The Spiritual Guidance of Mankind
GA 15
Lecture III
[ 1 ] In accordance with what has been said in the preceding chapters, the spiritual guidance of the course of human evolution may be sought for amongst those beings who went through their stage of humanity during the previous embodiment of the Earth-planet, during the ancient Moon period. This guidance stood contrasted with another which checked, and yet in a certain sense furthered it, and which was carried out by those beings who had not completed their own evolution during the Moon-period. Reference is made in both these cases to those guiding beings immediately above man; to those who lead humanity forward, and to those who provoke resistance, thereby strengthening and confirming the forces arising through the progressive beings, by bestowing on them balance and individuality. In Christian Esotericism, these two classes of superhuman beings are called Angels (Angeloi). Above these beings in ascending order, stand those of the higher hierarchies, the Archangels, the Archai, and so forth, who likewise take part in the guidance of humanity.
Within the ranks of these different beings there are all possible gradations in regard to perfection. At the beginning of the present Earth-evolution, some in the category of the Angels stand high, while others are less developed. The former have progressed far beyond the minimum of their Moon-development. Between these and those who had just reached this minimum when the Moon-evolution had come to an end, and the Earth-evolution had begun, are all possible gradations. Conformably with this gradation of rank, the beings in question entered during the Earth-period upon the leadership of human evolution. Thus the evolution of the Egyptian civilization was effected under the guidance of beings who had become more perfected on the Moon than those who were the leaders of the Graeco-Roman period, and these again were more perfect than those who have the leadership at the present time. In the Egyptian as also in the Greek Period, those who later on assumed the direction, were meanwhile developing, and making themselves ready to guide the civilization of later periods.
[ 2 ] Since the time of the great Atlantean catastrophe, seven consecutive epochs of civilization have to be differentiated; the first is the ancient Indian epoch, and it is followed by the ancient Persian.1By “ancient Persian” is not meant “Persian” in the usual historic sense, but a pre-historic Asiatic (Iranian) civilization which developed in that land over which, later on, the Persian Kingdom extended. The third is the Egypto-Chaldæic, the fourth is the Graeco-Roman, and the fifth is our own, which, since about the twelfth century, has been gradually developing and in which we are still living. And since the separate periods overlap, we see already in our times those early events preparing which will lead over into the sixth post-Atlantean epoch. And a seventh epoch will succeed the sixth in due course. On closer observation we find the following evidence with regard to the guidance of mankind. It was during the third epoch of civilization, the Egypto-Chaldæic, that the Angels (or lower dhyanic beings according to Oriental mysticism) were to some extent independent leaders of humanity. They were not so during the ancient Persian civilization. For then they were subject to a higher direction in a much greater degree than in the Egyptian times, and had to regulate everything in conformity with the impulses of the hierarchies immediately above them. In this way everything was under the immediate guidance of the Angels, who themselves submitted to the rulership of the Archangels. And in the Indian epoch when post-Atlantean life had reached such a height in spiritual matters as has never been attained since—a natural height under the direction of great human teachers—the Archangels themselves were subject in a similar sense to the guidance of the Archai or Primal Powers. [ 3 ] Thus if we trace the evolution of humanity from the Indian epoch through the ancient Persian and Egypto-Chaldæic civilizations, we may say that certain beings of the higher hierarchies withdrew ever more and more from the direct guidance of humanity. In the fourth post-Atlantean period, the Graeco-Roman, man bad become quite independent. The guiding superhuman beings were certainly intervening to develop humanity, but only in such a way that the reins were tightened as little as possible, and also that the spiritual leaders themselves might profit as much through the deeds of men as men profited through them. Hence arose that peculiar and quite “human” civilization in the Graeco-Roman time in which man was made to rely entirely on himself. For all the distinctive characteristics of art and political life in Greek and Roman times are traceable to the fact that man had to live out his own life in his own way.
[ 4 ] So, when we look back to the most ancient times of civilization, we find evolution guided by beings who, in earlier planetary conditions, had accomplished their development as far as the human stage. But the fourth post-Atlantean period of civilization was intended as a time when man should be put to the test as much as possible. Consequently the whole spiritual guidance of humanity had to be reorganized. We are now living in the fifth post-Atlantean period of civilization. The leading beings of this period belong to the same hierarchy as that which ruled the ancient Egyptians and Chaldæans. In fact those beings who then took the lead, have again begun to be active in our times. As has been stated certain of these beings remained behind during the Egypto-Chaldæic civilization, and are to be found manifest in the materialistic feelings and perceptions of our own period.
[ 5 ] Now the progress made by the two classes of Angels or lower dhyanic beings—the class which leads mankind forward and that which obstructs—consisted in their being able to be leaders among the Egyptians and Chaldæans. They achieved this by means of those qualities which they had acquired in primordial times, and which they had further developed by their work as leaders. The progressive angels are intervening to guide the fifth post-Atlantean civilization by means of capacities which they themselves had won during the third or Egypto-Chaldæic civilization. Through the progress they make they are acquiring for themselves quite special capabilities, for they are qualifying themselves to receive the influx of forces emanating from the most important Being in the whole evolution of the Earth.The power of the Christ is working in them; for that power works not only on the physical world through Jesus of Nazareth, but also in the spiritual worlds upon the super-human beings. The Christ exists not only for the earth but also for these beings. The beings who guided the old Egypto-Chaldæic civilization were not under the direction of the Christ. It is only since that period that they have placed themselves under His guidance. Their progress consists in their following Him in the higher worlds, so that they may guide our fifth post-Atlantean period of civilization in accordance with His influence. Those beings who operate as obstructive powers remain behind because they failed to put themselves under the leadership of the Christ. Thus they continue to work independently of Him. More and more in human evolution will become evident a materialistic movement under the guidance of these backward Egypto-Chaldæic spirits. This movement will have a materialistic character and the greater part of contemporary science is under its influence. There are, for example, people today who say that our earth in its final essence consists of atoms. Who instills this thought into men's minds? It is the super-human angel beings who had remained behind during the Egypto-Chaldæic period. But, side by side with this movement, there is another making itself felt, the one which has as its goal the eventual finding of the Christ-principle by man in all that he does.
[ 6 ] Now what will those beings teach who attained their goal in the old Egypto-Chaldæic sphere of civilization, and who then learned to know the Christ? They will be able to instill into man other thoughts than those that assert that there are only material atoms; they will be able to teach that, even to the minutest particle of the world, the substance is permeated with the Spirit of the Christ. And, strange as it may seem, there will be in the future chemists and physicists who will not teach chemistry and physics as they are now taught under the influence of the backward Egypto-Chaldæic spirits; but who will teach that ‘matter is built up in the way in which the Christ gradually ordained it,’ The Christ will be found working even in the very laws of chemistry and physics. It is a spiritual chemistry and spiritual physics that will come in the future. Today such a statement may appear to many people as fanciful or worse. But often the sense of the future seems folly to the past. [ 7 ] The factors which enter into the evolution of human civilization are there for the careful observer. But be will know quite well the objections which may, with apparent justice, be urged against such alleged folly from the modern scientific or philosophic point of view.
[ 8 ] From such hypotheses we are able to understand the advantage the guiding super-human beings have over man. Humanity learned to know Christ in the fourth civilization period of the post-Atlantean times, the. Graeco-Roman epoch, for it was in the course of this civilization that the Christ-event found its place in evolution, and it was then that man learned to know the Christ. The guiding super-human beings, however, learned to know Him during the Egypto-Chaldæic times, and worked themselves up to Him. Then during the Graeco-Roman civilization they had to leave man to his own fate in order that, later on, they might re-enter the sphere of human evolution. And if nowadays anthroposophy is cultivated, this constitutes recognition of the fact that the super-human beings who formerly guided humanity are now continuing their task as leaders in such a way as to be themselves under the direct guidance of the Christ. Thus it is with other beings also.
[ 9 ] In the ancient Persian epoch, the leadership of humanity was apportioned to the Archangels. They put themselves under the direction of the Christ earlier than did the beings in the rank next below them. Of Zarathustra it can be said that pointing to the sun, he spoke to his followers and his people in some such words as these: “In the sun there lives the great Spirit Ahura Mazdao, who will one day come down to the earth.” For the beings out of the region of the Archangels who guided Zarathustra, pointed to the great sun-leader who had not at that time come down upon the earth but had only begun his journey thither in order, later on, to enter directly into the earth evolution. And the guiding beings who directed the great teachers of the Indians, also pointed out to these the Christ of the future; for it is a mistake to think that these teachers had no foreknowledge of the Christ. They said that He was “beyond their sphere” and that they “could not attain” unto Him.
[ 10 ] As now in our fifth period of civilization, it is the Angels who bring down the Christ into our spiritual evolution, so the sixth period of civilization will be directed by beings belonging to the ranks of the Archangels who guided the ancient Persian civilization. And the spirits of Personality—the Primal Powers—or Archai—who guided humanity during the ancient Indian epoch will have to guide humanity in the seventh period of civilization. In the Graeco-Roman period the Christ descended from the heights of the spirit-world and revealed Himself in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. He then came down as far as the physical world. It will be possible to find Him in the world immediately above ours when humanity shall have become sufficiently ripe. It will not be possible in the future to find Him in the physical world, but only in the world immediately above, for human beings will not always remain the same. Having become more mature, they will then find the Christ in the spiritual world, as Paul found Him in his experience before Damascus, which event prophetically foreshadowed the future means of finding the Christ. And since in our times the same great teachers who have already guided mankind through the Egyptian civilization are working, so also in the twentieth century it will be these same teachers who will lead men out to behold the Christ as Paul beheld Him. They will show mankind how the Christ not only works upon the earth, but how He spiritualizes the whole solar system. And those who will be the reincarnated holy teachers of India in the seventh period of civilization will proclaim the Spirit Who was foreshadowed by the undivided Brahma. To such teaching, however, the right content and meaning can only be given through the Christ, as the great, the immense Spirit, of Whom these teachers formerly said He hovered above their sphere. Thus will humanity be led upwards from stage to stage into the spiritual world.
[ 11 ] To speak in this way about the Christ—how He is the leader of the higher hierarchies also in the successive worlds, is to teach the science which, under the sign of the Rose Cross, has endured in our civilization since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. If from this aspect we observe more closely the Being Who lived in Palestine, and Who consummated the Mystery of Golgotha, we shall find the following: [ 12 ] up to the present time many ideas concerning the Christ have found expression. There was for instance the idea of certain Christian Gnostics in the first centuries who said that the Christ Who lived in Palestine was not present in any physical body of flesh at all; that He had only an apparent body—an etheric body which had become physically visible; so that His death on the Cross had been no real death but only an apparent one. Then we find diverse disputes among those who professed Christianity, as for example, the well-known controversy between the Arians and Athanasians, and the most varied explanations concerning what the Christ really was. Indeed, right up to our own times people express and have expressed the most different ideas concerning the Christ.
[ 13 ] Now spiritual science must recognize in Christ not merely an earthly but also a cosmic Being. In a certain sense man is, taken as a whole, a cosmic being. He lives a twofold life—one in a physical body from birth to death, another in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth. When he is incarnated in a physical body, he is living in dependence on the earth, because the physical body is restricted by the forces and conditions of existence belonging to the earth. The human being, however, does not only take the substances and forces of the earth into himself, but is joined to the whole of the earth's organism. When he has passed through the gate of death, he no longer belongs to the forces of the earth; but it would be incorrect to imagine that he belongs to no forces at all, for he is then connected with the forces of the solar system and the more distant star-systems. In this way, between death and a new birth, he lives in the domain of the cosmic, just as in the period between birth and death he lived in the domain of the earthly. From death to a new birth he belongs to the cosmos, as on the earth he belongs to the elements—Air, Water, and Earth. Accordingly, while he is passing through a life between death and a new birth, he comes into the region of cosmic influences. For the planets send forth not merely the physical forces of what astronomy teaches, such as gravitation and others, but also spiritual forces. With these spiritual powers of the cosmos man is connected, each person in a special manner according to his own individuality. If he is born in Europe, he lives in a different relation to warmth conditions, and so forth, than if he had been born, let us say, in Australia. Similarly, during his life between death and a new birth, one person may stand more closely related to the spiritual powers of Mars, another to those of Jupiter, others again to those of the whole planetary system in general, and so on. It is also these forces which bring man back again to the earth. Thus before he is born he is living in connection with the collective whole of stellar space.
[ 14 ] According to the way in which a man stands individually related to the cosmic system, so are the forces directed which lead him to this or that set of parents and to this or that locality. The impetus, the inclination to incarnate here or there, in this or that family, in this or that people, at this or that time, depends on how the person was organically connected with the cosmos before birth. [ 15 ] In former times, in that territory where the German tongue was spoken, a specially apt expression was used to indicate a person's entrance into the world through birth. When a person was born, people said that in such and such a place he had “become young” (junggeworden). Therein lies an unconscious reference to the fact that man in the time between death and a new birth continues at first to be subject to the powers which had made him old in a previous incarnation, but that before birth there come iii their place such forces as again make him “young.” Thus Goethe in “Faust” still uses the expression “to become young in Nebelland.”—Nebelland being the old name for mediaeval Germany.
[ 16 ] The truth underlying the casting of a horoscope is that those who know these things can read the forces which determine a person's physical existence. A certain horoscope is allotted to a person because, within it, those forces find expression which have led him into being. If for example in the horoscope Mars stands over Aries (the Ram), this signifies that certain of the Aries forces are not allowed to pass through Mars, and are weakened. Thus is a man put into his place within physical existence, and it is in accordance with his horoscope that he guides himself before entering upon earthly existence. This subject, which in our times seems so much a thing of chance, should not be touched upon without our attention being called to the fact that nearly everything practised in this connection today is simply dilettantism. It is pure superstition, and for the external world the true science of these matters has been for the most part completely lost. Consequently, the principles expressed here are not to be judged according to that which nowadays frequently leads a questionable existence under the name Astrology.
[ 17 ] Now it is the active forces of the stellar world that impel a man into physical incarnation; and when clairvoyant consciousness observes a person, it can perceive in his organization how this has resulted from the cooperation of cosmic forces. We may now attempt to illustrate this hypothetically, but in a form corresponding entirely with clairvoyant observation. [ 18 ] If a person's physical brain were extracted and its construction clairvoyantly examined, so that it might be seen how certain parts are situated in certain places and how they send out appendages, it would be found that each individual's brain is different from that of every other. No two people have brains alike. Let us imagine further that such a brain could be photographed in its complete structure so that one would have a kind of half sphere in which every detail was visible. In a series of such pictures each would be different according to the brains of the different individuals. And if one were to photograph a person's brain at the moment of birth and then photograph also the heavens lying exactly over the person's birthplace, this latter picture would be of exactly the same appearance as that of the human brain. As certain centers were arranged in the latter, so would the stars be in the photograph of the heavens. Man has within himself a picture of the heavens, and every man has a different one, according to whether he was born in this place or that, and at this or that time. This is one indication that man is born from out of the whole cosmos.
[ 19 ] When we keep this clearly in view we can rise to the idea of how the macrocosm manifests itself in each separate individual, and then, starting from this point, we can attain a conception of how it showed itself in the Christ. But if we were to imagine the Christ after the Baptism of John as though the macrocosm had then been living in Him in the same way as in other people, we should be mistaken.
[ 20 ] Let us first consider Jesus of Nazareth. His conditions of existence were quite exceptional. At the beginning of our era two boys were born and named Jesus. The one came through the Nathan line of the house of David,1Luke III, 23–38. the other through the Solomon line of the same house.2Matthew 1, 1–17. See also Appendix. These two children were not born quite at the same time, but nearly so. In the Jesus descended from Solomon, described in the Gospel of St. Matthew, there was incarnated the same individuality who had formerly lived on the earth as Zarathustra, so that in this Child Jesus there appears the re-incarnated Zarathustra or Zoroaster. The individuality of Zarathustra grew up in this Child until, as St. Matthew says, His twelfth year. In that year, Zarathustra left the body of this Child and passed over into that of the other Child Jesus Whom the Gospel of St. Luke describes. In consequence of this the latter Child became suddenly quite different. The parents were astonished when they found Him in Jerusalem in the temple after the spirit of Zarathustra had entered into Him. This is intimated when it is said that the Child, after having been lost and found again in the temple, so spake that his parents did not recognize Him. They only knew Him, the Child descended from Nathan, as He had been up to this time. But when He began to reason with the doctors in the temple, it was possible for Him to speak as He did because the spirit of Zarathustra had come into Him. Until the thirtieth year did the spirit of Zarathustra live in the Jesus who was descended from the Nathan line of the house of David. In this body He ripened to a still higher perfection. The following remark must here be added: as regards this personality in which the spirit of Zarathustra now lived, an extraordinary feature was that into his astral body the Buddha rayed forth his impulses from the spiritual worlds.
[ 21 ] The oriental tradition is correct which says that the Buddha was born as a “Bodhisattva” and only during his time on earth, in his twenty-ninth year, rose to the dignity of a Buddha. [ 22 ] When the Gautama Buddha was a little child, the Indian sage Asita came weeping into the royal palace of his father, Suddhodana. He wept because, as a seer, he knew that this King's son would become the Buddha, and because as an old man, he felt that he would no longer be living to see that event take place. Now this sage was born again in the time of Jesus of Nazareth. It is he who is brought before us in the Gospel of St. Luke as the priest of the temple who saw the revelation of the Buddha in the Child Jesus descended from Nathan. And seeing this he was able to say: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace for I have seen my Master,” What he had not been able to see previously in India, he saw through the astral body of the Boy Jesus, Who comes before us in St. Luke's Gospel: the Bodhisattva become Buddha.
[ 23 ] All this was necessary in order that that body might be produced which received the baptism of St. John in the Jordan. At that moment the individuality of Zarathustra left the threefold body, the physical, the etheric and the astral body of that Jesus Who had grown up in so complicated a manner, in order that the spirit of Zarathustra might be able to dwell in Him. The reincarnated Zarathustra had to pass through two possibilities of development which were given in the two Jesus children. Thus there stood before the Baptist the body of Jesus of Nazareth and in it from that time onwards there acted the cosmic individuality of the Christ. Now, as we have shown, in the case of any other human being, the cosmic spiritual laws work upon him only in so far as they give him a start in earth-life. Afterwards there appear in opposition to these laws, others which arise out of the conditions of the earth-evolution. In the case of the Christ-Jesus, after the baptism of John the cosmic-spiritual forces alone remained effective without being influenced in any way through the laws of the earth evolution.
[ 24 ] Thus in Palestine during the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked on earth as Christ-Jesus—during the three last years of his life, from his thirtieth to his thirty-third year, the entire Being of the cosmic Christ was acting uninterruptedly upon Him, and was working into Him. The Christ stood always under the influence of the entire cosmos—He made no step without this working of the cosmic forces into and in Him. That which here took place in Jesus of Nazareth was a continual realization of the horoscope, for at every moment there occurred that which otherwise happens only at a person's birth. This could be so only because the whole body of Jesus descended from Nathan had remained open to the influence of the sum total of the forces of the cosmic spiritual hierarchies which direct our earth. If thus the whole spirit of the cosmos worked into the Christ Jesus, who was it that went, for example, to Capernaum? He who went about as a being upon the earth appeared quite like any other man. The forces active within Him, however, were the cosmic forces, coming from the sun and stars; and these directed His Body. And it was always in accordance with the collective Being of the whole Universe with whom the earth is in harmony, that all which the Christ Jesus did took place. It is because of this that in the case of the acts of the Christ-Jesus there is so often some slight hint given in the Gospels about the relative grouping of the stars at the time. We read in St. John's Gospel how the Christ finds His first disciples. There we are told: “It was about the tenth hour,” because in this fact the spirit of the whole cosmos found expression in conformity with the appointed moment of time. Such intimations are less clear in the other Gospel passages, but he who can truly read the Gospels finds them everywhere. [ 25 ] From this point of view also the miracles are to be judged. Let us take one passage—the one that runs thus: “When the sun was set, they brought the sick unto Him, and He healed them.” What does that mean? The evangelist is drawing attention to the fact that this healing was connected with the whole position of the constellations and that, at the time in question, the constellations throughout the heavens stood as they only could have when the sun had set The meaning is that, at the time, the requisite healing forces could make themselves felt after sun-set, and the Christ Jesus is represented as the intermediary Who brought the sick into connection with the forces of the cosmos which, just at that time, could work curatively. These forces were the same as those which worked as Christ in Jesus. It was through the presence of Christ that the healing took place. Only thus could the sick person be exposed to the healing forces of the cosmos which could only work as they did when they were in the right relationship to time and space. Thus these forces worked on the sick person through their representative, the Christ. [ 26 ] But it was only just during the time of Christ on earth that they could so work. It was only then that such a connection existed between the cosmic constellations and the powers of the human organism that for certain illnesses, healing could intervene when through the instrumentality of the Christ Jesus the cosmic grouping of the same forces was able to work on men. A repetition of this relationship in the evolution of the cosmos and the earth is as little possible as is a second incarnation of the Christ in a human body. Regarded in this way, the life of the Christ Jesus appears as the earthly expression of a definite connection between the cosmos and the forces of man. The tarrying of a sick person by the side of Christ means that through the proximity of Christ this sick person found himself in such a relation with the macrocosm that the latter could work upon him curatively.
[ 27 ] Herewith the points of view have been stressed which enable us to discern how the guidance of humanity has come under the influence of the Christ. The other forces, however, which had remained behind in the Egypto-Chaldæic times worked on side by side with those that are permeated by the Christ. This is evident even in the attitude frequently adopted today towards the Gospels. Literary works appear in which great pains are taken to show that the Gospels can be understood through an astrological interpretation. The greatest opponents of the Gospels employ this astrological interpretation to prove, for example, that the way taken by the Archangel Gabriel from Elizabeth to Mary signifies merely the progress of the sun from the constellation of Virgo to another. This, in a certain sense, is correct, except that these thoughts were poured in this manner into our age by the beings who had remained behind during the Egypto-Chaldæic period. Under such an influence people are induced to a make-belief that the Gospels present only allegories in the place of definite cosmic relations. The truth really is that in the Christ the whole cosmos finds expression. Therefore one can express the life of the Christ by connecting its separate events with the cosmic relations which work into earth existence unceasingly through the Christ. A right understanding of this matter will thus lead to a full recognition of the Christ as having lived on earth. Whereas if the interpretation were true that the Christ life as expressed in the Gospels is only a matter of constellations being treated allegorically, then we should have to conclude that there was no real earthly Christ at all.
[ 28 ] If a comparison were to be used, we might think of each human being as represented by a spherical mirror—which, if it were set up, would give pictures of all its surroundings. Let us suppose we were to trace with a pencil the outline of all that is shown from the surroundings. We could then take the mirror and carry the picture about with us wherever we went. Let this be a symbol for the fact that when a person is born, he brings with him a copy of the cosmos in himself, and afterwards carries about with him all through his life the effect of this one picture. The mirror might, however, be left untouched by the pencil, so that wherever the person carried it, it would depict the immediate surroundings. It then would always be giving a picture of the collective environment. This would be a symbol of the Christ from the baptism of St. John up to the Mystery of Golgotha. That which, in the case of any other person, passes into his earthly existence only at birth, flowed into the Christ-Jesus at every moment. And when the Mystery of Golgotha was consummated, that which had been radiating from the cosmos passed over into the spiritual substance of the earth, and has from that time forward been united with the spirit of the earth.
[ 29 ] When St. Paul became clairvoyant before Damascus, he could recognize that That Which had formerly been in the cosmos has passed over into the spirit of the earth. Of this every one can be convinced who can bring his soul into such a condition that he can have the same experience as had St. Paul. It is in the twentieth century that those people will first appear who will have St. Paul's experience of the Christ event in a spiritual way.
[ 30 ] Whereas up to our times this event could be experienced only by such persons as had gained clairvoyant powers by means of an esoteric training; hereafter to look upon the Christ in the spiritual sphere surrounding the earth will be possible for the advanced powers of the soul in the course of the natural evolution of humanity. This—as a repetition of the experience of the event before Damascus—will be possible for some people from a certain point of time in the twentieth century. The number of such people will afterwards increase, until in the distant future, it will be a natural faculty of the human soul.
[ 31 ] With the entrance of Christ into the evolution of the earth an entirely new impulse or direction was given to this evolution. External facts of history also express this. In the early times of post-Atlantean evolution men knew very well that above them there was not merely a physical Mars, but that what they saw as Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn was the expression of a spiritual being. In later times this perception was completely forgotten. The heavenly bodies became, according to human ideas, mere bodies to be estimated according to their physical condition. In the Middle Ages people saw in connection with the stars what only the eyes can see—the sphere of Venus, the sphere of the Sun, the sphere of Mars and the other planets, up to the sphere of the fixed stars. Then came the eighth sphere like a solid blue wall behind. Later Copernicus appeared and broke down the idea that only that which is perceptible to the senses can be authoritative. The modern physical scientists may indeed say: “It is madness to declare that the world is Maya, or illusion, and that you must look into a spiritual world in order to see the truth, for in spite of all you say true science is that which relies on the senses and records what these senses tell.” But when did astronomers rely only on the senses? Surely at the very time when that astronomical science was dominant which is attacked by the science of today! It was at that time when Copernicus began to think out what exists in the cosmic space beyond the evidence of the senses, that our modern astronomy as a science began. And so it is in every domain of science. Wherever science, in the most modern sense of the word, has arisen, it has done so in opposition to what had been apparent to the senses. When Copernicus declared “what you see is Maya or deception; rely on what you cannot see”—that was the moment when the science came into being which is recognized as such today. It might thus be said to the representative of modern science “your science itself only became ‘science’ when it was no longer willing to depend upon the senses only.”
[ 32 ] Giordano Bruno came as philosophical interpreter of the teachings of Copernicus. He led the gaze of man out into cosmic space, and announced that what people had called the limitations of space, what they had placed there as the eighth sphere limiting everything in space—was in reality no limitation; it was Maya, or illusion; for an infinite number of worlds had been poured forth into cosmic space. That which was formerly considered to be the boundary of space was shown to be only the boundary of the sense-world of man, and if we direct our gaze beyond the sense-world, we shall no longer see the world only as known to the senses, but we shall also recognize Infinity.
[ 33 ] From this it is apparent that in the course of human evolution man originally started from a spiritual view of the cosmos and in time lost it. In its place there came a mere sense-perception of the world. Then there came into evolution the Christ Impulse. Through this, mankind was led to stamp the spiritual view once more upon the materialistic. At that moment when Giordano Bruno burst the fetters of sense illusion, the Christ evolution was so far advanced that the soul power which bad been kindled by the Christ Impulse could then become active within him. An indication is thus given of the whole significance of the manner in which the life of Christ penetrates all human evolution, at the mere beginning of which humanity stands today.
[ 34 ] To what then does spiritual science now aspire? [ 35 ] It completes the work begun for external science by Giordano Bruno and others in that it says: that which external science is able to perceive is Maya, or illusion. Just as formerly one looked to the “eighth sphere” and thought that space was thereby bounded, so contemporary human thought believes that man is shut in or enclosed between birth and death. Spiritual science, however, expands man's vision by directing his attention out and beyond the limits of birth and death.
[ 36 ] There is a continuous chain in human evolution which such ideas as these make us recognize. And in the true sense of the words, that which resulted in the conquest of sense illusion through Copernicus and Giordano Bruno proceeded from the inspiration arising from that spiritual current now working in the modern spiritual science of anthroposophy. What one might call the newer esotericism worked in a mysterious manner on Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler and others. Those therefore who now base their thought on foundations laid by Giordano Bruno and Copernicus and do not wish to accept anthroposophy, are unfaithful to their own traditions in desiring to hold fast to sense illusion. As Giordano Bruno forced a way through the blue firmament of heaven, even so does spiritual science break down the barriers of birth and death for man by showing how he originates from out of the macrocosm, lives in a physical existence, passes through death, and reenters macrocosmic life. And what we see in a limited degree in each individual meets us unrestrictedly and in a larger sense in the representative of the spirit of the cosmos—in the Christ-Jesus. Once and once only could that impulse be given which the Christ gave. Once only could the whole cosmos be thus reflected, for the conjunction of the stars which then took place can never be repeated. In order to give an impulse to the earth, this conjunction was obliged to work through a human body. As it is true that this same grouping cannot occur a second time, so it is equally true that the Christ was only once incarnated. Only if one did not know that the Christ is the representative of the whole universe and only if it were impossible to win one's way to this Christ-Idea, the elements for which are given through spiritual science—only then would it be possible to maintain that Christ could appear more than once upon the earth.
[ 37 ] Thus we see how an idea of Christ arises out of the new spiritual science, which reveals to man in a new form his connection with the whole macrocosm. Certainly, in order to gain a true knowledge of the Christ, those inspiring forces are absolutely necessary which are now being bestowed by the same super-human beings who formerly guided the Egypto-Chaldæic epoch and who have now put themselves under the Christ. There is need of a new inspiration of this kind, of an inspiration which the great esoteric teachers of the middle ages had prepared from the thirteenth century onwards, and which from this time forth must ever come more and more into publicity. When man, according to the meaning of this science, prepares his soul aright for the knowledge of the spirit-world, he can then hear clairaudiently and he can see clairvoyantly what is revealed by the old Chaldæic and Egyptian angel beings who are now again acting as spiritual leaders under the guidance of the Christ. That which humanity will some time later actually gain thereby, could only be prepared in the first centuries of Christianity and up to our times.
Consequently we may say that in the future there will live in the hearts of men an idea of the Christ incomparable in greatness with anything which humanity has so far recognized. That which arose as a first impulse through the Christ, and has lived as an idea of Him up to the present time—even in the case of the best representatives of the Christ-principle—is only a preparation for the true understanding of the Christ. It would be strange indeed if, against those who in the West gave expression in such a way as this to the Christ-idea, it were brought as a reproach that they do not stand on the foundation of western Christian tradition. But it is quite possible, for this western tradition does not by any means suffice to help us to comprehend the Christ of the near future.
[ 38 ] From the hypothesis of western esotericism we can see the spiritual direction of humanity gradually flowing into what may be in a real, true sense called the guidance which comes from the Christ-impulse. That which is appearing as the new esotericism will flow slowly into the hearts of men, and the spiritual guidance of men and of humanity will ever more and more be consciously seen in such a light. We realize within ourselves how at first the Christ-principle flowed into the hearts of men because the Christ had gone about Palestine in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. Because men by that time were gradually surrendering themselves to reliance on the world of sense, they could receive the impulse which corresponded to their perception. Afterwards that same impulse so worked through the inspiration of the new esotericism that such spirits as Nicholas of Cusa, Copernicus, and Galileo were inspired, and Copernicus, for instance, was enabled to make this assertion: “That which is evident to the senses cannot teach the truth about solar systems; if we want to find the truth we must investigate behind sense appearances” At that time men, even spirits like Giordano Bruno, were not yet ripe enough to join consciously to the new esoteric stream. The spirit of the movement had to work in them unconsciously. Yet powerful and magnificent was the announcement of Giordano Bruno: “When a human being enters into existence by means of birth, then it is something macrocosmic that concentrates itself as a monad; and when a human being passes through death the monad spreads itself out again; that which was enclosed within the body spreads itself out in the cosmos in order to draw itself together again in other stages of existence, and again to spread itself out.” There Bruno gave expression to mighty conceptions which, even if expressed in stammering tongue, were in entire accord with the sense of the new esotericism.
[ 39 ] The spiritual influences which lead humanity need not work in such a way that man is always conscious of them. For example, they put Galileo in the cathedral of Pisa. Thousands had seen the old church lamp there, but they had not seen it as did Galileo. He saw the church lamp swinging; compared the time of its oscillation with the beat of his own pulse; found that the church lamp swung in a regular rhythm resembling his pulse-beat; and from this discovered the laws of the pendulum in the sense of modern physics. Anyone acquainted with contemporary physics knows that this science would not be possible without Galileo's principle. In this way the force was then working which is now appearing as spiritual science; Galileo was placed in the cathedral of Pisa before the oscillating church lamp, and modern physics gained its principles. In such a mysterious way do the guiding spiritual forces of humanity perform their work.
[ 40 ] We are now approaching the time when people are to become conscious of these guiding powers. We shall always come to a better and better understanding of what has to happen in the future if we rightly understand what is working inspirationally as the new esotericism. We must recognize that those same spiritual beings indicated as their gods by the ancient Egyptians when the Greeks asked them about their teachers, are now again assuming control through having placed themselves under the leadership of the Christ Ever more and more will men feel how they can cause to reappear in a brighter lustre, in a nobler style and on a higher level, that which was pre-Christian. The consciousness necessary for the present time, which must be an intensified consciousness, ought to give us a feeling of our high duty and great responsibility in reference to the recognition of the spiritual world. This can only penetrate our souls when we have recognized, in the sense indicated, the task of spiritual science.
Kapitel III
[ 1 ] Entsprechend den vorangehenden Ausführungen kann man die geistige Leitung im Werdegang der Menschheitsentwickelung bei den Wesenheiten suchen, welche ihre Menschheit während der vorigen Verkörperung des Erdenplaneten - während der alten Mondenzeit - durchgemacht haben. Dieser Leitung stellt sich eine andere entgegen, die erstere hemmend und doch im Hemmen in gewisser Beziehung wieder fördernd, welche von den Wesenheiten ausgeübt wird, die während der Mondenzeit ihre eigene Entwickelung nicht vollendet haben. Damit ist hingedeutet auf die führenden Wesenheiten, welche unmittelbar über dem Menschen stehen. Auf diejenigen sowohl, welche vorwärts führen wie auch auf diejenigen, welche dadurch fördern, daß sie Widerstände hervorrufen und dadurch die Kräfte, welche durch die vorwärtsbewegenden Wesenheiten entstehen, in sich erstarken, festigen, ihnen Gewicht und Eigennatur verleihen. Im Sinne der christlichen Esoterik kann man diese zwei Klassen von übermenschlichen Wesen Engel (Angeloi) nennen. Über diesen Wesenheiten stehen in der Rangordnung nach aufwärts diejenigen der höheren Hierarchien, der Archangelol, Archai und so weiter, die sich ebenfalls an der Menschheitsführung beteiligen. Innerhalb der Klassen dieser verschiedenen Wesenheiten gibt es alle möglichen Abstufungen in bezug auf die Vollkommenheitsgrade. Es gibt zum Beispiel in der Kategorie der Angeloi beim Beginn der gegenwärtigen Erdentwickelung höchststehende und weniger hochstehende. Die ersteren sind über das Mindestmaß ihrer Mondentwickelung weit hinausgeschritten. Zwischen diesen und jenen, welche dieses Mindestmaß eben erreicht hatten, als die Mondentwickelung zu Ende war und die Erdentwickelung begann, stehen alle möglichen Abstufungen. Gemäß diesen Abstufungen geschieht das Eingreifen der betreffenden Wesenheiten in die Führung der Erdentwickelung der Menschheit. So haben in der ägyptischen Kulturentwickelung die Führung Wesen ausgeübt, welche auf dem Monde vollkommener geworden waren als diejenigen, welche in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit Führer waren. Und diese waren wieder vollkommener als diejenigen, welche in der gegenwärtigen Zeit führen. In der ägyptischen beziehungsweise griechischen Zeit haben die später in die Führung eingreifenden sich mittlerweile selbst ausgebildet und sich so zur Führung der weiter gekommenen Kultur reif gemacht.
[ 2 ] Man unterscheidet von der Zeit der großen atlantischen Katastrophe ab sieben aufeinanderfolgende Kulturepochen: die erste ist die uralt-indische Kulturperiode, darauf folgt die urpersische, 1Mit «urpersisch» wird hier nicht das bezeichnet, was in der gewöhnlichen Geschichte «persisch» heißt, sondern eine alte asiatische vorgeschichtliche (iranische) Kultur, welche auf dem Boden sich entwickelte, auf dem sich später das persische Reich ausdehnte. die dritte ist die ägyptisch-chaldäische, die vierte die griechisch-lateinische und die fünfte ist unsere eigene, die etwa seit der Zeit des zwölften Jahrhunderts sich allmählich herausgebildet hat, und in der wir noch mitten drinnen stehen. Allerdings bereiten sich in unserer Zeit schon die ersten Tatsachen vor, welche zur sechsten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode hinüberführen werden. Denn die einzelnen Entwickelungszeiten greifen übereinander. Auf die sechste Epoche wird dann noch eine siebente folgen. Genauer angesehen, erweist sich nun für die Menschheitsführung das Folgende. Nur für die dritte Kulturperiode, die ägyptisch-chaldäische, waren die Engel (oder niedern dhyanischen Wesenheiten im Sinne der orientalischen Mystik) die in einem gewissen Grade selbständigen Führer der Menschen. Für die urpersische Zeit war es schon nicht so. Da unterstanden die Engel in einem viel höheren Maße als während der ägyptischen Zeit einer höheren Führung und richteten alles so ein, wie es den Impulsen der nächsthöheren Hierarchie entsprach, so daß alles zwar unter der Leitung der Engel stand, aber diese selbst fügten sich wieder der Anordnung der Erzengel oder der Archangeloi. Und in der indischen Kulturperiode, in welcher das nachatlantische Leben eine solche Höhe in geistiger Beziehung hatte, wie nachher vorläufig nicht wieder - eine natürliche Höhe unter der Leitung der großen menschlichen Lehrer -, da unterstanden die Erzengel selber wieder in ähnlichem Sinne der Führung der Archai oder Urbeginne.
[ 3 ] Verfolgt man also von der indischen Zeit durch die urpersische und ägyptisch-chaldäische Kultur hindurch die Entwickelung der Menschheit, so kann man sagen, daß sich gewisse Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien sozusagen immer mehr und mehr zurückzogen von der unmittelbaren Leitung der Menschheit. Und wie war es in der vierten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode, der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit? Da war der Mensch in gewisser Richtung ganz selbständig geworden. Die führenden übermenschlichen Wesenheiten griffen zwar in den Werdegang der Menschheitsentwickelung ein; allein ihre Führung war so, daß die Zügel möglichst wenig angezogen waren, daß die Geistes-Führer für sich ebensoviel durch die Taten der Menschen hatten, wie diese durch jene. Daher jene eigentümliche, ganz «menschliche» Kultur in der griechisch-römischen Zeit, in welcher der Mensch völlig auf sich selbst gestellt ist.
[ 4] Alle Eigentümlichkeiten in der Kunst, im staatlichen Leben während der griechischen und römischen Zeit sind darauf zurückzuführen, daß der Mensch sich sozusagen selbst in seiner Eigenart ausleben sollte. Wenn wir also in die ältesten Zeiten der Kulturentwickelung zurückblicken, finden wir führende Wesenheiten, welche ihre Entwickelung bis zum Menschen in früheren planetarischen Zuständen abgeschlossen hatten. Die vierte nachatlantische Kulturepoche war dazu da, den Menschen am allermeisten zu prüfen. Daher war das auch die Zeit, in welcher sich die ganze geistige Führung der Menschheit in einer neuen Art einrichten mußte. Die Menschen der Gegenwart leben in der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturepoche. Die führenden Wesenheiten dieser Epoche gehören derselben Hierarchie an, die bei den alten Ägyptern und Chaldäern herrschend war. In der Tat beginnen dieselben Wesenheiten, welche damals geführt haben, wieder in unserer Zeit ihre Tätigkeiten. Es ist angeführt worden, daß gewisse Wesenheiten während der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Kultur zurückgeblieben sind, und daß man diese in den materialistischen Gefühlen und Empfindungen unserer Zeit findet.
[ 5 ] Der Fortschritt, sowohl der vorwärtsführenden wie der hemmenden Wesenheiten, die zur Klasse der Engel (oder niedern dhyanischen Wesenheiten) gehören, besteht darin, daß sie bei den Ägyptern und Chaldäern durch diejenigen Eigenschaften Führer sein konnten, welche sie selber in uralten Zeiten errungen hatten, daß sie sich aber durch ihre Führerarbeit auch weiter entwickelten. So treten die fortschreitenden Angeloi in die Leitung der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturentwickelung mit Fähigkeiten ein, welche sie sich während der dritten, der ägyptisch-chaldäischen, erworben haben. Sie eignen sich nun durch diesen ihren Fortschritt ganz besondere Fähigkeiten an. Sie machen sich nämlich geeignet, in sich die Kräfte einfließen zu lassen, welche von dem wichtigsten Wesen der ganzen Erdenentwickelung ausgehen. Auf sie wirkt die Kraft Christi. Diese Kraft wirkt nämlich nicht nur durch Jesus von Nazareth auf die physische Welt, sondern sie wirkt auch in den geistigen Welten auf die übermenschlichen Wesen. Der Christus existiert nicht nur für die Erde, sondern auch für diese Wesenheiten. Dieselben Wesenheiten, welche die alte ägyptisch-chaldäische Kultur geführt haben, standen damals nicht unter der Leitung des Christus, sondern sie haben sich erst seit der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit der Führung des Christus unterstellt. Und darin besteht ihr Fortschritt, so daß sie jetzt unsere fünfte nachatlantische Kulturperiode unter dem Einflusse des Christus leiten; sie folgen ihm in den höheren Welten. Und das Zurückbleiben derjenigen Wesenheiten, von denen gesagt worden ist, daß sie als hemmende Kräfte wirken, rührt davon her, daß diese sich nicht unterstellt haben der Führung des Christus, so daß sie unabhängig von dem Christus weiter wirken. Daher wird immer deutlicher und deutlicher folgendes in der Kultur der Menschheit hervortreten. Es wird eine materialistische Strömung geben, die unter der Führung der zurückgebliebenen ägyptisch-chaldäischen Geister steht; sie wird einen materialistischen Charakter haben. Das meiste, was man die heutige materialistische Wissenschaft in allen Ländern nennen kann, steht unter diesem Einfluß. Aber daneben macht sich eine andere Strömung geltend, die darauf hinzielt, daß der Mensch bei allem, was er tut, endlich das finden wird, was man das Christus-Prinzip nennen kann. Es gibt heute zum Beispiel Menschen, welche sagen: Unsere Welt besteht im letzten Grunde aus Atomen. Wer flößt denn dem Menschen die Gedanken ein, daß die Welt aus Atomen bestehe? Das sind die während der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit zurückgebliebenen übermenschlichen Engelwesenheiten.
[ 6 ] Was werden nun die Wesenheiten lehren, welche ihr Ziel im alten ägyptisch-chaldäischen Kulturgebiet erreicht haben, und die damals den Christus kennengelernt haben? Sie werden dem Menschen andere Gedanken einflößen können als die, daß es nur stoffliche Atome gebe; denn sie werden den Menschen lehren können, daß bis in die kleinsten Teile der Welt hinein die Substanz von dem Geiste des Christus durchzogen ist. Und so sonderbar es erscheinen mag: Künftig werden Chemiker und Physiker kommen, welche Chemie und Physik nicht so lehren, wie man sie heute lehrt unter dem Einfluß der zurückgebliebenen ägyptisch-chaldäischen Geister, sondern welche lehren werden: Die Materie ist aufgebaut in dem Sinne, wie der Christus sie nach und nach angeordnet hat! - Man wird den Christus bis in die Gesetze der Chemie und Physik hinein finden. Eine spirituelle Chemie, eine spirituelle Physik ist das, was in der Zukunft kommen wird. Heute erscheint das ganz gewiß vielen Leuten als eine Träumerei oder Schlimmeres. Aber was oft die Vernunft der kommenden Zeiten ist, das ist für die vorhergehenden Torheit.
[ 7 ] Die Faktoren, welche in diesem Sinne in die menschliche Kulturentwickelung eingreifen, sind schon jetzt für den genauer Zusehenden zu bemerken. Ein solcher kennt aber auch ganz gut, was vom gegenwärtigen wissenschaftlichen oder philosophischen Standpunkt aus mit einem scheinbaren Recht gegen diese vermeintliche Torheit einzuwenden ist.
[ 8 ] Von solchen Voraussetzungen aus versteht man auch, was die führenden übermenschlichen Wesenheiten voraus haben vor den Menschen. Die Menschen in der nachatlantischen Zeit haben den Christus in der vierten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode, in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit kennengelernt. Denn während des Ablaufes dieser Kulturepoche fällt das Christus-Ereignis in die Entwickelung hinein. Da lernten die Menschen den Christus kennen. Die übermenschlichen leitenden Wesenheiten haben ihn während der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit kennengelernt und sich zu ihm emporgearbeitet. Sie mußten dann während der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit die Menschen ihrem eigenen Schicksal überlassen, um dann später wieder in die Menschheitsentwickelung einzugreifen. Und wenn man heute Theosophie treibt, so bedeutet das nichts anderes, als die Anerkennung der Tatsache, daß die übermenschlichen Wesenheiten, welche die Menschheit geleitet haben, jetzt ihre Führerschaft so fortsetzen, daß sie sich selber unter der Führung des Christus befinden. - So ist es auch mit andern Wesenheiten.
[ 9 ] In der urpersischen Zeit waren die Erzengel an der Führung der Menschheit beteiligt. Sie haben nun noch früher sich dem Christus unterstellt als die im Rang unter ihnen befindlichen Wesenheiten. Von Zarathustra kann gesagt werden, daß er seine Anhänger und sein Volk auf die Sonne hinwies und etwa sagte: In der Sonne lebt der große Geist Ahura Mazdao, der hernieder kommen wird zur Erde! - Denn die Wesenheiten aus der Region der Erzengel, welche den Zarathustra führten, wiesen ihn hin auf den großen Sonnenführer, der damals noch nicht auf die Erde heruntergekommen war, sondern erst den Weg dahin angetreten hatte, um später in die Erdentwickelung unmittelbar einzugreifen. Und die führenden Wesenheiten, welche den großen Lehrern der Inder vorstanden, haben diese gewiesen auf den Christus der Zukunft; denn es ist ein Irrtum, wenn man meint, diese Lehrer hätten den Christus nicht geahnt. Sie haben gesagt, daß er «über ihrer Sphäre» sei, daß sie ihn «nicht erreichen könnten».
[ 10 ] Wie nun die Engel in unserer fünften Kulturperiode es sind, die den Christus heruntertragen in unsere geistige Entwickelung, so werden in der sechsten Kulturperiode diejenigen Wesen aus der Klasse der Erzengel die Kultur führen, welche die urpersische Kulturperiode geleitet haben. Und die Geister des Urbeginnes, die Archai, welche die Menschheit während der alten indischen Zeit leiteten, sie werden unter dem Christus in der siebenten Kulturepoche die Menschheit zu lenken haben. In der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit war der Christus heruntergestiegen aus geistigen Höhen und hat sich geoffenbart im fleischlichen Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth. Er ist da heruntergestiegen bis in die physische Welt. In der nächsthöheren Welt wird er zu finden sein, wenn die Menschheit dazu reif geworden sein wird. Nicht in der physischen Welt kann er in Zukunft zu finden sein, sondern nur in den nächsthöheren Welten. Denn die Menschen werden nicht dieselben geblieben sein; sie werden reifer geworden sein und den Christus finden, wie ihn Paulus durch das Ereignis vor Damaskus, in dieser Beziehung die Zukunft prophetisch voraussehend, in der geistigen Welt gefunden hat. Und wie es in unserer Zeit dieselben großen Lehrer sind, welche schon in der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Kultur die Menschen geleitet haben, so werden sie auch diejenigen sein, welche im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert die Menschen hinaufführen werden zu einem Schauen des Christus, wie ihn Paulus gesehen hat. Sie werden dem Menschen zeigen, wie der Christus nicht nur auf die Erde wirkt, sondern das ganze Sonnensystem durchgeistigt. Und als einen Geist, der geahnt wurde durch das einheitliche Brahman, in das aber erst der richtige Inhalt durch den Christus einziehen kann, werden auch die, welche die wiederverkörperten heiligen Lehrer Indiens in der siebenten Kulturperiode sein werden, den großen gewaltigen Geist verkünden, von dem sie damals gesagt haben, daß er über ihrer Sphäre walte. So wird die Menschheit von Stufe zu Stufe hinaufgeleitet werden in die geistige Welt.
[ 11 ] So über den Christus zu sprechen, wie er Führer ist in den aufeinanderfolgenden Welten auch für die höheren Hierarchien, das lehrt die Wissenschaft, die unter der Signatur des Rosenkreuzes seit dem zwölften, dreizehnten Jahrhundert in unsere Kultur eingetreten ist, und von der gezeigt worden ist, daß sie seit dieser Zeit notwendig geworden ist. Betrachtet man im Sinne dieser Anschauung die Wesenheit näher, welche in Palästina gelebt hat, und welche dann das Mysterium von Golgatha vollbracht hat, so zeigt sich das Folgende.
[ 12 ] Es hat bis in unsere Gegenwart herein viele Vorstellungen über den Christus gegeben. Da gab es zum Beispiel die Vorstellung gewisser christlicher Gnostiker der ersten Jahrhunderte, welche sagten: Der Christus, der gelebt hat in Palästina, war überhaupt in keinem physischen fleischlichen Leib vorhanden; er habe nur einen Scheinleib gehabt, einen Ätherleib, der physisch sichtbar geworden war; so daß also auch sein Kreuzestod kein wirklicher Tod gewesen wäre, sondern nur ein scheinbarer, weil eben nur ein Ätherleib vorhanden war. Dann findet man die verschiedenen Streitigkeiten unter den Anhängern des Christentums, so zum Beispiel den bekannten Streit zwischen den Arianern und Athanasianern und so weiter, und auch bei ihnen die verschiedensten Auslegungen über das, was der Christus eigentlich sei. Bis in unsere Zeit hinein machen sich die Menschen die mannigfaltigsten Vorstellungen über den Christus.
[ 13 ] Die Geisteswissenschaft muß in Christus nicht bloß eine irdische, sondern eine kosmische Wesenheit erkennen. In gewissem Sinne ist der Mensch überhaupt ein kosmisches Wesen. Er lebt ein zweifaches Leben. Ein solches im physischen Leib von der Geburt bis zum Tode, und ein Leben in den geistigen Welten zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Ist nun der Mensch in einem physischen Leibe verkörpert, dann lebt er - weil der physische Leib auf die Daseinsbedingungen und Kräfte der Erde angewiesen ist - in Abhängigkeit von der Erde. Aber der Mensch nimmt nicht nur die Stoffe und Kräfte der Erde in sich auf, sondern er ist eingegliedert in den ganzen physischen Erdorganismus, gehört zu ihm. Wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, dann gehört er nicht den Kräften der Erde an; aber es wäre unrichtig, sich vorzustellen, daß er dann keinerlei Kräften angehörte, sondern er ist dann verbunden mit den Kräften des Sonnensystems und der weiteren Sternensysteme. Er lebt zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt ebenso im Kosmischen, wie er in der Zeit von der Geburt bis zum Tode im Bereich des Irdischen lebt. Er gehört vom Tode bis zur neuen Geburt dem Kosmos an, wie er auf der Erde angehört den Elementen Luft, Wasser, Erde und so weiter. Indem er das Leben durchlebt zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, kommt er in den Bereich der kosmischen Einwirkungen. Von den Planeten kommen nicht etwa bloß die physischen Kräfte, welche die physische Astronomie lehrt, die Schwerkraft und die anderen physischen Kräfte, sondern auch geistige Kräfte. Und mit diesen geistigen Kräften des Kosmos steht der Mensch in Verbindung; und zwar jeder Mensch in einer besonderen Weise, je nach seiner Individualität. Er lebt, wenn er in Europa geboren ist, mit den Wärmeverhältnissen und so weiter in einem anderen Zusammenhange, als wenn er zum Beispiel in Australien geboren wäre. Ebenso steht er im Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt in Beziehung: der eine mehr zu den geistigen Kräften des Mars, der andere mehr zu denen des Jupiter, mancher mehr zu jenen des ganzen Planetensystems überhaupt und so weiter. Und diese Kräfte sind es auch, die den Menschen wieder auf die Erde zurückführen. So lebt er die Zeit vor einer Geburt mit dem gesamten Sternenraum in Verbindung.
[ 14 ] Nach diesen besonderen Verhältnissen eines Menschen zum kosmischen System bestimmen sich auch die Kräfte, die einen Menschen zu diesem oder jenem Elternpaar, in diese oder jene Gegend hinleiten. Der Trieb, der Impuls, sich da oder dort, in diese oder jene Familie, in dieses oder jenes Volk, zu diesem oder jenem Zeitpunkt zu inkarnieren, hängt davon ab, wie der Mensch vor der Geburt in den Kosmos eingegliedert ist.
[ 15 ] Man hatte in der älteren Zeit im deutschen Sprachgebiet einen Ausdruck, der außerordentlich bezeichnend war für den Eintritt der Geburt eines Menschen. Wenn ein Mensch geboren wurde, sagte man, er sei da oder dort jung geworden. Darinnen liegt ein unbewußter Hinweis darauf, daß der Mensch in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt zuerst den Kräften weiter untersteht, welche ihn in der vorhergehenden Verkörperung alt gemacht haben, und daß an deren Stelle dann noch vor der Geburt solche treten, welche ihn wieder «jung» machen. So gebraucht noch Goethe im «Faust» den Ausdruck «im Nebellande jung geworden», wobei «Nebelland» der alte Name für das mittelalterliche Deutschland ist.
[ 16 ] Dem Stellen des Horoskops liegt die Wahrheit zum Grunde, daß der Kenner dieser Dinge die Kräfte lesen kann, nach denen sich der Mensch in das physische Dasein hereinfindet. Einem Menschen ist ein bestimmtes Horoskop zugeordnet, weil in demselben sich die Kräfte ausdrücken, die ihn ins Dasein geführt haben. Wenn so zum Beispiel im Horoskop der Mars über dem Widder steht, so heißt das, daß gewisse Widderkräfte nicht durch den Mars durchgelassen werden, daß sie abgeschwächt werden. Es wird also der Mensch in das physische Dasein hineingestellt, und das Horoskop ist das, wonach er sich richtet, bevor er sich hineinbegibt in das irdische Dasein. Es soll diese Sache, die ja in unserer Gegenwart so gewagt erscheint, nicht berührt werden, ohne darauf aufmerksam zu machen, daß fast alles, was in dieser Richtung jetzt getrieben wird, der reinste Dilettantismus ist - ein wahrer Aberglaube -, und daß für die äußere Welt die wahre Wissenschaft von diesen Dingen zum großen Teile ganz verloren gegangen ist. Man soll daher die prinzipiellen Dinge, welche hier gesagt werden, nicht beurteilen nach dem, was gegenwärtig vielfach als Astrologie ein fragwürdiges Dasein führt.
[ 17 ] Was den Menschen hereintreibt in die physische Verkörperung, das sind die wirksamen Kräfte der Sternenwelt. Wenn das hellseherische Bewußtsein einen Menschen betrachtet, so kann es an seiner Organisation wahrnehmen, wie diese tatsächlich ein Ergebnis des Zusammenwirkens von kosmischen Kräften ist. Dies soll nun in hypothetischer, aber völlig den hellseherischen Wahrnehmungen entsprechender Form veranschaulicht werden.
[ 18 ] Wenn man das physische Gehirn eines Menschen herausnehmen und es hellseherisch untersuchen würde, wie es konstruiert ist, so daß man sehen würde, wie gewisse Teile an bestimmten Stellen sitzen und Fortsätze aussenden, so würde man finden, daß das Gehirn bei jedem Menschen anders ist. Nicht zwei Menschen haben ein gleiches Gehirn. Aber man denke sich nun, man könnte dieses Gehirn mit seiner ganzen Struktur photographieren, so daß man eine Art Halbkugel hätte und alle Einzelheiten daran sichtbar wären, so gäbe dies für jeden Menschen ein anderes Bild. Und wenn man das Gehirn eines Menschen photographierte in dem Moment, in dem er geboren wird, und dann auch den Himmelsraum photographierte, der genau über dem Geburtsort dieses Menschen liegt, so zeigte dieses Bild ganz dasselbe wie das menschliche Gehirn. Wie in diesem gewisse Teile angeordnet sind, so in dem Himmelsbilde die Sterne. Der Mensch hat in sich ein Bild des Himmelsraumes, und zwar jeder ein anderes Bild, je nachdem er da oder dort, in dieser oder jener Zeit geboren ist. Das ist ein Hinweis darauf, daß der Mensch herausgeboren ist aus der ganzen Welt.
[ 19 ] Wenn man dies ins Auge faßt, kann man sich auch zu der Vorstellung erheben, wie das Makrokosmische in dem einzelnen Menschen sich zeigt, und davon ausgehend die Idee gewinnen, wie es sich in dem Christus zeigt. Wenn man sich den Christus nach der Johannes-Taufe so vorstellte, als ob bei ihm das Makrokosmische gelebt hätte wie bei einem anderen Menschen, so bekäme man eine falsche Vorstellung.
[ 20 ] Man betrachte zunächst Jesus von Nazareth. Dieser hatte ganz besondere Daseinsbedingungen. Im Beginne unserer Zeitrechnung sind zwei Jesus-Knaben geboren worden. Der eine stammte aus der nathanischen Linie des Hauses David, der andere aus der salomonischen Linie desselben Hauses. Diese beiden Knaben waren nicht ganz zu gleicher Zeit geboren, aber doch annähernd. In dem salomonischen Jesus-Knaben, den das Matthäus-Evangelium schildert, inkarnierte sich dieselbe Individualität, die früher als Zarathustra auf der Erde gelebt hat, so daß man in diesem Jesus-Kinde des Matthäus-Evangeliums vor sich hat den wiederverkörperten Zarathustra oder Zoroaster. So wächst heran, wie ihn Matthäus schildert, in diesem Jesus-Knaben bis zum zwölften Jahre die Individualität des Zarathustra. In diesem Jahre verläßt Zarathustra den Körper dieses Knaben und geht hinüber in den Körper des anderen Jesus-Knaben, den das Lukas-Evangelium schildert. Daher wird dieses Kind so plötzlich etwas ganz anderes. Die Eltern erstaunen, als sie es in Jerusalem im Tempel wiederfinden, nachdem in dasselbe der Geist des Zarathustra eingetreten war. Das wird dadurch angedeutet, daß der Knabe, nachdem er verlorengegangen war und in Jerusalem im Tempel wiedergefunden wurde, so gesprochen hat, daß ihn die Eltern nicht wiedererkannten, weil sie dieses Kind - den nathanischen Jesus-Knaben - eben nur so kannten, wie er früher war. Aber als es anfing zu den Schriftgelehrten im Tempel zu reden, da konnte es so sprechen, weil in dasselbe der Geist des Zarathustra eingetreten war. - Bis zum dreißigsten Jahre lebte der Geist des Zarathustra in dem Jesus-Jüngling, der aus der nathanischen Linie des Hauses David stammte. In diesem andern Körper reifte er heran zu einer noch höheren Vollendung. Noch ist zu bemerken, daß in diesem andern Körper, in dem jetzt der Geist des Zarathustra lebte, das Eigentümliche war, daß in dessen Astralleib der Buddha seine Impulse aus der geistigen Welt einstrahlen ließ.
[ 21 ] Die morgenländische Tradition ist richtig, daß der Buddha als ein «Bodhisattva» geboren wurde, und erst während seiner Erdenzeit, im neunundzwanzigsten Jahre, zur Buddha-Würde aufgestiegen ist.
[ 22 ] Asiat, der große indische Weise, kam, als der Gotama Buddha ein kleines Kind war, in den Königspalast des Vaters des Buddha weinend. Dies aus dem Grunde, weil er als Seher hat wissen können, daß dieses Königskind der «Buddha» werden wird, und weil er sich als ein alter Mann fühlte, der es nicht mehr erleben wird, wie der Sohn des Suddhodana zum Buddha werden wird. Dieser Weise wurde in der Zeit des Jesus von Nazareth wiedergeboren. Es ist derselbe, der uns im Lukas-Evangelium als jener Tempelpriester vorgeführt wird, welcher in dem nathanischen Jesus-Knaben den Buddha sich offenbaren sieht. Und weil er dies sah, deshalb sagte er: «Laß, Herr, deinen Diener in Frieden fahren, denn ich habe meinen Meister gesehen!» Was er damals in Indien nicht sehen konnte, das sah er durch den Astralleib dieses Jesus-Knaben, der uns als der des Lukas-Evangeliums entgegentritt: den zum Buddha gewordenen Bodhisattva.
[ 23 ] Das alles war notwendig, damit der Leib zustande kommen konnte, welcher dann am Jordan die «Johannes-Taufe» empfing. Damit verließ die Individualität des Zarathustra den dreifachen Leib - physischen Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib - jenes Jesus, der auf so komplizierte Weise herangewachsen war, damit der Geist des Zarathustra in ihm sein konnte. Durch zwei Entwickelungsmöglichkeiten, die in den beiden Jesus-Knaben gegeben waren, mußte hindurchgehen der wiedergeborene Zarathustra. Es stand also dem Täufer gegenüber der Leib des Jesus von Nazareth, und in diesen wirkte nun herein die kosmische Individualität des Christus. Bei einem andern Menschen wirken die kosmisch-geistigen Gesetze nur so, daß sie ihn in das Erdenleben hereinstellen. Dann treten entgegen diesen Gesetzen diejenigen, welche aus den Bedingungen der Erdenentwickelung stammen. Bei dem Christus Jesus blieben nach der Johannes-Taufe die kosmisch-geistigen Kräfte allein wirksam, ohne alle Beeinflussung durch die Gesetze der Erdenentwickelung.
[ 24 ] Während Jesus von Nazareth als Christus Jesus in den letzten drei Jahren seines Lebens vom dreißigsten bis zum dreiunddreißigsten Jahre in Palästina auf der Erde wandelte, wirkte fortwährend die ganze kosmische Christus-Wesenheit in ihn herein. Immer stand der Christus unter dem Einfluß des ganzen Kosmos, er machte keinen Schritt, ohne daß die kosmischen Kräfte in ihn hereinwirkten. Was hier bei dem Jesus von Nazareth sich abspielte, war ein fortwährendes Verwirklichen des Horoskopes; denn in jedem Moment geschah das, was sonst nur bei der Geburt des Menschen geschieht. Das konnte nur dadurch so sein, daß der ganze Leib des nathanischen Jesus beeinflußbar geblieben war gegenüber der Gesamtheit der unsere Erde lenkenden Kräfte der kosmisch-geistigen Hierarchien. Wenn so der ganze Geist des Kosmos in den Christus Jesus hereinwinkte, wer ging dann zum Beispiel nach Kapernaum oder sonstwo hin? Was da als ein Wesen auf der Erde wandelte, das sah allerdings wie ein anderer Mensch aus. Die wirksamen Kräfte darin aber waren die kosmischen Kräfte, die von Sonne und Sternen kamen; sie dirigierten den Leib. Und je nach der Gesamtwesenheit der Welt, mit welcher die Erde zusammenhängt, geschah das, was der Christus Jesus tat. Daher ist so oft die Sternkonstellation für die Taten des Christus Jesus in den Evangelien leise angedeutet. Man lese im Johannes-Evangelium, wie der Christus seine ersten Jünger findet. Da wird angegeben: «Es war aber um die zehnte Stunde» ; weil der Geist des ganzen Kosmos in Gemäßheit der Zeitverhältnisse sich in dieser Tatsache zum Ausdruck brachte. Solche Andeutungen sind an andern Evangelien-Stellen weniger deutlich; wer aber die Evangelien lesen kann, der findet sie überall.
[ 25 ] Von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus sind zum Beispiel die Wunder der Krankenheilungen zu beurteilen. Man fasse nur eine Stelle ins Auge, diejenige, wo es heißt: «Als die Sonne untergegangen war, da brachten sie zu ihm die Kranken, und er heilte sie.» Was heißt das? Da macht der Evangelist darauf aufmerksam, daß diese Heilung mit der ganzen Sternkonstellation zusammenhing, daß eine solche Weltenkonstellation vorhanden war in der entsprechenden Zeit, die nur hat herbeigeführt werden können, als die Sonne untergegangen war. Gemeint ist, daß in dieser Zeit die entsprechenden Heilkräfte sich offenbaren konnten nach Sonnenuntergang. Der Christus Jesus wird als der Mittler dargestellt, welcher den Kranken mit den Kräften des Kosmos zusammenbringt, die gerade zu jener Zeit heilend wirken konnten. Diese Kräfte waren dieselben, die als Christus in Jesus wirkten. Durch Christi Gegenwart geschah die Heilung, weil infolge derselben der Kranke den ihn heilenden Kräften des Kosmos ausgesetzt wurde, die nur unter den betreffenden Raumes- und Zeitverhältnissen so wirken konnten, wie sie wirkten. Die Kräfte des Kosmos wirkten durch ihren Repräsentanten, den Christus, auf den Kranken.
[ 26 ] So aber konnten sie nur gerade zu Christi Erdenzeit wirken. Es bestand nur damals ein solcher Zusammenhang zwischen den kosmischen Konstellationen und den Kräften im Menschheitsorganismus, daß für gewisse Krankheiten eine Heilung eintreten konnte, wenn durch den Christus Jesus die kosmische Konstellation auf den Menschen wirkte. Eine Wiederholung dieser Verhältnisse im kosmischen und Erdenwerden ist ebensowenig möglich wie eine zweite Verkörperung des Christus in einem menschlichen Leibe. So angesehen, erscheint der Wandel des Christus Jesus als der irdische Ausdruck eines bestimmten Verhältnisses des Kosmos zu den Kräften des Menschen. Das Weilen eines Kranken an der Seite Christi bedeutet, daß sich dieser Kranke durch die Nähe Christi in einem solchen Verhältnisse zum Makrokosmos befand, das auf ihn heilend wirken konnte.
[ 27 ] Damit sind die Gesichtspunkte angegeben, die erkennen lassen, wie die Führung der Menschheit unter den Einfluß des Christus sich gestellt hat. Aber die anderen Kräfte, die zurückgeblieben waren in der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit, wirken neben den von Christus durchdrungenen weiter. Dies zeigt sich auch darinnen, wie sich die Gegenwart vielfach zu den Evangelien selbst stellt. Es erscheinen Literaturwerke, die sich in sonderbarer Weise bemühen, zu zeigen, daß man die Evangelien verstehen kann, indem man sie astrologisch auslegt. Die größten Gegner der Evangelien berufen sich auf dieses astrologische Auslegen, so daß zum Beispiel der Weg des Erzengels Gabriel von Elisabeth zu Maria nichts anderes bedeuten solle als das Schreiten der Sonne vom Stembilde der Jungfrau zu einem andern. Das ist etwas, was in gewisser Weise richtig ist; nur werden diese Gedanken unserer Zeit in dieser Art eingeflößt von den Wesenheiten, die während der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit zurückgeblieben sind. Man will unter solchem Einflusse glauben machen, daß die Evangelien nur Allegorien darstellten für gewisse kosmische Verhältnisse. In Wahrheit liegt die Sache so, daß in dem Christus sich der ganze Kosmos ausspricht, daß man also das Christus-Leben ausdrücken kann, indem man für seine einzelnen Vorgänge die kosmischen Verhältnisse anführt, die fortwährend durch Christus in das Erdendasein hereinwirken. So wird eine richtige Auffassung dieser Sache zur vollen Anerkennung des irdisch-lebenden Christus führen müssen, während der charakterisierte Irrtum meint, wenn er gewahr wird, es werde das Christus-Leben in den Evangelien durch kosmische Konstellationen ausgedrückt, dies beweise, daß nur diese Konstellationen allegorisch behandelt werden, und daß es keinen irdisch-realen Christus gegeben habe.
[ 28 ] Wenn ein Vergleich gebraucht werden dürfte, so könnte man sagen: Man denke sich jeden Menschen unter dem Bilde einer spiegelnden Kugel. Wenn man sich einen Kugelspiegel aufgestellt denkt, so gibt er Bilder seiner ganzen Umgebung. Man nehme an, wir führten mit dem Stift die Umrisse nach, welche die ganze Umgebung abbilden. Man könnte dann den Spiegel nehmen und das Abbild überall hintragen. Dies sei ein Sinnbild für die Tatsache, daß, wenn ein Mensch geboren wird, er ein Abbild des Kosmos in sich trägt, und dann die Wirkung dieses einen Bildes durch das ganze Leben mit sich führt. Man könnte nun aber auch den Spiegel so lassen, daß er überall, wohin man ihn trägt, die Umgebung abbildet. Dann gibt er stets ein Bild der gesamten Umgebung. Das wäre das Sinnbild des Christus von der Johannes-Taufe bis zum Mysterium von Golgatha. Was bei einem andern Menschen mit der Geburt in das irdische Dasein einfließt, das floß in den Christus Jesus in jedem Augenblick ein. Und als das Mysterium von Golgatha sich vollzog, ging das, was aus dem Kosmos eingestrahlt war, in die geistige Substanz der Erde über und ist seit jener Zeit mit dem Geiste der Erde verbunden.
[ 29 ] Als Paulus vor Damaskus hellsichtig geworden war, konnte er erkennen, daß in den Geist der Erde übergegangen war, was früher im Kosmos war. Davon wird sich jeder überzeugen können, der seine Seele dazu bringen kann, das Ereignis von Damaskus nachzuleben. Im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert werden die ersten Menschen auftreten, welche das Christus-Ereignis des Paulus in geistiger Weise erleben werden.
[ 30 ] Während bis zu dieser Zeit dieses Ereignis nur diejenigen Menschen erleben konnten, welche sich durch esoterische Schulung hellsichtige Kräfte aneigneten, wird künftig durch die naturgemäße Menschheitsentwickelung den fortschreitenden Seelenkräften das Schauen Christi in der Geistes-Sphäre der Erde möglich sein. Dies wird - als ein Nachleben des Ereignisses von Damaskus - von einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts an einigen Menschen möglich sein; dann wird sich deren Zahl vergrößern, bis es in fernerer Zukunft eine natürliche Fähigkeit der Menschenseele sein wird.
[ 31 ] Mit dem Eintritt des Christus in die Erdenentwickelung war ein völlig neuer Einschlag für diese Entwickelung gegeben. Es zeigen auch die äußeren Tatsachen der Geschichte den Ausdruck davon. In den ersten Zeiten der nachatlantischen Entwickelung haben die Menschen sehr wohl gewußt: über uns ist nicht nur ein physischer Mars; sondern was wir sehen als Mars oder als Jupiter oder Saturn, das ist der Ausdruck für geistige Wesenheiten. Es wurde in der Folgezeit diese Anschauung völlig vergessen. Die Weltenkörper wurden für die menschliche Meinung bloß Körper, die nach physischen Verhältnissen beurteilt wurden. Und im Mittelalter sahen die Menschen von den Sternen nur noch, was die Augen sehen können: die Sphäre der Venus, die Sphäre der Sonne, des Mars und so weiter bis zur Sphäre des Fixsternhimmels; und dann kam die achte Sphäre, wie eine blaue, feste Wand dahinter. Dann kam Kopernikus und schlug Bresche in die Anschauung, daß nur dasjenige maßgebend sein könnte, was die Sinne sehen. - Die heutigen physischen Wissenschafter können gewiß sagen: Da treten so verworrene Köpfe auf, welche behaupten, die Welt ist Maja, ist Illusion, und man müsse in eine geistige Welt hineinschauen, um die Wahrheit zu erkennen, während doch wahre Wissenschaft die ist, welche sich an die Sinne hält und das verzeichnet, was die Sinne sagen. - Wann haben denn die Astronomen nur auf die Sinne vertraut? Damals, als die astronomische Wissenschaft herrschte, die heute bekämpft wird?
[ 32 ] Als Kopernikus anfing, dasjenige auszudenken, was über den Sinnesschein hinaus im Weltenraum vorhanden ist, da fing erst die heutige moderne Astronomie als Wissenschaft an. Und so ist es tatsächlich auf allen Wissensgebieten. Überall, wo im modernsten Sinne Wissenschaft entstanden ist, entstand sie gegen den Sinnesschein. Als Kopernikus erklärte: Was ihr seht, ist Maja, ist Täuschung; verlaßt euch auf das, was ihr nicht sehen könnt!, da wurde das Wissenschaft, was man heute als solche anerkennt. Man könnte also den Vertretern der heutigen Wissenschaft sagen: Eure Wissenschaft ist selber erst dann «Wissenschaft» geworden, als sie sich nicht mehr auf die Sinne verlassen wollte. Es kam Giordano Bruno, als philosophischer Ausdeuter der Lehre des Kopernikus. Er lenkte den Blick hinaus in den Weltenraum und verkündete: Was man die Grenze des Raumes genannt hat, was man als achte Sphäre hingestellt hat, die alles räumlich begrenzt, das ist keine Grenze. Das ist Maja, Schein; denn es ist in den Weltenraum ergossen eine Unzahl von Welten. Was man vorher als Grenze des Raumes glaubte, das wurde nunmehr die Grenze der Sinneswelt der Menschen. Man wende hinaus den Blick über die Sinneswelt: wird man die Welt nicht mehr sehen, wie sie nur die Sinne zeigen, dann wird man auch die Unendlichkeit erkennen.
[ 33 ] Es ist aus diesem ersichtlich, wie der Verlauf der Menschheitsentwickelung so ist, daß der Mensch von einer ursprünglichen geistigen Anschauung des Kosmos ausgegangen ist, und daß er diese im Laufe der Zeiten verloren hat. An ihre Stelle war eine bloß sinnliche Auffassung der Welt getreten. Da trat in die Entwickelung der Christus-Impuls ein. Durch diesen wird die Menschheit dazu geführt, der materialistischen Anschauung wieder das Geistige einzuprägen. In dem Augenblicke, da Giordano Bruno die Fesseln des Sonnenscheins durchbrach, war die Christus-Entwickelung so weit, daß in ihm die Seelenkraft tätig sein konnte, welche durch diesen Christus-Impuls entzündet war. Damit ist auf die ganze Bedeutung des Einlebens des Christus in alle Menschheitsentwickelung hingewiesen. Auf eine Entwickelung, an deren Anfang gegenwärtig im Grunde erst die Menschheit steht.
[ 34 ] Was strebt nun die Geisteswissenschaft an?
[ 35 ] Sie vollendet das Werk, das durch Giordano Bruno und andere geschehen ist für die äußere physische Wissenschaft, indem sie sagt: Maja, Illusion ist das, was die äußere Wissenschaft erkennen kann. Wie man früher bis zur «achten Sphäre» geschaut hat und den Raum begrenzt glaubte, so glaubt das heutige Denken den Menschen eingeschlossen zwischen Geburt und Tod. Die geistige Wissenschaft aber erweitert den Blick über Geburt und Tod hinaus.
[ 36 ] Es ist eine geschlossene Kette in der Menschheitsentwickelung, die sich durch solche Ideen erkennen läßt. Und im wahren Sinne des Wortes ging das, was für den Raum als Überwindung des Sinnenscheins durch Kopernikus und Giordano Bruno ausgeführt worden ist, schon hervor aus den Inspirationen derjenigen geistigen Strömung, welcher auch die neuere Geisteswissenschaft oder Theosophie folgt. Was man die neuere Esoterik nennen kann, das wirkte in geheimnisvoller Art auf Kopernikus, Bruno, Kepler und andere. Und die, welche heute auf dem Boden des Giordano Bruno und des Kopernikus stehen und nicht die Theosophie annehmen wollen, sie werden ihren eigenen Traditionen untreu, indem sie an dem Sinnenschein festhalten wollen. Die Geisteswissenschaft aber zeigt: Wie Giordano Bruno das blaue Himmelsgewölbe durchbrach, so durchbricht diese Wissenschaft die Grenzen von Geburt und Tod für den Menschen, indem sie zeigt, wie der aus dem Makrokosmos stammende Mensch im physischen Dasein lebt, und durch den Tod hindurch wieder in ein Makrokosmische Dasein eintritt. Und was wir in jedem einzelnen Menschen im beschränkten Maße sehen, das tritt uns im großen entgegen in dem Repräsentanten des Kosmos-Geistes, in dem Christus Jesus. Und nur einmal konnte dieser Impuls gegeben werden, den der Christus gab. Nur einmal konnte sich so der ganze Kosmos spiegeln; denn diese Konstellation, wie sie damals vorhanden war, sie kommt nicht wieder. Diese Konstellation mußte durch einen Menschenkörper wirken, damit sie auf der Erde den Impuls geben konnte. So wahr, wie diese selbe Konstellation nicht ein zweites Mal eintritt, so wahr ist der Christus nur einmal zur Verkörperung gekommen. Nur wenn man nicht weiß, daß der Christus der Repräsentant des ganzen Weltalls ist, und man sich nicht durchringen kann zu dieser Christus-Idee, zu der durch die Geisteswissenschaft die Elemente gegeben werden, nur dann kann man behaupten, daß der Christus mehrmals auf Erden erscheinen könne.
[ 37 ] So zeigt sich, wie eine Christus-Idee aus der neueren Geisteswissenschaft oder Theosophie entspringt, welche dem Menschen seine Verwandtschaft mit dem ganzen Makrokosmos in einer erneuerten Weise zeigt. Es bedarf wahrhaftig, um den Christus wirklich kennenzulernen, derjenigen inspirierenden Kräfte, die jetzt auftreten durch die selber von dem Christus geführten alten ägyptischen und chaldäischen übermenschlichen Wesenheiten. Es bedarf einer solchen neuen Inspiration, der Inspiration, welche vorbereitet haben die großen Esoteriker des Mittelalters vom dreizehnten Jahrhundert an und die immer mehr und mehr von jetzt ab in die Öffentlichkeit dringen muß. Wenn sich im Sinne dieser Wissenschaft der Mensch in seiner Seele in richtiger Weise vorbereitet zur Erkenntnis der Geisteswelt, dann kann er hören hellhörend, sehen hellsichtig, was offenbaren die alten chaldäischen und ägyptischen Mächte, die jetzt geistige Leiter geworden sind unter der Anführung der Christus-Wesenheit. Was da der Menschheit einmal erstehen wird, das konnte in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten bis zu unserer Zeit nur vorbereitet werden. Daher dürfen wir sagen: Es wird künftig eine Christus-Idee leben in den Herzen der Menschen, an Größe mit nichts zu vergleichen, was bisher die Menschheit zu erkennen glaubte. Was entstanden ist als erster Impuls durch Christus und gelebt hat als Vorstellung von ihm bis heute - selbst bei den besten Vertretern des Christus-Prinzipes -, das ist nur eine Vorbereitung zu der wirklichen Erkenntnis des Christus. Es wäre recht sonderbar, könnte aber geschehen, daß denen, welche im Abendlande die Christus-Idee in solchem Sinne zum Ausdruck bringen, vorgeworfen würde, sie stünden nicht auf dem Boden der christlichen Tradition des Abendlandes. Denn diese christliche Tradition des Abendlandes reicht durchaus nicht aus, um den Christus für eine nächste Zukunft zu begreifen.
[ 38 ] Von den Voraussetzungen der abendländischen Esoterik aus kann man die geistige Führung der Menschheit allmählich einfließen sehen in eine solche, die man im echten wahren Sinne die aus dem Christus-Impuls kommende Führung nennen kann. Was als die neuere Esoterik auftritt, wird langsam in die Herzen der Menschen einfließen; und die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit wird bewußt immer mehr und mehr in solchem Lichte gesehen werden. Man vergegenwärtige sich, wie erst das Christus-Prinzip in die Herzen der Menschen eingeflossen ist dadurch, daß der Christus in dem physischen Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth in Palästina wandelte. Da haben die Menschen, die sich allmählich ganz dem Vertrauen in die sinnliche Welt ergeben hatten, den Impuls empfangen können, der ihrer Auffassung entsprach. Dann hat derselbe Impuls durch die Inspiration der neueren Esoterik so gewirkt, daß inspiriert werden konnten Geister wie Nikolaus Cusanus, Kopernikus, Galilei, so daß zum Beispiel Kopernikus den Satz geltend machen konnte: Der Sinnenschein kann nicht die Wahrheit über die Sonnensysteme lehren; will man die Wahrheit finden, so muß man hinter dem Sinnenschein forschen. - Damals waren die Menschen noch nicht reif, selbst Geister wie Giordano Bruno nicht, sich der neueren esoterischen Strömung bewußt einzugliedern; sie mußten unbewußt in sich wirksam haben den Geist dieser Strömung. Giordano Bruno verkündete großartig und gewaltig: Wenn ein Mensch durch die Geburt ins Dasein tritt, so ist es ein Makrokosmisches, das sich konzentriert als eine Monade, und wenn ein Mensch durch den Tod geht, so dehnt sich die Monade wieder aus; was im Körper zusammengeschlossen war, dehnt sich im Weltall aus, um sich in anderen Daseinsstufen wieder zusammenzuziehen und wieder auszudehnen. Damals sprachen aus Bruno gewaltige Begriffe, die ganz und gar im Sinne der neueren Esoterik, wenn auch wie ein Stammeln, sind.
[ 39 ] Die geistigen Einflüsse, welche die Menschheit führen, brauchen nicht dadurch zu wirken, daß der Mensch sich ihrer immer bewußt ist. Sie setzen zum Beispiel den Menschen Galilei in den Dom von Pisa. Tausende haben dort die alte Kirchenlampe gesehen, haben aber nicht gesehen wie Galilei. Er sah die Kirchenlampe schwingen, und verglich die Schwingungszeiten mit dem Ablauf seiner Pulsschläge. So fand er, daß in regelmäßigem Rhythmus, dem Pulsrhythmus ähnlich, die Kirchenlampe schwingt. Daraus hat er dann die «Pendelgesetze» gefunden im Sinne der neueren Physik. Wer die heutige Physik kennt, der weiß, daß sie nicht möglich wäre ohne die Galileischen Prinzipien. - So wirkte damals das, was gegenwärtig in der Geisteswissenschaft auftritt; es setzte Galilei hin in den Dom von Pisa vor die schwingende Kirchenlampe, und die heutige Physik bekam ihre Prinzipien. So wirken in geheimnisvoller Art die geistigen führenden Kräfte der Menschheit.
[ 40 ] Man geht jetzt der Zeit entgegen, in welcher sich die Menschen auch dieser führenden Kräfte bewußt werden sollen. Man wird immer mehr und mehr begreifen, was in der Zukunft geschehen muß, wenn man dasjenige richtig versteht, was als neuere Esoterik inspirierend wirkt, und was zeigt, daß dieselben geistigen Wesenheiten, auf welche die alten Ägypter hingedeutet haben, als die Griechen sie nach ihren Lehrern fragten, daß diese selben Wesenheiten, die damals als Götter geherrscht haben, jetzt wieder herrschend werden, aber sich jetzt der Führung des Christus unterstellen wollen. Immer mehr und mehr werden die Menschen fühlen, wie sie das, was vorchristlich ist, in einem höheren Glanze und Stil, auf einer höheren Stufe wiedererstehen lassen können. - Das Bewußtsein, das der Gegenwart notwendig ist, und das ein gestärktes Bewußtsein sein muß, eine hohe Pflicht-Verantwortlichkeit sein soll gegenüber dem Erkennen der geistigen Welt, das kann nur in unsere Seele einziehen, wenn in dem gekennzeichneten Sinne die Aufgabe der Geisteswissenschaft erfaßt wird.
Chapter III
[ 1 ] In accordance with the preceding explanations, the spiritual guidance in the development of human evolution can be sought in the beings who went through their humanity during the previous embodiment of the earth planet - during the old lunar time. This guidance is opposed by another, inhibiting the former and yet in inhibiting it again in a certain respect promoting it, which is exercised by the beings who did not complete their own development during the lunar period. This refers to the guiding entities that stand directly above the human being. To those who lead forward as well as to those who promote by causing resistance and thereby strengthening and consolidating the forces that arise through the forward-moving entities, giving them weight and a nature of their own. In the sense of Christian esotericism, these two classes of superhuman beings can be called angels (Angeloi). Above these beings, in ascending order of rank, are those of the higher hierarchies, the Archangeloi, Archai and so on, who also participate in the guidance of humanity. Within the classes of these various entities there are all sorts of gradations in terms of degrees of perfection. For example, in the category of the Angeloi at the beginning of the present earth evolution, there are the highest and the least high. The former have gone far beyond the minimum of their lunar evolution. Between these and those who had just reached this minimum level when the lunar evolution ended and the earth evolution began, there are all possible gradations. According to these gradations, the intervention of the respective beings in the guidance of the earth evolution of mankind takes place. Thus, in the Egyptian cultural development, the leadership was exercised by beings who had become more perfect on the moon than those who were leaders in the Greco-Latin period. And these were again more perfect than those who lead in the present time. In the Egyptian or Greek period, those who intervened later in the leadership have meanwhile trained themselves and thus made themselves ready to lead the culture that has come further.
[ 2 ] A distinction is made between seven successive cultural epochs from the time of the great Atlantean catastrophe onwards: the first is the ancient Indian cultural period, followed by the Urperian, 1"Urperian" here does not refer to what is called "Persian" in ordinary history, but to an ancient Asian prehistoric (Iranian) culture that developed on the soil on which the Persian Empire later expanded. The third is the Egyptian-Chaldean, the fourth the Greek-Latin and the fifth is our own, which has gradually developed since around the twelfth century and in which we are still in the middle. However, the first facts that will lead to the sixth post-Atlantean cultural period are already being prepared in our time. For the individual periods of development overlap. The sixth epoch will be followed by a seventh. A closer look reveals the following for the leadership of humanity. Only in the third cultural period, the Egyptian-Chaldean, were the angels (or lower dhyanic beings in the sense of oriental mysticism) the leaders of mankind to a certain degree independent. This was not the case in the Urperian period. There the angels were subject to a higher leadership to a much greater degree than during the Egyptian period and arranged everything in such a way that it corresponded to the impulses of the next higher hierarchy, so that everything was indeed under the direction of the angels, but these themselves again submitted to the order of the archangels or the Archangeloi. And in the Indian cultural period, in which the post-Atlantean life had such a height in spiritual relationship as it did not have again for the time being afterwards - a natural height under the guidance of the great human teachers - the archangels themselves were again subject in a similar sense to the guidance of the Archai or primal beginnings.
[ 3 ] So if we follow the development of humanity from the Indian period through the Urperian and Egyptian-Chaldean cultures, we can say that certain beings of the higher hierarchies withdrew more and more, so to speak, from the direct guidance of humanity. And what was it like in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural period, the Greco-Latin period? In a certain sense, man had become completely independent. The leading superhuman beings did intervene in the development of mankind; but their guidance was such that the reins were tightened as little as possible, that the spiritual leaders had as much for themselves through the deeds of men as they had through them. Hence that peculiar, entirely "human" culture in the Greco-Roman period, in which man is completely left to his own devices.
[ 4] All peculiarities in art, in state life during the Greek and Roman period can be traced back to the fact that man was supposed to live out his own nature, so to speak. So if we look back to the earliest times of cultural development, we find leading beings who had completed their development up to man in earlier planetary states. The fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch was there to test man most of all. It was therefore also the time in which the entire spiritual leadership of humanity had to establish itself in a new way. People today live in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. The leading Beings of this epoch belong to the same hierarchy that was dominant among the ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans. In fact, the same Beings who led then are beginning their activities again in our time. It has been suggested that certain entities remained behind during the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, and that these can be found in the materialistic feelings and sensations of our time.
[ 5 ] The progress, both of the advancing and of the inhibiting entities belonging to the class of angels (or lower dhyanic entities), consists in the fact that they were able to be leaders among the Egyptians and Chaldeans through those qualities which they themselves had acquired in ancient times, but that they also developed further through their work as leaders. Thus the advancing Angeloi enter the leadership of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural development with abilities which they had acquired during the third, the Egyptian-Chaldean. Through this progress they now acquire very special abilities. For they make themselves capable of allowing the forces to flow into them which emanate from the most important being of all earthly development. The power of Christ works on them. This power not only affects the physical world through Jesus of Nazareth, but it also affects the superhuman beings in the spiritual worlds. The Christ exists not only for the earth, but also for these beings. The same beings who led the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean culture were not then under the guidance of the Christ, but only since the Egyptian-Chaldean period have they placed themselves under the guidance of the Christ. And therein lies their progress, so that they now lead our fifth post-Atlantean cultural period under the influence of the Christ; they follow him in the higher worlds. And the lagging behind of those beings of whom it has been said that they act as restraining forces is due to the fact that they have not submitted themselves to the guidance of the Christ, so that they continue to work independently of the Christ. Therefore, the following will emerge more and more clearly in the culture of mankind. There will be a materialistic current under the leadership of the backward Egyptian-Chaldean spirits; it will have a materialistic character. Most of what can be called today's materialistic science in all countries is under this influence. But alongside this another current is making itself felt, which aims at man finally finding what may be called the Christ principle in everything he does. There are people today, for example, who say that our world ultimately consists of atoms. Who instills in people the idea that the world consists of atoms? These are the superhuman angelic beings left behind during the Egyptian-Chaldean period.
[ 6 ] What will now be taught by the beings who have reached their goal in the old Egyptian-Chaldean cultural area and who got to know the Christ at that time? They will be able to instill in man other thoughts than that there are only material atoms; for they will be able to teach man that substance is permeated by the spirit of the Christ right down to the smallest parts of the world. And as strange as it may seem, in the future chemists and physicists will come who will not teach chemistry and physics as they are taught today under the influence of the Egyptian-Chaldean spirits who have been left behind, but who will teach them: Matter is constructed in the sense in which the Christ has gradually arranged it! - The Christ will be found in the laws of chemistry and physics. A spiritual chemistry, a spiritual physics is what will come in the future. Today this certainly seems to many people to be a dream or worse. But what is often the reason of the times to come is foolishness for the times before.
[ 7 ] The factors that intervene in the development of human culture in this sense are already noticeable to those who look closely. But such an observer also knows quite well what, from a current scientific or philosophical point of view, can be objected to with apparent justification against this supposed folly.
[ 8 ] From such premises, one also understands what the leading superhuman beings have ahead of humans. Humans in the post-Atlantean period came to know the Christ in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural period, in the Greco-Latin period. For it was during the course of this cultural epoch that the Christ-event took place. It was then that people came to know the Christ. The superhuman leading beings got to know him during the Egyptian-Chaldean period and worked their way up to him. They then had to leave people to their own fate during the Greco-Latin period, only to intervene again later in the development of humanity. And if one practises Theosophy today, this means nothing other than recognizing the fact that the superhuman beings who have guided humanity are now continuing their leadership in such a way that they themselves are under the guidance of the Christ. - So it is with other entities.
[ 9 ] In the Urperian period, the archangels were involved in the guidance of humanity. They submitted to the Christ even earlier than the beings below them in rank. It can be said of Zarathustra that he pointed his followers and his people to the sun and said something like: "In the sun lives the great spirit Ahura Mazdao, who will come down to earth! - For the beings from the region of the archangels, who guided Zarathustra, pointed him to the great leader of the sun, who had not yet come down to earth at that time, but had only started on his way there in order to intervene directly in the earth's development later. And the leading beings who presided over the great teachers of the Indians pointed them to the Christ of the future; for it is a mistake to think that these teachers had no inkling of the Christ. They said that he was "above their sphere", that they "could not reach him".
[ 10 ] As it is now the angels in our fifth cultural period who carry the Christ down into our spiritual development, so in the sixth cultural period those beings from the class of archangels will lead the culture who led the primordial Persian cultural period. And the spirits of the primordial beginning, the Archai, who guided humanity during the ancient Indian period, will have to guide humanity under the Christ in the seventh cultural epoch. In the Greco-Latin period the Christ descended from spiritual heights and revealed himself in the fleshly body of Jesus of Nazareth. He descended into the physical world. He will be found in the next higher world when humanity has matured. He cannot be found in the physical world in the future, but only in the next higher worlds. For people will not have remained the same; they will have matured and found the Christ, just as Paul found him in the spiritual world through the event before Damascus, prophetically foreseeing the future in this respect. And just as in our time it is the same great teachers who already guided people in the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, they will also be the ones who in the twentieth century will lead people up to a vision of the Christ as Paul saw him. They will show people how the Christ not only works on earth, but also spiritualizes the entire solar system. And as a spirit which was foreshadowed by the unified Brahman, but into which the right content can only enter through the Christ, those who will be the re-embodied holy teachers of India in the seventh cultural period will also proclaim the great mighty spirit of which they said at that time that it ruled over their sphere. In this way, humanity will be led upwards from stage to stage into the spiritual world.
[ 11 ] To speak of the Christ as a guide in the successive worlds, also for the higher hierarchies, is taught by the science which has entered our culture under the signature of the Rosy Cross since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and which has been shown to have become necessary since that time. If we take a closer look at the Being who lived in Palestine, and who then accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha, in the sense of this view, the following becomes apparent.
[ 12 ] There have been many ideas about the Christ right up to the present day. There was, for example, the idea of certain Christian Gnostics of the first centuries who said that the Christ who lived in Palestine was not present in any physical fleshly body at all; he only had an apparent body, an etheric body that had become physically visible; so that even his death on the cross was not a real death, but only an apparent one, because only an etheric body was present. Then one finds the various disputes among the followers of Christianity, for example the well-known dispute between the Arians and Athanasians and so on, and also among them the most diverse interpretations of what the Christ actually was. Right up to the present day, people have the most diverse ideas about the Christ.
[ 13 ] Spiritual science must recognize in Christ not merely an earthly, but a cosmic being. In a certain sense, man is a cosmic being in general. He lives a twofold life. A life in the physical body from birth to death, and a life in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth. If the human being is embodied in a physical body, then he lives - because the physical body is dependent on the conditions of existence and forces of the earth - in dependence on the earth. However, the human being not only absorbs the substances and forces of the earth, but is integrated into the entire physical earth organism, belongs to it. When he has passed through the gate of death, then he does not belong to the forces of the earth; but it would be wrong to imagine that he then belonged to no forces at all, but he is then connected with the forces of the solar system and the other star systems. He lives in the cosmic realm between death and rebirth, just as he lives in the earthly realm from birth to death. From death to the new birth he belongs to the cosmos, just as on earth he belongs to the elements air, water, earth and so on. By living through life between death and rebirth, he enters the realm of cosmic influences. From the planets come not only the physical forces that physical astronomy teaches, gravity and the other physical forces, but also spiritual forces. And man is in contact with these spiritual forces of the cosmos; each man in a special way, depending on his individuality. If he is born in Europe, he lives in a different context with the heat conditions and so on than if he were born in Australia, for example. In the life between death and rebirth he is in a similar relationship: the one more to the spiritual forces of Mars, the other more to those of Jupiter, some more to those of the whole planetary system in general, and so on. And it is also these forces that lead man back to earth. Thus he lives the time before a birth in connection with the entire starry space.
[ 14 ] The forces that lead a person to this or that pair of parents, to this or that region, are also determined by these special relationships of a person to the cosmic system. The drive, the impulse to incarnate here or there, in this or that family, in this or that people, at this or that time, depends on how a person is integrated into the cosmos before birth.
[ 15 ] In older times in the German-speaking world, there was an expression that was extraordinarily indicative of the birth of a human being. When a person was born, it was said that he had become young here or there. This is an unconscious reference to the fact that in the time between death and a new birth a person continues to be subject to the forces that made him old in the previous incarnation, and that these are then replaced before birth by forces that make him "young" again. Thus Goethe still uses the expression "became young in the land of fog" in "Faust", "Nebelland" being the old name for medieval Germany.
[ 16 ] The truth underlying the horoscope is that the connoisseur of these things can read the forces according to which man finds his way into physical existence. A person is assigned a certain horoscope because it expresses the forces that brought him into existence. If, for example, Mars is above Aries in the horoscope, this means that certain Aries forces are not allowed to pass through Mars, that they are weakened. Thus the human being is placed in physical existence, and the horoscope is what he is guided by before he enters earthly existence. This matter, which seems so daring in our day, should not be touched upon without pointing out that almost everything that is now being done in this direction is the purest dilettantism - a true superstition - and that for the outer world the true science of these things has for the most part been completely lost. One should therefore not judge the things of principle that are said here according to what at present often leads a questionable existence as astrology.
[ 17 ] What drives man into physical embodiment are the effective forces of the starry world. When the clairvoyant consciousness observes a human being, it can perceive from his organization how this is actually a result of the interaction of cosmic forces. This will now be illustrated in a hypothetical form, but one that corresponds completely to clairvoyant perceptions.
[ 18 ] If one were to take out the physical brain of a human being and examine it clairvoyantly as it is constructed, so that one would see how certain parts sit in certain places and send out extensions, one would find that the brain is different in every human being. No two people have the same brain. But imagine if you could photograph this brain with its entire structure, so that you had a kind of hemisphere and all the details were visible, this would give a different picture for each person. And if you photographed a person's brain at the moment he was born and then also photographed the celestial space that lies exactly above the place of birth of this person, this picture would show exactly the same as the human brain. Just as certain parts are arranged in the brain, so are the stars in the celestial image. Man has within him an image of the celestial space, and indeed each one has a different image, depending on whether he was born there or there, in this or that time. This is an indication that man is born out of the whole world.
[ 19 ] If one considers this, one can also rise to the idea of how the macrocosmic manifests itself in the individual human being, and on this basis gain the idea of how it manifests itself in Christ. If one imagined the Christ after the baptism of John as if the macrocosmic had lived in him as in another human being, one would get the wrong idea.
[ 20 ] First, consider Jesus of Nazareth. He had very special conditions of existence. At the beginning of our era, two baby boys were born. One came from the Nathanian line of the house of David, the other from the Solomonic line of the same house. These two boys were not born at exactly the same time, but approximately. In the Solomonic Jesus-child described in the Gospel of Matthew, the same individuality incarnated that had previously lived on earth as Zoroaster, so that in this Jesus-child of Matthew's Gospel we have before us the re-embodied Zoroaster. Thus, as Matthew describes him, the individuality of Zoroaster grows up in this infant Jesus until his twelfth year. In this year Zoroaster leaves the body of this boy and passes over into the body of the other boy Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke. That is why this child suddenly becomes something completely different. The parents are astonished when they find him again in the temple in Jerusalem after the spirit of Zoroaster has entered him. This is indicated by the fact that the boy, after he had gone astray and was found again in the temple in Jerusalem, spoke in such a way that the parents did not recognize him, because they only knew this child - the Nathanian Jesus-boy - as he was before. But when he began to speak to the scribes in the temple, he was able to speak in this way because the spirit of Zarathustra had entered him. - The spirit of Zoroaster lived in the young Jesus, who came from the Nathanian line of the House of David, until he was thirty years old. In this other body he matured to an even higher perfection. It should also be noted that in this other body, in which the spirit of Zarathustra now lived, it was peculiar that the Buddha allowed his impulses from the spiritual world to radiate into his astral body.
[ 21 ] The Oriental tradition is correct that the Buddha was born as a "bodhisattva" and only ascended to the Buddha dignity during his time on earth, in his twenty-ninth year.
[ 22 ] Asiatic, the great Indian sage, came weeping to the royal palace of the Buddha's father when Gautama Buddha was a small child. This was because, as a seer, he was able to know that this royal child would become the Buddha, and because he felt like an old man who would not live to see the son of Suddhodana become the Buddha. This sage was reborn in the time of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the same one who is presented to us in the Gospel of Luke as the temple priest who sees the Buddha revealed in the Nathanian boy Jesus. And because he saw this, he said: "Lord, let your servant depart in peace, for I have seen my Master!" What he could not see at that time in India, he saw through the astral body of this boy Jesus, who confronts us as the one in the Gospel of Luke: the Bodhisattva who had become Buddha.
[ 23 ] All this was necessary for the body to come into being, which then received the "baptism of John" at the Jordan. Thus the individuality of Zarathustra left the threefold body - physical body, etheric body, astral body - of that Jesus who had grown up in such a complicated way so that the spirit of Zarathustra could be in him. The reborn Zarathustra had to pass through two possibilities of development that were given in the two Jesus-boys. Thus the body of Jesus of Nazareth stood opposite the Baptist, and the cosmic individuality of the Christ now worked into it. With another human being the cosmic-spiritual laws only work in such a way that they place him in earthly life. These laws are then countered by those which originate from the conditions of earthly development. In the case of Christ Jesus, after the baptism of John, the cosmic-spiritual forces alone remained effective, without any influence from the laws of earthly development.
[ 24 ] While Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth as Christ Jesus in the last three years of his life from the thirtieth to the thirty-third year in Palestine, the entire cosmic Christ-being continually worked into him. The Christ was always under the influence of the whole cosmos; he never took a step without the cosmic forces working into him. What took place here with Jesus of Nazareth was a continual realization of the horoscope; for at every moment that happened which otherwise only happens at the birth of man. This could only be the case because the whole body of the Nathanish Jesus had remained influenceable in relation to the totality of the forces of the cosmic-spiritual hierarchies that govern our earth. If the whole spirit of the cosmos beckoned into Christ Jesus, who then went to Capernaum, for example, or anywhere else? What walked the earth as a being did indeed look like another human being. But the active forces in it were the cosmic forces that came from the sun and stars; they directed the body. And depending on the overall nature of the world, with which the earth is connected, what Christ Jesus did took place. This is why the constellation of the stars for the deeds of Christ Jesus is so often quietly alluded to in the Gospels. Read in the Gospel of John how the Christ finds his first disciples. There it is stated: "Now it was about the tenth hour"; because the spirit of the whole cosmos expressed itself in this fact in accordance with the time conditions. Such allusions are less clear in other Gospel passages; but anyone who can read the Gospels will find them everywhere.
[ 25 ] From this point of view, for example, the miracles of the healing of the sick are to be judged. Consider just one passage, the one where it says: "When the sun had set, they brought the sick to him, and he healed them." What does that mean? The evangelist draws attention to the fact that this healing was connected with the whole constellation of the stars, that such a constellation of the world was present at the corresponding time, which could only have been brought about when the sun had set. What is meant is that at this time the corresponding healing powers could manifest themselves after sunset. Christ Jesus is portrayed as the mediator who brings the sick person together with the forces of the cosmos that could have a healing effect at that particular time. These forces were the same forces that worked as Christ in Jesus. The healing took place through Christ's presence, because as a result of it the sick person was exposed to the healing powers of the cosmos, which could only work in the way they did under the relevant space and time conditions. The forces of the cosmos acted on the sick person through their representative, the Christ.
[ 26 ] But they could only work in this way during Christ's time on earth. Only then was there such a connection between the cosmic constellations and the forces in the human organism that a cure could occur for certain illnesses when the cosmic constellation acted on the human being through Christ Jesus. A repetition of these conditions in the cosmic and earthly becoming is just as impossible as a second embodiment of the Christ in a human body. Seen in this way, the walk of Christ Jesus appears as the earthly expression of a certain relationship between the cosmos and the powers of man. The presence of a sick person at the side of Christ means that this sick person was in such a relationship to the macrocosm through the proximity of Christ that it could have a healing effect on him.
[ 27 ] This indicates the points of view that show how the leadership of humanity has placed itself under the influence of Christ. But the other forces that were left behind in the Egyptian-Chaldean period continue to work alongside those permeated by Christ. This can also be seen in the way the present day often relates to the Gospels themselves. Literary works appear which endeavor in a strange way to show that the Gospels can be understood by interpreting them astrologically. The greatest opponents of the Gospels invoke this astrological interpretation, so that, for example, the path of the archangel Gabriel from Elizabeth to Mary should mean nothing other than the passage of the sun from the image of the Virgin to another. This is something that is correct in a certain sense; only these thoughts are instilled into our time in this way by the entities that remained behind during the Egyptian-Chaldean period. Under such influence they would have us believe that the Gospels were only allegories for certain cosmic conditions. The truth is that the whole cosmos expresses itself in Christ, so that the life of Christ can be expressed by citing the cosmic conditions for its individual processes, which continually work through Christ into earthly existence. Thus a correct understanding of this matter will have to lead to the full recognition of the earthly-living Christ, while the characterized error, when it becomes aware that the Christ-life is expressed in the Gospels by cosmic constellations, thinks that this proves that only these constellations are treated allegorically and that there was no earthly-real Christ.
[ 28 ] If a comparison may be used, one could say: Think of every human being under the image of a reflecting sphere. If you think of a spherical mirror, it shows images of its entire surroundings. Suppose we were to trace the outlines with a pencil, which depict the whole environment. We could then take the mirror and carry the image everywhere. This is a symbol for the fact that when a person is born, he carries an image of the cosmos within him and then carries the effect of this one image with him throughout his entire life. But you could also leave the mirror so that it reflects the surroundings wherever you take it. Then it always gives an image of the entire surroundings. That would be the symbol of Christ from St. John's baptism to the Mystery of Golgotha. What flows into the earthly existence of another person at birth flows into the Christ Jesus at every moment. And when the Mystery of Golgotha took place, that which was radiated from the cosmos passed into the spiritual substance of the earth and has been connected with the spirit of the earth since that time.
[ 29 ] When Paul became clairvoyant before Damascus, he was able to recognize that what was formerly in the cosmos had passed into the spirit of the earth. Anyone who can bring their soul to relive the event of Damascus will be able to see this for themselves. In the twentieth century, the first people will appear who will experience Paul's Christ event in a spiritual way.
[ 30 ] While up to this time only those people who have acquired clairvoyant powers through esoteric training have been able to experience this event, in the future, through the natural development of humanity, it will be possible for the progressive powers of the soul to see Christ in the spiritual sphere of the earth. This will - as an afterlife of the event of Damascus - be possible for some people from a certain point in time in the twentieth century; then their number will increase until it will be a natural ability of the human soul in the distant future.
[ 31 ] With the entry of the Christ into earthly development, a completely new impact was given to this development. The external facts of history also show the expression of this. In the first times of post-Atlantean development people knew very well that there is not only a physical Mars above us, but that what we see as Mars or Jupiter or Saturn is the expression of spiritual beings. In later times this view was completely forgotten. For human opinion, the world bodies became mere bodies that were judged according to physical relationships. And in the Middle Ages, people only saw what their eyes could see of the stars: the sphere of Venus, the sphere of the sun, Mars and so on up to the sphere of the fixed starry sky; and then came the eighth sphere, like a blue, solid wall behind it. Then came Copernicus and broke the view that only what the senses see could be authoritative. - Today's physical scientists can certainly say: There are such confused minds who claim that the world is Maya, is illusion, and that one must look into a spiritual world in order to recognize the truth, while true science is that which adheres to the senses and records what the senses say. - When did astronomers rely only on the senses? Back then, when astronomical science prevailed, which is being fought against today?
[ 32 ] When Copernicus began to think out what is present in the universe beyond the appearance of the senses, only then did today's modern astronomy begin as a science. And this is indeed the case in all fields of knowledge. Wherever science has arisen in the most modern sense, it has arisen against the appearance of sense. When Copernicus declared: "What you see is mysticism, is deception; rely on what you cannot see!", then science became what is recognized as such today. One could therefore say to the representatives of today's science: Your science itself only became "science" when it no longer wanted to rely on the senses. Giordano Bruno came along as a philosophical interpreter of Copernicus' teachings. He directed our gaze out into the universe and proclaimed: 'What has been called the limit of space, what has been put forward as the eighth sphere, which spatially limits everything, is no limit. That is maya, illusion; for a myriad of worlds has poured into world space. What was previously believed to be the boundary of space has now become the boundary of man's sensory world. Turn your gaze beyond the world of the senses: if you no longer see the world as only the senses show it, then you will also recognize infinity.
[ 33 ] It is evident from this that the course of human development is such that man started from an original spiritual view of the cosmos, and that he has lost this in the course of time. It was replaced by a purely sensual view of the world. Then the Christ-impulse entered into the development. Through this, mankind is led to impress the spiritual upon the materialistic view again. At the moment when Giordano Bruno broke through the shackles of sunshine, the Christ-development was so far advanced that the soul-power could be active in him, which was kindled by this Christ-impulse. This points to the whole significance of the Christ's living into all human development. To a development at the beginning of which humanity is basically only at present.
[ 34 ] What does spiritual science now strive for?
[ 35 ] It completes the work done by Giordano Bruno and others for external physical science by saying: Maja, illusion is what external science can recognize. Just as people used to look as far as the "eighth sphere" and believed that space was limited, today's thinking believes that man is enclosed between birth and death. Spiritual science, however, expands the view beyond birth and death.
[ 36 ] It is a closed chain in the development of mankind that can be recognized by such ideas. And in the true sense of the word, that which was carried out by Copernicus and Giordano Bruno for space as the overcoming of sensory illusion already emerged from the inspirations of that spiritual current which is also followed by the newer spiritual science or theosophy. What can be called the newer esotericism had a mysterious effect on Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler and others. And those who today stand on the ground of Giordano Bruno and Copernicus and do not want to accept Theosophy are being unfaithful to their own traditions by wanting to hold on to the semblance of meaning. Spiritual science, however, shows: Just as Giordano Bruno broke through the blue vault of heaven, so this science breaks through the boundaries of birth and death for man by showing how man, who comes from the macrocosm, lives in physical existence, and through death re-enters a macrocosmic existence. And what we see in each individual human being to a limited extent, we encounter on a large scale in the representative of the cosmic spirit, in Christ Jesus. And this impulse, which the Christ gave, could only be given once. Only once could the whole cosmos be reflected in this way; for this constellation, as it existed at that time, will not come again. This constellation had to work through a human body so that it could give the impulse on earth. As true as this same constellation does not occur a second time, so true is it that the Christ came to incarnation only once. Only if one does not know that the Christ is the representative of the whole universe, and one cannot come to terms with this idea of Christ, to which the elements are given through spiritual science, only then can one claim that the Christ can appear several times on earth.
[ 37 ] This shows how an idea of Christ arises from the newer spiritual science or theosophy, which shows man his relationship with the whole macrocosm in a renewed way. In order to really get to know the Christ, we truly need those inspiring forces that are now appearing through the ancient Egyptian and Chaldean superhuman beings who are themselves guided by the Christ. Such a new inspiration is needed, the inspiration which the great esotericists of the Middle Ages prepared from the thirteenth century onwards and which must increasingly penetrate the public from now on. If, in the sense of this science, man prepares himself in his soul in the right way to recognize the spiritual world, then he can hear clairaudiently, see clairvoyantly, what the ancient Chaldean and Egyptian powers reveal, which have now become spiritual leaders under the guidance of the Christ-being. What will one day arise for mankind could only be prepared in the first Christian centuries up to our time. Therefore we may say: In the future a Christ-idea will live in the hearts of men, in greatness to be compared with nothing that mankind has believed to recognize so far. What has arisen as the first impulse through Christ and has lived as an idea of him until today - even among the best representatives of the Christ principle - is only a preparation for the real realization of Christ. It would be quite strange, but could happen, that those in the West who express the idea of Christ in this way would be accused of not standing on the ground of the Christian tradition of the West. For this Christian tradition of the West is by no means sufficient to understand Christ for the near future.
[ 38 ] From the premises of Western esotericism, one can see the spiritual guidance of humanity gradually flowing into one that can be called, in the true sense, the guidance coming from the Christ impulse. What appears as the newer esotericism will slowly flow into the hearts of men; and the spiritual guidance of man and mankind will be consciously seen more and more in such a light. Consider how the Christ principle first flowed into the hearts of men through the fact that the Christ walked in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth in Palestine. There men, who had gradually surrendered completely to trust in the sensual world, were able to receive the impulse that corresponded to their conception. Then the same impulse worked through the inspiration of the newer esotericism in such a way that spirits such as Nicholas Cusanus, Copernicus, Galileo could be inspired, so that Copernicus, for example, could assert the proposition: Sense cannot teach the truth about the solar systems; if you want to find the truth, you have to investigate behind the sense. - At that time people were not yet mature enough, not even spirits like Giordano Bruno, to consciously integrate themselves into the newer esoteric current; they had to have the spirit of this current unconsciously active within them. Giordano Bruno proclaimed grandly and powerfully: When a human being comes into existence through birth, it is a macrocosmic thing that concentrates itself as a monad, and when a human being passes through death, the monad expands again; what was contracted in the body expands in the universe in order to contract and expand again in other stages of existence. At that time, Bruno spoke powerful concepts that are entirely in the spirit of more recent esotericism, albeit like a stammer.
[ 39 ] The spiritual influences that guide humanity need not be effective because man is always aware of them. For example, they put the man Galileo in the cathedral of Pisa. Thousands have seen the old church lamp there, but have not seen it as Galileo did. He saw the church lamp oscillate and compared the oscillation times with the course of his pulse beats. He found that the church lamp oscillated in a regular rhythm, similar to the rhythm of the pulse. From this he then found the "laws of the pendulum" in the sense of modern physics. Anyone familiar with modern physics knows that it would not be possible without Galileo's principles. - This is how what is currently occurring in spiritual science worked back then; it placed Galileo in the cathedral of Pisa in front of the swinging church lamp, and today's physics got its principles. This is how the leading spiritual forces of humanity work in a mysterious way.
[ 40 ] The time is now approaching when people will also become aware of these guiding forces. One will understand more and more what must happen in the future if one understands correctly that which has an inspiring effect as newer esotericism, and which shows that the same spiritual entities to which the ancient Egyptians pointed when the Greeks asked them about their teachers, that these same entities, which then ruled as gods, are now again becoming dominant, but now want to submit themselves to the guidance of the Christ. More and more people will feel how they can resurrect that which is pre-Christian in a higher splendor and style, on a higher level. - The consciousness that is necessary for the present, and which must be a strengthened consciousness, a high sense of duty and responsibility towards the knowledge of the spiritual world, can only enter our soul if the task of spiritual science is grasped in the sense described.