The Rudolf Steiner Archive

15. Lucifer and Christ Lucifer, the bearer of light Christ, the Bringer of Love

[ 1 ] Among different peoples, there is an awareness of two opposing forces in their religious beliefs and worldviews. We also find this in Christianity. This is somewhat related to the question that we will be dealing with in depth today.

[ 2 ] In fact, there are powers that can be described as neither absolutely good nor absolutely evil. What is a good power in one respect can become an evil power in another. We need only think of the natural phenomenon of fire. We owe an infinite amount to fire. The invention of fire marked the beginning of a new era in nature and culture. But it also has terrible consequences. Schiller described this beautifully in his “Song of the Bell”:

The power of fire is beneficial,
When man tames it, guards it,
And what he forms, what he creates,
He thanks this heavenly power for,
But terrible becomes the heavenly power,
When it breaks free from its chains,
And follows its own path,
The free daughter of nature.

[ 3 ] On the one hand, fire is a benevolent power, on the other, a destructive one.

[ 4 ] Those who look deeper into existence will abandon the judgment that something is good or evil under all circumstances. In Christianity, the serpent is described as the seducer of mankind and Lucifer is spoken of with abhorrence. The view of the Luciferic principle has changed, but Goethe is right when he describes the worldview of the average Christian as follows:

Nature and spirit—that's not how you talk to Christians.
That's why atheists are burned,
Because such talk is highly dangerous.

Nature is sin, spirit is the devil, They harbor doubt between them, Their deformed hermaphrodite child.

[ 5 ] This is not a view of early Christianity, but one that entered Christianity later. Even among the Christian mystics of the first centuries, among the Gnostics, the serpent is not a symbol of evil, but rather a symbol of the spiritual guidance of humanity. The wise man, the leader, is called “the serpent.” This is how the one who leads humanity to knowledge was referred to. The serpent is the symbol of Lucifer.

[ 6 ] The change in the Faust legend reflects the transformation in the understanding of the Luciferian principle. Faust was a figure of the Middle Ages, half juggler, half black magician, who practiced all kinds of arts, but gradually became a type for the people. The Faust legend stands in stark contrast to the Luther legend. Luther is the man of God who, with the Bible in his hand, resists evil and throws his inkwell at its head. Faust, on the other hand, initially puts the Bible aside and becomes a physician who seeks wisdom instead of mere revelation. Faust is taken by the devil and perishes. In Goethe's work, it is significant that he allows Faust to be saved. This is a complete transformation that has taken place in relation to the conception of the Faust figure over the last few centuries. Goethe contrasted the Luciferian principle with Faust in the form of Mephistopheles. Mephis means liar, Tophel means corrupter, a Hebrew name that has come down from ancient magical teachings. Faust is the white magician, in contrast to Mephistopheles, who represents the beginning of black magic. Goethe does not allow Faust to fall prey to Mephistopheles.

[ 7 ] The name Lucifer means “the bearer of light.” Lux means light, fero means I carry. This cannot be the principle of evil. To truly understand this principle, we must go back to very ancient times. If we want to understand the principle of Lucifer, we must think of the principle of God and the principle of man as they were still conceived in the early days of Christianity. When man began his development, there were beings who stood lower than man and those who stood higher. These were the gods. They only became gods after a long period of development. These higher beings no longer need to learn the same lessons that humans have to learn. We imagine that earthly existence was preceded by another planetary existence, where the gods developed and later became creative powers. The gods are ahead of us. They have, so to speak, already completed the schooling that human beings are now going through. At a certain stage, when they were at the beginning of evolution, the gods were also human beings.

[ 8 ] One must consider how the different stages of existence relate to each other. Let us begin with the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom.

[ 9 ] When we look at minerals, we must ask ourselves: How did they actually come into being? This question leads to a profound occult truth. Consider coal. Today it is stone. Several million years ago in the evolution of the earth, what we now use to heat our stoves was still contained in a beautiful fern forest. An earthly catastrophe buried the trees, and they then underwent a process that gradually transformed them into coal. In the case of coal, we can see that something living has been transformed into something lifeless. In the mineral kingdom, there are components where this is not so easy to determine, for example, diamonds and rock crystal. These, too, once belonged to a living being. If one went further back, one would also find plants that later fossilized into these other minerals. Everything dead originated from a single life. If all life were to fossilize, the earth would become a rigid body. Our plants today are something that life has carried over from an earlier general life. Part of it has fossilized, but part of it has carried life over. The ancient fern forests fossilize, a new kingdom emerges, and new life emerges from it. First there was an ancient time when there was only life, then a new time when part of it fossilized and a younger plant kingdom emerged alongside it. The rock kingdom does not appear chaotic to us, but beautifully structured. There is wisdom in it. The entire framework of the earth is built on wisdom. The plant kingdom has taken over life. But we can derive life itself from an even higher kingdom. We can imagine that all living things originated from an even higher kingdom. That is the kingdom of love. There must have been a primordial being that contained love within itself. From it, the kingdom of life was structured, and from the kingdom of life, the kingdom of wisdom. From the realm of love, the younger realm of love also emerged, in which beings are at the animal level, but in which love is already expressed. Now we come to something even higher. The divine stands above all these realms. The other realms have developed from the divine. Now we understand how, at the beginning of planetary evolution, man and God stood opposite each other, just as minerals and plants stood opposite each other in the natural kingdoms at the beginning.

[ 10 ] In the past, there was a plant kingdom that did not need the mineral kingdom. But the younger plant kingdom needs the mineral kingdom. In the same way, the gods needed human beings at the beginning of Earth's evolution. Without humans, the gods could not have flourished at the beginning of Earth's evolution, just as plants could not have flourished without stones. Now consider the animal and plant kingdoms. There is a very specific relationship between the two kingdoms. Animals exhale carbon dioxide, plants exhale oxygen. They are dependent on each other. The lower plant kingdom lovingly gives back to the animal what it needs. The plant keeps the carbon for itself and gives back the oxygen. Thus, there is a continuous wonderful interaction between the lower and higher kingdoms. Such an interaction also exists between the plant and mineral kingdoms. The plant continuously draws the substances of the earth from the mineral kingdom and thereby sets these substances in motion in a life process. Thus, the higher kingdom acts upon the lower kingdom. And so, at the beginning of Earth's evolution, the realm of the gods also influenced the human realm. In the beginning, there was an interaction similar to that between plants and minerals and between animals and plants. The interaction between gods and humans was initially expressed in what we call love between humans. When humans first appeared on Earth, they became beings of two sexes. This power of love, of kinship among each other, is what expresses the divine at the beginning of Earth's evolution. The gods receive the love pulsating in humans and live on it, just as animals live on the oxygen that plants produce for them. The love that lives in the human race is the food of the gods. In the beginning, everything is built on this love. Blood ties connect people. Tribes, hordes, peoples, and so on are founded on this. All the power of the gods at the beginning of human evolution is based on this love that entwines the two sexes. Love was there before the emergence of dual sexuality. It existed beforehand as a fully conscious love. Now, with the emergence of dual-sexed humans, the consciousness of love has been obscured. It has become a blind instinct, sensuality that is not filled with bright clarity, but only lives out as a dark instinct. The consciousness of love had ascended to the gods. The gods now sat enthroned in the consciousness of love, but humans practiced love as a blind instinct. The gods feed on this blind instinct of human love; it becomes bright light for them. There is a possibility of clairvoyance where everything that lives in human beings as blind urges becomes visible. The gods had this vision at the beginning of human evolution, but human beings were devoid of this faculty. They were filled with passions, they were flooded with what drives the sexes to each other. The gods lived in astral light. They saw these urges, they lived on them.

[ 11 ] Just as the younger plant kingdom lagged behind and the mineral kingdom was pushed back, so a new realm of gods and humanity in its present state arose from an ancient realm of gods. For there are also beings who did not attain full consciousness in the astral light. They stood between gods and humans in the midst of it all when humanity began its existence on Earth. We call these beings the hosts of Lucifer. Under the influence of the gods, who had attained perfection through their earlier evolution, human beings would have remained without astral light, without knowledge. These gods had no other interest than that human beings should live on earth. Lucifer, however, had to make up for what he had neglected earlier. He could now only do this by making use of human beings. Sensual existence was present in the human realm. Lucifer had no sensual existence. He had to use human bodies to advance himself. Therefore, he had to give humans the gift of seeing in the light what the gods had implanted in them. The gods had implanted love in them, and Lucifer had to tempt them to see this in the light. So now we have human beings, the formed shape, wisdom; furthermore, Lucifer, who gives light to humanity; and God, who fills human beings with love.

Human being - Wisdom
Lucifer — Light
God — Love

[ 12 ] Lucifer has a much more intimate relationship with man than the gods enthroned in love. Lucifer has opened man's eyes. As man opens his eyes and looks out into the world, Lucifer looks out into the world from within man. He completes his development in man. As long as man rested in the bosom of the gods, he was a child of God. As long as he strove for knowledge, he was a friend of Lucifer. This is expressed in the story of Paradise. Jehovah shapes man. He is the spirit of form. He would have created human beings so that they lived in love, without the light. Then Lucifer, the serpent, came and brought humans the light of knowledge and with it the possibility of doing evil. Now Jehovah tells humans that the love that has become connected with the knowledge of Lucifer will bring pain. Jehovah curbs the actions of the one who has planted this knowledge—the light of love—by adding pain to that love.

[ 13 ] In Cain we see the one who rebels against what is created by blood-bound love. He severs the bonds of kinship. But he is also the representative of independence. Alongside passive love is active, enlightened knowledge. Love—a gift from Jehovah; knowledge—a gift from Lucifer. Love must be regulated. The organization for family ties is the law of Sinai. Alongside this is knowledge, the light that should come from within human beings themselves, which has its origin in the light bearer reigning within them. This, too, must be deepened; it must experience a new phase. This can only happen if the law does not merely reign from outside. The law acted from outside as a coercive law. What Christ brought to earth works from within. It is the light raised up to love, the law that is born in the soul itself, which Paul calls grace. The law that was reborn from the innermost nature was both love and light, and it gave rise to a new evolution on earth. Paul calls Christ the reversed Adam.

[ 14 ] In human beings, the God of love worked above them, and Lucifer, the light, worked within them. In order to attain love, one must first become light. Through the appearance of Christ Jesus, this light has been transformed into love. Christ Jesus represents the elevation of light to love.

[ 15 ] In the past, Lucifer was spoken of as the other pole, which brought light to humanity. Two powers must work on Earth: Christ, the bearer of love, and Lucifer, the bearer of light. For human beings, light and love are the two poles. Human beings now live under the influence of these two polar forces. The gods who inspired love were once light, and light is called upon to become love again. Light can be misused and lead to evil, but it must be there if humanity is to become free.

[ 16 ] The early Christians saw in Lucifer something that was meant to work within human nature. Only later did this view change. Only those who have gone through the torments of doubt can become firmly established in knowledge. The young Christian humanity still had to be protected from the light. But today the time has come when the covenant between love and wisdom is to be renewed. It will be renewed when knowledge is born as wisdom in the human heart through love. This knowledge, which is born as wisdom in the human heart by being elevated to love, is spiritual science.

[ 17 ] In ancient times, the law was there. Through Christ, the law became grace by being lifted out of the human breast. Now knowledge must be lifted up to love again. Inner Christianity must be added to the outer organization of Christianity. Until now, Christianity has only been able to realize love in its institutions. But now we must carry love into the deepest depths of the human breast. Now everyone still has self-love for their own opinion. Love only stands above opinion when people can get along despite their different opinions. The most diverse opinions side by side — and above them, love. Then the individual opinions do not act alone, but all together in a great chorus.