The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Event of Golgotha. The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. The Spiritualized Fire

[ 1 ] An immediate benefit of such significant symbols of time as Easter is that they make our hearts and souls more receptive to looking deeper and deeper into the mysteries of human beings and human nature. And so let us once again place before our spiritual eyes the Eastern legend that shone forth yesterday before our souls, that legend of which we could already sense yesterday what it encompasses about this human mystery and human nature: the legend of Kashyapa, the great sage, the enlightened disciple of Shakyamuni, who had summarized all the wisdom of the Orient with great insight and a tremendous impulse for action, and of whom it was rightly said that none of his successors were able to preserve even remotely what he had drawn from Shakyamuni's deep well of wisdom and, as the last one, had given to humanity from the wisdom of the primordial world.

[ 2 ] And the legend continues: When Kashyapa's death was approaching and he felt his nirvana approaching, he went into a cave in a mountain. There he died consciously, and his body remained incorruptible, untraceable to outer humanity, findable only to those who had become ripe through initiation to penetrate such mysteries. Kashyapa's incorruptible body now rested mysteriously hidden in the mountain cave. And it was predicted that the Maitreya Buddha would appear as a new great proclaimer of the wisdom of the primordial world in a new form, who, when he had ascended to the summit of his earthly existence, would go to the cave where Kashyapa's body rested. He will touch him with his right hand, and a wonderful fire will descend from the universe, and the incorruptible body of Kashyapa will be seized by it and carried away to the higher, spiritual worlds.

[ 3 ] Thus, the people of the East who understand such wisdom await the reappearance of the Maitreya Buddha and his deed on the incorruptible body of Kashyapa. Will these two events occur? Will the Maitreya Buddha appear? Will the incorruptible remains of Kashyapa then be carried away by the wonderful, heavenly fire? We will be able to sense the profound wisdom that lies within this when we seek out the wonderful fire that is to absorb the remains of Kashyapa, with our true Easter feelings.

[ 4 ] Yesterday we saw how the deity reveals itself in our time through two poles: on the one hand through the macrocosmic lightning fire, on the other hand through the microcosmic fire of blood. We have seen that Christ announced himself to Moses in the burning bush and on Mount Sinai in thunder and lightning. For no other power than Christ spoke to him, saying, “I am who I am.” He gave the Ten Commandments from the lightning fire on Mount Sinai. With this he prepared himself {... apparent gap in the text}. Then he appeared in the microcosmic pole in Palestine. In the fire that lives in our blood is the same God who announced himself in the fire of heaven and then incarnated himself in the mystery of Palestine in a human body in order to permeate with his power the human blood in which the human fire has its seat. And through this event, if we follow it in its consequences, in what it means for earthly existence, we will be able to find that blazing fire that will take up the remnants of Kashyapa.

[ 5 ] The whole course of the world consists in the gradual spiritualization of the material. In the material fire of the burning bush and on Mount Sinai, an outward sign of God's power appeared to Moses. But through the Christ event, this fire has been spiritualized. And after the Christ power has intervened in this earth, who then sees the burning spiritual fire? Who can perceive it? The spiritual eye, which is opened by the Christ impulse itself and which the Christ impulse has awakened. This sees the sensual fire of the bush spiritualized, spiritualized. And after the Christ impulse had awakened the spiritual eye, this fire also worked spiritually on our world.

[ 6 ] When was this fire perceived again? It was perceived again when Saul's enlightened, clairvoyant eye saw the heavenly fire shining on the road to Damascus and recognized the one who had accomplished the mystery of Golgotha. Thus both saw Christ: Moses in the material fire in the burning bush and in the lightning fire on Mount Sinai—and it can only be revealed to him inwardly that Christ is speaking to him; but to Paul's enlightened eye, Christ reveals himself from the spiritual, spiritualized fire. Just as matter and spirit relate to each other in the becoming of the worlds, so do the miraculous, material fire of the bush and of Sinai and the wonderful apparition of the fire from the clouds shining upon Saul, who became Paul, relate to each other in the course of the worlds. And what has happened for the entire course of the worlds through this event?

[ 7 ] Let us look back at the great series of human benefactors, the redeemers of humanity, at the great figures of humanity who were the outward expression of the avatars, of the divine-spiritual powers that descended from spiritual heights from epoch to epoch and took on human form, such as Vishnu, Krishna, and so on, who must appear so that humanity could find its way back to the spiritual worlds. In order to find its way back, humanity needed the power of God to descend in ancient times. But through the mystery of Golgotha, human beings have been given the ability to find within themselves the forces that can lift them up and lead them to the spiritual worlds. Christ descended much deeper than those world and human leaders, for he not only brought heavenly powers into the earthly body, but he himself spiritualized this earthly body so that human beings could now find their way back to the spiritual worlds out of these powers. The pre-Christian redeemers redeemed humanity with divine powers. Christ redeemed humanity with human powers. But in doing so, these human powers were placed before our souls as they can be in their original power. What would have happened on our Earth if Christ had not appeared on Earth? We want to ask ourselves this serious, deeply incisive question today.

[ 8 ] World redeemers could have descended from spiritual worlds: they would have found only human beings buried so deeply in matter, so immersed in substance, that the pure divine-spiritual forces could not have lifted them up again from this unholy, impure substance. And deeply saddened and mourning, the sages of the East looked into the future, knowing that the Maitreya Buddha would appear to renew the ancient wisdom, but that no disciple would be able to receive it. And if the world continued in this way, the Maitreya Buddha would preach to deaf ears, and he would no longer be understood by people who were completely immersed in matter. That which had become so material on earth would have caused Kashyapa's body to decay, so that the Maitreya Buddha would no longer have been able to carry Kashyapa's remains up to divine-spiritual heights. Those who understood the wisdom of the East most deeply looked into the future with deep sorrow and wondered whether the earth would be capable of offering anything in return in terms of understanding and feeling to the appearing Maitreya Buddha.

[ 9 ] A powerful heavenly force had to shine into the physical substance and sacrifice itself to it. It could not be merely a god in human form, but a true human being with human powers who carried God within himself. The event of Golgotha had to take place so that the substance in which human beings are placed would become ready, purified, and cleansed, so that the material of the substance thus purified and sanctified would be suitable for the primordial wisdom to become understandable again for future incarnations. And now humanity must be brought to understand how the event of Golgotha really worked in this sense. For what was the event of Golgotha for humanity? How deeply did it cut into human beings and human existence?

[ 10 ] Let us cast our gaze back over twelve centuries! Let us look at the six centuries before the event of Golgotha and the six centuries after it. Let us consider certain events that took place in human souls during this time. Truly, one can hardly imagine anything greater or more significant for the sensitive human soul than those powerful moments preserved in the Buddha legend of the gradual enlightenment of the Buddha. He steps out of his royal surroundings. He is not born in a stable among poor shepherds. But that is not what should be emphasized, but rather that he leaves this royal environment and then finds what he has not found before: life in its various forms.

[ 11 ] He finds a child, weak and miserable. Suffering is his lot in the existence into which he has entered through birth. He felt that birth is suffering. And then, with his receptive soul, the Buddha sees a sick man, a consumptive. This is what man can become when he is carried into the earthly world by his thirst for existence: sickness is suffering. He finds an old man who has become frail with age. What is it that is bestowed upon man through his life, so that he gradually loses control of his limbs? Old age is suffering. And he saw a corpse. Death stands before him with all its destruction and annihilation of life: death is suffering. - And the Buddha continues to search for the meaning of life and says to himself: to be separated from what one loves is suffering; to be united with what one does not love is suffering; not to obtain what one desires is suffering.

[ 12 ] Great and powerful and urgent, the teaching of suffering resounded through the hearts and minds of men. Countless people learned the great truth of liberation from suffering through the extinction of the thirst for existence, learned how they should long to leave earthly physical existence, how they should strive to escape earthly incarnations, and how only the extinction of the thirst for existence can lead to salvation and liberation from suffering. Truly, a highest summit of human development is placed before our soul.

[ 13 ] And now let us cast our gaze over a period of twelve centuries, six hundred years before our era and six hundred years after our era. One thing must be emphasized here: in the midst of this period, the mystery of Golgotha took place. From the age of Buddha, let us now highlight just one thing: the corpse and what Buddha felt and taught when he saw it. And six hundred years after the event of Golgotha, countless souls, countless eyes turned to a cross on which a corpse hangs; but from this corpse emanate impulses for humanity that spiritualize life, impulses that death is conquered through life. It is the opposite of what the Buddha felt when he saw a corpse.

[ 14 ] The Buddha saw a corpse and recognized in it the futility of life. The people who lived six hundred years after the event at Golgotha looked up with devout fervor at the corpse on the cross. For them, it was the sign of life, and in their souls arose the certainty that existence is not suffering, but that it leads beyond death to bliss. Six centuries after the event of Golgotha, the corpse of Christ Jesus on the cross became a sign of remembrance of life, of the resurrection of life, of the overcoming of death and all suffering, just as six hundred years before the mystery of Golgotha, the corpse was a sign of recognition that suffering must befall human beings who enter the physical world through their thirst for existence. There has never been a greater turning point in the entire development of humanity.

[ 15 ] If, six hundred years earlier, entering the physical world was suffering for human beings, how does the great truth of the suffering of life appear to the soul now, after the event of Golgotha? How does it appear to those who look up with understanding to the cross on Golgotha? Is birth suffering, as Buddha said? Those who look up with understanding to the cross on Golgotha, who feel connected to it, say to themselves: This birth leads human beings to an earth that had the opportunity to clothe itself in the elements of Christ. They want to enter this earth on which Christ walked. And through their connection with Christ, a power arises in the soul through which it can find its way up into the spiritual worlds, and the realization arises that birth is not suffering, but is the gateway to finding the Redeemer, who also clothed himself in the same earthly substances that form the human body.

[ 16 ] Is illness suffering? No! said those who understood the impulse of Golgotha in its true sense—no, illness is not suffering. Even if humanity today cannot yet understand what spiritual life truly is, which flows in with Christ, people will learn to understand it in the future, and they will know that whoever allows themselves to be permeated by the Christ impulse, into whose innermost being the Christ force enters, can overcome all illness through the strong, healing forces that they develop from within themselves. For Christ is the great healer of humanity. His power encompasses everything that can truly develop the strong healing power from the spiritual realm and overcome illness. Illness is not suffering. Illness is an opportunity to overcome an obstacle by developing the Christ power within oneself.

[ 17 ] Human beings must come to the same realization about the ailments of old age. The more our limbs weaken, the more we can grow in spirit and become masters through the Christ power dwelling within us. Old age is not suffering, for with each passing day we grow into the spiritual world. And death is not suffering either, for it is conquered in the resurrection. Through the event of Golgotha, death has been conquered.

[ 18 ] Can separation from what we love still be suffering? No! Souls that are permeated with the power of Christ know that love can form bonds between souls across all material obstacles, bonds in the spiritual realm that are unbreakable. And there is nothing in life between birth and death and between death and new birth to which we cannot find the way in the spiritual realm through the Christ impulse. It is unthinkable that we can be separated from what we love in the long run if we are permeated by the Christ impulse. Christ brings us together with what we love.

[ 19 ] And likewise, “being united with what we do not love” cannot be suffering, because the Christ impulse teaches us, when we take it into our souls, to love everything in its proper measure. The Christ impulse shows us the way, and when we find this way, “being united with what we do not love” can never again be suffering, for there is nothing left that we do not embrace with love. — And “not achieving what one desires” can no longer be suffering with Christ, because human feelings and emotions, human desires, are purified and ennobled by the Christ impulse to such an extent that people desire only what is meant to be theirs. They no longer suffer from what they lack; for if they must lack something, it is for purification, and the Christ force gives them the strength to feel it as purification, and therefore it is no longer suffering.

[ 20 ] So what is the event of Golgotha? It is the gradual removal of the facts of suffering established by the great Buddha. There is no greater impact on the becoming and being of worlds than the event of Golgotha. Therefore, we can also understand that it continues to have an effect and has positive, powerful consequences for the coming humanity. Christ is the greatest avatar who has descended to earth, and when such a being descends into existence, as Christ did in Jesus of Nazareth, something mysterious and highly significant occurs: Just as in the small world, when we plant a grain of wheat in the earth, it germinates and stalks grow out of it and ears of corn, which bear many, many grains, images of the one grain of wheat that we placed in the earth, so it is in the spiritual world. For “all that is transitory is only a parable” — and in this multiplication of the grain of wheat we can see an image, a parable for the spiritual worlds.

[ 21 ] When the event at Golgotha was complete, something happened to the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth: through the power of the indwelling Christ, they were multiplied, and since then there have been many, many images of the astral body and the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth in the spiritual world. And these images continued to work.

[ 22 ] When a human individuality descends from spiritual heights into physical existence, it envelops itself in an etheric body and an astral body. But then, when something like the images of the etheric body and astral body of Jesus of Nazareth exist in the spiritual worlds, something very special happens to those human beings whose karma allows it. If the karma of an individuality allowed it – after the mystery of Golgotha had been accomplished – an image of the etheric body or astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into it. This was the case in the first centuries of our era, for example with Augustine. When this individual descended from spiritual heights and clothed itself in an etheric body, an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into its etheric body. It retained its astral body and its ego, but had an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into its etheric body.

[ 23 ] In this way, what had enveloped the God-man of Palestine was transferred to other people, who were now to carry the impact of this great impulse further into the rest of humanity. Because Augustine was dependent on his own ego and his own astral body, he was exposed to all the doubts, all the vacillations, all the errors that he found difficult to overcome; they came from these still imperfect parts of his being. Everything he went through, he went through because of his erring judgment and the errors of his ego. But when he had struggled through, when his etheric body began to work, he encountered the forces that were woven into him from the image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth in his etheric body. And now he became the one who could proclaim part of the great mystery truths to the West. Thus there were many of those whom we know as the great bearers of Christianity in the West, who were called to continue the work of Christianity in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 10th centuries, to whom the great ideas could dawn, ideas that were exemplary, that had been woven into their etheric bodies as an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. That is why they were able to grasp the great visions, the great exemplary ideas, which then found their expression in the works of the great painters and sculptors.

[ 24 ] How did these exemplary models for the images that still delight us today come into being? They came into being when, through the interwoven image of the sanctified etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, the great enlightenments came to the people of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries of our calendar, with a content of Christianity that did not require historical traditions. In addition to the content of the teachings of Christ, they received an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, and they did not need any historical traditions of the facts of Christianity; they knew from inner enlightenment that Christ lives because they carried a part of Jesus of Nazareth within themselves. They knew it just as Paul knew that Christ lives when he saw the Christ appearance in the spiritualized, blazing heavenly fire. Had Paul been converted up to that point by what was told about the events in Palestine? None of the events that could be told to him were capable of turning Saul into Paul, and yet the most important impulse for the outward spread of Christianity came from Paul, through him who remained unbelieving in the stories on the physical plane but who became a believer through an occult event that took place in the spiritual world. Those who want Christianity without spiritual enlightenment seem strange! For Christianity would never have spread throughout the world without the spiritual enlightenment of Paul. The outward spread of Christianity owes its existence to a supernatural event.

[ 25 ] And in turn, Christianity propagated itself in later times through those who, in the manner described, were able to experience Christ in inner enlightenment, and were also able to experience the historical Christ, because they carried within themselves what remained of the historical Christ and his shells. In the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, other people, when they were called and ready through their karma, received images woven into the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Such people who carried within themselves images of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth were, for example, Francis of Assisi, Elizabeth of Thuringia, and others. Without this knowledge, the lives of Francis of Assisi and Elizabeth of Thuringia, for example, are incomprehensible to us. Everything that seems so strange to us today in the life of Francis of Assisi stems from the fact that the ego of Francis of Assisi was the human ego of this human individuality; but all the humility, devotion, and fervor that we so admire in Francis of Assisi stem from the fact that an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into his astral body. Many other personalities of that time had such an image woven into them. They become role models for us to strive after when we know this. How could anyone who gets to the bottom of the matter understand the life of Elizabeth of Thuringia if they did not know that an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into her? Many, many people were called by this continuing power of Christ to carry this powerful impulse into posterity.

[ 26 ] But something else was preserved for even later times: countless images of the I of Jesus of Nazareth have been preserved. His I had disappeared from the three sheathes when Christ entered it, but an image, an image elevated by the Christ event, remained, and this image of the I has been infinitely multiplied. In this image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth, we have something that still exists today in the spiritual world. Yes, this image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth can be found by people who have matured to the point of being able to do so: this image and, at the same time, the radiance of the Christ force and the Christ impulse that it carries within itself.

[ 27 ] The outer physical expression of the I is blood. This is a great mystery. But there have always been people who knew this and who were aware of the fact that images of the I of Jesus of Nazareth exist in the spiritual world. And there have always been people who, throughout the centuries since the event on Golgotha, have had to secretly ensure that humanity slowly matures so that there may be people who can receive the images of the I of Jesus of Nazareth-Christ, just as there have been people who have received images of his etheric body and astral body. To this end, the secret had to be found as to how this I could be preserved in complete silence, in deep mystery, until the appropriate moment in the evolution of humanity and the earth. A brotherhood of initiates was formed for this purpose, who kept this secret: the Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. They guarded this secret. This society has always existed. And it is said that their forefather took the cup that Christ Jesus had used at the Last Supper, and in this cup he collected the blood of the Savior that flowed from his wounds on the cross. He collected the blood, the expression of the I, in this cup, in the Holy Grail. He kept the cup with the blood of the Savior, with the secret of the image of the I of Christ Jesus, in the holy place, in the brotherhood which, through its institutions and its initiation, are the brothers of the Holy Grail.

[ 28 ] Today the time has come when these secrets may be revealed, when the hearts of human beings are ready through a spiritual life to rise to the understanding of this great mystery. When souls are inspired by spiritual science to understand such secrets, when our souls become attuned to such understanding, then souls become ready to recognize, in the sight of that holy chalice, the mystery of the Christ-I, of the eternal I, which every human I can become. There it is, this mystery — people need only allow themselves to be called by spiritual science to understand this mystery as fact, in order to receive the Christ-I in the sight of the Holy Grail. To do this, one needs to understand what happened there as fact, to accept it as fact.

[ 29 ] But then, when people are increasingly prepared to receive the Christ-I, the Christ-I will pour more and more into their souls. They will then evolve upward to where their great model, Christ Jesus, stood. Only then will people begin to understand to what extent Christ Jesus is the great model for humanity. And when humanity has understood this, it will begin to sense in its deepest inner being that the certainty, the truth of the eternity of life, emanates from the dead body on the cross of Golgotha. Those inspired and permeated by the Christ-I, the Christians of the future, will understand something else. They will understand what only the enlightened have understood until now. They will not merely understand the Christ who passed through death, but they will understand the triumphant Christ of the Apocalypse, who was foretold, rising in spiritual fire. And Easter can always be a symbol for us of the risen Christ, a bond that is woven by Christ on the cross to the triumphant Christ, the risen and exalted Christ, to the one who raises all people with him to the right hand of the Father.

[ 30 ] Thus, the Easter symbol points us toward the entire future of the earth, toward the future of human development, and thus it is a pledge to us that those inspired by Christ will one day increasingly become people like Paul rather than people like Saul, and will increasingly see a spiritual fire. Truly, just as Christ appeared to Moses and those who professed themselves to be his followers in the sensory fire of the burning bush and the lightning on Mount Sinai, so will Christ appear to us in a spiritualized fire of the future. “He is with us always, even unto the end of the world,” and he will appear in spiritual fire to those who have allowed their gaze to be enlightened by the event of Golgotha. People will see him in the spiritual fire. First they saw him in another form; only then will they see the true form of Christ in a spiritual fire.

[ 31 ] But because Christ has worked so deeply into earthly existence, even into the physical skeleton, that which formed its shell from the elements of the earth has purified and sanctified this physical substance so that it can never again become what the wise men of the East assumed in their sorrow, believing that the enlightened one of the future, the Maitreya Buddha, would not find people on earth who could ascend to an understanding of him because they had sunk too deeply into the substance. That is why Christ was led to Golgotha, so that he could lead the substance back up to spiritual heights, so that the fire would not become slag on the earth, but would be spiritualized. Thus, when people themselves are spiritualized, they will once again understand the wisdom of the primeval world: the wisdom of the primeval world from which they themselves once sprang as from the spiritual world. Thus, the Maitreya Buddha will find understanding on earth—which he would not otherwise have been able to find—after people have passed through an even deeper understanding. For we understand everything we learned in our youth better after we have matured through trials and can look back on it later. And so humanity will understand the wisdom of the primordial world by looking back on this wisdom in the light of Christ through the event of Golgotha.

[ 32 ] And how can the incorruptible remains of Kashyapa be saved, and where will they be saved? It is said that the Maitreya Buddha will appear and touch him with his right hand, and the corpse will be carried away in a fire.

[ 33 ] In the same fire that Paul saw on the road to Damascus, we must see the wonderful, spiritualized fire in which the body of Kashyapa will be preserved. In this fire, all that is great and noble from the past will be preserved in the future. In the spiritualized fire in which Christ appeared to Paul, the incorruptible body of Kashyapa will be preserved by the Maitreya Buddha. Thus we will see the great, the glorious, the wise of all past times flowing into that which has become humanity through the event of Golgotha.

[ 34 ] A resurrection of the earth spirit itself, a redemption of humanity, comes to meet us in the symbol of the Easter bells. This symbol has always given those who knew how to understand it an insight into how human beings rise to spiritual heights through the mystery of Easter. It is not without significance that Faust, who stands on the brink of death, is called back to a new life by the Easter bells, leading him to the great moment when, blinded before his death, he says to himself: “Alone within me shines a bright light.” Thus he can ascend to the spiritual worlds where the noble members of humanity are saved.

[ 35 ] Everything that has lived in the past is saved, purified, and secured in the purified spirituality that has poured out over the earth and into humanity through the mystery of Golgotha, just as it will one day be purified when the Maitreya Buddha appears, the imperishable body of Kashyapa, the great Eastern sage, in the wonderful fire, in the light of Christ that appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus.