Deeper Secrets of Human History in the Light of the Gospel
of St. Matthew. Lecture 2 of 3.
Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, November 9, 1909:
Reference was
made in the last lecture to our proposed study of the Gospels and we explained
why we had decided to begin with certain aspects of St. Matthew's Gospel. In the
first place it is in this Gospel that the most human side of Christ Jesus is
presented. Secondly, there is given in it a complete survey of events which show
how the coming of Christ Jesus is related to human history. This is a direct
indication that this greatest of all phenomena on Earth represents the
culmination of actual historical events, and it is therefore natural to assume
that this particular Gospel brings us face to face with the deeper secrets of
the evolution of humanity.
Once again I
must emphasize that the things of which we shall now be speaking call for
accurate treatment, and that great harm can easily be done to the cause of
spiritual science by giving to the general public any incomplete or one-sided
picture of matters connected with these secrets. All communications should be
made with great caution; nor is it too much to expect everyone to have the
patience to refrain from attempting to present to himself a complete picture of
Christ Jesus until he has become acquainted with the four aspects revealed by
the four Gospels.
In the Gospel of
St. Luke we are shown how the two great pre-Christian streams of spiritual life
— Zoroastrianism and the stream which reached its pre-Christian culmination in
Buddhism — united, in order to pour themselves into the great Christian stream
of spiritual life on the Earth. The Gospel of St. Matthew is concerned
primarily with a quite different theme, namely, to show how and in what
respects the physical entity in which the Zarathustra Individuality incarnated
springs from the ancient Hebrew people. It attempts to set out the part played
by the ancient Hebrew people in the whole evolutionary process of mankind. It
might easily be imagined that if the Zarathustra Individuality incarnated in
Jesus of Bethlehem, it was simply a matter of the body being born from the
Hebrew people, and that this implies nothing more than that Zarathustra was
reborn in a body of Hebrew stock. Such a conception would give rise to an
entirely misleading picture of the truth.
We must realize
more and more clearly the fact that an Individuality as great as Zarathustra
uses the body as an instrument. Even if a being were to come down to the
Earth out of the highest, even the very highest, divine worlds, and were to
incarnate in an unsuitable physical organism, such a being could make use of
that body only to the extent to which it was actually capable of being an
instrument. It is for this reason that the mistaken line of thought just
referred to would readily lead to misconceptions. That man's bodily organism is
the temple of the soul has long ceased to be properly understood. We must always
remember what has so often been emphasized among us, namely, that the human ego
dwells within three sheaths, each one of which is more ancient than the ego
itself. The ego is a being of Earth, the youngest of the members of man's
nature. The astral body had its beginning on the Old Moon, the etheric or
life-body on the Old Sun, the physical body on Old Saturn. [ Note 3] This means that the physical body is the most
highly perfected, having four stages of planetary evolution behind it. The
physical body has been developed through aeon after aeon until it has become
what it is today — this perfect instrument in which the human ego can so unfold
that man can be enabled gradually to rise again to the heights of the spirit. If
the physical body were as undeveloped as the astral body and the ego, no
evolution on the Earth would be possible for man
If you realize
the full significance of this, the thought of Zarathustra being born from the
Hebrew people can no longer be clouded by any mistaken feeling. The constitution
of the ancient Hebrew people had to be just what it was if it was to provide
the body for a being as great as Zarathustra. If we bear in mind that ever since
the time when he had been the teacher of the ancient Persian people this great
being had been developing to ever higher stages, we shall understand that for
him a bodily instrument had to be provided from a racial stock whose greatness
was commensurate with that of his own being.
An instrument
had to be created that was fit for Zarathustra. Through all the evolutionary periods of
Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth, the gods have worked at the development of the
human physical body. From this we may rightly infer that the more intimate
preparation of one particular human body must necessarily have entailed great
divine-spiritual labor, in order to produce a human body in the specially
constituted form which was to be used at that time by Zarathustra.
To make this
possible, the whole history of the ancient Hebrew people had to take the course
it did. The Akasha Chronicle reveals that what is set down in the Old Testament
conforms entirely with the historical facts. Everything that happened to the
ancient Hebrew people had to be directed in such a way that it culminated in the
single personality of Jesus of Bethlehem. But to achieve this, very special
measures were essential. — It was necessary that from the whole of
Post-Atlantean civilization, faculties of the highest quality should be
extracted, which would enable mankind to develop powers in place of the old
clairvoyant gifts. It was the Hebrew people which was chosen for this task,
to the end that it might provide a bodily constitution which, right into the
most delicate vessels of the brain, was so organized that what we call
knowledge of the world might evolve, free from the influences of the old
clairvoyance. — This was to be the mission of the ancient Hebrew people. And in
Abraham, the progenitor of this people, such an Individuality was chosen, that
out of his bodily constitution, a suitable instrument might be fashioned for the
development of reasoned thinking. [ Note 4] All previous thinking of any significance was
still subject to the influences of the old clairvoyance. But now a personality
was chosen because he possessed the brain most capable of withstanding the
inrush and coercion of clairvoyant Imaginations and Intuitions, and was destined
to acquire knowledge of the things of the world purely by the process of reason.
This required a specially constituted brain, and the personality chosen because
he possessed such a brain was Abram, or Abraham.
That the path of
Abraham's journeyings led westward from beyond the river Euphrates right up to
Canaan also tallies with what the Akasha Chronicle reveals. Abraham went forth,
as the Bible tells us, from Ur in Chaldea. Whereas the aftermath of the ancient,
shadowy clairvoyance was still in active operation in Egyptian civilization, as well as in
Chaldean-Babylonian civilization, there was chosen from among the Chaldeans an
individual who no longer worked by means of these faculties, but by observing
the phenomena of the external world. This was to be the introduction of that
form of culture whose fruits are to this very day implicit in the whole of the
cultural life and civilization of the West. Constructive reasoning and
mathematical logic were both introduced through Abraham. Even until far into the
Middle Ages he was regarded in a certain sense as the founder of arithmetic. The
fundamental trend and character of his thinking led to observation of the world
according to the relationships of measure and number. (See Appendix I, p.
72)
A personality so
constituted was able, by his very nature, to enter into living relationship with
that Divinity who was to reveal himself through the medium of external
phenomena. All other divinities, with the exception of Jahve or Jehovah,
proclaimed themselves in the inmost depths of the human soul, and to acquire any
knowledge of them man had to awaken in his soul the faculties of Imagination,
Inspiration, and Intuition. The men of ancient India gazed at the rising Sun, at
the different kingdoms of the Earth, at the processes manifesting in air and
ocean, but regarded all this as a great illusion, as maya, in which they would
have found nothing of a divine nature had they not first acquired knowledge of
the divine through inner Imagination, and then, afterwards, had proceeded to
relate this knowledge to the phenomena of the external world. It must be
realized that even Zarathustra could not have taught as he did of the mighty
Sun Being had not Ahura Mazdao in his glory been inwardly revealed to
him. This is especially apparent in the case of the Egyptian divinities, who
were first experienced in the inmost depths of the soul and only afterwards
related to the things of the external world. All that applies to the divinities
of pre-Hebraic times must be understood in this way.
Jahve, however,
is the Divine Being who gazes down upon men from outside, who comes to
men from outside, manifesting Himself in wind and weather. When man penetrates
to the relationships of number, measure, and weight inhering in the things of the
visible world, he draws near to the God Jahve. — In earlier times the process
was reversed. Brahma was recognized, first, in the inmost depths of the soul, and
only from that experience did man find his way into the outer world. Jahve is
recognized first in the outer world, and only afterwards can his reality also be
confirmed in man's inmost being. This is the spiritual aspect of what is called
in the Bible: Jahve's covenant with Abraham. Abraham was a man who possessed the
faculty to grasp and comprehend the nature of Jahve. Abraham's bodily
constitution was such that he could recognize Jahve, or Jehovah, as the God who
lives and moves in the outer phenomena of the universe.
It was now a
matter of deriving from the particular faculties possessed by the individual man
Abraham the mission of a whole people. Abraham's spiritual constitution had to
be transmitted to others. But this spiritual constitution is bound up with the
physical instrument; whatever is to be brought to outward expression depends
upon the physical body being organized in a definite and specific way. In the
ancient religions, built up as they were on the foundation of shadowy
clairvoyance, the particular formation of the various parts of the brain was not
of such essential importance. Understanding of Jehovah, however, was
fundamentally bound up with the constitution of the physical brain. Only by way
of physical heredity, within a people linked by blood relationship, could
such faculties and qualities be transmitted.
Very special
measures were necessary for the achievement of this end. Abraham must have
descendants who would carry to further stages of development that unique
physical organism which until then had been the work of the gods and which had
come to its most perfect expression in Abraham. The elaboration of the physical,
bodily constitution was now to be taken in hand by man independently and that
which for long ages had been the work of the gods be led by man to further
stages. That this process must extend over many generations is self-evident. A
brain capable of understanding Jahve had to be preserved through physical
heredity. Jahve's covenant with Abraham had also to pass on to his descendants.
This, however, called for the uttermost devotion to Jahve on the part of
Abraham; for it is possible to develop a particular organism to further stages
only if it is used in conformity with the purpose for which it was originally
created. If, with a certain aim in view, it is desirable that the hands, for
example, shall be made particularly skillful, this can only be achieved by
developing them in accordance with their own inherent character. If the physical
qualities of the brain had to be developed to the point where comprehension of
Jahve was possible, then devotion to and understanding of Jahve must have
reached in Abraham the highest conceivable degree of intensity.
That was exactly
what happened, as the Bible relates. Self-sacrifice is supreme when a man offers
up all that the future holds in store for his own self. Abraham is called upon
to sacrifice his son Isaac to Jahve. Therewith he would have sacrificed the
whole Hebrew people, all that he himself was, and all that had to be brought,
through him, into the world. Abraham was the very first human being who truly
understood Jahve, in that he knew that if he desired to give proof of the
fullness of his devotion, he must surrender himself utterly to Jahve. Through
offering his only son, however, Abraham renounced the propagation of his line in
the world. But so complete was his devotion that with full resolve, he offered
up Isaac.
Then Isaac was
restored to him. What does this signify? It signifies something of supreme
importance. Abraham receives Isaac back at the hand of Jahve. This brings to
Abraham the realization that the mission that is his by virtue of his own
Individuality he will not pass on to posterity through his own deed, but he is
to receive it in the person of his son as a gift of Jahve. [ Note 5] Anyone who ponders this deeply will realize that
here we have a fact of cosmic significance, whereby immeasurable light is shed
upon the secrets of the historical evolution of humanity.
Now let us
consider how events proceed. — Through Abraham's devotion to Jahve was made
possible the right development of that which had hitherto been the work of the
gods, namely the physical nature of humanity which had come into being out of
the universe. As we know, the physical bodily constitution of man on the Earth
is connected, according to number, measure, and weight, with all the laws
governing the world of the stars. Out of the world of the stars man is born; in
his very being he embodies the laws of that world. These laws had, as it were,
to be inscribed into the blood flowing down from Abraham through the generations
of the ancient Hebrew people. In this people everything must be so regulated as
to ensure the continuance of the stream of ordered law which, flowing from the
universe, has organized the human physical body according to the principles of
number, measure, and weight prevailing in the constellations. Again this is
indicated in an utterance in the Bible, which is completely mistranslated: “I
will make thy seed as the stars of heaven.” [ Note 6] The meaning of the words is in no wise that God
will make the Israelites as numerous as the stars of heaven, but that the
way in which this people multiply and spread on the Earth shall be governed by
the laws and number relationships prevailing in the ordering of the stars in
heaven. The propagation of the Hebrew people was to be regulated in accordance
with the number harmonies of the stars.
We can see how
this comes to pass. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. We see how all that was
carried by the blood through the generations develops — the blood of the line
of Esau having been cut out and the main stream separated from it. Again, Jacob
has twelve sons, corresponding to the twelve signs of the Zodiac through which
the Sun passes in the heavens, thus fulfilling the inner principle of the starry
laws. Thus the number and measure prevailing in the heavens are factually
portrayed to us in the life and descent, through their generations, of the
Hebrew people.
Again, Abraham
was ready to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and thereby he received back his whole
mission at the hand of Jahve. A ram or lamb is sacrificed in place of Isaac.
This signifies something of the greatest profundity. The human corporality which
was to propagate itself through the generations and which possessed the
faculties necessary for comprehending the world according to number and measure,
by mathematical logic — this human corporality was to be preserved intact and
received back as the gift of Jahve. But in order that the intrinsic nature of
this bodily constitution should remain pure and unalloyed, it was necessary that
all old, shadowy clairvoyance, all Imaginations and Intuitions, all inflowing
revelations such as had poured into the other ancient religions, including those
of Chaldea and Egypt, should be renounced. Every gift from the spiritual world
must be renounced. The last gift from the spiritual world, the one gift
remaining after all the others have dimmed, is denoted in mystical symbolism by
the Ram. The two horns of the ram symbolize the sacrifice of the
two-petalled lotus flower. [ Note 7] The last clairvoyant gift is sacrificed, the
others having already been laid aside in earlier times In order that this bodily
constitution might be preserved in Isaac, the last clairvoyant gift, the gift of
the ram, the two-petalled lotus-flower, is sacrificed.
As the mission
of the Hebrew people progresses, these Abrahamitic faculties are transmitted
from generation to generation. Whenever the old clairvoyance reappears as an
atavistic element, whenever any individual sees once more into the spiritual
world, the immediate reaction is that he is cast out from his people, he is not
tolerated within the community. Antipathy against this gift of the ram expresses
itself in direct hostility. This is exemplified in the enmity meted out to
Joseph. Prophetic illuminations from the spiritual world come to Joseph in his
dreams. Quite naturally he is thrust out from his people, because the gift he
possesses is not in keeping with their mission, because a heritage of ancient
clairvoyance appears again in him. Such is the profound meaning of the story
here narrated.
On the other
hand we see that something essential for the development of the Hebrew people
and the fulfillment of their mission is in turn provided through Joseph, that is,
through the very personality in whom was preserved a heritage which the Hebrew
people could only regard as belonging to the age before Abraham. In a
certain sense the gate to the world from which, through the old shadowy
clairvoyance, the ancient Indian and Persian civilizations had received their
religions, was closed against the Hebrew people. That gate being closed, they
now looked out into the world, classified it according to measure and number,
and in its all-embracing unity they beheld Jahve or Jehovah. One thing more they
knew, and that was that the visible world they beheld around them and which
found its unity as being entirely the creation of Jehovah, was of the same
nature as the egohood of mankind.
But within this
race-community no Imaginations, no inner personal experiences, arose regarding
these things. At that time this people themselves had no such inner
experiences. Therefore it was necessary that they should be taught from outside,
that they should learn from a people who still had these experiences. And so
Joseph forms the link between the ancient Hebrew people and the Egyptians, the
people from whom could be learnt those things of which the ancient Hebrews
themselves had no longer actual experience. The whole picture which a man today
is able to form out of his own inner experiences, the knowledge and experience
derived from the outer world and from inner imagination — this had to be
acquired at that time by contacting a people in whom such experiences still
abounded — the Egyptian people. Harmony had to be established between inner
faculties of this nature and what was acquired by the ancient Hebrews through
mathematical logic and reasoning. But contact with the Egyptian people could be
initiated only by a personality who himself possessed in some measure this
faculty of Imagination. Joseph was the appropriate link because he still
possessed this faculty.
There were two
reasons why he could be of help to the Egyptians. Firstly, he was gifted with
the old clairvoyance belonging to the age before Abraham, and this enabled him
to understand and interpret what the ancient Egyptians obtained through their
clairvoyance. But what the Egyptian people did not possess was the faculty of
mathematical logic — that is to say, they were not able to apply their powers of
Imagination to physical life. Hence the pharaoh was incapable of effective action
when unprecedented events befell. Imaginations were accessible, but when
unprecedented factors occurred, to weigh up and assess intelligently what steps
were necessary and to take appropriate measures required a different faculty,
which the Egyptians did not possess. Because Joseph possessed this faculty he
was able to give the right counsels at the Egyptian court and so became the
appropriate personality to form the link between the Hebrew people and the
Egyptians. In this way, through him the Jahve doctrine — which until then might
be described as a synthesis of outer reality in the form of a mathematical
world-picture — received color and substance from the inner faculty of
Imagination possessed by the Egyptians.
The actual
harmonizing and unification of the ancient Egyptian clairvoyant experiences with
the Hebrew experience of the outer world order was effected by Moses. [ Note 8] Once this had been achieved, the Hebrew people
could be led back again and proceed to work out, in their own way and in
accordance with their own nature, what had been acquired in Egypt — though not
in the form of actual experiences. For it was essential, as we have seen, that
their particular gift should not be mingled with that of any other people, that
the quality inherent in their own blood should remain pure and unadulterated. At
the same time, the fruits of the spiritual experience of the ancient world had
also to be preserved; and so the ancient heritage which still survived in the
wisdom of the Egyptians was inculcated, through Moses, into the Hebrew people
with their faculties of mathematical logic. Then this people had again to be
extricated from that relationship, for they were destined to inherit that
new faculty which could operate only through the descendants of
Abraham.
It was because
in the course of their history the blood of this people was regulated in strict
accordance with its initial principles, because they developed, as they did, in
this direction, through their successive generations, that it became possible at
a certain definite point of time that there should issue from their stock the
body of the Jesus child, (See Appendix II, p.
75) into which the personality of Zarathustra could incarnate. But in order
to achieve this goal the ancient Hebrew people had to grow strong and
powerful.
If in the light
of St. Matthew's Gospel we study the times of the Judges and Kings and follow
the destinies of the ancient Hebrews, we shall see that even the circumstances
which seem to indicate that this people is going astray were for a definite
purpose. Above all was it necessary that the misfortune of being led into
captivity in Babylon should befall them. We shall see that their racial
qualities had developed to the point when it was necessary that they should be
brought into contact with the other side of the ancient tradition, as it existed
in Babylon. The Hebrew people had reached sufficient maturity to be united once
again with faculties that had been abandoned. — That is one side of the
picture.
The other side
is that at the very time when the Hebrew people were brought into contact with
the Babylonians a great teacher from the East was working there, with the result
that it was possible for some of the best among the Hebrews to receive the
illumination of his teaching This was the time when Zarathustra — in the person
of Nazarathos or Zaratas — was teaching in the regions whither the Hebrews were
led. Some of the greatest of the Prophets came under his influence. In this way
it became possible to inculcate into the Hebrew people what was needed when
their blood had already reached a certain stage of development, and influences
from outside were required.
We shall not go
very far wrong if we compare this whole racial evolution with the gradual growth
of the individual human being. When a child is born, it remains until its
seventh year in the bodily care of the parents. During this period the
influences that affect it are mainly at the physical level. Then begins the
phase inaugurated by the birth — in a real sense — of the etheric body.
Development is based on the elaboration of the memory, on which depends the
healthy growth of all the possibilities of the etheric body. The beginning of
the third period may be described by saying that the human being now enters into
relation with the external world through his astral body, at which stage he must
acquire the faculty of individual judgment. — The ancient Hebrew people passed
through these phases of development in a special way. The first period — from
Abraham to the time of the early Kings — may be compared with the first period
of the life of the individual human being up to the seventh year. Everything
that then happened was for the purpose of establishing in them the particular
qualities of their blood. Abraham's journeyings, the development of the twelve
tribes, the introduction of the Mosaic laws, the perils in the desert — all
these happenings can be compared with what flows into the human being on the
physical plane during the first seven years of life. Then comes the second
period: the inner consolidation of the race, the rulership of the Kings up to
the time of the captivity in Babylon. — Then follows the third stage, when the
influence of Chaldean wisdom is brought to bear upon the Hebrews. And the
leader through whom at that time— 600 to 550 B.C. — was released the inflow of
this Oriental influence into the Hebrew people was none other than the
individuality who in ancient Persia had been Zarathustra. Thus already at the
time of the Babylonian captivity Zarathustra was preparing the way that would
lead to the finding of a suitable bodily organism. So down the generations from
Abraham onward there developed more and more the requisite conditions for the
birth of the bodily organism in which Zarathustra could reincarnate.
The threefold
grouping indicated in the genealogy at the beginning of St. Matthew's Gospel
gives a wonderfully faithful picture of this evolutionary process. There are
three times 14 generations. “From Abraham to David, 14 generations; from David
to the time of the Babylonian captivity, 14 generations; from the Babylonian
capitivity to Christ-Jesus, 14 generations.” There are three times 14, that is, 42
generations. This is an indication that the bodily constitution of Jesus is an
embodiment of the purest extract of all that had been in preparation from
Abraham downwards, through all the vicissitudes and destinies undergone by the
ancient Hebrew people. Finally a human being must appear who in his soul and in
his deeds will express all the qualities matured in the race in his individual
personality. The whole development of the Hebrew people from the time of Abraham
was to reach its culmination in a single man — in the Jesus of St. Matthew's
Gospel.
Such a
culmination can be reached only if the whole course of preceding development is
recapitulated in a spiritual way. Zarathustra goes forth in a spiritual sense
from the Mysteries — from Ur of the Chaldees, the same region whence Abraham had
been called. It is there that the “Golden Star” first appears, and then goes
forth, followed by the Magi of the land. What had come to pass physically
through Abraham is now re-enacted spiritually. The star which the Magi follow
moves in spiritual fashion along the path once travelled by Abraham. The star
taking this path and coming to rest upon the birthplace is the incarnating
Zarathustra himself. This is the moment when the Zarathustra individuality
incarnates in the child Jesus of Bethlehem. The Magi knew that in following the
star they were following their great teacher, Zarathustra, on his way to
reincarnation.
It is now a
matter of perceiving how this path continues and of realizing how the purest
extract of the whole evolution of the Hebrew people is actually present in the
personality of the Jesus described in St. Matthew's Gospel. First we see that
spiritually the sacrificial offering of Isaac is repeated in the offering of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh brought by the three Magi from the East. We are
reminded, too, of other happenings among the ancient Hebrew people. The
circumstances associated with the birth of this Jesus child are like a
reflection of the destinies of the ancient Hebrews. Among them was a Joseph who
in his dreams possessed an inherited gift and was able to form the link between
the Hebrew and the Egyptian peoples; now again there is a Joseph who has dreams
and to whom it is shown in a dream not only that Jesus will be born, but that
he must go with Jesus to Egypt.
The path of
Zarathustra — now living in the body of the Jesus child — continues. Just as he
had followed the path taken by Abraham on the physical plane from Ur in Chaldea
to Canaan, so he follows it further still, to Egypt. Like the Hebrew people, the
Jesus child is brought back again from Egypt. Thus, in the appearance of the
Bethlehem Jesus — only later called the Nazarene — there is a recapitulation of
the whole destiny of the ancient Hebrew people up to the return from Egypt to
Palestine, the Promised Land. Events in the outer history of the Hebrew people,
extending over long, long centuries, are now recapitulated in the destiny of
that human being who was Zarathustra incarnated in the body of the Bethlehem
Jesus. This — conceived on the vast scale in which it is presented in the Gospel
of St. Matthew — is the secret of human history in general. Human history cannot
be understood unless it is recognized that in the destiny of every great
individuality charged with a special mission the whole process of development
through centuries is recapitulated, that such individualities represent the
essence and extract of what has been achieved in history through long ages. Far,
far more than this was, of course, to be embodied in Christ Jesus, but the
bodily constitution had first to be prepared, and this was possible only through
the special measures that have been described.
What kind of
conditions prevailed at the point of time when the whole history of the Hebrew
people was to be recapitulated in the personality of Jesus? — In what way was it
a turning-point of history? Let us here review the following facts of the
evolutionary process of which for some years now I have been trying to give you
a picture.
Humanity
proceeded from a primeval stage of evolution when everything that brought human
beings together in love was bound up with the blood-tie. Love was determined by
this factor, and marriage took place only between human beings very closely
related by blood. In those ancient times there was no other kind of love than
that which was bound up with blood relationship. From this ‘close marriage'
humanity had its beginnings. But intermingling of the particular blood-ties
gradually became more general in widely separated territories of the Earth.
Among all the peoples, however, there is evidence to show that they were taken
aback when men and women belonging to one racial stock marry into a different
stock, when the transition to ‘distant marriage' begins. In all the myths and
sagas, in the legend of Gudrun, for example, this is described as an unwonted
happening, one that causes astonishment.
Two streams were
in operation during this phase of human evolution. In the process where human
beings are brought together through ties of blood there was working the
divine-spiritual principle which strives to unite humanity, to unify all
mankind. Working in opposition to this was the Luciferic principle which strives
to make every human being independent, to endow the single individual with the
greatest possible power. Both these principles must be present in human nature,
both forces must take effect in the evolution of humanity.
These two sets
of powers, then, were at work in the progressive evolution of humanity: the
divine-spiritual powers on the one hand, and on the other, the Luciferic
powers, spirit-beings who had not completed their evolution on the Old Moon and
who wished to prevent men from losing their identity as separate beings, and to
make them entirely independent and self-sufficient. These opposing powers were
always at work, and as a result, the ego of man, a product of the Earth, was
perpetually being torn to this side or to that — toward human love on the one
side, and toward inner self-sufficiency on the other.
Now at a
particular point of time the interworking of these two powers reached a kind of
crisis. This crisis, this crucial condition in human affairs, set in when, as the
result of the deeds of the Roman Empire, widespread intermingling took place
among the peoples in many territories of the Earth. This was a most crucial
moment in the evolution of humanity, the moment when the still undecided
question of close or distant marriage came to its issue. Men were facing the
danger either of not developing the ego by remaining within the separate racial
stocks, or of losing all connection with humanity as such and becoming
independent, self-sufficient, egoistic individuals.
This decisive
point had been reached. What must now happen? Something quite specific. The
human ego must become sufficiently mature to develop within itself what may for
the first time properly be called freedom, and to unfold from within itself, in
freedom, the love which, because it now belongs to the life of soul, is
no longer bound up with the blood-tie. The ego was facing this decisive issue;
to meet it, it must be completely liberated, must acquire full consciousness of
itself. Thus, with the exception of the Oriental peoples, the whole of mankind
belonging to the old world was confronting a birth of the ego through which this
ego could know the love that springs from its own inmost being. Out of freedom
the ego was to unfold love, and out of love, freedom. Only a being who develops
an ego of this nature is in the real sense man. For a being whose love is
determined solely by ties of blood is coerced into love, and merely gives
expression to what, at a lower level, happens in the animal kingdom. It was at
this point in history of which we have just been speaking that full manhood
became, for the first time, a possibility. At this point the influence which
made man truly man was to stream over the Earth.
And now let us
recall what I have said many times: that man is a being ensheathed in three
members: the physical body which he has in common with the minerals, the etheric
body which he has in common with the plants, and the astral body which up to
this point of time had been the seat of the kind of love he has in common with
the animals. With his fully developed ego man is the crown of earthly creation.
All other beings of the Earth have names that can be given them from outside;
they are objective realities. The ego has a name that can be given only by
itself. In the ego, the ‘I', the Godhead speaks; earthly conditions have no
longer a voice. In the ‘I' the kingdom of the Spirit speaks; the Spirit from the
heavens speaks when the ‘I' has become fully self-conscious. — It might be said
that until that time there were three kingdoms — mineral, plant, animal — and a
kingdom which had indeed risen to a higher level than these, but had not yet
reached completion, had not yet been imbued with its full super-earthly reality
of being. This kingdom exists by virtue of the fact that into an egohood there
enters that which is otherwise nowhere to be found on Earth, namely, the
spiritual world, the kingdom of heaven. — This kingdom is called in the Bible
“the kingdom — or the kingdoms — of heaven”, or, more usually “the kingdom of
God.”
“The kingdom of
heaven” is simply an alternative expression for “the kingdom of man.” When we
speak of mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms we can add in the words of the Bible
a fourth, “the kingdom of man.” Men who at that time, with the insight acquired
in the Mysteries, could look back into the whole course of human evolution,
could speak as follows: “Look back to ancient times: humanity was then only in
process of being led to the level of manhood, for the kingdom of heaven is to
come to the Earth.” — So spoke the forerunner of Christ Jesus, and Christ Jesus
Himself: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”. In these words they indicated the
essential quality of that time. It was the age when the birth of Christ Jesus
had to take place. He was to bring to mankind the forces through which the ego
would be able to unfold, and develop its own inherent nature.
The whole
evolution of humanity thus divides itself into two main phases: the phase when
the kingdom of heaven is not yet on the Earth, and the phase when the kingdom of
heaven, the kingdom of man in its highest sense, is actually on the Earth. The
ancient Hebrew people was chosen to provide the bodily constitution, the bodily
sheaths, which would so develop as to become fit to receive the bearer of this
kingdom of heaven.
These are the
secrets revealed when the historical aspect of events is studied in the light of
the deepest meaning of the Gospel of St. Matthew. To the two streams which we
have seen [ Note 9] were contributory to Christianity — the streams
of Zarathustrianism and Buddhism — we must add a third, namely, the stream
contributed by the ancient Hebrew people. We see how these great leaders, Buddha
and Zarathustra, desired to bring to mankind the offering of the streams of
spiritual life inaugurated by them. But a temple had to be provided, and this
could be done only through the ancient Hebrew people, who produced the temple
— which was the physical body of Jesus. Into the temple the two streams of
Zarathustra and Buddha could bring their offerings. The first offering was made
by Zarathustra, in that he incarnated in this body; the later offering was made
by the Buddha, in that he rayed forth his Nirmanakaya [ Note 10] into the other Jesus. (See Appendix II, p.
75) — In this way the two streams flow into a unity.
I have only been
able today to give you a slight sketch of these deeper secrets and I have had
to express it in a somewhat dogmatic way. We must continue our study on some
other occasion, in order that we may acquire a clearer picture of the mission of
the ancient Hebrew people and of the emergence of Christ Jesus from this people.
Then will become manifest to us this unique event, that out of history itself,
out of the historical flow of evolution, there evolved a being of everlasting
value, imperishable and eternal. So shall we gradually come to understand how,
out of a transient world, that was able to spring which will endure for
eternity.
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