The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. The Triple Sun and the Risen Christ

[ 1 ] In the present day, it is absolutely necessary for a number of people to know where humanity currently stands in its spiritual development, and which path must be taken so that our civilization does not perish. For—and I wish to speak to you today entirely in anthroposophical terms—those spiritual forces we call the Ahrimanic forces, which encompass everything that is thought and done materialistically within humanity, seek to bind human beings to the earth through everything that is merely intellectualistic. These Ahrimanic forces are very strong in our time, and they seek in every way to gain access to human souls in order to seduce them into a materialistic mindset, into a purely intellectualistic understanding of the world. Therefore, a number of people must know how the development of humanity on Earth is to proceed, so that humanity may attain its goal as the Earth’s humanity. To do this, however, it is necessary to look back a little on the development of humanity. We could go further back, but for today it is not necessary to go further back than the third and fourth millennia before the Mystery of Golgotha and then trace the development of humanity up to our time from a certain perspective.

[ 2 ] In those ancient times, which I would like to discuss first, a culture developed in the Orient, in Asia, which I have called the “primordial Persian culture” in my book Occult Science. The teacher of humanity during this primordial Persian culture was Zarathustra, Zoroaster. This is not the Zarathustra of whom history tells us, who lived somewhat later. He is a much older teacher of humanity. But it was certainly the case in those ancient times that the disciples of a great and significant teacher would long adopt his name. And so the person referred to in history as Zarathustra is the last of the great disciples of Zarathustra. Zarathustra was initiated into the mysteries of existence in a very special way, and as a great initiate, an outstanding one, he was able to teach the people of his time. Through his initiation, Zarathustra knew that at the very point in space where we look when we see the sun, a great, all-encompassing world spirit dwells. Zoroaster did not see the physical sun at all at first; rather, in the place where we today see the physical sun through ordinary consciousness, Zoroaster saw a great, all-encompassing world spirit. And this world spirit exerted its influence on Zoroaster in a spiritual way. And through this, Zarathustra knew how, along with the light, the radiance of the sun, and the sun’s rays upon the earth, the divine-spiritual rays of grace also come, which kindle within the soul, within the spirit of the human being, the higher human being toward whom the ordinary human being should strive. And since in those ancient times the initiates were not called by external names, but by the names that befitted them based on what they knew, this great initiate was called by his disciples—and he called himself—Zarathustra, Zoroaster, the radiant star. But what was meant was the radiant deity who sends the rays of wisdom down to Earth. Compared to all later initiations, it was a higher initiation. For in what Zarathustra saw in the spiritual world-sun lay all the forces that cause stones to harden on Earth, that cause plants to grow from their seeds, that spread the various animal species across the Earth, and that allow human beings to grow and flourish. The eldest Zarathustra—the radiant star—knew everything that happened on Earth through what he experienced from the Sun as a spiritual being.

[ 3 ] And then came a later era in which it was no longer possible to penetrate so deeply into the mysteries of the world. It was the era that I referred to in my Occult Science as the Chaldean-Egyptian culture of humanity. Even then, people still looked up at the sun, but they no longer saw the sun as the radiant one; they saw only what shone, only what gleamed. And Ra, whose earthly representative was Osiris, appeared as the sun that actually moved around the earth, shining there. Thus, certain mysteries had been lost because people could no longer, as initiates of ancient times, see the radiant world-god with complete inner clarity; instead, they could now see only that which emanates from the Sun more out of primal forces, out of astral forces. Zarathustra still saw a being in the Sun; at that time, he could still see a being in the Sun. The Egyptian and Chaldean initiates saw in the sun only the forces—the forces of light and the forces of motion—that came from the sun to the earth. They already saw only something lower than a spiritual being: they saw spiritual deeds, but not a spiritual being. And these ancient Egyptian initiates designated Osiris as the one who represents on Earth what we carry within ourselves as human beings from the forces of the sun.

[ 4 ] And when we come to the Greek period—that is, as early as the eighth, seventh, and fifth centuries, and so on, before the Mystery of Golgotha—people no longer perceived the mysteries of the Sun; they saw only what manifested itself around the Earth as the Sun’s effect. In a sense, people saw only the effect of the Sun in the ether that fills the space around the Earth. And what spreads around the Earth as ether—and also permeates human beings—the Greek initiates—not the common people, but the Greek initiates—referred to as Zeus.

[ 5 ] And so there was a stage in the development of human culture in which the initiates saw a divine-spiritual being in the sun; then there was the stage in which the initiates saw forces at work in the sun; and a third stage in which the initiates saw only the effects of the solar being in the Earth’s ether.

[ 6 ] You see, the teaching of these three aspects of the Sun—the solar aspect of Zarathustra, the solar aspect of Osiris, and the solar aspect of Pythagoras and Anaxagoras—was known in later times by one more person who had come as close to the initiatory teachings as it was possible to do at that time. Julian the Apostate was still familiar with these three aspects—not through direct vision, but as a teaching, as a tradition passed down through the Mystery School. And Julian the Apostate was so overwhelmed by this threefold aspect of the Sun that what Christianity brought seemed insignificant in comparison. He still came to know something of the indescribable glory into which Zarathustra had gazed; he still came to know something of the power of fire, light, cosmic-chemical forces, and cosmic life forces, as they were first perceived in the ancient mysteries—and of which he could only learn through tradition. This teaching seemed so magnificent, so powerful to him that he could not convert to Christianity. But he wanted something else instead: he wanted to proclaim the ancient mysteries—into which he was still, to a certain degree, initiated—to all of humanity. That is why that dagger was sharpened for him, the one that brought him a violent death. That dagger was wielded by one of the figures who, in those ancient times, believed that the high teachings of initiation should not be revealed to humanity at large. That dagger was wielded by one of those figures who wanted people to be addressed only in the same way that, in that era, one spoke outwardly about the sun.

[ 7 ] Julian the Apostate said that the sun had three aspects: one of the earthly ether, one of the heavenly light behind it and the chemical, thermal, or fiery and life forces, and one aspect of purely spiritual essence. For this, he was eliminated. And indeed, it must be said that at that time there was still a phase in human development in which humanity as a whole was not yet mature enough to receive such significant truths. But we can see something else, something extraordinarily significant. Much of what was contained in these threefold teachings of Zarathustra, Osiris, and Anaxagoras—concerning the spiritual Sun, the elemental Sun, and Zeus, the sun-like Earth-ether—was incorporated into Greek external, exoteric culture. And it is only for this reason that we have such a lofty Greek art, such a lofty Greek philosophy—only for this reason do we have a Plato and an Aristotle—because so much of that ancient wisdom flowed into these individuals. But even then, it was already a time when the initiatory truths of antiquity were no longer sufficiently protected from desecration. And so it came to pass that much of the initiatory wisdom had passed on to outstanding Romans, notably to the Roman emperors, to the outstanding leaders of the Roman people. At most, however, it was Augustus who knew how to appreciate what had been handed down to him through the wisdom of initiation. And that is also why, in Roman culture, people could not recognize—as they could in Greek art and Greek wisdom—that there was something esoteric contained within it which, when properly understood, led back to the most ancient teachings of wisdom. And so it came to pass that Roman civilization—entirely prosaic and thoroughly semi-barbaric—adopted the outward splendor of Greek culture, yet the Romans were unable to convey to posterity, in its true form, that which lived within Greek culture. And so it came to pass that, with the advent of Roman civilization, that ancient culture could no longer be transmitted to the emerging Christianity, which was linked to the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 8 ] When one says something like what I have just said, one must not say it as a rebuke or as criticism, for all these things are necessary for the development of humanity. However, one must be clear that the actual ancient truths of initiation cannot be transmitted to the West through Roman civilization, which did not appreciate initiation, and that we, as people of ordinary consciousness in modern times, are separated from the sacred truth of ancient times by Roman civilization, which was unable to understand these truths—a fact that also led to a figure who emerged from that Roman civilization driving out the last Greek philosophers, forcing them to flee to the East. I mention all this because, for the various considerations I will then present, it is necessary that we cast a brief glance at that time when the ancient spiritual teachers could look up at the starry sky and see the threefold sun above. Nothing of this knowledge has remained for posterity except its symbol in the threefold crown of the Roman Pope. The outward form has remained, the inner essence has been lost, and only the newer initiation can look back once more to those ancient times. Through this newer initiation—which anthroposophy must also address—we can once again look back to those ancient times in human evolution when even the sun itself was the source from which people sought to learn what was known on Earth as the mysteries of human evolution.

[ 9 ] When those who were the disciples of the ancient Initiates looked out into the cosmos and spoke of what lived beyond Earth in the effects of the Sun, in the Sun itself, in the great Zarathustrian spiritual being of the Sun, these ancient Initiates essentially meant the same thing that was later referred to as Christ. So it must be said in every respect that the ancient initiates beheld the Christ outside of Earth in the cosmos—specifically, in the cosmos represented by the Sun. And the essence of the Mystery of Golgotha is not the doctrine of Christ, for the ancient initiates also possessed this doctrine of Christ. They simply spoke of Christ in such a way that he does not live on Earth, that he is not within the forces of the Earth, but rather that he lives within the forces of the Sun. But it is entirely wrong to believe that the ancient initiates did not speak of the Christ Being. It is also one of those truths that have been completely lost to humanity: that before the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ was always spoken of as an extraterrestrial being. Today, such a view is even called unchristian.

[ 10 ] But why is such a view called unchristian, when the early Church Fathers certainly held this view? The early Church Fathers said: The sages of ancient times, who are often referred to as pagans, are Christians in a deeper sense! The early Church Fathers certainly spoke of pagans as Christians before the Mystery of Golgotha. What came about through the Mystery of Golgotha is precisely this: that being, whom one could not previously find on Earth—who could only be found outside of Earth if one was initiated into the mysteries of the heavens—then incarnated himself in Jesus of Nazareth, lived on Earth as Jesus of Nazareth, was crucified, was laid in the ground, and appeared to his initiated disciples in his spiritual body as the Risen One. The actual descent of the high solar being from cosmic heights to Earth—that is what takes place in the Mystery of Golgotha. And this Christ, who descended from the spiritual worlds, who passed through death, who was laid in the earth in regard to his body—this Christ also had initiated disciples after his death and after his Resurrection. What he taught his initiated disciples is something that many people today should actually already know, so that they may participate in the forces driving the further development of humanity.

[ 11 ] All the ancient initiates were, in essence, actually taught by extraterrestrial beings. Instruction in humanity’s most ancient mysteries was conducted in such a way that the students of the mysteries were prepared to see beyond their physical bodies. Through this vision, they came to know beings such as the Christ, whom Zarathustra recognized as a high solar being. Through this vision, however, they also came to know other beings from the various hierarchies. We must certainly imagine that the spiritual language spoken by such a being—who descended and taught the initiates—is precisely a language through which people could be taught in ancient times. In ancient times, people had divine teachers. Christ was also such a divine teacher for the people whom he instructed after his Resurrection. But he was able to teach something different from the earlier divine teachers.

[ 12 ] The ancient divine teachers spoke to humankind at length about the mysteries of birth, but they did not speak to them about the mysteries of death, for in the divine world, death had not yet been experienced. In the world from which the ancient divine teachers descended to the ancient initiates, there were no beings who had experienced death. Death was something that could only be experienced by human beings on Earth. The gods looked down upon humanity, but fundamentally, their knowledge of death was only superficial. Christ came to know death on Earth, not merely by being incarnated in a human being as a manifestation at certain times—as was the case with the ancient teachers—but by living on Earth as God, just like the human soul, within a physical human body. He truly came to know death; he passed through death. And he came to know even more.

[ 13 ] If the Christ had only gone through everything that took place from John’s baptism in the Jordan to the crucifixion and his death on the cross, then the Christ would not have been able to speak of those mysteries of which he spoke to his initiated disciples after his resurrection. For you see, for those divine teachers who were able to descend to Earth, and for the ancient initiated teachers, there were no mysteries in the entire wide world except within the Earth. They knew that within the Earth there reign spiritual beings of a different kind than the gods who descended to humanity before the Mystery of Golgotha. The Greeks, for example, knew of them and gave them the name “Titans” in their mythology. But the one among the higher gods who first came to know the interior of the Earth—because he was immersed within it—was Christ. It is important to note that Christ came to know a realm of the higher gods that these higher gods had not previously known. And this mystery—that even the gods undergo a process of development—Christ revealed to his initiated disciples after his Resurrection. And Paul learned this mystery through his natural initiation on the road to Damascus. What was so shattering for Paul was that he realized: the power that was once found only in the sun is now connected with the forces of the Earth.

[ 14 ] What, then, was the reason Paul—as Saul—persecuted the followers of Christ? It was because Paul, as Saul, had come to understand through the ancient Hebrew initiation that Christ lives only out there in the cosmos, and that those who claim Christ lives within the earth are mistaken. When Paul had his epiphany near Damascus, he first realized that he had been mistaken, because he had believed only what had once been true. But what had once been true had now changed; what had once dwelt only in the sun had descended to Earth and henceforth lives in the forces of the Earth. And so, for those who first revealed it to humanity, the Mystery of Golgotha was not merely an earthly event, but a cosmic event—a cosmic event that was taught in the early post-Christian era by the true initiates in the following manner.

[ 15 ] These first Christian initiates were so deeply initiated that they knew: The Christ, who today appears as the being who passed through the Mystery of Golgotha at the beginning of the Christian era, descended from even greater heights to the sun, where Zarathustra beheld him. Then his power passed into the rays of the sun; there he was beheld by the Egyptian initiates. Then his power lived within the sphere of the Earth; there he was beheld by the Greek initiates. Now he is to be beheld as he himself walked among human beings as a being with an earthly body; now he is to be beheld in such a way that one perceives his true form in the Risen One—in the one who is within the earth, who has beheld the mystery of the earth, and who can now gradually allow this mystery to flow into the development of humanity.

[ 16 ] It was with an immense warmth of expression that this esoteric teaching of Christianity took effect in very isolated circles during the first Christian century—spreading ever further from the East, yet shrouded in great mystery. Yes, there was indeed such an esoteric teaching of Christianity! These early Church Fathers still knew something of it, but they also saw the onslaught of Roman culture coming from the other side. That clash between the earliest Christian impulses and anti-spiritual Roman culture was far more powerful than history today realizes. Roman culture, so to speak, cast a veil of superficiality over the deepest mysteries of Christianity.

[ 17 ] With our ordinary consciousness today, we basically have no idea what kind of relationship ancient humanity had with the forces of the universe. The ancient human beings of the third, fourth, and fifth millennia knew that when they ate this or that substance, that substance continued to work within their bodies, and that the forces of the cosmos manifested themselves within them. How, for example, does Zarathustra teach his disciples? Zarathustra teaches his disciples thus: You eat the fruits of the field. They are bathed in sunlight, but within the sun lives the high spiritual being. From the cosmos, from without, the power of the high spiritual being enters the fruits of the field through the rays. You eat the fruits of the field—that which triggers the substance within you. Let yourselves be filled with the spiritual forces of the sun; the sun rises within you as you enjoy the fruits of the field. Do this at a particularly solemn hour; at a particularly solemn hour, take something prepared from the fruits of the field. Meditate on how the sun is present within it; meditate until that piece of bread becomes radiant to you, and as you savor it, be aware: from the vast universe, the spirit of the sun has entered you and come to life within you.

[ 18 ] Well, of all this, only the outward form remains: the eating of bread in the Mass and at Communion. Those who perpetuate this outward form in the spirit of what Roman culture introduced into Christianity are the very ones who most vehemently oppose the idea that one must possess cosmic wisdom to understand Christianity. But these are also the ones who understand Paul’s teachings the least, for Paul simply beheld, in all its radiance, the power that comes down from the clouds—the power of the sun, which was the supersensible being: the Christ who descended to Earth through the Mystery of Golgotha, the cosmic divinity of the sun united with the forces of the Earth. In the first three to four centuries of Christian development, much was still known about this very mystery. Then external knowledge of the world became so dominant that even from the accounts that have come down to us from later times, it is no longer possible to discern how deeply spiritual the event of Golgotha was understood in the first centuries of the Christian era. Today, however, is the time when humanity must absolutely recall this spiritual understanding of Christianity in the early Christian centuries. Since the [first] centuries after Christ, human beings have undergone the very process that has led them to a high earthly wisdom. Through this, they have become free beings. Even the ancient initiates were not free, for when they sought the deepest impulses, they allowed themselves to be guided by the deities. One can become free only through this particularly high [earthly] wisdom. In the times to come, this will increasingly lead humanity to a point where the anti-divine forces—the anti-Christian forces—can take hold of human souls. These anti-Christian forces—I call them the Ahrimanic forces.

[ 19 ] We have a highly developed science, but it has not yet been permeated by Christianity. We speak of nature, and no one sees any reason to Christianize this natural science. But this must happen. This natural science must be Christianized; otherwise, everything that humanity needs from the cosmos will be lost. In those ancient times, people were still receptive; they still had an understanding [of cosmic influences] through the universal nourishment that humanity partakes of. People became more and more alienated from cosmic life. In the later Egyptian-Chaldean culture, the ancient initiates could still speak of the powers of the gods, of the powers that enter into plants and stones. That is why, during this period, the science of healing—medicine in particular—first came to the fore. The most effective remedies still originate from those ancient times; we simply do not realize it. But here, too, we must return to the sources; we must develop a form of medicine that truly looks into the deeper forces of beings. The solution lies with the newer science of initiation, and anthroposophy seeks nothing other than to give humanity what can be attained today. The fact is that since the year 1899, the dark age—Kali Yuga, as the ancient prophets called it—has come to an end. The spiritual world lives all around us and can reveal itself. We can perceive it, and it is our task to listen to this revelation. This is what our anthroposophy seeks to point out to humanity. What anthroposophy offers is not merely a matter for humanity, but a matter for the entire world.

[ 20 ] When one communicates insights from the science of initiation in detail and in concrete terms, one must also be prepared for the possibility that certain aspects may be mocked. Yet precisely from what I said at the beginning today—that we need people who, through the science of initiation, possess specific knowledge about the evolution of humanity—it can also become clear how necessary it is that we today do not merely float, as it were, in the clouds with general insights, but that we bring these insights to life by truly entering human life with them. This can only be done if these insights also speak of human life in a truly vital way. I would like to share the following story.

[ 21 ] During one of the later Crusades, a young monk lived in one of the Italian monasteries. He was exceptionally gifted, and he was able to delve deeply into what had been passed down from ancient Christian times—not from Scripture, but from person to person as tradition—and which lived on, particularly in some monasteries. In many a solitary hour, an older monk would tell the younger one about these things, and this young monk had heard much of this sort. He had then joined one of the later Crusades and, having fallen ill in Palestine—or at least in the Near East—was taken into a nursing home, where he met an even older monk who had been initiated into the mysteries of Christianity. This stirred within him a deep longing to perceive and understand the deeper mysteries of Christianity. And it was in the Orient that this young monk first died; and he was reborn in our own age, reborn as a personality in whom these forces from his earlier earthly life were present and manifested in a remarkable way. As I said, these things are, of course, such that one might scoff at them, yet it is absolutely necessary, from the perspective of the science of initiation, to speak today about concrete matters as well. One will eventually come to realize that these matters can be discussed from a spiritual perspective just as historically as external scientific facts. This individual is the one known as Cardinal Newman. If you trace his life from his youth onward, his knowledge, and what he said, and you will see how a strong personality lived within him, imbued with a different kind of Christianity than what he encountered in his surroundings, and why this personality sought to break free from the intellectualistic form of Christianity, why this personality dreamed of a different kind of consciousness—the kind possessed by the first disciples of the risen Christ on earth. If you then continue to trace this life and see how Cardinal Newman, upon his investiture, made the significant statement: “There is no salvation for religion unless a new revelation comes”—if you take this to heart, then you will understand this search as stemming from a strong longing arising from previous earthly lives. Newman sensed what was emerging from those spiritual forces I spoke of in the second part of the lecture; he intuited that a new science of initiation could be attained through special development, and thereby a new spiritual revelation. He did not go beyond a certain traditionalism with regard to his Christian view. I need not tell you what he came to; you can read about Cardinal Newman in your own country. He strives beyond the mist toward a light, yet in reality he remains standing within the mist. A deeper understanding of his nature shows us that the fault did not actually lie with him, but that in this regard he was truly a victim of his time—of what I have called here the Ahrimanic forces. These forces acted upon him with extraordinary intensity, like attacks, and held his power of thought captive, so that it could not develop freely into spirituality. But anyone who wants to develop freely today must free their power of thought from its bondage to the brain.

[ 22 ] Ahriman achieves his great successes by shortening the second half of human life—from death to a new birth. After all, a certain amount of time does elapse between death and a new birth. This time, which is depicted in my Mystery Plays, consists of two halves. The period following what I have called “cosmic midnight” is the second half. Ahriman seeks to shorten this second half—from the midpoint to a new birth—[for human beings]. In this way, he seizes the human brain with its power of thought with great haste and intense energy. He latches onto the brain, so to speak. Ahriman seeks to bind human beings ever more closely to the earth. This is the way in which Ahrimanic forces increasingly affect human beings, seeking to draw the power of thought ever more deeply into earthly life in relation to the spiritual world: human beings arrive one or two centuries too early. But this is precisely what must be overcome through a powerful energy. Precisely during the time when Cardinal Newman was still at the helm, he was unable—despite his strong energy—to free his power of thought sufficiently; otherwise, he would not have spoken of something that must come, and otherwise he would have found the path to a new revelation himself. One must speak of such a personality when one wishes to point to that which seeks to lead people to a new life, when one wishes to speak of spirituality. For this spirituality, as I have indicated, will once again make the Mystery of Golgotha comprehensible to people in such a way that they can penetrate it with their whole humanity, so that it can live in their innermost being. I wanted to cite Cardinal Newman as an example here, but one should study these tragic figures to understand what is necessary. And much in this regard needs to be studied in this very country. Therefore, it should also be understood in this country that there is an inner necessity to make that spiritual life—from which Cardinal Newman was torn away by Ahrimanic forces—and that spiritual knowledge comprehensible once more to humanity, so that this civilization may be saved from ruin.

[ 23 ] And it must be said: From an understanding of such concrete connections—when one recognizes these connections—arises the ideal of doing as much as possible to spread spiritual life among humanity. That is the only possibility. But let us be aware of one thing: that the Ahrimanic forces are very strong. But that which seeks to bear witness through anthroposophy has very powerful enemies who are inspired by the Ahrimanic forces. These forces are growing stronger and stronger! I would like to say this to you especially today, so that you will not be surprised when what seeks to emerge into the world as the anthroposophical movement will have to contend more and more with terrible hostile forces. In a sense, it must become a real outcome of our understanding what is intended with these anthroposophical endeavors—that we also keep a watchful eye on the enemies who carry out terrible slanderous or other attacks, who do not want to allow this movement to emerge. But no matter how strong they may be, the strength within human beings must be just as strong through the positive power of their own energy. It is necessary to spread the anthroposophical worldview in an honest and clear manner, even if this means presenting it to the world in such a way that many will not believe in what the anthroposophical movement seeks to cultivate.

[ 24 ] And so I hope that many will be found who can draw upon their inner strength—despite the distortions and obscurations that will arise in opposition to what the anthroposophical movement specifically aims for—to move forward, precisely by embracing its positive aspects, in order to assert this spirituality before the world. And that means, at the same time, recognizing that it is a necessity for the development of humanity.

[ 25 ] When we find common ground in our mutual understanding of this innermost character of the anthroposophical being and its significance for our time, when we have drawn a little closer to one another in this mutual understanding, then this gathering—for which we had to wait as time passed—has borne fruits that I, at least, would like to regard as the most beautiful fruits for my soul. And in the spirit of these fruits, and in the thought of this present understanding, let us remain united in spirit, even as we go our separate ways physically.