The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] If we wish to understand the full significance of the Christ event for the evolution of humanity, we must first once again mention a fact that those of you who attended the lectures on the Gospel of Luke in Basel last year are already familiar with. We must mention this fact all the more because, at this moment, we wish to set the main points of the Christ event before our souls, so that in the coming hours we may, so to speak, add more details to the picture we intend to sketch today with a few broad strokes. But in order to draw these broad strokes, it is necessary for us to recall a fundamental law of human evolution, namely the law that, in the course of evolution, human beings continually acquire new and new abilities and ascend to ever greater and greater stages of perfection—if we wish to call them that. Outwardly, this fact may seem trivial to you if you simply look back historically at the brief period that can be encompassed by external history—a time when certain abilities in human beings had not yet developed—and then trace, through the turning of the ages, how new abilities have poured into humanity over time and ultimately brought about our present-day culture. However, for a very specific ability to awaken in human nature and then gradually become a general human ability—an ability that, so to speak, anyone can acquire in due time—it is necessary for this ability to first appear somewhere in a particularly significant sense.

[ 2 ] In my discussion of the Gospel of Luke last year, I drew attention to the “Eightfold Path” that humanity can follow if it adheres to what Gautama Buddha has contributed to human development. You can describe this eightfold path, as is commonly done, as: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. These are certain qualities of the human soul. We can say: Since the time when Gautama Buddha lived, human nature has risen to such a level that it has become possible for human beings to gradually develop within themselves—as an inner capacity of human nature—the qualities of this Eightfold Path. Before that, however, before Gautama Buddha lived on Earth in his incarnation as the Buddha, it was not yet part of human nature to acquire these qualities. So let us note: In order for these qualities to develop gradually within human nature, it was necessary that, through the presence of such a lofty being as Gautama Buddha, the impetus be given within physical human nature so that, over the course of centuries and millennia, these abilities could develop independently within human beings. I mentioned at the time that these abilities will now develop independently in a larger number of people; and when a sufficiently large number of people have attained these abilities, then the Earth will be ready to receive the next Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha, who is now a Bodhisattva.

[ 3 ] Thus, between these two events, we have encompassed that process of development in which a sufficiently large number of people are to acquire the higher intellectual, moral, and emotional qualities designated as the Eightfold Path. But for such progress to take place, it is necessary that the impetus for further development be provided once by a particularly exalted individuality in a specific event. Thus, it once happened that all these qualities of the Eightfold Path were comprehensively present in a single human being, namely in the personality of Gautama Buddha. And through this, that personality provided the impetus enabling all human beings to acquire these qualities. Such is the law of human evolution: Something of this nature must first be present in a single personality in a fully comprehensive sense; then, little by little—albeit over the course of millennia—it flows into humanity, so that all people can absorb this impulse and develop those abilities.

[ 4 ] What is to flow into humanity through the Christ event is something that will not take, say, five millennia, as was the case with what was to come into humanity through Gautama Buddha. What has flowed into humanity through the Christ Being will manifest and take effect within humanity as a special capacity for the entire remainder of Earth’s evolution. But what, exactly, is it that has come through the Christ event in a similar way—only as an infinitely greater impulse than that of the Buddha?

[ 5 ] If we wish to contemplate what has come into humanity through the Christ event, we can characterize it as follows: What in all ancient, pre-Christian times could only reach human beings within the mysteries has, since the Christ event, become possible in a certain way—and will become more and more possible as a general characteristic of human nature. How so? First and foremost, we must clarify for ourselves the nature of the ancient mysteries and the nature of initiation in pre-Christian times.

[ 6 ] This initiation varied among the different peoples of the world and also differed in the post-Atlantean era. The entire scope of the initiation was distributed in such a way that one particular part of the initiation was undergone by this or that people, while another part of the initiation was undergone by other peoples. Anyone who stands on the ground of reincarnation will be able to answer for themselves the question that might be raised, such as: Why could not every people in ancient times have undergone the entire scope of initiation? This was not necessary for the following reason: a soul born into a particular people and undergoing a part of the initiation there was not limited to that single incarnation within that people, but was reincarnated alternately among other peoples, where it could undergo the corresponding other part of the initiation.

[ 7 ] If we want to understand the nature of initiation, we must say: Initiation is the human being’s glimpse into the spiritual world, which cannot be granted to his sensory perception or external intellect, which is bound to the instruments of the physical body. In normal life, so to speak, a person has two opportunities within twenty-four hours to be where the initiate also is. However, the initiate is there in a different way than a person in normal earthly life. So, in fact, a person is always there; they just are unaware of it. The initiate, however, is aware of it. As is well known, within twenty-four hours of their life, a person spends time in both a waking and a sleeping state. We have described this in sufficient detail so that everyone is familiar with how, upon falling asleep, a person steps out of their physical and etheric bodies with their I and astral body. There, with their I and astral body, they pour out into our entire cosmos—the one that concerns us most directly—and draw from the cosmos the currents they need during their waking daily life. Thus, from the moment of falling asleep until waking, a human being is indeed spread out across the entire world that concerns them. But they are unaware of this. Their consciousness fades at the moment they fall asleep, when the astral body and the “I” step out of the physical and etheric bodies, so that although a person lives in the great world—the macrocosm—during sleep, they are unaware of this in their normal earthly existence. - This is precisely what initiation consists of: that a person learns not only to live unconsciously in the cosmos, where they are spread out across the entire cosmos, but also to consciously participate in everything, to consciously enter into the existence of the other world bodies connected to our Earth. This is the essence of initiation into the great world.

[ 8 ] If a person were to fall asleep unprepared and were able to perceive what exists in the world in which he lives while asleep, then—due to the powerful, magnificent impression that presents itself to him—he would experience something that can only be compared to the unawares eye being dazzled by the sun’s rays and beams of light. A person would experience a cosmic dazzling and be killed in their soul by this dazzling. And all initiation is based on the fact that a person enters the great world, the macrocosm, not unprepared, but prepared and with strengthened faculties, so that they can withstand the impact. This is the one thing we must describe as the essence of initiation: acclimatizing to the world, being illuminated, becoming aware of the world in which a person is immersed at night and of which they know nothing while asleep.

[ 9 ] This sojourn in the greater world is particularly dazzling and confusing because, in the sensory world, human beings are accustomed to conditions that are entirely different from those they then encounter in the greater world. In the sensory world, a person is accustomed, so to speak, to viewing all things from a single perspective; and if they are to allow anything to approach them that does not exactly correspond to the opinions they have formed from that one perspective, then it is wrong to them; then it does not make sense to them. If one were to carry this view—that all things must conform in this way, a view that is, of course, quite useful and convenient for life on the physical plane—beyond initiation into the macrocosm, one would never be able to cope. For just as a person lives in the sensory world, they focus on a kind of point, and from that point—from their shell—they judge all circumstances. Whatever aligns with the opinion they have formed is true; whatever does not align with it is false. But when they undergo initiation, they must go out into the wider world. Let us suppose, for a moment, that a person were to go out in a certain direction; then they would experience only what lies in that particular direction and leave everything else unnoticed—it would remain unknown to them. But a person cannot go out into the macrocosm in just one direction; rather, they must go in all possible directions. Going out is an expansion, a spreading out into the macrocosm. There, the possibility of having a single vantage point ceases entirely. One must be able to view the world from a single point, as it were, toward oneself—because one also looks back—but one must also be able to view the world from a second and a third vantage point. This means that, above all, one must develop a certain flexibility of perception; one must gain the capacity for comprehensiveness.

[ 10 ] Of course, it is also the case that we cannot calculate with infinite ratios, but only with average ratios. And in fact, you need not immediately fear that an infinite number of perspectives must be attained, as is theoretically possible; rather, for all circumstances that can possibly affect human beings, twelve perspectives suffice—perspectives that are symbolized in the star language of the mystery schools by the twelve signs of the zodiac. For example, a person must not only reach out into the cosmos in the direction of Cancer, but must do so in such a way that they truly view the world from twelve different perspectives. It is of no help to seek harmony in an abstract, intellectual language. One can seek harmony afterward in the various resulting perspectives. First, it is necessary to view the world from different angles.

[ 11 ] I would like to point out, as an aside, that in all those world movements based on occult truths, there is, so to speak, a crux—a cross to bear—in that the habits of life that are otherwise accepted are so easily carried over into these movements. When one is compelled to communicate the truths attained through supersensory research, it is necessary—even when describing them only exoterically—to ensure that the material is presented from various points of view. And those who have been following our movement quite closely for years will surely have noticed that, fundamentally, it has always been our aim not to present a one-sided account, but to describe things from the most diverse points of view. This, of course, is also the reason why people who wish to judge everything solely according to the customary practices of the physical plane find contradictions here and there; for a matter certainly looks different when viewed from one side or the other. It is easy to find contradictions in such cases. However, in a movement of Spiritual Science, one of its fundamental principles should also be interpreted to mean that when something is said that seems to differ from what was said elsewhere, one should take into account that it may have been described from a particular perspective in one instance or another. But so that such an unjust spirit of contradiction does not prevail among us, we make a point of presenting matters from various perspectives. For example, participants in last year’s Munich lecture series, “The Children of Lucifer and the Brothers of Christ,” were able to find profound cosmic mysteries described from the standpoint of Eastern philosophy. But it is essential for anyone who wishes to venture out into the cosmos along the path described to cultivate flexibility and an open-minded perspective. If they are unwilling to do so, they will simply find themselves lost in a labyrinth. For one must bear in mind that while it is true that human beings can adapt to the world, it is also true that the world does not adapt to human beings. If a person goes out with preconceptions in only one direction and wishes to remain stationary at that vantage point, it will happen that the world, in the meantime, moves forward, while he lags behind in evolution. If, for example—to speak in the language of the stars—a person wishes, so to speak, to go out only in the direction of Aries and believes he is standing in the constellation of Aries, and the world, as a result of its continued movement, now reveals to them what lies in the constellation of Pisces, then they regard what comes from Pisces—spoken symbolically in the language of the stars—as an experience of Aries. This is how confusion arises, and the person then finds themselves truly lost within the labyrinth. This is why it is important to bear in mind that human beings do indeed need twelve vantage points, twelve perspectives, to find their way in the labyrinth of the macrocosm. This is the first thing we wish to accept as a characteristic of living outward into the macrocosm. But there is another way in which a person is in the divine-spiritual world without knowing it: namely, during the other part of the twenty-four hours of the day. Upon waking, a person does indeed enter the physical body and the etheric body, but perceives nothing of it. For at the moment of waking, when they enter these bodies, a person’s perception is immediately diverted to the external world. They would perceive something entirely different if they were to consciously descend into their physical body and etheric body.

[ 12 ] Thus, through the state of sleep, human beings are protected from consciously entering the macrocosm, for which they are not prepared. And they are protected from consciously descending into the physical body and etheric body by having their powers of perception directed toward the external world. The danger that would arise for a person if they were to descend unprepared into their physical and etheric bodies is somewhat different from the cosmic bewilderment and confusion that we have described as the danger of venturing unprepared into the macrocosm.

[ 13 ] When a person enters the nature of his physical and etheric bodies unprepared and identifies with it, what actually happens is that the very thing for which he was given the earthly physical and etheric bodies develops into a particular strength. Why were these two given to him? So that he might live in an “I” nature and develop an “I” consciousness. But the “I” enters the world of the physical body and the etheric body unprepared, unpurified, and unrefined. When a person descends unprepared into the physical body and the etheric body, they are so overwhelmed that the mystical perception that now arises excludes inner truth by presenting illusions before them. In exchange for opening their gaze to their own inner nature, human beings become connected to everything within them—selfish desires and wickedness, selfish impulses, and so on. They do not normally connect with these things; for during the day, their gaze is diverted to the experiences of the external world, and these are nothing compared to what can develop from within human nature itself.

[ 14 ] I have mentioned on other occasions what the Christian martyrs and saints describe to us as their experiences when they first connected with their own nature and immersed themselves in what lived within them. It should be noted that this is the very same thing we wish to point out here, and that by shutting out external perceptions and turning inward, these Christian saints describe to us the temptations and seductions that seized them. The descriptions given therein correspond entirely to the truth. Therefore, it is actually immensely instructive to study the biographies of the saints from this perspective—to see how the passions, emotions, drives, and everything that resides within a person operate, and what distracts a person when, in normal life, they direct their gaze toward the external world. Thus we can say: When descending into their own inner being, human beings are, as it were, compressed down to their ego, completely entangled in their ego, intensely condensed into that point where they want to be nothing other than an “I,” where they desire nothing else but to satisfy their own wishes and desires, where precisely the evil that lies within them seeks to take hold of their ego. That is the mood that prevails in this process.

[ 15 ] Thus we see, on the one hand, how the danger of being dazzled arises for human beings when they seek to expand into the cosmos unprepared, and, on the other hand, how they are drawn together, compressed, and forced entirely into their ego when they immerse themselves unprepared into their own physical and etheric bodies.

[ 16 ] However, there is also another aspect of initiation that has been developed among certain other peoples. While one aspect—the reaching out into the macrocosm—has been particularly developed among the Aryan and northern peoples, the other aspect has been highly developed among the Egyptians. There is also this form of initiation, in which a person approaches the divine by turning their gaze inward and, through internalization—by descending into their own nature—comes to know the workings of the divine within their own nature.

[ 17 ] In the ancient mysteries, the development of humanity as a whole had not yet progressed to the point where initiation—whether directed outward toward the macrocosm or inward toward the human being itself, toward the microcosm—could be carried out in such a way that the individual was left entirely to his or her own devices. For example, when an Egyptian initiation was performed and the person was guided into the forces of his physical and etheric bodies, so that he fully and consciously experienced the events of his physical and etheric bodies, the most terrible passions and emotions would, as it were, burst forth from all sides of his astral nature; demonic, diabolical worlds emerged from within him. That is why, in the Egyptian mysteries, the one who served as hierophant needed assistants to receive whatever emerged and to channel it through their own nature. Hence the twelve assistants of the initiator, who had to receive the emerging demons. In this way, in the ancient initiation, the human being was essentially never completely free. For whatever necessarily had to develop during the descent into the physical and etheric bodies could and was allowed to develop only if and because the human being had the twelve assistants around him who received and tamed the demons.

[ 18 ] The situation was similar in the Nordic mysteries, where the transition into the macrocosm could take place because there were, once again, twelve servants of the initiator who transferred their powers to the initiate, so that he might develop the capacity to truly adopt the mode of thought and feeling necessary to navigate the labyrinth of the macrocosm.

[ 19 ] Such an initiation, in which a person is entirely without freedom and is entirely dependent on the initiator’s assistants to drive out the demons, should gradually give way to a different kind of initiation, in which a person can come to terms with himself, and in which the one who brings about the initiation and provides the means simply says: ‘This and that must be done’—and where the individual can then gradually find their way on their own. Humanity has not yet progressed very far along this path. But it will gradually develop as an independent capacity within humanity, so that the individual, without assistance, can both ascend into the macrocosm and descend into the microcosm, and, as a free being, pass through both aspects of initiation. The Christ Event was there to make this possible. For human beings, the Christ Event marks the starting point for freely descending into the physical body and the etheric body, just as it does for venturing out into the macrocosm, into the great world. Once, in a comprehensive way, the descent into the physical and etheric bodies, as well as the outreach into the macrocosm, had to be accomplished by a being of the highest order, such as Christ Jesus. And this is, in essence, the Christ Event: that this all-encompassing being of Christ, as it were, “demonstrated” to humanity what, in the course of the Earth’s maturation, at least a sufficiently large number of people can now attain. For this to happen, it was necessary that this event occur once. — So what happened through the Christ Event?

[ 20 ] On the one hand, it was necessary for the Christ Being itself to descend once into the physical body and the etheric body. And because the physical body and etheric body of a human being could be sanctified to such an extent that the Christ Being descended—which has happened only once—the impulse has been given in human evolution for every person who seeks it to be able to experience, of their own free will, the descent into the physical body and etheric body. To this end, the Christ Being had to descend to Earth and accomplish what had never been accomplished before, what had never happened before. For in the ancient mysteries, the activity of the assistants had brought about something entirely different. In the ancient mysteries, a person could descend into the mysteries of the physical body and the etheric body and ascend into the mysteries of the macrocosm, but only in such a way that they were not actually living in their physical body at the time. Although they could penetrate the mysteries of the physical body, they could not do so from within the physical body; they had to be, so to speak, completely free of the body. And when they returned, they could indeed remember the experiences in the spiritual spheres, but they could not carry these experiences over into the physical body. It was a matter of remembering, but not of bringing them back into the physical body.

[ 21 ] This was to be radically changed by the Christ event, and indeed it was. Thus, prior to the Christ event, there simply was no such physical body or etheric body that had ever experienced the “I” permeating the entire fullness of human inner life all the way down into the physical body and etheric body. Before that, it was truly the case that no one could penetrate with their “I” all the way down into the physical body and etheric body. This happened for the first time with the Christ event. And from there also emanated the other influence: that a being who, though standing infinitely above humanity, was nevertheless united with human nature, poured out into the macrocosm without external aid through his own “I.” But this had been possible only through Christ. Only in this way is it possible for human beings to acquire the ability to gradually venture out into the macrocosm of their own free will. These are the two fundamental pillars that we encounter in this way in both Gospels—in the Gospel of Luke and also in the Gospel of Matthew. How so?

[ 22 ] We have seen that Zarathustra, with the same individuality that was the great Teacher of Asia in ancient post-Atlantean times, later incarnated as Zarathas or Nazarathos, and that with the same individuality he incarnated in the boy Jesus, whom we have described in the Gospel of Matthew Gospel, who descended from the Solomonic line of the House of David. We have seen that, over the course of twelve years, the Zarathustra individuality developed within this boy Jesus—that is, within itself—all the qualities that could be developed in the vessel of the physical body and the etheric body of a descendant of the House of Solomon. He possessed these qualities solely because he had lived for twelve years in this physical body and etheric body. One acquires human abilities by working them out in vehicles. Then the Zarathustra individuality left this Jesus child and passed over into the other Jesus child described in the Gospel of Luke—the one descended from the Nathanic line of the House of David, who was born as the second Jesus child and was raised in Nazareth in the neighborhood of the first. The Zarathustra individuality passed into this boy at the very moment described in the Gospel of Luke as his being found in the Temple in Jerusalem after he had gone missing during the festival. While the Solomonic Jesus-child died soon after, Zarathustra grew up within the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke until he was thirty years old and acquired all the abilities one can acquire with the tools at one’s disposal—especially when, on the one hand, one has already brought with oneself what one could acquire in a physical body and etheric body prepared in the manner as we have described, and if, furthermore, one can add what one can attain in such an astral body and I-bearer as the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke possessed.

[ 23 ] Thus Zarathustra grew up in this body of the Luke-Jesus until the age of thirty; with all the qualities he was able to develop, he had progressed so far within the body we have described that he was now able to make his third great sacrifice: the sacrifice of the physical body, which would now, for three years, become the physical body of the Christ Being. Thus, the Zarathustra individuality—having previously sacrificed its astral body and etheric body for Hermes and Moses—now sacrifices the physical body; that is, it leaves this shell, which contains everything else within it besides the etheric body and astral body. And what had until then been filled by the Zarathustra individuality is now taken over by a being of a wholly unique nature, who is the source of all significant wisdom for all the great teachers of wisdom: Christ. This is the event that is hinted at to us—we shall describe it in greater detail later—in the baptism of John in the Jordan, that event whose comprehensiveness and sheer magnitude are hinted at to us in one Gospel with the words: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I see myself, in whom my own Self appears to me!” and what cannot be translated with the trivial words: “... in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). In other Gospels it is even stated: “You are my beloved Son; today I have begotten you.” Here it is clearly indicated to us that this is a birth, namely, the birth of Christ into the vessel that Zarathustra first prepared and then sacrificed. At the moment of John’s baptism, the Christ-essence enters the human vessel prepared by Zarathustra. Here we are dealing with a rebirth of these three vessels, as they are permeated by the substantiality of the Christ. The baptism by John is a rebirth of the vessels nurtured by Zarathustra and the birth of Christ on Earth. Now Christ is in a human body—indeed, in human bodies that have been specially prepared, but still human bodies such as other people also possess, albeit in a more imperfect form.

[ 24 ] Christ, the highest individuality that can be connected to the Earth, is now in human bodies. If he is to exemplify the greatest event—if he is to exemplify full initiation—he must exemplify both aspects: the descent into the physical body and the etheric body, and the ascent into the macrocosm. The Christ exemplifies both of these events for humanity. However, as must be the case with all Christ-related events in nature, these events must present themselves to us in such a way that, during the descent into the physical and etheric bodies, the Christ is immune to all the trials that do indeed confront him but which simply bounce off him. Likewise, it must be clear that the dangers that approach human beings as they venture out into the macrocosm cannot harm him.

[ 25 ] The Gospel of Matthew describes how the Christ Being truly descends into the physical body and the etheric body after John’s baptism. And the account of this event is the story of the Temptation (Matt. 4:1–11). We will see how this scene of the temptation reflects in every detail the experiences that a human being undergoes when he descends into the physical body and the etheric body. Thus, the entry of the Christ into a human physical body and etheric body—the constriction onto the human “I”—is exemplified in the human being, so that it is possible to say: This is how it can be; all of this can happen to you! If you remember the Christ, if you become Christ-like, then you will have the strength to face all of this and even to overcome everything that wells up from the physical and etheric bodies!

[ 26 ] This is the first striking feature in the Gospel of Matthew: the scene of the temptation. It depicts one aspect of initiation—the descent into the physical body and the etheric body. The other aspect of initiation—the expansion into the macrocosm—is also described, specifically by first showing how Christ, with human nature—in the full sense of the sensory, human nature—undertakes this expansion into the macrocosm.

[ 27 ] I would like to at least mention an obvious objection here. We will address it fully in the coming days, but today let us at least outline the main points—namely, the objection: If Christ was truly such a lofty being, why did he have to go through all of this, why did he have to enter the physical and etheric bodies, why did he have to step out like a human being and expand into the macrocosm? He did not need it for himself; he had to do it for humanity! In the higher spheres, with the substantialities of the higher spheres, those beings who were of the same nature as Christ were able to do so. In a human physical body and etheric body, this had not yet occurred. A human body had not yet been permeated by the Christ-essence. Divine substance has stepped out into space. But what lives within the human being has not yet been carried out into space. Only a Christ could take this with him and pour it out into space. A God in human nature had to do this for the first time!

[ 28 ] And this second event is described by the establishment, so to speak, of the second pillar in the Gospel of Matthew, where it is shown that the second aspect of initiation—the reaching out into the wider world, the merging with the sun and the stars—was truly accomplished through Christ in human nature. There he was first anointed—anointed like any other human being—so that he might be purified, so that he might be protected against whatever might initially approach him from the physical world. There we see how the anointing, which plays a role in the ancient mysteries, appears to us again on a higher level, on historical ground, whereas otherwise it was a temple anointing (Matthew 26:6–13). And we see how Christ now expresses his immersion into the whole world—not merely being within himself, but pouring himself out into the entire rest of the world—at the Passover meal, where he explains to those standing around him that he feels himself present in all that is manifested on earth as solid matter—which is alluded to in the words “I am the bread”—and likewise in all that is liquid (Matt. 26:17–30). This conscious stepping out into the wider world is hinted at in the Passover meal, just as a person unconsciously steps out while asleep. And the feeling of all that a human being must experience as an approaching daze is expressed in the monumental words: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death!” (Matt. 26:38). Christ Jesus actually experiences what human beings otherwise experience as being killed, as being paralyzed, as a daze. In the scene at Gethsemane, He experiences what might be called: the physical body, forsaken by the soul, manifests its own states of anxiety. What is experienced in this scene is meant to depict how the soul expands into the world and how the body is forsaken (Matt. 26:36–46).

[ 29 ] And everything that follows is indeed meant to depict the reaching out into the macrocosm: the crucifixion, what is symbolized by the burial, and everything else that took place in the Mysteries. This is the other pillar of the Gospel of Matthew: the expansion into the macrocosm. And the Gospel of Matthew expresses this clearly by pointing out that Christ Jesus had hitherto lived in the physical body that then hung on the cross. He was concentrated in that point in space, but now he expands into the entire cosmos. And anyone who were to seek him now would not have seen him in that physical body, but would have had to seek him clairvoyantly in the Spirit that permeates all spaces.

[ 30 ] After Christ had in fact accomplished what had previously been accomplished—albeit with outside help—during the three and a half days of the Mysteries, after he had accomplished precisely what he was being accused of—because he had said, “Let them tear down this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it” (Matt. 26:61)—which clearly points to the initiation into the macrocosm otherwise performed over the course of three and a half days—he also indicates that, after this scene, he is no longer to be found where the essence of Christ Jesus was enclosed within the physical realm, but rather outside in the Spirit that pervades the spaces of the worlds. This is usually translated in this way, and even in these weak translations of more recent times, it confronts us with all its majesty: “Soon you will have to seek the Being who is born of human evolution, at the right hand of Power, and He will appear to you from the clouds” (Matt. 26:64). There you must seek the Christ, poured out into the world, as the model of the great initiation that a human being experiences when he leaves the body and lives himself out, expanding into the macrocosm.

[ 31 ] This marks the beginning and end of Christ’s actual life, which begins with the birth of Christ into that body we spoke of in connection with the baptism by John. There it begins with one aspect of the initiation: the descent into the physical and etheric bodies in the story of the Temptation. And it concludes with the other aspect of the initiation: the expansion into the macrocosm, which begins with the scene of the Last Supper and is further depicted in the events of the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, and the Resurrection. These are the two points within which the events of the Gospel of Matthew are situated. And now let us place these within what we have initially sketched out, as it were, with charcoal.