The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Mystery of Golgotha

[ 1 ] The secret behind the mystery of Golgotha is one of the deepest mysteries of world development. In order to understand it, we will have to look back thousands of years into the past of Earth's evolution through occult wisdom. This deeper insight into the mystery of Golgotha does not contradict the fact that what Christ Jesus accomplished should be understandable to every simple mind. That is indeed the case. But a full understanding of this greatest event on earth must be drawn from the depths of mystery wisdom.

[ 2 ] At this hour, therefore, we will seek to gain an understanding from the depths of mystery wisdom of how something like the mystery of Golgotha could have been possible. We must hold fast to the fact that with the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, something happened that truly marked a profound turning point in human history. We will understand this best if we answer the question: Who was Christ Jesus? For the occultist, this question falls into two parts. We must distinguish between the personality who lived in Palestine at that time and reached the age of thirty, and what then became of him.

[ 3 ] Jesus became Christ in the thirtieth year of his life. In ordinary human beings, only small parts of the astral body, etheric body, and physical body are transformed into manas, buddhi, and atma, or spirit self, life spirit, and spirit man. Jesus of Nazareth was a chela of the third degree. As a result, his bodies were in a state of high purification. His astral body, etheric body, and physical body were completely purified, sanctified, and refined. When a chela has completed this purification of his three bodies, he becomes capable of sacrificing his ego at a certain point in his life. At the age of thirty, the I of Jesus left the three bodies and passed into the astral world, leaving behind on earth the sanctified three bodies, as it were hollowed out of the I, so that there was room in them for the higher individuality. Thus, at the age of thirty, the I of Jesus of Nazareth made the great sacrifice of placing his purified bodies at the disposal of the individuality of Christ. Christ filled these three bodies. After this time, we speak of Christ Jesus, who walked the earth for three years and performed great deeds in the body of Jesus.

[ 4 ] To understand who Christ was, we must go far back in the evolutionary history of the earth and humanity. Before it became Earth, Earth was the old Moon, which is not the same as the present Moon, which is only a splintered piece of Earth. Before Earth became the Moon, it was the Sun, and before that, Saturn. We must therefore be clear that billions of years ago, there was a body in space called the old Saturn. A planet also develops through various incarnations. Before our Earth became Earth, it existed as Saturn, Sun, and Moon. Now let us first turn our attention to the Sun. There, the so-called fire spirits had the same status that humans have on Earth today. However, they did not look like the humans of today on the Sun. These high individualities went through their humanity on the Sun under completely different conditions than humans do today on Earth. On the moon, too, a host of beings went through the human stage, who then came to Earth as higher beings: lunar Pitris, moon spirits, who have now already reached a higher stage than humans, called Angeloi, angels, in Christian esotericism. It was only on Earth that humans became “human.” The next stage above them are the lunar Pitris. Above them are the fire spirits on a very high stage of becoming.

[ 5 ] We now come to Earth, specifically to the state of the Lemurian race, which lived on a continent between present-day Asia, Africa, and Australia. At that time, physical beings existed on Earth that were higher than today's animals but less developed than today's humans. These physical beings formed a kind of shell, a dwelling place. They would have had to descend into decadence if they had not been fertilized by higher beings. It was only then that souls entered the physical body of humans. These souls themselves prepared the later human body. The human soul was formerly part of higher spiritual beings. On Earth, they were the physical shells of human bodies, into which higher beings from the spiritual worlds poured soul substance from above. This soul substance was still connected to the spiritual worlds. It was like water being poured drop by drop into a series of vessels. The beings who poured out this soul substance were those beings who had completed their human incarnation on the moon, the moon spirits, who now stood one step higher than humans and could pour part of their being into humanity so that it could develop further. This enabled humans to increasingly transform their organism. Human beings were able to rise from the earth, stand upright, walk, learn to speak, and become independent.

[ 6 ] There was a certain kinship between all these souls, for they came from common spirits. All those who had received a drop from a common essence showed great similarity. In earlier times, it was the members of a tribe who had such similar souls. Later, it was entire peoples, for example, the entire Egyptian people, the entire Jewish people. They had souls that had emerged from a common origin.

[ 7 ] What the moon spirits had given to humans was the spirit itself in humans. This made humans self-aware beings, an “I.” But what the moon spirits could not give them could only be given to humans by a single communal, even higher being that had already perfected its humanity on the sun: a fire spirit.

[ 8 ] Many such fire spirits had developed on the sun and were high spirits on earth. One such fire spirit was called upon to pour out its essence over all of humanity. There was a communal spirit for the whole Earth that could pour out the element of the sun spirits or fire spirits, the Buddhi or life spirit, over all of humanity in all its members. But in the Lemurian race and in the Atlantean period, people were not yet mature enough to receive anything of this sun spirit. In the Akashic Records, one can see something most remarkable about that time, namely that human beings consisted of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the spirit self. However, the spirit self was only present in humans in a very weak form. The Buddhi, or life spirit, surrounded each person, but this could only be perceived in the astral realm. Everyone had such a Buddhi environment in the astral space; but this Buddhi, which hovered around people from outside, was not yet ready to enter them. It was part of the one great fire spirit that had poured its drops over people; these could not yet enter people. Through the deed of Christ on earth, the predispositions were developed in human beings so that they could receive what we call Buddhi into their manas.

[ 9 ] What Christ did on earth was prepared by the other great teachers who preceded him, Buddha, the last Zarathustra, Pythagoras, all of whom lived about six hundred years before Christ. These were spirits who had already made much of what had only hovered around other people their own. They had taken this spark of Christ into the I-human beings. Moses also belonged to these spirits. But other people had not yet received this spark in their ego-human beings.

[ 10 ] What entered into the physical, etheric, and astral bodies of Jesus of Nazareth is this whole spirit of fire, the common source of all these spiritual sparks for human beings. This is Christ, the only divine being that exists in this form on earth. It entered Jesus of Nazareth so that those who felt connected to Christ Jesus would receive the power to take in Buddhi. With the appearance of Christ Jesus, the possibility of receiving Buddhi began. John called this the divine creative word. The divine creative word is this fire spirit, which poured its sparks into human beings.

[ 11 ] The following happened as a result: While the moon spirits were able to bring about common tribes among human beings through their influence, Christ was a single spirit for the whole earth, so that human beings were united into one family encompassing the whole earth. If the differences between human beings were caused by the various moon spirits pouring their drops onto the earth, then the unity of humanity was brought about by the outpouring of Christ Jesus. What unites human beings came to earth through Christ Jesus.

[ 12 ] Where Christ speaks of the Last Judgment, he says in his prophecy: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory” — by which he means: when the drops of Christ have all flowed into human beings, when all human beings have become brothers — "then he will say to those on his right: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.“ Then there will be no other difference between people than that between good and evil.

[ 13 ] He says to his disciples: ”Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." This means that Christ Jesus is pointing to the time when the drops he has poured out will have been received by people in such a way that when one person stands before another, they will know that the same substance lives in both of them. The power to awaken the buddhi in people came from the life of Christ on earth. Thus we must understand Christ as the communal spirit of the earth.

[ 14 ] If we could look down on the earth from a distant star through long millennia, we would find a time when Christ is working on earth in such a way that all astral matter is permeated by Christ. Christ is the spirit of the earth, and the earth is his body. Everything that lives and sprouts and grows on earth is Christ. He is in all the seeds, in all the trees, and in everything that grows and sprouts on earth. That is why Christ had to point to the bread and say, “This is my body.” And of the juice of the grapes — at the Last Supper it was not a fermented wine — he had to say, “This is my blood,” for the juice of the fruits of the earth is his blood. Humanity must therefore appear to him as beings walking around on his body. That is why he said to his disciples after the washing of their feet: “He who eats my bread tramples me underfoot.” This statement is to be taken literally in the sense that the earth is the body of Christ. Precisely because he makes himself the bearer of earthly development, a distant spirit would be able to see how more and more of his spirit flows into human beings — the drawing in of the substance of Christ Jesus into each individual human being. In the end, he would see the whole earth transformed, carrying Christianized human beings, human beings deified by Christ. Only that which has not participated in this deification will be set aside as evil. It must wait for a later time for its development toward the good.

[ 15 ] All the different peoples before the appearance of Christ on earth had mysteries. What was to happen in the future was depicted in the mysteries. The disciples were prepared through long exercises so that they could go through the burial. The hierophant could then bring the disciple into a higher state of consciousness, where he was in a kind of deep sleep. In ancient times, consciousness always had to be suppressed if the divine in man was to come to the fore. The soul was then guided through the regions of the spiritual world, and after three days the person was revived by the hierophant. Then he felt like a new person. He was given a new name. He was then called a son of God.

[ 16 ] This whole process took place in the mystery of Golgotha out on the physical plane. Beforehand, the disciples were enlivened by a spark of the Christ spirit, and they were told: One will come who will make it possible for all people to become Christian. One will truly be the Word in the flesh. You can only experience this for three days, during which you will pass through the realms of heaven. But One will come who will always walk through the realms of heaven, who will carry the realms of heaven into the physical world."

[ 17 ] What the initiate experienced on the astral plane, Christ was to represent on the physical plane: that from the beginning there was a divine Word that poured out its drops upon human beings, but which the ego-human beings were not yet able to receive. This is what John, the herald of the ego-human, who became Christian and accepted Christ, tells us; this is also what the “Word” means in John. He speaks of the Word that was there on earth from the very beginning:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

This was with God in the beginning.

All things were made through it, and without it nothing was made that has been made.

In it was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but a witness to the light.

For the true light that enlightens all men was coming into the world.

It was in the world, and the world was made through it, but the world did not recognize it.

It came into individual people (it came to the ego-people), but the individual people (the ego-people) did not accept it. But those who did receive it were able to reveal themselves as God's children through it.

Those who trusted in his name were not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we heard his teaching; the teaching of the only Son of the Father, filled with devotion and truth.“

[ 18 ] For John, the word ‘devotion’ in verse 14 means the same as Buddhi, ”truth" is the Manas, the wisdom, the spirit self.

John bears witness to him and proclaims clearly: This was the one of whom I said, After me will come the one who was before me, for he is my predecessor. For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God with their eyes. The only begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, has become the guide in this seeing."

[ 19 ] Every initiation into the mysteries of the spirit pointed to this appearance of Christ Jesus. This initiation was present in yogic sleep, in Orphic sleep, in Hermetic sleep. When the initiate awoke again in his body, when he could hear and speak again with his physical senses, he spoke the words that in Hebrew were: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” — “My God, my God, how have you exalted me!”

[ 20 ] This was the initiation as it took place in ancient Judaism. During his three-day stay in the higher worlds, the initiate experienced the course of the entire future development of humanity, what lay ahead of him in the future development of humanity. During the three days of vision, the future stages of humanity were not usually seen in an abstract way, but each stage was represented by a personality. The seer saw twelve personalities. They represented the twelve stages of soul development. Thus, the soul forces appeared before him as external personalities. At a certain point in time, the initiate saw a very specific scene unfold: he saw his own individuality transfigured to the stage where all humanity is filled with Buddhi – where it will be Christianized. He saw God as himself, with the soul forces behind him. Immediately behind him stood John, who as the last figure announces his completion. He saw himself transfigured, in a state he will attain when he is complete; his soul forces personified, whose final stage of perfection is the personality of John, who proclaims the Christ stage. Then these twelve figures formed themselves in yogic sleep in such a way that they grouped together in what was called the mystical communal meal. This represents the following. When man sits there, surrounded by the soul forces, he says to himself: These are one with me; they have guided me through earthly development. I have progressed further with the feet of these apostles. The meal expresses the communion of the twelve soul forces with the human being.

[ 21 ] The perfection of man consists in the lower forces falling away from him and only the higher forces remaining. Man will no longer have the lower forces later on, for example, the power of procreation. It is precisely the soul force of John that will have caused these forces to be lifted up into the loving heart. It will send out streams of spiritual love. When Christ is in man, the heart is the most powerful organ in him. The lower soul force will then be lifted up from the womb to the heart. Every initiate experienced this as the mystery of the heart. This was expressed in the words: “My God, my God, how you have exalted me!”

[ 22 ] With the appearance of Christ Jesus, the whole mystery, the whole experience, was now realized on the physical plane. At that time, there were brotherhoods in Palestine that had developed out of the ancient Essene order. They held such a meal as a symbol of the mystical Last Supper. The phrase “enjoying the Easter lamb” is a general expression for what happened at Easter. Jesus sat down at the table with the Twelve and instituted the Last Supper with the words: “At the end of the earth's development, all people will have accepted what I have brought to earth; then it will be true: this is my body, this is my blood.” Then he said: “One of you will betray me.” The betrayer is selfishness, the lower desire. The disciple whom the Lord loved knew this, for he was reclining in his bosom. As long as this force is there, it kills — sexual reproduction and death are mutually dependent —; this force, which lies in the sexual, rises higher in the body: into the heart. The disciple indicates this in the Gospel through his elevation to the heart. Just as it is certain that it is base desire that commits the betrayal, so it is also certain that the base soul force is elevated higher. “There was one among his disciples who was reclining at Jesus' side — he laid his head on Jesus' breast.” This meant that all lower forces, all egoism, were raised up to the heart. Then Jesus repeated the words to his disciples: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” — “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.”

[ 23 ] What took place in the mysteries was the same as what happened at Golgotha. Standing beneath the cross was the disciple whom the Lord loved, who had lain in his bosom at the Last Supper and had been lifted up to his breast. Then there also stand the female figures, his mother, his mother's sister Mary, and Mary Magdalene. John does not say that the mother of Jesus was called Mary, but his mother's sister is called Mary. His mother's name was Sophia.

[ 24 ] John baptized Jesus in the Jordan. A dove descends from heaven. At this moment, a spiritual fertilization takes place. The mother of Jesus, who is fertilized here — who is she? The chela Jesus of Nazareth, who at this moment strips himself of his ego, the highly educated manas is fertilized and the buddhi enters into it. The highly educated manas that has received the buddhi is wisdom, Sophia, the mother who is fertilized by Jesus' father. The name Mary, like Maja, generally means the mother's name. The scripture says: “The angel came to her and said, ‘Hail, thou that art highly favored, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bear a son. The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.’ The Holy Spirit is Jesus' father; the dove that flies down fertilizes Sophia, who is in Jesus.”

[ 25 ] The scripture should therefore be read as follows: “But standing by the cross of Jesus was his mother, Sophia.” To this mother he says: “Woman, behold, this is your son.” He had transferred Sophia, who was in him, to John himself. He made him the son of Sophia and said: “This is your mother.” “From now on, you must recognize divine wisdom as your mother and devote yourself to her alone.” What John wrote was this divine wisdom, Sophia, which is embodied in the Gospel of John itself. He himself received this knowledge from Jesus, and he is authorized by Christ to transmit wisdom to the earth.

[ 26 ] The highest earthly spirit had to be incarnated in a body. This body had to die, be killed, its blood had to flow. This has a special meaning. Wherever there is blood, there is the self. If all old communities of self are to cease to exist, then the selfhood that resides in the blood must be sacrificed. All individual egos flow away with the blood of Christ on the cross. The blood of the tribal communities becomes a common human blood through the sacrifice of Christ's blood at that moment.

[ 27 ] Then something else happened that an astral observer in the astral atmosphere could have observed: The entire astral atmosphere of the earth changed at the moment he died, so that events became possible that would never have been possible before. The sudden initiation — as with Paul — would never have been possible before. It became possible because, through the flow of Christ's blood, the whole of humanity became a communal self. At that time, the self flowed from the blood of Jesus' wounds. Only the three bodies remained hanging on the cross and were later revived by the risen Christ. At the moment when Christ left the body, the three bodies were so strong that they were able to speak the words that the transfigured Christ spoke after his initiation: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.”

[ 28 ] These words would have shown to all who knew something of the mysteries that this was a mystery. With a slight change in the Hebrew text, this became the word of Scripture: “Eli, Eli, lama asabthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”