Jñana Yoga : Developing Our Body of Knowledge : Receiving the Spirit of Christ Into Us

Ex Deo Nascimur        In Christo Morimur        Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus

From the notes of a person in attendance at an Esoteric Lesson given by Rudolf Steiner in Berlin on June 12, 1911:

My dear sisters and brothers! We should realize that there's a big difference between outer, exoteric knowledge and the knowledge that theosophy gives us. When we let an outer perception work on us, ideas and concepts form in us; we get to know the thing we're looking at; thereby, we know something about it. Are things the same with theosophical knowledge? We also form concepts and ideas about man's four members, the earth's planetary conditions, or the Akashic record when we're told about them, but there's something else connected with this. Whereas exoteric knowledge doesn't enrich us or leave anything behind after death, the same cannot be said about esoteric knowledge. It flows into our astral body and forms certain new members there; new threads become woven into the astral body and remain connected with our being.

We know that a man's astral body surrounds him in an egg form. Since an ego is working in it, it radiates. New threads and knowledge are woven in there, so that we can call it the “cognition body.” This knowledge body will become ever denser and stronger and will eventually be spirit self. Another planetary evolution of the Earth is only possible through the fact that we develop it. On Jupiter this cognition body will be as dense as our astral body, on Venus as our etheric body, and on Vulcan it'll have become about as physical as our blood.

Now through what can this theosophical knowledge become so fruitful that the cognition body develops in the astral body? Let's clarify this through an example.

We're surrounded by physical, material air. We inhale it. That's how we live. In the bible we hear: God blew living breath into man, and he became a living soul. But the carbonic acid we exhale can't maintain life, it's lethal air. Death began because we were released from the lap of the Gods. Man ate from the tree of knowledge, that is, he had acquired his freedom and independence with Lucifer's help. That's why he was driven from paradise, that is, he's become a water man and then an earth man, and he's not an air man anymore as in the Lemurian epoch. Lucifer will have power over him as long as he's on Earth. But the tragic thing about this being is that Lucifer's power doesn't extend beyond the earth. All pain and suffering arise through Lucifer and are connected with this tragedy.

There'll be no exoteric knowledge on Jupiter anymore. If man had remained in paradise, he would also have eaten of the tree of life. The latter was kept away from him through Lucifer's influence, and thereby the possibility of sinking much lower than he did by eating from the tree of knowledge. But now the tree of life becomes transformed into the symbol that initially means earth but that conceals a life that's all the greater and that a man can attain if he acquires the cross with the red roses.

Just as the Earth is enveloped by the air that men breathe, so there's a special substance in the this air that wants to flow into men. It depends on us whether we exhale this spiritual substance again as lethal air or whether we connect it with our theosophical knowledge and weave the product into our astral body. This is important for the whole cosmos and not just for us. If we inhale this spiritual substance without making it productive in us, we take something from the cosmos but give it nothing in return and thereby prevent evolution. Whether the Jupiter condition can follow the Earth condition depends on whether we increase these spiritual forces around the Earth.

If we look at old Saturn we know that the first germ of our physical body arose there. It arose from Gods' thoughts, which condensed to what we are today. But on Saturn it was already counted upon that men would continue the work of the Gods, and we do this when we let the spiritual substance around us flow into us, to build up our cognition body from it.

It was the purpose of the Mystery of Golgotha to give men this opportunity. What is it that we take in with this spiritual substance? It's the Christ himself. This wasn't the case before the Mystery of Golgotha. Then men could say, Ex Deo nascimur. At that time candidates for initiation were prepared in such a way that they went back to what was handed down by the old Gods. But we know that with the Mystery of Golgotha the aura of our Earth has changed, because Christ has become the spirit of our Earth. He has poured himself substantially into this Earth aura and is contained in it since then. Now is the point in time when this poured-out Christ substance has become condensed, so that it can be taken in by men. Therefore: In Christo morimur means nothing else than to immerse oneself in this spiritual substance and to take in Christ completely with it, so that one can say: Not I, But Christ in me.

But one shouldn't forget that a light is always surrounded by a lot of shadows. Many errors will also creep in with the new wise things that have been given to our age, and so it's our holy duty to check everything we hear with our healthy human intellect. This has always been emphasized in all Rosicrucian esotericism. But we should be tolerant toward people who make mistakes here, and we should always tell ourselves: if what we have is really the truth, it'll remain true by itself. If it's an error, I'll be sure to find the truth in my next incarnation through my fervent search for it.

In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
The eyes of sense,
That through them I may see
The lights of bodies.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
Reason and sensation
And feeling and will,
That through them I may perceive bodies
And act upon them.
In the spirit lay the germ of my body.

In my body lies the germ of the spirit.
And I will incorporate into my spirit
The supersensible eyes
That through them I may behold the light of spirits.
And I will imprint in my spirit
Wisdom and power and love,
So that through me the spirits may act
And I become a self-conscious organ
Of their deeds.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.

Source: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19110612e01.html