The Gospel of John. Lecture 12 of 12.
Rudolf Steiner, Hamburg, May 31, 1908:
Yesterday we
reached the point of discussing the change which takes place in the human astral
body through meditation, concentration, and other practices which are given in
the various methods of initiation. We have seen that the astral body is thereby
affected in such a way that it develops within itself the organs which it needs
for perceiving in the higher worlds, and we have said that up to this point the
principle of initiation is everywhere really the same — although the forms of
its practices conform wholly to the respective cultural epochs. The principal
difference appears with the occurrence of the next thing which must follow. In
order that the pupil may be able actually to perceive in the higher worlds, it
is necessary that the organs which have been formed out of the astral part
impress or stamp themselves upon the ether body, be impressed into the etheric
element.
The
re-fashioning of the astral body indirectly through meditation and
concentration is called by an ancient name: “katharsis,” or purification.
Katharsis or purification has as its purpose the discarding from the astral body
all that hinders it from becoming harmoniously and regularly organized, thus
enabling it to acquire higher organs. It is endowed with the germ of these
higher organs; it is only necessary to bring forth the forces which are present
in it. We have said that the most varied methods can be employed for bringing
about this katharsis. A person can go very far in this matter of katharsis if,
for example, he has gone through and inwardly experienced all that is in my
book The
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, and feels that this book was for him a
stimulation and that now he has reached the point where he can himself actually
reproduce the thoughts just as they are there presented. If a person holds the
same relationship to this book that a virtuoso, in playing a selection on the
piano, holds to the composer of the piece, that is, he reproduces the whole
thing within himself — naturally according to his ability to do so — then
through the strictly built up sequence of thought of this book — for it is
written in this manner — katharsis will be developed to a high degree. For the
important point in such things as this book is that the thoughts are all placed
in such a way that they become active. In many other books of the present, just
by changing the system a little, what has been said earlier in the book can just
as well be said later. In the The
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity this is not possible. Page 150 can as
little be placed fifty pages earlier in the subject matter as the hind legs of a
dog can be exchanged with the forelegs, for the book is a logically arranged
organism and the working out of the thoughts in it has an effect similar to an
inner schooling. Hence there are various methods of bringing about katharsis. If
a person has not been successful in doing this after having gone through this
book, he should not think that what has been said is untrue, but rather that he
has not studied it properly or with sufficient energy or thoroughness.
Something else
must now be considered and that is that when this katharsis has taken place,
when the astral organs have been formed in the astral body, it must all be
imprinted upon the ether body. In the pre-Christian initiation, it was done in
the following manner. After the pupil had undergone the suitable preparatory
training, which often lasted for years, he was told: The time has now come when
the astral body has developed far enough to have astral organs of perception;
now these can become aware of their counterpart in the ether body. Then the
pupil was subjected to a procedure which today — at least for our cultural epoch
— is not only unnecessary, but is not in all seriousness feasible. He was put
into a lethargic condition for three and a half days, and was treated during
this time in such a way that not only the astral body left the physical and
ether bodies — a thing that occurs every night in sleep — but to a certain
degree the ether body also was lifted out; but care was taken that the physical
body remained intact and that the pupil did not die in the meantime. The ether
body was then liberated from the forces of the physical body which act upon it.
It had become, as it were, elastic and plastic, and when the sensitory organs
that had been formed in the astral body sank down into it, the ether body
received an imprint from the whole astral body. When the pupil was brought again
into a normal condition by the hierophant, when the astral body and ego were
again united with the physical and ether bodies — a procedure which the
hierophant well understood — then not only did he experience katharsis, but also
what is called “Illumination” or “Photismos.” The pupil could then not only
perceive in the world around him all those things that were physically
perceptible, but he could employ the spiritual organs of perception, which
means he could see and perceive the spiritual. Initiation consisted essentially
of these two processes: Purification or Purging, and Illumination.
Then the course
of human evolution entered upon a phase in which it gradually became impossible
to draw the ether body out of the physical without a very great disturbance in
all its functions, because the whole tendency of the post-Atlantean evolution
was to cause the ether body to be attached closer and closer to the physical
body. It was consequently necessary to carry out other methods of initiation
which proceed in such a manner that without the separating of the physical and
ether bodies, the astral body, having become sufficiently developed through
katharsis and able of itself to return again to the physical and etheric bodies,
was able to imprint its organs on the ether body in spite of the hindrance of
the physical body. What had to happen was that stronger forces had to become
active in meditation and concentration in order that there might be the strong
impulse in the astral body for overcoming the power of resistance of the
physical body. In the first place there was the actual specifically Christian
initiation in which it was necessary for the pupil to undergo the procedure
which was described yesterday as the seven steps. When he had undergone these
feelings and experiences, his astral body had been so intensely affected it
formed its organs of perception plastically — perhaps only after years, but
still sooner or later — and then impressed them upon the ether body, thus making
of the pupil one of the Illuminati. This kind of initiation which is
specifically Christian could only be described fully if I were able to hold
lectures about its particular aspects every day for about a fortnight instead
of only for a few days. But that is not the important thing. Yesterday you were
given certain details of the Christian initiation. We only wish to become
acquainted with its principle.
By continually
meditating upon passages of the Gospel of St. John, the Christian pupil is
actually in a condition to reach initiation without the three and a half day
continued lethargic sleep. If each day he allows the first verses of the Gospel
of St. John, from “In the beginning was the Word” to the passage “full of
grace and truth,” to work upon him, they become an exceedingly significant
meditation. They have this force within them, for this Gospel is not there
simply to be read and understood in its entirety with the intellect, but it must
be inwardly fully experienced and felt. It is a force which comes to the help of
initiation and works for it. Then will the “Washing of the Feet,” the
“Scourging,” and other inner processes be experienced as astral visions, wholly
corresponding to the description in the Gospel itself, beginning with the 13th
Chapter.
The Rosicrucian
initiation, although resting upon a Christian foundation, works more with other
symbolic ideas which produce katharsis, chiefly with imaginative pictures. That
is another modification which had to be used, because mankind had progressed a
step further in its evolution, and the methods of initiation must conform to what
has gradually been evolved.
We must
understand that when a person has attained this initiation, he is fundamentally
quite different from the person he was before it. While formerly he was only
associated with the things of the physical world, he now acquires the
possibility likewise of association with the events and beings of the spiritual
world. This pre-supposes that the human being acquires knowledge in a much more
real sense than in that abstract, dry, prosaic sense in which we usually speak
of knowledge. For a person who acquires spiritual knowledge finds the process
to be something quite different. It is a complete realization of that beautiful
expression “Know thyself.” But the most dangerous thing in the realm of
knowledge is to grasp these words erroneously, and today this occurs only too
frequently. Many people construe these words to mean that they should no longer
look about the physical world, but should gaze into their own inner being and
seek there for everything spiritual. This is a very mistaken understanding of
the saying, for that is not at all what it means. We must clearly understand
that true higher knowledge is also an evolution from one standpoint, which the
human being has attained, to another which he had not reached previously. If a
person practices self-knowledge only by brooding upon himself, he sees only what
he already possesses. He thereby acquires nothing new, but only knowledge of his
own lower self in the present meaning of the word. This inner nature is only one
part that is necessary for knowledge. The other part that is necessary must be
added. Without the two parts, there is no real knowledge. By means of his inner
nature, he can develop organs through which he can gain knowledge. But just as
the eye, as an external sense organ, would not perceive the sun by gazing into
itself, but only by looking outward at the sun, so must the inner perceptive
organs gaze outwardly — in other words, gaze into an external spiritual — in
order actually to perceive. The concept “Knowledge” had a much deeper, a more
real meaning in those ages when spiritual things were better understood than at
present. Read in the Bible the words “Abraham knew his wife” or this or that
Patriarch “knew his wife.” One does not need to seek very far in order to
understand that by this expression fructification is meant. When one considers
the words “Know thyself” in the Greek, they do not mean that you stare into
your own inner being, but that you fructify yourself with what streams into you
from the spiritual world. “Know thyself” means: Fructify thyself with the
content of the spiritual world!
Two things are
needed for this: namely, that the human being prepare himself through katharsis
and illumination, and then that he open his inner being freely to the spiritual
world. In this connection we may liken his inner nature to the female aspect,
the outer spiritual to the male. The inner being must be made susceptible of
receiving the higher self. When this has happened, then the higher human self
streams into him from the spiritual world. One may ask: Where is this higher
human self? Is it within the personal man? No, it is not there. On Saturn, Sun,
and Moon, the higher self was diffused over the entire cosmos. At that time the
Cosmic Ego was spread out over all humankind, but now men have to permit it to
work upon them. They must permit this Ego to work upon their previously prepared
inner natures. This means that the human inner nature — in other words, the
astral body — has to be cleansed, purified, and ennobled and subjected to
katharsis; then a person may expect that the external spirit will stream into
him for his illumination. That will occur when the human being has been so well
prepared that he has subjected his astral body to katharsis, thereby developing
his inner organs of perception. The astral body, in any case, has progressed so
far that now when it dips down into the etheric and physical bodies, illumination
or photismos results. What actually occurs is that the astral body imprints its
organs upon the ether body, making it possible for the human being to perceive a
spiritual world about him; making it possible for his inner being, the astral
body, to receive what the etheric body is able to offer to it, what the ether body
draws out of the entire cosmos, out of the Cosmic Ego.
This cleansed,
purified astral body, which bears within it at the moment of illumination none
of the impure impressions of the physical world but only the organs of
perception of the spiritual world, is called in esoteric Christianity the “pure,
chaste, wise Virgin Sophia.” By means of all that he receives during katharsis,
the pupil cleanses and purifies his astral body so that it is transformed into
the Virgin Sophia. And when the Virgin Sophia encounters the Cosmic Ego, the
Universal Ego which causes illumination, the pupil is surrounded by light,
spiritual light. This second power that approaches the Virgin Sophia is called
in esoteric Christianity — is also so called today — the “Holy Spirit.”
Therefore according to esoteric Christianity it is correct to say that through
his processes of initiation the Christian esotericist attains the purification
and cleansing of his astral body; he makes his astral body into the Virgin
Sophia and is illuminated from above — if you wish, you may call it overshadowed
— by the “Holy Spirit,” by the Cosmic, Universal Ego. And a person thus
illuminated, who, in other words, according to esoteric Christianity has
received the “Holy Spirit” into himself, speaks forthwith in a different manner.
How does he speak? When he speaks about Saturn, Sun, and Moon, about the
different members of the human being, about the processes of cosmic evolution,
he is not expressing his own opinion. His views do not at all come
into consideration. When such a person speaks about Saturn, it is Saturn itself
that is speaking through him. When he speaks about the Sun, the Spiritual Being
of the Sun speaks through him. He is the instrument. His personal ego has been
eclipsed, which means that at such moments it has become impersonal and it is
the Cosmic Universal Ego that is using his ego as its instrument through which
to speak. Therefore, in true esoteric teaching which proceeds from esoteric
Christianity, one should not speak of views or opinions, for in the
highest sense of the word this is incorrect; there are no such things. According
to esoteric Christianity, whoever speaks with the right attitude of mind toward
the world will say to himself, for instance: If I tell people that there were
two horses outside, the important thing is not that one of them pleases me less
than the other and that I think one is a worthless horse. The important point is
that I describe the horses to the others and give the facts. In like manner,
what has been observed in the spiritual worlds must be described irrespective of
all personal opinions. In every spiritual- scientific system of teaching, only
the series of facts must be related and this must have nothing to do with the
opinions of the one who relates them.
Thus we have
acquired two concepts in their spiritual significance. We have learned to know
the nature of the Virgin Sophia, which is the purified astral body, and the
nature of the “Holy Spirit,” the Cosmic Universal Ego, which is received by the
Virgin Sophia and which can then speak out of this purified astral body. There
is something else to be attained, a still higher stage: that is the ability to
help someone else, the ability to give him the impulse to accomplish both of
these. Men of our evolutionary epoch can receive the Virgin Sophia (the purified
astral body) and the Holy Spirit (illumination) in the manner described, but
only Christ Jesus could give to the Earth what was necessary to accomplish this.
He has implanted in the spiritual part of the Earth those forces which make it
possible for that to happen at all which has been described in the Christian
initiation. You may ask how did this come about?
Two things are
necessary for an understanding of this. First we must make ourselves acquainted
with something purely historical, that is, with the manner of giving of names,
which was quite different in the age in which the Gospels were written from the
way in which it is done at present.
Those who
interpret the Gospel at present do not at all understand the principle of giving
names at the time the Gospels were written and therefore they do not speak as
they should. It is, in fact, exceedingly difficult to describe the principle of
giving names at that time, yet we can make it comprehensible, even though we
only indicate it in rough outlines. Let us suppose, in the case of someone whom
we meet, that instead of holding to the name which does not at all fit him, and
which has been given to him in the abstract way customary today, we were to
harken to and notice his most distinguishing characteristics, were to notice the
most prominent attribute of his character, and were in a position to discern
clairvoyantly the deeper foundations of his being, then were to give him his
name in accordance with those most important qualities which we believe should
be attributed to him. Were we to follow such a method of giving names, we should
be doing something, at a lower more elementary stage, similar to what was done
at that time by those who gave names in the manner of the writer of the Gospel
of St. John. In order to make very clear his manner of giving names, let us
consider the following:
The author of
the St. John's Gospel regarded the physical, historic mother of Jesus in her
most prominent characteristics and asked himself, — Where shall I find a name
for her which will express most perfectly her real being? Then, because she had,
by means of her earlier incarnations, reached those spiritual heights upon which
she stood; and because she appeared in her external personality to be a
counterpart, a revelation, of what was called in esoteric Christianity the
Virgin Sophia, he called the Mother of Jesus the “Virgin Sophia;” and this is
what she was always called in the esoteric places where esoteric Christianity
was taught. Exoterically he leaves her entirely un-named, in contradistinction to
those others who have chosen for her the secular name Mary. He could not take
the secular name, he had to express in the name the profound, world historic
evolution. He does this by indicating that she cannot be called Mary, and what is
more, he places by her side her sister Mary, wife of Cleophas, and calls her
simply the “mother of Jesus.” He shows thereby that he does not wish to mention
her name, that it cannot be publicly revealed. In esoteric circles she is
always called the “Virgin Sophia.” It was she who represented the “Virgin
Sophia” as an external historical personality.
If we now wish
to penetrate further into the nature of Christianity and its founder, we must
take under consideration yet another mystery. We should understand clearly how
to make a distinction between the personality who in esoteric Christianit, was
called “Jesus of Nazareth” and Him who was called “Christ Jesus,” the Christ
dwelling within Jesus of Nazareth.
Now what does
this mean? It means that in the historical personality of Jesus of Nazareth we
have to do with a highly developed human being who had passed through many
incarnations and after a cycle of high development was again reincarnated; a
person who, because of this, was attracted to a mother so pure that the writer
of the Gospel could call her the “Virgin Sophia.” Thus we are dealing with a
highly developed human being, Jesus of Nazareth, who had progressed far in his
evolution in his previous incarnations and in this incarnation had entered upon
a highly spiritual stage. The other evangelists were not illuminated to such a
high degree as the writer of this Gospel. It was more the actual sense-world
that was revealed to them, a world in which they saw their Master and Messiah
moving about as Jesus of Nazareth. The mysterious spiritual relationships, at
least those of the heights into which the writer of the Gospel of St. John could
peer, were concealed from them. For this reason they laid special emphasis upon
the fact that in Jesus of Nazareth lived the Father, who had always existed in
Judaism and was transmitted down through the generations as the God of the Jews.
And they expressed this when they said: “If we trace back the ancestry of Jesus
of Nazareth through generation after generation, we are able to prove that the
same blood flows in Him that has flowed down through these generations.” The
evangelists give the genealogical tables and precisely according to them they
also show at what different stages of evolution they stand. For Matthew, the
important thing is to show that in Jesus of Nazareth we have a person in whom
Father Abraham is living. The blood of Father Abraham has flowed down through
the generations as far as Jesus. He thus traces the genealogical tables back to
Abraham. He has a more materialistic point of view than Luke. The important
thing for Luke was not alone to show that the God who lived in Abraham was
present in Jesus, but that the ancestry, the line of descent, can be traced back
still further, even to Adam, and that Adam was a son of the very Godhead, which
means that he belonged to the time when humanity had just made the transition
from a spiritual to a physical state. Both Matthew and Luke wished to show that
this earthly Jesus of Nazareth has his being only in what can be traced back to
the divine Father-power. This was not a matter of importance for the writer of
the Gospel of St. John, who could gaze into the spiritual world. The important
thing for him was not the words “I and Father Abraham are one,” but that at
every moment of time there exists in the human being an Eternal which was
present in him before Father Abraham. This he wished to show. In the beginning
was the Word which is called the “I AM.” Before all external things and beings,
He was. He was in the beginning. For those who wished rather to describe Jesus
of Nazareth and were only able to describe him, it was a question of showing how
from the beginning the blood flowed down through the generations. It was
important to them to show that the same blood flowing down through the
generations flowed also in Joseph, the father of Jesus.
If we could
speak quite esoterically it would naturally be necessary to speak of the idea of
the so-called “virgin birth,” but this can be discussed only in the most
intimate circles. It belongs to the deepest mysteries that exist and the
misunderstanding connected with this idea arises because people do not know what
is meant by the “virgin birth.” They think that it means there was no
fatherhood. But it is not that; a much more profound, a more mysterious
something lies at the back of it which is quite compatible with what the other
disciples wish to show, that is, that Joseph is the father of Jesus. If they
were to deny this, then all the trouble they take to show this to be a fact
would be meaningless. They wish to show that the ancient God exists in Jesus of
Nazareth. Luke especially wished to make this very clear, therefore he traces
the whole ancestry back to Adam and then to God. How could he have come to this
conclusion if he really wished only to say: I am showing you that this
genealogical tree exists, but Joseph, as a matter of fact, had nothing to do
with it. It would be very strange if people were to take the trouble to
represent Joseph as a very important personality and then were to shove him
aside out of the whole affair.
In the event of
Palestine we have not only to do with this highly developed personality, Jesus
of Nazareth, who had passed through many incarnations, and had developed himself
so highly that he needed such an extraordinary mother as the Virgin Sophia, but
we have also to do with a second mystery. When Jesus of Nazareth was thirty
years of age, he had advanced to such a stage through what he had experienced in
his present incarnation that he could perform an action which it is possible for
one to perform in exceptional cases. We know that the human being consists of
physical, etheric, and astral bodies and an ego. This fourfold human being is the
human being as he lives here among us. If a person stands at a certain high
stage of evolution, it is possible for him at a particular moment to draw out
his ego from the three bodies and abandon them, leaving them intact and entirely
uninjured. This ego then goes into the spiritual worlds and the three bodies
remain behind. We meet this process at times in cosmic evolution. At some
especially exalted, enraptured moment, the ego of a person departs and enters
into the spirit world — under certain conditions this can be extended over a
long period — and because the three bodies are so highly developed by the ego
that lived in them, they are fit instruments for a still higher being who now
takes possession of them. In the thirtieth year of Jesus of Nazareth, that Being
whom we have called the Christ took possession of his physical, etheric, and
astral bodies. This Christ Being could not incarnate in an ordinary child's
body, but only in one which had first been prepared by a highly developed ego,
for this Christ-Being had never before been incarnated in a physical body.
Therefore from the thirtieth year on, we are dealing with the Christ in Jesus of
Nazareth.
What in reality
took place? The fact is that the corporality of Jesus of Nazareth which he had
left behind was so mature, so perfect, that the Sun Logos, the Being of the six
Elohim, which we have described as the spiritual Being of the Sun, was able to
penetrate into it. It could incarnate for three years in this corporality, could
become flesh. The Sun Logos, Who can shine into human beings through
illumination, the Sun Logos Himself, the Holy Spirit, entered. The
Universal Ego, the Cosmic Ego, entered and from then on during three years, the
Sun Logos spoke through the body of Jesus. The Christ speaks through the body of
Jesus during these three years. This event is indicated in the Gospel of St.
John and also in the other Gospels as the descent of the dove, of the Holy
Spirit, upon Jesus of Nazareth. In esoteric Christianity it is said that at
that moment the ego of Jesus of Nazareth left his body, and that from then on
the Christ is in him, speaking through him in order to teach and work. This is
the first event that happens, according to the Gospel of St. John. We now have
the Christ within the astral, etheric, and physical bodies of Jesus of Nazareth.
There He worked as has been described until the Mystery of Golgotha occurred.
What occurred on Golgotha? Let us consider that important moment when the blood
flowed from the wounds of the crucified savior. In order that you may
understand me better, I shall compare what occurred with something else.
Let us suppose
we have here a vessel filled with water. In the water, salt is dissolved and the
water becomes quite transparent. Because we have warmed the water, we have made
a salt solution. Now let us cool the water. The salt precipitates and we see how
the salt condenses below and forms a deposit at the bottom of the vessel. That
is the process for one who sees only with physical eyes. But for a person who
can see with spiritual eyes, something else is happening. While the salt is
condensing below, the spirit of the salt streams up through the water, filling
it. The salt can only become condensed when the spirit of the salt has departed
from it and become diffused into the water. Those who understand these things
know that wherever condensation takes place, a spiritualization also always
occurs. What thus condenses below has its counterpart above in the spiritual,
just as in the case of the salt, when it condenses and is precipitated below,
its spirit streams upward and disseminates. Therefore, it was not only a
physical process that took place when the blood flowed from the wounds of the
savior, but it was actually accompanied by a spiritual process; that is, the
Holy Spirit which was received at the Baptism united Itself with the Earth; that
the Christ Himself flowed into the very being of the Earth. From now on, the
Earth was changed, and this is the reason for saying to you, in earlier
lectures, that if a person had viewed the Earth from a distant star, he would
have observed that its whole appearance was altered with the Mystery of
Golgotha. The Sun Logos became a part of the Earth, formed an alliance with it
and became the Spirit of the Earth. This He achieved by entering into the body
of Jesus of Nazareth in his thirtieth year, and by remaining active there for
three years, after which He continued to remain on the Earth. Now the important
thing is that this event must produce an effect upon the true Christian — that
it must give something by which he may gradually develop the beginnings of a
purified astral body in the Christian sense. There had to be something there for
the Christian whereby he could make his astral body gradually more and more like
a Virgin Sophia, and through it, receive into himself the Holy Spirit which was
able to spread out over the entire Earth, but which could not be received by
anyone whose astral body did not resemble the Virgin Sophia. There had to be
something which possesses the power to transform the human astral body into a
Virgin Sophia. What is this power? It consists in the fact of Christ Jesus
entrusting to the Disciple whom He loved — in other words to the writer of the
Gospel of St. John — the mission of describing truly and faithfully through his
own illumination the events of Palestine in order that men might be affected by
them. If men permit what is written in the Gospel of St. John to work
sufficiently upon them, their astral body is in the process of becoming a Virgin
Sophia and it will become receptive to the Holy Spirit. Gradually, through the
strength of the impulse which emanates from this Gospel, it will become
susceptible of feeling the true spirit and later of perceiving it. This mission,
this charge, was given to the writer of the Gospel by Jesus Christ. You need but
read the Gospel. The Mother of Jesus — the Virgin Sophia in the esoteric meaning
of Christianity — stands at the foot of the Cross, and from the Cross the Christ
says to the disciple whom He loved: “Henceforth, this is thy Mother” and from
this hour the disciple took her unto himself. This means: “That force which was
in My astral body and made it capable of becoming bearer of the Holy Spirit I
now give over to thee; thou shalt write down what this astral body has been able
to acquire through its development.” “And the disciple took her unto himself” —
that means he wrote the Gospel of St. John. And this Gospel of St. John is the
Gospel in which the writer has concealed powers which develop the Virgin Sophia.
At the Cross, the mission was entrusted to him of receiving that force as his
mother and of being the true, genuine interpreter of the Messiah. This really
means that if you live wholly in accordance with the Gospel of St. John and
understand it spiritually, it has the force to lead you to Christian katharsis,
it has the power to give you the Virgin Sophia. Then will the Holy Spirit,
united with the Earth, grant you illumination or photismos according to the
Christian meaning. And what the most intimate disciples experienced there in
Palestine was so powerful that from that time on they possessed at least the
capacity of perceiving in the spiritual world. The most intimate disciples had
received this capacity into themselves. Perceiving in the spirit, in the
Christian sense, means that the person transforms his astral body to such a
degree through the power of the Event of Palestine that what he sees need not be
before him externally and physically-sensible. He possesses something by means
of which he can perceive in the spirit. There were such intimate pupils. The
woman who anointed the feet of Christ Jesus in Bethany had received through the
Event of Palestine the powerful force needed for spiritual perception, and she
is, for example, one of those who first understood that what had lived in Jesus
was present after His death, that is, had been resurrected. She possessed this
faculty. It may be asked: Whence came this possibility? It came through the
development of her inner sense-organs. Are we told this in the Gospel? We are
indeed; we are told that Mary Magdalene was led to the grave, that the body had
disappeared and that she saw there two spiritual forms. These two spiritual
forms are always to be seen when a corpse is present for a certain time after
death. On the one side is to be seen the astral body, and on the other, what
gradually separates from it as ether body, then passing over into the cosmic
ether. Wholly apart from the physical body, there are two spiritual forms
present which belong to the spiritual world.
She beheld this
because she had become clairvoyant through the force and power of the Event of
Palestine. And she beheld something more: she beheld the Risen Christ. Was it
necessary for her to be clairvoyant to be able to behold the Christ? If you
have seen a person in physical form a few days ago, do you not think you would
recognize him again if he should appear before you?
And in order
that it might be told to us as exactly as possible, it was not only said once,
but again at the next appearance of the Risen Christ, when Jesus appeared at the
Sea of Gennesareth.
The esoteric
pupils find Him there. Those who had received the full force of the Event of
Palestine could grasp the situation and see that it was the Risen Jesus who
could be perceived spiritually. Although the disciples and Mary Magdalene saw
Him, yet there were some among them who were less able to develop clairvoyant
power. One of these was Thomas. It is said that he was not present the first
time the disciples saw the Lord, and he declared he would have to lay his hands
in His wounds, he would have to touch physically the body of the Risen Christ.
You ask: What happened? The effort was then made to assist him to develop
spiritual perception. And how was this done? Let us take the words of the Gospel
itself:
This inner power
which should proceed from the Event of Palestine is called “Faith.” It is no
ordinary force, but an inner clairvoyant power. Permeate thyself with inner
power, then thou needest no longer hold as real that only which thou seest
externally; for blessed are they who are able to know what they do not see
outwardly!
Thus we see that
we have to do with the full reality and truth of the Resurrection and that only
those are fully able to understand it who have first developed the inner power
to perceive in the spirit world. This will make the last chapter of the Gospel
of St. John comprehensible to you, in which again and again it is pointed out
that the closest followers of Christ Jesus have reached the stage of the Virgin
Sophia, because the Event of Golgotha had been consummated in their presence.
But when they had to stand firm for the first time, had actually to behold a
spiritual event, they were still blinded and had first to find their way. They
did not know that He was the same one Who had earlier been among them. Here is
something which we must grasp with the most subtle concepts; for the grossly
materialistic person would say: “Then the Resurrection is undermined!” The
miracle of the Resurrection is to be taken quite literally, for He said: “Lo, I
remain with you always, even unto the end of the age, unto the end of the cosmic
age.”
He is there and
will come again, although not in a form of flesh, but in a form in which those
who have been sufficiently developed through the power of the Gospel of St.
John can actually perceive Him, and possessing the power to perceive Him, they
will no longer be unbelieving. The mission of the Spiritual Science Movement is
to prepare those who have the will to allow themselves to be prepared, for the
return of the Christ upon Earth. This is the cosmo-historical significance of
Spiritual Science, to prepare mankind and to keep its eyes open for the time
when the Christ will appear again actively among men in the sixth cultural
epoch, in order that that may be accomplished for a great part of humanity which
was indicated to us in the Marriage at Cana.
Therefore the
world-concept obtained from Spiritual Science appears like an execution of the
testament of Christianity. In order to be led to real Christianity the men of
the future will have to receive that spiritual teaching which Spiritual Science
is able to give. Many people may still say today: Spiritual Science is something
that really contradicts true Christianity. But those are the little popes who
form opinions about things of which they know nothing and who make into a dogma:
What I do not know does not exist.
This intolerance
will become greater and greater in the future and Christianity will experience
the greatest danger just from those people who, at present, believe they can be
called good Christians. The Christianity of Spiritual Science will experience
serious attacks from the Christians in name, for all concepts must change if a
true spiritual understanding of Christianity is to come about. Above all, the
soul must become more and more conversant with and understanding of the legacy
of the writer of the Gospel of St. John, the great school of the Virgin Sophia,
the St. John's Gospel itself. Only Spiritual Science can lead us deeper into
this Gospel.
In these
lectures, only examples could be given showing how Spiritual Science can
introduce us into the Gospel of St. John, for it is impossible to explain the
whole of it. We read in the Gospel itself:
Just as the
Gospel itself cannot go into all the details of the Event of Palestine, so too
is it impossible for even the longest course of lectures to present the full
spiritual content of the Gospel. Therefore we must be satisfied with those
indications which could be given at this time; we must content ourselves with
the thought that through just such indications in the course of human evolution,
the true testament of Christianity becomes executed. Let us allow all this to
have such an effect upon us that we may possess the power to hold fast to the
foundation which we recognize in the Gospel of St. John, when others come to us
and say: You are giving us too complicated concepts, too many concepts which we
must first make our own in order to comprehend this Gospel: the Gospel is for
the simple and naive and one dare not approach them with many concepts and
thoughts. Many say this today. They perhaps refer to another saying: “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” One can merely
quote such a saying as long as one does not understand it, for it really says:
“Blessed are the beggars in spirit, for they shall reach the kingdom of heaven
within themselves.” This means that those who are like beggars of the spirit,
who desire to receive more and more of the spirit, will find in themselves the
kingdom of heaven!
At the present
time the idea is all too prevalent that everything religious is identical with
all that is primitive and simple. People say: We acknowledge that Science
possesses many and complicated ideas, but we do not grant the same to Faith and
Religion. Faith and Religion — so say many “Christians” — must be simple and
naive! They demand this. And many rely upon a conception which is little quoted
perhaps, but which in the present is haunting the minds of men and which
Voltaire, one of the great teachers of materialism, has expressed in the words:
“Whoever wishes to be a prophet must find believers, for what he asserts must be
believed, and only what is simple, what is always repeated in its simplicity,
that alone finds believers.”
This is often so
with the prophets, both true and false. They take the trouble to say something
and to repeat it again and again and the people learn to believe it, because it
is constantly repeated. The representative of Spiritual Science desires to be no
such prophet. He does not wish to be a prophet at all. And although it may often
be said: “Yes, you not only repeat, but you are always elucidating things from
other sides, you are always discussing them in other ways;” when they speak thus
to him, he is guilty of no fault. A prophet wishes that people believe in him.
Spiritual Science has no desire to lead to belief, but to
knowledge. Therefore let us take Voltaire's utterance in another way. He
says: — “The simple is believed and is the concern of the
prophet.” Spiritual Science says: — the manifold is known. Let us
try to understand more and more that Spiritual Science is something that is
manifold — not a creed, but a path to knowledge, and consequently it bears
within it the manifold. Therefore let us not shrink from collecting a great deal
in order that we may understand one of the most important Christian documents,
the Gospel of St. John. We have attempted to assemble the most varied material
which places us in the position of being able to understand more and more the
profound truths of this Gospel; able to understand how the physical mother of
Jesus was an external manifestation, an external image, of the Virgin Sophia; to
understand what spiritual importance the Virgin Sophia had for the pupil of the
Mysteries, whom the Christ loved; again to understand how, for the other
Evangelists — who view the bodily descent of Jesus as important — the physical
father plays his significant part when it was a question of the external imprint
of the God-idea in the blood; and further, to understand what significance the
Holy Spirit had for John, the Holy Spirit through which the Christ was begotten
in the body of Jesus and dwelt therein during the three years and which is
symbolized for us in the descent of the Dove at the Baptism by John.
If we understand
that we must call the father of Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit who begot the
Christ in the bodies of Jesus, then if we are able to comprehend a thing from
all sides, we shall find it easy to understand that those disciples who were
less highly initiated could not give us so profound a picture of the Events of
Palestine as the disciple whom the Lord loved. And if people, at present, speak
of the Synoptics — which are the only authoritative Gospels for them — this only
shows that they do not have the will to rise to an understanding of the true
form of the Gospel of St. John. For everybody resembles the God he understands.
If we try to make into a feeling, into an experience, what we can learn from
Spiritual Science about the Gospel of St. John, we shall then find that this
Gospel is not a textbook, but a force which can be active within our
souls.
If these short
lectures have aroused in you the feeling that this Gospel contains not only what
we have been discussing here but that indirectly, through the medium of words,
it contains the force which can develop the soul itself further, then what was
really intended in these lectures has been rightly understood. Because in them
not only was something intended for the understanding, for the intellectual
capacity of understanding, but that which takes its round-about path through
this intellectual capacity of understanding should condense into feelings and
inner experiences, and these feelings and experiences should be a result of the
facts that have been presented here. If, in a certain sense, this has been
rightly understood, we shall also comprehend what is meant when it is said that
the Movement for Spiritual Science has the mission of raising Christianity into
Wisdom, of rightly understanding Christianity, indirectly through spiritual
wisdom. We shall understand that Christianity is only in the beginning of its
activity, and its true mission will be fulfilled when it is understood in its
true spiritual form. The more these lectures are understood in this way the
more have they been comprehended in the sense in which they were intended.
Thank you, John Ayre!
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