The Rudolf Steiner Archive

1. The Advent of Christ in the Ethereal World

[ 1 ] When a person has engaged with the Spiritual Science worldview for some time and allows the various ideas, thoughts, and insights gained through this worldview to sink in, these insights raise a wide variety of questions. And one actually becomes more and more of a spiritual scientist by linking such questions—which can essentially be called questions of feeling, of the soul, of character, or, in short, questions of life—to the ideas of Spiritual Science. These ideas are, after all, ones that do not merely satisfy our theoretical, scientific curiosity, but enlighten us about the mysteries of life and the secrets of existence. And these thoughts and ideas become all the more fruitful for us when we do not merely think, feel, and sense their content, value, and significance, but when we learn, so to speak, to view the world around us differently under their influence. These ideas should permeate us with warmth; they should become impulses, forces of the soul within us. They do so more and more when the answers we receive to certain questions present us, so to speak, with new questions, and when we are thus led from question to answer—and the answer itself actually becomes a question for us, and then a new answer comes to us, and so on. In this way, one progresses in spiritual knowledge and also in spiritual life.

[ 2 ] In public lectures, it will still be quite some time before it becomes possible to reveal the more intimate aspects of spiritual life to humanity as it stands today; but in our branches, the time is likely drawing ever closer when even more intimate questions can be discussed. In doing so, it will always turn out that new members, so to speak, may be surprised or even shocked by this or that. But we would not make progress in our work if we could not also move on to discussing more intimate questions of life based on research and insight from Spiritual Science. Therefore, today—even if this might give rise to misunderstandings among those of you who have not yet been deeply immersed in spiritual life for very long—some more intimate facts of spiritual insight will once again come before our souls.

[ 3 ] An important question undoubtedly arises for our soul when we do not merely consider the idea—the thought—of reincarnation, of repeated earthly lives, in the abstract, but when we reflect deeply and meaningfully on this fact of spiritual life. New questions, so to speak, arise in connection with this answer—the one given to us through reincarnation—and with this important fruit of life. We might, for example, ask: If a person lives on Earth repeatedly, if they return in ever-new incarnations, what is the deeper meaning of our going through life in this way time and again? — Generally speaking, people do say: “Well, certainly, through this we ascend higher and higher; we experience the results, the fruits of previous earthly lives in later ones, and it is precisely through this that we perfect ourselves.” — But that is still quite general and abstract. Only through a more precise understanding of the entire meaning of earthly life do we also penetrate the significance of repeated earthly lives. For if our Earth itself were not to change—if, so to speak, human beings were to return again and again to an Earth that remained essentially the same—then there would actually not be much to learn through successive incarnations. It is only because we are able to learn new things and experience new things in every incarnation on our Earth that these incarnations have meaning. Over short periods of time, this isn’t particularly noticeable, but when we look at long periods of time—as we can do through Spiritual Science—it becomes clear to us that the epochs of our Earth take on different forms and that we continually experience new things. However, we must also recognize something else. We must realize that we must also take these changes in earthly life itself into account. For if we, so to speak, fail to experience and learn in a particular epoch of our earthly existence what is to be learned in that epoch of Earth’s development, then we do return in a new incarnation, but we have indeed missed something; we have not allowed to flow into us what we should have allowed to flow in during the preceding period. And we are then unable to apply our powers and abilities in the proper way throughout the next period.

[ 4 ] Speaking in very general terms, one can say: Now, in our present era, something is possible on Earth—across nearly the entire globe—that was not possible, for example, for the people now living in their previous incarnations. It may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true that this has a certain—and indeed, great—significance. In the present incarnation, it is possible for a certain number of people to come to Spiritual Science—that is, to take in those results of spiritual research that can be assimilated in the field of Spiritual Science precisely today. Certainly, it may be regarded as something utterly insignificant that a few people come together to allow the insights of spiritual research to flow into them. But those who find this insignificant simply do not understand the significance of reincarnation, and that one can only absorb such knowledge during a single incarnation. If one does not absorb it, one has missed out on something that will then be lacking in subsequent incarnations.

[ 5 ] This is what we must, above all else, truly take to heart: What we learn in Spiritual Science today becomes one with our soul, and we bring it with us again when we descend into our next incarnation.

[ 6 ] And today we want to gain an understanding of what this means for our soul. To do so, we will have to connect various facts of spiritual life—some of which are more or less new to you or even completely unknown—with things you already know from other lectures and from your reading. First, we must go back to earlier periods in the evolution of humanity. We have often looked back at earlier periods of Earth’s evolution. We have said: We are now living in the fifth epoch following our great Atlantean catastrophe. This fifth epoch was preceded by the one in which the Greek and Latin peoples provided the main ideas and sentiments for the Earth’s will: it was preceded by the fourth epoch, the Greek-Latin epoch. This was preceded by the third period—the Chaldean-Babylonian-Assyrian-Egyptian period—which in turn was preceded by the Proto-Persian period, and finally by the Proto-Indian period. And if we then go even further back into an even more distant primeval time, we encounter the great Atlantean catastrophe, which destroyed an ancient continent, an ancient mainland—the ancient Atlantis—which stretched across the area where the Atlantic Ocean lies today; that Atlantic catastrophe which gradually swept this mainland away and, on the other hand, shaped the solid Earth on which we live today. Then, going further back, we would return to even earlier periods that predate the Atlantic catastrophe. We would come to those cultures and ways of life that developed on that Atlantic continent and which we call the Atlantic cultures—the cultures of the Atlantic races. And these are preceded by even earlier conditions.

[ 7 ] If one surveys what history tells us—and it does not, after all, go very far back—one can easily fall into the belief, even though this is a completely unfounded belief even for shorter periods of time, that our Earth has always looked the way it does now. But that is not the case. Rather, conditions on our Earth have changed quite profoundly, and the greatest changes have occurred in the spiritual condition of human beings. The souls of the people sitting here today were, after all, incarnated in the corresponding bodies throughout all these ages of the Earth and absorbed within themselves whatever could be absorbed during those periods of Earth’s development. Each time, the soul developed different abilities from one incarnation to the next. Our souls were quite different from what they are today, though perhaps not to the same extent during the Greco-Roman period. But they differed greatly from today’s souls during the ancient Persian period and even more so during the ancient Indian period. Our souls were endowed with entirely different abilities back then, and they lived under entirely different conditions in those ancient times.

[ 8 ] So let us now, for the sake of a clear understanding of what follows, picture as clearly as possible in our mind’s eye what our souls were like—well, let us say, just to have something meaningful to start with—after the Atlantean catastrophe, when they were embodied in the physical bodies that were possible on Earth at the time of the first Indian culture. We must not view this first Indian culture as having been limited to ancient India alone. At that time, this Indian people was merely the most influential, the most important; but the culture of the entire Earth was different and had characteristics that were shaped, so to speak, by what the leaders indicated to the ancient Indians. If we now consider our souls as they were back then, we must first and foremost tell ourselves: A level of understanding such as people have today was still entirely impossible back then. Such a clear sense of self, such a clear sense of “I” as we have today, did not exist back then. — People, so to speak, hardly ever thought of themselves as an “I.” This “I” was indeed already present as a force within human beings, but the awareness of the “I” is still something different from the force of the “I,” the active power of the “I.” Thus, people were not yet endowed with the kind of inner life that they possess today. Instead, however, they possessed entirely different abilities; they possessed what we have often called an ancient, twilight form of clairvoyance.

[ 9 ] If we consider the human soul during daily life in those days, we find that it does not yet truly feel itself to be an “I.” People felt themselves to be members of their tribe, of their people. As a limb of that whole—just as the hand is a limb of the body—the individual “I” stood for the entire community of the tribe and the people. People did not yet perceive themselves as the individual “I” that they feel themselves to be today. The “I” of the people, the “I” of the tribe, was what they looked to. That is how they lived during the day. One did not yet really know, so to speak, that one was a human being. But when evening came and one fell asleep, consciousness did not darken completely, as is the case today; rather, during sleep the soul was capable of perceiving spiritual realities; for example, in their surroundings, realities of which today’s dreams are but a shadow—spiritual events, spiritual realities—of which today’s dreams generally no longer represent a full reality. People had such perceptions, so that people back then knew: There is a spiritual world. For people, the spiritual world was a reality—not through any kind of logic or something that needed to be proven, but because every night, even if only with a dim, dreamlike consciousness, they were present within the spiritual world. But that was not yet the main point. In addition to sleep and the waking state, there were also intermediate states during which a person was neither fully asleep nor fully awake—states in which, although self-consciousness ceased even more than it did during the day, the perception of spiritual events—that dreamlike clairvoyance—was significantly stronger than usual during the night. Thus there were intermediate states in which people, though lacking self-awareness, were nevertheless endowed with clairvoyance. In such states, people at that time were as if in a trance, so that they were, so to speak, unaware of themselves. They did not know: “I am a human being”—but they did know: “I am a part of a spiritual world; within it I can perceive; I know that a spiritual world exists.” — These were the experiences of the human soul in those days. And this consciousness and this life in the spiritual world were even much brighter, much, much brighter during the Atlantean era. So when we survey this, we look back on an age of dreamlike, twilight-like clairvoyance of our souls, which gradually diminished in the course of human evolution.

[ 10 ] If our souls had remained stuck in that ancient, dreamlike state of clairvoyance, we would not have been able to acquire the individual self-awareness that we possess today. Then we would never have been able to know that we are human beings. We had to lose, so to speak, that awareness of the spiritual world in order to exchange it for self-consciousness. In the future, we will have both. In the future, we will all once again attain that which, despite the preservation of self-consciousness, results in full clairvoyance—a state that today can exist only in those who have embarked on the path of initiation. In the future, it will be possible for all human beings to look into the spiritual world once more and yet still feel themselves to be human beings, to have a sense of self.

[ 11 ] Now recall once more what happened there. The soul has passed from one incarnation to the next. In the past, it was clairvoyant; later, the awareness of becoming an “I” emerged more and more clearly, and with it, the ability to judge for oneself. For as long as one still looks into the spiritual world with clairvoyance and does not feel oneself as an “I,” one cannot judge or reason. The latter ability emerged more and more, but in each subsequent incarnation, the old clairvoyance diminished accordingly. Human beings lived less and less in states where they could look into the spiritual world. And they became increasingly immersed in the physical plane, developed logical thinking, and felt themselves as an “I.” In the process, clairvoyance diminishes more and more. Human beings now perceive the outer world and become increasingly entangled in it, but their connection to the spiritual world grows ever weaker. One can therefore say: In ancient times, human beings were a kind of spiritual being, for they lived as spiritual entities in immediate social connection as companions of other spiritual entities; they felt they belonged to other spiritual beings, toward whom they can no longer look up with their normal senses today. As we know, there are still other spiritual worlds around us today, beyond the world that immediately surrounds us, in which other spiritual beings live. But with ordinary consciousness, human beings today cannot see into these worlds. In the past, however, he was their companion, both in his sleeping consciousness and in that intermediate state we spoke of. There he lived among them and interacted with these other beings. Now he can no longer do so under normal circumstances. He was, so to speak, expelled from his homeland, the spiritual world, and with each new incarnation is drawn further and further down into this earthly world.

[ 12 ] In the sanctuaries of spiritual life and in those fields of knowledge and science where such things were still understood, consideration was always given to the fact that our incarnations have passed through these various earthly ages. People looked back to a very ancient age, one that predates even the Atlantean catastrophe, in which human beings actually lived in direct communion with the gods or spirits and, naturally, perceived and felt themselves quite differently. For you can well imagine that the human soul must have felt quite differently in an age when it knew with certainty that it could look up to the higher beings, and when it knew itself to be a part of that higher world. Thus, it also learned to perceive and feel in a completely different way. When you consider these facts, you must create a mental image of ourselves even today as being able to learn to speak and think only if we grow up among people, for these are abilities that can only be acquired among people. If any child today were to be placed on a deserted island and were to grow up there without contact with other people, it would certainly not acquire the abilities of thinking and speaking. Thus, the development of a being depends to some extent on whether it grows up among this or that other species of beings and lives together with these or those beings. Its development depends on this to some extent. You can already observe this in animals. It is well known that dogs removed from environments where they are with humans—and placed in places where they never come into contact with a human—forget how to bark. The offspring of such dogs are then usually no longer able to bark. It depends to some extent on whether a being grows up and lives among such beings or others. You can therefore imagine that it makes a difference whether you live only among present-day human beings on the physical plane, or whether you lived in the past—the same souls, so to speak—among spiritual beings in a spiritual world that is beyond the reach of normal human perception today. The soul also developed differently there; human beings had different impulses within them when they lived among the gods. Human beings have developed different impulses among other human beings, and different ones still when they lived among the gods. Higher knowledge has always been aware of this. Such knowledge looked back to those ancient ages in which human beings were, so to speak, in direct communion with divine-spiritual beings. And this direct communion with the divine-spiritual beings had the effect of making the soul feel that it belonged to the divine-spiritual world. But this also generated impulses and forces within the soul that were divine-spiritual in a completely different sense than the forces are today. Where the soul acted in such a way that it felt it belonged to the higher world, there, from within that soul, a will also spoke that originated in the divine-spiritual world—a will of which one could say it was instilled because the soul lived among the gods.

[ 13 ] Such insights refer to this age—when human beings were still one with the divine-spiritual beings—as the Golden Age or Krita Yuga. This, then, is an ancient age, the essential course of which we must trace back even before the Atlantean catastrophe. Then came the next age, when human beings no longer felt their connection to the divine-spiritual world as strongly as they had in the Krita Yuga, when they no longer felt their impulses so decisively shaped by living alongside the gods, and when their view of the spirit and the soul had already begun to darken. But they still had a memory of living alongside the spirits and gods. This was particularly evident in the ancient Indian world. There, it was very easy to speak of spiritual matters. One could point people toward the external world of physical perception and yet, so to speak, see a maya, or illusion, within it, because people had not had these physical perceptions for very long. That was the case in ancient India. Although the souls in ancient India no longer saw the gods themselves, they still perceived spiritual realities and lower spiritual beings. The higher spiritual beings were seen only by a small number of people, but even for them, that very vivid coexistence with the gods had already been obscured. The impulses of will from the divine-spiritual world had already faded away. However, there was still the possibility of gaining insight into spiritual realities, at least in certain states of consciousness: during sleep and in the aforementioned intermediate states. But the most important realities of this spiritual world—which had previously been experienced as a direct part of one’s own life—were now present only as a kind of recognition of truth, as something the soul still knew precisely but which now functioned merely as a realization, as a truth. Certainly, people were still in the spiritual world, but in this later age, the certainty of it was no longer as strong as it had been before. It is called the Silver Age or Treta Yuga.

[ 14 ] But then came the ages of those incarnations or embodiments in which human beings increasingly closed themselves off from the spiritual world, in which they became more and more oriented toward the immediate external sensory world—and were thereby also rooted in that sensory world—and in which inner self-consciousness, the consciousness of humanity, came more and more to the fore. This age is called the Iron Age, or Dvapara Yuga. Although people no longer possessed such a high degree of direct knowledge of the spiritual world as they had in the past, at least something of the spiritual world still remained within humanity as a whole. One could describe it somewhat like how, in people today, once they have grown older, something of the joy of youth remains. It is over, of course, but one has experienced it. One knows it, is familiar with it, and can speak of it as something that is familiar. In the same way, the souls of that time still had a sense of familiarity with that which leads to the spiritual worlds. This is the essence of the Dvapara Yuga.

[ 15 ] But then another age dawned, an age in which even this familiarity with the spiritual world came to an end—an age in which, so to speak, the gates to the spiritual world were closed. People’s perspective became increasingly limited to the external sensory world and to the intellect, which processes sensory impressions, so that people could only think about the spiritual world. This is the lowest form of knowing anything about the spiritual world. What people still truly knew from their own experience was the sensory-physical world. If people wanted to know anything about the spiritual world, they had to attain this knowledge through reflection. This was the time when human beings became the least spiritual and therefore also became most firmly rooted and fixed in the sensory world. However, this was necessary in order to gradually develop human self-consciousness to its highest level. For it was only through the gross resistance of the external world that human beings could learn to distinguish themselves from the world and perceive themselves as independent beings. This latter era is also called Kali Yuga, or the Dark Age.

[ 16 ] I would like to expressly note that these terms can also be used to refer to longer epochs; for example, the term “Krita Yuga” can already be applied to an even longer period of time. For before that Golden Age described above existed, humankind, through its experiences, was involved in even higher worlds, and therefore one could encompass all these even older times under this name. But if one, so to speak, moderates one’s expectations—if one is still satisfied with that degree of spiritual experience that has been described—then one can divide them in this way, as has now been done. For all such ages, one can specify very definite time periods. Although development proceeds slowly and gradually, there are boundaries at which one can say: Before this, one set of life conditions and consciousness prevailed, and afterward, another. Thus, we must calculate that, in the sense we first spoke of, the Kali Yuga begins around the year 3101 B.C. There we see that our souls have appeared on Earth in ever-new incarnations, in which people’s view of the spiritual world has become increasingly closed off and thus also increasingly narrowed to the external sensory world. There we see that, in fact, with each new incarnation, our souls enter into ever-new circumstances in which ever-new things can be learned. What we can gain in the Kali Yuga is to strengthen our sense of self. This was not possible before, because first one had to take the “I” into oneself.

[ 17 ] If souls have failed to absorb, in a particular incarnation, what this specific age has to offer, then it is very difficult to make up for that in other times. They must then wait a long time until it becomes possible, in a certain sense, to make up for what they have missed; but we must by no means rely on that. So let us keep this before our souls: that during the Kali Yuga epoch, something very significant occurred, in that, so to speak, the gates to the spiritual world were closed. That was also the age in which John the Baptist was active, and in which Christ was active. For this period—which had already spanned 3,100 years since the beginning of the dark age—it was essential that all people had already lived through this dark age several times, at least once or twice. Self-consciousness had become established, the memory of the spiritual world had faded, and people had to learn—if they did not want to lose all connection with the spiritual world—to experience this spiritual aspect within their own self. They had to develop their “I” in such a way that this “I,” deep within itself, could at least be certain that a spiritual world exists, that human beings belong to this spiritual world, and that higher spiritual beings exist. The “I” had to enable itself to have an inner capacity for feeling and believing in the spiritual world.

[ 18 ] If someone in the time of Christ Jesus had spoken the truth as it actually was back then, he could have said: In the past, people were able to experience the Kingdom of Heaven outside of their “I,” in those spiritual realms they reached when they stepped outside of themselves. Far from the “I,” human beings had to experience the realms of heaven, the realms of the spiritual world. Now they cannot experience these realms of heaven in that way; now human beings have become so different that the “I” must experience these realms within itself. These realms of heaven have drawn so close to human beings that they work their way into the “I.” — And this is what John the Baptist told the people: “The realms of heaven have drawn near,” that is, they have drawn near to the “I.” In the past, they were outside of human beings; now, human beings had to comprehend the kingdom of heaven that had drawn near within their innermost being, within the “I.” And because human beings could no longer, in this dark age—the Kali Yuga—step out from the sensory world into the spiritual world, the divine being, the Christ, had to descend all the way into the physical-sensory world. That is why Christ had to descend into a human being of flesh and blood—into Jesus of Nazareth—so that, through the contemplation of Christ’s life and deeds on the physical earth, human beings in their physical bodies might regain a connection with the realms of heaven, the spiritual world. Thus, during the time when Christ walked the earth, we had an epoch right in the midst of Kali Yuga, the dark age, when people—who did not live in darkness and dullness but understood their time—could say to themselves: It is necessary for God to descend to humanity so that a connection with the spiritual world, which had been lost, might be regained.

[ 19 ] If there had been no people at that time who understood this, who had found a living spiritual connection with Christ, then human beings would have gradually lost their connection with the spiritual worlds; they would not have incorporated the connection with the realms of heaven into their “I.” It is quite possible that if all human beings had remained in darkness at such a crucial moment, such an important event would have passed them by. Human souls would then have withered, become desolate, and degenerated. They would likely have continued to incarnate for some time even without the Christ, but they would not have been able to implant within their “I” that which would have enabled them to establish a connection with the realms of heaven. It is possible that the event of the Christ’s appearance on earth could have passed unnoticed everywhere, just as, for example, the people of Rome did not notice it. After all, it was said there that somewhere there was a remote, filthy street where a peculiar sect lived; these were dreadful people, and among them lived a dreadful spirit who called himself Jesus of Nazareth and preached all sorts of things to the people, inciting them to all manner of evil deeds. — That was all people in Rome knew about Christ at certain times! And you may also know that it was the eminent Roman historian Tacitus who described it in much the same way about a hundred years after the events in Palestine.

[ 20 ] So, not everyone actually realized that something of the utmost importance had taken place—something that could save humanity through the Kali Yuga, something that shone like divine light into the darkness of the earth. The possibility for humanity’s further development was made possible by the fact that certain souls came together who grasped the significance of that moment and knew what it meant that Christ had walked the earth.

[ 21 ] If you try to imagine that time, you will easily be able to say: Yes, it was possible to live back then without knowing anything about the appearance of Christ Jesus on the physical plane! It was possible to live on Earth without taking this most important event into one’s consciousness.

[ 22 ] Isn't it possible, even today, that something infinitely important is happening and people simply aren't taking it in? Could it be that our contemporaries have no idea about the most important things happening in the world right now? That is exactly the case! For the most important things are happening, but they are perceptible only to the spiritual eye. There is so much talk of times of transition; we are living in one such time—and a very important one at that. And what is important is that we are living precisely at the time when the dark age has come to an end, and that an age is now beginning in which people are slowly and gradually developing new abilities, and in which people’s souls are gradually changing.

[ 23 ] But you need not be surprised that most people do not notice this, for most did not notice it either when the Christ event took place at the beginning of our calendar. The Kali Yuga ended in 1899; now we are settling into a new era. And what is beginning there is slowly preparing people for new spiritual abilities.

[ 24 ] The first signs of these new spiritual abilities will become apparent in a few individuals relatively soon. And they will become more evident in the mid-1930s, roughly between 1930 and 1940. The years 1933, 1935, and 1937 will be particularly significant. During this time, very special abilities will manifest in people as natural gifts. Great changes will take place during this period, and prophecies from the biblical texts will be fulfilled. Everything will change for the souls dwelling on Earth, as well as for those who are no longer in physical bodies. No matter where these souls are, they are moving toward entirely new abilities. Everything is changing. The most important event of our time, however, is a profound transformation in the spiritual capacities of human beings.

[ 25 ] The Kali Yuga has come to an end, and human souls are now beginning to develop new abilities—abilities that, precisely because this is the age for them, will emerge of their own accord from the souls as certain clairvoyant powers, those very powers that, during the Kali Yuga, had to sink into the unconscious. There will be a number of souls who will experience the remarkable phenomenon of possessing ego-consciousness, yet alongside this, it will be as if they were living in a world that is actually quite different from that of their ordinary consciousness: it will be like a shadow, like a vague inkling, as if someone born blind were undergoing an operation. Through what we call esoteric training, these clairvoyant abilities will be acquired even more effectively. However, as humanity progresses, this will occur in the very earliest stages, in the most elementary levels, through the spontaneous natural development of humanity.

[ 26 ] Now, however, it could very easily be—and it could be much easier now than ever before—that people in our age would be completely incapable of comprehending such a thing, this event of the utmost importance for humanity. It could be that people would be completely incapable of grasping that this is a genuine glimpse into a spiritual world, even if it is now only shadowy and faint. It could be, for example, that wickedness and materialism would be so widespread on Earth that the majority of people would show not the slightest understanding, and would regard those who possess this clairvoyance as fools and commit them to asylums along with others who are developing their souls in a confused manner. So this age could, so to speak, pass people by without leaving a trace, even though we, too, are sounding the call today, just as John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and Christ himself sounded it back then: A new age has dawned, in which human souls must take a step upward into the realms of heaven!

[ 27 ] It could very easily be that, without people’s understanding, the great events would pass them by. If, then, during the years 1930 to 1940, the materialists were to triumph and say: “Well, there have certainly been a number of fools, but none of the great events we expected—that would not be proof against what has been said. If they were to triumph and humanity were to pass these events by, that would be a misfortune for humanity. Even if humanity were unable to perceive the great events that may occur, they will happen nonetheless.

[ 28 ] What may come to pass is that people will be able to acquire a new capacity for perception in the etheric realm—at least a certain number of people at first—and the others will gradually follow, for humanity will have 2,500 years to develop these abilities more and more. During this time, people must not miss this opportunity. To miss it, however, would be a great misfortune, and humanity would then have to wait until later to make up for what was missed, to develop this new ability retroactively. It will be the ability for people to see something of the etheric in their surroundings that they have normally been unable to perceive until now. At present, people see only the physical body of another human being; but then they will be able to see the etheric body at least as a shadowy image and also to experience the connections of all deeper events in the etheric realm. They will have visions and premonitions of events in the spiritual world and will experience such events coming to pass on the physical plane within three to four days. They will see certain things in etheric images and then know: tomorrow or in a few days, this or that will happen.

[ 29 ] Such changes in the faculties of the human soul will come. Something that can be described as “etheric vision” will come. And what is connected with this? Well, the being we call Christ was once incarnated on Earth at the beginning of our era. He will no longer come in such a physical body, for that was a once-in-a-lifetime event. But in his etheric form, the Christ will return in the times mentioned. Then people will learn to perceive the Christ as they grow upward through this “etheric vision” toward him, who will no longer descend into a physical body, but only into an etheric body. People will therefore have to grow upward toward a perception of the Christ. For true is the saying spoken by the Christ: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He is there; he is in our spiritual world, and those who are especially gifted can always perceive him in this spiritual-etheric world.

[ 30 ] The one who was particularly convinced by such a perception was Paul, during the Damascus experience. However, this ability to see the etheric will develop as a natural capacity in some individuals. Experiencing a Damascus moment—a Paul-like experience—will become increasingly possible for people in the time to come.

[ 31 ] Thus we now understand Spiritual Science in an entirely different sense. We learn that it is something that imposes an immense responsibility upon us, for it is a preparation for the very concrete event of Christ’s reappearance. Christ will reappear because human beings will raise themselves up to him through etheric vision. When we grasp this, Spiritual Science appears to us as the preparation of human beings for the return of Christ, so that the misfortune of overlooking this great event does not occur, but rather so that they may become ripe to grasp the great moment that can be described as the return of Christ. Human beings will become capable of seeing etheric bodies, and they will be able to see, among these etheric bodies, the etheric body of Christ as well—that is, to grow into a world in which Christ will appear to them in accordance with their newly awakened abilities.

[ 32 ] It will then no longer be necessary to prove the existence of the Christ through various documents; rather, there will be eyewitnesses to the presence of the living Christ—those who will experience him in his etheric body. And through this experience they will learn that this being is the very same one who accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha at the beginning of our era—that it is the Christ. Just as Paul was convinced near Damascus at that time—“This is the Christ”—so there will be people who, through their experiences in the etheric realm, will be convinced that the Christ truly lives.

[ 33 ] This is the greatest mystery of our age: the mystery of the Second Coming of Christ, and this is how it appears in its true form. But the materialistic mind will, in a certain way, take control of this event. Although what has just been said—that all true spiritual insights point to this age—will be proclaimed many times in the coming years, the materialistic mind corrupts everything today, and so it will come to pass that this materialistic mind will be unable to form a mental image of the fact that human souls must grow upward to ethereal vision and thereby to Christ in the etheric body.

[ 34 ] The materialistic mind will create a mental image of this event in such a way that it thinks Christ will descend in the flesh and incarnate in the flesh. There will be a number of people who, in their boundless arrogance, will take advantage of this and present themselves among humanity as the reincarnated Christ. The coming age may therefore bring us false Christs. Anthroposophists, however, should be people who are so mature in their spiritual life that they do not confuse the return of the Christ in a spiritual body—perceivable only through higher vision—with a return in physical flesh. This will be one of the most terrible temptations to which humanity will be faced. To lead humanity beyond this temptation—that will be the task of those who, through Spiritual Science, learn to truly rise to the perception of the Spirit; those who do not seek to bring the Spirit down into matter, but rather to ascend themselves into the spiritual world. Thus we may speak of the return of Christ and of our ascending to Christ in the spiritual world through the acquisition of etheric vision.

[ 35 ] Christ is always present, but He is in the spiritual world. And we can reach him when we rise into that world. And all anthroposophical teaching should be transformed within us into a strong desire not to let this event pass humanity by without a trace, but rather, in the time available to us, to gradually nurture a humanity that may be ripe to develop these new abilities within itself and thereby reconnect with the Christ. For otherwise, humanity would then have to wait a long, long time until such an opportunity could be granted to it again. It would have to wait a long time: until the Earth’s next incarnation. If humanity were to pass by this event of the Christ’s return, then the vision of the Christ in His etheric body would be limited to those who, through esoteric training, prove themselves willing to rise to such an experience. But the great thing—that these abilities might be attained by humanity as a whole, by all people, and that this great event might be understood through the naturally developed abilities of all people—would remain impossible for a very, very long time.

[ 36 ] Thus we see that there is already something in our age that justifies the existence and work of Spiritual Science in the world. Its purpose is not merely to satisfy theoretical needs or scientific curiosity. Spiritual Science prepares people for this event; it prepares them to position themselves correctly within the times and to see, with clear intellect and insight, what is truly there but might pass people by without their being able to bear fruit from it: that is what it is all about!

[ 37 ] It will be of the utmost importance to grasp this event of the Christ’s appearance. For other events will follow this one, just as other events preceded the Palestinian Christ event. Thus, those who prophesied of him beforehand will also, after the described age—once he himself has once again become visible to humanity in his etheric body—become his successors: those who foretold him earlier. All those who prepared the way for him will become recognizable in a new form to those who have passed through the new Christ event. Once again, what lived on Earth as Moses, Abraham, and the prophets will become recognizable to people. And it will be known that, just as Abraham preceded Christ, preparing the way for him, he also takes on the mission of helping with the Christ work afterward. Thus, if a person does not miss the most important event of the near future, he gradually grows into a communion with all those who, as patriarchs, preceded the Christ event. He unites with them. And once again, the entire chorus of those to whom we will be able to ascend appears. The one who led humanity down into the physical plane then reappears after Christ and leads humanity back up again, reconnecting humanity with the spiritual worlds.

[ 38 ] When we look far back in the development of humanity, we look back to that point in time of which we say: From that point on, humanity has been descending more and more from communion with the spiritual world into the material world. — Although the image has its material side, it can still be used here: Human beings used to be companions of spiritual beings; their spirit was in the spiritual world; and because they lived in the spiritual world, they were sons of the gods. But that part of the soul which was becoming more and more embodied took an ever-greater part in the outer world. There was the son of the gods within the human being, who took pleasure in the daughters of the earth—that is, in those souls who felt an affinity for the physical world. This, in turn, means: The human spirit, which had previously been imbued with divine spirituality, descended into physical sensuality; it became the partner of the intellect, which is bound to the brain and entangled it in the sensory world. And now it must find the path and ascend again along the way it descended, and become a Son of God once more. The Son of Man that he has become would perish down there in this physical world if, as the Son of Man, he did not ascend once more to the divine beings, to the light of the spiritual world, if he did not find favor in the future with the daughters of the gods. It was necessary for the development of humanity that the Sons of the Gods unite with the daughters of men—with the souls bound to the physical world—so that, as the Son of Man, humanity might learn to master the physical plane. However, it is necessary for the human being of the future, as the Son of Man, to find favor in the daughters of the gods—in the divine-spiritual light of wisdom—with which he must unite himself in order to then grow upward once more into the world of the gods.

[ 39 ] Divine wisdom will kindle the will, and the most powerful impetus for this will come when, for those who have prepared themselves, the sublime etheric form of Christ Jesus becomes perceptible. It will be like a reappearance of Christ Jesus to those naturally gifted with clairvoyance, in the same way that this etheric Christ appeared to Paul as a spiritual being. He will reappear to humanity when they come to understand that they should make use of these abilities, which will come with the evolution of the human soul.

[ 40 ] Let us therefore not use Spiritual Science merely to satisfy our curiosity, but in such a way that it becomes for us a preparation for the great tasks, for the great missions of the human race, into which we are to grow more and more.

Q&A

[ 41 ] When something like this is said today—when we shed light on such intimate mysteries—we should not regard it as thoughtlessly as certain things are often listened to these days, but rather be clear that anthroposophy is truly meant to become for us something entirely different from a theory. The teaching must, of course, be there; how could one possibly rise to such thoughts as have been expressed today if one could not take them in in the form of teaching? The essential point, however, is that it does not remain mere doctrine, but is transformed within our soul into qualities of disposition and character, into an entirely different mindset, and makes us into entirely different people. It is meant to guide us in using our incarnations in the entirely appropriate and correct way, so that in the course of our incarnations we may become something entirely different.

[ 42 ] I tried not to say a word too many or a word too few; therefore, I also tried to allude only briefly to important matters. However, what has been said is important not only for the souls who will be incarnated on the physical plane during the period from 1930 to 1940, but also for those who will then be in the spiritual world between death and a new birth. For it is essential that the souls from the spiritual world continue to exert their influence on the world of the living even when the latter are unaware of it. Through the new Christ event, this coexistence between those who are incarnated here on the physical plane and the souls who are already in the spiritual world will also become increasingly conscious. A collaboration between physically incarnated human beings and spiritual beings will then be possible. This was already intended to be illustrated by the image that the prophets will appear again to the people on Earth. So you must have a mental image of what it will be like when these great times come in humanity’s future, so that people will also interact with one another more consciously in both the physical and spiritual worlds. Today this is not possible because there is no common language. People here in the physical world, after all, speak only words in their languages that designate physical things and physical conditions. People between death and new birth live in a world that looks entirely different from the world that immediately surrounds us, and they speak a different language. Of all that is spoken in our world, the dead can only take in what is spoken in Spiritual Science. Thus, in anthroposophy, we are cultivating something here that becomes increasingly comprehensible to the dead, and in this field we also speak on behalf of those who are between death and rebirth. Humanity is thus growing into an era in which the influences from the spiritual world are becoming ever greater. The great events of the coming age will make themselves felt in all worlds. People between death and a new birth will also have new experiences in the other world as a result of the new Christ event in the etheric world. But they would be just as unable to understand them if they had not prepared themselves for them on Earth, just as the people who are incarnated here on Earth will have had to prepare themselves in order to properly take in the events at this important moment. It is important for all souls who are incarnated today—regardless of whether they will still be physically incarnated or whether they will no longer be so—that they have prepared themselves for these important coming events by assimilating the anthroposophical truths. If they did not do so, they would have to wait. If they have not taken in, through their earthly consciousness, what anthroposophy or Spiritual Science has to offer, then they would have to wait until they are incarnated again in order to have the opportunity to absorb the corresponding teachings here on Earth. For there are simply things that can only be experienced and learned here on Earth. That is why it is said: For example, in the spiritual world there is no way at all to experience death, and a God had to descend into the physical world in order to be able to die. And what the Mystery of Golgotha specifically is—that cannot be experienced in any other world as it can here in the physical world. We have been led down into the physical world so that we may acquire here something that can only be acquired here. And Christ descended to humanity because it was only here in the physical world that He could show humanity—and through the Mystery of Golgotha, allow them to experience—something that would then bear fruit and carry on into the spiritual world. But the seeds must be planted and sown here in the physical world.

[ 43 ] Summary of the Ages:

Golden Age = Krita Yuga = approximately 20,000 years
Silver Age = Treta Yuga = approximately 15,000 years
Iron Age = Dvapara Yuga = approximately 10,000 years
Dark Age = Kali Yuga = approximately 5,000 years
Our age spans the next 2,500 years