The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] Over the past few days, we have tried to form a picture of the most important beings described in the Gospel of Luke. We have gained a comprehensive understanding of what underlies this text. But there is one thing we still need to do: to trace the further development of the central being—and thus the central being of our Earth—Christ Jesus himself. In doing so, it will be necessary for us first to recall what has already been said: that Christ Jesus—who later stands before us and is the subject of the account in the Gospel of Luke—was, so to speak, physically born as the Nathanic Jesus from the House of David. This child grows up until about the age of twelve. By the time his development had progressed to that point, the I-ness that had once been embodied in the being who initiated Persian culture entered his body; thus, from the age of twelve onward, we have the I of Zarathustra in the body of the Nathanic Jesus. It will now be our task to trace the development of this being in greater detail. To do so, we must recall something for which we have already been prepared through our previous spiritual scientific reflections.

[ 2 ] We know that human development normally proceeds in such a way that an important phase occurs between the ages of one and seven; another important phase in development occurs between the ages of seven and approximately fourteen—that is, until sexual maturity; another phase extends from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year, followed by a phase lasting until the twenty-eighth year, and then another phase lasting until the thirty-fifth year. Of course, these stages should not be understood in a pedantic sense, as if their end always coincided exactly with a specific date; rather, we must place that important transition in human development—which is roughly marked by the end of the seventh year—during the period of tooth replacement. This transition, then, does not occur all at once, but gradually during the period of tooth replacement. Likewise, everything proceeds gradually during the remaining stages. We now know—as is described in greater detail in the short treatise The Education of the Child from the Standpoint of Spiritual Science—that at the end of the seventh year, something similar occurs spiritually to what happens physically upon leaving the mother’s womb: a kind of etheric birth then takes place. At the age of fourteen, with the onset of sexual maturity, an astral birth takes place; this is when the human astral body is liberated. If we now trace human development closely—with the eyes of the spirit—it appears to us as even more complex. As people usually observe life, they overlook those important differences throughout the entire human life that nevertheless continue to occur even in later years. It is commonly believed today that, from a certain point onward, not much more happens to a person. But this is merely a crude view that suggests as much. In truth, if we observe more closely, we can perceive certain differences in human development even in the later years of life.

[ 3 ] When the physical maternal sheath is shed, what is now born of the human being is, in fact, only the physical body; thus, what emerges freely during the first seven years of life is the physical body. In the various lectures on child rearing, it has been emphasized how important it is for the educator to know precisely this. Then, when the etheric sheath is shed, the etheric body lies exposed; when the astral sheath is shed at the age of fourteen, the astral body lies exposed. Strictly speaking, however, we can only understand the human being if we proceed from the classification set forth in my Theosophy. There, the higher, soul-related members of human nature are subdivided even further. There we find, first of all, appended to the life body what is called the sensory body; and strictly speaking, it is only the sensory body that is fully free in relation to the external world until the age of twenty-one. At the age of twenty-one, what is called the sensory soul gradually becomes free within the human being; at the age of twenty-eight, the intellectual or emotional soul becomes free, and thereafter the conscious soul. This is how it is with human beings today. And anyone who observes human life, guided by the insights of spiritual science, knows very well that these stages of development exist. And those who are the great leaders of humanity also know why the thirty-fifth year is such an important one. Dante knew why he made special mention of his thirty-fifth year when he explained that it was then that he had those mighty visions of the world, which are recorded in his great cosmic poem. Right at the beginning of the Divine Comedy, we find a reference to the fact that he had these visions in his thirty-fifth year. By then, the human being’s essence has developed to the point where it can fully utilize as tools those faculties that are connected to the sensory body, the sensory soul, and the intellectual or emotional soul.

[ 4 ] Those who have spoken of human beings in the context of our development have always recognized this classification. Among the Easterners, things were somewhat different, as times change somewhat. For that reason, however, it was appropriate for Eastern culture not to make the same distinctions in this classification. In the West, however, these distinctions had always to be made. The Greeks, for example, described what we have here using only slightly different terms. In seeking to describe the soul, they began with what we call the life-body and named it Treptikon; what we call the feeling-body they designated with the very apt term Aesthetikon; our sensory soul was designated as Orektikon, the intellectual soul as Kinetikon, and what constitutes the soul of consciousness—the most precious asset a human being acquires today—was called Dianoetikon. Thus, we have before us the development of the human being when we examine it closely and precisely.

[ 5 ] Now, due to certain circumstances—some of which we will come to understand today—the development of the Nathanic Jesus had been somewhat advanced, somewhat accelerated. This was also possible because sexual maturity occurred earlier in his region. But there were also very special reasons in his case why what normally occurs at the age of fourteen occurred for him at the age of twelve. And so what normally occurs at the age of twenty-one occurred in him at the age of nineteen, and what normally takes place at the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-five occurred in him at the ages of twenty-six and thirty-three. This is, so to speak, the pattern of development of our earthly central being. We must now note that, physically speaking, we have before us the Nathanic Jesus up to the age of twelve, but that from the age of twelve onward, the “I” of Zarathustra continues to live within the Nathanic Jesus. What does this actually mean? It means nothing other than that this “I,” this mature “I,” beginning at the age of twelve, worked through the Nathanic Jesus’s sensory body, emotional soul, and intellectual soul, and developed these qualities of human nature in a way that only such a mature “I”—which, through the most diverse incarnations, had experienced the destinies of the Zarathustra “I”—can develop human capacities. Thus we are faced with the wondrous fact that, beginning at the age of twelve, the I of Zarathustra incarnated itself into the body of the Nathanic Jesus, refining the soul’s faculties in the most exquisite manner imaginable. Thus a soul body developed that was capable of gazing up into the cosmos in such a way that it could perceive the essence of the ancient Ahura Mazda—what he is in terms of his spiritual nature; a soul of feeling developed that could cherish within itself the knowledge and wisdom that gradually emerged among humanity on the basis of the teachings of Ahura Mazdao; and then a rational soul developed that could comprehend all of this—that is, could express it in concepts, in words, in easily understandable words—what humanity had previously attained only through spiritual currents from outside.

[ 6 ] Thus did this Nathanic Jesus develop the Zarathustra-self within himself. And he continued to develop in this way until his thirtieth year approached. Then a new reality came to the fore. The phenomenon that had already occurred in a certain sense in the Nathanic Jesus at the age of twelve—that his innermost being had been filled with a new sense of self—occurred once more, but now in a more universal and significant way. Around the age of thirty, we see how the Zarathustra-I has completed its task within the soul of the Nathanic Jesus, how it has developed his abilities to the highest degree. It had, so to speak, completed its mission for this soul; it had woven everything it had gained through its earlier incarnations into this soul and could now say: “My task is now complete.”—And one day, the Zarathustra Self left the body of the Nathanic Jesus.

[ 7 ] The Zarathustra-I thus lived in the body of the Solomonic Jesus until the age of twelve. This boy would not have been able to develop further on earth. He remained, so to speak, at his previous stage of development because the Zarathustra-I that had dwelt within him had left him. He had, however, attained a high and rare degree of maturity because such a lofty “I” dwelt within him. Anyone who had observed the Solomonic Jesus child from the outside would have found that he was a child of the utmost precociousness. But from the moment the Zarathustra “I” had left him, he remained stagnant; he could go no further. And as the time drew near when the mother of the Nathanic Jesus died relatively early—and was taken into the spiritual world with regard to her spiritual members—she took with her that which was of eternal value and formative power in the Solomonic Jesus Child. This child also died, roughly at the same time that the mother of the Nathanic Jesus died.

[ 8 ] It was a precious etheric body that left the physical body of the Solomonic Jesus at that time. We know that, from that time on, the etheric body attains its specific development when a child has passed the age of about seven, between the age of seven and puberty. This was, therefore, an etheric body formed by the forces possessed by the Zarathustra I. We know that at death the etheric body leaves the physical body, that everything not useful for eternity is shed in normal human life, and that a kind of extract from the etheric body is taken along. In the case of the Solomonic Jesus-child, the greatest conceivable portion of the etheric body was suitable for eternity. The entire life body of this child was taken into the spiritual world by the mother of the Nathanic Jesus.

[ 9 ] Now, however, the etheric body is the creator and builder of the physical human body. We can now imagine that there was indeed a deep kinship between this etheric body—which had been taken up into the spiritual world as the etheric body of the Solomonic Jesus—and the I of Zarathustra, for the latter was one with him during his earthly life until the age of twelve. And when, through the development of Jesus of Nazareth, it then left his body—withdrawing, so to speak, from the body of the Nathanic Jesus—the forces of attraction between the Zarathustra I and the etheric body, which had originated from the Solomonic Jesus child, came into play. They came together again and then built a new physical body for themselves. The Zarathustra “I” was so mature that it did not need to pass through Devachan again. After a relatively short time, with the help of that etheric body we have just described, it was able to build a new physical body for itself. And thus, for the first time, the being was born who subsequently appeared again and again, always in such a way that relatively short periods of time elapsed between physical death and a new birth, so that whenever this being left the physical body in death, it soon reappeared on Earth in a new incarnation.

[ 10 ] This being, having thus regained the etheric body it had shed in the manner described, subsequently walked through the history of humanity. As you can imagine, it became the greatest helper to those who sought to understand the great event in Palestine. As the so-called “Master Jesus,” this individuality moves through the turning of the ages; thus, after rediscovering his etheric body, Zarathustra—the Zarathustra “I”—began his course through human evolution as “Master Jesus,” who has since lived on our Earth, incarnating again and again to guide and direct that spiritual current we call Christianity. He is the inspiration for those who wish to understand the living, evolving Christianity; within the esoteric schools, he has inspired those who have been charged with the ongoing preservation of the teachings of Christianity. He stands behind the great spiritual figures of Christianity, ever teaching what the great event in Palestine truly signifies.

[ 11 ] This Zarathustra “I,” which had animated the body of the Nathanic Jesus from the age of twelve to thirty, was now outside that body. Another being now entered that body. The moment when this occurred—when, so to speak, a “supreme ‘I’” entered the Nathanic Jesus in place of the Zarathustra ‘I’—is described in all the Gospels as the moment of John’s baptism in the Jordan. It has already been pointed out in connection with our discussion of the Gospel of John that baptism in those earlier times was something quite different from what it later became, when it was merely a symbol. It was also performed differently by John the Baptist. Those who were baptized were immersed in the water with their entire physical being, with their whole body. But you know from the various preparatory anthroposophical lectures that something quite special can happen during such an event. Even in ordinary life, for example, when a person is close to drowning and experiences a shock, it happens that they see their entire life up to that point unfold before them as if in a grand tableau. This occurs because, for a moment, what normally happens only after death takes place: the etheric body is lifted out of the physical body and becomes free from the forces of the physical body. This took place with most of those baptized by John, and it took place especially during the baptism of the Nathanic Jesus: his etheric body was drawn out. And during that moment, that exalted being we call the Christ-being was able to descend into the body of the Nathanic Jesus and take possession of him.

[ 12 ] Thus, from the moment of John’s baptism onward, the Nathanic Jesus was imbued with the Christ essence. This is the meaning of the words written by hand in the older Gospel manuscripts: “This is my beloved Son; today I have begotten him”—that is to say, it is now the Son of Heaven who has begotten Christ. The begetter was the unified Deity that weaves through the world, and the recipient was the body and the entire being of the Nathanic Jesus, who had been prepared to receive the seed from on high. “This is my beloved Son; today I have begotten him”—this is what the older Gospel manuscripts used to say, and this is how it should truly appear in the Gospels (Luke 3:22).

[ 13 ] Who is this being that united with the etheric body of the Nathanic Jesus at that time? Once again, we cannot understand this Christ-being if we focus our attention solely on Earth’s evolution. This Christ-entity is the very entity we must call the leader of those spiritual beings who, at the time the Sun separated from the Earth, went out from the Earth with the Sun and established a higher realm from which to work upon the Earth—that is, from the outside in—through the Sun. If we therefore transport ourselves back to the pre-Christian era on Earth—from the time the Sun separated from the Earth until the appearance of Christ on Earth—we must say: When a person looked up at the sun, if their sensibilities had been sufficiently mature, they would have had to perceive what Zarathustra taught: that what reaches us in the sunlight and the sun’s warmth is merely the physical garment of those high spiritual beings who stand behind the sunlight; for hidden behind it are the spiritual rays of power that penetrate from the sun onto the Earth. But the leader of all the other beings who send their beneficent effects down from the sun to the earth is the being who was later called Christ. Thus, in pre-Christian times, one was not to seek it on Earth, but rather on the sun. And Zarathustra was right when he designated it by the name Ahura Mazdao, placed it on the sun, and said: When we walk upon the Earth, we do not find him, this spirit of light; but when we look up at the Sun, then that which lives spiritually on the Sun is Ahura Mazdao, and what streams toward us as light is the body of the solar spirit, Ahura Mazdao, just as the human physical body is the body of the human spirit. — But through the great cosmic processes, this exalted being drew ever closer to the earthly sphere. Clairvoyants could, so to speak, sense Christ’s approach to the Earth more and more clearly. And a clear recognition of this Christ came about when the great predecessor of Christ Jesus, Moses, received his revelations on Mount Sinai amid the fire of lightning.

[ 14 ] What did these revelations of Moses mean? They meant that what was approaching the Earth as the Christ Being first appeared as if in a reflection, as if in a mirror image. Let us imagine, in a spiritualized sense, the process we perceive in the full moon every night of the full moon. When we look up at the full moon, we see the sun’s rays reflected back to us. It is sunlight that streams toward us; we simply call it moonlight because it appears to be reflected by the moon. Whom did Moses see in the burning bush and in the fire on Mount Sinai? The Christ! But just as one does not see sunlight directly on the moon, but rather reflected, so he saw the Christ in a reflection. And just as we call the sunlight “moonlight” when we see it reflected by the moon, so the Christ was called Yahweh or Jehovah at that time. Therefore, Yahweh or Jehovah is nothing other than the reflection of the Christ before the Christ himself appeared on Earth. Thus, Christ revealed Himself indirectly to human beings, who were not yet able to perceive Him in His very own essence—just as, on an otherwise dark full-moon night, the sunlight reveals itself through the moon’s rays. Yahweh or Jehovah is Christ, but not seen directly, rather as reflected light.

[ 15 ] Christ was to draw ever closer to human understanding and human perception. That is to say, he was to walk the earth himself for a time, to be a human being among humans, to become a fellow inhabitant of our earth, just as he had previously revealed himself to the initiates from the cosmos. For this to happen, the right time had to come first. That the Christ exists has always been known in those places where the wisdom of the world has been thoroughly understood. And because he has revealed himself in the most diverse ways, he has also been given the most diverse names. Zarathustra called him Ahura Mazdao, because he revealed himself to him clothed in sunlight. Those great teachers of humanity who appeared in ancient India during the first epoch following the Atlantean catastrophe—the holy Rishis—knew full well of this Being, since they were initiates; yet they knew that it could not yet be attained through earthly wisdom in that epoch, and that it would only be attainable through earthly wisdom in a later epoch. Therefore, the formulation for that time was that this being dwelled beyond the region of the seven Rishis. It was called Vishva Karman. Thus, they, too, taught of that being whom they called Vishva Karman, whom Zarathustra called Ahura Mazdao. These are different names for this being, which was slowly approaching the Earth from spiritual heights, from cosmic realms.

[ 16 ] But human evolution had to be prepared so that a body could receive this being. To this end, a being such as the one who lived as Zarathustra first had to mature from incarnation to incarnation, so that it could then, in a body as pure as that of Jesus of Nazareth, develop the capacities of the feeling body, the feeling soul, and the intellectual soul—so that this human being would become capable of receiving such a high being. This had to be prepared slowly. In order for a feeling soul and an intellectual soul to be prepared in this way, an “I” first had to pass through the many experiences and events that Zarathustra had undergone, and had to transform the capacities within the Nathanic Jesus. This was not possible at an earlier time. For it was not only the Zarathustra “I” that had to work on the Nathanic Jesus child, but also that high being whom we have characterized as the Nirmanakaya of the Buddha. It worked in particular from the outside in, from birth until the age of twelve. But to do so, it first had to be present. That Bodhisattva himself first had to ascend to Buddhahood in order to make it possible within himself to develop the spiritual body of the Nirmanakaya, so that he could work upon the Nathanic infant Jesus from birth until the age of twelve. The Bodhisattva himself first had to transcend the stage of Buddhahood in order to possess within himself the power to prepare a body for that great event. In that incarnation, when he became a Buddha, he had not yet managed to develop this ability. His life as a Buddha was necessary for this.

[ 17 ] Once humanity truly understands what is preserved in the legends as great wisdom, it will be able to read in the relevant passages that everything we decipher from the Akashic Records is contained in a wondrous way within the ancient legends. We are told—and rightly so—that the Christ Being was also taught in ancient India as a cosmic Being beyond the sphere of the seven holy Rishis. They knew that this Being dwells on high and only gradually draws near to the Earth; Zarathustra also knew that he had to turn his gaze away from the Earth toward the Sun; and the ancient Hebrew people, through the qualities and abilities we highlighted yesterday, were able to receive the first revelation of the reflection of the Christ Being. - This, too, is hinted at to us in a story about how the Buddha, just as he was preparing to become a Buddha from a Bodhisattva, came into contact with Vishva Karman, who was later called the Christ. The legend tells that, as he approached his twenty-ninth year, he made that famous journey out of his palace, where he had been cherished and cared for until then. There he first saw an old man, then a sick person, then a corpse, and thus gradually came to know the misery of life; then he saw a monk who had renounced this life, in which there is old age, sickness, and death. Then, according to the legend—which proclaims a profound truth—he decided not to set out immediately, but to return once more. But on this journey, as the legend tells us, he was adorned from the spiritual heights with that power which the divine artisan Vishva Karman—who appeared to him—sent down to earth. The Bodhisattva was adorned with the power of Vishva Karman himself, who was later called the Christ. Thus, Christ was still something external to him; he was not yet united with him. At that time, the Bodhisattva had also approached his thirtieth year; yet at that time, he would not yet have been able to fully bring about the incarnation of Christ in a human body. For that, he first had to be ripe. It was precisely through his existence as a Buddha that he first brought himself to maturity. And when he appeared in the Nirmanakaya, his task was to prepare the body of the Nathanic Jesus—which he did not assume himself—for the reception of Vishva Karman, the Christ.

[ 18 ] Thus had the forces of Earth’s evolution worked together to bring about this great event. Now the question must naturally arise: How does this Christ, this Vishva Karman, relate to such beings as the Bodhisattvas—of whom, for example, that Bodhisattva was one who later became the Buddha?

[ 19 ] This question brings us right to the edge of one of the greatest mysteries of our Earth’s evolution. It is generally difficult for people today, given their current feelings and sensibilities, to even begin to grasp the immense significance of what lies behind this mystery. There are twelve such beings—like the Bodhisattva who became the Buddha and whose mission was to incorporate the great teaching of compassion and love into humanity—in connection with our cosmos, of which the Earth is a part. That Bodhisattva, who became the Buddha five to six centuries before our era, is one of these twelve. All Bodhisattvas have a specific mission. Just as this one had the mission to bring the teaching of compassion and love to Earth, so too do the others have their missions, which must be fulfilled during the various epochs of Earth’s history. The Buddha is therefore particularly closely connected to the Earth’s mission, because the development of moral character is precisely the task of our age—from the time the Bodhisattva appeared five to six centuries before our era until this Bodhisattva is succeeded by his Bodhisattva successor, who will later live on Earth as the Maitreya Buddha. This is how Earth’s evolution proceeds in general: the Bodhisattvas descend and, from time to time, incorporate into Earth’s evolution that which is the object of their mission. If we were to survey the entire course of Earth’s development, we would find exactly twelve such Bodhisattvas. They belong to that mighty community of spirits which, from time to time, sends one of the Bodhisattvas to Earth as a special emissary—as one of the great teachers. We must recognize, as it were, a great lodge of twelve Bodhisattvas as the governing body of our entire earthly evolution. These twelve Bodhisattvas essentially correspond to the concept we know on lower levels of existence as that of the teacher. They are teachers, great inspirers for this or that aspect of what human beings must acquire.

[ 20 ] Where do the Bodhisattvas receive what they are to proclaim from epoch to epoch? If you could look into the great spiritual lodge of the Bodhisattvas, into the circle of the twelve Bodhisattvas, you would find that seated in the midst of the twelve Bodhisattvas in our worldly existence is a thirteenth being, whom we cannot call a teacher in the same sense as the twelve Bodhisattvas, but whom we must call the being from whom wisdom itself substantially radiates. Therefore, it is quite correct to say, when describing the situation: The twelve Bodhisattvas sit in the great spiritual lodge around their center; they are absorbed in contemplating the great Being from whom flows everything they must then carry into the development of the Earth as their mission. Thus, from this Thirteenth flows forth that which the others are to teach. They are the teachers, the inspirers; the Thirteenth, as an entity in himself, is that which the others teach. Through him they proclaim this from epoch to epoch. This Thirteenth is the one whom the ancient Rishis called Vishva Karman, whom Zarathustra called Ahura Mazdao; this is the one we call the Christ. And thus he stands among all the Bodhisattvas; thus he is the leader and guide of the great Lodge of the Bodhisattvas. And so the content of the proclamation throughout the entire choir of Bodhisattvas is the teaching of the Christ, of the Vishva Karman. — The one who, five to six centuries before our era, became a Buddha from a Bodhisattva, was adorned with the powers of the Vishva Karman. He who, as the Nathanite Jesus, had received the Christ within himself—he was not merely “adorned,” but “anointed,” that is, permeated and saturated by Vishva Karman, by the Christ.

[ 21 ] Wherever people had a inkling—or, through initiation, a deeper understanding—of this reality, of these great mysteries of human evolution, this mystery was reflected as if in a symbol, as if in an image. We see, for example, in those little-known, mysterious rites of northern Europe—the Drotten Mysteries—that before the advent of Christianity, an earthly symbol was created to represent the spiritual reality of the Lodge of the Twelve Bodhisattvas. In the Drotten Mysteries, in the ancient times of Europe, a community of twelve always belonged to those who served as teachers within the spiritual development. They were the ones who had to proclaim the truth. And they had a thirteenth member who did not teach, but who, by his mere presence, radiated the wisdom that the others received. That was the earthly image of a heavenly, spiritual reality. - — And on the other hand, in the poem “The Mysteries,” where Goethe alludes to his Rosicrucian inspiration, we are reminded of how twelve sit around a thirteenth, and how this thirteenth need not be a great teacher; for Brother Mark is to be addressed by the twelve—after the thirteenth has departed from among them—in his simplicity as this thirteenth. He is to be not the bearer of a doctrine, but the spiritual substance itself. And wherever there was a sense or an insight into this lofty reality, it was so.

[ 22 ] Thus, with John’s baptism in the Jordan, the moment had arrived in human evolution when this heavenly Thirteenth appeared on Earth as the spiritual substance itself, from which all others—Bodhisattvas and Buddhas—were to draw their teachings; and those immense preparations were necessary so that this being could descend into a human body. That is the mystery of the baptism in the Jordan. And that is the being described to us in the Gospels: Vishva Karman, Ahura Mazdao, or the Christ, as he was later called, in the body of the Nathanite Jesus. As such, this being was to walk the earth for three years in human form, a human among humans, in that tested earthly being who, by the age of thirty, had experienced everything we have heard about in the course of these lectures. This Nathanic Jesus was permeated and filled by the being that had previously hidden itself in the luminous and warming rays of the sun shining down from the cosmos—that is, the being that had departed with the sun when it separated from the Earth.

[ 23 ] Now, however, we can ask ourselves yet another question: Why did this being unite with human evolution on Earth so late? Why did it not descend to Earth earlier? Why did it not enter a human etheric body earlier, as it did at the baptism of John in the Jordan? We can understand this if we examine more closely the event described in the Old Testament as the Fall. This event consists of certain beings—who had remained at the stage of the ancient lunar evolution—making their entry into the human astral body during the ancient Lemurian era. At that time, the human astral body was permeated by the Luciferic beings. This is symbolically depicted in the Fall from Paradise. Because these forces penetrated the human astral body, human beings became more deeply entangled in earthly affairs than would otherwise have been the case. Had they not been subjected to this Luciferic influence, they would have completed their course of development on Earth, as it were, in higher spheres, less entangled in earthly matter. As a result, human beings descended to Earth earlier than they actually should have. If nothing else had occurred—if only what has just been outlined had taken place—then the full effect of the Luciferic forces, which were anchored in the human astral body, would also have made itself felt in the human etheric body. But the world powers had to prevent this. Therefore, something quite special had to occur. — What is meant by this will become clear from another perspective in my forthcoming book, The Secret Science. — Humanity could not remain as it was after having absorbed the Luciferic forces into its astral body. It had to be protected from the effect of the Luciferic forces on its etheric body. This was achieved by rendering human beings incapable at that time of using their full etheric body. A part of the etheric body was withdrawn from human volition. Had this benevolent act of the gods not occurred—had human beings retained control over their full etheric body—they would never have been able to find their way through Earth’s evolution in the appropriate manner. Certain parts of the human etheric body had to be withdrawn at that time in order to be preserved for later ages. Let us now try to visualize in our mind’s eye which parts these were.

[ 24 ] Human beings consist, first and foremost, of the parts that we also see out in the world: the earthy or solid, the watery or liquid, and the airy or gaseous. These are the elements that make up the physical human body, just as they make up all physical things. The ethereal begins with the first state of ether, which we call the state of fire ether or simply fire. Fire or heat—which modern physics regards not as a substantial entity but merely as a form of motion—is, however, the first state of ether. The second state of the ether is the light ether, or simply light, and the third state is that which, at first, does not appear to human beings at all in its original form; human beings can perceive only a reflection, as it were, a shadow of this ether in the physical world as tone, as sound. But underlying what is outwardly sound lies something finer, something ethereal, something spiritual, so that we must describe the physical “sound” merely as a shadow image of the spiritual sound, the sound ether, or the number ether. The fourth realm of the ether is the life ether, that which underlies all true life.

[ 25 ] Just as the physical human being is today, so everything that belongs to his soul is imprinted in his physical body and in his etheric body. But everything soul-related is, so to speak, assigned to certain substances of the etheric. What we call the will expresses itself etherically in what we call fire. Anyone who is even slightly receptive to certain perceptual connections will sense that there is a certain justification for speaking of the will in such a way—that this will, which expresses itself physically in the blood, lives within the fire element of the etheric; physically, it expresses itself in the blood, or rather in the movement of the blood. What we call feeling is expressed in the part of the etheric body that corresponds to the light ether. Because this is so, the clairvoyant also sees a person’s impulses of will as flames of fire that flash through their etheric body and radiate into the astral body, and they see feelings as forms of light. But what a person experiences as thinking within their soul—and what we express in words—are also merely shadow images of thought, as you can easily imagine, since physical sound, too, is merely a shadow image of something higher. Words have their organ in the tone ether. Our words are based on thoughts; words are forms of expression for thoughts. These forms of expression fill the etheric space by sending their vibrations through the tone ether. What is sound is merely the shadow of the actual thought vibrations. But what is the inner essence of all our thoughts—what gives our thoughts meaning—belongs, in terms of its etheric state, to the actual life ether.

[ 26 ] Of these four forms of ether, during the Lemurian epoch—following the Luciferic influence—only the two lower ones were left at humanity’s free and arbitrary disposal: fire ether and light ether; by contrast, the two higher forms of ether were withdrawn from humanity. This is the inner meaning of the statement: After human beings had attained the distinction between good and evil through the Luciferic influence—symbolically expressed by partaking of the “Tree of Knowledge”—they were deprived of the fruit of the “Tree of Life.” That is to say, they were deprived of that which would have freely and arbitrarily permeated the thought-ether and the sensory-ether. As a result, human beings now had to develop in the following way: What corresponds to each person’s will was placed within their free will. A person can assert their will as their own, and likewise their feelings. Feelings and will are freely available to the individual for personal expression; hence the individuality of the world of feelings and the world of will. But this individuality ceases immediately when we ascend from feeling to thinking—indeed, even to the expression of thoughts, to words on the physical plane. While every human being holds fast to his or her feelings and will on a personal level, we immediately enter into something universal when we ascend into the world of words and the world of thought. Not everyone can form their own thoughts. If thoughts were as individual as feelings, we would never understand one another. Thus, thought and meaning were removed from human arbitrariness and temporarily preserved in the divine sphere, to be given to humankind only later. That is why, throughout the earthly realm, we can find individual human beings with individual feelings and individual impulses of will, yet we find the same patterns of thought and the same language among all peoples. Where there is a common language, there reigns a common national deity. This sphere is removed from human arbitrariness; for the time being, the gods exert their influence there.

[ 27 ] When Zarathustra pointed upward with his disciples toward the realm of the spiritual, he could say: From heaven streams down warmth, fire; from heaven streams down light. These are the garments of Ahura Mazdao. But hidden behind these garments is that which has not yet descended, that which has remained in the spiritual heights above, that which has cast only a shadow down into the physical thoughts and physical words of human beings. — Hidden behind the sun’s warmth, behind the sun’s light, is that which lives in sound and in meaning, that which revealed itself only to those who could see beyond the light, that which relates to the earthly word as the heavenly word relates to those parts of life that are for the time being kept hidden from humanity. Therefore, Zarathustra said: “Look up to Ahura Mazdao!” You see how he reveals himself in the physical garment of light and warmth. Behind that, however, lies the divine word of creation; it draws near to the earth.

[ 28 ] What is Vishva Karman? What is Ahura Mazdao? What is Christ in his true form? The divine word of creation! Thus, in the teachings of Zarathustra, we encounter the remarkable statement that Zarathustra was initiated to perceive his Ahura Mazdao in the light, but also the divine Word of Creation, Honover, which was to descend to Earth and which first descended at the baptism of John into a single human etheric body. What had been preserved since the Lemurian era—the Word, the spiritual Word—penetrated from the etheric heights into the etheric body of the Nathanic Jesus at the baptism of John. And when the baptism was complete, what had happened? The Word had become flesh.

[ 29 ] What have Zarathustra and those who knew his secrets always proclaimed? As seers, they proclaimed the “Word” hidden behind the warmth and the light. They were “servants of the Word.” And the writer of the Gospel of Luke recorded what the “self-seers” proclaimed, thereby becoming “servants of the Word.”

[ 30 ] So we see once again from this example how the Gospels are to be taken literally. What, because of the Luciferic principle, had to be withheld from humanity for so long—that which had first become incarnate in a single personality, had descended to Earth, and lived on Earth. Therefore, this being is the greatest model for those who will gradually come to understand his nature. Therefore, our wisdom on Earth must take the Bodhisattvas as an example. They always have the task of proclaiming what the Thirteenth among them is. We, however, must bring our spiritual science together; we must use our wisdom, our knowledge, and the results of spiritual research to penetrate the essence and nature of Vishva Karman, of Ahura Mazda—of Christ.