The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Twelfth Lecture

[ 1 ] Those who reflect with feeling on the remarks we made at the end of yesterday's discussion may feel a certain sense of anxiety about the fate of future humanity. Yesterday, a picture of the future of humanity had to be presented to your soul, a picture which, on the one hand, is indeed great, powerful, and filled with bliss, a picture which corresponds to the existence of those future human beings who have understood the mission of our present on earth, who have taken the Christ Spirit into themselves and have thereby been able to keep pace with the necessary spiritualization of our earth, a glorious, blissful picture of those people whom exoteric Christianity usually calls the “redeemed” or, with a not entirely accurate expression, the “chosen ones.” But the counter-picture also had to be placed before your soul, that picture of the abyss in which humanity finds itself, unable to accept this Christ Spirit, which has remained stuck in matter, has excluded itself, so to speak, from the process of spiritualization leading into the future, which has fallen out of the spiritualized earth and, in a certain sense, is heading toward a terrible fate apart from it. When the beast with seven heads and ten horns stares up at us from the abyss, seduced by the other terrible creature, the two-horned beast, this image certainly appears frightening and terrifying, and some might ask themselves: Is it not harsh and unwise of Providence to lead a number of people to such a terrible fate, to condemn a number of people, as it were, to the abyss of evil?

[ 2 ] And the question might arise: Would it not have been more fitting for a wise Providence to avert this terrible fate from the outset?

[ 3 ] In response to these questions, one can initially say something abstract, something theoretical, and for those who can feel this theory, it actually means a great deal: it is extraordinarily wise that Providence has ensured that this terrible fate can be a possibility for a number of people. For if it were impossible for human beings to sail into the abyss of evil, then what we call love on the one hand and freedom on the other would also be unattainable for human beings, because for the occultist, freedom is inseparably linked to the concept of love. Freedom would be impossible for human beings, and love would be impossible for human beings, if this descent were not possible. A human being who did not have the possibility of choosing good or evil of his own free will would be a being who was led by the hand to a good that had to be attained, and who did not have the choice of choosing good out of a full, purified will of his own, out of a love springing from freedom. For a human being who would not be able to follow the monster with the two horns, it would also be impossible to follow God out of his own love. It was in the wisdom of Providence to give humanity, developing through our planetary system, the possibility of freedom, and this possibility of freedom could not be given under any other condition than that man himself should have the free choice between good and evil.

[ 4 ] But one might say that this is only an empty theory, and that people are only slowly rising to the level of not only saying such things with words and finding them as a kind of explanation in theoretical moments, but also of feeling them. Rarely do people today rise to the thought: I thank you, O wise Providence, that you have made it possible for me to offer you love that springs freely from my heart, not love that you have forced upon me; that you do not compel me to love you, but have given me the choice to follow you. — Of course, people would have to rise to this feeling if they could really feel this theoretical explanation.

[ 5 ] But one can also offer another consolation, or rather another reassurance, based on a clairvoyant view of the world. For yesterday it was already mentioned that only those who are already somehow entangled in the tentacles of the two-horned beast, the great seducer into the arts of black magic, have an almost unalterable predisposition for the abyss. And even for such people who fall for the arts of black magic today, there is still a possibility of turning back in the future. However, those who are not in a position to fall prey to any arts of black magic, and that is currently the majority of people, will probably have a certain predisposition to ultimate evil in the aftermath of the great war of all against all, but the possibility of turning back in the future and turning to the good will be much greater than the compulsion to follow evil unconditionally.

[ 6 ] It is clear from the lectures that for those people who are turning to a spiritual worldview today in order to survive the great war and enter the sixth period, which is represented by the unsealing of the seals, it will be possible for that group to take up the Christ principle. They will be able to take in the spiritual elements that are being laid down in the period designated by the Philadelphia community, and they will be able to live them out in the coming period with a strong predisposition toward spiritualization. Today, those who turn to a spiritual worldview are taking up tremendous predispositions to embark on the upward path. It must not be underestimated how important it is that a number of people today are not deaf to the proclamation of the so-called anthroposophical worldview, which brings the first predispositions for spiritual life into humanity in a conscious way, whereas in the past this happened unconsciously. It is important that this part of humanity takes up the first conscious predisposition for upward movement.

[ 7 ] But the fact that a small group is separating itself today to form a large brotherhood that will live on into the time of the seven seals, creates a way out for other people who are still deaf to the proclamation of the anthroposophical worldview. For we still have many incarnations of the present souls to go through until the great war of all against all, and again until the decisive point after the great war. And even after that, during the time of the seals, we will have many transformations to go through, and people will often have the opportunity to open their hearts to the spiritual worldview that flows through the anthroposophical movement today. There will be many opportunities, and you must not believe that the opportunities in the future will be only such as they are today. Oh, the way in which we are able today to proclaim the spiritual worldview to other people is still very weak. And if a person were to speak today in such a way that his voice sounded immediately like the fire of the spirit, it would still be weak compared to the possibilities that will exist in later, more developed bodies to point our fellow human beings to this spiritual movement. When humanity as a whole will be developed higher and higher in the times to come, then completely different means will arise through which the spiritual worldview will be able to penetrate into hearts, and the most fiery words of today will be insignificant and weak compared to what will work in the future to give all souls the opportunity for a spiritual worldview who today still live in bodies in which no heart beats for this spiritual worldview.

[ 8 ] We are at the beginning of the spiritual movement, and it will grow, and it will take a great deal of stubbornness and hardening of the heart and soul to close oneself off to the powerful impressions of the future. Those souls who live today in bodies that have hearts to hear and feel the anthroposophical worldview are preparing themselves to live in bodies in which they will be given the strength to serve their fellow human beings who until then did not have the opportunity to feel their hearts beating within themselves in this way. We are only the preparers of the preparers, nothing more. The spiritual movement is only a tiny flame today, but it will develop into a mighty spiritual fire in the future.

[ 9 ] If we place this other image before our soul, if we truly feel it, then a completely different feeling, a completely different possibility of understanding this fact will come alive in us. Today, it is what we call black magic that people can fall prey to in a certain way, consciously or unconsciously. Those who live their lives today without any spiritual awareness, who are not touched by the spiritual worldview, who live in their comfortable everyday stupor and say, “What do I care what these dreamers of anthroposophy say?”—they have the least chance of falling into the circles of black magic. For them, it is simply a case of missing the opportunity to help their fellow human beings in their efforts to attain spiritual life. Not much can be lost for them personally. But those who today begin to approach spiritual life in an unlawful way actually take up within themselves, in the very beginning, the seeds of something that could be called black magic. And there are only very few individuals who have already fallen into black magic in that terrible sense in which this hideous art must actually be spoken of in relation to humanity.

[ 10 ] You will understand best that this is really so if I give you just a few quiet hints about how black magic is practiced in a systematic way, and then you will see that you can look around you, up and down among all your acquaintances, and you will find no one whom you could believe to be inclined toward such arts today. Everything else is basically pure dilettantism, which will be very easy to drive out in the coming periods. It is bad enough that in our time things are sometimes touted in order to take advantage of people and so on, which in a certain sense are also the beginning of black magic. It is also bad that certain views come into play which, even if they do not belong to black magic at all, nevertheless constitute a certain seduction. These are views that dominate the world today in certain circles and can certainly proliferate among materialistic minds, but even though they are by no means harmless, they will not be incurable in the coming epochs. Once a person has begun to learn the ABCs of black magic, so to speak, they are on the dangerous path to the abyss. And this ABC consists in the fact that a person who becomes the pupil of a black magician is encouraged to kill life in a completely conscious manner, to inflict as much pain as possible on life, especially in killing it, and to feel a certain satisfaction in inflicting this pain. If the intention is to stab or cut a living being with the intention of feeling bliss in its pain, then therein lies the ABC of black magic. Anything beyond that cannot be touched upon. But you will find it horrible enough when you are told that the beginner in black magic must cut and stab living flesh, not as the vivisector cuts—this is already something terrible, but the essence of vivisection is overcome in the vivisectors themselves, in that they will have to feel in Kamaloka the pain they have inflicted on their victims, and will therefore abandon vivisection in the future. But those who cut into flesh in a systematic manner and derive satisfaction from it begin to stray onto the slippery slope of black magic. And this gives them the opportunity to come closer and closer to that creature, the two-horned animal.

[ 11 ] This being, which we have characterized as the two-horned animal, need only be imagined as a seductive creature of a completely different kind than humans. It originates from other world periods, has adopted the inclinations of other world periods, and will feel deeply satisfied when it encounters beings such as these evil beings who have refused to accept inwardly what can flow from the earth as good. This being could have nothing of the earth. It saw the earth's development coming, but it said to itself: I am not so advanced with the earth that I can have anything from earthly existence. This being could only have had something from the earth if it had been able to gain dominion at a certain moment, namely when the Christ principle descended to the earth. If this Christ principle had been nipped in the bud at that time, if Christ had been overcome by the adversary, then it would indeed have been possible for the Earth in its entirety to fall prey to this Sorat principle. That was not the case, and so this being must content itself with the refuse that did not incline toward the Christ principle, with those human beings who remained stuck in matter. They will be its hosts in the future.

[ 12 ] Now, in order to understand these hosts more precisely, we must familiarize ourselves with two concepts that may be a key to certain chapters of the Apocalypse. We must familiarize ourselves with the concepts of “first death” and “second death.” What is the first death, and what is the second death of man or mankind? We must form a precise picture of the concepts that the apocalyptic writer has associated with these words. To do this, we must once again bring to mind the elementary truths about human existence.

[ 13 ] Take the human being of today, as you yourself are. He lives in such a way that from the moment he wakes up in the morning until he falls asleep in the evening, he consists of four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego. We also know that during their earthly existence, human beings work on the lower members of their being from their ego, and that they must succeed in bringing the astral body under the control of the ego during their earthly existence. We know that the Earth will be replaced by Jupiter, its next embodiment. When human beings reach Jupiter, they will stand before us as different beings. These Jupiter beings will have worked through their astral bodies from their I. And when we say today that the earthly human being who stands before us in the waking state has first developed a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an ego, we must say of the Jupiter human being that he will have developed a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an ego, but that he will have transformed his astral body into a spiritual self. He will live on a higher level of consciousness, a level that can be characterized as follows. That old, dull image consciousness of the moon, which was still present in the early stages of earthly consciousness, will return in its images as clairvoyant consciousness, but it will be equipped with the human ego, so that human beings will be as logical and rational with this Jupiter consciousness as they are today with their everyday consciousness on Earth.

[ 14 ] The Jupiter human being will thus be, in a certain sense, a lower clairvoyant. A part of the soul world will be open to him. He will feel the welfare and misfortune of his surroundings in images that arise within his imaginative consciousness. This Jupiter human being will therefore live in completely different moral conditions. Imagine that, as a Jupiter human being, you have a human soul before you: the pain and pleasure of this soul will rise up in images before your soul, and the images of the pain of the other soul will torment you, and if you do not eliminate the pain of the other soul, you will be unable to reconcile the pain of the other soul with your own well-being. Oh, the images of suffering would be torture for the Jupiter man with his heightened consciousness if he did nothing to alleviate this suffering and thus also remove his own tormenting images, which are nothing more than the expression of the suffering around him. The welfare and misfortune of the individual will not be possible without that of others.

[ 15 ] Thus we see how human beings have added a completely new state of consciousness to their present consciousness, the consciousness of the I. If we want to understand what significance this has for the development of the world, we must once again bring the sleeping human being before our soul. When you are asleep in bed, your physical and etheric bodies lie there, and outside them are the I and the astral body. At night, it is as if — to put it somewhat imprecisely — you despicably leave your physical and etheric bodies. But because human beings are able to free themselves from their physical and etheric bodies at night, because they can live in a spiritual world at night, the possibility arises that they can work from their ego to transform their astral body right here in this earthly existence. How does this work?

[ 16 ] If we want to describe it vividly, we can say: Let us take the human being in his waking state. Let us assume that, in addition to his professional work and duties, he finds a little time to devote himself to higher contemplation, to make his own the great impulses that flow, for example, from the Gospel of John, from the words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” Let us assume that he allows the great images presented to him by the Gospel of John to arise within him, that he is always filled with the thought: At that time, at the beginning of our calendar, there lived in Palestine a being whom I want to follow. I want to organize my life so that everything can stand before this being, so that I can regard myself as a human being who has taken this personality as his ideal. — But we need not be intolerant and think only of the Gospel of John. There are many other ways of immersing oneself in what can fill the soul with such images. And even if we must in a certain sense describe the Gospel of John as the greatest thing that has ever arisen within humanity, as that which can exert the most powerful influence, we can still say: The other person, who is devoted to the teachings of Vedanta wisdom or who immerses himself in the Bhagavad Gita or the Dhammapada, will also have sufficient opportunity in subsequent incarnations to come to the Christ principle precisely through what he has absorbed in this way. Let us assume that a person fills his soul with such images and ideas during the day. His astral body is then seized by these thoughts, feelings, and images, and they form forces in his astral body, producing the most diverse effects within him. When the person then leaves their physical and etheric bodies at night, these effects remain in the astral body, and those who have been able to immerse themselves in the images and feelings of the Gospel of John during the day have created something in their astral body that appears there at night as a powerful effect. Thus, we must say that human beings today work on their astral body during their waking consciousness.

[ 17 ] Only the initiated can become aware of these effects today, but human beings are gradually developing toward this consciousness. Those human beings who reach the goal of earthly evolution will then have an astral body completely permeated by the spiritual content they have acquired through their own efforts. They will have this consciousness as a result, as a fruit of earthly evolution, and will carry it over into the Jupiter evolution. We would like to say that when the Earth's time has come to an end, human beings will have acquired abilities that are symbolically represented by the building of the New Jerusalem. There, human beings will already be able to look into the world of images of Jupiter, and the spirit itself will then be developed within them. That is the goal of Earth's development. So what should human beings attain in the course of Earth's development? What is the first goal? The transformation of the astral body. Oh, this astral body, which today always becomes free from the physical and etheric bodies at night, will appear in the future as a transformed part of the human being. Into it, human beings carry what is given to them on Earth. But that would not be enough for Earth's development. Imagine that human beings came out of their physical and etheric bodies every night and filled their astral bodies with what they had taken in during the day, but that their physical and etheric bodies were not touched by this at all. Then human beings would still not achieve the goal of their time on Earth. Something else must happen. It must be possible for human beings, during their earthly development, to imprint again and again, at least into the etheric body, that which they have taken in. It is necessary that this etheric body can also receive influences from what human beings develop in the astral body.

[ 18 ] Human beings cannot yet work into this etheric body by themselves. On Jupiter, when human beings have transformed their astral bodies, they will become capable of working into this etheric body as well. Today, however, he cannot do this; today he still needs helpers, so to speak. On Jupiter, human beings will become capable of beginning the actual work on the etheric body. On Venus, they will work on the physical body; this is the most difficult part to overcome. Today, however, human beings must still leave both the physical and etheric bodies behind in bed at night and come out. But in order for the etheric body to receive its effects so that human beings gradually learn to work into the etheric body, they need a helper. And this helper who makes this possible is none other than the Christ-being, while we call the being who helps human beings to work into the physical body the “Father.” But until the helper comes who makes it possible to work into the etheric body, human beings cannot work into their physical bodies: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” No one who has not passed through the Christ principle can attain the ability to work into the physical body. Thus, when human beings reach the goal of earthly evolution, they will have the ability to transform their astral body through their own powers and will also have the ability to work down to the etheric body. This is due to the living existence of the Christ principle on earth. If this principle had not united with the earth as a living entity, it would not have entered the earth's aura, and then what is formed in the astral body would not be formed in the etheric body. We see, therefore, that those who close themselves off by turning away from the Christ principle deprive themselves of the opportunity to work into their etheric body in the way that is necessary during the course of Earth's evolution.

[ 19 ] We can thus characterize in another way the two types of people who stand before us at the goal of Earth's evolution: We have people who have taken the Christ principle into themselves, who have thereby transformed their astral body and obtained help from Christ to transform their etheric body as well, and we have others who have not come to the Christ principle, who were also unable to change anything in their etheric body because they could not find the helper, Christ.

[ 20 ] Now let us look at the future of humanity. The earth is becoming spiritualized, which means that human beings must completely lose something that they now consider to be part of their physical existence. We can form a picture of what happens to human beings when we consider the ordinary course of their lives after death. After death, human beings lose their physical body. It is to this physical body that we attribute the desires and inclinations that are connected with ordinary life, and we have described what human beings experience after death. Let us take a person who was particularly fond of a certain delicious food. In life, he can enjoy it, but after death he cannot. However, the desire does not cease, for it is not located in the physical body but in the astral body. But because the physical instrument is now lacking, the possibility of satisfying this desire is also lacking. Such people look down from Kamaloka into the physical world they have left behind, and they see what might still give them pleasure from all that is down in the physical world, but they cannot enjoy it because they have no physical instrument with which to do so, and this gives rise to that burning thirst within them. This is the case with all desires that remain in human beings after death and are directed toward the physical world, because they can only be satisfied through physical instruments. This is how it is every time after death: each time, the human being sees his physical body fall away, and because something of this physical body remains, he is still drawn to the ordinary world of our physical plane, and until he has weaned himself of this in the spiritual world, the time of burning desire will be there for him.

[ 21 ] Now imagine the last earthly incarnation before the spiritualization of the earth, the shedding of the last physical body. The people living on earth today will have progressed so far through the Christ principle that, in a certain sense, this shedding of the very last physical body will not cause them any particular difficulty. But they will have to leave something behind, for that which can give joy from the objects of this earth will have disappeared once and for all from the spiritualized earth. Think of the last death that is possible in the earth's evolution, the final laying down of the physical body. This last death of the incarnations is what is called the first death in the Apocalypse. And those who have taken in the Christ principle see this physical body as a kind of falling shell. For them, the etheric body now has meaning. With the help of Christ, it is organized in such a way that it is adapted to the astral body for the time being, so that it no longer has any desire for what is down there in the physical world. Only with all that has been brought into the etheric body through the help of Christ do human beings now continue to live in the spiritualized earth. They have created harmony between their astral body and their etheric body. The Christ principle has created this harmony.

[ 22 ] On the other hand, there are others who have not taken the Christ principle into themselves. These others do not have such harmony. They too must lose their physical body, for there is no physical body in the spiritualized earth. Everything physical must first be dissolved. What remains is a longing for the physical, the unpurified spiritual, the spiritual that has hardened in matter. An etheric body remains behind, one that Christ did not help to adapt to the astral body, which is oriented toward the physical body. These are the people who will feel a burning desire for physical sensuality. They will feel unquenched, burning desires in their etheric body because of what they had in their physical life and what they now have to do without. Thus, in the next period, after the physical has melted away, we will have people who live in their etheric bodies as in a member of their being that harmonizes with the astral body, and we will have other people whose etheric bodies live in disharmony because they desire what has fallen away in the physical body.

[ 23 ] And then, in the further course of evolution, a state will arise in which the spiritualization of the earth will have progressed to such an extent that there can no longer be an etheric body. Those whose etheric body is completely in harmony with the astral body cast off this etheric body without pain, for they remain in their astral body, which is filled with the Christ being, and they feel it is necessary for their development that the etheric body be cast off. For they feel within themselves the ability to rebuild it again because they have taken Christ into themselves. But those who have a longing in this etheric body for what has passed away cannot keep this etheric body when everything becomes astral. It will be taken from them, torn from them, and now they experience this as a second death, as the “second death.” This second death passes unnoticed by those who have harmonized their etheric body with their astral body by taking in the Christ principle. The second death has no power over them. The others, however, experience the second death as they continue to live on in the following astral form. Then humanity is in that state where those who have reached the goal of evolution have completely permeated their astral body with Christ. They are ready to pass over to Jupiter, and they are designing the plan for Jupiter's evolution on our Earth. This is the plan that is called the New Jerusalem. They live in a “new heaven” and a “new Earth”: that is Jupiter.

[ 24 ] This new Jupiter will be accompanied, as if by a satellite, by those who are excluded from spiritual life, who have experienced the second death and therefore have no possibility of attaining Jupiter consciousness. So we have people who have advanced to Jupiter consciousness, who have attained Manas, and beings who have rejected the forces that would have given them this consciousness. These are those who first attained the Earth's ego consciousness on Jupiter and who now stand, so to speak, as humans stand today on Earth with their four limbs. But such a human being can only develop within the Earth; only the Earth has the environment — the soil, the air, the clouds, the plants, the minerals — that is necessary for human beings if they want to achieve what can be achieved within the four limbs. Jupiter will be completely different; it will be a “new Earth.” The soil, air, and water will be different, every being will be different, and it will not be possible for beings who have only attained Earth consciousness to lead a normal life. They will be the beings who have been left behind.

[ 25 ] But now comes something that is again reassuring for us. Even on this Jupiter there is still one last possibility, through the strong power possessed by those who are more advanced, to move those who have sunk down once again to turn back, and to bring a number of them to turn back. Only at the incarnation of Venus will the very last decision be made, the irrevocable decision. When we think about all this, the thought we discussed recently takes on a different hue. It will no longer cause anxiety and unease, but only one aspiration: I want to do everything necessary to fulfill the Earth mission.

[ 26 ] If we bring all this to the forefront of our minds in the appropriate way, a great and powerful picture of the future of humanity opens up before us, and we can sense what was in the enlightened soul of the apocalyptic writer who wrote down what we have just been able to stammer out of the Apocalypse in these reflections. Every word of the apocalyptic writer is significant, indeed every turn of phrase. We only have to try to understand them clearly. Thus, in the spirit of yesterday's reflection, we are referred in 666 to the beast with two horns, and then a strange word is spoken: “Here is wisdom! Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.” This is an apparent contradiction, but one of many contradictions that can be found in every occult writing and consideration. You can be certain that a consideration that proceeds so smoothly that the ordinary everyday mind cannot find any contradiction is certainly not based on occult principles. What develops in the world is not as shallow and trivial as what the human mind, ordinary intelligence, perceives as free of contradiction. One must delve deeper into the foundations of human contemplation, and then the contradictions disappear. Anyone who observes a plant as it grows from root to fruit, how the green leaf transforms into the flower petal, the flower petal into the stamens, and so on, can say: Here we have contradictory forms, the flower petal contradicts the stem leaf. But those who see more deeply will perceive the unity, the deeper unity in the contradiction. So it is with what the intellect can see in the world. It sees contradictions even in the deepest wisdom. Therefore, we should not be disturbed when we encounter an apparent contradiction here in the Apocalypse: “Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.”

[ 27 ] We must consider once again how human beings can become susceptible to being seduced by the two-horned beast. We have pointed out that since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, human beings have, so to speak, slept through the higher spiritual development. This period of sleep is the present time. But it was necessary. If it had not occurred, what we now call the intellect would never have come into being. People before our time did not have this. They acted on the basis of other impulses. Their images drove them to their actions without reflection. Human beings lost this ancient gift of clairvoyance and exchanged it for the intellect, descending into matter. This has woven a veil before the spiritual world, but at the same time it has given us reason. This can be an important obstacle to spiritual development. Ultimately, nothing else will be able to prevent people from coming to the Christ principle than this misguided reason, this misguided intelligence. And if those who will ultimately fall prey to the two-horned beast could look back on what actually played the worst trick on them, they would say: “It is true that the predisposition to the abyss only came later, but what darkened me was the Christ principle, that is, the intellect. Oh, he who has this intellect, let him consider the number of the beast! For it is precisely because man has become man, that is, has been endowed with this ego-mind, that he can fall prey to the beast 666. For the number of the beast is also the number of a man, and that it is the number of a man can be understood by no one except those who have understanding: it is the number of the man who has allowed himself to be seduced by his mind. Such profound truths are contained in these things.

[ 28 ] You see, then, that the apocalyptic writer gives you much if you take in the individual hints we have given. He gives much of what we today call anthroposophical truths. He gives what he promises. He leads people to a vision of what is to come: to a vision of the beings and powers that govern the world. He leads us to the spirit that is given to us on the first seal, to the figure that is given to us on the last seal. There we see how clairvoyantly the regularity of the new Jerusalem is expressed to him. That is the visionary aspect of it. The regularity of the New Jerusalem is expressed in this; you can see in chapter 21 how this New Jerusalem is described, as it were, as a cube (verse 16). To describe what is in this last image would take us too far. (See the seventh seal image.)

[ 29 ] Now it is necessary for us to point out the purpose for which the Apocalypse was written. I would have to say a great deal if I wanted to describe in detail why it was written. But you should at least take home with you a hint, a hint that emerges for us from a very specific passage in the Apocalypse. The author of the Apocalypse says that a time will come when this high level of consciousness will indeed have developed, when people will see in heightened consciousness the beings who rule the world, the beings who were characterized by the Lamb, by the appearance of the Son of Man with the flaming sword. We are pointed to this in tones that already contain within themselves the reassurance of which we have spoken. The apocalyptic writer, who is a profound clairvoyant, knows that in ancient times people were gifted with a dim clairvoyance. We have characterized it and seen how people at that time were, so to speak, companions of the divine spirit world, how they themselves saw the divine-spiritual world. But who lost this gift of clairvoyance, who? We must now pose this as an important question. We have seen that it was basically those people who lost it who were led out onto the physical plane, into physical life, at the beginning of the second half of the Atlantean epoch. People looked at the solid structures of our earth, at the limited objects of our earth. The old clairvoyance disappeared. People became self-conscious, but the spiritual world closed itself off from them. The structures that had permeated the air like a sea of mist in ancient times disappeared, the air became pure, the ground became free. People stepped out onto the free earth. This happened relatively late; it coincides with the attainment of the present intellect, the present self-awareness of human beings.

[ 30 ] And now let us remember what we have said about this earth. We remember that we have placed the great moment of Golgotha before our souls. If someone had looked at the earth from afar with clairvoyant vision at that time, they would have perceived, at the moment when the blood flowed from the wounds of the Redeemer, that the entire astral aura of the earth changed. The earth was permeated by the power of Christ. Through this event, the earth will one day be reunited with the sun. This power will grow. It is the power that preserves our etheric body from the second death. Christ will become more and more the Earth spirit, and those who are true Christians will understand the words, “He who eats my bread treads upon me,” and will regard the body of the Earth as the body of Christ. The Earth as a planetary body is the body of Christ, though only in its beginning. First the Christ becomes the Earth spirit, uniting completely with the Earth. And when the Earth later unites with the Sun, the great Earth spirit will be the Sun spirit.

[ 31 ] The body of the Earth will be the body of Christ. And human beings must work on this body. They began to do so when they stepped out onto the Earth; they worked on this Earth with their powers. In all traditions, one can find something that is little noticed because it is little understood. For example, in the Persian tradition, it is said that since the time when human beings stepped out of clairvoyant consciousness, they have become beings who have pierced the Earth. While human beings live in the phase of piercing the earth, that is, working on the earth, during this time when they pierce the body of Christ, they do not see the guiding forces in clairvoyant consciousness, especially not Christ face to face. But the apocalyptic writer points to the time when not only the clairvoyants of that time will see the spiritual, but when humanity will have arrived again at the stage that enables it to see the Christ being itself. All beings will see him, and those who pierced him will also see him; those who had to go through part of their development in cultivating the earth, in piercing the earth, will see Christ. For such words are such that they lead those who gradually learn to understand them deeply into the world of ideas of the mysteries, of apocalyptic language.

[ 32 ] What, then, did the apocalyptic writer want to write, what did he want to portray? This question is answered by briefly pointing to the origin of the Apocalypse. Where is what is written in the Apocalypse first contained? If you could go back to the mysteries of ancient Greece, to the Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries, back to the mysteries of the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, and Indians, you would find the apocalypse everywhere. It existed, it was there. It was not written down, but it lived on from generation of priests to generation of priests, through the generations of initiators, where memory was so vivid that one could master such rich material. Memory was still much better in much later times than it is with us. Just remember the singers of the Iliad, how they wandered around and could sing their songs from memory. It is not so long ago that memory declined so much. In the mysteries, these truths were not written down, but they lived on from generation to generation of initiators.

[ 33 ] What was the task of the Apocalypse? Its task was to serve as an instruction for those who brought the disciples to initiation. At that time, the person who was to be initiated was taken out of his physical body and remained as if dead. But once they had been led out, the initiator allowed them to see in their etheric bodies what could later be seen clairvoyantly in the physical body through the Christ impulse. Thus, the ancient initiates were prophets who could point to Christ. And they did so, they were able to do so, because Christ was shown in this Apocalypse as something that would appear in the future. Never before had the event of Golgotha taken place in which a human being in the physical body had lived through the entire drama of initiation before history.

[ 34 ] So where was the possibility of understanding this event of Golgotha? At a certain level, the initiates had understood it outside their bodies. What happened on Golgotha had taken place in another consciousness. There could have been thousands of people, and the event of Golgotha could have passed them by. What would it have meant to them? The death of an ordinary condemned man! The possibility of understanding what took place on Golgotha was only available to those who knew the content of the mysteries. The initiators could say: The one whom we have shown you during the three and a half days, whom the prophets have proclaimed to you, you can understand if you take the means from the mysteries.

[ 35 ] The apocalyptic writer had absorbed the oral tradition of the mysteries and said to himself: If I immerse myself in what can be experienced in the mysteries, then Christ will appear to me. — So the Apocalypse was nothing new, but its application to the unique event of Golgotha was something new. The essential point was that for those who had ears to hear, there was a possibility of gradually advancing to a real understanding of the event of Golgotha with the help of what is written in the Apocalypse of John. That was the intention of the apocalyptic writer. From the ancient mysteries he had the Apocalypse; it is an ancient sacred book of mankind and was only outwardly given to humanity by the disciple whom the Lord loved and to whom he bequeathed in his will the task of proclaiming his true form. It is to remain until Christ comes, so that those who are endowed with enlightened consciousness may grasp it. He is the great teacher of the true event of Golgotha. He has given people the means to truly understand the event of Golgotha.

[ 36 ] At the beginning of the Apocalypse, the apocalyptic writer says—I have tried to translate the first words as they must be translated if they are to be correct—"This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to his servant to show him the things that must soon take place. This is set forth in signs and sent by his angel to his servant John, and he has made it known.” He wants to describe ‘in brief.’ What does that mean? It means as much as if one wanted to say: If I wanted to describe to you in detail everything that will happen from now until the end of the earth's development, I would have to write a great deal. I will present it to you in a brief outline. The translators, who were unable to penetrate the spirit of the Apocalypse, translated this as “to show what is to happen in brief.” They believed that what is happening there, what is being described, is to happen in a short time. But it should mean: what is happening there should be described in a brief outline. The original text has a turn of phrase that allows for a correct translation of what I have tried to give in the introduction to “Images of Occult Seals and Pillars.”

[ 37 ] Now, in a series of reflections, we have said a great deal about this ancient and sacred document of the human race, and about what the Lord has revealed to humanity as its secrets through the disciple whom he loved. You may have come to realize that this Apocalypse is a profound book, full of wisdom, and you may have sometimes felt anxious during these reflections because some things in it are so difficult to understand. Now, at the end of our reflections, I would like to say one thing to you: Everything I have been able to tell you corresponds exactly to the intentions of the apocalyptic writer and has always been taught in the schools that have preserved the apocalyptic writer's intentions. But it is not everything, far from everything that could be said, and one can go much deeper into the truths, into the foundations of the Apocalypse. And if we were to delve into all the depths, then what I have been able to tell you would appear to you as nothing more than a first superficial presentation. There is no other way; one can only give a superficial presentation at first. One must go through this. One must begin with the elementary, and then, once one has gone a little way, the depth will reveal itself. For there is much, much beneath the surface, which it has been possible to lift a little, to reveal a little. And if you continue along the path you have begun, in a certain sense, by turning your attention to the explanation of the Apocalypse of John, you will gradually enter into the depths of spiritual life. You will enter depths that cannot be expressed today because they cannot be consciously perceived, because no one has ears to hear them yet. It is only through explanations such as those that have now been given that the ears can be prepared to hear. Then they will gradually be there, ears that can hear the word that flows so deeply through the Apocalypse. So if you have taken in some of what could be said, be aware that only the first surface could be given, and of this only individual remarks. Let it become an impulse to penetrate deeper and deeper into what can only be guessed at through these lectures. If I wanted to say only what can be said about the surface, I would have to give you many, many weeks of lectures. These lectures could only be a stimulus, and those who feel that they must penetrate deeper and deeper will have taken these lectures in the right sense.