The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] In contemporary Christian consciousness, there are still—or at least could still be regarded as—two poles that, in a sense, represent the extreme ends of the worldview: the mystery of Christmas and the mystery of Easter. If you first take a superficial, comparative look at the mystery of Christmas and the mystery of Easter, you may notice that the mystery of Christmas is actually the mystery of birth. It represents the birth of Christ Jesus. In this way, it ties in with the mystery of birth in general. The Easter mystery ties in in exactly the same way with the mystery of death, in that it festively draws upon the death of Christ Jesus. Birth and death, however, mark the boundaries of human life insofar as it unfolds within the physical body. And one can indeed say that, in contrast to what appears to human beings as the visible aspect of their being, birth and death veil the invisible aspect of their being. In a sense, birth and death are also the two gates to the invisible world.

[ 2 ] By making these two gateways to the invisible world the foundation of the Christian year—that is, by placing Christmas and Easter within this Christian year—the Christian worldview is indeed linked to the mystery traditions of the entire world. For when we look around at the mysteries among the most diverse peoples and in the most varied regions of the earth, we find everywhere that the mysteries are connected either to the mystery of birth or to the mystery of death. Admittedly, the connection is not always so obvious that it is immediately apparent; rather, certain mysteries—I am speaking, of course, only of the post-Atlantean era—linked to the mystery of birth in a more indirect, mediatory way. These were, in particular, the mysteries that placed at the center of their mystical essence what the profane world calls the Holy Fire. But this Holy Fire is, in fact, something entirely different from what the profane world can comprehend.

[ 3 ] This Holy Fire is, in fact, the human being, as the supersensible human being underlies the sensory human being. That which descends from the spiritual heights through birth to take form in a physical body—this invisible human being, yet a supersensible human being perceptible to the ancient, atavistic clairvoyance—is in fact what the profane world understands as the Holy Fire, or one might also say, the Holy Warmth, when it venerates the symbol of this human being, the fire. This is the mystery being that emanates from the supersensible human being who underlies the sensory human being, so that through birth he clothes himself in the sensory shell. This is the mystery that has then passed into the mystery of Christmas—the mystery that is, in fact, the mystery of birth.

[ 4 ] Even more veiled is the other mystery being, which is connected to the mystery of death. For this mystery being is linked to light, just as the other is linked to fire. But this light refers to something else, just as fire does. By “light” is meant that which speaks to human beings when the night sky sends its language of light to them. The mysteries of light in ancient times—in the era before the Mystery of Golgotha came—were, in essence, all astrological mysteries. However, we must again realize that this ancient astrology was not practiced using abstract mathematics, as is the case today, but rather through atavistic clairvoyant power; that is, human beings did not merely observe the mineral-physical world of the stars above them, but in those earliest times possessed an organ capable of perceiving the mysteries of the constellations.

[ 5 ] In particular, in those ancient times, it was a common practice among certain mystery cults to observe the moon as it moved through the various constellations of the zodiac, taking up its various positions. It was known that when the moon shone from the region where the Pleiades are located, or when it shone from the region of Taurus, this signified something different than when the moon shone from another region of the sky. And so the other planets in their constellations were also brought into human consciousness—but into a different kind of consciousness than the one that has remained for the materialistic age—and it was clearly understood that the mystery of human death is connected to what is expressed through the constellations.

[ 6 ] In the ever-changing interplay between the fixed stars and the planets, one saw, as it were, the expression of a language that the living hear from Earth, and that the dead perceive from the other side. And so there was a clear awareness of this: when one surrenders to the language of the stars, one lives in that element which receives the human being when he passes through the gate of death. In ancient times, birth was regarded, in a sense, as a kind of question, and ancient mysticism—the experience of the invisible, of the supersensible human being—was meant to be the answer to this question. What the stars speak through their constellations was not regarded as a fact, not as something that can be summarized as it is today; rather, in earlier times—in the era of the ancient mysteries, the star mysteries, the mysteries of light—the constellations were actually viewed as a question, and human death as the answer to that question. Just as birth was associated with the supersensible human being, so death was associated with the constellations. Therefore, one can also call the Mysteries of Fire the Mysteries of Birth, the Christmas Mysteries; one can also call the Mysteries of Light, or the Star Mysteries, the Easter Mysteries, the Mysteries of Death. One can say: The mysteries that later merged into the Christmas mystery form the fundamental basis of everything that humanity regarded as mystery rites in the times before the Mystery of Golgotha, in India and in Egypt. In contrast, in Chaldea and the Near East, the ground was more fertile for the Easter mysteries and for the science of the stars.

[ 7 ] This science of the stars underwent its very special development primarily in the Near East among the so-called Iranian peoples of the third post-Atlantean epoch. One must simply imagine that in the most ancient times, on the one hand, there was a precise, supersensible perception of what envelops the physical body at birth, and on the other hand, there was a vivid understanding of the language of the stars. When ancient star charts depict all manner of beings in the sky to connect the stars, these are—as I have said many times before—not products of human imagination, but rather representations of what the ancient atavistic consciousness actually saw in the sky. For this ancient atavistic consciousness truly perceived the human being within the entire context of the universe. This ancient consciousness had truly internalized the fact that the cosmos is an organism, and that as human beings we weave and live within this organism.

[ 8 ] This awareness has, of course, been lost. It must be regained by humanity during the course of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, essentially through the reunification of the two separate currents of astral wisdom and mysticism. In ancient times, they could, so to speak, appear separately as two distinct poles. In our time, the Christmas mystery must be able to be connected with the Easter mystery; the two must be able to be seen as the two sides of a single entity. If we cast our minds back to times of earlier human insight, we find a clear awareness that not only is the zodiac to be found up there in the heavens, but that human beings also carry within themselves the same laws that are represented, for example, by the zodiac—that is, in the broadest sense, by the world of the fixed stars. As you know, in ancient times not only were certain regions of the sky named—Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and so on—but the human being was also divided into: the head as Aries, the neck as Taurus, the two symmetrical lateral parts as Gemini, the chest as Cancer, the heart as Leo, and so on—so that the human being does indeed carry within themselves, in a microcosmic sense, the various regions that are also the fundamental regions of the heavens. This connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm was regarded as something important and essential in ancient times. And just as human beings, in a sense, carried the fixed-star sky within themselves through their representatives in the zodiac, they were also viewed, for example, in such a way that it was said: When a person uses their larynx to speak, the same cosmic current resounds from them that flows down from the cosmos when the moon shines from the Pleiades. — People sensed the kinship between the light and that which carries the light down when the moon shines from the region of the Pleiades—the kinship between this macrocosmic stream and that which comes from the human being when he uses his larynx.

[ 9 ] The same applies to the Sun. Similarly, people felt inwardly that human beings were permeated by the same laws that operate in the planetary system. However, they were aware that, while the fixed-star system corresponds in human beings to fixed locations— Aries corresponds to the head, Taurus to the neck, and so on—in other words, while fixed parts of the human being were associated with the fixed-star sky—the organs that, in a sense, represent the mobile element within the human being—the element that sends the vital fluids throughout the entire organism—were placed in a proper relationship with the planetary system. Just as the human being is, in a sense, a fixed-star sky, so too does he carry a planetary system within himself. Thus, in the oldest mysteries, a close relationship was indeed conceived between the human being and the entire cosmos.

[ 10 ] Now we must consider the following if we are to grasp the full significance of this. In human beings, the constellations are, in a sense, fixed points: Aries as the head, Taurus as the neck, and so on. As a result, human beings have a certain relationship—an individual, very special relationship—with the starry sky. For suppose a person is born today in the spring, when the sun rises in Pisces; then what is particularly determined by their inner fixed stars—Pisces—comes into play. That is, Pisces is associated with the feet, which means everything a person experiences through their feet. Thus, by being born in the spring, when the sun rises in Pisces in the morning, a person is, in a sense, born with that part of their being that corresponds precisely to this solar constellation. If they are born in another season, their constellation is less in harmony with the cosmic spring constellation.

[ 11 ] Today, this harmony or disharmony within human beings is determined according to certain patterns. In the ancient mysteries, such a concept was experienced very vividly. They sensed the peculiar resonance between the human constellation after birth and the celestial constellation. But now consider that a particular constellation was present in the Age of Aries, specifically in the Mystery of Golgotha. There, so to speak, the whole of humanity—with that part of its being that corresponds precisely to the head—resonated with the Aries constellation of spring. But this was yet another reason why the initiates of the mysteries perceived something quite special in this peculiar alignment of the human constellation of the head with the constellation of the cosmos. Through the head, the human being is not connected to the Earth, but to the cosmos; there, the human being is particularly suited to receiving the forces of the cosmos. The human being extends his head—that is, his Aries—out into the cosmos. So which constellation must be the most favorable of those that can occur in the 25,920-year cycle in which we now live? The one in which the Aries constellation is aligned with the rising sun in spring. — In short, I merely wish to suggest that people studied the way in which human beings, in their very being, resonated with the macrocosm. And this was studied in particular because people were aware of how events on Earth themselves depend on this harmony between human beings and the macrocosm.

[ 12 ] People uncovered the most diverse secrets of this constellation and always knew that every secret of a constellation is connected to a human secret. In a sense, they sought to express more and more how a secret of the stars is connected to an inner human secret. It is remarkable how far people have come in this direction through an ancient science. This is evident from what the pyramids teach. Even a very cursory look at the pyramids reveals that all sorts of secrets are hidden within these structures. If one takes the length of the four base lines—which form the base of the pyramids—in certain pyramids and compares them to the height, the ratio corresponds exactly to that of the diameter of a circle to its circumference, accurate to a large number of decimal places.

[ 13 ] But it is not just something like that; there are certain divisions within the pyramids that correspond to the divisions of the macrocosm with respect to the zodiac. The weight of the pyramids—which has, of course, only been calculated approximately—is a certain fraction of the Earth’s weight. Certain dimensions of the pyramids, when multiplied by a power of eighteen, yield the distance from the Earth to the Sun. In short, the dimensions of the pyramids are such that they can only stem from an intimate, wondrous understanding of the relationships in the starry sky. These pyramids were not actually built by the Egyptians; rather, whenever conquerors from Iranian regions or the Near East came to Egypt, they were the ones who constructed the pyramids. The Egyptians first learned to build the pyramids from such peoples, who possessed star mysteries, whereas the Egyptians themselves did not have star mysteries, but rather a kind of Christmas mystery.

[ 14 ] This examination of the pyramids did, at least, lead some individuals—such as Carus—to say during the 19th century: Simply observing the pyramids suggests that in ancient times there existed a science that has been lost, and that contemplating it is enough to make modern humanity blush with shame. — These are not my words, but Carus’s! People today really have very little faith that in the dawn of humanity there existed a science acquired in a somewhat different way—but nonetheless a science capable of shedding light on the deep mysteries of the universe. And what is significant is not merely that these initiates of the mysteries knew such vast dimensions of the universe that they embedded the mystery within the structure of the pyramids; rather, what is truly remarkable is something else entirely. It was not an abstract knowledge of humanity’s relationship to the starry cosmos, but rather a truly concrete knowledge—a knowledge through which human beings felt themselves to be at the very heart of the cosmos. Human beings knew that with their heads—which they freely turn toward the cosmos—they stand in direct relationship to the fixed-star sky. Thus, everything that human beings regarded as the mysteries of their own heads, these mystery sages regarded as mysteries of the fixed-star sky. The human head is, in fact, shaped by the fixed-star sky. It is, after all, merely a modern materialistic prejudice that everything is inherited from one’s ancestors, that everything originates from the germ. The germ itself—insofar as it is the germ of the head—is imbued with the power of the fixed-star sky within the human mother.

[ 15 ] How the human being is connected to the fixed-star sky through the head, how the head is a reflection of the fixed-star sky—you can read about this from a different perspective in my short treatise *The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and of Humanity*, where I have also touched on the subject—on the other hand, the rest of the human organism is assigned to all that is connected with the mystery of the Sun. Thus, human beings are in fact—as the ancient mystery priests, who practiced the star mysteries and the Easter mysteries, knew—already of a dual nature in this respect: their head is associated with the fixed-star sky, while the rest of the organism, with the heart as its center, is associated with the Sun.

[ 16 ] Now these ancient astronomers—or call them astrologers, if you will—knew something else as well. They knew that when one observes the stars in relation to the Sun, the Sun gradually lags behind the movements of the fixed stars; as a result, the vernal equinox always appears at a different point, and the Sun always lags slightly behind. It seems as though the stars move faster than the Sun in their annual cycle. The curious thing—which, however, was not something curious to the ancient astronomers, but rather a significant mystery—is that after seventy-two years, the fixed stars have outpaced the Sun in their movements by exactly one day—one day in seventy-two years. Applied to human beings—which made sense to the ancient astronomers but is, of course, nonsense to the intelligent people of today—this means that, among other things, we too possess within ourselves this dual nature of the fixed stars and the sun, that our head races ahead of the rest of our organism. And when we have lived seventy-two years—of course, these figures are approximate—our head will have raced ahead of the rest of our organism by one sidereal day; and therefore, on average—as I have already discussed from other perspectives—human life spans seventy-two years. It can, of course, be much longer or much shorter, but on average it is seventy-two years. This is connected to the duality of the course of life within the human head and the rest of the human organism, which corresponds exactly to the duality of the movements in the fixed-star sky and the sun. Thus, the human being stands within as a microcosm within the macrocosm. In those ancient times, people were able to feel themselves within the macrocosm just as the little finger now feels itself within the entire organism—that is, to feel themselves as a part of the whole.

[ 17 ] And because this was regarded as the most important thing—to understand how human life is connected to the mystery of the stars—the mystery of death, the Easter mystery, came to be linked in particular with the mystery of the stars. The Christian worldview had the task of connecting the two. And in the development of Christian worldviews from a concrete perspective, there must, in a sense, be a connection such that the mystery of birth—the mystery of Christmas, the mystery of the supersensible human being as it relates to birth—is in turn linked to the mystery of death, to the Easter mystery, to the mystery of the supersensible human being as it relates to death.

[ 18 ] What we today primarily call “science” deals with birth, while what we primarily call “religion” deals with death. Today’s religion lacks an inclination toward the supersensible human being. Strange, isn’t it! But the fact that religion also speaks of the supersensible human being is no proof that it has a particular inclination to engage with the supersensible human being in any way. One can only engage with the supersensible human being by drawing upon what was particularly experienced in the Christmas mysteries, by drawing upon the birth and, through the birth, arriving at pre-existence. That is why the mysteries of the Nativity have also emphasized, above all, pre-existence—the existence of the supersensible human being prior to birth. The other mysteries, which then culminated in the Easter Mystery, have emphasized in particular post-existence—the existence of the human being beyond death. Religions have turned their attention more toward this latter aspect. But they have rejected the science associated with it—astrology—just as modern science itself, which deals with ancestry and everything pertaining to birth, has rejected that which leads to the supersensible human being, to the experience of the supersensible human being, and to mysticism.

[ 19 ] And so science, by rejecting the spiritual human being, has become materialistic on the one hand, and religion, by refusing to consider the spiritual human being, has become devoid of science. Both stand side by side in the present, with no bridge between them. And nothing excites people more—those who ostensibly represent religion but in truth merely wish to administer their benefices, those who call themselves official representatives of religious communities—than when one speaks of the pre-existence of the soul, that is, of the supersensible human being in reality.

[ 20 ] Everything I said was, of course, meant aphoristically, but it was intended to point out that we must once again seek to expand the human perspective beyond what is immediately present in the physical world. And by pointing to the two mystery traditions, we also open up perspectives on the directions in which the sensory world must be transcended: on the one hand, by seeking once again the inner human being, who can be found within us through the path described in the book *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*. That is one aspect. The other aspect is to seek, in a new form, what the stars can tell us. We will, however, find this in the new form only if we are able to bring what is within the human being itself back into direct relation with the macrocosm. My book *An Outline of Esoteric Science* is structured according to this principle. Here, too, the aim is to build a bridge between the human being and the macrocosm by linking what can be found within the human being—the evolution of the human being—to that aspect of the macrocosm to which this evolution belongs, so that certain stages of human development are linked to specific processes in the macrocosm. Thus, in our anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, a beginning has been made in both directions: to seek once again both the supersensible human being and the mysteries of the macrocosm.

[ 21 ] But this, in turn, builds a bridge between religion and science. Religion has become devoid of science. Anyone who cares to notice this can see it. One can observe even more clearly that contemporary science has become devoid of religion, that the two stand side by side quite abruptly in the so-called culture of our time. It is for this reason alone that those peculiar errors could arise, which I have attempted to characterize for you through these reflections; those errors, a particular example of which are the astute endeavors of Dupuis, who believed that in the ancient mysteries—which he regards as nothing but fraud and error, intended solely to deceive the people—certain narratives were invented, whereas in reality there was nothing to be expected but the movements of the stars. Dupuis simply makes the mistake of believing that the ancients saw nothing more in the starry sky than what a modern astronomer sees today. But the modern astronomer sees in the starry sky the same thing that a modern anatomist sees in the human body; and just as the corpse is not the human being, so the content of modern astronomy is not the starry sky.

[ 22 ] Scientific astronomy is still in its infancy. To date, it has achieved nothing more than a purely mechanical and mathematical summary of what is happening out there in the universe. Study what astronomy offers you today: You can find only mathematical-mechanical relationships, merely the expression of a vast celestial machinery. In contrast, the natural scientist seeks to explain everything that happens here on Earth—with the exception of the most basic physical processes—on Earth itself. When a plant emerges, an animal is born, or a human being is born, all of this is said to be based on heredity, because, of course, what today’s astronomer finds in the stars cannot be applied in any way to human beings. But the fact remains that there is a constant interrelationship between the starry heavens and the Earth, that no germ—whether plant, animal, or human—comes into being on Earth without this germ being laid down by the entire macrocosm. One must certainly note: What does today’s natural scientist do? He has the hen here, and within it, the egg. Of course, a new hen comes from this egg, which in turn produces another egg, from which a new hen emerges. And so he proceeds from hen to hen. Whereas in reality the situation is this: here is the starry sky, here is the hen, and the entire starry sky sends its forces from the various constellations into the hen, and the germ within the hen is the expression of the entire starry sky.

[ 23 ] In this way, one can see that what is today known as the science of the heavens—which, in a certain magnificent way, began with Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, is merely a beginning, and that from there we must once again gain a knowledge that is not merely mechanical in nature, that does not deal only with a vast celestial machinery, but is capable of grasping the entire universe as an organism, and also as soul and spirit.

[ 24 ] In a strange way, one looks back on the course of development. An old science that was already there—one that could make people blush with shame—has perished. One must be aware that we are still living in the age of that perished science. The first sciences are laid out in a new form; they must be developed. What is so admired about the progress of science over the last four centuries may only be admired if it is viewed as a beginning. Only when the bridge has been built from this beginning to the Christmas and Easter mysteries—at least for human perception—will something have been accomplished.

[ 25 ] One should truly bring this thought to life within one’s soul, for it is the thought that, in a sense, alone is capable of connecting modern humanity spiritually to the universe: Every seed is bound to the macrocosm; even the seeds of the spirit are bound to the macrocosm. And so human beings connect themselves to the macrocosm when they attempt to take in a macrocosmic science—at least initially as an idea, as an intention—into their souls. This awareness of the macrocosmic connections between human beings and the Earth ought to be carried into all branches of life. In truth, the present is far, far removed from such an awareness. In this respect, the present is, in a sense, in the opposite situation to a certain period in the past. One might ask: How could humanity’s primordial knowledge—of such far-reaching significance that it might make the present blush with shame—have been lost?

[ 26 ] Well, it’s not really surprising that it has been lost. Just consider for a moment that, in the course of human development, the positive is quite certainly linked to the negative. We have often spoken of the progress humanity has made through the spread of Christianity. But let us not forget that the spread of Christianity, as the positive aspect, is linked to the negative side—the destruction of an ancient culture. Let us not forget that tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of works of the ancient culture were destroyed while Christianity was spreading, that thousands upon thousands of symbols that had preserved ancient wisdom were destroyed. We currently have very little concept of that work of destruction, which came to an end in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Julian the Apostate wanted—though the time was not yet ripe—to hold back this work of destruction just a little longer. He was unable to do so.

[ 27 ] Humanity should certainly be aware of everything that has been destroyed over the centuries. But it is precisely from such things that we can learn that so-called evolution is by no means a simple matter. Just imagine if Christianity had not swept through the world as a terrible destroyer and shatterer—humanity would have had to remain in its old state of bondage. For the attainment of freedom is possible only through that impulse which is also the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha. But on the other hand, the negative aspect must not be allowed to get out of hand. There is a certain mindset that has retained more of the negative side of Christianity. Today, this mindset manifests itself in the form of a desire to spiritually destroy everything that arises in the effort to reclaim the ancient wisdom. This must not be allowed to happen. When, time and again, so-called official representatives of Christianity assert wherever they can: “Yes, in Christ’s time, in the time of the Apostles, there were indeed revelations; today that must not be allowed to happen, today it is a sin, today it is a hoax, today it is deception”—then this is anti-, this is anti-Christian. And seeing clearly in this area is, in a certain sense, already one of the tasks of the present for the person who strives for truth. Among the tasks of the present is the longing for clarity. And with regard to everything else, clarity is gradually obscured by all manner of associated emotions linked to mere phrases, so that a sense of the truth can probably only be sought and found through the path of the spirit.

[ 28 ] Words are, after all, abused in the most appalling way today. All sorts of things resound throughout the world, and what is heard resounding through the world, as it were, is as if there were something contained within the words themselves! On this basis, spiritual science is just as important as an educator as it is through its immediate content. If it is to be true spiritual science, it cannot dismiss people with mere words. Why not? Well, for the very simple reason that today one can talk about anything if one stops at words. You can talk about natural science if you stop at words. Just look at how Fritz Mauthner, in his *Dictionary*, demonstrates to you how natural science—where it seeks to become a science, where it does not merely record facts—is a science of words. In historical science, one speaks exclusively in words, for the rest is, as I have told you, lost in reverie. And so it is in other fields. In politics, if one were to go about one’s work sincerely and honestly, one would probably find even less behind the words than in the other areas of life. If one sticks to words, one can talk today about nature, about history, about politics, about economics. But if one sticks to words, one cannot speak of the spirit; for today the spirit is nowhere to be found in words. I mean this quite seriously. Conversely, however, spiritual science is an education designed to help us move beyond today’s clinging to words.

[ 29 ] The foremost task of today’s adherent of anthroposophy is to move from words to reality—and since the reality of spiritual science is the Spirit, to the Spirit. This will bear fruit; it will open up new goals in all areas of life. Above all, it will bear one fruit: freeing those who so desire from blind faith in authority, freeing them from that superstition which is so widespread among humanity today and which humanity today does not even notice. However, this poor humanity of the present will still need to undergo many experiences before it can set out, to some extent, on the path referred to here. For this poor humanity of the present takes pride in the very thing it lacks most of all—it takes pride in its freedom from belief in authority, its freedom from idolatry.

[ 30 ] Many an idol of the past is worth more in the eyes of the spiritual connoisseur than the idols of the present. The idols of the present: The conscious person has given up prayer, while the unconscious person worships these idols of the present all the more fervently. In the eyes of one who sees through the development of the world, all these Woodrow Wilsons are far more dangerous idols of superstition than the despised idols of antiquity ever were. The people of today cling far more to these idols and to this superstition than any previous generation ever did. Even the clearest signs will be of little use to the people of today, because it is extraordinarily difficult to set them on the path of truth in such matters.

[ 31 ] The gravity of the present situation demands that even matters with a broad perspective be repeatedly and consistently reduced to such remarks. For the humanities are, after all, meant to serve life. Yet what claims to serve life today serves it the least of all.