The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Tenth Lecture

[ 1 ] In the past few hours, we have discussed how Christ Jesus was to bring about, for the evolution of humanity, the gradual endowment of the powers of the human “I” with those abilities that, in the ancient mysteries, a person could attain only through a kind of suppression of the “I.” And if we once again clearly bring to mind what this is all about, we can say: In all the ancient initiations, the possibility existed to ascend into the spiritual world—into what we have characterized as the realms of the heavens. But due to all the peculiarities and characteristics of ancient, pre-Christian human development, it was not possible to ascend into the realms of the heavens in such a way that the “I”—the actual human “I”-essence—would remain in the same state as it is in relation to the physical-sensory plane. Let us therefore distinguish between these two states of the human soul: One is the state that the average person today experiences from waking until falling asleep, in which the “I” perceives the objects of the physical-sensory plane. And then there is that other state of the soul in which this “I” is subdued, where there is no clear consciousness of such an “I.” And within this state of the soul, in the ancient mysteries, human beings were lifted up into the realms of the heavens. These realms of the heavens were to be brought down—first in the sense of the preparatory preaching of John the Baptist and then in the sense of the preaching of Christ Jesus himself—so that humanity might receive an impulse toward a further evolution, through which the experiences of the higher worlds could be lived while maintaining the ordinary power of the “I.” Therefore, it was only natural that the chroniclers of the Christ Jesus event, so to speak, would present to us all the procedures, all the various processes that were carried out in the ancient mysteries with the initiate, while at the same time hinting to us that: in all of this there is a new nuance—the nuance that it is not the second of the two described states of the soul that is at issue here, but rather the one in which the “I” is present.

[ 2 ] And yesterday we characterized the Nine Beatitudes as the beginning of the so-called Sermon on the Mount from this perspective. We could continue further with what is found in the current version of the Gospel of Matthew, as it has been translated—albeit somewhat obscurely—from Aramaic into Greek. But even if one takes the somewhat unclear version of the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew, one can still sense—even in the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount—how it clearly points everywhere to what human beings were once able to experience by subduing the ego. So that, just as he was once able to say: “If I subdue my ‘I’ and enter the spiritual world with my ‘I’ subdued, then I will comprehend this or that fundamental truth”—he will learn to comprehend this in the future in the presence of his ‘I.’ Of course, one truly understands such a thing only when one goes into more detail regarding what I have already alluded to, namely, the use of old names and old terms. Old terms were not chosen in the same way that names or terms are chosen in our time, but they were always chosen with an awareness of the essence of the matter. And this is clearly evident in the terms of the Sermon on the Mount: that Christ Jesus felt himself to be the bringer of “I”-consciousness on a higher level than before, a consciousness capable of experiencing the kingdoms of heaven within itself. Therefore, he presents the contrast to the souls of his disciples: In earlier times, it was also said that this or that was revealed to you from the kingdoms of heaven. But from now on you will experience this yourselves, when you let your “I” speak, in what your “I” says to you. Hence the recurring repetition: “I tell you!”, because Christ Jesus felt himself to be the representative of that human soul that expresses itself in the words: “I say it; I am present with my full sense of self.” What appears in the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount as the expression “I tell you!” must not be taken lightly. This is the repeated reference to that new impulse which was introduced into human evolution through Christ Jesus. Therefore, read the rest of the Sermon on the Mount in this light, and you will sense that he meant to say: Until now, you were not permitted to appeal to your “I”; but now, through what I have commanded you, you can gradually make the kingdoms of heaven your own through the power within, through the power of your own “I.”—The entire spirit of the Sermon on the Mount is permeated by the new impulse of human individuality. And the same is true of what follows, where the transition is then made to the so-called healings.

[ 3 ] As is well known, these healings are the subject of incredibly wide-ranging discussions. And what constitutes a very special topic of discussion, as you all know, is the question of miracles. The point most frequently emphasized is that these are supposed to be accounts of miracles. But let us examine this question of miracles more closely. Yesterday I already drew your attention to one point. I pointed out that modern people in fact greatly underestimate the changes—the metamorphoses—that have taken place within the human being over the course of evolution. If you were to compare—not in a general sense, but in a more subtle one—a physical body from the time when Jesus Christ lived, or even earlier, with a physical body of today, a quite considerable difference would emerge—a difference that, admittedly, cannot be determined by anatomical means, but can certainly be established through occult research. And you would find that the physical body has become denser, has contracted more; it was still softer in the time of Jesus Christ. In particular, the nature of human perception was such that people still possessed, to a certain degree, the ability to perceive certain forces at work within the body—forces that shape every body—which they no longer perceive at all today; as a result, the muscles—though visible only to a more refined eye—were clearly and much more strongly defined. This ability was slowly and gradually lost. Amateurish interpretations in art history point to old drawings where, for example, particularly pronounced muscle lines are depicted, and regard this as an exaggeration and a sign of the old draftsmen’s clumsiness, because people do not realize that such depictions stem from actual observations that were accurate for those times but would be incorrect by today’s standards. But we shall pay less attention to that and instead emphasize what was associated with these human bodies of a completely different nature.

[ 4 ] At that time, the power of the soul—the power of the spirit—had a much greater, so to speak, more immediate influence on the human body than it did later, when the body had become denser and the soul had consequently lost its power over the body. Therefore, it was possible to a much greater extent at that time to heal from the soul. The soul had far greater power, so that when the body had fallen into disorder, it could permeate the body with the healing forces drawn from the spiritual world in order to restore it to harmony and order of its own accord. This power of the soul over the body has gradually diminished. Such is the course of ongoing evolution. Consequently, healing processes in ancient times were, to a far greater extent than later on, spiritual healing processes. And those who were regarded as physicians were not physical physicians in today’s sense, but for the most part healers in the sense that they acted upon the body indirectly through the soul. They purified the soul and imbued it with healthy feelings, impulses, and powers of will through the spiritual and soul-related influences they were able to exert, whether in the ordinary state of physical perception or in what is known as “temple sleep” or similar states, which, even for that time, were nothing other than a way of inducing a clairvoyant state in the person.

[ 5 ] If one takes into account the cultural conditions of that time, it must certainly be pointed out that those who were spiritually strong and could draw upon what they themselves had absorbed were able, to a considerable degree, to influence people’s souls—and thus also their bodies. This is also why such people—who were, in a sense, imbued with the spirit, and who were known to radiate healing powers into their surroundings—were also referred to as “healers.” And, strictly speaking, not only therapists but also the Essenes should, in a certain sense, be described as healers. Indeed, we must go further: In a certain dialect of the Near East—the one in which those from whom Christianity emerged particularly expressed themselves—the translation of what we would call a “spiritual healer” is the word Jesus. Jesus basically means “spiritual doctor.” That is a fairly accurate translation, especially when one considers the emotional connotations. And with that, you could at the same time shed light on everything that such a name evoked at a time when names still carried emotional weight. But let us, so to speak, immerse ourselves completely in the cultural context of that era.

[ 6 ] A person speaking in the spirit of that time would have said: There are people who have access to the Mysteries, who, by making a certain sacrifice of their ego-consciousness within the Mysteries, can connect with certain spiritual and soul forces that then radiate out into their surroundings, thereby becoming healers for those around them. Let us suppose that such a person had become a disciple of Christ Jesus; he would have said: We have now experienced something very remarkable. Whereas in the past only those who had absorbed the spiritual forces of the Mysteries by subduing their sense of self could become spiritual healers, we have now witnessed someone who became one without undergoing the Mysteries’ rites, while retaining his sense of self. —It was not the fact that spiritual healings took place at all that was remarkable. The fact that the chapters of the Gospel of Matthew tell of a spiritual healer would not have struck such a person as particularly wondrous. He would have said: What is so wondrous about such people healing spiritually? That goes without saying!—And the listing of such healings would not have been a special miracle for that time. But what is significant is that the author of the Gospel of Matthew tells us: Here is one who has brought a new vital force into humanity, who, out of the impulse of his “I”—from which healing was previously impossible—performed healings by drawing upon the very same force that had previously been incapable of healing. - So what is recounted in the Gospels is something quite different from what is commonly believed. Numerous pieces of evidence, including historical ones, could be presented to show that what Spiritual Science establishes from occult sources is correct. We will cite just one example as proof.

[ 7 ] If what has just been said is true, then people in antiquity must indeed have had a mental image of the situation in which the blind could be healed through spiritual influence. It has rightly been pointed out that there are ancient depictions illustrating this very idea. John M. Robertson, mentioned in the previous lecture, also points out that there is a depiction in Rome showing Aesculapius standing before two blind men, and he naturally concluded from this that a healing was being depicted, and that this was then adopted by the Gospel writers and incorporated into the Gospel narratives. However, the essential point here is not that spiritual healings are something miraculous, but rather that the artist who painted the picture intended to convey this: Aesculapius is one of the initiates who, through the subduing of ego-consciousness in the mysteries, attained spiritual healing powers. The writer of the Gospel of Matthew, however, wanted to say: Healings were not achieved in this way through Christ; rather, what lived as a unique impulse within Christ is to be attained gradually by all of humanity, so that the “I,” with its own power, can gradually achieve it. - People cannot yet attain this today, because it is meant to take root in humanity at a later time. But what was accomplished through Christ at the beginning of our era will take root, and people will gradually become capable of expressing it. It will happen gradually. This is what the author of the Gospel of Matthew sought to portray through his accounts of miraculous healings.

[ 8 ] So, speaking from an occult perspective, I can say: The writer of the Gospel of Matthew did not intend to describe “miracles” at all, but rather something entirely natural, something self-evident. He simply wanted to describe that it took place in a new way. This is how things appear when they are presented with true scientific rigor. Thus, the deepest misunderstanding has taken hold precisely with regard to the Gospels.

[ 9 ] How, then, must the narrative continue if it is to be accurate? We have seen that what took place in the life of Christ Jesus through the so-called temptation was a descent into all those processes that a human being experiences when descending into the physical body and the etheric body. We have seen that the power radiating from the physical and etheric bodies became capable of working in the way expressed in the Sermon on the Mount and also in the subsequent healings. The next step was that the power of this Christ Jesus also worked in the same way that the power of an initiate in the Mysteries had otherwise worked—that is, by drawing disciples to himself. And again, Christ Jesus naturally had to draw the disciples to himself in his own special way.

[ 10 ] If one wishes to understand the Gospel of Matthew from this point onward—where the later events follow the Sermon on the Mount and the healings—it is necessary, as a preparatory step, to draw upon some of the knowledge of occult facts that we have acquired over the years. Part of this is that, if a person is to be truly led upward through initiation along the path to the higher worlds, they must arrive at a kind of imaginative contemplation—a contemplation that lives in imaginations. Those who were around Christ Jesus had to acquire not only the ability to listen to what is given in such a majestic proclamation, in such a manifestation as the Sermon on the Mount, they had to do more than merely participate in the healings wrought by Christ Jesus himself; rather, the mighty power that worked within Christ Jesus had to pass on, little by little, to his closest friends and disciples. This, too, is depicted. First, it is shown how, after the temptation, Christ Jesus is able to present the old teachings with a new nuance and to perform the old healings with a new impulse. But then it is shown how he works upon his disciples in a new way, how the power that he embodied to the highest degree works upon the circle of his disciples. How is this shown? In such a way that what he reveals must appear to the unreceptive person as something that is also expressed in words. But on the receptive ones, whom he himself had chosen and guided, it had a different effect. There it worked in such a way that it gave them imaginations and stirred the next higher level of knowledge. What emanated from Christ Jesus could thus have two effects: on outsiders, so that they heard his words and received a kind of theory through them; on the others, who had experienced His power firsthand and whom He had chosen because He could transmit His power to them due to their special karma—His power worked on them in such a way that it drew forth from their souls imaginations, insights that, in a certain sense, point upward to a higher level in the higher worlds. This is expressed in the words, “Those on the outside hear only parables”—that is, figurative expressions for what happens in the spiritual world—“but you understand what the parables mean; you understand the language that leads you up into the higher worlds” (Matt. 13:11). This, too, should not be taken lightly, but must be understood in the sense of guiding the disciples upward into the higher worlds.

[ 11 ] And now let us delve deeply into how the disciples might have been guided upward into the higher worlds. However, to understand what I am about to say, it takes more than just listening—it requires a little goodwill, infused with the insights you have already gained through your study of Spiritual Science. For I would like to guide you as clearly as possible to what the Gospel of Matthew actually means in the following descriptions.

[ 12 ] Let us recall once again that initiation has two aspects. One is where the human being descends into the physical body and the etheric body, where he thus comes to know his own inner self, where he is led into the creative forces within the human being himself. And the other aspect of initiation is where the human being is led out into the spiritual world, where he pours himself out into the macrocosm. Now you know that, in terms of reality—not in terms of consciousness—this is a process that takes place every time one falls asleep: a person draws their astral body and the “I” out of the physical body and etheric body and pours them out into the world of the stars, so that they then draw forces from the entire world of the stars; hence the name “astral body.” What a human being can achieve through this kind of initiation—when, with their astral body and “I,” they have stepped out of the physical and etheric bodies—is not merely a conscious overview of what exists on our Earth, but rather a flowing out into the cosmos, a getting to know the world of the stars, and an absorption of the forces that flow to us from the world of the stars. But this—which for us is to be regarded as something that a human being gradually acquires through flowing out into the cosmos—was already present after the baptism of John, in accordance with the special nature of the Christ Being. And it was present not only in that state, which resembled a state of sleep, but it was also present when he was not sleeping, when he was in his physical and etheric bodies; then he was able to connect his being with the forces of the starry world and to carry the forces of the starry world into this physical world.

[ 13 ] What Christ Jesus accomplished can therefore also be described as follows: Through the attraction of the physical and etheric bodies specially prepared for him, and through his entire being, he drew into himself the power of the sun, the moon, the world of the stars, and the cosmos as a whole—the cosmos that belongs to our Earth. And when he worked, what otherwise flows through human beings from the cosmos—healing, life-strengthening energy—now flowed through his mediation, just as it does when a person is in the state of sleep, outside the physical and etheric bodies. The forces through which Christ Jesus worked were forces that flowed down from the cosmos through the attraction of his body, radiated through his body, and poured out upon his disciples. This was the beginning for the disciples—through their receptivity, they were able to feel, to truly feel: “Yes, this Christ Jesus before us is a being through whom the forces of the cosmos come to us like spiritual nourishment; there they pour out over us.”

[ 14 ] The disciples themselves, however, were in a dual state of consciousness, because they were not yet fully developed human beings, but were just beginning to ascend toward a higher level of development through Christ; they themselves were always in a dual state of consciousness that can be compared to a person’s waking and sleeping. Therefore, one can say of the disciples: Since they were alternately in a state of sleep and wakefulness, enabling them to allow the magical power of Christ to act upon them in both states, they were able to receive this power during the day when he appeared before them, but his power also worked while they slept, when they were outside their physical and etheric bodies. Whereas ordinarily human beings are unconsciously immersed in the world of the stars and know nothing of it, the Christ-force was present with them; there they became aware of it. It was this force of which they knew: “It gives us nourishment from the worlds of the stars.”

[ 15 ] “But this dual state of consciousness among the disciples had yet another significance. We must, so to speak, consider in every human being—and thus also in a disciple of Jesus—what the human being is in the first place, and what he carries within himself as a predisposition for his future in subsequent incarnations. For within all of you is already present that which, for example, will view the environment in an entirely different way in a future cultural epoch when it emerges in a new incarnation. And if what is already within you were to become clairvoyant, it would initially—as a kind of first clairvoyant impression—see the very immediate future. What happens in the immediate future would be among the first clairvoyant experiences, provided they are pure, genuine, and true. — This was especially true for the disciples. In their normal waking consciousness, the power of Christ flowed into them; then they could say: When we are awake, the power of Christ flows into us just as it must, because we are now in our normal waking consciousness. — What, then, was it like for them in the state of sleep? Because they were disciples of Jesus and the power of Christ had worked upon them, they always became clairvoyant at certain times during sleep. But they did not see what was happening at that moment; rather, they saw what people would come to experience in the future. They plunged, as it were, into the sea of astral vision and foresaw what was to happen in the future.

[ 16 ] Thus, there were two states for the disciples. One in which they could say to themselves: This is our daily state. In this daily state of ours, the Christ brings us the forces of the cosmic worlds from the cosmic expanses and imparts them to us as spiritual nourishment. He brings them down to us because he is the power of the sun—all that which we have described in the sense of Zoroastrianism as interpreted in Christianity. He conveys the forces that the sun can send from the seven constellations of the day. From there comes the nourishment for the day. - As for the night state, the disciples could say to themselves: Here we perceive how, through the Christ-force, so to speak, the night sun—the sun that is invisible during the night and passes through the other five constellations—sends heavenly nourishment into our souls.

[ 17 ] Thus, in their imaginative clairvoyance, the disciples were able to sense: We are connected to the Christ force, to the power of the Sun. It sends us what is “right” for the people of the present age—that is, for the people of the fourth cultural epoch. And in the other state of consciousness, the Christ-force sends us what it can send us as the night sun, as the force from the five nocturnal constellations. This, however, applies to the period following that time—that is, to the fifth cultural epoch. — This is what the disciples experienced. How could this be expressed? In the next lecture, we will discuss some terms in more detail; for now, let us simply mention the following.

[ 18 ] A large group of people was referred to as a “thousand” according to the old naming conventions, and when one wished to be more specific, a number was added that was derived from the most important characteristic. For example, the people of the fourth cultural period were referred to as the “fourth thousand,” and those who were already living in the style of the fifth cultural period as the “fifth thousand.” These are simply technical terms. That is why the disciples could say: During the waking state, we perceive what the Christ-force sends us from the forces of the sun through the seven constellations of the day, so that we then receive the nourishment intended for the people of the fourth cultural epoch, for the fourth thousand. And in our nightly, imaginative, clairvoyant state, we perceive through the five constellations of the night what applies to the near future—what applies to the fifth thousand. - Thus, the people of the fourth epoch—the fourth millennium—are nourished from heaven by the seven heavenly loaves, through the seven constellations of the day; and the people of the fifth epoch—the fifth millennium—are nourished by the five heavenly loaves, through the five constellations of the night. Here, the division is always indicated where the constellations of the day meet those of the night: at Pisces.

[ 19 ] A mystery is touched upon here. This points to an important mystical process: the magical communion between Christ and the disciples. Christ makes it clear to them that he is not speaking of the old leaven of the Pharisees, but is imparting to them, from the solar forces of the cosmos, a heavenly food that he brings down—even though nothing is available except, on one occasion, the seven loaves of the day, the seven constellations of the day, and, on another occasion, the five loaves of the night, the five constellations of the night. In between, there are always the fish, which mark the division; indeed, two fish are even mentioned on one occasion to make this particularly clear (Matt. 14:13–21 and 15:32–38).

[ 20 ] Who, upon looking so deeply into these depths of the Gospel of Matthew, could still doubt that this is truly the proclamation that goes back to Zarathustra—and that it had to go back to him, because he was the one who first pointed to the Spirit of the Sun, and who was also one of the first missionaries to make the magical power of the Sun—descending to Earth—understandable to those who were receptive to it! But what do the superficial interpreters of the Bible do? In the Gospel of Matthew, they find in one instance a feeding of four thousand with seven loaves and in another a feeding of five thousand with five loaves, and they regard the second as a mere repetition, saying: The careless scribe of the document, as often happens when copying, copied it carelessly. So he describes, in one instance, the feeding of the four thousand with seven loaves, and in another, the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves; that can happen when one copies carelessly!—I have no doubt that, when books are produced in modern times, such things can occur. But the Gospels did not come into being in this way at all. If a story appears twice in them, there is a profound reason for it, which I have just hinted at. But precisely because the Gospel of Matthew draws from these depths to describe, according to the teachings prepared by the great Essene teacher Jeshu ben Pandira a century before the appearance of the Christ-Sun—so that this Christ-Sun might later be understood—we must, if we truly wish to understand the Gospel of Matthew, also seek out these depths within it. — But let us continue.

[ 21 ] Christ had first allowed the power of imaginative, astral vision—which he was able to bring forth from astral vision—to radiate from himself to the disciples. This is also very clearly implied. One might say: Let anyone who has eyes to read, read! — just as people used to say in the days when not everything was written down: Let anyone who has ears to hear, hear! — Let anyone who has eyes to read, read the Gospels! Is it indicated anywhere that this power of the Christ-Sun appeared to the disciples in one way by day and in another by night? Yes, it is clearly indicated to us. Read in the Gospel of Matthew how this is recounted at a key passage:

[ 22 ] During a fourth night watch—that is, between three and six in the morning—the disciples, who were asleep, saw something walking on the lake that they at first mistook for a ghost—that is, the nocturnal power of the sun, which radiates through Christ (Matt. 14:25–26). Even the exact time is implied here, because it is only at a specific time that they can be made aware that this cosmic power can flow to them through the mediation of a being such as Christ. That Christ Jesus walked in Palestine, and that in the walking of this unique personality and individuality there was a means through which the power of the sun works into our Earth—this is indicated by the fact that everywhere reference is made to the state of the sun, to its relationship to the constellations, and to the manna from heaven. This cosmic nature, this in-flow of cosmic forces through the Christ—that is what is expounded throughout. And further.

[ 23 ] Christ Jesus was to initiate his disciples—that is, those who were particularly suited for it—in a very special way, so that they could not only perceive the spiritual world imaginatively, as it were, through astral images, but could themselves see—and indeed, even hear—what takes place in the spiritual worlds, which we have often discussed as the ascent into Devachan. So that they could now seek out this Being—whom they saw as Christ Jesus on the physical plane—in the spiritual worlds through their spiritual reaching upward. They were to become clairvoyant even in realms higher than the astral plane. Not everyone was able to do this. Only those who were most receptive to the power that could radiate from the Christ were able to do so, and these were the three disciples—Peter, James, and John—as described in the Gospel of Matthew. That is why it tells us (Matt. 17:11–13) how Christ took these three disciples—who were most susceptible to his influence—to a place where he could lead them beyond the astral plane into the Devachanic realm, where they could behold the spiritual archetypes: first, that of Christ Jesus himself, and—so that they might see the relationships in which he stood within that realm—also those of the beings who were primarily related to Christ Jesus: the ancient herald Elijah, who, having been reincarnated, was the forerunner of Christ Jesus as John the Baptist; so that they could see Elijah—the scene took place after John’s beheading, when John had already been taken up into the spiritual worlds—but that they could also behold the spiritual forerunner, Moses. This could only happen once the three most chosen disciples were led up to spiritual, not merely astral, vision. And the fact that they actually ascended into the Devachan is attested to in the Gospel of Matthew by the following: They not only beheld Christ with his solar power—it is specifically stated: “And his face shone like the sun”—but it is also mentioned that attention is drawn to how the three were conversing. This, then, is an ascent into the Devachan; they heard the three conversing. Everything is thus accurately rendered, in accordance with the characterization of the spiritual world provided by Spiritual Science research. There is no contradiction whatsoever between what we have learned and what must result when the Christ is described accurately: his leading the disciples upward himself, first into the astral realm, then into the Devachan realm, into the realm of the Spirit.

[ 24 ] Thus, in the Gospel of Matthew, Christ Jesus is clearly portrayed as the vessel, the bearer of that power which Zarathustra once proclaimed to be the bearer of the sun’s power. And it is faithfully depicted in the Gospel of Matthew that this power of the sun, the spirit of the sun—Ahura Mazda or Ormuzd—of whom Zarathustra could only say that he lived in the sun, lived on Earth through the mediation of Jesus of Nazareth and became so connected to this Earth that, through his unique life in a physical body, etheric and astral bodies—became an impulse for Earth’s evolution and will gradually become integrated into this earthly development. In other words: The I-ness was once present on Earth in a single personality to such an extent that human beings will gradually, through their subsequent incarnations, appropriate the powers of this I-ness by participating in the Christ or by assimilating the Christ-essence in the sense described by Paul. And as human beings pass through the remainder of Earth’s history from incarnation to incarnation, those who wish to imbue their souls with the power of the personality that existed at that time will ascend to ever higher heights. At that time, those who were destined for it were able to see the Christ with their physical eyes within the body of Jesus of Nazareth. At some point in the course of Earth’s evolution, it had to happen for all of humanity that the Christ—who had previously been visible only as the Spirit of the Sun—could descend and thus unite with the forces of the Earth.

[ 25 ] And human beings are the beings in whom the fullness of the surging solar power—which was once to descend and dwell in a physical body—was to live. But this marks the beginning of the time when the solar power will pour forth. Little by little, it will flow more and more into human beings who live from incarnation to incarnation, and little by little—as far as the earthly body allows—they will become imbued with the Christ force. Of course, not every physical body—just as it was only that particular body which, in the manner described, was prepared in a complex way by the two figures of Jesus with regard to its structure and then raised by Zarathustra to a certain highest level, so that the Christ might indeed one day live out his fullness. Once!

[ 26 ] Those who are open to it will become imbued with the Christ Force—first inwardly, and then increasingly outwardly as well. Thus, the future will not only comprehend the essence of Christ but will also become imbued with it. And for many of you, I have already described how this participation in Christ will unfold for the development of humanity on Earth. I have even been able to describe in The Mystery of the Rosicrucians, through the visionary presence of Theodora—who is conceived as a personality who has developed the power within herself to look into the near future—how we are moving toward a period where, in fact, in a not-too-distant future, first a few people, and then more and more—not merely through spiritual training, but through that degree of earthly development which humanity will have attained—be able to behold—but now in the etheric, not in the physical world—the form of the Christ, and then, in an even more distant future, in yet another form. Once he was to be seen in physical form, because the people who were on the physical plane had to experience this at least once. But the Christ impulse would not have fulfilled its purpose if it did not continue to work in such a way that it can develop further.

[ 27 ] We are moving toward a time—and this must be accepted as a revelation—when the higher powers within human beings will be able to behold the Christ. And this will happen before the end of the 20th century: a small number of people will truly be “Theodores”—that is, those whose spiritually opened eyes will have the same experience that Paul had on the road to Damascus, an experience he was able to have because he was a “premature birth” (1 Cor. 15:8). Even before the end of the 20th century, a number of people will relive the Christ experience that Paul had on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–22) and will not need any Gospels or documents, just as Paul needed nothing to know about the Christ. Through their inner experience, they will know the truth about the Christ who will appear from the ethereal clouds.

[ 28 ] This is a kind of return of the Christ in an etheric form, through which he reveals himself just as he had previously revealed himself to Paul as a forerunner. It is our task to emphasize in particular that it is in the very nature of the Christ event that the One who once lived in a physical body as Christ Jesus at the beginning of our era will appear in an ethereal form—as He did to Paul on the road to Damascus—before the end of our age. And as human beings rise to ever higher capacities, they will come to know the full richness of the nature of Christ. But there would be no progress if Christ were to appear a second time in a physical body; for then his first appearance would have been in vain. Then his first appearance would not have brought about the development of higher powers within human beings. This is the result of the Christ event: that higher powers develop within human beings, and that He can be perceived with these new powers wherever He exerts His influence from the spiritual world. And it is our task, if we understand the historical struggle of the present, to point to this event—to point to it in our time just as the Essene teacher Jeshu ben Pandira previously pointed to the Christ, who was to emerge as the Lion from the tribe of David, thereby also pointing to the power of the sun and to the constellation of Leo. And if humanity—I say this only by way of suggestion—were fortunate enough today that Jeshu ben Pandira, who was inspired back then by the great Bodhisattva who will one day be the Maitreya Buddha, were to incarnate again in our time, he would regard it as his most important task to point to the etheric Christ who appears in the etheric clouds, and he would emphasize that the Christ event once took place in the physical body.

[ 29 ] Suppose that the figure of Jesus—who, as the son of Pandira, was stoned to death in Palestine about one hundred and five years before the Christ event—were to point, in a reincarnation in our time, to the appearance of Christ; then he would be pointing to the Christ who cannot appear in the physical realm, but who must appear there in an etheric garment, just as he appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. And it is precisely by this that one would be able to recognize the supposedly reincarnated Jeshu ben Pandira. On the other hand, however, it is essential that this “new Essene movement,” so to speak, be understood—that we have to learn from the one who will one day be Maitreya Buddha how the Christ will appear in our age, and that we must be extremely careful not to form a false judgment of that Essene movement that may be reemerging in our age.

[ 30 ] One thing can be cited as a sure sign that might, so to speak, distinguish this supposedly resurrected Jeshu ben Pandira in our age; it must be cited as a sure sign that he will not claim to be the Christ. Anyone who might appear in our time and claim in any way that the same power that lived in Jesus of Nazareth lives within them would, by virtue of this claim, be recognizable as a false incarnation of that forerunner who lived a hundred years before Christ. This claim would be the surest sign that he is not the one, and that a false forerunner would be manifesting in him if he were to place himself in any relationship to Christ himself. But the danger that can arise in this area is immense. For in our time, humanity vacillates between two extremes. On the one hand, it is emphasized so strongly just how unwilling humanity is in our time to acknowledge the spiritual forces at work among people. It has already become a truism, one to which even the newspapers repeatedly point, that our generation lacks the gift and the power to recognize when an original spiritual force manifests itself in any way. That is one of the vices of our age. It is true that the greatest reincarnation could be taking place in our time, and our age could be so鈍 as to let it pass by without paying any attention to it! And the other vice is no less prevalent, though it is one that our age shares with many others: just as spiritual individuals are underestimated to the point of not being recognized, so, on the other hand, there is among people the most vivid need to idolize, to elevate them in some way to a special height in the clouds. Just look at the communities everywhere today that have their own special messiahs—how the need to idolize is present everywhere there. This, however, is also what has shown itself time and time again over the centuries.

[ 31 ] Maimonides recounts the story of such a false Christ who appeared in France around 1087, who had numerous followers at the time but was later sentenced to death by the secular authorities. The same Maimonides goes on to recount [1172] that fifty-five years earlier [1117], someone appeared in Córdoba, Spain, who claimed to be the Christ. He further recounts how, about forty-five years earlier—that is, around 1127—a false Messiah appeared in Fez, Morocco, who pointed to an even greater one. Finally, there is a report from the year 1174 describing how a man appeared in Persia who, while not calling himself the Christ, did point to the Christ. And the most striking instance is the one I have already mentioned: the appearance of Sabbatai Zevi in 1666 in Smyrna.

[ 32 ] In this figure, who claimed to be a reincarnation of Christ, one can study the very nature of a false messiah and its effect on those around him in the greatest detail. Thus, news spread from Smyrna at that time that a new Christ had appeared in the person of Sabbatai Zevi. And do not imagine that this movement was insignificant at the time. From all parts of Europe—from France, Spain, and Italy; from Poland, Hungary, and southern Russia; from North Africa and the heart of Asia—people flocked to Smyrna to meet the new Christ, Sabbatai Zevi. It was a truly massive global movement. And if someone had told the people who saw a new Christ in Sabbatai Zevi at that time—before he revealed himself, before his schemes were uncovered—that he was not the real Christ, that person would have been met with hostility; they would have gone against the dogma of an enormous number of people. — That is the other vice, a vice that may not be particularly evident in Christian regions, but is evident daily in other regions. There is a need to have messiahs appear in earthly form. In Christian countries, these things usually take place within smaller circles; but even there, Christs can be found.

[ 33 ] The point is that, through Spiritual Science knowledge, through Spiritual Science enlightenment, and through a precise understanding of the factual material provided by occultism, a person should not fall into either of these errors. And when one understands the teachings given in this sense, one will steer clear of both errors. And then one will begin to penetrate the deepest historical reality of the present: that as we delve deeper into spiritual life, we may be granted a kind of renewal of Essene teaching, which at that time, by a roundabout route through the words of Jeshu ben Pandira, first foretold the Christ event as a physical one. And if the Essene teaching is to be renewed in our time, if we wish to live not in the spirit of a tradition of an ancient Bodhisattva but in the sense of the living spirit of a new Bodhisattva, then we must likewise allow ourselves to be inspired by the Bodhisattva who will one day become the Maitreya Buddha. And this Bodhisattva inspires us by drawing our attention to the fact that the time is drawing near when the Christ, in a new form—in an etheric body—will be a blessing to those people who, through a new Essene wisdom, develop new powers at the time when the return of the Christ in etheric form will approach humanity with life-giving power. Let us speak entirely in the spirit of the inspiring Bodhisattva who is to become the Maitreya Buddha. We know then that we are not speaking of the Christ—as he is to become perceptible once more on the physical plane—in the sense of any religious creed, and we do not shy away from saying: We would be indifferent if we had to say something else, because we recognize it as truth. Nor do we have a preference for any particular Eastern religious doctrine; rather, we live only for the truth. We express this using the formulations we have come to know through the inspiration of the Bodhisattva himself regarding what the future manifestation of the Christ will be like.