The Rudolf Steiner Archive

44. The Spiritual Guidance of Humanity IV

[ 1 ] Yesterday we emphasized that there are two kinds of leaders of humanity; specifically, we explained: When we look back at the development of humanity from the great Atlantean catastrophe to the present day, we find—the further back we go, the more so, just as the ancient Egyptians said—that people were led by those individualities who had already been human beings during the ancient Lunar Age.

[ 2 ] These individualities—as we have said—cannot fully incarnate in a human physical body, since they have already outgrown the stage that necessitates incarnation in a human physical body. We refer to these entities as dhyanic beings when speaking in the sense of Eastern mysticism, or as angeloi or angels when speaking in the sense of Christian mysticism. They guide the influential, truly significant people who, through clairvoyance or clairaudience, rise to their level and submit to their directives and teachings.

[ 3 ] We have found a second type of teacher of humanity in those individualities who remained behind on the Moon and did not attain their full goal. These are beings that are half-angelic and half-dhyanic, standing midway between humans and angels; in ancient times, these incarnated as the great leaders of nations, whom we call “heroes” according to the various customs of the peoples—including, for example, the Egyptian Hermes or Thoth, Pelops, Cadmus, and Cecrops, who existed as personalities in the flesh but were nevertheless more than the rest of the population of their time. Within them were souls that were, in fact, angelic beings of the Moon who had remained behind.

[ 4 ] But when we turn our gaze upward to the higher hierarchies, we find that the situation is by no means such that we could say the leaders are merely “angels”; rather, in a certain sense, the beings of each hierarchy are themselves subject to the leadership and guidance of the higher hierarchies. Thus, in Christian mysticism, we speak of the angels being under the leadership of the “archangels,” or “Archangeloi,” who in turn are under the leadership of the “Archai” or “primordial forces,” and so on. In this way, we ascend through the various classes of the hierarchies. - In the strictest sense of the word, the angels were—as I have said—leaders of varying degrees of importance during the time when the Egyptians and Chaldeans were dominant on Earth, that is, during the third post-Atlantean cultural epoch. For we distinguish seven successive cultural epochs beginning with the time of the great Atlantean catastrophe: The first is the ancient Indian cultural epoch, followed by the ancient Persian, the third is the Egyptian-Chaldean, the fourth the Greek-Latin, and the fifth is our own, which has gradually taken shape roughly from the twelfth to the fifteenth century and in which we now find ourselves right in the midst. However, the first developments are already taking shape in our time that will then lead into the sixth post-Atlantic cultural period. This sixth epoch will be followed by a seventh. Only during the third cultural period—the Egyptian-Chaldean one—were the angels, or Dhyanic beings, the independent leaders and guides of humanity. This was no longer the case during the Persian period. There, the angels were subject to a higher guidance and arranged everything in a way that—to put it simply—corresponded to the commands of the next higher hierarchy, so that while everything was under the guidance of the angels, the angels themselves were in turn subject to the directives of the archangels or Archangeloi. And during the Indian cultural period, when post-Atlantean life reached a height that was not to be seen again for some time—a natural height under the guidance of the great Rishis—the archangels themselves were in turn subject, in the matters they were to direct, to the guidance of the Archai, who are also called the Spirits of the Primordial Beginning.

[ 5 ] If we trace the development of humanity from the Indian era through the Persian and Egyptian-Chaldean cultures, we can say that certain beings of the higher hierarchies, so to speak, withdrew more and more from the guidance of humanity. And what was the situation in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural period, the Greco-Latin era? By then, human beings had become entirely self-reliant—completely independent. Hence that distinctive, thoroughly “human” culture of the Greco-Roman era, in which human beings were entirely on their own.

[ 6 ] All the distinctive features in art and public life in the Greek and Roman worlds can be traced back to the fact that human beings were, so to speak, meant to test themselves. So when we go back to these earliest times, we find guiding beings who had completed their development up to the human stage in earlier planetary conditions. The fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch was intended to test human beings most of all. That is why it was also the time when the entire spiritual leadership of humanity had to reorganize itself in a new way. “We,” I said, “are now living in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch; this will be followed by a sixth and then a seventh. Yesterday I pointed out where we must look if we wish to find the leaders of our cultural epoch. Where are they? To what kind of hierarchies do they belong?”

[ 7 ] I already pointed out in my lecture that they belong to the same hierarchy that prevailed among the ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans. In fact, the very same entities that were in charge back then are resuming their activities in our time. We have said that certain entities remained behind during the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, and that we find them in the materialistic feelings and sensibilities of our time.

[ 8 ] This raises the question: If, in our time, it is not only these backward entities of the Egyptian-Chaldean culture that are at work, but also higher ones that lead upward into the spiritual world, what kind of beings are these? How do they differ? Or rather: What makes these entities, who now guide us spiritually, higher entities? What have these non-backward entities achieved?

[ 9 ] The true progress of these beings—the angels or Dhyanic beings—consists of the following. Among the Egyptians and Chaldeans, they simply guided them through the abilities they themselves had acquired from time immemorial. Now, through their guidance of Egyptian-Chaldean culture, they have further developed themselves and acquired new abilities; for that was their work. And the ability they have acquired is this: to act in accordance with a fundamental being. For the worlds of the next higher plane—to which these angels or angeloi belong—this fundamental being is Christ.

[ 10 ] For Christ exists not only for the Earth, but also for these beings. The very same beings who guided the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean culture were not under Christ’s guidance at that time; rather, it was only after the Egyptian-Chaldean era that they placed themselves under Christ’s guidance. And therein lies their progress, so that they now guide our fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch under the influence of Christ, whom they follow on the higher plane. And the backwardness of those beings—of whom we have said that they, too, are present—consists in the fact that they have not submitted to Christ’s guidance, so that they continue to act independently of Christ. Therefore, the following will become increasingly evident in human culture: There will be a materialistic current under the direction and guidance of the lagging Egyptian-Chaldean spirits; it will have a materialistic character. Most of what we call modern science throughout the world stands under this influence. But alongside this, another current is asserting itself, one that aims to enable human beings, in everything they do, to finally find what might be called the “Christ principle.” This may well seem strange, but it is nevertheless true. For example, there are people today who say: What is our material world made of? It is made of atoms! — Who instills in people the idea that the world consists of atoms? It is the angelic beings who remained behind during the Egyptian-Chaldean era!

[ 11 ] What, then, will the beings teach who have reached their goal in the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean cultural region and who came to know Christ at that time? They will be able to instill in people thoughts other than the belief that only material atoms exist; for they will be able to teach people that, down to the smallest particle, matter is permeated by the Spirit of Christ! And as strange as it may seem: In the future, there will be chemists and physicists who will not teach chemistry and physics as they are taught today under the influence of the backward Egyptian-Chaldean spirits, but who will become “I-beings”: Matter is structured in the way that Christ has gradually arranged it! - Christ will be found even in the smallest substances of chemistry and physics! A spiritual chemistry, a spiritual physics—that is what is to come. Today, this certainly seems like madness to many people. But what is often the reason of the times to come is madness in the present age. People will be most surprised of all—those who today wish to place the very science that intervenes most deeply in human affairs under the influence of the angelic beings left behind during the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean era—namely, those who practice conventional medicine today; for today’s materialistic medicine stands entirely under the influence of these spirits and is entirely inspired by them. In contrast, the medicine of the future will be thoroughly permeated by Christ, will become entirely spiritual; it will know how to take into account, in an entirely different sense, those factors that are found in nature but are permeated by the Spirit.

[ 12 ] Now we also understand what these leading beings have over human beings. When, then, did human beings come to know Christ in the post-Atlantean era? It was during the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, the Greco-Latin period. For as this cultural epoch was drawing to a close, the Christ event occurred within the course of that development, and it was then that human beings came to know Christ. The angels, the guiding beings, came to know him during the Egyptian-Chaldean period and elevated themselves to his level—and then, during the Greco-Roman period, had to leave humanity to its own fate, only to intervene again later in human evolution. And when we teach Theosophy today, it means nothing other than that we can know: The spirits who have guided humanity are descending once more! But now they are descending in such a way that they themselves are under the guidance of Christ.

[ 13 ] The same is true of other beings. We have said that during the Persian era, the archangels were involved in the guidance of humanity. They had come to know the Christ even earlier and proclaimed him in their own way. But how? We have often emphasized regarding Zarathustra himself that he directed his followers and his people toward the sun and said: “In the sun lives the great spirit Ahura Mazdao, who will descend to Earth!” - For the beings from the realm of the archangels, who guided Zarathustra, pointed him toward the great Sun-Guide, who at that time had not yet descended to Earth, but had only just set out on the path to guide the Earth.

[ 14 ] And the guiding beings who presided over the holy Rishis directed them once again toward the Christ; for it is merely a belief to think that these Rishis did not know the Christ. They merely said that he is “beyond their sphere,” that they “cannot reach him.” But the Rishis, too, will be resurrected and will teach [about] the Christ. For just as it is the angels in our fifth cultural epoch who bring the Christ down into our spiritual sphere, so in the sixth cultural epoch those beings—led by the archangels—who guided the Persian cultural epoch will lead the culture. And the spirits of the very beginning, the Archai, who guided humanity during the ancient Indian period, had already become acquainted with the Christ at that time and submitted themselves to him. Under the Christ, they will be to guide humanity in the seventh cultural epoch—until a new great catastrophe occurs. Thus, all of humanity ascends once more as the high hierarchical beings submit themselves to the guidance of the Christ.

[ 15 ] During the Greco-Roman era, Christ descended and revealed Himself in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. He had descended all the way to the physical plane. He will be found on the next higher plane when our cultural epoch has matured sufficiently. He cannot be found on the physical plane, but only on the next higher one. For human beings will not have remained the same; they will have matured and will find the Christ just as Paul found him by grace from the spiritual world in the event on the road to Damascus. And just as the great teachers of our time are the same ones who guided humanity in the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, so too will they be the ones who, in the twentieth century, will lead people upward to the Christ as Paul saw him. They will show humanity how the Christ not only works on Earth but also spiritualizes the entire solar system.

[ 16 ] And as a spirit that was foreshadowed by the unified Brahman—but into which the true content was first infused by Christ—those who will be the reincarnated holy Rishis in the seventh cultural period will proclaim the great, mighty Spirit of whom they said at that time that He reigned above their sphere, and who will enter their sphere. Thus, humanity will be guided upward from stage to stage.

[ 17 ] To speak of the Christ in this way—as the guide ascending through the successive worlds toward the higher hierarchies—is what is taught by the science that has entered our culture under the sign of the Rosy Cross since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and which we have shown has become necessary since that time. Here we see how these things fit together. We must now examine in somewhat greater detail the Rosicrucian view of the being who first lived in Palestine and then accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 18 ] There have been many mental images of Christ. For example, there was the mental image held by the Christian Gnostics of the first centuries, who said: The Christ who walked in Palestine did not exist in any physical, corporeal body at all; he is said to have had only an illusory body, an etheric body that had become physically visible, so that even his death on the cross would not have been a real death, but only an apparent one, precisely because only an etheric body existed.

[ 19 ] Then we find the various disputes among the different followers of Christianity—for example, the well-known dispute between the Arians and the Athanasians, and so on—and with them, the most diverse interpretations of what Christ actually was. Even to this day, people have the most varied mental images of Christ.

[ 20 ] What, exactly, are we to understand by the term “Christ”? You will have to work through some—I would say—rather difficult concepts with me if you wish to fully rise to the Rosicrucian conception of this Christ-being. We must be clear, then, that what lived within the Christ from the time of John’s baptism in the Jordan was not merely an earthly being—but a cosmic being, a true cosmic being. After all, the human being is a cosmic being in the first place, and let us now form a rudimentary mental image of the extent to which the human being is a cosmic being, and then ascend from the cosmic nature of the human being to the cosmic nature of Christ.

[ 21 ] We know that human beings live a twofold life: a life in a physical body from birth until death, and a life in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth, where they do not live in a physical body. When a human being is incarnated in a physical body, he or she lives—because the physical body depends on the substances and forces of the Earth—in dependence on the Earth. But we do not merely take in the substances and forces of the Earth; we also breathe the Earth’s air and are thereby essentially integrated into the entire physical organism of the Earth; we belong to it. When we pass through the gate of death, we no longer belong to the forces of the Earth; but it would be wrong to form a mental image of us as belonging to no forces at all—rather, we are in fact connected even then to the forces of the solar system and the wider star systems. Between death and rebirth, we live just as much in the cosmos as we live “in terra”—in connection with the Earth—during the time from birth to death. From death to new birth, we belong to the great cosmos just as we belong on Earth to the elements of air, water, earth, and so on. As we live through the period between death and new birth, the forces of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and so on—as well as those from more distant star systems—constantly flow toward us. For from these other planets or star systems come not merely the physical forces that a fanciful physical astronomy has invented—gravity or the other forces—but above all spiritual forces. And we are connected to these spiritual forces of the cosmos—and indeed, every human being in a unique way, depending on their individuality. If we are born in Europe, we live in a different context with regard to climatic conditions and so on than if we were born in Australia, for example. Likewise, in the cycle of life between death and rebirth, we are connected—one more to Mars, another more to Jupiter; one more to the planetary system as a whole, another more to the zodiac, and still others to more distant constellations.

[ 22 ] And it is these very forces that lead us back to Earth, pushing us down to Earth, as it were, until—once Earth has fulfilled its mission—we have become fully mature enough to live without it. Thus, in the years before our birth, we live in connection with the entire starry realm—one person in one way, another in another; one more closely connected to Mercury, another to Mars, yet another to the constellation of Leo, and so on. And depending on this, the forces that guide a person to this or that set of parents, or to this or that region, are also determined. The urge, the impulse to incarnate here or there, into this or that family, into this or that people, at this or that moment, depends on what we are most closely connected to. And the connection with the stellar forces becomes more and more intense as the moment of our birth draws nearer.

[ 23 ] In the German Middle Ages, there was an expression that was exceptionally apt for describing the moment of a person’s birth, and you will find it very fitting in a moment. When a person was born, people did not say, “A child was born here or there.” Instead, they said, “A child became young here or there!”

[ 24 ] Think of this as the awareness of a human being’s entry into physical existence. And so, for example, in the second part of Faust, you also used the expression: “Having come of age in the Land of Mist,” where “Land of Mist” is the old name for [medieval] Germany. People don’t understand the expression because it means entering into physical existence.

[ 25 ] When a person reincarnates, if you know how to interpret a horoscope correctly, you can discern the forces that have drawn that person into physical existence. Why does a person have a horoscope? Because the horoscope reveals the forces according to which they were born. If, for example, Mars is in Aries in the horoscope, this means that certain Aries forces are not allowed to pass through; they are weakened. Thus, the person is placed into physical existence, and the horoscope is what guides them before they enter earthly life. But one must know how to read the horoscope correctly. What drives the human being into physical embodiment are the active forces of the starry world. The human being carries the entire celestial sphere within themselves and is placed into earthly existence with the forces of the entire celestial sphere.

[ 26 ] So let us imagine that a person is standing before us: the entire macrocosm lives within him. The clairvoyant consciousness perceives this in the most remarkable way. It may seem strange—but it is nonetheless true: If one were to remove a person’s physical brain and examine it clairvoyantly to see its various structures—so that one could observe how certain cells are located in specific places and extend projections—one would find that every person’s brain is different. No two people have the same brain. But imagine now that one could—which, of course, is impossible and always will be—photograph this brain with its entire structure, so that one would have a hemisphere with all its projections lined up along it; this would result in a different image for every human being. And if you were not merely to photograph a person’s brain, but also to photograph the expanse of the heavens at the very moment of their birth, you would obtain the same photograph. After all, you receive a different image of the expanse of the heavens at every moment. But human beings have within themselves an image of the heavens—and indeed, each person has a different image—depending on when they were born. This is an indication that human beings are born out of the whole world.

[ 27 ] If you consider this, you will join me in rising to the mental image that reveals to us not only the macrocosm within the individual human being, but also the macrocosm within Christ. What, then, happened at the baptism by John? If you imagine Christ after the baptism by John as if He were to be regarded as just another human being—in whom a human individuality lives incarnated, just as in any other human being—then you are forming a false mental image. For what existed after the baptism by John was the following:

[ 28 ] First, there is Jesus of Nazareth. He came into being in such a way that, at the beginning of our era, two boys named Jesus were born. One came from the Nathanic line of the House of David, the other from the Solomonic line of the House of David. These two boys were not born at exactly the same time, but nearly so. In the Solomonic Jesus-child described to us in the Gospel of Matthew, the same individuality that once lived on Earth as Zarathustra incarnated itself, so that in this Jesus-child of the Gospel of Matthew we have before us the reincarnated Zarathustra or Zoroaster. Thus, as Matthew describes him, the individuality of Zarathustra grows within this Jesus-child until he reaches the age of twelve. In that year, Zarathustra leaves the body of this boy and passes into the body of the other Jesus-child described in the Gospel of Luke. That is why this child so suddenly becomes something entirely different. His parents are astonished when they find him again in the Temple in Jerusalem after the spirit of Zarathustra had entered him. This is indicated by the fact that, after he had gone missing and was found again in the Temple in Jerusalem, the boy spoke in such a way that his parents did not recognize him, because they knew this child—the Nathanic Jesus boy—only as he had been before. But when he began to speak to the scribes in the Temple, he was able to speak that way because the spirit of Zarathustra had entered him. Until the age of thirty, the spirit of Zarathustra lived within the Jesus-child, who descended from the Nathanic line of the House of David. In this other body, he matured into an even higher state of perfection. I note that in this other body, in which the spirit of Zarathustra now lived, the peculiarity was that the Buddha lived in its astral body.

[ 29 ] You know, of course, that the Eastern tradition is correct in stating that the Buddha was born as a bodhisattva—and only during his time on earth, in his twenty-ninth year, did he attain Buddhahood. And you also know that Asita, the great Indian sage, came to the royal palace when the Gautama Buddha was a small child and wept. Why did he weep? Because, as a seer, he could see that this royal child would become the Buddha, and because he felt like an old man who would not live to see the son of Suddhodana become the Buddha in this incarnation. The wise Brahmin foresees this. — This Brahmin, too, was reborn. He is the same one who is presented to us in the Gospel of Luke as the temple priest who now sees, in the Nathanic boy Jesus, the Buddha working down into the astral body of this boy. And because he saw: “This is the Buddha.” - That is why the priest said: “Lord, let Your servant depart in peace, for I have seen my Master!” What he could not see back then in India, he saw through the astral body of this boy Jesus, who appears to us as the one from the Gospel of Luke.

[ 30 ] All of this was necessary so that the sanctified body could come into being, which then received the baptism of John at the Jordan. At that time, the individuality of Zarathustra left the threefold body—physical body, etheric body, astral body—of that Jesus who had grown up in such a complex manner so that the spirit of Zarathustra could dwell within him, a process that, however, required two physical bodies. In other words, the reborn Zarathustra had to pass through two stages of development.

[ 31 ] There, then, stood before John the Baptist the thrice-sanctified body of Jesus of Nazareth, and the cosmic individuality of Christ was now working within him—but in such a way that the transition did not take place that occurs at the birth of any other human being, when everything we possess in terms of cosmic laws enters into us and then resides within us; but rather, while Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth in Palestine during the last three years of his life, from the age of thirty to thirty-three, the entire cosmic Christ-essence continually acted within him. Christ was always under the influence of the entire cosmos; he did not take a single step without the cosmic forces working into him. What took place here in the case of Jesus of Nazareth was a continuous realization of the horoscope; for at every moment, what normally occurs only at birth took place: at every moment, the entire range of cosmic forces worked into Jesus of Nazareth. This could only happen because the entire body of the other Jesus-boy was different—it had remained malleable and was shaped in the likeness of the great forerunner of the Christ, Zarathustra. —If, then, the entire spirit of the cosmos was working within him: Who, then—let us say—went to Capernaum or anywhere else? What was happening there on earth was, in fact, something that looked like [some other human being. But the active forces within it were the cosmic forces coming from the sun and the stars; they directed the body. And depending on the constellation, that is what Christ did. That is why the constellation is important everywhere. Read in the Gospel of John, where Christ finds his first disciples, how it is stated there: “But it was about the tenth hour,” because the spirit of the entire cosmos is at work. — And anyone who wants to know what is happening down here need only draw up a horoscope. This is true of all individual deeds.

[ 32 ] What causes a person to become ill, if not the fact that the Earth’s forces are not acting in proper harmony! Whatever acts disharmoniously from the Earth can always be brought back into harmony through the forces of the cosmos. But everything must be done in the proper way! People think that all sorts of superstition and nonsense are involved in the so-called miracles of healing the sick. But they believe that only because they cannot read. I would like to point out just one passage where it says: “When the sun had set, they brought the sick to him, and he healed them.” What does that mean? Here the evangelist magnificently draws attention to the fact that this healing was connected to the entire constellation of the stars—that such a cosmic alignment was brought about precisely at that point in the world, which could only have been brought about at that point in the world. For it is not written there for fun: “When the sun had set…,” but it is written there because the corresponding healing powers could only develop after sunset, because they act differently then for a being who extends throughout the entire cosmos. And the body of Jesus of Nazareth served as the instrument through which these forces acted from all sides of the cosmos. This is what spiritual wisdom tells us. This is what it teaches us, and the Rosicrucian wisdom will teach us this more and more.

[ 33 ] But the other forces that remained from the Egyptian-Chaldean period continue to exert their influence—and you will notice that they are very powerful. For more and more works of literature will appear that will make a peculiar effort to show that the Gospels can be understood by interpreting them astrologically. The greatest opponents of the Gospels invoke this astrological interpretation, so that, for example, Mary’s journey to Elizabeth meant nothing other than the Sun’s passage from the constellation of Virgo to Aries. This is something that is correct in a certain sense; yet these ideas of our time are instilled in this way by the forces that remained behind during the Egyptian-Chaldean period, whereas the forces guiding our evolution upward teach us that what matters is not external material circumstances, but always and only the cosmic forces that worked through Jesus of Nazareth from the time of John the Baptist onward—forces that worked in such a way that, for the first time, humanity was taught: “You must bring together all spiritual wisdom if you wish to know the whole human being!”

[ 34 ] Now you will no longer find it strange when I say that, for example, the science of healing will become a spiritual science. People will increasingly take into account the fundamental principles drawn from the entire cosmos. And people will come to understand more and more that one moves from illness to health by summoning all the harmonious forces to counteract the forces that cause illness. And so the Christ principle is a healing principle in the true sense of the word! If one correctly understands what is said in the various Gospels, then one sees the path pointed out toward spiritual wisdom. If we cannot even say of the ordinary human being that he belongs entirely to the earth—for he does, after all, bring his individuality with him from the cosmos, which dwells within him—then we must say of Christ that through him the entire spiritual cosmos accessible to us radiates and shines.

[ 35 ] If I may use an analogy, I would like to say: Imagine every person as a reflecting sphere. If you imagine a spherical mirror set up, it reflects images of the entire surroundings. Now let’s suppose we trace the outlines that emerge from the entire surroundings with a pen, and thus, so to speak, paint the image of the entire surroundings onto this mirror. Then we take the mirror, have the image—and can carry this image anywhere. This means, in other words: an image of the cosmos has been drawn onto the mirror. This is what happens when a human being is born. A human being carries such an image with them from birth to death. — But one could also leave the mirror as it is. Then it reflects an image of the entire surroundings everywhere. That would be the image of Christ from the baptism of John to the Mystery of Golgotha! What flows into a human being at birth flowed into Christ at every moment. And when the Mystery of Golgotha took place, what had been radiated from the cosmos entered into the substance of the Earth and has been connected to the spirit of the Earth ever since, living within it.

[ 36 ] When Paul received his vision on the road to Damascus, what was he able to convince himself of? That what had formerly been in the cosmos had passed into the Spirit of the Earth! Anyone who can prepare their soul for this will be able to convince themselves of it. In the twentieth century, the first people will appear who will experience Paul’s Christ event in a spiritual way. This, however, will provide ever greater confirmation that Christ was a being placed and bound within the narrowest limits of the Earth. For human beings are, in fact, bound within the narrowest limits. Consider, for example, the ancient Greeks: the Greek state was their domain, which they traversed. Today, humanity’s sphere of activity is the entire Earth! The sphere of human activity has expanded more and more. However—to the same extent that this sphere expanded, spiritual perception narrowed. Whereas in the early days of post-Atlantean development, people knew very well: Up there is not just a physical Mars. Rather, what we see as Mars, or as Jupiter or Saturn, is the expression of spiritual beings—yet as humanity’s sphere of activity on Earth grew larger and larger, their outlook became increasingly materialistic. And in the Middle Ages, people saw only what the eyes can perceive in the stars: the sphere of Venus, the sphere of the Sun, of Mars, and so on up to the sphere of the fixed stars—and then came the eighth sphere, like a blue, solid wall behind them.

[ 37 ] Then Copernicus came along and challenged the view that only what the senses perceive could be authoritative. - Today’s physical scientists say: There are such confused minds who claim that the world is Maya, an illusion, the great deception, and that one must look into a spiritual world to recognize the truth—whereas true science is that which adheres to the senses and records what the senses tell us! - One could say, in the spirit of true Christianity: May they be forgiven, for they know not what they do! When, after all, did astronomers ever rely on the senses? When the science that is being fought against today reigned supreme?

[ 38 ] When Copernicus began to conceive of what exists in the universe beyond sensory appearances, that was when modern astronomy as a science truly began. And so it is everywhere. Wherever science in the modern sense has emerged, it has arisen in opposition to sensory appearances! When Copernicus declared: “What you take to be real is Maya, is an illusion—rely on what you cannot see!”—that is when what we today call science came into being. One could therefore say to the representatives of modern science: Your science itself only became “science” when it could no longer rely on the senses!

[ 39 ] Then came Giordano Bruno, armed with the ideas of Copernicus, who gazed out into the cosmos and proclaimed: What you have called the boundary of space, what you have posited as the eighth sphere that spatially delimits everything—that is no boundary! That is Maya, illusion! For there are countless worlds poured out into the cosmos. What you previously believed to be the boundary of space was merely the boundary of your own sensory world, the boundary of your own cognition. Turn your gaze beyond the sensory world; no longer perceive the world as the senses present it! Then you will recognize infinity!—That was the great moment of which a Nordic thinker said that the eggshell had been broken when Giordano Bruno sensed the infinity of space.

[ 40 ] What does Spiritual Science do? What does Rosicrucian theosophy do? It completes the work that was accomplished back then for external, physical science by stating: Maya—illusion—is what external science can perceive. Just as you once looked as far as the “eighth sphere” and believed space to be limited, so today’s materialistic thinking believes that human beings are confined between birth and death. Spiritual science, however, expands your view beyond birth and death—just as Giordano Bruno did in space, so spiritual science does in time, toward what lies beyond what the senses can perceive between birth and death.

[ 41 ] What is unfolding here is a closed chain of events. And in the truest sense of the word, what was carried out by Copernicus and Giordano Bruno as a preparation for the concept of space had already emerged from the inspirations of the Rosicrucians. No one realized that, in a mysterious way, something was seeping into the guidance and direction of humanity under the inspiration of the Rosicrucians! And those who today stand on the ground laid by Giordano Bruno and Copernicus and refuse to accept Theosophy are being unfaithful to their own traditions by clinging to mere appearances. But today we hear it consciously from Rosicrucian theosophy: Just as Giordano Bruno broke through the blue vault of heaven, so the clairvoyant breaks through the boundaries of birth and death for human beings by showing how the macrocosmic human being lives in physical existence and, through death, re-enters a macrocosmic existence. And what we see to a limited extent in every single human being is revealed to us on a grand scale in the great cosmic representative, in Christ Jesus. And the impulse that Christ gave could be imparted only once. Only once could the entire cosmos be reflected in this way; for this constellation, as it existed at that time, will never recur. This constellation had to work through a human body so that it could impart the impulse on Earth. Just as surely as this very constellation will not occur a second time, so surely did Christ come into incarnation only once! Only if one does not know that Christ is the representative of the entire universe, and [only if one] cannot rise to the lofty, noble idea of Christ—for which the elements are being provided only now—only then can one claim that Christ will appear on Earth more than once.

[ 42 ] Thus we see how a Christ-idea springs from that Christ-essence in Rosicrucian theosophy, which teaches humankind to recognize its kinship with the entire macrocosm in a renewed way. To truly come to know Christ, one truly needs those inspiring forces that are now emerging through the ancient Egyptian and Chaldean angelic beings, who are themselves guided by Christ. Such new inspiration is needed—the inspiration that the Rosicrucians have prepared and will continue to provide more and more. If, in the spirit of Rosicrucian theosophy, a person prepares his or her soul in the right way, then he or she can hear with clairaudience and see with clairvoyance what is revealed by the ancient Chaldean and Egyptian powers, which have now become hosts under the leadership of the Christ-Being. What is to come to humanity—penetrating all human knowledge—could only be prepared for during the early Christian centuries up to our own time. Therefore, we may say: A Christ-idea will live in the hearts of future generations, incomparable in grandeur and glory to the mental images that a still youthful humanity could form from the early centuries until today.

[ 43 ] What arose as an initial impulse and has persisted as a mental image of Christ to this day—even among the finest exponents of the Christ principle—is merely a preparation for the true knowledge of Christ. Therefore, it may well be that those who wish to remain at the level of the old idea of Christ will be the fiercest opponents of the Rosicrucian idea of Christ.

[ 44 ] Oh, it [would be] quite strange if those in the West who represent Christ in the Rosicrucian sense were accused of not standing, in some way, on the ground of the Christian tradition of the West! For this Christian tradition of the West is by no means sufficient to comprehend Christ for the near future. And it requires a complete lack of prejudice toward all religious creeds on earth to comprehend what can be made known through Rosicrucian inspiration regarding the guiding entities and their leading Christ—this spiritual guidance of the individual and of humanity, which is called, in the genuine, true sense, Christian guidance.

[ 45 ] Thus we see how what presents itself to us as Rosicrucian science flows into the hearts of people, and how we can recognize the spiritual guidance of the individual and of humanity. Just think how the Christ principle first flowed into the hearts of human beings: Christ walking in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth in Palestine and imparting the impulse to humanity. - Even the simplest of people were able to receive that impulse! Then the same impulse, through the inspiration of Rosicrucian science, worked in such a way that minds like Nicholas of Cusa, Copernicus, and Galileo could be inspired, so that, for example, Copernicus could assert the following: The appearance of the senses cannot teach you the truth; if you seek the truth, you must go beyond the appearance of the senses! - At that time, people were not yet ready—not even minds like Giordano Bruno—to consciously align themselves with the Rosicrucian guidance; the spirit of Rosicrucianism had to be at work within them unconsciously. And when Giordano Bruno proclaimed so magnificently and powerfully: When a human being enters existence through birth, this is a macrocosmic event that concentrates as a monad; and when a human being passes through death, the monad expands again; what was gathered together in the body expands into the universe, only to contract again in other stages of existence and expand once more”—then mighty concepts spoke through him, concepts that were the very image of Rosicrucian inspiration.

[ 46 ] For the spiritual influences that guide humanity do not need to act in a way that makes a person aware of them. No! For example, they place Galileo in the Pisa Cathedral. Thousands upon thousands have seen the old church lamp there—but they did not do as Galileo did. Galileo, however, saw the old church lamp swinging, took his pulse, and compared the intervals at which the lamp swung back and forth regularly with the regularity of his own pulse, and found that the church lamp swings in a regular rhythm similar to that of the pulse. From this, he then derived the “laws of the pendulum” as understood in modern physics. Anyone familiar with modern physics knows that it would not be possible without Galileo’s principle. — This is how the Rosicrucian inspiration worked: It placed Galileo in Pisa Cathedral in front of the swinging church lamp—and modern physics is thoroughly permeated by Galileo’s principle. And so the spiritual guiding forces continue to work.

[ 47 ] Then comes the time when people are to become aware of these guiding forces as well. This grace has been bestowed upon our time. We will come to understand more and more what is to come if we correctly grasp today what functions as Rosicrucian inspiration—that which teaches us that the very same spiritual beings to whom the ancient Egyptians referred, as the Greeks inquired about them from their teachers—that these very same beings, who once reigned as gods, now reign once more, but have now submitted to the guidance of Christ. More and more, people will feel how they can revive what is pre-Christian in a higher splendor and style, on a higher level.

[ 48 ] A figure from ancient Greek culture is Aesculapius, the physician. His symbol [is] the staff entwined by a serpent. He heals through the powers that stem from the wisdom bestowed by those beings who had already completed their evolution on the Moon. These lunar beings are also depicted in Paradise in the form of a serpent. They are always depicted in the form of a serpent. The serpent borne by Aesculapius is very closely related to the serpent of Paradise: it is one and the same serpent. For the healing powers at work on Earth are very closely related to the powers originating from the Moon when it had completed its development.

[ 49 ] When these forces that were at work in ancient Egypt now descend once more, they will have placed themselves under the guidance of Christ. And when those individualities who lived in ancient Egypt awaken to consciousness and realize the origin of the world’s order, they will rejoice when they hear: “Here, the guidance of humanity has been understood—just as it could have come into being under the guidance of the Rosicrucians!”

[ 50 ] And when the disciples of Zarathustra reappear in the sixth cultural epoch, and the groundwork has been laid for such an understanding of the guidance of humanity, they will rejoice that the great Sun Spirit, of whom Zarathustra already taught, is now here. And the holy Rishis, who once said in India that the Christ was above their sphere, will reappear in the seventh post-Atlantean cultural epoch and will say: “Those who, during the fifth cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean era, understood the Rosicrucian influence and recognized how the pre-Christian beings worked in the post-Christian era—it is they who have prepared what we sensed: What once lay above our sphere has now entered it!”

[ 51 ] But our consciousness—the one we need, which is a strengthened consciousness meant to be a higher sense of duty and responsibility—can only take root in our soul if we are aware of this. And when do we best understand this theosophy of the present age? When we have not merely taken it in through our intellect—but when, based on how it has now been characterized, we know: This is what it is meant to do; this is its task and mission!

[ 52 ] And when our soul grows strong, we will also be able to endure it if theosophy brings us opponents in our time. Let them appear in all places—those who do not understand Theosophy at all or misunderstand it; let some deny what Rosicrucian Theosophy has to say, or even claim: “It contradicts the ancient, sacred teachings of the Rishis, or of Brahmanism, or of Zarathustra.” - Anyone who understands Rosicrucian Theosophy as it has now been characterized will easily bear it [when] told that it contradicts the teachings of the Rishis or of Brahmanism or other Eastern teachings. For he knows that the holy Rishis, from whom the most exalted Eastern teachings originate, will agree when they reappear and behold the progress of civilization on Earth! He knows that the true Rishis, the true followers of Zarathustra, will agree with us! We know this, and we can know it. With such an inwardly strengthened soul, one grasps Theosophy as it is understood in the present age in the spirit of the Rosicrucians. But if we grasp it in this way, it will become for us the deepest standard and impetus of modern morality, and we will then be able to speak in the same spirit as was possible in the introductory lecture. Like a balm, like a restorative medicine, the healing spirit of the Rosicrucians will enter the hearts of people and will not allow itself to be deterred from continuing to guide culture, guiding people and humanity, just as it has guided them, in order to realize what began in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Just as the Rosicrucian spirit lived behind the shoulders of Giordano Bruno, Nicholas of Cusa, or Galileo and guided them unconsciously, so will it continue to live on. We need only take it in consciously, because people have more and more to take in consciously—and because they were not yet ready for it before and had to take it in unconsciously.

[ 53 ] In this sense, Theosophy becomes more than a science to us; in this sense, it becomes the highest, most inner necessity of our soul’s life, kindling within us—in what we think, feel, and will—that which flows into our hearts from theosophical revelation. In this sense, we become reflections of the theosophical spirit. This is the best thing we can ever bring into the world through theosophy, and we will then see how new life can also enter the world of everyday existence. This is the view of the spiritual guidance of humankind, and this is the explanation provided by the inspiration of Rosicrucian wisdom regarding the spiritual guidance of the individual and of humanity.

[ 54 ] With this, I would like to conclude this short series of lectures, and I hope that the few and modest suggestions I have been able to offer will prove to be what I would most like them to be: not merely thoughts to be pondered, but active forces that continue to work within your own souls and may bear fruit there. If you take these thoughts to heart, they will live on, and you will then be able to discover many things that lie within these three lectures.

[ 55 ] This is how Theosophy wishes to live in the hearts of people. It is in this spirit that I have sought to speak to you these past few days, so that what these brief lectures have contained may become part of your own spiritual and life heritage within your souls. The highest beings—as we have seen—continue to evolve by submitting themselves to the guidance of the hierarchies and their beings. And human beings truly understand themselves in their souls when they comprehend the spiritual guidance of the individual and of humanity in its proper sense. Then the forces revealed to us by this guidance come alive within us. And so, to keep advancing as human beings from week to week, from hour to hour, from moment to moment—that is our true theosophical task!