The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Twelfth Lecture

[ 1 ] We cannot discuss everything that needs to be said in connection with the Apocalypse, for that would take years. Therefore, these lectures can only provide a kind of outline and a few explanations that may help to understand this enormous work. Today we want to point out a few particularly important things. First, we must return to a specific question concerning human development.

[ 2 ] Between the Atlantean catastrophe and the great war of all against all, each period has its own special task for our development. No human being ever has the same task in a new incarnation as in the previous one. From incarnation to incarnation, new tasks arise for him, and so this post-Atlantean period of development has worked on human beings in a special way. The time on earth is there to make human beings suitable for developing the human ego in particular. In the last third of the Atlantean epoch, human beings received the first inclination to draw their ego, which was in its first germ, up to the physical head. But the most significant impulse was exerted on the ego by the event at Golgotha. All previous epochs, however, had already been working toward this in advance. When we look back at the last third of the Atlantean development, we see how at that time a certain point in the etheric head and in the physical head did not coincide, whereas today the etheric body of the head is approximately equal to the physical head. As a result, human beings gradually came to develop their ego. The entire remainder of the Atlantean evolution was used to make human beings suitable to become true carriers of the I. Even in the last period of the Atlantean culture, the brain was still quite soft, much as the hydrocephalus is still found today as an atavistic inheritance. Only with the arrival of the etheric head could the physical brain become solid enough. When, in ancient Indian times, the etheric head was completely within the physical head, this head was still not a perfect carrier of the ego. That is why the ancient Indians longed for the spiritual world and had to be educated so that the ego could gradually develop within them.

[ 3 ] Human beings initially consist of four elements: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego. However, if we want to go into more detail about post-Atlantean development, we must consider the ninefold nature of human beings. This is the difference between Eastern and Northern mystery teachings. The ego now works to transform the astral body into manas or spirit self, the etheric body into buddhi or life spirit, and the physical body into atma—through the breath. The ego thus transforms the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. But before this can happen consciously, it must be done by higher beings.

[ 4 ] Today, conscious work of this kind takes place only in the mystery schools, in the schools of initiation. In the last third of the Atlantean epoch, for example, the physical body was transformed only unconsciously to the extent that it could become a vehicle for the ego. What has now been transformed in the astral body is called the sentient soul; the etheric body thus transformed is the intellectual soul, and the physical body, thus unconsciously transformed, is the conscious soul. And only when the human being has developed the consciousness soul can the spirit self gradually, and initially unconsciously, be worked into him.

[ 5 ] Gradually, during the cultural epochs of our earth's development, manas is formed and pushes its way into the astral body. After being prepared in the last third of the Atlantean epoch, the consciousness soul must be transformed again in the following cultural epochs through the Yahweh-Christ principle.

[ 6 ] In ancient Indian times, the etheric body was permeated by the ego, which had now entered into human beings; in Persian times, the astral body was permeated by the ego; in Egyptian times, the sentient soul; in Greek-Latin times, the intellectual soul; in our culture, the consciousness soul; and in the “Philadelphia” era, the spirit self or manas. Then those human beings who have made themselves capable of recognizing Christ through theosophical-spiritual teachings will be able to see him in a new form of existence, in his subtle etheric body, for he will return.

[ 7 ] Through wisdom, through theosophy, the ego is educated in such a way that it receives manas or the spirit self and will be able to recognize Christ again. The theosophical teachings were not given to humanity in order to promote theosophy, but because they were necessary.

[ 8 ] In the period represented by the seven seals, something like a meteor shower will now occur due to increasing materialism, and other people will ascend to a spiritual state. What spiritualized people have achieved in our post-Atlantean culture will penetrate deeply into their inner being. When, during the period of the sixth seal, everything that man has in his feeling, thinking, and conscious soul has been worked into the other members, then man will have attained the ability to create an external impression of his inner being in his gestures, his features, his whole life. Through working on their development, in the fourth, fifth, and sixth periods of the epoch of the seals, they will be able to work on themselves through the permeation of these three soul forces—the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness—in order to be able to take in manas.

[ 9 ] When a human being has truly gone through a cycle so that nothing remains, this is referred to in occultism as 0 or zero. At this point, human beings will have permeated the 3 with the 4. For the next period, this permeation of the 3 with the 4 is expressed by multiplying the 3 by the 4; they have gone through 3 cycles, that is, through 3 zeros. This is expressed as follows: 12 with three zeros: 12,000. “And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrise with a seal of the living God, who called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and the sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel: 12,000 from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben... (Rev. 7:2-5) Now the various groups of people who have reached maturity are united in the church of Philadelphia to reach maturity in the brotherhood, because one soul feels with another. All those who have separated themselves from the various groups may now be multiplied together, because they will live in such a way that they do not disturb each other, that soul works into soul: 12 times 12,000 equals 144,000.

[ 10 ] These are the ones who will form human society during the period of the sixth seal. The apocalyptic writer knows the secrets of the entire development and tells them in a language that is generally so difficult to understand because it is precisely through the effort to penetrate the riddles that human beings will be able to develop the consciousness soul.

[ 11 ] What is presented today as theosophy is appropriate for the present age. In later times, a completely different form of wisdom will be presented. The souls who are preparing themselves today by accepting theosophy will take up new forms of wisdom in the next age. What is exoteric culture today was mystery wisdom in ancient times.

[ 12 ] In all ancient mysteries there was a final stage in which the disciple experienced the mystery of Golgotha. Thus, the coffin in which the disciple experienced the crucifixion, the burial, and from which he experienced the resurrection was given the shape of a cross. Since the mystery of Golgotha, this fact has become exoteric.

[ 13 ] The conservative mind always resists the esoteric being made exoteric. Thus, Christ was regarded as someone who carried the esoteric out into the world. But when the time comes, the esoteric must always be carried out into the world. If we had been able to follow the apocalyptic writer where he spoke to his disciples, we would have been able to hear everything that is being said to us today.

[ 14 ] In the period when the sixth seal is broken, the twelve men will appear, and likewise, in the sixth state, the salvation of the “great whore Babylon” will take place. In this sixth state, the earth will have repeated the Saturn, Sun, and Moon earth, plus the actual earth state, the Jupiter earth, and will finally have completed the five rounds on the Venus earth. Then the sixth state will have come; but the volcanic state is not yet there for the elect. That is why it is said: “The five have fallen” — and that which has remained: “the one is” — and the seventh: “the other has not yet come.” (Rev. 17:10) Thus we see how we find theosophy in the statements of the apocalyptic writer.

[ 15 ] But those who proved immature during the Venus-Earth period, who placed themselves under the rule of Sorat, must now separate themselves on a special sphere of the Earth, while the other seven go down and up again. Thus the colony of Sorat falls away. The black magicians inhabit this eighth sphere, which goes to the left, and the beast harbors everything that falls out: this is the eighth state. Thus we could find all theosophical teachings in the Apocalypse.

[ 16 ] The more people progress, the more power is needed to spiritualize those who have been left behind. Therefore, those who are the most deeply initiated, Moses and Elijah, are called upon, for strong forces are needed there. They were already deeply initiated; therefore, they can stand so high in that distant future that they can work in a special way. But karma is a law to which all are subject; therefore, those who were initiated before the event of Golgotha must make up for the following:

[ 17 ] The three and a half days in which the old initiate was initiated were omitted from his development. The initiate had to leave his body during these three and a half days. Thus, during these days, the I could not work on the transformation of its physical body, its etheric body, and its astral body. Therefore, in future, they must surrender their physical bodies to the outer world for three and a half days. Thus we read: “And... their corpses will lie three and a half days.” (Rev. 11:9) Even the deeds that were offered as sacrifices to humanity must find their cosmic balance.

[ 18 ] Thus, spiritual seers have spoken to spiritual seers throughout the millennia, and we find everything except the names in the Apocalypse. As Paul says, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (cf. Gal. 2:20), we find this again there. Christ shines into the I. Thus, the I will be permeated by Christ; the one who can fertilize the I with his name is Christ: “...and a name is written which no one knows except himself” (Rev. 19:12).

[ 19 ] We are also told that the earth will be spiritualized in the new Jerusalem. Then there will be no more external sun; it will be the corresponding spiritual beings who spread light. There it says: “... and the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it” (Rev. 21:23).

[ 20 ] The apocalyptic writer always shows the development of humanity in images; he sees the leader who was first proclaimed as Vishva Karman, then as Ahura Mazdao, and he points to Him, to Christ.

[ 21 ] In order to illuminate what is written in the Apocalypse, we must point to the transformation of the organs that develop in human beings in order to take on a different form; they now have, so to speak, the capacity to transform themselves.

[ 22 ] The heart muscle differs from the other muscles that are under the control of the human will in that the heart is an involuntary muscle and yet is striated like all voluntary muscles. The heart is on its way to becoming an organ that functions in a completely different way; we can already see hints of this.

[ 23 ] What emerges from the vocal organ is becoming ever more powerful; what we say to express our thoughts shapes the air and already forms it in accordance with our thoughts. But the word will become ever more powerful. Through the word that emerges from the throat, man will one day create his own kind. That being which is the Alpha and the Omega is indicated by the one who carries the sword in his mouth.

[ 24 ] The lamb that will be lord over the lowly forms one of the seals. How Sorat is cast out into the eighth sphere by the woman who shows us another Rosicrucian seal; the seer can still see this today in the spiritual world. Thus these Rosicrucian seals have an awakening effect when one immerses oneself in them with understanding.

[ 25 ] But we have seen how religious documents must be taken literally. Theosophy is the only possible commentary on the Apocalypse, and it is intended to prepare the congregation of Philadelphia; it is therefore part of the plan of Earth's development that there is a theosophy.

[ 26 ] Thus, great individualities are working at various points on our earth to give Theosophy to those who are capable of receiving it.