The Rudolf Steiner Archive

24. The Beatitudes

[ 1 ] The longing for spiritual depth, for an exploration of the spiritual foundations of existence, drives people toward theosophy. One must not believe that one can simply cast aside one’s very specific mental image of how one imagines, feels, and thinks, and detach oneself from what has been imprinted on the soul by previous experiences. It is difficult to truly adopt the right attitude toward what we come to know as concepts, ideas, and spiritual laws. Theosophical laws must not remain mere doctrine—what matters is that, after becoming acquainted with these ideas and teachings, one may also develop the proper feelings and emotions toward these very ideas. Even when we have grasped the truth about a matter, we have not yet received everything we ought to owe to that truth. What matters is how we relate to a truth, how we allow that truth to permeate our soul, and whether we are able to regard a given insight as important or unimportant in the proper way.

[ 2 ] Today's prevailing scientific worldview places great emphasis on the evolution of human beings from lower stages of existence. We need not contradict this at all, but we can nevertheless say to the proponents of the scientific worldview: There are other things that you do not see, that seem unimportant to you, but that are nonetheless just as true as your premises. - Take, for example, the fact that human beings, just as they are, are the only beings capable of turning their faces away from the earth and toward the heavens through their entire physical structure; that they are built to walk upright and look out into the cosmos. Look at the monkey—the monkey cannot do this. And if you read all the scientific treatises on the similarities between the skeletal and muscular systems and the brains of humans and apes, you might say: Quite right, not the slightest objection to that. But what matters is that you feel in your heart: The most important thing is that human beings have evolved to be upright creatures.

[ 3 ] What surrounds the animal is also what surrounds human beings. Because both have an astral body, [because both] are structured in a very specific way, human beings and animals are capable not only of being affected by what is externally present in their surroundings, but also of feeling pleasure and pain, sympathy and antipathy. Thus, humans approach animals—and everything else—and experience what the astral body enables us to feel.

[ 4 ] Now comes something different. The animal pauses at this sensation; it observes, for example, that which lives in the plant world, and asks itself: How does it nourish me? How does it satisfy my desires? What does it do in my astral body?

[ 5 ] But human beings are made in such a way that they can turn their faces away from the earth and all its realms, freely out into the expanse of the heavens. As a result, they become a completely different being when they look back upon what unfolds in the realms of nature; as a result, that realm once again becomes a reflection of what they can initially sense out there in the open expanse of the heavens.

[ 6 ] He would never be able to sense that “there is a divine spirit” if he could not turn his face away from the earth.

[ 7 ] During daylight hours, we are unable to glimpse any of the mysteries of outer space in our earthly surroundings. The sun is too bright; it prevents us from seeing into its deeper mysteries.

[ 8 ] But then, when the sun is not shining, we see something else in the expanse of the sky; with our physical senses, we see that which can evoke a profound sense of awe in our souls: the wondrous starry sky. This gives us a sense that we cannot unravel the mysteries of nature with these physical senses, that the organs with which we gaze up at the starry sky are not, in fact, the ones that can convey the great mysteries to us.

[ 9 ] In animals, the intuition that we must develop the powers of our soul not merely to suffice for the day and its needs, but to unlock the mysteries of the invisible world, cannot arise. This intuition stems from the truth that human beings have a face that looks out into the expanse of the universe.

[ 10 ] In the distant past, human beings evolved from a state that, in contrast to their current spiritual condition, could be described as clairvoyance. Consciousness was primitive, dim, and dreamlike. Human beings were, apart from their “I,” one with their consciousness.

[ 11 ] In 3101 B.C., clairvoyance began to fade. Humanity was cut off from the spiritual-divine worlds and was meant to develop its “I”; as a result, egoism became so strong that humanity became incapable of ascending to God. Thus, God had to descend to humanity and take on human form. The Christ event—the Christ impulse—alone made possible the union of the “I” with the divine-spiritual worlds. In the past, the heavenly realms were so distant that they could only be reached when a person was outside of themselves. Now the heavenly realms have drawn near; therefore, the soul’s constitution and disposition must be completely transformed.

Only those who are poor—beggars before the Spirit—are filled with God.

[ 12 ] Now, through the “I,” they find the connection to the divine-spiritual realm. Human nature has nine aspects: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, the mental soul, the emotional soul, the conscious soul (“I”), Manas, Buddhi, and Atma. When a person experienced deep suffering, all they had to do was withdraw from the world, allow themselves to be magnetized by the cosmos, and they were permeated with spiritual-divine forces in their etheric body. This source of solace is now gone; now a person must find comfort within themselves through the Christ impulse. Now the saying goes:

Blessed—or filled with God—are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

[ 13 ] The astral body, which is the vessel of pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, must not remain as it is from the very beginning; rather, a person must develop it in such a way that he becomes master of his passions and instincts, bringing balance to the wild surges within the astral body. Now it is said:

Blessed are the meek—or, more accurately, the equanimous.

[ 14 ] Now, when a person receives the Christ impulse, they must find the strength within themselves, even if the courage within them becomes uneven, rough, and inconsistent.

Blessed are the serene, for they work on their astral body through their ego.

[ 15 ] The “I” developed on Earth, which is why it is said:

They will own the land,

[ 16 ] More accurately: “fulfill the mission of the soil.”

[ 17 ] In the soul of sensation, external impressions are internalized when a person begins to purify themselves; then they no longer crave only what is in the physical environment, but they develop a spiritual thirst and hunger that is now satisfied by the Christ impulse. Therefore:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

[ 18 ] The “I” manifests itself in the intellectual or emotional soul. Only when this ‘I’ has developed does a person become mature enough to regard another person as an “I” of equal worth. Therefore:

Blessed are those who feel love for others, for they, too, will experience love from others.

[ 19 ] In the soul of consciousness, a person can develop their “I” in such a way that the divine substance shines into it, so that the drop of divine-spiritual substance—which is the

[ 20 ] A world interwoven and shaken:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

[ 21 ] Manas, Buddhi, and Atma are the higher aspects of human nature; it is only within them that the states described by the two Beatitudes will be present:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs are the kingdoms of heaven.

Blessed are those who spread harmony and peace on earth, for they will be called sons of God.

[ 22 ] Time does not stand still; with the end of the nineteenth century (1899), the Kali Yuga (the Dark Age) came to an end. We are thus moving toward an age—indeed, we are already in it—in which the ancient clairvoyant abilities are developing once more, especially the ability to perceive the etheric. And just as Christ, in His etheric body, was visible to the initiates within the Earth’s atmosphere [only after the event at Golgotha], so too will people who possess these newly awakened higher spiritual abilities experience the Damascus event and behold Christ returning in spirit—not in the flesh—(around the years 1930–40).