The Rudolf Steiner Archive

37. Divine Sonship and Human Sonship

[ 1 ] When it is said that a human being consists of seven parts, this is generally true, but it does not say very much. For what matters is how these various parts are arranged in relation to one another at different times. Things were different millennia ago than they are now. But even in the life of an individual between birth and death, things are different. In the early years of childhood, it is different than later on. The child speaks objectively of “Little Karl” and “Little Marie.” The statement in a well-known educational book—that the child learns to think before learning to speak—is false. But it is true that the child learns to think through speaking.

[ 2 ] The child does not say the word “I” on its own, but it already has a clear mental image of what the typical educator means when using that word. The various parts of the child are still so intertwined that a sense of self does not yet exist; yet an immense amount is learned during this very earliest stage of life. The “I” still slumbers in the depths of the human being. This is because the “I” has other tasks at this stage besides becoming aware of itself: it must actively participate in building up the outer shells; it must work for the human being as an unconscious part of the human being.

[ 3 ] In the early years, human beings are connected to higher beings who lend them this consciousness. Beings who had already reached the human stage on the ancient Moon, as it were, slip over human beings like a glove being put on. Human beings are then guided by the Angeloi and are much closer to the spiritual beings in their lives than they will be later. The body is transformed and reshaped during the first three years of life. It was not yet complete; the human being must first develop his or her brain, which was still immersed in the mist of the spiritual world. And it is there that what we have brought with us from earlier incarnations is imprinted upon it with particular intensity. Why does the human being not notice this?

[ 4 ] Even the wisest person can learn an extraordinary amount from a child. The clairvoyant who can see through this realizes that, to put it bluntly, a child has something like a telephone line connecting them to the spiritual world. This is noticeable only to those who can look into the spiritual world. In the past, this was true of almost everyone up to the age of twenty-two or twenty-three. The ancient rishis remained in this state of childhood, did not speak much of the “I,” and preserved their childlikeness. The rishis themselves never lived in the “I” form; they remained children and possessed a certain childlike forgetfulness—for example, regarding worries and difficulties. Today, however, the child can only have a dim awareness of this, because the physical and etheric bodies are already stiffer and denser than in ancient times, and because they have not inherited the right bodies for it. Their outer physique is too compact, too material for this. Today, the whole human being is confined within a shell of dense physicality that is not flexible or soft enough to sense the core of their being.

[ 5 ] The outer human being—comprising Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon—is referred to in religious texts as the “Son of Man,” that in which the core of the being is enclosed; the “Son of God,” however, is the core of the being. And the early years of life remind us of our sonship with God; the instruments through which the core of our being works remind us of our sonship with humanity. They must harmonize with one another. Human beings need guidance to sense the Son of God within the Son of Man. In earlier times, even in later life, a person could still be completely permeated by the Son of God, just as in early childhood.

[ 6 ] Let us suppose for a moment that one could tear out ordinary individuality and implant in a person the individuality of early childhood—the first three years—which would then have to adapt to the outer shell: it would not last longer than three years. That is why Christ was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth for only three years. And herein lies one of the deepest meanings of the words: “Unless you become like little children...”

[ 7 ] Religious sayings have both literal and symbolic meanings. Theosophy is the prelude to the literal meaning. It is what first makes it possible to understand the mysteries of human development. In the Jupiter phase of development, human bodies will be cast off like dead things, like something that is no longer useful. We pass through many stages from the beginning of the Earth to the time of Christ. Until then, the Sonship of God still works, as it were, from above downward, as it does with children, but the Sonship of Man becomes an ever-greater obstacle to it. In between, the Son of God and the Son of Man maintain a balance within humanity. Later, however, an ever-greater force of the Son of Man will have to be placed in the service of the Son of God. In the Greek era, there was balance and harmony between the outer form and the inner soul, because there was balance between the Son of God and the Son of Man. Only in this way can the flowering of that culture be understood.

[ 8 ] Spiritual and physical forces were previously separate from one another. In the archetypes of Zeus, Apollo, and Mars, we see this balance. In the centaur, the higher and lower natures still exist separately. The same applies to ancient Chaldean temple architecture in comparison to Greek temples. A temple signifies: Let my higher self rise above and out of my lower self—like the pediment above the columns. When I look up at the pediment, my spiritual nature should be lifted up. In older temples, there is still a striving toward this: winged figures as images of the higher human nature.

[ 9 ] In the future, humankind will integrate the Son of God—of whom they have become aware—into the reluctant Son of Man. Culture throws many obstacles in our path. Everything today is an obstacle, yet humankind must constantly strive for the harmonization of worldview, moral attitude, and art. Architecture will ultimately give expression to this. In modern times, architectural styles have so far merely been mixed together; something new has yet to emerge. Thirty-two years ago, for example, the architect of Vienna’s Votivkirche said the following: Architectural styles are not invented. Our time is still not quite ripe for discovering something new within itself. - That will only come when we have accepted the Son of God, when humanity objectifies itself. Humanity must make it possible to warm to the Spirit within itself. Music has undergone a great transformation in our time through Richard Wagner. That was an infusion of the divine sonship into the figures of myth and legend.

[ 10 ] Music and art are meant to spiritualize our inner selves and set them in motion. Then, from within the human being, from within the flesh, the “Son of God” will be revealed. Sonship of God must be born out of sonship of man. One must learn to feel this.

[ 11 ] In Aeschylus, there is still an echo of the sacred mysteries, of divine sonship. Just as one may regard certain acts as blasphemy against religion, so one may regard as blasphemy against religion many of the attempts to renew ancient art. The diversity of times and people necessitates a different combination of the elements of human nature, and this leads to new forms of expression in art!