The Rudolf Steiner Archive

14. Earlier Initiation and Esoteric Christianity

[ 1 ] If we want to examine two ideas of the Christian worldview, sin against the Holy Spirit and the idea of Christian grace, in depth, we must first familiarize ourselves a little with the fundamental questions and currents of Christianity. You know from other lectures that the teachings of commonly proclaimed Christianity are based on what is known as esoteric Christianity. You also know that there are hints of such Christianity in the Gospel itself, simply in the words: When the Lord was before the people, he spoke in parables, but when he was alone with his disciples, he explained these parables to them. — There was simply a teaching for those who could understand even less, to whom one had to speak in hints, for whom one could not yet go deeper, and there was a teaching that was intended for the initiated. In this sense, the great propagator of Christianity, Paul, taught the people what we know from his letters. In addition to this teaching of Paul, which was an outward teaching for the people, there was also an esoteric teaching from him. Paul, unbeknownst to outward history, founded the esoteric school in Athens under the leadership of Dionysius. Within this esoteric school of Christianity, intimate disciples were taught the secret teachings that you are now rediscovering through spiritual science.

[ 2 ] Scholarship does not know much about the teachings that were imparted at that time by the esoteric companions of St. Paul in Athens to intimate disciples. There is even talk of a false Dionysius, because it is said that there is no evidence that any of these teachings were written down at that time. Pseudo-Dionysius is the name given to the person who taught this esotericism in the 6th century. Only those who do not know what was customary in ancient times with such intimate teachings say this. Only in our time has it become customary for everyone to rush to commit everything to writing. In ancient times, the most sacred truths were kept secret before being published. They were first examined by those to whom they were revealed. They were taught only in esoteric schools, only from person to person, if the recipient was truly worthy of them. Thus, the teachings of esoteric Christianity were also transmitted from person to person, and some were written down in the 6th century. Because it was customary for the head of such a school to always bear the name Dionysius, the head of this school in Athens in the 6th century also bore this name, the same as his great ancestor in Athens, the friend of Paul. In the spirit of this esoteric school, as it was actually taught there, let us consider the concept of sin against the Holy Spirit, or rather blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and the concept of Christian grace.

[ 3 ] If we want to grasp the original meaning of Christianity, we must go far back in the history of human development and realize that with the appearance of Christ Jesus, something completely new was imprinted on the spiritual history of humanity. What was imprinted there is most intensely expressed in the initiation of Paul himself. The fact that a man like Saul received the whole conviction of the truth of Christianity through such a sudden enlightenment would not have been possible before the appearance of Christ Jesus. We have often spoken of what initiation was like before the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth. Let us do so again in order to understand what the spirit of truth actually means in the Christian sense. If we want to understand what took place in the ancient places of initiation, we must briefly recall the nature of the human being.

[ 4 ] You know that human beings consist of seven elements. The physical body is made up of the same components as the inanimate substances of the physical world. The etheric body brings these forces to life; it works against the decay of the physical body at every moment of our lives. Only in death does the etheric or life body withdraw from the physical body. The crystal holds its substances together by itself; the living body decays as soon as it is left to itself. Truly, at every moment there is a fighter against death within it. When this fighter ceases to fight, death occurs. The third member is the astral body, the body of consciousness. The fourth member is the I, through which man is the crown of creation. All secret teachings have conceived of man as being composed of these four members. In the Pythagorean school, every student first had to be introduced to this teaching of the four-membered human being. Only when this teaching had become his innermost conviction could he be introduced to higher wisdom. He therefore had to vow: I vow by that which is deeply engraved in our hearts, the sacred fourfold nature, the spiritually sublime symbol, the original source of all natural and spiritual creation.

[ 5 ] The most undeveloped human being has these four members. Through various incarnations, the human being develops toward ever greater perfection as the I works on these three members of the being. In the astral body, it first works on everything that is cultural progress, logical scientific learning, which serves to move away from the animal stage. This is the work of the I on the astral body. In every developed human being whose ego has already worked on the astral body, the latter divides into two parts: the given part and the part that the ego has created. This part, which becomes greater and greater the further the human being advances, is called manas or spirit self. Christian esotericism refers to this part as the Holy Spirit, in contrast to the spirit, the unpurified and unsanctified parts of the astral body. Thus we know the fifth member.

[ 6 ] In a certain way, this already happens in ordinary human beings, that is, unconsciously. It has often been said how one must distinguish between working on the astral body and working on the etheric body: the former can be compared to the movement of the minute hand in relation to the hour hand in terms of the speed of progress compared to the latter. When a person surrenders to the impression of a sublime work of art, such a work of art has a transformative effect on the life and consciousness bodies. Every great artistic impulse has this effect. The strongest effect is that of the religious impulses brought into the world by the founders of religions, which direct the ego toward the eternal. The clairvoyant eye can see when a person's etheric body is becoming ever more beautiful and pure.

[ 7 ] The part of the human etheric body that the ego spiritualizes is called the Buddhi, the life spirit; it is the transformed life body. In Christian esotericism, this part, which has been reworked by the ego, is called the Christos. The fifth member of the human being is the Holy Spirit, the sixth member is Christ, the inner Christos.

[ 8 ] It has already been pointed out that there have always been so-called secret teachings for human beings, enabling them to become initiates and to look into the spiritual world itself. This is based on a higher transformation of the etheric or life body. Therefore, you must also realize that any higher training is not just the absorption of concepts and teaching material. Secret training consists rather in the transformation of the qualities of our life body. Those who have transformed their temperament have done much more than if they had absorbed an infinite amount of science.

[ 9 ] There is an even higher transformation that only occurs with advanced training. In this, the human being purifies and cleanses their physical body. What does the human being know about their physical body? By examining it in the anatomical institute through dissection, they do not yet gain knowledge of the laws that govern it, nor do they gain inner mastery of them. But there is a way to look within oneself so that the movements of the nerve strands, the pulse, and the respiratory currents become clear, enabling the person to consciously work with them. If a person is able to transform their physical body in so-called secret training, then this reworked dense body is called Atma, because it begins with a regulation of the breathing process. The seventh member of the human being is Atma, in Christian esotericism the Father.

[ 10 ] Thus, one first comes to the Holy Spirit, the transformed astral body, through the Holy Spirit to Christ, the consciousness of the etheric body, and through Christ to the Father, the consciousness of the physical body.

[ 11 ] Once you understand how these seven members of human nature are connected, you will also understand what initiation was like in ancient times before Christ and what it was like after Christ Jesus appeared on earth. When a person sleeps, only the physical and etheric bodies lie in bed; the astral body is outside. When a person dies, they leave behind their physical body, and the part that they have already transformed from the physical body rises up: forces, not matter. Very little is what the person takes with them. But it is what serves to form the new physical body in a new incarnation. Materialism calls this part the “permanent atom.” First, the part that the human being has transformed from the physical body itself emerges, then the etheric body emerges, then the consciousness body, then the I. After some time, the part of the etheric body that the human being has not yet worked on detaches itself. Thus, the human being enters Kamaloka, the place of purification. After some time, that part of the astral body on which the I has not yet worked also detaches itself. Then comes the time when only that which the I itself has worked out remains attached to the human being from the three bodies. This passes through the spiritual realm. It is the eternal core of the human being. The more the I has worked out, the greater this becomes.

[ 12 ] The Holy Spirit is the eternal spirit in the human being. Christ is the eternal part of the life body, the Father the eternal part of the physical body. These three accompany the human being through all times as his eternal part.

[ 13 ] Before the Christian era, initiation was such that the disciple was first prepared for all that secret science can give, to the point where he was familiar with all the concepts and ideas, all the habits and feelings needed to live in the higher worlds and to perceive in them. Then came what was called the awakening, which lasted three and a half days and three nights. This consisted of the temple priest using his art to artificially put the person into a death-like sleep for three and a half days. Whereas in normal sleep the physical and etheric bodies remain connected, during this time the etheric body of the initiate was lifted out of the physical body by the art of the initiating priest, so that only a loose connection remained between the physical body and the other bodies. It was a deep trance sleep. During this time, the human ego lived in the higher worlds. Since the student had been given knowledge of the higher world, he was familiar with it. The priest guided him. First, the priest had to free the etheric body from the lethargic physical body in order to lead the student out into the spiritual worlds. In a fully conscious state, the person would never have been able to ascend to those higher worlds. He had to be lifted out of this state.

[ 14 ] As magnificent and powerful as what the person experienced was, he was still completely in the hands of the priest. Another ruled over him, and only at this price could he enter the higher worlds. You can imagine what he was after this time when you consider that the person was able to experience his Eternal Self on this occasion. He was freed from that part of finitude, the physical body, which he could not use if he was to move in the higher worlds. From this, such a person emerged as a knower, as one who could testify from his own experience to the victory of life over death. These were the initiates who could testify to this. The etheric body had to be lifted out of the physical body in order to experience the Christos in man. These initiates could say: I have experienced for myself that there is a part of man that is eternal, that survives all incarnations. I know it, I have experienced it myself, this eternal core of being. For this price, they had to enter into a three-day period of complete dream sleep.

[ 15 ] Something else was connected with this; this type of initiation was linked to something else. The further back we go, the more we recognize this. I have already characterized it when I spoke of what we call close marriage as opposed to distant marriage in ancient times. Among all peoples there were small communities that were related to each other. People married within these communities, and it was considered immoral to leave them. Related blood always flowed in marriages. Only gradually was close marriage replaced by the principle of distant marriage. Very special measures were even necessary for initiations: previous incarnations had to be carefully selected in order to achieve the best possible blood mixture. From this tribe was born the one who could undergo the high initiations. With blood relatives, it is particularly easy to lift the etheric body out of the physical body. With distant marriages, it is not so easy. There were entire generations of priests who made sure that the blood was preserved in a very specific way.

[ 16 ] Human life is complicated; it does not always follow a straight path. One must delve deeper into the mysteries of existence. The principle of kinship was increasingly broken, and the tribe expanded more and more into a people. In the Israelites, we see how the tribal principle was elevated entirely to a community of people. Christ extends this perspective to a distant future: “Whoever does not leave father, mother, brother, sister for my sake cannot be my disciple.”

[ 17 ] Cruel, but most truthful, these words reveal the tendency of Christianity. In the community of the people, it was said: This is my brother, who was born within the people. — In the brotherhood of humanity, which must encompass the whole human race, it is said: Because you are human, you are my brother. — This is the deepest principle of Christianity. All narrow-mindedness of other kinship must be torn apart, a common bond between human beings must be forged. But with this, the old principle of initiation, based on blood kinship, has also been torn apart.

[ 18 ] We see the new principle of initiation, which from now on is not bound to any physical characteristic, indicated by Paul himself: he is initiated in the light, not in the darkness of the temple. This could not have happened earlier. When we consider this, we can recognize the great change brought about by Christ Jesus. It was prepared by Moses, Zarathustra, Buddha, and Pythagoras, and brought about by Christ Jesus.

[ 19 ] Thus, we see for the first time in the Christian schools of initiation the principle being carried out, not of drawing the human being out of the physical body into the higher worlds, but of introducing him into them while he is fully conscious in his physical body. This was the case in the Christian esoteric schools. In contrast to this, the ancients, and thus a large part of humanity even now, had the initiating temple priest, whose strict authority the initiate submitted to. Only by submitting oneself completely to the power of such an initiator could one ascend.

[ 20 ] The principle of coercive authority was also expressed in external social life: the rulers were the priests. All the rules of government, all the structure of the state, emanated from the initiating power. This was possible from the blood community in the tribe to the people. With the abolition of the old initiating principle, a completely different authority was introduced: free authority based solely on trust. You should believe in those you trust — that is the highest Christian idea, to which one rises, where everyone faces each other as brothers, and the one who stands higher is recognized as the one in whom one places one's trust.

[ 21 ] “Watch and pray” is the Christian principle. The new initiation takes place in the waking state. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” is a profound Christian saying. It signifies a perspective into the future of Christianity. Christianity is only at the beginning of its development.

[ 22 ] Consider the intense connection between the initiating teacher in the ancient temple sleep and the disciple who receives the final stage of initiation in three and a half days. This relationship was something we cannot even imagine today. The relationship between hypnotist and hypnotized person gives us a faint reflection of the way in which the initiating temple priest first awakened the Holy Spirit and then Christ. The disciple reflected the Holy Spirit and Christ of the teacher; they had merged, and the clairvoyant could observe this process. During the three days, teacher and disciple were identified. The teacher's ego lived on in all his disciples, deeply fused through the three and a half days. Consider the social pyramid structure: at the bottom the people, above them the initiates, above them the teachers of the initiates. A spirit flowed down through all levels. Much lived on in those thus initiated, including things that were strange.

[ 23 ] Through the principle of Christianity, individuality came into its own. Hence the basic principle of Christian initiation: the student must never merge with the teacher in this way. They must not be one person during the initiation. The Holy Spirit must arise, be awakened, in the ego of each individual. This has become the principle of Christian initiation. This is also symbolically expressed in the miracle of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. The possibility of initiation was given by the fact that everyone began to speak in different tongues.

[ 24 ] The teacher allows the individuality of the other to prevail; he enters into the heart of the disciple, he does not take it out of his physical body.

[ 25 ] Consider how important it is for people today to develop the Holy Spirit and Christ consciousness independently. Then you will understand that it is only through this principle of Christianity that the human personality has actually been conceived as free. Only Christianity has truly liberated human individuality, and therefore Christianity has made a completely different relationship to truth and wisdom necessary than before.

[ 26 ] In ancient times, the spirit of wisdom prevailed because it was centralized. With fragmentation, it becomes decentralized, but egoism sets in. The more the principle of distance prevails, the greater must be the power of that which brings the liberated people back together. What is that? Look at what we learn today in the elementary parts of spiritual science, and go back in history, and you will see that this knowledge was possessed only by small communities, ultimately only by the highest echelons. As a result, they ruled according to the principle of coercive authority. We are approaching a time when wisdom is becoming more and more popular. This will be a means of establishing the great brotherhood of humanity.

[ 27 ] Two spiritual researchers will never disagree on anything. If they do, then one of the opinions is wrong. Wisdom is something unified that is incapable of difference. The more individual people become, the more wisdom must be given to them; this will bring them together. Today we are in a transitional stage. The principle of standpoint ceases entirely with the increasing development of wisdom. The more individual humanity becomes, the wiser it must become, for knowledge will bring it together: this is the spirit of wisdom that Christ Jesus promises to his own. The sun of wisdom draws all points of view to itself, as the sun draws plants.

[ 28 ] The spirit that will set people free is the Holy Spirit. Christians must never sin against this spirit. Those who sin against it sin against Christianity itself, against the promised spirit that alone can bring together the individual human personalities.

[ 29 ] The Gospels speak of Christ Jesus casting out demons. Demons exist only as long as man has not become free, as long as he has not yet received this Spirit of Wisdom. Man is riddled with all kinds of beings that flow in and out of his lower limbs. We call them specters, ghosts, demons. To use a trivial comparison: it is like maggots migrating in and out of cheese. By presenting himself as the spirit that casts out demons, Christ Jesus reveals himself as the spirit of freedom. Demons can only be cast out by invoking one spirit against another, the spirit of freedom against all other spirits.

[ 30 ] Now think briefly about those ancient communities, from tribal to national communities. How can you bring together these people who have not become individually free? Imagine that everyone sitting here had become free, that the spirit of truth lived in all of them! Would we ever argue, ever come into conflict? No, because there are no points of view when only the spirit unites us.

[ 31 ] In ancient times, external law had to prevail in order to keep people together. Two people who know the spirit of truth will naturally feel drawn to each other. Thus, at the beginning of human development there is law, and at the end there is peaceful, harmonious cooperation from within. In esoteric Christianity, this is called grace, in contrast to law. Nothing other than the ability to empathize with others in complete peace is the deepest concept of Christianity.

[ 32 ] The astral body filled with the Holy Spirit is the same for everyone; the spirit of truth is the same in everyone. Imagine this spirit in such an individuality in which Christ is also awakened, the principle that acts as the spirit of life in the body of life. When everyone permeates the etheric body with this feeling, then you have in every heart the feeling for the unified spirit, the individualities brought together by common wisdom. And what you feel within yourself: that is charity, grace.

[ 33 ] It was brought by Him who, at the beginning of our era, had the whole Christos within Himself in His individuality, who was the first to fulfill the whole principle of humanity. Christ Jesus made Himself what should live in every single human being. Through Him, that which consists of freedom and peaceful cooperation came into the world.

[ 34 ] “In Christ, you will come alive again; kill the spirit of disunity!” says Paul.

[ 35 ] Human beings can sin against everything that is not held in this spirit itself. If they sin against this spirit of universal humanity, if they deny it, then they are no longer Christians.

[ 36 ] Human beings must come to be conscious of the spirit. As human beings develop more and more, their consciousness body is transformed into the Holy Spirit. That is why sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven.

[ 37 ] In the uninitiated, the transformation of the etheric body takes place unconsciously. As long as a person is not initiated, they can only commit sins that cannot be forgiven in the astral body. The initiated person must not sin against the physical and etheric bodies either. Those who are not yet initiated can be forgiven for these sins. This happens with the help of those who are the leaders of humanity.