The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. Christmas Spirit

[ 1 ] In the days leading up to Christmas, we tried to lift our spirits to that state of mind which, in the anthroposophical sense, can be called the true Christmas spirit. At that time, we tried to bring to mind the fact that there is an interpretation of the Christmas festival which, in a certain way, makes the Christmas spirit applicable to everything of significance that takes place in a person’s experience of the year. For the seeker of knowledge, especially in our present time, it must be among the most important states of mind to be able to celebrate Christmas, so to speak, in relation to spiritual knowledge itself. And to celebrate Christmas in the face of spiritual knowledge—what else could this mean but to call upon our souls once and for all, so deeply and fervently, to reflect on how we strive throughout the year to fulfill our spiritual duty toward the current development of humanity by understanding humanity’s task in our time, by enriching our souls ever more deeply with content drawn from the experience of the spiritual world, so that we may belong—and be permitted to belong—to those who will have to perform the necessary spiritual work in the next epoch of human history.

[ 2 ] Thus, throughout the entire year, we seek to imbue our souls with the content of spiritual science and strive to penetrate anthroposophical wisdom. And when the year draws to that end—which is already symbolized outwardly as significant by the fact that, all around us, a surplus of darkness reigns due to the waning strength of the sun’s rays—we strive during this festive season to understand how we can celebrate Christmas in relation to this anthroposophical year. Let us indeed strive anew to realize that the entire anthroposophical truth must be permeated and illuminated by that powerful impulse we call the Christ impulse!

[ 3 ] If we try in this way to inscribe the anthroposophical truths into our hearts, into our souls, just as the message of Christ himself, then we may well say that during the Christmas season, we anthroposophists should cultivate a Christmas spirit by allowing what we have taken in throughout the year to be illuminated within our own souls by deeper feelings, so that it becomes pure power, and so that we can feel: we do not merely know something of anthroposophical wisdom, but it penetrates our soul, our heart, so that it becomes a light-filled, warming force that enables us, in all areas of life, wherever we may be, to fulfill our duty and carry out our work in the coming year. So when we strive to transform the sacred truths of the Spirit into sacred feelings, into sacred power within our souls, then what we initially take in through the forces of this earthly world is reborn within us on a higher plane. That is why, especially during the Christmas season, we may well commemorate more and more those occasions through which this or that member of our entire humanity sought to rise up into those realms of spirituality where Christ himself is to be found. Our authentic German-Christian poet Novalis had already led us into the realm of these feelings at Christmas. And even today, a little of that Christmas spirit—as it has just been described: warming oneself in those rays of warmth—may well emanate from a truly theosophical poet such as Novalis was. Let us turn to Novalis; there, where he presents his most beautiful insights to us in a wonderfully poetic way, we may perhaps feel most deeply how we are to gain, through spiritual knowledge, the ability to fill life with a new radiance.

[ 4 ] Outside, life rushes past us, and our own work becomes intertwined with the hustle and bustle of life today. If, within anthroposophy, we gain the ability to draw wisdom down from the spiritual world, then everywhere—no matter how mundane the circumstances may seem—we will gild life with the gold of anthroposophical wisdom. That is what we must learn. Then we will see how we can fill life with a new radiance when, once a year, we allow the anthroposophical Christmas spirit to enter our souls—when we allow anthroposophy, so to speak, to be reborn within us as a feeling and a sensation during the Christmas season. We will then feel how impossible it is—if we wish to remain within the ordinary world—to rise even to the slightest degree toward spirituality. Oh, there are many obstacles that prevent people today from spreading their wings to ascend into the spiritual world! What I am about to briefly recount to you may serve as a symbol, so to speak.

[ 5 ] Many of us may approach spiritual science and say: Oh, everything that spiritual science offers me would be beautiful, would be wonderful; it all warms my heart and fills my soul with love; but—I cannot believe it! Everything I have learned in the outer world, the prejudices I have internalized—these hold me fast, telling me: ‘This is, after all, just a fantasy; it is not built on a solid, secure foundation!’ Thus, many a person finds themselves in the grip of bitter doubt. If they could rise above the prejudices of the external world that is currently weighing heavily upon them, if they could feel freely in the pure ether of the spirit, they would see that they perceive the power of the spiritual, and they would also carry it down into the work of their hands in everyday life. A small event can serve as a symbol of this feeling—which so hinders the everyday person, who is rooted in the present, from perceiving freely and uninhibitedly what spiritual science can offer to the heart and soul.

[ 6 ] There was a man from the 18th and 19th centuries, the German nobleman Hardenberg. He had a son, about whom we were permitted to acknowledge within our close circle of colleagues that he had produced poetry and words of wisdom from a soul that was the reincarnation of significant, powerful personalities who had accomplished great things for the Earth. But given the influence of the external world on human beings, how could the father possibly recognize this soul in his son? How could he have sensed the spirit that was able to break free from his son’s soul? Just as he was unable to free himself from the prejudices of the material world and his coexistence with physical reality, so too are many people today unable to perceive, with true purity, the compelling power of the spiritual wisdom of anthroposophy, due to the prejudices of our world.

[ 7 ] Old Hardenberg had, so to speak, managed to shake off the harshest aspects of his lack of understanding toward his son. From a life of material abundance, he had elevated himself so that, within his Herrnhut congregation, he might nevertheless experience something of a deeply religious spirit—one might say, the recognition of the world spirit in the old way. Yet he had not managed to feel the power and force of the wisdom that sprang from his son’s soul. This required the authoritative sentiments established over long periods of time—which one can intuitively sense within such a congregation—so that he might be moved in the depths of his soul by that true Christian spirit, which can only be understood when it is permeated by the breath of spiritual insight.

[ 8 ] Old Hardenberg once felt, in a remarkable way, that breath of the Spirit—the Christian Spirit—when he was gathered with the other leaders in his Herrnhut congregation and they began to sing a hymn together. Through this song, whose origin he did not know, a breath of eternity swept over him, and he was deeply moved by that song, which began:

What would I have been without you?
What wouldn't I be without you?

[ 9 ] He felt something he had never been able to feel before. And the celebration came to an end. Old Hardenberg went outside and asked some of the attendees: “Who wrote this wonderful poem?” — “It’s by your son!” — Detached from all connection to the physical realm, unclouded by the prejudices of the physical plane, old Hardenberg had felt the compelling power of spiritual life. Yet his son had already been buried for several months! For old Hardenberg had this experience only a few months after Novalis’s death. When old Hardenberg was thus able, through the circumstances, to shed for a brief time all the prejudices that arise on the physical plane, he was carried up into the spiritual heights, where he felt their compelling force—the compelling power of the spiritual heights, which we are meant to feel, untroubled by all the prejudices of the material world. Let us leave behind the materialistic prejudices of the present! Let us feel the compelling force of spiritual life and allow its strength and warmth to flow into our hearts! If we do this at the right time, then we will fulfill our duties toward the humanity of the present.

[ 10 ] With this symbol, taken from a real experience of Novalis’s father, I wanted to lead you to the mood to which we now wish to rise through that compelling power inherent in Novalis’s songs.

[ 11 ] Here, Marie von Sivers (Marie Steiner) performed nine of Novalis’s “Spiritual Songs.”

[ 12 ] It is perhaps easiest, especially during this festive season, to truly feel and experience—not just to understand and know—what we have been contemplating over many an hour as we studied our Gospels. And a large part of the time we had available for such reflections over the past year was indeed devoted to the study of these Gospels. So let us, in this brief reflection today—which is to follow our Christmas celebration—also focus more on the important conclusions that arise from our reflection on the Gospels: the connections to that event which should be so vividly before our eyes, especially during the Christmas season—the connections to the Christ event.

[ 13 ] Through the Christ Event, we can gauge in many ways the significance and power of the anthroposophical worldview for the present and for the future of humanity. When we allow such a deep feeling—like that of Novalis—to take hold in our souls in response to the Christ event, we are constantly called upon to ask ourselves: How can we increasingly perceive the truth of what entered humanity as a powerful impulse when Jesus Christ was born in Palestine? — And in our present time, we may bring anthroposophy into a deep connection with this Christ event. For we have been able to show how the various currents of human spiritual life in the pre-Christian era converge in the event in Palestine. We were able to point out how this event in Palestine is today at best only sensed by a large number of people, and how it will only gradually—as people deepen their spiritual understanding—be comprehended in all its power and significance in the distant future. For whatever wisdom may be developed in the course of Earth’s evolution, that wisdom will one day find its deepest fulfillment by making itself an instrument for understanding what the Christ impulse actually is.

[ 14 ] Today, in a certain sense, we are already faced with the immediate necessity of pointing to this Christ event through our spiritual experiences. At the time when Christ walked the earth in physical form, humanity received the great, powerful impulse to ascend once more into the spiritual world. But this impulse continues to work even into our own time, so to speak, as an impulse that has grasped only the suitable souls in its true form. Humanity as a whole, on the other hand, initially continued on its path—as if to fulfill the measure of what was to be overcome—descending ever deeper and deeper into material existence. For human existence is, after all, a descent into matter. Even in the post-Atlantean epochs, humanity descended ever deeper and deeper into matter. The Christ event signifies the impulse of power to ascend once more. But this impulse of power has been fulfilled only to a very small degree. In contrast, the descent into matter has become an ever more powerful earthly reality even in the post-Christian era, so that through this descent into matter, the entire thinking, feeling, and sensibility of human beings has been affected.

[ 15 ] We are already facing an era today—we are living in an era—in which materialistic research has penetrated our understanding of the Christ event. And in this grave hour, it is indeed fitting to point out serious matters, such as the fact that in our time, materialistic research has even taken hold of the most spiritual event that has ever unfolded on our earth. Let us consider how materialistic theologians today, based on so-called “historical research,” claim that there can be no proof of an external, historical Christ! And there are already theologians today who say: Historical research itself compels us to admit that it cannot be historically proven that, at the beginning of our era, the one lived in Palestine of whom such powerful words are proclaimed to us in the Gospels, and from whom such powerful impulses seem to have poured into human spiritual life!

[ 16 ] Thus, “science” today seems to feel called upon to use its methods to wipe the historical Christ out of the world. That is why we must remember that spiritual science is just now beginning to be called upon to prove the existence of this historical Christ Jesus through its own principles. People’s faith does not depend on the inner truths of any particular branch of knowledge. There could be proof upon proof of the flimsiness of a particular branch of knowledge. People can live their lives without even noticing that such evidence exists. Thus, even in the future—and this situation will persist for a long time to come—more and more people in a given field will come to oppose materialistic thinking and will be increasingly gripped by the belief that the reliable historical method is compelled to deny the certainty of a historical Jesus Christ. Science seems to be wiping out that very thing for which, as we have emphasized, we hope to gain a new symbol in the radiance of golden wisdom.

[ 17 ] The time will certainly come when people will know of Christ only in circles such as this one, where they will profess their belief in spiritual science, through which they will understand the words: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age!”—and where those who are able to look into spiritual research will know that the One from whom the impulse of Christianity originated can always be found in the spiritual world, and that it is from this spiritual world that certainty regarding the Christ event can be gained. Only in circles where people adhere to such a spiritual commitment will it be possible to gain certainty regarding that very thing for which one seeks this symbol in the first place. And people outside these circles will not be convinced that the historical method—the external scientific method itself—is built on shaky ground. Of course, anyone today who is able to understand the value and nature of science already knows—precisely because of the flimsiness and groundlessness of these methods—how little it means when precisely those who believe they are proceeding strictly scientifically come and say: All these figures, from Christ on down to the Apostles, cannot be historically proven. - But it will be a long time before people free themselves from that belief in authority which they think is not a belief in authority. The worst kind of belief in authority exists today. And people do not realize at all that the true Redeemer from this belief in authority is the One who taught people, in their innermost being, to build upon the strength of their own “I.” The One who has shown us what is to be taken into this “I” can also show us how to find the power of truth, how to find the sources of truth within ourselves. With Christ within, we find truth within; with Christ within, we find the secure foundation of free and independent judgment; we find the secure foundation that transcends all authority. But precisely out of this Christ event, in times of serious need, we must also allow ourselves to be spoken to with a serious word, so that we may learn to feel our calling as anthroposophists.

[ 18 ] Perhaps I would include the brief addition I now feel compelled to make in my next lectures, were it not for the fact that it will be quite some time before we meet again. But I would like to point out something that the anthroposophist should recognize as the deeper symptoms of our time—the impossibility, so to speak, of scientific endeavor in our age. Those who wish to believe in this external science—which today even seeks to argue away the historical Christ—will, of course, be beyond instruction. But there must surely be some people who, inspired by anthroposophy, understand to some extent how external science is dissolving itself in all fields, and how only spiritual life can bring salvation to humanity in the future.

[ 19 ] One fails to see the most important aspects in current events. A trial took place in Vienna recently that captured the world’s attention. All of Europe was, so to speak, represented there to hear about this trial, because it was considered important. But the most important thing that took place there was probably overlooked everywhere. And those who are not prepared in the spirit of anthroposophy would, even if they heard it stated explicitly, regard this most important aspect as mere fantasy. There was a historian—a historian famous throughout Europe, held in high regard by his peers and by historical researchers, and who had authored important works using current, rigorous historical methods—a “good scholar.” This scholar came into possession of a series of documents that had been handed down from one of the southern European countries. These documents were supposed to prove that treason had been committed in southeastern Austria. Who, in the judgment of people today, could be better qualified to examine them than a historian? Surely a historian should be better qualified than anyone else to assess the value of documents. After all, all the world’s beliefs are based on documents! How one uses and compiles documents, how one examines them—that is what reveals the truth. And that, after all, is the only way to uncover the truth about the miracles of Christianity!

[ 20 ] This historian and historical researcher, who got his hands on those documents, was, however, also a student of that historian whom I sometimes like to recall when I think back on my own youth. There were two historians: one was a strict scholar of historical documents, adhering to the rigorous methods of source criticism; the other, his colleague, placed less emphasis on these strict methods and more on ensuring that the students knew something about actual historical events. So it happened one day that the favorite student of that document scholar was taking his doctoral exam. He was first tested on documentary criticism—that is, the discipline through which one learns to determine quite accurately how to arrive at the truth through external, material means. For example, he was asked in which papal document the dot over the “i” first appears. It is very important to know that! And the candidate knew right away that the dot over the “i” first appeared under a certain Pope Innocent. But the other historian, his colleague, then asked: “May I now also ask the candidate a question, since he knew so precisely where the dot over the ‘i’ first appeared?” Tell me, Mr. Candidate, do you perhaps also know when that pope—in whose documents the dot above the “i” first appears—ascended to the papal throne? —No, he didn’t know that. Do you perhaps know when he died? —No, he didn’t know that either. Well, Mr. Candidate, tell me something else about this pope! — He knew nothing! Then the professor, whose favorite student he was, said: “But, Candidate, it’s as if a board were nailed to your forehead today!” — The other man replied: “Well, colleague, he is your favorite student after all! Who nailed that board to his forehead?”

[ 21 ] That historian did not learn anything out of the ordinary at the time. But he became a skilled document researcher, capable of using all the tools of historical research to determine the truth of times long past. So who could be more qualified than he to investigate what kind of treachery had been perpetrated in those documents, which had been handed over to him by the most authoritative sources? He therefore set about investigating the matter using all the tools of historical research and, in a public article, accused a whole number of people of serious offenses. A trial ensued. And in that trial, one of the most important documents turned out to be a completely crude forgery! The issue was that a certain individual was alleged to have presided over an association in a certain city; but a simple inquiry would have revealed that this man was in Berlin at the time in question.

[ 22 ] Historical research has taken a rigorous approach here, relying on documents drawn from contemporary facts. In this case, the historical method has achieved nothing other than allowing itself to be misled by contemporary documents. The important point I was making is that in this case, not even a single person or group of people stood trial; rather, the historical, the scientific method has been condemned—actually condemned! That is the most important symptom of a trial taking place directly in the present.

[ 23 ] One should ask oneself quite seriously: What is the value of a method that sets out to determine whether something happened eighteen or nineteen centuries ago, if that method is incapable of uncovering anything about even the most obvious aspects of the present? “Science” itself was in the dock here. One should recognize that! And a science that arises from the materialistic prejudices of the present will always be in the dock if people are too complacent to rely on such an authority—which alone can be the authority of the present—distinguished from that other authority by the fact that we know who it is. With the other authorities, one no longer knows who they are—who “Madame Science” is.

[ 24 ] If you approach what is today called “science” with a sincere commitment to a spiritual worldview, you will see how it crumbles, how it proves to be built on truly shifting ground, and how it collapses when one seriously sets to work with it. But people are not willing to take the time to view the present from this perspective. People—especially those who stand outside of anthroposophical life—will not have the conscientiousness to examine the nature of the methods that force materialistic, dogmatic judgments into people’s souls.

[ 25 ] Therefore, for a long time to come, there will be no opportunity—other than within the intimate circle of anthroposophical work—to see, in its truth, what is of the greatest benefit to humanity. And even if what happened in Palestine—and what we symbolically allow to rise anew in our hearts each year—were to be increasingly denied and swept aside by conventional science: within the anthroposophical, spiritual current of the world, there will be a place where the power of the Palestinian event will shine ever more brightly, and from which the life that can come only from this event will flow out once more to the rest of humanity.

[ 26 ] What can dawn upon us in our souls through a genuine experience of the events in Palestine? “I am with you always, even to the end of the earthly age!” This, we might say, is the fundamental message of Christ Jesus. This means that Jesus Christ walked in physical form in Palestine at the beginning of our era. Since that time, he has been to be found in the spiritual world, for since then he has united himself with the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth. He has become the Earth Spirit. We find him within the spiritual atmosphere of our Earth when we seek him there. He permeates more and more all life on our Earth.

[ 27 ] But what are people to gain from this Spirit of Christ, which is becoming ever more deeply rooted in their souls? If we want to understand exactly what people are to gain in the future from this Spirit of Christ taking root in their souls, then we must strive to do precisely what we have been doing for some time now within our anthroposophical movement. What we do in the anthroposophical movement has not sprung from mere caprice; it has not sprung from some program merely devised by this or that individual. Spiritual life ultimately goes back to those sources that we seek in those individualities whom we call the “Masters of Wisdom and the Harmony of Feelings.” And in them we find the impulses—if we seek them correctly—for how we are to work from epoch to epoch, from age to age.

[ 28 ] A great impulse has come to us from the spiritual world in recent times. And today, on this solemn Christmas Eve within our circle, let us draw attention to this important impulse—a guidance, so to speak—which has flowed to us from the spiritual world over the course of the last few years as a measure of the astral plane. And it is under this impulse that our anthroposophical movement has developed here in Central Europe. We could express this impulse in human words roughly as follows: Look at what is happening in the outer world: the words of the Gospels are being misunderstood more and more! People are nitpicking at them; they are examining them with external, historical methods. All mere external history must fall silent for a time for the spiritual researcher. What is necessary now is that the Gospels be understood again quite literally, for in their literal understanding lies their true foundation of wisdom!

[ 29 ] We were guided from the spiritual world to rediscover the Gospels word for word and to understand what is contained in their words. From this impulse—and from the expansion and elaboration of this impulse—arose everything we have attempted in our study of the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel of Matthew, and everything we will yet attempt in our study of the Gospel of Mark. We are to try once again to understand the Gospels literally! This is what those whose impulse we receive from the spiritual world tell us. This is the Christianity to come: following this impulse to understand the Gospels in their literal sense. And what will come to us when we understand the Gospels literally, when we follow the guidance of the spiritual powers who have spoken so clearly from the astral plane—in a way they are unlikely to speak a second time in a century? This is what we will gain—what must become necessary for us—if we wish to make ourselves instruments capable of guiding and directing the coming epoch of humanity in the proper way with regard to that which requires guidance and direction in space.

[ 30 ] When we look back to those times when human evolution took place in the distant past, we know that the human “I” was not yet fully developed at that time. Human development traces back to a group soul. Just as animals still have a group soul today, so too did a certain number of human beings share a common “I-soul.” We find this among all peoples. We know, then, that humanity evolved out of a state of group-soul attachment. And at the time when Christ descended to our Earth, humanity had reached the point where the old group souls were beginning to lose their significance. The old group souls had withdrawn. Every human being was now dependent on developing within themselves the individual soul—the true sense of self. And who brought that which was to flow into the individual soul? It was the Christ impulse! And the more we fill ourselves with this Christ impulse, the richer our sense of self becomes, so that it allows those truths to arise within itself that we need to live into the future.

[ 31 ] We have now reached an important turning point in the present. Many people today ask: What is the significance of speaking of reincarnation, since one cannot remember one’s previous incarnations? Certainly, one cannot do so today. But I have already pointed out that if you bring a four-year-old child and say, “This is a human being, but he cannot do arithmetic,” that is no proof that human beings cannot do arithmetic. One must wait until the child has matured enough to learn arithmetic. In ten years, it will be able to do arithmetic. In the same way, the human soul will mature to the point of remembering its past incarnations. Whether it will remember them correctly is another question.

[ 32 ] We are now standing at an important turning point. In the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, the Christ descended as the impulse through which human beings can experience their “I” as an entity grounded within themselves. We are now in the fifth epoch—the last one in which human beings can no longer remember their past incarnations. In the sixth period, which will follow ours, people will remember their past incarnations. Whether they remember correctly depends on how they absorb the impulses for this into their souls today—whether they make themselves capable of remembering in the right way. In the future, only those who have received the Christ impulse—the source of true selfhood—will remember their present existence in the correct way. In contrast, new group souls will form among those who do not receive this source of true selfhood.

[ 33 ] Take a look at external reality: how people today are practically clamoring for group-soul-like existence, even though they don’t have to—they could instead find sources of truth that spring forth from within their own souls. Observe how everyone wants to do everything exactly the way “everyone else” does it. People do not seek what they alone can find within their own souls; rather, we see them seeking what unites them in categories and groups, and how they are happiest not when they possess independent truths, but when they have what is the same as everyone else. Indeed, individuality is even hated, so that in this hatred of the individual, people believe they are forging the strongest weapons against a wisdom such as that of anthroposophy. For anthroposophical wisdom must shine forth in the soul of every human being; it cannot be forced through levers and screws, through external experimentation. What is said from the anthroposophical perspective does not come to us through external levers and screws. Because it belongs to the invisible world—into which each person must enter with their own thinking—we must make it our own, each one for themselves, without being convinced by an external instrument. Through anthroposophical wisdom, we become individuals.

[ 34 ] If we take in this anthroposophical wisdom in the proper, individual way—in which it is permeated by the Christ impulse—then what enables us to remember, in the sixth epoch, an “I” that each of us possesses for ourselves, one that is self-contained, will sink into our soul. In contrast, the memory of those who today seek artificial group souls will be such that group-soul bondage will return. In the sixth epoch, people will remember their present incarnation; but then it will become clear to them: “At that time, your judgment was bound up with the judgment of others!” - And it will be a terrible bondage for the human being who must feel placed within a state of group-soul attachment. Group-soul attachment threatens those who are unable to take in the Christ impulse in our time. When we take in the message of the Christ event—that message of human individuality—the possibility sinks into our soul of achieving humanity’s goal for the sixth epoch: that we look back not on group-soul bondage, but on a Christ-imbued individuality.

[ 35 ] Thus, in those who today understand how to grasp Christianity in the right way—and how to let the spirit of anthroposophy burn within them and flow through them—that which is necessary for them to be a fully realized human being in the sixth epoch and to serve as an instrument for working effectively in that epoch is drawn into them.

[ 36 ] So this is the question: Whether we wish to look back from our reincarnations in the sixth epoch upon our “I” in the present as non-individual, as dependent, as united in group consciousness, or whether we wish to remember an “I” that has itself grasped the source of spirituality in our earthly evolution, that has grasped the great Word: “Before there was any personality, before there was anything else that could live on Earth, and ‘before there was an Abraham, there was the I Am.’”

[ 37 ] What lives within us unites directly with the Father Spirit. That which can come to life within us through an understanding of the Christ impulse unites consciously within us only with the Source of the world when we understand the Christ impulse. Thus, by descending into our soul, the Christ impulse offers us the possibility of rising again in the sixth epoch as an “I”-being that looks back on having become self-existent. If we allow the correctly understood Christ to be born within our own inner being, then we will be able to awaken the memory of this correctly understood Christ in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch.

[ 38 ] And if we celebrate a true Christmas during the fifth period, we will be able to celebrate a true Easter during the sixth period. Just as the beautiful Christmas carol sings to us on Christmas Eve: “Today the Savior has risen for us!”—so, by recalling the Christ born in our souls, we will hear within ourselves the message of this true, higher Self-Essence. We will recall this and allow this memory to rise again as Easter within ourselves; and then we will be able to hear within ourselves the great, beautiful sound of the Easter organ: May the Christ within us rise up, kindling and illuminating our own divine individuality!

[ 39 ] Thus, Christmas and Easter come together in the fifth and sixth periods of our post-Atlantean era. In this way, we are to learn to comprehend what we learn from the Gospels. We have already learned this to some extent and will continue to learn how the Buddha current, the Zarathustra current, and the ancient Hebrew current have converged in Christianity, and how they have been incorporated—in the sense described to us in the Gospels—into the personality of Christ Jesus. Within our own sense of self, that which was woven and lived in the world during the pre-Christian era must come to life; it must be reborn, permeated by the Christ impulse. Then we celebrate the anthroposophical Christmas within our own soul: the birth of Christ within us. And when we carry this Christ, whom we have come to understand within ourselves, through Kamaloka and Devachan into a new earthly life—and from there, again and again, into a new earthly existence all the way through the sixth epoch—then we will remember what we experienced in our fifth epoch and will thus celebrate the Christian Easter within ourselves.

[ 40 ] May the Christmas symbol thus bring to life within us that which we have recently taken into our souls from the Gospels as the Mystery of Christ. Let these lights burning before us serve as a call to live out the impulse that comes to us from the spiritual world: to understand the Gospels literally! And let us regard these outwardly shining lights as symbols of those lights that are to be kindled in our souls and which, when kindled through the anthroposophical knowledge of Christ, will burn on into the sixth epoch of the post-Atlantean era.

[ 41 ] Feel, especially this Christmas, that it is up to your souls to resolve to become, in this sense, worthy instruments for the future development of humanity! Feel the full gravity and weight of the anthroposophical resolve: we should not be anthroposophists merely for ourselves; rather, bearing in mind what has just been said, we should be anthroposophists out of a duty to humanity, out of a duty to the entire task and mission of humanity. Let the light from the Christmas tree shine down upon us symbolically—a light that can inspire us toward this spiritual mission for humanity. Then we will have grasped something of what can, in turn, give us strength for a new year, enabling us to delve ever deeper into anthroposophical life and the anthroposophical teachings.