An Esoteric Cosmology
GA 94
13 June 1906, Paris
XVII. Redemption and Liberation
There are seven mysteries of life which up till now have never been spoken of outside the ranks of Occult Brotherhoods. Only in our age is it possible to speak of them openly. They have been called the seven ‘inexpressible’ or ‘unutterable’ mysteries. We shall attempt to deal with the fourth mystery, that of Death. These mysteries are as follows:
- The mystery of the Abyss.
- The mystery of Number (which can be studied in Pythagorean philosophy).
- The mystery of Alchemy. (We can learn something of this mystery in the works of Paracelsus and Jacob Boehme).
- The mystery of Death.
- The mystery of Evil (to which reference is made in the Apocalypse).
- The mystery of the Word, of the Logos.
- The mystery of Divine Bliss. (This mystery is the most occult).
In speaking of the planetary body which preceded our Earth—the Old Moon phase of evolution—we distinguished three kingdoms of Nature, very different from those we know. Our mineral kingdom did not then exist. It came into being as the result of condensation and crystallisation of what on the Old Moon was half-mineral, half-plant. Our plant-world has sprung from the lunar plant-animal. Similarly, the animal world has arisen from the lunar animal-man. So we see that on the Earth, each of these lunar kingdoms makes a descent into materiality. The same thing happens to the Beings who on the Old Moon were higher than animal-man: the Spirits of Fire. In that period man breathed fire, just as today we breathe air. This is why the legends and myths speak of fire as the primary manifestation of the Gods. Goethe alludes to this in Faust, in the words: “Let us kindle fire in order that the Spirits may clothe themselves as in a garment.” These Fire-Spirits of the ancient Moon descended to the air in the Earth period proper. They too have descended into denser materiality, into the air we inbreathe and outbreathe.
Now it is just because these Spirits have descended into the air that man can, by their help, rise to the Divine. A twofold movement occurred in the innermost nature of the beings dwelling in the Old Moon. Animal-man divided into two groups. In the one group, a brain developed under the influence of the inspiration and action of the Spirits of Fire who became Spirits of Air. The other group descended towards the animal kingdom. This division is now apparent in the very constitution of man, for the lower part of his being is more akin to the animal, while the higher rises towards the Spirit. According to whether the one or the other characteristic was more or less pronounced, two groups of human beings came into existence: the one bound by a lower nature to the Earth—the other more developed and free of the Earth. The first group grew more like the animals. The beings of the other group received the Divine Spark, the consciousness of ‘I.’ Such is the relation between man of today and the animals, more particularly the ape.
The physical correlate of this spiritual evolution was the growth and development of the human brain into a veritable temple of God. But if this had been the only evolution, something would have been lacking. There would have been minerals, plants, animals and human beings possessing a brain and a human form and figure, but something would have remained at the lunar stage of evolution. On the Old Moon there was neither birth nor death.
Try to conceive of man without a physical body. He would not pass through death; the renewal of his being would not be brought about by birth as we know it, but by some other means. Certain parts of the astral body and the etheric body would be subject to change, that is all. Around an imperishable centre, the surrounding sheaths alone would be the media of communication with the environment,—such was the condition of man during the Old Moon period of evolution; his being was subject to metamorphoses, not to birth or death. But in this state he had no consciousness in our sense of the word. The Gods who had given him form were around him, behind him, not within him. They were to him what the tree is to the branch or what the brain is to the hand. The hand moves, but the consciousness of the movement is in the brain. Man was a branch of the divine tree and if earthly evolution had not changed this condition of things, his brain would have been but a flower of the same divine tree, his thoughts would have been reflected in his countenance as in a mirror but he would have had no consciousness of his own thoughts. Our Earth would have been a world of beings endowed with thoughts, but not with consciousness, a world of statues ensouled by the Gods, above all by Jahve or Jehovah. What was it that changed this order of things and how has man arrived at independence?
The Gods of the nature of Jahve were able to descend into the human brain. But other Spirits who, on the Moon, had been of the order of the Spirits of Fire, had not completed their evolution, and instead of penetrating into the brain of man on the Earth they mingled with his astral body. The astral body is composed of instincts, desires, passions, and it was there that those Spirits of Fire who had not attained the goal of evolution on the Moon, took refuge. They found a home in the animal nature of man where the passions unfold, and at the same time they imbued these passions with higher qualities. They poured the capacity for higher enthusiasm into the blood and the astral body of man. The gift of the Jehovistic Gods was the pure, cold form of the idea; but under the influence of these Spirits—we may speak of them as Luciferian Spirits—man became capable of enthusiasm for ideas, of being passionately for them or against them. The Jehovistic Gods gave form and shape to the human brain; the Luciferian Spirits set up the connection between the brain and the physical senses; they live in the nerve branches which end in the sense-organs. Lucifer has lived in us for as long as Jehovah.
The fact that his senses give man an objective consciousness of the world around him is due to the Luciferian Spirits. Human thought is the gift of the Gods; human consciousness is the gift of Lucifer. Lucifer lives in the astral body of man, and Lucifer's activity comes to expression at the point where the nerves give rise to feeling and perception. That is why the Serpent in Genesis says: ‘Your eyes shall be opened.’ These words must be taken literally, for it was by the Luciferian Spirits that the senses of man were opened.
The individualisation of consciousness is due to the senses. If man's thoughts were not related to the sense-world they would simply be reflections of the Divine—not knowledge but belief. The contradiction between faith and science is due to this dual origin of human thought. Faith turns to the eternal Ideas, the ‘Mother-Ideas’ lying in the bosom of the Gods. All science, all knowledge of the outer world by means of the senses owes its existence to the Luciferian Spirits. In man, the Luciferian principle and Divine Intelligence are combined. It is this fusion of opposing principles which makes evil possible for man but it also gives him the power of self-consciousness, choice and freedom. Only a being capable of individualisation could be thus helped by opposing elements within his being. If when he descended into matter, man had only received the form given by Jehovah, he would have remained an impersonal being. And so it was due to Lucifer that man was able to become truly man, a being independent of the Gods. Christ, or the Logos made manifest in man, is the Principle which enables him to ascend once again to God.
Before the Coming of Christ, man embodied the principle of Jehovah (form) and that of Lucifer (individualisation). He was divided between obedience to the Law and the revolt of the principle of individuality. But the principle of Christ came to establish equilibrium between the two. Christ taught man how to find the Law which was originally laid down from outside, within the centre of individual being. This is what St. Paul meant when he said that freedom and love are the highest principles of Christianity. The ancient world was ruled by Law; Love is the governing principle of the new order of things. Thus three principles are inseparable from and essential to man's evolution—Jehovah, Lucifer, Christ. Christ Jesus is not only a Universal Principle; Christ is a Being who appeared once, and once only, at a definite moment in history. In human form, He revealed by His words and His life, a state of perfection which it is possible for all men ultimately to acquire by their own free-will. Christ came to the Earth at a critical moment, when the descending arc of human evolution was about to reach its lowest point of materialisation. In order that the Christ-Principle might awaken in man, the life of Christ Himself on Earth was necessary in a human body.
Karma is the law of cause and effect in the spiritual world; it represents the spiral process of evolution. The Christ Impulse intervenes in this karmic process and becomes its central pivot. Since He came to Earth the Christ has lived in the depths of every human soul.
When karma is conceived as a necessity imposed on man in order that his wrong doings may be redressed and his errors redeemed by an implacable justice working over from one incarnation to another, the objection is sometimes raised that karma must do away with the rôle of Christ as the Redeemer. In reality, karma is a redemption of man by himself, by dint of his own efforts as he gradually ascends to freedom through the series of incarnations. It is through karma that man is able to draw near to Christ.
The Christ-Impulse transforms implacable Law into Freedom, and the source of this Impulse is the person and example of Christ Jesus. Karma is not to be conceived as fatalism but as an instrument essential to the attainment of that supreme freedom which is life in Christ—a freedom attained not by defying the world-order but by fulfilling it.
Another objection is one that may be made from the point of view of oriental philosophy. It is said that the idea of a Redeemer of men does away with the logical concatenations of karma and substitutes for it an act of a miraculous Providence which intervenes in the universal laws of evolution. It is surely right and just that those who have committed sins should bear the weight of them. This is an error of thought. Karma is the law of cause and effect in the spiritual world, just as mechanical action is the law of cause and effect in the material world. At every moment of life karma represents something like a balance sheet, an exact statement of debit and credit. By every action, bad or good, man augments his debit or credit. Those who will not admit the possibility of an act of freedom are like a business man who will not venture to embark upon a new transaction because he does not wish to run any risk; he prefers always to keep the same balance sheet.
A purely logical conception of karma would prohibit one from helping a man in adversity. But there, too, such fatalism would be false. The help we give freely to another opens up a new era in his destiny. Our destinies are woven of these impulses, of these acts of grace. If we accept the idea of individual help, may we not conceive that a far mightier Being could help, not one man alone, but all men, could give a new impulse to all humanity? Such, indeed, was the act of a God Who was made man, not in order to defy the laws of karma but to fulfil them. Karma and Christ—the means of salvation and the Saviour. Through karma, the Act of Christ becomes cosmic law, and through the Christ-Principle karma achieves its aim—the liberation of conscious souls and their identification with God. Karma is gradual redemption, Christ is the Redeemer.
If men would steep themselves in these ideas, they would realise that they belong to one another; they would understand the law recognised in all true occult brotherhoods—namely that each individual suffers and lives for others. There will come a time in the future when outer redemption will coincide in each man with the interior act of the Redeemer. It is not revelation but truth which makes men free: “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.”
The path of evolution leads to freedom. When man has awakened in himself all those qualities which were prophetically manifest in the Christ, he will be a free being. For if necessity is the law of the material world, freedom is the law of the spiritual world. Freedom is only acquired step by step and it will not be fully manifest in man until the end of his evolution, when his nature will be truly spiritualised.
Kosmogonie XVII
Es gibt sieben Lebensgeheimnisse, von denen man bis heute außerhalb der okkulten Bruderschaften noch niemals gesprochen hat. Erst in der gegenwärtigen Zeitepoche ist es möglich, exoterisch davon zu sprechen. Man nennt sie auch die sieben unaussprechlichen oder namenlosen Geheimnisse.
Wir wollen versuchen, vom vierten Geheimnis zu sprechen, dem [Geheimnis der Geburt und] des Todes.
Dies sind die Geheimnisse:
Erstens: Das Geheimnis des Abgrunds.
Zweitens: Das Geheimnis der Zahl. Man kann es in der pythagoreischen Philosophie studieren.
Drittens: Das Geheimnis der Alchimie. Dieses kann man durch die Werke von Paracelsus und Jakob Böhme begreifen.
Viertens: Das Geheimnis [der Geburt und] des Todes.
Fünftens: Das Geheimnis des Bösen, das berührt wird in der Apokalypse.
Sechstens: Das Geheimnis des Wortes, des Logos.
Siebentens: Das Geheimnis der Gottseligkeit; es ist das zutiefst verborgene Geheimnis.
Erinnern wir uns, daß wir auf dem Planeten, der unserer Erde voranging, auf dem alten Mond, drei Naturreiche unterschieden haben, die von den Reichen auf der Erde ganz verschieden sind. Unser Mineralreich existierte noch nicht. Es ist geboren aus der Verdichtung, aus der Kristallisation, dem Mineralisch-Pflanzlichen des Mondes. Unsere Pflanzenwelt ist aus dem Pflanzlich-Tierischen der Mondenentwickelung entsprossen. Und was gegenwärtig die Tierwelt ist, entstammt dem, was auf dem Monde der Tiermensch war. Wir sehen also, daß jedes dieser Mondreiche auf der Erde einen Abstieg zur Materialisation hin durchmachte. Ebenso verhält es sich mit den Wesen, die auf dem Mond über dem Tiermenschen standen: den Feuergeistern. Die Menschen jener Zeit atmeten jenes Feuer, wie wir heute die Luft atmen. Deshalb ist das Feuer in den Legenden und Mythen gewissermaßen die erste Manifestation der Götter geblieben. Goethe macht im «Faust» eine Anspielung darauf, wenn er sagt:
Ein bißchen Feuerluft, die ich bereiten werde,
Hebt uns behend von dieser Erde.
Diese Feuergeister des alten Mondes verkörpern sich innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung in der Luft. Sie sind also auch in eine dichtere Materialität herabgestiegen, in die Luft, die wir gegenwärtig ein- und ausatmen. Sie sind diese Luftsubstanz, die um uns und in uns lebt und die Erde mit ihrer Atmosphäre einhüllt.
Wenn diese Geister nun also bis zum Luftelement herabgestiegen sind, wenn die Mondenreiche auf diese Art eine Involutions-Entwickelung durchgemacht haben, so ist es zu dem Zweck geschehen, daß der Mensch, dank ihrer Tätigkeit, sich bis zur Vergöttlichung emporheben könne. In der Tat hat eine doppelte Bewegung innerhalb eines jeden der beiden Mondenreiche stattgefunden: die unterste Partie ist herabgestiegen, während die uns nächststehende aufgestiegen ist. So hat sich der Tiermensch in zwei Gruppen gespalten, von denen die eine, unter dem Einfluß der Atmung und der Tätigkeit der zu Luftgeistern umgebildeten Feuergeister, an der Herausformung ihres Gehirns arbeitete, während die zurückgebliebene Gruppe zum Tierreich hinabstieg. Diese Spaltung findet sich wieder bis hinein in die Konstitution des Menschen selbst, dessen untere Partie sich dem Tier nähert, während die obere Partie dem Geistigen zustrebt. Je nachdem das eine oder andere Merkmal mehr oder weniger ausgeprägt war, bildeten sich nach und nach zwei verschiedene Menschenarten heraus: die eine, entsprechend ihrer niedrigeren Natur, vornehmlich an die Erde gebunden, die andere, höher entwickelte, losgelöst von der Erde. Die erstgenannten fielen in die Tierheit zurück. Die anderen konnten den göttlichen Funken in sich aufnehmen, das Ich-Bewußtsein. So ist die Beziehung, die tatsächlich zwischen Mensch und Tier besteht, und insonderheit zum Affen. Das physische Korrelat zu dieser geistigen Entwickelung wurde das Wachstum, die Entfaltung des menschlichen Gehirns, das zu einem Tempel wurde, in dem die Gottheit Wohnung nehmen konnte.
Aber wenn nur diese Entwickelung sich vollzogen hätte, hätte doch noch etwas gefehlt. Es hätte Mineralien gegeben, Pflanzen, Tiere, ja Menschen mit entwickeltem Gehirn, fähig, die gegenwärtige Menschenform zu erreichen. Aber etwas wäre auf dem Mondenstandpunkt stehengeblieben. Auf dem alten Mond gab es weder Geburt noch Tod.
Man stelle sich das menschliche Wesensgefüge vor ohne den physischen Leib: es gäbe keinen Tod, die Wesenserneuerung würde sich auf eine andere Art vollziehen als durch die gegenwärtige Geburt. Teile des Astralleibs, des Ätherleibs würden sich durch Austausch erneuern, aber die Zusammensetzung bliebe konstant. Das Zentrum bliebe unveränderlich, die Oberflächen allein wären der Ort des Austauschs mit der äußeren Umgebung. So war es auf dem Mond: der Mensch machte lediglich Metamorphosen durch, weder Geburt noch Tod, sondern eine unaufhörliche Umgestaltung. Aber in diesem Stadium war er noch nicht zum Selbstbewußtsein gelangt. Die Götter, die ihn gebildet hatten, waren um ihn, hinter ihm, aber nicht in ihm. Sie waren ihrerseits das, was der Baum ist für den Zweig oder was das Gehirn ist für die Hand. Die Hand bewegt sich, aber das Bewußtsein von der Bewegung ist im Gehirn. Der Mensch war ein Zweig am göttlichen Baum, und wenn seine Entwickelung auf der Erde diesen Zustand nicht geändert hätte, wäre sein Gehirn nur eine Blüte an diesem göttlichen Baum gewesen, seine Gedanken würden sich auf dem Spiegel seiner Physiognomie gezeigt haben, aber er hätte nichts gewußt von seinen eigenen Gedanken. Unsere Erde wäre eine Welt von Wesen gewesen, begabt mit Gedanken, aber nicht mit Selbstbewußtsein, eine Welt von Statuen, die durch die Götter, und namentlich durch Jahve oder Jehova beseelt wären. Was ist geschehen, um die Lage der Dinge zu verändern, und wie ist der Mensch zur Unabhängigkeit gelangt?
Gibt es in einer Schule mehrere Klassen, so gibt es Kinder, die alle durchlaufen, und andere, die nicht bis dahin gelangen. Die Götter von der Gefolgschaft des Jahve waren soweit, in das menschliche Gehirn herabsteigen zu können. Aber andere Geister, die auf dem Monde zu den Feuergeistern zählten, hatten ihre Entwickelung nicht beendet, und anstatt auf der Erde in das Gehirn des Menschen einzudringen, verbanden sie sich mit seinem Astralleib. Dieser Astralleib besteht aus Instinkten, Wünschen, Leidenschaften. Hier hinein zogen sich solche Feuergeister zurück, die ihr Entwickelungsziel auf dem Monde nicht erreicht hatten. Sie erlangten eine Wohnstätte in der tierischen Natur des Menschen, wo die Leidenschaften entstehen, und gleichzeitig gaben sie diesen Leidenschaften einen höheren Schwung. Sie ließen den Enthusiasmus in das Blut und in den Astralleib einströmen. Die Jehovagötter hatten die reine, kalte Form der Idee gegeben; aber durch diese Geister, die man luziferische nennen kann, wurde der Mensch fähig, sich für die Ideen zu begeistern und leidenschaftlich für oder gegen sie Partei zu nehmen. Wenn die Jehovagötter das menschliche Gehirn modelliert haben, so haben die luziferischen Geister dieses Gehirn mit den physischen Sinnen verknüpft durch die Verzweigungen der Nerven, die in die Sinnesorgane endigen. Luzifer lebt in uns ebenso lange wie Jehova.
Alles, was durch die Sinne fließt und dem Menschen ein objektives Bewußtsein von seiner Umgebung gibt, verdankt er den luziferischen Geistern. Verdankt er den Göttern das Gedankenleben, so verdankt er Luzifer, daß er dessen bewußt wird. Luzifer lebt in seinem Astralleib und betätigt sich in seinem durch die Nerven vermittelten Sinnesleben. Deshalb spricht die Schlange in der Genesis: Eure Augen werden aufgetan werden. — Man kann diese Worte buchstäblich nehmen, denn im Laufe der Zeit haben die luziferischen Geister die Sinne des Menschen erschlossen.
Durch die Sinne individualisiert sich das Bewußtsein. Ohne den Bezug auf die Sinneswelt wären die Gedanken des Menschen nichts als Reflexe von der Gottheit, Akte des Glaubens, nicht des Wissens. Die Widersprüche zwischen dem Glauben und der Wissenschaft kommen von diesem doppelten Ursprung des menschlichen Gedankens her. Der Glaube wendet sich zu den ewigen Ideen, zu den Urmüttern, die sich von den Göttern ableiten; die Wissenschaft, die Kenntnis der äußeren Welt durch die Sinne, kommt von den luziferischen Geistern. Der Mensch ist geworden, was er ist, indem er das luziferische Prinzip mit der göttlichen Vernunft verbunden hat. Diese Verbindung zweier entgegengesetzter Prinzipien in ihm gibt ihm die Möglichkeit zum Bösen, aber gleichzeitig auch das Mittel, sein Selbstbewußtsein zu erlangen, kritisch zu prüfen und frei zu sein. Nur einem Wesen, das zur Individualisierung veranlagt ist, konnte durch diesen Gegensatz der Elemente in seinem Inneren geholfen werden. Hätte der Mensch, als er in die Materie hinabstieg, nur die von Jehova verliehene Form empfangen, so wäre er unpersönlich geblieben. .
Luzifer ist also das Prinzip, das es dem Menschen erlaubt, wahrhaft ein von den Göttern unabhängiger Mensch zu werden. Der im Menschen sich offenbarende Christus oder der Logos ist das Prinzip, das ihm erlaubt, wiederum zur Gottheit aufzusteigen.
In vorchristlicher Zeit waltete im Menschen das Jehovaprinzip, das ihm seine Form verlieh, und das Luziferprinzip, das ihn individualisierte. Er war geteilt zwischen dem Gehorsam gegenüber dem Gesetz und der Auflehnung des Individuums. Doch das Christusprinzip kam, um zwischen den beiden das Gleichgewicht herzustellen, indem es lehrte, im Inneren des Individuums selbst das Gesetz zu finden, das zuerst von außen gegeben worden war. Das erklärt Paulus, der von der Freiheit und von der Liebe das christliche Prinzip recht eigentlich ableitet: das Gesetz hat den alten Bund regiert wie die Liebe den neuen. — Wir finden also beim Menschen drei Prinzipien, die untrennbar und zu seiner Entwickelung notwendig sind: Jehova, Luzifer, Christus.
Aber Christus Jesus ist nicht bloß ein unbestimmtes Prinzip in der Welt. Er ist ein Wesen, das nur einmal, in einem geschichtlich bestimmten Moment erschienen ist. In menschlicher Gestalt hat er durch sein Wort und Leben einen Zustand der Vollendung enthüllt, den alle Menschen am Ende der Zeiten durch ihren eigenen freien Willen erreichen werden. Er ist erschienen auf dem Höhepunkt einer furchtbaren Krise, als die herabsteigende Entwickelungslinie der Menschheit im Begriffe war, ihren tiefsten Punkt in der Materialisierung zu erreichen.
Sollte das Christus-Prinzip in den Menschen zur Erweckung kommen, war es notwendig, daß es auf der Erde in einem Menschen zur Erscheinung kam und daß der Christus gelebt hat.
Das Karma und der Christus sind der Inbegriff der ganzen Evolution. Das Karma ist das Gesetz von Ursache und Wirkung in der geistigen Welt; es ist die Spirale der Entwickelung. Die ChristusKraft schaltet sich in die Entwickelung dieser karmischen Linie als richtunggebende Achse ein. Diese Kraft findet sich seit der Ankunft des Christus auf der Erde im Grunde jeder menschlichen Seele.
Aber wenn man im Karma nichts anderes sieht als eine dem Menschen auferlegte Notwendigkeit, sein Unrecht wieder gutzumachen und seine Irrtümer abzubüßen durch eine unversöhnliche Gerechtigkeit, die von einer Verkörperung zur anderen wirkt, so unterstützt man den gelegentlichen Einwand, daß das Karmagesetz die Erlöserrolle des Christus aufhebe. In Wirklichkeit ist das Karma auf der einen Seite eine Erlösung des Menschen durch sich selbst, durch sein eigenes Bemühen, durch seinen stufenweisen Aufstieg zur Freiheit im Laufe der Wiederverkörperungen, und anderseits dasjenige, was den Menschen dem Christus annähert. Denn die Christus-Kraft ist der Grundimpuls, der den Menschen in Freiheit zur Umwandlung des unversöhnlichen Gesetzes führt, und die Quelle dieses Impulses ist die Person und das Beispiel des Christus Jesus. Nicht mehr ist es nötig, im Karma ein Verhängnis zu sehen; vielmehr ist es als das notwendige Mittel zu verstehen, um die höchste Freiheit, das Leben in Christus, zu erreichen - eine Freiheit, die man nicht erreicht, indem man der Ordnung der Dinge mißtraut, sondern indem man sie begreift. Das Karma hebt weder die Gnade noch den Christus auf, es findet sie im Gegenteil der ganzen Evolution zugeordnet.
Ein anderer Einwand ist der, den man machen kann vom Gesichtspunkt der östlichen Weisheit. Die Idee eines Erlösers, der den Menschen zu Hilfe kommt, so sagt man, unterdrückt die logischen Verknüpfungen des Karma und setzt an die Stelle des großen universellen Entwickelungsgesetzes das unvermittelte Eingreifen einer wundersamen Gnade. Es ist nur gerecht, daß derjenige, der die Fehler begangen hat, auch ihre Schwere trägt.
Das ist jedoch ein Irrtum. Das Karma ist das Gesetz von Ursache und Wirkung für die geistige Welt, wie die Mechanik das Gesetz von Ursache und Wirkung in der materiellen Welt ist. In jedem Moment des Lebens stellt das Karma etwas dar wie die Bilanz eines Geschäftsmannes, die exakte Ziffer von Soll und Haben. Mit jeder Handlung, sie sei gut oder schlecht, vermehrt der Mensch sein Soll oder sein Haben. Wer einen Akt der Freiheit nicht zugeben möchte, würde einem Kaufmann gleichen, der nicht das Risiko einer neuen Geschäftsunternehmung eingehen möchte und sich immer auf dem gleichen Stande der Geschäftsbilanz halten würde.
Eine rein logische Auffassung von Karma würde es verbieten, einem Menschen im Unglück zu helfen. Aber gerade da würde der Fatalismus sich als falsch erweisen, und die Hilfe, die wir einem anderen aus freien Stücken erweisen, eröffnet einen neuen Abschnitt in seinem Schicksal. Unsere Schicksale sind gewoben aus solchen Impulsen, solchen Gnadenerweisungen. Wenn wir aber die Idee einer individuellen Hilfe akzeptieren, können wir dann nicht auch verstehen, daß jemand, der sehr viel mehr vermag als wir, nicht nur einem einzelnen helfen kann, sondern allen Menschen, ja einen neuen Impuls in die ganze Menschheit hineintragen kann? Nun, solcherart ist die Tat eines Mensch gewordenen Gottes, die nicht geschah, um den Gesetzen des Karma zu widersprechen, sondern um zu ihrer Erfüllung zu verhelfen.
Das Karma und der Christus ergänzen sich wie das Mittel zur Erlösung und der Erlöser. Durch das Karma wird die Tat des Christus ein kosmisches Gesetz, und durch das Christus-Prinzip, den geoffenbarten Logos, erreicht das Karma sein Ziel, nämlich die Befreiung der Seelen zum Selbstbewußtsein und ihre Wesensgleichheit mit Gott. Das Schicksalsgesetz ist die stufenweise Erlösung, der Christus ist der Erlöser.
Wenn die Menschen sich mit diesen Ideen durchdringen würden, würden sie fühlen, daß sie zueinander gehören, und würden das Gesetz begreifen, das in den okkulten Bruderschaften herrscht: daß jeder für den anderen leidet und lebt.
Wir werden in der Zukunft einen Punkt erreichen, wo das Prinzip der äußeren Erlösung für jeden Menschen zusammenfallen wird mit der Tätigkeit des Erlösers im Menscheninneren.
Nicht die Offenbarung, sondern die Wahrheit macht die Menschen frei: «Ihr werdet die Wahrheit erkennen, und die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen.»
Der Weg unserer Entwickelung führt zur Freiheit. Wenn der Mensch all das in sich erweckt haben wird, was prophetisch im Christus-Prinzip enthalten ist, wird er frei geworden sein. Denn wenn die Notwendigkeit das Gesetz der materiellen Welt ist, so herrscht die Freiheit in der geistigen Welt. Die Freiheit erobert man nur schrittweise, und sie wird im Menschen in ihrer Totalität nicht früher zur Erscheinung kommen als zu dem Zeitpunkt seiner Entwickelung, wenn seine Natur wahrhaft durchgeistigt sein wird.
Cosmogony XVII
There are seven secrets of life that have never been spoken of outside of occult brotherhoods until today. Only in the present era is it possible to speak of them exoterically. They are also called the seven unspeakable or nameless secrets.
Let us try to speak of the fourth secret, the [secret of birth and] death.
These are the secrets:
First: The secret of the abyss.
Second: The secret of numbers. It can be studied in Pythagorean philosophy.
Third: The secret of alchemy. This can be understood through the works of Paracelsus and Jakob Böhme.
Fourth: The secret [of birth and] death.
Fifth: The secret of evil, which is touched upon in the Apocalypse.
Sixth: The mystery of the Word, the Logos.
Seventh: The mystery of godliness; it is the most deeply hidden mystery.
Let us remember that on the planet that preceded our Earth, on the old Moon, we distinguished three natural kingdoms that are completely different from the kingdoms on Earth. Our mineral kingdom did not yet exist. It was born out of the condensation, out of the crystallization, the mineral-vegetable of the Moon. Our plant world sprang from the plant-animal aspect of the moon's development. And what is now the animal world originated from what was the animal-human on the moon. We see, then, that each of these lunar kingdoms underwent a descent toward materialization on Earth. The same is true of the beings who stood above the animal-humans on the moon: the fire spirits. The people of that time breathed that fire as we breathe air today. That is why fire has remained, in a sense, the first manifestation of the gods in legends and myths. Goethe alludes to this in “Faust” when he says:
A little fire-air, which I will prepare,
Will lift us nimbly from this earth.
These fire spirits of the old moon are embodied in the air within the development of the earth. They have thus also descended into a denser materiality, into the air that we currently breathe in and out. They are this air substance that lives around us and within us and envelops the earth with its atmosphere.
So when these spirits descended to the air element, when the lunar realms underwent this kind of involutionary development, it was for the purpose that human beings, thanks to their activity, could rise to deification. In fact, a double movement has taken place within each of the two lunar realms: the lowest part has descended, while the part closest to us has ascended. Thus, the animal-human split into two groups, one of which, under the influence of the respiration and activity of the fire spirits transformed into air spirits, worked on the formation of its brain, while the remaining group descended into the animal kingdom. This division is reflected in the constitution of human beings themselves, whose lower part approaches the animal, while the upper part strives toward the spiritual. Depending on which of these characteristics was more or less pronounced, two different types of human beings gradually emerged: one, corresponding to their lower nature, primarily bound to the earth, the other, more highly developed, detached from the earth. The former fell back into animality. The latter were able to take in the divine spark within themselves, the consciousness of the self. Such is the relationship that actually exists between humans and animals, and in particular with apes. The physical correlate of this spiritual development was the growth and unfolding of the human brain, which became a temple in which the deity could dwell.
But if only this development had taken place, something would still have been missing. There would have been minerals, plants, animals, even humans with developed brains, capable of reaching the present human form. But something would have remained at the lunar stage. On the old moon, there was neither birth nor death.
Imagine the human constitution without the physical body: there would be no death, and the renewal of the being would take place in a different way than through the present birth. Parts of the astral body and the etheric body would be renewed through exchange, but the composition would remain constant. The center would remain unchanged; only the surfaces would be the site of exchange with the external environment. That is how it was on the moon: human beings merely underwent metamorphoses, neither birth nor death, but a ceaseless transformation. But at that stage, they had not yet attained self-consciousness. The gods who had formed him were around him, behind him, but not within him. They were, for their part, what the tree is to the branch or what the brain is to the hand. The hand moves, but the awareness of the movement is in the brain. Man was a branch on the divine tree, and if his development on earth had not changed this state, his brain would have been only a blossom on this divine tree, his thoughts would have been reflected in the mirror of his physiognomy, but he would have known nothing of his own thoughts. Our Earth would have been a world of beings endowed with thoughts but not with self-awareness, a world of statues animated by the gods, and in particular by Yahweh or Jehovah. What happened to change the state of affairs, and how did humans achieve independence?
If there are several classes in a school, there are children who go through them all and others who do not get that far. The gods of Yahweh's retinue were ready to descend into the human brain. But other spirits, who belonged to the fire spirits on the moon, had not completed their development, and instead of entering the human brain on earth, they connected themselves with the human astral body. This astral body consists of instincts, desires, and passions. The fire spirits who had not reached their goal of development on the moon withdrew into this body. They found a dwelling place in the animal nature of man, where passions arise, and at the same time they gave these passions a higher impetus. They allowed enthusiasm to flow into the blood and the astral body. The Jehovah gods had given the pure, cold form of the idea; but through these spirits, which can be called Luciferic, human beings became capable of enthusiasm for ideas and of taking passionate sides for or against them. If the Jehovah gods modeled the human brain, the Luciferic spirits connected this brain to the physical senses through the branches of the nerves that end in the sense organs. Lucifer lives in us just as long as Jehovah.
Everything that flows through the senses and gives man an objective awareness of his surroundings is due to the Luciferic spirits. If he owes his thought life to the gods, he owes it to Lucifer that he becomes aware of it. Lucifer lives in his astral body and is active in his sensory life, which is mediated by the nerves. That is why the serpent in Genesis says: Your eyes will be opened. These words can be taken literally, for in the course of time the Luciferic spirits have opened up the senses of human beings.
Consciousness becomes individualized through the senses. Without reference to the sensory world, human thoughts would be nothing more than reflections of the deity, acts of faith, not of knowledge. The contradictions between faith and science arise from this dual origin of human thought. Faith turns to eternal ideas, to the primordial mothers who derive from the gods; science, the knowledge of the outer world through the senses, comes from the Luciferic spirits. Man has become what he is by combining the Luciferic principle with divine reason. This combination of two opposing principles within him gives him the potential for evil, but at the same time also the means to gain self-awareness, to examine critically, and to be free. Only a being predisposed to individualization could be helped by this opposition of elements within him. If, when he descended into matter, man had received only the form given to him by Jehovah, he would have remained impersonal.
Lucifer is therefore the principle that allows man to truly become a human being independent of the gods. The Christ or Logos revealed in man is the principle that allows him to ascend to divinity again.
In pre-Christian times, the Jehovah principle, which gave man his form, and the Lucifer principle, which individualized him, reigned in man. He was divided between obedience to the law and the rebellion of the individual. But the Christ principle came to establish a balance between the two by teaching that the law, which had first been given from outside, could be found within the individual himself. This is explained by Paul, who derives the Christian principle from freedom and love: the law governed the old covenant as love governs the new. — We thus find in man three principles that are inseparable and necessary for his development: Jehovah, Lucifer, Christ.
But Christ Jesus is not merely an indefinite principle in the world. He is a being who appeared only once, at a specific moment in history. In human form, through his words and life, he revealed a state of perfection that all humans will attain at the end of time through their own free will. He appeared at the height of a terrible crisis, when humanity's downward trajectory was about to reach its lowest point in materialization.
If the Christ principle was to be awakened in human beings, it was necessary for it to appear on earth in a human being and for the Christ to have lived.
Karma and Christ are the epitome of the whole of evolution. Karma is the law of cause and effect in the spiritual world; it is the spiral of development. The Christ force intervenes in the development of this karmic line as a guiding axis. Since the arrival of Christ on earth, this force has been found at the core of every human soul.
But if one sees karma as nothing more than a necessity imposed on human beings to make amends for their wrongdoing and atone for their errors through an unforgiving justice that works from one incarnation to the next, then one supports the occasional objection that the law of karma negates the redemptive role of Christ. In reality, karma is, on the one hand, the redemption of man through himself, through his own efforts, through his gradual ascent to freedom in the course of reincarnations, and, on the other hand, that which brings man closer to Christ. For the Christ force is the fundamental impulse that leads man in freedom to the transformation of the irreconcilable law, and the source of this impulse is the person and example of Christ Jesus. It is no longer necessary to see karma as a curse; rather, it should be understood as the necessary means to attain the highest freedom, life in Christ—a freedom that is not achieved by mistrusting the order of things, but by understanding it. Karma does not abolish grace or Christ; on the contrary, it finds them assigned to the whole of evolution.
Another objection can be made from the point of view of Eastern wisdom. The idea of a savior who comes to the aid of human beings, it is said, suppresses the logical connections of karma and replaces the great universal law of development with the sudden intervention of miraculous grace. It is only fair that those who have committed mistakes should also bear their severity.
However, this is a mistake. Karma is the law of cause and effect for the spiritual world, just as mechanics is the law of cause and effect in the material world. At every moment of life, karma represents something like a businessman's balance sheet, the exact figures of debits and credits. With every action, whether good or bad, man increases his debits or his credits. Anyone who does not want to admit an act of freedom would be like a merchant who does not want to take the risk of a new business venture and would always remain at the same level on the balance sheet.
A purely logical view of karma would forbid helping a person in misfortune. But that is precisely where fatalism would prove to be wrong, and the help we give to another of our own free will opens a new chapter in their destiny. Our destinies are woven from such impulses, such acts of grace. But if we accept the idea of individual help, can we not also understand that someone who is capable of much more than we are can help not only an individual, but all people, and indeed bring a new impulse to the whole of humanity? Well, such is the deed of a God who became human, which did not happen to contradict the laws of karma, but to help fulfill them.
Karma and Christ complement each other like the means of salvation and the savior. Through karma, the deed of Christ becomes a cosmic law, and through the Christ principle, the revealed Logos, karma achieves its goal, namely the liberation of souls to self-consciousness and their equality with God. The law of destiny is gradual salvation; Christ is the savior.
If people would imbibe these ideas, they would feel that they belong to one another and would understand the law that prevails in the occult brotherhoods: that each one suffers and lives for the other.
In the future, we will reach a point where the principle of external redemption for every human being will coincide with the activity of the Redeemer within the human being.
It is not revelation, but truth that sets people free: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The path of our development leads to freedom. When human beings have awakened within themselves all that is prophetically contained in the Christ principle, they will have become free. For if necessity is the law of the material world, freedom reigns in the spiritual world. Freedom can only be conquered step by step, and it will not appear in its totality in man until the point in his development when his nature is truly spiritualized.