Philosophy, Cosmology & Religion
GA 215
12 September 1922, Dornach
7. Christ in His Relationship to Mankind and the Riddle of Death
Yesterday I tried to explain how man, who as a soul-spiritual being has been living in the spiritual world during pre-earthly existence, makes his transition to the physical earth. If we want to place before our souls the very real intervention of the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha in the evolution of earth-humanity, it is absolutely necessary to acknowledge the pre-earthly existence of man and thus come to understand the eternal essence of his being. For, in order to comprehend the actual nature of this Mystery, we must be able to follow this Being, the Christ, Who belongs to the spiritual worlds, in His descent from extra-terrestrial regions right down into earth existence. This Being had lived only in those regions where we too spend our pre-natal existence until the time came when in the man Jesus He took on an earthly form and began his earthly activity.
If man wants to arrive at such an understanding of the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha in relation to the event of human birth, of which I spoke sketchily yesterday, he must bear in mind first of all that man's soul constitution and his inner experience have passed in the course of mankind's evolution on earth through most significant and important transformations. Today, people often assume that the soul constitution, and those states of consciousness in which modern man finds himself in waking and sleeping, have always belonged to humanity, at least essentially, since human history began. At most, the world view arrived at in natural scientific cosmology points back to a primitive half-animal-like form possessed by early humanity, as we shall be discussing presently. Such a being's inner nature would of course have to be pictured as different from the thinking, feeling and willing of today's human being. But the transformations that man's consciousness, his whole inner soul structure, have passed through since the primeval times of earth evolution, are rarely pointed out today; yet in these transformations there lies something immensely important and substantial.
When we go back to ancient times of human evolution—we need not go back to the most primeval but to about the second or third millennium before the Mystery of Golgotha—we find that mankind had a quite different consciousness, a quite different configuration of soul, than later on. The pronounced difference that exists between waking and sleeping in man today did exist at that time, but it was not the only aspect of the daily change in human consciousness. Today man only knows the states of waking and sleeping, and between them, dreams. While we are aware of a certain content in dreams, we must admit that it is often misleading. In any case, this dream content does not point to any reality that man can control directly with his day consciousness, although he certainly can indirectly. But apart from these three states of consciousness, of which that of dreams is most questionable, at least as far as gaining knowledge is concerned, an intermediate state existed for ancient humanity. It was neither that of dreams, nor of full wakefulness. Nor was it a condition of deep sleep, or half-conscious dreaming as we have it today. Rather, it was a pictorial “waking-dreaming,” as one might put it. Pictures flowed within it as thoughts run today through our waking consciousness. These pictures were similar in form to our dream pictures, but what they contained pointed to a pronounced supersensible reality, as our perceptions point to a physical reality. Just as we know, when we see a physical being with colors and shapes, that it is a physical reality, so did ancient man experience pictures which moved freely and lightly in his consciousness as our dream pictures move in ours, except that it was impossible to doubt that their content pointed to a spiritual reality. Just as today, when our eyes perceive something, we know with certainty that something physical is out there, so did a man of the past know that he perceived something spiritually real when such images passed through his consciousness.
Among what ancient man experienced as spiritually real there was also an echo of pre-earthly existence. The human being of that epoch simply had every day in his soul inner experiences that proved to him beyond all doubt that he had lived in a soul-spiritual condition, in a purely spiritual world, before entering earthly life. Men of this ancient time knew of this throughout their lives. They therefore accepted as fully evident the existence of an eternal core of man's being, and of an extra-terrestrial world to which they belonged as much as they belonged to the terrestrial world. Those who, as initiates of the mysteries, were initiated in the more profound aspects of these truths were able to speak to their followers out of their initiation science in such a manner that these faithful could arrive at the conviction that they looked into an after-image of their pre-earthly existence, and at the same time into a spiritual world to which man belongs with the eternal core of his being. This, they felt, was a gift of grace bestowed by that spiritual being whose physical image is the physical sun we see in the sky.
Thus, someone who accepted the old mystery wisdom could say: I look up to the sun, but this outer, physical sun is only an image of a spiritual sun being. This spiritual sun being permeates the spiritual world from which I myself descended to an earthly existence, and the power of this sun being has endowed my soul with that faculty, which brings it about that among my soul experiences during the sojourn on earth, I also have this, namely, that in looking back upon my pre-earthly existence, I can be sure of the eternal core-being in my soul.
For a man who, in ancient times felt the grace of the Sun Being, human death on earth was no special riddle. He was supported by the power of his initiates and knew of his pre-earthly existence and of his own external nature. He realized that death concerned only the physical human organism. He knew of something within him that had at the beginning of his earthly life descended into his physical organism. For him, death was an event that did not touch his inner being. He knew of it through his outer form of consciousness.
This was the soul condition of human beings in ancient epochs preceding the Mystery of Golgotha. In those epochs, the secret of birth lay open to a vision turned inward that was striving toward the grace of the Sun Being. While they could comprehend this secret of birth, the riddle of death was not yet present in the manner in which it existed for men of a later time. I shall speak in the second part of this lecture about how all this changed in the course of time.
This consciousness of ancient mankind that lived in pictures—and the way it affected the remaining soul constitution—was aware of the soul in such a way that the active, intense ego consciousness, possessed by mankind today, could not yet arise at that time. Man had insight into his own eternal essence but lacked a pronounced inner sensation of his ego-hood. Nor would he ever have achieved it if that ancient picture consciousness had remained with him as his endowment. But in fact, it ceased. Just when the time for the Mystery of Golgotha was drawing near, it gradually dimmed, to be replaced increasingly by the kind of ordinary consciousness we possess today, with its sharp contrast between sleeping and waking, and, in between, the dubious world of dreams. Mankind had lost that part of self-knowledge that looked back in direct vision to pre-earthly life and with it to the eternal core of man's being. But this was precisely what was necessary if man was to reach gradually his full ego consciousness. Although in that middle period of human evolution, around the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, full ego consciousness had not yet appeared in all mankind, it was being slowly prepared. With it people were confronted in full measure and with great intensity with the riddle of death. For they no longer knew anything through direct vision about the world from which they had descended into earthly existence.
In the age when humanity passed through this stage of its evolution the Christ appeared, descending out of the same world from which the human soul always descends again to birth, and, through the events of Palestine, united Himself with the man, Jesus. At that time the old traditions, namely the old methods of the initiation centers were still preserved. Although they were but a vestige of the ancient initiation, even in their weakened form they could still lead to a knowledge concerning the way the spiritual world looks and the kind of connection man has to it. The initiates of that time could address those willing to receive their words and say: The Sun Being, He who formerly bestowed grace upon men by granting them a vision of an after-image of pre-earthly life, He whose physical reflection is the physical sun, this Sun Being has descended to earth. He lived, or has lived in the man Jesus. He took on a physical body in order not only to remain connected from this time onward with the spiritual world, in which man lives between death and a new birth, but also to live within human evolution on earth itself.
Out of the remnants of the old initiation, the initiates, who were contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha, spoke about the secret of the Christ to those who were willing to accept it and had confidence in them. Those who had this trust could learn how the Christ had entered an earthly body, so that not through some kind of teaching but through His deed He could resolve the riddle that only then affected humanity in full intensity—the riddle of death. The initiates pointed out to the people that the Christ had come in order to solve the riddle of death on earth in a way suitable for man. For at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place in the earth-realm, those who possessed the vestiges of the ancient methods of initiation spoke above all else about the spiritual being of Christ as He appeared in the spiritual world. The path was described which the Christ, Who never before had descended to earth existence, had taken from the spiritual world down to earth. In all these descriptions given by the initiated contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha, the main teaching was about the way the Christ descended into the man Jesus and Himself became man in him. At that time people did not merely refer to the historical Jesus and ask: What position does this historical Jesus occupy in human evolution?—Ordinary consciousness was, after all, faced with him. Some of his contemporaries were in direct contact with him, while those who came later were aware of him in their physical sense consciousness through historical tradition. But those who knew something about the spiritual worlds because of their knowledge of ancient initiation science could say: That Being Who was once looked upon as the lofty Sun Being, the bestower of the grace we described, has taken the path leading to the earth and to the man Jesus. He has then passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, because man could no longer consciously see into pre-earthly life and so was unable to solve the riddle of death. Indeed, he could no longer be aware of this Being at all—the lofty Sun Being Who, by giving men the vision of the after-image of the world in which they had lived before birth overcame earthly death. This Being Itself descended to earth, took on human form and went through the Mystery of Golgotha in order, through what the event signified, to give back to men on earth—but this time from outside—the after-image of pre-earthly life that in earlier times He had been able to impart to them for their inner soul life in the form of pictures. It was in a manner somewhat like this that the initiated contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha expressed themselves.
Formerly, man through grace was blessed with a capacity in his consciousness that enabled him to experience his eternal essence directly when he looked back into his life before birth. But he had to develop further. He had to develop a clear earthly consciousness that could only be kindled and developed by means of the sense world. This is what caused the old consciousness, by means of which man had formerly been able to recognize his eternal nature, to recede. But that Being, Who had earlier enabled man to perceive his own eternal being from the spiritual world, accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha after His descent to earth so that man, by perceiving and understanding this event, might himself experience from outside what earlier he had experienced from within. From the Christ on earth man is to experience further what he had earlier experienced from the spiritual world through Christ.
In the third part of this lecture I shall explain the significance this had for the further course of mankind's evolution.
The vestiges of the old initiation methods through which the initiates at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, and even their successors, were able to speak correctly about the descent of the Christ and the path He took until His embodiment in the man Jesus—these vestiges continued until the fourth century A.D., though weakening increasingly in regard to the effectiveness they had for mankind. By that time, they had ceased to call forth in the human organization the kind of capacities that afforded reliable insights into the spiritual world. Mankind now entered a period of its evolution in which it was chiefly dependent upon the perceptions and views that can be attained only in the sense world and upon a thinking based on impressions and observations in this world. This period of humanity's evolution, lasting several centuries, brought about what I have just indicated as the development, the unfolding of ego consciousness.
One cannot study history correctly unless one is able to see during the period from the fourth to about the fifteenth century A.D. how ego consciousness gradually takes form among civilized peoples. Of course, precursors of this developing ego consciousness also lived in earlier times, but fundamentally there is a great difference between even the most educated, cultured person of the fourth or fifth centuries, and one of the fifteenth or sixteenth. A person who can see—I wouldn't even say, into the soul of Augustine, whose ego consciousness can be studied quite clearly in a psychological way—but let us say someone who can look, for example, into the soul of Scotus Erigena in the ninth century, sees how the ego consciousness, possessed later by the simplest person, was only just beginning to develop and form itself. At the same time, the old kind of vision was ceasing through which it was possible, for instance, to develop alchemy, which represented an innate fusion between what the eyes see and the soul experiences when it contemplates things in the external world. Pure sense observation, as the basis of human knowledge, arose first about the fifteenth century. In this turning of man to mere sense observation—which reached a high point in the age of Copernicus, Galileo and Giordano Bruno—to consciousness of the sense world, there also came into being the ego consciousness.
Ego consciousness, however, caused insight into the spiritual worlds to fall into the depths of darkness. The old perception of the mysteries, the initiation knowledge, had faded away by the fourth century A.D. and scarcely a trace of it continued in the ongoing stream of civilization. For what persisted of this knowledge was well hidden, and remained almost unknown to people in general, even to scholarly Occidental peoples. Initiation science had no real influence on general culture and civilization. It, therefore, could throw no light on the path taken by the Christ from the spiritual worlds to mankind on earth, as was still possible in the first Christian centuries, even though that had been but a vestige, but nevertheless a vestige of the old initiation science. As a result, it was only the historical Jesus who was recognized by mankind, even by learned men—that Jesus of whom history tells, a history which did not add to this historical Jesus, either by means of direct human vision or by teachings of initiation, the picture of the Christ Who was united with him.
Thus, for these centuries, the Church's development could not do otherwise than refer its believers ever and again to the historical Jesus, bringing the picture of him to life. Concerning everything, however, that those men, who knew something real about the spiritual world, could still speak about in the first Christian centuries, nothing could now be directly known. Only what was preserved by tradition from those times when there still existed human souls who really knew about the spiritual world from initiation science, only what had been preserved by tradition from old Christian knowledge—only this could be established by the Church in the form of dogmas concerning the Christ. No reference was made to those who still retained a view of the spiritual content of these dogmas, which were made the object of mere faith.
During the time when knowledge became increasingly perfected and extensive in regard to the sense world, alongside this knowledge of the sense world a content of dogmatic faith was placed, a dogmatic content that related to the Jesus figure only by means of an outward determination.
This Jesus figure had become established in mankind's ordinary consciousness and had assumed form. This attitude then continued on through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and finally led to a theology purporting to be Christian but concerned only with the man Jesus, because as a result of historical tradition ordinary consciousness was only aware of him.
Meanwhile, the consciousness that had developed experience of the ego and which had investigated the laws of the sense world had less and less inclination to abide by the established contents of faith. It was especially the leading personalities in whom the new consciousness had developed the most, who became emancipated from inclinations toward faith and thus the Christ. So it happened that in the nineteenth century the supposed Christian theology, which had completely lost all knowledge of the Christ in favor of Jesus and spoke only about “Jesus of Nazareth,” came to a special prominence. It wanted to recognize Jesus as a man only, although perhaps the most eminent one who had appeared in human evolution.
In the first Christian centuries, out of the vestiges of the old initiation wisdom, the attempt had been made to describe the path leading from the perception of the Christ Being to his incorporation in Jesus of Nazareth; in order to understand the Mystery of Golgotha, one started with Christ and later arrived at Jesus. By the nineteenth century, one began with Jesus, who was looked upon at first as a man, and tried to come from Jesus to Christ. But that was the path that as a matter of course led in the end either to the admission (or the refusal to admit) one's inability to rise to the Christ from the historical Jesus of whom ordinary consciousness alone was aware, the “simple man” Jesus who had lived in Palestine.
This situation can be changed only by modern initiation as I have characterized it in its main outlines in the past few days, which can lead to imagination, inspiration and intuition in a new form. By means of this new initiation wisdom it is again possible to go beyond the merely historical image of Jesus to a direct view of man's pre-earthly existence and the world in which this existence is spent. It thereby becomes possible to behold the Christ in His super-earthly spirituality and then, proceeding from Christ, to understand Jesus and thus the nature of the Mystery of Golgotha. The path that modern theology has taken, which, in emphasizing Jesus, has lost the Christ, can be reversed. Out of spiritual perception, men again can recognize the Christ, and through the perception of Christ behold Jesus in whom the Christ became Man. With this Christ perception, gained in the spirit, they can then contemplate the Mystery of Golgotha. Through anthroposophical perception, the Christ, Who for one branch of modern theology has already been lost, must now be recovered. I will explain in the fourth part of today's considerations what this signifies for man's inner development.
It has already been mentioned that through the lighting-up of ego consciousness the riddle of death confronted the human soul. This had to happen because, since the ego had become present in full clarity in the inner soul experience, man's physical organism thereby had become the actual basis for this ordinary human consciousness. This ego-permeated consciousness had its foundation in man's physical organism, and man learned to feel instinctively how only what has its foundation in the physical organism can be experienced by the soul. No longer did he see the eternal essence of his being through a direct picture consciousness. It was precisely his ego consciousness, his highest faculty in earth life, that drew his attention exclusively to his physical body and showed how this body, because of its constitution, could allow his ego-saturated consciousness to light up. In this state of consciousness we cannot say that there is anything in our soul that we carry through the gate of death.
It was precisely the ability of a retrospective view into pre-earthly life, which had been given to an older humanity by the grace of the lofty Sun Being, that had enabled ordinary consciousness to see forward into what is beyond death. Now, consciousness had become especially clear because, to its full extent, it had become an experience of the physical organism. But because of this man could not help saying to himself: You possess powers to brighten and illuminate your consciousness, but they come from the physical body. This body disintegrates at death. In this, of which you are aware in your ordinary consciousness, you perceive nothing of what can carry you over into another world. Something of this nature may exist—but with your ordinary consciousness you sense and know nothing of it.
This mystery of death had appeared with special intensity in the first Christian centuries when human beings were still more sensitive to these questions. The initiates, however, had drawn the attention of humanity to the Mystery of Golgotha, and in the following centuries, as Christianity evolved, its leaders had likewise directed humanity to that Mystery through their dogmas of faith. What was this Mystery to signify for man?
A person who can attain an inner person-to-person relationship to the Christ on earth, who can acknowledge and accept the Mystery of Golgotha, must take something into his consciousness that no material sense world can supply. It is precisely the person who looks most deeply into the constitution of the sense world who must deny the Mystery of Golgotha, for no understanding of this Mystery is possible to a comprehension derived from the senses. If, however, he can receive it into his heart, if he is then able, by means of a power of understanding rooted in the human soul (Gemüt), to grasp that event consummated only once in earth's evolution—an event comprehensible only out of the spirit—then, in his ordinary consciousness, he tears himself away from mere sense comprehension, which in its special clearness and intensity is precisely the essential feature of ego consciousness.
No one who wishes to remain only in the world of the senses can come to an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. By contrast, if one renounces any understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha based on sense perception and acquires instead a relationship to if of faith and acknowledgement, if one looks up to the Mystery of Golgotha in an attitude of pious veneration and attains to an understanding of what Christ became for humanity when He came down from a spiritual existence into earth life, then one rises above the mere understanding of the sense world with the aid of that very power which, though it is itself a part of earthly consciousness, nevertheless constitutes man's highest faculty. Man thus generates and unfolds a force in his ordinary consciousness that does not spring from his own natural development. He must deepen himself inwardly and intensify his consciousness if he wants to go beyond his understanding of the sense world and develop enough strength to allow the spiritual significance of the Mystery of Golgotha to become a truth for his soul.
If we renounce all understanding based on the senses and acknowledge the truth of the Mystery of Golgotha; if we recognize that the Christ really did once live on earth in Jesus, and that in the Mystery of Golgotha a real, heavenly, super-earthly deed of enduring significance was accomplished in the midst of earth existence—then, by recognizing this truth we succeed in replacing that force that was once a part of ordinary consciousness but has now been lost.
In times past, the power to look back into pre-earthly life was present in ordinary consciousness, and out of this vision consciousness gained the strength to carry the soul through the gate of death. This power which now was no longer there was to enter into the soul through the Mystery of Golgotha; it was to enter through the strengthening that could occur in the soul, if, through inward soul experience, a person confessed to the truth of this Mystery. Then, as the saying of Paul, “Not I but the Christ in me,” came to life in man himself, the Christ, with the power that streamed out from His deed on Golgotha, could carry man beyond the point where, merely because of the condition of his consciousness, physical death could leave him. By these means, it was possible to regain a power of which man knew that with it he was able to reach beyond the portal of death.
How the mysteries of death, the opposite of the mysteries of birth, of which I spoke yesterday, can be described further in relation to the Christ Being, will be the topic of tomorrow's lecture.
Today, I would like to close my remarks by referring to what an old initiate said to those whose souls—as early as the first Christian centuries—were confronted with this whole riddle of death. He said: “Behold the condition of the human body, now that man has arrived at the use of ego consciousness. In this stage, the physical body conceals man's total entity. Since the unfolding of ego consciousness, man is so constituted that in and through his physical body alone he could never take hold of that element in him that belongs to the spirit. Look,” said such an initiate to his followers in the first Christian centuries, “look at the physical human organism just when the stage is reached when it is to offer the highest potentiality for ego consciousness; it turns out to be inadequate. The physical organism is therefore sick; it would be healthy only if it could give to man a consciousness of his spiritual significance. This physical organism developed in such a way that from the beginning there was sickness in it in relation to the life of the spirit. For this reason, the Christ descended and passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, not only as a teacher but as the Physician of the soul, Who, through man's soul, heals him from what has fallen ill in his physical organism.” This is how those initiates of the first Christian century—who are no longer acknowledged by today's theology and who have been erased from memory—presented the Christ as the Physician of the soul, the Healer, the Savior of mankind. In presenting Him thus, they gave Him his due place as the true meaning of the whole of earth evolution. They showed how man's evolution took a descending course, descending to the point where his physical organism became completely corrupt and useless for the highest tasks of human consciousness. Then the Divine Savior as the Physician of the soul intervened to heal the relationship between man's soul condition and the divine-spiritual world. Thus, through the initiates of the first Christian centuries, a deeper understanding of the Christ came into being, namely, that of Christ as the Soul Physician of the world, the Healer of mankind, the Savior.
Because of all this one can say that in ancient times, before the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place on earth, the initiates could speak to wider circles of humanity, who were open to their teachings, about a spiritual, a divine existence that permeated and was the foundation of all sense existence. If man brings this teaching to life again in modern consciousness through imaginative insight, then, what otherwise is an abstract, thought-out philosophy is enlivened—not only in the sense I have earlier characterized it here, but by becoming permeated by Christ. By means of the knowledge through which modern imagination leads men again to an insight into the spiritual world, philosophy is filled with the Christ. What once existed in ancient humanity, namely, the awareness of the Divine-Spiritual Father of all physical existence can awaken in humanity again. It was basically toward this Divine Father-consciousness that the ancient, pre-Christian initiates strove along with the rest of mankind. In the highest grade of initiation in the mysteries, the initiate represented the Divine-Spiritual, Cosmic Father, and was called “The Father.”
If man allows this conception to arise in his mind, what may be called a Christian philosophy comes into being. Furthermore, through modern inspiration, he becomes acquainted with what was already prophetically expressed by the initiates of the early Christian centuries, who still possessed vestiges of an ancient inspiration. He learns to perceive how a Divine-Spiritual Being, the Christ, descended out of spiritual worlds, placed Himself into man's earthly development, and thus constitutes in Himself the fulcrum of this evolution. A meaningful content is thus brought into humanity's earthly evolution and its laws when man learns through the Mystery of Golgotha to link this evolution to the cosmos by means of looking up to the cosmic Christ Being. Further, man learns to recognize how earthly evolution has been a concern of heaven, how the cosmos has cared about the affairs of mankind. In this way, the nature of that cosmology, which I have always characterized here as a spiritual cosmology, is extended so as to become a Christian cosmology.
If, then, man achieves a living relationship to the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha in the sense of the words of Paul, “Not I but the Christ in me,” the Christ, by helping him solve the riddle of death, leads him into a renewed life in the spirit. He becomes acquainted with the new spirit, which once again is to make it clear to mankind that beyond the physical world there exists a spiritual world that rules, orders and permeates the physical. He learns to know the mission of the Healing Spirit, Who proceeds from Christ and is sanctified by Christ Himself. He learns to know the mystery of the Holy Spirit as the foundation for a new religious perception.
The Trinity, so long spoken of as a dogma, again comes to live for man. Looking back to the pre-Christian mysteries one can say that in these lived God the Father, Who also has a cosmic meaning for us. Through the Mystery of Golgotha, God the Son, in Christ, drew near mankind, and through what God the Son has brought to humanity, the connection was established with the Healing, the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is again a living conception; no dogma.
Through the vitalizing of the Father consciousness there arises a Christ-permeated philosophy. Through the vitalizing of the Son consciousness comes a Christ-permeated cosmology. In accordance with what the Christ referred to and has called the Healing Spirit and has mercifully poured over mankind, a new basis arises for a Christian religion, founded in knowledge.
Starting from such a Christian philosophy, a Christian cosmology and a Christian religious insight, we shall speak further tomorrow about the mystery of death in relation to the Christ Being and the course of humanity's evolution.
Christus in seinem Zusammenhang mit der Menschheit
[ 1 ] Es wurde gestern versucht, auseinanderzusetzen, wie der Übergang des Menschen aus der geistigen Welt, in der er selber als ein geistig-seelisches Wesen im vorirdischen Dasein verweilt, in diese physische Erde ist. Dieses Verständnis des ewigen Wesenskernes des Menschen aus der Anerkennung des vorirdischen Daseins ist nun durchaus notwendig, wenn man das ganz wesenhafte Eingreifen des Christus und des Mysteriums von Golgatha in die Entwickelung der Erdenmenschheit sich vor die Seele stellen will. Denn man muß, um zu einem Verständnis des eigentlichen Wesens des Mysteriums von Golgatha zu kommen, doch verfolgen können, wie mit diesem Ereignis ein Wesen der geistigen Welten, der Christus, aus außerirdischen Regionen in das Erdendasein selbst herabgestiegen ist als eine Wesenheit, die vorher nur in denjenigen Regionen war, in denen wir selbst unser vorirdisches Dasein zubringen, wie diese Wesenheit dann heruntergestiegen ist und in dem Menschen Jesus eine irdische Gestaltung und ein irdisches Wirken angenommen hat.
[ 2 ] Will man zu einem solchen Verständnisse des Christus kommen und des Mysteriums von Golgatha im Zusammenhange mit dem Ereignisse der Geburt des Menschen, von dem ich gestern skizzenhaft gesprochen habe, so muß man vor allen Dingen berücksichtigen, daß die menschliche Seelenverfassung, das innere menschliche Erleben im Verlaufe der Menschheitsentwickelung auf Erden eine sehr bedeutungsvolle Wandlung, sehr bedeutsame Veränderungen durchgemacht hat. Heute wird ja die Sache oftmals so angesehen, als ob diejenige Seelenverfassung und diejenigen Bewußtseinsformen, in welchen der heutige Mensch im Wachzustande und auch im Schlafzustande ist, immer in der Menschheit dagewesen wären, wenigstens im wesentlichen so, seit es eine Geschichte der Menschheit gibt. Höchstens, daß man im naturwissenschaftlich-kosmologischen Weltbilde zurückweist auf primitive, halb tierähnliche Gestaltungen der früheren Menschheit — wir werden davon noch zu sprechen haben -, in denen natürlich auch das menschliche Innere anders vorgestellt werden müsse in bezug auf Denken, Fühlen und Wollen als das eines heutigen Menschen. Aber auf die Wandlungen, welche das Menschheitsbewußtsein, die ganze innere Seelenverfassung des Menschen seit den Urzeiten der Erdenentwickelung durchgemacht hat, weist man heute außerordentlich wenig hin. Und doch liegt da etwas unermeßlich Wichtiges und Wesenhaftes vor.
[ 3 ] Wenn wir in sehr alte Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung zurückgehen — wir brauchen nicht bis zu den Urzeiten der Erdenentwickelung zu gehen, sondern nur etwa bis in das 2., 3. Jahrtausend vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha -, so finden wir, daß damals die Menschen ein ganz anderes Bewußtsein, eine ganz andere innere Seelenverfassung gehabt haben als später. Jener schroffe Unterschied, der beim gegenwärtigen Menschen besteht zwischen Wachen und Schlafen, war zwar auch vorhanden, allein er war nicht das einzige im menschlichen täglichen Bewußtseinswechsel. Heute kennt der Mensch nur den Wachzustand und den Schlafzustand, zwischendurch die Träume. Aber von diesen Träumen muß man sagen, daß zwar in ihnen ein Bewußtseinsinhalt vorhanden ist, der aber vielfach trügerisch ist, und daß jedenfalls dieser Bewußtseinsinhalt der Träume nicht auf irgendeine Wirklichkeit hinweist, die der Mensch ohne weiteres durch sein Tagesbewußtsein unmittelbar kontrollieren kann; mittelbar ja gewiß. Aber außer diesen drei Bewußtseinszuständen, von denen der eine, der Traumzustand, ein sehr fragwürdiger ist, wenigstens für die Erkenntnis, war bei den Menschen eines älteren Zeitalters ein Zwischenzustand vorhanden, der nicht der Traumzustand von heute war, der nicht ein so volles Wachen war wie das heutige Wachen, der aber auch nicht ein volles Schlafen oder halbbewußtes Träumen war, wie es heute da ist, sondern ein bildhaftes Wach-Träumen, könnte man sagen. In diesem Wach-Träumen liefen Bilder ab, wie in unserem Wach-Bewußtsein Gedanken ablaufen. So liefen in gewissen Zeiten bei einer älteren Menschheit im Bewußtsein Bilder ab. Diese Bilder waren in ihren Formen allerdings den Traumbildern von heute ähnlich, aber das, was sie enthielten, wies auf eine ganz ausgesprochene übersinnliche Wirklichkeit hin, wie unsere Wahrnehmungen auf eine physische Wirklichkeit hinweisen. Wie wir wissen, wenn wir ein physisches Wesen mit Farben und Formen wahrnehmen, daß dies ein physisch Wirkliches ist, so erlebte der frühere Mensch Bilder, die sich ebenso frei im Bewußtsein bewegten und ebenso leicht waren wie unsere Traumbilder, die aber durch ihren Inhalt einen Hinweis auf eine geistige Wirklichkeit selber verbürgten. So wie wir heute, wenn das Auge etwas wahrnimmt, ganz bestimmt wissen: da ist etwas Physisch-Sinnliches draußen in der Welt - so wußte der frühere Mensch, wenn solche Bilder von einer bestimmten Art in seinem Bewußtsein abliefen, daß er etwas Geistig-Wirkliches wahrnimmt.
[ 4 ] Unter diesem, was der Mensch einer älteren Zeitepoche als Geistig-Wirkliches erlebte, war auch ein Nachklang des vorirdischen Daseins. Der Mensch dieser Zeitepoche hatte einfach jeden Tag in seiner Seele innere Erlebnisse, die ihm ein voller Beweis dafür waren: Du warst, bevor du dein Erdendasein angetreten hast, in einem geistig-seelischen Dasein, in einer rein geistigen Welt. - Und jeden Tag wußte das dieser einer älteren Zeitepoche angehörende Mensch. So war für diese Menschen etwas völlig Klares die Annahme eines ewigen Wesenskernes des Menschen und einer Welt, die außerirdisch ist, welcher der Mensch ebenso angehört wie der irdischen. Und diejenigen, die in jenen älteren Zeiten als die Initiierten der Mysterien in diesen ganzen Sachverhalt auch noch eingeweiht waren in seinen tieferen Gestaltungen, die konnten dann zu denjenigen, die ihre Bekenner waren, aus ihrer Initiationswissenschaft heraus so sprechen, daß diese Bekenner, diese Gläubigen zu der Überzeugung kommen konnten, daß sie in einen Nachklang ihres vorirdischen Daseins hineinschauen und damit zu gleicher Zeit in eine geistige Welt, welcher der Mensch angehört mit seinem ewigen Wesenskern. Das ist eine Gnade des geistigen Wesens, dem als seinem physischen Abbilde die physische Sonne entspricht. So konnte also der Bekenner zur alten Mysterienweisheit sich sagen: Ich schaue zur Sonne hinauf, aber diese äußere physische Sonne ist nur ein Abbild eines geistigen Sonnenwesens. Dieses geistige Sonnenwesen durchdringt die geistige Welt, aus der ich selber zum irdischen Dasein heruntergestiegen bin, und die Kraft dieses Sonnenwesens hat meiner Seele für das Erdendasein dasjenige mitgegeben, was bewirkt, daß ich unter den Erlebnissen meiner Seele während der Erdenzeit auch das habe, durch das ich im Rückblicken auf mein vorirdisches Dasein des ewigen Wesenskernes in meiner Seele gewiß bin.
[ 5 ] Wer also in älteren Zeiten, unterstützt durch die Kraft seiner Eingeweihten, die Gnade des Sonnenwesens empfand und damit durch sein Bildbewußtsein von seinem vorirdischen Dasein und damit von seinem ewigen Wesenskern wußte, für den war der Menschentod auf Erden noch kein besonderes Rätsel. Denn von diesem Menschentod wußte er, der betrifft nur den physischen Menschenorganismus. — Aber er kannte etwas in sich, was zu diesem physischen Menschenorganismus erst heruntergestiegen ist. Der Tod wurde für ihn nur ein Ereignis, von dem dasjenige, was er ja durch seine äußere Bewußtseinsform kannte, nicht berührt wurde. Dieses war also die Seelenverfassung der Menschen in einer sehr alten Zeitepoche, in jenen Zeitepochen, die dem Mysterium von Golgatha vorangegangen sind. Da lag im Grunde genommen vor einem nach innen gewendeten Blick, der zu der Gnade des Sonnenwesens sich hinaufarbeitete, das Geheimnis der Geburt offenbar, und da war im Zusammenhange mit dem Durchschauen dieses Geheimnisses der Geburt das Rätsel des Todes noch nicht in solcher Art vorhanden, wie es für die späteren Menschen dann vorhanden war.
[ 6 ] Wie sich das dann im Laufe der Zeit änderte, werde ich gleich im zweiten Teile dieses Vortrages auseinandersetzen.
[ 7 ] Dieses in Bildern lebende Bewußtsein im Zusammenhang mit dem, was es für die übrige Seelenverfassung bewirkte, stellte die menschliche Seele jener älteren Menschheit so vor sich hin, daß jenes aktive, intensive Ich-Bewußtsein, welches die heutige Menschheit hat, in jener älteren Zeit eben noch nicht vorhanden war. Der Mensch hatte einen Einblick in seinen ewigen Wesenskern, nicht aber ein ausgesprochenes inneres Fühlen seiner Ich-Wesenheit. Das hätte er auch nicht erlangt, wenn die Gabe jenes älteren Bildbewußtseins geblieben wäre. Aber diese Gabe jenes älteren Bildbewußtseins hörte auf. Gerade in derjenigen Zeit, in der das Mysterium von Golgatha innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung heranrückte, dämmerte dieses Bildbewußtsein immer mehr und mehr ab. Und immer mehr stellte sich dann jener Zustand ein, wie ihn das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein heute noch erlebt in dem Unterschiede zwischen Schlafen und Wachen als schroffe Gegensätze und in der dazwischenliegenden fragwürdigen Traumwelt. Die Menschen hatten also jenes Stück der Selbsterkenntnis verloren, das in unmittelbarer Anschauung hinwies auf das vorirdische Dasein und damit auf den ewigen Wesenskern des Menschen. Aber gerade das war notwendig, um immer mehr und mehr zum vollen Ich-Bewußtsein zu kommen. Zwar trat in jener mittleren Zeit der Menschheitsentwickelung zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha das volle Ich-Bewußtsein noch nicht auf bei der gesamten Menschheit, aber es bereitete sich langsam vor. Damit war aber auch vor die Menschheit in vollem Umfange und in starker Intensität hingestellt das Rätsel des Todes, denn die Menschheit wußte jetzt durch einen unmittelbaren Eindruck nichts von derjenigen Welt, aus der sie heruntergestiegen ist in das irdische Dasein.
[ 8 ] In der Zeit, in der die Menschheitsentwickelung dieses Stadium durchmachte, erschien nun, aus derselben Welt heruntersteigend, aus der die Menschenseele immer durch die Geburt heruntersteigt, der Christus und vereinigte sich durch die Ereignisse von Palästina mit dem Menschen Jesus. Und diejenigen, die in jener Zeit noch alte Traditionen, namentlich aber alte Methoden aus den Initiationsstätten her bewahrt hatten, Methoden, die allerdings nur noch ein Rest der alten Initiation waren, die aber doch auch in ihrem abgeschwächten Zustande zu einem Wissen darüber führten, wie es in der geistigen Welt aussieht und welchen Zusammenhang der Mensch mit dieser geistigen Welt hat — diese Initiierten konnten zu der Menschheit so sprechen, daß sie denen, die es aufnehmen wollten, sagten: Das Sonnenwesen, das früher den Menschen begnadet hat mit dem Anschauen eines Nachklanges eines vorirdischen Daseins und das seinen physischen Abglanz in der physischen Sonne hat, dieses. Sonnenwesen ist herabgestiegen. Denn in dem Menschen Jesus wohnte oder hat gewohnt dieses Sonnenwesen. Es hat menschlichen Körper angenommen, um von dieser Zeit an nun nicht bloß mit der geistigen Welt in Verbindung zu stehen, die der Mensch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmacht, sondern um in der Menschheitsevolution der Erde selber mitzuleben.
[ 9 ] Aus den Resten der alten Initiation heraus haben also die Initilerten, die Zeitgenossen des Mysteriums von Golgatha waren, über das Geheimnis Christi zu denjenigen gesprochen, die es aufnehmen wollten, die Vertrauen hatten zu diesen Initiierten. Und es konnten die Menschen, die dieses Vertrauen hatten, lernen, wie der Christus in einen Erdenleib eingetreten ist, um jetzt nicht durch irgend etwas Lehrhaftes, sondern durch seine Tat den Menschen jenes Rätsel zu lösen, das eben erst jetzt in voller Intensität über die Menschheit gekommen ist: das Rätsel des Todes. Darauf haben eben diese Initiierten die Menschen verwiesen, daß der Christus gekommen ist, um auf Erden das Rätsel des Todes in entsprechender Weise für den Menschen zu lösen. Denn in der Zeit, in welcher das Mysterium von Golgatha im Erdbereich stattfand, hat man vor allen Dingen durch den Besitz jener Reste alter Initiationsmethoden gesprochen von der geistigen Wesenheit des Christus, wie sie sich ausnimmt in der geistigen Welt selber. Den Weg hat man beschrieben, den der Christus, der früher niemals zum Erdendasein heruntergestiegen war, aus der geistigen Welt zur Erde herunter genommen hatte. In allen diesen Betrachtungen der initiierten Zeitgenossen des Mysteriums von Golgatha hat das die Hauptlehre gespielt, wie der Christus seinen Weg zu dem Menschen Jesus herunter genommen hat und selber in dem Jesus Mensch gewesen ist. Da hat man nicht etwa bloß auf den historischen Jesus hingeschaut und gefragt: Was ist dieser historische Jesus inmitten der Menschheitsentwickelung? - Diesen Jesus hatte das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein allerdings vor sich. Die Zeitgenossen hatten ihn zum Teil vor sich, die Späteren hatten ihn durch die historische Tradition vor ihrem physisch-sinnlichen Bewußtsein. Aber das, was von älterer Initiationswissenschaft vorhanden war bei denen, die etwas über die geistigen Welten wußten, das konnte sagen: Dasjenige Wesen, das einstmals als das hohe Sonnenwesen, als der Spender der Gnade, die ich geschildert habe, angesehen worden ist, das hat seinen Weg genommen zum Menschen Jesus auf Erden. Das ist durch die Ereignisse von Golgatha gegangen. Weil für den Menschen in seinem Bewußtsein die Möglichkeit aufgehört hat, hineinzuschauen in das vorirdische Dasein und dadurch das Rätsel des Todes eigentlich damit zu lösen, daß man dieses Wesen gar nicht empfand: jenes hohe Sonnenwesen, das den Menschen die Kraft, den Tod auf Erden zu besiegen, mitgegeben hat in diesem Erschauen des Nachklanges aus dem vorirdischen Dasein. Das ist heruntergestiegen selbst in das irdische Dasein, hat Menschengestalt angenommen, ist durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen, um durch den Sinn dieses Ereignisses den Menschen hier auf Erden von außen herein das wiederzugeben, was es ihnen früher für das Innere des Seelenlebens als einen Nachklang an das vorirdische Dasein im Bildbewußtsein hat mitgeben können. — So etwa sprachen die initiierten Zeitgenossen des Mysteriums von Golgatha.
[ 10 ] Der Mensch war früher begnadet, in seinem Bewußtsein eine Kraft zu haben, durch die er seinen ewigen Wesenskern im Hinschauen auf ein vorirdisches Dasein unmittelbar erleben konnte. Der Mensch mußte sich weiterentwickeln. Er entwickelte ein klares Erden-Ich-Bewußtsein, das nur an der sinnlichen Welt entzündet und herausgebildet werden kann. Dadurch muß zurückgedämmt werden jenes alte Bewußtsein, durch das der Mensch früher seinen ewigen Wesenskern erkannte. Aber jenes Wesen, das ihn diesen ewigen Wesenskern aus der geistigen Welt herein einst hat erkennen lassen, das hat nach seinem Herabstieg auf die Erde vollbracht das Mysterium von Golgatha, damit der Mensch im Anschauen und im Verstehen dieses Mysteriums von Golgatha von außen her dasjenige erleben kann, was er früher von innen her erlebt hat. Von dem Christus auf Erden soll der Mensch dasjenige weiter erleben, was er früher durch den Christus aus der geistigen Welt herein erlebt hatte.
[ 11 ] Was dieses in bezug auf die weitere Evolution der Menschheit dann für eine Bedeutung hatte, werde ich im dritten Teil der heutigen Betrachtung berichten.
[ 12 ] Die Reste alter Initiationsmethoden, durch die es den Zeitgenossen des Mysteriums von Golgatha, wenn sie initiiert waren, oder auch noch Nachfolgern derselben möglich war, in sachgemäßer Weise von dem Herabsteigen des Christus zu reden und von dem Wege, den er bis zu seinem Herabstieg in den Menschen Jesus genommen hat, diese Reste pflanzten sich fort, indem sie immer mehr und mehr abdämmerten in der Kraft der Menschheit bis in das 4. nachchristliche Jahrhundert. Im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert hörten die alten Initiationsmethoden auf, in der menschlichen Organisation in rechter Art Kräfte hervorzurufen, die einwandfreie Einsichten in die geistige Welt ergaben. Die Menschheit trat zunächst in eine Periode ihrer Entwickelung ein, in der sie im wesentlichen angewiesen war auf jene Erkenntnisse und Anschauungen, die nur aus der Sinnenwelt gewonnen werden können und aus dem Denken, das auf den Eindrücken und Beobachtungen der Sinnenwelt gebaut ist. Diese durch einige Jahrhunderte dauernde Periode der Menschheitsentwickelung brachte das zustande, was ich eben angedeutet habe als die Entwickelung, als die Entfaltung des Ich-Bewußtseins.
[ 13 ] Man kann Geschichte nicht richtig studieren, wenn man nicht die Zeit vom 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert ab bis etwa in das 15. Jahrhundert hinein gerade in der zivilisierten Menschheit daraufhin anzusehen vermag, wie sich das Ich-Bewußtsein allmählich herausgestalter. Gewiß, Vorläufer in der Gestaltung dieses Ich-Bewußtseins waren auch schon früher vorhanden, aber im wesentlichen ist ein großer Unterschied zwischen selbst dem gebildetsten, dem gelehrtesten Menschen des 4., 5. Jahrhunderts und jenem des 15. oder 16. Jahrhunderts. Wer hineinschauen kann - ich möchte nicht einmal sagen in die Seele des Augustinus, in dem das Ich-Bewußtsein in seinem Heranreifen recht anschaulich, nämlich seelenanschaulich studiert werden kann -, sondern wer hineinschauen kann in die Seele zum Beispiel des Scotus Erigena aus dem 9. Jahrhundert, der sieht, wie da jenes Ich-Bewußtsein, das später dem einfachsten Menschen eigen ist, sich erst herausbildet, sich herausbildet, indem zugleich jenes alte Anschauen aufhört, durch das man zum Beispiel dasjenige ausbilden konnte, was Alchimie war: ein Durchsetzen desjenigen, was Augen sehen, mit demjenigen, was die Seele in den Dingen erlebte. Das rein sinnliche Anschauen als Grundlage der menschlichen Erkenntnis erstand ja erst etwa im 15. Jahrhundert. Aber es hat sich herausgebildet. Und in dieser Hinlenkung des Menschen auf die rein sinnliche Anschauung, die dann einen Gipfel erreichte im Zeitalter Kopernikus’, Galileis und Giordano Brunos, in diesem Hinlenken auf die sinnliche Welt bildete sich zugleich das Sinnesbewußtsein, das Ich-Bewußtsein aus.
[ 14 ] Dieses Ich-Bewußtsein aber ließ das Hineinschauen in die geistigen Welten gewissermaßen hinunterfallen in dunkle Tiefen. Was alte Mysterienanschauung, Initiationserkenntnis war, das dämmerte mit dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert hinunter und fand kaum eine Fortsetzung in der weiteren Zivilisation der Menschheit. Denn die sehr verborgene Fortsetzung blieb der äußeren, auch der gelehrten abendländischen Menschheit fast ganz unbekannt. In dem allgemeinen Bildungsleben, Zivilisationsleben war eine Initiationswissenschaft eigentlich nicht wirksam. Dadurch konnte sie auch nicht wie in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten — wenn es auch Reste waren, so doch noch Reste der alten Initiationswissenschaft - über den Weg des Christus aus den geistigen Welten zur Erdenmenschheit hin aufklären. Und es stand vor der Menschheit, auch vor der gelehrten Menschheit, daher nur der historische Jesus, jener Jesus, von dem die Geschichte berichtete, die jedoch nicht hinzufügte — weder im menschlichen Anschauen noch durch eine Initiationsbelehrung — zu diesem historischen Jesus das Bild des Christus, der mit ihm verbunden war.
[ 15 ] Daher konnte die kirchliche Entwickelung für diese Jahrhunderte nichts anderes tun, als ihre Gläubigen immer wieder und wieder auf den historischen Jesus zu verweisen, lebendig zu machen das Bild des historischen Jesus. Aber über alles, wovon noch in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten diejenigen sprechen konnten, die von der geistigen Welt etwas Wirkliches wußten, über alles das konnte jetzt unmittelbar nichts Wirkliches gewußt werden. Nur das, was in der Tradition von den Zeiten her bewahrt war, als es noch solche Menschenseelen gegeben hat, die aus der Initiationswissenschaft heraus etwas über die geistige Welt wirklich wußten, nur das, was sich aus der Tradition aus altem christlichem Wissen bewahrt hatte, konnte als Dogmen über den Christus von der Kirche hingestellt werden, und nicht wurde hingewiesen auf solche, die noch eine Anschauung hatten von dem geistigen Inhalt dieser Dogmen, sondern diese Dogmen wurden zum Gegenstand eines bloßen Glaubens gemacht.
[ 16 ] In der Zeit, in der sich mit Bezug auf die Sinneswelt das Wissen immer mehr und mehr ausbildete und vertiefte, wurde neben dieses Wissen von der Sinneswelt hingestellt ein Glaubensinhalt, ein Dogmengehalt, der nur durch eine äußerliche Festsetzung an die Jesusgestalt anknüpfte, die eben durch die äußere Geschichte vor dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein der Menschheit dastand und diese Gestalt angenommen hatte. Dieses Verhalten fand ja dann seine Fortsetzung auch durch das 17., 18., 19. Jahrhundert und hatte endlich sogar zu einer auch noch christlich sein wollenden Theologie geführt, die nur noch auf den Menschen Jesus hinweisen wollte, weil der nur durch die historische Tradition vor dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein dastand. Aber in der Zwischenzeit hatte dasjenige Bewußtsein, welches das Ich-Erlebnis ausgebildet hatte, das sich umgesehen hatte in den Gesetzmäßigkeiten der Sinneswelt, immer weniger und weniger Neigung, sich an den festgestellten Glaubensinhalt zu halten. Gerade bei den führenden Menschenpersönlichkeiten, bei denen sich dieses neue Bewußtsein am meisten ausgebildet hatte, emanzipierte man sich von den Neigungen zum Glaubensinhalt, vom Christus. Und so kam es, daß namentlich stark im 19. Jahrhundert die auch christlich sein wollende Theologie heraufkam, die den Christus über dem Jesus völlig für die Erkenntnis verloren hatte, die nur noch von dem Jesus von Nazareth sprach, die den Jesus erkennen wollte als einen der Menschen, vielleicht auch als den vorzüglichsten, der sich in die Menschheitsentwickelung hineingestellt hat.
[ 17 ] Hatte man in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten aus den Resten der alten Initiationsweisheit heraus, wenn vom Mysterium von Golgatha gesprochen wurde, den Weg zu beschreiben gesucht, den man fand von der Anschauung der Christus-Wesenheit angefangen bis zu der Verkörperung dieser Christus-Wesenheit in dem Jesus von Nazareth, ging man für das Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha in diesen ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten von dem Christus aus, um zu dem Jesus zu kommen, so ging man jetzt von dem Jesus aus, den man zunächst als Menschen anschaute, und wollte dann von dem Jesus aus zu dem Christus kommen. Das aber nahm naturgemäß den Weg, daß man zuletzt sich nur seine Ohnmacht entweder gestand oder auch nicht gestand, von dem historischen, für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein vorhandenen Jesus-Wesen, von dem «schlichten» Jesus-Wesen in Palästina aufzusteigen zu dem Christus. So hat die Theologie eines Teiles der Menschheit den Christus über dem Jesus verloren. Dies kann erst anders werden durch die moderne Initiation, durch jene Initiation, die ich in diesen Tagen in ihren Hauptzügen charakterisiert habe, die zur Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition in einer neuen Form führen kann. Durch diese neue Initiationsweisheit ist es wiederum möglich, über das bloße historische Jesusbild hinaus zu einem unmittelbaren Anschauen des vorirdischen Menschendaseins und der Welt, in der dieses vorirdische Menschendasein verläuft, zu kommen, und damit auch den Christus in seiner außerirdischen Geistwesenheit anzuschauen, also wiederum von dem Christus aus den Jesus und damit das Mysterium von Golgatha zu verstehen. Damit kann der Weg, zu dem die moderne Theologie geführt hat und der über dem Jesus den Christus verloren hat, wiederum umgelenkt werden. Man kann wiederum aus der geistigen Anschauung heraus den Christus erkennen und durch die Erkenntnis des Christus den Jesus, in welchem der Christus Mensch geworden war, anschauen und hinschauen mit der im Geiste gewonnenen Christus-Erkenntnis auf das Mysterium von Golgatha. Durch anthroposophische Anschauung muß der Christus, der für einen Zweig der modernen Theologie schon verlorengegangen ist, wiederum gewonnen werden. Was das für die innere Entwickelung des Menschen zu bedeuten hat, will ich in dem vierten Teile dieser heutigen Betrachtung berichten.
[ 18 ] Es ist schon gesagt worden, daß durch das Heraufleuchten des IchBewußtseins das Rätsel des Todes sich vor die Menschenseele hinstellte. Dieses Rätsel des Todes mußte sich ja vor diese menschliche Seelenverfassung hinstellen aus dem Grunde, weil, indem das Ich mit voller Klarheit im inneren seelischen Erleben anwesend wurde, dadurch der physische Menschenorganiismus die eigentliche Grundlage für dieses menschliche gewöhnliche Bewußtsein geworden ist. Dieses Ich-durchtränkte Bewußtsein hat zu seiner Grundlage den physischen Menschenorganismus, und der Mensch lernte instinktiv fühlen, wie nur dasjenige in sein seelisches Erleben hereingeht, das zur Grundlage diesen physischen Menschenorganismus hat. Er hatte ja jetzt durch unmittelbares Bildbewußtsein keine Anschauung von seinem ewigen Wesenskerne. Gerade durch das, was ihm ein Höchstes für das Erdendasein gab, sein Ich-Bewußtsein, gerade dadurch wurde er auf seinen physischen Leib verwiesen, wurde darauf verwiesen, wie ihm sein physischer Leib aus seiner Konstitution heraus das volle Ich-durchtränkte Bewußtsein aufleuchten ließ.
[ 19 ] In diesem Bewußtsein läßt sich nicht sagen: Wir haben etwas innen in unserer Seele, das wir durch die Pforte des Todes tragen. — Gerade das, was die Gnade des hohen Sonnenwesens einer älteren Menschheit gab an Rückblick auf das vorirdische Dasein, das strahlte ja in das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein dasjenige hinein, was über den Tod auch hinausweisen konnte. Jetzt war das Bewußtsein gerade dadurch besonders klar geworden, daß es in seinem ganzen Umfange ein Erlebnis des physischen Menschenorganismus geworden ist. Damit aber war es für den Menschen nur noch möglich zu sagen: Du hast Kräfte in dir, die dir dein Bewußtsein erhellen, dir dein Bewußtsein erleuchten, die aber von dem physischen Leibe kommen. Dieser physische Leib zerfällt mit dem Tode. In demjenigen, von dem du weißt in deinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein, verspürst du nichts von etwas, was dich hinübertragen kann in eine andere Welt. Mag es so etwas geben — aber du verspürst, du weißt durch dein gewöhnliches Bewußtsein nichts von einem solchen Dasein.
[ 20 ] Diese Rätselhaftigkeit des Todes war allerdings mit einer besonderen Intensität, als die Menschen in bezug auf diese Dinge noch sensitiver waren, hervorgetreten in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten. Allein die Initiierten hatten den Menschen hingewiesen auf das Mysterium von Golgatha, und in den folgenden Jahrhunderten hatte die christliche Entwickelung in ihren Führern dem Menschen durch die Glaubensdogmen einen Hinweis gegeben auf das Mysterium von Golgatha. Was sollte dieses Mysterium von Golgatha dem Menschen sein?
[ 21 ] Wer ein inneres menschliches Verhältnis zu dem Christus gewinnen kann, wer hinblicken kann in Anerkennung und Bejahung zu dem Mysterium von Golgatha, der muß in sein Bewußtsein etwas hereinnehmen, das ihm keine Sinneswelt geben kann. Gerade der, der am allermeisten in die Konstitution der Sinneswelt hineinschaut, kommt ja aus dieser Konstitution der Sinneswelt nur zu einer Widerlegung des Mysteriums von Golgatha, denn mit keinem Sinnesverständnis kann man das Mysterium von Golgatha verstehen. Kann man es jedoch in sein Herz aufnehmen, ist man dennoch in der Lage, als Mensch ein im Gemüte wurzelndes Verständnis für dieses einmal im Erdenlaufe sich vollziehende, nur aus dem Geiste heraus verständliche Ereignis zu fassen, so reißt man sich in diesem seinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein heraus aus dem bloßen Sinnesverständnis, das gerade das Ich-Bewußtsein in seiner besonderen Klarheit und Intensität ausmacht.
[ 22 ] Keiner, der nur innerhalb der Sinneswelt stehenbleiben will, kann zu einem Verständnisse des Mysteriums von Golgatha kommen. Verzichtet man dagegen auf ein Verständnis in der Art, wie man dies aus der Sinneswelt erfahren kann gegenüber dem Mysterium von Golgatha, und bekommt man dennoch ein Verhältnis der Gläubigkeit, ein Verhältnis der Anerkennung, ein Verhältnis des verehrungsvoll andächtigen Aufschauens zu dem Mysterium von Golgatha, bekommt man ein Verständnis dafür, was der Christus der Menschheit geworden ist durch sein Herabsteigen aus einem geistigen Dasein in das Erdenleben, dann reißt man sich in seinem irdischen Bewußtsein durch das, was gerade durch das sinnliche Verständnis als ein Höchstes erworben wird, heraus aus dem bloßen Sinnesverständnis. Dadurch läßt man keimen, entfaltet man in diesem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein eine Kraft, die nicht durch natürliches Entwickeln des Menschen im Bewußtsein sein kann. Man muß sich innerlich mehr vertiefen, man muß das Bewußtsein intensivieren, wenn man zu dem Sinnesverständnis innerlich soviel Kraft aufbringen will, daß das Mysterium von Golgatha in seiner geistigen Bedeutung für die Seelenverfassung des Menschen eine Wahrheit sein kann. Und mit diesem auf das sinnliche Verständnis verzichtenden Wahrheit-Anerkennen des Mysteriums von Golgatha, mit diesem Anerkennen, daß der Christus in dem Jesus wirklich auf Erden gewesen ist, daß mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha mitten im irdischen Dasein eine himmlische, eine außerirdische Tatsache sich vollzogen hat, die bleibende Bedeutung gewonnen hat, mit der Anerkennung dieser Wahrheit ersetzt man jetzt diejenige Kraft, die im natürlichen Bewußtsein einmal vorhanden war, doch jetzt nicht mehr vorhanden ist.
[ 23 ] Einmal war im natürlichen Bewußtsein die Kraft vorhanden, hinzuschauen auf das vorirdische Dasein und aus diesem Hinschauen heraus die Bewußtseinskraft zu gewinnen, die Seele hindurchzutragen durch die Pforte des Todes. Das, was so nicht mehr da war, sollte nun in die Seele einziehen durch das Mysterium von Golgatha und durch jene Erkraftung, die in der Seele stattfinden konnte, wenn man sich zu der Wahrheit des Mysteriums von Golgatha durch inneres Seelenerleben bekennt. Dann konnte, indem in einem selber lebendig wurde das Paulinische Wort «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir», dann konnte einen der Christus mit der Kraft, die von seinem Mysterium von Golgatha ausstrahlte, hinwegtragen über dasjenige, in das der physische Tod den Menschen allein durch sein Bewußtsein hineinversetzen konnte. Dadurch konnte man wieder eine Kraft gewinnen, von der man wußte, mit dieser Kraft läßt sich über die Pforte des Todes hinauskommen.
[ 24 ] Wie sich die Geheimnisse des Todes, als der andere Pol der Geheimnisse der Geburt, von denen ich gestern gesprochen habe, im Zusammenhange mit der Christus-Wesenheit weiter schildern lassen, davon wird morgen die Rede sein. Heute möchte ich aber diese Betrachtung dadurch abschließen, daß ich auf dasjenige hinweise, was schon in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten, als das ganze Rätsel des Todes sich vor die Menschenseele stellte, ein alter Initiierter zu denen sagte, vor denen schon das ganze Todesrätsel stand. Er sagte: Sehet hin auf das Stadium des menschlichen Leibes, wo der Mensch zu dem Gebrauch des Ich-Bewußtseins bereits gekommen ist, in diesem Stadium deckt einem der physische Menschenleib zu die gesamte menschliche Wesenheit. Wo der Mensch zur Entfaltung seines Ich-Bewußtseins kommt, da ist er so beschaffen, daß er durch den physischen Leib und bloß in dem physischen Leib niemals zum Ergreifen desjenigen Wesens in ihm kommen könnte, das dem Geiste angehört. Sehet hin - so sagte also ein solcher Initiierter in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten zu seinen Bekennern -, sehet hin auf den physischen menschlichen Organismus; da, wo ihr in das Stadium kommt, wo der physische Leib das Höchste für das Ich-Bewußtsein zu bringen hat, da erweist er sich als unvollkommen. Dieser physische Menschenorganismus ist daher krank, denn gesund wäre er nur, wenn er dem Menschen ein Bewußtsein geben könnte von seiner geistigen Bedeutung. Dieser physische Organismus hat sich so entwickelt, daß in ihm die Krankheit gegenüber dem Geistesleben von Anfang an war. Da ist der Christus heruntergestiegen in das Mysterium von Golgatha, nicht nur als ein Lehrer, sondern als der Seelenarzt, der den Menschen von der Seele aus heilt für das, was an seinem physischen Organismus krank ist.
[ 25 ] So haben diese Initüerten der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte, die von der heutigen Theologie nicht mehr anerkannt werden, deren Andenken man sogar verschüttet hat, den Christus hingestellt als den Seelenarzt, als den Heiler, als den Heiland der Menschheit. Dadurch haben sie ihn in den Sinn der ganzen Erdenentwickelung versetzt, indem sie gezeigt haben, wie die Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit in einer absteigenden Linie verläuft - bis zur völligen Erkrankung des physischen Organismus gegenüber den höchsten Aufgaben des menschlichen Bewußtseins und bis zum Eingreifen des göttlichen Heilandes als Seelenarzt mit Bezug auf die menschliche Seelenverfassung gegenüber einer geistig-göttlichen Welt. So bekam durch die Initiierten der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte die Anschauung von dem Christus einen tiefen Sinn: Christus als der Seelenarzt der Welt, als der Heiler der Menschheit, als der Heiland.
[ 26 ] Auf Grund von alledem kann man sagen: Wenn man das, was die Initiierten einer alten Zeit, bevor das Mysterium von Golgatha auf der Erde eingetreten war, weiteren Menschheitskreisen, zu denen diese Lehren Zugang fanden, sagen konnten von einem geistigen, einem göttlichen Dasein, das alles sinnliche Dasein durchsetzt und ihm zugrunde liegt, wenn man das im modernen Bewußtsein wiederum ganz lebendig macht durch eine imaginative Einsicht, dann wird das, was sonst abstrakte Gedankenphilosophie ist, nicht nur in dem Sinne belebt, wie ich das in den letzten Tagen hier charakterisiert habe, sondern es wird dann abstrakte Gedankenphilosophie auch durchchristlicht. Und in derjenigen Erkenntnis, in der die moderne Imagination den Menschen wiederum hinführt zu einer Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt, durchchristlicht sich die Philosophie, und es kann in die Menschheit einziehen, was einst in der alten Menschheit da war: das Bewußtsein von dem göttlich-geistigen Vater alles physischen Daseins. Dieses göttliche Vaterbewußtsein war es im wesentlichen, zu dem mit der übrigen Menschheit die alten vorchristlichen Initiierten hinstrebten. Der höchste Initiationsgrad war der, wo der Initiierte als der «Vater» repräsentierte in den Mysterien den göttlich-geistigen Weltenvater.
[ 27 ] Macht man diese Anschauung in sich rege, dann entsteht das, was man eine christliche Philosophie nennt. Und lernt man dadurch des weiteren durch die moderne Inspiration das kennen, was mit den Resten einer alten Inspiration schon vorahnend die Initüerten der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte gesagt haben, so lernt man erkennen, wie ein geistig-göttliches Wesen, der Christus, aus geistigen Welten sich in die Erdenevolution der Menschheit hineinversetzt und den Mittelpunkt dieser Erdenevolution bildet. Man bringt einen sinnvollen Geist in die Erdenevolution der Menschheit und in ihre Gesetzmäßigkeit dadurch hinein, daß man durch das Mysterium von Golgatha diese Erdenevolution der Menschheit anknüpfen lernt an den Kosmos, indem man zu dem kosmischen Christus-Wesen hinaufzusehen vermag. Wie der Himmel sich weiter um die Erdenevolution gekümmert hat, wie der Kosmos weiter für die Angelegenheiten der Menschheit gesorgt hat, das lernt man erkennen und das erweitert denjenigen Charakter der Kosmologie, den ich hier schon charakterisiert habe, den Charakter einer geistigen Kosmologie zu dem einer christlichen Kosmologie.
[ 28 ] Und wenn dann der Mensch im Sinne des Paulinischen Wortes «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir» ein lebendiges Verhältnis zu dem Christus und dem Mysterium von Golgatha gewinnt, dann führt ihn der Christus dadurch, daß er ihm über das Rätsel des Todes hinweghilft, hinein in ein erneuertes Leben im Geiste, und man lernt den neuen Geist kennen, der jetzt wiederum der Menschheit klarmachen soll, daß es über die physische Welt hinaus eine sie regelnde, ordnende, sie durchpulsende geistige Welt gibt. Man lernt, als von Christus ausgehend, die Sendung des heilenden, von Christus selbst geheiligten Geistes kennen, man lernt als die Grundlage einer neuen Religionserkenntnis das Mysterium des Heiligen Geistes kennen.
[ 29 ] Die Trinität, von der so lange als von einem Dogma gesprochen worden ist, geht wieder lebendig vor dem Menschen auf. Und hinblikkend auf die vorchristlichen Mysterien kann man sagen: In ihnen lebte der Vatergott, der auch für uns die Weltbedeutung beibehält. Durch das Mysterium von Golgatha trat der Menschheit nahe der Sohnesgott in Christus, und als das, was der Sohnesgott in die Menschheit hineingebracht hat, der Zusammenhang mit dem heilenden, mit dem Heiligen Geist. Die Trinität wird wieder eine anschaulich lebendige, kein Dogma. Durch die Verlebendigung des Vaterbewußtseins ersteht eine durchchristete Philosophie. Durch die Verlebendigung des Sohnesbewußtseins ersteht eine durchchristete Kosmologie, und in Anlehnung an das, was der Christus unter dem heilenden Geist verstanden hat und über die Menschheit gnadenvoll ergossen hat, ersteht eine neue, erkenntnismäßige Grundlage einer christlichen Religion.
[ 30 ] Anknüpfend an eine solche christliche Philosophie, an eine christliche Kosmologie und an eine christliche Religionserkenntnis wollen wir dann über das Geheimnis des Todes im Zusammenhang mit der Christus-Wesenheit und dem Verlaufe der Menschheitsentwickelung morgen weitersprechen.
Christ in his Relationship to Humanity
[ 1 ] Yesterday we attempted to explain how human beings transition from the spiritual world, where they exist as spiritual-soul beings in their pre-earthly existence, to this physical earth. This understanding of the eternal core of the human being, based on the recognition of pre-earthly existence, is now absolutely necessary if we want to grasp the essential intervention of Christ and the mystery of Golgotha in the development of humanity on earth. For in order to understand the true nature of the mystery of Golgotha, we must one must be able to trace how, with this event, a being from the spiritual worlds, Christ, descended from extraterrestrial regions into earthly existence itself as a being who had previously only been in those regions where we ourselves spend our pre-earthly existence, how this being then descended and took on an earthly form and earthly activity in the human being Jesus.
[ 2 ] If we want to arrive at such an understanding of Christ and of the mystery of Golgotha in connection with the event of the birth of the human being, of which I spoke yesterday in outline, we must first of all take into account that the human soul constitution, the inner human experience, has undergone a very significant transformation, very significant changes in the course of human evolution on earth. Today, the matter is often viewed as if the soul constitution and forms of consciousness in which human beings today exist in the waking state and also in the sleeping state have always existed in humanity, at least in essence, since the beginning of human history. At most, in the scientific-cosmological world picture, one refers back to primitive, semi-animal forms of earlier humanity — we will speak more about this later — in which, of course, the human inner life must also be imagined differently in terms of thinking, feeling, and willing than that of human beings today. But today, very little attention is paid to the changes that human consciousness, the entire inner constitution of the human soul, has undergone since the earliest times of Earth's development. And yet there is something immeasurably important and essential here.
[ 3 ] If we go back to very ancient times in human evolution — we need not go back to the earliest stages of Earth's evolution, but only to about the second or third millennium before the Mystery of Golgotha — we find that human beings then had a completely different consciousness, a completely different inner soul constitution than later. The sharp difference that exists in the present human being between waking and sleeping was also present then, but it was not the only thing in the daily change of human consciousness. Today, human beings know only the waking state and the sleeping state, with dreams in between. But it must be said of these dreams that although they contain a content of consciousness, this content is often deceptive, and that in any case the content of dreams does not point to any reality that human beings can immediately verify through their daytime consciousness; indirectly, certainly. But apart from these three states of consciousness, one of which, the dream state, is a very questionable one, at least for knowledge, there existed among the people of an earlier age an intermediate state which was not the dream state of today, which was not as fully awake as today's waking state, but which was also not full sleep or semi-conscious dreaming as it is today, but rather, one might say, pictorial waking dreaming. In this waking dream, images ran through the mind as thoughts run through our waking consciousness. Thus, at certain times, images ran through the consciousness of an earlier humanity. These images were similar in form to the dream images of today, but their content pointed to a distinctly supersensible reality, just as our perceptions point to a physical reality. Just as we know when we perceive a physical being with colors and forms that this is something physically real, so did early humans experience images that moved just as freely in their consciousness and were just as light as our dream images, but whose content indicated a spiritual reality. Just as we know today, when the eye perceives something, that there is something physical and sensual out there in the world, so the early human being knew, when images of a certain kind passed through his consciousness, that he was perceiving something spiritual and real.
[ 4 ] Among what people in an earlier epoch experienced as spiritual reality was also an echo of pre-earthly existence. People of that epoch simply had inner experiences every day that were full proof to them that Before you began your earthly existence, you were in a spiritual-soul existence, in a purely spiritual world. And every day, people belonging to this earlier epoch knew this. Thus, for these people, it was completely clear to assume the existence of an eternal core of the human being and of a world that is extraterrestrial, to which human beings belong just as much as they belong to the earthly world. And those who, in those older times, as initiates into the mysteries, were also initiated into the deeper structures of this whole situation, were then able to speak to those who professed their beliefs, from their initiatory knowledge, in such a way that these professing believers these believers could come to the conviction that they were looking into an echo of their pre-earthly existence and at the same time into a spiritual world to which human beings belong with their eternal core of being. This is a grace of the spiritual being, to which the physical sun corresponds as its physical image. Thus the adherent of the ancient mystery wisdom could say to himself: I look up at the sun, but this outer physical sun is only an image of a spiritual sun being. This spiritual sun being permeates the spiritual world from which I myself descended to earthly existence, and the power of this sun being has given my soul for its earthly existence that which causes me, among the experiences of my soul during my time on earth, to have that through which I am certain, when looking back on my pre-earthly existence, of the eternal core of my being in my soul.
[ 5 ] So for those in earlier times who, supported by the power of their initiates, felt the grace of the solar being and thus knew through their image consciousness of their pre-earthly existence and thus of their eternal core being, human death on earth was not yet a particular mystery. For they knew that human death only affects the physical human organism. But they knew something within themselves that had first descended into this physical human organism. Death became for him merely an event that did not affect what he knew through his outer form of consciousness. This, then, was the state of the human soul in a very ancient epoch, in those epochs that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha. Basically, when one looked inward, working one's way up to the grace of the sun being, the mystery of birth was revealed, and in connection with seeing through this mystery of birth, the riddle of death did not yet exist in the way it did for later human beings.
[ 6 ] How this changed over time, I will discuss in the second part of this lecture.
[ 7 ] This consciousness, living in images in connection with what it brought about for the rest of the soul constitution, presented itself to the human soul of that older humanity in such a way that the active, intense ego-consciousness which the present-day human race possesses did not yet exist in those older times. Human beings had insight into their eternal core being, but not an explicit inner feeling of their ego-being. They would not have attained this even if the gift of that older image consciousness had remained. But this gift of the older image consciousness came to an end. Precisely at the time when the mystery of Golgotha was approaching within human evolution, this image consciousness gradually faded away. And then the state that ordinary consciousness still experiences today increasingly set in, with the difference between sleeping and waking as stark opposites and the questionable dream world in between. Human beings had thus lost that piece of self-knowledge which pointed in immediate perception to pre-earthly existence and thus to the eternal core of the human being. But this was precisely what was necessary in order to attain more and more complete self-consciousness. Although complete self-consciousness did not yet appear in the whole of humanity during that middle period of human development at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, it was slowly preparing itself. This meant, however, that the mystery of death was presented to humanity in its full extent and with great intensity, for humanity now knew nothing through direct experience of the world from which it had descended into earthly existence.
[ 8 ] At the time when human development was passing through this stage, Christ appeared, descending from the same world from which the human soul always descends through birth, and united Himself with the human being Jesus through the events in Palestine. And those who at that time still preserved old traditions, especially old methods from the initiation centers, methods that were, admittedly, only a remnant of the old initiation, but which, even in their weakened state, still led to knowledge of what the spiritual world is like and what connection human beings have with this spiritual world — these initiates were able to speak to humanity in such a way that they said to those who were willing to accept it: The sun being that formerly blessed human beings with a glimpse of a pre-earthly existence and that has its physical reflection in the physical sun, this sun being has descended. For this sun being dwelt or has dwelt in the human being Jesus. It took on a human body in order to be connected from that time on not only with the spiritual world that humans pass through between death and a new birth, but also to participate in the evolution of humanity on Earth itself.
[ 9 ] From the remnants of the old initiation, the initiates who were contemporaries of the mystery of Golgotha spoke about the secret of Christ to those who were willing to accept it, who had trust in these initiates. And those who had this trust were able to learn how Christ entered an earthly body, not to teach through anything didactic, but through his deeds to solve for human beings that riddle which has only now come upon humanity with full intensity: the riddle of death. These initiates pointed out to people that Christ had come to Earth to solve the mystery of death in a way that was appropriate for humans. For during the time when the mystery of Golgotha was taking place on Earth, it was possible, above all through the possession of those remnants of ancient initiation methods, to speak of the spiritual being of Christ as it appears in the spiritual world itself. They described the path that Christ, who had never before descended to earthly existence, had taken from the spiritual world down to earth. In all these contemplations of the initiated contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha, the main teaching was how Christ had taken his path down to the human being Jesus and had himself been human in Jesus. They did not merely look at the historical Jesus and ask: What is this historical Jesus in the midst of human evolution? The ordinary consciousness certainly had this Jesus before it. Some of his contemporaries had him before them, and later generations had him before their physical-sensory consciousness through historical tradition. But what was available from the older science of initiation to those who knew something about the spiritual worlds could say: The being who was once regarded as the high sun being, as the bestower of grace whom I have described, has made his way to the human being Jesus on earth. This has gone through the events of Golgotha. Because human beings in their consciousness lost the ability to look into pre-earthly existence and thereby solve the riddle of death by perceiving this being: that high sun being who gave human beings the power to overcome death on earth in this vision of the echoes from pre-earthly existence. This descended into earthly existence, took on human form, passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, in order to give back to human beings here on earth, from outside, through the meaning of this event, what it had previously been able to give them for their inner soul life as an echo of pre-earthly existence in their image consciousness. — This is how the initiated contemporaries of the mystery of Golgotha spoke
[ 10 ] Human beings were once blessed with a power in their consciousness that enabled them to experience their eternal core being directly by looking back on a pre-earthly existence. Human beings had to evolve further. They developed a clear earthly ego consciousness that can only be ignited and developed in the sensory world. This meant that the old consciousness through which human beings used to recognize their eternal core being had to be held back. But that being who once allowed him to recognize this eternal core of his being from the spiritual world accomplished the mystery of Golgotha after his descent to earth, so that human beings, in contemplating and understanding this mystery of Golgotha from outside, can experience from within what they previously experienced from within. From Christ on earth, human beings are to continue experiencing what they had previously experienced through Christ from the spiritual world.
[ 11 ] What significance this had for the further evolution of humanity, I will report in the third part of today's reflection.
[ 12 ] The remnants of ancient initiation methods, through which the contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha, if they were initiated, or even their followers, were able to speak appropriately about the descent of Christ and the path He took until His descent into the human being Jesus, These remnants continued to propagate, becoming increasingly dimmed in the power of humanity until the fourth century AD. In the fourth century AD, the old initiation methods ceased to bring forth forces in the human organization in the right way that gave flawless insights into the spiritual world. Humanity then entered a period of its development in which it was essentially dependent on those insights and views that can only be gained from the sensory world and from thinking based on the impressions and observations of the sensory world. This period of human development, which lasted several centuries, brought about what I have just indicated as the development, the unfolding of the consciousness of the I.
[ 13 ] One cannot study history properly unless one is able to look at the period from the fourth century AD to about the fifteenth century, particularly in civilized humanity, and see how the consciousness of the self gradually developed. Certainly, precursors to the formation of this ego-consciousness existed earlier, but there is an essential difference between even the most educated and learned people of the 4th and 5th centuries and those of the 15th or 16th centuries. Anyone who can look into the soul of Augustine, in whom the development of self-consciousness can be studied quite vividly, namely in a soul-intuitive way, or even into the soul of, for example, Scotus Erigena from the 9th century, will see how that self-consciousness, which later became characteristic of even the simplest human beings, first develops, develops by means of the simultaneous cessation of that old way of seeing through which it was possible, for example, to develop what was alchemy: an assertion of what the eyes see with what the soul experienced in things. Purely sensory perception as the basis of human knowledge did not emerge until around the 15th century. But it did develop. And in this turning of human attention to purely sensory perception, which then reached its peak in the age of Copernicus, Galileo, and Giordano Bruno, in this turning toward the sensory world, sensory consciousness, ego-consciousness, developed at the same time.
[ 14 ] This ego-consciousness, however, caused the insight into the spiritual worlds to fall, as it were, into dark depths. What had been the ancient mystery teachings and initiatory knowledge faded away in the fourth century AD and found little continuation in the further civilization of humanity. For its very hidden continuation remained almost completely unknown to the outer, even the educated, Western world. In general education and civilization, an initiatory science was not really effective. As a result, it could not, as in the first Christian centuries — even if only in remnants, but still remnants of the old initiatory science — shed light on the path of Christ from the spiritual worlds to humanity on earth. And so humanity, including educated humanity, was confronted only with the historical Jesus, the Jesus of whom history spoke, but which did not add — either in human perception or through initiatory teaching — to this historical Jesus the image of the Christ who was connected with him.
[ 15 ] Therefore, the development of the Church during these centuries could do nothing else but repeatedly refer its believers to the historical Jesus, to bring the image of the historical Jesus to life. But nothing real could now be known directly about everything that those who knew something real about the spiritual world were still able to speak about in the first Christian centuries. Only what had been preserved in tradition from the times when there were still human souls who knew something real about the spiritual world from the science of initiation, only what had been preserved in tradition from ancient Christian knowledge, could be presented by the Church as dogmas about Christ, and no reference was made to those who still had a view of the spiritual content of these dogmas; instead, these dogmas were made the object of mere faith.
[ 16 ] At a time when knowledge of the sensory world was becoming increasingly developed and deepened, a body of beliefs, a body of dogma, was placed alongside this knowledge of the sensory world, which was linked only by an external connection to the figure of Jesus, who stood before the ordinary consciousness of humanity through external history and had taken on this form. This behavior continued throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and finally led to a theology that still wanted to be Christian, but only wanted to point to the human being Jesus, because he stood before the ordinary consciousness only through historical tradition. But in the meantime, the consciousness that had formed the experience of the I, which had looked around at the laws of the sensory world, had less and less inclination to adhere to the established content of faith. It was precisely among the leading personalities, in whom this new consciousness had developed most, that people emancipated themselves from their inclinations toward the content of faith, from Christ. And so it came about that, especially in the 19th century, a theology arose that wanted to be Christian but had completely lost Christ above Jesus for the sake of knowledge, that spoke only of Jesus of Nazareth, that wanted to recognize Jesus as one of the human beings, perhaps even as the most excellent one, who had placed himself in the development of humanity.
[ 17 ] In the first Christian centuries, when speaking of the mystery of Golgotha, people sought to describe the path that had been found, starting from the view of the Christ being and leading to the embodiment of this Christ being in Jesus of Nazareth, based on the remnants of the ancient wisdom of initiation. In order to understand the mystery of Golgotha in these first Christian centuries, one started from Christ in order to arrive at Jesus. Now, however, one started from Jesus, whom one initially viewed as a human being, and then wanted to arrive at Christ from Jesus. But this naturally led to a situation where people ultimately either admitted or did not admit their inability to ascend from the historical Jesus, who existed for ordinary consciousness, from the “simple” Jesus in Palestine, to the Christ. Thus, the theology of a part of humanity lost Christ above Jesus. This can only be changed through modern initiation, through the initiation that I have characterized in its main features in these days, which can lead to imagination, inspiration, and intuition in a new form. Through this new wisdom of initiation, it is once again possible to go beyond the mere historical image of Jesus to a direct view of pre-earthly human existence and the world in which this pre-earthly human existence takes place, and thus also to see Christ in his extraterrestrial spiritual being, that is, to understand Jesus from Christ and thus the mystery of Golgotha. In this way, the path that modern theology has led us down, and which has lost Jesus as the Christ, can be redirected. Once again, we can recognize Christ through spiritual contemplation, and through this knowledge of Christ, we can see Jesus, in whom Christ became human, and look at the mystery of Golgotha with the knowledge of Christ gained in the spirit. Through anthroposophical insight, Christ, who has already been lost to one branch of modern theology, must be regained. What this means for the inner development of human beings I will report in the fourth part of today's reflection.
[ 18 ] It has already been said that with the dawning of ego-consciousness, the mystery of death was set before the human soul. This mystery of death had to present itself to the human soul because, as the I became present with full clarity in inner soul experience, the physical human organism became the actual basis for this ordinary human consciousness. This ego-saturated consciousness has the physical human organism as its foundation, and human beings instinctively learned to feel that only that which has its foundation in this physical human organism enters into their soul experience. For they now had no direct perception of their eternal core of being through immediate image consciousness. Precisely through what gave him the highest thing for earthly existence, his ego-consciousness, he was referred to his physical body, was referred to how his physical body, out of its constitution, allowed the full ego-saturated consciousness to shine forth.
[ 19 ] In this consciousness, it cannot be said: We have something inside our soul that we carry through the gate of death. — Precisely what the grace of the high sun being gave to an earlier humanity in retrospect of its pre-earthly existence shone into ordinary consciousness as that which could point beyond death. Now, consciousness had become particularly clear precisely because it had become an experience of the physical human organism in its entirety. But with that, it was only possible for humans to say: You have forces within you that illuminate your consciousness, that enlighten your consciousness, but these forces come from the physical body. This physical body decays with death. In that which you know in your ordinary consciousness, you feel nothing that can carry you over into another world. Such a thing may exist — but you feel, you know through your ordinary consciousness, nothing of such an existence.
[ 20 ] This mystery of death emerged with particular intensity in the first centuries of Christianity, when people were still more sensitive to such things. Only the initiates had pointed out the mystery of Golgotha to people, and in the centuries that followed, Christian development, through its leaders, gave people an indication of the mystery of Golgotha through the dogmas of faith. What was this mystery of Golgotha to mean for people?
[ 21 ] Anyone who can gain an inner human relationship to Christ, anyone who can look with recognition and affirmation at the mystery of Golgotha, must take into their consciousness something that no sensory world can give them. It is precisely those who look most deeply into the constitution of the sensory world who can only arrive at a refutation of the mystery of Golgotha from this constitution of the sensory world, for the mystery of Golgotha cannot be understood with any sensory understanding. However, if one can take it into one's heart, one is nevertheless able, as a human being, to grasp with one's mind an understanding of this event, which takes place once in the course of earthly life and can only be understood out of the spirit. In doing so, one tears oneself out of one's ordinary consciousness, out of the mere sensory understanding that constitutes the ego-consciousness in its particular clarity and intensity.
[ 22 ] No one who wants to remain within the sensory world can come to an understanding of the mystery of Golgotha. If, on the other hand, one renounces an understanding of the mystery of Golgotha in the way that can be experienced from the sensory world, and yet acquires a relationship of faith, a relationship of recognition, a relationship of reverent, devout contemplation of the mystery of Golgotha, then one gains an understanding of what Christ has become for humanity through his descent from a spiritual existence into earthly life. Then, through what is acquired as the highest by means of sensory understanding, one tears oneself out of mere sensory understanding in one's earthly consciousness. In this way, one allows a force to germinate and unfold in this ordinary consciousness that cannot be the result of the natural development of the human being in consciousness. One must delve deeper inwardly, one must intensify one's consciousness if one wants to summon up enough inner strength for the sense understanding so that the mystery of Golgotha can become a truth in its spiritual meaning for the soul constitution of human beings. And with this recognition of the truth of the mystery of Golgotha, renouncing sensual understanding, with this recognition that Christ was truly on earth in Jesus, that with the mystery of Golgotha a heavenly, an extraterrestrial fact took place in the midst of earthly existence, which has gained lasting significance, with the recognition of this truth, one now replaces the power that was once present in natural consciousness but is no longer present.
[ 23 ] Once upon a time, the power was present in natural consciousness to look back upon pre-earthly existence and, out of this looking back, to gain the power of consciousness to carry the soul through the gate of death. That which was no longer there was now to enter the soul through the Mystery of Golgotha and through the strengthening that could take place in the soul when one confessed to the truth of the Mystery of Golgotha through inner soul experience. Then, as the Pauline words “Not I, but Christ in me” became alive within oneself, Christ could carry one away with the power that radiated from his mystery of Golgotha, beyond that into which physical death could plunge human beings through their consciousness alone. In this way, one could regain a power that one knew would enable one to pass through the gate of death.
[ 24 ] Tomorrow we will discuss how the mysteries of death, as the other pole of the mysteries of birth, which I spoke about yesterday, can be further described in connection with the Christ Being. Today, however, I would like to conclude this consideration by pointing to what an ancient initiate said to those who were already faced with the whole mystery of death in the first Christian centuries, when the whole mystery of death stood before the human soul. He said: Look at the stage of the human body where the human being has already come to the use of the I-consciousness. At this stage, the physical human body covers the entire human being. Where man comes to the development of his ego-consciousness, he is so constituted that through the physical body and merely in the physical body he could never grasp that essence within him which belongs to the spirit. Look there—so said such an initiate in the first Christian centuries to his followers—look at the physical human organism; there, where you come to the stage where the physical body has to bring forth the highest for the ego-consciousness, there it proves to be imperfect. This physical human organism is therefore sick, for it would only be healthy if it could give man consciousness of its spiritual significance. This physical organism has developed in such a way that sickness in relation to the spiritual life has been present in it from the beginning. This is why Christ descended into the mystery of Golgotha, not only as a teacher, but as the physician of souls, healing human beings from the soul for what is sick in their physical organism.
[ 25 ] Thus, these initiates of the first Christian centuries, who are no longer recognized by today's theology and whose memory has even been buried, presented Christ as the soul doctor, the healer, the savior of humanity. In doing so, they placed him in the context of the entire evolution of the earth, showing how the evolution of humanity follows a downward line—until the physical organism becomes completely diseased in relation to the highest tasks of human consciousness and until the divine Savior intervenes as the physician of souls in relation to the human soul constitution in relation to a spiritual-divine world. Thus, through the initiates of the first Christian centuries, the view of Christ took on a deep meaning: Christ as the soul doctor of the world, as the healer of humanity, as the Savior.
[ 26 ] On the basis of all this, we can say: If we take what the initiates of ancient times, before the mystery of Golgotha entered the earth, were able to say to wider circles of humanity who had access to these teachings about a spiritual, divine existence that permeates and underlies all sensory existence, and if we bring this back to life in modern consciousness through imaginative insight, then what is otherwise abstract thought philosophy is not only enlivened in the sense I have characterized here in recent days, but abstract thought philosophy is also permeated with Christianity. And in the knowledge in which modern imagination leads human beings back to a knowledge of the spiritual world, philosophy becomes Christianized, and what once existed in ancient humanity can enter into humanity: the consciousness of the divine-spiritual Father of all physical existence. It was essentially this divine consciousness of the Father that the ancient pre-Christian initiates strove for with the rest of humanity. The highest degree of initiation was that in which the initiate represented the divine spiritual Father of the world in the mysteries as the “Father.”
[ 27 ] If we activate this view within ourselves, then what we call Christian philosophy arises. And if, through modern inspiration, we learn what the initiates of the first Christian centuries already said in anticipation with the remnants of an ancient inspiration, we learn to recognize how a spiritual-divine being, the Christ, transferred himself from spiritual worlds into the earthly evolution of humanity and forms the center of this earthly evolution. One brings a meaningful spirit into the earthly evolution of humanity and into its laws by learning, through the mystery of Golgotha, to connect this earthly evolution of humanity with the cosmos, by being able to look up to the cosmic Christ being. How heaven has continued to care for earthly evolution, how the cosmos has continued to care for the affairs of humanity, this we learn to recognize, and this expands the character of cosmology that I have already characterized here, the character of a spiritual cosmology to that of a Christian cosmology.
[ 28 ] And when human beings, in the sense of Paul's words, “Not I, but Christ in me,” gain a living relationship with Christ and the mystery of Golgotha, then Christ leads them, by helping them overcome the riddle of death, into a renewed life in the spirit, and one comes to know the new spirit, which is now to make clear to humanity that there is a spiritual world beyond the physical world that governs, orders, and pulsates through it. Starting from Christ, one comes to know the mission of the healing spirit, sanctified by Christ himself, and one comes to know the mystery of the Holy Spirit as the foundation of a new religious knowledge.
[ 29 ] The Trinity, which has been spoken of for so long as a dogma, is once again coming to life before us. And looking back at the pre-Christian mysteries, we can say: In them lived the Father God, who also maintains the meaning of the world for us. Through the mystery of Golgotha, the Son God came close to humanity in Christ, and as that which the Son God brought into humanity, the connection with the healing, with the Holy Spirit. The Trinity becomes once again a vivid reality, not a dogma. Through the enlivening of the Father consciousness, a philosophy permeated by Christ arises. Through the enlivening of the consciousness of the Son, a Christ-centered cosmology arises, and based on what Christ understood under the healing Spirit and graciously poured out upon humanity, a new, cognitive foundation for a Christian religion arises.
[ 30 ] Building on such a Christian philosophy, a Christian cosmology, and a Christian understanding of religion, we will continue tomorrow to discuss the mystery of death in connection with the Christ being and the course of human evolution.