The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] From the one lecture that has been given here on more complicated questions of reincarnation, you have seen that with further progress in the spiritual scientific worldview, what could initially be given as elementary truths is modified, that we gradually ascend to higher and higher truths. It therefore remains true that in the beginning, general world truths should be presented as elementary and as simply as possible. But it is also necessary to gradually work one's way up from the ABCs to the higher truths, for it is through these higher truths that we gradually attain what spiritual science is supposed to give us: namely, the ability to understand and penetrate the world that surrounds us in the sensory, physical sphere. Now, of course, we still have a long way to go before we succeed in drawing some connections between the spiritual lines and forces that lie behind the sensory world. But already through some of what has been said in the last few hours, this or that phenomenon of our existence will have become more explainable, clearer. Today we want to advance a little further in this direction, and we want to talk again about more complicated questions of reincarnation, of re-embodiment.

[ 2 ] To this end, we want to make it clear above all that there is a difference between the beings who occupy a leading position in the development of humanity on Earth. In the course of our earthly development, we have to distinguish between leading individualities who, so to speak, have developed from the beginning with humanity on Earth as it is, only that they have progressed more quickly. One might say that if we go back to the distant Lemurian past, we find the most diverse degrees of development among the human beings who were incarnated at that time. All the souls that were incarnated at that time have undergone reincarnation, re-embodiment, again and again throughout the subsequent Atlantean period and our post-Atlantean period. The souls have developed at different speeds. There are souls that have developed relatively slowly through the various incarnations and still have a long, long way to go in the future. But there are also souls that have developed quickly, that have, one might say, made extensive use of their incarnations, and are therefore now at such a high level in a soul-spiritual, that is, spiritual sense, that normal people today will only reach such a level in a very, very distant future. But if we remain in this sphere of souls, we can still say: however advanced these individual souls may be, however far they may tower above normal human beings, they have nevertheless undergone a similar process within our earthly evolution as the rest of humanity; they have simply progressed more quickly.

[ 3 ] Apart from these leading individualities, which are thus similar to the rest of humanity, only standing on a higher level, there are also other individualities, other beings, in the course of human development who have by no means passed through various incarnations in the same way as other human beings. We can illustrate what lies behind this by saying that there were beings at the time of the Lemurian development we have just considered who no longer needed to descend so deeply into physical embodiment as other human beings, as all the beings just described, beings who could have continued their development in higher, more spiritual regions and who therefore did not need to descend into physical bodies for their own further progress. more spiritual regions, who therefore did not need to descend into physical bodies for their own further progress. However, in order to intervene in the course of human development, such a being can descend, as it were, vicariously into a body such as that possessed by human beings. Thus, at any given time, a being may appear, and if we examine it clairvoyantly in relation to its soul, we cannot say, as we do with other human beings, that we trace it back in time and find it in a previous physical incarnation, trace it further back and find it again in another incarnation, and so on. Instead, we must say to ourselves: If we trace the soul of such a being back through time, we may not even come to an earlier incarnation of such a being in the flesh. But if we do come to one, it is only because such a being can descend more often in the intervals between lives and incarnate itself in a human body as a substitute. Such a spiritual being, which descends into a human body in order to intervene in human development without itself having anything of this embodiment, without what it experiences here in the world having any meaning for itself, is called an “avatar” in Eastern wisdom. And that is the difference between a leading being that has emerged from human development itself and one that is called an avatar: an avatar being has no fruit to reap for itself from its physical incarnations or from the one physical incarnation it undergoes, because it enters a physical body as a being for the salvation and progress of human beings. So, as I said, such an avatar entity can enter a human body either once or several times in succession, and it is then something quite different from another human individuality.

[ 4 ] The greatest avatar entity that has lived on Earth, as you can gather from the spirit of all the lectures given here, is Christ, the entity we call Christ, who took possession of the body of Jesus of Nazareth in the thirtieth year of his life. This being, who first came into contact with our Earth at the beginning of our calendar, was incarnated in a physical body for three years and has been connected with the astral sphere, that is, with the spiritual sphere of our supersensible world, ever since. This being is of a very unique significance as an avataric being. We would search in vain for the Christ entity in an earlier human incarnation on Earth, whereas other, lower avatar entities can indeed incarnate more often. The difference lies not in the fact that they incarnate more often, but in the fact that they do not derive any benefit for themselves from their incarnations on Earth. Human beings give nothing to the world; they only take. These beings only give; they take nothing from the earth. Now, however, if you want to understand this matter properly, you must distinguish between such a high avataric being as Christ was and lower avataric beings.

[ 5 ] Such avatar beings can have the most diverse tasks on our earth. We can first speak of such a task of avatar beings. And so that we do not get lost in speculation, let us immediately approach a concrete case and illustrate what such a task can consist of.

[ 6 ] You all know from the story surrounding Noah that in the ancient Hebrew account, a large part of post-Atlantean, post-Noah humanity is traced back to the three patriarchs Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Today we do not want to go into what Noah and these three patriarchs represent to us in another respect. We just want to make it clear that the Hebrew scriptures, which speak of Shem, the son of Noah, trace the entire Semitic tribe back to Shem as their patriarch. A truly occult view of such a thing, of such a story, is based everywhere on deeper truths. Those who can investigate such matters from the perspective of occultism know the following about Shem, the progenitor of the Semites: For such a personality, who is to become the progenitor of an entire tribe, provisions must be made from birth, even earlier, to ensure that he can indeed become this progenitor. How is it ensured that such an individuality as Sem, for example, can become the progenitor of such an entire people or tribal community? In Sem's case, this was achieved by giving him a specially prepared etheric body, so to speak. We know that when a human being is born into this world, he or she forms the individuality of his or her etheric or life body alongside the other members of the human being. For such a tribal ancestor, a special etheric body must be prepared, so to speak, which is the model etheric body for all the descendants who follow this individuality in subsequent generations. Thus, in such a tribal individuality, we have a typical etheric body, as it were, the model etheric body; and then, through blood relationship, the matter passes through the generations in such a way that, in a certain sense, the etheric bodies of all descendants belonging to the same tribe are images of the etheric body of the ancestor. Thus, something like an image of the etheric body of Shem was woven into all the etheric bodies of the Semitic people. How is such a thing brought about in the course of human development?

[ 7 ] If we look more closely at Shem, we find that his etheric body acquired its archetypal form through the weaving of an avatar into his etheric body — albeit not an avatar so highly evolved that we can compare it with certain other avatar beings; but nevertheless, a highly evolved avatar being had descended into his etheric body, which, however, was not connected with the astral body or with Sem's ego, but had woven itself, so to speak, into Sem's etheric body. And we can study from this example what significance it has when an avatar being participates in the constitution, in the composition of the human being. What is the point of a human being like Sem, who has such a task as the progenitor of an entire people, having an avatar entity woven into his body, so to speak? The meaning is that every time an avatar being is woven into a physical human being, one or more members of this human being can multiply and split apart.

[ 8 ] In fact, because an avatar entity was woven into the etheric body of Shem, it was possible for countless images of the original to arise and for these images to be woven into all the people who followed the progenitor in successive generations. So the descent of an avatar entity has, among other things, the purpose of contributing to the multiplication of one or more members of the entity in question, which is animated by the avatar. Countless images of the original arise, all of which are formed after it. As you can see, there was a particularly valuable etheric body present in this sem, an archetypal etheric body that was prepared by a high avatar and then woven into the sem so that it could descend in many images to all those who were to be blood relatives of this ancestor.

[ 9 ] Now, we have already spoken in the lesson mentioned at the beginning about the existence of a spiritual economy, consisting in the fact that something that is particularly valuable is preserved and carried over into the future. We have heard that not only the I is reincarnated, but that the astral body and the etheric body can also be reincarnated. Apart from the fact that countless images of Sem's etheric body were created, Sem's own etheric body was also preserved in the spiritual world, because this etheric body could later be put to very good use in the mission of the Hebrew people. All the characteristics of the Hebrew people had originally found expression in this etheric body. If something particularly important were to happen to the ancient Hebrew people, if someone were to be given a special task or mission, then this could best be done by an individual who carried within themselves the etheric body of the forefather.

[ 10 ] In fact, an individual who intervened in the history of the Hebrew people later carried the etheric body of the forefather. Here we have one of those wonderful complications in the development of humanity that can explain so much to us. We are dealing with a very high individuality that had to descend, so to speak, in order to speak to the Hebrew people in an appropriate manner and give them the strength for a special mission, much as a spiritually outstanding person would have to speak to a lowly tribe, and he would have to learn the language of that tribe, but one would not have to claim that the language is something that elevates him; the person concerned would simply have to make himself comfortable in that language. In the same way, a high individuality had to make itself comfortable in the etheric body of Sem himself in order to be able to give a very specific impulse to the ancient Hebrew people. This individuality, this personality, is the same one you find in biblical history under the name Melchizedek. This is the individuality that, so to speak, attracted the etheric body of Shem in order to then give the impulse to Abraham, which you find so beautifully described in the Bible. So apart from the fact that what was contained in the individuality of Shem was multiplied by the fact that an avatar being was embodied in it and then woven into all the other etheric bodies of the members of the Hebrew people, the Semitic etheric body itself was preserved in the spiritual world so that it could later be carried by Melchizedek, who was to give the Hebrew people an important impulse through Abraham.

[ 11 ] The facts behind the physical world are so finely interwoven that they are the only way to explain what happens in the physical world. We can only learn history by pointing to such facts: spiritual facts that lie behind physical facts. History can never be explained by itself if we remain stuck with physical facts alone.

[ 12 ] What we have now discussed is of particular importance: that through the descent of an avataric being, the constitutional elements of the human being who is the bearer of such an avataric being are multiplied and transferred to others, appearing as images of the archetype. This becomes particularly important through the appearance of Christ on earth. Through the fact that the avataric being of Christ dwelt in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, it was possible for the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth to be multiplied countless times, as well as the astral body and even the I — the I as an impulse, as it was kindled in the astral body at that time, when the Christ entered the threefold shell of Jesus of Nazareth. But first, let us consider that the avataric being made it possible for the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth to be multiplied.

[ 13 ] Now one of the most significant turning points in human history is taking place, precisely through the appearance of the Christ principle in the evolution of the earth. What I have told you about Sem is basically typical and characteristic of the pre-Christian era. When an etheric body or an astral body is multiplied in this way, its images are usually transferred to people who are related by blood to the one who had the original image: The images of the etheric body of Shem were therefore transferred to the members of the Hebrew tribe. This changed with the appearance of the Christ Avatar Being. The etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth were multiplied and, as such, were now suspended until they could be used in the course of human development. But they were not bound to this or that nationality, to this or that tribe, but wherever a human being was found in the following period, regardless of their nationality, who was mature and suitable to receive in their own astral body an astral image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth or an etheric image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, they could be woven in. So we see how it was possible that in the following period, let us say, all kinds of people were woven in as imprints, the images of the astral body or the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 14 ] The intimate history of Christian development is connected with this fact. What is usually described as the history of Christian development is a sum of entirely external events. And therefore, far too little attention is paid to the most important thing, namely the division into real periods in the Christian development. Anyone who can gain a deeper insight into the course of the development of Christianity will easily recognize that in the first centuries of the Christian era, the way in which Christianity spread was completely different from that in later centuries. In the first Christian centuries, the spread of Christianity was, so to speak, bound up with everything that could be achieved on the physical plane. We need only look at the first teachers of Christianity to see how much emphasis was placed on physical memories, physical connections, and everything that had remained physical. Just think of how Irenaeus, who contributed greatly to the spread of Christian teaching in various countries in the first century, placed great value on memories going back to those who had themselves heard the disciples of the apostles. Great importance was attached to being able to prove through such physical memories that Christ himself had taught in Palestine. For example, it is particularly emphasized that Papias himself sat at the feet of the disciples of the apostles. The places where such personalities sat are even shown and described, who were still there as eyewitnesses that Christ had lived in Palestine. Physical progress in memory is what is particularly emphasized in the first centuries of Christianity.

[ 15 ] You can see how much emphasis is placed on everything that has remained physical in the words of the old Augustine, who stands at the end of this period and says: Why do I believe in the truths of Christianity? Because the authority of the Catholic Church compels me to do so. For him, the physical authority is that something exists in the physical world, the important and essential thing, that a body has been preserved which, linking personality to personality, reaches up to the one who was a companion of Christ, such as Peter. That is the decisive factor for him. We can therefore see that it is the documents, the impressions of the physical plane, that are given the greatest value in the first centuries of the spread of Christianity.

[ 16 ] This changed after the time of Augustine, lasting until about the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries. At that point, it was no longer possible to rely on living memory, to draw only on the documents of the physical plane, because they were too far in the past. There is also something completely different in the whole mood, in the mindset of the people who now accepted Christianity—and this is especially true of the European peoples. At this time, there is indeed something like a kind of immediate knowledge that a Christ exists, that a Christ died on the cross, that he lives on. From the 4th and 5th centuries to the 10th and 12th centuries, there were a large number of people to whom it would have seemed extremely foolish to say that one could doubt the events in Palestine, because they knew better. These people were particularly widespread in European countries. They had always been able to experience something within themselves that was a kind of small-scale revelation of Paul, which Paul, who until then had been Saul, experienced on the road to Damascus and through which he became Paul.

[ 17 ] How was it possible for a number of people in those centuries to receive such revelations about the events in Palestine, which were in a certain sense clairvoyant? This was possible because during those centuries the images of the multiplied etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, which had been preserved, were woven into the etheric bodies of a large number of people, so that they were able to attract them, so to speak. Their etheric body did not consist exclusively of this image of the etheric body of Jesus, but an image of the original Jesus of Nazareth was woven into their etheric body. People who were able to have such an etheric body within themselves and who were therefore able to have direct knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth and also of the Christ existed during these centuries. This also detached the image of Christ from the external historical, physical tradition. And it seems most detached to us in that wonderful poem of the 9th century known as the Heliand poem, which dates from the time of Louis the Pious, who reigned from 814 to 840, and which was written down by an outwardly simple man from Saxony. In relation to his astral body and his ego, he could not even come close to what was in his etheric body. For interwoven with his etheric body was an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. This simple Saxon pastor who wrote this poem had the certainty from direct clairvoyant perception that Christ is present on the astral plane and that he is the same who was crucified on Golgotha! And because this was an immediate certainty for him, he no longer needed to adhere to historical documents. He no longer needed physical proof that Christ was there. He therefore describes him detached from the whole scene in Palestine, detached from the peculiarities of Judaism. He describes him as something like the leader of a Central European or Germanic tribe, and those who are around him as his followers, as the apostles, he describes as something like the servants of a Germanic prince. All the external scenery is changed, only what is actually essential, what is eternal in the figure of Christ, what is the structure of events, has remained. He, who had such direct knowledge based on such an important foundation as the imprint of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, was not compelled to adhere strictly to the immediate historical events when he spoke of Christ. He clothed what he had as immediate knowledge in a different external setting. And just as we have been able to describe in this writer of the Heliand poem one of the remarkable personalities who had woven into his etheric body an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, so we could find other personalities of that time who had something similar. Thus we see how, behind physical events, the most important thing is taking place, which can explain history to us in an intimate way.

[ 18 ] If we now continue to follow the development of Christianity, we come to the 11th, 12th, and 15th centuries. Here there was again a completely different mystery that carried the whole development forward. First, it was, so to speak, the memory of what was on the physical plane, then it was the etheric that immediately interwove itself into the etheric bodies of the bearers of Christianity in Central Europe. In the later centuries, from the 12th to the 15th century, it was especially the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth that was woven into numerous images of the astral bodies of the most important bearers of Christianity. Such people then had an ego that could form very false ideas about all kinds of things, but in their astral bodies there lived an immediacy of power, of devotion, an immediate certainty of the sacred truths. Deep fervor, very immediate conviction, and under certain circumstances also the ability to justify this conviction, lay in such people. What sometimes strikes us as so strange about these personalities is that their ego was often not at all equal to what their astral body contained, because it had woven into itself an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. What their ego did sometimes seemed grotesque, but the world of their moods and feelings, their fervor, was magnificent and sublime. One such personality, for example, is Francis of Assisi. And precisely when we study Francis of Assisi and cannot understand him as a modern human being, yet must have the deepest reverence for his entire emotional world, for everything he did, this becomes understandable from such a point of view. He was one of those who had woven into themselves an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. This enabled him to accomplish precisely what he did. And many of his followers from the Franciscan order, with his servants and Minorites, had woven similar images into their astral bodies.

[ 19 ] All the strange and otherwise mysterious phenomena of that time will become clear and luminous to you if you bring this mediation in the becoming of the worlds between past and future properly before the eye of your soul. It now depended on whether these people of the Middle Ages had more of what we call the sentient soul or more of the intellectual soul or what we call the conscious soul woven into the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. For the astral body of the human being must, in a certain sense, be thought of as containing these within itself, as surrounding the I. Everything in Francis of Assisi was, so to speak, the sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth. Everything in that wonderful personality, whom you will follow biographically with your whole soul when you know the secret of her life, was the sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth: in Elizabeth of Thuringia, born in 1207. Here we have a personality who had woven into her feeling soul an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. The mystery of the human form is solved for us precisely through such knowledge.

[ 20 ] And above all, one phenomenon will become clear to you when you know that at that time the most diverse personalities had woven into themselves the feeling soul, the intellectual soul, or the consciousness soul as images from the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth: You will understand that science which is so little understood and so much reviled today, which is usually called scholasticism. What task did scholasticism set itself? It had set itself the task of finding, on the basis of judgment, out of the intellect, evidence and proof for that which had no historical connection, no physical mediation, and for which there was also no immediate clairvoyant certainty, as was the case in previous centuries through the interwoven etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. These people had to set themselves the task of saying: We have been told through tradition that a being known as Christ Jesus appeared in history, that other spiritual beings intervened in human development, as the religious documents testify. From their intellectual soul, from the intellect of the image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, they set themselves the task of proving with subtle and sharply developed concepts everything that was contained in their writings as mystery truths. This gave rise to that remarkable science which attempted to achieve the greatest feat of acumen and intellect that has ever been accomplished by humanity. Throughout several centuries—whatever one may think of the content of scholasticism—the ability of human thought was cultivated and imprinted on the culture of the time simply by the pursuit of this fine, fine differentiation and contouring of concepts. It was in the 13th to 15th centuries that humanity acquired through scholasticism the ability to think astutely and penetratingly logically.

[ 21 ] Those in whom the consciousness soul, or rather the image that lives out as the consciousness soul of Jesus of Nazareth, was more deeply imprinted, came to the special realization that Christ can be found in the I, because the I is located in the consciousness soul. And because they themselves had the element of the consciousness soul from the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth within them, the inner Christ shone forth within them. And through this astral body they recognized that the Christ within them was Christ Himself. These were the people you know as Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and all the bearers of medieval mysticism.

[ 22 ] So you see how the various phases of the astral body, which were multiplied by the entry of the high avatar being of Christ into the body of Jesus of Nazareth, continued to work in the following period and brought about the actual development of Christianity. Incidentally, this is also an important transition in other respects. We see how humanity in its development is also dependent on incorporating these pieces of the Jesus of Nazareth being into itself. In the first centuries, there were people who were completely dependent on the physical plane; then, in the following centuries, people came who were receptive to receiving the element of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their etheric bodies. Later, people were, so to speak, more oriented toward the astral body; therefore, the image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth could now also be incorporated into them. The astral body is the carrier of the power of judgment. The power of judgment awakens particularly in the 12th to 14th centuries. You can also see this from another phenomenon.

[ 23 ] Up until that time, it was particularly clear what depths of mystery the Last Supper contained. The Last Supper was accepted — at most there was a little discussion about it — in such a way that people understood everything that was contained in the words: “This is my body and this is my blood...”, because Christ pointed out that he would be united with the earth and become the planetary spirit of the earth. And because the most precious thing in the physical earth is flour, flour became the body of Christ for human beings, and the juice that flows through plants and vines became something of the blood of Christ for them. This knowledge did not diminish the value of the Last Supper, but rather increased it. Something of these infinite depths was felt in those centuries until the power of judgment awakened in the astral body. From then on, doubt also awakened. From then on, the dispute about the Lord's Supper also began. Think about how, in Hussitism, in Lutheranism and its divisions of Zwinglianism and Calvinism, there is discussion about what the Lord's Supper should be! Such discussions would not have been possible in the past because people still had direct knowledge of the Lord's Supper. But here we see confirmed a great historical law that should be particularly important for scholars of the humanities: as long as people knew what the Lord's Supper was, they did not discuss it; only when they lost their direct knowledge of the Lord's Supper did they begin to discuss it. Consider it a sign that you do not really know something when you begin to discuss it. Where there is knowledge, knowledge is imparted, and there is actually no particular desire to discuss. Where there is a desire to discuss, there is usually no knowledge of the truth. Discussion only begins with ignorance, and it is always and everywhere a sign of decline in the seriousness of a matter when discussions begin. The dissolution of the movement in question always announces itself with discussions. It is very important that we learn again and again in the field of the humanities that the will to discuss can actually be interpreted as a sign of ignorance; on the other hand, what stands in opposition to discussion, the will to learn, the will to gradually understand what is at stake, should be cultivated.

[ 24 ] Here we see a great historical fact confirmed in the development of Christianity itself. But we can learn something else when we see how, in these centuries of Christianity that have been characterized, the power of judgment—that which is in the astral body—this sharp intellectual wisdom is developed. However, if we consider realities, not dogmas, then we can learn from what Christianity has done in its progress. What has become of scholasticism if we do not consider its content, but rather view it as the cultivation and education of abilities? Do you know what has become of it? Modern natural science has become of it! Modern natural science is inconceivable without the reality of Christian science in the Middle Ages. Not only was Copernicus a canon, and Giordano Bruno a Dominican, but all the thought forms with which people have approached natural objects since the 15th and 16th centuries are nothing other than what was cultivated and nurtured from the 11th to the 16th century by Christian science in the Middle Ages. Those who live in reality do not live in abstractions, but in abstractions that they look up in the books of scholasticism, compare with modern natural science, and then say: Haeckel and so on claim something completely different. What matters is reality! A Haeckel, a Darwin, a Du Bois-Reymond, a Huxley, and others would all be impossible if the Christian science of the Middle Ages had not preceded them. For they owe their ability to think in this way to the Christian science of the Middle Ages. That is reality. Humanity has learned to think in the true sense of the word.

[ 25 ] The matter goes even further. Read David Friedrich Strauss. Try to look at the way he thinks. Try to clarify his thought structures: how he wants to portray the whole life of Jesus of Nazareth as a myth. Do you know where he got his sharpness of thought? He got it from the Christian science of the Middle Ages. Everything that is used today to fight Christianity so radically was learned from medieval Christian science. In fact, there could be no opponent of Christianity today who could not easily be shown to be incapable of thinking the way he does if he had not learned the thought forms of medieval Christian science. That would mean, however, looking at world history realistically.

[ 26 ] And what has happened since the 16th century? Since the 16th century, the ego itself has become more and more important, and with it human egoism and materialism. People have forgotten and unlearned everything that the I has absorbed: they have had to limit themselves to what the I can observe, to what the instruments of the senses can give to the ordinary mind, and only that could be taken into the inner dwelling place. The culture since the 16th century has been a culture of egoism. What must now enter into this I? Christian development has undergone a development in the outer physical body, a development in the etheric body, and one in the astral body, and it has risen up to the ego. Now it must take into this I the mysteries and secrets of Christianity itself. Now it must be possible to make the I into an organ receptive to Christ, after the I has learned thinking through Christianity and has applied its thoughts to the outer world. Now this I must in turn find the wisdom that is the original wisdom of the great Avatar, Christ himself. And how must this happen? Through the spiritual scientific deepening of Christianity. Carefully prepared through the three stages of physical, etheric, and astral development, it would now be important for the organ within to open itself to the human being so that he can now look into his spiritual environment with the eye that Christ can open for him. As the greatest avatar being, Christ descended to earth. Let us adjust ourselves to this perspective: let us try to look at the world as we can look at it when we have taken Christ into ourselves. Then we find our entire world evolution permeated and flooded by the Christ being. That is to say, we describe how the physical body of the human being gradually arose on Saturn, how the etheric body was added on the Sun, the astral body on the Moon, and then the I came into being on the Earth, and we find how all this strives toward the goal becoming ever more independent and individual in order to incorporate into earthly development the wisdom that passes from the Sun to the Earth. Christ and Christianity must become, so to speak, the perspective center of the world view for the liberated ego of the modern age.

[ 27 ] Thus you see how Christianity has gradually prepared itself for what it is to become. With its physical faculty of cognition, Christianity was accepted in the first centuries, and later, with its etheric and astral faculties of cognition, it was accepted throughout the Middle Ages. Then Christianity in its true form was pushed back for a while, until the ego was educated through the three bodies in the course of post-Christian development. But now that this I has learned to think and to look out into the objective world, it is also ready to see in this objective world, in all its manifestations, that which is so intimately connected with the central being, with the Christ being: to see Christ in the most diverse forms everywhere as the foundation.

[ 28 ] This brings us to the starting point of spiritual scientific understanding and recognition of Christianity, and we recognize what task, what mission, has been assigned to this movement for spiritual knowledge. At the same time, we recognize the reality of this mission. Just as the individual human being has a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I, and gradually ascends to ever higher heights, so it is in the historical development of Christianity. One might say that Christianity also has a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I, an I that can even deny its origin, as in our time, just as the I can become egoistic, but nevertheless an I that can at the same time take in the true Christ being and ascend to ever higher stages of existence. What the human being is in detail is the great world both in its entirety and in the course of its historical development.

[ 29 ] When we look at things in this way, a broad perspective of the future opens up to us from the standpoint of spiritual science. And we know how this can seize our hearts and fill them with enthusiasm. We understand more and more what we have to do, and we also know that we are not groping in the dark. For we have not concocted ideas that we want to arbitrarily project into the future, but we want to have and follow only those ideas that have been prepared gradually through the centuries of Christian development. Just as it is true that the ego must first appear and gradually develop into the spirit self, the life spirit, and the spirit human being after the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body have first come into existence, so it is true that modern human beings, with their ego form and their present-day thinking, could only develop out of the astral, etheric, and physical forms of Christianity. “I” has become Christianity. Just as true as the development from the past was, so true is it that the ‘I’ form of humanity can only appear after the astral and etheric forms of Christianity have been developed. Christianity will continue to develop in the future; it will offer humanity completely different things, and Christian development and the Christian attitude toward life will arise in a new form: the transformed astral body will appear as the Christian spirit self, and the transformed etheric body as the Christian life spirit. And in a bright future perspective of Christianity, the spiritual human being shines before our souls like a star toward which we are moving, completely illuminated and inflamed by the spirit of Christianity.