The Rudolf Steiner Archive

8. The Revelation of the Ascension and the Mystery of Pentecost

[ 1 ] The evolution of humanity on Earth has presented humanity with powerful images drawn from various religious systems—images whose full understanding requires, at the very least, a certain kind of esoteric insight. Over the years, we have seen all four Gospels interpreted in this way from an anthroposophical perspective, applying anthroposophical-esoteric insight to bring the deeper meaning of the Gospels to light. As a rule, what is at stake here is depicted in images that are images precisely because images cannot be communicated in such a narrow, rationalistic way as concepts and ideas can.

[ 2 ] When it comes to concepts and ideas, people tend to believe that once they have internalized a concept, they have grasped everything relevant to it. With an image or an imagination, however, one cannot hold such a belief. The image, the imagination, seems alive. One might say it seems alive, just like a living being itself—let’s say, a living being such as a human being. One may have come to know it from this or that aspect, but one will continually discover new facets. And one will not be satisfied with all sorts of definitions intended to encompass the matter; rather, one will want to rise to characterizations that strive to approach the image from various angles and that bring the image ever more fully into human understanding.

[ 3 ] Today I would like to present two images—images with which you are certainly familiar—to your soul and comment on a few aspects of them. The first image depicts the disciples of Jesus Christ on the Day of the Ascension, looking up as they watch Christ ascend into the clouds. This image is usually interpreted to mean that Christ ascended into heaven, having left the earth, and that the disciples are, in a sense, left to fend for themselves—just as humanity on earth, for whom Christ underwent the Mystery of Golgotha, finds itself left to its own devices after his Ascension.

[ 4 ] One might easily be led to think that this contradicts the reality of the Mystery of Golgotha in a certain way. We know that through the Mystery of Golgotha, the Christ truly resolved to unite his own being with the being of the Earth—that is, to remain in a continuous connection with the Earth’s evolution from the Mystery of Golgotha onward. Thus, one might see the powerful image of the Ascension as contradicting what emerges from the esoteric view of the Mystery of Golgotha regarding Christ’s connection with the Earth’s being and with humanity. Today we will attempt to move beyond this contradiction by drawing on genuine spiritual facts.

[ 5 ] The second image I would like to present to your soul today is that in which, ten days after the Ascension, the disciples are gathered together and tongues of fire descend upon each of their heads, so that they feel inspired—as the popular expression goes—to speak in various tongues. In reality, however, this means that they now had the ability to impart the mysteries of Golgotha to every human heart, regardless of one’s religious affiliation.

[ 6 ] We know that human evolution did not begin on Earth. We know that Earth’s evolution was preceded by the lunar evolution, which in turn was preceded by the solar evolution, which in turn was preceded by the Saturn evolution, as you will find described in my *Outline of Esoteric Science*. We know that during the Saturn evolution, human beings did indeed develop down to the physical body, but that this physical body at that time was essentially only a body of heat—that is, a sum of thermal differences— thermal effects, were, so to speak, arranged around the soul-spiritual, just as it was at that time in the sense of the descriptions in my *Secret Science*.

[ 7 ] We know, then, that during the solar stage of evolution, human beings acquired an airy body; during the lunar stage, a kind of liquid body; and it was not until the terrestrial stage of evolution that they acquired the solid, truly earthly body.

[ 8 ] Now let us consider the evolution of the Earth. We know that the Earth’s evolution proceeds in seven successive epochs. The first epoch is, in a sense, a repetition of the Saturn evolution; the second, a repetition of the Sun evolution; and the third epoch, a repetition of the Moon evolution—we once called this the Lemurian evolution. The actual evolution of the Earth begins with the fourth epoch. We are now living in the fifth epoch of evolution. It will be followed by two others, a sixth and a seventh.

I. Epoch: Repetition of Saturn’s Evolution
II. Epoch: Repetition of the Sun’s Evolution<
III. Epoch: Repetition of the Lunar Evolution—Lemurian Period
IV. Epoch: Beginning of the Actual Earth Evolution—Atlantean Period
V. Epoch: Post-Atlantean Period
VI. Epoch
VII. Epoch

[ 9 ] The midpoint of the Earth’s evolution now lies in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, so that, even in our present time, the Earth has already passed the culmination—the actual midpoint—of its evolution. You must realize from this that the Earth is already in a phase of descending evolution. We must therefore fully expect in our time that the Earth is in a phase of declining development. I have, after all, often pointed out that this is entirely consistent with the findings of materialistic geology today.

[ 10 ] In his book *The Face of the Earth*, Eduard Sueß points out that the clods of earth on which we walk today actually belong to an earth that is already dying. During the Atlantean epoch, so to speak, the earth was in its middle age. At that time, it was full of inner life, and one did not find on Earth the formations that we find today as rocks—which crumble—but rather the mineral element was active within the Earth just as it is active today, for example, in an animal organism, where it manifests itself in all sorts of deposits only when the animal organism is sick. But when the animal organism is healthy, the only deposits that form are, for example, the bones. Yet these bones still possess an inner life. They do not possess that state of death that crumbles to dust, as our mountains—the rocks of our mountains—do. This crumbling of the rocks of our mountains is simply testimony to the fact that the Earth is already in a process of death, in a process of dying.

[ 11 ] As I said, this is already a recognized fact in conventional materialistic geology today. Anthroposophy must now add that, in fact, since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, the Earth has been in a process of descending evolution. But we must include in the Earth everything that belongs to it: the plants, the animals, and above all, the physical human being. The physical human being belongs to the Earth. And since the Earth is in a descending process of evolution, the physical human body, too, is undoubtedly in a descending process of evolution. To put it another way—in more esoteric terms—this means the following: Since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, everything that first took shape in Saturn’s heat body has, in fact, been completed. The human physical body was completed in the middle of the Atlantean epoch. Since then, it has been developing along a descending line.

[ 12 ] As the time of the Mystery of Golgotha drew near, development was essentially—across the entire Earth—already well advanced; of course, development does not proceed uniformly—one phase of development may appear somewhat earlier among one people and somewhat later among another people or race— but essentially, on average, at the time the Mystery of Golgotha took place, the development of the physical being of humankind was such that, in fact, the prospect faced by all of humanity was that it would no longer be able to incarnate on Earth—that is, to continue participating in this descending phase of Earth’s evolution.

[ 13 ] This was something that was already well known in schools of initiation—and which, of course, can also be known today—namely, that around the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, the human physical body had deteriorated to such an extent that the people who were incarnated at that time, or who were incarnated shortly thereafter, roughly up to the 4th century, faced the danger of leaving the Earth desolate and empty, with no possibility in the future of descending from the spiritual-soul world and forming a physical body out of physical earthly materials. This danger was real. Humanity would thus actually have had to become unfaithful to its earthly destiny. The interplay of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces had indeed brought matters to such a point that, at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, humanity was actually destined to die out on Earth. And through what took place with the Mystery of Golgotha, one might say that humanity was healed of this extinction. A corresponding vitality was restored to the human physical body, so that human beings can now undergo further earthly development in such a way that they can once again descend from the spiritual and soul worlds and have the possibility of inhabiting physical bodies at all. That was the very real effect of the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 14 ] I have already hinted at this on several occasions—including once in a lecture series titled “From Jesus to Christ,” which was held in Karlsruhe—and which, precisely because certain truths—which many people wish to remain veiled—were once spoken out of a sense of esoteric duty, has been met with the most hostility. Yes, one could say that, from certain quarters, the hostility toward anthroposophy actually began precisely with this lecture series. Well, that was the actual effect from one perspective. Of course, the same fact can also be expressed in many other ways. In that lecture series, I expressed it differently, but what I am describing today is, viewed from a slightly different angle, precisely the same thing.

[ 15 ] It was thus the case that, through the Mystery of Golgotha, the forces of growth and development in the physical human being were rekindled. This has made it possible for the human being to receive an impulse during sleep that he would not otherwise receive. After all, the overall development of the human being on Earth takes place in both waking and sleeping states. During sleep, the physical body and the etheric body remain behind. The ego and the astral body become independent from the moment of falling asleep until waking. It is specifically during this period of independence in sleep that the influence of the Christ force takes place in those people who, through the necessary inner spiritual content, have prepared themselves appropriately for the state of sleep. Thus, the influence of the Christ force occurs primarily during the state of sleep.

[ 16 ] Now imagine that at the moment symbolically represented in the Bible by the scene of the Ascension, the disciples had become so clairvoyant that they could see what is actually the mystery of Earth’s evolution. The mysteries of Earth’s evolution actually pass by the ordinary human consciousness unnoticed. Ordinary consciousness cannot possibly know whether, at some point in human evolution, something of the utmost significance for Earth’s evolution is taking place. Many things do happen, but ordinary consciousness simply does not pay attention to them. And the depiction of the Ascension scene actually signifies that, at that moment, Christ’s disciples had become capable of observing something very significant that is taking place, so to speak, behind the scenes of Earth’s evolution.

[ 17 ] What they saw presented them with a vivid picture of the future that would have awaited humanity had the event at Golgotha not taken place. Standing before them in spiritual corporeality was what would have happened had the event at Golgotha not taken place. This is what would have happened: Human bodies would have decayed so completely on earth that the future of humanity would have been endangered. This is what human physical bodies would have become. And the etheric aspect within the human being—these etheric bodies—would have followed their natural pull. For the etheric body is, in fact, something that does not continually strive toward the Earth, but continually strives upward toward the Sun. We humans are, after all, constituted in such a way that our physical body possesses the heaviness of the Earth, while our etheric body possesses the lightness of the Sun. The etheric body constantly strives toward the sun. If the human physical body had become what it would have had to become without the Mystery of Golgotha, then the human etheric bodies would have followed their impulse to strive toward the sun, and humanity on Earth would naturally have ceased to exist as an earthly humanity. |

[ 18 ] The sun, in the sense that has often been described here, is the dwelling place of Christ up to the Mystery of Golgotha. The human etheric body strives toward Christ by turning toward the sun. And now imagine the scene of the Day of the Ascension: Christ rises upward before the inner eyes of his disciples. That is to say, a vision is conjured before their inner eyes of how the human etheric body, as it strives upward, unites with the power and impulse of Christ—just as, at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, humanity faced the danger of seeing its etheric body drawn toward the clouds, toward the sun, yet how Christ holds together that which strives toward the sun.

[ 19 ] This image must be understood in the right sense. This image is actually a warning. Christ does indeed remain united with the Earth, but He belongs to those forces within the human being that actually strive toward the Sun, that actually want to move away from the Earth into the future. The Christ impulse, however, holds the human being firmly on Earth.

[ 20 ] In this vision of the Ascension, therefore, what appears before the inner eye of the disciples is what would have come to pass had the Mystery of Golgotha not taken place. Imagine if the Mystery of Golgotha had not occurred and a multitude of people had become as clairvoyant as the disciples were at that moment. Then they would have seen the etheric bodies of certain people moving away from the Earth toward the Sun, and they would have known that this is the path the etheric bodies take. That which is etheric-earthly in a human being is drawn toward the Sun.

[ 21 ] But now the Mystery of Golgotha has taken place. Christ saves this sunward-striving force for the Earth. And in this striving toward the sun—yet held back by Christ—precisely this fact becomes evident: that Christ remains connected to the humanity of the Earth. But there is one thing to consider. Through the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ has in fact introduced a cosmic event into the development of the Earth. Christ descended from spiritual heights, united Himself with humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, and united His own development with that of the Earth. It was an act accomplished for the sake of all humanity.

[ 22 ] So please understand this correctly: The Mystery of Golgotha took place for humanity. The clairvoyant gaze must, so to speak, always observe how the etheric forces of the human being—which seek to flee the Earth—unite with the Christ, so that the Christ can hold them within the Earth’s evolution. This applies to humanity.

[ 23 ] But consider the following. Let us suppose that only a small handful of people had been able to acquire an understanding of the facts related to the Mystery of Golgotha, and that there were a large portion of humanity—as is in fact actually the case—who do not recognize the significance of the event at Golgotha. We would thus have populated the earth with a small number of true followers of Christ and a large number of those who do not acknowledge the substance of the Mystery of Golgotha. What, then, of these people? How do those who do not acknowledge the Mystery of Golgotha relate to this Mystery of Golgotha—or rather, how does the Mystery of Golgotha, the deed of Christ, relate to these people? Well, the deed of Christ on Golgotha is an objective deed; its cosmic significance does not depend on what people believe about it.

[ 24 ] An objective fact is essential in and of itself, just as it is. If a stove is warm, it does not become cold simply because a number of people believe it to be cold. The Mystery of Golgotha is the salvation of humanity from the decay of the physical body, regardless of what people believe or do not believe about it. The Mystery of Golgotha therefore took place for all people, even for those who do not believe in it. This, of course, must first be established.

[ 25 ] But you have understood correctly: This Mystery of Golgotha took place, after all, to infuse the physical human body with fresh strength—in other words, to renew and refresh humanity on Earth to the extent necessary to rejuvenate it. This has happened. As a result, the possibility has been created for people on Earth to find bodies in which they can incarnate even for a certain, still very far-reaching future. But in this way, people initially pass through such now-rejuvenated earthly bodies only as spiritual-soul beings; they can appear on Earth again and again. The Christ impulse, which is now also meant to have significance for the spiritual aspect of the human being—not merely for the physical—can extend into the waking state. But it could not extend into the sleeping state unless the soul were to take in the knowledge of this Christ impulse.

[ 26 ] So one might say: The Mystery of Golgotha would have taken place for the sake of human wakefulness, even if people had not taken in the knowledge of this Mystery of Golgotha. However, it would not have taken place for the sake of human sleep. And what would have resulted from this would have been the following: Although human beings would have continued to incarnate on Earth, they would have slept in such a way that they would have lost the connection with Christ in their spiritual-soul life if they had not acquired knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 27 ] Here, however, lies the difference between you and those people who, so to speak, want nothing to do with the Mystery of Golgotha. Christ accomplished His earthly work on Golgotha for their physical bodies and for the possibility of their earthly lives. He did so even for the most unbelieving pagans. For the spiritual-soul aspect, however, it is necessary that the Christ impulse be able to sink into the human soul even during sleep. For this to happen, it is necessary that the human being consciously profess faith in the content of the Mystery of Golgotha. The true spiritual effect of the Mystery of Golgotha can therefore arise only from a proper recognition of the content of the Mystery of Golgotha. This means that it was necessary for humanity on Earth to come to the realization that, on the one hand, the Christ holds the etheric body, which is rushing away and constantly soaring toward the sun; but the human being’s soul-spiritual being—his “I” and his astral body—must receive the Christ impulse by preparing themselves through their commitment to it during wakefulness, in the state between falling asleep and waking up.

[ 28 ] Thus we can say: We allow the image of the Ascension to come before our soul. The disciples, having become clairvoyant, see the tendency of human etheric bodies to rise toward the sun. Christ unites with this striving and sustains it. This is the powerful image: the salvation of the human physical-etheric body through Christ in the image of the Ascension.

[ 29 ] But at the same time: The disciples withdraw; they become pensive; they sink into deep contemplation. For the realization lives within their souls: Through the Mystery of Golgotha, everything has first and foremost been accomplished for the physical-etheric aspect of humanity. But what happens to the spiritual-soul aspect? Where does the human being find the strength to take in the Christ impulse into the spiritual-soul realm, into the “I,” and into the astral body?

[ 30 ] The Christ impulse was realized on Earth through the Mystery of Golgotha in such a way that it can be penetrated and grasped only through spiritual powers of cognition. No materialistic power of cognition, no materialistic science, can understand the Mystery of Golgotha. The soul must draw upon within itself the power of spiritual cognition, the power of spiritual vision, and the power of spiritual feeling in order to be able to understand the Christ Impulse as it united with the Earth’s impulses on Golgotha.

[ 31 ] To make this possible, Christ Jesus completed his work on Golgotha. And He accomplished it in such a way that, ten days after the Ascension, He sent humanity the opportunity to allow the Christ impulse to permeate them—now also through their inner spiritual-soul aspects, through the “I,” and through the astral body. This is the image of the Feast of Pentecost: the permeation of the spiritual-soul aspect with the power to understand the Mystery of Golgotha—the sending of the Holy Spirit. Christ accomplished his deed for all of humanity. To the individual—the human being who is to understand this deed—he sent the Spirit, so that the spiritual-soul aspect may find access to the universal human deed. Through the Spirit, the human being must inwardly, in a spiritual-soul sense, make the Christ Mystery his own.

[ 32 ] These two images stand one after the other in the history of human development in such a way that the image of the Ascension tells us: For the physical and etheric bodies, the event of Golgotha has been accomplished for all humanity. Each individual must make it fruitful for themselves by receiving the Holy Spirit. In this way, the Christ impulse becomes individual for each person.

[ 33 ] And now we can add something else to the description of the Ascension scene. Spiritual visions such as those the disciples had on the day of the Ascension actually always refer to something that a person already experiences in one state of consciousness or another. Now you know: After death, a person experiences the departure of their etheric body. With death, they shed their physical body. They retain their etheric body for a few days; then the etheric body dissolves—it truly unites with the Sun. This dissolution after death is a union with the solar force that flows through the space in which the Earth itself is located. In this etheric body as it moves away from the human being, the human being—since the Mystery of Golgotha—beholds Christ, who has become his Savior in his future earthly existence; so that, in fact, since the Mystery of Golgotha, every human being who dies already has before his soul that image of the Ascension which the disciples saw on that day through their special state of soul.

[ 34 ] But for the one who also takes the mystery of Pentecost into himself, who allows the Holy Spirit to draw near, this image is the greatest comfort he can have after death, for he now perceives the full truth of the mystery of Golgotha, and the image becomes a source of comfort for him. In a sense, this image of the Ascension tells them: You can have confidence in all your future earthly lives throughout the course of earthly evolution, for through the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ has become the Savior of earthly evolution.

[ 35 ] For those who, with their ego and astral body—that is, through their faculties of cognition and feeling—do not penetrate the essence of the Mystery of Golgotha, this image is a reproach; it remains a reproach until they realize that they, too, must learn to understand this Mystery of Golgotha. It is, in a sense, a warning after death: Try to acquire such powers for your next earthly life that you, too, may understand the Mystery of Golgotha. It is only natural that, at first, this image of the Ascension serves as a reminder, for in their subsequent earthly lives, people can indeed try to apply the powers they have been reminded of and acquire an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 36 ] But now see what the difference is between those people who, through their inner powers of faith, knowledge, and feeling, profess their belief in the Mystery of Golgotha, and those who do not. The Mystery of Golgotha was meant only for the physical and etheric bodies of all human beings. The sending of the Spirit—the mystery of Pentecost—reveals that the soul and spirit of a human being can partake of the fruits of the Mystery of Golgotha only when the human being elevates themselves to a true recognition of the content of the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 37 ] But this also means—since the content of the Mystery of Golgotha can be grasped only through spiritual knowledge, not through material knowledge—that the true Feast of Pentecost can be understood only when people realize that the outpouring of the Spirit is a call to humanity to gradually work its way toward spiritual knowledge. For only through spiritual insight can the Mystery of Golgotha be understood.

[ 38 ] That it should be understood—that is the demand of the mystery of Pentecost. That it happened for all people—that is the revelation of the mystery of the Ascension. In the Christian interpretation of human development, these two things follow one another: the revelation of the Ascension—that Christ accomplished his deed as a universal act—and the mystery of Pentecost as a demand upon each individual to take within themselves the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 39 ] Thus, one can probably say that, with regard to these matters, anthroposophy consists in gaining a proper understanding of the mystery of Pentecost in its connection to the revelation of the Ascension. And when we feel that anthroposophy stands there as a kind of explanatory herald specifically for these spring festivals, then we have added yet another color—one that is essential to it—to the palette of colors that anthroposophy holds for us.

[ 40 ] This is meant to give you some sense of the kind of atmosphere that anthroposophy can create for truly experiencing the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost. The images that arise in the human soul in connection with such feasts are like living beings. We can draw ever closer to their essence; we can come to know them better and better. When people once again strive to fill the year with such a spiritual understanding of the festival seasons, then this year will take on a concrete—and thus a cosmic-spiritual—meaning. And human beings will learn to experience cosmic existence even during their earthly lives.

[ 41 ] One might say: When the Feast of Pentecost—which is, above all, also a festival of flowers—is truly felt, people go out wherever the flowers are sprouting, blooming under the influence of the solar principle, blooming under the etheric-astral —and in the earth blossoming with flowers, one senses the earthly image of that which then converges in the image of Christ’s Ascension, in the subsequent image of the fiery tongues above the disciples’ heads. The human chest opening up may also be symbolized by the flower opening to the sun. And that which descends from the sun to give the flower the necessary power of fruitfulness may be symbolized by the tongues of fire pouring down upon the heads of the disciples.

[ 42 ] It is precisely through this power—which in turn can stem from an understanding of the feast days and a proper appreciation of each festive season—that anthroposophy can touch people’s hearts and contribute to the mood that is perhaps the right one for these days of spring festivals.