The Principle of Spiritual Economy
GA 109
10 April 1909, Cologne
7. The Macrocosmic and the Microcosmic Fire: The Spiritualization of Breath and Blood
Goethe,35Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was Germany's greatest poet. Early in his academic career, Steiner spent several years editing Goethe's scientific writings, and during his lifetime he did not tire of extolling Goethean perception and thinking. The main seat of the Anthroposophic movement in Dornach, Switzerland, is still called the “Goetheanum.” Steiner gave several lecture cycles on Goethe's great poem Faust. These have been published as Faust, der strebende Mensch, Vol. I, and Geisteswissenschaftliche Erläuterungen zu Goethe's “Faust” Vol. II (Rudolf Steiner Verlag: Dornach, 1974). one of the most inspired spirits in modern times, knew how to depict in a touching way the strength and the power of sounds at Easter—the sound of the Easter bells. When his character Faust, the representative of striving humanity, has reached the outer limit of earthly existence, he seeks death. Goethe, however, also makes clear to us how the sounds of Easter bells, similar to the brightness of Easter itself, can conquer the thought and the impulse of death in Faust's heart.
The inner impulse of the sounds of Easter that Goethe places before us is the same impulse that passed through the entire development of humanity. In the not too distant future, human beings will understand through a renewed absorption in spiritual things how our festivals are intended to connect the human soul with everything that weaves into and lives in the universe. Then people will feel in a new way how their souls expand with joy during these first days of spring and understand the manner in which the sources of spiritual life can liberate us from the material world and from the narrowness of an existence that is tied to material things.
Especially during Easter will the human soul feel most fervently how an unshakable faith is being poured into it, which indicates that there is a well of the eternal, divine existence deep inside every human being. This fountainhead removes us from all constrictions and allows us to be one with the source of universal existence without losing ourselves. We can find a new life in this source at any time, provided we are able to rise to its knowledge through illumination. That which constitutes the true essence of Easter is nothing but an external sign of the Christian Mystery, the most profound experience mankind has ever had. And thus, we feel at this time of the year as if the external festivities and the manifestations of Easter were a symbol of the truths that human beings were able to discover only at the beginning of evolution, as well as a symbol of the knowledge that was available to them exclusively from the depths of the Holy Mysteries. What we call Easter was widely celebrated by ancient peoples, and wherever it was celebrated, it grew out of the Holy Mysteries. And everywhere such celebrations conjured up the notion and the conviction that the life that is lived in the spirit can conquer death, because death resides in the material world. In whatever way the human soul became convinced of this truth in ancient times, the substance of this conviction was ultimately derived from the very core of the Holy Mysteries.
However, the progression of human evolution consists precisely in the fact that the secrets formerly known only to holy places and to the Mystery Centers are now increasingly accessible to all of humanity and will eventually become common knowledge. In today's and tomorrow's festivities we will therefore observe, and attempt to present, how this notion—this feeling—was at first confined to the few in ancient times but has increasingly gained ground in the course of human development and is now known to an ever increasing number of people. Today let us look back into the past so that tomorrow we will be able to describe the feelings people in our time have toward Easter.
Our Christian Easter is only one among humanity's many forms of celebrating Easter, and what the sages of mankind had to say about conquering death through life was a result of the strongest convictions and sprang from the deepest wells of wisdom. These insights were built into the Easter symbols, and we find there elements that are designed to awaken in us an understanding of Easter, of the resurrection feast of the spirit. A beautiful and deep oriental legend tells us the following.
Shakyamuni, the Buddha, was a great oriental teacher who made many oriental regions happy with his deep wisdom. Since this wisdom had sprung from the primeval wells of spiritual existence, it warmed the hearts of humanity and filled them with utter bliss. Shakyamuni preserved for later ages that ancient wisdom of the divine-spiritual worlds that had beatified the hearts of human beings when they were still able to look into the divine world. The Buddha had one great disciple, Kashyapa, who was able to understand his teachings, whereas his other disciples were more or less incapable of grasping the comprehensive wisdom taught by Buddha. He was one of the initiates most profoundly in tune with the teaching of Buddha and one of his most important successors. The legend tells us that when it was time for Kashyapa to die and when, because of his maturity, he was ready to enter the state of Nirvana, he went out to a steep mountain and hid in a cave. There his body remained after his death in an imputrescible state; only the initiates knew about this secret and about the location of Kashyapa's body. However, Buddha himself had once predicted the coming of Maitreya-Buddha, his great successor who was to become the new teacher and leader of humanity and who, when he had reached the zenith of his preordained earthly existence, would seek out the cave of the illumined Kashyapa to touch his imperishable corpse with the right hand. Then from the heavens a fire would stream down in which Kashyapa's body would be transported to the spiritual world.
The very degree by which the oriental legend differs from what we know as the content of the Easter story affords us an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Easter. Only through a gradual approach can we grasp the primeval wisdom contained in this legend. We could begin by asking why Kashyapa—in contradistinction to the Savior in the Christian report of Easter—does not conquer death after three days; or we might ask why the corpse of the oriental initiate remains in this imperishable state for such a long period of time until it is finally moved upward to the celestial spheres by a miraculous fire.
Today we can only allude to the hidden depths of such things, and only little by little can we get an idea of the wisdom expressed in such profound legends. It is especially important at festivals such as Easter to keep a modest and respectful distance and to gradually raise our consciousness to the heights of wisdom by engaging ourselves in the ritual of celebration. We must not give in to the temptation of wanting to grasp the meaning of these legends quickly with our dry intellect. No, these truths can be approached and ultimately understood only by gradually attuning our perceptive sensibilities and feelings to them. Only after this ripening process can we grasp the great truths with the zeal and full warmth of our sensibilities.
For today's humanity, two closely related truths shine as mighty lights and emblems on the horizon of the spirit—important points of reference for a developing humanity that is striving within the spiritual realm. The first emblem is the burning bramblebush of Moses, and the second is the fire appearing under lightning and thunder at Sinai from which Moses received the pronouncement of the “I am the I am.”36Exodus 3:14 Who is that spiritual being in the two apparitions announcing himself to Moses?
Anyone who understands the Christian message in a spiritual sense will also understand the words that announce to Moses the Being in the burning bramblebush, and later in the fire on Mt. Sinai—the Being who places the Ten Commandments before his soul. The writer of the Gospel of St. John tells us that Moses prophesied the Coming of Christ Jesus, and the Evangelist John expressly lets him point to those places in the Bible where the force in the burning bramblebush and later in the fire at Sinai announces Himself as the Being who was later to be named “the Christ.” No godhead other than the Christ is intended to be introduced by the words “I am the I am.”
The God who later appeared in the human body and who confronted mankind with the Mystery of Golgotha reigns invisibly after He had announced Himself earlier in the fire element in nature, in the burning bush, and in the lightning fire of Sinai. And you can understand the Old or the New Testament only if you know that the God proclaimed by Moses is the Christ who was supposed to walk among people. That is how the God who is supposed to bring salvation to human beings announces Himself in a way as no being in human form would. He announces Himself in the fiery element of nature, the element in which Christ is living. His divine essence makes itself known in many forms. The same Divine Being that reigns throughout all of antiquity now makes His visible appearance through the Event in Palestine.
Let us look back to the Old Testament and ask ourselves whom the ancient Hebrews actually revered. Who is their God? The members of the Hebrew Mystery Centers knew it; they worshiped the Christ and recognized Him as the speaker of the words, “Tell my people: I am the I am.” But even if nothing of this were known, the very fact that God, within our cycle of humanity, announced Himself in the fire would be sufficiently authentic evidence to the person capable of seeing into the deep mysteries of nature that the God of the burning bramblebush is identical with the God who announced Himself on Mt. Sinai. He came down from spiritual heights in order to fulfill the Mystery of Golgotha through His descent into a human body. For there is a mysterious connection between the fire that ignites the elements of nature out there and the fire that pulsates through our blood in the form of body temperature. We have often emphasized in our Spiritual Science that the human being is a microcosm juxtaposed to the large world, the macrocosm. Therefore, when we perceive things in the right way, the inner processes of a human being must correspond to processes taking place outside in the universe. For every inner-process we must be able to find the corresponding outer process, but to understand the meaning of this requires that we enter deep shafts of Spiritual Science. We are touching here the fringe of a deep mystery, of a truth that answers this question: What in the external macrocosm corresponds to the origin of human thought within us?
Human beings are the only creatures on earth who really think, and through their thoughts they are able to experience a world that extends beyond the earth. The manner in which thoughts flash up in the human being has no parallel in any other creature on earth. What is taking place within us when a thought is ignited, when either the simplest or the most enlightening thought flashes into our minds? To answer this question, let us say that the ego and astral body are simultaneously activated within us when we let our thoughts pass through our souls. Our blood is the physical expression of our ego, and that which in our nervous system is called “life” is the physical expression of our astral body. Not a single thought would flare up in our souls if ego and astral body did not work in concert, thus giving rise to a commensurate, interdependent functioning of the blood and of the nervous system. The future science of human beings will some day be amazed at today's scientific theory, which holds that thoughts originate solely in the nervous system. This belief is incorrect because the process responsible for the origination of thoughts must be seen as a dynamic interaction between blood and nervous system.
A thought flashes up in our soul when our blood, our inner fire, nervous system, and air cooperate in such a way. The origination of the thought inside our soul corresponds to rolling thunder in the cosmos. Likewise, when lightning flashes in the air, and when air and fire interact to produce thunder, this corresponds to the fire of our blood and the activity of our nervous system. This produces what one might metaphorically call an inner thunder that echoes in our thoughts, albeit gently, quietly, and imperceptibly. The lightning in the clouds corresponds to the fire and to the warmth in our blood, whereas the air outside, including all the elements it contains in the universe, corresponds to everything that passes through our nervous system. And just as lightning in its counterplay with the elements produces thunder, so the counterplay of blood and nerves produces the thought that flashes up in the soul. Suppose we looked out into the world that surrounds us, saw lightning flashing up in the air, and heard rolling thunder discharging itself. Then suppose that, as we looked into our soul, we sensed an inner warmth pulsating in our blood and felt the life that passes through our nervous system, a thought would flash up within us to tell us that both the external and the internal event were one.
That is really the truth! Although our thoughts take place within ourselves, the thunder rolling in the sky is not just a physical, material phenomenon. To assert that it was so would be nothing but materialistic mythology. However, individuals able to perceive that spiritual beings weave and radiate through material existence will look up to the sky, see the lightning, hear the thunder, and to them this will be a true and real indication of God's thinking in the fire, of His intention to announce Himself to us. That is the invisible God who weaves and radiates through the universe. His warmth is in the lightning, His nerves in the air, His thoughts in the rolling thunder; and it was He who spoke to Moses in the burning bramblebush and in the lightning fire of Sinai.
The elements fire and air in the macrocosm correspond to blood and nerves in the human microcosm. Thoughts in the human being are what lightning and thunder are in the macrocosm. By analogy, the God whom Moses saw and heard in the burning bush and who spoke to him in the lightning fire of Mt. Sinai appears as the Christ in the blood of Jesus of Nazareth. By thinking like a human being and by being in a human body, Christ's influence as the great model for human evolution extends into the far-distant future. And thus, two poles in the human evolution meet each other: the macrocosmic God on Mt. Sinai who announces Himself in thunder and lightning fire, and the same microcosmic God who is embodied in the human being of Palestine.
The sublime mysteries of humanity have been derived from the most profound wisdom. They are not invented legends, but a truth so profound that we need all the means available to Spiritual Science in order to unveil the mysteries that are woven around this truth. Let us ask what kind of an impulse mankind received through its great model, the Christ-Being, who descended to earth and united Himself with the microcosmic copies of the elements that are present in the human body.
Let us look back one more time to the prophecies of ancient cultures. All of them, back to the very distant past of the post-Atlantean era, probably knew what the course of human development would be. The Mystery Centers everywhere taught what is now proclaimed by Spiritual Science as follows: Human beings consist of four parts: the physical, the etheric, and the astral bodies, and the ego. They can rise to higher stages of development: through individual effort on the part of their ego, when they transform their astral body into spirit self—manas, when they transform their etheric body into life spirit—buddhi, and when they spiritualize the physical body into spirit man—atman. All the members of this physical body must be gradually spiritualized in our life on earth so that everything that makes human beings out of us through the influx of the divine breath is profoundly spiritualized. And because spiritualization of the physical body begins with the spiritualization of the breath—of the odem, the transformed, spiritualized physical body is called atma or atman, from which the German word for breath, atem, derives. The Old Testament tells us that the human being received the breath of life in the beginning of his earthly existence. Likewise, all ancient Schools of Wisdom perceived this breath of life as something that must gradually be spiritualized by the human being, and they saw atman as a deification of the breath—as the great ideal human beings must strive for—so that they will be imbued with the spiritual breath of air.
But there is still more in the human being that has to be spiritualized. If the entire body is to be spiritualized, it is necessary not only that the breath be spiritualized but also that the blood—the expression of the ego that is constantly renewed by the breath—be spiritualized. The blood must be infected by a strong impulse toward the spiritual. Christianity has added to the ancient mysteries the mystery of the blood and of the fire that is enclosed in the human being. The ancient mysteries say that human beings have descended to earth in their present earthly form and physical corporeality from spiritual heights. Having lost their spiritual essence and having wrapped themselves into a physical corporeality, they must return to spirituality by casting off the physical sheath and by ascending to a spiritual existence.
The religions could not teach what one might call the self-induced salvation of the human ego as long as the ego, whose physical expression is in the blood, was not touched by an impulse now present on earth. And thus we are told how the great spiritual beings—the great avatars—descend and incarnate themselves from time to time in human bodies, especially when humanity needs help. These are beings who do not need to descend into a human body to enhance their own development because they have completed their own human development in an earlier cycle of the world. They descend for the sole purpose of helping human beings. For example, when mankind is in need of help, the great god Vishnu descends from time to time into an earthly existence. Krishna, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, speaks of himself and explains clearly what the essence of an avatar is. In the divine poem, the Bhagavad Gita, he himself explains what he is. Here we have the wonderful words that Krishna, in whom Vishnu lives as an avatar, says about himself: “I am the spirit of creation, its beginning, its middle, its end; I am the Sun among the stars, fire among the elements, the great ocean among the waters, the eternal snake among all snakes. I am the basis of everything.”37Bhagavad Gita is a religious Hindu poem consisting of dialogues between Prince Arjuna and Krishna, who reveals himself as the avatara (incarnation) of Vishnu. The transcription of the quotation from the “Gita” is probably a contraction of several textual citations on pp. 452, 522, and 529, among others, of Bhagavad-gita AS IT IS. Complete edition (Collier Books: New York, 1974).
No words can proclaim more beautifully and more magnificently the all-embracing, omnipotent divinity. The godhead whom Moses saw in the elements of fire not only weaves and radiates through the macrocosmic world but also can be found inside the human being. That is why the Krishna-Being indwells in anything human as the great ideal to which the human core strives to develop itself from within. And if, as the wisdom of antiquity endeavored to do, the human breath can be spiritualized through the impulse that we absorb through the Mystery of Golgotha, then we have realized the principle of salvation through that which itself lives within us. All avatars saved mankind through the forces they caused to radiate from spiritual heights down onto earth. The avatar Christ, however, saved mankind by means of what He Himself extracted from the strength of mankind, and He showed us how the strength to be saved and to conquer matter through spirit can be found within ourselves.
Now we can see how even such an illuminate as Kashyapa could not yet be fully saved even though he had made his body imperishable. This body of his had to remain in the secret cave until the Maitreya-Buddha came to pick it up. Only when the physical body has been so spiritualized through the ego that the Christ-Impulse can stream into it does one no longer need the wonderful cosmic fire in order to attain salvation; what is needed for salvation is the fire raging in the blood of the inner human being. And that is why we can utilize the light that radiates from the Mystery of Golgotha in order to illuminate such a wonderfully profound legend as the one told about Kashyapa.
At first blush, the world appears to us dark and full of riddles, but we can compare it with a dark room containing many splendid objects that we are unable to see when we first enter. However, when we ignite a light, it illuminates the whole splendor of the objects in the room and everything else represented by these objects. The same can be true for the human being who strives for wisdom. The human being strives at first in the dark; looking in this world first to the past and then to the future, he or she can at first see nothing but darkness. However, once the light coming from Golgotha is ignited, everything from the farthest past to the remotest future becomes illuminated. Since everything material is born out of the spirit, the spirit will again rise from matter. To express this certainty is the meaning of today's celebration of Easter—a festival that is tied to the events of the world. Mankind must realize what it can attain through Spiritual Science: if the human soul, by gaining knowledge of the mysteries of existence, can acquire a lively feeling for the mysteries of the universe on important symbolic occasions such as Easter, then it will also feel something of what it means to live not simply in one's own narrow, personal existence but also in a symbiosis with the light of the stars, the splendor of the sun, and with everything that lives in the universe. The soul will become increasingly more spiritual as it feels extended into the universe.
The spiritual Easter bells echo their sounds through our hearts, indicating that we must pass from a human to a universal life through the resurrection. Hearing these spiritual Easter bells will make us lose any doubt we may have about the spiritual world, and we will then be sure that death in the material world cannot harm us. When we understand these spiritual Easter bells, we will return to the life in the spirit.
Das Makrokosmische Und Das Mikrokosmische Feuer Die Vergeistigung Des Atems Und Des Blutes
In ergreifender Weise hat einer der inspiriertesten Geister der neueren Zeit, hat Goethe zu zeichnen gewußt die Macht und die Kraft der Ostertöne, der Osterglocken. Stellt Goethe doch vor uns hin den Repräsentanten der strebenden Menschheit, den Faust, so wie er gekommen ist an den Rand des irdischen Daseins, und zeigt er uns doch, wie es die Ostertöne sind, wie die Helle des Osterfestes es ist, was auch im Herzen dieses Todsuchers den Gedanken an den Tod, den Impuls des Todes zu besiegen vermag.
So wie Goethe diesen innern Impuls der Osterklänge vor uns hinstellt, so ging dieser Impuls durch die gesamte Entwickelung der Menschheit hindurch. Und wenn der Mensch in nicht allzuferner Zukunft durch eine erneute spirituelle Vertiefung verstehen wird, wie die Feste unsere Seele in Zusammenhang bringen sollen mit allem, was im großen Weltenraum lebt und webt, dann wird man auch in einer erneuten Gestalt in diesen Tagen des Frühlingsanfangs die Seele erweitert fühlen, um zu erfassen, wie die Quellen des spirituellen Lebens uns erlösen können aus dem materiellen Leben, aus der Enge des Daseins, das an den Stoff gefesselt ist.
Gerade in der Osterzeit wird die Menschenseele am stärksten empfinden lernen, was in die Seele zu gießen vermag die unerschütterliche Zuversicht, daß im Innersten des Menschen ein Quell des ewigen, göttlichen Daseins wohnt, ein Quell, der uns aus aller Enge heraustreibt und uns eins sein läßt, ohne daß wir uns verlieren, mit dem Quell des universellen Daseins, in dem wir jederzeit auferstehen, wenn wir uns zu seiner Erkenntnis durch Erleuchtung aufzuschwingen vermögen. Nichts anderes und nichts Geringeres ist das, was das eigentliche Wesen des Osterfestes ausmacht, als ein äußeres Zeichen des Tiefsten, was die Menschheit zu erleben vermochte, als ein äußeres Zeichen des tiefsten christlichen Mysteriums. Und so ist es uns am heutigen Osterfeste, als wenn im äußeren Feste und in den äußeren Festeszeichen ein Symbol dastände dessen, was die Menschen am Beginn der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung nur finden konnten und was sie nur gewußt hatten in den Tiefen der heiligen Mysterien. Wo die Völker auf der Erde das gefeiert haben, was wir Osterfest nennen - und in den weitesten Kreisen der Menschheit bei den alten Völkern wurde es gefeiert -, wir sehen es überall emporblühen aus den heiligen Mysterien heraus. Und überall ruft es die Ahnung und die Überzeugung hervor, daß das Leben im Geiste den Tod in der Materie zu besiegen vermag. Was auch immer der Menschenseele diese Überzeugung einflößte, das mußte in alten Zeiten aus den Tiefen der heiligen Mysterien heraus verkündet werden.
Aber darin besteht ja gerade die Fortentwickelung der Menschheit, daß jetzt immer mehr und mehr von dem, was Geheimnis der heiligen Stätten ist, herausdringt, und daß die Weisheit der heiligen Mysterienstätten hinausdringt in die ganze Menschheit, daß sie Allgemeingut der Menschheit wird. Und so sei denn das heutige und morgige Fest in bezug auf seine Betrachtung gewidmet dem Versuch einer Darstellung, wie diese Ahnung, diese Empfindung, diese Überzeugung im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung immer mehr sich Bahn bricht und herausdringt aus uralter Erkenntnis in immer weitere Kreise. Heute wollen wir in die Vergangenheit zurückblicken, damit wir morgen das, was die Gegenwart diesem Feste gegenüber fühlt, zu schildern vermögen.
Wir müssen allerdings, weil das Osterfest das Auferstehungsfest des Menschheitsgeistes ist, uns heute zu ernster Betrachtung im Innern sammeln, um zu solcher Weisheit vordringen zu können, die in gewisser Weise zu den höchsten Höhen geisteswissenschaftlicher Anschauung hinaufzuführen vermag.
Unser christliches Osterfest ist nur eine der Formen des Menschheits-Osterfestes überhaupt, und was die Weisen der Menschheit zu sagen hatten aus stärksten, tiefsten Überzeugungen, aus den tiefsten Gründen der Weisheit heraus, von der Überwindung des Todes durch das Leben, das wurde hineingeheimnißt in die Symbole des Osterfestes. Überall werden wir bei ihnen die Elemente finden, um uns ein Verständnis für das Osterfest, für das Auferstehungsfest des Geistes zu verschaffen. Eine schöne, tiefe, morgenländische Legende erzählt das Folgende:
Der große Lehrer des Morgenlandes, Shakyamuni, der Buddha, er hat die Gegenden des Morgenlandes mit seiner tiefen Weisheit beglückt, die aus den Urquellen des geistigen Daseins geholt war und daher die Herzen der Menschheit mit tiefster Seligkeit durchglühte. Was tief beseligend war für die Herzen der Menschheit, als der Mensch noch hineinzuschauen vermochte in die göttliche Welt - uralte Weisheit von den göttlich-geistigen Welten -, hat bis in die spätere Zeit hinein Shakyamuni für die Menschheit gerettet. Einen großen Schüler hatte er, und während die andern Schüler mehr oder weniger nicht begriffen die umfassende Weisheit, die der Buddha lehrte, hat Kashyapa - so hieß dieser Schüler - sie begriffen. Er war einer der tiefsten Eingeweihten in diese Lehre, einer der bedeutendsten Nachfolger des Buddha. Die Legende erzählt: Als Kashyapa ans Sterben kam und er vermöge seiner Reife ins Nirvana eingehen sollte, da ging er an einen steilen Berg und verbarg sich in einer Höhle. Und in dieser Höhle verblieb sein Leib nach seinem Tode unverweslich und dauerte fort. Nur die Eingeweihten wußten von diesem Geheimnis und wo der Leib ruht. Denn an verborgenem, geheimem Orte ruht dieser unverwesliche Leib des großen Eingeweihten, des Kashyapa. Aber vorhergesagt hatte der Buddha, daß einst kommen würde sein großer Nachfolger, der Maitreya-Buddha, der erneute große Lehrer und Führer der Menschheit, und er würde, wenn er zum Gipfel gelangt sein würde jenes Daseins, das er während des Erdenlebens erreichen sollte, jene Höhle des Kashyapa aufsuchen, mit seiner rechten Hand den unverweslichen Leichnam des Erleuchteten berühren, und vom Himmel würde herabströmen ein wunderbares Feuer, und in diesem Feuer würde sich erheben vom irdischen Dasein in ein geistiges der unverwesliche Leib des großen Erleuchteten, des Kashyapa.
So spricht die große Legende des Morgenlandes, vielleicht etwas unverständlich für das Abendland. Auch sie spricht von einer Auferstehung, einem Entrücktwerden aus dem irdischen Dasein, von einer Überwindung des Todes, die so herbeigeführt wird, daß die Verwesungskräfte der Erde nichts vermögen über den geläuterten, gereinigten Leib des Kashyapa, und daß, wenn der große Eingeweihte kommt und ihn berührt mit der Hand, das wunderbare Feuer ihn hinaufhebt in die himmlischen Sphären. Und gerade in dem, wo diese Legende des Morgenlandes abweicht von dem, was wir als den Inhalt des abendländischen, christlichen Osterberichtes kennen, liegt eine Möglichkeit, zu einem tieferen Verständnis des Osterfestes zu kommen. Es ist in solch einer Legende eine Urweisheit verborgen, der wir uns nur nach und nach nähern können. Und so könnten wir fragen: Warum wird dort nicht Kashyapa, wie der Erlöser - wie uns im christlichen Osterbericht gesagt wird -, nach drei Tagen Sieger über den Tod? Warum wartet der unverwesliche Leib des morgenländischen Eingeweihten durch lange Zeiten hindurch, bis er durch ein wunderbares Feuer in die himmlischen Höhen entrückt wird?
Wir können heute nur anklingen lassen das Tiefe, das in solchen Dingen liegt. Wir werden erst nach und nach eine Ahnung bekommen von der Weisheit, die sich in solch tiefen Legenden ausspricht. Gerade bei solchen Festeszeiten müssen wir mit unseren Empfindungen erst scheu und ehrfurchtsvoll in der Ferne bleiben und erst nach und nach hinaufschauen lernen durch solche Festesfeiern zu den Höhen der Weisheit. Nicht sollen wir gleich mit unserem nüchternen Verstande das erfassen wollen, was in solchen Legenden liegt. Rechtes Verständnis wird nur dann erreicht, wenn wir uns so diesen Wahrheiten nähern, daß wir erst unsere Empfindungen und Gefühle geeignet und reif machen, ehe wir uns annähern an die großen Wahrheiten, um dann in vollem Feuer und mit voller Wärme die großen Wahrheiten mit unseren Empfindungen zu erfassen.
Für die heutige Menschheit stehen zwei Wahrheiten wie mächtige Leuchten am Horizont des Geistes da, Wahrzeichen, die miteinander innig verwandt sind. Zwei wichtige Richtpunkte sind es für die sich entwickelnde, im Geistigen strebende Menschheit der heutigen Entwickelungsstufe.
Als das erste Wahrzeichen erscheint der brennende Dornbusch des Moses und als das zweite das Feuer, das unter Blitz und Donner am Sinai erscheint, durch welches dem Moses die Verkündigung wird: «Ich bin der Ich-bin.»
Jene geistige Wesenheit, die sich damals dem Moses verkündigt hat, die da in beiden Erscheinungen spricht, wer ist sie?
Wer die Botschaft des Christentums versteht im geistigen Sinne, der versteht auch die Worte, die ankündigen, wer die Wesenheit ist, die im Dornbusch und danach auf dem Sinai unter Blitz und Donner dem Moses erscheint und die Zehn Gebote ihm vor die Seele hinstellt. Es sagt uns der Schreiber des Evangeliums Johanni selber, daß Moses vorherverkündet hat den Christus Jesus, und der Evangelist läßt ihn gerade auf jene Stellen hinweisen, wo im brennenden Dornbusch und später im Feuer auf Sinai sich die Machtankündigt, die später der Christus genannt wordenist. Keineandere Gottheit soll vorgestellt werdenalsderChristus in dem, der zu Moses von sich selbst spricht: «Ich bin der Ich-bin.»
Derjenige Gott, der später im menschlichen Leibe erschienen ist und der das Mysterium von Golgatha vor die Menschheit hingestellt hat, er waltet unsichtbar, sich selber vorherverkündend im Feuerelement der Natur, im Feuer des brennenden Dornbusches und im Blitzesfeuer auf Sinai. Und der nur versteht die Verkündigung des Alten Testaments, der nur versteht das Neue Testament, der da weiß, daß der Gott, den Moses verkündet, der Christus ist, der unter den Menschen wandeln soll. So kündigt sich der Gott an, der den Menschen Erlösung bringen soll, in einer Weise, die nicht in menschlicher Gestalt gesehen werden kann. Er kündigt sich an in dem feurigen Element der Natur; denn darin, in diesem Element, lebt der Christus. Das, was seine göttliche Wesenheit ist, kündigt sich in den verschiedensten Gestalten an. Durch das ganze Altertum waltet dieselbe Wesenheit, die dann sichtbar hervortrat durch das Ereignis von Palästina.
So schauen wir zurück auf das Alte Testament und fragen uns: Wen verehrt das althebräische Volk in Wirklichkeit? Wer ist der Gott des alten hebräischen Volkes? - Die Angehörigen der hebräischen Mysterien haben es gewußt: den Christus haben sie verehrt; den Christus haben sie gesehen in dem, der sprach das Wort: «Sage meinem Volke: Ich bin der Ich-bin.» - Aber wenn auch alles das nicht bekannt wäre, die Tatsache, daß sich innerhalb unseres Menschheitszyklus der Gott im Feuer ankündigt, wäre für den, der hineinschaut in die tiefen Geheimnisse der Natur, maßgebend genug, um das zu erkennen, daß die Gottheit des brennenden Dornbusches und die Gottheit, die auf dem Sinai sich ankündigte, dieselbe ist, die aus geistigen Höhen herabkommt, um das Mysterium von Golgatha zu vollziehen durch den Herabstieg in den menschlichen Leib. Denn es besteht ein geheimnisvoller Zusammenhang zwischen dem Feuer, das draußen durch die Elemente der Natur entzündet wird und dem, was als Wärme durch unser Blut pulsiert. Oft wurde schon betont in unserer Geisteswissenschaft, der Mensch sei ein Mikrokosmos, der sich gegenüberstellt der großen Welt, dem Makrokosmos. Es muß daher, wenn wir in richtiger Weise zusehen, das, was im Menschen an innern Vorgängen ist, entsprechen äußeren Vorgängen im Universum. Zu jedem innern Vorgang müssen wir den entsprechenden äußeren Vorgang finden können. Wir müssen tiefe Schächte der Geisteswissenschaft betreten, wenn wir die Bedeutung davon verstehen wollen. Hier berühren wir den Rand eines tiefen Geheimnisses, einer großen Wahrheit, jener Wahrheit, die da Antwort gibt auf die Frage: Was ist es in der großen Außenwelt, was dem Geheimnis der Entstehung des menschlichen Gedankens in uns entspricht?
Der Mensch ist das einzige wirklich denkende Wesen auf unserer Erde. Durch seine Gedanken erlebt der Mensch eine Welt, die ihn über diese Erde hinausführt. In der Form, in welcher sich im Menschen die Gedanken entzünden, erlebt kein anderes irdisches Wesen die Gedanken. Was entzündet in uns den Gedanken, was spielt sich in uns ab, wenn der einfachste oder herrlichste Gedanke uns durchzuckt?-Zweierlei wirkt in uns zusammen, wenn wir Gedanken durch unsere Seele ziehen lassen: unser Astralleib und unser Ich. Der physische Ausdruck für unser Ich ist das Blut; der physische Ausdruck für unseren Astralleib ist unser Nervensystem, das, was wir Leben nennen in unserem Nervensystem. Und niemals würden unsere Gedanken unsere Seele durchzucken, wenn nicht ein Zusammenwirken wäre zwischen Ich und Astralleib, welches seinen Ausdruck findet im Zusammenwirken zwischen Blut und Nervensystem. Sonderbar wird es einmal einer menschlichen Zukunftswissenschaft vorkommen, wenn die heutige Wissenschaft allein im Nervensystem die Entstehung des Gedankens sucht. Nicht in den Nerven allein ist der Ursprung des Gedankens. Nur in dem lebendigen Zusammenspiel zwischen Blut und Nervensystem haben wir den Vorgang zu erblicken, der den Gedanken entstehen läßt.
Wenn unser Blut, unser inneres Feuer, und unser Nervensystem, unsere innere Luft, so zusammenwirken, dann durchzuckt der Gedanke die Seele. Und die Entstehung des Gedankens im Innern der Seele entspricht im Kosmos dem rollenden Donner. Wenn das Blitzesfeuer sich entzündet in den Luftmassen, wenn Feuer und Luft zusammenspielen und den Donner erzeugen, dann ist das in der großen Welt dasselbe makrokosmische Ereignis, dem entspricht der Vorgang, wenn das Feuer des Blutes und das Spiel des Nervensystems sich entladen im innern Donner, der allerdings sanft und ruhig und unvernehmbar für die Außenwelt erklingt im Gedanken. Was der Blitz in den Wolken, das ist für uns die Wärme unseres Blutes, und die Luft draußen mit allem, was sie an Elementen enthält im Universum, entspricht dem, was unser Nervensystem durchzieht. Und wie der Blitz im Widerspiel mit den Elementen den Donner erzeugt, so erzeugt das Widerspiel von Blut und Nerven den Gedanken, der die Seele durchzuckt. Wir schauen hinaus in die Welt, die uns umgibt: Wir sehen den zukkenden Blitz in den Gebilden der Luft und hören den sich entladenden, rollenden Donner. Und dann blicken wir in unsere Seele und spüren die innere Wärme, die in unserem Blute pulsiert und spüren das Leben, das unser Nervensystem durchzieht - dann fühlen wir den Gedanken uns durchzucken und sagen: Beides ist eins.
Wahrhaft und wirklich ist es so! Denn in uns denken wir, und wenn der Donner am Himmel rollt, so ist das nicht nur eine physisch-materielle Erscheinung. Das ist es nur für die materialistische Mythologie. Für den aber, der die geistigen Wesen durchweben und durchwallen sieht das materielle Dasein, für den ist es Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit, wenn der Mensch hinaufschaut und den Blitz sieht und den Donner hört und sich sagt: Jetzt denkt der Gott im Feuer, wie er sich uns verkündigen muß. Das ist der unsichtbare Gott, der das Universum durchwebt und durchwallt, der seine Wärme in dem Blitz und seine Nerven in der Luft und seine Gedanken in dem rollenden Donner hat. Der sprach zu Moses in dem brennenden Dornbusch und auf Sinai in dem Blitzesfeuer.
Dieselben Elemente Feuer und Luft, die im Makrokosmos sind, sind im Menschen, im Mikrokosmos, Blut und Nerven; und wie im Makrokosmos Blitz und Donner, so sind im Menschen die Gedanken. Und der Gott, den Moses gesehen und gehört hatte im brennenden Dornbusch, der zu ihm sprach in dem Blitzesfeuer auf Sinai, der erscheint als Christus im Blute des Jesus von Nazareth. Im menschlichen Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth erscheint der Christus, der herabsteigt in die menschliche Form. Indem er wie ein Mensch denkt im menschlichen Leibe, wirkt er als das große Vorbild der Menschheitsentwickelung in die Zukunft hinein.
So begegnen sich die beiden Pole der Menschheitsentwickelung: der makrokosmische Gott auf dem Sinai, der sich verkündigt im Donner und Blitzesfeuer, und derselbe Gott mikrokosmisch, verkörpert im Menschen von Palästina.
Aus der tiefsten Weisheit herausgeholt sind die erhabenen Mysterien der Menschheit. Sie sind nicht erdichtete Legenden, sondern tiefe Wahrheit. Aber sie sind so tiefe Wahrheit, daß wir alle Mittel der Geisteswissenschaft brauchen, um zu enthüllen die Geheimnisse, die umweben diese Wahrheit. - Und was hat die Menschheit für einen Impuls erhalten durch dieses ihr größtes Vorbild, durch die Wesenheit, die herabgestiegen ist und sich verbunden hat mit den mikrokosmischen Abbildern der Elemente in einem Menschenleibe, durch die Wesenheit des Christus?
Blicken wir auf die Verkündigung alter Völker noch einmal zurück. Alle alten Völker, bis in die graue Vergangenheit der nachatlantischen Zeit, haben wohl gewußt, wie die menschliche Entwickelung verläuft. Überall, in allen Mysterienschulen wurde verkündigt, was heute wieder von der Geisteswissenschaft verkündet wird: daß der Mensch aus vier Gliedern besteht - dem physischen Leib, dem Ätherleib, dem Astralleib und dem Ich -, daß er aber aufsteigen kann zu höheren Stufen seines Daseins, wenn er durch sein Ich selbsttätig umwandelt den Astralleib in das Geistselbst - Manas -, den Ätherleib in den Lebensgeist - Buddhi -, und wenn er den physischen Leib vergeistigt zu Atman oder Geistesmensch. Dieser physische Leib, er muß in allen seinen Gliedern nach und nach durchgeistigt werden, er muß so tief in unserem Erdenleben durchgeistigt werden, daß dasjenige, was den Menschen zum Menschen gemacht hat, das Einströmen des göttlichen Odems, daß das vergeistigt wird. Und weil die Vergeistigung des physischen Leibes mit der Vergeistigung des Atems beginnt, darum nennt man den verwandelten, vergeistigten physischen Körper: Atma oder Atman — Atem: Atman. Es sagt die Verkündigung des Alten Testaments, daß der Mensch zum Beginne seines Erdendaseins erhalten hat den Lebensatem, und alle uralten Weisheiten sehen im Lebensatem dasjenige, was der Mensch nach und nach vergeistigen muß. Alle alten Weltanschauungen sahen das große, zu erstrebende Ideal in ‚Atman, in dem, was den Atem so vergöttlicht, daß der Mensch durchzogen wird von einer spirituellen Atemluft.
Aber noch mehr muß vergeistigt werden am Menschen. Wenn sein ganzer physischer Leib vergeistigt werden soll, muß nicht nur der Atem, sondern auch das, was durch den Atem fortwährend erneuert wird, das Blut, der Ausdruck des Ich vergeistigt werden. Das Blut muß ergriffen werden von einem zum Spirituellen treibenden Impuls. Die Mysterien des Blutes - des Feuers, das im Menschen eingeschlossen ist — hat das Christentum hinzugefügt zu den alten Mysterien. Die alten Mysterien sagen: Der Mensch auf der Erde, wie er in irdischer Gestalt lebt, ist aus geistigen Höhen herabgestiegen in die physischirdische Körperlichkeit. Der Mensch hat verloren, was seine geistige Wesenheit ausmacht. Er hat sich umhüllt mit physischer Körperlichkeit. Aber er muß wieder zurück in die Geistigkeit, muß wieder von sich werfen die physische Hülle, muß hinaufsteigen in ein geistiges Dasein.
Solange des Menschen Ich, das seinen physischen Ausdruck im Blute hat, nicht ergriffen war von einem auf der Erde befindlichen Impuls, so lange konnten die Religionen nicht lehren das, was man die Kraft der Selbsterlösung des menschlichen Ichs nennt. So wird uns geschildert, wie die großen geistigen Wesen, die großen Avatare, heruntersteigen und sich von Zeit zu Zeit verkörpern in menschlichen Leibern, wenn die Menschen Hilfe brauchen. Es sind Wesen, die nicht zu ihrer eigenen Entwickelung in einen Menschenkörper hinunterzusteigen brauchen, denn sie hatten ihre Menschheitsentwickelung in einem früheren Weltenzyklus vollendet. Sie steigen herunter, weil sie den Menschen helfen wollen. So steigt von Zeit zu Zeit, wenn die Menschheit Hilfe braucht, der große Gott Vishnu herab ins irdische Dasein. Eine der Verkörperungen des Vishnu, Krishna, spricht von sich selber, deutlich sagend, was eines Avatares Wesenheit ist. Er spricht selbst aus, was er ist, in dem göttlichen Liede, in der Bhagavad Gita. In ihr haben wir die herrlichen Worte, die der Krishna, in dem Vishnu als Avatar lebt, von sich selber ausspricht: «Ich bin der Schöpfung Geist, ihr Anfang, ihre Mitte, ihr Ende; ich bin unter den Sternen die Sonne, unter den Elementen das Feuer, unter den Wassern das Weltenmeer, unter den Schlangen die ewige Schlange. Ich bin der Weltengrund.»
Man kann nicht schöner, herrlicher die allwaltende Göttlichkeit verkünden, als es geschehen ist in diesen Worten. Die Gottheit, die Moses sieht im Elemente des Feuers, die nicht nur als makrokosmische Gottheit die Welt durchwebt und durchwallt, ist auch im Innern des Menschen zu finden. Darum lebt die Krishna-Wesenheit in allem, was Menschenantlitz trägt, als großes Ideal, zu dem sich der Menschenkeim von innen heraus entwickelt. Und wenn, wie es die Weisheit des Altertums anstrebte, des Menschen Atem spiritualisiert werden kann durch den Impuls, den wir in uns aufnehmen aus dem Mysterium von Golgatha, haben wir das Prinzip der Erlösung durch das, was in uns selber lebt. Alle Avatare haben die Menschheit erlöst durch Kraft von oben, durch das, was sie aus geistigen Höhen auf die Erde herunterstrahlen ließen. Der Avatar Christus aber hat die Menschheit erlöst durch dasjenige, was er aus den Kräften der Menschheit selber genommen hat, und er hat uns gezeigt, wie die Kräfte der Erlösung, die Kräfte zur Besiegung der Materie durch den Geist in uns selber gefunden werden können.
So konnte selbst ein solcher Erleuchteter wie der Kashyapa, trotzdem er durch die Spiritualisierung seines Atems seinen Leib unverweslich gemacht hatte, die volle Erlösung noch nicht finden. Der unverwesliche Leib muß warten in der geheimnisvollen Höhle, bis ihn abholt der Maitreya-Buddha. Denn erst dann, wenn der physische Leib vom Ich aus so vergeistigt ist, daß der Christus-Impuls in den physischen Leib einströmt, erst dann bedarf es nicht mehr des wunderbaren kosmischen Feuers, um die Erlösung herbeizuführen, sondern des im eigenen Innern des Menschen, in unserem Blute wallenden Feuers, das die Erlösung herbeiführt. Daher können wir auch von dem Lichte, das ausstrahlt von dem Mysterium von Golgatha, eine so wunderbar tiefe Legende beleuchten, wie diese über den Kashyapa erzählte.
Zunächst ist die Welt für uns finster und voller Rätsel; aber wir können sie vergleichen mit einem dunkeln Zimmer, in dem viele prächtige Gegenstände sind, die wir erst nicht sehen können. Wenn wir aber ein Licht anzünden, so erscheint dadurch die ganze Pracht der Gegenstände in dem Zimmer und alles, was diese Gegenstände sind. So kann es für den nach Weisheit strebenden Menschen sein. Der Mensch strebt zunächst in Dunkelheit. Er blickt in die Welt nach der Vergangenheit und nach der Zukunft und kann zunächst nur Dunkelheit erblicken. Wenn dann aber das Licht, das von Golgatha kommt, entzündet wird, dann wird alles erleuchtet, bis in die fernste Vergangenheit, bis in die fernste Zukunft hinein. Denn alles Materielle ist aus dem Geist geboren, und aus der Materie wird der Geist wiederum auferstehen. Und diese Gewißheit in einem an die Ereignisse der Welt anknüpfenden Feste wie dem Osterfest auszudrücken, ist der Sinn dieses Festes, das wir in diesen Tagen feiern. Und wenn die Menschheit sich vergegenwärtigt, wohin sie durch die Geisteswissenschaft dringen kann - daß die Seele, indem sie erkennt die Geheimnisse des Daseins, sich einleben kann in solchen wichtigen symbolischen Festzeiten wie der Zeit des Osterfestes in die Geheimnisse des Universums -, dann wird die Seele etwas fühlen von dem, was es heißt: nicht mehr bloß mit seinem engen persönlichen Dasein zu leben, sondern mit alldem, was in den Sternen scheint, was in der Sonne leuchtet, was da lebt im Universum. Sie wird sich erweitert fühlen zum Universum. Sie wird immer geistiger werden in diesem Hineinleben in das Universum.
Vom Menschenleben durch die Auferstehung zum universellen Leben zu kommen, das sind die Töne, die wir in unser Herz hineinklingen lassen durch die geistigen Osterglocken. Und wenn wir sie hören, diese geistigen Osterglocken, dann wird uns schwinden aller Zweifel gegenüber der geistigen Welt. Dann wird uns die Gewißheit aufgehen, daß kein Tod in der Materie uns etwas anhaben kann. Dann hat das Leben im Geiste uns wieder, wenn wir sie verstehen, diese geistigen Osterglocken.
The Macrocosmic and the Microcosmic Fire The Spiritualization of Breath and Blood
In a moving way, one of the most inspired minds of modern times, Goethe, knew how to depict the power and strength of Easter tones, of Easter bells. Goethe presents us with Faust, the representative of striving humanity, as he has come to the edge of earthly existence, and shows us how it is the sounds of Easter, the light of Easter, that can overcome the thought of death, the impulse of death, even in the heart of this death-seeker.
Just as Goethe presents this inner impulse of the Easter sounds to us, so this impulse has run through the entire development of humanity. And when, in the not too distant future, human beings will understand through a renewed spiritual deepening how the festivals are meant to connect our souls with everything that lives and weaves in the great world space, then in a renewed form during these days of early spring, we will also feel our souls expanded to grasp how the sources of spiritual life can redeem us from material life, from the narrowness of existence that is bound to matter.
It is precisely during the Easter season that the human soul will learn to feel most strongly what can pour into the soul: the unshakeable confidence that in the innermost depths of the human being there dwells a source of eternal, divine existence, a source that drives us out of all narrowness and allows us to be one, without losing ourselves, with the source of universal existence, in which we rise again at any time when we are able to rise to its knowledge through enlightenment. Nothing else and nothing less is what constitutes the true essence of Easter than an outward sign of the deepest thing that humanity has been able to experience, an outward sign of the deepest Christian mystery. And so it is for us today at Easter, as if in the external festival and in the external signs of the festival there were a symbol of what human beings could only find at the beginning of human evolution on earth and what they had only known in the depths of the sacred mysteries. Wherever the peoples of the earth celebrated what we call Easter—and it was celebrated in the widest circles of humanity among the ancient peoples—we see it blossoming everywhere out of the sacred mysteries. And everywhere it evokes the intuition and conviction that life in the spirit is capable of conquering death in matter. Whatever it was that instilled this conviction in the human soul had to be proclaimed in ancient times from the depths of the sacred mysteries.
But this is precisely the further development of humanity, that now more and more of what is the secret of the sacred places is coming forth, and that the wisdom of the sacred mystery places is spreading throughout humanity, becoming the common property of humanity. And so let today's and tomorrow's celebration be dedicated to an attempt to describe how this intuition, this feeling, this conviction has increasingly gained ground in the course of human development and has emerged from ancient knowledge into ever wider circles. Today we want to look back into the past so that tomorrow we will be able to describe what the present feels about this celebration.
However, because Easter is the festival of the resurrection of the human spirit, we must gather ourselves today in serious contemplation in order to attain the wisdom that can, in a certain sense, lead us to the highest heights of spiritual scientific insight.
Our Christian Easter is only one of the forms of the human Easter in general, and what the sages of humanity had to say out of their strongest, deepest convictions, out of the deepest reasons of wisdom, about the overcoming of death through life, was hidden in the symbols of Easter. Everywhere we will find elements that help us understand Easter, the festival of the resurrection of the spirit. A beautiful, profound, Eastern legend tells the following story:
The great teacher of the East, Shakyamuni, the Buddha, blessed the lands of the East with his profound wisdom, which was drawn from the primordial sources of spiritual existence and therefore filled the hearts of humanity with the deepest bliss. What was deeply blissful for the hearts of humanity when man was still able to look into the divine world—ancient wisdom from the divine-spiritual worlds—was preserved for humanity by Shakyamuni until later times. He had one great disciple, and while the other disciples more or less failed to understand the comprehensive wisdom taught by the Buddha, Kashyapa – for that was the name of this disciple – did understand it. He was one of the most deeply initiated into this teaching, one of the most important followers of the Buddha. The legend tells that when Kashyapa was dying and, thanks to his maturity, was about to enter Nirvana, he went to a steep mountain and hid himself in a cave. And in this cave his body remained incorrupt after his death and continued to exist. Only the initiates knew of this secret and where the body rested. For in a hidden, secret place rests the incorruptible body of the great initiate, Kashyapa. But the Buddha had predicted that one day his great successor, the Maitreya Buddha, the renewed great teacher and leader of humanity, would come, and when he had reached the summit of that existence which he was to attain during his earthly life, he would seek out the cave of Kashyapa, touch the incorruptible body of the Enlightened One with his right hand, and a wonderful fire would descend from heaven, and in this fire the incorruptible body of the great Enlightened One, Kashyapa, would rise from earthly existence into a spiritual one.
So says the great legend of the Orient, perhaps somewhat incomprehensible to the West. It also speaks of a resurrection, a rapture from earthly existence, of an overcoming of death, which is brought about in such a way that the forces of decay on earth have no power over the purified body of Kashyapa, and that when the great initiate comes and touches him with his hand, the miraculous fire lifts him up into the heavenly spheres. And it is precisely in this deviation of the Eastern legend from what we know as the content of the Western Christian Easter story that we find a possibility of arriving at a deeper understanding of Easter. Hidden in such a legend is a primordial wisdom that we can only approach little by little. And so we might ask: Why does Kashyapa not become the victor over death after three days, as the savior does in the Christian Easter story? Why does the incorruptible body of the Eastern initiate wait for such a long time before being carried up to the heavenly heights by a miraculous fire?
Today, we can only hint at the depth that lies in such things. Only gradually will we gain an inkling of the wisdom expressed in such profound legends. Especially at such festive times, we must first remain shy and reverent in the distance with our feelings, and only gradually learn to look up through such festive celebrations to the heights of wisdom. We should not try to grasp what lies in such legends with our sober intellect. True understanding can only be achieved if we approach these truths in such a way that we first make our feelings and emotions suitable and mature before we approach the great truths, so that we can then grasp the great truths with our feelings in full fire and with full warmth.
For humanity today, two truths stand like powerful lights on the horizon of the spirit, symbols that are intimately related to each other. They are two important points of reference for humanity at its present stage of development, striving toward the spiritual.
The first landmark is the burning bush of Moses, and the second is the fire that appears amid thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai, through which Moses receives the proclamation: “I am who I am.”
Who is this spiritual being who revealed himself to Moses at that time, who speaks in both appearances?
Those who understand the message of Christianity in a spiritual sense also understand the words that announce who is the being who appears to Moses in the thorn bush and then on Mount Sinai amid thunder and lightning, and who presents the Ten Commandments to him. The writer of the Gospel of John himself tells us that Moses foretold Christ Jesus, and the evangelist has him point precisely to those passages where, in the burning bush and later in the fire on Sinai, the power is announced that was later called Christ. No other deity is to be imagined than Christ in the one who speaks to Moses of himself: “I am who I am.”
The one God who later appeared in human form and presented the mystery of Golgotha to humanity reigns invisibly, foretelling himself in the fire element of nature, in the fire of the burning bush and in the lightning fire on Mount Sinai. And only he understands the proclamation of the Old Testament who understands the New Testament, who knows that the God proclaimed by Moses is the Christ who is to walk among men. Thus the God who is to bring salvation to mankind announces himself in a way that cannot be seen in human form. He announces himself in the fiery element of nature, for it is in this element that Christ lives. His divine essence announces itself in a wide variety of forms. Throughout antiquity, the same essence prevailed, which then became visible through the events in Palestine.
So we look back at the Old Testament and ask ourselves: Who did the ancient Hebrew people really worship? Who is the God of the ancient Hebrew people? The members of the Hebrew mysteries knew: they worshipped Christ; they saw Christ in the one who spoke the words: “Say to my people: I am who I am.” But even if all this were not known, the fact that within our human cycle God announces himself in fire would be decisive enough for those who look into the deep mysteries of nature to recognize that the deity of the burning bush and the deity who announced himself on Sinai are the same, who comes down from spiritual heights in order to accomplish the mystery of Golgotha through the descent into the human body. For there is a mysterious connection between the fire that is kindled outside by the elements of nature and that which pulsates as warmth through our blood. It has often been emphasized in our spiritual science that the human being is a microcosm that stands opposite the great world, the macrocosm. Therefore, if we look at it correctly, what happens in the inner processes of the human being must correspond to outer processes in the universe. For every inner process, we must be able to find the corresponding outer process. We must enter the deep shafts of spiritual science if we want to understand the meaning of this. Here we touch the edge of a deep mystery, a great truth, the truth that answers the question: What is it in the great outer world that corresponds to the mystery of the origin of human thought within us?
Human beings are the only truly thinking beings on our earth. Through their thoughts, human beings experience a world that leads them beyond this earth. No other earthly being experiences thoughts in the form in which they are kindled in human beings. What ignites thoughts within us, what happens within us when the simplest or most wonderful thought flashes through our minds? Two things work together within us when we allow thoughts to pass through our souls: our astral body and our ego. The physical expression of our ego is blood; the physical expression of our astral body is our nervous system, what we call life in our nervous system. And our thoughts would never flash through our soul if there were not a cooperation between the ego and the astral body, which finds its expression in the cooperation between the blood and the nervous system. It will seem strange to a future science of man when today's science seeks the origin of thought solely in the nervous system. The origin of thought is not in the nerves alone. Only in the living interaction between blood and nervous system can we see the process that gives rise to thought.
When our blood, our inner fire, and our nervous system, our inner air, interact in this way, thought flashes through the soul. And the emergence of thought within the soul corresponds in the cosmos to rolling thunder. When lightning flashes in the air, when fire and air interact and produce thunder, this is the same macrocosmic event in the greater world as the process whereby the fire of the blood and the activity of the nervous system discharge themselves in the inner thunder, which, however, sounds gentle and calm and inaudible to the outside world in the form of thoughts. What lightning is in the clouds is the warmth of our blood, and the air outside, with all the elements it contains in the universe, corresponds to what runs through our nervous system. And just as lightning produces thunder in its interplay with the elements, so the interplay of blood and nerves produces the thought that flashes through the soul. We look out into the world around us: we see the flashing lightning in the formations of the air and hear the rolling thunder as it discharges. And then we look into our soul and feel the inner warmth pulsating in our blood and feel the life that runs through our nervous system—then we feel the thought flash through us and say: Both are one.
This is truly and really so! For we think within ourselves, and when thunder rolls in the sky, it is not merely a physical, material phenomenon. That is only true for materialistic mythology. But for those who see spiritual beings weaving and surging through material existence, it is truth and reality when a person looks up and sees the lightning and hears the thunder and says to himself: Now God is thinking in the fire, how he must reveal himself to us. That is the invisible God who weaves and surges through the universe, who has his warmth in the lightning, his nerves in the air, and his thoughts in the rolling thunder. He spoke to Moses in the burning bush and on Sinai in the lightning fire.
The same elements of fire and air that are in the macrocosm are in man, in the microcosm, as blood and nerves; and as lightning and thunder are in the macrocosm, so are thoughts in man. And the God whom Moses saw and heard in the burning bush, who spoke to him in the lightning fire on Mount Sinai, appears as Christ in the blood of Jesus of Nazareth. In the human body of Jesus of Nazareth, Christ appears, descending into human form. Thinking like a human being in a human body, he acts as the great model for the future development of humanity.
Thus the two poles of human development meet: the macrocosmic God on Mount Sinai, who proclaims himself in thunder and lightning, and the same God in microcosm, embodied in the man from Palestine.
The sublime mysteries of humanity have been drawn from the deepest wisdom. They are not invented legends, but profound truths. But they are such profound truths that we need all the means of spiritual science to reveal the secrets that surround them. And what impulse has humanity received through its greatest example, through the being who descended and connected himself with the microcosmic images of the elements in a human body, through the being of Christ?
Let us look back once more at the teachings of ancient peoples. All ancient peoples, back into the gray past of the post-Atlantean era, knew well how human evolution proceeds. Everywhere, in all mystery schools, it was proclaimed what is being proclaimed again today by spiritual science: that the human being consists of four members — the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I — but that he can ascend to higher stages of his existence if, through his I, he transforms the astral body into the spiritual self — manas — the etheric body into the life spirit (Buddhi), and when they spiritualize the physical body into Atman or the spiritual human being. This physical body must gradually be spiritualized in all its members; it must be spiritualized so deeply in our earthly life that what has made human beings human, the inflow of the divine breath, becomes spiritualized. And because the spiritualization of the physical body begins with the spiritualization of the breath, the transformed, spiritualized physical body is called Atma or Atman — breath: Atman. The Old Testament proclaims that at the beginning of his earthly existence, man received the breath of life, and all ancient wisdom sees in the breath of life that which man must gradually spiritualize. All ancient worldviews saw the great ideal to strive for in Atman, in that which deifies the breath so much that man is permeated by a spiritual breath.
But even more must be spiritualized in man. If his entire physical body is to be spiritualized, not only the breath, but also that which is continually renewed by the breath, the blood, the expression of the I, must be spiritualized. The blood must be seized by an impulse driving it toward the spiritual. Christianity has added to the ancient mysteries the mysteries of the blood—the fire enclosed within man. The ancient mysteries say: Man on earth, as he lives in his earthly form, has descended from spiritual heights into physical-earthly corporeality. Human beings have lost what constitutes their spiritual essence. They have enveloped themselves in physical corporeality. But they must return to spirituality, must throw off their physical shell, must ascend to a spiritual existence.
As long as the human ego, which has its physical expression in the blood, was not seized by an impulse originating on earth, religions could not teach what is called the power of self-redemption of the human ego. Thus we are told how the great spiritual beings, the great avatars, descend and incarnate themselves from time to time in human bodies when human beings need help. These are beings who do not need to descend into a human body for their own development, because they completed their human development in an earlier world cycle. They descend because they want to help human beings. Thus, from time to time, when humanity needs help, the great god Vishnu descends into earthly existence. One of Vishnu's incarnations, Krishna, speaks of himself, clearly stating what the nature of an avatar is. He himself reveals what he is in the divine song, the Bhagavad Gita. In it we have the glorious words that Krishna, in whom Vishnu lives as an avatar, speaks of himself: “I am the spirit of creation, its beginning, its middle, its end; I am the sun among the stars, the fire among the elements, the ocean of the world among the waters, the eternal serpent among the serpents. I am the foundation of the world.”
There is no more beautiful or glorious way to proclaim the omnipresent divinity than in these words. The deity that Moses sees in the element of fire, which not only permeates and pervades the world as a macrocosmic deity, can also be found within human beings. That is why the Krishna essence lives in everything that bears the human face as a great ideal toward which the human germ develops from within. And if, as the wisdom of antiquity aspired, the human breath can be spiritualized through the impulse we receive from the mystery of Golgotha, we have the principle of redemption through what lives within ourselves. All avatars have redeemed humanity through power from above, through what they allowed to shine down upon the earth from spiritual heights. But the avatar Christ redeemed humanity through what he took from the forces of humanity itself, and he showed us how the forces of redemption, the forces for the victory of spirit over matter, can be found within ourselves.
Thus, even an enlightened being such as Kashyapa, despite having made his body imperishable through the spiritualization of his breath, could not yet find complete redemption. The imperishable body must wait in the mysterious cave until the Maitreya Buddha comes to fetch it. For only then, when the physical body has been so spiritualized by the I that the Christ impulse flows into the physical body, only then is the wonderful cosmic fire no longer needed to bring about salvation, but rather the fire surging within our own inner being, in our blood, which brings about salvation. That is why we can also illuminate with the light that radiates from the mystery of Golgotha such a wonderfully profound legend as the one told about Kashyapa.
At first, the world is dark and full of mysteries for us; but we can compare it to a dark room in which there are many magnificent objects that we cannot see at first. But when we light a lamp, the whole splendor of the objects in the room appears, and everything that these objects are. So it can be for the person striving for wisdom. Man initially strives in darkness. He looks at the world in terms of the past and the future and can initially see only darkness. But when the light that comes from Golgotha is kindled, everything is illuminated, right back to the most distant past and into the most distant future. For everything material is born of the spirit, and from matter the spirit will rise again. And to express this certainty in a festival linked to world events such as Easter is the meaning of this festival that we celebrate during these days. And when humanity realizes where it can penetrate through spiritual science—that the soul, by recognizing the mysteries of existence, can settle into such important symbolic festive seasons as Easter and the mysteries of the universe—then the soul will feel something of what it means no longer to live merely with its narrow personal existence, but with everything that shines in the stars, that glows in the sun, that lives in the universe. It will feel expanded to the universe. It will become increasingly spiritual in this living into the universe.
To come from human life to universal life through resurrection—these are the tones that we allow to ring in our hearts through the spiritual Easter bells. And when we hear them, these spiritual Easter bells, then all our doubts about the spiritual world will vanish. Then we will realize with certainty that no death in matter can harm us. Then life in the spirit will have us again, if we understand these spiritual Easter bells.