The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] Today we will focus on the more occult side of yesterday's discussion. The four post-Atlantean cultures had, so to speak, to reflect in the souls of human beings the great cosmic processes as they unfolded in the sequence of time, whereas in our cultural period since the 13th and 14th centuries we no longer have such a reflection, for what is happening outwardly in human evolution can be traced back to deeper causes.

[ 2 ] We know how the etheric bodies of the great Atlantean initiates were preserved for the seven holy Rishis, and we also know how the etheric body and the astral body of Zarathustra were interwoven with those of Moses and Hermes. At all times, it was possible for such etheric bodies, which had been worked through and prepared by the initiates, to be used further in the spiritual economy of the world. Other things also took place. For particularly important personalities, such etheric bodies are formed in the higher worlds. If someone was particularly important for the mission of humanity, such an etheric body or astral body was woven in the higher worlds and imprinted on these special personalities.

[ 3 ] This is what happened with Shem, who indeed has something to do with the entire Semitic tribe. A special etheric body was formed for such a tribal father. Shem was thus a kind of double personality. As fabulous as it may seem to the modern mind, such a personality as Shem appeared to the clairvoyant as an ordinary human being with his aura, but as if a higher being, descending from higher worlds, filled his etheric body and the aura of this human being thus formed the mediator between this personality and the higher worlds. However, such a divine being, dwelling in a human being, has very special powers. It can then multiply such an etheric body, and these multiplied etheric bodies then form a fabric that is woven into the descendants again and again. In this way, the descendants of Sem were imbued with the images of his etheric body. But the etheric body of Shem himself, not just the multiplied images, was also preserved in the mysteries. And a personality who was to receive a special mission had to use this etheric body in order to be able to communicate fully with the Semitic people, just as a highly educated European would have to learn the language of the Hottentots in order to communicate with them. The personality who had a special mission therefore had to carry within himself the real etheric body of Sem in order to make himself understood to the Semitic people. Such a personality was, for example, Melchizedek, who could only show himself to Abraham in the etheric body of Sem.

[ 4 ] And now we must ask ourselves the question: If we are only now, in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period, able to develop an understanding of Christianity, what was it like during the rest of the Greco-Latin period, which lasted until the 13th and 14th centuries?

[ 5 ] A mysterious occult process is taking place. Christ lived only for three years in the shell of Jesus of Nazareth, who was such a highly individual being that he was able to leave the physical world at the age of thirty in order to enter the spiritual world at the moment when the dove appeared above his head. The three highly developed bodies are now filled by the Christ individuality through the fact that this Christ individuality lives in the physical human body. These bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, invisible to the physical eye, are now multiplied in a similar way to the etheric body of Shem at that time, so that from the moment of death on the cross, images of the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth are now present. This has nothing to do with his ego; that went into the spiritual world and later incarnated again and again.

[ 6 ] In the first centuries after the Christ event, we see how Christian writers still worked on the basis of oral traditions handed down by the disciples of the apostles. They attached importance to physical tradition. However, later centuries could not build on this alone. From the sixth and seventh centuries onwards, a picture of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into the lives of particularly outstanding Christian preachers. One such person was Augustine. He had to endure tremendous struggles in his youth. But then the impulse of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth became effective in him in a significant way, and only then did he begin to pursue Christian mysticism out of himself. We can only understand his writings in this light.

[ 7 ] Many personalities have walked the earth carrying such a copy within themselves. Columban, Gallus, Patrick, they all carried such an image of the etheric body within themselves, and it was precisely this that enabled them to spread Christianity. In this way, a bridge could be built from the Christ event to the following era.

[ 8 ] And now, in the 11th and 12th centuries, we see such people who have woven the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth into their own. One such personality was Francis of Assisi. If we follow his life, we will find it incomprehensible in many ways; but we can understand his impulses of humility and Christian devotion when we tell ourselves that such a mystery lived in him. Through such interweaving of the astral body, such people became proclaimers of Christianity around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. They thus received Christianity through grace.

[ 9 ] The I of Jesus of Nazareth did indeed leave the three sheathes at the baptism of John; but an image of this I remained in the three sheathes, like a seal impression. The Christ being takes possession of these three bodies, but also of something else that remains as an impression of the Jesus I. Something like a copy of the Jesus ego is woven into those people from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries who now begin to speak of an “inner Christ.” Meister Eckhart and Tauler then speak from their own experience as if from an imprint of the Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 10 ] There are still many people who carry within themselves copies of the various bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, but these are no longer the leading personalities. We are seeing more and more how, in our fifth period, there are people who have to rely on themselves, on their own ego. Such inspired people are becoming increasingly rare. Therefore, precautions had to be taken to ensure that a spiritual current would arise in our fifth period that would ensure that spiritual insights could continue to reach humanity. Those individualities who could look into the future had to make provisions for people who are dependent on their mere human ego. We are told in such a legend that the vessel in which Christ Jesus had taken the Last Supper with his disciples was preserved. This is the legend of the Holy Grail, and we see in the story of Parzival a typical expression of the development of a disciple in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Parzival failed to do one thing: he had been told not to ask too many questions. This is the important transition from the old era to the new: in ancient India, passive devotion was essential for disciples; later, this was also the case with Augustine and Francis of Assisi. All these humble people were inspired by what lived within them, what was woven into them. Now, however, the I must carry the question within itself. Any soul that today simply passively accepts what is given to it cannot transcend itself. It can then only observe what is happening in the physical world around it. Today, the soul must ask questions, must rise above itself, must grow out of itself. Today, the soul must ask, as Parzival once had to ask, about the mysteries of the Grail Castle.

[ 11 ] Thus, spiritual research today begins only where there are questions. The souls that are stimulated today by external science to ask questions, to question and to search, are the souls of Parzival. Thus has been initiated the stream of mysteries, the much-maligned Rosicrucian training, which does not rely on any traditional wisdom, even though it gratefully accepts the traditions. But what constitutes the Rosicrucian spiritual direction today has been researched directly in the higher worlds with the spiritual eye and with the means that the student himself is instructed to use. Not because this or that is written in old books, because this or that person believed this or that, but because the wisdom that has been researched today is proclaimed by the Rosicrucian spiritual direction. And this has been prepared little by little in the Rosicrucian schools, which were founded in the 13th and 14th centuries by the individuality called Christian Rosenkreutz.

[ 12 ] Thus, this wisdom can be proclaimed today as theosophy. Today, there are no longer people who are imbued with what inspires them inwardly without their own effort. Today, people who feel that theosophy speaks to their hearts should approach it. There should be no agitation for theosophy; everyone should come to theosophy through their own free impulse, by being seized in a living way by spiritual knowledge.

[ 13 ] Thus, through this Theosophical-Rosicrucian spiritual current, we draw back to ourselves what remains of the copies of the I of Jesus of Nazareth. In this way, those who prepare themselves draw into their souls the image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth. Because their inner being is like a seal imprinted with the I of Jesus, such people will take the Christ principle into their souls. — In this way, Rosicrucianism prepares something positive. Theosophy should become life, and the soul that truly takes it in will gradually be transformed. To take in Theosophy means to transform the soul so that it can come to an understanding of Christ.

[ 14 ] The theosophist makes himself a living recipient of what is given to Moses and Paul in the Yahweh-Christ revelation. Thus it is said in the fifth letter of the Apocalypse that the people of the fifth cultural epoch are those who truly absorb what will then be self-evident for the cultural period of the community of Philadelphia. The wisdom of the fifth cultural period will blossom as a flower of love in the sixth cultural period.

[ 15 ] Humanity today is called upon to take something new and divine into itself and thereby resume its ascent into the spiritual world. The theosophical doctrine of evolution is being communicated; it is not to be believed, but humanity is to come to understand it through its own power of judgment. It is proclaimed to those who carry the seed of the Parzival nature within themselves. And it is not proclaimed locally, in a particular place, but from the whole of humanity, people who hear the call of spiritual wisdom will be brought together.