Rudolf Steiner's Last Address: The Individuality of Elijah—John the Baptist—Raphael—Novalis

   

Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, Switzerland, September 28, 1924

[101 years ago today]

My dear friends,

It has not been possible for me to speak to you on the last two days. But today — the day when the Michael mood of dedication must pour its light into all our hearts, I did not want to let pass without speaking to you at least a few words. That I am able to do so is due entirely to the loving and devoted care of our friend Dr. Ita Wegman. And so I hope that I will still be able to say today what I desire particularly to say to you on the occasion of this festival.

In recent months we have frequently spoken, my dear friends, of the instreaming of the Michael-Power into the spiritual events of man's life on earth. And it will be one of the more beautiful results that can follow from our anthroposophical understanding of times and seasons, if we are really able to add to the other festivals of the year a rightly ordered Michael Festival. That however will only be possible when the might and power of the Michael Thoughts, of which today men have no more than a dim feeling, has taken hold in a number of human souls who will then be able to create the right human starting-point for such a festival.

What we can do at present is to awaken, in this Michael time, the Michael mood in our souls by giving ourselves up to thoughts that will prepare the way for a future Michael Festival. And such thoughts are especially stirred to activity within us when we turn our gaze upon all that we have seen taking place — partly on earth, partly in super-sensible worlds — through long periods of time, in preparation for all that can now be accomplished for human evolution in the course of this present century by souls who in full sincerity feel themselves drawn to the Michael stream.

That you yourselves, my dear friends, in so far as you truly and honestly incline to the Anthroposophical Movement, belong to these souls — this I have endeavoured to make clear to you in the lectures of the last weeks and especially also in the lectures where I spoke to you directly of the karma of the Anthroposophical Society. We can however carry these considerations a little further, and that is what I want to do today.

Let us now bring before our souls beings who are intimately connected, and will always be intimately connected, with the Michael stream, in the sense in which we have described it here. Let us direct our gaze to beings who in at least two successive incarnations made a powerful impression on great numbers of their fellow-men, beings who, however, only show themselves in their true unity when we recognize them as successive incarnations of one and the same being.

When we look back into olden times, we see rise up before us within the traditions of Judaism the prophetic figure of Elijah. We know what significance the prophet Elijah had for the people of the Old Testament, and therewith for all mankind; we know how he set before them the goal and destiny of their existence. And we have shown how in the course of time the being who was present in Elijah appeared again at the very most important moment of human evolution, appeared again so that Christ Jesus Himself could give him the Initiation he was to receive for the evolution of mankind. For the being of Elijah appeared again in Lazarus-John — who are in truth one and the same figure, as you will have understood from my book “Christianity as Mystical Fact.”

And further we saw that this being appears once more in that world painter who let his artistic power unfold in marvellous depths of tenderness, as it moved hovering over the Mystery of Golgotha. And we saw how the deeply Christian impulse that lives in Raphael, as it were impelling into colour and form the very nature and being of Christianity itself — we saw how this impulse rose again in the poet Novalis. In the poet Novalis stands revealed in wondrously beautiful words what Raphael had placed before mankind in colours and forms of rarest loveliness. We see, thus following one another in time, beings who are brought together into a unity when incarnation is understood.

We know [for I have often spoken with you of these things] how, when man has gone through the gate of death, he enters the world of the stars. What we are accustomed to call “stars” in the external, physical sense are no more than the outer sign and symbol of spiritual worlds which look down upon us and take their share and part in all the deeds of the evolution of mankind.

We know that man passes through the Moon sphere and through the spheres of Mercury and Venus, through the spheres of the Sun and of Mars, and of Jupiter and Saturn. And we know that when, together with the beings of these spheres and together too with other human souls who have also departed from the life on Earth, he has elaborated his karma, he then turns back again to earthly existence.

Bearing this in mind, let us look for a moment at Raphael and see how he passes through the gate of death, and how he enters the realm of the starry worlds, the realm of spiritual evolution, taking with him the power of his art, which already on earth shone with the bright light of the stars. We behold, my dear friends, how Raphael enters the Moon sphere, and we see how he comes into association here with the Spirits who live in the Moon sphere and who are the spiritual Individualities of the great original Leaders of mankind, with whose wisdom Raphael, as Elijah, had been deeply inspired. He meets these Moon Beings, and he meets too all the souls with whom he has lived in earlier stages of Earth-evolution. We see how he unites himself spiritually with the spiritual origin of the Earth, with that World of Being which first made it possible for man to be, and for the Earthly to be impregnated with the Divine. We behold Raphael as it were completely “at home”, united with those with whom he had most loved to be in the Elijah existence, inasmuch as it was They who at the beginning of Earth existence set the goal for the life on this Earth.

Then we behold him wander through the Mercury sphere where, in association with the great Cosmic Healers, he transforms for his spirituality the power that had been his to create what is so infinitely whole and healthy in colour and line. All that he has painted, whether on canvas or as a fresco on the wall, for the help and comfort as well as for the unending inspiration of such as can understand — all his work that was so radiant with light, showed itself now to him in the great cosmic connection in which it is able to stand when it passes through the Beings of the Mercury sphere.

And thus was he, who on Earth had unfolded so great a love for art, whose soul had been aflame with love for colour and for line, transplanted now into the sphere of Venus, which in turn lovingly bore him across to the Sun, to that Sun existence which lived in all his incarnations so far as they are yet known to us. For it was from the Sun that he, as the prophet Elijah, brought to mankind through the medium of his own people the truths that belong to the goals of existence.

We see how in the Sun sphere he is able to live through over again in a deep and intimate sense — in another way now than when he was on Earth as a companion of Christ Jesus — he is able to live over again what he underwent when, through the Initiation of Christ Jesus, he, Lazarus, became John.

And all that he has painted in shining light for the followers of Christ Jesus, — he now beholds all this pour its rays into the cosmic transformation of the human heart.

And we see further how what he thus had at the foundation of his life penetrates, wisdom-filled, the sphere of Jupiter. In this sphere he is able in wisdom to enter into a relation of understanding with such spirits as Goethe — the spirit, that is, that afterwards became Goethe — as well as also with spirits who had gone astray on other paths, but who nevertheless led over World Being and World Thought into the realm of the magical. The foundation is laid for his magic idealism in the experience he had of the evolution of the later Eliphas Levi. And we behold too how he partakes in all that was living there in Swedenborg.

And now I must draw your attention to something in the life of Raphael that is of very great significance. A personality who was most deeply devoted to Raphael — Hermann Grimm — set to work four times to write a life of Raphael. His “Life of Michaelangelo” he brought to a beautiful completeness, but he never succeeded in drawing any picture of Raphael's earthly life that gave him satisfaction. In his own view all he wrote was unfinished and incomplete. The first book he undertook was intended to be a biography. What is it? Nothing but a reproduction of old anecdotes told by Vasari! No biography of Raphael at all, but something altogether different — a description of what Raphael became on Earth after his death, in the respect and recognition of his fellow men. Hermann Grimm relates what people have thought of Raphael — what the Italians, the French, the Germans have thought of Raphael in the course of history through the centuries. What he gives us is a biography of the Raphael Thought as it has lived here on Earth since his death. He finds the way to tell what remains of Raphael in the hearts and minds of men, what lives of him still in their reverence and understanding. But he does not find the possibility to give a picture of the earthly life of Raphael.

After Hermann Grimm has made the attempt four times over, he says: all that one can really do for Raphael as a personality is to write of how one picture passes over into the next, as though it had been painted by a super-sensible being who had simply not touched the Earth at all with his earthly life. The pictures are there, but one can look right away from Raphael who painted the pictures and reproduce the sequence of what is expressed in their inner content.

And so, shortly before his death, Hermann Grimm began to speak once again about Raphael; yet once more he made the attempt to put pen to paper and write about him. This time however he spoke only of his pictures and not about the earthly personality of Raphael at all.

The truth is, my dear friends, this earthly personality of Raphael was completely yielded up and was only present through what Lazarus-John gave to this soul to be poured out into colour and line for all mankind.

Such was the life of this being. And it was so, that this Raphael life could only be, as it were, absolved in another life of thirty years — in Novalis. And so we see Raphael die young, Novalis die young — one being, who came forth from Elijah-John, appearing before mankind in two different forms, preparing through art and through poetry the true Michael mood of soul, sent down by the Michael stream as messenger to men on Earth.

And now we behold the wonderful artistic power of Raphael come to life again in Novalis in poetry that stirs and enraptures the hearts of men. All that through Raphael was given to human eyes to see, — of this could human hearts drink deep, when it came again in Novalis.

When we consider the life of Novalis, what an echo we find there of the Raphael life for which Hermann Grimm had so fine an understanding! His beloved dies in her youth. He is himself still young. What is he going to do with his life now that she has died? He tells us himself. He says that his life on Earth will be henceforth to “die after her”, to follow her on the way of death. He wants to pass over already now into the super-sensible, to lead again the Raphael life, not touching the Earth, but living out in poetry his magic idealism. He would fain not let himself be touched by Earth life.

When we read the “Fragments” of Novalis, and give ourselves up to the life that flows so abundantly in them, we can discover the secret of the deep impression they make on us. Whatever we have before us in immediate sense-reality, whatever the eye can see and recognise as beautiful — all this, through the magic idealism that lives in the soul of Novalis, appears in his poetry with a well-nigh heavenly splendour. The meanest and simplest material thing — with the magic idealism of his poetry he can make it live again in all its spiritual light and glory.

And so we see in Novalis a radiant and splendid forerunner of that Michael stream which is now to lead you all, my dear friends, while you live; and then, after you have gone through the gate of death, you will find in the spiritual super-sensible worlds all those others — among them also the being of whom I have been speaking to you today — all those with whom you are to prepare the work that shall be accomplished at the end of the century, and that shall lead mankind past the great crisis in which it is involved.

This work is: to let the Michael Power and the Michael Will penetrate the whole of life. The Michael Power and the Michael Will are none other than the Christ Will and the Christ Power, going before in order to implant in the right way into the Earth the Power of the Christ. If this Michael Power is able verily to overcome all that is of the demon and the dragon [and you will know what that is], if you all, who have in this way received in the light Michael Thought, have indeed received it with true and faithful heart and with tender love, and will endeavour to go forward from the Michael mood of this year, until not only is the Michael Thought revealed in your soul, but you are able also to make the Michael Thought live in your deeds in all its strength and all its power — if this is so, then will you be true servants of the Michael Thought, worthy helpers of what has now to enter Earth-evolution through Anthroposophy, and take its place there in the meaning of Michael.

If, in the near future, in four times twelve human beings, the Michael Thought becomes fully alive — four times twelve human beings, that is, who are recognised not by themselves but by the Leadership of the Goetheanum in Dornach — if in four times twelve such human beings, leaders arise having the mood of soul that belongs to the Michael festival, then we can look up to the light that through the Michael stream and the Michael activity will be shed abroad in the future among mankind.

Because this is so, my dear friends, I have made the effort today to rise up and speak to you, if only in these few short words. My strength is not sufficient for more today. May the words so speak to your soul that you receive the Michael Thought in the sense of what a faithful follower of Michael may feel when, clothed in the light rays of the Sun, Michael appears and points us to that which must now take place. For it must even be so that this Michael garment, this garment of Light, shall become the Words of the Worlds, which can transform the Logos of the Worlds into the Logos of Mankind. Therefore let my words to you today be these:

Springing from powers of the Sun,

Radiant spirit-powers, blessing all worlds!

For Michael's garment of rays

You are predestined by Divine Thought.



He, the Christ messenger, reveals in you —

Bearing humankind aloft — the sacred will of worlds.

You, the radiant beings of ether worlds,

Bear the Christ-Word to human beings.

Thus shall the herald of Christ appear

To the thirstily waiting souls

To whom your Word of Light shines forth

In the cosmic age of the Spirit Human Being.

You, the disciples of spirit knowledge,

Take Michael's beckoning wisdom;

Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds

Into your soul's aspiring, fervently!

 

Source: The Rudolf Steiner Archive

September 28, 1924. GA 238

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

Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mother

 

The Gospel of John and the Other Three Gospels

Lecture 6

Rudolf Steiner, Stockholm, January 10, 1910

The Gospel of John differs in many respects from the others. Thus, nothing is presented there [in direct] narrative. It always says that one or the other has seen something, that one or the other has been seen. How are we to understand this?

A large part of what is described in the Gospel of John is to be regarded as abstract, inner experiences, as instances of spiritual clairvoyance. When it says, for example, that Nicodemus “came to Jesus by night, this should not be taken literally. It is trivial to interpret it as if he came at night because he was ashamed to come during the day. We are dealing here with an astral experience. Nicodemus went to Jesus in his astral body at night, while his physical body slept, to receive instruction. This event took place not as a physical personality, not with physical steps, but in the astral world; Nicodemus experienced it as a sleeper. He had the conversation that is described to us in the night in the astral. Nicodemus was exceptionally clairvoyant. He was able to travel astrally to Christ Jesus and have that conversation. That which Christ was could therefore take place in a special experience for those who were meant to perceive it.

In this way, through strange experiences, it became clear to many who Jesus actually was. Thus, John the Baptist had also clairvoyantly seen Jesus as the Lamb of God - as the sacrificial animal of God - that is, the ego in man. This ego in the symbol of the lamb had been sacrificed unceasingly in pre-Christian times; in other words, man had to sacrifice his ego in order to do God's will. This I or Lamb of God was now to be transformed through Christ into the Son of Man.

[Using the Nicodemus narrative as a model, we need to understand why, upon the testimony of John the Baptist, it is revealed that Jesus is the Christ, the God of our cosmos. Therefore, the Gospel of John does not tell us that the Spirit descended upon Jesus, nor does it vividly describe the baptism, but rather says that John the Baptist describes his experience in such a way that he saw clairvoyantly how the dove descended. - Otherwise one would not understand why the Gospels seemingly contradict each other if they are not understood to mean that seers describe their spiritual experiences here.]

The gospel of John does not describe the baptism, but only the astral experience of the Baptist, when he, as a seer, saw Jesus inspired by the spirit in the form of a dove. This must be particularly taken into account if one wants to understand the spiritual meaning of this gospel. The Baptist was only clairvoyant at times, he could not look back on his previous incarnations. His mission was to show people that they should now acquire their clear sense of self, because now was the time to do so. But John the Baptist had to pay for this mission by having his own sense of self limited to the time between birth and death. Hence his strange answers to the questions of the Jews. When they asked if he was the Christ, he replied, “I am not.” And when they asked if he was Elijah, he said, “No.” Contrary to these words of his, Jesus solemnly testifies that John the Baptist was the reincarnated Elijah.

What is the source of this contradiction? John did not know people by their past lives, he did not know that he was Elijah returned. To fulfill his mission in the world, he had to sacrifice that dark, half-dreaming clairvoyance through which people in former times were directly connected to the spiritual world and could look back on their past forms of existence. Therefore, true to his mission, he pointed to Jesus as a human being in whom a higher consciousness was already developed and who therefore carried the Heavenly Kingdom within himself and could help people to regain the consciousness they had had before.

In order for the ego to develop, it was necessary for people to concentrate their energies and learn to make the most of their lives on earth and understand its great significance. Therefore, a veil had to fall over the past so that people could no longer see their earthly lives as a small link in a long chain. By the time of the Baptist, however, self-awareness had been fully developed and was now to be developed into an even higher consciousness.

In the Gospel of John, we can follow step by step how Jesus himself rises from direct self-awareness to God-awareness by uniting with and merging into all other living beings. The power of his insight and will comes across to us here as in no other gospel. Significant in this regard are Jesus' words to Nathanael when he is first led to him. Jesus calls him a “true Israelite.” What did he mean by that? To understand this expression, we have to go back to the ancient mysteries for a moment.

For example, if we examine the Persian Mithraic mysteries, we find that the three great stages of initiation were divided into seven degrees. The initiates of the first degree were called the “messengers of the raven” – “raven” corresponds to “messenger”;

- the initiates of the second degree, the 'occult man';
- the initiates of the third degree, the 'soldier';
- the initiates of the fourth degree, the 'lion';
- the initiate of the fifth degree, a 'true Persian';
- the initiate of the sixth degree, the 'solar hero';
- the initiate of the seventh degree, 'father, magician'.

The initiate of the first degree had to learn everything there was to learn; he still had one foot in the outer world. Through his studies in the spiritual world, he could be a messenger between this world and the outer world. That is why it is said of Wotan that he was always accompanied by his ravens.

The initiate of the second degree, the <«occult man», had experiences in the spiritual world through imaginations, but he did not have the right to share his occult experiences with others. In general, the various degrees and the legitimacy of the students were strictly observed. Thus, for example, the occult man had to mature before he was given the opportunity to share with others what he had learned through occult means. Only after he had matured spiritually could he enter the third degree and become a “warrior,” an enunciator, an apostle of the spiritual world.

The initiate of the fourth degree - or of the “Lion” - had to be completely free of all self-assertion; in relation to the truth, he was not allowed to have his own point of view or his own opinion. This view is in complete conflict with what is considered correct in our days, since everyone has to have their point of view and their opinion. Mathematics is currently the only field in which individuals no longer believe that they can assert their own opinions. The initiate of the fourth degree, on the other hand, was never allowed to let his own thoughts and feelings interfere when it came to spiritual truths; because only those who do not have their own opinions can penetrate to the truth, as an old sage says. Considering himself as the instrument of the truth, as the vessel of the truth, he should not speak his own thoughts, but only what he had been taught. His standard should be: What does the truth think about it?

Then he was ready to ascend to a higher degree, the fifth degree. Until then, he had only been an expression of the feelings and thoughts of individual people. The initiate of the fifth degree should embody the spirit and soul of the people. The astral, the etheric and the ego in the individual human being are, so to speak, embedded in the national spirit, which is a concrete individuality, although without an outer physical body. The national spirit gives expression to everything that happens in a single nation, to all its feelings and characteristics – just as Buddha's Nirmanakaya gives its etheric body to various individualities and lives in them. In the Mithras Mysteries, such an initiate was called a “true Persian”. He was, so to speak, a mouthpiece for the entire nation, and those who heard him knew that the national spirit was speaking through him. But when such a high individuality has had all the experiences that he can have through a particular nation, he withdraws from that nation, which then falls into degeneration and decline. The spirit of a nation actually lives a more real life than the individual human being, but it usually speaks only through the whole nation. But if it ever speaks through an individual human being, it is always through someone who is not expressing his or her own individual opinion. The initiate in Palestine was called a “true Israelite” in the fifth degree, like Nathanael.

The initiate of the sixth degree was called a “solar hero” because not only the spirit of a people, but the spirit of an entire solar system spoke through him. He could not deviate from his path any more than the sun itself could, and he was subject to the solar system, to the laws of the solar spirit, just as the initiate of the fifth degree was subject to the laws of the spirit of the people.

Those who had penetrated the farthest came to the father of the solar system. Through them spoke the Father Spirit - the Spirit of the All-Father and they were an expression of his will and his law. There were places where these initiation methods were strictly followed, but even in the time of Jesus much of it had degenerated into empty ceremonies. Therefore, when Jesus said to Nathanael that he was a true “Israelite”, we learn not only that Jesus knew that Nathanael was a fifth-degree initiate, but also that at the time of Jesus there was a temple of initiation in Israel. But to know that Nathanael was an initiate, Jesus himself had to be an even higher initiate, which he also confirms when he says that he had met Nathanael under the fig tree.

What is meant by this statement? The fig tree or buddhi tree is a symbol of the family tree of humanity, whose branches, twigs and leaves are symbols of the individual ethnic groups, families and human souls. To sit under the fig tree means to identify with one's tribe, to feel at one with one's people, and indicates the initiate's position in relation to his people.

On the astral plane, that is, by clairvoyant means, Jesus had seen Nathanael as a fifth-degree initiate, and that is why he said he had seen him under the fig tree. Nathaniel immediately understands that no one other than a high initiate could have known this about him, and that is why he calls Jesus “the Son of God” and “the King of Israel.” But not only was Nathaniel allowed to see the souls of the people afterward, but he also saw angels ascending and descending from heaven. This means that his eyes were opened to the spiritual reasons and all the secrets of the cosmos.

This story thus suggests that there was indeed spiritual knowledge in Israel at the time of Jesus, and that this people had their mysteries, but also that Jesus knew about them and had this spiritual knowledge himself.

But the Gospel of John not only shows us that Jesus knows everything, but also that his will is strong enough to merge with others and work in them. Basically, every human being is a limited and isolated being. It was Christ who gave humanity the first impulse towards spiritual brotherhood. Through this impulse, people were to be brought closer together, and a bond was to be formed between souls that would gradually awaken a sense of belonging between different peoples over the centuries. Before Christ, nothing like this had been possible. Love did exist, but it was in the blood and never extended beyond the family and tribe within which all marital ties were formed. But if self-awareness was to be developed, this point of view had to be abandoned.

The blood ties that had so strongly bound people to tribes and peoples gradually began to dissolve as people increasingly entered into “distant relationships” outside of their tribe and people. As a result of the fragmentation that arose from this, people increasingly fell into unkindness and selfishness. In this case, the history of Rome gives us a typical picture of the prevailing situation. If the Christ had not come at that time and given the world a mighty impulse of spiritual brotherly love, people would have become more and more separated from each other and ultimately quite estranged from each other. With the Christ, however, the world received a new impulse. The blood tie was not to be dissolved, but love for father, mother and brother was no longer to be the only tie between people. Something new had been added, something much higher and more powerful than the old, namely, universal love for one's fellow man, the kinship of souls that unites souls with each other. “He who cannot value spiritual love more than love for father and mother cannot be my disciple.”

But in order for this new impulse of love to flow into and permeate people, it was necessary for Jesus to have the greatest willpower. At the wedding at Cana, he gave proof for the first time of this willpower, which was so strong and so pure that it could, as it were, pass into other people and determine the impressions [of those] who received it. How should we understand this? Let us assume that two people are standing next to each other and one of them drinks a glass of water. If the other person is capable of a strong volitional impulse, he can influence the taste organ of the other person in such a way that the water in his mouth tastes like something completely different, like wine, for example. For our experiences do not depend so much on the material that conveys the impressions, but rather on our way of reacting to the impressions we receive. Thus, wine or water becomes something completely different for us, depending on whether we look at it from a materialistic or a spiritual point of view.

In my book Grundlage einer Erkenntnistheorie (The Foundation of an Epistemology), I thoroughly discuss my thoughts on this question. Behind matter stands the spiritual.

Therefore, if a powerful will imbued with love were to make people taste wine in the water of a well, they would drink this water as willingly as wine. Matter is only a maya – an illusion. The spiritual content that we give to matter is the main thing. In everything that surrounds us, we therefore find not only coarse matter, but also the spirit that is the content of the world. (Changing sensations, that is the content of our world.)

This cannot only be stated by anyone who is clairvoyant, but can also be proven completely logically through theosophy. In the Gospel of John, this spirituality is particularly emphasized. The spirit that works in the God-man Christ Jesus is so strong that it can not only influence other people, but also command their feelings. That is why it is said that Jesus, through his willpower, influenced the water that was poured into the jugs in such a way that it had the same effect on the guests as wine. The guests really felt it – they drank wine. This story shows us what a powerful will, transformed into love, is at work in Christ, for only such a will can shine in others in this way.

It may be said, in a way, that the Gospel of John is full of mystery and can only be fully understood with the help of occult research. For example, it is never mentioned who wrote it, it only speaks of him as a “disciple of the Lord”. Nor does one learn the name of Jesus' mother.

In the story of the wedding at Cana, it is stated that Jesus' mother was there; and she is also mentioned in other places by the name of “Mother of Jesus”. She is never called Mary. If we read the passage about the crucifixion carefully, we see that three women were standing under the cross: Jesus' mother, the sister of his mother, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. So the sister of Jesus' mother was called Mary, and it is hardly credible that two sisters would have the same name.

If we then turn to the Christian mysteries, we do not find 'Mary' as the name of Jesus' mother there either. There she was always called 'Sophia', which means 'wisdom'. There is a mystery behind this fact. At the wedding at Cana, Jesus makes a strange comment to his mother: “Woman,” he says, “what is this that you have brought me?” The usual translation, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” is wrong and directly offensive to the Christian sensibility.

Jesus' words point to a mysterious bond that existed between him and his mother and that he felt strongly at that moment. His mother's words, “Do whatever he tells you,” also suggest a mutual understanding. Just as it takes only a half-hint for two friends to understand each other when there is a secret between them that no one else knows, so it was in Jesus' relationship with his mother.

We have already heard how a change took place in Jesus of Nazareth through baptism. The words that were spoken then, “This is my beloved and faithful Son; in him I am well pleased,” mean in the occult language, which is probably the only language that gives a reasonable explanation of this passage, that the individuality of Christ emerged at that moment in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

At the same time, however, a change also took place in the stepmother of Jesus, the mother of the child Solomon. The father of this child had died early. When the ego of Zarathustra passed into the child Nathan and the child Solomon died, the mother of the child Nathan died shortly afterwards. The mother of the Solomonic child then moved with her children to the father of the Nathanic child and thus became the stepmother of Jesus. At the moment when the individuality of Christ took possession of the body of Jesus, a transformation also occurred in his mother. She was enlightened and radiant through the deceased, spiritualized mother, who entered the Solomonic mother as a spiritual individuality. Thereby she regained her virginity. This mother, who lives without birth, is Sophia.” The

Virgin Mary - is the Sophia of the mysteries, the divine wisdom or the Virgin Mary - Madonna.

This is the mystery of the mother of Jesus. It was this Mother Sophia, the divine wisdom, who was in Cana. Between her and Jesus there was a bond of love, a power of love that could be transferred to others and could influence them. At the basis of this bond between Jesus and his spiritualized mother, his own power of life and will could be transmitted to other people. Consequently, the Madonna is the union of the ego of the Solomon-like mother with the pure and spiritualized etheric and astral body of the Nathan-like mother. The old masters were right when they depicted the Madonna as childlike and absolutely pure, for example, in Michelangelo's Pietà.

Source: The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Jesus Christ the Overcomer. The Gospel of John and the Three Other Gospels: Lecture 5

     

"In the world you shall have tribulation.
But be of good cheer: I have overcome the world."

— John 16:33

Rudolf Steiner, Stockholm

January 8, 1910

We have seen how complicated the personality had to be that had to let all previous spiritual currents flow into a higher current into the world. Two children were called: the Solomon and the Nathan [boy Jesus]. We have seen how, in the twelfth year, the remarkable event occurred that the Zarathustra ego moved into the body of the Nathanian boy. So we have before us a Jesus child who carries within him the ego of Zoroaster [and who] in the astral body holds everything that the Buddha has become since his last incarnation, and [who] in the ether bears that pure etheric body that was preserved from the time before the luciferic influences asserted themselves, which have led man deeper and deeper down into the earthly world.

[The question may arise] why were two Jesus children born? Would not one have been enough, since he was an extract of everything that needed to be developed in the Hebrew people? Nevertheless, it was necessary. In order for all the qualities that Christ Jesus needed to emerge in the body, the most diverse stages of human development had to be gone through. The boy Solomon had the most excellent of all that could arise as perfect physical instruments.

From the time of physical birth until the seventh year, the human being brings forth the best qualities of the physical body; until the fourteenth year, the qualities of the etheric body; then until about the twenty-first year, those of the astral body. Only then are the best qualities of the I developed. What we have in our physical and etheric bodies - with the exception of that essence which we take with us into the devachanic world after death - is what we inherit from our ancestors. Thus the boy Solomon could only inherit what could grow in our physical and etheric bodies. Up to the age of twelve, Zarathustra's I was in those outer limbs that can be fully obtained through inheritance. From the age of twelve, the development of the astral body would have begun. However, this is not inherited, it is still attached to the individuality in the spiritual world. In order for Zarathustra's I to develop in the most perfect astral body, he had to receive the most perfect one. For this, the experiences that the Buddha had gained were necessary, who came from the spiritual culture of India, which was turned away from the earthly. But if the ego of Zarathustra had embodied itself in the Nathanian child, then it would not have received the perfect physical and etheric body that it needed, which had to absorb not only the internal but also everything external, as it could only happen in the royal, not in the priestly line.

After the Zarathustra ego had absorbed everything that one experiences with such perfect tools, it could experience the other, which comes from the perfect etheric and astral body, [it could] develop all the innermost qualities of man.

Now he matured to ascend to an even higher and more perfect level. That happened through that event which is described by the baptism of John in the Jordan. What is it? We must discuss it in order to understand it, the mission of John the Baptist. What was he sent into the world for? It must be borne in mind that humanity goes through different epochs. There was an era when inner revelation and inspiration reigned supreme in the Indian people. (For them, the world was an illusion.) Those who attained inner revelation were the most advanced people of the time.

Everything develops slowly. It has become apparent from two sides that

Firstly, that although people still had inspiration, it became increasingly imperfect. This was the case with the Egyptians.

Secondly, that people gradually developed a sense of the external world; that the world is an external expression of the spirit. This was what Zarathustra had to teach the Persian people, this was his mission. That was the meaning of his doctrine of the sun; [that] Maya is [the] expression of spiritual essence[s]. Man can perceive spirit not only within himself but also through the veil of external illusion. Thus, Zarathustra taught his people the doctrine of light in this world. The tenor of his teaching was something like this: Oh, we humans are still imperfect in terms of our senses and [our] minds. But we will gradually educate ourselves. Behind the illusion is the spiritual meaning of the world, and we will develop in such a way that this spirit will approach us.

It was a teaching of confidence, of hope for a light appearing in the world, that Zarathustra brought to his people. Because Zarathustra was dealing with a special people, he was able to do this.

[There were] two migratory movements. When the Atlantic catastrophe occurred, people began to migrate from west to east. Two migrations: [one went] through Europe and over into Asia. Northern, central and southern Europe were crossed by the northern stream of people, some of whom remained here. [A second stream went] through Africa and over into Asia. There were two folk currents because they were differently predisposed. The northern folk were predisposed to develop intellect and reason, to look outwards. Those who passed through Africa were predisposed to look more inwards, to develop the powers of quiet reflection, not so much to look out into the outer world. The most advanced folk of the northern folk current were the ancient Persians, where Zarathustra worked. The following mood prevailed in the other, African, stream of the people: “No matter how much you work, the outer world is not there to find the spirit in it. It is fragmented, only to be found after death” - Osiris.

Both currents should flow together, the inner and outer. The most perfect from within as a revelation was the ancient Indian - the Egyptian was more imperfect: looking within the soul life. Persian: looking outwards. But one thing was characteristic of all people. They could not yet come to perfect self-awareness, self-consciousness; they lived in the spirit when they dampened down, lowered their consciousness, surrendered it. The Zarathustra people also had to fall into ecstasy, surrendering to lightning, thunder, and the sun. Only after a long evolution did people become mature enough to connect the inner and outer revelations. The time when this became possible had come with the appearance of John the Baptist and Christ Jesus. Before that, there were no people who could experience the revelation of the spirit while maintaining their ego, their self-awareness. What were people like before? They could say to themselves: We can come to the spirit, but we have to leave our best, our ego. We have to give up our self-awareness and be transported into a beyond; we cannot experience the heavenly realms in our earthly human nature.

John the Baptist was able to proclaim that the time had now come when man, by maintaining his self-awareness while preserving his ego, could experience the heavenly realms. That was John's proclamation: The Kingdoms of Heaven have come!

How could he show that this was the case? If people had simply been told that they were mature enough to transfer themselves into the spiritual realm with their ego, they would not have understood it. How could he teach them? Only through the baptism of John. It consisted of complete immersion in water. What happened? You know what happens when someone drowns... The etheric body is drawn out for a while... at that moment people are freed from the hindrances of the physical body.

The fact that the inner man is now ripe to experience the spiritual while maintaining his self-awareness is expressed in the symbol of the baptism in the Jordan. What kind of people were they who were baptized? The first to say: Our ego is now such that it can gradually ascend with self-awareness. [Gap in the transcript] So there were some people who knew what the clock of the world had struck. This small group was able to say to itself: There is an I-center in every human being that can ascend. They knew this from experience. The greatest teachers could have taught this without being understood.

In the past, one could only teach: If you give up your ego and make it objective, you create the conditions for rising up. When you merge with the whole people, do not feel as individuals, but are immersed in the people's ego, when you say to yourselves and feel: I want to be one with Abraham, then through this self-forgetfulness of the ego you can hope to find the spiritual world.

But it is not right to keep what was good for one era and apply it to another. John the Baptist now had to teach differently: the element for rising up had to be found in the self. That was his new teaching.

When the old teachers came up, how did the Baptist address them? The conservatives who wanted to propagate the ancient teachings in the astral immersion... The snake symbol was always chosen for the astral. [He spoke:] You, the snake doctrine, why do you come, you who do not want to recognize what the world clock is showing now?..

Now the one who carried the ego of Zarathustra within him came forth, in the astral body the Nirmanakaya of Buddha, in the etheric body that which was unaffected by the Luciferic principle. The Jesus came and was baptized. He was submerged / gap in the transcript].

Then withdrew from the physical body that excellent, great, pure etheric body, withdrew everything that had lived in Gautama Buddha. The images of all that had gone before, all that had been experienced, stood before him. Thus the Jesus of Nazareth experienced what was in him, what had gradually moved into him. He saw all this in himself. That was the greatest moment on earth that has ever been experienced. In the etheric body, what would have become of humanity if it had not descended to the luciferic influences was revealed: the image of the perfectly pure human being. And what was revealed in his astral body? What Gautama Buddha had experienced was revealed to his soul. Gautama Buddha had seen as an enlightened being back into the entire development of the earth. He had seen how man had become more and more material with each incarnation. Therefore, Buddha could only reflect on what could help people to rise above physical incarnation. A doctrine of pain: everything is suffering. The doctrine of liberation from the earthly body. Therefore, he gave instructions in the doctrine of compassion and love: to attain what could free people. Salvation would have been achieved from suffering. But then the earthly existence would have been lost for people. Buddhism is a religion of salvation. Christianity is a religion of resurrection. Nothing should be lost. Everything should be led over into the spirit. You should consider yourselves as disciples, bringing everything into the spiritual worlds in order to resurrect it in the higher sense. Christianity is a religion of resurrection and revival. The Buddha's ultimate purpose is to free us from pain. The ultimate purpose of Christianity is to transform pain into bliss.

In this world, we should experience something that we cannot experience anywhere else. Our task is to transform the coarse metal into the gold of the spirit. We will transform ourselves if we gradually overcome what lives in us as pain. Overcoming the disease: Overcoming gives strength. Death is the strongest illusion, maya. If everything is deceptive, if maya is mixed into everything, then death is only a lie, is only maya. We are overcoming death. Golgotha is the only place where death appears to us in its truth: as the bringer of new life.

Only within Maya are we separated from what we love. If we overcome the sensual world, the union is all the more intense. It is impossible to be separated from what we love by progressing in spirit. United with what we do not love? We learn to love everything. Not achieving what we desire? We attain such purified desires that physical obstacles do not stand in our way. This is the great progress from the Buddha to the Christ teaching. We should not flee from the world, nor leave it, but take it with us. Buddha wants to free himself from the world. Christ wants to co-redeem the world.

In the Jordan, Jesus of Nazareth experienced that infinite measure of pain that Gautama Buddha once burdened his soul with; this Jesus had to experience. All the glory to which humanity is called stood before him as an image on the one hand, and suffering on the other. He could say to himself: “There is the image that comes from the pure etheric body, which people have forfeited in order to come to the physical body. What is in the other image is what the best have felt, the suffering, the pain for humanity.”

And so this consciousness in Jesus stood alone in the face of all humanity. What did He have to say to Himself? It is impossible to ascend into the spiritual worlds with the consciousness that humanity has gained so far. All of this must be abandoned, and a completely new one must be created: a new etheric body that leads to ever more perfect levels. To do this, it was necessary that what people had achieved so far be shattered at the moment when this consciousness arose.

All this took place in this soul. At the moment when the etheric and astral bodies returned, how did they work? In such a way that all those great sensations, ideas, had a killing, dissolving effect on the physical body. It was too great for this physical body. Two things occurred: Zarathustra's I belonged to this body. Now a new task was set. Zarathustra's ego left him and a new ego, corresponding to that consciousness, moved as a new, as the Christ-ego into the body that had begun to die because the consciousness had become too great. The Christ-consciousness moved into this body.

We have touched here on the secret of the greatest moment in the evolution of the Earth. Behold the Lamb of God, could John say, “who has experienced in his soul all the suffering of humanity.” We must recognize this event not only as cosmic, but also as human. That was the significance of this soul, that it not only longed for redemption, for liberation, but [that it] decided to bring about a new development of time. It was a free decision in the soul of Christ Jesus to live through these three years.

That is the significant thing, that at this moment of John the Baptist's baptism, it was a free decision to take upon himself the whole destiny of humanity.

Source: The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Behold the Lamb of God!

    

The Gospel of John and the Three Other Gospels

 Lecture 4

Rudolf Steiner, Stockholm

January 7, 1910

We have seen how complicated the personality had to be that had to let all previous spiritual currents flow into a higher current into the world. Two children were called: the Solomon and the Nathan [boy Jesus]. We have seen how, in the twelfth year, the remarkable event occurred that the Zarathustra ego moved into the body of the Nathanian boy. So we have before us a Jesus child who carries within him the ego of Zoroaster [and who] in the astral body holds everything that the Buddha has become since his last incarnation, and [who] in the ether bears that pure etheric body that was preserved from the time before the luciferic influences asserted themselves, which have led man deeper and deeper down into the earthly world.

[The question may arise] why were two Jesus children born? Would not one have been enough, since he was an extract of everything that needed to be developed in the Hebrew people? Nevertheless, it was necessary. In order for all the qualities that Christ Jesus needed to emerge in the body, the most diverse stages of human development had to be gone through. The boy Solomon had the most excellent of all that could arise as perfect physical instruments.

From the time of physical birth until the seventh year, the human being brings forth the best qualities of the physical body; until the fourteenth year, the qualities of the etheric body; then until about the twenty-first year, those of the astral body. Only then are the best qualities of the I developed. What we have in our physical and etheric bodies - with the exception of that essence which we take with us into the devachanic world after death - is what we inherit from our ancestors. Thus the boy Solomon could only inherit what could grow in our physical and etheric bodies. Up to the age of twelve, Zarathustra's I was in those outer limbs that can be fully obtained through inheritance. From the age of twelve, the development of the astral body would have begun. However, this is not inherited, it is still attached to the individuality in the spiritual world. In order for Zarathustra's I to develop in the most perfect astral body, he had to receive the most perfect one. For this, the experiences that the Buddha had gained were necessary, who came from the spiritual culture of India, which was turned away from the earthly. But if the ego of Zarathustra had embodied itself in the Nathanian child, then it would not have received the perfect physical and etheric body that it needed, which had to absorb not only the internal but also everything external, as it could only happen in the royal, not in the priestly line.

After the Zarathustra ego had absorbed everything that one experiences with such perfect tools, it could experience the other, which comes from the perfect etheric and astral body, [it could] develop all the innermost qualities of man.

Now he matured to ascend to an even higher and more perfect level. That happened through that event which is described by the baptism of John in the Jordan. What is it? We must discuss it in order to understand it, the mission of John the Baptist. What was he sent into the world for? It must be borne in mind that humanity goes through different epochs. There was an era when inner revelation and inspiration reigned supreme in the Indian people. (For them, the world was an illusion.) Those who attained inner revelation were the most advanced people of the time.

Everything develops slowly. It has become apparent from two sides that

Firstly, that although people still had inspiration, it became increasingly imperfect. This was the case with the Egyptians.

Secondly, that people gradually developed a sense of the external world; that the world is an external expression of the spirit. This was what Zarathustra had to teach the Persian people, this was his mission. That was the meaning of his doctrine of the sun; [that] Maya is [the] expression of spiritual essence[s]. Man can perceive spirit not only within himself but also through the veil of external illusion. Thus, Zarathustra taught his people the doctrine of light in this world. The tenor of his teaching was something like this: Oh, we humans are still imperfect in terms of our senses and [our] minds. But we will gradually educate ourselves. Behind the illusion is the spiritual meaning of the world, and we will develop in such a way that this spirit will approach us.

It was a teaching of confidence, of hope for a light appearing in the world, that Zarathustra brought to his people. Because Zarathustra was dealing with a special people, he was able to do this.

[There were] two migratory movements. When the Atlantic catastrophe occurred, people began to migrate from west to east. Two migrations: [one went] through Europe and over into Asia. Northern, central and southern Europe were crossed by the northern stream of people, some of whom remained here. [A second stream went] through Africa and over into Asia. There were two folk currents because they were differently predisposed. The northern folk were predisposed to develop intellect and reason, to look outwards. Those who passed through Africa were predisposed to look more inwards, to develop the powers of quiet reflection, not so much to look out into the outer world. The most advanced folk of the northern folk current were the ancient Persians, where Zarathustra worked. The following mood prevailed in the other, African, stream of the people: “No matter how much you work, the outer world is not there to find the spirit in it. It is fragmented, only to be found after death” - Osiris.

Both currents should flow together, the inner and outer. The most perfect from within as a revelation was the ancient Indian - the Egyptian was more imperfect: looking within the soul life. Persian: looking outwards. But one thing was characteristic of all people. They could not yet come to perfect self-awareness, self-consciousness; they lived in the spirit when they dampened down, lowered their consciousness, surrendered it. The Zarathustra people also had to fall into ecstasy, surrendering to lightning, thunder, and the sun. Only after a long evolution did people become mature enough to connect the inner and outer revelations. The time when this became possible had come with the appearance of John the Baptist and Christ Jesus. Before that, there were no people who could experience the revelation of the spirit while maintaining their ego, their self-awareness. What were people like before? They could say to themselves: We can come to the spirit, but we have to leave our best, our ego. We have to give up our self-awareness and be transported into a beyond; we cannot experience the heavenly realms in our earthly human nature.

John the Baptist was able to proclaim that the time had now come when man, by maintaining his self-awareness while preserving his ego, could experience the heavenly realms. That was John's proclamation: The Kingdoms of Heaven have come!

How could he show that this was the case? If people had simply been told that they were mature enough to transfer themselves into the spiritual realm with their ego, they would not have understood it. How could he teach them? Only through the baptism of John. It consisted of complete immersion in water. What happened? You know what happens when someone drowns... The etheric body is drawn out for a while... at that moment people are freed from the hindrances of the physical body.

The fact that the inner man is now ripe to experience the spiritual while maintaining his self-awareness is expressed in the symbol of the baptism in the Jordan. What kind of people were they who were baptized? The first to say: Our ego is now such that it can gradually ascend with self-awareness. [Gap in the transcript] So there were some people who knew what the clock of the world had struck. This small group was able to say to itself: There is an I-center in every human being that can ascend. They knew this from experience. The greatest teachers could have taught this without being understood.

In the past, one could only teach: If you give up your ego and make it objective, you create the conditions for rising up. When you merge with the whole people, do not feel as individuals, but are immersed in the people's ego, when you say to yourselves and feel: I want to be one with Abraham, then through this self-forgetfulness of the ego you can hope to find the spiritual world.

But it is not right to keep what was good for one era and apply it to another. John the Baptist now had to teach differently: the element for rising up had to be found in the self. That was his new teaching.

When the old teachers came up, how did the Baptist address them? The conservatives who wanted to propagate the ancient teachings in the astral immersion... The snake symbol was always chosen for the astral. [He spoke:] You, the snake doctrine, why do you come, you who do not want to recognize what the world clock is showing now?..

Now the one who carried the ego of Zarathustra within him came forth, in the astral body the Nirmanakaya of Buddha, in the etheric body that which was unaffected by the Luciferic principle. The Jesus came and was baptized. He was submerged / gap in the transcript].

Then withdrew from the physical body that excellent, great, pure etheric body, withdrew everything that had lived in Gautama Buddha. The images of all that had gone before, all that had been experienced, stood before him. Thus the Jesus of Nazareth experienced what was in him, what had gradually moved into him. He saw all this in himself. That was the greatest moment on earth that has ever been experienced. In the etheric body, what would have become of humanity if it had not descended to the luciferic influences was revealed: the image of the perfectly pure human being. And what was revealed in his astral body? What Gautama Buddha had experienced was revealed to his soul. Gautama Buddha had seen as an enlightened being back into the entire development of the earth. He had seen how man had become more and more material with each incarnation. Therefore, Buddha could only reflect on what could help people to rise above physical incarnation. A doctrine of pain: everything is suffering. The doctrine of liberation from the earthly body. Therefore, he gave instructions in the doctrine of compassion and love: to attain what could free people. Salvation would have been achieved from suffering. But then the earthly existence would have been lost for people. Buddhism is a religion of salvation. Christianity is a religion of resurrection. Nothing should be lost. Everything should be led over into the spirit. You should consider yourselves as disciples, bringing everything into the spiritual worlds in order to resurrect it in the higher sense. Christianity is a religion of resurrection and revival. The Buddha's ultimate purpose is to free us from pain. The ultimate purpose of Christianity is to transform pain into bliss.

In this world, we should experience something that we cannot experience anywhere else. Our task is to transform the coarse metal into the gold of the spirit. We will transform ourselves if we gradually overcome what lives in us as pain. Overcoming the disease: Overcoming gives strength. Death is the strongest illusion, maya. If everything is deceptive, if maya is mixed into everything, then death is only a lie, is only maya. We are overcoming death. Golgotha is the only place where death appears to us in its truth: as the bringer of new life.

Only within Maya are we separated from what we love. If we overcome the sensual world, the union is all the more intense. It is impossible to be separated from what we love by progressing in spirit. United with what we do not love? We learn to love everything. Not achieving what we desire? We attain such purified desires that physical obstacles do not stand in our way. This is the great progress from the Buddha to the Christ teaching. We should not flee from the world, nor leave it, but take it with us. Buddha wants to free himself from the world. Christ wants to co-redeem the world.

In the Jordan, Jesus of Nazareth experienced that infinite measure of pain that Gautama Buddha once burdened his soul with; this Jesus had to experience. All the glory to which humanity is called stood before him as an image on the one hand, and suffering on the other. He could say to himself: “There is the image that comes from the pure etheric body, which people have forfeited in order to come to the physical body. What is in the other image is what the best have felt, the suffering, the pain for humanity.”

And so this consciousness in Jesus stood alone in the face of all humanity. What did He have to say to Himself? It is impossible to ascend into the spiritual worlds with the consciousness that humanity has gained so far. All of this must be abandoned, and a completely new one must be created: a new etheric body that leads to ever more perfect levels. To do this, it was necessary that what people had achieved so far be shattered at the moment when this consciousness arose.

All this took place in this soul. At the moment when the etheric and astral bodies returned, how did they work? In such a way that all those great sensations, ideas, had a killing, dissolving effect on the physical body. It was too great for this physical body. Two things occurred: Zarathustra's I belonged to this body. Now a new task was set. Zarathustra's ego left him and a new ego, corresponding to that consciousness, moved as a new, as the Christ-ego into the body that had begun to die because the consciousness had become too great. The Christ-consciousness moved into this body.

We have touched here on the secret of the greatest moment in the evolution of the Earth. Behold the Lamb of God, could John say, “who has experienced in his soul all the suffering of humanity.” We must recognize this event not only as cosmic, but also as human. That was the significance of this soul, that it not only longed for redemption, for liberation, but [that it] decided to bring about a new development of time. It was a free decision in the soul of Christ Jesus to live through these three years.

That is the significant thing, that at this moment of John the Baptist's baptism, it was a free decision to take upon himself the whole destiny of humanity.

Source: The Rudolf Steiner Archive