The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] If we wish to deepen our reflections during this festive season in keeping with the spirit of our times, we would do so best in the manner already hinted at yesterday: by turning our inner gaze toward the evolution of humanity, so that through humanity’s spiritual guidance we may recognize the tasks that fall to us in the present. We must not overlook that the most important aspect of the Christmas message is that, in the night that is just beginning, the light of Christ shone into the development of humanity at that very moment in human history when this event—the incorporation of the Mystery of Golgotha into earthly life—gave meaning to humanity and, thereby, to the entire earthly existence.

[ 2 ] Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak to you about how, in the times preceding the Mystery of Golgotha, those mystery festivals celebrated in midsummer played a significant role—a time when human beings, together with the Earth itself, open their beings to the cosmic expanses, and when they can enter into a soul connection with the extraterrestrial powers. And we have envisioned how, in pre-Christian times among certain peoples, the leaders of the mysteries walked this path—the path that the human soul can take toward the divine-spiritual worlds during the height of summer, at our St. John’s time—by, as it were, offering the world of thought, imbued with feeling during this time, to the divine spiritual powers, because they were aware that what was revealed to them throughout the year is exposed to the temptations of the Luciferic powers—unless, during that high summer season, when the Earth, as it were, spreads its wings wide into the cosmic expanses, everything connected with these thoughts is experienced as a sacrifice—a grace bestowed upon humanity by the divine-spiritual powers.

[ 3 ] Yesterday I pointed out how, as a natural consequence of human evolution, the midwinter celebration has once again replaced the midsummer celebration for a certain segment of humanity, and how even in our faded conception of Christmas, this midwinter celebration still lies at its core, either because people, as is the case in certain religious communities, festively celebrate the birth of the Savior on this deep-winter night, or because people—who must first seek the paths to spiritual light once more—observe this holy night in the silence of their hearts in such a way that they become aware that, at this time, they most closely resemble the Earth and its life when they turn entirely inward. For at this time, the Earth, too, is cut off from the cosmic expanses; through its mantle of snow and the constricting cold, it lives confined within itself in the vastness of the universe.

[ 4 ] But Christmas traditions already played a certain role even in those times when people—particularly among certain peoples—celebrated the midsummer festival. However, in pre-Christian times, the concept of Christmas had a different meaning than it does today. At that time, the High Sun Spirit still belonged to the cosmic expanses and had not yet descended to Earth. Humanity’s entire situation during the depths of winter—when, in a sense, people felt themselves to be in cosmic solitude with the Earth itself—was different from what it is today. And we come to understand this situation when we once again cast a glance at certain mysteries that were native, particularly in the South, in very ancient times before the Mystery of Golgotha. In the ancient tradition, those who were permitted to seek it were initiated into such mysteries and received the initiatory knowledge of that time. In certain ancient times and among certain ancient peoples, this initiatory knowledge consisted in the initiates learning to read in the world—not what dead letters on paper convey, but what the beings of the world themselves reveal. Anyone who penetrates the mysteries of the cosmos knows that what grows and flourishes on Earth is indeed an image of what shines down from the stars across the vastness of the cosmos.

[ 5 ] Anyone who learns cosmic reading—just as people today learn the far simpler art of reading dead letters—knows that in every plant there is a sign to be seen that reveals something of the mysteries of the universe, and that when one lets one’s gaze wander, for example, over the plant world or even over the diverse animal world, this wandering of the gaze is a form of reading. And in this way, the ancient initiates of certain mysteries read to their students. However, they did not read from a book; rather, they imparted to them what they had learned—under the inspiration of the so-called “God of the Year”—about the mysteries of the annual cycle and its significance for human life. An ancient wisdom has interpreted what pertains to human beings in this way within the events of the world and among the beings of the world. As the ancient sages read such things to their students, they perceived the inspiration of such divine-spiritual beings as, for example, the Year God.

[ 6 ] Who was this God of the Year, who stood within the hierarchies and belonged, so to speak, to the order of the primordial forces? He was a being to whom certain masters of the science of initiation ascended, and in this ascent they received from him the power and the inner light to read one from the plants sprouting in spring, to read another as the summer fruits ripened, to read another when the leaves turn red in autumn as the fruits ripen, and to read yet another when the trees glisten in the snowflakes and the earth, with its rocks, is covered by a blanket of snow. This reading lasted a whole year, spanning spring, summer, fall, and winter. And in the course of this reading, the mysteries of humanity itself were revealed between the teachers and the students. Then the cycle began anew.

[ 7 ] If we wish to form a rough idea today of what the ancient inspired ones and initiates taught their students under the inspiration of the Year-God, we might say something like the following: They first drew their students’ attention to what is revealed in spring, when the snow has melted and the sun regains its strength, as the first shoots of plants emerge from the reawakened power of the earth. They drew their students’ attention to how differently the plant that thrives in the meadow speaks of the mystery of the universe compared to the one that grows in the shade of the forest trees. They drew their students’ attention to how, in one plant and in the other, the rising warmth and light of the sun speak to humanity from the vastness of the cosmos in different ways through the jagged and round leaves on the surface of the Earth. And whatever could be revealed in this way under the influence of the God of the Year through those letters that the Earth itself brings forth from within—this the Mystery Teacher unveiled to the students, in the manner of that time, as the mysteries of the physical human body.

[ 8 ] Thus, these teachers pointed to the physical formation of the earth, to the earth’s power sprouting within the plant; at every single location of growth on earth to which the students were directed, there stood a different letter. The letters—which were living plant beings or took the form of living animals—came together, just as we today combine individual letters in a sentence to form words; they were set. People lived by experiencing spring firsthand, by reading nature. This was the essence of the initiations of the God of the Year. And when spring had come to an end, around May, one had the impression that one now understood how the human physical body is shaped and formed from the womb of the universe.

[ 9 ] Then summer arrived. The same letters and words of the great World Logos were used, but it was shown how, under the differently falling rays of the sun, the differently acting sunlight, and the differently acting solar warmth, the letters changed their forms—just as the first shoots, which spoke of the mysteries of the physical human body, open themselves to the sun in blossoms. The multicolored blossoms were interpreted, in each of which the sunbeam lovingly kisses the plant forces sprouting from the earth. And from the wondrous, subtle, and delicate interweaving of the cosmic forces over the earthly forces of the blooming plants, that striving of the earth out into the cosmic expanses was discerned. People lived in harmony with the Earth as it opened itself to the cosmic expanses, to the vastness of the stars; they lived with this Earth itself in the infinities.

[ 10 ] But what these infinities held was revealed when one looked at the flowering letters of the plants. From these flowering letters of the plants, one could read how humankind behaved when it descended from the spiritual worlds into physical life on Earth, and how it drew together the etheric substance from all directions to form its own etheric body. And in this way, one could read the mysteries of this etheric body from what later occurs in the etheric realm between the Earth and the universe within the World Logos, which paints its own signs upon the Earth’s surface by causing the plants to bloom and by endowing the animals with certain modes of life during the height of summer.

[ 11 ] As autumn approached, one could see how these letters of the World Logos changed once again, how the sun withdraws its warmth and its light, how the plants take refuge in what the sun itself had imparted to the earth during the height of summer, how they, so to speak, exhale the blossoming, sprouting life they had received during the height of summer, but in return develop within their bosom the ripening fruits, which in turn lead plant life back to itself by harboring the seed forces within. Once again, people deciphered what the World Logos had inscribed on the surface of the Earth itself in the ripening plants; once again, they revealed and deciphered what the forms of animal life can reveal in the fall. One read the innermost secrets of the universe from the flight of the birds. One read these innermost secrets of the universe from the way in which the smaller animal world changes as autumn approaches. One read in the insect world. One read in the insects’ search for refuge near the earth, in the change in the form of the insect world, the whole earth drawing in on itself in the face of the dead silence. One read what one perceived as the earth’s turning inward upon itself within the cosmos.

[ 12 ] This was made particularly clear through certain festivities celebrated in the second half of September, remnants of which can still be found in rural areas in the form of the Michaelmas festival. Through these festivals, people were reminded that when, as human beings, they are, so to speak, abandoned by everything that people on Earth use as paths leading out into the cosmic expanses, they must connect with something that is not bound to external physical and etheric events, and must turn their souls toward the spiritual content of the cosmos. And even in the faded Michaelmas festival at the end of September, that turning of humanity toward the Spirit of the Hierarchies—which is meant to guide humanity in a spiritual way when the outer guidance provided by the stars and the sun has waned in strength—is preserved.

[ 13 ] Through everything one read there—a reading that simultaneously transformed into contemplation—and through everything one contemplated there, one became imbued with the mysteries of the human astral body. And it was in the autumn season that the inspired ones and the initiates of the Year-God read from the very essence of nature and, together with it, contemplated the mysteries of the human astral body. And it was in this autumn season that the Initiates spoke to their disciples: Hold fast to that Being who stands before the face of the Sun—whose name Michael still recalls—remember this Being who stands before the face of the Sun. You will need this strength when you must pass through all that you retain in your astral being from your earthly existence, when you have passed through the gate of death into the supersensible worlds.

[ 14 ] The mysteries of the human astral body were drawn from what manifested as the Logos in the maturing—but also in the withering—plant kingdom, in the insects burrowing into the earth, and so on. Indeed, human beings already knew that if they wished to find true humanity for this part of their being, they had to turn their gaze toward the spiritual world. Therefore, the soul’s gaze of those to be initiated was directed toward a being whom we may designate by the name Michael.

[ 15 ] But then came the time of which our current Christmas season is the midpoint. It was the time when the Initiates and the Inspired Ones of the Year of God pointed out to their disciples the unique phenomenon that reveals itself when water, in the form of artistically shaped snowflakes, covers the earth. There, reading—which had already become a source of reflection in the fall—became an inner life; there, the soul’s observation, which in earlier seasons had proceeded in parallel with external physical work, became inner spiritual work. Reading became mysticism, a mystical deepening. Human beings knew that they could understand their deepest being—their “I”-being—only when they allowed this “I”-being to be revealed through what the World Logos instills in all that takes place in nature, when the blanket of snow covers the earth and the cold contracts life within the earth’s sphere. The initiates and the inspired ones of the Year of God were to come to know His Scripture through this Scripture of the winter season. Their gaze was sharpened so that they might follow the seed that was sown into the earth, so that they might follow the insects that sought to overwinter within the earth’s forces as they contracted upon themselves. From the physical light, their gaze was led into the physical darkness.

[ 16 ] In certain mysteries, the students were taught to understand: Now you must see the sun at midnight—the midnight sun—now you must see the sun passing through the earth. By allowing your soul’s eye to be permeated by the force that follows the plants and lower forms of life into the earth, the earth itself can become transparent to the inner power of the soul. — When the Earth has concentrated its power most fully in relation to the universe, then the human being can rise up to see, through this Earth—because it is, so to speak, entirely spiritualized within itself—the sun as the midnight sun, whereas otherwise, in the height of summer, he perceives the sun with his physical senses when he turns his gaze away from the earth and out into the universe without looking through the earth.

[ 17 ] To gaze upon the sun at midnight, on a deep winter’s night—that was something the disciples of the initiates of the God of the Year were to learn. And they were then to share those mysteries they had observed from the midnight sun with those who, though devout adherents of the Mysteries, could not themselves become initiates into the Mysteries or disciples of the Mysteries.

[ 18 ] And in those ancient times, it became increasingly common for the initiates, as they directed their disciples’ attention to the sun at the height of winter at the hour of midnight, to have to reveal to them, in a certain way, how human beings on Earth feel dependent on their “I.” The festival of the deep winter night became more and more a festival of pain, especially for those who were among the most knowledgeable—a festival of pain and suffering through which human beings were to learn how, within their physical, earthly existence, they cannot find the path to their “I.” He was to learn this by reading the signs that the Logos inscribed upon the Earth during the depths of winter—signs revealing how forsaken he is with his “I” in the course of the world; for the Earth was perceived as solitary, and that which the “I” must yearn for—the power of the Sun—was veiled by the Earth. The sun did indeed appear at the hour of midnight, but human beings felt less and less strength to reach this solar being at that hour. Yet at the same time, this drawing of attention to the abandonment of the human “I” in the cosmos was the prophetic indication of how that solar being was to approach the Earth, was to permeate the human being in the course of human development, and was to appear in order to heal ailing humanity—humanity that was sick with loneliness in the face of the universe.

[ 19 ] This already points to that fact in human evolution whereby an ancient winter festival of suffering and pain—particularly among the peoples of the south—was transformed into an inner, spiritual festival of joy through the appearance of Christ on Earth. And what was revealed there—when the Sun Being descended from the vastness of the worlds into earthly existence—is still indicated by the heralds of this event through their symbols, as they point out that the message of how the ancient festival of pain and suffering was transformed into a festival of joy resounded to all people on Earth. In the depths of the shepherds’ hearts, through which their dreams were woven, the word resounded:

The Divine is revealed
In the heights of the vastness of the worlds,
And peace will spring forth on Earth
For people of good will.

[ 20 ] Such is the inner life of the simple shepherd’s heart. — And at the other pole of humanity, where those who had been initiated into the most profound magic resided, the message of this penetration of the World Spirit into earthly matter could emerge from the heirlooms of the ancient wisdom of the stars.

[ 21 ] Today, when we speak of the Christmas mystery, we must find what we feel in it against the backdrop of that ancient festival of suffering and sorrow; we must remember how, within the course of human evolution, a force entered into this development through which human beings can free themselves from what binds them to the earth itself through its heaviness. We must be able to shape the Christmas idea in such a way that we can say to ourselves: Yes, the inspirations of the God of the Year—which He revealed to the ancient initiates—are still true: that the Earth withdraws from the cosmos into itself during the deep winter season to reflect on itself, and that human beings can still understand how the mystery of the human “I” is connected to this mystery of the year. But out of human insight, out of perceptive human feeling, out of the perceptive wisdom of the human heart, a person can surround themselves with the images of Christ Jesus entering into earthly human life; a person can learn to feel the profound meaning of Christmas Eve. But they will only perceive it in the right way if they also truly have the will to follow the revealing Christ through all ages.

[ 22 ] The task of the ancient initiates of the ancient science of initiation was to reveal the mysteries of human nature through the cycle of the year. We must understand what the year reveals, but we must also be able to look into the innermost depths of human nature. And when we look deeply into the innermost depths of human nature—as anthroposophical spiritual science shows us— then the letters inscribed in the heart and lungs, in the brain, and in all parts of the human organism reveal to us the mysteries of the universe, just as these mysteries of the universe had revealed themselves through the signs of the Logos to the inspired ones of the God of the Year in the sprouting plants, in the formed animals, and in what these formed animals experience on the Earth. We must learn to look into the human being. The inner being of the human being itself must become a scripture for us. Then we will read the very development of humanity from this inner being of the human being. But then we must surrender ourselves to the meaning of this development of humanity; then, through inner contemplation, we must connect with what, as spiritual forces, seeks to weave and surge through the development of humanity. Then, because this human development is in constant progress, we must experience anew in every age the Mystery of Golgotha, the Mystery of the Night of the Nativity. Then we must fully experience that the Spirit who chose that organism born on the Night of the Nativity in Bethlehem is the one who said: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Then we must also develop a spiritual ear for the ongoing revelation of this Logos through the human being itself. Humanity must learn to listen to the inspirations of this God of humanity—who is Christ himself—just as it once learned to listen to the inspirations of the God of the Year.

[ 23 ] Then humanity will not merely look back on what has been handed down in the Bible regarding the spiritual earthly life of Christ Jesus; rather, humanity will gain an understanding and insight into the fact that Christ has been connected with human beings in their earthly lives ever since that time, and that—if people are only willing to listen—He always reveals Himself. Then humanity in our time can gain an understanding and insight into the fact that, just as Christmas once followed the Feast of St. Michael in the fall within the cycle of the year, so too the Revelation of St. Michael—which occurred in the fall during the last third of the 19th century—is to be followed by a festival of consecration, a Christmas celebration through which an understanding of a spiritual birth is to be gained—the spiritual birth that humanity needs in order to continue its earthly journey, so that the Earth, once spiritualized, may find its transformation into future forms. We now live in a time when, in a sense, it is not merely a matter of the annual autumn festival, the annual Michaelmas festival, and the annual Christmas festival; we now live in a time when we are to understand the Michael Revelation of the last third of the 19th century deeply within our souls, from within our own human being, and when we are to seek the path to the true Christmas festival—namely, to the permeation with the Spirit to be recognized.

[ 24 ] Then we will understand the words recorded in the Gospel: “I have much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now.” Humanity is capable of bearing more and more of what Christ has to say to it. Humanity is not predisposed to listen only to those who seek to hinder progress and who point to what was once written in dry, literal terms about the Mystery of Golgotha—those who do not want the power of this Mystery of Golgotha to be revealed to humanity in a living way throughout the course of time. Nor is today the time to listen to those who wish merely to remain in the world’s springtime—a time when outer physical nature shines in its brightest splendor but cannot reveal the spiritual. Today is the time when we must find our way from the Feast of Michael to the feast of midwinter, which is to contain a sunrise of the spirit. We would never find this path if, in the course of human evolution on Earth, we were to succumb to the illusion that there is light today in outer life, in outer earthly civilization, and in outer earthly culture; rather, we can find it only if we surrender to the truth that there is darkness there, but that within this darkness we must seek the light that Christ sought to bring into the world through Jesus.

[ 25 ] Let us follow with the same devotion with which the shepherds and the Magi from the East once sought the way to the manger on Christmas night; let us follow the traces that can now be read from human nature itself—in letters that are still faint but are destined to become ever clearer—and we will once again be able to celebrate the mystery of Christ on Christmas Eve. But one will be allowed to celebrate it only if one is willing to seek the light in the darkness.

[ 26 ] Today, science is often not understood as that which explains the world—“to explain” comes from the clarity of light—but rather, science is often understood as that which does not explain, but rather obscures and darkens. The darknesses must grasp the light. Let one try, in this way, to find the light of the spirit from a darkness that truly exists—with the deepest inner feeling and the strongest willpower—and then it will shine, just as the stars announcing the birth of Jesus shone for the shepherds and the Magi on that great holy night.

[ 27 ] We must learn to place the spirit of Christmas within the historical development of humanity. We need not wait for a new Messiah, for a new Christ, but rather for that which has been revealed to humanity through nature—which, over the course of the last few centuries, has led us deep into the darkness of the material world—and for that which can be revealed to humanity through Christ Jesus, truly understood as living and ever-present. Thus, we must not fix the Christmas spirit in a conventional annual celebration; rather, we must make it fluid so that it may shine upon us, just as the Star of Bethlehem shone.

[ 28 ] It is of this light, of this shining star, that I wanted to speak to you on this Christmas Eve, and I hope to have contributed in some small way to your being able to combine—with the will that, though weak, but earnestly, animates anthroposophical spiritual science—that you might combine this will with that other will which consists in following that star, which most certainly shines upon humanity in a true sense throughout the Christmas night.

[ 29 ] To let this light permeate us in silence and intimacy from this evening into tomorrow—that is the deepest Christmas blessing for our time. Everything else should, in essence, be merely an outward sign of this Christmas spirit, which we can carry with us from this evening into the next morning. Then this night will not merely be a symbol to us, but the symbol will take on a living power, and we may reflect on how deeply we should connect with the spiritual striving that extends into the future for all righteous people, and which is at the same time the true Christmas striving: the striving toward that Spirit who wished to incarnate in the body that was born in Bethlehem on that sacred night in world history.