The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz: Its Nature and Purpose. The Mission of Gautama Buddha on Mars

My dear friends!

[ 1 ] Our friends here have requested that I offer some reflections today that build upon what we discussed here last year. At that time, we emphasized that the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz took place in a very special way in the thirteenth century, and that since then, the individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz has been at work continuously and continues to be at work throughout the centuries. Today we would like to learn more about the character and essence of Christian Rosenkreutz by considering the great task he undertook at the very dawn of our age—an age oriented toward intellectualism—to ensure the future of humanity.

[ 2 ] Anyone who, like Christian Rosenkreutz, steps before the world as a leading occultist must reckon with the peculiarities of his era. The spiritual life in which we now find ourselves actually began when modern natural science emerged with Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo, and others. People today are introduced to Copernicus’s model of the universe as early as elementary school and carry the impressions gained from it with them for the rest of their lives. In earlier times, the soul experienced something different: Consider what a great difference there is between a person of today and one who lived centuries ago. Before the age of Copernicus, every human soul on Earth believed that the Earth rested in space and that the Sun and the stars revolved around it. The ground seemed to vanish from under people’s feet when Copernicus put forward the doctrine that the Earth moves through the cosmos at tremendous speed beneath them. We must not underestimate such a revolution in thinking, which brought about a corresponding transformation in feeling. All human ideas and mental images became different from what they were before Copernicus. Let us now ask ourselves: What does occultism have to say about this revolution in thinking?

[ 3 ] Anyone who, as an occultist, raises the question of how one can understand the world through the modern ideas of Copernicus must tell themselves: One can achieve much with Copernicus’s ideas—achievements that lead to great scientific triumphs in external life—but one cannot comprehend the spiritual foundations of the world and of things, for Copernican ideas are the worst instrument ever to have existed in human development for comprehending these spiritual foundations. This stems from the fact that all of Copernicus’s concepts and ideas are inspired by Lucifer. For Copernicanism is one of the final attacks—one of the last great assaults—that Lucifer has launched against human development. In the older, pre-Copernican worldview, there was the Maya in the external world; but in much of what was understood—which was a legacy of traditional wisdom—lay the truth of things and of the world. Since Copernicus, however, human beings have not only the Maya in their sensory perception of the world around them, but the concepts and ideas themselves are Maya. Today, it seems self-evident to people that the sun stands fixed in the center and the planets revolve around it in ellipses. It will not be long before people come to realize that Copernicus’s view of the celestial world is far more inaccurate than Ptolemy’s earlier one. The Copernican-Keplerian worldview is a very convenient one. But when it comes to explaining what the macrocosm is, it is not the truth.

[ 4 ] Christian Rosenkreutz was thus confronted with the reality of a worldview that was itself a maya, and he had to take a stand on it. Christian Rosenkreutz had to save occultism at a time when all scientific concepts were themselves a maya. In the middle of the sixteenth century, Copernicus’s seminal work on the “Revolution of the Celestial Bodies” was published. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Rosicrucians were faced with the necessity of understanding the world system from within occultism, since the Copernican world system—with its materially conceived spheres in space—was already in the process of becoming Maya. Toward the end of the sixteenth century, therefore, one of those conferences took place, such as we learned about here a year ago, namely when Christian Rosenkreutz himself was initiated in the thirteenth century. This occult conference of leading individualities brought together Christian Rosenkreutz with those twelve individualities from that time and several other significant individualities guiding humanity. Present at the conference were not only personalities incarnated on the physical plane, but also those residing in the spiritual worlds. Also present at that conference was the very same individuality who had been incarnated in the sixth century B.C. as Gautama Buddha.

[ 5 ] Eastern occultists rightly believe—for they know it to be true—that the Buddha, who in the twenty-ninth year of his life as Gautama Buddha transformed from a Bodhisattva into a Buddha, was incarnated in a physical body for the last time on that occasion. It is entirely correct that the individuality which becomes a Buddha from a Bodhisattva does not subsequently appear in a physical incarnation on Earth. However, this is not synonymous with “no longer being active” on Earth. The Buddha remains active for Earth even in the time that follows, even though he no longer appears on Earth in a physical body, but carries out his work from the spiritual world. We perceive the Buddha’s influence, with his powers from the spiritual world, upon the astral body of the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke in the Gloria hymn, which was also heard by the shepherds in the fields. These words originate from the Buddha, who was actively at work in the astral body of the boy Jesus as described in the Gospel of Luke. This beautiful, glorious message of peace and love is indeed a result of what the Buddha contributed to Christianity. But even later, the Buddha continues to work—not physically, but from the spiritual world—into the deeds of human beings, and he played a part in what had to happen for the progress of human development.

[ 6 ] In the seventh and eighth centuries, for example, there was a very important school of initiation near the Black Sea, where the Buddha taught in his spiritual body. In such schools, there are teachers who teach in the physical body; but for the more advanced students, it is also possible to receive instruction from a teacher who teaches only in the etheric body. And so the Buddha taught there to those who were capable of absorbing the higher knowledge. Among the Buddha’s disciples at that time was one who then reincarnated a few centuries later. We are thus dealing with a physically living personality who, centuries later, lived again in a physical body in Italy, and whom we know as Saint Francis of Assisi. The distinctive character of Francis of Assisi—which bears such a strong resemblance, even in the lives of his monks, to that of the Buddha’s disciples—stems from the fact that Francis of Assisi himself was a disciple of the Buddha.

[ 7 ] One need only turn one’s gaze briefly toward the distinctive characteristics of people who strive for the spiritual, such as Francis of Assisi, and those who are immersed in today’s culture of industry, technology, and modern discoveries. There were many—including occult figures—who experienced great suffering in their souls when they had to consider that there would have to be two kinds of people in the future. Specifically, they believed that one class would be entirely devoted to practical life; it would find its salvation in the production of food, the construction of machines, and so on, and would be completely absorbed in practical life. And the other class would be that to which people like Francis of Assisi belong—those who, because of the spiritual life, turn away entirely from practical life.

[ 8 ] It was therefore a momentous occasion when, in preparation for that conference mentioned earlier, Christian Rosenkreutz convened a number of occultists—a larger circle of people—in the sixteenth century, to whom he presented two mental images of people that would need to exist in the future. First he convened a larger group, and later a smaller one, to tell people about this important matter. Christian Rosenkreutz held this preliminary meeting several years in advance, not because he was unclear about what was to happen, but because he wanted to encourage people to reflect on the prospects for the future. He said something along these lines to stimulate their thinking: “Look to the future of the world. The world is pushing toward practicality, toward industry, toward railroads, and so on. People will be like beasts of burden. And those who do not want that will be like Francis of Assisi—impractical for life—they will live only for inner development.”—Christian Rosenkreutz made it clear to his listeners at the time that there was no way on earth to prevent the formation of these two classes of people. Nothing that could be done for people between birth and death could prevent them from being divided into these two classes. As far as conditions on earth are concerned, it is impossible to remedy the situation for these two classes of people. Help could only come if a kind of education were created that took place not between birth and death, but between death and a new birth.

[ 9 ] Let us therefore consider that the Rosicrucians were faced with the task of working from the supersensible world into individual human beings. To understand what had to happen, we must view life between death and a new birth from a certain perspective.

[ 10 ] On Earth, we live between birth and death. Between death and a new birth, human beings maintain a certain connection with the other planets. You will find the Kamaloka described in my book Theosophy. This sojourn of the human being in the soul world is a period during which the human being becomes a lunar inhabitant. Then they become inhabitants of Mercury, then of Venus, then of the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, and finally inhabitants of the wider celestial or cosmic space. It is not incorrect to say that between two incarnations on Earth there are incarnations on other planets—spiritual incarnations. Human beings today are not yet far enough along in their development to be able to remember, during their incarnation, what they experienced between death and rebirth, but this will be possible in the future. Even if they cannot now recall what they experienced on Mars, for example, they still possess the forces of Mars within themselves, even if they are unaware of it. One can certainly say: “I am now an inhabitant of Earth, but the forces within me encompass something I acquired on Mars.”—Let us consider a person who lived on Earth after the Copernican worldview had spread. Where did Copernicus, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and others acquire the abilities they possessed in this incarnation? Consider that Copernicus’s individuality had been embodied shortly before, from 1401 to 1464, in Nicholas of Cusa, who was a profound mystic. Consider his “Docta ignorantia”—how utterly different the state of his soul is. How did the forces enter this individuality that made Copernicus so very different from Nicholas of Cusa? It was the forces of Mars that flowed into him, transforming him into the astronomer Copernicus. The same is true of Galileo; he, too, absorbed forces from Mars that gave him the distinctive configuration of the modern natural philosopher. Giordano Bruno, too, brought his forces from Mars with him, and so it is with all of humanity. The fact that people think like Copernicus or Giordano Bruno stems from the forces of Mars, which they acquire between death and rebirth.

[ 11 ] But the fact that one gains such powers, which lead from triumph to triumph, stems from the fact that Mars exerted a different influence back then than it had before. In the past, different forces emanated from Mars. The Mars culture, which human beings experience between death and rebirth, underwent a major crisis in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of Earth. The situation on Mars in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was as drastic and catastrophic as it was on Earth at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Just as the true “I” of the human being was born at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, so too was born on Mars that spiritual orientation which, when implanted in human beings, manifests itself in Copernicanism. Given that these conditions prevailed on Mars, it would have been the entirely natural consequence that Mars would have continually sent people to Earth who would have brought with them only ideas like those of Copernicus—ideas that are, in truth, maya. We are thus witnessing a decadence, a decline of the Martian culture. Previously, it had been positive forces that had flowed forth from Mars. Now, however, more and more forces were streaming out from there that would have led humanity ever deeper into Maya. Although the achievements originating from Mars during that time were indeed ingenious, they were nonetheless Maya.

[ 12 ] So you see that in the fifteenth century it was possible to say: The salvation of Mars—and thus of Earth—depends on the declining culture on Mars receiving a new upward impulse. This was roughly the case on Mars as well as on Earth up until the Mystery of Golgotha, when humanity had sunk from spiritual heights into the depths of the material world, and the Christ impulse then signified an ascent for them. On Mars, in the fifteenth century, the need had arisen to give the Martian culture an upward impulse. This was the great question facing Christian Rosenkreutz and his disciples: how to give the Martian culture this impulse toward ascent, for the salvation of Earth also depended on the Martian culture. The Rosicrucian movement faced the great task of answering the question: What must happen so that, for the sake of the Earth’s salvation, Martian culture may achieve an ascent? The Martian beings could not possibly have known what would serve their salvation, for only on Earth could one know the true state of affairs on Mars. On Mars, the decline was not even perceived. Therefore, in order to arrive at a practical answer, the conference mentioned earlier was convened at the end of the sixteenth century. This conference had been thoroughly prepared by Christian Rosenkreutz, in that the closest disciple and friend of Christian Rosenkreutz was Gautama Buddha, who lived in his spiritual body. And at this conference it was announced that the being who had once incarnated on Earth as Gautama Buddha would now, as a spiritual being—as he had been ever since becoming “Buddha”—shift the theater of his activity to Mars. The individuality of Gautama Buddha was, as it were, sent from Earth to Mars by Christian Rosenkreutz. Gautama Buddha is leaving the theater of his activity and going to Mars, and in the year 1604, the individuality of Gautama Buddha accomplished a deed for Mars similar to what the Mystery of Golgotha was for Earth.

[ 13 ] Christian Rosenkreutz had realized what it would mean for the entire universe if Buddha were active there, and what Buddha’s teaching of Nirvana—the teaching that human beings should detach themselves from the Earth—would mean there on Mars. The teaching of Nirvana was unsuitable for fostering an earthly culture focused on practical matters. This was evident in the Buddha’s disciple, Francis of Assisi, who demonstrated that this teaching turns its adherents into people out of touch with the world. But what was unsuitable in Buddhism for fostering human practical life between birth and death was of great significance for the advancement of the soul between death and rebirth. Christian Rosenkreutz recognized that the Buddha’s teaching was the most suitable for what was to take place on Mars as a process of purification. Just as the divine Being of Love, Christ, once dwelt on Earth at a time and among a people who were not exactly close to this Being of Love, so the Prince of Peace, Buddha, ascended to Mars in the seventeenth century—where war and strife reigned—to fulfill his mission there. There, the souls were above all of a warlike disposition. The Buddha performed a great act of sacrifice, akin to that of the bearer of the divine being of love in the Mystery of Golgotha. It was a cosmic act of sacrifice to be the Buddha on Mars. There he was, as it were, the sacrificial lamb, and one can describe it as a kind of crucifixion for the Buddha that he allowed himself to be immersed in this warlike environment. The Buddha accomplished this deed on Mars in the service of Christian Rosenkreutz. Thus do the great guiding beings work together throughout the cosmos, not only on Earth but from one planet to another.

[ 14 ] Ever since the time when the Mystery of Mars was fulfilled through Gautama Buddha, human beings have been absorbing different forces from Mars during the period between death and rebirth than they did earlier, during the decline of the Martian culture. And not only does the human being bring entirely different forces with them from Mars into the new birth, but through the influence exerted by the Buddha’s spiritual deed, forces also flow to the human being from Mars when they engage in meditation here in order to enter the spiritual world. When the modern student of spirituality meditates in the sense described by Christian Rosenkreutz, forces also flow in that the Buddha, as the Redeemer of Mars, sends into the Earth.

[ 15 ] Thus, Christian Rosenkreutz appears to us as the great servant of Christ Jesus. But the work that Christian Rosenkreutz was to perform in the service of Christ Jesus had to be aided at the same time by what the Buddha, as the messenger of Christian Rosenkreutz, was to contribute to the work of Christ Jesus. Thus, although the soul of Gautama Buddha is no longer on the physical Earth, this soul has become a full and active helper of the Christ impulse. What words of peace resounded down upon the child Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke? “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth!” This resounded from the being of Buddha, and it resounds—mysteriously emanating from Buddha—from the planet of war into the human souls on earth.

[ 16 ] But because all this happened, it was possible to avoid dividing people into two classes: those like Francis of Assisi and those who are consumed solely by materialism. Had Buddha remained in direct contact with Earth, he would not have been able to care for the “practical” people, and he would have turned the others into monks like Francis of Assisi. Through the redemptive act of Gautama Buddha on Mars, it has become possible—once we undergo our development on Mars during the time between death and rebirth—to be followers of Francis of Assisi without thereby having to take anything away from the Earth. It may sound grotesque, but it is true that since the seventeenth century, every human being has, for a time, been a Buddhist, a Franciscan, and a direct follower of Francis of Assisi while in the Martian state. Since then, Francis of Assisi has appeared on Earth only once, briefly as a child, and died in childhood; he has not been incarnated since. He has since been associated with the Buddha’s work and is one of the Buddha’s most outstanding followers on Mars.

[ 17 ] Thus we have set before our souls all that transpired as a result of that momentous conference at the end of the sixteenth century—and which is similar to what occurred on Earth in the thirteenth century, when Christian Rosenkreutz had gathered his faithful followers around him. Nothing less than the prevention of humanity’s impending division into two classes was achieved, so that humanity could remain united. And those people who wish to undergo esoteric development despite being absorbed in practical life can achieve their goal because the Buddha works from Mars and not from Earth. Thus, the forces necessary for a healthy esoteric life also stem from the Buddha’s activity.

[ 18 ] When a person becomes a meditator today—I have already discussed what that means in my book How Does One Attain Insights into the Higher Worlds? —the essential point is that in Rosicrucian training, the process of development is such that the individual is not torn away from the activities that his karma on Earth requires of him. Rosicrucian esoteric development is compatible with every kind of life situation and occupation. Because Christian Rosenkreutz understood how to transfer the Buddha’s activity from Earth to Mars, it is possible for the Buddha to exert a proper influence on human beings even from beyond Earth.

[ 19 ] Thus, we have once again come to know one of the spiritual deeds of Christian Rosenkreutz, and we must engage with the esoteric content if we are to understand his deeds from the thirteenth century and those from the sixteenth century. It would be good if people generally understood how our Western theosophy has proceeded consistently since the founding of the Central European Section of the Theosophical Society. Here in Switzerland, we have held lecture series on the four Gospels. All of these Gospel lecture series are encapsulated in my book Christianity as a Mystical Fact, which was written twelve years ago. In the book How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?, the path of Western development is described in a way that can be experienced through any form of practical activity. Today I have explained to you the basis of this fact in the mission of Gautama Buddha, which was entrusted to him by Christian Rosenkreutz, by speaking to you of the significance that his dispatch to Mars has held for our solar system. Thus, brick by brick, our Western theosophy—which has been built up consistently and logically, and in which everything that follows will also be in harmony with what came before—falls into place and must fall into place. Internal consistency is one of the qualities that a worldview must possess if it is to be built upon truth. And those who are privileged to be close to Christian Rosenkreutz look upon with admiring reverence the way in which Christian Rosenkreutz himself has so consistently fulfilled the great mission entrusted to him—the Rosicrucian-Christian mission assigned to him for our time. That the great teacher of Nirvana fulfills a mission outside Earth, on Mars—this is one of the most extraordinary examples of consistency; it is one of the deeds of Christian Rosenkreutz.

[ 20 ] Let us add a brief practical note to these reflections. Anyone who wishes to become a disciple of Christian Rosenkreutz should note the following: Last year we spoke about how one can instinctively gain an insight into the possibility of having a certain relationship with Christian Rosenkreutz. But one can also pose something like a question to fate: Can I attain the qualification to become a disciple of Christian Rosenkreutz? - It can happen in the following way: Try to conjure up in your mind’s eye the image of the great teacher of modern times, Christian Rosenkreutz, surrounded by his Twelve, sending Gautama Buddha out into the cosmos at the beginning of the seventeenth century, thereby fulfilling what roughly occurred in the sixth century B.C. through the sermon at Benares.

[ 21 ] When this image stands before the soul in all its significance, when one feels something emanating from the image—which makes a profound impression—so that the words are wrung from the soul: “O human being, you are not merely an earthly being; you are a cosmic being!”—then one may confidently believe: I can become a disciple striving to follow in the footsteps of Christian Rosenkreutz. — This image, which depicts the relationship between Christian Rosenkreutz and Gautama Buddha, is an important subject for meditation.

[ 22 ] And that is what I wanted to awaken in your souls as an aspiration arising from this contemplation. For we must always bear this in mind: We should take an interest in contemplating the world, but then derive from it the means by which we ourselves can achieve our development into the higher worlds.