, patricide was regarded as the most terrible and heinous crime. They made this clear—those ancient sages who foresaw that Christ would come. But they also knew what the consequences would be in the outer world if the struggle were not first waged within oneself.

[ 22 ] Let us look within ourselves. We have seen that within the human being, where the etheric body and the astral body interpenetrate, the Mother reigns; and that where the “I” is located in the physical body, the Father is expressed. This means: In our general nature, in what is characteristic of our species, in what constitutes our inner life of wisdom and imagination, the Mother reigns, the feminine element reigns; in what arises from the union of the “I” and the physical body, in the outwardly differentiated form, in what makes a human being an “I,” the Father reigns, the masculine element. So what, above all, did the ancient sages—who thought in this way—have to demand of human beings? They had to demand that human beings gain clarity within themselves regarding the relationship between the physical body and the “I” on the one hand, and the etheric body and the astral body on the other; that they gain clarity within themselves regarding the maternal and paternal forces at work within them. Because human beings possess an etheric body and an astral body within themselves, they possess the maternal within themselves. In addition to the external mother, who exists on the physical plane, they possess, so to speak, the maternal element—the mother—within themselves. And in addition to the father, who exists on the physical plane, they possess the paternal element—the father—within themselves. Bringing the father within and the mother within into the right balance had to appear as an ideal, as a great ideal. If a person does not bring the father and mother within themselves into harmony, then the disharmony between the paternal and maternal elements must spread from the person out onto the physical plane and wreak havoc there. Thus the ancient sage said: Human beings have the task of establishing harmony within themselves between the paternal and maternal elements. If they fail to do so, what must appear to us as the most terrible thing will emerge into the world.

[ 23 ] How did the ancient sages present to people what we have just expressed, so to speak, in anthroposophical terms? They said: In ancient times, we inherited an ancient wisdom. Even today, a person can still be brought into this state under extraordinary circumstances. But the possibility of entering this state is growing ever weaker, and even the ancient initiation cannot carry a person beyond a certain point in human evolution. — Let us consider once more this ancient initiation, as we have described it in recent days. What, then, actually happened during such an initiation?

[ 24 ] During such an initiation, the etheric body and the astral body were separated from this composite of the physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego, but the ego remained behind. For this reason, the person could not possess any self-awareness even during the three and a half days of the initiation. Self-consciousness had been extinguished. The person received a consciousness from the higher spiritual world, which was instilled in him by the priest-initiator who guided him completely; the priest-initiator made his own “I” available to him. What actually happened as a result? Something occurred that was expressed by a formula that will seem strange to you. But once you understand this formula, it will no longer seem strange to you. It was expressed as follows: When a person was initiated in the ancient sense, the maternal element emerged, and the paternal element remained behind. That is to say, the person killed the paternal element within himself—and united with his mother within himself—in other words: He killed the father within himself and married his mother. So when the ancient initiate lay in that three-and-a-half-day lethargic state, he had united with the mother and killed the father within himself. He had become fatherless. This was necessary, for he had to give up his individuality; he had to live in a higher spiritual world. He became one with his people. But what lived within his people was precisely present in the maternal element. He became one with the entire organism of his people. He became what Nathanael was, and whatever was designated by the name of the people in question—an “Israelite” among the Jews, a “Persian” among the Persians.

[ 25 ] The only wisdom that can ever exist in the world is that which flows from the Mysteries; no other. Those who learn the corresponding truths in the Mysteries become messengers to the outer world, and the outer world learns what is beheld in the Mysteries. This, however, was learned in the spirit of the ancient wisdom—which was attained by uniting with one’s mother within oneself and killing the father within oneself. But this inherited wisdom cannot take humanity beyond a certain point of development. Something else, something entirely new, had to take the place of this ancient wisdom. If humanity were to continue receiving only this ancient wisdom, gained in this way, then, as we have already said, humanity would be driven into a conflict of all against all. Opinion would rise up against opinion, feeling against feeling, will against will; and it would lead to the dreadful, horrifying vision of the future in which a person unites with the mother and kills the father. But the ancient initiates—who, though they had received initiation, were awaiting the Christ—depicted this in meaningful images, in grand and powerful images. And you have preserved the imprint of this worldview of the ancient pre-Christian sages in legends and myths. We need only recall the name Oedipus; there we can connect with something in which the ancient sages expressed what they had to say in this regard. This is the text of that ancient Greek legend, which the Greek tragedians portrayed in such a grand and powerful manner:

[ 26 ] There was a king in Thebes. His name was Laius. Jocasta was his wife. For a long time, they had no children. So Laios consulted the Oracle at Delphi to ask if he could have a son. And the Oracle gave him this answer: “If you want a son, he will be the very one who will kill you!” — And in a state of intoxication—that is, in an altered state of consciousness—Laius did what led to him having a son. Oedipus was born. Laius knew: This will be the son who will kill him, and he decided to abandon him. And to ensure his complete destruction, he had the child’s feet pierced; then he was abandoned. A shepherd found the child and took pity on him. He brought him to Corinth, and there Oedipus was raised in the royal household. When he had grown up, he learned of the oracle: that he would kill his father and lie with his mother. But it could not be prevented. He was to leave the place where he was, because there they believed him to be the king’s son. On his way, he happened to encounter his real father, and without knowing him, he killed him. He arrived in Thebes. And because he answered the Sphinx’s questions—because he solved the riddle of the dreadful monster that had brought death to so many—the Sphinx was forced to kill herself. Thus, at first, he was a benefactor to his homeland. He was crowned king and married the queen—who was his mother. Without knowing it, he had killed his father and married his mother. Now he reigned as king. But because he had come to power in this way, because this terrible stain clung to him, he brought unspeakable misfortune upon his land, so that in the end, in the Sophoclean drama, he appears before us as the blind man who has taken his own sight.

[ 27 ] This is an image that originated in the ancient centers of wisdom. And it was meant to convey that, in a certain sense and in the old tradition, Oedipus could still come into contact with the spiritual world. How had he come into connection with the spiritual world? His father had consulted the oracle. These oracles were the last remnants of the ancient art of divination. But these last remnants were not enough to bring peace to the outer world. They could not give humanity what was to be achieved: harmony between the maternal and paternal elements.

[ 28 ] The fact that Oedipus is meant to represent someone who, simply by inheritance, attained a certain clairvoyant insight in the ancient sense is indicated by his solving the riddle of the Sphinx—that is, he understood human nature to the extent that the last remnants of ancient primordial wisdom could provide such insight. It could never lead to halting the raging hostility among human beings—that which was symbolized in the patricide and the union with the mother. Oedipus, despite his connection to the ancient primordial wisdom, cannot see through the interrelationships by means of this ancient wisdom. This ancient wisdom no longer grants sight. That is what the ancient sages sought to demonstrate. Had it granted insight in the old sense of blood, then the blood would have spoken when Oedipus stood before his father, and it would have spoken when he stood before his mother. The blood no longer spoke! — Thus the decay of the ancient primordial wisdom is vividly illustrated to us.

[ 29 ] What had to happen to make it possible, once and for all, to find within oneself a harmonious balance between the maternal and the paternal, between one’s own self—which embodies the paternal—and the maternal? The Christ impulse had to come! And now let us look at certain depths of the wedding at Cana in Galilee from yet another perspective.

[ 30 ] It says there: “The mother of Jesus was there. But Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.” Jesus—or rather, the Christ—was to stand before humanity as the great model of a being who had found inner harmony within himself—between his self and the maternal principle. At the wedding in Cana in Galilee, he pointed this out to his mother: “Something is passing from me to you.” This was a new “moving from me to you.” It was no longer in the old sense; it signified a renewal of the entire relationship. Once and for all, this was the great ideal of inner balance—without first having to “kill the father,” that is, without first having to leave the physical body in order to find balance with the maternal principle within the “I.” Now the time had come when human beings learn to combat within themselves the excessive power of egoism, of the “I” principle, and to bring it into the proper balance with what reigns in the etheric and astral bodies as the maternal principle. Therefore, a beautiful image of this relationship between one’s own “I”—which is the paternal principle—and the maternal principle was to be presented to us at the wedding at Cana as the inner harmony, as the love that reigns in the outer world between Christ Jesus and his mother. This was to be an image of the harmonious balance between the “I” and the maternal element within oneself. This did not exist in the past; it came about only through the deed of Christ Jesus. But since it had come about through the deed of Christ, with it came the only possible refutation—refutation through deed—of everything that would have had to come about under the influence of those ancient legacies of wisdom, which would have led to the killing of the father and union with the mother. What, then, is opposed by the Christ principle?

[ 31 ] When the ancient sage, who beheld the Christ, now weighed the Old against the New, he could say: If, in the old sense, union with the Mother is sought, then no good can ever come to humanity. But if, in the new sense—as demonstrated by the wedding at Cana—union with the mother is sought, if the human being unites in this way with the astral and etheric bodies living within him, then salvation, peace, and brotherhood will come more and more among humanity over time, thereby combating the old principle of killing the father and uniting with the mother. — So what, in fact, was the hostile element that Christ had to remove? It was not the old wisdom; it did not need to be fought against. It lost its power; it gradually dried up on its own. And we see how those who entrust themselves to it, like Oedipus, fall into disharmony precisely because of it. But the calamity would not subside on its own if one were to turn away from the new wisdom—that is, from the way the Christ impulse works—if one were to remain rigidly attached to the old principle. It was perceived as the greatest progress not to remain with the old principle, not to cling rigidly to the old line, but to recognize what has come into the world through the Christ. Is this also hinted at to us? Yes! Legends and myths contain the deepest wisdom. There is a legend—it is not found in the Gospel, but that does not make it any less a Christian legend and also a Christian truth—and it goes like this:

[ 32 ] There was a married couple. For a long time, this couple had no son. Then, in a dream—pay close attention!—it was revealed to the mother that she would have a son, but that this son would first kill his father, then lie with his mother, and bring terrible disaster upon his entire clan.

[ 33 ] Once again, you have a dream, like Oedipus’s oracle—that is to say, we have here a legacy of ancient clairvoyance. What was to happen was revealed to the mother in the old way. Is this enough to understand the workings of the world and prevent the calamity that was revealed to her? Let us ask the legend. The legend teaches us further:

[ 34 ] Impressed by this wisdom that came to her in a dream, the mother took the child she had given birth to to the island of Kariot. There, the child was abandoned but found by a neighboring queen. The queen took the child in and raised it herself, since she and her husband had no children of their own. Later on, this couple had a child of their own, and the foundling soon felt threatened; as a result of his passionate temperament, he killed the royal couple’s son. Now, however, he could no longer stay there; he had to flee and ended up at the court of the governor Pilate. There he soon became a steward in the governor’s household. But then one day he got into a quarrel with his neighbor, about whom he knew only that he was his neighbor: In the quarrel, he struck him dead—and did not know that it was his own father. And after that, he married this neighbor’s wife—his own mother! This foundling was Judas of Kariot. And when he realized the terrible situation he was in, he fled once more. And he found mercy in his plight only from the One who had mercy on all who came into His presence—the One who not only sat at table with tax collectors and sinners, but who, despite His penetrating gaze, also drew this great sinner close to Him; for it was his mission to work not merely for the righteous, but for all people, and to lead them from sin to salvation. Thus Judas of Kariot came into the circle of Christ Jesus. And now he brought the calamity that had been foretold—and which, according to Schiller’s saying, “That is precisely the curse of the evil deed, that it must perpetually give birth to evil”—into the circle of Christ Jesus. He became the betrayer of Christ Jesus. Strictly speaking, what was to be fulfilled in him had already been fulfilled through the murder of his father and his marriage to his mother. But he remained, so to speak, as an instrument, because he was meant to be an instrument—the evil instrument that was to bring about the good—in order thereby to commit, so to speak, yet another act beyond the fulfillment itself.

[ 35 ] The character presented to us in Oedipus loses his sight as a consequence of the calamity he has brought about, from the very moment he becomes aware of this calamity. But the one who suffers the same fate through his connection to the ancient legacy of primordial wisdom, does not go blind; rather, he is destined to fulfill that fate and to do what the Mystery of Golgotha brings about—that which causes the physical death of the one who is the “Light of the World,” and who brings about the light of the world in the healing of the man born blind. Oedipus had to lose his sight; Christ gave sight to the man born blind. But he died at the hands of one who was of the nature of Oedipus, through whom we are to be shown how the ancient wisdom gradually dries up within humanity, how it is no longer sufficient to bring salvation, peace, and love to humankind. For this, the Christ impulse was necessary through the event at Golgotha. For this, it was necessary that what appears to us as an outward reflection of the relationship between the I of Jesus Christ and his mother—as seen at the wedding at Cana in Galilee—should first take place. Furthermore, it was necessary that something else occur, which the writer of the Gospel of John describes as follows:

[ 36 ] Down there at the foot of the cross stood the Mother; down there stood the disciple whom “the Lord loved”—Lazarus-John, whom He Himself had initiated, and through whom the wisdom of Christianity was to be passed down to posterity, who was to influence the astral bodies of human beings in such a way that the Christ principle could live within them. The Christ principle was to live within the human astral body, and John was to infuse it there. To this end, however, this Christ principle, coming down from the cross, still had to be united with the etheric principle—with the Mother. That is why Christ calls out from the cross the words: “From this hour on, this is your mother, and this is your son!” That is to say, he unites his wisdom with the maternal principle!

[ 37 ] Thus we see not only how profound the Gospels are, but also how profound all the connections within the realm of the mysteries are. Yes, the ancient legends are connected to the proclamations and Gospels of the new age, like prophecy and fulfillment! The ancient legends—particularly the Oedipus and Judas legends—clearly show us one thing: There was once a divine, ancient wisdom. But it dried up. And a new wisdom must come. And this new wisdom will lead humanity to what the old wisdom could never have brought them to. What would have become of us without the Christ impulse—that is what the Oedipus legend tells us. What the opposition to Christ was—the rigid clinging to the old wisdom—that is what the Judas legend teaches us. But what the ancient legends and myths already declared—that it was not enough—is revealed to us in a new light by the new proclamation, the Gospel. The Gospel answers what the ancient legends expressed as images of the old wisdom. They said: What humanity needs for the future can never come from the old wisdom. But the Gospel, as the new wisdom, tells us: “I proclaim to you what humanity needs, and what could never have come about without the influence of the Christ principle, without the event at Golgotha.”