The Festivals and Their Meaning:
Ascension and Pentecost
GA 226
17 May 1923, Christiania (Oslo)
III. World-Pentecost: The Message of Anthroposophy
When we look back over the history of human evolution, events of major or minor importance which have influenced the life of the whole of mankind stand out in strong relief. The greatest of all these events is that known as the Mystery of Golgotha, whereby Christianity became an integral part of the evolution of humanity. In the age when the Mystery of Golgotha took place, man's conception of it was quite different from that of later times. In our present age a new understanding, a new conception, must arise. It is the task of Anthroposophy to promote an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha that is in keeping with the spirit of our epoch.
We must cast our minds back to earlier ages when human consciousness was altogether different from that of to-day. Three or four thousand years ago, men were instinctively conscious that before coming down into a physical body on the earth they had lived in the spiritual world. Every individual in those times knew that within him was a being of soul-and-spirit, sent down by the Divine Powers into earth-existence. Men's consciousness of death, too, was different, for, in that they were able to look back in remembrance to their pre-earthly existence as beings of soul-and-spirit, they knew that the part of them that had lived before this earthly life would also live on beyond death.
In those days there were schools of learning which were at the same time religious institutions—the Mysteries, as they are called—where men received instruction on what it was within their power to know concerning their pre-earthly life. Thereby they came to realise that before their earthly existence they had lived among stars and among spiritual Beings, just as on earth they were living among plants and animals, mountains and rivers. Man said to himself: “Out of the world of the stars I have descended to existence on earth.” He knew, too, that the stars are not merely physical, that every star is peopled by spiritual Beings with whom he had been connected before descending to the earth. He knew also that on laying aside his physical body at death he would return to the world of the stars, that is to say, to the spiritual world. He regarded the sun as the star of supreme importance—the sun with its Beings, of whom the most exalted was the One known as the sublime Sun-Spirit.
From the Mysteries the teaching came to men that before they descend to the earth the sublime Sun-Being gives them the power whereby they are able to return in the right way after death into the spiritual worlds of the stars. The teachers in the Mysteries said to their pupils and these pupils in turn to other men: “It is the spiritual power of the sun, the spiritual light, which bears you on beyond death and which accompanied you when you descended, through birth, into earthly existence.” [Cp. John I, 9.]
Many were the prayers, many were the lofty teachings given by the teachers in the Mysteries in order to glorify and describe the sublime Sun-Spirit. These teachers in the Mysteries said to their pupils and they in turn to all humanity, that when man has passed through the gate of death he must enter, first, into the sphere of the lesser stars and their beings, and then rise above the sun. This he cannot do if the power of the Sun-Being is not bestowed upon him. Thus the hearts of men who understood this were aglow with ardour when they offered their prayers to the Spirit of the sun who gives them immortality. The hymns and devotional exercises dedicated to the sun had a particularly strong influence upon man's feeling and upon his whole life of soul. He felt himself united with the God of the universe when he participated in sun-worship.
Among the peoples where these customs prevailed, special rites and ceremonies were enacted in connection with this veneration of the sun. The ritual consisted, as a rule, in an image of the god being laid in the grave and after some days taken out again, as a sign and token that there is a god in the universe—the Sun-God—who ever and again awakens men to life when he succumbs to death.
In enacting this ritual, the officiating priest said to his pupils, and they then repeated it to others: “This is the sign and token that before you came down to the earth you were in a spirit-realm that is the abode of the Sun-God. Look up to the sun which radiates light! Whatever you see is only the outward revelation of the Sun-Being. Behind its radiance is the eternal Sun-God who ensures immortality for you.” Thus those who received this teaching knew that they had come down from spiritual worlds into the earthly world, but that they had forgotten the world where dwells the Sun-God. But the priest told them: “Through your birth you have departed from the realm of the Sun-God. When you pass through death you shall find that realm again through the power that he, the Sun-God, has laid in your hearts.”
It was known to the initiated priests of these Mysteries that the sublime Sun-Spirit of whom they spoke to the worshippers is the same Being as He who would later be called the Christ. But before the Mystery of Golgotha the priests could speak to this effect only: “If you desire to know something of the Christ, you will seek in vain on the earth; you must be lifted to the secrets of the sun. For only outside and beyond the earth will you find the mysteries pertaining to the Christ.”
Relatively speaking, it was not difficult for men at that time to accept such teaching because they had an instinctive remembrance of the realm of the Christ whence they had descended to the earth. But human nature is involved in a process of evolution and this instinctive remembrance of pre-earthly, spiritual life was gradually lost. Eight hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha there were only a very few in whom any instinctive remembrance of pre-earthly life still survived.
Let us picture for a moment the passing of a man through death.—He passes out into the starry universe, gradually reaching spheres from which he beholds the stars—and even the sun—from the other side. From the earth we see the sun in the way to which we are accustomed here. When, after death, we pass into the cosmic expanse and see the sun from the other side, we see it, not as a physical orb, but as a realm of spiritual Beings.
Long before the Mystery of Golgotha took place, men had been able to behold the Christ in the sun from the other side, both before their birth and after their death. The teachers in the Mysteries were able to recall this vision of the Christ to their pupils, and to awaken in them the realisation: “Before I came to the earth, I beheld the sun from the other side.”—This was so in times long preceding the Mystery of Golgotha.
Then came the age—beginning about eight hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha—when it was no longer possible to quicken in men the remembrance that before they came down to the earth they beheld the Christ from the other side of the sun. And now the teachers in the Mysteries could no longer say to men: “Look up to the sun and behold the revelation of Christ!”—for men would not have understood these words. It was as if men on the earth had been quite forsaken by the Christ-power, were no longer able to kindle to life within them any remembrance of the spiritual worlds.
Then, for the first time, there came upon men what may be called the fear of death. When in earlier times they saw the physical body die, they knew: As souls we are of the kingdom of Christ and do not die.—But now men were greatly troubled as to the destiny of the immortal, eternal being within them. It was as though the link between themselves and the Christ had been severed. This was because they were no longer able to look up into the spiritual worlds, and in the earthly realm the Christ was nowhere to be found.
Then, at the time when men could no longer find the Christ on yonder side of the sun in the super-earthly world, out of infinite grace, out of infinite mercy, Christ came down to the earth in order that men might find Him there. Something happened then in the evolution of worlds that has no parallel with anything within the range of human knowledge. For in the spiritual world, the Beings above man—the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, up to the very highest Divine Beings—only pass through transformation, metamorphosis. They are not born, neither do they die. In the Mysteries of those times it was said: “Men alone know birth and death. The gods know metamorphosis only; they do not know birth and death.”
And so, since men could no longer reach Him, Christ came to them on earth. In order that this might be achieved, it was necessary that He, as a god, should undergo what no god had ever previously undergone, namely, birth and death. Christ became the soul of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, and passed through birth and death. That is to say: for the first time a god trod the path which leads through human death.
The essential truth of the Mystery of Golgotha is that it is not a mere human affair; it is a Divine affair. It was a resolve of the divine world that the sublime Sun-Being Himself should unite His destiny with mankind so completely as to pass through birth and death. Since then, men have been able to look to that which happened on Golgotha and so to find the Christ on the earth—to find Him who would otherwise have been lost to them because the heavens were no longer within reach of their consciousness.
In those who were the first to share in the secrets of Golgotha, the apostles and disciples of Christ, a last vestige remained of an instinctive consciousness of what had come to pass. These men knew: The Being who was formerly to be found only by those able to look up in spirit to the sun, can be found here and now if men rightly understand the birth, life and suffering of Christ Jesus. There were, then, at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, a few who knew that He who, as the Christ, was in Jesus of Nazareth, is the sublime Sun-Being who has come down to the earth.
Until the fourth century after the Mystery of Golgotha there were always some who knew that Christ, the Sun-Being, and the Christ who had lived in Jesus of Nazareth were one and the same. It is deeply moving to learn from Spiritual Science of the fervent prayers of men in the early Christian centuries: “Thanks be to the Christ-Being from whom we should perforce have been separated, had He not come down from spiritual worlds to us here on earth!”
After the fourth century A.D. the human mind could no longer comprehend that the Christ, who ensures immortality for men, was the sublime, divine Sun-Being. From that time until our own day there have been only the external words of the Gospels, telling of the Mystery of Golgotha. Nevertheless, these words of the Gospels worked throughout the centuries with such power that they turned men's hearts to the Mystery of Golgotha.
To-day, however, we are on the threshold of an age when, having acquired great knowledge about the secrets of nature, men would be wholly estranged from the Gospel tidings if a new path to Christ were not opened. Anthroposophy would fain open this path by leading men again to knowledge of the spiritual world. For the Christ Event can only be understood as a spiritual Fact. Those who are incapable of this do not understand the Christ Event at all.
With the help of anthroposophical knowledge we can carry ourselves back in imagination to the time when Christ Jesus walked in Palestine and lived through His earthly destiny. We can look into the hearts of the disciples and apostles who realised with their intuitive knowledge: “The Being whose abode in former time was the sun, has come down to the earth, has dwelt among us. He who has dwelt among us as Christ Jesus, He who has walked the earth, was once to be found only in the realm of the sun.”—Therefore these disciples said to themselves: “Out of the eyes of Jesus of Nazareth the light of the sun rays forth to us. Out of the words of Jesus of Nazareth streams the power of the warmth-giving sun. When Jesus of Nazareth moves among us it is as though the sun itself is sending its light and power into the world.”
Those who understood this, said: “Moving among us in the form of a man is the Sun-Being, who in earlier times could be reached only when man's gaze was directed upwards from the earth to the spiritual world.” And because the disciples and apostles knew this, their attitude to Christ's death was also true and right, and they could remain disciples of Christ Jesus even after He had passed through death on the earth.
Through Spiritual Science we know that when the Christ had departed from the body of Jesus of Nazareth, He moved in a spirit-body among His disciples and gave them further teaching. A power had been given to the apostles and disciples which enabled them still to receive the teaching of Christ when He appeared to them in this spirit-body. This power however, departed from them after a certain time. There was a point in the lives of the disciples of Christ Jesus when they said among themselves: “We have seen Him but we see Him no longer. He came down from heaven to us on earth. Whither has He gone?”
The point of time when the disciples believed they had again lost the presence of Christ is commemorated in the Christian festival of the Ascension, which preserves in remembrance the disciples' conviction that the sublime Sun-Being who had walked the earth in the man Jesus of Nazareth had vanished from their sight. At this happening there fell upon the disciples a sorrow such as cannot be compared with any other sorrow on earth. When in the ritual of the Sun Cult in the ancient Mysteries, the image of the god was laid in the grave and lifted out only after a period of days, the souls of those participating in the ceremony were filled with sorrow at the death of the god. But this sorrow was not to be compared in magnitude with the sorrow that filled the hearts of Christ's disciples. All knowledge that can truly be called great is born from pain, from inner travail. When through the means for the attainment of knowledge described in anthroposophical spiritual science one tries to tread the path into the higher worlds, the goal can be reached only by experiencing pain. Without having suffered, suffered intensely, and thereby having become free from the oppression of pain, no man can come to know the spiritual world.
During the ten days following the Ascension, the suffering of Christ's disciples was beyond all telling, because Christ had vanished from their sight. And out of this pain, out of this infinite sorrow, there sprang that which we call the Mystery of Pentecost, the Whitsun Mystery. Having lost the sight of Christ in instinctive, external clairvoyant vision, the disciples found it again in their inmost being, in their feelings, in inner experience—found it through sorrow, through pain.
Once again let us look back to earlier times.—Before the Mystery of Golgotha men had some remembrance of pre-earthly existence. They knew that in this pre-earthly existence they had received from Christ the power to attain immortality. But now, at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha men knew that through their own human power they were not able to look back into the spiritual world, into pre-earthly existence.
The disciples of Christ therefore turned their thoughts to all that their memory had preserved concerning the Event of Golgotha. And out of this remembrance, and the suffering it evoked, the vision arose in their souls of that which man had lost because he no longer possessed the faculty of instinctive clairvoyance. The men of old had said: “Before we were born on earth we were together with Christ. From Him we have the power which leads to immortality.” And now, ten days after they had lost the outer sight of Christ, the disciples said: “We beheld the Mystery of Golgotha, and this gives us the power to feel again the reality of our immortal being.”—This is expressed symbolically by the tongues of fire at Pentecost. Thus, in the light of Spiritual Science, the Pentecost-secret reveals to us that the Mystery of Golgotha has replaced the Sun-Myth of the ancient Mysteries.
It was Paul who, through the revelation that came to him at Damascus, realised with particular clarity that Christ was the Sun-Being. As a pupil of the ancient Initiates in the Mysteries, Paul's first firm conviction had been that Christ is to be found only when, by means of clairvoyance, man reaches the spiritual world. Therefore he said: “This sect declares that the Sun-Being has lived within a man, has passed through death. This cannot be, for only above and beyond the earth is the Sun-Being to be seen.”—As long as Paul's belief was based upon knowledge acquired by him in the Mysteries, he was an opponent of Christianity. But through the revelation at Damascus Paul realised that without being transported into the spiritual world, man can behold the Christ, and therefore that He had in very truth descended to the earth. From this moment he knew that the disciples of Christ Jesus spoke the truth; for the sublime Sun-Being had now come down from the heavens to the earth.
Had Christ not appeared on the earth, had He remained the Sun-God only, humanity on the earth would have fallen into decay. Increasingly men would have come to believe that material things alone exist, that the sun and the stars are material bodies. For men had forgotten altogether that they themselves had descended from a pre-earthly existence, from the spirit-world of the stars.
Only for a time, however, can mankind hold to the conviction that everything is material. If all human beings were to believe, let us say for a century, that everything is material, they would lose the strength of the spirit within them and would become decrepit and sick. This would in fact have been the lot of mankind if Christ in His infinite mercy had not come down from the spiritual world to the earth.
You will say: Yes, but there are many who do not want to know anything of Christ, who do not believe in Him. How is it that these human beings have not become decrepit, weak and sick? The answer is that Christ appeared on the earth at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha not merely in order to give teaching to men but to make the fact of His appearance effective on the earth. He died for all men. The physical nature of every human being, including those who have not believed in Him, has been rescued and restored through the Deed of Golgotha. Ever since that time a man might be a Chinese, a Japanese, a Hindu, with no desire to know anything of Christ,—nevertheless Christ died for all men.
In the future it will not be the same, inasmuch as knowledge will become a much more decisive factor for man than hitherto. More and more it will become a necessity in the evolution of mankind for all human beings to acquire some knowledge of spirit-being and of spiritual life. Such a knowledge as will lead all mankind into the world of spirit is the goal striven for by anthroposophical Spiritual Science.
Moreover this knowledge can give a new understanding of Christ, in the sense that, where Anthroposophy is rightly understood. Christ can be presented in a way that is comprehensible to all men. Christianity, as it has hitherto been proclaimed, may have been carried to Africa or to Asia. A few, maybe, have professed their belief in Christ, but the great mass of the people have rejected the teaching, for they could not understand what the missionaries were saying.
What kind of religion had these people? They had religions which had originated among themselves and were understood only by the particular people to whom some particular place or personality was sacred. As long as the god of the ancient Egyptians was worshipped at Thebes, the people had perforce to journey to Thebes in order to worship in the sanctuary of this god. While Zeus was worshipped at Olympia, the people had perforce to journey to Olympia in order to worship him. In like manner the Mohammedan must journey to Mecca. Even in Christendom itself an element of this has remained.
But if Christianity is rightly understood, men know that the sun shines upon all men, it shines upon Thebes, upon Olympia, upon Mecca; physically, the sun can be seen in the same way everywhere. So too, the sublime Sun-Being, the Christ, can be worshipped spiritually everywhere. Anthroposophy will reveal to men that the Being who before the Mystery of Golgotha could be reached only by instinctive, super-earthly faculties, can be reached since the Mystery of Golgotha through a power of knowledge acquired on the earth itself.
Men will again understand the meaning of the words: The kingdoms of heaven have come down to the earth—and they will no longer speak in vague, mystical terms of the ‘kingdom of a thousand years.’ They will understand that the Being who was formerly to be found on the sun is now to be found on the earth. They will say: “Christ came down to the earth and since the Mystery of Golgotha He dwells among men in the sphere of the earth.” They will be able to feel ever and again what the disciples experienced as the Whitsun Mystery: Christ Himself has come down to the earth.
A power that guarantees immortality for men is dawning in our hearts, but words of Christ, such for example as: “I am with you always, even unto the end of earthly days” must be taken in true earnestness and their deep truth understood. If words such as these are understood in all their spiritual depths, man will also wrestle through to the knowledge that Christ was not only present at the beginning of our era. He is forever present. He speaks to us provided only that we are willing to listen to Him.
But this means that through Spiritual Science we must again learn to perceive a spiritual reality in everything that is of a material nature—a spiritual reality behind stones, plants, animals, human beings, behind clouds, stars, behind the sun. When through what is material we again find the Spirit in all its reality, we also open our soul to the voice of Christ who will speak to us if we are willing to hear Him.
Anthroposophy is able to affirm the reality of the Spirit behind the whole of nature. It may therefore also affirm that the Spirit is at work throughout the earthly history of mankind, that the earth itself first acquired meaning through the Mystery of Golgotha.
Before the Mystery of Golgotha the meaning of the earth was contained in the realm of the Sun; but since the Mystery of Golgotha it inheres in the Earth itself.
This is what Anthroposophy would fain bring to mankind as a perpetual Whitsun Mystery. And when, prepared by Anthroposophy, men are ready to seek again for the spiritual world, they will find Christ as an ever-present reality, in the way that is needful and right for our age. If in this age men do not turn to spiritual knowledge, they will lose Christ. Until now, Christianity did not depend upon knowledge. Christ died for all men. Verily He has not belied them. But if in our day men reject knowledge of Christ, then they belie Him.
As it has been possible for us to be together this year at the time of the Whitsun Festival, I wanted to speak to you of the Christ Mystery in relation to Pentecost. People often speak of Anthroposophy as if it were at variance with Christianity. But if you truly receive into yourselves the spirit of Anthroposophy, you will find that it will again open the ears, the hearts and the souls of men to the Mystery of the Christ.
Anthroposophy would wish its destiny to be one with the destiny of Christianity. This requires that men to-day shall turn, not merely to dead words which speak to them of Christ, but to knowledge which leads them to the light wherein is contained the living Christ—not the historical figure who centuries ago dwelt on the earth—the Christ who lives now and will live through all future time among men, because He who was once their God has become their divine Brother.
And so among our thoughts at Whitsun, let this too be included: that through Anthroposophy we will seek the way to the living Christ, realising that the first Whitsun Mystery can thereby be renewed in every Anthroposophist, and that with knowledge of Christ Himself dawning in his heart, he will feel inwardly warmed and enlightened through the fiery tongues of a Christian understanding of the world.
May our way to the Spiritual through Anthroposophy be at one and the same time the way to Christ through the Spirit.
If, even in small numbers, men make solemn avowal of this, the Whitsun Mystery will take firmer and firmer root in many human beings living at the present time and particularly in the future. Then there will come that which humanity so sorely needs for its redemption and salvation; then the healing Spirit will speak to a new faculty of understanding in men—the Spirit by whom the sickness of human souls is healed, the Spirit sent by Christ. And then will come that which is a need of all mankind: WORLD-PENTECOST!
Welten-Pfingsten, die Botschaft der Anthroposophie
Wenn man in der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit zurücksieht, so fallen einem größere und geringere Ereignisse auf, die in das Leben der ganzen Menschheit eingegriffen haben. Das größte von allen diesen Ereignissen ist dasjenige, welches wir bezeichnen als das Mysterium von Golgatha, durch welches das Christentum in die Menschheitsentwickelung eingegriffen hat. Dieses Mysterium von Golgatha ist in der Zeit, in der es geschehen ist, ganz anders verstanden worden als in späteren Zeiten, und in unserer Zeit muß es wiederum neu verstanden und begriffen werden. Dieses Mysterium von Golgatha richtig im Sinne unserer Zeit zu verstehen, ist die Aufgabe der Anthroposophie.
Wir müssen uns in ältere Zeiten zurückversetzen, in denen die Menschen ein ganz anderes Bewußtsein hatten als heute. Wenn wir uns drei, vier Jahrtausende zurückversetzen, hatten die Menschen ein instinktives Bewußtsein davon, daß sie, bevor sie heruntergestiegen sind auf die Erde in einen physischen Körper hinein, in der geistigen Welt gelebt haben. Jeder Mensch wußte dazumal, daß ein seelisch-geistiges Wesen in seinem Inneren ist, das von den göttlichen Mächten in das Erdendasein heruntergeschickt worden ist.
Die Menschen hatten dazumal auch ein anderes Bewußtsein von dem Tode, denn, indem sie zurückschauen konnten in der Erinnerung aufiihr geistig-seelisches Dasein vor dem Erdenleben, wußten sie, daß das, was vordem Erdenlebenvon ihnen gelebt hat,auch über den Todhinauslebt.
Es gab dazumal Lehrschulen, die zu gleicher Zeit religiöse Anstalten waren; Mysterien nennt man sie. In diesen Lehrschulen und religiösen Anstalten wurden die Menschen über dasjenige belehrt, was sie über das Leben wissen konnten, bevor sie heruntergestiegen sind zur Erde. Und die Menschen lernten dadurch kennen, daß sie vor dem Erdendasein so gelebt haben unter Sternen und geistigen Wesen, wie sie auf der Erde unter Pflanzen und Tieren und Bergen und Flüssen leben.
Der Mensch sagte sich: Ich bin aus der Sternenwelt heruntergestiegen zum irdischen Dasein. - Aber er wußte, daß der Stern nicht bloß physisch ist, sondern daß jeder Stern von geistigen Mächten bewohnt ist, mit denen er in der geistigen Welt im Zusammenhang war, bevor er zur Erde heruntergestiegen ist. Der Mensch wußte, daß wenn er seinen physischen Körper im Tode ablegen mußte, er wiederum in die Sternenwelt, das heißt, in die geistige Welt zurückzukehren habe. Und als den wichtigsten der Sterne sah man die Sonne an, die Sonne mit ihren Wesenheiten, unter denen die höchste diejenige war, die man das Hohe Sonnenwesen nannte.
Aus den Mysterien kam den Menschen die Lehre, daß das Hohe Sonnenwesen den Menschen, bevor sie zur Erde kommen, die Kraft gibt, nach dem Tode wiederum in die geistigen und Sternenwelten in der richtigen Weise hineinzugehen. Und die Lehrer der Mysterien sagten zu ihren Schülern, und diese Schüler sagten wiederum zu den übrigen Menschen: Es ist die geistige Kraft der Sonne das geistige Licht, welches euch über den Tod hinausträgt, und das ihr mitgebracht habt, als ihr durch die Geburt ins Erdendasein heruntergestiegen seid.
Es gab viele Gebete, es gab viele erhabene Lehren, welche von den Mysterienlehrern kamen, und die alle zum Lob, zum Preise und zur Beschreibung des Hohen Sonnenwesens waren. Und diese Mysterienlehrer sagten zu ihren Schülern und diese wiederum zu der ganzen Menschheit, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes durchgegangen ist, eindringen muß zuerst in die Sphäre der niederen Sterne und niederen Sternenwesen, dann aber hinaufdringen muß über die Sonne. Er kann aber nicht über die Sonne hinaufdringen, wenn nicht die Kraft des Sonnenwesens ihm gegeben ist. Daher kam es, daß bei Menschen, welche dieses verstanden, das Herz besonders warm wurde, wenn sie zu dem Geiste der Sonne beten konnten, der ihnen die Unsterblichkeit gibt.
Die Dichtungen und die religiösen Andachtsübungen, die zur Sonne gerichtet waren, hatten einen ganz besonders das Gefühl und die ganze Empfindung der Menschen durchdringenden Wert. Der Mensch fühlte sich mit dem Gotte des Weltenalls verbunden, wenn er den Sonnendienst verrichten konnte. Und es fanden bei denjenigen Völkern, bei denen ein solcher Sonnendienst üblich war, Kultushandlungen statt, Zeremonien, welche für diesen Sonnenandachtsdienst besonders eingerichtet waren. Dieser Sonnendienst bestand in der Regel darinnen, daß das Bild des Gottes in das Grab gelegt wurde und nach einigen Tagen wiederum aus dem Grab genommen wurde, zum Zeichen dafür, daß es einen Gott, den Sonnengott, im Weltenall gibt, der die Menschen immer wieder aufweckt, wenn sie dem Tode verfallen sollten. Und bei der Verrichtung dieses Kultus sagte dann der Opferpriester seinen Schülern, und diese sagten es wieder der übrigen Menschheit: Dies ist das Zeichen dafür, daß ihr, bevor ihr auf die Erde heruntergestiegen seid, in einem geistigen Reiche waret, worinnen der Sonnengott ist.
Man sagte zu den Bekennern dieses Sonnendienstes: Schauet hinauf, die Sonne leuchtet, aber das ist nur die äußere Offenbarung des Sonnenwesens, hinter diesem Leuchten ist der ewige Sonnengott, der euch die Unsterblichkeit sichert.
So wußten die Menschen, die solches lernten, daß sie aus geistigen Welten in die irdische Welt heruntergestiegen sind und daß sie die Welt vergessen hatten, in welcher der Sonnengott ist.
Ihr habt das Reich des Sonnengottes verlassen durch eure Geburt. Ihr sollt es wiederfinden durch die Kraft, die er in eure Herzen gelegt hat, wenn ihr durch den Tod tretet -, so sagten die Opferpriester zu den Bekennern.
Die eingeweihten Priester dieser Mysterien wußten, daß das Hohe Sonnenwesen, von dem sie zu den Bekennern sprachen, dasselbe ist, wovon man später sprechen wird als dem Christus. Aber vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha war das so, daß diese Opferpriester den Bekennern sagen mußten: Wenn ihr etwas von Christus wissen wollt, dann könnt ihr nicht auf der Erde suchen, dann müßt ihr euch zu den Geheimnissen der Sonne erheben. Nur außerhalb der Erde findet ihr die Geheimnisse des Christus.
Es war verhältnismäßig nicht schwierig für die Menschen, zu einer solchen Lehre sich zu bekennen, weil sie eine instinktive Rückerinnerung hatten an das Reich des Christus, aus dem sie heruntergestiegen waren auf die Erde. Aber die Menschheit unterliegt einer Entwickelung, und die instinktive Erinnerung an das vorirdische geistige Leben ging der Menschheit allmählich verloren. Achthundert Jahre vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha hatten nur noch die wenigsten Menschen eine instinktive Rückerinnerung an das vorirdische geistige Leben.
Denken Sie sich einmal, der Mensch geht durch den Tod, er geht hinaus in die Sternenweiten. Er kommt nach und nach an Orte, wo er die Sterne von der andern Seite sieht, also auch die Sonne von der andern Seite sieht. Wir sehen von der Erde die Sonne so, wie wir es jetzt gewohnt sind. Nach dem Tode gehen wir hinaus in den Weltenraum und sehen die Sonne von der andern Seite. Wenn man aber die Sonne von der andern Seite sieht, sieht man sie nicht als physische Scheibe, sondern als ein Reich von geistigen Wesenheiten. Und vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha sah man nach dem Tode und vor der Geburt von der andern Seite in der Sonne den Christus. An diesen Anblick des Christus konnten die Mysterienlehrer ihre Schüler erinnern, denn es konnte wachgerufen werden die Vorstellung: Bevor ich auf Erden war, sah ich die Sonne von der andern Seite. - Das war in alten Zeiten, vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha.
Nun kam aber die Zeit, in der diese Erinnerung in den Menschen nicht mehr wachgerufen werden konnte. Ungefähr achthundert Jahre vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha konnten die Menschen diese Erinnerung immer weniger und weniger wachrufen: Wir haben, bevor wir auf die Erde heruntergekommen sind, den Christus von jenseits der Sonne gesehen. - Und jetzt hätten Mysterienlehrer nimmer kommen können, zu den Menschen sprechend: Seht hinauf zur Sonne, das ist die Offenbarung Christi. - Die Menschen hätten es nicht mehr verstanden. Und es war dann für die Menschen auf Erden so, als ob sie von der Christus-Kraft ganz verlassen worden wären, als ob sie nichts mehr von der Erinnerung an die geistigen Welten in sich beleben könnten.
Jetzt kam erst über die Menschen dasjenige, was man die Furcht vor dem Tode nennen kann. Denn früher sahen sie den physischen Leib sterben, sie wußten aber, sie sind als Seelen aus dem Reiche des Christus und sterben nicht. Und die Menschen bekamen eine große Sorge über das Schicksal ihrer unsterblichen, ihrer ewigen Wesenheit in sich. Es war so, wie wenn die Verbindung zwischen den Menschen und dem Christus abgeschnitten wäre. Das war, weil die Menschen nicht mehr in die geistigen Welten hinaufschauen konnten, und weil auf der Erdenwelt der Christus nirgends zu finden war. Jetzt in der Zeit, wo die Menschen den Christus nicht mehr jenseits der Sonne im Überirdischen finden konnten, kam der Christus aus unendlicher Gnade und aus unendlichem Erbarmen auf die Erde herunter, damit die Menschen ihn auf Erden finden konnten.
Da ist etwas geschehen in der Weltenentwickelung, was sonst nirgends seinesgleichen hat in alledem, was Menschen kennen können. Denn all diejenigen Wesen, die über dem Menschen stehen - Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai und so weiter bis zu den höchsten göttlichen Wesen -, machten in der geistigen Welt nur Verwandlungen durch, Metamorphosen. Sie wurden nicht geboren und starben nicht. Man sagte dazumal in den Mysterien: Nur die Menschen kennen Geburt und Tod. Die Götter kennen nur Metamorphosen, kennen nicht Geburt und Tod.
Da die Menschen also nicht mehr zu dem Christus gelangen konnten, kam der Christus zu den Menschen auf Erden. Dazu war notwendig, daß er als Gott dasjenige durchmachte, was Götter niemals früher durchgemacht haben: Geburt und Tod. Christus wurde Seele eines Menschen, des Jesus von Nazareth, machte durch Geburt und Tod, das heißt, zum ersten Male machte ein Gott den Weg durch den Menschentod. Das ist das Wesentliche an dem Mysterium von Golgatha, daß es nicht nur eine Menschenangelegenheit ist, daß es eine Götterangelegenheit ist. Die Götter haben beschlossen: Einer von uns, das Hohe Sonnenwesen selber, soll sein Schicksal mit der Menschheit so weit vereinigen, daß es gehe durch Geburt und Tod. - Seit dieser Zeit können die Menschen immer hinschauen auf das, was sich auf Golgatha zugetragen hat, und können auf Erden finden, was sie, weil ihr Bewußtsein nicht mehr in die Himmel hinaufreichte, sonst verloren hätten: den Christus.
Diejenigen, welche diese Geheimnisse von Golgatha zuerst mitmachten, hatten noch eine letzte Erbschaft von einem instinktiven Bewußtsein dessen, was da geschehen ist. Das waren die Jünger und Apostel Christi. Und sie wußten: Dasselbe Wesen, das man früher nur gefunden hat, wenn man geistig zur Sonne hat hinschauen können, findet man jetzt, wenn man in der richtigen Weise versteht Geburt, Leben, Leiden des Christus Jesus.
Wenige Menschen gab es doch noch zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha, die wußten: Derjenige, der in Jesus von Nazareth als der Christus war, ist das Hohe Sonnenwesen, das heruntergestiegen ist auf die Erde. - Bis zum 4. Jahrhundert nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha wußten Menschen noch immer, daß der Christus, der das Sonnenwesen ist, und der Christus, der in Jesus von Nazareth gelebt hat, dasselbe Wesen war. Und besonders tief empfinden kann man, wenn man durch Geisteswissenschaft hört, wie Menschen in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten inbrünstig gebetet haben: Dank dem ChristusWesen, von dem wir sonst getrennt worden wären auf Erden, daß es von geistigen Welten zu uns auf die Erde heruntergestiegen ist!
Nachdem das 4. Jahrhundert nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha dahingegangen war, konnte man nicht mehr fassen, daß das Hohe Sonnenwesen und der Christus diejenige Gottheit sei, die einem die Unsterblichkeit sichert als Mensch. Man hatte dann vom 4. Jahrhundert bis in unsere Zeiten hinein nur das äußere Evangelienwort, welches historisch erzählt, daß es ein Mysterium von Golgatha gegeben hat. Aber das Evangelienwort wirkte durch die Jahrhunderte doch so stark, daß die Menschen durch dieses Evangelienwort ihr Herz zu dem Mysterium von Golgatha hinlenken konnten.
Heute aber stehen wir vor einer Zeit, wo die Menschen, nachdem sie so viel über die Geheimnisse der Natur gelernt haben, ganz den Evangelienworten entfremdet werden würden, wenn nicht ein neuer Weg zu dem Christus gebahnt würde. Diesen Weg möchte die Anthroposophie dadurch bahnen, daß sie den Menschen wiederum zu der Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt hinführt. Denn das Christus-Ereignis ist nur zu verstehen als Geistiges, als geistige Tatsache. Wer das Christus-Ereignis nicht als geistige Tatsache verstehen kann, kann es überhaupt nicht verstehen.
Durch die anthroposophische Erkenntnis können wir uns wieder zurückversetzen in diejenige Zeit, in welcher der Christus Jesus in Palästina gewandelt und sein Erdenschicksal durchgemacht hat. Wir können hineinschauen in das Gemüt der Jünger und Apostel, die in Gemäßheit ihrer instinktiven Erkenntnis gewußt haben: Das Wesen, das früher nur die Sonne bewohnt hat, ist heruntergestiegen auf die Erde und hat unter uns gewandelt. Das Wesen, das unter uns gewandelt hat als der Christus Jesus, das die Erde damit betreten hat, war früher nur auf der Sonne zu finden, - Diese Jünger sagten sich also: Aus dem Auge des Jesus von Nazareth leuchtet uns das Sonnenlicht, aus den Worten des Jesus von Nazareth spricht uns die Kraft der wärmenden Sonne. Wenn der Jesus von Nazareth unter uns wandelt, so ist es so, wie wenn die Sonne selber ihr Licht und ihre Kraft in der Welt aussendet.
Diejenigen, die das verstehen konnten, sagten sich: So wandelt in einem Menschen das Sonnenwesen unter uns, das früher nur erreicht werden konnte, wenn die Blicke von der Erde hinauf zu der geistigen Welt selbst hin gerichtet waren. - Und weil sich die Jünger und Apostel dieses sagen konnten, standen sie auch in dem richtigen Verhältnisse und Verständnisse zu dem Tod des Christus. Deshalb konnten sie Schüler des Christus Jesus bleiben, auch als der Christus Jesus schon durch den Tod auf Erden gegangen war.
Wir wissen durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Erkenntnis, daß der Christus, als er den Leib des Jesus von Nazareth verlassen hatte, geistig unter seinen Schülern wandelte und sie weiter belehrte. Die Kraft, welche die Jünger und Apostel empfangen hatten, um, auch als der Christus ihnen nur noch im Geistleib erschien, sich von ihm belehren zu lassen, diese Kraft ging ihnen allerdings nach einiger Zeit verloren. Es gibt einen Zeitpunkt im Leben der Schüler des Christus Jesus, wo sie sich sagten: Wir haben ihn geschaut, wir schauen ihn nicht mehr. Er ist vom Himmel zu uns auf die Erde niedergestiegen. Wohin ist er gegangen?
Dieser Zeitpunkt, in dem die Jünger wiederum die Gegenwart des Christus verloren zu haben glaubten, ist festgehalten in dem christlichen Himmelfahrtsfeste. Es wurde festgehalten die Bewußtseinstatsache, daß vor den Jüngern wiederum verschwunden war der Hohe Sonnengeist, der in dem Menschen Jesus von Nazareth auf der Erde gewandelt hat. Und jetzt kam, nachdem die Jünger Christi diese Erfahrung gemacht hatten, über sie eine 'Trauer, die sich mit nichts vergleichen läßt, was an Trauer auf der Erde vorhanden sein kann. In den alten Mysterien kam, wenn man den Sonnenkultus gefeiert, das Bild des Gottes in die Erde gelegt hatte, um es erst nach Tagen wiederum herauszuheben, über die Seelen etwas von großer Trauer über den Tod des Gottes. Aber diese Trauer ließ sich nicht vergleichen an Größe mit derjenigen Trauer, die jetzt in die Herzen der Jünger Christi kam.
Alle wirkliche, große Erkenntnis ist aus dem Schmerz und aus der Sorge herausgeboren. Wenn man durch diejenigen Erkenntnismittel, die in der anthroposophischen Geisteswissenschaft beschrieben werden, den Weg in die höheren Welten zu gehen versucht, so kann man auch nur zu einem Ziele gelangen, wenn man durch den Schmerz hindurchgeht. Ohne daß man gelitten hat, vieles gelitten hat und dadurch frei geworden ist von dem Niederdrückenden des Schmerzes, kann man die geistige Welt nicht erkennen.
Die Schüler Christi haben nun in derjenigen Zeit, die uns durch die zehn Tage nach der Himmelfahrt angedeutet ist, ungeheuer viel gelitten, weil ihnen der Anblick des Christus entschwunden war. Und aus diesem Schmerz, aus dieser unendlichen Trauer ist dann dasjenige entsprungen, was wir das Pfingstgeheimnis nennen. Die Schüler Christi haben, nachdem sie für das äußere instinktive Hellsehen den Anblick Christi verloren hatten, ihn im Inneren, in der Empfindung, in dem Erlebnis durch die Trauer, durch den Schmerz wiederum gefunden.
Schauen wir jetzt noch einmal zurück in frühere Zeiten. Die Menschen vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha hatten eine Erinnerung an das vorirdische Dasein. Sie wußten, daß sie in diesem vorirdischen Dasein die Kraft von dem Christus erlangt hatten, um die Unsterblichkeit zu erringen. Jetzt wußte man, daß man durch die eigene menschliche Kraft nicht zurückschauen kann in die geistige Welt, in das vorirdische Dasein. Und die Jünger wandten sich nun an alles dasjenige, was ihnen im Gedächtnis war über das Ereignis von Golgatha. Und aus dieser Erinnerung und aus diesem Schmerze heraus ging ihnen in der Seele wiederum die Anschauung desjenigen auf, was der Mensch verloren hatte, weil er das instinktive Hellsehen nicht mehr hatte.
Die alten Menschen hatten also gesagt: Wir waren, bevor wir auf Erden geboren waren, bei Christus. Von ihm haben wir die Kraft der Unsterblichkeit. - Und die Jünger Christi sagten jetzt, zehn Tage nachdem sie den äußeren Anblick des Christus verloren hatten: Wir haben das Mysterium von Golgatha gesehen. Das gibt uns die Kraft, wiederum unser unsterbliches Wesen zu fühlen. - Das wird symbolisch ausgedrückt durch die feurigen Zungen. Daher können wir auch geisteswissenschaftlich in dem Pfingstgeheimnis dieses sehen, daß das Mysterium von Golgatha an die Stelle des alten Mysterien-Sonnenmythus getreten ist.
Daß man es zu tun hat mit dem Sonnenwesen in dem Christus, das wurde ganz besonders klar dem Paulus, als er die Offenbarung von Damaskus hatte. Paulus war ein Schüler der alten Eingeweihten in den Mysterien. Ihm war klargeworden, den Christus findet man nur, wenn man in Hellsehnis in die geistige Welt gelangt. Nun sagte er: Da gibt es Jünger, die behaupten, das Sonnenwesen sei in einem Menschen lebendig gewesen, sei durch den Tod gegangen. Das kann nicht richtig sein, denn das Sonnenwesen kann nur außer der Erde gesehen werden. - Solange Paulus aus seinem Mysterienwissen dieses glaubte, bekämpfte er das Christentum.
Durch seine Offenbarung bei Damaskus ist dem Paulus klargeworden: Auch wenn man nicht in die geistigen Welten entrückt ist, kann man den Christus schauen. Er ist also wirklich auf die Erde heruntergestiegen. - Von diesem Augenblick an wußte er: Die Schüler des Christus Jesus sagen richtig, denn das Hohe Sonnenwesen ist jetzt vom Himmel auf die Erde heruntergestiegen.
Wenn der Christus nicht erschienen wäre auf Erden, wenn er nur Gott der Sonne geblieben wäre, so wäre die Menschheit in Verfall geraten auf Erden. Die Menschen würden immer mehr und mehr nur geglaubt haben: Die materiellen Dinge bestehen, die Sonne ist ein materielles Ding, die Sterne sind materielle Dinge. - Denn die Menschen hatten ganz und gar vergessen, daß sie selber aus dem vorirdischen Dasein, aus der Sternen-Geisteswelt heruntergestiegen sind.
Aber eine solche Summe von Gedanken, daß alles materiell ist, kann man nur eine gewisse Zeit hindurch haben. Wenn alle Menschen zum Beispiel ein Jahrhundert hindurch nur glaubten, alles sei materiell, so würden sie die innere Kraft des Geistes in sich verlieren und wie gelähmt werden, wie krank werden. So wäre es in der Tat mit der Menschheit geworden, wenn der Christus nicht in unendlichem Erbarmen von der geistigen Welt zur Erde heruntergestiegen wäre.
Sie werden sagen: Ja, aber viele Menschen wollen ja noch nichts von Christus wissen, haben kein Bekenntnis zu dem Christus. Wie ist es mit diesen? Warum sind sie nicht gelähmt und schwach und krankhaft geworden? - Aber sehen Sie, der Christus ist auf Erden erschienen, als das Mysterium von Golgatha sich zugetragen hat, nicht, um den Menschen eine Lehre bloß zu geben, sondern um die Tatsache seines Erscheinens auf Erden durchzumachen. Er ist für alle Menschen gestorben. Die physische Konstitution aller Menschen, auch derjenigen, die nicht an den Christus glaubten, ist durch das Ereignis von Golgatha verbessert und gerettet worden. Man konnte bis jetzt ein Chinese, ein Japaner, ein Hindu sein, und nichts von Christus wissen wollen. Dennoch: der Christus ist für alle Menschen gestorben.
Das wird in der Zukunft nicht in gleicher Weise möglich sein, denn in der Zukunft wird viel maßgebender für die Menschheit werden, als es bisher der Fall war, dasjenige, was Erkenntnis ist. Es wird immer mehr und mehr die Notwendigkeit in der Entwickelung der Menschheit heraufziehen, daß alle Menschen zu einer gewissen Erkenntnis des geistigen Wesens und geistigen Lebens kommen.
Eine solche Erkenntnis, die alle Menschen in die geistige Welt hineinführt, strebt die anthroposophische Geistesforschung an. Und mit dieser Erkenntnis kann man auch wiederum den Christus erkennen, aber so erkennen, daß, wenn man richtige Anthroposophie hat, man den Christus so darstellen kann, daß die Darstellung für alle Menschen verständlich werden kann. Mit dem, was bisher als Christentum verkündet worden ist, konnte man nach Afrika, nach Asien gehen: einzelne Menschen vielleicht bekannten sich zu dem Christus, die große Masse der Völker wies das zurück, denn sie konnte nicht verstehen, was die Missionare sagten.
Was für Religionen hatten die Völker? Die Völker hatten Religionen, welche innerhalb des Volkes entstanden sind und nur von dem einzelnen Volke begriffen worden sind, weil irgendein heiliger Ort oder eine heilige Persönlichkeit innerhalb dieses Volkes verehrt wurde. Solange die alten Ägypter ihren Gott in 'Theben verehrt haben, so lange mußte man nach Theben gehen, um dort das Heiligtum dieses Gottes verehren zu können. Solange man den Zeus in Olympia verehrt hat, mußte man nach Olympia gehen, um in Olympia den Zeus zu verehren. Ebenso muß der Mohammedaner nach Mekka gehen.
Etwas davon ist noch selbst im Christentum erhalten. Versteht man das Christentum recht, so weiß man: die Sonne scheint über alle Menschen, sie scheint über Theben, sie scheint über Olympia, sie scheint über Mekka. Die Sonne kann man überall in gleicher Weise physisch sehen, daher auch das Hohe Sonnenwesen, den Christus, geistig verehren. Und so wird die Anthroposophie den Menschen zeigen, daß dasjenige Wesen, das vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha nur mit instinktiven überirdischen Fähigkeiten zu erreichen war, von den Menschen seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha durch die auf der Erde selbst zu erwerbende Erkenntniskraft zu erreichen ist. Man wird wiederum das Wort verstehen: Die Himmelreiche sind herniedergekommen auf die Erde -, und wird nicht in einer unbestimmten mystischen Weise von dem Tausendjährigen Reich sprechen, sondern man wird verstehen: Was früher auf der Sonne zu finden war, ist seither auf der Erde zu finden. - Und man wird sich sagen: Wir haben den Christus seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha, weil er heruntergestiegen ist auf die Erde, auch auf dieser Erde unter Menschen wohnhaft.
Man wird dasjenige, was die Jünger als das Pfingstgeheimnis gefühlt haben, immer wieder von neuem fühlen können: Der Christus ist selbst herniedergestiegen auf die Erde. In unserem Herzen geht seine Kraft auf als die Kraft, die den Menschen die Unsterblichkeit sichert. - Aber man muß dann auch die Worte des Christus ganz ernst und in ihrer tiefen Wahrheit nehmen können, zum Beispiel ein solches Wort: «Ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis ans Ende der Erdenzeiten.» Und wenn man ein solches Wort in seiner geistigen Tiefe ganz ernst nehmen kann, dann wird man auch sich durchringen zu der Erkenntnis: Nicht nur im Beginne unserer Zeitrechnung war der Christus da. Er ist immer da, er spricht zu uns, wenn wir ihn nur hören wollen. - Aber dazu müssen wir durch Geisteswissenschaft wiederum lernen, in jedem stofflichen Wesen ein Geistiges zu sehen, Geistiges hinter dem Stein, Geistiges hinter der Pflanze, Geistiges hinter den 'Tieren, Geistiges hinter den Menschen, Geistiges hinter den Wolken, Geistiges hinter den Sternen, Geistiges hinter der Sonne. Wenn wir durch die Materie den Geist wiederum in seiner Wirklichkeit finden, dann öffnen wir unsere Menschenseele auch für die Stimme des Christus, der zu uns sprechen will, wenn wir ihn nur hören wollen.
Und Anthroposophie kann sprechen davon, daß Geist hinter aller Natur ist. Deshalb darf sie auch davon sprechen, daß Geist in aller Erdengeschichte der Menschheit ist, darf davon sprechen, daß die Erde erst wiederum ihren Sinn bekommen hat durch das Mysterium von Golgatha.
Der Erdensinn war vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha auf der Sonne. Seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha ist der Erdensinn mit der Erde selbst vereinigt. Das möchte wie ein immerwährendes Pfingstgeheimnis die Anthroposophie an die Menschheit heranbringen. Und wenn die Menschen dazu bereit sind, mit der Anthroposophie die geistige Welt wiederum aufzusuchen, dann werden sie in einer solchen Weise, wie es für den Menschen der heutigen Zeit notwendig ist, auch den Christus als einen immer Gegenwärtigen wiederum richtig finden.
Wenn die Menschen in dieser Zeit sich nicht zur geistigen Erkenntnis wenden, dann geht der Christus verloren. Bisher war das Christentum nicht auf die Erkenntnis angewiesen. Der Christus ist für alle Menschen gestorben. Er hat die Menschen nicht verleugnet. Weisen ihn heute die Menschen in der Erkenntnis zurück, so verleugnen die Menschen den Christus.
In dieser Weise wollte ich Ihnen, da wir diesmal gerade um die Zeit des Pfingstfestes zusammensein durften, von dem Christus-Mysterium sprechen in Anknüpfung an das Pfingstgeheimnis.
Man redet oftmals von der Anthroposophie, als ob sie eine Feindin des Christentums sei. Wenn Sie den Geist der Anthroposophie wirklich aufnehmen, so werden Sie finden, daß die Anthroposophie gerade das Menschenohr und das Menschenherz und die ganze Menschenseele wiederum für das Geheimnis Christi öffnen wird.
Meine lieben Freunde, das Schicksal der Anthroposophie möchte dasjenige des Christentums zugleich sein. Dazu ist aber notwendig, daß die Menschen heute nicht bloß zu dem toten Worte hinblicken, das ihnen von dem Christus spricht, sondern daß die Menschen sich einer Erkenntnis zuwenden, die sie zu jenem Lichte selbst hinführt, in dem der lebendige Christus, nicht der historische, der vor Jahrhunderten auf Erden gelebt hat, enthalten ist, der jetzt und in jedem Augenblicke der Zukunft auf der Erde unter den Menschen lebt, weil er aus ihrem Gotte ihr göttlicher Bruder geworden ist.
So wollen wir denn unter unsere Pfingstgedanken dieses aufnehmen, daß wir suchen wollen durch Anthroposophie den Weg zu dem lebendigen Christus, und fühlen, daß dadurch in jedem Anthroposophen erneuert werden kann das erste Pfingstgeheimnis, daß ihm die Erkenntnis Christi selber in seinem Herzen aufgehe und er sich fühlt erwärmt und erleuchtet durch die feurige Zunge der christlichen Welterkenntnis.
Lassen Sie unsern Weg zum Geistigen durch Anthroposophie zugleich sein den Weg zu Christus dutch den Geist! Und wenn eine kleinere Anzahl von Menschen im Ernste sich zu diesem bekennt, dann wird dieses Pfingstgeheimnis auch immer mehr und mehr Wurzel fassen bei vielen Menschen der Gegenwart und namentlich der Zukunft. Und dann wird dasjenige kommen, was die Menschheit so sehr zu einer Gesundung, zu einer Heilung braucht. Dann wird zu einem neuen Menschenverständnis der heilende Geist sprechen, der die Krankheit der Seelen der Menschen heilende Geist, den Christus gesandt hat. Dann wird das kommen, was die Menschheit braucht: Welten-Pfingsten!
World Pentecost: The Message of Anthroposophy
If you look back in the history of human development, you will notice major and minor events that have intervened in the life of humanity as a whole. The greatest of all these events is that which we call the Mystery of Golgotha, through which Christianity intervened in the development of mankind. This Mystery of Golgotha was understood quite differently in the time in which it happened than in later times, and in our time it must be understood and comprehended anew. It is the task of anthroposophy to understand this mystery of Golgotha correctly in the sense of our time.
We must take ourselves back to older times when people had a completely different consciousness than today. If we go back three or four millennia, people had an instinctive awareness that they had lived in the spiritual world before they descended to earth in a physical body. At that time, every human being knew that there was a soul-spiritual being within him that had been sent down into earthly existence by the divine powers.
At that time, people also had a different awareness of death, for by being able to look back in memory on their spiritual-soul existence before earthly life, they knew that what had lived before earthly life also lived beyond death.
At that time, there were teaching schools that were religious institutions at the same time; they are called mysteries. In these teaching schools and religious institutions, people were taught what they could know about life before they descended to earth. And people learned that they had lived among stars and spiritual beings before their earthly existence, just as they live on earth among plants and animals and mountains and rivers.
Man said to himself: I have descended from the starry world to earthly existence. - But he knew that the star is not merely physical, but that every star is inhabited by spiritual powers with which he was connected in the spiritual world before he descended to earth. Man knew that when he had to lay down his physical body in death, he had to return to the starry world, that is, to the spiritual world. And the most important of the stars was considered to be the sun, the sun with its entities, the highest of which was the one called the High Solar Being.
From the Mysteries came the teaching that the High Solar Being gives people, before they come to earth, the power to enter the spiritual and starry worlds again in the right way after death. And the teachers of the Mysteries said to their disciples, and these disciples in turn said to the other people: It is the spiritual power of the sun the spiritual light which carries you beyond death, and which you brought with you when you descended through birth into earthly existence.
There were many prayers, there were many sublime teachings which came from the Mystery Teachers, all of which were in praise, in praise and in description of the High Solar Being. And these mystery teachers said to their disciples, and they in turn said to all mankind, that man, when he has passed through the gate of death, must first penetrate into the sphere of the lower stars and lower star beings, but must then penetrate upwards via the sun. But he cannot ascend via the sun unless the power of the solar being is given to him. Hence it was that the hearts of men who understood this became especially warm when they could pray to the spirit of the sun, which gives them immortality.
The poems and religious devotional exercises that were directed towards the sun had a very special value that penetrated the feelings and the whole sentiment of men. Man felt connected to the god of the universe when he was able to perform the service of the sun. And among those peoples where such a sun service was customary, cult acts took place, ceremonies which were specially arranged for this sun service. This sun service usually consisted of placing the image of the god in the grave and after a few days taking it out of the grave again as a sign that there is a god, the sun god, in the universe who always wakes people up when they are about to die. And during the performance of this ritual, the sacrificial priest then told his disciples, and they told the rest of humanity: "This is the sign that before you descended to earth, you were in a spiritual realm where the sun god is.
The confessors of this solar service were told: Look up, the sun is shining, but this is only the outer manifestation of the solar being, behind this shining is the eternal sun god who assures you immortality.
So the people who learned this knew that they had descended from spiritual worlds into the earthly world and that they had forgotten the world in which the sun god is.
You have left the realm of the sun god through your birth. You shall find it again through the power he has placed in your hearts when you pass through death - so said the sacrificial priests to the confessors.
The initiated priests of these mysteries knew that the High Solar Being of whom they spoke to the confessors was the same as the Christ who would be spoken of later. But before the Mystery of Golgotha it was so that these sacrificial priests had to say to the confessors: If you want to know something of Christ, you cannot search on earth, you must rise to the mysteries of the sun. Only outside the earth will you find the mysteries of the Christ.
It was not relatively difficult for people to profess such a teaching because they had an instinctive recollection of the kingdom of the Christ from which they had descended to earth. But mankind is subject to development, and the instinctive memory of the pre-earthly spiritual life was gradually lost to mankind. Eight hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha, only very few people still had an instinctive recollection of the pre-earthly spiritual life.
Think of it, man goes through death, he goes out into the starry expanses. He gradually arrives at places where he sees the stars from the other side, thus also sees the sun from the other side. We see the sun from the earth as we are used to seeing it now. After death we go out into space and see the sun from the other side. But when we see the sun from the other side, we do not see it as a physical disk, but as a realm of spiritual beings. And before the Mystery of Golgotha, after death and before the birth, one saw the Christ in the sun from the other side. The mystery teachers could remind their pupils of this sight of the Christ, for the idea could be awakened: "Before I was on earth, I saw the sun from the other side. - That was in ancient times, before the Mystery of Golgotha.
Now, however, the time came when this memory could no longer be evoked in people. About eight hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha, people were less and less able to recall this memory: We saw, before we came down to earth, the Christ from beyond the sun. - And now mystery teachers could never have come and spoken to people: Look up to the sun, this is the revelation of Christ. - People would no longer have understood it. And it was then for men on earth as if they had been completely abandoned by the Christ-power, as if they could no longer revive anything of the memory of the spiritual worlds in themselves.
Now only that came over men which one can call the fear of death. For earlier they saw the physical body die, but they knew that they were souls from the kingdom of Christ and would not die. And people became very concerned about the fate of their immortal, their eternal being within them. It was as if the connection between people and the Christ had been cut off. This was because people could no longer look up into the spiritual worlds and because the Christ was nowhere to be found on the earthly world. Now, at the time when people could no longer find the Christ beyond the sun in the Supermundane, the Christ came down to earth out of infinite grace and infinite mercy so that people could find him on earth.
Something happened in the development of the world that has no equal anywhere else in all that people can know. For all those beings who are above man - Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai and so on up to the highest divine beings - only underwent transformations, metamorphoses, in the spiritual world. They were not born and did not die. It was said at that time in the Mysteries: Only humans know birth and death. The gods only know metamorphoses, do not know birth and death.
Since humans could no longer reach the Christ, the Christ came to humans on earth. To do this, it was necessary for him as God to go through what gods had never gone through before: Birth and death. Christ became the soul of a human being, Jesus of Nazareth, made his way through birth and death, that is, for the first time a god made his way through human death. That is the essential thing about the Mystery of Golgotha, that it is not just a human affair, that it is a divine affair. The gods have decided: One of us, the High Solar Being himself, is to unite his destiny with humanity to such an extent that it passes through birth and death. - Since that time, people have always been able to look at what happened on Golgotha and can find on earth what they would otherwise have lost because their consciousness no longer reached up into the heavens: the Christ.
Those who first witnessed these mysteries of Golgotha still had a final inheritance of an instinctive awareness of what had happened there. These were the disciples and apostles of Christ. And they knew: The same essence that was previously only found by looking spiritually towards the sun can now be found by understanding the birth, life and suffering of Christ Jesus in the right way.
After all, there were still few people at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha who knew: The one who was in Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ is the High Solar Being who descended to earth. - Until the 4th century after the Mystery of Golgotha, people still knew that the Christ, who is the solar being, and the Christ who lived in Jesus of Nazareth were the same being. And one can feel this particularly deeply when one hears through spiritual science how people prayed fervently in the first Christian centuries: Thanks to the Christ-being, from whom we would otherwise have been separated on earth, that he descended from spiritual worlds to us on earth!
After the 4th century had passed after the Mystery of Golgotha, people could no longer grasp that the High Solar Being and the Christ were the deity that ensured one's immortality as a human being. From the 4th century right up to the present day, people only had the external Gospel, which tells us historically that there was a Mystery of Golgotha. But the gospel word had such a strong effect through the centuries that people were able to turn their hearts to the mystery of Golgotha through this gospel word.
Today, however, we are facing a time when people, having learned so much about the mysteries of nature, would be completely alienated from the gospel words if a new path to Christ were not paved. Anthroposophy would like to pave this way by leading man again to the knowledge of the spiritual world. For the Christ-event can only be understood as spiritual, as a spiritual fact. Those who cannot understand the Christ-event as a spiritual fact cannot understand it at all.
Through anthroposophical knowledge we can take ourselves back to the time in which the Christ Jesus walked in Palestine and went through his earthly destiny. We can look into the minds of the disciples and apostles, who knew in accordance with their instinctive knowledge: The being that formerly inhabited only the sun has descended to earth and walked among us. The Being who walked among us as the Christ Jesus, who thus entered the earth, was formerly to be found only on the sun, - these disciples thus said to themselves: From the eye of Jesus of Nazareth the sunlight shines for us, from the words of Jesus of Nazareth the power of the warming sun speaks to us. When Jesus of Nazareth walks among us, it is as when the sun itself sends out its light and its power into the world.
Those who could understand this said to themselves: "Thus in a human being the solar being walks among us, which previously could only be reached when the gaze was directed upwards from the earth to the spiritual world itself. - And because the disciples and apostles could say this to themselves, they were also in the right relationship and understanding of the death of Christ. That is why they were able to remain disciples of Christ Jesus, even when Christ Jesus had already passed through death on earth.
We know through spiritual-scientific knowledge that the Christ, when he had left the body of Jesus of Nazareth, walked spiritually among his disciples and continued to teach them. However, the power that the disciples and apostles had received to allow themselves to be taught by Christ, even when he only appeared to them in the spiritual body, was lost to them after a time. There was a time in the lives of the disciples of Christ Jesus when they said to themselves: "We have seen him, we no longer see him. He has descended from heaven to us on earth. Where has he gone?"
This point in time, when the disciples again believed they had lost the presence of Christ, is recorded in the Christian feast of the Ascension. The fact of consciousness was recorded that the High Solar Spirit, who walked the earth in the man Jesus of Nazareth, had once again disappeared before the disciples. And now, after the disciples of Christ had had this experience, a 'grief came over them which cannot be compared to anything that can be present on earth in terms of grief. In the ancient mysteries, when the sun cult was celebrated and the image of the god was placed in the earth, only to be lifted out again days later, something of great sorrow came over the souls at the death of the god. But this grief could not be compared in magnitude to the grief that now came into the hearts of Christ's disciples.
All real, great knowledge is born out of pain and sorrow. If one tries to find the path to the higher worlds through the means of knowledge described in anthroposophical spiritual science, one can only reach one's goal by going through pain. Without having suffered, having suffered much and thereby having become free from the oppressive nature of pain, one cannot recognize the spiritual world.
The disciples of Christ suffered immensely during the time indicated by the ten days after the ascension, because the sight of Christ had disappeared from them. And out of this pain, out of this infinite sorrow, arose what we call the mystery of Pentecost. The disciples of Christ, having lost the sight of Christ in their external instinctive clairvoyance, found him again in their inner being, in their feelings, in their experience through their grief, through their pain.
Let us now look back to earlier times. People before the Mystery of Golgotha had a memory of the pre-earthly existence. They knew that in this pre-earthly existence they had gained the power from the Christ to attain immortality. Now they knew that they could not look back into the spiritual world, into the pre-earthly existence, through their own human strength. And the disciples now turned to everything they remembered about the event of Golgotha. And out of this memory and out of this pain, the vision of that which man had lost because he no longer had instinctive clairvoyance arose again in their souls.
The ancient people had thus said: Before we were born on earth, we were with Christ. From him we have the power of immortality. - And the disciples of Christ now said, ten days after they had lost the outward sight of Christ: We have seen the mystery of Golgotha. This gives us the strength to feel our immortal nature again. - This is symbolically expressed by the fiery tongues. That is why we can also see in the mystery of Pentecost that the mystery of Golgotha has taken the place of the old mystery-sun myth.
The fact that we are dealing with the solar being in the Christ became particularly clear to Paul when he had the revelation of Damascus. Paul was a disciple of the ancient initiates in the mysteries. It had become clear to him that the Christ can only be found when one enters the spiritual world through clairvoyance. Now he said: "There are disciples who claim that the solar being was alive in a human being and had passed through death. That cannot be right, because the solar being can only be seen outside the earth. - As long as Paul believed this from his knowledge of the mysteries, he fought against Christianity.
Through his revelation at Damascus, Paul realized this: Even if you are not raptured into the spiritual worlds, you can see the Christ. So he really did descend to earth. - From that moment on, he knew that the disciples of Christ Jesus were correct, for the High Solar Being had now descended from heaven to earth.
If the Christ had not appeared on earth, if he had only remained God of the sun, humanity would have fallen into decay on earth. People would have believed more and more: Material things exist, the sun is a material thing, the stars are material things. - For people had completely forgotten that they themselves had descended from the pre-earthly existence, from the starry spiritual world.
But such a sum of thoughts, that everything is material, can only be held for a certain time. If, for example, all people believed for a century that everything is material, they would lose the inner power of the spirit within them and become paralyzed, sick. This is indeed what would have happened to humanity if the Christ had not descended from the spiritual world to earth in infinite mercy.
You will say: Yes, but many people still do not want to know anything about Christ, have no confession of Christ. What about them? Why haven't they become paralyzed and weak and sick? - But you see, the Christ appeared on earth when the Mystery of Golgotha took place, not in order to merely give people a teaching, but in order to go through the fact of his appearance on earth. He died for all men. The physical constitution of all people, even those who did not believe in Christ, has been improved and saved by the event of Golgotha. Until now, you could be Chinese, Japanese or Hindu and not want to know anything about Christ. Nevertheless, the Christ died for all people.
This will not be possible in the same way in the future, because in the future what is knowledge will become much more decisive for humanity than it has been up to now. It will become more and more necessary in the development of humanity that all people come to a certain realization of the spiritual being and spiritual life.
An anthroposophical spiritual research strives for such a realization that leads all people into the spiritual world. And with this knowledge one can in turn recognize the Christ, but in such a way that, if one has proper anthroposophy, one can represent the Christ in such a way that the representation can become comprehensible to all people. With what has been proclaimed as Christianity up to now, one could go to Africa, to Asia: individual people perhaps professed the Christ, the great mass of the peoples rejected it, because they could not understand what the missionaries were saying.
What kind of religions did the peoples have? The peoples had religions that originated within the people and were only understood by the individual people because some sacred place or sacred personage was worshipped within that people. As long as the ancient Egyptians worshipped their god in 'Thebes, they had to go to Thebes in order to be able to worship the sanctuary of this god there. As long as Zeus was worshipped in Olympia, one had to go to Olympia to worship Zeus in Olympia. Likewise, the Mohammedan must go to Mecca.
Something of this is still preserved even in Christianity. If you understand Christianity correctly, you know that the sun shines on all people, it shines on Thebes, it shines on Olympia, it shines on Mecca. The sun can be seen physically everywhere in the same way, which is why the High Solar Being, the Christ, can also be worshipped spiritually. And so anthroposophy will show people that the Being who, before the Mystery of Golgotha, could only be reached with instinctive supernatural abilities, can be reached by people since the Mystery of Golgotha through the power of knowledge to be acquired on earth itself. The word will again be understood: The Kingdoms of Heaven have come down to earth -, and will not speak of the Millennial Kingdom in a vague mystical way, but will understand: What was once to be found on the sun has since been found on the earth. - And one will say to oneself: Since the Mystery of Golgotha, because the Christ descended to earth, we also have the Christ dwelling on this earth among men.
One will be able to feel again and again that which the disciples felt as the mystery of Pentecost: The Christ himself has descended to earth. His power rises in our hearts as the power that secures immortality for mankind. - But then we must also be able to take the words of Christ very seriously and in their profound truth, for example such a word: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” And if you can take such a word very seriously in its spiritual depth, then you will also come to the realization that the Christ was not only there at the beginning of our era. He is always there, he speaks to us, if only we want to hear him. - But for this we must learn through spiritual science to see a spiritual being in every material being, a spiritual being behind the stone, a spiritual being behind the plant, a spiritual being behind the animals, a spiritual being behind people, a spiritual being behind the clouds, a spiritual being behind the stars, a spiritual being behind the sun. When we find the spirit in its reality through matter, then we also open our human soul to the voice of Christ, who wants to speak to us, if only we want to hear him.
And anthroposophy can speak of the fact that spirit is behind all nature. That is why it can also speak of the fact that spirit is in all of humanity's history on earth, can speak of the fact that the earth only received its meaning again through the Mystery of Golgotha.
The meaning of the earth was on the sun before the Mystery of Golgotha. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, the sense of the earth has been united with the earth itself. Anthroposophy wants to bring this to humanity like a perpetual Pentecostal mystery. And if people are prepared to seek out the spiritual world again with anthroposophy, then they will also find the Christ as an ever-present One in such a way as is necessary for the people of today.
If people do not turn to spiritual knowledge in this time, then the Christ will be lost. Up to now, Christianity has not been dependent on knowledge. The Christ died for all people. He did not deny people. If people today reject him in knowledge, then people deny the Christ.
In this way, since we were able to be together this time around the time of Pentecost, I wanted to speak to you about the mystery of Christ in connection with the mystery of Pentecost.
Anthroposophy is often spoken of as if it were an enemy of Christianity. If you really absorb the spirit of anthroposophy, you will find that anthroposophy will in turn open the human ear and the human heart and the whole human soul to the mystery of Christ.
My dear friends, the destiny of anthroposophy would like to be that of Christianity at the same time. For this, however, it is necessary that men today do not merely look to the dead word which speaks to them of the Christ, but that men turn to a knowledge which leads them to that light itself, in which is contained the living Christ, not the historical one who lived on earth centuries ago, who now and at every moment of the future lives on earth among men, because he has become their divine brother from their God.
So let us include this among our Pentecostal thoughts, that we want to seek through anthroposophy the way to the living Christ, and feel that thereby the first Pentecostal mystery can be renewed in every anthroposophist, that the knowledge of Christ himself may open up in his heart and he may feel himself warmed and enlightened by the fiery tongue of Christian world knowledge.
Let our way to the spiritual through anthroposophy be at the same time the way to Christ through the Spirit! And when a smaller number of people seriously profess this, then this Pentecostal mystery will also take root more and more in many people of the present and especially of the future. And then will come that which humanity needs so much for recovery, for healing. Then the healing spirit will speak to a new understanding of humanity, the spirit that Christ sent to heal the sickness of people's souls. Then what humanity needs will come: World Pentecost!