The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eighth Lecture

[ 1 ] What we mentioned yesterday regarding the elevation of the two aspects of initiation to the level of world-historical events in the Christ event also reveals, when fully understood, the essence of this Christ event.

[ 2 ] An initiation or consecration that consisted in a person, as it were, experiencing the daily process of waking up in such a way that, upon descending into the physical and etheric bodies, the faculty of perception is not diverted to the external physical environment, but is instead attuned to the processes of the etheric and physical bodies; we had, in fact, provided this kind of initiation especially in all the mystery schools and initiation centers based on the sacred culture of Egypt. Those who sought such an initiation in the ancient sense—that is, in the sense that they were guided and directed so that the dangers arising during such an initiation might be overcome— were thereby placed in a certain relationship to other people—to those who, during the act of initiation, were able to look into the spiritual world, initially into those spiritual forces and beings that are involved with our physical and etheric bodies.

[ 3 ] If we now wish to characterize the Essene initiation from this perspective, we can say: When an Essene passed through the forty-two stages described and thereby attained a more precise knowledge of his true inner self, his true “I” nature, and all that enables human beings to see through the external organs determined by heredity, such an Essene was led beyond the forty-two stages to that spiritual-divine Being who, as Yahweh or Jehovah, brought about the organ I described to you in connection with Abraham; he then perceived this in spirit as the organ that was essential for that time. The Essene thus looked back upon the inner, essential structure of the human inner being, which was, after all, a result of this divine-spiritual being. The aim of such an initiation was therefore the knowledge of the human inner being.

[ 4 ] I gave you a general description yesterday of what lies in store for a person when they are able to delve into their inner self unprepared. I said that, at first, all forms of egoism awaken within a person—everything that leads a person to say to themselves: “All the forces within me, all the passions and emotions connected to my ‘I’ that want nothing to do with the spiritual world—I want to have them within me in such a way that I can connect with them and act, perceive, and feel solely from my own egoistic inner self!” —So this is the danger: that a person will grow to the highest degree of selfishness through such a descent into their inner self. This is also the kind of illusion that repeatedly befalls those who, even today, seek to descend into their own inner self through esoteric development. On such occasions, various forms of selfishness assert themselves in a person; and once they are present, the person generally does not believe at all that these are forms of selfishness. In fact, they would believe anything rather than admit that these are forms of selfishness. The path to the higher worlds is, after all, sufficiently described as one that—even when sought in our time—requires overcoming certain obstacles. And some of those people who, even in our time, would like to ascend the path to the higher worlds but do not want to make such efforts—who would indeed like to look into the higher worlds but do not want to experience what actually leads there—such people then repeatedly find it uncomfortable to see all manner of things arise within themselves that are simply part of human nature. They wish to ascend to the higher worlds without this surfacing of all manner of egotism and the like. They do not realize that it is often precisely in this that the harshest, most significant form of egotism reveals itself—that dissatisfaction arises with what actually occurs as something entirely normal, and about which they should ask themselves: Since I am a human being, must I not also summon all manner of such forces? They find it strange that such things exist, even though it has been explained a hundred and a hundred times that such things occur at a certain time. I merely wish to point out the illusions and deceptions to which certain people succumb. In our time, it must also be taken into account that humanity has, in a certain sense, become complacent and would prefer to ascend to the higher worlds while retaining the comforts that are otherwise cherished in ordinary life. But such comforts, as people readily create them in the ordinary spheres of existence, cannot be created on the path that is meant to lead into the spiritual worlds.

[ 5 ] Now, anyone who in ancient times had found this path into the spiritual world by undergoing the initiation that leads into the inner being of the human being was, because the inner being of the human being is created by divine-spiritual powers, thereby led into those divine-spiritual powers. One then sees the divine-spiritual forces at work in the physical body and the etheric body. Such a person became capable of being a witness, a herald of the mysteries of the spiritual world. He could tell his fellow human beings what he had experienced while being led, through the mysteries, into his own inner being and thereby into the spiritual world. But what did this entail? When such an initiate emerged from the spiritual worlds, he could say: “There I have looked into spiritual existence; but I was helped! The initiator’s assistants made it possible for me to endure the time during which, otherwise, the demons of my own nature would have weighed me down.” - But because he owed his insight into the spiritual world to this kind of external assistance, he remained dependent throughout his life on this initiatory college, on those who had helped him. The forces that had helped him went out into the world with him.

[ 6 ] That was to change. That was to be overcome. Those who were to be initiated were to become less and less dependent on those who were their teachers and initiators. For this help was connected to something else, something essential. In our everyday consciousness, we have a very distinct sense of “I” that awakens at a certain moment in our existence. This has been discussed many times before, and in my book Theosophy you will also find a description of the moment when a human being comes to address themselves as an “I.” This is something an animal cannot do. If an animal were to look within itself as a human does, it would find not an individual “I,” but a species “I,” a group “I”: it would feel that it belongs to an entire group. This sense of “I” faded away in a certain sense during the ancient initiations. So as human beings entered the spiritual worlds, their sense of “I” became clouded, and if you take everything I have said into account, you will find it understandable that this was a good thing. For it is precisely the sense of “I” to which all the egoisms, passions, and so on are linked—those forces that seek to isolate human beings from the outer world. If one did not wish to allow the passions and emotions to reach a certain intensity, the sense of self had to be suppressed. Therefore, although it was not a dream-like state of consciousness, a state of suppressed sense of self was present during the initiations into the ancient mysteries. However, the aim was to strive more and more toward enabling the human being to undergo initiation while fully maintaining his or her “I”—that “I” which the person carries with him or her in waking consciousness from the moment of waking until falling asleep. That clouding of the “I,” as it was always associated with initiation in the ancient mysteries, was to cease. This is something that, of course, can only be achieved slowly and gradually over time, but which is already being achieved to a significantly greater degree in all legitimate initiations today: that the sense of the “I” does not fade to a significant extent as the human being ascends into the higher worlds.

[ 7 ] Let us now take a closer look at such an ancient initiation, for example, an Essene initiation from pre-Christian times. This Essene initiation, too, was connected in a certain way to the fact that the sense of self was subdued. That which gives human beings their sense of self in our earthly existence—that which looks out toward external perceptions—had to be suppressed back then as well. You need only look at the most trivial aspects of everyday life to realize: In that different state, where a person is in the spiritual world during sleep consciousness, they do not have a sense of self; they have it only in waking consciousness, when they are distracted from the spiritual world and their gaze turns outward toward the physical-sensory world. This is the case with present-day human beings on Earth, and also with those for whom Christ worked on Earth. For the other world, the “I” of human beings in the present earthly age is not awakened at all under normal conditions. Now, a Christ Initiation is precisely meant to consist in the “I” remaining awakened in the higher worlds just as it is awakened in the outer world.

[ 8 ] Now let us consider—just so we can describe it—the moment of waking up in great detail. This moment presents itself to us in such a way that the human being emerges from a higher world and immerses himself in his physical body and etheric body. At this moment of immersion, however, the person does not see the inner processes of the physical body and the etheric body; rather, their powers of perception are, as it were, diverted toward the surroundings. Now, everything upon which the person’s gaze falls at the moment of waking, everything the person takes in—whether through the physical perception of the eyes or the physical perception of the ears, or whether the person reflects upon it with the intellect bound to the physical organ of the brain— everything they perceive in the physical environment—this was referred to in the terminology of ancient Hebrew esoteric teaching as “the Kingdom,” Malchuth. So we might ask: What, then, was associated with the term “the Kingdom” in ancient Hebrew usage? It encompassed everything in which the human “I” could consciously dwell. This is also the most precise definition of what was associated with the term “the Kingdom” in ancient Hebrew: that in which the human “I” can be present. If we take this expression as our starting point, we must say: In ancient Hebrew usage, “the Kingdom” primarily refers to the sensory world—the world in which a person exists in the waking state while fully maintaining their ego.

[ 9 ] Let us now consider the stages of initiation as we descend into our own inner being. The first stage—before a person can enter their etheric body and perceive its mysteries—is something that is easy to guess. As we know, the outer shell of the human being consists of the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. This is yet another stage through which the human being must pass: he must, so to speak, consciously look through his astral body from within if he wishes to experience this kind of initiation. First, they must experience the interior of their astral body if they wish to descend into the interior of their physical body and etheric body. This is the gateway through which they must pass. Yet these are always new experiences through which they must pass. There, the human being also experiences something that is objective, just as the objects of the external world are objective.

[ 10 ] If we refer to the objects of the sensory world around us—which we experience by virtue of our present human constitution—as “the realm,” then, according to our linguistic usage—ancient Hebrew usage did not yet distinguish this so precisely—we could further distinguish three realms: the mineral realm, the plant realm, and the animal realm. In ancient Hebrew usage, all of this is referred to as “a realm” and is encompassed under the single concept of “the realm” in general, as the totality of the three realms.

[ 11 ] Just as we take in the animals, plants, and minerals when we turn our gaze outward toward the sensory world—where our “I” can be present—so, for the one who dives down into his own inner being, the gaze falls upon everything he can perceive in the astral body. The human being does not see this through his or her “I,” but rather the “I” makes use of the tools of the astral body. And what the human being sees—when he or she possesses this different faculty of perception, in which the “I” is present in that world with which he or she is connected through the astral organs—is, in fact, already described by ancient Hebrew usage with three terms. Just as we have an animal, a plant, and a mineral kingdom, so ancient Hebrew usage designates the triad that one surveys through one’s presence in the astral body as Nezach, Yesod, and Hod.

[ 12 ] If one were to translate these three expressions into our language in a reasonably faithful manner, one would have to delve deeply into the linguistic sensibility of ancient Hebrew; for the usual lexical translations based on a dictionary are of no help at all here. If one were to understand what is at stake here, one would have to rely heavily on the linguistic sensibility of the pre-Christian era. For example, one would have to take into account above all that what we can designate with the sound structure “Hod” would express “the spiritual manifesting itself outwardly.” So please note well: this word would mean a spiritual reality that manifests itself outwardly, a spiritual reality striving outward, but one that is to be understood as astral. In contrast, the word “Nezach” would express this desire to reveal itself outwardly with a significantly coarser nuance. What manifests itself there is something to which we might perhaps apply the word “impenetrable.”

[ 13 ] If you pick up a physics textbook today, you will find what is presented as a statement but should actually be a definition—though logic doesn’t really matter here—namely, the definition that physical bodies are described as impenetrable. It should actually be presented as a definition: A physical body is one such that, at the point where it is located, no other body can be present at the same time. So it should be given as a definition. Instead, a dogma is established, stating: The bodies of the physical world have the property of being impenetrable. — whereas it should be stated that two bodies cannot occupy the same point at the same time. But this is something that actually belongs to philosophy. The manifestation in space such that the exclusion of another occurs—which would be the greatly simplified nuance of Hod—is expressed by the word Nezach. And what lies in between is expressed by Yesod.

[ 14 ] Thus you have three different nuances. First, the manifestation of any astral reality that reveals itself outwardly, in Hod. Where the matter has already become so coarsened that things approach us with physical impenetrability, there would be Nezach according to ancient Hebrew usage. And for the intermediate nuance, Yesod would be used. Thus, we can say that the three distinct characteristics that indeed characterize the beings of the astral world are designated by these three words.

[ 15 ] Now we can, so to speak, delve a little deeper into the human inner being together with the initiate. Once he has transcended what must first be transcended in his astral body, he enters his etheric body. There, the human being already perceives something higher than what can be described by these three words. You may ask, why “higher”? This is connected to something special, and you must pay attention to it if you wish to understand the actual inner structure of the world. You must realize that, just as the outer world presents itself to us, the highest spiritual forces have been at work in what appears to us as the lowest manifestations of the external world. I have already drawn your attention to this point on several occasions, namely when discussing human nature itself.

[ 16 ] When we describe a human being, we say that he consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an “I.” Certainly, the human “I” is, in a certain sense, the highest of these components; but as it is today, it is the infant among the four components of human nature. It is what contains within the human being the potential for the highest state he can attain, but it is now, in its own way, at the lowest stage. In contrast, the physical body is, in its own way, the most perfect component—not, however, through the human being’s own merit, but because divine-spiritual beings have worked upon the human being throughout the Saturn, Sun, and Moon eras. And the astral body, too, has already become more perfect than the human ego. So when we first look at the human ego, it is that which is closest to us, with which we identify. And one may say: Anyone who is not entirely trivial and does not wish to close their eyes to the truth need only look within themselves, and there they will find their ego. In contrast, consider this: How far removed is the human being from the mysteries of the human physical body! The physical body is something on which divine-spiritual beings have worked—not merely for millions of years, but for millions of years multiplied by millions—to bring it to its present structure. Between these lie the astral body and the etheric body. The astral body is also, in relation to the physical body, an imperfect aspect of human nature; it contains emotions, passions, desires, and so on. And through the emotions of the astral body—even though the etheric body stands in the way as a barrier—human beings indulge in many things that directly work against the marvelous organization of the human physical body. I have pointed out, for example, how many substances harmful to the heart a person consumes; how, if it were up to the astral body, their health would very soon be undermined; and how they owe their health solely to the fact that the human heart is so wonderfully and perfectly organized that it withstands the attacks of the astral body for many decades. That is how it is. The deeper we descend, the higher the spiritual forces we find that have worked upon the individual members. One could say: It is the youngest gods, the youngest divine-spiritual forces, who have given us our “I”; and it is much older gods who have brought about in our lower members that perfection which human beings today are barely beginning to comprehend, let alone being capable of replicating with their tools what the divine-spiritual forces and beings have accomplished for humanity in this marvelous structure.

[ 17 ] This perfection, however, was seen especially by those who, for example, through an Essene initiation, delved into the innermost depths of the human being. Such an Essene would say to himself: When I pass through the first fourteen stages, I first enter my astral body. There I am confronted by all the passions and emotions connected with my astral body—everything I myself have done wrong to my astral body during my incarnation. But I have not yet been able to corrupt my etheric body as much as I have corrupted my astral body. My etheric body is, in essence, still much more divine, still much purer; it reveals itself to me as I pass through the second fourteen steps. — And he had the feeling that if he had withstood the temptations of the astral body, he had overcome the hardest part after the first fourteen steps and was now entering the luminous spheres of his etheric body, whose powers he had not yet been able to corrupt to such a great extent.

[ 18 ] What the human being saw there was described in the ancient Hebrew esoteric teachings using three terms that are, once again, extremely difficult to render in our modern languages; they were called Gedulah, Tiphereth, and Geburah. Let us try to form a mental image of the three realms designated by these three terms.

[ 19 ] If a person were to perceive that with which they connect in their etheric body, then we could say, for example, that the first word, Gedulah, had the effect of giving one a mental image of all that appears majestic and grand in the spiritual realm, in the spiritual world—that which makes an overwhelming impression. In contrast, what is designated by Geburah—although related to the first word—had an entirely different nuance of greatness; it had the nuance of greatness diminished by its effect. Geburah represents the nuance of greatness, of power, that already manifests itself outwardly in order to defend itself, to assert itself as an independent entity. Thus, while the term Gedulah is associated with action arising from inner solidity and inner essence, the term Geburah is associated with a kind of action that can be described as aggressive—one that manifests outwardly through aggressive behavior. That inner repose of grandeur and inner life—which does manifest itself outwardly, but not through an aggressive nature, rather by expressing its spiritual grandeur within itself—was designated as Tiphereth, which we could only convey by combining our two concepts of goodness and beauty. A being that expresses its inner nature in such a way that this inner nature is manifested in its outer form appears beautiful to us. And a being that expresses its own inner nobility outwardly appears good to us. But in the ancient Hebrew esoteric teachings, these two concepts belong together in Tiphereth. Thus, it was the beings who manifest themselves through these three qualities with whom one established a connection upon descending into the etheric body.

[ 20 ] Then came the descent into the physical body. In the physical body, human beings became acquainted, so to speak, with the most ancient divine-spiritual beings who had worked upon them. Recall how, as described in the accounts in From the Akashic Records and in An Outline of Esoteric Science, the first rudimentary form of the physical body came into being on ancient Saturn. It is high, exalted spiritual beings—the Thrones—who sacrificed their own substance of will so that the first rudiment of the human physical body could come into being. It is high spiritual beings who, in the further course of evolution through Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon, continue to work upon this first rudiment. And in the lectures in Munich on the “Six Days of Creation,” I mentioned how these sublime spiritual beings remained connected to humanity throughout the Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods, organizing this first rudiment of the human physical body ever further and higher, so that the marvelous structure of the physical body we have today came into being—a body that humanity now inhabits together with the other three constitutional members: the etheric body, astral body, and ego.

[ 21 ] If a person could truly delve into his inner being in this way, he would perceive what the ancient Hebrew esoteric teachings described as having qualities that can be formed as mental images in a human being only when he thinks, for example, of the highest level of wisdom he can attain in his soul. Human beings look up to wisdom, so to speak, as an ideal. They feel their being elevated when they can partially fulfill it with wisdom. Those who plunged into the physical body knew that they were approaching beings who, in their entire substantiality, were that which a human being can appropriate only in a small, insignificant measure when striving for wisdom—the wisdom that is not attained through ordinary external knowledge, but through that knowledge is attained through the soul’s profound experiences, and which one does not acquire during a single incarnation but through many incarnations—and even then only in part. For only by engaging with all possibilities of wisdom could one attain full possession of wisdom. Humanity perceived beings who revealed themselves as beings of wisdom, whose most prominent and pure wisdom was the characteristic that particularly distinguished them. And in the ancient Hebrew esoteric teachings, this characteristic of such beings of wisdom was designated as Chochmah, which today is not entirely inaccurately referred to as wisdom.

[ 22 ] A particular nuance of this quality of wisdom is, once again, a certain coarsening. This is what constitutes a coarsening of wisdom in human beings as well. However, human beings attain it only to a certain limited degree within their individuality. Here, however, as human beings descend into the physical body, they encounter beings who possess this quality—which is a coarser counterpart to wisdom and was designated as “Binah” in the ancient Hebrew esoteric teachings—to such a prominent degree that they appear as beings who shine entirely through this quality. This is what can be brought forth in a human being when one reminds them of their intellect. For a human being truly attains intellect only to a certain limited degree. But we must think of beings who are entirely permeated by what the intellect attains when considering what is meant by Binah. This, however, is a coarser nuance of Chochmah. Therefore, the ancient Hebrew esoteric teaching, when speaking of the true, creatively productive wisdom that brings forth the mysteries of the world within itself—that is, when referring to Chochmah—says that it is comparable to a jet of water, while Binah is comparable to an ocean. This was intended to express the coarseness.

[ 23 ] And the highest state one could attain upon descending into the physical body was called Kether. It is difficult to find a term that adequately conveys the meaning of this word. One can only symbolically point to that quality which reveals itself, like a premonition, as a reflection of the qualities of high, sublime, spiritual-divine beings. This quality is therefore also represented by a symbol through which a person is elevated above themselves and comes to signify more than they can actually signify, in order to express the loftiness of this quality: with a crown. Let us therefore translate it in this way.

Binah	Hokhmah	Keter
Geburah	Tipheret	Gedulah
Netzah	Yesod	Hod
	Malkhut, the Kingdom, I

[ 24 ] We have thus outlined a series of characteristics of those entities into whose realm a person ascends when he descends into his own inner being. It is a process of ascending. And you can have a mental image of an Essene initiation as a process in which a person gains entirely new experiences, has entirely new encounters, and becomes acquainted with what is truly designated as such qualities.

[ 25 ] But what, in particular, needed to be said about an Essene initiate and the nature of Essene initiation, in contrast to the initiation practices of neighboring peoples? What aspects were of particular significance in this regard?

[ 26 ] All ancient initiations were designed to suppress precisely that which a person experiences as their sense of self when surveying Malchuth, the Kingdom. That had to be eradicated. Therefore, one can say: It was not possible to be as human in initiation as one is in the physical world outside. Although one was led up into the spiritual world, one could not be human in the same way as one is in the physical world. Thus, particularly in the case of the ancient initiations, a clear distinction must be drawn between what the initiate experiences and the way he felt within his “I.”

[ 27 ] And if one were to summarize in a single sentence what the ancient initiation represented in the ancient mystery schools—as it was understood by the general public—one would have to say: No one may believe that he can retain the same sense of self that he has in the Kingdom, in Malchuth, if he wishes to become an initiate. As he ascends, he experiences the three times three qualities in their truth in an immensely magnificent way; but he must renounce what constitutes his sense of self—that which is experienced in the outer world. What is experienced as Nezach, Yesod, Hod, and so on cannot be carried down into the Kingdom; it cannot remain connected to the ordinary human sense of self. - That was the general sentiment. And anyone who had contradicted this assertion in ancient times would have been regarded as a fool, a madman, and a liar.

[ 28 ] But it was the Essenes who first taught: The time will come when everything that is above can be brought down, so that human beings can experience it while still maintaining a sense of self. This is what the Greeks later called Βασιλεια τωυ ομραυωυ. It was first taught by the Essenes that one would come who would bring down that which is above—that which is in the “Kingdoms of Heaven”—for the “I” that lives in Malchuth, in the Kingdom. And that was also what that Jeshu ben Pandira first taught, in powerful words, to his Essenes and to some of those around him. If we were to summarize his teaching in a few striking words, as it was passed on by his disciple Mathai for the time to come, it might go something like this:

[ 29 ] Jeshu ben Pandira first spoke out of his inspiration, which came to him from the successor of Gautama Buddha, from the Bodhisattva who will one day become the Maitreya Buddha: Until now, it has been the case that the realms of heaven could not be brought down into the realm of Malchuth, to which the “I” belongs. But when the time comes—when the three times fourteen generations have passed—then one will be born from the tribe of Abraham, from the tribe of David, which we shall come to know as the tribe of Jesse—the Jessaeans or Essene—who will bring down the nine qualities of the realms of heaven into the realm where the Self is present. - And what was taught in this way led to Jeshu ben Pandira being stoned as a blasphemer, because such a teaching was regarded as the worst blasphemy against the initiation by those who did not want to accept—and could not understand—that something which is true for one period need not be true for another, because humanity is moving forward.

[ 30 ] Then came the time when what had been foretold was fulfilled, when the three times fourteen generations were truly complete, when that physical form could truly emerge from the blood of the people—a form into which Zarathustra could incarnate so that, after he had further developed it with the tools that were within the body of the Nathanic Jesus-child, he could offer it as a sacrifice to the Christ. The time had come of which the Forerunner of Christ could say: “Now the time is coming when the ‘Kingdoms of Heaven’ will draw near to the I that lives in the outer kingdom, in Malchuth.”

[ 31 ] And now we will understand what the Christ, after having endured the temptation, first had to set as his task. He had endured the temptation through the power of his own inner being, through what we today call the “I” in human beings. He had succeeded in overcoming all the trials and temptations that confront a human being when he descends into the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. This is also clearly depicted. All forms of egoism are depicted, and in such a way that our attention is drawn to them to the highest degree throughout.

[ 32 ] A major obstacle facing anyone striving for esoteric development is that—as is only natural when delving into one’s inner self—a tendency arises within their nature to focus almost exclusively on their own dear personality. In fact, nowhere is this more common than among those who wish to enter the spiritual world: they love nothing more than to talk about their own dear personality, which is the most precious thing to them—something they constantly pay attention to, every hour and every minute, observing everything in minute detail. Whereas people otherwise live their lives with resolute purpose, once they begin—not only to strive for spiritual development but even simply to become anthroposophists—they start to preoccupy themselves intensely with their own ego; then illusions arise everywhere, which the resolute pace of life had previously allowed them to easily overlook.

[ 33 ] Why does this happen? Because people don’t quite know what to do with themselves when everything that rises up from within them connects with their very being. They don’t know how to handle it and become quite unfamiliar with themselves. In the past, they were attentive and easily drawn in by external appearances. Now they are more easily distracted, more directed inward, and all sorts of feelings that lay dormant within them begin to surface. Why does this happen? What they want now is to truly be “themselves,” to be truly independent of the outside world. However, he then often falls into the trap of initially wanting to be treated like a child to whom everything is clearly explained—what he is supposed to do. He wants to be everything—just not a person who sets his own direction and goals based on what he gains from the esoteric life. He is not yet accustomed to considering this. But he has the feeling that his dependence on the outside world is bothering him. And these disturbances are most acute precisely when one wants to be truly independent, when one must pay close attention to one’s ego. But if one truly wants to pursue one’s ego, then it is utterly trivial that one cannot physically escape the environment because of one thing: namely, the fact that people must eat! While this is indeed utterly trivial, it is nonetheless a fatal circumstance for many. We can learn from this just how little we are without our environment. And it is a perfectly valid example of how we are dependent on our environment, without which we cannot live, and are just like a finger on the hand: if we cut it off, it withers away. Thus, a very trivial observation can show us how dependent we are on the environment.

[ 34 ] When this sense of self is stretched to its limit, it can transform into the desire: If only I could become independent of my surroundings and be able to conjure up for myself the very things that make me feel so dependent on them—the things I, as an ordinary person, need in physical life! This is indeed a desire that can arise in those who seek initiation. One can even develop a veritable hatred of being dependent on one’s surroundings and of not being able to conjure up food—of not simply being able to make it appear. It sounds so strange when one says it, because, paradoxically, these are precisely the desires that arise in people on a small scale when they seek spiritual development, yet which seem so absurd when presented in their extreme form. People are completely unaware that they have these desires on a small scale. Of course, no one has them to such an extreme degree—because they are too attached to external habits—that they would succumb to the illusion of saying they could conjure up food through magic, or that they could live on something not taken from the external realm, from Malchuth. But taken to the extreme, it would be such that a person might believe: If only I had managed, even once, to live so fully in my astral body and in my “I” that I stood on my own desires, then I would no longer need the entire external world!

[ 35 ] This temptation occurs. And in the case of the one who had to endure it most intensely, it is characterized by the tempter who confronts Christ Jesus and tells him to turn the stones into bread. There you have the highest degree of temptation. Indeed, the descent into one’s own inner self in the story of the temptation is described in a marvelous way in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 4:1–11).

[ 36 ] Well, the second stage occurs after one has already immersed oneself in one’s astral body and finds oneself truly confronted by all these emotions and passions that could very well turn one into a paradoxical egoist. When one feels confronted by this, one wants—without overcoming it, without resisting it—to plunge down into the etheric body and the physical body. This is indeed a situation that can be described as a plunge into the abyss. This is also how it is described in the Gospel of Matthew: as a plunge into that which has not yet been greatly corrupted—into the etheric body and the physical body. But one should not be afraid of it before overcoming the passions and emotions. The Christ-being knows this, and responds to the tempter by overcoming the opposition through its own power: “You shall not put to the test the being to whom you are to surrender yourself!” (Matt. 4:7).

[ 37 ] And the third stage in the descent into the physical body is as follows. When this descent takes the form of a temptation, it is characterized in a particular way. It is an experience that a person can indeed have during initiation, an experience that everyone must have when they reach the stage of descending into the physical body and the etheric body—that they see themselves, so to speak, from within. There they see everything that exists within the three highest qualities. To them, it is like a world. But at first it is a world that exists only in their own illusion, a world they cannot perceive as inner truth unless they penetrate the shell of the physical body and ascend to the spiritual beings themselves, who are no longer in the physical body but merely work within it. If we cannot free ourselves from egotism, then it is still the tempter of the physical world—Lucifer or Diabolus—who seeks to deceive us about ourselves. Then he promises us everything that stands in our way, which is nothing other than the creation of our own maya, our own illusion. If this spirit of egotism does not release us, then we see an entire world—but a world of deception and lies; and it promises us this world. But we must not believe that it is a world of truth. We first enter this world; but we remain in maya if we do not break free from this world again.

[ 38 ] These three stages of temptation serve as a model, as a pattern, for the Christ-nature of humanity. And once this is experienced outside the ancient mystery centers—experienced through the power of a Being who lives within the three human bodies themselves—the impulse is given so that humanity may itself, in the future course of evolution, attain something similar: that the human being, with the “I” through which he can exist in Malchuth, in the physical realm, may also ascend into the spiritual world. It was to be achieved that what separates the two worlds would no longer exist, and that the human being, with the “I” that lives in Malchuth, could ascend into the spiritual worlds. This was achieved for humanity through the overcoming of temptation, as described in the Gospel of Matthew. It was achieved so that now, in a being who lived on Earth, the archetype existed of carrying the “I” from the Kingdom into the higher realms and higher worlds.

[ 39 ] What, then, must have been the achievement of what the Christ-Essence, so to speak, exemplified in an external, historical form—something that otherwise took place only behind the veil of the mysteries? It must have been the preaching of the Kingdom. And if the Gospel of Matthew appropriately begins by describing the temptation, it will go on to describe, after the temptation, the phase of the ascent of the “I,” which can experience the spiritual world within itself and does not first need to step out of itself to do so. The mystery of this “I,” which ascends into the spiritual world according to the pattern of how one lives in the outer realm—this mystery was now to be revealed in the outer world by the Christ Being in those times that are characterized for us after the story of the temptation in the Gospel of Matthew has been shown to us. This is where the chapters begin that start with the Sermon on the Mount and thus present what Christ gave as the vision of the Kingdom, of Malchuth (Matt. 5–7).

[ 40 ] That is how deep you must look in the Gospel of Matthew. You must in fact seek the sources and elements for the Gospel of Matthew in the esoteric teachings not only of the Essenes, but of the entire ancient Hebrew and Greek world. Then we, too, will feel that sacred awe, that sacred respect for such a document—the kind already spoken of in Munich—which one feels when, equipped with the findings of Spiritual Science, one approaches these documents that the seers have given us. When we hear such things spoken by the ancient seers, we feel as if they are speaking to us from times long past. And it is as if a spiritual language is breaking through—a language through which the great individualities have been communicating with one another across the centuries—so that those who wish to listen may do so. Of course, only those who understand the words—including those of the Gospel: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matt. 11:15). But just as much was involved in the development of our physical ears, so too is much involved in the development of our spiritual ears, through which we understand what is said in those great, mighty spiritual documents.

[ 41 ] That is precisely the purpose of our modern Spiritual Science: to help us learn once again to read the spiritual records. And only when we are thus equipped with an understanding of the “I”—of the essence of the “I” within the kingdom—will we be able to understand that chapter in the Gospel of Matthew which begins with the words: “Blessed are those who are beggars for the Spirit; for they will find the kingdoms of heaven through themselves, through their own ‘I’!” (Matt. 5:3). An ancient initiate would have said: “In vain would you have sought the kingdoms of heaven within your own ‘I’!”—But Jesus Christ said: “The time has come for people to find the Spirit within their own ‘I’ when they seek the kingdoms of heaven!”

[ 42 ] The revelation of the profound mysteries to the outer world—that is the historical Christ event. And in this sense, we will have to examine the historical Christ event even more closely. You will then see how to interpret the words in the Sermon on the Mount that begin with “Blessed are ...”