The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. The Return of Christ in the Etheric Realm

Notes from the lecture

[ 1 ] People who live in abstract concepts and have no particular inclination to engage with spiritual life in its reality very often speak, when discussing the course of human development, of a transitional epoch having existed here or there. The spiritual researcher must not be so generous with the phrase “we are living in a transitional period.” Anyone who truly observes spiritual life must know that there are such times of transition, and there are times when the course of development proceeds more evenly. In this sense, we can indeed say that we are living in a spiritual transitional period. Some of what is taking place during this time will be the subject of our consideration today.

[ 2 ] Every process of development—whether that of the individual between birth and death or the development of the planets—always contains currents within it; it does not proceed in a straight line. Even in an individual life, we must distinguish between two currents. You can already find one of these currents in the upbringing of a child. This is discussed in the booklet The Upbringing of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science and also in the second part of the recently published Outline of Esoteric Science. In fact, a human being experiences several births. First, there is the physical birth. What is born then is only what we call the physical body. Until then, it was enveloped by the physical maternal sheath. This first state lasts until the age of seven. Until then, it is surrounded by the etheric sheath. Now, by about the time of sexual maturity, the human being is also freed from this sheath, and then the astral body is born. At the age of twenty-one, the “I” is born.

[ 3 ] When we consider this development, we can say that it takes place in every human being according to certain laws. Certain rules can be followed in this regard, which are outlined in the small treatise The Education of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science, and it is beneficial to follow them. But now comes what is unique to each individual: an inner current that runs parallel to the first current. The second current takes place within the first. This second current encompasses everything from past lives and from one’s own experiences. The difference between the outer and inner currents of development can be recognized in every person, especially in those with significant character traits.

[ 4 ] Petöfi is a Hungarian poet. His compatriots saw something very special in him. His Hungarian identity is expressed in his lyric poems. Through them, one comes to understand the Hungarian way of wanting, feeling, and thinking. If one looks into this more closely, one learns that his name was not actually Petőfi; rather, his father was Serbian and his mother Croatian. There was nothing Magyar in him. What developed within him was not Hungarian: that was his external development. Then there is the inner development, which reflects what remains from previous lives: Hungarian in essence.

[ 5 ] Another example is the German painter Asmus Carstens. He had an unbridled urge to paint. If you have the opportunity to see his works, you’ll say: These are the works of someone who can’t paint at all. - But his individuality is evident in his paintings. He wanted to study painting under a famous artist, but when the artist went on a trip, he was supposed to drive the carriage. He refused to do that and left. He then became an apprentice to a wine merchant and had to wash barrels. Later, he went to Copenhagen. There, he was not accepted into the Academy—they said he was too old. — So he never learned to paint and has no sense of color, but what he created has become something significant for art. This is an example of those cases where there is such a special drive from past lives, but where external circumstances are not conducive to its development.

[ 6 ] We must apply such findings from spiritual research to our lives if we wish to approach life correctly; otherwise, life itself might prove that we have neglected something. For example: An individual enters life. They are predestined to accomplish something. But we fail to properly develop their bodies through education. In their seventeenth and eighteenth years—years of crisis—it becomes apparent that the physical bodies have not been properly developed: the astral body is not in harmony with the drives and desires; the etheric body is not in harmony with the appropriate skills and habits. Then the outer and inner development are out of sync. In milder cases, people lose their inner balance; but a complete disruption of the soul life can also occur. When something like this happens during the crisis years, it is due to nothing other than the lack of harmony among the various currents.

[ 7 ] We must provide the human “I” with concepts and an understanding of life: habits for the etheric body, concepts for the astral body. What carries over from the previous life must be allowed to develop freely.

[ 8 ] In the grand evolution of humanity, we can see how the two currents of development merge. The souls who are now incarnated here were previously incarnated in other eras: the Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian eras. The world was different when your souls looked up at the venerable pyramids. If the Earth were always the same, then incarnations would serve no purpose. They have meaning precisely because different things occur time and again.

[ 9 ] Now, it could be that one, two, or three lifetimes were not properly utilized—for example, during the Egyptian-Babylonian period. In that case, one would have missed out on something that could never be regained. Inner development thus proceeds in tandem with outer life—with what we can learn from outer life. Thus, a disharmony can also arise between the outer and inner currents of development. Now one might say: What you are telling us is distressing; it could be that we have missed something we can never make up for. Only Spiritual Science sheds light on this, and now we can no longer make it up. — But that is not the case. Until now, human beings were not at all in a position to choose and miss out on things freely and independently. Only now is the time beginning when souls can miss out on something. That is why Spiritual Science is coming only now—so that people may hear what they can miss out on, and see how they incur guilt when they do so. That is why Spiritual Science is being proclaimed now—because humanity needs it now.

[ 10 ] The human soul, with its abilities, was not always as it is today. In the past, people possessed an ancient, dim form of clairvoyance. In ancient times, the waking states were not as developed as they are today. Objects were surrounded by an etheric aura. Between waking and sleeping, human beings lived in the spiritual worlds and were there among spiritual-divine beings. Back then, people knew not only from stories but from experience that spiritual worlds exist. The further back we go, the more we see human beings in this spiritual world. The gates to this spiritual world then gradually closed before them. One can pinpoint such moments quite precisely. A proverb says, “Nature takes no leaps.” This proverb is very imprecise and inaccurate. Where a green leaf blossoms into a flower, there is a leap, and so it is

[ 11 ] Just as we can specify here the exact transition from the green leaf to the flower, so too can we specify the time when clairvoyance ceased. Of course, it happened gradually, but on average it ceased at a specific time. This point in time can be specified as 3101 B.C. That was when people shed their old clairvoyance. Before that time, a dim form of clairvoyance still existed, like a memory of an even older form of clairvoyance. In that early age, people could truly see clearly into the spiritual world. And there was an even earlier time when people regarded the physical world as something utterly insignificant. That was the Golden Age. This was followed by the Silver Age, during which people still gazed into the spiritual worlds. Then came the Bronze Age, in which people retained a memory of the ancient clairvoyance, and following that—beginning in 3101—the next age, our own age, in which the gates to the spiritual world have closed.

[ 12 ] Krita Yuga is the first, the Golden Age; the second, Treta Yuga, the Silver Age; the third, Dvapara Yuga, the Bronze Age; the fourth, Kali Yuga, also called the Dark Age, beginning in the year 3101 B.C. Within the Dark Age, we must find that which could not possibly be found anywhere else: 3,000 years after the beginning of this age, we find the event at Golgotha.

[ 13 ] Humanity could no longer ascend to the gods. Therefore, a god had to descend. This is what happened with the Christ event. The human “I” could only find its full expression in the Kali Yuga. That is why the event of Golgotha had to take place here. The destinies that can be recounted in earthly terms were those of Christ Jesus. When initiates of old ascended to the spiritual world, this had to be described in spiritual terms. That is why people do not understand it today. Because this God led an earthly life, it was possible to speak of him in earthly terms. That was also a time of transition. One cannot express this more clearly than with the words: Change the state of your souls, for the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near to you. — The understanding of the connection with the Kingdom of Heaven can be found by the “I” only within itself. You can no longer find it beyond your earthly “I”; rather, Heaven has drawn near to your very “I.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit” also points to this. In the past, the Spirit was given to them. Now people have become poor. They can now find the Spirit only within their own self.

[ 14 ] It is a childish view to say that Christ or John the Baptist proclaimed a kingdom that would return after a thousand years. The point was merely to suggest that we should enter the kingdom through our own selves. That special time has come again today. We might miss this opportunity.

[ 15 ] The Latin historian Tacitus does not speak of the Christians as something significant, but rather as a new sect. It was said in Rome that in a remote street there was a new sect whose leader was a certain Jesus. — That’s how something important can be overlooked! Just as that era was an important transitional period, we now find ourselves in a transitional period that may not be quite as significant, but is nonetheless important. Humanity is acquiring new abilities. These abilities must be applied in order to discover Christ more and more.

[ 16 ] The Kali Yuga had come to an end in 1899. New powers are emerging within human beings, but not only those that, as it is written in The Secret Science, can be attained through occult training. In the coming decades, it will come to pass that some people will say they see human beings in an entirely different light. Science will no longer satisfy them. People will gradually come to see the etheric body. Some people will foresee and predict this and that, connections, and so on. This is gradually coming to pass.

[ 17 ] Two things could now happen. Let us suppose that anthroposophy had never existed—that is, a discipline claiming to be able to explain such things. Then people would say: Those who see such things are insane—and they would lock them up in mental institutions. Or, on the other hand, anthroposophy might be fortunate enough to find its way into people’s hearts. Thus, we again have two currents of development: the abilities just described develop within the outer current of humanity; our individuality, however, must grow into these abilities. The human “I” must learn to understand what it is, actually, that is developing there.

[ 18 ] It is by no means necessary that what anthroposophy now proclaims as prophecy be believed or heeded. And if what was prophesied were not to come to pass, people would say: “See, that was just fantasy.” — “But people just don’t understand that; development would then have taken a course it shouldn’t have. Humanity would then wither and become rigid.”

[ 19 ] Christ lived in a physical body only once. If a person in former times, in pre-Christian times, could see into the spiritual worlds, he was told: There is still something—a spiritual being—that is not yet visible today, but a time will come when this will be visible, and then a time will come when this great Spirit will live in a physical body. — A man who knew of this lived in Palestine, but he did not recognize the Christ. Yet when, through clairvoyance, he perceived the Christ in His etheric body, he realized that what he had known would come to pass had indeed been fulfilled. Then he knew that the Christ had lived. That was the event at Damascus.

[ 20 ] Christ can always be found in his etheric body by clairvoyant consciousness. When this further development of humanity takes place, people will experience the Damascus event. These abilities will emerge as the Kali Yuga comes to an end. And the ability to experience the Damascus event will emerge between 1930 and 1940. And if one does not pass blindly by this moment, then one will be able to speak of coming to Christ. This is what is called in the occult schools: the Second Coming of Christ. - Then an age will dawn that will last 2,500 years. More and more people will elevate themselves to Christ through the anthroposophical perspective. In the first half of the 20th century, the Second Coming of Christ will be able to take place. Christianity will be deepened and further developed as a result.

[ 21 ] We can say the same thing today as we did then: Change the state of your souls so that you may find the Kingdom of Heaven, which is drawing near! — We must ensure that this time does not pass unnoticed.

[ 22 ] It will also have an effect on those who have passed through physical death between now and then, just as Christ does. For someone who dies around 1920, it will be possible to understand in Devachan what is happening here at that time—but only if he has acquired an understanding of it during his earthly life and has prepared himself for it.

[ 23 ] What has now been said will be repeated even more frequently over the next ten years, so that time does not pass in vain. It must also be heard by those who are so deeply entrenched in materialism that they can only imagine Christ reappearing in a physical body. False messiahs will appear around the middle of the 20th century who will tell people that they are Christ. And it will be up to true anthroposophy to recognize that they are not, that these are merely materialistic ideas at play. Thus, it is important for anthroposophists to know that life in the spirit must be present.

[ 24 ] We are living in an important transitional era, so to speak. Time is passing quickly. The Kali Yuga lasted 5,000 years. The next era will last 2,500 years.

[ 25 ] The union with Christ is what now lies immediately ahead. Christ will not descend to humanity, but humanity will ascend to Christ.