Egyptian Myths and Mysteries
GA 106
12 September 1908, Leipzig
Tenth Lecture
Old Myths as Pictures of Cosmic Facts. Darkening of Man's Spiritual Consciousness. The Initiation Principle of the Mysteries.
There are many myths and sagas of the ancient Egyptians that were well-known to the spiritual-scientific world conception and are again becoming known, but are not transmitted by the external historical traditions touching on the Egyptians. Some of these myths were preserved for us in the form in which they became domesticated in Greece, for most of the Greek legends that do not relate to Zeus and his family, stem from the Egyptian mysteries. We shall occupy ourselves today with all sorts of mythical things that we can put to good use, despite the assertion of modern cultural history that Greek mythology contains little of value.
Why should we examine this other side of human evolution, the spiritual side? All that we see on the physical plane always remains an event and fact of the physical plane. But in the science of the spirit, we are interested not only in what lives on the physical plane, but also in all that occurs in the spiritual worlds. From what we have heard in our lectures we know what happens to man between death and a new birth. We need only recall that in death man enters the condition of consciousness that we call kamaloka, in which, although he has become a spiritual being, he is held fast by the astral body. This is the time when man still demands something from the physical world, when he suffers from the fact that he is no longer in the physical world. Then comes the time when he must prepare himself for a new life, the consciousness-condition of Devachan, where he is no longer immediately connected with the physical world and with physical impressions.
In order to understand how life in kamaloka differs from life in Devachan, let us consider two examples. We know that as soon as he has died, man does not lose his cravings and desires. Let us assume that during his life a person was a gourmet, taking great pleasure in choice, food. When he dies, he does not at once lose this desire for enjoyment, this craving for dainties. These wishes do not live in the physical body, but in the astral. Therefore, since man retains his astral body after death, he also retains the craving, but he lacks the organ with which to satisfy this craving, the physical body. The craving for food depends on the astral body rather than on the physical, and after death the person feels a real lust for what pleased him most in life. For this reason he suffers after death until he has weaned himself of the desire for enjoyment, until he has sloughed off all the cravings that he had cultivated through the physical organs. Throughout this period he remains in kamaloka. Then begins the time when he no longer makes demands of the type that can be satisfied only through physical organs. Then he enters into Devachan.
In the same proportion that man ceases to be fettered to the physical world he begins to develop a consciousness for the Devachanic world. This world becomes more and more illuminated, but he does not yet have an ego-consciousness there, such as he had in this life. He is not yet independent there. In the Devachanic life he feels like a limb, like an organ, of the entire spiritual world. As the hand, if it could feel, would feel itself to be a member of the physical organism, so man feels in his Devachanic consciousness that he is a limb of the spiritual world, a limb of the higher beings. He must grow toward his independence. But he already cooperates in the cosmos; he works on the plant kingdom from out the spiritual world. Man cooperates in all this, not for his own account, but as a ministering member of the spiritual world.
When we thus describe what man experiences between death and a new birth, we must not imagine that the events of the Devachanic world are not also subject to change. People are apt to believe privily that, although our earth is changeable, everything up yonder, beyond death, remains the same. This is by no means the case. When we describe the sojourn in Devachan in this way, this means only that this is approximately the way things are there at the present time. But let us remember how it was when our souls were incarnated during the Egyptian culture. Then we looked upon the gigantic pyramids and the other mighty buildings. In earlier times things looked very different on this side, on the physical side. The countenance of the earth has changed greatly since then. We need only look into materialistic science and we shall find, for example, how a few thousand years ago there were entirely different animals in Europe, how Europe looked quite different. The face of the earth is constantly changing, whence it comes that man is always entering into new conditions of existence. This is obvious to everyone. But when we describe the conditions of the spiritual world, people are prone to believe that what happened there when they died a thousand years before Christ, is exactly the same as what happens when they are reborn and die again today. Just as the physical plane changes, so do things change in the other world. When man entered into Devachan from an Egyptian or a Greek life, his sojourn there was something quite different from what it is today. Evolution occurs there also. It is only natural that we should describe the present conditions in Devachan, but these have changed. This could have been surmised from what was brought before us in the last lecture.
We have seen how, when we go back to the Atlantean time, man lived more in the spiritual world, how he moved about in the spiritual world during sleep. We found that this decreases steadily after that time. But if we go back far enough we find that man once lived entirely in the spiritual world. In ancient times the difference between sleep and death was not great. In primeval antiquity man had long periods of sleep, approximately as long as the time now consumed by an incarnation and the life after death. Through the fact that man descended to the physical plane, he became ever more entangled in this physical plane. We have shown how the Indian gazed into a high world and how, in Persia, man already attempted to conquer the physical plane. Man descended ever further, and in the Greco-Latin time there occurred a marriage between spirit and matter, between the spiritual worlds and the physical plane. The more man approached the middle of this last epoch, the more he learned to love the physical world and take an interest in it. As this occurred, everything that we call experiences between death and a new birth also changed.
If we go back to the first part of the post-Atlantean period, we find that men took little interest in the physical world. The initiates of that time could withdraw into lofty worlds, into the Devachanic worlds, and they communicated their experiences to the others. In the man who, with all his thoughts and all his senses, felt himself withdrawn into the true world, into his real home, the effect was that he took little interest in the conditions of the physical plane. But when he rose into Devachan, after having barely connected himself with the physical world, he possessed in Devachan a comparatively clear consciousness. When such a man incarnated again in the Persian culture, he felt himself more connected with physical matter, and he lost some of the clarity of his consciousness in Devachan. In the Egypto-Chaldean time, when man began to feel some affection for the external physical world, his consciousness in Devachan already became clouded and shadowy. This consciousness was still of a nature higher than that of his consciousness in the physical world, but it declined steadily in degree and became ever darker up to the Greco-Latin time. During all this time the Devachanic consciousness became ever darker and more shadowy. It was not a dream consciousness; this was never the case. It was a consciousness of which man was fully aware. In the course of evolution it became darkened.
The mysteries existed principally in order to enable man again to illuminate his consciousness, rather than have only a shadowy consciousness in the spiritual world. Let us reflect that if there had been no mysteries there would have been no initiates, in which case man would have had an increasingly vague and shadowy consciousness in the spiritual worlds. Only through the fact that, parallel with the darkening of Devachanic consciousness, initiation into the mysteries continued, together with the acquisition of certain faculties with which selected persons could look into the spiritual worlds in full clarity—only through the fact that the initiates could speak of this in myths and sagas, was it possible for a ray of light to penetrate into the Devachanic consciousness between death and a new birth. But all those who had made themselves comfortable in the physical world experienced this fading away of consciousness in the spiritual world. It was no fairy tale but plain truth, that the initiates in the Eleusinian mysteries were able to have a special experience. The principle of initiation is that, even during his life, man can ascend to the spiritual worlds and learn what takes place there. The initiate of that time was actually able to learn directly from the shades in the spiritual world. The following is really the statement of an initiate: “Better a beggar on earth than a king in the realm of shades.”1These are the words of Achilles in Book XI of the Odyssey. This statement is made out of the initiates' experience. We cannot take such things deeply enough, and we only understand them when we know the facts of the spiritual world.
Now let us bring into more concrete form what we touched upon abstractly yesterday.
Had nothing occurred other than man's descent into the physical world, consciousness between death and a new birth would have grown ever darker. Ultimately men would have entirely lost their connection with the spiritual world. Now, however singular it may appear to those who are only slightly infected with some form of materialism, what I am about to say is true. Had nothing else intervened in human evolution, mankind would have succumbed to spiritual death. But there is a possibility of illuminating the consciousness between death and a new birth, and this illumination can be achieved either through initiation or (to a lower degree) through man's participating in the spiritual world during this life, having experiences that do not die out with his bodies, but remain connected with the eternal core of his being, even in the spiritual world. This was the concern of the mysteries and of all spiritual development. It was the concern of the great initiates before Christ and, above all, of the Being whom we call Christ. All other initiates were in a certain sense forerunners of the Christ; they were harbingers who pointed to the coming of the Christ.
The advent of the Christ-figure will now be described. Let us imagine a man who has never heard anything of the Christ, who has never been able to absorb the mysteries of the Gospel of John, who has never been able to say, “I will imitate the life and work of the Christ; I will try to take his precepts into my own being.” If we add that the Christ had never approached this man, he would not be able to take with him into the spiritual world the treasure that the man of today must take with him if he is to avoid the darkening of his consciousness. What man takes with him as a picture of Christ is a force that brightens the consciousness after death, that saves man from the fate that all men would have had if Christ had not appeared. If Christ had not appeared, the human essence would have been maintained, but the consciousness after death could not have been illuminated. This is what gives real meaning to the advent of the Christ, that something was embodied into the core of man's being that has a wide significance. The event of Golgotha preserves man from spiritual death if he makes it one with his own being.
We should not think that the other great leaders of mankind did not have a similar significance. There is no question of claiming some exclusive dogma for Christianity. That would be an offense against true Christianity, for anyone acquainted with the facts knows that Christianity was also taught in the ancient mysteries. Such words as those of Augustine are profoundly true: “What is called the Christian religion today existed already among the ancients and was present with the beginnings of the human race. But when Christ appeared in the flesh the true religion, which was already in existence, received the name of Christian.” What is important is not the name, but that we rightly understand the significance of the Christ impulse. Christ was the figure that appeared at the lowest point in evolution, but Buddha, Hermes, and the other great beings were in complete possession of the prophetic consciousness that the Christ would come, that he lived in them.
We can see this clearly when we study the figure of Buddha, and we must be quite clear as to what he was. What was Buddha, in reality? Here we must touch on something that can be said only among students of the science of the spirit. It is customary for people, even for theosophists, to conceive the mysteries of reincarnation in much too simple a way. One should not imagine that a soul that is embodied today in its three sheaths was embodied in the same way in a foregoing incarnation, and again in one before that, always according to the same scheme. The secrets are much more complicated. Although H. P. Blavatsky took great pains to show her intimate pupils how complicated these secrets were, the matter is still not rightly understood today. People think simply that a soul goes into a body ever and again. But it is not so simple. Often we cannot fit a historical figure into such a scheme if we wish to understand it correctly. We must go about the matter in a much more complicated way.
Already in Atlantis we meet beings who were among men as our fellows are today, but whom man saw and learned to know when he was in the spiritual world, severed from the body. We have already pointed out how man learned to know Thor, Zeus, Wotan, Baldur as actual companions. By day he lived in the physical world, but in the other condition of consciousness he learned to know spiritual beings who were going through a stage of evolution different from his. In this primeval period of the earth man did not yet have so solid a body as today; there was as yet nothing like a bony skeleton. The Atlantean body could be seen with physical eyes only to a certain extent. But there were beings who descended only so far as to incarnate in an etheric body. Then there were beings who still embodied themselves at that time, when the air was permeated by water-vapors. When man still lived in the water-fog atmosphere, these incarnations were possible for them. Such a figure was the later Wotan, for example. He said to himself, “If man incarnates in this fluid matter, then I can also.” Such a being assumed a human form and moved about in the physical world. But as the earth condensed and man took on ever denser forms, Wotan said, “No, I shall not go into this dense matter.” Then he remained in invisible worlds, in worlds removed from the earth.
This was the general case with the divine spiritual beings. But from then on, they could do something else. They could enter into a sort of connection with men who approached them, who evolved upward from below. We may imagine it thus. Man's evolutionary course was such that he was approaching his lowest point of development. Up to this point the gods had proceeded in company with men. Now they took another path, which was invisible for men on the physical plane. But men who lived according to the directions of the initiates, thereby purifying their finer bodies, approached them in a certain way. A man who was incarnated in the flesh, if he purified himself, could do this in such a way that he could be overshadowed by such a being, who could not descend as far as the physical body. The physical body would have been too coarse for such a being. The result for such a man was that the astral and etheric bodies were permeated by a higher being, which had no other human form for itself but could enter into another being and proclaim itself through this other being.
When we are familiar with this phenomenon, we shall not regard incarnation as such a simple matter. There can perfectly well be a person who is the reincarnation of an earlier man, who has developed himself so far and purified his three bodies to such an extent that he is now a vessel for a higher being. Buddha became such a vessel for Wotan. The same being who was called Wotan in the Germanic myths, appeared again as Buddha. Buddha and Wotan are even related linguistically.
So we can say that much of what was in the mysteries of the Atlantean time continued in what the Buddha was able to announce. This is in harmony with the fact that what the Buddha experienced is something that the gods had experienced in those spiritual spheres, and that men also had experienced when they were still in those spheres. As the teaching of Wotan thus appeared again, it was a doctrine that paid little attention to the physical plane, emphasizing that the physical plane is a place of woe, and that redemption from it is important. Much of the Wotan-being spoke in the Buddha. Hence it is that stragglers from Atlantis have shown the deepest understanding for the Buddha-teaching. Among the Asiatic population there are races that have remained at the Atlantean level, although externally they must, of course, move ahead with the earth evolution. Among the Mongolian peoples much of Atlantis has remained. They are stragglers from the old population of Atlantis. The stationary character in the Mongolian population is a heritage from Atlantis. Therefore the teachings of the Buddha are especially serviceable to such peoples, and Buddhism has made great strides among them.
The world moves onward, following its course. One who can look deeply into the evolution of the world does not make choices, does not say that he has more inclination for this or that. He says that what religion a people has is a spiritual necessity. The European population, because it has ensnared itself in the physical world, finds it impossible to feel its way into Buddhism, to identify itself with the innermost teachings of the Buddha. Buddhism could never become a religion for all of humanity. For him who can see, there is no sympathy or antipathy here, but only a judgment in accordance with the facts. It would be an error to wish to spread Christianity from a center in Asia, where other peoples are still settled, and Buddhism would be equally false for the European population. No religious view is right if it is not suited to the innermost needs of the time, and such a view will never be able to give a cultural impulse. These are things that we must grasp if we want to understand all the real connections.
But one should not believe that the historical appearance of the Buddha immediately reveals all that lies within it. If I were to expound all this, I would need several hours. As yet we are far from having unraveled the complications of the historical Buddha. Something still lived in the Buddha. This is not only a being who came over out of the Atlantean time and incarnated in him who incidentally was also a human Buddha. In addition to this something else was contained in him, something of which he could say, “I cannot yet comprehend this. It is something that ensouls me, but I only participate in it.” This is the Christ-being. This had already ensouled the great prophets. It was a well-known being in the more ancient mysteries, and everywhere and always men had pointed to him who was to come.
And he came! But again he came in such a way that he accommodated himself to the historical necessities that lie behind evolution. Without special preparation he could not incarnate himself in a physical body. It was still possible for him to incarnate in a sort of subconsciousness in the Buddha. But he could incarnate to live on the earth only if a physical body, and etheric body, and an astral body were specially prepared for him. The Christ had the greatest powers, but he could incarnate only if, through another being, a physical, an etheric, and an astral body had been completely cleansed and purified. Thus the incarnation of the Christ could occur only if another being appeared who had developed himself to this point. This was Jesus of Nazareth. He had proceeded so far in his evolution that he was able, during his life, to purify his physical, etheric, and astral bodies in such a way that it was possible for him, in the thirtieth year of his life, to abandon these bodies, yet to leave them capable of life, usable for a higher being.
Often, when I have stated that a high stage of development was necessary for Jesus to be able to sacrifice his bodies, people have made a strange objection: “But that is not a sacrifice; nothing could be more beautiful! One cannot speak of a sacrifice when it is a question of turning over his bodies to such a high Being!” Yes, it is beautiful, and the sacrifice is not great when one looks at it abstractly; but only try to do the deed. Everyone would like to make the sacrifice, but only let them try it. One must have extraordinary forces if one is to purify the bodies in such a way as to leave them while they are capable of life, and to attain these forces, many sacrifices are necessary. To be able to do this, Jesus of Nazareth had to be an extraordinarily high individuality. The Gospel of John indicates where Jesus abandoned his physical, etheric, and astral bodies and entered into the spiritual world, and where the Christ-being entered into the threefold corporeality. This happened at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. At this moment something significant occurred in the corporeality of Jesus of Nazareth. For the materialistic mind, what I now say is bound to be an abomination. Something special occurred in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. If we wish to understand what occurred at the moment of the baptism, when the Christ entered into Jesus, we must turn our attention to something that will appear singular, but is nevertheless true.
In the course of human evolution, the various organs have developed bit by bit, gradually working out their form. We have seen how, when the organs had reached the level of the hips, certain structures and functions appeared in man. Then, too, as the human individuality became more self-reliant, a hardening of the bony system set in. The more independent man became, the more his bony system hardened and the greater became the power of death. We must bear this in mind if we are to understand the following in the right way. Whence comes it that man must die and the body must completely disintegrate? It comes from the fact that in the human body something can be burned, even down to the bones. Fire has power over the human bone-substance. Man has no power, at least no conscious power, over his bones. This power still lies outside man's abilities. In the moment when, at the baptism in Jordan, the Christ drew into the body of Jesus of Nazareth, in that moment the bony system of this being became something entirely different from what it is in other men. This was something that had never happened before and has not happened again to this day. With the Christ-being there entered into the Jesus-being something that had power over the forces that burn up the bones. Today the building up of the bones has not yet been placed within man's discretion. But this power reached right down into the bones. The conscious power of the Christ-being extended into the bones. This is part of the meaning of the baptism by John. Therewith something was implanted in the earth that can be called the supremacy over death, for death first appeared in the world with the bones. Through the fact that power over the bones entered the human body, the victory over death also came into the world. Here a deep mystery is expressed. Something in the highest degree holy entered into the bony system of Jesus of Nazareth through the Christ. Therefore it was not to be touched. For this reason the scripture had to be fulfilled: “A bone of him shall not be broken.”2The reference is to the Gospel of John, XIX:36. That would have allowed human power to meddle in divine forces. Here we are gazing into a deep mystery of human evolution.
Here we come to a significant concept of esoteric Christianity, which can show us how this Christianity is permeated with the highest truths. We come to the remainder of what confronts us in the baptism. Through the fact that the Christ-being took possession of the three bodies in which the ego-being of Jesus formerly abode, a Being was bound up with the earth that had earlier had its dwelling-place on the sun. It had formerly been bound up with the earth until the moment when the sun departed from the earth. At that time the Christ also departed, and from then on he could exercise his power upon the earth only from outside, in the moment of the baptism, the high Christ-spirit again united himself in the full sense with the earth. Formerly he worked from outside, overshadowing the prophets and working in the mysteries. Now he was actually incarnated in a physical human body on the earth. If a being had been able to look down for thousands of years from a remote point in the universe, such a being as could see not only the physical earth but also its spiritual streams, its astral and etheric bodies, it would have seen significant events in the moment of the baptism by John, and in the moment when the blood flowed from Christ's wounds on Golgotha. The earth's astral body was profoundly changed thereby. At this moment it took up something different; it took on different colors. A new force was implanted in the earth. What earlier had worked from without, again became united with the earth, and thereby the attractive power between sun and earth will grow so strong that sun and earth will again unite, and man will unite with the sun-spirits. It was the Christ who gave the possibility that the earth can again unite with the sun and be in the bosom of the Godhead.
This is the event that occurred, and its meaning. We had to expound this in order to understand what entered into the earth with the Christ. Through this we can grasp how, through union with the Christ, man can absorb something by which his consciousness will again be illuminated after death. If we keep this in mind we shall also be able to grasp how there is evolution for the period between death and a new birth. Now let us ask for whose sake all this took place.
At first, man lived in the bosom of the Godhead. Then he descended to the physical plane. Had he remained above, he would never have achieved his present consciousness of self. He would never have received an ego. Only in the physical body could he kindle the consciousness of self in its bright clarity. He had to encounter external objects and become able to distinguish himself from the objects; he had to descend into the physical world. Only for the sake of man's ego did it happen that man descended. In respect to his ego man stems from the gods. This ego descended out of the spiritual world; it was forged on the physical body so that it might become bright and clear. It is precisely the hardened matter of the human body that has given man his self-conscious ego, that has made it possible for him to attain knowledge. But it also chained him to the earth-mass, to the rock-mass.
Before he achieved his ego, man had physical body, etheric body, and astral body. As the ego gradually evolved in these three bodies, it transformed them. We must be quite clear that all man's higher members work on the physical body. The physical body is as it is because the etheric, astral, and ego work on it. In a certain way all the organs of the physical body are as they are because the higher members have also been altered. Through the domination of the astral body, the backward beings became the different animal forms—the birds, for example. Through the fact that the ego became ever more conscious of itself, it also altered the astral body. We have already said that men separated themselves into groups. What we call the apocalyptic beasts are types, in which this or that higher member has the upper hand. The ego gained predominance in the man-form. All the organs are adapted to man's higher members. When the ego entered into the astral body and wholly permeated it, certain organs took form in man and in the animals that branched off later. Thus, for example, a particular organ may stem from the fact that an ego made its entry upon the earth. On the moon, no ego was connected with the beings in human evolution. Certain organs are connected with this development: the gall and the liver. The gall is the physical expression of the astral body. It is not bound up with the ego, but the ego works on the astral body, and from this the forces work on the gall.
Now let us draw together the entire picture that the initiate made so clear to the Egyptian. The self-conscious man has been shackled to the earth-body. Imagine the man fettered to the earth-rock, fettered to the physical body—and in the course of evolution something arises that gnaws at his immortality. Think of the functions that have called forth the liver. They have arisen through the fact that the body was chained to the rocks of earth. The astral body gnaws at it.
This is the picture that was given to the pupil in Egypt and made its way into Greece as the saga of Prometheus. We must not lay rough hands upon such a myth. We must not rob the butterfly of the dust on its wings. We must leave the dust on its wings. We must leave the dew on the blossoms instead of twisting and torturing such pictures. We should not say that Prometheus means this or that. We should try to present the real occult facts, and then try to understand the pictures that have arisen out of the occult facts and have passed over into the consciousness of man.
The Egyptian initiate led his pupil up to the point where he could grasp man's ego-development. Such a picture was intended to shape his spirit. But the pupil was not to seize the facts with heavy hands. The picture was to stand bright and livingly before him, and the initiate did not wish to press dry banal concepts into the truths he could give. He wanted to present truth in pictures. Poetry has done much for the Prometheus saga, beautifying and ornamenting it. We should add nothing to the occult facts, but leave this delicate embellishment to the artist.
We must still point to something else. Man, when he arrived on earth, was not yet endowed with the ego. Before the ego was secreted into the astral body, other forces had possession of this body. Then the light-flowing astral body was permeated by the ego. Before the ego entered therein, the astral forces of divine-spiritual beings had been sent into man from outside. The astral body was also present, but illuminated by divine-spiritual beings. The astral body was pure and bright, and it flowed around what was present as the rudiments of the physical and etheric bodies. It flowed around and through these, and was quite pure. But egoism entered with the advent of the ego, and the astral body was darkened and lost its golden flow. This was lost more and more, until man had descended to the lowest point of the physical plane in the Greco-Latin time.
Then men had to consider how they could win back the pure flow of the astral body, and there arose in the Eleusinian mysteries what was known as the search for the original purity of the astral body. One aim of the Eleusinian mysteries, and also of the Egyptians, was to recapture the astral body in its pristine golden flow. The quest for the Golden Fleece was one of the probations of the Egyptian initiations, and this has been preserved for us in the wonderful saga of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts. We have seen the development. When the form of the lower organs still resembled the boats of which we have spoken, the astral body in the water-earth still had a golden sheen. In the water-earth, man's astral body was permeated with golden light. The search for the astral body is portrayed in the voyage of the Argonauts. In a refined and subtle way we must bring the quest for the Golden Fleece into connection with the Egyptian myth.
External historical facts are linked with spiritual facts. One should not believe that this is mere symbol. The voyage of the Argonauts actually took place, just as the Trojan War actually took place. Outer events are the physiognomy for inner events; all these are historical events. For the Greek neophyte the historical fact took place anew inwardly: the journey after the Golden Fleece, the achieving of the pure astral body.
This is what we wanted to bring before our souls today. On this basis we shall become acquainted with other things from the mysteries, and then we shall find how the Egyptian mysteries are connected with the life of today.
Zehnter Vortrag
Es gibt viele Mythen und Sagen der alten Ägypter, welche in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung wohlbekannt waren und auch wieder bekannt werden, welche aber eigentlich nicht vermittelt sind in der äußerlichen, geschichtlichen Tradition, die von den Ägyptern meldet. Einige dieser Mythen sind uns dann in jener Form geschichtlich erhalten, in der sie in Griechenland heimisch wurden, denn der größere Teil der nicht auf den Zeus und seine Familie bezüglichen Sagen Griechenlands ist aus den ägyptischen Mysterien herübergekommen. Und wir werden uns heute zu beschäftigen haben mit allerlei Sagenhaftem, das wir brauchen, wenn auch eine heutige Kulturgeschichte behauptet, daß eigentlich wenig für die Menschen in der griechischen Mythologie enthalten sei.
Wozu mußten wir uns denn anschauen sozusagen die andere Seite der menschlichen Entwickelung, das heißt die geistige Seite? Alles, was wir auf dem physischen Plan sehen, bleibt immer Ereignis, Tatsache des physischen Plans. Aber in der Geisteswissenschaft interessiert uns nicht nur dasjenige, was auf dem physischen Plan lebt, sondern auch alles das, was in den geistigen Welten vorgeht.
Wir wissen ja aus dem, was wir in geisteswissenschaftlichen Vorträgen gehört haben, was mit dem Menschen sich abspielt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Wir brauchen uns nur zu erinnern, daß der Mensch im 'Tode übergeht in den Bewußtseinszustand, den wir Kamaloka nennen, in dem der Mensch, wenn er auch ein geistiges Wesen geworden ist, festgehalten wird durch den astralischen Leib. Es ist das die Zeit, wo der Mensch noch etwas verlangt von der physischen Welt, wo er leidet darunter, wo er etwas entbehrt dadurch, daß er nicht mehr in der physischen Welt ist. Dann kommt die Zeit, in welcher der Mensch sich vorzubereiten hat auf ein neues Leben: der Bewußtseinszustand des Devachan, wo der Mensch nicht mehr unmittelbar mit der physischen Welt, mit dem, was physische Eindrücke sind, zusammenhängt. Wollen wir uns vorstellen, wie sich das Kamalokaleben von dem Devachanleben unterscheidet, so können wir zwei Beispiele betrachten.
Wir wissen, daß der Mensch, wenn er gestorben ist, nicht gleich mit seinem Sterben seine Begierden und Wünsche verliert. Nehmen wir an, der Mensch ist im Leben ein Feinschmecker gewesen, der einen großen Genuß empfunden hat an leckeren Speisen. Wenn er gestorben ist, verliert sich nicht sogleich diese Genußsucht, dieser Wunsch nach leckeren Speisen. Der Mensch hat ja diese Wünsche nicht in dem physischen Leibe, sondern im Astralleib. Daher, weil der Mensch nach dem Tode den Astralleib behält, behält er auch den Wunsch, aber ihm fehlt das Organ, um diese Wünsche zu befriedigen: der physische Leib. Der Wunsch nach der Speise hängt nicht ab vom physischen Leib, sondern vom Astralleib, und da tritt nach dem Tode eine wahre Gier auf im Menschen nach demjenigen, was ihn im Leben am meisten befriedigte. Daher leidet der Mensch nach dem Tode so lange, bis er sich den Wunsch nach dem Genuß abgewöhnt hat, bis er abgeworfen hat alles, was er durch die physischen Organe an Begierden großgezogen hat. So lange befindet sich der Mensch im Kamaloka. Dann beginnt die Zeit, wo der Mensch nicht mehr Ansprüche dieser Art erhebt, die nur durch physische Organe befriedigt werden können. Dann geht er ein ins Devachan.
In demselben Maße, in dem der Mensch aufhört an die physische Welt gefesselt zu sein, in demselben Maße beginnt er ein Bewußtsein. für die devachanische Welt zu erlangen. Sie leuchtet immer mehr und mehr auf. Nur hat er dort heute noch kein Ich-Bewußtsein wie in diesem Leben. Er ist dort noch nicht selbständig. Im Devachanleben fühlt sich der Mensch wie ein Glied, wie ein Organ der ganzen geistigen Welt. So wie die Hand sich als Glied am physischen Organismus nur fühlen würde, wenn sie fühlte, so fühlt der Mensch in seinem Devachanbewußtsein: Ich bin ein Glied der geistigen Welt, ein Glied auch der höheren Wesen. Er wird erst seiner Selbständigkeit entgegenwachsen. Aber er arbeitet auch jetzt schon dort mit am Kosmos, er arbeitet mit am Pflanzenreich aus der geistigen Welt heraus. Der Mensch arbeitet an allem mit, nicht aus eigener Berechnung, sondern als dienendes Glied der geistigen Welt. Wenn wir nun so schildern dasjenige, was der Mensch zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt erlebt, so dürfen wir uns nicht vorstellen, daß die Ereignisse der devachanischen Welt nicht auch einer Veränderung unterlägen. Die Menschen haben so im geheimen das Bewußtsein, daß hier unsere Erde zwar veränderlich sei, daß drüben aber, jenseits des Todes, alles gleich bleibe. Das ist gar nicht der Fall. Wenn heute so geschildert wird der Aufenthalt im Devachan, so bedeutet das, daß dieses ungefähr der heutige Zustand des Devachan ist. Aber erinnern wir uns, wie es wat, als unsere Seelen in der Zeit der ägyptischen Kultur verkörpert waren. Damals sahen wir auf die gigantischen Pyramiden und auf die anderen großen Bauwerke hin. In früheren Zeiten sah es auf dieser Seite, der physischen Seite, ganz, ganz anders aus. Denken wir daran, wie sich das Antlitz der Erde seit damals sehr, sehr verändert hat. Wir brauchen nur die materialistische Wissenschaft zu verfolgen, und wir werden finden, wie zum Beispiel vor wenigen Jahrtausenden ganz andere Tiere in Europa waren, wie Europa ganz anders aussah. Das Antlitz der Erde ändert sich fortwährend, und daher kommt es, daß der Mensch immer wieder in neue Daseinsverhältnisse tritt. Das erscheint jedem ganz einleuchtend. Aber, wenn man die Verhältnisse der geistigen Welt schildert, dann glauben die Menschen so leicht, daß dasjenige, was in der geistigen Welt geschehen ist, wenn sie etwa tausend Jahre vor Christus gestorben sind, daß das, was sich drüben zugetragen hat, ganz genau dasselbe gewesen wäre wie dasjenige, was sich heute zuträgt, wenn sie heute wiedergeboren werden und heute wieder sterben.
Genau wie der physische Plan sich ändert, so ändern sich tatsächlich die Verhältnisse in der anderen Welt. Der Aufenthalt im Devachan war etwas ganz anderes als heute, wenn man eintrat ins Devachan aus dem ägyptischen Leben oder aus dem griechischen Leben. Auch da geht eine Evolution vor sich. Es ist ja nur natürlich, daß wir jetzt die gegenwärtigen Verhältnisse des Devachan schildern; die Verhältnisse haben sich aber geändert. Wir können das schon annehmen, wenn wir auf dasjenige hinblicken, was uns die letzten Vorträge und ihre Schilderungen gebracht haben.
Wir haben gesehen, wie der Mensch, wenn wir weiter zurückgehen, bis zur atlantischen Zeit mehr in der geistigen Welt lebte, wie er während des Schlafens in der geistigen Welt verkehrte. Wir fanden, daß das dann immer mehr abnimmt. Wenn wir jedoch weit genug zurückgehen, dann finden wir, daß der Mensch da überhaupt in der geistigen Welt lebt. In alten Zeiten ist auch der Unterschied zwischen Schlaf und Tod kein so großer. In urferner Vergangenheit haben die Menschen lange Schlafperioden gehabt. Das fiel ungefähr mit dem Zeitraum zusammen, der heute dutch eine Inkarnation und durch das Leben nach dem Tode durchlaufen wird. Dadurch, daß der Mensch herunterstieg auf den physischen Plan, wurde er auch immer mehr verstrickt in diesen physischen Plan. Es ist gezeigt worden, wie der Inder in eine hohe Welt blickte, wie der Mensch in Persien schon versuchte, den physischen Plan zu erobern. Immer weiter stieg der Mensch herunter, und eine Ehe zwischen Geist und Materie, zwischen den geistigen Welten und dem physischen Plan war eingetreten in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit. Je mehr sich der Mensch hereinlebte in die Mitte dieser letzten Epoche, um so mehr lernte er lieben die physische Welt und an ihr Interesse gewinnen. Damit änderte sich aber auch alles, was wir Erlebnisse nennen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt.
Wenn wir bis in die erste Zeit der nachatlantischen Epoche zurückgehen, da finden wir, daß die Menschen wenig Interesse haben an dem physischen Plan. Die Eingeweihten der damaligen Zeit konnten entrückt werden in hohe Welten, in die devachanischen Welten, und sie teilten dann ihre Erlebnisse den anderen Menschen mit. In dem Menschen, der mit allen Gedanken, mit allen Sinnen sich hinauf entrückt fühlte in die wahre Welt, in die eigentliche Heimat, bewirkte dies, daß er wenig Interesse hatte an den Verhältnissen des physischen Planes. Wenn er aber aufrückte in das Devachan, nachdem er sich kaum mit der physischen Welt verbunden hatte, dann besaß er im Devachan ein verhältnismäßig helles Bewußtsein. Wenn dann ein solcher Mensch in der persischen Kultur sich wiederum inkarnierte, dann fühlte er sich schon mehr verwachsen mit der physischen Materie, da war es so, daß er einbüßte an Klarheit des Bewußtseins im Devachan. In der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit, wo der Mensch anfing die äußere physische Welt lieb zu gewinnen, da war es so, daß er im Devachan schon ein sehr getrübtes, schattenhaftes Bewußtsein hatte. Dieses Bewußtsein war zwar der Art nach immer noch höher als das Bewußtsein in der physischen Welt, aber dem Grade nach sinkt es immer mehr herunter und wird immer dunkler bis zur griechisch-lateinischen Zeit. In dieser Zeit wurde das devachanische Bewußtsein immer dunkler und schattenhafter. Es war nicht ein Traumbewußtsein; das war es niemals. Es war ein Bewußtsein, auf das man aufmerken konnte; es war noch ein Bewußtsein, dessen sich der Mensch bewußt war. Eine Verdunkelung dieses Bewußtseins fand also mit dem Fortgang der Entwickelung statt.
Die Mysterien waren im wesentlichen dafür da, es dem Menschen möglich zu machen, daß er nicht nur ein schattenhaftes Bewußtsein in der geistigen Welt hatte, sondern das Bewußtsein wieder aufzuhellen. Denken wir uns, es hätte keine Mysterien gegeben, es wären keine Eingeweihten dagewesen. Dann würde der Mensch ein immer dämmerhafteres, immer schattenhafteres Bewußtsein gehabt haben in den geistigen Welten. Einzig dadurch, daß parallel mit der Verdunkelung des Bewußtseins im Devachan die Einweihung in die Mysterien ging, und damit die Aneignung gewisser Fähigkeiten, mit denen auserlesene Menschen schon hineinsahen in die geistigen Welten in heller Klarheit, einzig dadurch, daß die Eingeweihten in Mythen und Sagen darüber berichten konnten, ist sozusagen eine Schattierung von Hellerem, von Lichterem hineingekommen in das devachanische Bewußtsein zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Bei allen denjenigen aber, die sich schon so recht hineingefunden hatten in die physische Welt, war es so, daß sie schon empfunden haben dieses Abdämmern des Bewußtseins in der geistigen Welt, und es ist kein Märchen, es ist Wahrheit, daß der Eingeweihte in den eleusinischen Mysterien eine ganz besondere Erfahrung hat machen können. Das Einweihungsprinzip ist, daß der Mensch schon während des Lebens in die Welten des Geistes steigen und erfahren kann, was da vor sich geht. Der damalige Eingeweihte hat in der Tat unmittelbar von den Schatten in der geistigen Welt erfahren können. Es ist wirklich ein Ausspruch eines Eingeweihten, wenn es heißt: Oh, besser ein Bettler in der physischen Welt als ein König im Reiche der Schatten. Dieser Ausspruch ist aus den Erfahrungen der Eingeweihten heraus gesprochen. Solche Dinge können wir nicht tief genug nehmen, und wir verstehen sie erst dann, wenn wir die Tatsachen der geistigen Welt kennen.
Jetzt wollen wir das, was gestern in abstrakter Form angedeutet worden ist, in eine konkretere Form bringen.
Wäre nichts anderes eingetreten als das Heruntersteigen der Menschen in die physische Welt, immer dunkler wäre das Bewußtsein geworden zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Die Menschen hätten zuletzt den Zusammenschluß mit der geistigen Welt vollständig verloren. Nun mag es noch so sonderbar erscheinen demjenigen, der auch nur noch ein klein wenig angekränkelt ist im Inneren von irgendeiner Form des Materialismus, wahr ist es doch, was ich jetzt sagen werde. Wäre jetzt nichts eingetreten in der Entwickelung der Menschheit, dann wäre die Menschheit geistig dem Tode verfallen. Aber es ist eine Möglichkeit der Aufhellung des Bewußtseins zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt vorhanden, und diese Aufhellung kann entweder durch die Einweihung selbst errungen werden, oder heute schon in einem niedrigeren Grade dadurch, daß der Mensch schon in diesem Leben teilnimmt an der geistigen Welt, daß er schon Erlebnisse hat, die nicht mit seinen Leibern absterben, die mit ihm verbunden bleiben in seinem ewigen Wesenskern, auch in der geistigen Welt. Dafür sorgten nun die Mysterien, die ganze geistige Entwickelung, es sorgten dafür die großen Eingeweihten vor Christus und vor allem die Wesenheit selbst, die wir als Christus kennen. Alle anderen Eingeweihten waren in gewisser Weise Vorläufer des Christus, es waren Vorausgesandte, die auf das Erscheinen des Christus hinwiesen.
Es soll die Erscheinung der Christus-Gestalt jetzt einmal geschildert werden. Denken wir uns einen Menschen, der nie etwas gehört hätte von dem Christus, welcher niemals die Geheimnisse des Johannes-Evangeliums in sich hätte aufnehmen können, der niemals sich hätte sagen können: Ich will dem Christus, der da lebt und wirkt, nachleben, seine Grundsätze will ich aufnehmen in meine Wesenheit. -— Denken wir uns also, der Christus wäre einem solchen niemals nahegetreten, er würde jenen Schatz nicht mit in die geistige Welt nehmen können, den der Mensch heute mitnehmen muß, wenn er die Verdunkelung seines Bewußtseins vermeiden will. Dasjenige, was der Mensch mitnimmt als Christus-Vorstellungen, das ist eine Kraft, die das Bewußtsein nach dem Tode hell macht, die den Menschen errettet vor dem Schicksal, das die Menschen gehabt hätten, wenn nicht Christus erschienen wäre. Wenn Christus nicht erschienen wäre, so würde das Menschenwesen zwar erhalten bleiben, aber das Bewußtsein würde sich nach dem Tode nicht erhellen können. Das ist dasjenige, was dem Auftreten des Christus die eigentliche Bedeutung gibt, daß dem Wesenskern des Menschen etwas einverleibt wird, was eine weite Bedeutung hat. Das Ereignis von Golgatha bewahrt den Menschen vor dem geistigen Tode, wenn er es mit seinem eigenen Wesen identifiziert.
Wir dürfen nun nicht glauben, daß die anderen großen Menschheitsführer nicht eine ähnliche Bedeutung hätten. Es handelt sich nicht darum, daß ein ausschließliches Dogma für das Christentum in Anspruch genommen werden soll. Das wäre ein Verstoß gegen das wahre Christentum, denn derjenige, der die Tatsachen kennt, der weiß, daß auch in den alten Mysterien das Christentum gelehrt worden ist. Und ein solches Wort, wie Augustinus es sprach, ist tief wahr: «Was man gegenwärtig die christliche Religion nennt, bestand schon bei den Alten und fehlte nicht in den Anfängen des Menschengeschlechtes, bis Christus im Fleische erschien, von wo an die wahre Religion, die schon vorher vorhanden war, den Namen der christlichen erhielt.» Es kommt nicht darauf an, daß man es so nennt, sondern daß man recht versteht die Bedeutung des Christus-Impulses. Und wie der Christus die Gestalt war, die auftrat beim tiefsten Punkt der Entwickelung, so war es auch bei Buddha, Hermes und den anderen großen Wesenheiten so, daß sie durchaus das prophetische Bewußtsein hatten, daß der Christus kommen werde, daß er in ihnen selber lebte.
Insbesondere können wir das sehen, wenn wir es an der Gestalt des Buddha studieren, und wir müssen uns klarmachen, was er war. Was war denn Buddha eigentlich? Wir müssen da etwas berühren, was nur unter Schülern der Geisteswissenschaft gesagt werden kann. Die Menschen, auch die Theosophen, stellen sich die Geheimnisse der Reinkarnation gewöhnlich viel zu einfach vor. Man darf sich nicht vorstellen, daß irgendeine Seele, die heute in ihren drei Leibern verkörpert ist, einfach in einer vorhergehenden Inkarnation sich verkörperte und dann wieder in einer vorhergehenden Inkarnation, der dann wieder eine solche voranging, immer nach demselben Schema. Die Geheimnisse liegen viel komplizierter. Trotzdem sich A. P. Blavatsky viel Mühe gab, ihren intimen Schülern zu zeigen, wie kompliziert diese Geheimnisse liegen, wird das heute doch noch nicht richtig verstanden. Man stellt sich einfach vor, daß eine Seele immer wieder in einen Körper geht. So einfach liegt das nicht. Wir können oftmals eine historische Gestalt nicht in ein solches Schema bringen, wenn wir sie richtig verstehen wollen. Wir müssen da vielfach viel komplizierter zu Werke gehen.
Wir treffen schon in der Atlantis Wesen, die um den Menschen herum sind wie die heutigen Mitmenschen, die der Mensch dann aber sah und kennenlernte, wenn er leibentrückt war oben in der geistigen Welt. Es ist schon gesagt worden, wie er da den Thor, den Zeus, den Wotan, den Baldur als wirkliche Genossen kennengelernt hat. Bei Tage lebte er in der physischen Welt, aber im anderen Bewußtseinszustand lernte er geistige Wesenheiten kennen, die nicht denselben Entwickelungsgang durchmachten wie er. Der Mensch hatte in der Urzeit der Erde auch noch nicht einen so dichten Leib wie heute; von einem Knochengerüst war in einer bestimmten Zeit noch keine Rede. Den atlantischen Leib hat man nur bis zu einem gewissen Grade mit physischen Augen sehen können. Aber es gab Wesen, die nur soweit herunter kamen, daß sie sich durchaus nur in einem Ätherleibe inkarnierten. Dann gab es Wesen, die damals, als die Luft noch durchsetzt war von Wasserdünsten, sich noch verkörperten. Damals, als der Mensch noch in der Wasser-Nebel-Atmosphäre lebte, waren ihnen diese Verkörperungen noch möglich. Eine solche Gestalt war zum Beispiel der spätere Wotan. Er sagte sich: Wenn der Mensch sich so verkörpert in dieser lichtflüssigen Materie, dann kann ich das auch tun. - Es nahm ein solches Wesen Menschengestalt an und ging in der physischen Welt herum. Aber als dann die Erde immer dichter wurde und auch der Mensch immer dichtere Formen annahm, da sagte sich Wotan: Nein, in diese dichte Materie gehe ich nicht hinein. — Er blieb dann in unsichtbaren Welten, in erdenentrückteren Welten. Das war überhaupt so mit den göttlichgeistigen Wesen.
Von da an konnten sie aber etwas anderes tun. Dafür konnten sie mit Menschen, die ihnen entgegenkamen, die sich von unten herauf entwickelten, mit denen konnten sie eine Art Verbindung eingehen. Denken wir uns das so: Der Entwickelungsgang des Menschen war so, daß er auf dem tiefsten Punkt der Entwickelung ankam. Bis zu diesem Punkte gingen die Götter in Gemeinschaft mit den Menschen mit. Dann aber schlugen Sie einen anderen Weg ein, der für die Menschen auf dem physischen Plan unsichtbar war. Aber wenn es Menschen gab, die ein Leben nach der Anordnung von Eingeweihten führten und die dadurch ihre feineren Leiber läuterten, dann kamen sie den Göttern gewissermaßen entgegen; so daß der Mensch, der im Fleisch verkörpert war, wenn er sich läuterte, das so tun konnte, daß er imstande war, überschattet zu werden von einem solchen Wesen, das nicht bis zum physischen Leibe heruntersteigen konnte. Der physische Leib wäre zu grob gewesen für ein solches Wesen. Für einen solchen Menschen trat das ein, daß der Astralleib und der Ätherleib durchsetzt wurden von einem solch höheren Wesen, das sonst keine Menschengestalt für sich selber gehabt hat, das aber in ein anderes Wesen hineinfuhr und durch ein anderes Wesen sich verkündete.
Wenn wir diese Erscheinung kennen, dann werden wir uns die Inkarnation doch nicht so einfach vorstellen. Es kann durchaus einen Menschen geben, der die Wiederverkörperung eines früheren Menschen ist, der sich hoch entwickelt hat, der seine drei Leiber soweit geläutert hat, daß er nun ein Gefäß ist einer höheren Wesenheit. Und so wurde Buddha ein Gefäß für Wotan. Dieselbe Wesenheit, die Wotan genannt wurde in den germanischen Mythen, die trat als Buddha wieder auf. Buddha und Wotan sind sogar sprachlich verwandt. Wir können sagen, daß vieles von demjenigen, was die Geheimnisse der atlantischen Zeit waren, damit überging auf das, was der Buddha verkündigen konnte. Und damit steht es im Einklange, daß dasjenige, was der Buddha erlebte, etwas ist, was die Götter erlebt hatten in jenen geistigen Sphären, was auch die Menschen erlebt hatten, als sie noch selbst in jenen Sphären waren. Als so die Lehre des Wotan wieder auftrat, da war sie eine Lehre, die wenig Rücksicht nahm auf den physischen Plan, die nur betonen mußte, daß der physische Plan eine Stätte des Schmerzes ist und daß die Erlösung davon viel bedeute — denn es sprach viel von der Wotanwesenheit im Buddha. Deshalb haben das tiefste Verständnis für die Buddhalehren diejenigen gezeigt, die Nachzügler waren aus der Atlantis. Es sind unter der asiatischen Bevölkerung solche zurückgeblieben, die als Rassen durchaus stehengeblieben sind auf der atlantischen Stufe. Natürlich mußten sie äußerlich mit der Erdenentwickelung fortschreiten. In den mongolischen Völkern ist viel von der Atlantis zurückgeblieben; sie sind Nachzügler der alten Bevölkerung der Atlantis. Der stationäre Zug in der mongolischen Bevölkerung ist eine solche Erbschaft aus der Atlantis. Daher dienen die Lehren des Buddha vorzugsweise solchen Völkerschaften, und der Buddhismus hat große Fortschritte bei diesen Völkern gemacht.
Die Welt schreitet fort, sie geht ihren Gang. Derjenige, der hineinschauen kann in die Weltenentwickelung, der wählt nicht, der sagt nicht, ich habe mehr Geschmack an diesem oder jenem, der sagt: Das sind geistige Notwendigkeiten, welche Religion ein Volk hat. Und dadurch, daß die europäische Bevölkerung sich in die physische Welt verstrickte, dadurch ist es ihr unmöglich, sich hineinzufühlen in den Buddhismus, sich zu identifizieren mit dem Innersten der Lehre des Buddha. Der Buddhismus konnte niemals eine Menschheitsreligion werden. Für denjenigen, der sehen will, gibt es da keine Sympathie oder Antipathie, sondern nur ein Urteilen nach den Tatsachen. Ebenso falsch, wie es wäre, aus einem Zentrum Asiens heraus, wo noch andere Völker sitzen, das- Christentum ausbreiten zu wollen, ebenso falsch ist der Buddhismus für die europäische Bevölkerung. Keine Religionsanschauung ist richtig, die nicht für die innersten Bedürfnisse der Zeit geschaffen ist; eine solche kann niemals einen Kulturimpuls geben. Das sind Dinge, die man begreifen muß, wenn man die Zusarmmenhänge wirklich verstehen will.
Aber man darf nicht glauben, daß die historische Erscheinung des Buddha sich alles dessen bewußt gewesen wäre, was in seiner Erscheinung vorlag. Wenn ich das alles auseinandersetzen wollte, brauchte ich mehrere Stunden dazu. Wir haben die Kompliziertheit des histotischen Buddha noch lange nicht erschöpft. In dem Buddha lebte noch etwas. Es ist nicht nur eine Wesenheit, die herüberkam aus der atlantischen Zeit, und die sich in dem verkörperte, der nebenbei auch noch ein menschlicher Buddha war; außer diesem war in ihm noch etwas anderes enthalten, etwas, von dem er sagen konnte: Das kann ich noch nicht umfassen, das ist etwas, was mich beseelt, aber ich nehme nur daran teil. - Das ist die Christus-Wesenheit. Sie beseelte schon die großen Propheten. Sie war eine wohlbekannte Wesenheit in den älteren Mysterien, und immer wies man überall auf den hin, der da kommen werde.
Und er kam! Aber er kam wiederum, indem er sich fügte den historischen Notwendigkeiten, welche der Evolution zugrundeliegen. In einem physischen Leibe hätte er sich ohne weiteres nicht verkörpern können. Es war noch möglich, daß er sich wie in einer Art Unterbewußtsein verkörpern konnte in dem Buddha. Aber wandelnd auf der Erde konnte er sich nur verkörpern, wenn ein physischer Leib und ein Ätherleib und ein Astralleib besonders zubereitet waren. Der Christus hatte die größte Kraft der Wirkung, aber verkörpern konnte er sich nur, wenn ein physischer Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib durch eine andere Wesenheit vollständig geläutert und gereinigt worden waren. Und so konnte die Verkörperung des Christus nur so geschehen, daß eine Wesenheit auftrat, die sich so hoch entwickelt hatte. Das war Jesus von Nazareth. Er war so hoch gekommen in seiner Entwickelung, daß er in der Lage war, während seines Lebens seinen physischen Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib so zu läutern, daß es ihm möglich war, im dreißigsten Jahre seines Lebens diese Leiber zu verlassen, aber so, daß sie noch lebensfähig, noch brauchbar waren für eine höhere Wesenheit. Oft, wenn ich dies ausgesprochen habe, daß eine hohe Stufe der Entwickelung notwendig war, damit Jesus seine Leiber opfern konnte, machten die Menschen einen sehr merkwürdigen Einwand: Aber das sei doch gar kein Opfer, was könne man sich Schöneres denken? Man könne doch nicht von einem großen Opfer sprechen, wenn es sich darum handelte, einer so hohen Wesenheit seine Leiber zu überlassen. — Ja, schön ist es auch, und es wäre das Opfer nicht groß, wenn man es so abstrahierte. Aber man möchte antworten: Man mache es einmal so; das Opfer wolle wohl jeder bringen, aber man wolle es einmal probieren. — Es ist nötig, ungeheure Kräfte zu haben, um seine Leiber so zu läutern, daß man sie lebensfähig verlassen kann. Um diese Kräfte zu erlangen, dazu sind die Opfer notwendig. Jesus von Nazareth mußte schon eine außerordentlich hohe Individualität sein, damit er das konnte. Das Johannes-Evangelium deutet an, wann Jesus seinen physischen Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib verließ und einging in die geistige Welt und das Christus-Wesen hineinfuhr in die dreifache Leiblichkeit. Das geschah bei der Taufe des Jesus im Jordan. Da geschah etwas sehr Bedeutungsvolles in der Leiblichkeit des Jesus von Nazareth. Wiederum muß das, was ich jetzt sage, ein Greuel sein für ein materialistisches Gemüt. Es ging etwas Besonderes vor, selbst in dem physischen Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth. Wenn wir das verstehen wollen, was da vorging in dem Moment der Taufe, als der Christus in den Jesus hineinfuhr, da müssen wir uns eines einmal vor die Seele führen, was recht sonderbar erscheinen wird, aber doch wahr ist.
Im Laufe der Menschheitsevolution haben sich einzelne Organe nach und nach entwickelt, mehr und mehr herausgebildet. Wir haben gesehen, wie, als die Organe bis zur Hüftmitte gekommen waren, bestimmte Strukturen und Funktionen im Menschen eintraten. Es ist in diesem immer mehr Selbständigwerden der menschlichen Individualität auch eine Verhärtung des Knochensystems eingetreten. Je selbständiger der Mensch wurde, desto mehr verhärtete sich auch sein Knochensystem, desto mehr wuchs aber auch die Gewalt des Todes. Darauf müssen wir jetzt achten, wenn wir das Folgende in der richtigen Weise verstehen wollen. Woran liegt es denn überhaupt, daß der Mensch sterben muß, daß der Leib ganz und gar verwest? Das liegt daran, daß im menschlichen Leibe etwas verbrannt werden kann: die Knochen. Es hat das Feuer eine Gewalt auch über die menschliche Knochensubstanz. Der Mensch hat keine Gewalt, wenigstens keine bewußte Gewalt über seine Knochen. Diese Gewalt liegt noch außerhalb der Macht des Menschen. In dem Augenblick, in dem in der Jordantaufe der Christus in den Leib des Jesus von Nazareth einzog, in dem Augenblick wurde das Knochensystem dieser Wesenheit etwas ganz anderes als bei anderen Menschen. Das war ein Fall, der sich vorher niemals und auch nachher niemals bis auf heute ereignet hat. Es fuhr mit der Christus-Wesenheit in die Jesus-Wesenheit etwas herein, das Macht hatte über die Kräfte, die Knochen verbrennen. Heute ist es noch nicht in die Willkür des Menschen gestellt, die Knochen aufzubauen. Diese Gewalt aber griff bis in die Knochen hinein. Bis in. die Knochen hinein griff die bewußte Gewalt der Christus-Wesenheit; das gehört zum Sinn der Johannestaufe. Damit war in die Erde etwas verpflanzt, was man nennen kann die Oberherrschaft über den Tod, denn mit den Knochen ist der Tod erst in die Welt. gekommen. Dadurch, daß die Gewalt über die Knochen einzog in den menschlichen Leib, damit ist die Überwindung des Todes in die Welt gekommen. Damit wird ein tiefstes Mysterium ausgesprochen, damit war ein Heiligstes, ein im höchsten Maße Heiligstes, in das Knochensystem des Jesus von Nazareth durch den Christus eingezogen. Daher durfte es nicht angetastet werden. Daher mußte sich das Schriftwort erfüllen: Ihr dürft ihm kein Bein zerbrechen. — Da hätte in die Gotteskräfte Menschengewalt eingegriffen. Wir sehen hier in ein ganz tiefes Mysterium der Menschheitsentwikkelung.
Und damit kommen wir zu gleicher Zeit auf einen sehr bedeutungsvollen Begriff des esoterischen Christentums, der uns zeigen kann, wie dieses Christentum mit den höchsten Wahrheiten durchtränkt ist. Wir kommen zu dem, was uns außerdem noch in der Taufe entgegentritt. Dadurch, daß die Christus-Wesenheit von den drei Leibern Besitz ergriff, von dem, worin früher die Ich-Wesenheit des Jesus war, dadurch war nun eine Wesenheit mit der Erde verknüpft, die früher einen Wohnplatz gehabt hat auf der Sonne. Bis zu dem Momente war sie früher mit der Erde verbunden gewesen, als die Sonne hinausging aus der Erde. Der Christus ist damals mit hinausgegangen und konnte seine Gewalt von da an nur entwickeln von außen auf die Erde herein. Im Momente der Taufe vereinigte sich der hohe Christus-Geist im vollen Sinne wieder mit der Erde. Vorher wirkte er von außen, überschattete die Propheten und wirkte in den Mysterien. Jetzt war er in einem physischen Menschenleibe auf der Erde selbst verkörpert. Und wenn ein Wesen von einem fernen Punkte des Weltenalls durch Jahrtausende hätte heruntersehen können, dann würde ein solches Wesen, das nicht nur die physische Erde gesehen hätte, sondern auch ihre geistigen Strömungen, ihren Astralleib und Ätherleib, bedeutungsvolle Vorgänge gesehen haben in dem Moment der Johannestaufe und in dem Momente, wo das Blut aus den Wunden Christi floß auf Golgatha. Der Astralleib der Erde wurde dadurch gründlich verändert. Er nahm in diesem Momente etwas anderes auf, nahm andere Farben an. Es wurde der Erde eine neue Kraft einverleibt. Das, was früher von außen wirkte, wurde mit der Erde wieder verbunden, und dadurch wird die Anziehungskraft zwischen Sonne und Erde so stark werden, daß sich Sonne und Erde wieder vereinigen werden, und der Mensch mit den Sonnengeistern. Der Christus war es, der die Möglichkeit gab, daß die Erde sich wieder vereinigen kann mit der Sonne und dann im Schoße der Gottheit ist.
Das ist der Vorgang, der sich vollzog, und seine Bedeutung. Dies mußten wir vorausschicken, um verständlich zu machen, welch Bedeutungsvolles in die Erde eintrat mit dem Christus. Und wir können dadurch begreifen, wie in der Tat durch die Vereinigung mit dem Christus der Mensch etwas aufnehmen kann, wodurch das Bewußtsein des Menschen nach dem Tode wieder aufgehellt werden kann. Wenn wir uns das vor Augen halten, dann werden wir auch begreifen können, wie eine Evolution da ist für die Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Fragen wir nun, um wessentwillen das alles geschehen ist eigentlich ?
Erst lebte der Mensch im Schoße der Gottheit. Dann stieg er herunter auf den physischen Plan. Wäre er oben geblieben, er hätte niemals sein heutiges Selbstbewußtsein erlangt. Er hätte nie ein Ich erhalten. Nur im physischen Leibe konnte er das Selbstbewußtsein in seiner hellen Klarheit entfachen. Es mußten äußere Gegenstände ihm entgegentreten, er mußte sich unterscheiden können von den Gegenständen, er mußte hinuntersteigen in die physische Welt. Nur um des Ichs des Menschen willen ist es geschehen, daß der Mensch heruntergestiegen ist. Der Mensch ist seinem Ich nach von den Göttern abstammend. Es ist heruntergestiegen aus der geistigen Welt; es ist geschmiedet worden an den physischen Leib, damit es hell und klar werden kann. Gerade das, was als die verhärtete Materie des Menschenleibes aufgetreten ist, das hat dem Menschen sein selbstbewußtes Ich gegeben, das hat ihm möglich gemacht, sich Erkenntnis zu erwerben. Es hat ihn aber auch geschmiedet an die Erdenmasse, an die Felsenmasse.
Der Mensch hatte, bevor er sein Ich erlangte, physischen Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib erlangt. Als sich in diesen drei Leibern nach und nach das Ich entwickelte, gestaltete es diese drei Leiber um. Man muß sich dabei klarmachen, daß an dem physischen Leibe alle höheren Glieder des Menschen arbeiten. Daß der physische Leib so ist, das hängt davon ab, daß Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich an ihm arbeiten. Alle Organe des physischen Leibes hängen in einer gewissen Weise davon ab, daß auch die höheren Glieder verändert worden sind. Die zurückgebliebenen Wesenheiten sind zu den verschiedenen Tierformen geworden, zum Beispiel zu den Vögeln, durch Dominieren des Astralleibes. Dadurch, daß das Ich immer selbstbewußter wurde, hat es auch den Astralleib verändert. Es ist schon gesagt worden, daß sich Menschen absonderten. Dasjenige, was man als apokalyptische Tiere bezeichnet, sind Typen, bei denen dieses oder jenes höhere Glied die Oberhand hat. Das Ich hat die Oberhand erhalten bei den MenschMenschen. Nun sind alle Organe angepaßt den höheren Gliedern des Menschen. Indem das Ich einzog in den Astralleib, diesen ganz durchtränkte, haben sich in dem Menschen und in den Tieren, die sich später abzweigten, gewisse Organe gebildet. So zum Beispiel rührt ein bestimmtes Organ davon her, daß überhaupt ein Ich eingezogen ist auf der Erde. Auf dem Monde war kein Ich verknüpft mit den Wesen der Menschheitsevolution. Gewisse Organe hängen zusammen mit dieser Entwickelung: die Galle und die Leber. Die Galle ist der physische Ausdruck des Astralleibes. Sie ist nicht mit dem Ich verknüpft, aber das Ich wirkt auf den Astralleib, und aus dem Astralleibe wirken die Kräfte auf die Galle.
Jetzt fassen wir das ganze Bild zusammen, welches der Eingeweihte dem Ägypter so klarmachte: Der Ich-bewußte Mensch ist gefesselt worden an den Erdenkörper. Stelle dir vor den Menschen, gefesselt von den Erdenfelsen, das heißt, gefesselt an den physischen Leib und in der Evolution ist etwas entstanden, was nagt an seiner Unsterblichkeit! Stelle dir die Funktionen vor, welche die Leber bewirkt haben: sie sind dadurch entstanden, daß der Leib geschmiedet wurde an den Felsen der Erde. Da nagt der Astralleib daran.
Das ist das Bild, das in Ägypten dem Schüler gegeben wurde, und das herübergewandert ist nach Griechenland als die Prometheussage. Nicht mit groben Händen muß man einen solchen Mythus anfassen. Man darf ein solches Bild nur nicht wie einen Schmetterling des Staubes berauben. Wir müssen den Staub an den Flügeln lassen, wir müssen den Tau auf der Blüte lassen. Diese Bilder lassen sich nicht zerren und quälen. Wir dürfen nicht sagen: Prometheus bedeutet dies oder jenes; wir müssen versuchen, die wirklichen okkulten Tatsachen hinzustellen, und dann versuchen die Bilder zu verstehen, die entstanden sind aus den okkulten Tatsachen heraus und die übergegangen sind in das Bewußtsein des Menschen.
Der ägyptische Eingeweihte führte seinen Schüler bis zu der Stufe, wo er begreifen konnte die Ich-Entwickelung des Menschen. Ein solches Bild sollte seinen Geist formen. Die Tatsachen aber sollte der Schüler nicht mit groben Fäusten anfassen, sondern das Bild sollte licht und lebendig vor ihm stehen, und der ägyptische Eingeweihte wollte nicht banale, trockene Begriffe hineinpressen in Wahrheiten, sondern etwas in Bildern darstellen, was er geben konnte. Vieles hat bei der Prometheussage die Dichtung getan, hat verschönert und hat verziert, und wir dürfen nicht mehr hineinlegen, als die okkulten Tatsachen sind, und dem nur künstlerischen Tun seine feinen Gestaltungskräfte lassen. Nun wollen wir noch auf etwas anderes hindeuten. Der Mensch, als er auf der Erde ankam, war noch nicht Ich-begabt. Bevor das Ich in den Astralleib hineingeheimnißt worden ist, hatten andere Kräfte von dem Astralleib Besitz. Dann ist der lichtflüssige Astralleib durchzogen worden von dem Ich. Bevor das Ich darinnen war, waren die astralen Kräfte von den göttlich-geistigen Wesen von außen hineingesendet worden in den Menschen. Der Astralleib war auch da, aber durchglüht von göttlich-geistigen Wesen. Rein und hell war der Astralleib und umfloß dasjenige, was als physischer und Ätherleib als Anlage da war. Er umfloß und durchfloß es; rein war der Fluß des Astralleibes. Mit dem Eintritt des Ich aber war der Egoismus hineingetreten, und verdunkelt war der Astralleib worden, verloren war der reine Goldfluß des Astralleibes, immer mehr war er verloren, bis der Mensch heruntergestiegen war auf den tiefsten Punkt des physischen Planes in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit.
Da mußten die Menschen daran denken, wieder zu gewinnen den reinen Fluß des Astralleibes, und es entstand in den Eleusinischen Mysterien dasjenige, was man nannte: das Suchen nach der ursprünglichen Reinheit des Astralleibes. Den Astralleib wieder in seinem ursprünglich reinen Goldfluß herzustellen, das wollten die Eleusinischen Mysterien, das wollten auch die Ägypter. Das Suchen nach dem goldenen Fluß war eine der Proben der ägyptischen Einweihungen: und das ist uns erhalten in der wunderbaren Sage des Aufsuchens des Goldenen Vlieses durch Jason und die Argonauten.
Wir haben die Entwickelung gesehen: Als die unteren Organe noch in ihrer Form den Kähnen glichen, von denen wir gesprochen haben, da hatte der astralische Leib in der Wassererde noch den goldenen Glanz. In der Wassererde hatte der Mensch seinen golddurchleuchteten Astralleib. Das Suchen nach diesem Astralleib ist dargestellt in dem Argonautenzug. Das Suchen nach dem Goldenen Vlies müssen wir in einer feinen, subtilen Weise zusammenbringen mit der ägyptischen Mythe.
Äußere historische Tatsachen sind verknüpft mit geistigen Tatsachen. Man darf nicht glauben, daß das bloß Symbol ist. Der Argonautenzug hat wirklich stattgefunden, geradeso wie der 'Trojanische Krieg stattgefunden hat. Äußere Vorgänge sind Physiognomien für innere Vorgänge; alles das sind historische Vorgänge. Immer wieder bei den griechischen Einzuweihenden hat innerlich die historische Tatsache stattgefunden: der Zug nach dem Goldenen Vlies, die Erringung des reinen Astralleibes.
Das ist dasjenige, was wir uns vor die Scele führen wollten, und von wo ausgehend wir noch einiges aus den Mysterien kennenlernen und dann finden werden, wie die ägyptischen Mysterien mit dem heutigen Leben zusammenhängen.
Tenth Lecture
There are many myths and legends of the ancient Egyptians that were well known in the spiritual scientific worldview and are becoming known again, but which are not actually conveyed in the external, historical tradition reported by the Egyptians. Some of these myths have been preserved for us in the form in which they became established in Greece, for the greater part of Greek legends not relating to Zeus and his family originated in the Egyptian mysteries. And today we will have to deal with all kinds of legends that we need, even if contemporary cultural history claims that there is actually little in Greek mythology that is relevant to human beings.
Why did we need to look at the other side of human development, so to speak, that is, the spiritual side? Everything we see on the physical plane always remains an event, a fact of the physical plane. But in spiritual science, we are not only interested in what lives on the physical plane, but also in everything that goes on in the spiritual worlds.
We know from what we have heard in spiritual science lectures what happens to human beings between death and a new birth. We need only remember that at death, human beings pass into the state of consciousness we call Kamaloka, in which, even though they have become spiritual beings, they are held back by the astral body. This is the time when human beings still demand something from the physical world, when they suffer from being deprived of something because they are no longer in the physical world. Then comes the time when man must prepare himself for a new life: the state of consciousness of Devachan, where man is no longer directly connected with the physical world, with what physical impressions are. If we want to imagine how Kamaloka life differs from Devachan life, we can consider two examples.
We know that when a person dies, they do not immediately lose their desires and wishes. Let us assume that a person was a gourmet during their life who took great pleasure in delicious food. When he dies, this hedonism, this desire for delicious food, is not immediately lost. The person does not have these desires in the physical body, but in the astral body. Therefore, because the person retains the astral body after death, he also retains the desire, but he lacks the organ to satisfy these desires: the physical body. The desire for food does not depend on the physical body, but on the astral body, and after death a true craving arises in humans for what satisfied them most in life. Therefore, humans suffer after death until they have lost the desire for pleasure, until they have cast off everything that they have nurtured through their physical organs. As long as this lasts, the person remains in Kamaloka. Then begins the time when the person no longer makes demands of this kind, which can only be satisfied through physical organs. Then he enters Devachan.
To the same extent that the person ceases to be bound to the physical world, to the same extent he begins to gain consciousness of the Devachanic world. It shines more and more brightly. Only, he does not yet have the ego-consciousness that he has in this life. He is not yet independent there. In Devachan life, the human being feels like a limb, like an organ of the entire spiritual world. Just as the hand would only feel itself as a limb of the physical organism if it had feeling, so the human being feels in his Devachan consciousness: I am a member of the spiritual world, a member also of the higher beings. He will only grow toward his independence. But even now he is already working there with the cosmos, he is working with the plant kingdom from the spiritual world. Man works with everything, not out of his own calculation, but as a serving member of the spiritual world. When we describe what humans experience between death and a new birth, we must not imagine that the events of the devachanic world are not also subject to change. Humans have a secret awareness that although our Earth is changeable, everything remains the same on the other side of death. This is not the case at all. When the stay in Devachan is described in this way today, it means that this is approximately the present state of Devachan. But let us remember what it was like when our souls were incarnated during the Egyptian culture. At that time, we looked up at the gigantic pyramids and other great buildings. In earlier times, things looked very, very different on this side, the physical side. Let us think of how the face of the earth has changed very, very much since then. We need only follow materialistic science to find, for example, that a few thousand years ago there were completely different animals in Europe, and that Europe looked completely different. The face of the earth is constantly changing, and that is why human beings always enter into new conditions of existence. This seems quite obvious to everyone. But when one describes the conditions of the spiritual world, people are so quick to believe that what happened in the spiritual world when they died, say, a thousand years before Christ, that what happened over there was exactly the same as what is happening today, when they are reborn today and die again today.
Just as the physical plane changes, so too do the conditions in the other world. The stay in Devachan was quite different from today when one entered Devachan from Egyptian or Greek life. There, too, an evolution is taking place. It is only natural that we now describe the present conditions of Devachan; but the conditions have changed. We can already assume this when we look at what the last lectures and their descriptions have brought us.
We have seen how, when we go further back to the Atlantean time, human beings lived more in the spiritual world, how they moved in the spiritual world during sleep. We found that this then gradually diminished. However, if we go back far enough, we find that human beings lived entirely in the spiritual world. In ancient times, the difference between sleep and death was not so great. In the distant past, human beings had long periods of sleep. This coincided roughly with the period that is now called an incarnation and is passed through by life after death. As humans descended to the physical plane, they became increasingly entangled in it. It has been shown how the Indians looked up to a higher world and how the Persians already attempted to conquer the physical plane. Human beings descended further and further, and a marriage between spirit and matter, between the spiritual worlds and the physical plane, came about in the Greco-Latin period. The more human beings lived in the midst of this last epoch, the more they learned to love the physical world and take an interest in it. But this also changed everything we call experiences between death and rebirth.
If we go back to the earliest period of the post-Atlantean epoch, we find that people had little interest in the physical plane. The initiates of that time could be transported to higher worlds, to the devachanic worlds, and they then shared their experiences with other people. In people who felt themselves being transported with all their thoughts and senses into the true world, into their real home, this meant that they had little interest in the conditions of the physical plane. But when they advanced into the devachan, having hardly connected with the physical world, they possessed a relatively clear consciousness in the devachan. When such a person then reincarnated in the Persian culture, he felt more attached to physical matter, and so he lost some of the clarity of consciousness he had had in Devachan. In the Egyptian-Chaldean period, when people began to love the outer physical world, they already had a very clouded, shadowy consciousness in Devachan. This consciousness was still higher in nature than the consciousness in the physical world, but it sank lower and lower in degree and became darker and darker until the Greek-Latin period. During this period, the Devachanic consciousness became increasingly dark and shadowy. It was not a dream consciousness; it never was. It was a consciousness that one could pay attention to; it was still a consciousness of which man was aware. An darkening of this consciousness therefore took place as evolution progressed.
The mysteries were essentially there to enable human beings not only to have a shadowy consciousness in the spiritual world, but also to brighten up their consciousness again. Let us imagine that there had been no mysteries, that there had been no initiates. Then human beings would have had an increasingly dim, increasingly shadowy consciousness in the spiritual worlds. It was only because the initiation into the mysteries took place parallel to the darkening of consciousness in Devachan, and with it the acquisition of certain abilities with which select individuals were already able to see into the spiritual worlds in bright clarity, solely because the initiates were able to report on this in myths and legends, did a shading of something brighter, something lighter, enter into the devachanic consciousness between death and a new birth. But for all those who had already found their way into the physical world, it was so that they already felt this dimming of consciousness in the spiritual world, and it is no fairy tale, it is truth, that the initiate in the Eleusinian mysteries was able to have a very special experience. The principle of initiation is that human beings can ascend into the spiritual worlds during their lifetime and experience what goes on there. The initiates of that time were indeed able to experience the shadows in the spiritual world directly. It is truly a saying of an initiate when he says: Oh, better to be a beggar in the physical world than a king in the realm of shadows. This statement is spoken from the experience of the initiates. We cannot take such things deeply enough, and we only understand them when we know the facts of the spiritual world.
Now let us put into a more concrete form what was indicated yesterday in abstract form.
If nothing else had happened except for humans descending into the physical world, consciousness would have become increasingly darker between death and a new birth. Humans would have ultimately lost all connection with the spiritual world. Now, it may seem strange to those who are even slightly afflicted by some form of materialism, but what I am about to say is true. If nothing had happened in the development of humanity, humanity would have fallen into spiritual death. But there is a possibility of enlightenment of consciousness between death and a new birth, and this enlightenment can be achieved either through initiation itself or, already today, to a lesser degree, through that human beings already participate in the spiritual world in this life, that they already have experiences that do not die with their bodies, that remain connected with them in their eternal core of being, even in the spiritual world. This was ensured by the mysteries, by the entire spiritual development, by the great initiates before Christ, and above all by the Being itself whom we know as Christ. All other initiates were in a sense precursors of Christ; they were forerunners who pointed to the appearance of Christ.
Let us now describe the appearance of the Christ figure. Let us imagine a person who had never heard anything about Christ, who had never been able to take in the secrets of the Gospel of John, who had never been able to say to himself: I want to follow the Christ who lives and works, I want to take his principles into my being. Let us imagine, then, that Christ never came near such a person, that he could not take with him into the spiritual world the treasure that human beings must take with them today if they want to avoid the darkening of their consciousness. What man takes with him as ideas about Christ is a power that illuminates consciousness after death, that saves man from the fate that would have befallen him if Christ had not appeared. If Christ had not appeared, human beings would have continued to exist, but their consciousness would not have been able to become clear after death. This is what gives the appearance of Christ its real significance, that something of far-reaching importance is incorporated into the core of the human being. The event of Golgotha saves human beings from spiritual death if they identify it with their own being.
We must not believe that other great leaders of humanity did not have a similar significance. It is not a question of claiming exclusive dogma for Christianity. That would be a violation of true Christianity, for anyone who knows the facts knows that Christianity was also taught in the ancient mysteries. And a statement such as that made by Augustine is profoundly true: “What is now called the Christian religion already existed among the ancients and was not lacking in the beginnings of the human race until Christ appeared in the flesh, from which point on the true religion, which already existed, received the name of Christian.” It does not matter what one calls it, but that one understands correctly the meaning of the Christ impulse. And just as Christ was the figure who appeared at the lowest point of evolution, so it was with Buddha, Hermes, and the other great beings, that they had the prophetic consciousness that Christ would come, that he lived in them themselves.
We can see this particularly clearly when we study the figure of Buddha, and we must realize what he was. What was Buddha actually? We must touch upon something here that can only be said among students of spiritual science. People, even theosophists, usually imagine the mysteries of reincarnation to be much too simple. One must not imagine that any soul that is embodied today in its three bodies simply incarnated in a previous incarnation and then again in a previous incarnation, which was preceded by another, always according to the same pattern. The mysteries are much more complicated. Despite A. P. Blavatsky's best efforts to show her close students how complicated these mysteries are, they are still not properly understood today. People simply imagine that a soul goes into a body again and again. It is not that simple. We often cannot fit a historical figure into such a pattern if we want to understand them properly. We often have to take a much more complicated approach.
In Atlantis, we already encounter beings who surround humans like our fellow human beings today, but whom humans saw and got to know when they were spiritually elevated in the spiritual world. It has already been said how he got to know Thor, Zeus, Wotan, and Baldur as real companions there. During the day, he lived in the physical world, but in another state of consciousness, he got to know spiritual beings who had not undergone the same course of development as he had. In the primeval times of the earth, human beings did not yet have such dense bodies as they do today; at a certain stage, there was no question of a skeleton. The Atlantean body could only be seen to a certain extent with physical eyes. But there were beings who only descended far enough to incarnate in an etheric body. Then there were beings who, at that time when the air was still filled with water vapors, still embodied themselves. At that time, when human beings still lived in the water-mist atmosphere, such incarnations were still possible for them. One such being was, for example, the later Wotan. He said to himself: If human beings can incarnate themselves in this light-fluid matter, then I can do the same. Such a being took on human form and walked around in the physical world. But then, as the earth became denser and humans took on denser forms, Wotan said to himself: No, I will not enter this dense matter. He then remained in invisible worlds, in worlds more removed from the earth. This was the case with all divine-spiritual beings.
From then on, however, they were able to do something else. They were able to enter into a kind of connection with people who came toward them, who were developing from below. Let us think of it this way: The course of human development was such that it reached its lowest point. Up to this point, the gods accompanied the humans. But then they took a different path, one that was invisible to humans on the physical plane. But if there were people who lived their lives according to the instructions of initiates and thereby purified their finer bodies, they came, as it were, to meet the gods; so that when the human being embodied in the flesh purified himself, he was able to do so in such a way that he was able to be overshadowed by such a being who could not descend to the physical body. The physical body would have been too coarse for such a being. For such a person, the astral body and the etheric body were permeated by such a higher being, which otherwise had no human form for itself, but which entered into another being and manifested itself through another being.
If we are familiar with this phenomenon, then we will not find it so easy to imagine incarnation. There may well be a human being who is the reincarnation of a former human being who has developed highly, who has purified his three bodies to such an extent that he is now a vessel for a higher being. And so Buddha became a vessel for Wotan. The same being who was called Wotan in Germanic mythology reappeared as Buddha. Buddha and Wotan are even linguistically related. We can say that much of what were the secrets of the Atlantean era was transferred to what Buddha was able to proclaim. And so it is consistent that what Buddha experienced is something that the gods had experienced in those spiritual spheres, which humans had also experienced when they themselves were still in those spheres. When the teachings of Wotan reappeared, they were teachings that took little account of the physical plane, emphasizing only that the physical plane is a place of suffering and that liberation from it means a great deal — for there was much of the Wotan presence in the Buddha. That is why those who were latecomers from Atlantis showed the deepest understanding of the Buddha's teachings. Among the Asian population there are those who have remained behind, who as races have remained entirely at the Atlantean stage. Of course, outwardly they had to progress with the development of the earth. Much of Atlantis has remained in the Mongolian peoples; they are stragglers from the ancient population of Atlantis. The stationary tendency in the Mongolian population is such an inheritance from Atlantis. Therefore, the teachings of Buddha are particularly suited to such peoples, and Buddhism has made great progress among them.
The world progresses, it follows its course. Those who can look into the development of the world do not choose, they do not say, I prefer this or that, they say: These are spiritual necessities, which religion a people has. And because the European population has become entangled in the physical world, it is impossible for them to empathize with Buddhism, to identify with the innermost teachings of Buddha. Buddhism could never become a religion for all of humanity. For those who want to see, there is no sympathy or antipathy, but only judgment based on facts. Just as it would be wrong to try to spread Christianity from a center in Asia, where other peoples live, so Buddhism is wrong for the European population. No religious view is correct unless it is created for the innermost needs of the time; such a view can never give a cultural impulse. These are things that must be understood if one really wants to understand the connections.
But one must not believe that the historical figure of the Buddha was aware of everything that was present in his appearance. If I wanted to explain all this, I would need several hours. We are still far from exhausting the complexity of the historical Buddha. There was something else living in the Buddha. It is not just an entity that came over from the Atlantean era and embodied itself in someone who also happened to be a human Buddha; there was something else in him, something of which he could say: I cannot yet comprehend this, it is something that animates me, but I only participate in it. This is the Christ being. It already animated the great prophets. It was a well-known being in the older mysteries, and everywhere people pointed to the one who was to come.
And he came! But he came again, submitting himself to the historical necessities that underlie evolution. He could not have incarnated in a physical body without further ado. It was still possible for him to incarnate in the Buddha, as it were in a kind of subconsciousness. But walking on earth, he could only incarnate if a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body had been specially prepared. Christ had the greatest power of action, but he could only incarnate when a physical body, etheric body, and astral body had been completely purified and cleansed by another being. And so the incarnation of Christ could only take place when a being appeared who had developed so highly. That was Jesus of Nazareth. He had advanced so far in his development that during his life he was able to purify his physical body, etheric body, and astral body to such an extent that in the thirtieth year of his life he was able to leave these bodies, but in such a way that they were still viable and usable for a higher being. Often, when I have said that a high stage of development was necessary for Jesus to sacrifice his bodies, people have made a very strange objection: But that is no sacrifice at all, what could be more beautiful? One cannot speak of a great sacrifice when it is a matter of surrendering one's bodies to such a high being. Yes, it is beautiful, and the sacrifice would not be great if one abstracted it in this way. But one might reply: Let us do it once; everyone would be willing to make the sacrifice, but let us try it once. It is necessary to have tremendous powers to purify one's bodies so that one can leave them behind and still remain alive. Sacrifices are necessary to attain these powers. Jesus of Nazareth had to be an extraordinarily high individuality to be able to do this. The Gospel of John indicates when Jesus left his physical body, etheric body, and astral body and entered the spiritual world, and when the Christ being entered into the threefold body. This happened at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. Something very significant happened in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. Again, what I am about to say must be abhorrent to a materialistic mind. Something special took place, even in the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. If we want to understand what happened at the moment of baptism, when Christ entered into Jesus, we must first bring to mind something that will seem quite strange, but is nevertheless true.
In the course of human evolution, individual organs developed gradually, becoming more and more differentiated. We have seen how, when the organs reached the middle of the hips, certain structures and functions entered into the human being. In this increasing independence of the human individuality, a hardening of the skeletal system also took place. The more independent humans became, the more their skeletal system hardened, but the more the power of death also grew. We must now pay attention to this if we want to understand what follows in the right way. Why is it that humans must die, that the body decays completely? It is because there is something in the human body that can be burned: the bones. Fire also has power over the substance of human bones. Man has no power, at least no conscious power, over his bones. This power lies beyond the power of man. At the moment when Christ entered the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the baptism in the Jordan, the skeletal system of this being became something completely different from that of other human beings. This was a case that had never happened before and has never happened since, even to this day. Something entered the Jesus being with the Christ being that had power over the forces that burn bones. Today, it is not yet within human power to build bones. But this power reached into the bones. The conscious power of the Christ being reached into the bones; this is part of the meaning of John's baptism. With this, something was transplanted into the earth that can be called the supremacy over death, for it is with the bones that death first came into the world. Through the power over the bones entering the human body, the overcoming of death came into the world. This expresses a profound mystery: something most sacred, something of the highest order, entered into the bone structure of Jesus of Nazareth through Christ. That is why it could not be touched. That is why the words of Scripture had to be fulfilled: “You shall not break a bone of him.” Human power would have interfered with the powers of God. Here we see a very profound mystery of human development.
And this brings us at the same time to a very significant concept of esoteric Christianity, which can show us how this Christianity is imbued with the highest truths. We come to what else we encounter in baptism. Through the fact that the Christ Being took possession of the three bodies, of that in which the I-being of Jesus had previously been, a Being was now linked to the earth that had previously had its dwelling place on the sun. It had been connected to the earth until the moment when the sun left the earth. Christ went out with it and from then on could only develop his power from outside, into the earth. At the moment of baptism, the high Christ Spirit reunited with the earth in the full sense. Before that, he worked from outside, overshadowed the prophets, and worked in the mysteries. Now he was incarnated in a physical human body on earth itself. And if a being from a distant point in the universe had been able to look down for thousands of years, then such a being, who would have seen not only the physical Earth but also its spiritual currents, its astral body and etheric body, would have seen significant events at the moment of John's baptism and at the moment when the blood flowed from Christ's wounds on Golgotha. The astral body of the Earth was thoroughly changed by this. At that moment, it took on something else, took on different colors. A new power was incorporated into the Earth. That which previously acted from outside was reconnected with the earth, and through this the gravitational pull between the sun and the earth will become so strong that the sun and the earth will reunite, and human beings with the sun spirits. It was Christ who made it possible for the earth to reunite with the sun and then be in the bosom of the Godhead.
This is the process that took place and its significance. We had to say this first to make it clear how significant it was when Christ came to Earth. And we can understand how, through union with Christ, humans can take in something that can brighten their consciousness after death. If we keep this in mind, we will also be able to understand how there is an evolution between death and new birth. Let us now ask ourselves, for whose sake did all this actually happen?
First, man lived in the bosom of the Godhead. Then he descended to the physical plane. If he had remained above, he would never have attained his present self-consciousness. He would never have received an I. Only in the physical body could he kindle self-consciousness in its bright clarity. External objects had to confront him, he had to be able to distinguish himself from objects, he had to descend into the physical world. It was only for the sake of the human ego that man descended. Man is descended from the gods in terms of his ego. It descended from the spiritual world; it was forged to the physical body so that it could become bright and clear. Precisely that which appeared as the hardened matter of the human body gave human beings their self-conscious I, made it possible for them to acquire knowledge. But it also forged them to the earth mass, to the rock mass.
Before acquiring its ego, man had acquired a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. As the ego gradually developed in these three bodies, it transformed them. It must be clearly understood that all the higher members of the human being work on the physical body. The fact that the physical body is as it is depends on the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego working on it. All the organs of the physical body depend in a certain way on the higher members also having been transformed. The entities that remained behind became the various animal forms, for example birds, through the domination of the astral body. As the ego became more and more self-conscious, it also changed the astral body. It has already been said that human beings separated. What are called apocalyptic animals are types in which this or that higher member has the upper hand. The ego has gained the upper hand in human beings. Now all organs are adapted to the higher members of the human being. As the ego entered the astral body and completely permeated it, certain organs formed in humans and in the animals that later branched off. For example, a certain organ originates from the fact that an ego entered the earth at all. On the moon, no ego was connected with the beings of human evolution. Certain organs are connected with this development: the gall and the liver. The gall is the physical expression of the astral body. It is not connected with the ego, but the ego acts upon the astral body, and from the astral body the forces act upon the gall.
Now let us summarize the whole picture that the initiate made so clear to the Egyptians: The ego-conscious human being has been bound to the earthly body. Imagine human beings bound to the rocks of the earth, that is, bound to the physical body, and in the course of evolution something has arisen that gnaws at their immortality! Imagine the functions that the liver has brought about: they arose because the body was forged to the rocks of the earth. The astral body gnaws at it.
This is the image that was given to the student in Egypt, and which migrated to Greece as the Prometheus myth. One must not touch such a myth with coarse hands. One must not rob such an image of its substance like a butterfly of its dust. We must leave the dust on the wings, we must leave the dew on the flower. These images cannot be torn and tortured. We must not say: Prometheus means this or that; we must try to present the real occult facts, and then try to understand the images that arose from the occult facts and passed into human consciousness.
The Egyptian initiate led his pupil to the stage where he could understand the development of the human ego. Such an image was to shape his mind. But the student was not to grasp the facts with crude fists; rather, the image was to stand light and alive before him, and the Egyptian initiate did not want to press banal, dry concepts into truths, but to represent in images what he could give. Much has been done in the Prometheus legend by poetry, which has embellished and decorated it, and we must not put into it more than the occult facts are, leaving only the artistic activity its fine creative powers. Now let us point to something else. When human beings arrived on earth, they were not yet endowed with the ego. Before the ego was mysteriously incorporated into the astral body, other forces possessed the astral body. Then the light-fluid astral body was permeated by the ego. Before the ego was there, the astral forces had been sent into the human being from outside by divine spiritual beings. The astral body was also there, but it was permeated by divine spiritual beings. The astral body was pure and bright and surrounded what was there as the physical and etheric bodies. It surrounded and permeated it; the flow of the astral body was pure. But with the entry of the ego, egoism entered, and the astral body became darkened. The pure golden flow of the astral body was lost, and it was lost more and more until human beings had descended to the lowest point of the physical plane in the Greco-Latin period.
Then people had to think about regaining the pure flow of the astral body, and in the Eleusinian Mysteries there arose what was called the search for the original purity of the astral body. The Eleusinian Mysteries wanted to restore the astral body to its original pure golden flow, and so did the Egyptians. The search for the golden stream was one of the trials of the Egyptian initiations, and this has been preserved for us in the wonderful legend of Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece.
We have seen the development: when the lower organs still resembled the boats we have spoken of, the astral body still had its golden glow in the watery earth. In the water earth, man had his astral body illuminated by gold. The search for this astral body is depicted in the Argonaut expedition. We must bring the search for the Golden Fleece together with the Egyptian myth in a subtle way.
Outer historical facts are linked to spiritual facts. One must not believe that this is merely symbolic. The Argonauts' quest really took place, just as the Trojan War took place. Outer events are physiognomies for inner events; all of these are historical events. Again and again, the historical event took place inwardly in the Greek initiates: the quest for the Golden Fleece, the attainment of the pure astral body.
This is what we wanted to bring before our eyes, and from this starting point we will learn more about the mysteries and then discover how the Egyptian mysteries are connected with life today.