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The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric
GA 118

6 March, 1910, Stuttgart

5. The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric

There is a certain connection between the past and the future in the evolution of humanity. When one considers this connection, it throws much light on the question that we can perhaps express in this way: what is our task as human beings in any particular period?

When we came together here some time ago, we said various things about the past in the evolution of humanity. Today, something will be said about the connection in the evolution of humanity between the past and the immediate future. In concluding yesterday's lecture, we were able to point to an important indication that says, as if speaking from heaven, that humanity needs a spiritual impulse, something like a new impulse of the age. We can understand how this new impulse must work only if we consider the last millennia before the founding of Christianity in a certain connection with the millennia following Christ, in which we ourselves live.

There is a law according to which certain events are repeated in the evolution of humanity, and we spoke of such repetitions in human evolution in the last Stuttgart lectures. Today I wish to point out particularly that when such regular repetitions are referred to by spiritual science, one should not believe that such repetitions can be constructed intellectually, because the repetitions must be examined, after all, in detail; they must be established in detail through spiritual research. One can go far astray if one uses one or another of these repetitions as a pattern for constructing new ones. There is one repetition that, as a matter of fact, resembles another, that repetition in which fundamental events, important events that were effective before the founding of Christianity, recur in a certain way after the founding of Christianity.

If one observes the last three millennia before the founding of Christianity, it is seen that these three millennia belong to an epoch in the history of the evolution of humanity that is designated as the so-called Dark Age—the lesser Dark Age—Kali Yuga. This Kali Yuga began in the year 3101 before the founding of Christianity. All that we at the present time designate as the great achievements of humanity, what we call the characteristic feature of present human culture, is bound up with this Dark Age. Before this Dark Age, or Kali Yuga, the whole of human thinking, all human soul forces, were still ordered differently in a certain respect. In the period before the year 3101 BC—this is an approximate date, since evolution moved gradually from one kind of character to another—there existed what one can designate as the last residue of the old clairvoyance. In the course of human evolution these periods follow one another: Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Kali Yuga. The last interests us today most particularly. With the earlier periods we come back to old Atlantis. In ancient times there still existed remnants of the old clairvoyance, so that before the Dark Age man still had an immediate consciousness of the existence of a spiritual world, because he could see into that spiritual world.

This consciousness of the spiritual world gradually withdrew from human view, and we may say that, on the average, the faculties and forces began to be cultivated that confine human judgment to the world of the senses and yet that also cultivate human self-consciousness. These forces all began during Kali Yuga. While man was not in a position to look into the spiritual worlds during this period, that firm point increasingly developed itself within the physical, sensible world, the point that we call knowledge of self-consciousness. Do not suppose, however, that this knowledge of self-consciousness has already been cultivated to a high degree. It must cultivate itself further. It could never have entered human consciousness, however, had there not been this Dark Age. In the 3,000 years before the founding of Christianity, therefore, man gradually lost his connection with the spiritual world. He no longer had this connection through his direct observation.

During my last visit here, we saw how, at the end of the first millennium, a kind of compensation occurred for the lost vision into the spiritual worlds. This was given to man through the fact that a particular individuality, Abraham, was selected, possessing in special degree that organization of the physical brain through which it was possible to attain consciousness of the spiritual world without the ancient faculties. In spiritual science, therefore, we call the first part of Kali Yuga pre-eminently the period of Abraham—that period in which man loses, to be sure, the direct view into the higher spiritual worlds but in which something like a consciousness of God awakens in him. This gradually grows into his I, so that he increasingly conceives this God as being related to the I-consciousness, the human I-consciousness. The Godhead appears as the World-I to that age, the first millennium in Kali Yuga, which we may call, at its conclusion, the age of Abraham.

This age of Abraham was followed by the age of Moses, in which the God Jahve, the World-I, no longer manifested Itself as a mysterious guiding power in human destinies, as a god of one people alone. As we know, this Godhead revealed itself in the age of Moses in the burning bush as the God of the elements. It was a great advance when the World-I, as the Godhead, was experienced in such a way through the teachings of Moses that one said to oneself: the elements of existence—what we see with physical eyes, lightning, thunder, etc.—are, in the last analysis, emanations, deeds of the World-I, of the single World-I.

We must understand quite clearly to what extent this was an advance. When we go back beyond the age of Abraham and beyond Kali Yuga, we find that, through their direct vision into the spiritual worlds resulting from remnants of the old clairvoyance, human beings see the spiritual. They see this spiritual in all ancient times, however. We must go a long way back if we wish to find something different. Human beings see the spiritual during Dvapara Yuga, Treta Yuga, Krita Yuga. They see the spiritual in such a way that it manifests itself as a multiplicity of beings. You know, of course, that when we ascend to the spiritual worlds we find there the hierarchies of spiritual beings. These stand, naturally, under spiritual guidance, a unified spiritual guidance. In those ancient times, however, consciousness did not reach as far as this unified spiritual guidance. One saw single members of the hierarchies, one saw a multiplicity of divine beings. Only the initiates were able to bring them together as a unity. Now, however, the World-I, which man first perceived with the physical instrument of the brain that was especially marked in Abraham, confronted the human being. Man now perceived this World-I as manifesting itself in the various kingdoms of nature, in the various elements.

Then a further advance was accomplished for the last millennium prior to the founding of Christianity, in the age of Solomon. We thus can distinguish the three millennia before the founding of Christianity in this way: we call the first millennium the age of Abraham, after that individuality who appears in it and who affects the second. From the beginning of Kali Yuga until Abraham, human beings prepare themselves to recognize the single Godhead behind the appearances of nature, and this possibility emerges with Abraham. In the age of Moses, the One God becomes the ruler of natural phenomena and is sought behind the phenomena of nature. All of this undergoes an intensification in the age of Solomon. We are led through this latter age up to the point of evolution at which the same divine being who was regarded as Jahve in the ages of Abraham and Moses takes on human form. In a spiritual scientific contemplation of this matter, one must adhere strictly to the fact that in this respect the Gospels are right: we may not distinguish Christ from Jahve other than as we distinguish the direct light of the sun from that sunlight reflected back to us by the moon. What kind of light do we have on a moonlit night? It is real sunlight, except that it is reflected to us from the moon. We thus can have this sunlight directly during the day or sent back from the moon on moonlit nights. What we see occurring here in space presents itself also in time in the way in which what finally appeared as a Spirit Sun, in Christ, manifested itself beforehand as though reflected. Jahve is the reflection that precedes Christ in time. Just as moonlight is reflected sunlight, so did the Christ being reflect Himself for Abraham, Moses, and Solomon. It was always the same being. Then He Himself appeared as the Christ Sun with the founding of Christianity. We thus have the preparation for this great event in the ages of Abraham, Moses, and Solomon.

A repetition of these three ages, as they were before the founding of Christianity, now takes place during the time following Christ, but in reverse order. The repetition occurs in such a way that the essential feature of the age of Solomon is repeated in the first millennium after Christ, and, indeed, the spirit of Solomon lives and weaves in the most outstanding spirits of the first Christian millennium. It was fundamentally the wisdom of Solomon, that which had spread abroad as the wisdom of Solomon, through which man sought to grasp the nature and essential character of the Christ event. It was by means of what man had learned through the wisdom of Solomon that he sought to understand the significance of the Christ event.

Then followed the age that can be called the revival of the age of Moses. The age of Solomon after Christ was followed by the age of Moses. When we come to the second millennium after Christ, it is the spirit of Moses that now permeates the best human beings of this time. Indeed, we can find this spirit of Moses revived in a new form. In pre-Christian times the spirit of Moses directed its glance out into the world, toward outer physical nature, in order to find the World-I, to find the World-God as Jahve, as World-I, to find Him in thunder and lightning, to find Him in what can stream in from without as the great law of human action. Just as the World-I streams in from without to Moses, just as the World-I is revealed, as it were, from without, so we find that, in the second age following Christ, the same being proclaims Himself inwardly within the human soul. The impression that was for Moses an outer event, as when he withdrew from his people to receive the Decalogue—this significant event repeats itself. It repeats itself in the second millennium after Christ through a mighty inner revelation. Things are not repeated in the same way but in such a way that what occurs successively appears as a kind of polarity. If, therefore, God revealed Himself to Moses out of the elements of nature, He revealed Himself now, in the second millennium after Christ, out of the deepest foundations of the human soul.

How, then, could this come before us in a more sublime way than when we hear how a remarkable man of lofty talents preached in such a way that one heard: he proclaims mighty things out of the depths of his soul? One can assume that this preacher was deeply permeated with what one can call Christian mysticism. Then a seemingly insignificant layman came to the locality where he preached and at first listened to his sermons; it afterward turned out, however, that rather than layman he became the preacher's—that is, Tauler's—instructor. Even though he had reached such a lofty level, the preacher Tauler suspending his preaching until he felt himself permeated by what lived in the layman. When, after having opened himself to this inspiration, Tauler once again ascended the pulpit, the powerful impression of his sermon is made clear to us symbolically when we are told that many of his listeners fell to the ground as if dead. This means that everything of a lower nature in them was killed. It was a revelation of the World-I working just as powerfully from within as it had worked out of the elements, with Moses, during the second pre-Christian age. We thus see the age of Moses coming to life again and in such a way that the spirit of Moses permeates and radiates life into the whole spirit of Christian mysticism, from Master Eckhart to the later Christian mystics. It truly lived in these Christian mystics, the spirit of Moses! It was present in such a way that it entered livingly into their souls.

That was the second age following Christ. In it, the whole character of the age of Moses was resurrected. During the first millennium after the Christian era, the second age of Solomon brought shape to the Christian mystery conception, to all that we know as the hierarchies, for example, in the Christian sense; it formed in detail the wisdom, so to speak, of the higher worlds. In the same way, the second age of Moses particularly formed what constituted German mysticism: the deep, mystical consciousness of the One God, Who can be called to life again in the human soul, Who can be resurrected in the human soul. This age of Moses has remained effective in all striving since that time to investigate ever more exactly the World-I, the One God.

According to the course of human evolution, however, a renewal of the age of Abraham will take place, beginning with our times, during which we shall slowly pass into the third millennium. Just as the age of Abraham and the age of Solomon followed each other in pre-Christian times, so they follow each other in the Christian era in reverse order: age of Solomon, age of Moses, and age of Abraham. We are moving toward this age of Abraham, and it must and will bring us mighty things. Let us call to mind the significance of the age of Abraham. It was then that the old clairvoyance vanished, that a consciousness of God was given to man that is closely connected with human faculties. Everything that humanity could acquire from this consciousness of God that is bound to the human brain has gradually been drained off, and only a little still remains for human beings to acquire by means of these human faculties—indeed, little more. On the contrary, we are going in exactly the opposite direction in the new age of Abraham. We are taking the path that will lead humanity away once more from merely physical, sensible contemplation, away from the combining of physical, sensible signs. We are going along the path that will lead human beings back again into those regions in which they once were before the age of Abraham. We are going along the path that allows human beings to enter into conditions of natural clairvoyance, of natural clairvoyant powers. In the age of Kali Yuga, only initiation could lead upward into the spiritual worlds in the right way. Naturally, initiation leads up to high stages to which human beings will be able to ascend only in the distant future, but the first traces of a renewed clairvoyance, which will appear as a natural human faculty, will become manifest relatively soon as we pass into the renewal of the age of Abraham.

After we have won I-consciousness for ourselves, after human beings have learned to know that the I is a firm central point in the inner being, human beings shall again be guided outward, in order again to be able to look more deeply into the spiritual worlds. This is still connected with that age in which Kali Yuga came to its end. Kali Yuga lasted 5,000 years, until the year 1899 AD. The year 1899 was, indeed, an important year for the evolution of humanity. This is once more an approximate year, of course, for these things happen gradually. Just as the year 3101 BC, however, can be designated as the year when humanity was led down from the old clairvoyance to sense perception and intellectual judgment, so was 1899 AD the year when humanity received another sudden thrust forward, so that it could ascend to the first beginnings of a future human clairvoyance. It is allotted to humanity even in this twentieth century, before the next millennium—indeed, for a few human beings during the first half of the twentieth century—to develop the first elements of a new clairvoyance, a clairvoyance that will most certainly appear in humanity when human beings prove themselves capable of understanding it.

We must make clear to ourselves that two things might occur. It is inherent in the fundamental nature of the human soul that such clairvoyant faculties, as natural faculties (we must differentiate between cultivated clairvoyance and what will come into being as a natural clairvoyance), will come into existence for a few human beings even in the first half of the twentieth century, and for more and more human beings during the next 2,500 years, until at last there will be a sufficiently large number of persons who will attain it—that is, the new, natural clairvoyance—if only they win it.

There are two different possibilities of what might happen, however. One is that human beings will have the aptitude for this clairvoyance but, during the coming decades, materialism will triumph and humanity will sink into a materialistic swamp. Isolated human beings will appear who will say that it seems to them as if they saw something in physical man like a second man; yet, if materialistic consciousness goes so far as to declare that spiritual science is folly and to stamp out all consciousness of the spiritual world, people simply will not understand these first capacities. It will depend upon humanity itself whether what then takes place turns out to be a blessing or a curse, since what is really to occur might pass by unnoticed.

The other situation might arise in which spiritual science will not be trampled. Then one will understand that such qualities are not only to be cultivated in the secret schools of initiation but also to be cherished, when they appear toward the middle of our century, as delicate saplings of human soul life in this or that person. Such a person will say, as if from an awakened soul force, “I see something like a reality, just as it is described in anthroposophy as the second man within physical man.” Still other faculties will appear, for instance, a faculty that human beings will notice in themselves. They will perform some deed. When they look up from this action, something like a dream picture will stand before their souls, from which they will know, “This has some connection with my action.” People will know on the basis of spiritual science, “If such an after-image of my deed appears before me—which is essentially different, however, from this deed—it can have no other meaning than to show me the karmic effect of my action that is to appear in the future.”

A few individuals will come to have such karmic understanding in the middle of our century, because Kali Yuga has run its course and because from epoch to epoch ever-new faculties appear in human beings. If understanding is not created, however, if this faculty is trampled to death, so to speak, if one who talks about these faculties is locked up as a fool, it will prove disastrous for humanity. Human beings will decay in the swamp of materialism. All of this will depend upon whether an understanding is awakened for spiritual science or whether the materialistic counter-current succeeds—whether Ahriman succeeds—in repelling what spiritual science does with good purpose. Then, to be sure, those people who are mired and choking in this materialistic swamp may say jeeringly, “Yes, indeed, those were fine prophets who said human beings would see a second man beside the physical man!” Certainly, nothing will manifest itself if the necessary faculties have been trampled to death. If these faculties do not become apparent in the middle of the twentieth century, however, it will be no proof that the human being is not so endowed but will only prove that human beings have crushed under foot the budding young shoots. What has been described today is there and can develop if only humanity wills it.

We stand, therefore, directly before such an evolution. We are retracing our steps, so to speak, along the path of evolution. With Abraham, consciousness of God was led into the brain; as we enter into a new age of Abraham, this consciousness of God is in turn led out of the brain and, during the next 2,500 years, we shall come gradually to know human beings who will have what the exalted secrets of initiation yield as the great spiritual teachings about the mysteries of the universe. Just as the spirit of Moses ruled in the age that has run its course up to our time, so does the spirit of Abraham now begin to reign in order that, having led humanity into a consciousness of God within the world of the senses, he may now lead humanity out again. It is an eternal cosmic law that each individual must perform a particular deed repeatedly. He must, above all, perform the deed twice—one time as though doing the opposite of the other time. What Abraham brought down for humanity into physical consciousness he will carry up again for humanity into the spiritual world.

We thus see that we are living in important, essential conditions in this age, and we understand that to disseminate spiritual science today is not something one does by preference but something demanded by our times. To prepare humanity for great moments in evolution is one of the tasks of spiritual research. Spiritual science exists in order that human beings shall know what they see. Whoever is true to the age in which he lives cannot help thinking that knowledge of the spirit must come into the world so as not to allow what will come in the future to go unnoticed by humanity.

These things are bound up with still others. In certain other respects, everything renews itself in such similar repetitions. We are approaching a time when ever more of what existed in the pre-Christian centuries will be renewed for humanity, but everything will be immersed in what humanity has been able to win through the great Christ event. We have seen that humanity has now experienced again in Christian inwardness the great moment that Moses experienced through his impressions of the burning bush and the lightning-fire on Sinai. Now, the Taulers and the Eckharts know clearly that, when there arises within them what Moses called Jahve, it is the Christ. It is, however, no longer the reflected Christ being but the Christ Himself who rises from the depths of the heart. What had been experienced by Moses was actually experienced again by the Christian mystics but in a Christianized form—in a form altered through the Christ impulse. What was experienced in the pre-Christian age of Abraham will be experienced in a completely altered, new form. What will this be? All things and events that appear normally in human evolution cast their lights ahead, as it were. (I do not wish to repeat the triviality that is often uttered, that events “cast their shadows,” but that they cast their lights.) Thus, in a certain respect, something connected with events of the future is cast ahead in light in what we call the conversion of Saul to Paul—the event of Damascus.

Let us make it clear to ourselves what this event had to signify for Paul. Until this event took place, Paul was acquainted with all that was inherent in the old Hebraic esoteric doctrine. What did Paul know? Paul knew, through his ancient Hebraic esoteric doctrine, that some day an individuality would descend to earth representing for humanity the one who would overcome death. He knew that an individuality would appear once in the flesh. Through His life He would show that the spirit lives beyond death in such a way that death would mean nothing other than another physical event for this individuality, within His incarnation on earth. This Paul knew. He also knew from his ancient Hebraic esoteric doctrine that when the Christ, the Messiah Who was to come, had been present in the flesh, when He had risen from the dead and had won a victory over death, as it were, the spiritual sphere of the earth would be transformed; clairvoyance would experience a transformation. Whereas previously a clairvoyant could not see the Christ being in the spiritual atmosphere of the earth but only when looking up to the Sun Spirit, Paul knew that, through the Christ impulse, such a transformation in earthly existence must occur that after the victory over death the Christ would be found, for clairvoyant consciousness, in the earthly sphere. When, therefore, the human being becomes clairvoyant, he must behold the Christ in the earthly sphere as the active Earth Spirit. What Paul could not convince himself of while he was still Saul, however, was that the one Who had lived in Palestine, Who had died on the cross, about Whom His disciples said that He had risen from the dead, was really the one about Whom the ancient Hebraic esoteric doctrine had spoken. The significant thing is that Paul was not convinced of what is related in the Gospels through what he had seen physically. He began to have the conviction that Christ was the predicted Messiah only when that forward-cast light manifested itself in him, when he became clairvoyant as though through grace and discovered the Christ in the earthly sphere.

“He has, then, already been here; he has already risen from the dead,” he must have said to himself. After Paul himself saw the Christ clairvoyantly in the spiritual sphere of the earth, he knew: now He is here. From that moment on, he felt completely convinced regarding Christ Jesus. The fundamental event was therefore that, through the event of Damascus, he discovered Christ Jesus clairvoyantly in the earthly sphere. If Paul had not been able to hear the accounts in Palestine of the deeds of Christ Jesus, if he had not been able to have the personal experience of hearing the Gospels but had lived somewhat later, it might have happened that he would simply have experienced at a later time this Christ event of Damascus. He would then have arrived, however, at the same conviction, because this event revealed to him the fact that the Christ was there! He who reveals Himself there in the earthly sphere is the one about whom the ancient Hebraic esoteric doctrine speaks!

This Christ event is not limited to one point in time. In the case of Paul, it simply followed quickly in order that Christianity would be able to pursue its course through Paul. Now, to be sure, during the ensuing time of Kali Yuga until 1899, the development of humanity was not such that a person could, without further ado, experience an event such as Paul's; human faculties had not ripened to this extent. It could therefore be experienced by grace, and others also experienced similar events by grace. We are now living, however, in the age in which that mighty, revolutionary change is to occur in which the first seeds of a natural clairvoyance will evolve. We are coming into the age of Abraham; we are being led out into the spiritual world. Through this, the possibility is given that a certain number of human beings, and then more and more, shall experience during the next 2,500 years a repetition of the event of Damascus. The greatness and power of the next age will consist in the fact that for many people the event of Damascus will come to life; that through these faculties of which I have just spoken the Christ will become perceptible in the spiritual sphere of the earth. He will radiate into these faculties. As human beings become capable of seeing the etheric body, they will learn to see the etheric body of Christ Jesus, even as Paul saw it.

This is what is beginning as the characteristic of a new age, and it will become manifest between 1930 and 1940 to 1945 in the first forerunners among human beings who have these faculties. If human beings are attentive, they will experience this event of Damascus through direct spiritual observation, and with it clarity and truth about the Christ event.

A striking parallelism of events will take place, because in the next two decades human beings will gradually fall away from the letter of the Gospels and will no longer understand them. We see even today how trivial scholars “prove” to people everywhere that the Gospels are not historical documents, that one cannot refer at all to a historic Christ. The historical documents will lose their value for humanity; the number of those who deny Christ Jesus will become greater and greater. Those human beings are shortsighted who will still be able to believe that one can preserve Christianity by means of the mere story. Those whose intentions are honest regarding Christianity are not the ones who reject an understanding of the spiritual proof of Christ Jesus. The spiritual proof of Christ Jesus will be provided through nurturing the faculties of human beings, through the fact that they shall behold the truly existing Christ in His etheric body. After all, no matter how much those persons who wish to rely only on documents call themselves good Christians, they destroy Christianity; no matter how much they raise a hue and cry and how loudly they proclaim what they know about Christianity through the documents, they destroy Christianity. They destroy it because they reject a spiritual teaching according to which Christ in our century will become truth for human beings through vision.

When our era began, human beings had been descending into the Dark Age for more than three millennia and were dependent upon their outer faculties. At that time Christ could have revealed Himself to the faculties that were necessary for human evolution in no other way than through physical incarnation. At that time the physical faculties had reached the peak of their development, and Christ had to appear in a physical body. Humanity would not have advanced a single step, however, if it could not become capable of finding the reality of Christ in higher worlds through higher faculties. Just as Christ had to be found with purely physical faculties at that time, so will human beings with the newly developed faculties find Christ in that world in which only etheric bodies are seen, for there is no second physical incarnation of Christ. Only once did He appear in the flesh, for only once were human faculties dependent upon having Christ in a physical body. Now, however, with the higher faculties, human beings will be able to perceive the much more real etheric body of the Christ.

This is what one can call the mighty event that lies ahead of us—the reappearance of Christ Jesus—taking place gradually, at first only for a few, then for more and more human beings. It is an event that has significance not only for those human beings who will then still be incarnated in the flesh. A number of human beings who are incarnated today will still be incarnated at the time when this Christ event takes place. They will experience it as it has been described. Others will have gone through the portal of death. Just as we once learned here that the event of Golgotha was not only an event for the physical world but carried its effect over into all spiritual worlds—just as the descent of Christ into the underworld was a real fact—so will the Christ event, which will present itself in our century, have its effect also in the world between death and a new birth, though in a different form from the one man will find here on earth. One thing will be necessary, however. Those faculties through which one will be able to perceive the Christ event between death and a new birth cannot be acquired between death and a new birth; they must be acquired here on the physical plane and must be carried with one into the life between death and a new birth.

There are faculties that must be acquired on earth, as it is not for nothing that we are placed on the physical earth. Anyone who believes that we have been put on the physical earth for nothing is on the wrong track. We must acquire faculties here that we cannot acquire in any other world. The faculties for an understanding of the Christ event, of which we have spoken, and of the following events, must be acquired here on earth. Those human beings who acquire these faculties now, here on this earth, through the teachings of spiritual science, will carry these faculties through the portal of death. Not merely through initiation but through the understanding acceptance of the teachings of spiritual science one acquires these faculties, the possibility of perceiving the Christ event also in the spiritual world between death and a new birth. Anyone who has deaf ears, however, must wait until a subsequent incarnation to acquire the faculties that one must acquire here, in order to be able to experience the Christ event there, in the spiritual world. No one, therefore, should harbor the belief that the revelation of the Christ event, which can be understood only through the whole of spiritual scientific teaching, will not bear fruit for him if he has already passed through the portal of death at the time when it takes place. It will bear fruit for him.

We thus see that spiritual research is a preparation for a new Christ event. Those, however, who absorb the essence of the teaching of the spirit as the content of their whole soul life—as vital life—should then really grow upward to a spiritual understanding of the matter. They should then make it clear to themselves that they must learn through spiritual science to understand our newly awakening age thoroughly. We must learn to understand that in the future we are not to look on the physical plane for the most important events but outside it, just as we shall have to look for Christ on His return as etheric form in the spiritual world.

What has been said now will be said again and again in the next decades. There will be human beings who will misunderstand this, however, and they will say, “The Christ is to come again!” Since they will carry into this idea the belief that it is a physical return, they will supply nourishment to all those who will appear as false messiahs. There will be many such persons in the middle of the twentieth century who will use the materialistic beliefs of human beings, who will use the materialistic thinking and feeling of human beings to pass themselves off as the Christ. There have always been false messiahs. There was, for instance, the age before the Crusades when a false messiah appeared in the south of France, in whom his followers saw something like a Christ incarnated in a physical body. Before that, a false messiah had appeared in Spain and found many followers. In North Africa one who presented himself as the Christ created a great sensation. In the seventeenth century a man appeared as Christ in Smyrna and gained a huge following. He was called Shabattai Tzevi. People from Poland, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Germany, France—from the whole of Europe and from a large part of Africa and Asia—made pilgrimages to see him.

In the past centuries this was not so terrible, because the demand had not yet been made of humanity to distinguish the true from the false. Only now have we come to the age when it could be disastrous if human beings should fail to pass the spiritual test. Those will pass it who know that human faculties go through a further evolution; that those faculties for seeing Christ in the physical were limited to seeing Him thus only to the time of the founding of Christianity but that humanity would not advance if it did not find the Christ again in our century in a higher form. Those who strive after spiritual science will have to prove themselves to be the ones who can distinguish the false messiahs from the one Messiah, Who will appear, not in the flesh but as a spiritual being for the newly awakened faculties.

The time will come when human beings will again look into the spiritual world and will see the land there from which those streams flow down that give true spiritual nourishment to everything that happens in the physical world. We have, indeed, always seen that it was possible for human beings with the old clairvoyance to look into the spiritual world. The Oriental writings contain in their traditions something like a record handed down about an ancient spiritual land that human beings were once able to behold, from which they could draw all that could flow into the physical world from the super-sensible. Many descriptions of that land, which human beings were once able to reach and which seems to have withdrawn, are full of melancholy. This land was, indeed, once accessible to human beings, and it will now be accessible to them again, since Kali Yuga, the Dark Age, has run its course.

Initiation, however, always led into that mysterious land, which is spoken of as a country that seemed to have vanished out of the sphere of human experience. It withdrew during Kali Yuga, but for those who had received initiation there was always the possibility of guiding their steps into it. The accounts of this ancient country are touching. It is the same land to which the initiates again and again repair in order to fetch from it the new streams and impulses for all that is to be given to humanity from century to century. Again and again those who stand in this relationship with the spiritual world enter this mysterious land, which is called Shamballa. It is the primal fountainhead, into which clairvoyant sight once reached but which withdrew during Kali Yuga. It is spoken of as one would speak of an ancient fairyland, one that will return, however, into the realm of human beings. There will be Shamballa again after Kali Yuga has run its course. Humanity, through normal human faculties, will again grow into the land of Shamballa, from which the initiates bring strength and wisdom for their mission. There is Shamballa; there was Shamballa; Shamballa will come to be again for humanity. Among the first visions that human beings will have when Shamballa shows itself again will be Christ in His etheric form. Humanity has no other leader than the Christ to take it into the land that Oriental writings declare to have vanished. Christ will lead humanity to Shamballa.

It is this that we must inscribe into our souls. It can come to pass for humanity if we interpret in the right sense the omen of Halley's Comet that we mentioned yesterday. If humanity understands that it must not sink deeper into matter, that it must reverse its course, that a spiritual life must begin, there will arise, at first only for a few, then—in the next 2,500 years—for more and more human beings, the light-woven, light-gleaming Shamballa, abounding in infinite fullness of life and filling our hearts with wisdom. For those who wish to understand, for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, this must be described as the event that signifies the greatest turning point in the evolution of humanity, at the dawn of the age of Abraham following the founding of Christianity. It will be the event through which human beings will understand to a higher degree the Christ impulse. For the peculiar thing will be that, through this, wisdom will suffer no loss. The more visions human beings win for themselves, the greater Christ will appear to them, the mightier He will appear! When once human beings are able to immerse their gaze into Shamballa, then only will they be able to understand various things that are indeed contained in the Gospels. To recognize what is given in the Gospels they will need a kind of event of Damascus. Thus, at the time when human beings will be most unbelieving regarding documents, the new profession of faith in Christ Jesus will arise through our growing into the sphere in which we shall encounter Him, through our growing into the mysterious land of Shamballa.

Das Wiedererscheinen Des Christus Im Ätherischen

Es besteht ein gewisser Zusammenhang zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Menschheitsentwickelung. Dieser Zusammenhang bringt, wenn man ihn betrachtet, viel Licht in die Fragen, die wir etwa aufstellen können dahingehend: Was obliegt uns selber als Menschen irgendeines bestimmten Zeitalters?

Als wir vor einiger Zeit hier zusammenkamen, da sprachen wir mancherlei über die Vergangenheit der Menschheitsentwickelung. Heute sei etwas gesprochen über den Zusammenhang von Vergangenheit und nächster Zukunft der Menschheitsentwickelung. Wir haben gestern damit schließen können, daß wir auf einen wichtigen Hinweis deuteten, der uns sozusagen wie vom Himmel herab sagt, daß die Menschheit einen spirituellen Antrieb, etwas wie einen neuen Zeitimpuls braucht. Verstehen, wie dieser neue Zeitimpuls wirken muß, können wir nur, wenn wir so die letzten Jahrtausende vor der Begründung des Christentums in einem gewissen Zusammenhang betrachten mit den Jahrtausenden nach der Begründung des Christentums, mit den Jahrtausenden, in denen wir also selber drinnen leben.

Es gibt ein gewisses Gesetz, nach welchem sich gewisse Ereignisse in der Menschheitsentwickelung wiederholen, und wir haben ja in dem letzten Stuttgarter Zyklus von solchen Wiederholungen in der Menschheitsentwickelung gesprochen. Ich möchte heute nur besonders darauf hinweisen, daß, wenn durch die Geisteswissenschaft auf solche regelmäßige Wiederholungen hingewiesen wird in der Menschheitsentwickelung, man dann nicht glauben soll, daß man solche Wiederholungen aus dem Verstand heraus sich konstruieren darf. Denn die Wiederholungen müssen doch alle im einzelnen untersucht werden, müssen aus der Geistesforschung heraus im einzelnen festgestellt werden. Sonst kann man sehr, sehr fehl gehen, wenn man gleichsam nach dem Muster der einen oder der andern Wiederholung sich neue konstruiert. Nun gibt es eine Wiederholung, welche allerdings einer andern ähnlich sieht: das ist jene Wiederholung, welche so sich darstellt, daß Grundereignisse, wichtige Ereignisse, welche wirksam waren vor der Begründung des Christentums, in einer gewissen Weise wieder auftreten nach der Begründung des Christentums. Wenn man die drei letzten Jahrtausende vor der Begründung des Christentums ins Auge faßt, so gehören diese drei Jahrtausende einer Zeitepoche in der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit an, welche man bezeichnet als das sogenannte finstere Zeitalter, als das kleinere finstere Zeitalter: Kali Yuga.

Dieses Kali Yuga beginnt im Jahre 3101 vor der Begründung des Christentums. Mit diesem finsteren Zeitalter ist alles dasjenige verknüpft, was wireigentlich gegenwärtig als die großen Errungenschaften der Menschheit bezeichnen, was wir als den eigentlichen Grundzug der menschlichen Kultur der Gegenwart bezeichnen. Vor diesem Zeitalter, vor diesem finstern Zeitalter oder Kali Yuga, da war das ganze menschliche Denken, waren alle menschlichen Seelenkräfte in einer gewissen Beziehung anders noch eingerichtet. Es war in jenem Zeitalter vor 3101 - das ist eine Durchschnittszahl, die Entwickelung ging allmählich von der einen Art der Eigenschaften in die andere über -, es war vorher dasjenige da, was man als letzte Reste des alten Hellsehens bezeichnen kann. Im Verlauf der Menschheitsentwickelung folgen sich die Zeitalter: Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Kali Yuga. Das letztere interessiert uns heute ganz besonders. Mit den früheren Zeitaltern kommen wir in die alte Atlantis zurück. Und von dem alten Hellsehen waren in den alten Zeiten noch Reste vorhanden, so daß der Mensch vor dem finsteren Zeitalter durchaus noch ein unmittelbares Bewußtsein von dem Vorhandensein einer geistigen Welt hatte, weil er hineinschauen konnte in die geistige Welt. Dieses Bewußtsein von der geistigen Welt, das trat sozusagen vor dem menschlichen Anschauen immer mehr und mehr zurück, und im Durchschnitt, können wir sagen, beginnen die Fähigkeiten und Kräfte sich auszubilden, welche auf der einen Seite das menschliche Urteil auf die sinnliche Welt beschränken und auf der andern Seite das menschliche Selbstbewußtsein ausbilden. Diese Kräfte alle beginnen im Kali Yuga. Und während der Mensch während dieses Zeitalters nicht in die Lage kam, hineinzuschauen in die geistigen Welten, entwickelte sich innerhalb der physisch-sinnlichen Welt um so mehr der feste Punkt in seinem Innern, entwickelte sich dasjenige, was wir das Wissen um das Selbstbewußtsein nennen. Glauben Sie aber nicht, daß dieses Wissen um das Selbstbewußtsein schon bis zu einem hohen Grad ausgebildet ist; es muß sich erst weiter und weiter ausbilden. Aber es hätte niemals ins menschliche Bewußtsein hereintreten können, wenn es nicht dieses finstere Zeitalter gegeben hätte. So verlor der Mensch immer mehr und mehr in den drei Jahrtausenden vor der Begründung des Christentums den Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt. Aus seiner unmittelbaren Anschauung heraus hatte er ihn nicht.

Wir haben nun gesehen bei meinem letzten Besuche hier, wie das erste Jahrtausend bei seinem Abschlusse eine Art Ersatz brachte für das Hineinschauen in die geistigen Welten, jenen Ersatz, der dadurch dem Menschen gegeben war, daß eine besondere Individualität, ‚Abraham, ausersehen worden ist — die jene Einrichtung im physischen Gehirn besonders hatte -, ohne die alten Fähigkeiten dennoch zu einem Bewußtsein von der geistigen Welt kommen zu können. Deshalb nennen wir den ersten Teil des Kali Yuga in der Geisteswissenschaft vorzugsweise das abrahamitische Zeitalter, jenes Zeitalter, in dem der Mensch zwar den unmittelbaren Ausblick in die höheren geistigen Welten verliert, in dem ihm aber etwas erwächst wie ein Gottesbewußtsein, das nach und nach immer mehr und mehr in sein Ich hereinwächst, so daß er immer mehr und mehr den Gott vorstellt als verwandt mit dem Ich-Bewußtsein, dem menschlichen Ich-Bewußtsein. Wie das Welten-Ich, so erscheint die Gottheit demjenigen Zeitalter, dem ersten Jahrtausend im Kali Yuga, das wir an seinem Abschluß das abrahamitische Zeitalter nennen können.

Auf dieses abrahamitische Zeitalter folgte das Moses-Zeitalter, wo es nicht mehr sozusagen dabei bleibt, daß sich der Gott Jahve, daß sich das Welten-Ich offenbart wie eine geheimnisvolle Führung der Menschengeschicke, wie ein Gott eines Volkes allein, sondern es offenbart sich diese Gottheit im Moses-Zeitalter, wie wir wissen, im brennenden Dornbusch als der Gott der Elemente. Und es war ein großer Fortschritt, als aus den Lehren des Moses heraus das WeltenIch als die Gottheit so empfunden wurde, daß man sich sagte: Die Elemente des Daseins, dasjenige, was man mit sinnlichen Augen sieht — Blitz und Donner und so weiter —, das sind Ausflüsse, sind Taten des Welten-Ich, des einigen Welten-Ich zuletzt. - Wir müssen uns nur ganz klarmachen, inwiefern dies ein Fortschritt war.

Wenn wir zurückgehen hinter das abrahamitische Zeitalter und hinter das Kali Yuga, dann finden wir, daß die Menschen durch ihren unmittelbaren, aus den Resten des alten Hellsehens sich ergebenden Blick in die geistigen Welten, das Geistige sehen. Aber sie sehen dieses Geistige in all den alten Zeiten. Wir müßten weit, weit zurückgehen, wenn wir etwas anderes finden wollten. Die Menschen sehen dieses Geistige während Dyapara Yuga, Treta Yuga, Krita Yuga. Sie sehen dieses Geistige so, daß dieses Geistige sich darstellt als eine Vielheit von Wesen. Sie wissen ja, daß, wenn wir in die geistigen Welten aufsteigen, wir da die Hierarchien der geistigen Wesenheiten finden. Diese stehen natürlich unter einer geistigen Führung, unter einer einheitlichen geistigen Führung. Aber bis zu dieser einheitlichen geistigen Führung reichte das Bewußtsein in jenen alten Zeiten nicht. Man sah die einzelnen Glieder der Hierarchien, man sah eine Vielheit von Götterwesen. Sie zusammenzufassen zu einer Einheit, das war nur den Eingeweihten möglich. Jetzt aber stellte sich das Welten-Ich, das der Mensch selber zuerst auffaßte mit dem physischen Werkzeug des Gehirns, welches bei Abraham sich besonders ausprägte, vor ihn hin, jetzt faßte der Mensch dieses Welten-Ich auf als sich kundgebend in den verschiedenen Reichen der Natur, in den verschiedenen Elementen.

Und ein weiterer Fortschritt war dann der, der sozusagen für das letzte Jahrtausend vor der Begründung des Christentums gemacht worden ist, im salomonischen Zeitalter. Wir können also sozusagen die drei Jahrtausende vor der Begründung des Christentums so unterscheiden, daß wir etwa das erste Jahrtausend nach derjenigen Individualität, die da auftritt und die da in das zweite hereinwirkt, das abrahamitische Zeitalter nennen. Vom Beginn des Kali Yuga bis Abraham bereiten sich die Menschen vor, hinter den Naturerscheinungen den Einheitsgott zu erkennen. Mit Abraham tritt diese Möglichkeit auf. Der Einheitsgott wird der Lenker der Naturerscheinungen, wird hinter den Naturerscheinungen gesucht im Moses-Zeitalter.

Das Ganze erfährt dann eine Erhöhung im salomonischen Zeitalter. Und durch dieses letztere Zeitalter werden wir geführt bis zu jenem Punkt der Entwickelung, wo ganz dieselbe göttliche Wesenheit, welche angeschaut hat das abrahamitische Zeitalter in Jahve, welche angeschaut hat das Moses-Zeitalter wiederum in Jahve, wo dieselbe göttliche Wesenheit Menschengestalt annimmt. Denn das muß man vor einer geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung der Sache streng festhalten, daß die Evangelien in dieser Beziehung recht haben: Wir dürfen den Christus von dem Jahve nicht anders unterscheiden, als wie wir jenes Sonnenlicht, das uns der Mond zurückstrahlt, vom direkten Sonnenlicht unterscheiden. Was haben wir denn für ein Licht in einer mondhellen Nacht? Es ist das echte Sonnenlicht, nur daß es uns vom Mond zurückstrahlt; so daß wir dieses Sonnenlicht haben können direkt am Tag, oder von dem Mond zurückgeschickt in mondhellen Nächten. Was da im Raum sich so darstellt, das stellt sich außerdem so dar, daß dasjenige, was zuletzt als eine Geistessonne in Christus erscheinen sollte, vorher sich sozusagen wie zurückgestrahlt zeigte. In Jahve ist die Rückstrahlung, die dem Christus in der Zeit vorausgeht. Wie das Mondenlicht das Sonnenlicht zurückstrahlt, so strahlte sich die Christus-Wesenheit für Abraham, Moses, Salomo zurück. Es war immer dieselbe Wesenheit. Sie erschien dann selber als die ChristusSonne eben mit der Begründung des Christentums. So haben wir die Vorbereitung dieses großen Ereignisses im abrahamitischen, im Moses-, im salomonischen Zeitalter.

Nun geschieht eine Wiederholung dieser drei Zeitalter, wie sie vor der Begründung des Christentums da waren, in der nachchristlichen Zeit, und zwar jetzt in der umgekehrten Folge. Die Wiederholung geschieht so, daß sich der wesentliche Grundzug des salomonischen Zeitalters im ersten Jahrtausend nach Christus wiederholt, und zwar so, daß der Geist des Salomo lebt und webt in den hervorragendsten Geistern des ersten christlichen Jahrtausends. Und es war im Grunde genommen Weisheit des Salomo, es war dasjenige, was sich ausgebreitet hatte als Weisheit des Salomo, wodurch man die Natur und Wesenheit des Christus-Ereignisses zu begreifen versuchte. Was man gelernt hatte an der salomonischen Weisheit, das war es, wodurch man die Bedeutung des Christus-Ereignisses zu verstehen suchte.

Dann folgte das Zeitalter, das die Wiederauflebung des MosesZeitalters genannt werden kann. Auf das salomonische Zeitalter nach Christus folgte das Moses-Zeitalter. Und wenn wir in das zweite nachchristliche Jahrtausend heraufkommen, so ist es der Geist des Moses, der wiederum die Besten dieses Zeitalters durchdringt. Ja, wir können diesen Geist des Moses in neuer Gestalt wieder aufleben finden. Während der Geist des Moses in der vorchristlichen Zeit den Blick hinausgerichtet hat in die Welt nach der äußeren physischen Natur, um das Welten-Ich, den Weltengott als Jahve, eben als Welten-Ich zu finden, zu finden in Blitz und Donner, zu finden in demjenigen, was einströmen kann von außen als das große Gesetz des menschlichen Handelns, wie da gleichsam von außen hereinströmt zu Moses das WeltenIch, wie das Welten-Ich sich also gleichsam von außen offenbart, so finden wir, daß sich im zweiten nachchristlichen Zeitalter dafür von innen dieselbe Wesenheit im Innern der Seele ankündigt. Der Eindruck, der sozusagen als ein äußeres Ereignis für den Moses da war, als er sich von seinem Volk entfernte, um den Dekalog zu vernehmen, dieses bedeutsame Ereignis wiederholt sich. Es wiederholt sich im zweiten nachchristlichen Jahrtausend durch eine mächtige innere Offenbarung. Die Dinge wiederholen sich eben nicht in derselben Weise, sondern so, daß eben dasjenige, was aufeinander folgt, sich ausnimmt wie eine Art Polarität. Hatte sich also für Moses aus den Naturelementen der Gott geoffenbart, so offenbarte er sich jetzt in dem zweiten nachchristlichen Jahrtausend aus den tiefsten Untergründen der menschlichen Seele heraus. Und wie könnte uns denn das großartiger entgegentreten, als wenn wir hören, wie ein bedeutsamer und großartig angelegter Mensch predigte, so predigte, daß man hörte: Er verkündet aus den Tiefen seiner Seele heraus gewaltige Dinge. Voraussetzen kann man, daß er tief durchdrungen ist von dem, was man christliche Mystik nennen kann. Dann kommt in denselben Ort, in dem er predigt, ein scheinbar unbedeutender Laie, der sich zuerst die Predigten anhört, sich aber dann herausstellt als einer, der nicht Laie zu sein braucht, sondern der der Lehrer des Predigers Tauler werden kann, der den Prediger Tauler veranlaßt, trotzdem dieser auf solcher Höhe stand, eine Weile auszusetzen mit seinen Predigten, weil er sich doch nicht voll durchdrungen fühlt von demjenigen, was in jenem Laien lebt. Und als dann derselbe Prediger, nachdem er sich hat inspirieren lassen, den Predigerstuhl wiederum besteigt, da wird uns der gewaltige Eindruck seiner Predigt symbolisch zum Ausdruck gebracht, indem es heißt, daß viele seiner Zuhörer wie tot hinfielen. Das heißt, es wird in ihnen ertötet, was niedere Natur war. Es war eine Offenbarung des Welten-Ich von innen heraus, mit ebensolcher Gewalt von innen heraus, wie in dem zweiten Zeitalter vor Christus bei Moses aus den Elementen heraus. So sehen wir das Moses-Zeitalter da wieder aufleben, und zwar so, daß den ganzen Geist der christlichen Mystik, von Meister Eckhart bis herauf zu den späteren christlichen Mystikern, dieser Geist des Moses durchstrahlte und durchlebte. Oh, er lebte in diesen christlichen Mystikern, der Geist des Moses! Er war sozusagen so da, daß er sich in ihre Seelen hineinlebte. Das war das zweite Zeitalter der nachchristlichen Zeit, in dem der ganze Charakter auch des Moses-Zeitalters wieder auferstand. So wie im ersten Jahrtausend der nachchristlichen Zeit das salomonische Zeitalter gebracht hat all die Ausgestaltungen sozusagen der christlichen Mysterienanschauung, alles dessen, was wir zum Beispiel im christlichen Sinn als die Hierarchien kennen, ausgestaltet hat sozusagen die Weisheit über die höheren Welten im einzelnen, so gestaltete insbesondere das zweite Moses-Zeitalter dasjenige aus, was die deutsche Mystik war: das tiefe mystische Bewußtsein von dem Einheitsgott, der in der menschlichen Seele auferweckt werden kann, der in der menschlichen Seele auferstehen kann.

Und es ist dieses Moses-Zeitalter wirksam geblieben in alledem, was seit jener Zeit strebte, immer genauer zu erforschen das Welten-Ich, den Einheitsgott. Aber es erfolgt nach dem Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung von unseren Zeiten ab, von jenen Zeiten ab, in denen wir langsam hinüberleben in das dritte Jahrtausend, eine Wiedererneuerung des abrahamitischen Zeitalters. So wie das abrahamitische Zeitalter, das mosaische und das salomonische Zeitalter sich folgen in der vorchristlichen Zeit, so folgen sie sich in der nachchristlichen Zeit in umgekehrter Reihe: salomonisches Zeitalter, Moses-Zeitalter und abrahamitisches Zeitalter. Diesem abrahamitischen Zeitalter gehen wir entgegen und dieses muß uns und wird uns Gewaltiges bringen. Erinnern wir uns nur einmal, was eigentlich die Bedeutung des abrahamitischen Zeitalters war.

Die Bedeutung des abrahamitischen Zeitalters war, daß sozusagen das alte Hellsehen geschwunden ist, daß dem Menschen ein Gottesbewußtsein gegeben ward, das mit den menschlichen Fähigkeiten eng zusammenhängt. Alles, was die Menschheit aus diesem Gottesbewußtsein, das an das menschliche Gehirn gebunden ist, gewinnen konnte, ist nach und nach ausgeschöpft worden, und nur wenig ist noch auf dem Weg dieser Fähigkeiten für das Gottesbewußtsein der Menschen zu gewinnen, wenig nur noch. Dagegen gehen wir den genau umgekehrten Weg in dem neuen abrahamitischen Zeitalter. Wir gehen den Weg, der die Menschheit wiederum hinausführt aus dem bloß physisch-sinnlichen Anschauen, aus dem Kombinieren der physischsinnlichen Merkmale; wir gehen den Weg, der die Menschen wiederum zurückführt in jene Regionen, in denen sie einmal vor dem abrahamitischen Zeitalter waren. Wir gehen den Weg, der die Menschen wieder eintreten lassen wird in Zustände natürlichen Hellsehens, natürlich hellseherischer Kräfte. In dem Zeitalter Kali Yuga war es ja nur die Einweihung, die hinaufführen konnte in regelrechter Weise in die geistigen Welten. Natürlich führt die Einweihung in hohe Stufen hinauf, die von den Menschen in sehr ferner Zukunft erst erklommen werden können, aber die ersten Spuren eines erneuerten Hellsehens, das auftreten wird wie eine natürliche menschliche Fähigkeit, werden sich verhältnismäßig bald zeigen, je mehr wir in die Erneuerung des abrahamitischen Zeitalters hinübergehen.

Nachdem wir uns das Ich-Bewußtsein erobert haben, nachdem die Menschen erkennen gelernt haben, daß das Ich im Innern ein fester Mittelpunkt ist, werden die Menschen wiederum hinausgeführt, um wiederum in die geistigen Welten einen tieferen Blick tun zu können. Das hängt noch zusammen mit demjenigen Zeitalter, in dem das Kali Yuga abgelaufen ist. 5000 Jahre währt Kali Yuga, bis zum Jahre 1899 hat es gewährt. 1899 war in der Tat ein wichtiges Jahr für die Menschheitsentwickelung. Das ist natürlich wiederum ein Durchschnittsjahr, denn die Dinge geschehen allmählich. Aber ebenso wie das Jahr 3101 angegeben werden kann als dasjenige, wo die Menschheit heruntergeführt worden ist aus dem alten Hellsehen zum sinnlichen Anschauen und verstandesmäßigen Urteilen, so ist das Jahr 1899 dasjenige, wo die Menschheit wiederum einen Ruck bekommen hat, um hinaufzusteigen zu den ersten Anfängen eines künftigen menschlichen Hellsehertums. Und es ist der Menschheit noch in diesem vor dem nächsten Jahrtausend stehenden 20. Jahrhundert - ja, für wenige Menschen noch in der ersten Hälfte dieses 20. Jahrhunderts — beschieden, die ersten Elemente eines neuen Hellsehens wiederum zu entwickeln, eines Hellsehens, das ganz gewiß in der Menschheit auftreten wird, wenn die Menschen sich fähig erweisen, dieses neue Hellsehen zu verstehen. Denn dessen müssen wir uns klar sein: zwei Dinge könnten eintreten. Auf dem Grund der Menschenseele ruht es schon für die Zukunft, daß solche hellseherische Fähigkeiten sich als natürliche Fähigkeiten - wir müssen unterscheiden das künstliche Hellsehen und dasjenige Hellsehen, welches als natürliches Hellsehen sich ergeben wird - für wenige Menschen noch in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts und in den nächsten 2500 Jahren für immer mehr und mehr Menschen ergeben werden, bis zuletzt eine genügend große Anzahl von Menschen da sein wird, die, wenn sie nur will, das neue natürliche Hellsehen erlangen wird.

Aber zweierlei könnte geschehen. Das eine ist das, daß die Menschen zwar die Anlage zu diesem Hellsehen haben, daß aber für die nächsten Jahrzehnte der Materialismus siegt, und die Menschheit im materialistischen Sumpf versinkt. Dann werden zwar einzelne Menschen auftreten und werden sagen, es ist ihnen so, wie wenn sie im physischen Menschen auch noch etwas sehen würden wie einen zweiten Menschen; aber wenn das materialistische Bewußtsein es dahin bringt, Geisteswissenschaft für eine Narrheit zu erklären und alles Bewußtsein von der geistigen Welt totzutreten, dann wird man eben diese ersten Anlagen nicht verstehen. Es wird von der Menschheit selber abhängen, ob es zum Heil oder zum Unheil ausschlagen wird, was sich da zutragen wird, da unvermerkt vorübergehen könnte dasjenige, was da eigentlich kommen soll. Oder es könnte der andere Fall eintreten, daß die Geisteswissenschaft nicht niedergetreten wird. Dann wird man verstehen, solche Eigenschaften nicht nur in den Geheimschulen der Initiation zu pflegen, sondern sie auch zu hegen, wenn sie wie feine Pflänzchen des menschlichen Seelenlebens gegen die Mitte unseres Jahrhunderts bei diesen oder jenen auftreten, die da wie aus einer erwachten Seelenkraft heraus sagen werden: Ich sehe etwas wie eine Realität, wie es beschrieben wird in der «Theosophie» als der zweite Mensch innerhalb des physischen Menschen. Aber noch andere Seelenfähigkeiten werden auftreten, zum Beispiel eine Fähigkeit, welche die Menschen an sich bemerken werden. Sie werden sozusagen irgendeine Handlung vollziehen. Indem sie aufschauen werden von dieser, wird sich ihnen etwas wie eine Art Traumbild vor die Seele stellen, von dem sie wissen werden: Das steht mit meiner Handlung in irgendeinem Zusammenhang. — Und die Menschen werden aus der Geisteswissenschaft heraus wissen: Wenn mir so ein Nachbild meiner Handlung erscheint - das sich aber ganz wesentlich unterscheidet von dieser Handlung -, so ist das nichts anderes, als daß es mir die karmische Wirkung meiner Handlung zeigt, die in der Zukunft eintreten soll.

Solches karmisches Verständnis wird sich für den einzelnen in der Mitte unseres Jahrhunderts ergeben, weil Kali Yuga abgelaufen ist und weil von Epoche zu Epoche in den Menschen immer neue Fähigkeiten auftreten. Aber wenn kein Verständnis geschaffen ist, wenn diese Fähigkeit sozusagen totgetreten wird, wenn man solche als Narren einsperrt, welche von diesen Fähigkeiten reden, dann wird das zum Unheil der Menschen ausschlagen. Die Menschen werden im materialistischen Sumpf verkommen. Es wird ganz davon abhängen, ob für Geisteswissenschaft ein Verständnis erweckt wird, oder ob es der materialistischen Gegenströmung, ob es dem Ahriman gelingen wird, zurückzuschlagen dasjenige, was Geisteswissenschaft in guter Absicht tut. Dann mögen ja freilich diejenigen kommen, die in diesem matezialistischen Sumpf erstickend stecken und mögen sagen: Nun ja, das waren schöne Propheten, die da gesagt haben, es werden die Menschen neben dem physischen noch einen zweiten Menschen sehen! Gewiß wird sich dann nichts zeigen, wenn man die Fähigkeiten dazu totgetreten haben wird. Wenn sie sich aber nicht zeigen werden in der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts, so wird das kein Beweis dafür sein, daß der Mensch nicht dazu veranlagt ist, sondern nur dafür, daß die Menschen die jungen Pflänzlein im Keim zertreten haben. Was heute gesagt wird, das ist da und kann sich entwickeln, wenn die Menschheit nur will.

Vor einer solchen Entwickelung stehen wir also unmittelbar. Wir gehen sozusagen den Weg der Entwickelung wiederum zurück. Bei Abraham wurde das Gottesbewußtsein in das Gehirn hereingeführt; indem wir in ein neues abrahamitisches Zeitalter eintreten, wird das Gottesbewußtsein wiederum aus dem Gehirn herausgeführt, und wir beginnen immer mehr und mehr in den nächsten 2500 Jahren Menschen zu erleben, die dasjenige haben werden, was die erhabenen Initiationsgeheimnisse ergeben als die großen spirituellen Lehren von den Weltengeheimnissen. Genau so, wie der Geist des Moses geherrscht hat im abgelaufenen Zeitalter bis zu uns, so beginnt nunmehr der Geist des Abraham zu walten, um gleichsam, nachdem er damals die Menschheit hereingeführt hat in ein Gottesbewußtsein innerhalb der sinnlichen Welt, die Menschheit aus demselben nun wiederum herauszuführen. Denn das ist ein urewiges Weltengesetz, daß sozusagen eine jede Individualität eine bestimmte Tat periodisch mehrmals, vor allen Dingen zweimal zu tun hat, das eine Mal wie als das Gegenteil vom andern. Was Abraham sozusagen der Menschheit heruntergebracht hat in das physische Bewußtsein herein, das wird er für sie wiederum hinauftragen in die geistige Welt hinein.

So sehen wir, daß wir in wichtigen, in wesentlichen Zeitverhältnissen leben, und wir bekommen dann einen Begriff, daß Geisteswissenschaft zu verbreiten heute nicht irgend etwas ist, was man aus Vorliebe tut, sondern etwas, was von unserer Zeit gefordert wird. Vorzubereiten die Menschheit auf große Entwickelungsmomente, das gehört zu den Aufgaben der Geistesforschung. Damit die Menschen wissen werden, was sie sehen, dazu ist Geisteswissenschaft da. Wer es ehrlich mit seinem Zeitalter meint, der kann gar nicht anders, als daran zu denken, daß Geist-Erkenntnis in die Welt kommen muß, um nicht unvermerkt an der Menschheit vorübergehen zu lassen, was dann kommt.

Nun sind aber diese Dinge noch mit andern verknüpft. In gewissen andern Beziehungen erneuert sich alles in solch ähnlicher Wiederholung. Wir leben einer Zeit entgegen, in der immer mehr und mehr von demjenigen für die Menschheit sich erneuern soll, was in den vorchristlichen Jahrhunderten da war, aber alles wird getaucht in das, was die Menschheit hat gewinnen können durch das große ChristusEreignis. Wir haben gesehen, daß die Menschheit jenen großen Moment, den Moses erlebt hat durch seine Eindrücke vom brennenden Dornbusch und vom Blitzesfeuer auf dem Sinai, nun in christlicher Verinnerlichung wieder erlebt hat. Denn jetzt sind sich die Tauler, die Eckhart klar: wenn ihnen von innen aufgeht, was jener Moses Jahve genannt hat, so ist es der Christus, so ist es nicht mehr die zurückgespiegelte Christus-Wesenheit, sondern direkt der Christus, der aus der Tiefe des Herzens aufsteigt. Es ist sozusagen direkt wiedererlebt in einer verchristlichten Gestalt, in einer durch den Christus-Impuls umgeänderten Gestalt, durch die christlichen Mystiker dasjenige, was von Moses erlebt worden war. Und in umgeänderter, neuer Gestalt wird das erlebt werden, was sozusagen erlebt worden ist in der vorchristlichen, abrahamitischen Zeit. Und was wird das sein? All die Dinge und Ereignisse, welche sozusagen normalerweise in der Menschheitsentwickelung auftreten, alle diese werfen gleichsam ihre Lichter voraus. Ich möchte nicht die Trivialität, die oft gesagt wird, wiederholen, ich möchte nicht sagen, werfen ihre Schatten, sondern ihre Lichter. So ist in gewisser Beziehung etwas von Ereignissen der Zukunft im Licht vorausgeworfen in dem, was wir die Bekehrung des Saulus zum Paulus nennen: in dem Ereignis von Damaskus.

Machen wir uns einmal klar, was dieses Ereignis für den Paulus zu bedeuten hatte. Paulus war bis zu diesem Ereignis sozusagen bekannt mit alldem, was der althebräischen Geheimlehre eigen war. Was wußte der Paulus? Der Paulus wußte aus seiner althebräischen Geheimlehre, daß einstmals eine Individualität heruntersteigen werde, welche für die Menschheit darstellen wird denjenigen, der den Tod überwinden wird. Er wußte: Es wird einmal eine Individualität im Fleisch erscheinen, diese wird durch ihr Leben zeigen, daß der Geist über den Tod hinaus so lebt, daß der Tod eben für diese Individualität innerhalb ihrer Erdeninkarnation nichts anderes bedeutet als ein anderes physisches Ereignis. Das wußte er. Und er wußte noch etwas anderes aus seiner althebräischen Geheimlehre. Er wußte, daß dann, wenn der Christus, der da kommen sollte, der Messias, im Fleisch dagewesen ist, wenn er auferstanden sein wird, sozusagen den Sieg davongetragen haben wird über den Tod, dann die geistige Sphäre der Erde sich verändert haben wird, dann das Hellsehen eine Veränderung erfahren haben wird. Während vorher ein Hellseher in der geistigen Atmosphäre der Erde die Christus-Wesenheit nicht gesehen hat - die konnte er nur sehen bei dem Blick zum Sonnengeist -, so mußte, das wußte Paulus, durch den Christus-Impuls diejenige Veränderung eintreten für das Erdendasein, daß dann nach dem Sieg über den Tod für das hellseherische Bewußtsein der Christus in der Erdensphäre zu finden ist. Wird also der Mensch hellseherisch, so muß er in der Erdensphäre den Christus als den wirksamen Erdgeist sehen. Wovon aber Paulus sich nicht überzeugen konnte, als er noch Saulus war, das war, daß derjenige, welcher da gelebt hat in Palästina, am Kreuz gestorben ist, von dem seine Jünger sagten, er wäre auferstanden, daß der wirklich derjenige war, von dem die althebräische Geheimlehre gesprochen hatte. Das ist das Bedeutsame, daß Paulus nicht überzeugt worden ist durch das, was er physisch gesehen hat von demjenigen, was in den Evangelien erzählt ist. Er fing erst an, die Überzeugung zu haben, daß der Christus auch der vorhergesagte Messias ist, als eben an ihm sich zeigte jenes vorausgeworfene Licht, als er wie durch eine Gnade von oben hellseherisch wurde und den Christus in der Erdensphäre entdeckte. Er ist also schon dagewesen, er ist schon auferstanden, mußte er sich sagen. Indem Paulus selber hellseherisch den Christus gesehen hat in der geistigen Erdensphäre, wußte er: Jetzt ist er da. - Von dem Augenblick an war die Überzeugung in ihm da von dem Christus Jesus. Also das Grundereignis war, daß er hellscherisch in der Erdensphäre den Christus Jesus entdeckt hat im Ereignis von Damaskus. Wenn also Paulus zum Beispiel nicht mehr in Palästina die Taten des Christus Jesus hätte erzählen hören können, wenn er nicht aus persönlicher Erfahrung die Evangelien hätte hören können, sondern wenn er etwas später gelebt hätte, so hätte es sein können, daß er eben nur später dieses Christus-Ereignis von Damaskus erlebt hätte. Dann würde er aber zu derselben Überzeugung gekommen sein. Denn dieses Ereignis, das offenbarte ihm die Tatsache: Der Christus war da! Und der sich da in der Erdensphäre offenbart, das ist derjenige, von dem die althebräische Geheimlehre redet! - Dieses Christus-Ereignis ist nicht an einen Zeitpunkt gebunden. Es ist bei Paulus nur sehr rasch erfolgt [nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha], damit das Christentum durch Paulus seinen Lauf machen konnte.

Nun war allerdings die Entwickelung der Menschheit in der Zeit, wo das Kali Yuga bestand, bis 1899, nicht so, daß der Mensch so mir nichts dir nichts ein Paulus-Ereignis erleben konnte. Dazu waren die menschlichen Fähigkeiten nicht herangereift. Daher erlebte es einer eben als Gnade. Und ähnliche Ereignisse erlebten andere noch durch Gnade. Aber nun stehen wir ja in jenem Zeitalter, wo jener mächtige Umschwung geschehen soll, wo sich die ersten Keime eines natürlichen Hellsehens entwickeln. Wir treten hinein in das abrahamitische Zeitalter, wir werden hinausgeführt in die geistige Welt. Dadurch ist die Möglichkeit gegeben, daß eine gewisse Anzahl von Menschen und immer mehr und mehr Menschen in den nächsten 2500 Jahren das Ereignis von Damaskus nacherleben. Und das wird das Große, das Gewaltige des nächsten Zeitalters sein, daß für viele Menschen das Ereignis von Damaskus aufleben wird, daß für diejenigen Fähigkeiten, von denen eben gesagt worden ist, daß sie auftreten werden, der einmal in der geistigen Erdensphäre befindliche Christus wahrnehmbar wird, hereinleuchten wird. Indem die Menschen fähig werden, den Ätherleib zu sehen, werden sie den Ätherleib des Christus Jesus sehen lernen, wie der Paulus ihn gesehen hat. Das ist dasjenige, was als das Charakteristikum eines neuen Zeitalters beginnt, und was bei den ersten Vorläufern der Menschen mit diesen Fähigkeiten sich schon zwischen 1930 bis 1940/45 zeigen wird. Wenn die Menschen aufmerksam sein werden, werden sie dieses Ereignis von Damaskus und damit Klarheit und Wahrheit über das Christus-Ereignis durch unmittelbare geistige Anschauung erleben.

Und ein merkwürdiger Parallelismus der Ereignisse wird sich abspielen. Denn in den nächsten zwei Jahrzehnten werden die Menschen dann immer mehr und mehr von dem Buchstaben der Evangelien abfallen, sie werden sie nicht mehr verstehen. Sehen wir doch heute schon, wie die Triviallinge überall den Leuten aus den Evangelien «beweisen», daß diese keine historischen Urkunden sind, daß man auf einen historischen Christus überhaupt sich nicht berufen kann. Die historischen Dokumente werden für die Menschheit an Wert verlieren, die Zahl derer, die den Christus Jesus leugnen, wird immer größer und größer. Und nur kurzsichtig sind diejenigen Menschen, welche da werden glauben können, daß man durch die bloße Historie die Sache noch wird halten können. Das sind nicht diejenigen, die es ehrlich meinen mit dem Christentum, welche abweisen das Verständnis für den geistigen Beweis des Christus Jesus. Der geistige Beweis des Christus Jesus wird dadurch geliefert werden, daß gehegt werden die Fähigkeiten der Menschen, daß sie schauen sollen den wahrhaft vorhandenen Christus in seinem Ätherleib. Denn im Grunde genommen mögen sich diejenigen noch so gute Christen nennen, welche nur auf Dokumenten fußen wollen: sie zerstören das Christentum; sie mögen noch so zetern und mögen noch so laut dasjenige, was sie wissen über das Christentum, aus den Urkunden verkünden: sie zerstören das Christentum, weil sie eine geistige Lehre ablehnen, durch welche aus dem Schauen heraus in unserem Jahrhundert der Christus für die Menschen zur Wahrheit werden wird.

Als unsere Zeitrechnung begann, da waren schon durch mehr als drei Jahrtausende die Menschen heruntergestiegen in das finstere Zeitalter, waren angewiesen auf ihre äußeren Fähigkeiten. Damals hätte sich der Christus auf keine andere Weise zeigen können den Fähigkeiten, die für die Menschenentwickelung notwendig waren, als durch die physische Inkarnation. Damals waren die physischen Fähigkeiten auf ihrer höchsten Höhe, daher mußte der Christus in einem physischen Leib erscheinen. Die Menschheit wäre aber nicht um einen Schritt weitergekommen, wenn sie nicht fähig werden könnte, mit höheren Fähigkeiten in höheren Welten die Realität des Christus zu finden. Wie damals mit bloß physischen Fähigkeiten der Christus gefunden werden mußte, so werden die Menschen mit den neu entwickelten Fähigkeiten den Christus finden in derjenigen Welt, wo eben nur Ätherleiber gesehen werden. Denn eine zweite physische Verkörperung des Christus gibt es nicht. Einmal nur war er im fleischlichen Leib, weil nur einmal die menschlichen Fähigkeiten angewiesen waren, den Christus im fleischlichen Leib zu haben. Jetzt aber werden sie mit den höheren Fähigkeiten den um so realeren Ätherleib des Christus wahrnehmen können.

Das ist dasjenige, was man nennen kann jenes gewaltige Ereignis, das uns bevorsteht: Das Wiedererscheinen des Christus Jesus - nach und nach zuerst für wenige, dann für immer mehr und mehr Menschen. Es ist ein Ereignis, das nicht nur Bedeutung hat für diejenigen Menschen, die dann noch im Fleisch verkörpert sein werden. Es wird eine Anzahl von Menschen, die heute verkörpert sind, auch zu jener Zeit noch verkörpert sein, wenn dieses Christus-Ereignis eintritt. Die werden es so erleben, wie es geschildert worden ist. Andere werden durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sein. Aber, wie wir einmal bei einem Vortrage hier gesehen haben, daß das Ereignis von Golgatha nicht bloß ein Ereignis für die physische Welt war, sondern hinübergewirkt hat in alle geistigen Welten, wie der Hinabstieg des Christus in die Unterwelt eine wirkliche Tatsache war, so wird hineinwirken das Christus-Ereignis, das in unserem Jahrhundert sich hinstellen wird, auch in die Welt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, wenn auch in anderer Gestalt, als es der Mensch hier auf Erden finden wird. Aber eines wird notwendig sein: Jene Fähigkeiten, durch welche man das Christus-Ereignis wird wahrnehmen können zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, die können nicht erworben werden zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, die müssen hier auf dem physischen Plan erworben werden, die müssen mitgebracht werden in das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Es gibt eben Fähigkeiten, die erworben werden müssen auf der Erde. Denn wir sind nicht umsonst herausgesetzt auf die physische Erde. Derjenige geht fehl, der glaubt, daß wir umsonst auf die Erde versetzt worden sind. Wir müssen uns da Fähigkeiten erwerben, die wir uns in keiner andern Welt erwerben können. Und die Fähigkeiten zum Verständnis des ChristusEreignisses, von dem wir gesprochen haben, und der folgenden Ereignisse, die müssen hier auf dieser Erde erworben werden. Und diejenigen Menschen, welche sich hier auf der Erde diese Fähigkeiten jetzt erwerben durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Verkündigung, die werden durch die Pforte des Todes diese Fähigkeiten durchtragen. Nicht etwa bloß durch die Einweihung, sondern durch die verständnisvolle Hinnahme der geisteswissenschaftlichen Verkündigung erwirbt man sich die Fähigkeiten, die Möglichkeit, auch in der geistigen Welt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt das Christus-Ereignis wahrzunehmen. Wer aber taube Ohren hat, der muß warten bis zu einer nächsten Inkarnation, um sich hier die Fähigkeiten zu erwerben, die man sich hier erwerben muß, damit man das Christus-Ereignis dort erleben könne. So also darf niemand irgendwie glauben, daß ihm die Verkündigung des Christus-Ereignisses, das nur aus der ganzen geisteswissenschaftlichen Lehre heraus verstanden werden kann, keine Frucht tragen wird, wenn er dann, wenn es eintreten wird, schon durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sein wird. Es wird ihm Frucht tragen.

So sehen wir, daß die Geistesforschung die Vorbereiterin ist für ein neues Christus-Ereignis. Diejenigen aber, welche den Nerv der Lehre vom Geiste in sich aufnehmen als einen Inhalt ihres ganzen Seelenlebens, als lebendiges Leben, sollen dann auch wirklich hinaufwachsen zu einem spirituellen Verständnis der Sache, sollen dann sich klar werden, daß sie durch die Geisteswissenschaft unser neu erwachendes Zeitalter gründlich verstehen lernen müssen. Wir müssen verstehen lernen, daß wir in der Zukunft nicht die wichtigsten Ereignisse auf dem physischen Plan zu suchen haben, sondern außerhalb des physischen Planes, wie den Christus, den wir als Äthergestalt in der geistigen Welt bei seiner Wiederkehr zu suchen haben werden.

Was jetzt gesagt worden ist, wird immer und immer wieder gesagt werden in den nächsten Jahrzehnten. Aber es wird Menschen geben, die dieses mißverstehen werden, die sagen werden: Der Christus soll also wiederkommen! — Weil sie hereintragen werden in solche Anschauung den Glauben, daß das eine physische Wiederkunft sei, so werden sie Nahrung geben all denjenigen, die als falsche Messiasse auftreten werden. Und solche wird es genug geben in der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts, die benutzen werden den materialistischen Glauben der Menschen, die benutzen werden das materialistische Denken und Fühlen der Menschen, um sich für den Christus auszugeben. Falsche Messiasse hat es immer gegeben. Da haben wir zum Beispiel jenes Zeitalter vor den Kreuzzügen, wo in Südfrankreich ein falscher Messias aufgetreten ist, in dem seine Anhänger gesehen haben etwas, wie einen im physischen Leib verkörperten Christus. Vorher war ein falscher Messias in Spanien aufgetreten und hatte viele Anhänger gefunden. In Nordafrika hat ein großes Aufsehen erregt einer, der sich für den Christus ausgegeben hat. Im 17. Jahrhundert trat in Smyrna ein Mensch auf als Christus und fand ungeheuren Andrang. Sabbatai Zewi hieß er. Zu ihm sind hingepilgert die Menschen aus Polen, Ungarn, Österreich, Spanien, Deutschland, Frankreich, aus ganz Europa und aus einem großen Teil von Afrika und Asien. In den verflossenen Jahrhunderten war das nicht so schlimm, denn da war sozusagen an die Menschheit noch nicht die Forderung gestellt, zu unterscheiden das Wahre vom Falschen. Jetzt erst stehen wir in dem Zeitalter, wo es verhängnisvoll werden könnte, wenn die Menschen die geistige Probe nicht bestehen würden. Diejenigen werden sie bestehen, die wissen, daß die menschlichen Fähigkeiten sich weiterentwickeln, daß diejenigen Fähigkeiten, die den Christus im Physischen sehen mußten, eben angewiesen waren, nur bei der Begründung des Christentums ihn so zu sehen, daß aber die Menschheit nicht vorrücken würde, wenn sie den Christus nicht in unserem Jahrhundert in einer erhöhteren Gestalt wiederfinden würde. Und die nach Geisteswissenschaft Strebenden werden sich als diejenigen erweisen müssen, welche die falschen Messiasse unterscheiden können von dem einzigen Messias, der nicht im Fleisch, sondern der für die neuerwachten Fähigkeiten als eine spirituelle Wesenheit erscheint. Und die Zeit wird kommen, in der die Menschen wieder hineinschauen werden in die geistige Welt und da das Land sehen werden, aus dem herunterfließen diejenigen Ströme, welche wahre geistige Nahrung geben alldem, was in der physischen Welt geschieht.

Wir haben ja immer gesehen, daß es den Menschen möglich war, im alten Hellsehen in diese geistige Welt hineinzuschauen. Die morgenländischen Schriften enthalten auch in ihrer Tradition etwas, wie eben eine Überlieferung eines alten geistigen Landes, in das die Menschen einstmals hineinschauen konnten, aus dem sie heraussaugen konnten alles das, was der physischen Welt an Übersinnlichem zufließen konnte. Voller Wehmut sind manche Beschreibungen über jenes Land, das die Menschen einmal erreichen konnten, und das sich wie zurückgezogen hat. Dies Land war in der Tat den Menschen einmal erreichbar, und es wird den Menschen wieder erreichbar sein, jetzt, nachdem Kali Yuga, das finstere Zeitalter, abgelaufen ist. Die Einweihung hat aber immer hineingeführt und für diejenigen, welche die Einweihung genossen haben, gab es immer die Möglichkeit, hineinzulenken die Schritte in jenes geheimnisvolle Land, das sich zurückgezogen hat während des Kali Yuga, von dem als von einem Land gesprochen wird, das wie verschwunden ist aus dem Bereich der menschlichen Erfahrung. Rührend sind jene Schriften, die von diesem alten Land sprechen. Es ist dasselbe Land, in dem die Eingeweihten immer wieder und wiederum Einkehr halten, um sich von da aus die neuen Ströme und Anregungen zu holen für alles das, was der Menschheit von Jahrhundert zu Jahrhundert gegeben werden soll. Immer wieder und wiederum halten diejenigen, die mit der geistigen Welt in dieser Weise in Beziehung stehen, Einkehr in dieses geheimnisvolle Land, das genannt wird «Schamballa». Es ist der Urquell, in den hineingereicht hat der hellseherische Blick, der sich zurückgezogen hat im Kali Yuga, von dem wie von einem alten Märchenland gesprochen wird, das aber wiederkommen wird in den Bereich der Menschen. Schamballa wird es wieder geben, nachdem das Kali Yuga abgelaufen sein wird. Die Menschheit wird wiederum hineinwachsen in das Land Schamballa durch normale menschliche Fähigkeiten, aus dem sich Kraft und Weisheit die Eingeweihten zu holen haben für ihre Mission. Schamballa gibt es, Schamballa gab es, Schamballa wird wieder da sein für die Menschheit. Und zu dem ersten, was die Menschen erblicken werden, wenn Schamballa sich wieder zeigen wird, wird der Christus in seiner Äthergestalt gehören. Es gibt keinen andern Führer für die Menschheit in das von den orientalischen Schriften für verschwunden erklärte Land, als den Christus. Der Christus wird die Menschen nach Schamballa führen.

Das ist dasjenige, was wir uns in die Seele schreiben sollen, was der Menschheit werden kann, wenn sie das gestern erwähnte Wahrzeichen im richtigen Sinn auffaßt. Wenn sie versteht, diese Menschheit, daß sie jetzt nicht tiefer herabsinken darf in die Materie, daß sie Umkehr halten muß, daß ein spirituelles Leben seinen Anfang nehmen muß, dann wird sich ergeben zuerst für wenige, dann - in 2500 Jahen - für immer mehr und mehr Menschen das lichtdurchwobene und das lichtdurchglänzte, das von unendlicher Lebensfülle strotzende, das unsere Herzen mit Weisheit erfüllende Land Schamballa. Das ist dasjenige, was für die, welche verstehen wollen, für die, welche Ohren haben, um zu hören und Augen haben, um zu sehen, als Ereignis zu schildern ist, das den größten Wendepunkt in der Entwickelung der Menschheit bedeutet bei Anbruch des abrahamitischen Zeitalters nach der Begründung des Christentums. Es wird dasjenige Ereignis sein, durch das die Menschen in erhöhterem Maße den Christus-Impuls verstehen werden. Denn das wird das Eigenartige sein, daß hierdurch die Weisheit nichts verlieren wird. Je mehr Schauungen sich die Menschen erringen werden, desto größer wird ihnen der Christus erscheinen, desto gewaltiger wird er ihnen erscheinen! Wenn erst die Menschen ihren Blick werden tauchen können in Schamballa, dann werden sie erst mancherlei von dem wieder einsehen können, was zwar in den Evangelien enthalten ist, wozu aber die Menschen eine Art Ereignis von Damaskus brauchen werden, um erkennen zu können, was in den Evangelien gegeben ist. So wird in derjenigen Zeit, wo die Menschen den Urkunden gegenüber am ungläubigsten sein werden, das neue Bekenntnis zu dem Christus Jesus entstehen durch unser Hineinwachsen in das Gebiet, wo wir ihn zunächst treffen werden: durch das Hineinwachsen in das geheimnisvolle Land Schamballa.

The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric

There is a certain connection between the past and future of human evolution. When we consider this connection, it sheds much light on questions we might ask, such as: What is our responsibility as human beings of a particular age?

When we gathered here some time ago, we spoke at length about the past of human evolution. Today, let us speak a little about the connection between the past and the immediate future of human evolution. Yesterday, we concluded by pointing to an important indication that tells us, as it were from heaven, that humanity needs a spiritual impulse, something like a new time impulse. We can only understand how this new impulse must work if we view the last millennia before the founding of Christianity in a certain connection with the millennia after the founding of Christianity, with the millennia in which we ourselves are living.

There is a certain law according to which certain events repeat themselves in human evolution, and we have spoken about such repetitions in human evolution in the last Stuttgart cycle. Today I would just like to point out that when spiritual science points to such regular repetitions in human development, one should not believe that one can construct such repetitions out of one's own mind. For the repetitions must all be investigated in detail and established in detail through spiritual research. Otherwise, one can go very, very wrong if one constructs new repetitions based on the pattern of one or the other. Now there is a repetition that does indeed resemble another: it is the repetition that manifests itself in such a way that fundamental events, important events that were effective before the founding of Christianity, reappear in a certain way after the founding of Christianity. If we consider the last three millennia before the founding of Christianity, these three millennia belong to an epoch in the history of human development which is referred to as the so-called dark age, the lesser dark age: Kali Yuga.

This Kali Yuga begins in the year 3101 before the founding of Christianity. Everything that we actually consider to be the great achievements of humanity, what we consider to be the fundamental characteristics of contemporary human culture, is connected with this dark age. Before this age, before this dark age or Kali Yuga, all human thinking and all human soul forces were organized differently in a certain way. In that age before 3101 – that is an average figure, the development gradually passed from one type of characteristic to another – there was what can be called the last remnants of ancient clairvoyance. In the course of human development, the ages follow one another: Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Kali Yuga. The latter is of particular interest to us today. With the earlier ages, we return to ancient Atlantis. And remnants of the old clairvoyance still existed in ancient times, so that before the dark age, human beings still had a direct awareness of the existence of a spiritual world because they could see into it. This awareness of the spiritual world receded more and more from human perception, so to speak, and on average, we can say that the abilities and powers began to develop which, on the one hand, limited human judgment to the sensory world and, on the other hand, developed human self-awareness. All these powers begin in the Kali Yuga. And while human beings during this age were unable to look into the spiritual worlds, the fixed point within them developed all the more within the physical-sensory world; what we call the knowledge of self-consciousness developed. But do not believe that this knowledge of self-consciousness is already highly developed; it must continue to develop further and further. But it could never have entered human consciousness if this dark age had not existed. Thus, in the three millennia before the founding of Christianity, human beings lost more and more of their connection with the spiritual world. They did not have it from their immediate perception.

We have now seen during my last visits here how the first millennium, at its conclusion, brought a kind of substitute for looking into the spiritual worlds, a substitute that was given to human beings through the fact that a special individuality, Abraham, was chosen — who had this special facility in his physical brain — without which it would not have been possible to attain consciousness of the spiritual world. That is why we prefer to call the first part of the Kali Yuga in spiritual science the Abrahamic age, the age in which human beings lose their direct view of the higher spiritual worlds, but in which something grows in them like a consciousness of God, which gradually grows more and more into his ego, so that he increasingly conceives of God as related to the ego consciousness, the human ego consciousness. Like the world ego, the deity appears to the age, the first millennium of the Kali Yuga, which we can call the Abrahamic age at its conclusion.

This Abrahamic age was followed by the age of Moses, where it no longer remained, so to speak, that the God Yahweh, that the world-ego, revealed itself as a mysterious guide of human destiny, as the God of one people alone, but rather, as we know, this deity revealed itself in the age of Moses in the burning bush as the God of the elements. And it was a great step forward when, out of the teachings of Moses, the world-ego was perceived as the deity in such a way that people said: The elements of existence, that which we see with our physical eyes — lightning and thunder and so on — are outpourings, are deeds of the world-ego, ultimately of the one world-ego. We only need to realize clearly how much of a step forward this was.

If we go back beyond the Abrahamic age and beyond the Kali Yuga, we find that people see the spiritual world through their direct vision, which comes from the remnants of ancient clairvoyance. But they see this spiritual world in all the ancient times. We would have to go far, far back if we wanted to find something else. People see this spiritual world during Dyapara Yuga, Treta Yuga, Krita Yuga. They see this spiritual world in such a way that it appears as a multitude of beings. You know that when we ascend into the spiritual worlds, we find the hierarchies of spiritual beings there. These are, of course, under spiritual guidance, under a unified spiritual guidance. But in those ancient times, consciousness did not reach this unified spiritual guidance. People saw the individual members of the hierarchies; they saw a multitude of godlike beings. Only the initiated were able to unite them into a single entity. Now, however, the world ego, which man himself first perceived with the physical instrument of the brain, which was particularly pronounced in Abraham, presented itself before him. Now man perceived this world ego as manifesting itself in the various realms of nature, in the various elements.

And a further advance was then made, so to speak, during the last millennium before the founding of Christianity, in the age of Solomon. We can thus distinguish the three millennia before the founding of Christianity in such a way that we can call the first millennium after the emergence of the individuality that comes into play and influences the second millennium the Abrahamic age. From the beginning of the Kali Yuga until Abraham, human beings prepare themselves to recognize the one God behind natural phenomena. With Abraham, this possibility arises. The one God becomes the director of natural phenomena and is sought behind natural phenomena in the Mosaic age.

The whole thing then experiences an elevation in the Solomonic age. And through this latter age we are led to that point of development where the very same divine being who looked upon the Abrahamic age in Yahweh, who looked upon the Moses age again in Yahweh, takes on human form. For it must be strictly maintained before a spiritual scientific consideration of the matter that the Gospels are correct in this respect: we must not distinguish the Christ from Yahweh any more than we distinguish the sunlight that is reflected back to us by the moon from the direct sunlight. What kind of light do we have on a moonlit night? It is genuine sunlight, only that it is reflected back to us by the moon; so that we can have this sunlight directly during the day, or reflected back from the moon on moonlit nights. What appears in space is also such that what was to appear last as a spiritual sun in Christ appeared beforehand, as it were, reflected back. In Yahweh is the reflection that precedes Christ in time. Just as the moonlight reflects the sunlight, so the Christ being reflected back to Abraham, Moses, and Solomon. It was always the same being. It then appeared itself as the Christ Sun with the founding of Christianity. Thus we have the preparation for this great event in the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Solomonic ages.

Now these three ages, as they were before the founding of Christianity, are being repeated in the post-Christian era, but in reverse order. The repetition takes place in such a way that the essential features of the age of Solomon are repeated in the first millennium after Christ, in such a way that the spirit of Solomon lives and works in the most outstanding spirits of the first Christian millennium. And it was basically Solomon's wisdom, it was what had spread as Solomon's wisdom, through which people tried to understand the nature and essence of the Christ event. What people had learned from Solomon's wisdom was what they used to try to understand the meaning of the Christ event.

Then came the age that can be called the revival of the age of Moses. The age of Solomon after Christ was followed by the age of Moses. And as we enter the second millennium after Christ, it is the spirit of Moses that once again permeates the best of this age. Yes, we can find this spirit of Moses revived in a new form. During the pre-Christian era, the spirit of Moses looked out into the world of external physical nature in order to find the world ego, the world god as Yahweh, in lightning and thunder, in that which can flow in from outside as the great law of human action, just as the world-I flowed in from outside to Moses, just as the world-I revealed itself from outside, so we find that in the second post-Christian age the same entity announces itself from within, in the inner soul. The impression that was there for Moses, as it were, as an external event when he separated himself from his people to hear the Decalogue, this significant event is repeated. It is repeated in the second post-Christian millennium through a powerful inner revelation. Things do not repeat themselves in the same way, but in such a way that what follows one another appears as a kind of polarity. If God had revealed himself to Moses through the elements of nature, he now revealed himself in the second post-Christian millennium from the deepest depths of the human soul. And how could this be more magnificent than when we hear a significant and great man preaching in such a way that we hear him proclaiming mighty things from the depths of his soul? We can assume that he is deeply imbued with what we call Christian mysticism. Then, in the same place where he is preaching, a seemingly insignificant layman arrives, who first listens to the sermons, but then turns out to be someone who does not need to be a layman, but who can become the teacher of the preacher Tauler, who causes the preacher Tauler, despite his high standing, to suspend his sermons for a while because he does not feel fully imbued with that what lives in that layman. And when the same preacher, after being inspired, returns to the pulpit, the powerful impression of his sermon is symbolically expressed by saying that many of his listeners fell down as if dead. This means that what was lower nature in them was killed. It was a revelation of the world-ego from within, with the same force from within as in the second age before Christ with Moses from the elements. Thus we see the age of Moses revived, in such a way that the whole spirit of Christian mysticism, from Meister Eckhart to the later Christian mystics, was permeated and lived through by this spirit of Moses. Oh, the spirit of Moses lived in these Christian mystics! It was there, so to speak, that it lived its way into their souls. That was the second age of the post-Christian era, in which the entire character of the age of Moses was resurrected. Just as in the first millennium of the post-Christian era, the Solomonic age brought forth all the elaborations, so to speak, of the Christian view of the mysteries, everything that we know, for example, in the Christian sense as the hierarchies, elaborated, so to speak, the wisdom about the higher worlds in detail, so the second age of Moses in particular elaborated what German mysticism was: the deep mystical awareness of the one God who can be awakened in the human soul, who can rise again in the human soul.

And it is this Mosaic age that has remained effective in everything that has strived since that time to explore more and more precisely the world-ego, the one God. But according to the course of human development from our times, from those times in which we are slowly passing into the third millennium, there is a renewal of the Abrahamic age. Just as the Abrahamic age, the Mosaic age, and the Solomonic age followed one another in pre-Christian times, so they follow one another in reverse order in post-Christian times: the Solomonic age, the Moses age, and the Abrahamic age. We are approaching this Abrahamic age, and it must and will bring us something tremendous. Let us just remember what the Abrahamic age actually meant.

The significance of the Abrahamic age was that, so to speak, the old clairvoyance disappeared and human beings were given a consciousness of God that is closely connected with human abilities. Everything that humanity was able to gain from this consciousness of God, which is bound to the human brain, has gradually been exhausted, and only a little remains to be gained for the consciousness of God in human beings through these abilities, very little indeed. In contrast, we are taking the exact opposite path in the new Abrahamic age. We are taking the path that leads humanity out of mere physical-sensory perception, out of the combination of physical-sensory characteristics; we are taking the path that leads people back to those regions where they once were before the Abrahamic age. We are following the path that will allow people to reenter states of natural clairvoyance, of naturally clairvoyant powers. In the Kali Yuga age, it was only initiation that could lead up to the spiritual worlds in a proper way. Of course, initiation leads to high levels that can only be attained by human beings in the very distant future, but the first traces of a renewed clairvoyance, which will appear as a natural human ability, will show themselves relatively soon, the more we pass over into the renewal of the Abrahamic age.

After we have conquered self-consciousness, after human beings have learned to recognize that the self is a fixed center within, they will be led out again so that they can once more gain a deeper insight into the spiritual worlds. This is still connected with the age in which the Kali Yuga came to an end. The Kali Yuga lasted 5,000 years, until 1899. 1899 was indeed an important year for human development. This is, of course, an average year, because things happen gradually. But just as the year 3101 can be designated as the year in which humanity was led down from ancient clairvoyance to sensory perception and intellectual judgment, so the year 1899 is the year in which humanity received a jolt to ascend to the first beginnings of a future human clairvoyance. And it is still destined for humanity in this 20th century, which stands before the next millennium—indeed, for a few people even in the first half of this 20th century—to develop the first elements of a new clairvoyance, a clairvoyance that will most certainly appear in humanity when people prove themselves capable of understanding this new clairvoyance. For we must be clear about this: two things could happen. It is already inherent in the human soul for the future that such clairvoyant abilities will emerge as natural abilities — we must distinguish between artificial clairvoyance and that clairvoyance which will emerge as natural clairvoyance — for a few people in the first half of the 20th century and for more and more people over the next 2,500 years, until finally there will be a sufficiently large number of people who, if they so desire, will attain the new natural clairvoyance.

But two things could happen. One is that people will have the predisposition for this clairvoyance, but that materialism will prevail for the next few decades and humanity will sink into a materialistic morass. Then individual people will appear and say that it is as if they can still see something like a second human being in the physical human being; but when materialistic consciousness has gone so far as to declare spiritual science to be nonsense and to trample all consciousness of the spiritual world into the ground, then these first predispositions will not be understood. It will depend on humanity itself whether what happens then will turn out for good or for evil, for what is actually supposed to come could pass unnoticed. Or the opposite could happen, that spiritual science is not trampled underfoot. Then people will understand that such qualities should not only be cultivated in the secret schools of initiation, but also cherished when they appear like delicate plants of the human soul life around the middle of our century in those who, as if out of an awakened soul power, will say: I see something like a reality, as described in “Theosophy” as the second human being within the physical human being. But other soul abilities will also appear, for example, an ability that people will notice in themselves. They will perform some kind of action, so to speak. When they look up from it, something like a dream image will appear before their soul, and they will know that This is connected in some way with my action. — And people will know from spiritual science: When such an afterimage of my action appears to me — but differs significantly from this action — it is nothing other than the karmic effect of my action that is to occur in the future.

Such a karmic understanding will arise for the individual in the middle of our century because Kali Yuga has come to an end and because new abilities arise in human beings from epoch to epoch. But if no understanding is created, if this ability is trampled underfoot, so to speak, if those who speak of these abilities are locked up as fools, then this will turn to the detriment of human beings. People will degenerate in the materialistic morass. It will depend entirely on whether an understanding of spiritual science is awakened, or whether the materialistic countercurrent, whether Ahriman, will succeed in striking back at what spiritual science is doing with good intentions. Then, of course, those who are suffocating in this materialistic swamp may come and say: Well, they were fine prophets who said that people would see a second human being alongside the physical one! Certainly nothing will appear if the abilities for this have been trampled to death. But if they do not appear in the middle of the 20th century, this will not be proof that human beings are not capable of this, but only that human beings have trampled the young seedlings in the bud. What is being said today is there and can develop if humanity only wants it to.

We are therefore on the verge of such a development. We are, so to speak, going back along the path of development. With Abraham, the consciousness of God was introduced into the brain; as we enter a new Abrahamic age, the consciousness of God is again being led out of the brain, and in the next 2,500 years we will increasingly experience human beings who will have what the sublime initiation secrets reveal as the great spiritual teachings of the world's mysteries. Just as the spirit of Moses has ruled in the past age up to the present, so now the spirit of Abraham begins to reign, in order, as it were, after having led humanity into a consciousness of God within the sensory world, to lead humanity out of it again. For it is an eternal law of the world that every individuality has to perform a certain deed periodically several times, above all twice, once as the opposite of the other. What Abraham brought down into the physical consciousness of humanity, so to speak, he will carry up again for them into the spiritual world.

Thus we see that we are living in important, essential times, and we then gain an understanding that spreading spiritual science today is not something one does out of preference, but something that is demanded by our times. Preparing humanity for great moments of development is one of the tasks of spiritual research. Spiritual science is there so that people may know what they see. Anyone who is sincere about their age cannot help but think that spiritual knowledge must come into the world so that what is coming may not pass unnoticed by humanity.

But these things are connected with other things. In certain other relationships, everything is renewed in a similar repetition. We are living toward a time in which more and more of what was present in the pre-Christian centuries is to be renewed for humanity, but everything is immersed in what humanity has been able to gain through the great Christ event. We have seen that humanity has now relived that great moment experienced by Moses through his impressions of the burning bush and the lightning fire on Mount Sinai, but now in Christian innerization. For now it is clear to the Taulers and Eckhart: when they realize from within what Moses called Yahweh, it is Christ, it is no longer the reflected Christ-being, but directly Christ rising from the depths of the heart. What Moses experienced is, so to speak, directly relived in a Christianized form, in a form transformed by the Christ impulse, through the Christian mystics. And in a transformed, new form, what was experienced in the pre-Christian, Abrahamic era will be experienced. And what will that be? All the things and events that normally occur in human development, so to speak, cast their light ahead of them. I do not want to repeat the triviality that is often said; I do not want to say they cast their shadows, but rather their light. So, in a certain sense, something of future events is cast ahead in the light in what we call the conversion of Saul to Paul: in the event at Damascus.

Let us consider what this event meant for Paul. Until this event, Paul was familiar with everything that was characteristic of the ancient Hebrew secret teaching. What did Paul know? Paul knew from his ancient Hebrew secret teaching that an individuality would one day descend who would represent for humanity the one who would overcome death. He knew that an individuality would one day appear in the flesh and show through its life that the spirit lives on beyond death, so that death means nothing more for this individuality within its earthly incarnation than another physical event. He knew this. And he knew something else from his ancient Hebrew secret teachings. He knew that when the Christ who was to come, the Messiah, had been in the flesh, when he had risen, had, so to speak, won the victory over death, then the spiritual sphere of the earth would have changed, then clairvoyance would have undergone a change. Whereas previously a clairvoyant could not see the Christ being in the spiritual atmosphere of the earth—he could only see it when looking at the Sun spirit—Paul knew that through the Christ impulse a change would take place in earthly existence such that, after the victory over death, Christ would be found in the earthly sphere by clairvoyant consciousness. So when a person becomes clairvoyant, they must see Christ in the earthly sphere as the active Earth spirit. But what Paul could not convince himself of when he was still Saul was that the one who had lived in Palestine, who had died on the cross, of whom his disciples said he had risen, was really the one of whom the ancient Hebrew secret teaching had spoken. What is significant is that Paul was not convinced by what he physically saw of what is recounted in the Gospels. He only began to be convinced that Christ was also the foretold Messiah when that light which had been promised was revealed to him, when he became clairvoyant as if by a grace from above and discovered Christ in the earthly sphere. So he must have told himself that he had already been there, that he had already risen. When Paul himself saw Christ clairvoyantly in the spiritual sphere of the earth, he knew: Now he is here. From that moment on, the conviction of Christ Jesus was within him. So the fundamental event was that he discovered Christ Jesus clairvoyantly in the sphere of the earth in the event at Damascus. If, for example, Paul had not been able to hear about the deeds of Christ Jesus in Palestine, if he had not been able to hear the Gospels from personal experience, but had lived a little later, it might have been that he would have experienced this Christ event in Damascus only later. But then he would have come to the same conviction. For this event revealed to him the fact that Christ was there! And the one who revealed himself there in the earthly sphere is the one of whom the ancient Hebrew secret teaching speaks! This Christ event is not bound to a specific point in time. It happened very quickly in Paul's case [after the Mystery of Golgotha] so that Christianity could take its course through Paul.

However, the development of humanity during the time of the Kali Yuga, until 1899, was not such that people could simply experience a Paul event just like that. Human abilities had not yet matured to that point. Therefore, one experienced it as a blessing. And others experienced similar events through grace. But now we are in the age when that powerful change is to take place, when the first seeds of natural clairvoyance are developing. We are entering the Abrahamic age, we are being led out into the spiritual world. This makes it possible for a certain number of people, and more and more people over the next 2,500 years, to relive the event of Damascus. And that will be the great, the mighty thing of the next age, that for many people the event of Damascus will come to life, that for those who have the abilities that have just been mentioned, the Christ who is now in the spiritual sphere of the earth will become perceptible, will shine in. As people become able to see the etheric body, they will learn to see the etheric body of Christ Jesus as Paul saw it. This is what will begin as the characteristic feature of a new age, and what will already be evident in the first precursors of humanity with these abilities between 1930 and 1940/45. If people are attentive, they will experience this event of Damascus and with it clarity and truth about the Christ event through direct spiritual perception.

And a remarkable parallelism of events will take place. For in the next two decades, people will increasingly turn away from the letter of the Gospels; they will no longer understand them. We can already see today how trivial minds everywhere “prove” to people that the Gospels are not historical documents, that one cannot refer to a historical Christ at all. Historical documents will lose their value for humanity, and the number of those who deny Christ Jesus will grow ever larger. And only those who are short-sighted will be able to believe that the matter can still be upheld by mere history. Those who reject the spiritual proof of Christ Jesus are not those who are sincere about Christianity. The spiritual proof of Christ Jesus will be provided by nurturing people's abilities to see the truly existing Christ in his etheric body. For, basically, those who want to rely solely on documents, no matter how good Christians they may call themselves, are destroying Christianity. they destroy Christianity; they may rant and rave and proclaim loudly what they know about Christianity from documents: they destroy Christianity because they reject a spiritual teaching through which, in our century, Christ will become the truth for people through seeing.

When our calendar began, humanity had already descended into the dark ages for more than three millennia and was dependent on its external abilities. At that time, Christ could not have revealed himself in any other way than through physical incarnation, given the abilities that were necessary for human development. At that time, physical abilities were at their highest level, so Christ had to appear in a physical body. However, humanity would not have progressed a single step if it had not been able to find the reality of Christ with higher abilities in higher worlds. Just as Christ had to be found with purely physical abilities at that time, so will human beings find Christ with their newly developed abilities in the world where only etheric bodies can be seen. For there is no second physical incarnation of Christ. He was in the flesh only once, because only once were human abilities required to have Christ in the flesh. Now, however, with their higher abilities, they will be able to perceive the all the more real etheric body of Christ.

This is what can be called the tremendous event that lies ahead of us: the reappearance of Christ Jesus—first gradually for a few, then for more and more people. It is an event that is not only significant for those who will still be incarnated in the flesh at that time. A number of people who are embodied today will still be embodied when this Christ event occurs. They will experience it as it has been described. Others will have passed through the gate of death. But, as we saw once in a lecture here, the event of Golgotha was not merely an event for the physical world, but had an effect in all spiritual worlds, just as the descent of Christ into the underworld was a real fact, so too will the Christ event that will take place in our century have an effect in the world between death and a new birth, albeit in a different form than that which human beings will find here on earth. But one thing will be necessary: the abilities that will enable us to perceive the Christ event between death and a new birth cannot be acquired between death and a new birth; they must be acquired here on the physical plane; they must be brought with us into the life between death and a new birth. There are abilities that must be acquired on earth. For we have not been placed on the physical earth in vain. Those who believe that we have been transferred to earth in vain are mistaken. We must acquire abilities there that we cannot acquire in any other world. And the abilities to understand the Christ event of which we have spoken, and the events that follow, must be acquired here on this earth. And those people who acquire these abilities here on earth through spiritual scientific teaching will carry these abilities through the gate of death. It is not merely through initiation, but through the understanding acceptance of spiritual scientific teaching that one acquires the abilities, the possibility, to perceive the Christ event in the spiritual world between death and a new birth. But those who have deaf ears must wait until their next incarnation to acquire the abilities that must be acquired here in order to experience the Christ event there. So no one should believe that the proclamation of the Christ event, which can only be understood through the whole spiritual scientific teaching, will bear no fruit if, when it occurs, they have already passed through the gate of death. It will bear fruit for them.

Thus we see that spiritual research is the preparer for a new Christ event. But those who take up the nerve of the teaching of the spirit within themselves as the content of their whole soul life, as living life, will then also truly grow up to a spiritual understanding of the matter, will then become clear to themselves that through spiritual science they must learn to thoroughly understand our newly awakening age. We must learn to understand that in the future we will not have to look for the most important events on the physical plane, but outside the physical plane, such as Christ, whom we will have to seek as an etheric form in the spiritual world upon his return.

What has now been said will be said again and again in the coming decades. But there will be people who will misunderstand this, who will say: So Christ is to come again! — Because they will bring into this view the belief that this is a physical return, they will provide nourishment for all those who will appear as false messiahs. And there will be enough of such people in the middle of the 20th century who will use the materialistic beliefs of people, who will use the materialistic thinking and feeling of people, to pass themselves off as Christ. There have always been false messiahs. For example, there was the era before the Crusades, when a false Messiah appeared in southern France, in whom his followers saw something like Christ incarnated in physical form. Before that, a false Messiah had appeared in Spain and found many followers. In North Africa, someone who claimed to be Christ caused a great stir. In the 17th century, a man appeared in Smyrna as Christ and attracted huge crowds. His name was Sabbatai Zewi. People flocked to him from Poland, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Germany, France, from all over Europe and from large parts of Africa and Asia. In centuries past, this was not so bad, because humanity had not yet been required to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Only now are we in an age where it could be disastrous if people fail the spiritual test. Those who know that human abilities continue to develop, that those abilities that had to see Christ in the physical realm were necessary only for the founding of Christianity, but that humanity would not advance if it did not find Christ again in our century in a higher form, will pass the test. And those who strive for spiritual science will have to prove themselves to be those who can distinguish the false messiahs from the one true Messiah, who does not appear in the flesh, but as a spiritual being for the newly awakened abilities. And the time will come when people will look into the spiritual world again and see the land from which flow the streams that give true spiritual nourishment to everything that happens in the physical world.

We have always seen that it was possible for people to look into this spiritual world in ancient clairvoyance. The Eastern scriptures also contain something in their tradition, like a tradition of an ancient spiritual land into which people could once look and from which they could draw everything that could flow into the physical world in the form of the supersensible. Some descriptions of that land, which people were once able to reach and which seems to have withdrawn, are full of melancholy. This land was indeed once accessible to people, and it will be accessible to people again now that Kali Yuga, the dark age, has come to an end. However, initiation always led into it, and for those who enjoyed initiation, there was always the possibility of turning their steps toward that mysterious land that withdrew during Kali Yuga, which is spoken of as a land that has disappeared from the realm of human experience. The writings that speak of this ancient land are moving. It is the same land where the initiates return again and again to draw from it the new streams and inspirations for all that is to be given to humanity from century to century. Again and again, those who are connected in this way with the spiritual world return to this mysterious land called “Shamballa.” It is the original source into which the clairvoyant gaze has penetrated, which withdrew during the Kali Yuga, which is spoken of as an ancient fairyland, but which will return to the realm of human beings. Shamballa will exist again after the Kali Yuga has come to an end. Humanity will once again grow into the land of Shamballa through normal human abilities, from which the initiates must draw strength and wisdom for their mission. Shamballa exists, Shamballa existed, Shamballa will be there again for humanity. And among the first things that people will see when Shamballa reappears will be Christ in his etheric form. There is no other leader for humanity in the land declared lost by the Eastern scriptures than Christ. Christ will lead people to Shamballa.

This is what we must write in our souls, what humanity can become if it understands the symbol mentioned yesterday in the right sense. If humanity understands that it must not sink deeper into matter, that it must turn back, that a spiritual life must begin, then first for a few, then—in 2,500 years—for more and more people, the light-filled and light-shining land of Shamballa, bursting with infinite life, will appear. that fills our hearts with wisdom. This is what must be described as an event for those who want to understand, for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, as the greatest turning point in the development of humanity at the dawn of the Abrahamic age after the founding of Christianity. It will be the event through which people will understand the Christ impulse to a greater degree. For the unique thing about it is that wisdom will not be lost. The more visions people gain, the greater Christ will appear to them, the more powerful he will seem to them! Once people are able to look into Shamballa, they will be able to understand many things that are contained in the Gospels, but for which people will need a kind of Damascus experience in order to recognize what is given in the Gospels. Thus, at the time when people will be most incredulous about the documents, the new confession of Christ Jesus will arise through our growing into the realm where we will first encounter him: through growing into the mysterious land of Shamballa.