The Rudolf Steiner Archive

75. Christmas in the Darkest Hours

My dear friends!

[ 1 ] For many people, it has become a tradition to celebrate each year the physical birth of the being who entered Earth’s evolution in order to give meaning to that evolution. If, in accordance with what we must repeatedly remind ourselves is the task of our Spiritual Science movement, we do not wish to fall into a mere customary celebration—as can now be found in so many places—it will be appropriate, especially in these solemn times, to reflect on various aspects related to the meaning of the physical birth of Christ Jesus.

[ 2 ] We have often visualized in our mind’s eye how, in Christ Jesus, two entities—the Christ entity and the human Jesus entity—merge into one, as it were, for human perception. Now, within the history of Christianity, there has been much controversy, much doctrinal dispute, regarding the meaning of the union of Christ with Jesus in the being whose physical birth is celebrated at Christmas. We may build upon the fact that we know: In Christ, we recognize a cosmic, a supermundane being—a being who descended from spiritual worlds to give meaning to Earth’s evolution through being born as a physical human being. And in the man Jesus, we recognize the one who, in a way familiar to us, was predestined to unite the Christ-essence with himself as a human being, to take it into himself, after having been prepared for this over the course of thirty years.

[ 3 ] Not only was there much strife and many doctrinal disputes over the nature of the connection between Christ and Jesus, but the relationship between Christ and Jesus also points to significant mysteries concerning the entire earthly development of humanity. And when one traces what has happened up to the present day in an effort to understand something of this connection between Christ and Jesus, and when one reflects on what still needs to happen within the course of human development in order to cast this relationship in its proper light, then one touches upon one of the very great mysteries of human knowledge and human life.

[ 4 ] As the time drew near when human evolution was to incorporate the Christ Being within itself, there was—albeit as a legacy from ancient times of clairvoyant wisdom—a possibility to form certain mental images and ideas about the full height of the Christ Being. And there was, in that era, a wisdom of which today’s humanity often speaks—one might say, irreverently—but of which it can scarcely form a mental image; there existed that which, through certain currents—essentially countercurrents to the deeper Christian revelation—has been eradicated from human development up to the present; there existed Gnosticism, a wisdom into which much of the ancient knowledge revealed to humanity through atavistic clairvoyance had flowed. It was all that existed as Gnosticism, whether orally or in writing, that had been virtually eradicated root and branch by the development of dogmatic Christianity in the West—after, however, this Gnosticism had endeavored, for its part, to find an answer to the question: Who is the Christ?

[ 5 ] Today, it can no longer be a matter of returning to Gnosis; Gnosis is, of course, a thing of the past. And while its complete eradication stemmed from evil, ignorance, and hostility toward knowledge and wisdom ... but it nevertheless stemmed from a certain necessity in earthly evolution. And it is merely one of the many current acts of malice when the anthroposophically oriented Spiritual Science, in particular, is accused of wanting to rehash the old Gnosticism. This accusation is, after all, made by people who know nothing about Gnosticism and just as little about anthroposophy. It is not a matter of reviving Gnosticism, but rather of recognizing that Gnosticism was something powerful, something great—something that, for the period now nineteen centuries behind us, sought to provide a certain answer to the question: Who is the Christ?

[ 6 ] Before the Gnostic’s eyes—before his inner eye—lay a vision of spiritual worlds … In a wondrous way, the Gnostic conceived of the world of spiritual hierarchies as arranged in a hierarchical order. And how Christ descended through the world of spiritual hierarchies to enter the physical body of a mortal human being—all of this stood before the Gnostic’s soul. And this soul sought to form a mental image of how Christ had arrived from spiritual heights and had been received on Earth. One can best form a mental image of what once was by considering that everything that entered the world after Gnosticism had been utterly eradicated was small in comparison to the grandeur of the Christ mental image in Gnostic times. What lies behind the Gospels as the true wisdom of the mysteries is infinitely vast and greater than what all subsequent theology has been able to draw from the Gospels. To understand how small and insignificant the modern conception of the Christ-being is compared to Gnosticism, one must immerse oneself in the concept of Christ as found in ancient Gnosticism. Let one conjure up this image in one’s soul, and one will lie prostrate in the dust before the grandeur of the mental image of this Christ-being, descending from the heights, distances, and vastnesses of the worlds into a human body.

[ 7 ] Once upon a time, there was a great, lofty concept of Christ among humankind. It has receded into the background: for in comparison, all the dogmatic formulations that have come down to posterity as the Arian or Athanasian creeds are small—small compared to that Gnostic concept, which combined wisdom about the composition of the world with an understanding of the Christ-essence. Only remnants remain of this great, Gnostic concept of Christ.

[ 8 ] This is one aspect of the relationship between Christ and Jesus: that Christ came into the world at a time when the wisdom that could have understood him—that sought to understand him—had already been eradicated. And those who claimed that the ancient Gnosticism was an Eastern fantasy—one that had to be eradicated for the salvation of Western people—always believed themselves to be good Christians. In truth, it was merely the impotence of the age, which was incapable of linking earthly concepts with heavenly ones. - One must have a sense of the tragic if one wishes to understand the development of humanity.

[ 9 ] How long after the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place did it take for the Temple of Jerusalem, the place of peace, to be destroyed? The city of Jerusalem surrounded the Temple of Solomon. What Gnosis was as wisdom, the Temple of Solomon was as symbolism. That which the Temple of Solomon encompassed as symbolism contained, in image form, all the mysteries of the world. And it was intended that those who entered the Temple of Solomon—where the images surrounded them and were reflected in their souls—would absorb something into their souls through which they would, in the truest sense, first become human beings. The Temple of Solomon was intended to pour the meaning of the world into the souls of those who were permitted to enter it. What the Temple of Solomon contained—it was not directly present on Earth; for it contained all the mysteries of the world that shone down upon the Earth from the vastness of the cosmos.

[ 10 ] My dear friends, if one had asked one of the ancient initiates who knew about the Temple of Solomon, the answer to the question, “Why was the Temple of Solomon built?” would have been something like this: “So that there might be a sign here on Earth to which those powers look—the powers that guide the souls seeking their way into earthly bodies.” —Let us understand this correctly, my dear friends. Let us consider that these ancient initiates of the Temple of Solomon knew: When they guide people into earthly bodies according to all the zodiac signs, then special souls must be led to those bodies that are capable of reflecting within themselves the great symbols of the Temple of Solomon.

[ 11 ] Of course, this was a reason to fall into pride. If it was not received with humility—with the humility of the Essenes—then it was a reason to fall into Pharisaic self-righteousness! But this was already the case: The earthly eye looks up to heaven and sees stars. The spiritual eye of those who guided souls from the vastness of the worlds onto Earth looked down and beheld the Temple of Solomon with its symbols. To them, it was a star whose light enabled them to guide the souls into bodies capable of receiving the meaning of the Temple of Solomon. It was the central star of the Earth, shining out especially brightly into the spiritual heights.

[ 12 ] When Christ Jesus had come to Earth, when the Mystery of Golgotha had been fulfilled ... then the great Mystery of Golgotha was to be able to unfold within every single human soul: “My kingdom is not of this world!” Thus the outer, physical Temple of Solomon initially lost its significance, and its fate was tragically fulfilled. And, in essence, there was no one left at that time who, through the reflection of all the symbols of the Temple of Solomon, could have encompassed the full scope of the Christ-Beings. But the Christ-Essence itself had entered into Earth’s evolution; it was present within it. And this fact—as has often been said in our circle—is what matters. The Gnostics were, after all, the last stragglers among the bearers of that wisdom, which was comprehensive and intense enough to enable them to understand something of the Christ from within humanity’s ancient, atavistic earthly wisdom.

[ 13 ] This is one aspect of this relationship between Christ and Jesus. At that time, the Christ-essence could have been grasped through Gnosis. That was not part of the world plan—although the full wisdom of Christ was present in what existed as Gnosis. And one can say that the path Christianity took through the southern lands—through Greece, Italy, Spain, and so on—was a path designed to cause the insight into what Christ actually was to fade away more and more. Declining Rome, disintegrating Rome, was destined to bring about the extinction of the understanding of Christ.

[ 14 ] Now it is curious that this relationship between Christ and Jesus, on the one hand, caused a lofty concept of Christ to flicker into being within Gnosticism, only to see it fade away as Christianity passed through the Roman world; and that, on the other hand, when Christianity encountered the peoples coming toward it from the north, the concept of Jesus emerged. The concept of Christ faded away in the South; the concept of Jesus emerges not in any particularly exalted way, but in such a way that it captures people’s hearts, so that something wonderfully soul-stirring develops at the thought of how, on the night of consecration, the child is born who receives Christ. Just as the concept of Christ was inadequate in the South, so too was the feeling for Jesus in the North. But this feeling was, at any rate, one that touched people deeply in their hearts. ... Yet it is, in and of itself, not entirely comprehensible. For when one compares the immeasurable greatness that Christ Jesus represents for the development of humanity with all the sentimental trifles contained in many poems and songs about the “dear little Jesus”—with which hearts are habitually stirred, as people, in their self-centeredness, believe they are truly experiencing feelings that reach to the heavens— then one immediately gets a sense of how something is trying to take root there but cannot fully take root, how something connects with something else in such a way that what is actually the deeper meaning, the entire deeper significance, remains in people’s subconscious.

[ 15 ] What, then, remains in people’s subconscious as the concept of Jesus, the feeling of Jesus, and the experience of Jesus rise to the surface? It’s remarkable how that happened! The understanding of Christ retreated into the subconscious, while the understanding of Jesus began to glow there. In people’s subconscious—not in their consciousness, which was powerless—the fading Christ-consciousness (fading for the consciousness) and the emerging, glowing Jesus-consciousness rising in the subconscious were to come together and balance one another. Why, then, did the peoples who came down from Scandinavia, from what is now northern Russia—why did they embrace Christianity not with the idea of Christ, which at first remained entirely foreign to them? Why did they embrace Christianity with the idea of Jesus? Why, then, is Christmas the festival that spoke above all to the human heart, awakening infinite feelings of holy bliss from within human hearts? Why is that? What was it about this Europe—which, essentially, received a completely distorted form of Christianity from the south—what was it about this Europe that caused that very idea to shine forth in people’s hearts, an idea that then finds its deep, deep emotional expression in the Christmas celebration?

[ 16 ] People were prepared—but to a certain extent they had forgotten what it was that had prepared them: They had been prepared through the ancient Nordic mysteries. But they had forgotten the meaning of the ancient Nordic mysteries. And one must go far back in time if one wishes to discover, from the inner meaning of the Nordic mysteries, that profound mystery of the penetration of the Jesus consciousness into European spiritual life.

[ 17 ] These Nordic mysteries were based on something entirely different from the mysteries of the Near East, from those of the South. These mysteries of the North were based on something more intimately connected with the immediate existence of the stars, with nature, and with the growth of the earth than what was presented in symbols within a temple setting. The truths of the mysteries are not the frivolous games that certain mystical sects seek to make of them today; the truths of the mysteries are great, powerful impulses within human evolution. Just as we cannot return to Gnosticism, to the ancient Gnostics, with today’s anthroposophy, so too can humanity not return to what, for example, the ancient mysteries of the North once were for human evolution. And it would be a foolish misunderstanding to believe that such truths of the Mysteries are revealed for the sake of somehow returning to what once lived within them. For the sake of self-reflection, humanity today must know what lived within such mysteries. For what established the connection with the entire course of world development in the Nordic mysteries was linked to what arose from the Earth, just as the Gnostic knowledge inspired by the cosmos was linked to what took place in the vastness and remoteness of the cosmos. The mystery of the human being in its connection with all the mysteries of the cosmos—as it unfolds when the human being enters physical existence here on the physical Earth—lies, during a certain period of Earth’s evolution, more deeply at the foundation of these ancient Nordic mysteries than anywhere else.

[ 18 ] But one must go back a long way—roughly to the third millennium, perhaps even further—to understand what lived in the minds of those who later embraced the Jesus experience. Roughly where the Jutland Peninsula is today, along with modern-day Denmark, there was the center from which significant mystery impulses emanated in those ancient times. And these mystery impulses were connected—let modern minds judge this as they will—to the fact that even in the third millennium before our Christian era, among certain tribes in this northern region, only those born during specific weeks of winter were regarded as truly worthy of the earth. This stemmed from the fact that from that mysterious place of mystery on the Jutland Peninsula, among the tribes who at that time called themselves the Ingäves—or who were called the Ingäves by the Romans, at least by Tacitus—the temple priest imparted the impulse that sexual union between people should take place only at a specific time: during the first quarter of the year. Any sexual union between people outside the time decreed by this place of mystery was frowned upon; and anyone who was not born during the time of the darkest nights, in the coldest season around our New Year, was considered an inferior person within this tribe of the Ingävi. For the impulse from that place of mystery emanated during the time of the first full moon after the spring solstice. Only then was sexual union permitted—and only at that time—among those people who were to consider themselves truly connected to the spiritual worlds, as befitted human dignity. Because the forces that go into such a sexual union were reserved for the development of human strength during the rest of the year, that peculiar strength was developed—which Tacitus, writing a century after the Mystery of Golgotha took place, still admired, at least in its echoes.

[ 19 ] Thus, those who belonged to the Ingävo tribe experienced the process of conception in a particularly intense way—while the other Germanic tribes experienced it to a lesser degree—during the first full moon period after the spring solstice: not in waking consciousness, but in a kind of dream revelation. They knew, however, what this meant in the context of the mystery of humanity and the mysteries of the heavens. A spiritual being appeared to the woman who was to conceive and announced to her, as in a vision, the human being who was to come into the world through her. There was no conscious awareness, but only a state of semi-consciousness in the sphere that human souls experience when a human being enters the physical, earthly world. Subconsciously, people knew they were governed by gods who later came to be called the Vanir, a name connected to “wähnen” (to imagine)—that which does not take place in full, outward intellectual consciousness, but rather in a knowing dream-consciousness.

[ 20 ] That which existed in a particular era and was appropriate for that time is often preserved in later eras through external symbols. And so the fact that in those ancient times the sacred mystery of the Incarnation was shrouded in the subconscious—and led to all births being concentrated in a specific part of the winter season —so that it was regarded as sinful if a person was born at any other time—has, in a sense, been preserved in fragments that have passed into later consciousness as the so-called Herta, Erda, or Nertus legends. Fragments whose meaning scholarship has not yet revealed; indeed, scholarship openly admits its inability to unravel them, for essentially everything known about the Nertus legend from external sources—with the exception of a few notes—is contained in Tacitus, who reports the following about the Nertus or Herta cult:

The Reudigns, Avions, Angles, Varins, Eudos, Suardons, and Nuithons—Germanic peoples living among rivers and forests

[ 21 ] These are roughly the individual tribes that belong to the Ingävo people,

They particularly worship Nertus—that is, Mother Earth—and believe that she intervenes in human affairs and comes down to visit the peoples.

[ 22 ] In ancient times, as part of the religious rites of the Vanir, every woman who was to give birth to a child knew in her dream consciousness that the goddess—who would later be worshipped as Nertus—would appear to her. However, the deity had no actual mental image as female, but rather as both male and female—Nertus only later became entirely the female principle through a corruption of the original concept. Just as the Archangel Gabriel approached Mary, so in ancient times Nertus approached on her chariot those who were to bring a child into the world. The women in question saw this in their minds’ eye. Later, when the impulse of the mysteries had long since faded in this form, this event was celebrated in its afterglow, in symbolic form, and Tacitus still witnessed this and describes it as follows:

On an island in the ocean there is a sacred grove, and within it stands their consecrated chariot, covered with a carpet. Only the priest is allowed to approach it.

[ 23 ] This priest was thought of as the “initiate” of the Herta mystery. He knows when the goddess appears in the sacred chariot.

He knows when the goddess appears in her sacred chariot. He senses the goddess’s presence in her sanctuary and, with deep reverence, accompanies her cow-drawn chariot. Then there are joyful days and festivals in all the places the goddess deigns to visit and dwell. There are days of joy and weddings. No war is waged, no weapon is taken up, and iron is sheathed. Only peace and tranquility are known and desired until the goddess, weary of mingling with mortals, is led back to her sanctuary by that same priest.

[ 24 ] That was indeed the vision.

It's a joyful day and a wedding.

[ 25 ] In such ancient documents, things are described quite precisely; people just don’t understand them. There was a joyful day and a wedding. No war was waged, no weapon was taken up, the iron was sheathed. That is indeed how it was during the time that is now our Easter season, when people, from the inner life of the soul, had to believe that the time of the earth’s fertility had also come for them, and those souls were conceived who were then born during the time that is now our Christmas season. Eastertide was the season of conception. And because the whole was regarded as a cosmic-sacred mystery, this is what later found its symbol in the Nertus rite. The whole, however, was shrouded in the subconscious; it was not allowed to rise into consciousness. This resonates in Tacitus’s description of that rite:

Only peace and tranquility are known and desired at that time, until the goddess, having had her fill of her interactions with mortals, is led back to her sanctuary by the same priest. Thereupon, the chariot, the carpet, and the goddess herself are washed in a hidden lake. This task is performed by slaves, whom the lake immediately swallows up as a pledge, so that all who know of these things may sink into the night of the unconscious. A secret dread and a sacred darkness reign over a being whom only those who have offered sacrifices may behold.

[ 26 ] Everything that occurs in the world also gives rise to a Luciferic and an Ahrimanic counterpart. What, in the Ingävonen sense, constituted the regular course of human evolution was related to the time of the first full moon after the spring solstice. But what had remained from ancient times as a dreamlike experience due to the advancing equinox was increasingly shifted to a later time and had thereby become Ahrimanic. So when what had been conceived in the true service of Herta in ancient times was shifted to a time about four weeks later, it had become Ahrimanic. This having become Ahrimanic thus meant that the connection, the bond between the human woman and the spiritual world, had been sought in an illegitimate manner—at an illegitimate time. This was then fixed in the Walpurgis Night from April 30 to May 1! What we see here is nothing but an Ahrimanic time shift. You know that Luciferic time shifts involve a going backward; the Ahrimanic appears in reverse because it is connected to the advancing equinox: what has been left behind appears later in this case. Thus, what was the Ahrimanic, the Mephistophelean flip side of Herta’s service—the reversal into the diabolical—later became Walpurgis Night, which is connected to the most ancient mystery being, of which only a faint echo has since been preserved.

[ 27 ] Much of this mystery being, if one understands the matter correctly, lived on precisely in the Scandinavian mysteries. There, instead of Nerta, there is a god named Friggo, who—according to his symbolism—becomes, as one must first learn from Spiritual Science, a veritable betrayer of what actually lay at the foundation.

[ 28 ] And there was one more thing worth mentioning in connection with these mystery rites. You can imagine: If the human fruit had ripened from the time of the spring full moon into the winter season, there was usually such a human being who was the first to be born on the “Holy Night.” This human being, who was the first to be born on the “Holy Night” among the tribes of the Ingävo—in ancient times this occurred every third year—was chosen as leader upon reaching the age of thirty, and was to remain leader for three years—only three years. What then happened to him—perhaps I may share that at a later time.

[ 29 ] If one investigates very closely, it is not only Frigg, Frei, and Freiga that are, in a sense, merely a kind of secondary meaning for the Nertus—just as the Norse “Nört”—but it is also the name “Ing” itself, from which the Ingävones derive their name, that is a secondary name for the Nertus. Those connected to this mystery called themselves the Ingävones: those belonging to the god or goddess “Ing.” In the outside world, only fragments remain of what actually existed there. One of these fragments is the passage from Tacitus that I have shared with you. Another fragment is the famous Anglo-Saxon Rune Song, which consists of only a few lines. These famous lines, which every Germanic philologist knows today but whose meaning no one understands, go something like this:

Ing was first seen among the men of the East Danes. Later, he went east. He strode across the waves, and the chariot rolled after him.

[ 30 ] This Anglo-Saxon rune poem contains an echo of what had happened: what was observed in the ancient mystery rites regarding the Easter Conception in relation to the Christmas season. What took place in the spiritual world was known above all on the Danish Peninsula. That is why the runic song rightly says: “Ing was first seen among the men of the East Danes.”—Then came a time when this ancient knowledge increasingly fell into decay, when only echoes and symbolism remained, and when, within the course of human development, influences originating from the warm countries became more widespread. And from the warm countries comes that which is not—as in the cold countries—connected to the fact that the seasons have an intimate relationship with what a person experiences within themselves. There came the spreading of the human fruit throughout the entire year, which of course was already present in these regions in the ancient atavistic clairvoyance—albeit still imbued with the old principles—when the Vanir gods reigned in the cold regions and the temple mysteries had long since replaced the nature mysteries in the southern regions. This had already reached the north, still mingled with the old traditions, when the Vanir gods were replaced by the Aesir gods. Just as the Vanir gods are connected with “imagination,” so the Aesir gods are connected with being—that is, with being in the outer, material world, which the outer intellect seeks to grasp. And when the Nordic peoples had entered an age in which the individual’s intellect began to assert itself—when the Aesir had taken the place of the Vanir—the ancient mystery tradition became corrupted. It migrated to scattered mystery communities in the East. And only one remained—the one in whom the entire meaning of the Earth was to be renewed—only one, in whom Christ was to dwell; he alone was to unite within himself what had once been the essence of the Nordic mysteries.

[ 31 ] Therefore, when we encounter in the Gospel of Luke the account of the Archangel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, we must seek its origin in the true visions that were reflected in what was once embodied in the Nertus symbol of the ancient Nertus Mysteries. This had been carried over to the East. Spiritual Science reveals this to us today, and it alone gives meaning to the Anglo-Saxon rune song. For Nertus and Ing are one and the same. And of Ing it is said:

Ing was first seen among the men of the East Danes; later, he went east. He strode across the waves, and the chariot rolled after him.

[ 32 ] Over the waves of the clouds, of course, just as the Nerta strode over the waves of the clouds. What had been general in the regions of the colder zone became singular, became an individual. It appeared as a singular entity, as an individual, and appears to us again in the account of the Gospel of Luke.

[ 33 ] But whatever has taken root and become established, whatever has become anchored in the mind’s perception, remains in the mind and takes root in the soul. And when the news of Christianity reached the North from the ancient Roman South, people received with it something connected to an ancient mystery rite—one that no longer lived in full consciousness but in the subconscious, and was therefore felt only intuitively. This is why the feeling for Jesus was able to develop particularly strongly there. What had lived in the ancient Nertus mystery had already sunk into the subconscious; yet there it was present, felt, and sensed.

[ 34 ] Long ago, when families gathered in the far north, when the earth was still covered with forests where aurochs and elk roamed, when they gathered around the newborn child in their snow-covered huts by the light of burning lamps and spoke of how this new life had brought them the new light that heaven had announced to them in early spring—that was the ancient Christmas. It was then told to those to whom the message of Christianity would one day come: One was born in that especially holy hour, one who was destined for greatness. This was the one who was born first after the twelfth hour on the night designated as holy. People no longer possessed the ancient knowledge of this; but the ancient feeling still stirred when the news came that such a one had been born in distant Asia, where Christ lived—he who had come down to Earth from the world of the stars.

[ 35 ] It is the task of the present age to understand this more and more deeply and thereby truly grasp the meaning of the development of humankind on Earth. For the sacred scriptures contain great and immense truths—not the trivialities so often discussed in religious gatherings today, but those soul-stirring, heart-penetrating, sacred truths that run through the entire course of human development. This resonates in what is contained in the Gospels. And as Spiritual Science reveals the profound foundations upon which what lives in the Gospels rests, these Gospels will one day become truly precious and valuable to humanity. And humanity will one day know why the Gospel of Luke states:

At that time, Emperor Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken throughout all these provinces, while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Everyone went to his own town to be registered.

Joseph, too, from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, went up to Judea, to the town of David, Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was pregnant. It came to pass that while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

[ 36 ] For him, as the firstborn among those who are to be found in the soul, that ancient, sacred power of the mysteries had traveled from the Danish peninsula to the distant East.

In that region there were shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock through the night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and a divine light shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

[ 37 ] Nerta, who traveled through the realms guided by the ancient Vanir consciousness—that is, by the subconscious mind through atavistic clairvoyance—also announced the arrival of humankind on Earth.

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you—he is Christ the Lord.”

And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angels, praising God and saying:

[ 38 ] And they now spoke the words that the Nerta priest had spoken to the expectant woman in the ancient Nordic mystery rites:

The revelation of the Divine comes down from on high at a time when there is peace among people of good will.

[ 39 ] As Tacitus recounts:

It is a joyful day and a wedding; no war is being waged, no weapons are being taken up, and the armor is locked away.

[ 40 ] This is precisely the great task to which human beings must rise: to look into the course of human development. For even the Mystery of Golgotha, through which the entire development of the Earth has acquired its deeper meaning, becomes fully comprehensible when it is shown how it fits within the whole of human development. Once materialism has disappeared and human beings come to know—not merely in the abstract but in concrete terms—that they are of divine origin, then there will once again be an understanding of the sacred mystery truths of antiquity; then the interim period will be over—a period in which, although Christ lives on earth, He can be understood only to a very limited extent by the awakened consciousness. For the Gnostic understanding of Christ has faded; the understanding of Jesus developed only unconsciously in connection with the ancient Nertus cult. In the future, however, humanity will have to bring these two unconscious currents into consciousness and unite them. Then an understanding of Christ will increasingly take hold on Earth, which will be the union of mystery knowledge with a renewed, great Gnosis.

[ 41 ] Anyone who takes the anthroposophical worldview and the movement associated with it seriously will not see what it has to say to humanity as child’s play, but rather as profound, serious, and great truths. And we must allow ourselves to be deeply moved in our souls, because what is great is meant to move us deeply.

[ 42 ] The Earth is not merely a great living being; it is a sublime spiritual being. And just as the greatest human genius could not have reached its current level in later life if it had not developed appropriately through childhood and youth, so too the Mystery of Golgotha could not have taken place; the Divine could not have united with the Earth’s evolution if, at the dawn of the Earth’s history, the Divine had not descended upon the Earth in a different—yet equally divine—way. The revelation of the Divine from on high in the ancient Nertus cult was understood differently than it would later be; but it was there.

[ 43 ] This ancient wisdom does indeed contain an atavistic insight, but one that is infinitely higher than that found in what today, in such a brutal way, dehumanizes humanity—both physically and intellectually—as a materialistic worldview.

[ 44 ] Christianity is a fact, not a theory; the theory must follow; it is important for human consciousness, which is to emerge in the further course of Earth’s evolution; but Christianity as such—the Mystery of Golgotha—exists as a fact, and the point was that Christianity first entered precisely into the subconscious currents. This was still possible in the Near East at the time when Christ united with the Earth.

[ 45 ] Shepherds—people similar to those among whom the Nertus cult flourished—are also described in the Gospel of Luke. I can only give you a rough outline of all this. If we could talk about this at length, precisely what I have to say to you today would prove to be deeply grounded. Because humanity has descended from spiritual heights... that is why the revelation of the Divine took place from the heavenly heights... It had to be spoken in this way to those who, based on ancient wisdom, knew that human destiny was connected to that which lives in the stars of the heavens. But what is to live on Earth through the coming of Christ into an earthly human being will have to be understood only gradually. The message is twofold, consisting of two parts: “Revelation of the Divine from on high”—“Peace in the souls of those on Earth who are of good will.” Without this second part, Christmas, the feast of Christ’s birth, has no meaning!

[ 46 ] Not only was Christ born for humanity; humanity also crucified Christ! There is a necessity underlying this as well; but that does not make it any less true that humanity crucified Christ! And it can be known that the crucifixion that took place on the wooden cross at Golgotha was not the only crucifixion. A time must come when the second part of the Christmas message can be understood: “Peace on earth to people of good will.” For even the negative aspects may be felt and experienced: People are far from understanding Christ and the mystery of Christmas in the proper sense.

[ 47 ] Surely it must cut us to the heart that we ourselves live in a time when humanity’s longing for peace is being shouted down! It seems almost unreal to celebrate Christmas in these days when humanity’s longing for peace is being shouted down! Let us hope today—while the worst has not yet come to pass—that a change of heart may take place in people’s souls, and that Christian sentiment and a will for peace may replace the shouting down of this longing for peace. Otherwise, it may not be those who are striving in Europe today, but rather those who will one day avenge the shouting out of humanity’s longing for peace from Asia, who will have to proclaim Christianity and the Mystery of Golgotha to humanity upon the ruins of European spiritual life! And this will then remain indelibly etched: At Christmas in the year 1916, after the proclamation that there may be peace on earth among human souls of good will—in the year 1916 after the Christmas proclamation—humanity was once able to shout down the yearning for peace!

[ 48 ] May it not be so! May the good spirits at work in the Christmas impulses protect the unfortunate people of Europe from this!