The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] However, it may have seemed somewhat strange to the unprepared person when, yesterday, the name of the Father-Spirit of the world was associated with the name of death. However, you must bear in mind that it was also stated at the same time that the form in which death confronts human beings in the physical world is precisely not its true form, and that therefore, since the outer sensory world appears to us as imbued with death, this outer sensory world—precisely because it is such that it must appear imbued with death—is not a true form of what actually underlies it, nor is it a true form of the spiritual-divine being that actually underlies it. Essentially, this amounts to nothing other than this: Human beings surrender themselves to an illusion, a great delusion, a Maya regarding what is spread out in the space around them for the senses to perceive, and what they actually perceive. If they were to recognize the true form, they would not have the sensory image, but rather they would have the Spirit. If they were to recognize death in its true form, they would see in death the very expression that this sensory world must have in order to be the expression of the divine Father-Spirit.

[ 2 ] In order for our earthly world to come into being at all, an earlier, super-earthly world had to condense—in the earthly sense—down to the level of physical matter, down to physical substance. Through this process, the outer world was able to become the expression of a divine-spiritual world—a divine-spiritual world that thereby has something like creatures beside itself and outside itself. All earlier forms of our existence in the world were such that they were, to a greater or lesser extent, contained within the divine essence. On ancient Saturn, there was not yet our air, not yet our water, not yet our earth—that is to say, not yet our solid bodies. The entire Saturn was still a body consisting solely of warmth; the ancient Saturn was a space of warmth. And all the beings that existed on Saturn were still in the bosom of the divine Father-Spirit. It was the same on the ancient Sun, even though it had already condensed to the point of having air. This air planet, the ancient Sun, contained within its bosom—and thus within the bosom of the divine-spiritual Being—all its creatures. And so it was with the ancient Moon as well. It was only on Earth that creation emerged from the bosom of the divine-spiritual Being, becoming something distinct from the divine-spiritual Being. But into that which now existed alongside the divine-spiritual Being—and which also became the garment, the covering, the physical body of the human being—everything that existed of the spirits who had remained behind gradually wove itself in and took shape. As a result, however, it did not become, as a creature, what it should have been had it become an image of the divine-spiritual being. The divine-spiritual being, having carried all creatures—our present-day mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms—in its bosom, released them all, as it were, spreading them out like a carpet around itself. And that was now an image of the divine-spiritual being. That is how it should have remained. But then everything that had been left behind—everything that had previously been cast out by the divine-spiritual being—became interwoven into it. All of this became integrated, and thus the creature was, as it were, clouded, rendered less valuable than it otherwise would have been.

[ 3 ] This cloudiness arose, after all, in the age when the Moon separated from the Earth—that very age of which we have said: If nothing else had happened and the Moon had not been cast out, the Earth would have become desolate even then. But humanity was to be nurtured in such a way that it could attain its independence. It therefore had to incarnate in an outer, earthly-physical substance. From the Lemurian era through the Atlantean era, humanity had to be guided in such a way that it increasingly came to incarnate in a physical-sensory substance. But this physical-sensory substance contained the entities that had lagged behind. Human beings therefore had no choice but to be embodied in physical forms in which these lagging entities were present.

[ 4 ] There were certain beings in the Atlantean era; they were companions of humankind at that time. Human beings themselves were, after all, still composed of a soft substance in the Atlantean era. What is now human flesh was not yet as it is today. If one had looked at a human being in ancient Atlantis—where the air was completely filled with dense, heavy masses of watery mist, and where human beings were aquatic creatures—one might have said: He was similar in nature to certain gelatinous animals found in seawater today, which are almost indistinguishable from the surrounding water. That was the nature of human beings. All the organs were already present in embryonic form. But only gradually did the organs harden; only gradually did humans develop bones and so on. So the subtle physical structures were present, but they hardened only over the course of time.

[ 5 ] In the early stages of Atlantic development, there were still beings who were, so to speak, companions of humankind, insofar as people at that time possessed clairvoyant powers and could also see those beings who had actually made their home on the Sun but who shone toward them in the Sun’s rays. For it was not merely physical sunlight that met the human being, but within the physical sunlight came beings whom the human being could see. And when the human being was in a state that could be compared to sleep, he could say: “Now I am out of my body and am in the sphere where solar beings dwell.”

[ 6 ] But then came the time—toward the middle and the last third of the Atlantean era—when the Earth’s physical matter became denser and denser, and when human beings acquired the capacity to develop self-consciousness. From that point on, such beings were no longer visible to human beings. Such beings were thus compelled to withdraw from the Earth, from the human gaze on Earth. Under the influence of Lucifer, humanity was drawn ever more powerfully down into dense matter. It then became possible for a being—who must be referred to as the Luciferic being—to take root in the human astral body in such a way that humanity descended further and further into a dense physical body. The beings, however, who had formerly been his companions, rose higher and higher at that time. They said: “We want nothing to do with the beings who have remained behind!”—and they broke away from them. The Luciferic beings moved into the human astral body. The higher beings, however, broke away from them and cast them down, saying: “You shall not ascend any further with us; you shall see how you fare down below!”

[ 7 ] One of these beings is depicted in Michael, who cast the Luciferic beings down into the abyss so that they might move within the realm of the Earth. And there, within the astral nature of human beings, they sought to exert their influence. And the dwelling place of these beings was no longer “heaven.” Those beings whose domain was in heaven, they cast down to Earth. But all evil, all that is bad, has its good side and is rooted in the wisdom of the world. These beings had to be left behind in the world so that they might draw humanity down into physical matter, within which humanity could only learn to say “I” to itself, so that it might develop its self-consciousness. Without becoming entangled in Maya, human beings would not have learned to say “I” to themselves. But human beings would have perished in the illusion if the illusion and its powers—Lucifer and Ahriman—had succeeded in keeping them within the illusion.

[ 8 ] However, I must now say a few things, which I ask you—I would like to say—to listen to with the utmost intellectual caution. For only if you continue to develop these ideas and take them literally—though not in the sense in which a materialistic view tends to take things literally—will you understand them correctly.

[ 9 ] What did the Luciferic-Ahrimanic entities intend to do with the physical world? What did they want to do with all the beings that are now in the world—and upon whom they could exert their influence—after they had once become connected with human evolution during the Atlantean era?

[ 10 ] These entities—Lucifer and Ahriman—wanted nothing less than to preserve all beings on Earth in the form in which they are interwoven within dense physical matter. For example, when a plant grows, sprouting from its root and pushing upward leaf by leaf until it blooms, Lucifer-Ahriman intend to carry this growth and development on and on—that is, to make this entity that is developing there resemble the physical form, to preserve it as it is, and thereby to snatch it away from the spiritual world. For if they were to succeed in making this being of the spiritual world resemble the physical form, they would, so to speak, snatch heaven away from the earth. And with all animals as well, the Luciferic-Ahrimanic beings have the tendency to make them resemble the body in which they dwell and to cause them to forget their divine-spiritual origin within matter. And the same is true of human beings.

[ 11 ] To prevent this from happening, the divine-spiritual Father came and said: “It is true that the beings of Earth have attained, at the pinnacle of their development—in the human being—external cognition in the ‘I’; but we must not now leave life in their hands! For life would be shaped in such a way that the beings would be torn from their divine-spiritual root in this life; human beings would become integrated into the physical body and forget their divine-spiritual origin forever. — It was only in this way that the divine Father-Spirit could preserve the memory of the divine origin: by bestowing the blessing of death upon everything that strives toward matter. Thus it was possible for the plant, as it grows, to shoot upward until the moment of fertilization—and at that very moment the plant’s form withers, and a new plant form emerges from the seed. But through this, when the plant enters the seed, it is for a moment in the divine-spiritual world and is refreshed by the divine-spiritual world. And so it is especially true for human beings. Human beings would be bound to the earth and forget their spiritual-divine origin if death were not spread across the earth, if human beings were not constantly supplied with new sources of strength between death and new birth, so as not to forget their spiritual-divine origin.

[ 12 ] Death—if we examine it—where is it on Earth? Let’s ask any living thing that delights us as a plant. A living thing that delights our eyes with magnificent blossoms—in a few months, it will be gone. Death has come upon it. Let us look at an animal that is loyal to us, or any other animal: in a short time, it will be no more. Death has come upon it. Let us look at a human being as he stands in the physical world: after some time, death has come upon him. He will be no more, for if he were still here, he would forget his divine-spiritual origin. Let us look at a mountain. A time will come when our Earth’s volcanic activity will have swallowed the mountain: death has passed over it. Let us look at whatever we wish: there is nothing into which death is not woven. Everything on Earth is immersed in death!

[ 13 ] Thus, death is the benevolent deliverer from an existence that would lead human beings completely away from the divine-spiritual world. But this human being had to come into the physical-sensory world. For only in the physical-sensory world was it possible for him to attain his self-consciousness, his human “I.” If he were to have to pass through death repeatedly without being able to take anything with him from this realm of death, then he would indeed be able to return to the divine-spiritual world, but unconsciously, without an “I.” He must enter the divine-spiritual world with his sense of self. He must therefore be able to fertilize the earthly realm—in which death is wholly interwoven—in such a way that death becomes the seed for a sense of self in the eternal, in the spiritual.

[ 14 ] This possibility, however—that death, which would otherwise be annihilation, is transformed into the seed of eternal selfhood—has been made possible by the Christ impulse. On Golgotha, the true nature of death was first revealed to humanity. And because Christ—the image of the Father Spirit, the Son of the Father Spirit—married “death,” death on Golgotha became the beginning of a new life and, as we saw yesterday, a new sun. And now, in fact, everything that previously constituted humanity’s period of learning—now that humanity has won an “I” for eternity—can disappear, and humanity can step into the future with its saved “I,” which will increasingly become a reflection of the Christ-I.

[ 15 ] Let us take, as an example of what has just been said, a seven-branched candelabrum that is gradually being lit, and let us regard the first flame of its sevenfold nature as a symbol of the first period of human evolution, the Saturn evolution. Every phase of development unfolds in seven smaller subdivisions. Thus, in the first flame of the candelabrum’s sevenfold structure, we have a symbol of the forces that flowed to humanity during the Saturn era. Moving on to the second flame within the sevenfold structure of this candelabrum, we find in it a symbol of the forces that flowed to humanity from the ancient Sun era. In the same way, the third flame of the seven represents the forces that flowed to humanity during the ancient Lunar era. And the fourth flame symbolizes everything that has flowed to humanity from Earth’s evolution. Let us now imagine the middle light burning brightly, while the others still burn with dark flames: where the middle light is, there lies the moment when the Christ-light entered the course of evolution. The other lights could never be kindled, nor could the subsequent stages of evolution ever come about, had the Christ impulse not entered into human evolution. They remain dark even today.

[ 16 ] If we were to depict future development in a similarly symbolic way, we would have to let the first light fade as the next light—following the middle one—is lit and grows ever brighter. As the next one is lit, we would have to let the second light fade, and so on. For here lies the beginning of a new solar evolution! And when the lights have burned all the way to the last one, then we will be able to see the first ones go out, because their fruits have flowed into the last lights and passed into the future.

[ 17 ] Thus, there has been a development in the past that drew its strength from the Father-Spirit. If the Father-Spirit were to continue acting in this way, all the lights would gradually go out because Lucifer-Ahriman has become interwoven with them. But because the Christ impulse has come, a new light now shines forth. A world sun is beginning.

[ 18 ] Yes, death had to be woven into all natural existence, because Lucifer-Ahriman is woven into it. And without Lucifer-Ahriman, humanity would not have attained independence. With Lucifer-Ahriman alone, however, independence would have grown stronger and stronger and would ultimately have led to the forgetting of our divine-spiritual origin. That is why death had to be mingled even with our physical body. We could not even carry the “I” within us into eternity if death were not mingled with the outer expression of the “I,” which lies in the blood.

[ 19 ] We have within us a blood of life: the red blood. And we have a blood of death within us: the blue blood. At every moment, in order for our sense of self to live, the life that flows in the red blood must be put to death in the blue blood. If it were not put to death, man would perish in life to such an extent that he would forget his divine-spiritual origin. Western esotericism has a symbol for these two kinds of blood: two pillars, one red and one blue. One symbolizes life flowing from the divine Father-Spirit, but in a form in which it would lose itself; the other symbolizing the destruction of that same life. Death is the stronger, the more powerful—that which brings about the destruction of that which would otherwise lose itself within itself. But the destruction of that which would otherwise be lost is a call to resurrection!

[ 20 ] As you can see, through a correct interpretation of the Gospel of John, we gain insight into the meaning of life as a whole. What we have gained yesterday and today is, therefore, nothing other than the realization that at the moment in our temporal development—which the Christian calendar marks with a new “1”—something occurred that is of the utmost significance for the entire development of the Earth and, insofar as cosmic development is connected to the Earth, also for cosmic development. Yes, with the event at Golgotha, a new center has been created. Since then, the Christ Spirit has been united with the Earth. It has gradually drawn near, and since that time it has been present on Earth. And the point is that people must come to recognize that the Christ Spirit has been on Earth since that time, that the Christ Spirit is present in every product of the Earth, and that they perceive everything from the perspective of death if they do not perceive the Christ Spirit within it, but perceive everything from the perspective of life if they do perceive the Christ Spirit within it.

[ 21 ] We are only at the beginning of that development which is Christian development. The future of this development lies in our seeing the body of Christ throughout the entire earth. For since that time, Christ has entered into the earth, has created a new center of light within the earth, and permeates the earth, shining out into the world and being eternally woven into the earth’s aura. Therefore, if we look at the earth today without the Spirit of Christ that underlies it, we see the earth’s decay and putrefaction—the decomposing corpse. If we see the Earth split into however many small particles, then—unless we understand Christ—we see the decaying corpse of the Earth. Wherever we see only matter, there we see untruth.

[ 22 ] Thus, you will not find the truth by studying human beings on Earth; you are merely studying their decaying corpses. If you study their corpses, then you can logically assess the elements of the Earth only by saying: “The Earth consists of material atoms”—regardless of whether they are spatially extended atoms or centers of force; it makes no difference. When we see atoms from which our Earth is said to consist, we see the Earth’s corpse—that which is constantly decomposing and which will one day cease to exist when the Earth ceases to exist. And the Earth is dissolving.

[ 23 ] Only then do we recognize the truth—when we see in every atom a part of the Spirit of Christ that has been within it ever since that time. What, then, has the Earth consisted of ever since the Spirit of Christ permeated it? Down to the very atom, the Earth consists of life, ever since Christ permeated it! Every atom has value only because—and can be recognized only because—you see in it a shell that encloses a spiritual essence. And this spiritual essence is a part of Christ.

[ 24 ] Now take anything from the earth. When do you recognize it correctly? When you say, “This is a part of the body of Christ!” What could Christ say to those who wished to recognize him? By breaking the bread for them—which comes from the grain of the earth—Christ could say, “This is my body!” What could he say to them as he gave them the grape juice that comes from the sap of the plants? — “This is my blood!” Because he had become the soul of the earth, he could say of what is solid, “This is my flesh,” and of the plant sap, “This is my blood,” just as you say of your own flesh, “This is my flesh,” and of your own blood, ‘This is my blood.’—And those people who are able to grasp the true meaning of these words of Christ form mental images that draw forth the body and blood of Christ from the bread and the grape juice, and draw forth the Spirit of Christ within them. And they unite with the Spirit of Christ.

[ 25 ] Thus, the symbol of the Lord's Supper becomes a reality.

[ 26 ] Without the thought that connects to Christ in the human heart, no attraction to the Spirit of Christ can be developed during the Lord’s Supper. But through this form of thought, such an attraction is developed. And so, for all those who need the outward symbol to perform a spiritual act—namely, union with Christ—the Lord’s Supper will be the path, the path leading to the point where their inner strength is so great, where they are so filled with Christ, that they can unite with Christ without the need for outward, physical mediation. The Holy Communion is the preparatory school for mystical union with Christ—the preparatory school. This is how we must understand these things. And just as everything develops from the physical toward the spiritual under Christian influence, so too must the things that were there first as a bridge develop under the influence of Christ: the Holy Communion must develop from the physical toward the spiritual in order to lead to true union with Christ. — One can speak of these things only in hints, for only when they are received in their full sacred dignity are they understood in the proper sense.

[ 27 ] It was up to human beings to recognize that, as a result of the event at Golgotha, the Christ had been present on Earth ever since. They were to recognize this more and more and allow this realization to permeate them ever more deeply.

[ 28 ] But this required a mediator. And one of the first great mediators was the man who had become Paul from Saul. What could Saul have known, since he was a kind of Jewish initiate? We can express what Saul could have known in roughly the following words.

[ 29 ] He could know what was the essence of the Hebrew esoteric teaching. What Zarathustra had seen as Ahura Mazdao, what Moses had seen in the burning bush and amid the thunder and lightning on Sinai as “ehjeh asher ehjeh,” as Yahweh or Jehovah—he knew that this had come to Earth, had drawn near, and would one day take on human form and, through that human form, bring about a renewal of the Earth. But now he was under the influence of the prevailing views of his time and of Jewish law. He had witnessed the events at Golgotha. But he could not bring himself to believe that the one who had met his end on the cross was the bearer of the Christ. The events he had witnessed and experienced could not convince him that the one he was to expect according to Jewish initiation was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth. What, then, did he have to experience in order to become convinced that the immortal Christ Spirit had truly been present on Golgotha in the dying body of Jesus of Nazareth?

[ 30 ] He knew from his Hebrew initiation that if the Christ Spirit had been in a human body and that human body is dead, then Christ must be present in the Earth’s aura. Then it must be possible for one who can look into the Earth’s aura with the spiritual eye to see the Christ. He knew that. But up to that point, he had not yet become capable of looking into the Earth’s aura. He was, indeed, a Ring-initiated into wisdom, but not a clairvoyant. But he possessed a prerequisite for becoming a clairvoyant through an extraordinary path, and he himself articulates this prerequisite. He describes it as a grace bestowed upon him from above: he says of himself that he was a premature birth, which is usually translated as “a birth before its time.” He was not carried to term in his mother’s womb; he descended from the spiritual world into the physical world before he had fully immersed himself in all the elements of earthly existence. He came into the world earlier than one normally breaks away from those bonds in which one still unconsciously belongs to the spiritual powers. The event at Damascus was made possible by the fact that his spiritual eye was opened as a result of a birth that had come into the world at the wrong time. Thus, as a premature birth, his spiritual eye was opened; he looked into the Earth’s aura and saw that Christ was within it. Therefore, the moment when this Christ had walked through a physical human body must already have occurred. He had been given proof that the Christ had died on the cross. For the one whom he knew would overcome death on Earth had appeared to him as a spiritually living being. He now understood the significance of the event at Golgotha. He knew: The Christ has risen! For the one he had seen could not previously have been seen within the Earth’s aura. Now he understood the words:

“It will be hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 9:5)

[ 31 ] What is the sting? Paul himself said it: “O death, where is your sting? ” (1 Cor. 15:55). It is in vain that you fight against the sting. For if you did, you would only recognize death. But you can no longer fight against death, for you have seen the One who has conquered death.

[ 32 ] Thus, Paul became the preacher of Christianity who, above all else, proclaimed the living, spiritually alive Christ.

[ 33 ] How was the Christ visible in the Earth’s aura? Because in the case of the Christ Jesus—as the first impulse of Earth’s development into the future—the etheric body was, for the first time, once again completely permeated by the Christ. Of course, the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was completely permeated by the Christ. Therefore, it was such an etheric body—one that had complete dominion over the physical body—that, precisely because it was the absolute ruler of the physical body, was able to restore the physical body after death; that is, it was able to appear in such a way that everything that had been in the physical body was present again, but now emanating from the power of the etheric body. Therefore, when the Christ was seen after death, it was the etheric body of the Christ. But for those who, through the power they had gained from these events, were able to recognize not only a physical-sensory body as a real body, but also an etheric body with all the appearances of the physical body—for them, Christ had risen as a corporeal being. And in reality, He was.

[ 34 ] But the Gospel also tells us that when a person has progressed to the point where the perishable gives rise to the imperishable, he then also possesses a higher perception. And it is also said that those people who had already developed a higher perception at that time were able to recognize Christ. This is made clear enough to us; it’s just that people lack the will to truly read what is written in the Gospel. Take, for example, Christ’s first apparition after his death. There it says:

“But Mary stood outside the tomb, weeping. As she wept, she looked into the tomb,

and saw two angels in white robes sitting where they had laid Jesus’ body—one at the head and the other at the feet.

And they said to her: ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’

And as she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,

but she did not realize it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him, “Rabboni!”—which means, “Teacher!” (20:11–16)

[ 35 ] Now imagine this: You saw someone a few days ago, and you see him again a few days later. Do you think you wouldn’t recognize him? Do you think you’d dare to ask him if he’s the gardener, and where he was actually laid to rest, if you saw him yourself? But you must attribute that to Mary—or to the one referred to here as Mary—if you wish to assume that every physical eye would have recognized Christ and seen him in the same way that a physical eye had seen him before. Read the Gospels in the spirit!

[ 36 ] First, the sacred power of the words had to penetrate the woman as a force. That was necessary! Then the echo of the words arose within her, and they rekindled everything she had seen before. And that enabled her spiritual eye to see the Risen One. — Doesn’t Paul tell us the same thing?

[ 37 ] In the case of Paul, you will never doubt that he saw Christ through his spiritual eye, even though this Christ was, in turn, only in the heights of the spiritual realm, within the Earth’s aura. But what does Paul say? As proof that Christ is alive, he cites the fact that Christ appeared. And he cites, first and foremost, as equivalent manifestations,

“...that he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve.

After that, he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, many of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Last of all, he was seen by me also, as one born out of due time.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.” (1 Cor. 15:5–9)

[ 38 ] He equates the visions that the others had with his own, which were possible to the spiritual eye. That is why Paul says, word for word: “Just as I have seen Christ, so have the others seen him.” Through what they experienced, Paul says, the power was kindled within them to see Christ as the Risen One.

[ 39 ] Now we understand what Paul means. And Paul’s view is such that it is immediately recognized as the anthroposophical-spiritual one—that is to say, it tells us: There is a spiritual world. When we contemplate this spiritual world with the impulse given to us through the Christ-force, we penetrate it to such an extent that we also find Christ himself in this spiritual world—the one who passed through the event of Golgotha. - That is what he meant to say. And human beings can, particularly through what is called “Christian initiation,” gradually—with patience and perseverance—become, so to speak, followers of Paul, gradually acquiring for themselves the abilities to look into the spiritual world and to behold Christ from spiritual face to spiritual face.

[ 40 ] In other lectures, I have often described the initial stages through which we ascend to the vision of the Christ-Essence itself. There, the student must live out what is laid out for us in the Gospel of John. Let me briefly outline here, in this context, how a person can develop upward into the spiritual world—where the light of Christ has been kindled since the event at Golgotha—if that person resolves to pass through a certain range of feelings.

[ 41 ] The first is that a person says to himself: I am looking at the plant. It grows out of the mineral soil; it grows and blooms. But if the plant could develop consciousness like a human being, it would have to look down at the mineral kingdom, at the mineral earth from which it grows, and say: “You, stone, are a lower being among the beings of nature today than I am, but without you, lower kingdom, I cannot exist!” And likewise, if the animal were to approach the plant and could sense how the plant forms the foundation of its existence, it would have to say to itself: “I, as an animal, am a higher being than you, plant, but without you, plant, I could not exist!” And in humility, the animal would have to bow down to the plant and say: “To you, lower plant, I owe my existence!”—And in the human realm, it would have to be this way: Everyone who has climbed higher on the ladder of existence must look down in a spiritual sense upon those below him and say: “You may indeed belong to a lower world, but just as the plant must bow to the stone and the animal to the plant, so must the human being on a higher level say: ‘To you, who are lower, I owe my existence!’”

[ 42 ] Then, when a person, over the course of weeks and months—perhaps even years—under the guidance of a suitable teacher, fully immerses himself in such feelings of universal humility, he reaches the point where he understands the meaning of the “washing of the feet.” For before him lies a direct spiritual vision of what Christ did when, as the higher being, he bowed down before the Twelve and washed their feet. And the full significance of this event then dawns upon the student as a vision, so that he knows that this event of the washing of the feet actually took place. The path of knowledge leads him to the point where he needs no further proof; rather, he now looks directly into the spiritual world and sees Christ in the scene of the washing of the feet.

[ 43 ] Then such a person can be guided by the teacher to have the strength to say: I will steadfastly endure all the suffering and pain that may come my way in this world, and I will not complain. I will steel myself so that such sufferings and pains are no longer pains and sufferings for me, but rather I will know: these are necessities in the world! When the person has then become sufficiently steadfast in soul, the feeling of “scourging” springs forth from this observation within his soul, and the person spiritually feels the scourging within himself. But this opens their spiritual eye, enabling them to behold for themselves the scourging as it is described in the Gospel of John.

[ 44 ] Then a person is guided to develop that strength which is one level higher, where he is not merely able to endure the suffering and pain of the entire world, but can say to himself: I have something most sacred for which I devote my entire being. Let the whole world shower me with scorn and mockery—this is my most sacred cause. Scorn and mockery from all sides will not deter me from this most sacred cause, even if I stand alone. I stand up for it! There, within himself, a person spiritually experiences the “Crowning with Thorns.” And without any historical document, his mind’s eye conveys to him the scene in the Gospel of John that is described as the Crowning with Thorns.

[ 45 ] And when, under appropriate guidance, a person comes to view his physical existence in a completely different way than he did before—when he learns to regard his own body as something he wears on the outside; when it has become a natural feeling and a natural sensation for him to say: “I carry my physical body through the world like an external tool!”—then they have reached the fourth stage of Christian initiation, known as “bearing the cross.” This does not mean they have become weak ascetics; rather, we learn to handle what we have as a physical instrument much more effectively than before. When you have learned to regard the body as something you carry, then you have reached the fourth stage of Christian initiation, which is called “bearing the cross.” And then you gain the insight to spiritually behold that scene in which Christ carries his cross on his back, just as you have learned, through your heightened soul power, to carry your body as if it were a piece of wood.

[ 46 ] But then something occurs that can be regarded as a fifth stage of Christian initiation, what is called the “mystical death.” Through our inner maturation, everything around us—the entire physical, sensory world—appears to us as if it had been wiped out. Darkness surrounds us. And then a moment occurs as if this darkness were torn apart in the middle like a curtain, and we see beyond this physical world, into the spiritual world. During this moment, however, something else occurs. We have now come to know everything that is sin and evil in its true form; that is to say, at this stage we have come to know what the “descent into hell” is.

[ 47 ] And then we learn not only to regard our body as something foreign, but also to view everything else as belonging to us just as much as our body—to regard everything on earth as belonging to us, just as was once done in ancient clairvoyance. And we also learn to regard the sufferings of other people as belonging to us, as part of a great organism. Then, however, we are united with the earth to the extent that we recognize this. Then we experience “being laid into the earth,” the “burial.” And by being united with the earth, we have also risen from it. For in this way we have tasted what it means: The earth is becoming a new sun!

[ 48 ] Through this fourth, fifth, and sixth degree of Christian initiation, however, we have attained what enables us to see the event of Golgotha with our own eyes, to immerse ourselves in the event of Golgotha. We no longer need a certificate. The certificate served to guide us up the rungs.

[ 49 ] Then comes the seventh stage, which is called the “Ascension”—in other words, the revival in the spiritual world. This is the stage of which it is rightly said that it cannot be expressed with a word taken from our language, that it can be imagined only by those who have become capable of thinking without the instrument of the brain. The wonders of the Resurrection can be conceived only by those who no longer depend on the instrument of the physical brain for their thinking.

[ 50 ] Because those who were present as believers at that time, when the event of Golgotha took place, were people whose spiritual eyes were open and who were able to see what was happening, they would have been able to see the Christ as I have described him to you—namely, to see him when he revealed himself to their open spiritual eyes within the Earth’s aura. Thus they could have seen the Christ—even if, in a certain sense, he had always remained in the same form as he was at that time—if he himself, the Christ, as a spiritual being, had not also achieved something through his overcoming of death! And now we come to a concept that is, admittedly, difficult to grasp.

[ 51 ] Human beings learn ceaselessly by continuing to develop further and further at the level on which they stand. But it is not only human beings; every being, from the lowest to the highest divine being, learns by continuing to develop. What the Christ, as a divine being, accomplished in the body of Jesus of Nazareth—we have thus far described its effect and its fruit for humanity. But now we ask ourselves: Did the Christ also experience something within himself through this that led him to a higher stage? Yes, he did. Even divine-spiritual beings experience something that leads them to a higher stage. But what he experienced—his ascent into a world even higher than the one in which he had previously been—he made appear to those who were his companions on Earth as his Ascension. Therefore, even one who lives as an uninitiated person, as one who is not clairvoyant, through the instrument of the physical brain, can understand—even if he cannot see them himself—the first six stages of Christian initiation. The seventh stage, however—the Ascension—can be understood only by the clairvoyant who is no longer bound to the instrument of the physical brain, who has once seen for himself what it means to think without the brain and to see without the brain. This is how these things are connected.

[ 52 ] This is how the world developed during the period we were able to discuss in these fourteen lectures of ours.

[ 53 ] We have already seen that Christ had indicated that in the man who was born blind—and whom He healed—what had sinned within him in a previous life was to be revealed. Christ thus stood before humanity in such a way that he taught them—to the extent they could understand it—the idea of reincarnation. He taught about karma, the carrying over of causes from one incarnation to the next. He taught it in the way one teaches practical lessons for life. He meant to say: There will be a future in which all people will acknowledge karma, in which they will understand that when a person does something evil, he need not be punished by an external earthly power; for this evil necessarily brings about its own balance in this or a subsequent incarnation. But then we simply need to record his deed in the great law book of the Akashic Records, in the spiritual world. Then we, as human beings, do not need to condemn him; then we, as human beings, can stand before him and leave what he has done to the spiritual laws, so that it may be recorded in the spiritual world; we can leave the person to karma!

“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Early in the morning he returned to the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down and taught them.

But the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and set her in the midst,

and said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. But Moses, in the Law, commanded us to stone such women; what do you say?’

They said this to test him, so that they might have a case against him. But Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.” (8:1–6)

[ 54 ] What did he write? He wrote the sin into the spiritual world. And the sin will find its atonement from within the spiritual world! But is he reminding the others that they themselves are not aware of any sin? For only if they had nothing to atone for—only then—could they tell themselves that they had no connection to this woman’s sin and could pass judgment on her. But as it is, they do not know whether they themselves, in a past life, laid the groundwork for what is now befalling her; they cannot know whether, in past lives, they led this woman to commit adultery now, or whether they themselves committed this sin in past lives or laid the groundwork for it. Everything is written into karma. Jesus wrote upon the earth, which He had already permeated with His spiritual light; that is to say, He entrusted to the earth what was to be the karma for the adulteress. He meant to say: Walk in the paths I am now laying out for you! Become such that you say: We do not judge; we leave what is within a person to karmic balance!—If people follow this, they will come to understand karma. One need not teach karma as a dogma. It has been taught through action. Thus did the Christ teach.

[ 55 ] However, only one of his students and disciples—who had been initiated by him personally—could write such things: Lazarus-John. Therefore, only this disciple truly understood the effect of a being who, beginning with the baptism of John, had gradually worked to gain mastery over the physical body through the etheric body, making the etheric body the life-giver. That is why the writer of the Gospel of John also understood that it is possible to transform what outwardly still looks like water in such a way that, when a person drinks it, it is transformed into wine as it is absorbed into the human organs. That is why he understood that it is possible to have a small number of fish and loaves of bread and, through the power of the etheric body, to work in such a way that people are filled. But this is what the author of the Gospel of John has told us, if only we take the Gospel seriously. Does he tell us anywhere that even those few loaves and those few fish were eaten in the same way as they are normally eaten physically? Nowhere does he say that, even if you go through the entire Gospel of John. He tells you clearly and unambiguously—if you only take every word literally—that Christ broke the bread, but that he offered a prayer of thanksgiving to heaven:

“But Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them to the disciples; and the disciples gave them to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish, giving as much as they wanted.” (6:11)

[ 56 ] But the meaning of these words, if we take them from the original text—which is poorly rendered in the German translation—is roughly as follows: The disciples passed around the loaves and the fish, and they let each person do with them as he wished; but no one wanted anything other than to experience, at that very moment, the power emanating from the mighty etheric body of Christ Jesus. No one wanted anything else. And by what means were they satisfied? Verse 23 states:

“But other boats from Tiberias came near the place after they had eaten the bread following the Lord’s thanksgiving.”

[ 57 ] Through the Lord's prayer, they had eaten the bread! They had eaten bread without the physical act having taken place. And because of this, Jesus Christ was able to interpret what had happened afterward, saying, “I am the bread of life!”

[ 58 ] So what had they eaten? They had eaten the power of the Body of Christ! What could have been left over? Only the power of the Body of Christ could have been left over! Its effect was so powerful that it could still be gathered up afterward.

[ 59 ] According to occult doctrine, however, every body consists of twelve parts. The uppermost part is called Aries; the part that follows it, Taurus; the part where the two hands are, Gemini; the chest is called Cancer; the area around the human heart is Leo; the part of the torso that follows downward is Virgo; then the hips, Libra; then comes Scorpio; followed by Sagittarius, the thighs; Capricorn, the knees; Aquarius, the lower legs; and the feet are Pisces.

[ 60 ] The human body is divided into twelve parts—this is well-founded. If one now gathers what remains after using the power of the Body of Christ for one’s nourishment, one must gather it in twelve portions!

“So they gathered the pieces that were left over from the five barley loaves that had fed the crowd and filled twelve baskets with them.” (6:13)

[ 61 ] They had not eaten the barley loaves. They had eaten the power that had emanated from Christ. And they had been satisfied by the power that had emanated from Christ through the act of thanksgiving, as Christ appealed to those spheres from which he had descended.

[ 62 ] This is how we must understand the influence of the spiritual world on the physical world. And this is how we can understand how individual events fit into the fundamental process of the Earth’s transformation into a sun. They all fit into this process as powerful, force-filled events in the Earth’s transformation into a sun. For this reason, however, we will also be able to grasp that what was imparted to the Earth at that time as a powerful impulse could only reach humanity little by little, slowly and gradually. It must therefore be introduced to humanity slowly and gradually.

[ 63 ] As was suggested yesterday, the Gospel of Mark was initially well-suited to convey the great truths to those who were ready to receive them. That was during the first centuries. Humanity was to reclaim, through its own efforts, that which it had lost. Let us try to understand how humanity itself descended from divine-spiritual heights to the lowest point, which had been reached by the time the event at Golgotha once again set in motion the ascent. It acted as a powerful impetus, drawing humanity upward once more. Humanity had descended from divine-spiritual heights, and had gone down farther and farther. Then, through the Christ impulse—after imbuing himself with the newly born spiritual light—he gained the strength to gradually reclaim everything he had lost, in the following way: In the times immediately following the Christ event, humanity had to regain what it had lost in the last centuries before Christ. They were able to do this through the Gospel of Mark. What they had lost in an even earlier time, they had to regain in the period that followed through a Gospel that directed them more toward inner life. That was the Gospel of Luke.

[ 64 ] But we have also said that six hundred years before the appearance of the Christ on Earth, everything that had been spiritually bestowed upon humanity in earlier centuries—and which humanity had gradually lost—had been synthesized by the great Being of the Buddha. At that time, six centuries before Christ, the Buddha-entity lived and synthesized the ancient wisdom that existed in the world—wisdom that had been lost to humanity—and for which the Buddha became a herald. That is why we are told that when the Buddha was to be born, his birth was foretold to his mother, Maya. It is further told that someone approaches us and announces concerning the child: “This is the child who will become the Buddha, the Savior, the guide to immortality, freedom, and light!” - Then, in many Buddha legends, we are told that the Buddha went missing as a twelve-year-old boy and was found again under a tree, surrounded by the singers and sages of antiquity, whom he taught. In my book Christianity as a Mystical Fact, you will see how, six centuries after the Buddha, the same legends told about the Buddha reappear in the Gospel of Luke, and how what was revealed by the Buddha reappears in a new form through the Gospel of Luke. Thus, what was already contained in the Buddha legends appears in the Gospel of Luke. To this extent, things coincide when we view them in the light of spiritual research.

[ 65 ] This gives us a sense that a text such as the Gospel of John and the Gospels that follow it contain infinite depth. We have explored these depths in a series of lectures. If we were to continue these lectures and make them twice as long as they have been, we could keep uncovering new and ever-deeper layers within the Gospels. And if we were to double that time again, and then double the time that had been doubled once more: we would still be able to uncover new depths! And we would begin to sense that, as humanity moves forward, ever new depths can be discovered from the depths of these texts. People truly never cease to learn when interpreting these documents. We need not bring anything into them; we need only prepare ourselves, through the occult truths, to discover what truly lies within the Gospels. Then the entire universal context of humanity is revealed to us in the Gospels, and in turn, the connection between this human context and the cosmos, and we learn to look ever deeper and deeper into the spiritual world.

[ 66 ] But when we have listened to a series of such lectures, we find ourselves saying: We have not merely gained a body of knowledge, nor have we merely absorbed a collection of individual truths. Although this is indispensable, it is the lesser necessity of the matter; yet we cannot attain the other without it. But what should emerge from such reflections as a special fruit is this: that everything we have taken in with our spirit, when we now let it sink into our hearts, becomes a feeling for the matter itself, becomes sensations, becomes impulses of the will. When what we have taken in through the mind becomes warmth of the heart, then it becomes a force within us—a healing force for the spiritual, the soul, and the physical. And then we say to ourselves: During our spiritual contemplations, we have been immersed in spiritual life. We have taken on many things through this spiritual life during a fortnight of contemplation, but we have not merely acquired empty concepts and ideas; rather, we have acquired truths, concepts, and ideas that are capable of welling up in the soul as a living strength for our feelings and our sensations. And these feelings and sensations will remain with us; they are ours to keep forever; with them we continue to live in the world. We have not merely learned something; rather, we have become more alive through what we have learned. — If we conclude this cycle by taking these feelings into ourselves, then spiritual science will become the meaning of our lives; then spiritual science will become something that does not withdraw us from external life, but will itself become for us something like an image of the Highest, as has been characterized for us in these lectures. It has been made clear to us that, while death was necessary in the world, the view we hold of death is not the correct one; that Christ taught us the right view of death. Through this, death has become the seed for a higher life.

[ 67 ] Outside, beyond the scope of these lectures, life springs forth; external existence flows. People live within it. Spiritual research will not diminish this life by even an atom; it will take nothing away from this life. But the view one usually has of one’s life before one penetrates it with the spirit is an incorrect one, and this incorrectness must appear to us as the illusion of life. We must allow this illusion of life to die within us; then, from the seed we have acquired through an illusion, a higher life will spring forth within us. But this can only come about by taking the living spiritual insight into ourselves. In doing so, we do not become ascetic in life; rather, it is precisely through this that we learn to recognize life in its true form and carry into life a true mastery of life, a true fruit. In this way, however, we Christianize life to the extent that we experience spiritual science itself as Christian, and we experience a reflection of how death becomes a reflection of life. To the same extent that we make spiritual science our way of thinking, we do not alienate ourselves from life, but rather learn to recognize what is incorrect in our views of this life. And then, strengthened by a correct perspective, we go out into this life; we enter life as active beings, from which we do not withdraw, having gained power and strength through such contemplation that introduces us to the spiritual world.

[ 68 ] If we have succeeded to some extent in structuring these lectures in such a way that they bear fruit in life—that they contribute a little, even if only a little—so that you may learn to experience spiritual insight as an elevation of life, as the warmth of life in your thinking, thinking, and willing, and in your work—then the light we have drawn from the anthroposophical worldview can shine as the fire of life’s warmth, as the fire of life. And if this fire is strong enough to endure and continue burning in life, then what I set out to achieve when I decided to give these lectures will have been accomplished.

[ 69 ] With these words, I would like to commend to you the feelings that have just been expressed as a subject for inner meditation and say to you, “Until we meet again on another occasion.”