The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] As we noted in one of our recent reflections, each of the Gospels presents the great mystery of Golgotha from a particular perspective. We pointed out that the Gospel of Mark presents the mystery of Golgotha—the mystery of Christ Jesus—within the context of the great cosmological interrelationships, whereas the Gospel of Matthew depicts the unfolding of this mystery within a folk tradition, namely, the ancient Hebrew folk tradition. We have seen how, little by little, this ancient Hebrew folk culture had to develop from generation to generation since the time of Abraham, in order to then bring forth, as its flowering, the human being who could embody within himself the individuality of Zarathustra or Zoroaster. We have seen how all the characteristics of the ancient Hebrew people—which had to take shape more and more intensely as they increased from generation to generation—were based on the principle of physical heredity. In this way, we have been able to characterize the distinction between the mission of the ancient Hebrew people and the missions of other peoples. The mission of the ancient Hebrew people lay in the fact that they had to pass on certain qualities, which could only be transmitted—and did so in an ever-increasing manner—through the process of physical heredity from the earliest generations of the Abrahamic era down to the time of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew, however, still holds many mysteries, as do the other Gospels. And even if, in the course of this winter, we open up individual insights and perspectives into the Gospels, our understanding can at most be stimulated initially. For a complete understanding of the Gospels requires a spiritual effort that is virtually never-ending. Today, we shall first shed light on the Gospel of Matthew from a very specific angle, followed by a discussion of the practical application of such teachings—as they may follow from these insights—for souls who are part of the anthroposophical spiritual movement today.

[ 2 ] If we take a look back today at some of what we have learned over the years, we will be able to say that this development of humanity, as we have described it from the perspective of spiritual science, goes through various crises, reaches important turning points, then proceeds for a while in a more steady manner, then reaches another important turning point, and so on. We have often emphasized that one of the most important turning points in humanity’s earthly evolution is the time when the Christ impulse was given at the beginning of our modern era. If we go further back from there, skipping over various stages, we find an important point to which we have repeatedly alluded. If we pass through the Atlantean era and go back to the Lemurian era, we find there the point in time when the first seed of the human “I” was implanted into the human being.

[ 3 ] If something like this is to be understood, the words must be taken very precisely. For example, one must make a precise distinction between what happened in the ancient Lemurian era—when it is said that the first seed of the “I” was implanted in the human being—and when it is said that the period, the age, in which humanity became fully conscious of this “I” began at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. — This is a significant difference: to have the “I” only as a potential, as something at work within the human being, or to be consciously directed—through one’s knowledge—toward the fact that one possesses this “I.” These things must be strictly distinguished from one another; otherwise, one cannot come to terms with the true laws of evolution.

[ 4 ] We know that the implantation of the “I” within human beings is rooted in the overall development of the Earth. The Earth passed through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods and only then became the entity it is today. On Saturn, the foundation for the physical body was laid; on the Sun, for the etheric body; on the Moon, for the astral body; and on Earth, the foundation for the “I” was added. This foundation for the “I” was thus laid during Earth’s evolution in the Lemurian epoch. But something else was also taking place during this Lemurian epoch, namely what we have always called the Luciferic influence. Thus, during that period, the human being was, on the one hand, endowed with the seed of the “I,” which was destined to be developed further and further over the course of the subsequent Earth periods, and at the same time, the Luciferic influence was instilled into the astral body. Through this Luciferic influence, the entire human being was transformed—including all the forces and elements within the etheric and physical bodies. As a result, during the Lemurian epoch, the whole human being became different from what he would have become had there been no Luciferic influence. Thus, during the Lemurian epoch, we see humanity developing in two distinct ways: it was developing into an “I”-being and, at the same time, into a being that harbors the Luciferic principle within itself. Even if the Luciferic principle had not come, the influence of the “I” would still have taken effect.

[ 5 ] What, then, happened to human beings as a result of the Luciferic influence asserting itself during the Lemurian epoch?

[ 6 ] When such a matter is described from one perspective or another, I urge you not to take such a description as if it were the whole story; rather, it can only ever highlight a single point of view. Much has already been said over the years about everything that has happened as a result of the Luciferic influence in the course of evolution. All of that is part of it, but we cannot repeat it now. Today we will focus on just one aspect that characterizes a particular aspect of this process. This aspect consists in the fact that, through this Luciferic influence, human beings reached a stage of development earlier than was actually predestined for them—earlier, so to speak, than was intended for them in the wise guidance of the world. Through the Luciferic influence, human beings have delved more deeply into their three constitutional elements—the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body—which have carried over from the Earth’s earlier incarnations, and have become more entangled with them than they would have been had there been no Luciferic influence. Humanity would have remained, so to speak, closer to the spiritual worlds with its “I,” would have felt itself to be a member of the spiritual world with its “I” for longer, had the Luciferic influence not caused this “I” to descend more deeply into the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. Through the Luciferic influence, humanity descended, so to speak, deeper onto the Earth during the Lemurian epoch.

[ 7 ] We can specify the point in time when humankind—had there been no Luciferic influence—would have descended as far onto Earth or into physical matter as it actually did during the Lemurian period due to the Luciferic influence: that would have been in the middle of the Atlantean period. In other words: If there had been no Luciferic influence, humanity would have had to wait until the middle of the Atlantean epoch to descend to Earth. Because of the Luciferic influence, humanity descended earlier. As a result, humanity came to become a free being, acting out of its own impulses; for otherwise he would have remained in complete dependence on the spiritual world until the middle of the Atlantean epoch; he would never have been able to decide for himself between good and evil in any way until then, nor would he ever have been able to develop any free impulse, but would have acted out of soul instincts—that is, out of forces that the divine-spiritual beings would have implanted in his soul. But the Luciferic beings have given him the opportunity to decide between good and evil earlier than usual, not merely to be instinctively guided by the laws of the divine-spiritual world order, but to decide for himself and to establish a kind of law for himself.

[ 8 ] This fact is, in fact, expressed to us in a profound way in the account of the Fall, which, in a marvelous image, represents nothing other than what I have just described. This is depicted in the Old Testament, where it is said: The living soul was implanted in man by the divine-spiritual beings. — If this living soul had simply remained as it was, man would now have had to wait until, at a later time, through the divine-spiritual beings, this living soul—that is, the still undeveloped “I”—had matured enough to make decisions. Now come the Luciferic influences, depicted in the Bible by the serpent. Through this, human beings come to not merely follow the impulses of Yahweh or the Elohim instinctively, but to decide for themselves between good and evil. From a being that had until then been guided and directed by the divine-spiritual beings, human beings thereby became beings capable of deciding for themselves. This is also very clearly depicted in the Bible: that through the serpent—that is, through the Luciferic beings—humanity’s ability to decide for itself was brought about. And then, spoken from the perspective of the gods, the words resound from the Bible: “Man has become like one of us!”—that is, like the gods. Or, to put it more radically: Through the Luciferic influence, humanity has appropriated something that until then had been the exclusive preserve of the gods. It was the gods who made the decisions regarding good and evil, not those beings who were dependent on the gods.

[ 9 ] Now, through the Luciferic influence, human beings have become self-determining—that is, beings who developed divine qualities within themselves too early. In this way, through the Luciferic influence, something has entered human nature that would otherwise have been reserved for human development until the middle of the Atlantean epoch. Now you can imagine that human beings would have been quite different if this descent into the material world had not been granted to them until the middle of the Atlantean epoch, for then their souls would have been more mature when this descent occurred. They would have entered the material world as better, more mature human beings. He would thus have brought different qualities into all that is physical, etheric, and astral, and would have become capable of distinguishing between good and evil in a completely different way. By making himself a judge between good and evil from the Lemurian period through the middle of the Atlantean period, he made himself worse than he would otherwise have become, and thus arrived in a less perfect state. Otherwise, he would have lived through the entire period up to the middle of the Atlantean epoch in a much more spiritual manner; as it was, however, he lived through it in a more material way. This, however, meant that if humanity had not been given what the gods had intended for them in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, they would have fallen completely.

[ 10 ] What would have been given to humankind in the middle of the Atlantean epoch if, up to that point, it had been instinctively guided and led by spiritual-divine beings?

[ 11 ] He would have been given what, once the Luciferic influence was present, was given to him through the Mystery of Golgotha! The Christ impulse would have been given to him in the middle of the Atlantean epoch. But now, because the Luciferic influence was present, he had to wait for this Christ impulse for as long as the period from the onset of the Luciferic influence to the middle of the Atlantean epoch. The earlier Lucifer approached humanity—before the middle of the Atlantean epoch—the later the Christ impulse arrived. Thus, because humanity acquired its likeness to God earlier than it should have, we see a delay in the Christ impulse. For humanity first had to go through everything that was destined to be part of its earthly karma as a consequence of the evil that had entered it through the Luciferic influence. This had to be, so to speak, worked through by humanity. Humanity had to wait not only until the Luciferic influence had made them capable of choosing between good and evil, but also until, in the course of Earth’s evolution, everything that was bound to result from this Luciferic influence had come to pass. This had to be waited out. Only then could the Christ Impulse descend upon the Earth. Humanity was not, according to the wise guidance of the world, meant to be eternally deprived of what had come to it through the Luciferic influence; rather, it should have received it in the middle of the Atlantean epoch. It was therefore destined to be given to humanity under all circumstances. However, in the form in which it came to humanity through the Luciferic influence, it would not have come to it otherwise. Through Lucifer, humanity has gained not only the freedom to decide for itself regarding all matters connected with spiritual things, but also the ability to become enthusiastic for what is good and noble, wise and great. As human beings today, we are not merely able to make cold, sober, and dry distinctions between good and evil; we can also be inspired by beauty, nobility, goodness, and wisdom. This stems from the fact that something was introduced into our astral body that, had it come to humankind only in the middle of the Atlantean era, would have been introduced solely into the “I”—the judging “I.” So everything we possess in terms of feelings, idealism, and passion for the good and for lofty ideals, we owe to the fact that something entered our astral body before we were granted the likeness to God in our “I,” the reception of Christ into our “I.” This is the essential point: that this likeness to God, this equality with God, this ability to find the good within oneself, was to come upon humanity. Had the Luciferic influence not come, this impulse would have come in the middle of the Atlantean era; but as it is, it came at the very time when Christ Jesus was active.

[ 12 ] Thus, through the Christ impulse, the awareness has taken root in human beings that they possess, within their “I,” something of divine substance and essence. This, after all, underlies all the deeper teachings of the New Testament as well—that human beings can receive the divine into their “I”-being, and that this divine can act within it and make decisions between good and evil. We can therefore say that with the reception of the Christ impulse into the human inner being, the possibility arose for human beings to say to themselves: “I am my own guide for the insights into my existence and for decisions regarding good and evil.”

[ 13 ] When we look back at pre-Christian times, we must say: Since that impulse—which makes human beings the true arbiters between good and evil—did not yet exist at that time, the decision between good and evil, the judgment, and the recognition of the good, the beautiful, and the true in pre-Christian times was necessarily deficient and could not truly arise from the innermost being of the human being. Nor did human beings have the ability, before the Christ impulse had come, to decide on good and evil from within their innermost being. In pre-Christian times, the decision regarding true good, true truth, and true beauty could only be made because individual beings, such as the Bodhisattvas, extended a part of their being into the divine-spiritual worlds over the course of time; thus, the decision regarding good and evil did not actually arise from the innermost core of human nature, but from the divine worlds. Through their communion with divine-spiritual beings, they acquired this knowledge and then instilled it suggestively into the human soul. Without such guides, people in pre-Christian times would have been able to make only flawed decisions regarding good and evil. If these guides had relied on their own hearts, they would not have been able to do so either; only by descending into the depths of the soul—which had not yet been granted to human beings—and by stepping out of their own ego-being into the realms of the heavens did they receive the impulses that people needed to transplant the good onto Earth, even during a time of flawed judgment regarding good and evil, thereby preparing the way for it.

[ 14 ] Thus, in pre-Christian times, human beings were beings who had appropriated godlikeness for qualities that had not yet matured sufficiently—for something that was not yet at all suited to possessing godlikeness. As a result, ever since the Lemurian era, human beings have done everything they have done in a worse and more deficient way than they otherwise would have. Above all, due to the Luciferic influence in pre-Christian times, they have performed those actions that pertain to themselves in a worse and more deficient manner. His astral body, etheric body, and physical body—which would otherwise have remained more spiritual had the Luciferic influence not been at work—have, as a result of all this, been shaped in a poorer, more material way. Consequently, all the evils that have developed over time have also entered human life. They have developed over the course of a long period of time.

[ 15 ] From the Lemurian era to the Mystery of Golgotha, evils have developed in the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. In the astral body, a high degree of selfishness has developed; in the etheric body, the potential for error when we seek to judge anything, and the potential for lying, have developed. If human beings had remained under the influence of divine-spiritual beings and acted instinctively according to their impulses, then, if they were to seek knowledge about their surroundings today, they would neither fall into error nor be led into falsehood; but as it is, the tendency toward falsehood and the danger of error have crept into human evolution. And because the spiritual is always the cause of the physical, and because the Luciferic influence and its consequences have increasingly eaten their way into the etheric body from incarnation to incarnation, the possibility of illness has thereby entered the physical body. Illness is the evil in the physical body that has come about through this development.

[ 16 ] But something even more significant has come to pass. If human beings had not succumbed to these influences, if they had not allowed them to take effect upon themselves, then the awareness would not have arisen that, at the moment when the physical body is shed, something other than a transformation in life takes place: The awareness of death would not have arisen. For if human beings had descended less deeply into matter and had retained the threads that connect them to the divine-spiritual, they would have known that, with the shedding of the physical shell, merely another form of existence begins. They would not have regarded it as a loss, as the end of an existence they had come to cherish. Thus, all aspects of evolution would have taken on a different character.

[ 17 ] Because human beings have now descended deeper into the material world, they have thereby made themselves freer and more independent, but they have also made their development more imperfect than it would otherwise have been.

[ 18 ] Everything that has become deficient in human beings is healed once again through the Christ impulse. But do not expect it to be healed in a significantly shorter time than it took to come about, or even in a very short time. The period from the Lemurian epoch to the Mystery of Golgotha is a very long one. And slowly and gradually, working from incarnation to incarnation, selfishness, error, and falsehood, illness, and the sense of death have arisen. Through the Christ impulse working within humanity, all these qualities are in turn transformed back in the course of humanity’s ascending evolution. Humanity is, so to speak, led back into the spiritual world with the abilities it has acquired down here. This will even happen more quickly than the descent itself took place. But one should not expect that, in one or two incarnations, through what he can absorb via the Christ impulse, man will be able to overcome selfishness, to heal himself in his etheric body to the point where there would no longer be any danger of falsehood and error, nor that he could even exert a healing influence extending into his physical body. This must happen slowly and gradually. But it does happen. Just as human beings were led down into all the characteristics described through the Luciferic influence, so too will they be led back up again through the Christ impulse: Selfishness will be transformed into selflessness, deceitfulness into truthfulness, and the danger of error into accuracy and the truth of judgment. Illness will become the foundation for an even greater state of health. Those illnesses we have overcome will be the seeds of a higher state of health. And when death is gradually understood in such a way that the death on Golgotha acts within our own soul as the model of death, then death will have lost its sting. Human beings will know why they must shed their physical shell from time to time in order to advance ever higher in the course of their incarnations. But what has come about in particular through the Christ impulse is that the impetus has been given to make amends for something that particularly concerns human cognition and human observation—human knowledge of the world.

[ 19 ] We have said that human beings have become more entangled in matter and have made themselves more imperfect in their three bodies than they would have been had there been no Luciferic influence. As a result, human beings have been seized by an impulse to descend ever deeper into material existence, to plunge ever more thoroughly into the purely material. This has happened to them particularly with regard to their knowledge. But this, too, has come about slowly and gradually. It was not immediately upon the onset of the Luciferic influence that human beings, so to speak, sank so deeply that they would have closed all the gates to the spiritual world behind them. Human beings remained connected for a long time to the spiritual world from which they had grown out, and in which they would have remained with their entire being had the Luciferic influence not come. For a long time, human beings remained part of this spiritual world; for a long time, they still felt how the threads of the divine-spiritual world led into their finer spiritual instincts. For a long time, they acted in such a way that the impulse was not merely human, but rather as if the gods were working behind them. This was especially true in the most ancient times. Only gradually was humanity thrust into the material world, and with that, humanity also lost its awareness of the divine.

[ 20 ] Those spiritual currents and worldviews among humankind that have possessed knowledge of these things have therefore always pointed to the following: There was an ancient age when human beings, though already somewhat cast down into material existence by the Luciferic influence, had not yet reached the point where this divine influence was no longer strongly at work within them. In the early days of human development, this age was called the Golden Age. This is not merely a figment of the imagination; rather, the term “Golden Age” is simply an expression used by those who, in earlier times, still had a sense that something like a primal age of humanity—as just described—once existed. This Golden Age, referred to in Eastern philosophy as “Krita Yuga,” lasted relatively the longest of all the ages we will yet characterize.

[ 21 ] Following this Golden Age came what is known as the Silver Age. By then, humankind had already been pushed further down into the physical world. But everything happened slowly and gradually. Even then, the gates to the spiritual world were not yet completely closed. Humanity still experienced powerful moments in which, as if in a dreamlike state of clairvoyance, they sensed the gods guiding them from behind their instincts. In this Silver Age, although one could no longer call humanity a companion of the gods, they still sensed that the gods stood behind them. This age is also called “Treta Yuga,” a term from Eastern philosophy.

[ 22 ] Then comes an age that extends into our post-Atlantean era; its final vestiges reach into historical times, when there were still people endowed with an ancient, dreamlike, twilight-like clairvoyance. But awareness of the spiritual world from which humankind had emerged was, in this age, present only as a kind of memory that had remained from earlier incarnations. It was as if you were to think today of your youth, your childhood, and your present age. In our childhood, we experienced childhood events directly; in the same way, people in the Treta Yuga still experienced the impulses of the divine-spiritual world directly. In the age that followed—also known as the Iron Age—only a faint memory of this remained. One could compare it to the way an adult looks back on their childhood. For you will say: I lived through my childhood—it is no dream! So it was in the third age; people knew: We experienced a connection with the Divine in earlier times, but now it remains only as a memory. — I have shown in detail how the memory of the Atlantean era continued to exert an influence in ancient Indian culture; therefore, precisely because this memory was still active, the holy Rishis were able to proclaim their great divine teachings at that very time. This Age of Bronze is referred to in Eastern philosophy as the “Dvapara Yuga.”

[ 23 ] This is followed by an age in which the memory of the divine-spiritual world is lost, and in which human beings, with their cognition and perception, are entirely confined to the physical world. This age begins around the year 3101 B.C., before the birth of Jesus Christ, and is also called “Kali Yuga”—the dark age—in a term from Eastern philosophy, because in it human beings have lost all connection with the spiritual world and have become completely fused with the physical world.

[ 24 ] I expressly note that I am now using these terms to refer to shorter periods of time; however, they can also be extended to cover longer periods. We are thus speaking of that conception of the ages as it initially corresponds to the shorter ages, and we let the Kali Yuga begin, as Indian philosophy teaches, in the year 3101 B.C. This marks the beginning of that period in which human beings are led to see only that which, like a veil or a covering, conceals the divine-spiritual world—a time when they perceive only the outer physical and sensory realm. Although at the beginning of the Kali Yuga there are still many people who can look into or remember the divine-spiritual world, for ordinary humanity the time is now beginning when they perceive only the physical and sensory realm.

[ 25 ] That was humanity’s descent into the Kali Yuga. That was the time of the deepest descent. It was into that time that the impulse to ascend again had to fall. That is why the impulse to ascend again—the Christ impulse—arises in the Kali Yuga, in the dark age.

[ 26 ] This Christ impulse had been prepared by the Yahweh or Jehovah religion. For through the Yahweh religion, human beings had been made aware of the shortcomings of their earlier decisions. During the period from the ancient Lemurian era to the proclamation on Mount Sinai, we have that age in which human beings, while becoming self-determiners regarding good and evil, also fall into error regarding good and evil and increasingly bring onto Earth what the Bible calls sin. Thus, sin takes root in earthly life. Human beings have appropriated godlikeness, but they have applied it to qualities that were by no means ripe for godlikeness. What, then, had to happen?

[ 27 ] First, humanity had to be shown what the Deity required of it if it was to become a self-aware “I.” And this was shown to humanity through the proclamation on Mount Sinai, through the proclamation of the Ten Commandments. There, through Moses, people heard: “What you have developed so far regarding good and evil is deficient.” I will show you what the laws would be if you had not descended and claimed the right to decide between good and evil based on your deficient qualities! — Thus the Law of Sinai, the Decalogue, stands in relation to what humanity had become, so that it resounds down to them from the spiritual worlds, revealing what is right in contrast to what they have developed as deficient. The Ten Commandments stand as an ironclad law, like a torch that reveals to humankind everything it has failed to become. It must submit to this law with all that it has become. At first, humankind could not give itself these Ten Commandments because it had become flawed in its decision-making and in its own lawmaking. Therefore, the Ten Commandments had to be given to him through an inspired individual, through Moses—that is, through divine inspiration from above. But they were given in such a way that they were all directed toward the “I.” They told humanity how an “I” must behave if it is to attain the goal of humanity.

[ 28 ] This was explained in detail in the lecture on the Ten Commandments of Moses, delivered on November 16, 1908. It was shown there how the “I” should first conduct itself toward the spiritual worlds, in the first three commandments; how it should conduct itself toward fellow human beings with regard to its deeds and actions, in the next commandments; and how it should conduct itself with regard to its sensations and feelings, in the final commandments. The education and cultivation of the “I” are mandated in the Ten Commandments. This was the preparation for the ego to learn, in its innermost being, to give itself the impulse after it had descended into the Kali Yuga, all the way down into the dark age. A law from above was first to be presented to humanity. But what was to become the law of one’s own ego could only come to be if the ego took the great example of Golgotha into itself, if the ego said to itself: If I take into my soul the kind of thinking that the Being who sacrificed Himself on Golgotha had, if I take into myself the kind of feeling that the Being who sacrificed Himself on Golgotha had, if I take into myself the kind of will that the Being who sacrificed Himself on Golgotha had, then my being will find the decision within itself, will develop its likeness to God more and more, and will no longer have to follow merely an external law—the Ten Commandments—but rather an inner impulse, its own law!

[ 29 ] Thus, Moses first set forth the Law before humanity, but Christ provided the model and the power that the soul was to absorb in order to develop. Therefore, everything had to be deepened to the innermost level through Christ Jesus; all the spiritual impulses that existed had to be carried into the very depths of the soul, right into the “I” itself. This could only happen when the following was conceived, when Christ Jesus radiated the following as an impulse.

[ 30 ] Humanity has descended into the dark age, into the Kali Yuga. Before this dark age, people were able to glimpse the spiritual world through a dim, twilight-like clairvoyance. Not only were they able to make use of the instruments of the physical body, but as they observed the physical world through their eyes, ears, and so on, the spiritual appeared to them everywhere: in flowers, plants, stones, and so on. These people were rich in spiritual perception. The spirit was bestowed upon them in ancient times. Now, in this dark age, they have become beggars in terms of the spirit, for the spirit is no longer bestowed upon them. They have become poor in spirit. The Kali Yuga had drawn ever closer, until people had to say to themselves: “In ancient times it was different; back then the Spirit was still bestowed upon people; back then they could look up into a spiritual world; back then they were rich in Spirit; back then the realms of heaven were accessible to them. But now people have been forced down into the physical world. The gates to the spiritual world have closed to human senses, and the physical body offers no view into the realms of heaven.

[ 31 ] But the Christ could say: If you grasp the “I” where you are now called to grasp it, then the kingdoms of heaven have drawn near. They will dawn within your “I”! Even if your eyes shut you off from the spiritual light behind the outer, sensory light, even if your ears shut you off from the spiritual sound behind the physical sound, when you rise up to the Christ Himself, you will find within yourselves the kingdoms of heaven! — Wretched were those who, through the dark age, had become poor, had become beggars for the Spirit. They could now become blessed, now that the impulse had been given for Christ—the very Being who could bring them news of the spiritual, of the realms of heaven—to penetrate even into the human self. Thus, with regard to humanity’s spiritual impoverishment, the highest Christian proclamation is this: Blessed from now on may be those who are beggars for the Spirit, who no longer receive the Spirit as a gift through an old way of thinking; yet they may still become blessed from now on if they receive the Christ impulse; then, through the development of their “I,” the realms of heaven may become their own!

[ 32 ] Let us turn to the etheric body, which is the shaper of the physical body. What has entered into it? — Illness is merely expressed in the physical body. The suffering itself is first present in the etheric body, and the suffering in the etheric body is expressed as illness in the physical body in a later incarnation. But now, as Christ Jesus said, something has come into the world through which an impulse can arise within, gradually clearing away the suffering from the etheric body. Those who have anchored suffering in their etheric bodies can now find bliss if they take the Christ impulse into themselves; for there is something within them through which they find that which leads beyond suffering—the inner comfort, the inner Paraclete, the inner Comforter!

[ 33 ] And what had become of the astral body as a result of the Luciferic influence? It had become more deficient than it had been before. It has acquired the capacity—which we have described as a positive quality—to be inspired by what is good and great, to feel enthusiasm for the noble values of truth, beauty, and goodness. But in exchange, it has also had to accept the flip side: to be stirred to the greatest extent by sympathy or antipathy toward the goods of the earth. Whoever takes in the Christ impulse will learn to soothe the astral body—that which stirs his physical body into emotion in response to earthly goods—and to bring it under the control of the spiritual; and through this he will become happy or blessed. Blessed will be the one who makes his astral body equanimous toward earthly things; yet through this very equanimity, they will come to him. For when one is inflamed with emotion, sympathy, or antipathy toward earthly things, one forfeits precisely what they could offer. But when the astral body comes under the control of the spiritual, when one becomes equanimous toward earthly things, then the earthly realm is given to one as a gift!

[ 34 ] Let us ascend to that which acts within the astral body as the sensory soul. Within it we still find an “I” that reigns in a dull manner, one that has not yet truly emerged, and which therefore still manifests the worst kind of selfishness in its passions. As long as the “I” is still so deeply entrenched within the soul of sensation, it manifests the most selfish form of egoism. It is then devoid of the desire to grant others the same things that it itself receives. Egoism clouds the sense of justice, because the “I” wants everything for itself. But when the “I” now places itself in the footsteps of the Christ impulse, it becomes one that thirsts for justice among all beings around us. Blessed are those who thirst and hunger for a sense of justice in their emotional soul, for they will be satisfied. They will be able to bring about conditions on earth and throughout the world that, in the right new spirit arising from the depths of the soul, correspond to such states of justice!

[ 35 ] Let us continue our ascent to the rational or emotional soul. It is the element that brings about even greater mutual respect among human beings, and it does so not merely as a sense of justice, as the sensory soul does, but as compassion—a genuine sharing in the suffering and joy of others. The one who receives the Christ impulse develops a sense not only of what he himself feels, but also of what the other self feels; he immerses himself in the other self and is thereby filled with bliss in his intellectual or emotional soul. Blessed is the one who develops compassion, for only by empathizing with the other’s soul does he also inspire that other soul to empathize with him. He will receive compassion from the other soul when he, too, radiates compassion. Blessed are the compassionate, for they will be met with compassion!

[ 36 ] You can already see how, now that we have made some progress in our examination of these connections, we are able to understand the words of the Gospel of Matthew—which are usually summarized as the “Sermon on the Mount”—in an entirely different way, from the depths of human nature and being. Every sentence of the Sermon on the Mount relates to one of the nine aspects of the human being. This will be elaborated on further next time. The Sermon on the Mount should appear clearly before our inner eye as the very act of Christ Jesus through which He fully internalized what was contained in the old Law of Moses, transforming it entirely into an inner impulse, whereby the human “I” becomes active, just as it must become active for all nine members of the human being. For when the “I” takes in the Christ impulse, it acts upon all nine members of the human being. Thus we see how profoundly true is what has already been hinted at here: that in the Kali Yuga, Christ enabled the human “I” to find something in the physical world that leads the human being upward into the spiritual world, into the realms of the heavens. Christ has made the human “I” a participant in the spiritual world.

[ 37 ] On ancient Saturn, the physical body was drawn directly from the spiritual world. It was still entirely within the spiritual world, because at that time the physical body was still more spiritual and lacked the consciousness that would have allowed it to separate itself from the spiritual worlds. On the Sun, the etheric body had been added; on the Moon, the astral body; and it was only on Earth that the possibility arose, through the development of the “I,” to separate from the womb of the Divine-Spiritual in the world. And the consequence was that this “I” had to be led back; that God had to descend to the physical plane and, on the physical plane, had to show human beings how they could find their way back to the realms of heaven.

[ 38 ] What took place through the Christ Impulse was thus a most significant event. But ask yourself now: Did all the people living at the time when Christ Jesus was active on Earth know that such an important event was taking place? Consider that the great historian Tacitus speaks of the Christians as if they were an almost unknown sect! A hundred years later, he merely mentions the Christians, saying that a sect had arisen in a side street in Rome, led by a certain Jesus, and that they were carrying on their activities there. Even long after the Christ event, many people in Rome still believed that Jesus was their contemporary, as if he had just appeared. In short, significant events can occur in human development without contemporaries noticing them at all. The most important events might even pass them by if people were not inclined to seek an understanding of them! But then humanity would fail to experience these most important events; it would wither and become barren in relation to them. —“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”—this was the proclamation of John the Baptist and of Christ Jesus himself. With this, they pointed out to those who had ears to hear that something of the utmost importance was taking place. The fact that one knows nothing of something of the utmost importance in the world is no proof that it does not exist.

[ 39 ] Those who are called upon today to interpret the signs of the times, who know what is happening today, must point to an event—if not one of the utmost significance, then at least an important one. It is true that something of infinite significance is unfolding right now in our time! And just as John pointed to Christ back then, and just as Christ himself pointed to the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven—to the “I”—so today we must point to another important event.

[ 40 ] Christ descended to Earth in the flesh only once. In the flesh, he dwelt on Earth at the beginning of our calendar. In the flesh, humanity will not see the Christ again as a physically incarnated human being, in accordance with the wise guidance of our world’s development—nor will they need to see him again. For the Christ will not return in the flesh. Nevertheless, we must speak of a new relationship between humanity and the Christ. Why? Because the age we call the dark age—the Kali Yuga—came to an end precisely in our time with the close of the 19th century, and because with the beginning of the 20th century a new age dawns, in which new human abilities are emerging—those very abilities that were lost during the dark age. Slowly and gradually, new abilities are emerging. These abilities will develop to such an extent that there will be individuals who possess them as a natural predisposition. These abilities will manifest particularly in a number of people between the years 1930 and 1940, and through these new abilities, new relationships with Christ will emerge among a number of people.

[ 41 ] This points to one of the most important aspects of human development. And the purpose of spiritual science is to open people’s understanding to these new abilities that will manifest in the human world. Spiritual science exists in the world not because individual people feel inclined or sympathetic toward spreading the results of spiritual research, but because spiritual insight is necessary if people are to understand what is happening in the first half of our century. For it is only through what spiritual science can offer humanity that we will become capable of comprehending what will happen in the first half of our century. And when people become capable of recognizing in the spirit what will then take place, they will also be able to distinguish these events from their erroneous representations. For as materialism spreads ever more widely, it also infiltrates spiritual worldviews, where it has a particularly harmful effect. It could lead to people failing to truly grasp in the spirit what is meant to be grasped in the spirit, and instead seeking it in the material world. And because a new relationship with the Christ is to come about in the first half of our century, it will be emphasized again and again in the coming decades—until this event takes place—that false messiahs, false Christs, will appear who will appeal to those who, in the fields of spiritual science, can become nothing but materialists, and who can conceive of a new relationship with the Christ only in terms of having him physically present before them. A number of false messiahs will exploit this and say: “Christ has returned in the flesh!”

[ 42 ] But the relationships that can be attained purely through human faculties during the first half of our century—these are what anthroposophical wisdom must prepare for. Thus, the responsibility of the anthroposophical endeavor grows to immense proportions, as spiritual science prepares for an event that is to come, and which will either—if spiritual science takes root in human souls—be understood and then bear fruit for humanity’s further development, or will pass humanity by without being understood if people refuse to accept the instrument through which this event can be grasped: the instrument of spiritual science. But if people were to reject spiritual science to such an extent that nothing remained of it, then they would neither know that this event exists nor would they interpret it correctly. The fruit of these events would be lost to the future of humanity, and humanity would thereby be plunged into immense misery.

[ 43 ] This points to a new relationship between human beings and Christ—one that emerges within the human soul in a relatively short time.