Easter as a Chapter in the Mystery Wisdom of Man
GA 233a
19 April 1924, Dornach
Lecture I
Easter is felt by many people to be associated on the one hand with the deepest feelings and sensibilities of the human soul, but on the other, with cosmic mysteries and enigmas as well. Our attention is drawn to this connection with world riddles by the fact that Easter is a so-called moveable feast, fixed each year by computing the position of a constellation of which we will have more to say in the following lectures. Yet if we trace the festival customs and cult rites that have become associated with the Easter Festival through the centuries—rituals having a deep meaning for a large part of mankind—we cannot fail to observe the profound significance with which humanity has endowed this Easter Festival in the course of its historical development.
Easter became an important Christian festival—not coincident with the founding of Christianity, but during the first centuries; a Christian festival linked with the fundamental idea, the basic impulse, of Christianity: the impulse to be a Christian, provided by the Resurrection of Christ.
Easter is the Festival of the Resurrection; yet it points back to periods antedating Christianity, to festivals connected with the spring equinox that plays a part in determining the date of Easter, to festivals bearing on the re-awakening of Nature, on the life burgeoning from the earth. And this leads us directly to the heart of our subject.
As a Christian festival, Easter commemorates a resurrection. The corresponding pagan festival that occurred at about the same season was, in a sense, the celebration of the resurrection of Nature, of the re-awakening of what, as Nature, had been asleep throughout the winter time. But here we must emphasize the fact that with regard to its inner meaning and essence the Christian Easter in no sense corresponds to the pagan equinox festivals. On the contrary: comparing it with those of ancient pagan times, Easter, as a Christian festival, would correspond to old festivals that grew out of the Mysteries; and these were celebrated in the autumn. And the most interesting feature connected with determining the date of Easter, which is quite obviously related to certain old Mystery customs, is this: we are reminded precisely by this Easter Festival of the radical, far-reaching misapprehensions that have crept into the philosophic conceptions of the most vital problems during the course of human evolution. Nothing less occurred, in the early Christian centuries, than the confusion of the Easter Festival with quite a different one, with the result that it was changed from an autumn festival to a spring festival.
This points to something of enormous importance in human evolution. Let us examine the substance of the Easter Festival—what is its essence? It is this: the central figure in Christian consciousness, Christ Jesus, experiences death, as commemorated by Good Friday. He remains in the grave for the period of three days, this representing His coalescence with earthly existence. This period between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is celebrated in Christendom as a festival of mourning. Finally, Easter Sunday is the day on which the central being of Christianity arises from the grave. It is the memorial day of this event. That is the essential substance of Easter: the death, the interval in the grave, and the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.
Now let us turn to the corresponding old pagan festival in one of its many forms; for only by so doing can we grasp the connection between the Easter Festival and the Mysteries. Among many people of diverse localities we find ancient pagan festivals whose outer form—the nature of the rites—strongly resembles the form of what is comprised in the Christian Easter.
From among the manifold ancient festivals let us choose that of Adonis for examination. This was celebrated by certain peoples of the Near East for a long period of time during pre-Christian Antiquity. An effigy constituted the center of interest. It portrayed Adonis, the spiritual representative of all that appears in the human being as vigorous youth and beauty.
Now, the ancients undoubtedly confused, in some respects, the substance of an effigy with what it represented, hence the old religions frequently bore the character of idolatry. Many took the effigy of Adonis for the actually present god of beauty, of man's youthful strength, of the germinating force becoming outwardly manifest and revealing in living splendor all the inner worth, the inner dignity, the inner grandeur of which man is or might be possessed.
To the accompaniment of songs and of rites representing the deepest human grief and sorrow, this effigy of the god was immersed in the sea where it remained for three days. When the locality was not near the sea, a lake served the purpose; and lacking this as well, an artificial pond was dug in the vicinity of the sanctuary. During the three days of immersion a deep and serious silence enveloped the whole community that confessed this cult, that called it its own. At the end of the three days the effigy was brought out of the water, and the previous laments were changed into paeans of joy, into hymns to the resurrected god, the god come to life again.
That was an external ceremony, one that stirred the souls of a great multitude of people: through an outer act, an outer rite, it suggested what was enacted in the sanctuaries of the Mysteries in the case of every man aspiring to initiation. In these olden times every such candidate was conducted into a special chamber. The walls were black and the whole room, which contained nothing but a coffin or, at least, a coffin-like case, was dark and somber. Beside this coffin laments and songs of death were sung: the neophite was treated as one about to die. It was made clear to him that by being laid in the coffin he was to go through what a man experiences in passing through the portal of death and in the three days following this event. The procedure was such that he became fully aware of this.
On the third day there appeared, at a certain point visible for him who lay in the coffin, a branch, denoting sprouting life. In place of the laments, hymns of rejoicing were sung. The initiate arose from his grave with transformed consciousness. A new language had been imparted to him, a new script: the language and script of the spirits. Now he might see, and he was able to see the world from the viewpoint of the spirit.
Comparing this initiation that took place in the sanctuaries of the Mysteries with the rites performed publicly, we see that while the substance of the rites was symbolical, its whole form nevertheless resembled the procedure followed in the Mysteries. And in due time the cult—we may take that of Adonis as typical—was explained to those who had participated. It was celebrated in the autumn, and those who took part were instructed approximately as follows:
Behold, it is autumn. The Earth sheds its glory of flowers and leaves. All things wither. In place of the greening, burgeoning life that in the spring time began to cover the earth, snow will envelop it, or drought will bring desolation. But while everything around you dies, you shall experience that which in man partly resembles the dying in Nature. Man, too, dies: he has his autumn. When he reaches the end of his life it is fitting that the souls of his dear ones be filled with deep sorrow. But it is not enough that you should meet death only when it comes to you: its whole import must be grasped in its profound significance, and you must be able to recall it to your memory again and again. Therefore you are shown every year the death of that divine being who stands for beauty and youth and the grandeur of man: you are shown this divine being going the way of all Nature. But when Nature becomes barren and passes into death, that is the time you must remember something else. You must remember that man passes through the portal of death; that in this Earth existence he has known only what is transitory, like all that passes in the autumn, but that now he is drawn away from the Earth and finds his way into the vast cosmic ether. During three days he sees himself expand till his being contains the whole world. And then, while here the eye of the body is directed to the image of death, to the ephemeral, to what dies, yonder in the spirit there awakens after three days the immortal human soul. It arises in order to be born for the spirit land three days after death.
An intense inner transformation was brought about in the body of the candidate in the recesses of the Mysteries; and the profound impression, the terrific shock inflicted on the human life by this old method of initiation awakened inner soul forces, gave rise to vision.1We shall see presently why in our time initiation cannot be accomplished by this method, but must proceed quite differently. That impression, that shock, brought the initiate to understand that henceforth he lived not merely in the sense world but in the spiritual world as well.
Other information imparted to the neophytes of the old Mysteries may be summed up thus: the Mystery ritual is an image of events in the spiritual world; what occurs in the cosmos is a likeness of what takes place in the Mysteries. No doubt was left in the mind of anyone admitted to the Mysteries that the procedure followed in these and enacted in man constituted images of what he experiences in forms of existence other than the Earth in the astral-spiritual cosmos.
Those who, owing to insufficient inner maturity, could not be deemed ready to have the spiritual world opened up to them directly were taught the corresponding truths in the cult; that is, in a semblance of the Mystery proceedings.
Thus the purpose of the Mystery festival corresponding to Easter—the one we have illustrated by the Adonis Festival—was as follows: during the autumnal withering and desolation in
Nature, the drastic autumnal representation of the transience of earthly things—autumn's picture of dying and death—the certainty was to be conveyed to the neophyte—or at least the idea—that death, which envelops all Nature in the fall, overtakes man as well; and it comes even to the representative of beauty, youth and the glory of the human soul, to the god Adonis. He also dies. He dissolves in the earthly counterpart of the cosmic ether, that is, in water. But just as he arises out of the water, as he can be lifted out of it, so the soul of man is brought back, after about three days, from the world-waters—that is, from the cosmic ether—after having passed through the portal of death here on Earth.
The mystery of death itself, that is what the autumn festivals were intended to present in these old Mysteries; and it was to be made readily intelligible by having the ritual coincide, on the one hand and in its first half, with dying, with the death of Nature; and on the other, with the opposite of this: with what represented the essence of man's being. It was intended that the initiate should contemplate the dying of Nature in order to become aware of how he, too, apparently dies, but how his inner being rises again, to take part in the spiritual world. To reveal the truth concerning death, that was the purpose of this old pagan festival deriving from the Mysteries.
Now, during the course of human evolution a most significant event took place: in the case of Christ Jesus, the transformation experienced at a certain level by the candidate for initiation in the Mysteries—the death and resurrection of the soul—embraced the physical body as well. In what light does one familiar with the Mysteries see the Mystery of Golgotha? He envisions the ancient Mysteries; he observes how the soul of the candidate was guided through death to resurrection, meaning the awakening of a higher form of consciousness in the soul. The soul died in order to awake on a higher plane of consciousness. What must here be kept in mind is that the body did not die, and that the soul died in order to be reawakened to an enlightened consciousness.
What every aspirant for initiation experienced in his soul only, Christ Jesus passed through in His bodily principle; in other words, on a different level. Because Christ was not an Earth-man but a Sun-being in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, it was possible for all the human principles of this Being to undergo on Golgotha what the former initiate experienced only in his soul.
Those with intimate knowledge of the old Mystery initiation, whether living at that time or in our own day, have best understood what took place on Golgotha; for what they have known is that for thousands of years the secrets of the spiritual world have been revealed to men through the death and resurrection of their soul. During the process of initiation, body and soul had been kept apart, and the soul was led through death to eternal life. What was experienced in this manner by a number of the elect penetrated even into the physical body of a Being Who descended from the Sun at the time of the Baptism in the Jordan, and took possession of the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Initiation, enacted through many centuries, had become a historical fact.
The important part of that knowledge was this: because it was a Sun-being that took possession of the body of Jesus of Nazareth, that which in the old neophyte had to do only with the soul and its experiences could now penetrate to the bodily life. In spite of the death of the body, in spite of the dissolution of His body in the mortal Earth, the resurrection of the Christ could be brought about because this Christ ascends higher than was possible for the soul of a neophyte. The neophyte could not sink the body into such profoundly sub-sensible regions as did Christ Jesus. For this reason the former could not rise to such heights in his resurrection as could Christ. But up to this point of difference, which is one of cosmic magnitude, the ancient enactment of initiation appeared as a historical fact on the hallowed hill of Golgotha.
In the first centuries of Christianity very few men knew that a Sun-being, a cosmic being, had lived in Jesus of Nazareth, and that the Earth had been fructified by the actual coming of a being that previously could be seen from the Earth only in the Sun—by means of initiation methods. And for those who accepted Christianity with genuine knowledge of the old Mysteries, its very essence consisted in their conviction that Christ, to Whom they had raised themselves through initiation—the Christ Who could be reached through the old Mysteries by ascending to the Sun—that He had descended into a mortal body, the body of Jesus of Nazareth. He had come down to Earth.
At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, a mood of rejoicing, of holy elation, filled the souls of those who understood something of it. What then was a living substance of consciousness gradually became a festival in memory of the historical event on Golgotha—through developments to be described later.
But while this memory was gradually taking shape, the awareness of the identity of Christ as a Sun-being disappeared more and more. Those familiar with the old Mysteries could not be in doubt: they knew that the genuine initiates, by being made independent of the physical body, experienced death in their soul, ascended to the Sun sphere and there found the Christ; that from Him, the Christ in the Sun, they received the impulse for the resurrection of the soul. They knew who Christ was because they had raised themselves up to Him. From what took place on Golgotha these initiates knew that the Being who had formerly to be sought in the Sun had descended to men on Earth.
Why? Because the old process of initiation, enacted to enable the neophyte to reach Christ in the Sun, could no longer be enacted: the nature of man simply had changed in the course of time. The ancient ritual of initiation had become impossible by reason of the manner in which the human being had evolved. Christ could no longer have been found in the Sun by the old methods, so He descended in order to enact on the Earth a deed to which men could look.
What is comprised in this secret is as supremely sacred as anything that can be revealed upon Earth.
How did the matter appear to those living in the centuries immediately following the Mystery of Golgotha? A diagram would have to be drawn somewhat like this:

In the old abodes of initiation the neophyte gazed up to the Sun existence, and through initiation he became aware of Christ. To find the Christ he looked out into space. In order to show the subsequent development I must represent time—that is, the Earth proceeding in time. Spatially the Earth is, of course, always there, but we will represent the course of time in this way. The Mystery of Golgotha has taken place. Now, a man, say of the 8th Century, instead of seeking Christ in the Sun from the Mystery temple, looks upon the turning point of time at the beginning of the Christian era, looks in time toward the Mystery of Golgotha (arrow in diagram), and can find Christ in an Earth deed, in an Earth event, within the Mystery of Golgotha. What had been spatial perception was henceforth, through the Mystery of Golgotha, to be temporal perception: that was the significant feature of what had occurred.
Eut if we reflect upon the Mystery ritual, remembering that it was a picture of man's death and resurrection; and if we consider in addition the form taken by the cult—the Festival of Adonis, for example—which in turn was a picture of the Mystery procedure, this threefold phenomenon appears to us raised to the ultimate degree, unified and concentrated in the historical deed on Golgotha.
What was enacted in a profoundly inner way in the sanctuary now appears openly in external history. All men now have access to what was previously available only for the initiates. There was no further need of an image immersed in the sea and symbolically resurrected. In its place was to come the thought, the memory, of what actually took place on Golgotha. The outer symbol, referring to a process experienced in space, was to be supplanted by the inner thought, unaided by any sense image—the memory, experienced only in the soul, of the historical deed on Golgotha.
Then, in the following centuries, the evolution of humanity took a peculiar turn: men are less and less able to penetrate into spirituality; the spiritual substance of the Mystery of Golgotha can gain no foothold in the souls of men; evolution tends toward the development of a materialistic mentality. Lost is the heart's understanding of facts like the following: that precisely where Nature presents herself as ephemeral, as dying desolation, there the living spirit can best be envisioned. And lost as well is the feeling for the festival as such, the feeling that autumn is the time when the resurrection of all spirit contrasts most markedly with the death of Earth Nature.
And thus autumn can no longer be the time for the festival of resurrection; no longer can it emphasize the eternal permanence of the spirit by the impermanence of Nature. Man begins to depend upon matter, upon those elements of Nature that do not die—the force of the seed that is sunk in the ground in the fall and that germinates and sprouts in the spring resurrection. A material symbol for the spiritual is adopted because men are no longer able to respond through the material to the spiritual as such. Autumn no longer has the power to reveal, through the inner force of the human soul, the permanence of the spiritual by contrasting it with the impermanence of Nature. The imagination now needs the aid of outer Nature, outer resurrection. Men want to see the plants sprouting from the ground, the Sun gaining power, light and warmth increasing. Nature's resurrection is needed to celebrate the resurrection idea.
But this exigency also means the disappearance of the direct relationship that existed with the Festival of Adonis, and that can exist with the Mystery of Golgotha. A loss of intensity is suffered by that inner experience which can appear at physical death if the human soul knows that man passes physically through the portal of death and undergoes, for three days, what indeed can evoke a somber frame of mind; but then the soul must rejoice in a festive mood, knowing that precisely out of death—after three days—the human soul arises in spiritual immortality.
The force inherent in the Festival of Adonis was lost, and the next event ordained for mankind was the resurrection of this force in greater intensity. One beheld the death of the god, of all the beauty and grandeur and vigorous youth in mankind. On the Day of Mourning this god was immersed in the sea. A somber mood prevailed, because first a feeling for the ephemeral in Nature was to be aroused.
But the intention was to transform the mood induced by the impermanence of Nature into that evoked by the super-sensible resurrection of the human soul after three days. When the god—or his effigy—was raised up out of the water, the rightly instructed believer saw in this act the image of the human soul a few days after death: Behold! The spiritual experience of the deceased stands before thy soul in the image of the arisen god of beauty and youth.
Every year in the fall something that is indissolubly linked with human destiny was awakened within the spirit of men. At that time it would have been deemed impossible to connect all this in any way with outer Nature. All that could be experienced in the spirit was represented in the ritual, in symbolical enactment. But when the time was ripe for effacing the old-time image and having memory take its place—imageless, inner memory of the Mystery of Golgotha experienced in the soul—mankind at first lacked the power to achieve this, because the activity of the spirit lay deep down in the substrata of the human soul. So up to our own time there has remained the necessity for calling in the aid of outer Nature. But outer Nature provides no complete allegory of the destiny of man in death; and while the idea of death survived, the idea of resurrection has faded more and more. Even though resurrection figures as a tenet of faith, it is not a living fact for people of more recent times. But it must once more become so; and the awakening of men's feeling for the true idea of the resurrection must be brought about by anthroposophy.
If, therefore, as has been explained elsewhere, the anthroposophically imbued soul must sense the heralding thought of Michael, must intensify the idea of Christmas, so the idea of Easter must become especially festive; for to the idea of death anthroposophy must add the idea of resurrection. Anthroposophy itself must come to resemble an inner festival of the resurrection of the human soul. It must infuse into our philosophy a feeling for Easter, a frame of mind appropriate to Easter. This it can do if men will understand that the ancient Mysteries can live on in the true Easter Mystery, provided the body, the soul and the spirit of man—and the destiny of these in the realms of body, soul and spirit—are rightly understood.
Erster Vortrag
Das Osterfest wird von zahlreichen Menschen als etwas empfunden, das zusammenhängt auf der einen Seite mit den tiefsten Gefühlen und Empfindungen der Menschenseele, zusammenhängt aber auf der anderen Seite auch mit Weltengeheimnissen und Weltenrätseln. Man muß ja aufmerksam werden auf die Tatsache des Zusammenhanges des Osterfestes mit Weltengeheimnissen und Weltenrätseln dadurch, daß das Osterfest ein sogenanntes bewegliches Fest ist, das alljährlich ausgerechnet werden muß nach jener Sternkonstellation, die wir in diesen Tagen noch genauer besprechen wollen. Man muß aber auch, wenn man verfolgt, wie durch die Jahrhunderte festliche Gebräuche an das Osterfest geknüpft worden sind, Kulthandlungen, die einer zahlreichen Menschenschaft außerordentlich nahegehen, man muß auch daraus sehen, welchen ungeheuren Wert die Menschheit allmählich im Verlaufe ihres geschichtlichen Werdens in dieses Osterfest hineingelegt hat.
Nun ist das Osterfest in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums, nicht gleich bei der Begründung, aber in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums, ein wichtiges christliches Fest geworden, ein christliches Fest, das zusammenhängt mit dem Grundgedanken, dem Grundimpuls des Christentums, mit dem Impuls, der sich ergibt für das Christsein durch die Tatsache der Auferstehung Christi.
Das Osterfest ist das Auferstehungsfest. Aber das Osterfest weist hin auf ältere als die christlichen Zeiten. Es weist hin auf Feste, die mit der Zeit der Frühlings-Tagundnachtgleiche, die ja wenigstens mit der Berechnung der Österzeit etwas zu tun hat, zusammenhängen, mit jenen Festen, welche anknüpfen an die neuerwachende Natur, an das sprießende, der Erde wieder entwachsende Leben.
Und damit stehen wir an dem Punkte, wo wir, wenn die Dinge gerade zur Sprache kommen sollen, die das Thema dieser Ostervorträge bilden: das Osterfest als ein Stück Mysteriengeschichte der Menschheit, wo wir diese Dinge sogleich berühren müssen.
Das Osterfest als christliches Fest ist ein Auferstehungsfest. Das entsprechende heidnische Fest, das ungefähr in dieselbe Jahreszeit fällt wie das Osterfest, ist eine Art Auferstehungsfest der Natur, ein Wiederherauskommen dessen, was naturhaft die Winterszeit hindurch, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, geschlafen hat. Aber damit kommen wir an denjenigen Punkt, wo wir betonen müssen, daß das christliche Osterfest ganz und gar nicht ein Fest ist, das irgendwie seinem inneren Sinn und Wesen nach zusammenfällt mit den heidnischen Festen der Frühlings-Tagundnachtgleiche, sondern das Osterfest, als christliches Fest gedacht, fällt eigentlich zusammen, wenn wir schon zurückgehen wollen auf die alten Heidenzeiten, mit alten Festen, die aus den Mysterien herausgewachsen sind und die in die Herbsteszeit fallen. Das Allermerkwürdigste in bezug auf die Festsetzung des Osterfestes, das ja gerade durch seinen Inhalt ganz offensichtlich zusammenhängt mit gewissem altem Mysterienwesen, das Allermerkwürdigste ist: gerade dieses Osterfest erinnert uns daran, welch radikale, welch tiefe Mißverständnisse geschehen sind in der Weltauffassung allerbedeutendster Dinge im Verlaufe der Menschheitsentwickelung. Denn es ist ja nichts Getingeres geschehen, als daß das Osterfest verwechselt worden ist im Laufe der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte mit einem ganz anderen Feste, daß es dadurch verlegt worden ist von einem Herbstesfeste zu einem Frühlingsfeste.
Diese Tatsache weist eigentlich auf Ungeheures hin in der Menschheitsentwickelung. Aber sehen wir uns einmal den Inhalt dieses Osterfestes an. Was ist sein Wesentliches? Sein Wesentliches ist: Die Wesenheit, die in der Mitte des christlichen Bewußtseins steht, der Christus Jesus, geht durch den Tod, woran der Karfreitag erinnert. Der Christus Jesus ruht in dem Grabe die Zeit, welche in dreien Tagen verläuft und welche darstellt die Verbindung des Christus mit dem Erdendasein. Diese Zeit wird als Festeszeit, als Trauerfesteszeit begangen innerhalb des Christentums zwischen dem Karfreitag und dem Ostersonntag. Der Ostersonntag ist dann der Tag, an dem dieses Mittelpunktwesen des Christentums aus dem Grabe ersteht. Der Erinnerungstag daran ist es.
Damit haben wir den wesentlichen Inhalt des Osterfestes dargelegt: Tod, Grabesruhe, Auferstehung des Christus Jesus. Und nun sehen wir uns zunächst einmal das entsprechende alte heidnische Fest in irgendeiner Gestalt an. Nur dadurch kommen wir zu einer inneren Durchdringung des Zusammenhanges zwischen Osterfest und Mysterienwesen. Wir finden an vielen Orten, bei vielen Völkern alte heidnische Feste, welche in ihrer äußeren Struktur, in der Struktur des Kultus, durchaus ähnlich sind der Struktur des Osterinhaltes des Christentums.
Nehmen wir aus den mannigfaltigen alten Festlichkeiten das Adonisfest heraus. Bei gewissen vorderasiatischen Völkern wurde es begangen durch lange Zeiten des vorchristlichen Altertums. Ein Bild bildete den Mittelpunkt. Auf diesem Bilde war dargestellt Adonis, der geistige Repräsentant alles dessen, was im Menschen sprießende Jugendkraft ist, der Repräsentant alles dessen, was im Menschen sich als die Schönheit darstellt.
Gewiß, die alten Völker haben in mancher Beziehung verwechselt das, was eine Abbildung enthielt, mit demjenigen, was die Abbildung darstellte. Und so haben ja diese alten Religionen vielfach den Charakter des Fetischismus. Viele Menschen sahen in dem Bilde den gegenwärtigen Gott der Schönheit, der Jugendkraft des Menschen, der sich entwickelnden Keimeskraft, die in glanzvollem Dasein nach außen sich offenbart, die alles das im glanzvollen Dasein nach außen offenbart, was der Mensch an innerem Wert, an innerer Würde, an innerer Größe in sich enthält oder auch enthalten kann.
Dieses Götterbild wurde unter Gesängen, unter Kulthandlungen, die darstellten tiefste menschliche Trauer, tiefstes menschliches Leid, wenn es an einem Orte geschah, wo Meer in der Nähe war, in die Meeresfluten gesenkt, wo es drei Tage drinnen zu bleiben hatte, wo ein See war, in den See versenkt; sonst wurde sogar in der Nähe der Mysterienstätte ein künstlicher Teich angelegt, um dieses Götterbild in diesen Teich zu versenken und es drei Tage lang drinnen zu lassen. Während dieser drei Tage ruhte über dem Ganzen der Gemeinde, die sich zu diesem Kultus bekannte, die diesen Kultus ihr eigen nannte, tiefster Ernst, tiefste Stille. Nach dreien Tagen wurde das Bild aus dem Wasser geholt. Die vorherigen Trauergesänge wurden in Jubelgesänge, in Hymnen auf den wiedererstandenen Gott, auf den wiederum zum Leben gekommenen Gott verwandelt.
Das war eine äußerliche Zeremonie, das war eine Zeremonie, die weitesten Kreisen von Menschen das Gemüt tief aufrüttelte. Und diese Zeremonie deutete wiederum eben in einer äußeren Handlung, in einem äußeren Kultusverlauf an, was in den Tiefen der heiligen Mysterien sich abspielte mit jedem Menschen, der zur Initiation, zur Einweihung, kommen sollte. Jeder Mensch, der zur Initiation, zur Einweihung, kommen sollte, wurde in diesen alten Zeiten innerhalb der Mysterien in ein besonderes Gemach geführt. Die Wände waren schwarz, der ganze Raum, in dem nichts anderes enthalten war als ein Sarg oder wenigstens ein sargartiges Gebilde, war düster und dunkel. Und an diesem Sarg wurden von jenen, die den zu Initiierenden hineingeleiteten, Trauergesänge angestimmt, Todesgesänge angestimmt. Der zu Initiierende wurde behandelt wie einer, der da stirbt, und ihm wurde begreiflich gemacht, daß er nun, indem er in den Sarg gelegt wird, dasjenige durchzumachen habe, was der Mensch durchmacht, wenn er durch die Todespforte geht und die nächsten drei Tage verlebt. Die Anordnung war auch so getroffen, daß dem zu Initiierenden zur völligen inneren Klarheit kam, was der Mensch in den ersten drei Tagen nach dem Tode durchmacht.
Am dritten Tage erhob sich an einer bestimmten Stelle, auf die hinschauen konnte der, der in dem Sarge lag, ein Zweig, darstellend das sprießende Leben. Die früheren Trauergesänge verwandelten sich in Hymnen, in Jubelgesänge. Der Betreffende erhob sich aus seinem Grabe mit verwandeltem Bewußtsein. Ihm wurde mitgeteilt eine neue Sprache, eine neue Schrift, die Sprache der Geister, die Schrift der Geister. Er durfte jetzt schauen, er konnte auch schauen die Welt vom Gesichtspunkte des Geistes.
Wenn man dieses mit den Einzuweihenden in den Tiefen der Mysterien Veranstaltete verglich mit dem, was als Kultushandlungen draußen vollzogen wurde, dann war der Inhalt des Kultus bildhaft, aber in seiner ganzen Struktur ähnlich dem, was da geschah mit den auserlesenen Menschen innerhalb der Mysterien. Und der Kultus nehmen wir als den Repräsentanten den speziellen Adoniskultus -, der Kultus wurde auch denjenigen, die daran teilnahmen, in entsprechender Zeit erklärt. Dieser Kultus fand ja statt zur Herbsteszeit, und diejenigen, die an diesem Kultus teilnahmen, wurden etwa in der folgenden Art belehrt: Seht, es ist Herbsteszeit. Die Erde ‚verliert ihren Pflanzen-, ihren Blattesschmuck. Alles welkt hinunter. An die Stelle des grünenden, sprießenden Lebens, das im Frühling begonnen hat die Erde zu bedecken, wird der die Erde einhüllende Schnee kommen oder wenigstens die die Erde verödende Dürre. Die Natur erstirbt. Aber indem um euch herum alles erstirbt, sollt ihr erleben, was im Menschen zur Hälfte ähnlich ist dem Sterben, das in aller Natur ringsherum ist. Auch der Mensch stirbt. Auch für ihn kommt ein Herbst. Wenn es mit dem Leben zu Ende geht, dann ist es recht, wenn das menschliche Gemüt derjenigen, die übrigbleiben, sich erfüllt mit tiefer Trauer. Und damit der ganze Ernst des Durchganges durch den Tod vor eure Seele trete, damit ihr nicht bloß den Tod erlebt, wenn er an euch herantritt, sondern damit ihr euch immer wieder und wiederum an ihn erinnern könnt, so wird eben allherbstlich gezeigt, wie gerade dasjenige göttliche Wesen, das da ist der Repräsentant der Schönheit, der Jugend, der Größe des Menschen, wie dieses göttliche Wesen stirbt, wie dieses göttliche Wesen den Gang macht, den alles Naturhafte macht. Aber gerade wenn die Natur in ihre Öde eingeht, wenn es in der Natur ins Sterben kommt, dann sollt ihr euch erinnern an etwas anderes. Dann sollt ihr euch erinnern, daß der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, daß, während er hier im irdischen Dasein nur Dinge erlebt hat, die gleich sind denen, die im Herbste ersterben, während er hier im Irdischen nur die Dinge erlebt hat, die vergänglich sind, daß er von der Erde abgezogen wird und in die Weiten des Weltenäthers sich hinauslebt. Er sieht sich immer größer und größer werden, er wird so, daß die ganze Welt sein eigen wird. Er lebt sich hinaus durch drei Tage in das ganze weite Weltenall. Und dann, während das irdische Auge hier hingelenkt ist auf das Bild des Todes, während das irdische Auge hingelenkt ist auf dasjenige, was stirbt, auf das Vergängliche, erwacht drüben im Geiste nach dreien Tagen die unsterbliche Menschenseele. Sie steht drüben auf. Sie steht auf, um drei Tage nach dem Tode geboren zu werden für das Geisterland.
In eindringlicher innerer Wandlung wurde dies vollzogen am eigenen Leibe des zu Initiierenden innerhalb der Tiefe der Mysterien. Und der bedeutsame Eindruck, der ungeheure Ruck, den das Menschenleben bekam durch diese alte Art der Initiation — wir werden sehen, daß das in der Neuzeit nicht so vor sich gehen kann, sondern in ganz anderer Weise -, der weckte innere Seelenkräfte, der weckte das Schauen, der brachte den Menschen dahin zu wissen: Er steht nunmehr nicht bloß in der Sinneswelt, er steht nunmehr in der geistigen Welt.
Und was wiederum zu einer entsprechenden Zeit als Belehrung an diejenigen herankam, die Schüler der Mysterien waren, das kann ich etwa in die folgenden Worte zusammenfassen. Diesen Schülern der Mysterien wurde gesagt: Was in den Mysterien vorgeht, ist Bild von dem, was in der geistigen Welt vorgeht, was im Kosmos vorgeht; Kultus ist Bild von dem, was in den Mysterien vorgeht. - Denn dessen war sich jeder, der zu den Mysterien zugelassen worden ist, klar: Die Mysterien umschlossen im Irdischen Vorgänge, die am Menschen sich abspielten und die durchaus Abbilder waren dessen, was in den Weiten des astralgeistigen Kosmos von dem Menschen in anderen Daseinsformen erlebt wird als in der irdischen. Denjenigen, die in diesen alten Zeiten nicht zugelassen worden sind zu den Mysterien, weil sie nach ihrer Lebensreife nicht ausersehen sein konnten, die Anschauung der geistigen Welt unmittelbar zu empfangen, denen wurde im Kultus, das heißt im Bilde dessen, was in den Mysterien vorging, das Entsprechende beigebracht.
So war das entsprechende Mysterienfest, das wir an dem Beispiel des Adonisfestes kennengelernt haben, dazu da, während des herbstlichen Welkens, während des herbstlichen Ödewerdens des Irdischen, während des herbstlichen radikalen Darstellens der Vergänglichkeit der irdischen Dinge, während des herbstlichen Darstellens des Sterbens und des Todes, in dem Menschen die Gewißheit oder wenigstens die Anschauung hervorzurufen: der Tod, der über die ganze Natur im Herbste kommt, der kommt auch über den Menschen, er kommt auch über den Repräsentanten der Schönheit, Jugend und Größe der Menschenseele, die im Gotte Adonis dargestellt wird. Auch der Gott Adonis stirbt. Er geht auf in den irdischen Repräsentanten des Weltenäthers, in das Wasser. Aber so, wie er sich erhebt aus dem Wasser, so wie er geholt werden kann aus dem Wasser, so wird des Menschen Seele geholt aus den Wassern der Welt, das heißt aus dem Äther des Kosmos, nach ungefähr dreien Tagen, nachdem der Mensch hier auf Erden durch die Todespforte gegangen ist.
Das Geheimnis des Todes selber sollte dargestellt werden in diesen alten Mysterien durch das entsprechende Herbstesfest. Und anschaulich sollte das Dargestellte dadurch werden, daß der Kultus auf der einen Seite in seiner ersten Hälfte zusammenfiel mit dem Sterben, mit dem Tode der Natur, auf der anderen Seite aber das Gegenteil darstellte, als das Wesentliche des Menschenwesens selber. Der Mensch soll hinschauen auf das Sterben der Natur - so war es gemeint —, um gewahr zu werden, wie er nach dem äußeren Scheine stirbt, nach dem inneren Wesen aber aufersteht zunächst für die geistige Welt. Die Wahrheit über den Tod zu enthüllen, das war der Sinn dieses alten heidnischen, an die Mysterien angelehnten Festes.
Nun geschah im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung dieses Bedeutsame, daß dasjenige, was auf einem gewissen Niveau der Einzuweihende in den Mysterien durchmachte, das Sterben und Wiederauferstehen der Seele, daß das bis zum Leibe hin sich vollzog mit dem Christus Jesus. Denn wie stellt sich für den Kenner der Mysterien das Mysterium von Golgatha dar? Der Kenner der Mysterien schaut in die alten Mysterien hinein. Er sieht, wie der Einzuweihende seiner Seele nach geführt wurde durch den Tod zur Auferstehung der Seele, das heißt zum Erwecken eines höheren Bewußtseins in der Seele. Die Seele starb, um aufzuerstehen in einem höheren Bewußtsein. Was hier festgehalten werden muß, das ist, daß der Leib nicht starb, daß die Seele aber starb, um zu einem höheren Bewußtsein erweckt zu werden.
Was die Seele eines jeden zu Initiierenden durchmachte, das machte der Christus Jesus bis zum Leibe durch, also einfach auf einem anderen Niveau. Weil der Christus kein irdischer Mensch, sondern ein Sonnenwesen im Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth war, konnte dasselbe, was der alte zu Initiierende in den Mysterien seiner Seele nach durchmachte, der ganzen Menschennatur nach durchmachen der Christus Jesus auf Golgatha.
Diejenigen, die noch da waren als Kenner der alten Mysterien, als Wissende dieser Initiationshandlung, sie waren wohl die Menschen, auch bis heute diejenigen Menschen, welche am tiefsten verstanden, was auf Golgatha geschehen war. Denn, was konnten sie sich sagen? Sie konnten sich sagen: Durch Jahrtausende hindurch sind Menschen in die Geheimnisse der geistigen Welt durch den Tod und die Auferstehung ihrer Seele geführt worden. Die Seele ist von dem Leibe getrennt gehalten worden während der Einweihungshandlung. Sie ist durch den Tod zum ewigen Leben geführt worden. Was da erlebt worden ist von einer Anzahl von auserlesenen Menschen, das hat ein Wesen erlebt bis in den Leib hinein, das bei der Johannestaufe im Jordan heruntergestiegen ist von der Sonne und Besitz ergriffen hat von dem Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth. Geschichtliche Tatsache ist geworden, was sich wiederholende Einweihungshandlung durch lange, lange Jahrtausende hindurch gewesen war.
Das war das Wesentliche, daß man wußte: Weil es ein Sonnenwesen war, das Besitz ergriffen hatte von dem Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth, deshalb konnte das, was sich bei den zu Initiierenden nur vollzog in bezug auf die Seele und ihre Erlebnisse - es konnte sich vollziehen bis in das Leibesdasein hinein. Es konnte vollzogen werden trotz des Todes des Leibes, trotz des Aufgehens des Leibes des Jesus von Nazareth in der sterblichen Erde, eine Auferstehung des Christus, weil dieser Christus höher hinaufsteigt, als die Seele des zu Initiierenden hinaufsteigen konnte. Den Leib konnte der zu Initiierende nicht in so tiefe Regionen des Untersinnlichen bringen, wie ihn der Christus Jesus gebracht hat. Deshalb konnte der zu Initiierende nicht so hoch hinaufsteigen mit der Auferstehung wie der Christus; aber bis zu diesem Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Weltengröße ist die alte Einweihungshandlung als historische Tatsache erschienen auf der Weihestätte von Golgatha.
Es haben auch nur wenige in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums gewußt, daß ein Sonnenwesen, ein kosmisches Wesen, in dem Jesus von Nazareth gelebt hat und die Erde dadurch befruchtet worden ist, daß von der Sonne wirklich heruntergekommen ist ein Wesen, das vorher von der Erde aus durch die Methoden der Initiationsstätten nur in der Sonne hat gesehen werden können. Und es war das Wesentliche des Christentums, insoferne es angenommen haben auch die rechten Kenner der alten Mysterien, daß gesagt werden konnte: Der Christus, zu dem wir uns erhoben haben dadurch, daß wir eingeweiht worden sind, der Christus, den wir durch unseren Aufstieg zur Sonne in den alten Mysterien haben erreichen können, der ist heruntergestiegen in einen sterblichen Leib, in den Leib des Jesus von Nazareth. Er ist zur Erde heruntergekommen.
Es war zunächst, ich möchte sagen, eine festliche Stimmung, mehr als eine festliche Stimmung, eine hochheilige Stimmung, welche diejenigen Seelen und Gemüter erfüllte, die in der Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha etwas von diesem Mysterium von Golgatha verstanden. Was da ein lebendiger Inhalt des Bewußtseins war, das wurde allmählich durch Vorgänge, die wir noch kennenlernen wollen, ein Erinnerungsfest an den historischen Vorgang auf Golgatha.
Aber während sich diese Erinnerung herausbildete, verlor man immer mehr und mehr das Bewußtsein davon, wer der Christus als Sonnenwesen war. Die Kenner der alten Mysterien konnten sich ja nicht im Unklaren sein über die Wesenheit des Christus. Sie wußten ja, daß die wirklichen Eingeweihten, die wirklichen Initiierten dadurch, daß sie unabhängig gemacht wurden von ihrem physischen Leibe, in ihrer Seele durch den Tod gingen, sich erhoben bis in die Sonnensphäre und da den Christus aufsuchten und von ihm, von dem Christus in der Sonne, den Impuls zur Auferstehung der Seele empfingen; sie wußten, wer der Christus ist, weil sie sich zu ihm erhoben hatten. Diese alten Initiierten, die Kenner dieser Initiationshandlung, die wußten aus dem, was auf Golgatha vorging, daß dasselbe Wesen, das früher in der Sonne gesucht werden mußte, nun zu den Menschen auf die Erde niedergestiegen war. Warum? Weil jene Handlung, die in den alten Mysterien zum Erreichen des Christus in der Sonne mit dem zu Initiierenden vollzogen war, so nicht mehr vollzogen werden konnte, weil die Menschennatur einfach im Laufe der Zeit eine andere geworden ist. Die alte Einweihungszeremonie war nach der Entwickelungsart der Menschenwesenheit eine Unmöglichkeit geworden. Es hätte der Christus durch die alte Einweihungszeremonie in der Sonne nicht mehr gesucht werden können. Da stieg er denn herab, um auf der Erde eine Handlung zu vollziehen, nach welcher nun die Menschen hinschauen konnten.
Es gehört das, was sich in dieses Geheimnis schließt, zu dem Allerheiligsten, das man auf dem Erdenboden aussprechen kann.
Denn wie stellte sich eigentlich die Sache für die Menschen der auf das Mysterium von Golgatha folgenden Jahrhunderte dar?
Soll ich das schematisch zeichnen, so müßte ich es so zeichnen: Wenn das die Erde ist, so sah man aus einer alten Einweihungsstätte herauf (rechts: rot) zum Sonnendasein und wurde durch die Initiation den Christus in der Sonne gewahr. Man sah in den Raum hinaus, um an den Christus heranzutreten.

Will ich schematisch darstellen, wie die Entwickelung nun in der Folgezeit war, so muß ich die Zeit darstellen, das heißt die Erde - in einem Jahr, im dritten Jahr, fortlaufend in der Zeit; die Erde räumlich ist ja immer da, aber den Zeitenlauf stellen wir so dar. Es hat sich abgespielt das Mysterium von Golgatha. Ein Mensch, der, sagen wir, im 8. Jahrhundert lebt, statt daß er vom Mysterium aus in die Sonne schaut, um zum Christus zu kommen, schaut jetzt auf die Zeitenwende bis zum Beginn der christlichen Zeitrechnung, schaut in der Zeit hin nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha (siehe Zeichnung, gelber Pfeil); er kann in einer Erdenhandlung, in einem Erdengeschehen den Christus innerhalb des Mysteriums von Golgatha finden.
Was früher räumliche Anschauung war, sollte nun zeitliche Anschauung werden durch das Mysterium von Golgatha. Das war das Bedeutsame, was geschehen war.
Aber gerade, wenn wir auf die Seele wirken lassen, was in den Mysterien bei der Initiation sich abspielte und was ein Bild war vom Tod und von der Auferstehung des Menschen nach dem Tode, und wenn wir dazunehmen die Struktur der Kultushandlungen, zum Beispiel des Adonisfestes, die wiederum ein Bild waren dessen, was in den Mysterien vorging, so erscheint uns wie aufs Höchste hinaufgehoben das alles, dieses Dreifache vereinigt, konzentriert in der historischen Handlung auf Golgatha.
Äußerlich in der Geschichte erscheint, was tief innerlich in dem Heiligtum der Mysterien sich vollzogen hat. Für alle Menschen ist da, was vorher nur für die Eingeweihten da war. Man braucht kein Bild mehr, das in das Meer versenkt wird, das symbolisch aus dem Meere aufersteht. Man soll vielmehr haben den Gedanken, die Erinnerung an das, was auf Golgatha wirklich geschehen ist. An die Stelle des äußeren Sinnbildes, das sich eben auf einen Vorgang, der im Raum erlebt wurde, bezog, sollte treten das innerlich sinnlich bildlose Gedenken, das bloß in der Seele erlebte Gedenken an die historische Handlung auf Golgatha.
Nun werden wir eine merkwürdige Entwickelung der Menschheit in den folgenden Jahrhunderten gewahr. Das Eindringen der Menschen in die Geistigkeit nimmt immer mehr und mehr ab. Der geistige Inhalt des Mysteriums von Golgatha kann nicht Platz greifen in den Gemütern der Menschen. Die Entwickelung geht nach der Ausbildung des materiellen Sinnes. Man verliert das innere Herzensverständnis für das Folgende, man verliert das Verständnis dafür, daß da, wo die äußere Natur sich als Vergänglichkeit, sich als ersterbendes ödes Sein darstellt, gerade die Lebendigkeit des Geistes erschaut werden kann. Man verliert auch das Verständnis für die äußere Festlichkeit: daß dann, wenn der Herbst mit seinem Sterben kommt, am besten empfunden werden kann, wie dem Sterben des Irdisch-Naturhaften gegenübersteht das Auferstehen des Geistigen.
Damit verliert der Herbst die Möglichkeit, Zeit zu sein für das Auferstehungsfest. Der Herbst verliert die Möglichkeit, aus der Naturvergänglichkeit heraus gerade den Sinn hinzuweisen auf die Geist-Ewigkeit. Man braucht die Anlehnung an das Materielle. Man braucht die Anlehnung an das, was nicht stirbt in der Natur, was in der Natur aufsprießt, was in der Natur als die Samenkraft, die im Herbste in die Erde versenkt wird, aufersteht. Man nimmt das Materielle als ein Symbolum für das Geistige, weil man sich durch das Materielle nicht mehr anregen lassen kann, das Geistige in seiner Wirklichkeit zu empfinden. Der Herbst hat nicht mehr die Kraft, gegenüber dem Vergänglichen im Naturhaften die Unvergänglichkeit des Geistigen durch die innere Macht der Menschenseele zu offenbaren. Man braucht die Anlehnung an die äußere Natur, an die äußere Auferstehung. Man will sehen, wie die Pflanzen sprießen aus der Erde, wie die Sonne an Kraft gewinnt, wie das Licht und die Wärme wiederum an Kraft gewinnen. Man braucht die Auferstehung in der Natur, um den Auferstehungsgedanken zu feiern.
Damit aber verschwindet auch jenes unmittelbare Verhältnis, das verbunden war mit dem Adonisfeste, das verbunden sein kann mit dem Mysterium auf Golgatha. Jenes innere Erlebnis verliert an Kraft, das auftreten kann beim irdischen Tode eines jeden Menschen, wenn die Menschenseele weiß: der Mensch geht irdisch durch die Pforte des Todes, macht durch drei Tage hindurch etwas durch, was den Menschen allerdings ernst stimmen kann; dann aber muß die Seele innerlich fröhlich werden, innerlich festlich und freudig gestimmt werden, weil sie weiß, daß gerade aus dem Tode heraus sich in geistiger Unsterblichkeit die Menschenseele nach dreien Tagen erhebt.
Jene Kraft, welche im Adonisfeste lag, sie ist verlorengegangen. Zunächst war für die Menschheit veranlagt, daß diese Kraft mit einer größeren Intensität erstehen sollte. Man sah hin auf den Tod des Gottes, alles Schönen in der Menschheit, alles Großen, alles Jugendkraftvollen. Dieser Gott wird in das Meer versenkt am Trauertag, am Chartage. Chara ist Trauer. Man kam in ernste Stimmung, weil man zunächst die Stimmung entwickeln wollte an der Vergänglichkeit des Naturhaften.
Dann aber sollte gerade diese Stimmung gegenüber der Vergänglichkeit des Naturhaften hinüberwandeln die Menschenseele zu der Stimmung gegenüber dem übersinnlichen Auferstehen der Menschenseele nach dreien Tagen. Als der Gott wieder herausgehoben wurde beziehungsweise sein Bild, da sah nun der richtig unterrichtete Gläubige das Bild der Menschenseele einige Tage nach dem Tode: Was im Geiste geschieht mit den gestorbenen Menschen, siehe da, es stellt sich vor deine Seele hin in dem Bilde des auferstandenen Gottes der Schönheit und Jugendkraft.
Dasjenige, was mit dem Menschenschicksal so tief verbunden ist, wurde alljährlich im Herbste unmittelbar im Geiste des Menschen erweckt. Man hätte es in der damaligen Zeit nicht für möglich gehalten, an die äußere Natur anzuknüpfen. Was im Geiste erlebt werden konnte, das stellte man in der Kultushandlung, in der symbolischen Handlung dar. Als aber gerade das Bild der alten Zeit getilgt werden sollte, als Erinnerung - bildlose, innere, seelisch erlebte Erinnerung an das Mysterium von Golgatha, das dasselbe darstellt - eintreten sollte, da hatte die Menschheit zunächst nicht die Kraft, das zu vollziehen, weil der Geist in die Untergründe der Seele des Menschen ging. Da blieb denn bis in unsere Zeit die Sache so, daß man die Anlehnung an die äußere Natur brauchte. Aber die äußere Natur gibt kein Sinnbild, kein vollständiges Sinnbild vom Schicksale des Menschen im Tode. Der Todesgedanke, er konnte fortleben. Der Auferstehungsgedanke ist immer mehr und mehr geschwunden. Und wenn auch von der Auferstehung als einem Glaubensinhalte gesprochen wird, lebendig ist die Auferstehungstatsache der Menschheit der neueren Zeit nicht. Sie muß es wieder werden, sie muß es dadurch werden, daß anthroposophische Anschauung den Menschensinn wieder erweckt für den wahren Auferstehungsgedanken.
Wenn daher auf der einen Seite, wie das zur rechten Zeit gesagt worden ist, dem anthroposophischen Gemüte der Michaelsgedanke naheliegen muß als der ankündigende Gedanke, wenn sich dem anthroposophischen Gemüte der Weihnachtsgedanke vertiefen muß, der Ostergedanke muß ein besonders festlicher werden. Denn Anthroposophie muß hinzufügen zu dem Todesgedanken den Auferstehungsgedanken. Sie muß selber werden wie ein inneres Auferstehungsfest der Menschenseele. Sie muß eine österliche Stimmung in die Weltanschauung des Menschen bringen. Sie wird es bringen können, wenn verstanden wird, wie der alte Mysteriengedanke in dem wahrhaft erfaßten Ostergedanken weiterleben kann, wenn eine richtige Anschauung ersteht von Leib, Seele und Geist des Menschen und von dem Schicksal von Leib, Seele und Geist des Menschen in der physischen, seelischen und geistig-himmlischen Welt.
First Lecture
Easter is perceived by many people as something that is connected on the one hand with the deepest feelings and sensations of the human soul, but on the other hand it is also connected with world mysteries and world riddles. One has to become aware of the fact that Easter is connected with the mysteries and riddles of the world because Easter is a so-called movable feast, which has to be calculated every year according to the constellation of the stars, which we want to discuss in more detail in these days. But if you follow how festive customs have been linked to Easter through the centuries, ritual acts that are extremely close to a large number of people, you must also see from this what enormous value mankind has gradually placed in this Easter in the course of its historical development.
Now in the first centuries of Christianity, not immediately at its foundation, but in the first centuries of Christianity, Easter became an important Christian festival, a Christian festival that is connected with the basic idea, the basic impulse of Christianity, with the impulse that arises for being a Christian through the fact of the resurrection of Christ.
Easter is the feast of the resurrection. But Easter points to times older than the Christian era. It points to festivals that are connected with the time of the vernal equinox, which at least has something to do with the calculation of Easter time, with those festivals that tie in with the new awakening of nature, with the sprouting life that is growing out of the earth again.
And this brings us to the point where, if we are to discuss the things that form the theme of these Easter lectures: Easter as a piece of the mystery history of humanity, we must immediately touch on these things.
Easter as a Christian festival is a festival of resurrection. The corresponding pagan festival, which falls at about the same time of year as Easter, is a kind of resurrection festival of nature, a re-emergence of that which has been dormant, if I may put it that way, throughout the winter. But this brings us to the point where we must emphasize that the Christian Easter is not at all a festival that somehow coincides in its inner meaning and essence with the pagan festivals of the spring equinox, but Easter, conceived as a Christian festival, actually coincides, if we want to go back to the old pagan times, with old festivals that have grown out of the mysteries and that fall in the autumn season. The most remarkable thing with regard to the celebration of Easter, which is quite obviously connected by its content with certain ancient mysteries, is that it is precisely this Easter that reminds us of the radical and profound misunderstandings that have occurred in the world view of the most important things in the course of human development. For nothing less has happened than that in the course of the first Christian centuries Easter has been confused with a completely different festival, that it has been shifted from an autumn festival to a spring festival.
This fact actually points to something tremendous in the development of mankind. But let us take a look at the content of this Easter festival. What is its essence? Its essence is that the being at the center of Christian consciousness, the Christ Jesus, passes through death, as Good Friday reminds us. The Christ Jesus rests in the tomb for the time which runs in three days and which represents the connection of the Christ with earthly existence. This time is celebrated as a festive time, a time of mourning within Christianity between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is then the day on which this central being of Christianity rises from the grave. It is the day of remembrance.
Thus we have set out the essential content of Easter: Death, rest in the tomb, resurrection of Christ Jesus. And now let us first take a look at the corresponding ancient pagan festival in some form. This is the only way to gain an inner understanding of the connection between Easter and the mysteries. In many places, among many peoples, we find ancient pagan festivals which, in their external structure, in the structure of the cult, are quite similar to the structure of the Easter content of Christianity.
Let us take the Adonis festival out of the many ancient festivities. It was celebrated by certain Near Eastern peoples throughout long periods of pre-Christian antiquity. An image formed the centerpiece. This image depicted Adonis, the spiritual representative of everything that is the sprouting power of youth in man, the representative of everything that is beauty in man.
Certainly, the ancient peoples in many respects confused what an image contained with what the image represented. And so these old religions often have the character of fetishism. Many people saw in the image the present god of beauty, of the youthful power of man, of the developing germinal power that reveals itself outwardly in a glorious existence, that reveals outwardly in a glorious existence everything that man contains or can contain within himself in terms of inner value, inner dignity, inner greatness.
This image of the gods was lowered into the ocean waters, where it had to remain inside for three days, where there was a lake; otherwise an artificial pond was even created near the place of mystery in order to sink this image of the gods into this pond and leave it inside for three days. During these three days, the whole community that professed this cult, that called this cult their own, rested in the deepest seriousness, the deepest silence. After three days, the image was taken out of the water. The previous songs of mourning were transformed into songs of jubilation, hymns to the resurrected God, to the God who had come back to life.
This was an outward ceremony, a ceremony that deeply stirred the minds of the widest circles of people. And this ceremony in turn indicated in an external act, in an external ritual process, what was taking place in the depths of the sacred mysteries with every human being who was to come to initiation, to initiation. In those ancient times, every person who was to come for initiation was led into a special chamber within the Mysteries. The walls were black, the whole room, which contained nothing other than a coffin or at least a coffin-like structure, was gloomy and dark. And at this coffin, those who led the person to be initiated into it sang funeral songs, death songs. The person to be initiated was treated like someone who was dying, and it was made clear to him that by being placed in the coffin he would now have to go through what a person goes through when he passes through the gate of death and spends the next three days. The arrangement was also made in such a way that the person to be initiated came to complete inner clarity about what the person goes through in the first three days after death.
On the third day, at a certain place where the person lying in the coffin could look, a branch rose up, representing the sprouting life. The earlier songs of mourning turned into hymns, songs of rejoicing. The person in question rose from his grave with a transformed consciousness. He was given a new language, a new script, the language of the spirits, the script of the spirits. He was now allowed to see, he could also see the world from the point of view of the spirit.
If one compares what was organized with the initiates in the depths of the Mysteries with what was carried out as cult acts outside, then the content of the cult was figurative, but in its whole structure similar to what happened there with the selected people within the Mysteries. And the cult - let us take the special Adonis cult as the representative - was also explained to those who took part in it at the appropriate time. This cult took place in the fall, and those who took part in it were taught something like this: "Look, it's fall. The earth 'loses its plant and leaf ornaments. Everything withers away. The green, sprouting life that began to cover the earth in spring will be replaced by snow that envelops the earth, or at least by drought that desolates the earth. Nature is dying. But as everything around you dies, you shall experience what in man is half similar to the dying that is in all nature around. Man also dies. An autumn comes for him too. When life comes to an end, it is right that the human mind of those who remain should be filled with deep sorrow. And so that the whole seriousness of the passage through death may come before your soul, so that you do not merely experience death when it approaches you, but so that you can remember it again and again and again, it is shown all autumn how that very divine being, which is the representative of the beauty, the youth, the greatness of man, how this divine being dies, how this divine being takes the course that all natural things take. But just when nature is entering its wasteland, when nature is dying, then you should remember something else. Then you should remember that man passes through the gate of death, that while here in earthly existence he has only experienced things that are like those that die in autumn, while here in earthly existence he has only experienced those things that are transient, that he is drawn away from earth and lives out into the vastness of the ether of the world. He sees himself becoming greater and greater, he becomes so that the whole world becomes his own. For three days he lives out into the whole wide universe. And then, while the earthly eye here is directed towards the image of death, while the earthly eye is directed towards that which dies, towards the transient, the immortal human soul awakens over there in the spirit after three days. It stands up over there. It rises to be born three days after death for the spirit land.
This was accomplished in a powerful inner transformation in the body of the initiate within the depths of the Mysteries. And the significant impression, the tremendous jolt that human life received through this ancient kind of initiation - we will see that this cannot happen in the same way in modern times, but in a completely different way - awakened inner soul forces, it awakened vision, it brought man to know: He now stands not merely in the sensory world, he now stands in the spiritual world.
And what again at a corresponding time came as an instruction to those who were students of the Mysteries, I can summarize in the following words. These students of the Mysteries were told that what happens in the Mysteries is an image of what happens in the spiritual world, what happens in the cosmos; cultus is an image of what happens in the Mysteries. - For everyone who was admitted to the Mysteries was aware of this: the Mysteries encompassed processes in the earthly world which took place in man and which were certainly images of what is experienced by man in the vastness of the astral-spiritual cosmos in other forms of existence than in the earthly. Those who were not admitted to the Mysteries in those ancient times, because they could not have been destined to receive the vision of the spiritual world directly according to their maturity, were taught the corresponding things in the cultus, that is, in the image of what took place in the Mysteries.
So the corresponding mystery festival, which we have become acquainted with in the example of the Adonis festival, was there, during the autumnal withering, during the autumnal desolation of the earthly, during the autumnal radical representation of the transitoriness of earthly things, during the autumnal representation of dying and death, to evoke in man the certainty or at least the view: death, which comes over all nature in autumn, also comes over man, it also comes over the representative of the beauty, youth and greatness of the human soul, which is represented in the god Adonis. The god Adonis also dies. He merges into the earthly representative of the ether of the world, into the water. But just as he rises from the water, just as he can be taken from the water, so the soul of man is taken from the waters of the world, that is, from the ether of the cosmos, after about three days, after man has passed through the gates of death here on earth.
The mystery of death itself was to be represented in these ancient mysteries through the corresponding autumn festival. And what was represented was to become vivid by the fact that the first half of the cultus coincided with death, with the death of nature, but on the other hand represented the opposite, as the essence of the human being itself. Man should look at the death of nature - that is what was meant - in order to become aware of how he dies according to the outer appearance, but is resurrected according to the inner being, initially for the spiritual world. Revealing the truth about death was the purpose of this ancient pagan festival based on the Mysteries.
Now, in the course of human development, this significant thing happened, that what the initiate underwent at a certain level in the Mysteries, the dying and resurrection of the soul, took place in the body with Christ Jesus. For how does the Mystery of Golgotha present itself to the connoisseur of the Mysteries? The connoisseur of the Mysteries looks into the ancient Mysteries. He sees how the one to be initiated was led through death to the resurrection of the soul, that is, to the awakening of a higher consciousness in the soul. The soul died in order to rise in a higher consciousness. What must be noted here is that the body did not die, but that the soul died in order to be awakened to a higher consciousness.
What the soul of every initiate went through, Christ Jesus went through as far as the body, simply on a different level. Because the Christ was not an earthly man, but a solar being in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, the same thing that the old initiate went through in the Mysteries according to his soul, the Christ Jesus could go through on Golgotha according to the whole human nature.
Those who were still there as connoisseurs of the ancient mysteries, as knowers of this act of initiation, they were probably the people, even to this day, who understood most deeply what had happened on Golgotha. For what could they say to themselves? They could say to themselves: For thousands of years people have been led into the secrets of the spiritual world through the death and resurrection of their soul. The soul has been kept separate from the body during the act of initiation. It has been led through death to eternal life. What was experienced by a number of selected people was experienced by a being right into the body, which descended from the sun at John's baptism in the Jordan and took possession of the body of Jesus of Nazareth. What had been a repeated act of initiation throughout long, long millennia became a historical fact.
This was the essential thing, that one knew: Because it was a solar being that had taken possession of the body of Jesus of Nazareth, therefore that which took place with those to be initiated only in relation to the soul and its experiences - it could take place right into the bodily existence. It could be accomplished despite the death of the body, despite the rising of the body of Jesus of Nazareth in the mortal earth, a resurrection of the Christ, because this Christ ascends higher than the soul of the one to be initiated could ascend. The initiate could not bring the body into such deep regions of the subconscious as Christ Jesus brought it. Therefore the one to be initiated could not ascend as high with the resurrection as the Christ; but up to this difference in world magnitude, the ancient act of initiation appeared as a historical fact on the place of consecration at Golgotha.
In the first centuries of Christianity only a few knew that a solar being, a cosmic being, had lived in Jesus of Nazareth and that the earth had been fertilized by it, that a being had really descended from the sun which previously could only be seen from the earth in the sun through the methods of the places of initiation. And it was the essence of Christianity, insofar as it was also accepted by the true connoisseurs of the ancient mysteries, that it could be said: The Christ to whom we have risen through our initiation, the Christ whom we were able to reach through our ascent to the sun in the ancient mysteries, has descended into a mortal body, into the body of Jesus of Nazareth. He descended to earth.
At first, I would like to say, it was a festive mood, more than a festive mood, a highly holy mood, which filled those souls and minds who understood something of the Mystery of Golgotha at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. What was then a living content of the consciousness gradually became, through processes that we still want to get to know, a festival of memory of the historical event on Golgotha.
But as this memory developed, the consciousness of who the Christ was as a solar being was lost more and more. The connoisseurs of the ancient mysteries could not be unclear about the nature of the Christ. They knew that the real initiates, the real initiates, by being made independent of their physical body, went through death in their soul, rose up into the solar sphere and there sought out the Christ and received from him, from the Christ in the sun, the impulse for the resurrection of the soul; they knew who the Christ was because they had risen up to him. These ancient initiates, the connoisseurs of this act of initiation, knew from what took place on Golgotha that the same Being who formerly had to be sought in the sun had now descended to men on earth. Why? Because the act that was performed in the ancient mysteries to reach the Christ in the sun with the person to be initiated could no longer be performed in this way, because the nature of man has simply become different in the course of time. The old initiation ceremony had become an impossibility according to the developmental nature of the human being. The Christ could no longer have been sought in the sun through the old initiation ceremony. So he descended to perform an act on earth that people could now look to.
What is included in this mystery belongs to the most sacred thing that can be uttered on earth.
Because how did the matter actually present itself to the people of the centuries following the Mystery of Golgotha?
If I were to draw it schematically, I would have to draw it like this: If this is the earth, then one looked up from an old place of initiation (right: red) to the sun and became aware of the Christ in the sun through the initiation. One looked out into space in order to approach the Christ.

If I want to depict schematically how the development was in the following time, I have to depict the time, that is, the earth - in one year, in the third year, continuously in time; the earth is always there spatially, but we depict the course of time in this way. The Mystery of Golgotha has taken place. A person who, let us say, lives in the 8th century, instead of looking from the Mystery into the sun in order to come to the Christ, now looks at the turn of time until the beginning of the Christian calendar, looks in time towards the Mystery of Golgotha (see drawing, yellow arrow); he can find the Christ within the Mystery of Golgotha in an earthly action, in an earthly event.
What used to be a spatial view was now to become a temporal view through the Mystery of Golgotha. That was the significant thing that had happened.
But precisely when we allow what took place in the Mysteries at the initiation and what was a picture of the death and resurrection of man after death to affect the soul, and when we add the structure of the cult acts, for example the Adonis feast, which in turn were a picture of what took place in the Mysteries, then all this, this threefold united and concentrated in the historical action on Golgotha, appears to us as if raised to the highest level.
What took place deep within the sanctuary of the Mysteries appears outwardly in history. What was previously only there for the initiated is there for all people. We no longer need an image that is sunk into the sea, that symbolically rises from the sea. Rather, we should have the thought, the memory of what really happened on Golgotha. The external symbol, which referred to a process that was experienced in space, should be replaced by an inwardly sensual, imageless remembrance, a remembrance of the historical act on Golgotha that is merely experienced in the soul.
Now we become aware of a strange development of humanity in the following centuries. Man's penetration into spirituality decreases more and more. The spiritual content of the Mystery of Golgotha cannot take hold in the minds of men. Development follows the formation of the material sense. One loses the inner understanding of the heart for what follows, one loses the understanding that where outer nature presents itself as transience, as a dying barren existence, it is precisely the vitality of the spirit that can be seen. One also loses the understanding of the outer festivity: that when autumn comes with its dying, one can best feel how the dying of the earthly-natural is contrasted with the resurrection of the spiritual.
Thus autumn loses the possibility of being the time for the resurrection festival. Autumn loses the possibility of pointing out the meaning of spiritual eternity from the transience of nature. We need the connection to the material. We need the connection to that which does not die in nature, that which sprouts in nature, that which rises in nature as the seed power that is sunk into the earth in autumn. One takes the material as a symbol for the spiritual, because one can no longer be stimulated by the material to feel the spiritual in its reality. Autumn no longer has the power to reveal the immortality of the spiritual through the inner power of the human soul in contrast to the transience of nature. We need the connection to external nature, to external resurrection. We want to see how the plants sprout from the earth, how the sun gains strength, how the light and warmth in turn gain strength. We need the resurrection in nature in order to celebrate the idea of resurrection.
But with it also disappears that direct relationship that was connected with the Adonis feast, which can be connected with the mystery of Golgotha. That inner experience loses its power, which can occur at the earthly death of every human being, when the human soul knows: the human being goes through the gate of death earthly, goes through something through three days, which can certainly make the human being serious; but then the soul must become inwardly joyful, inwardly festive and joyful, because it knows that just out of death the human soul rises in spiritual immortality after three days.The power that lay in the Adonis festival has been lost. At first it was intended for mankind that this power should arise with greater intensity. One looked forward to the death of the god, all that was beautiful in humanity, all that was great, all that was youthful. This god is sunk into the sea on the day of mourning, on Chara. Chara is mourning. People got into a serious mood because they initially wanted to develop the mood of the transience of nature.
But then this very mood towards the transience of the natural was to transform the human soul into the mood towards the supersensible resurrection of the human soul after three days. When the God was lifted out again, or rather his image, the correctly instructed believer saw the image of the human soul a few days after death: What happens in the spirit with the deceased human beings, behold, it presents itself before your soul in the image of the resurrected God of beauty and youthful power.
That which is so deeply connected with human destiny was awakened directly in the spirit of man every autumn. At that time, it would not have been considered possible to connect with external nature. What could be experienced in the spirit was represented in the ritual act, in the symbolic act. But when the image of the old time was to be erased, when the memory - the imageless, inner, soul-experienced memory of the Mystery of Golgotha, which represents the same thing - was to enter, mankind did not at first have the strength to accomplish this, because the spirit went into the depths of man's soul. The situation remained the same right up to our own time, in that people needed to be guided by external nature. But external nature gives no symbol, no complete symbol of man's fate in death. The idea of death could live on. The idea of resurrection has dwindled more and more. And even if the resurrection is spoken of as a content of faith, the fact of resurrection is not alive in modern mankind. It must become so again, it must become so through anthroposophical views reawakening the human mind to the true idea of resurrection.
If, therefore, on the one hand, as has been said at the right time, the thought of St. Michael must lie close to the anthroposophical mind as the heralding thought, if the thought of Christmas must deepen in the anthroposophical mind, the thought of Easter must become a particularly festive one. For anthroposophy must add to the thought of death the thought of resurrection. It must itself become like an inner resurrection festival of the human soul. It must bring a paschal mood into the world view of man. It will be able to do so when it is understood how the old mystery thought can live on in the truly grasped Easter thought, when a correct view arises of the body, soul and spirit of man and of the destiny of the body, soul and spirit of man in the physical, spiritual and celestial world.