The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] The fact with which we concluded our reflections yesterday must necessarily remain somewhat incomprehensible when it first presents itself to a person. It belongs to the mysteries of numbers. And the mysteries of numbers are among the most difficult to grasp.

[ 2 ] It has been said that there is a certain relationship between the numbers seven and twelve, and that this relationship has something to do with time and space. Now, while it is certainly possible that the mystery expressed therein may gradually be understood by all people, in terms of the knowledge currently accepted as valid, the matter remains a mere assertion. It must first be explained. As has already been pointed out, one can find one’s way in the workings of the world by distinguishing between those relationships that are primarily spatial and those that are primarily temporal. One understands the world as it surrounds us, first and foremost, in terms of space and time. But if one does not limit oneself to speaking abstractly of space and time, but rather seeks to understand how relationships are ordered in time and how individual entities relate to one another in space, then there is a thread that leads, on the one hand, through the relationships of time and, on the other hand, through the relationships of space. From a spiritual scientific perspective, we first consider the development of world phenomena. We look back at earlier incarnations of humanity, at earlier incarnations of races and cultures, and at earlier incarnations of the Earth itself. We gain an inkling of what is to happen in the future—that is, in the course of time. But we will always find our way if we tell ourselves: We will assess temporal development from a framework that we construct for ourselves through the number seven. — One must not construct theories or speculate and apply all sorts of interpretations to the number seven; rather, one should first and foremost trace the facts from the perspective of the number seven. This is, at first, merely a means of facilitating observation. Take, for example, a person whose spiritual eye is open to such an extent that he can examine the facts of the Akashic Records in the past; the number seven will be able to guide him by having him say to himself: What unfolds over time is structured according to the framework of the number seven; what repeats itself in various forms can be best understood by taking the number seven as a basis and then seeking out the corresponding manifestations. — Thus, it is good to say to oneself: Since the Earth undergoes various incarnations, let us seek its seven incarnations: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. Since human cultures undergo seven incarnations, let us seek their connection by again taking the number seven as our basis. — Let us turn, for example, to the first culture of the post-Atlantean era. The ancient Indian cultural period is the first; the second is the Proto-Persian; the third, the Chaldean-Egyptian; the fourth, the Greco-Latin; the fifth, our own; and we anticipate the next two, which, as the sixth and seventh, will succeed our own. Here, too, we have taken the number seven as our basis in successive cultural incarnations. But we can also find our way through a person’s karma by looking back at their three previous incarnations. If one takes the incarnation of a person living in the present and, starting from the present, surveys the three previous incarnations, it is possible to draw certain conclusions about the three subsequent incarnations. The three previous incarnations, the present one, and the three following ones again total seven. Thus, the number seven serves as a guiding principle for all temporal events.

[ 3 ] In contrast, the number twelve serves as a guide for everything that exists side by side in space. A science—which was at the same time wisdom—has always sensed this. Therefore, with regard to worldly phenomena belonging to our Earth, it has stated: We find our bearings when we relate the spatial relationships of anything that happens on Earth to twelve fixed points distributed throughout space. — These twelve fixed points are indicated by the twelve signs of the zodiac in the cosmos. These should be twelve fundamental points to which everything in space is related. However, this is not merely an arbitrary construct of human thought; rather, human thought has learned from reality and has developed this relationship—that one best finds one’s bearings in space by relating to twelve points—as a guiding principle. When it comes to changes, that is, to temporal matters, an older science takes the seven planets as its foundation. There, the number seven serves as the guiding principle.

[ 4 ] Now let us ask ourselves: How does this apply to human life in its development? — We have said that up to the point in human evolution marked by the advent of the Christ principle, when a person looked within, seeking the path to the world of the gods through the veil of their inner being, they entered the Luciferic world. And we have been able to designate everything that human beings find there by the collective term “the Luciferic world.” That was also, in those earlier times, the path along which human beings sought their wisdom, along which they sought a higher understanding of the world than could be found behind the veil of the outer sensory world. Human beings sought by immersing themselves in their inner world; from this world, further intuitions and inspirations regarding moral and ethical life had to arise just as the intuitions of conscience arose from this inner world. All other intuitions and inspirations relating to morality and to the soul in general also arose, of course, from the soul. Therefore, when those exalted individuals—who were the guides of humanity in those ancient times—wished to enlighten people about the highest realities, they first had to turn to the human inner world. The holy Rishis had to turn to the life of the human soul, to the human inner world; in all ancient cultures, the great teachers of humanity had to turn to it. But the inner human being is not spatial; it is temporal. The life of the soul unfolds in time. That which surrounds us externally is organized in space; that which unfolds internally is organized in time. Therefore, everything that seeks to speak to the inner human being is tested against the guiding principle of the number seven. How, then, can one best understand a being that seeks to speak to the human inner life? How might one best understand, in their fundamental characteristics, those beings whom we call, for example, the holy Rishis? One could best understand them by grasping them in the context related to the temporal life of the soul. Therefore, in those ancient times when the great sages spoke, this question arose above all others: Where do they come from? — just as we ask of a son: Who are his father and mother? The inquiry was based on the temporal, on the relationship of descent. When one had a sage before one, one was interested above all in the question: Where does he come from? What was the being that existed there before? Where does he come from? Whose son is he? Thus, when speaking of the Luciferic world, one must take the number seven as the foundation and must be interested in whose child it is who speaks to the human soul. We speak of the children of Lucifer in this sense when we speak of the ancient heralds of the spiritual world, which lies hidden behind the veil of soul life, behind the temporal realm.

[ 5 ] The situation is different, however, with Christ. Christ did not descend to earth through a temporal process; rather, by appearing in time, Christ also came into the earthly world from outside, in a spatial sense. Zarathustra saw him by turning his gaze toward the sun, and addressed him as Ahura Mazdao. Ahura Mazdao drew ever closer to human perception in space until He descended and became human. Thus, the spatial approach is also significant, not merely the temporal sequence. This spatial approach—the approach of the Christ from the infinity of space toward our Earth—possesses an eternal value, not merely a temporal one. This is also why Christ does not have to work on Earth in a way that corresponds solely to the relationship of time; why Christ does not bring to Earth something that corresponds to the relationship between father and child, or mother and child—which unfolds in time—but rather brings into the world something that unfolds in coexistence. Brothers live side by side. Father, mother, and grandchild live one after the other in time, and the temporal relationship expresses their actual relationship. Christ, however, as the Spirit of Space, brings something spatial into earthly culture as well. What he brings is the juxtaposition of human beings in space, and the relationship that is now to extend more and more from one soul to another in this coexistence, regardless of how the temporal relationship is arranged. Our Earth is the planet in our cosmic system that has the mission of introducing love into the world. In ancient times, it was Earth’s task to introduce love with the help of time. As the “blood” flowed down through the generations—from father to child and grandchild—via kinship ties, that which was related through time was at the same time that which loved one another. The family bond, the blood bond, the flow of blood through the generations succeeding one another in time—that was what established love in earlier times. And even where love took on a more moral character, it was based on a temporal relationship. People loved their ancestors, those who had gone before them in time. Through Christ, love came to be from soul to soul, so that those who stand side by side in space enter into a relationship, as first exemplified by siblings standing side by side at the same time—the brotherly love that people are to extend toward one another in the realm from soul to soul. Here, living side by side in space begins to take on its special significance.

[ 6 ] That is why, in ancient times, when discussing the great affairs of humanity, people spoke of things related to the number seven: seven Rishis, seven sages! That is why Christ is surrounded by twelve apostles as models for people living side by side in space. And this love, which will encompass everything that exists side by side in space, regardless of the sequence of time, is to enter into the social life of the Earth through the Christ principle. A follower of Christ is one who loves all that is around him in brotherhood. Therefore, when we speak in earlier times of the children of Lucifer, it is the Christ principle that prompts us to say: Christ is the firstborn among many brothers. — And the relationship of brotherhood to Christ—the feeling of being drawn not to a father but to a brother, whom one loves as the first among brothers, yet still as a brother—that is the fundamental relationship to Christ.

[ 7 ] Of course, these are merely examples that illustrate—not prove—but illustrate and clarify what defines the relationship between the numbers seven and twelve. Thus, the more the Christ relationship shines down into the world, the more people speak of groupings in the sense of the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles, and so on. From there, the number twelve gains its mystical, mysterious significance for the development of the Earth.

[ 8 ] This, so to speak, hints at the outward aspect, the outward appearance of this great transformation that has taken place through the Christ Principle in relation to the Earth’s evolution. We could now speak at length about the relationship between the number seven and the number twelve, yet we would still have to leave many aspects of this profound mystery of our existence in the world unexplained. If you accept what has been said as an illustration of the numbers seven and twelve—serving as a guide to relationships of time and space—you will be able to delve more deeply into the mysteries of the universe. For us, however, this relationship between the numbers seven and twelve should initially serve—along with everything else—to point out just how profoundly significant the Christ event was for the world, and how one must, so to speak, seek a different numerical guide if one wishes to find one’s way there.

[ 9 ] But it is also an inner relationship with regard to space and time; I can only sketch this out for you very briefly. And I want to do so in the way it was usually done in the Mysteries to indicate the cosmic aspect of the relationship between twelve and seven. It has been said: If one does not regard the cosmos as something abstract, but rather relates earthly conditions to this cosmos in a concrete way, then one must relate these conditions to that sphere by conceiving of the twelve points of the zodiac as Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. These twelve points of the zodiac were, at the same time, the true, real cosmic symbol for the most ancient divine-spiritual beings, in which reality was conceived in a certain way. Even when the Earth was embodied in the ancient Saturn, the forces originating from these twelve directions were already acting upon that ancient Saturn; they continued to act during the ancient Sun era, during the ancient Moon era, and will continue to act. They are, so to speak, a constant presence and are far exalted above that which arises and passes away within the course of our Earth’s evolution. That which is symbolized by the twelve signs of the zodiac is exalted above that which passes away in the course of our planet’s evolution from ancient Saturn to the Sun, from the ancient Sun to the ancient Moon, and so on. While what takes place there arises and passes away, that which is determined by the zodiac has outlasted planetary events—that is, it outlasts the conditions on ancient Saturn, on the ancient Sun, and on the ancient Moon. It is also that which is symbolized by the cardinal points of the zodiac, transcending what unfolds on our Earth as the contrast between good and evil. Remember that in the first lecture of this series I drew your attention to how, when one enters the astral realm, one encounters a world of transformation, where what may appear as good from one perspective can seem evil from another. These distinctions between good and evil have their significance within the process of becoming. And the number seven serves as a guiding principle for this significance. That which is symbolized by the gods in the twelve spatial points, in the twelve points of permanence, is transcendent of good and evil. And therefore, within the circle of the twelve points of permanence, we find that which is transcendent of good and evil. Out there, so to speak, we must seek the symbols of those divine-spiritual beings who, when considered in themselves—without intervening in our earthly sphere—are transcendent of the distinctions between good and evil.

[ 10 ] But now, for the first time in time, that which is to become our Earth begins to stir. This can only happen when, as it were, a division occurs within these eternal deities, and that which is taking place enters into a different relationship with these eternal deities, so that they are divided into two spheres: a sphere of good and a sphere of evil. In and of itself, neither one nor the other is good or evil, but as it acts upon the Earth in its becoming, it acts at times as good and at times as evil; thus, everything that participates in one may be designated as the sphere of the good, and everything that participates in the other as the sphere of the evil. However, this is based on the idea that whatever participates even slightly in the sphere of good must also be called good. As soon as that which, as I have said, has permanence in the spiritual world—which has nothing to do with time—as soon as it intervenes in time, it is divided into good and evil. For the good, of the twelve points of permanence, there remain the five that are purely within the sphere of the good and the two on the border; that makes seven. Therefore, we speak of that which remains as the Seven out of the Twelve. If we wish to seek the good, the excellent, and the guiding force within time, we must speak of seven sages, of seven Rishis; and reality corresponds to this as well. Hence also the notion that seven signs of the zodiac belong to the world of light, the upper world; that the lower five, beginning with Scorpio, belong to the world of darkness.

[ 11 ] This is meant to be only a brief indication that space, when it leaves, so to speak, its sphere of eternity and takes in creations that unfold in time, is divided into good and evil, and that by highlighting the good, one highlights the seven out of the twelve, the number seven is the good number for temporal relationships. If we wish to seek the truths of time, we must regard the number seven as our guide; for what remains as the number five would lead us into error. Therein lies the inner meaning of this matter.

[ 12 ] Don't tell yourself right now that this is hard to understand; instead, tell yourself: The world is profound, and there must be things that are difficult to understand.

[ 13 ] But Christ came into the world to sit with the tax collectors and sinners as well. He came to embrace even that which would otherwise have to be excluded from the course of the world. In Oedipus, the very thing that was taken into the life of Christ as a leaven had to be cast out; this was confirmed to you by the legend of Judas. Just as new bread must take in a small portion of the old as leaven in order to continue to rise, so the new world, in order to flourish and become truly good, had to take in something as leaven that comes from evil. Therefore, Judas—who had been excluded everywhere, who had even made himself unwelcome at Pilate’s court—could be received where Christ was at work, who came to heal the world once more so that the Seven might be transformed into the Twelve, so that what had been understood under the number seven might now be understood under the symbol of the number twelve. First and foremost, the number twelve is represented to us by the twelve brothers of Christ, by the twelve apostles.

[ 14 ] As I said, all of this was meant only to be discussed as an indication of just how profound the change was that this brought about for our entire earthly existence. The significance of the Christ principle and its impact on our earthly existence can be explained from many different perspectives, and the one we have touched upon here is just one of them.

[ 15 ] Let us now truly bring to mind once more what has emerged for us from all of this. That something quite special entered the course of Earth’s evolution with Christ is something that is felt and recognized in spiritual science, where it has its true centers of cultivation. In the centers of true spiritual science, it is felt and recognized that there is something that first passes through all the cultures of the post-Atlantean era; something that has already passed through the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Chaldean-Egyptian cultures, and so on; something that will also pass through the cultures that follow these until the next great catastrophe and beyond. If we ask ourselves: Where can we find a truer form of that which runs through the entire development of humanity than we can find through sensory perception or human reason? — then we must turn to spiritual science and ask: What is the name of that which can be discovered in the spiritual world, and which, as it were, moves through all these seven cultures like a continuous stream of spirit? — In Eastern wisdom, in particular, a term has been coined for that which pervades all these cultures; when viewed in reality, it is not something abstract, but something concrete—a being. And if we wish to describe this being more precisely—of which, in essence, all other beings, whether the seven holy Rishis or even higher entities that do not descend to physical embodiment, are messengers—we can designate it by a name that the East has aptly coined. All proclamation, all wisdom in the world traces back first and foremost to this one source, to the source of primordial wisdom, which is possessed by a being that has developed throughout all cultures of the post-Atlantean era, that appears in one form or another in every epoch, but that is always a being, a fundamental bearer of the wisdom that has appeared in the most diverse forms. When I described to you yesterday how—as it were, by inhaling—the holy Rishis concretely grasped this wisdom, what was spread out there like the soul of light and was inhaled as light-wisdom by the holy Rishis was the outflow of that sublime being of which we are speaking here. And for the other ages, that which we were able to mention yesterday as their wisdom—for example, in that entirely different worldview as it was expressed in the ancient Persian cultural epoch—has, in turn, flowed down from this one Being, who is the great Teacher of all cultures. That Being—who was the Teacher of the holy Rishis, the Teacher of Zarathustra, and the Teacher of Hermes; who can be described as the Great Teacher and who manifested Himself in the most diverse ways across the most varied epochs; and who, of course, remains deeply hidden from outward view at first—is designated, using a term coined in the Eastern tradition, as the totality of the Bodhisattvas. The Christian view would refer to it as the Holy Spirit. When one speaks of the Bodhisattva, one is speaking of an entity that extends across all cultures and can reveal and manifest itself to human beings in one way or another. This is the Spirit of the Bodhisattvas. All have looked up to the Bodhisattvas—the holy Rishis, Zarathustra, Hermes, and Moses—regardless of how they perceived and named this particular being. One can give it this single name: it is “the Great Teacher,” and those who are willing and able to receive the teachings of the post-Atlantean era look up to him. This Bodhisattva spirit of our post-Atlantean era has taken on human form several times, but one of these forms interests us above all others. A Bodhisattva took on the human form that shines far and wide—regardless of how he otherwise manifested himself—in that being known as Gautama Buddha. And it was a step forward for this particular Bodhisattva when he no longer needed to remain solely in the higher spiritual regions, but had progressed so far through his training within the spiritual regions that he was able to subdue physicality to such an extent that he could become a human being as the Buddha. Thus, in the Buddha, we must see one of the incarnations of a Bodhisattva, one of the incarnations of the all-encompassing figures of wisdom that underlie the process of becoming human on Earth. In the Buddha, we have, so to speak, the embodiment of that great Teacher who can simply be called Wisdom itself. This is how we should view the Buddha correctly: He is the incarnation of the Bodhisattva. And it need not be believed that a Bodhisattva has incarnated only in the Buddha; rather, such a being has also incarnated, in whole or in part, in other human personalities. But we need not view all such incarnations according to a single pattern; rather, we must be clear that just as a Bodhisattva lived in the etheric body of Gautama Buddha, so too did such a being live in the physical bodies of other human individuals. And because the essence of the Bodhisattva who had inherited the astral body of Zarathustra flowed into the physical members of other individuals—for example, Hermes—one can—but only if one understands the matter in this way—also call other individuals, who are in turn great teachers, an incarnation of a Bodhisattva. One can speak of an ever-recurring incarnation of the Bodhisattva, but one must realize that the Bodhisattva has stood behind all the human beings in whom he incarnates as part of that essence which is itself the personified omniscience of our world.

[ 16 ] Thus we turn our gaze to the element of wisdom that, in ancient times, was imparted to humanity from the Luciferic worlds. When we look upon this, we are looking upon the Bodhisattvas. However, with regard to post-Atlantean development, there is a being who is fundamentally different from the Bodhisattvas—who is, in principle, something other than a Bodhisattva—and who must not be confused with the Bodhisattva, because this being was once incarnated in a human individuality that simultaneously received the inflow of the Bodhisattva as Buddha. Because there once lived a human being in whom Christ incarnated, and at the same time the rays of the Bodhisattva entered this human individuality, one must not regard the fact that the Bodhisattva incarnated in that personality as the main point of this incarnation. This is Jesus of Nazareth. Especially during the last three years, the Christ principle—which is fundamentally different from that of the Bodhisattva—prevails. How, then, can we describe the difference between the Christ principle and the Bodhisattva principle? It is of the utmost importance to understand why the Christ, who was once incarnated in a human body—only once, neither before nor after—can be incarnated as Christ in a human body. Since that time, he has been accessible through the path into the innermost depths of the human soul; before that, he was accessible when one’s gaze was directed outward into the world, as Zarathustra directed his. How does Christ—this principle, this being to whom we must ascribe such a central position—differ from a Bodhisattva? The fundamental difference between Christ and the Bodhisattva is that we must call the Bodhisattva the great teacher, the embodiment of wisdom that permeates all cultures and manifests itself in the most diverse ways. Christ, however, is not merely a teacher—that is the essential point! Christ does not merely teach people; Christ is a being whom we understand best when we seek him out where we can find him at dizzying spiritual heights as an object of initiation, and where we can compare him with other spiritual beings.

[ 17 ] We can best characterize them in the following way: There are regions of spiritual life where, so to speak, stripped of all earthly dust, one can find this exalted being, the Bodhisattva, in his spiritual essence, and where one can find the Christ, stripped of everything he has become on Earth and in its vicinity. There one finds the following: One finds, so to speak, the foundation of humanity, that from which all life springs: the spiritual source. One finds not just one Bodhisattva, but a series of Bodhisattvas. Just as we have pointed to the Bodhisattva who underlies our successive seven cultures, so there is a Bodhisattva who underlies the Atlantean cultures, and so on. In the spiritual realms, you will find a series of Bodhisattvas who, in their respective eras, are the great teachers—instructors not only of human beings but also of those beings who do not descend into the realm of physical life. We find them all seated there, if we may speak figuratively, as the great teachers; they gather together what they are to teach, and in their midst we find a being who is not merely significant because he teaches: and that is the Christ. He is not merely significant because he teaches, but he is in the midst of the Bodhisattvas as a being who influences the surrounding Bodhisattvas simply by their beholding him; He is beheld by the Bodhisattvas, to whom He reveals His own glory. If the others are what they are by virtue of being great teachers, then Christ is what He is to the world through what He is within Himself—through His very being. One need only look upon Him; and the revelation of His own being is something that need only be reflected in His surroundings; and from this the teaching arises. He is not merely a teacher; he is life—a life that pours itself into other beings, who then become the teachers. Thus, the Bodhisattvas are those who derive their teaching from the fact that they enjoy the bliss of beholding the Christ from their spiritual heights. And when we find incarnations of the Bodhisattvas in the course of our earthly evolution, we call them—because the Bodhisattva is the essential being within them—great teachers of humanity. The Christ does not merely teach. One learns about the Christ in order to understand him, to recognize what is within him. Christ is more an object than a subject of learning. He is therefore a being of a fundamentally different significance than the Bodhisattvas who walk through the world. This is the difference between Christ and the Bodhisattvas: he is what he is to the world by virtue of the world’s beholding him. The Bodhisattvas are what they are to the world by virtue of their being the great teachers.

[ 18 ] If we are to look toward the living essence, toward the source of life on our Earth, we must look to that incarnation where not merely a Bodhisattva took physical form—which is the essential point—but where that which did not need to leave behind a written work, which did not itself leave behind a doctrine, but gathered around itself those who spread messages and teachings about it into the world. It is essential that no written document from Christ himself exists, but rather that the teachers are around him and speak of him, so that he is the object of the teaching, not merely the subject. This is expressed in the peculiar circumstance—which here constitutes a necessity in the Christ event—that nothing has been preserved from him himself, but that others have recorded his essence. It is therefore no wonder at all when it is said that everything we find as the teachings of Christ can also be found in other creeds, because Christ is not merely a teacher; because he is a being who wants to be understood as a being; because he does not merely want to instill something in us through his teachings, but through his life. Therefore, however, we can also bring together all the teachings of the world that are accessible to us, and we will still not have everything necessary to comprehend Christ. If present-day humanity cannot turn directly to the Bodhisattvas to behold Christ with the spiritual eyes of the Bodhisattvas, then humanity must still go to school with these Bodhisattvas to learn that which can ultimately make Christ comprehensible. So if we wish not merely to share in Christ, but to understand Christ, then we must not merely look comfortably upon what Christ has done for us; rather, we must study under all the teachers of the West and the East, and it must be a sacred duty for us to make the teachings of the entire spectrum our own; and it must be another sacred duty for us to apply these teachings in such a way that, through the highest teachings, we may fully comprehend Christ.

[ 19 ] But what people are to do is prepared accordingly in the Mysteries. Every age has its own special task; it is the duty of each age to receive the truth precisely in the form that this truth must take for the respective epoch of human history. One could not give the ancient Indian a form of truth such as is given today, nor the ancient Persian. One had to give them the truth in the form that was suitable for their sensibilities. Therefore, in the era that, by virtue of its other characteristics, was suited to receiving the Christ on Earth—that is, in the fourth epoch, the Greco-Latin one—the truth about the Christ and about the world connected with the Christ also had to be brought to humanity in the form appropriate to the people of that time. To believe that the whole truth about Christ was already available in the period immediately following the Christ-revelation is to know absolutely nothing about the progress of the human race. Anyone who wishes only to preserve the teachings of the first centuries after the Christ event, anyone who wishes to regard only what was written and preserved then as genuine Christian teaching, knows nothing of human progress; such a person does not realize that the greatest teacher of the first Christian centuries could have told people nothing more about the Christ than what they were capable of receiving. But because the people of the first Christian centuries were, above all, those who had, so to speak, descended deepest into the physical world, they were able to grasp relatively very little of the higher teachings about Christ with their understanding. Relatively little could be understood by the vast majority of Christians regarding the Christ-essence.

[ 20 ] We have seen that in ancient India a high level of clairvoyant perception existed due to the position of the etheric body in relation to the other parts of the human being at that time; but the time had not yet come for this perception to see Christ as anything other than a spirit dwelling in distant regions beyond the sensory world, to understand him as Vishvakarman. It was not until the time of the Proto-Persian culture that it became possible to sense Christ behind the physical sun. And so it continued. In the time of Moses, it was possible to behold Christ as Jehovah in lightning and thunder—that is, already quite close to the earth. And in Jesus of Nazareth, Christ was seen incarnated as a human being. Humanity has progressed to such an extent that in ancient India wisdom was still received through the etheric body; in the ancient Persian period, through the sensory body; in the Chaldean-Egyptian period, through the soul of sensation; and in the Greek-Latin period, through what we call the soul of understanding. And the intellectual soul is already bound to the sensory world through its intellect. It therefore lost sight of that which lies beyond the sensory world. Consequently, in the first centuries after Christ, people could perceive little more than what lies between birth and death and what immediately follows as the next spiritual realm. People knew nothing of what passes through many incarnations. This was due to the limitations of human understanding. People could only make sense of one part of the human being’s entire life: their earthly life and the subsequent phase of spiritual life. That is why you find this described for the general public. But this knowledge was not to be preserved as it was. Provision had to be made so that people’s vision could extend beyond this limited scope of understanding; it had to be ensured that the comprehensive wisdom that was available in the time of Hermes, in the time of Moses, in the time of Zarathustra, and in the time of the ancient Indian rishis could gradually be revived, so that the opportunity might once again be offered to comprehend the Christ with ever broader understanding.

[ 21 ] Thus, although the Christ had come into the world, the means of understanding were at their most limited precisely during his time. Provisions had to be made for the times to come; all the ancient wisdom had to be revived so that this wisdom could gradually be placed in the service of understanding Christ. This could only happen in the following way: a wisdom of the mysteries had to be created. The people who migrated from ancient Atlantis to Europe and beyond had brought great wisdom with them. In ancient Atlantis, most people were instinctively clairvoyant; they could see into the realms of the spiritual. This clairvoyance could not continue to develop; it had to retreat into the lives of individual personalities in the West. There it was guided by a being who lived in deep seclusion for the time being, withdrawn even from those who were already secluded and disciples of a great initiate—a being who had, so to speak, remained behind, preserving what could be brought over from ancient Atlantis and safeguarding it for later times. This high initiate, this guardian of the ancient Atlantean wisdom—which penetrated deeply even into the very mysteries of the physical body—may be called Skythianos, as was customary in the early Middle Ages. And those familiar with the European mystery tradition look up to one of the highest initiates on Earth when the name Skythianos is mentioned.

[ 22 ] But even within this world, the same being lived for a long time—a being who, when viewed from a spiritual perspective, can be described as the Bodhisattva. This Bodhisattva was the same being who, after completing his mission in the West, was incarnated as the Gautama Buddha approximately six hundred years before our era. Thus, the being who then journeyed further eastward as a teacher was, so to speak, already at a more advanced stage. He was a second great teacher, a second great guardian of humanity’s wisdom, and became the Gautama Buddha.

[ 23 ] But then there was a third individuality who was destined for greatness. ^{1These beings are described here as they were conceived in the spirit of older worldviews, and as it is, in a certain sense, still justified today from the perspective of spiritual science.} And we know this third individuality from various lectures. This is the one who was the teacher of ancient Persia, the great Zarathustra. We are referring to three important spiritual beings and individualities when we utter the names Zarathustra, Gautama Buddha, and Skythianos. We are speaking of incarnations of Bodhisattvas when we mention the names Skythianos, Zarathustra, and Buddha. What lived within them was not the Christ.

[ 24 ] Now humanity had to be given time to experience the coming of the Christ, who had previously revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, for they are the same Being: Yahweh and Christ, only in different forms. Now humanity had to be given time to receive the Christ. This took place at a time when understanding of such matters was at its absolute lowest. But provision had to be made to ensure that understanding—that wisdom—would grow greater and greater again; and Christ also made provision for this on Earth.

[ 25 ] A fourth individuality is now mentioned in history, behind whom, for many, lies something even higher and more powerful than the three entities mentioned—Skythianos, Buddha, and Zarathustra. It is Manes, who is referred to by many—who see more in Manichaeism than is usually recognized—as a high messenger of Christ. Manes, so many say, gathered around him—a few centuries after Christ had lived on Earth—in one of the greatest assemblies ever to have taken place in the spiritual world associated with the Earth, three important figures of the fourth century of the Christian era. This vivid description is intended to express an important spiritual and cultural fact. Manes gathered these personalities in order to consult with them on how the wisdom that had lived through the turn of the era into the post-Atlantean period might gradually be revived, extending further and further into the future, becoming ever more glorious. Which personalities did Manes gather at that memorable assembly, which can be perceived only through spiritual vision? One is the figure in whom Skythianos lived at that time—the reincarnated Skythianos of the Manes era. The second figure is a physical reflection of the Buddha who reappeared at that time, and the third is Zarathustra, who was reincarnated then. Thus we have a council gathered around Manes, with Manes at the center, surrounded by Skythianos, the Buddha, and Zarathustra. At that time, this council established the plan for how all the wisdom of the Bodhisattvas of the post-Atlantean era could flow ever more strongly into the future of humanity. And what was decided then as the plan for the future development of earthly culture was preserved and then carried over into those European mysteries that are the Mysteries of the Rosicrucians. The individualities of Skythianos, Buddha, and Zarathustra were always present in the Mysteries of the Rosicrucians. They were the teachers in the schools of the Rosicrucians—teachers who sent their wisdom to the Earth as gifts so that, through this wisdom, the Christ might be understood in his essence. Therefore, in all spiritual training of the Rosicrucians, one looks up with the deepest reverence to those ancient initiates who preserved the primeval wisdom of Atlantis: to the reincarnated Skythianos, in whom one saw the great and revered Bodhisattva of the West; to the respective incarnated reflection of the Buddha, whom one likewise revered as one of the Bodhisattvas; and finally to Zarathas, the reincarnated Zarathustra. One looked up to them as the great teachers of the European initiates. Such descriptions should not be taken as merely external historical accounts, even though they characterize the historical course of events more accurately than an external account could.

[ 26 ] To mention just one example, it must be said that you will hardly find any region in the Middle Ages where a particular legend was not widespread. When no one in Europe knew anything about Gautama Buddha—when the tradition of Gautama Buddha had been completely lost—the following story was told. You’ll find this in many medieval books; it is one of the most widespread tales of the Middle Ages. Once upon a time in India, a king had a son named Josaphat. At his birth, a significant prophecy was made about this Josaphat. For this reason, his father protected him especially carefully; he was to be exposed only to the most precious things, was to revel in complete bliss, and was not to experience the pains, sufferings, and misfortunes of life. Josaphat was shielded from all of this. But it so happened that one day Josaphat went out of the palace, and he encountered a sick person, a leper, an elderly person, and a corpse; so the story went about Josaphat! Deeply shaken, he returned to the royal palace, and there he met a man whose very heart was moved by the mysteries of Christianity—Barlaam—who won Josaphat over to Christianity. And Josaphat, having experienced this, became a Christian. So goes the legend of the Middle Ages. And now you don’t even need to consult the Akashic Records; an ordinary philologist is sufficient to examine the name Josaphat. Josaphat goes back to an ancient word, Joasaph; “Joasaph” in turn goes back to “Jodasaph”; “Jodasaph” to “Yudasaf,” which is identical to “Budasaf”—the latter two forms are Arabic, and “Budasaf” is the same name as “Bodhisattva.” Thus, European esotericism not only knows the “Bodhisattva,” but, if it can decipher the name “Josaphat,” it also understands the meaning of this word. This legendary development of the Esoteric Teaching in the West knows that there was a time when the very same being who lived as Gautama Buddha became a Christian. One may or may not know this; yet it remains true! Just as traditions can lag behind the times—just as people today can believe what was believed millennia ago and what can be perpetuated in traditions—so one can also believe that it corresponds to the higher worlds that Gautama Buddha has remained the same as he was six hundred years before our era. But that is not the case. He has ascended; he has evolved. And the true teachings of the Rosicrucians preserve that which has found expression in legend, as I have just told you. One must simply not confuse these true teachings of the Rosicrucians with all the nonsense that permeates dubious literature.

[ 27 ] Thus, within the spiritual life of Europe, we encounter from time to time the one who was the bearer of Christ—Zaratas or Nazarathos, Zarathustra; thus we encounter Skythianos; and thus we also encounter the third great disciple of Manes, Buddha, as he was after having lived through later times.

[ 28 ] Thus, the European connoisseur of initiation always looked inward at the turning point of the ages, gazing up to the true figures of the great teachers: Zaratustra, Buddha, Skythianos—he knew that through them the wisdom that has always come from the Bodhisattvas flowed into the culture of the future, a wisdom intended to be used to comprehend the most worthy object of all understanding: Christ, who is a being fundamentally different from the Bodhisattvas and who can only be understood by bringing together all the wisdom of the Bodhisattvas. Therefore, the spiritual wisdom of the Europeans contains, among other things, a synthetic synthesis of all the teachings that have been given to the world by the three great disciples of Manes and by Manes himself. Even if Manes has not yet been understood, a time will come when European culture will develop in such a way that meaning will once again be associated with the names Skythianos, Buddha, and Zarathustra. They will provide people with the teaching material needed to understand Christ. Through them, people will come to understand Christ better and better. The Middle Ages, however, began with a peculiar veneration and worship of Skythianos, Buddha, and Zarathustra, once their names had seeped through a little; it began with the fact that anyone who wished to profess themselves a true Christian in certain Christian religious communities had to recite the formula: “I curse Skythianos, I curse Buddha, I curse Zaratas!” This was a formula widespread throughout many regions of the Christian era, through which one professed to be a true Christian. But what people believed they had to curse at that time will be understood by the college of teachers who will make Christ most comprehensible to humanity—to whom humanity will look up as to the great Bodhisattvas, through whom Christ will be understood.

[ 29 ] Today, humanity can scarcely offer these great teachers of the Rosicrucians even the bare minimum of two things—two things that can only mark the beginning of what is to emerge in the future as a great and powerful understanding of Christianity. This is to be accomplished through modern spiritual science; it is to begin bringing the teachings of Skythianos, Zarathustra, and Gautama Buddha into the world—not in their old form, but in a thoroughly new form that can be discovered today through our own research. We begin by first incorporating into our culture the fundamental truths we can learn from them. From the Buddha, Christianity must learn the teachings of reincarnation and karma, though not in an old form that is no longer appropriate for our times. Why are the teachings of reincarnation and karma flowing into Christianity today? They are flowing in because the initiates can learn to understand them in the spirit of our time, just as Buddha—the great teacher of reincarnation—understood them in his own way. In this way, we will also begin to understand the Skythianos, who is not only to teach the reincarnation of the human being, but who is to teach that which reigns from eternity to eternity. In this way, the essence of the world—the essence of the center of our earthly world, the essence of Christ—will be understood more and more. Thus, the teachings of the initiates flow more and more into humanity. Today, the aspiring student of spiritual science can contribute only two things as a very basic starting point toward what must be the two elements of humanity’s future spiritual development. That which sinks into the inner being as the Christ-life will be the first element; that which, in a comprehensive way, as spiritual cosmology, will bring understanding of the Christ—that will be the second. The Christ life within the heart and an understanding of the world that leads to an understanding of Christ—these will be the two elements. Today, as we stand at the beginning, we can start by cultivating the right attitude within ourselves. Therefore, we gather to cultivate the right attitude toward the spiritual world and all that is born of it, toward humanity. By cultivating the right attitude, we gradually make our spiritual powers capable of receiving the Christ within, for the higher and nobler the attitude becomes, the more nobly the Christ will be able to manifest Himself. And we begin by teaching the fundamental connections of our earthly evolution, by seeking once again what originates from Skythianos, Zarathustra, and Buddha, and by accepting it as they are able to teach it in our time—just as these teachers themselves understand it, having evolved right up to our time. We have reached the point where we can begin to spread the elementary teachings of initiation.