Jesus' growth and spiritualization; Judas and Oedipus

 

The Gospel of John and the Other Three Gospels

Lecture 7

Rudolf Steiner, Stockholm

January 11, 1910

A common thread in all religions of the past is the idea that if a person wants to live a harmonious life, they must first fight a certain battle within themselves. If they do not want to do this, that is, fight this inner battle, then this is reflected as disharmony and conflict in the outer world. [This idea is based on a lower level of knowledge. The power of knowledge tells us:] If the individual human ego is to be able to develop, man must become master over desires and passions in his astral body. The battle that must arise between the ego and the lower nature must be fought and won within, otherwise man will come into conflict with the outer world. This is symbolically depicted by the ancient Hebrews in the story of Cain's fratricide. Behold, what man attains when he does not slay the evil passions, the brother in his soul, with his good member. This fight - what is described to us in Cain and Abel - must take place in the soul, otherwise it will express itself outwardly. That was the one admonition. The other related to the deeper knowledge, which we call occult clairvoyance. ]

For in the religious records, deep symbols often hide in the events described. Everything that emerges on the physical plane has always been a reality first on the astral plane. The same thoughts that we find in the story of Cain we find in another people, in a different form, based on the deeper knowledge that clairvoyance gave to other peoples of the Orient. In order for a person to be able to work as an initiate in a particular direction in the world, they must first come into harmony through initiation. And this brings us to a very important chapter in the initiation myths of the ancient religions.

We know that the human being consists of four bodies, the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the ego, which have gradually developed in the course of evolution. In the Lemurian period, when only the physical and etheric bodies had developed, the potential for the ego body already existed, although this was only to emerge in humans after the end of the Atlantean period. At that time, a close connection arose between the ego and the physical body on the one hand, and between the astral body and the etheric body on the other.

The physical body has arisen out of the spirit of the cosmos; just as water is condensed into ice, so the physical body is spirit compressed. If we want to find the origin of man and understand the physical body, we must seek the spirit in the cosmos.

The physical body is a crystallization of the father principle of the cosmos. Based on this fact, a person inherits everything related to the physical body from the father, from the paternal grandparents.

The ego is closely connected to the physical body, which is why the human being inherits its entire structure from the father. The ego is dependent on certain properties of the physical body and its effectiveness is inhibited when the physical abilities are weak. Only through the physical body can the ego express itself here [on earth].

The etheric body, in turn, has crystallized out of the mother principle of the cosmos; the qualities associated with it are therefore inherited from the mother's side, from the grandparents on the mother's side. The same is true for astral abilities, which are also inherited from the mother's side due to their close connection with the etheric body.

[This is the secret of inheritance: the formative, shaping comes from the maternal, because the etheric crystallizes out of the mother principle of the cosmos. Because the I is more closely connected with the physical, the I-structure of the human being inherits from the father line; the astral, on the other hand, with the etheric, more from the mother principle. The self comes from previous incarnations, but it relies on the particular characteristics of the physical body to express itself. If our physical body is weak, for example, the self will show itself to be less courageous.

People who had insight into the laws of the spiritual world emphasized this, even if they did not express it in the same way. Goethe, for example, says: “From my father I have the stature, the serious way of life, from my mother the cheerful nature, the desire to tell stories.” If we apply this rule correctly, we will understand much of what we encounter in the relationship between children and parents. Artists and poets, whose qualities have their roots in the astral, usually inherit their talent from their mother's side.

When a person wants to work in the world as an initiate, a new behavior arises in them, a change in the relationship between the bodies. Above all, the physical body must lose its power over the person. Whether the initiate wants to develop into a seer, a magician or something else, he must first of all fight with all his might against the physical body within him, kill the physical body within him. In the old world view, this is symbolically expressed with the words: Kill the father principle in you - that is, the physical body - and unite with the mother principle. Only when we have overcome the physical can we unite with the etheric principle, that is, with the mother principle. When we have conquered the physical life in us, we begin to live with the organs of the etheric body, we begin to see and hear with spiritual eyes and ears. The person who kills the father principle unites with the mother principle.

At the time of initiation, there was a terrible danger in this fact, especially in the times when people did not take the old strict rules so literally. The clairvoyant person in prehistoric times had to know what he was dealing with. Because when an immature person, whose ego was not developed or whose astral body was not pure, had overcome the physical and united with the mother principle, his fate in the world became truly tragic. The disharmony that he should have fought and overcome within himself now manifests itself in the outer world, where his thoughts become real images.

In Oedipus, we have an example of a person who became astral clairvoyant by means that were not entirely pure. His astral vision was darkened, so that he could not see and could not penetrate to the spiritual. Oedipus did not understand the oracle's words that he should become an initiate, but that he should first kill his father and marry his mother, because he was not pure enough within, he did not understand what was meant by an initiate. In his drama, the poet presented the experiences within as events in the physical world.

The consequences of a degenerated, imperfect initiation are reflected in the drama of Oedipus as well as in the fratricide of Cain. Oedipus robs himself of his sight - a symbol that the old initiation is coming to an end. The same idea is expressed symbolically in the story of the “born blind”. Through the old initiation, people had become blind to the outer world; with the old art of clairvoyance, people could no longer rise to the spiritual world. Instead of clarity and development, the old path now only led to darkness and confusion. In Oedipus, who deprived himself of his sight, we see how the old, degenerated destiny of initiation is fulfilled.

With Jesus, a new light was to rise over humanity, and initiation was to take on a new form. People had become blind to the physical world and the forces that underlie it. But initiation was to take on a new form, and a new light was to rise over humanity. With the ego, a new impulse was to be given, and this impulse was to open the eyes to the new light that had come into the world. In Jesus, the declining old world was to be united with the ascending new one. How the old darkness, the old spirituality, disappeared before the rising light, before Jesus, and how they accomplished their last deed in this ascending light, is not told in the Gospels, but it has always been described in the esoteric-Christian schools of initiation.

[Just as in the fratricide of Cain, the unresolved conflict between the astral body and the ego is acted out in the drama of Laius and Jokaste: the unpurified initiation.] This legend, which contains a profound truth, goes as follows: Once upon a time in Asia there was a married couple who had no children. Then the oracle announced that they would have a son, but that they would be forced to bury him, because he would kill his father and marry his mother after killing his brother. He would possess all the spirituality in the world, but be in disharmony with everything and everyone in the outer world. Naturally, the parents did not want to have a child that would bring so much misfortune upon themselves and others, but due to their own weakness, they bore him anyway. They abandoned the child on the island of Scarioth, where the queen found him and took him in because she had no children of her own. Later, however, she had a son, and the adopted child felt neglected and killed his brother. So he had to flee and was taken in by Pilate. There he came into conflict with a neighbor, an old man, killed him and married the old man's wife. Later he learned that he had killed his father and married his mother. So he fled from there too and was taken in by him who is full of mercy, by Christ Jesus. This man was Judas Iscariot.

This legend is an expression of the entire old worldview; the father principle or the conquering of the physical body and the union with the mother principle have been an inner reality in the past.

The soul had matured in the process, but as the ego developed, the clairvoyance gradually faded, and darkness and confusion in relation to the outer world took its place, and this darkness contributed to the death of the new rising light. How the old world view was able to kill the new light, and how the latter was nevertheless able to triumph in the struggle and transform outer disharmony into harmony by spiritualizing everything - all this is presented in the Gospel of John.

This Gospel is a wonderful composition even from a purely external, technical point of view. As if written by a true artist, it shows in a single continuous progression from the wedding at Cana to the resurrection of Lazarus how Jesus' soul and spiritual powers grew to the same extent that his physical body died inch by inch, and how the dying of the body, which began at baptism, was intimately connected with the so-called miracles that Jesus performed. For the conquest of the lower nature had to appear as a dying on the physical plane. This was a symbolic expression of the fact that the father principle, the physical life, had been overcome.

This is also indicated by the fact that Jesus' physical father was dead. The union with the mother principle is symbolically represented in the relationship between Jesus and his stepmother, who experienced a new birth at Jesus' baptism, in that the pure, spiritualized etheric and astral body of his own mother incorporated herself with her. From Jesus' words to her at the wedding of Cana, it is clear that he felt the bond between them: “What is going on here between you and me? How gloriously I feel the motherly forces in me, how gloriously my forces combine with yours, that is, with the forces of the All-Mother! In a purely spiritual way, the old principle of initiation asserts itself here. The physical body is dying. Through the soul bond that connects it to the Mother, it connects to the etheric forces, and so the physical body becomes a source of healing effects. That this happened at a wedding also has its great symbolic significance.

The sign that Jesus performed at Cana was related to the ancient principle of initiation, albeit in a new form. It was a direct effect from soul to soul through a power of love that was heightened to the highest degree, which was transferred from his own soul to the others and had an effect on them, so that even their sense of taste was changed and the water in their mouths tasted like wine. And this was not an illusion, but the water had the same effect on the guests as if it were wine. The materialist, who believes in nothing but matter, would demand a chemical analysis above all, but for the spiritually developed person, on the other hand, the chemical reaction is merely Maya and a consequence only of transferred spiritual power. Here the question was not one of mere suggestion, but the effect of what was drunk was in every way the same as that of wine.

But did Jesus want to encourage people through this sign to use wine as a mere stimulant? Some Bible scholars believe so and describe the transformation of water into wine as symbolic of Jesus' mission to transform the tasteless, insipid water of the Old Testament into the fresh wine of the New Testament. But if they interpret this passage, they have not understood an important word. When Jesus' mother points out to him that there is no wine, he replies, “My hour has not yet come,” that is, the hour when Christ should actually work.

Like all great leaders and role models, the Christ had to bide his time. People need a transitional period if they are to accept something new. Spiritual forces are at work in all matter, and so the wine also had to fulfill its mission.

Some nations never drink wine, while others use it as an offering in their religious services. In the ancient mysteries, wine was not used, but from a certain point in time it was used in the sacrificial offerings of the cult of Dionysus and then spread throughout the world with this cult.

In the most ancient times, the blood bond was the only thing that united people with each other, and this was much stronger than it is now. But when the ego power was to develop, a physical means was needed to love the spirits and to bring together people who were not united by blood ties. Wine was useful for this purpose, and that was its mission in the past. But on the Mayan plan there is nothing that is absolutely good, everything has only one task to fulfill, either in the physical or the psychic realm. What was once necessary for development and was a good becomes harmful when that time is over and it is no longer needed. At the time of Jesus, this mission of wine was fulfilled. The ego was developed, and through the use of wine, the old clairvoyance had gradually been made impossible. Jesus' sign at Cana symbolically expresses this truth. But this mission of wine, to bring people together and to elevate the spirits so that the physical body becomes an instrument for spiritual forces, was to be carried out thereafter by purely spiritual means. Jesus drinks water Himself and also gives water to the guests, but He gives it such power that it acts on them like wine. Thus a new form, a new power, was given to the old cult of Dionysus. The sign at Cana also points to times to come. In our days, the use of wine is harmful. If we look at the cult of Dionysus in this way, we also find the profound content of the Gospels. For the Gospels speak not only to the naive and ignorant, but also to the highly developed person.

The deeper one penetrates into them, the more one will find there, and future generations will find in them a never-ending source of knowledge and development. And the deeper people penetrate into the spiritual world, the better they will understand these documents that have come down to us from the world of angels. In the seven signs reported at the beginning of the Gospel of John, we find how the individuality of Jesus grows step by step and becomes more spiritualized. And in the later part we find a practical guide for our own development.

Source: The Rudolf Steiner Archive