The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Gospel of John III

[ 1 ] The individual concepts of the Gospel of John are of such depth that we can only understand this document correctly and in all its parts if we have created a sufficient basis for this through knowledge of the evolution of our planet.

[ 2 ] There is a remarkable correspondence between the beginning of the Gospel of John and that of the Bible. In the Bible it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and in the Gospel of John the beginning reads, “In the beginning was the Word.” These first words set the tone for the entire Gospel of John. The development of the Earth can only be properly understood if we bear in mind that the same laws apply to it as to the development of the individual human being. For spiritual science, the planet that is visible to us is only the body of the spirit that dwells within it. This spiritual essence undergoes repeated embodiments, just as humans do. Spiritual research recognizes three embodiments until the earth has reached its present state. This is not to say that it has not already undergone other embodiments before; but for the highest clairvoyant, only three embodiments that have preceded and three that follow are recognizable. This makes seven in total with the present embodiment. There is no superstition in this number seven. When I stand in a distant field, I see equally far in all directions. It is similar with the clairvoyant, he also sees equally far backwards and forwards in time. These seven embodiments of the earth are called in occultism: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. These names only denote the states of one and the same entity.

[ 3 ] Saturn is a state of our Earth in the distant past. The present planet Saturn is to the present Earth as a child is to an old man. The Earth was once in the state of Saturn, just as the old man was once a child. Nor is the following embodiment to be understood as if humanity would ever walk on Jupiter, but the Earth in its next embodiment reaches the state in which the present planet Jupiter is currently located.

[ 4 ] Between two planetary embodiments lies a kind of heavenly or spiritual devachan, a pralaya. The time between two planetary states is, just as it is for humans between two earthly lives, not a time of rest, but a time of spiritual activity and preparation for the near future, for the next life. Outwardly, this state appears as a twilight-like one. When the Earth emerged from the Pralaya to enter the Saturn state, it was not the same as it is today. If all the substance and essence that make up the earth, sun and moon were mixed together and formed a single body, it would resemble what the earth was when it emerged from the dim darkness of the Saturn state. It did not emerge as a body abandoned by beings. Present-day humanity was also already present there, but in a state adapted to that of the planet. On Saturn, the first physical body was formed. We can get an idea of the physical nature of man at that time if we try to understand the material state of the planet. On Saturn, there were no such conditions of physicality as we encounter today. There were no solid, liquid or gaseous substances; rather, matter was in a state that today's physicist would no longer recognize as physical.

[ 5 ] Secret Science recognizes four states of substance: earth, water, air and fire or warmth. Earth signifies everything that is solid; thus, frozen water or ice is also earth according to Secret Science. Water is everything that is liquid; thus, molten iron or stone is also water. Air is everything that is gaseous, thus also water vapor. According to the current view of physicists, fire or heat is only one property of matter, namely an extremely rapid vibration of its smallest particles. For esoteric science, however, heat is also a substance, only much finer than air. When a body is heated, according to esoteric science, it absorbs heat; when it cools, it releases heat. The warmth can condense into air, which in turn condenses into water, which then condenses into earth. All substances once existed as mere warmth. When the earth was in a state similar to Saturn, there was only warmth.

[ 6 ] The first formation of the human body was also formed only from warmth, but some organs were already indicated. But not only the germ of the physical body was present, but also the spirit, the deepest inner being of man, the spirit man or Atma. This spirit man rested in the bosom of the Godhead, which formed the spiritual atmosphere of Saturn. He was no more an independent being than our finger is such. Only at the end of the volcanic period will he be independent.

[ 7 ] In the following epoch, the solar period, matter and human bodies had condensed from a warm to an airy state. As a result, the etheric body was formed in addition to the existing physical body, and on the spiritual side, the deity descended, so to speak, by one level and formed the life spirit or buddhi.

[ 8 ] In the moon period, matter condenses into liquid, and the densest substance could be compared to wax in terms of its consistency. Man also continued to develop, and on the one hand the astral body developed, and on the other hand, from the spiritual side, the spirit self or manas. But man at that time did not yet possess an ego; he was comparable to the present-day animal, only differing from it in appearance.

[ 9 ] When, after the period of rest that followed the phase of the moon, the earth emerged again for the present period of development, it contained in itself, in terms of matter and entities, what the present sun, moon and earth contain. Man had become so refined on the side of matter that his astral body became capable of receiving an ego, in that this astral body formed itself into an ego-vehicle. On the other hand, the spirit had condensed to such an extent that it, comparable to a drop of water, could, as an ego, fertilize the lower bodies.

[ 10 ] The first significant cosmic event is the separation of the Sun from the Earth. This separation was necessary in order to provide a suitable arena for the higher spiritual beings, who had been connected with humanity until now and had now matured for higher activity. These higher beings had already reached the goal of human evolution in the state of Saturn. They were then already at that stage of evolution which man will only reach in the distant volcanic period of the earth. Still other higher entities had reached the degree of development in the earlier solar state of the earth that humanity will reach in the Venus period. It is these latter entities that now send us their power with the physical sunlight. Both types of entities separated from the earth and formed the present sun, taking with them the finest forces and substances.

[ 11 ] It was a dark time when the sun had emerged from the earth, but the moon was still within it. Man was threatened with extinction in the material form, with the dying out of all spiritual and all possibilities of development. Sun and earth, united with each other, would have caused such a rapid development of man towards the spiritual that he would not have been able to develop physically. Had the lunar forces remained in connection with the terrestrial forces, all life would have solidified into mere form. Men would have become statues, a “crystallized human race,” as Goethe says in “Faust” II, would have arisen.

[ 12 ] The separation of the forces of the sun and moon from the earth has given the balance between life and form that was necessary for the development of humanity. Only because these forces now act on man from the outside can man develop properly. The forces coming from the sun create and fertilize life. What pours this life into solid forms comes from the moon. We owe the emergence of the physical body as we have it today to the moon, but what sinks into this body, life, comes from the sun.

[ 13 ] These two currents from the sun and moon always work in the right way because one of the sun beings has connected with the moon. The beings that were on the level of the gods left with the sun; however, one of these beings has separated and taken the present moon as its residence. This spirit associated with the moon is called Jehovah, the God of form or the moon deity. This God Jehovah or Yahweh formed the three bodies of man in such a way that they became capable of receiving the I-drop. Jehovah formed the human body in his image, “in the image of God he created him” (Genesis 1:27).

[ 14 ] This theory of evolution formed the knowledge of the secret schools of all times. In the Christian secret school of the Areopagite Dionysius, the student learned this in the following way: Consider the kingdoms of living beings on earth. You see the stones. They are mute. They express nothing of their suffering and their joy. Consider the plants. They are still mute, they too express nothing of suffering and joy. The animals have risen above muteness. If you would follow the development with a spiritually sharpened eye, you would see that the sounds of the animals express the same thing that resounds through the cosmos. The more you ascend to man, the more you will find how sound becomes an expression of one's own pain and pleasure. Only man is given the ability to put into sound what emanates from the individual spirit. The animal bellows out what is going on in nature; but sound became word when Yahweh had formed the human bodies so that the spiritual entities of the sun could be absorbed into them. When sound becomes word, the spirit sounds into the astral body. Meaning and significance were incorporated into the clay when the higher solar powers penetrated the forms that were formed by Yahweh. When the first word resounded in man, there was his actual spiritual beginning.

[ 15 ] Here we are now at the point touched upon by the evangelist in 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word...” The Supreme Spirit, who is connected with the Sun and sent the Iche to Earth, is called Christ in The Secret Doctrine. The Iche as members of the Solar Logos only gradually flowed into the forms. The Light emanated from the Solar Logos, but few took it up in those ancient times; but those who took it up became different from their fellow men. They were called the children of God or the sons of God (Chapter 1, verse 12). They consisted of four members: physical body, etheric body, astral body and I, even if the fourth and youngest member was still weak and dark. However, the light shall come to all people; but it takes time. This is pointed out in verses eight to fourteen. But there were individual people who had already received the light to a high degree, so that they knew about it and could bear witness to it. They taught others. Those who, from their own experience and not taught by others, bore witness to the light and pointed out that one would come who for the first time would bring the light to all, these are called John in the Secret Doctrine (chapters 6 and 7). The author of the Gospel of John is one of these “Johns”. In the first chapter, verse 18, it says, “No one has ever seen God...” That is, no one before John, because it was only with Christ Jesus that He was personified. The greatest event for the development of the cosmos and of man is the event of Golgotha.