The Gospel of St. John
in Relation to the Other Three Gospels
GA 112
24 June 1909, Kassel
1. The Johannine Christians
My dear Friends:
A special festival has long been celebrated on this particular day of the year by a great number of those seeking higher wisdom; and many friends of our anthroposophical movement here in this city have wished this series of lectures to commence on this day, St. John's Day.
The day of the year bearing this name was a festival as far back as the time of ancient Persia. There, on a day corresponding to a June day as we know it, the so-called Festival of the Baptism by Water and Fire was celebrated. In ancient Rome the Festival of Vesta was held on a similar day in June, and that again was a festival of the baptism by fire. Going back to the time of pre-Christian culture in Europe and including the period before Christianity had become widely disseminated, we find a similar June festival coinciding with the time when the days are longest and the nights shortest, when the days start to become shorter again, when the sun once more begins to lose some of the power that provides for all earthly growth and thriving. This June festival seemed to our European forefathers like a retrogression, a gradual evanescence, of the God Baldur who was thought of as associated with the sun. Then in Christian times this June festival gradually became the Festival of St. John in memory of the Forerunner of Christ Jesus. In this way it can form the starting point, as it were, for our discussions during the coming days of that most significant event in human evolution which we call the deed of Christ Jesus. This deed, its whole significance for the development of mankind, the way it is revealed primarily in the most important Christian document, the Gospel of St. John—and then a comparison of this with the other Gospels—a study of all this will form the subject of this lecture cycle.
St. John's Day reminds us that the most exalted Individuality that ever took part in the evolution of mankind was preceded by a forerunner. This touches at once an important point which—again like a forerunner—we must place at the beginning of our lectures as a subject of discussion. In the course of human evolution there appear again and again events of such profound import as to throw a stronger light than others. From epoch to epoch we see history recording such vital events; and ever and anon we are told that there are men who, in certain respects, know of such events in advance and can foretell them. This implies that such events are not arbitrary, but rather, that one who discerns the whole sense and spirit of human history knows how such events must unfold, and how he himself must work and prepare in order that they may come to pass.
We shall have occasion in the next few days to refer repeatedly to the Forerunner of Christ Jesus. Today we will consider him only as one of those who, by means of special spiritual gifts, are able to see deep into the relations within the evolution of mankind, and who thus know that there are pre-eminent moments in this evolution. For this reason he was able to clear the path for Christ Jesus. But if we turn to Christ Jesus Himself, thus coming to the main subject of our discussions, as it were, we must understand that not without reason does a large part of mankind divide the record of time into two epochs separated by the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth. This discloses a feeling for the incisive importance of the Christ Mystery. But all truth, all reality, must ever be proclaimed to humanity in new forms, in new ways, for the needs of men change from one epoch to another. In certain respects our epoch calls for a new revelation even of this greatest event in the earthly evolution of man, the Christ Event; and it is anthroposophy's aim to be this revelation.
As far as its content is concerned, the anthroposophical presentation of the Christ Mystery is nothing new, not even for us today; but its form is new. All that is to be disclosed here in the next few days has been known for centuries within certain restricted circles of our cultural and spiritual life. Only one feature distinguishes today's presentation from all those that have gone before: it can be addressed to a larger circle. Those smaller circles in which for centuries the same message was proclaimed within our European spiritual life, these had recognized the same symbol that confronts you here in this lecture hall today: the Rose Cross. For this reason it is fitting that today, when this message goes forth to a larger public, the Rose Cross should again be its symbol.
First let me characterize once more in a symbolical way the basis of these Rosicrucian revelations concerning Christ Jesus. The Rosicrucians are a brotherhood that has fostered a genuinely spiritual Christianity within the spiritual life of Europe ever since the 14th Century. This Rosicrucian Society which, ignoring all outer historical forms, has endeavored to bring to light the deepest truths of Christianity, always called its members “Christians of St. John.” If we come to understand this term the whole spirit and trend of the following lectures will be—if not mentally comprehended, at least imaginatively grasped.
As you know, the Gospel of St. John—that mighty document of the human race—begins with the words:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and a God was the Word.
The same was in the beginning with God.
The Word, then—or the Logos—was in the beginning with God. And we are further told that the light shone in the darkness, and that the darkness at first comprehended it not; that this light was in the world among men, but that these men counted but few among their number who were able to comprehend the Light. Then the Word made flesh appeared as a Man, a Man Whose forerunner was the Baptist John. And then we see how those who had some understanding of this appearance of Christ on earth endeavored to make clear what Christ really was. We see the author of the John Gospel pointing directly to the fact that what dwelt in Jesus of Nazareth as profoundest essence was nothing different from that in which originate all other beings that surround us: the living Spirit, the living Word, the Logos itself.
And the other Evangelists as well, each in his own way, have been at pains to characterize what it really was that appeared in Jesus of Nazareth. We see, for example, the writer of the Luke Gospel endeavoring to show that something quite special manifested itself when, at the Baptism of Christ Jesus, the Spirit united with the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Then the same writer tells us that this Jesus of Nazareth was the descendant of ancestors reaching far, far back; that His genealogy went back to David, to Abraham, to Adam—even to God Himself. Note well that the Luke Gospel points emphatically to this line of descent:
then:Jesus of Nazareth was the son of Joseph, Joseph was the son of Heli.
and finally:... he was the son of David ...
he was the son of Adam, and Adam was the son of God.
This means that the author of the Luke Gospel considers it of special importance that a direct line runs from Jesus of Nazareth, with Whom the Spirit united at the Baptism by John, to Him Whom he calls the Father of Adam, to God. Such things must be taken entirely literally.
In the Matthew Gospel, on the other hand, the attempt is made to trace the descent of this Jesus of Nazareth back to Abraham, to whom God revealed Himself.
In this way and in many others—through many statements we can find in the Gospels—the Individuality that is the vehicle of the Christ, as well as the whole manifestation of Christ, is set before us not only as one of the greatest, but as the very greatest of all events in the evolution of humanity. Clearly this means, does it not? what can be expressed quite simply as follows: If Christ Jesus is regarded by those who divined something of His greatness as the most significant phenomenon in the evolution of man upon earth, then this Christ Jesus must in some way be connected with what is most vital and sacred in man himself. In other words, there must be something in man himself that can be brought into relation with the Christ event. Can we not ask, If Christ Jesus, as the Gospels maintain, is really the most important phenomenon in human evolution, does it not follow that always, in every human soul, there is something that is related to Christ Jesus?
And that is precisely what the Johannine Christians of the Rosicrucian Society deemed of greatest import and significance: that there is in every human soul something directly related to the events in Palestine as brought about through Christ Jesus. If the coming of Christ Jesus can be called the greatest event for mankind, then what corresponds in the human soul to the Christ event must be the greatest and most significant as well. And what can that be? The disciples of the Rosicrucians answered: There exists for every human soul something that is called awakening, or rebirth, or initiation.
Let us see what is meant by these terms. Looking at the various things around us—things we see with our eyes, touch with our hands—we observe them coming into being and perishing. We see the flower, the whole annual plant life, come up and then wither; and though there are such things in the world as rocks and mountains that seem to defy the centuries we need only consider the proverb, "a steady drip hollows out the rock" to realize that the human soul senses the laws of transience as governing even the majestic boulders and mountains. And we know that there comes into being and perishes even what is built of the elements: not only what we call our corporeality, but what we know as our perishable ego is engendered and then passes. But those who know how a spiritual world can be reached know also that this is not attained by means of eyes or ears or other senses, but by the path of awakening, of rebirth, of initiation.
And what is it that is reborn? When a man observes his inner self he finally comes to realize that what he sees there is that to which he says “I”. Its very name differentiates it from anything in the outer world. To everything in the outer world a name can be applied externally. Everyone can call a table a table or a clock a clock; but never in the world could the name “I” fall on our ear if it were intended to denote ourself, for “I” must be spoken within us: to everyone else we are “you.” This in itself shows us that our ego-being is distinct from all else that is in or around us.
But in addition, we now come to something that spiritual scientists of all times have emphasized from their own experience for the benefit of mankind: that within this ego another, a higher one, is born, as the child is born of the mother. A man as he appears in life is first encountered as a child, awkward in his surroundings but gradually learning to understand things: he gains in sense, his intellect and his will grow, and his strength and energy increase. But there have always been people who grow in other ways as well, who attain to a stage of development beyond the average, who find, so to say, a second I that can say “you” to the first one in the same way that the I itself says “you” to the outer world and to its own body—that looks upon this first I from above, as it were.
As an ideal, then, for the soul of man, and as a reality for those who follow the instructions of spiritual science, we have the thought: the ego I have hitherto known takes part in the whole outer world, and together with this it is perishable; but there slumbers within me a second ego of which men are unaware but can become aware. It is linked with the imperishable, just as the first ego is bound up with the perishable, the temporal; and by means of rebirth this higher ego can behold a spiritual world just as the lower ego does perceive the physical world through eyes and ears.
This awakening, rebirth, initiation, as it is called, is the greatest event for the human soul—a view shared by those who called themselves confessors of the Rose Cross. These knew that this event of the rebirth of the higher ego, which can look from above on the lower ego as man looks on outer forms, must have some connection with the event of Christ Jesus. This means that just as a rebirth can occur for the individual in his development, so a rebirth for all humanity came about through Christ Jesus. That which is an inner event for the individual—a mystical-spiritual event, as it is called, something he can experience as the birth of his higher ego—corresponds to what occurred in the outer world, in history, for all mankind in the event of Palestine through Christ Jesus.
How did this appear to a man like, for instance, the author of the Luke Gospel? He reasoned as follows: The genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth goes back to Adam and to God himself. What today is mankind, what now inhabits a physical human body, once descended from divine heights: it was born of the spirit, it was once with God. Adam was he who had been sent down out of spiritual heights into matter, and in this sense he is the son of God. So there was at one time a divine-spiritual realm—thus the argument would continue—that condensed, as it were, into an ephemeral, tellurian realm: Adam came into being. Adam was an earthly image of the Son of God, and from him are descended the human beings that dwell in a physical body. And in a special way there lived in Jesus of Nazareth not only what exists in every man and all that pertains to it, but something the essence of which can be found only when one is aware that the true being of man derives from the divine. In Jesus of Nazareth something of this divine descent is still apparent. For this reason the writer of the Luke Gospel feels constrained to say, Behold Him Who was baptized by John! He bears special marks of the divine out of which Adam was originally born. This can come to life again in Him. Just as the God descended into matter and disappeared as such from the human race, so He reappears. In Jesus of Nazareth mankind could be reborn in its innermost divine principle. What the author of the Luke Gospel meant was this: If we trace the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth to its source, we find the divine origin and the characteristics of the Son of God appearing in Him in a new way, and in a higher degree than would hitherto have been possible for mankind.
And the writer of the John Gospel emphasizes even more strongly the existence of something divine in man, as well as the fact that this appeared in its most grandiose form as the God and the Logos themselves. The God Who had been buried, as it were, in matter is reborn as God in Jesus of Nazareth. That is what was meant by those who introduced their Gospels in this way.
And those who endeavored to perpetuate the wisdom of these Gospels—what did they say? How did the Johannine Christians put it? They said: In the individual human being a great and mighty event can take place that can be called the rebirth of the higher ego. As the child is born of the mother, so the divine ego is born of man. Initiation, awakening, is possible; and when once this has come to pass—so said those who were competent to speak—a new standard of values will arise.
Let us try to understand by a comparison what it is that henceforth becomes important. Suppose we have before us a man seventy years old—an "awakened" man who has attained to his higher ego—and suppose he had been in his fortieth year when he experienced rebirth, the awakening of his higher ego. Had someone approached him at that time with the intention of describing his life he could have reflected: I have before me a man who has just given birth to his higher ego. It is the same man I knew five years ago in certain circumstances, and ten years ago in others.—And if he had wanted to portray the identity of this man—if he had wanted to show that this man had a quite special start, even at birth—he would trace back the forty years with his physical existence in mind and describe the latter as far as pertinent, in the spirit of one who sees matters from the spiritual-scientific viewpoint. But in his fortieth year a higher ego was born in this man, and henceforth this higher ego irradiates all the circumstances of his life. He is a new man. That which existed previously is of no further importance. What is now important is to understand, above all things, how the higher ego grows from year to year and develops further. Now, when this man had arrived at the age of seventy, we would enquire into the path taken by the higher ego from the fortieth to the seventieth year; and if we believe in what was born in the soul of this man thirty years before, it would be of importance that it is the true spiritual ego he presents to us in his seventieth year. That is the way the Evangelists went about it; and it was thus, and in connection with the Gospels, that the Johannine Christians of Rosicrucianism dealt with the Being we know as Christ Jesus.
The Gospel writers had set themselves the task of showing, first of all, that Christ Jesus had His origin in the primordial World Spirit, in the God Himself. The God that had dwelt unseen in all mankind is specifically manifested in Christ Jesus; and that is the same God of Whom the John Gospel tells us that He was in the beginning. What the Evangelists set out to do was to show that it was precisely this God that dwelt in Jesus of Nazareth. But those whose task it was to perpetuate the eternal wisdom right into our own time had to emphasize the fact that man's higher ego, the divine spirit of mankind—born in Jesus of Nazareth through the event in Palestine—had remained the same and had been preserved by all who approached it with true understanding. Just as in our comparison we described how the man bore his higher ego in his fortieth year, so the Evangelists pictured the God that dwells in man up to the event of Palestine—how the God developed, how he was reborn, and so forth. But those upon whom it was incumbent to demonstrate that they were the successors of the Evangelists, these had to point out that the time was ripe for the rebirth of the higher ego, when we have to do only with the spiritual part, irradiating
all else.
Those who called themselves the Johannine Christians and whose symbol was the Rose Cross held that precisely what was reborn for mankind as the secret of its higher ego has been preserved—preserved by the close community which grew out of Rosicrucianism. This continuity is symbolically indicated by that sacred vessel from which Christ Jesus ate and drank with His disciples, and in which Joseph of Arimathia caught the blood that flowed from the wound—the Holy Grail which, as the story is told, was brought to Europe by Angels. A temple was built to contain this vessel, and the Rosicrucians became the guardians of what it contained, namely, the essence of the reborn God.
The mystery of the reborn God had its being in humanity. It is the Mystery of the Grail, a mystery propounded like a new Gospel, proclaiming: We look up to a sage such as the writer of the John Gospel who was able to say:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and a God was the Word.
That which was with God in the beginning was born again in Him Whom we have seen suffer and die on Golgotha, and Who is arisen.—This continuity throughout all time of the divine principle and its rebirth, that is what the author of the John Gospel aimed to set forth. Something known to all those who endeavored to proclaim this truth was that what was in the beginning has been preserved. In the beginning was the mystery of the higher ego; it was preserved in the Grail; with the Grail it has remained linked. And in the Grail lives the ego united with the eternal and immortal, just as the lower ego is bound to the ephemeral and mortal. He who knows the secret of the Holy Grail knows that from the wood of the Cross there springs ever new life, the immortal ego, symbolized by the roses on the black wood of the cross.
The secret of the Rose Cross can thus appear like a continuation of the John Gospel; and in reference to the latter and to its continuation it can truly be said:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and a God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by It;1St. John I, 3 and 4.—Luther's translation differs here from the King James Version: "it" (the Word) remains the subject throughout the passage, not "he" (God), as in the English. That this is the correct translation is specifically stated by Dr. Steiner in the first lecture of his other cycle on the St. John Gospel (Basel, November 16, 1907), and it is therefore incorporated in this translation. and without It was not any thing made that was made. In It was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Only a few men—those who possessed something of what is not born of the flesh—comprehended the light that shone in the darkness. But then the light became flesh and dwelt among men in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. Here we can say, wholly within the meaning of the John Gospel: That which dwelt as the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth was the higher divine ego of all humanity, of the reborn God Who, in Adam, as His image, became earthly. This reborn human ego was perpetuated as a holy secret, was preserved under the symbol of the Rose Cross, and is now proclaimed as the secret of the Holy Grail, as the Rose Cross.
The principle which can be born in every human soul as the higher ego points to the rebirth of the divine ego, in the evolution of mankind in its entirety, through the Event of Palestine. Just as the higher ego is born in the individual, so the higher ego of all mankind, the divine ego, was born in Palestine; and it is preserved and developed in what lives concealed in the sign of the Rose Cross.
But if we study the evolution of man we find not only this one great event, the rebirth of the higher ego, but a number of lesser ones as well. Before the higher ego can be born, before this mighty, comprehensive, pervasive experience can come to the soul—the birth of the immortal ego in the mortal ego—extensive preparatory stages must have been passed through. A man must prepare himself in many different ways. And after the great experience has come to him that enables him to say to himself, Now I feel within myself something that looks down from above on my ordinary ego, just as my ordinary ego looks upon the things of the senses; now I am a second being within my first; now I have attained to the realms in which I am united with the divine beings—when the human being has had this experience, then he faces further stages that must be passed through, stages differing in their nature from the preparatory ones, but which none the less must be traversed.
Thus there is for each individual the one great incisive event, the birth of the higher ego; and there is a similar birth as well for the whole of mankind: the rebirth of the divine ego. Also, there are stages leading to this incisive event and others that must follow it. To find the former, we look back in time beyond the Christ event. There we encounter other great manifestations in human evolution. We become aware of the gradual approach of the Gospel of Christ, as indicated by the writer of the Luke Gospel when he says, In the beginning there was a God, a spirit-being in spiritual heights. He descended into the material world and became man, became humanity.—True, one could discern in man, as he developed, his origin in the God, but the God Himself could not be perceived by observing human evolution with outer physical eyes alone. He was behind the earthly-physical world, as it were; and there He was seen by those who understood where He was, by those who could behold His kingdom.
Let us turn back for a moment to the first civilization that followed upon a great catastrophe, to the ancient Indian civilization. There we find seven great and holy teachers known as the Holy Rishis. They pointed upwards to a higher being of whom they said, Our wisdom can divine the existence of this being, but it suffices not to perceive it.—The vision of the Holy Rishis was great, but the exalted being they called Vishva Karman was beyond their sphere. Vishva Karman, though permeating the spiritual world, was a being beyond what the clairvoyant human eye of that time could reach.—Then followed the civilization called after its great leader, Zarathustra, and Zarathustra spoke as follows to those whom it was his mission to guide: When the clairvoyant eye contemplates the things of this world—minerals, plants, animals, men—it perceives behind these things all sorts of spiritual beings. The being, however, to whom man is indebted for his very existence, who in the future is destined to dwell in man's deepest self, remains hidden as yet even from the clairvoyant eye when it contemplates the things of this earth. But by raising the clairvoyant eye to the sun, said Zarathustra, more than the sun is seen: as an aura is perceived surrounding man, so, in contemplating the sun, the great sun aura is discerned—Ahura Mazdao.—And it was the great sun aura that once brought forth man, in a manner to be characterized later. Man is the image of the sun spirit, of Ahura Mazdao; but as yet Ahura Mazdao did not dwell on earth.—Then came the time in which clairvoyant men began to see Ahura Mazdao in what surrounded them on earth. The great moment had arrived when something could take place that had not been possible in Zarathustra's time. When Zarathustra discerned clairvoyantly what was manifested in earthly lightning and thunder, it was not Ahura Mazdao, the great sun spirit who is the prototype of mankind, that he saw; but when he turned to the sun he saw Ahura Mazdao. When Zarathustra had found a successor in Moses, Moses' clairvoyant vision could see in the burning bush and in the fire on Sinai the spirit who proclaimed himself as ehjeh asher ehjeh, as the “I am,” as He Who was, as He Who is, as He Who shall be: Jahve, or Jehova.
What had taken place? During that remote period between the appearance of Zarathustra and that of Moses upon earth, the Spirit Who previously had dwelt only on the sun had moved downward to earth. He flamed up in the burning bush and shone in the fire on Sinai: He was in the elements of the earth. And then another period passed; and the Spirit Whose presence the great holy Rishis felt, but of Whom they had to say: Our clairvoyance does not suffice to see Him—the Spirit Whom Zarathustra had to seek in the sun, Who revealed Himself to Moses in thunder and lightning—this Spirit appeared in a human being: in Jesus of Nazareth. That was the evolution: first a descent from the cosmos into the physical elements, then into a human body. Only then was reborn the divine ego from which man descended, and to which the writer of the Luke Gospel traces the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth. This was the great event of the rebirth of the God in man.
That is a retrospect of the preparatory stages, and it shows us that mankind, too, passed through these. And those who had advanced with mankind as its early leaders were also destined to progress until one of them had achieved the capacity to become the bearer of the Christ. Such is the evolution of mankind as seen through spiritual eyes.
And there is another point. What the holy Rishis revered as Vishva Karman, what Zarathustra addressed as the Ahura Mazdao of the sun, and what Moses reverenced as ehjeh asher ehjeh—this had to appear in a single human being, in Jesus of Nazareth, in physically circumscribed humanness. This consummation was fore-ordained. But to enable so exalted a being to dwell in such a man as Jesus of Nazareth, many circumstances had to contribute. For one thing, Jesus of Nazareth Himself had to have arrived at an exalted level. Not every man could be the vehicle of such a being that came into the world as described. Now, we who have made contact with spiritual science know that there is reincarnation, so we must realize that Jesus of Nazareth—not the Christ—had experienced many incarnations and that He had passed through the most manifold stages in His previous incarnations before He could become Jesus of Nazareth.
What this means is that Jesus of Nazareth had Himself to become a high initiate before He could become the Christ bearer. Now, when a lofty initiate is born, how do such a birth and the subsequent life differ from the birth and life of an ordinary man? In a general way it can be assumed that when a man is born he bears the characteristics, at least approximately, of what derives from a previous incarnation. But that is not the case with an initiate. The initiate could not be a leader of mankind if he bore within him only what wholly corresponds with his outer self, for that he must build up according to the conditions of his external environment. When an initiate is born there must enter his body a lofty soul that in past times has had mighty experiences in the world. That is why legend so often tells of the strange births of initiates.
As to why and how this is so, we have already touched upon the answer to the first of these questions. It is because a comprehensive ego that had already passed through significant experiences in the past now unites with a body, but this body is at first unable to receive what seeks to incarnate in it as spiritual nature. For this reason it is necessary, in the case of a lofty being incarnating as a high initiate in a perishable human being, that the reincarnating ego should from the start envelop the physical form more intensely than in the case of other men. While in the ordinary human being the physical form resembles and adapts itself soon after birth to the spiritual form, or human aura, the human aura of a reborn initiate is luminous at birth. It is the spiritual part that here indicates the presence of more than can be seen in the ordinary sense. What does this indicate? That not only has a child been born in the physical world, but that something has occurred in the spiritual world. The stories that attach to the birth of all reincarnating initiates express the idea, not only is a child born: something is born in the spirit as well, something that cannot be encompassed by what is born down below.
But who can discern this? Only one who himself has a clairvoyant eye for the spiritual world. Hence we are told that in the birth of Buddha an initiate recognized an event differing from an ordinary birth; and hence also it is related of Jesus of Nazareth that His coming was to be foretold by the Baptist. All who have insight into the spiritual world know that the initiate must come and be reborn; and they know that this is an event in the spiritual world. The Three Kings from the East who came to offer sacrifice at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, these knew it, too. And the same truth is indicated when the initiated Priest of the Temple says:
Now I can die gladly, since mine eyes have beheld the One Who will be the salvation of mankind.
Clearly, then, we must here differentiate accurately. We have an exalted initiate reborn as Jesus of Nazareth, of Whose birth it must be said that a child was born; but with this Child there appeared something that will not be encompassed by His physical body. This discloses at the same time something in this Jesus of Nazareth that has significance in the spiritual world, something that will gradually develop this body upward to the point at which it will be fit to receive this spirit. And when this was fulfilled, we have the event in which the Baptist approaches Jesus of Nazareth, and a loftier spirit descends and unites with this Jesus of Nazareth: the Christ enters Jesus of Nazareth. And then the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ Jesus, could well say: I came into the world. It was I who prepared the way for a loftier one. With the words of my mouth I proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God, the Realm of the Heavens, and I exhorted men to change their hearts. I came among men, and it was vouchsafed me to bring them tidings of a special impulse that is to come to mankind. As in the springtime the sun mounts higher to announce the budding of something new, so did I appear to bring tidings of what is burgeoning in mankind as the reborn ego of humanity.
Then, when the human principle had reached its height in Jesus of Nazareth, His human body having become an expression of His spirit, He was ripe to receive within Himself the Christ at the Baptism by John. The body of Jesus of Nazareth had unfolded like the bright sun on St. John's Day in June. That had been foretold. Then the spirit was to be born out of the darkness, just as the sun steadily gains in strength and power up to St. John's Day, and then begins to decline. That was what the Baptist had to proclaim. He had to continue to bear witness until—pointing to the sun's ever-increasing splendor—he could say, He of Whom the old Prophets told, He Who in the spiritual realms has been called the Son of the Spiritual Realms, He has appeared.—Up to this point John the Baptist was active. But then—when the days become shorter and darkness begins to gain the upper hand—then the inner spiritual light is to shine as a result of right preparation, is to become ever brighter as the Christ shines in Jesus of Nazareth.
That is the way John the Baptist saw the approach of Jesus of Nazareth; and he felt the growth of Jesus of Nazareth as his own diminution and as the increase in the power of the sun. From now on I shall wane, he said, even as the sun wanes after St. John's Day. But He will wax—He the spiritual sun—and shine out of the darkness.—Thus was the Christ heralded; and thus began the rebirth of the ego of mankind, upon which depends the rebirth of every individual higher human ego.
This characterizes the most important event in the development of the individual human being: the rebirth of what can proceed from the ordinary ego as the immortal principle. It is linked with the greatest event, the Christ event, to which the next lectures will be devoted.
Erster Vortrag
In einem großen Teil der strebenden Menschheit wurde gerade an dem heutigen Tag des Jahres ein bestimmtes Fest gefeiert. Und diejenigen, die sich hier in dieser Stadt mit uns Freunde der anthroposophischen Bewegung nennen, haben einen gewissen Wert darauf gelegt, daß diese Reihe von Vorträgen beginnen könne gerade an diesem heutigen Tage, am Johannistage. Der Tag des Jahres, der damit bezeichnet wird, war ein Fest bereits im alten Persertum. Da feierte man an einem Tage, der etwa einem heutigen Junitage entsprechen würde, das Fest der sogenannten Wasser- und Feuertaufe. Im alten Rom feierte man an einem ähnlichen Junitage das Fest der Vesta; das war wiederum das Fest der Feuertaufe. Und wenn wir zurückgehen in die Zeit der europäischen Kultur vor dem Christentum und in diejenigen Zeiten, in denen das Christentum noch nicht verbreitet war, da finden wir wiederum ein solches Junifest, ein Fest, das zusammenfiel mit der Zeit, in welcher die Tage am längsten, die Nächte am kürzesten geworden sind, wo die Tage wiederum beginnen abzunehmen, wo die Sonne also wiederum beginnt, einen Teil ihrer Kraft zu verlieren, die sie allem Wachstum und allem Gedeihen der Erde spendet. Wie ein Rückgang, ein nach und nach eintretendes Verschwinden des Gottes Baldur, den man verknüpft dachte mit der Sonne, so erschien dieses Junifest unseren europäischen Vorfahren. Und in den christlichen Zeiten wurde allmählich dieses Junifest das Johannesfest zur Feier des Vorläufers des Christus Jesus. Damit kann es auch für uns gewissermaßen zum Ausgangspunkt werden derjenigen Betrachtungen, die wir für die nächsten Tage anstellen wollen über dieses bedeutsamste Ereignis in der Menschheitsentwickelung, das wir die Tat des Christus Jesus nennen. Diese Tat, ihre ganze Bedeutung für die Menschheitsentwickelung, und wie sie sich darstellt zunächst einmal in der bedeutsamsten christlichen Urkunde, in dem Evangelium des Johannes, und dann im Vergleich damit in den anderen Evangelien, die Betrachtung darüber wird der Gegenstand dieses Vortragszyklus’ sein. Der Johannistag erinnert uns daran, daß dieser größten Individualität, die an der Menschheitsentwickelung teilgenommen hat, vorangegangen ist ein Vorläufer. Damit berühren wir gleich einen wichtigen Punkt, den wir sozusagen auch wie eine Art Vorläufer als Betrachtung an den Ausgangspunkt unserer Vorträge stellen müssen. Im Verlaufe der Menschbeitsentwickelung treten immer wieder und wieder tief bedeutsame Ereignisse auf, die ein stärkeres Licht ausbreiten als andere Ereignisse. Von Epoche zu Epoche sehen wir, wie solche wesentlichen Ereignisse in der Geschichte zu verzeichnen sind. Und immer wieder wird uns gesagt, daß es Menschen gibt, welche in einer gewissen Beziehung vorauswissen, vorausverkünden können solche Ereignisse. Damit wird zugleich klargemacht, daß diese Ereignisse nicht willkürlich sind, sondern daß derjenige, der hineinsieht in den ganzen Sinn und in den ganzen Geist der Menschheitsgeschichte, weiß, wie solche Ereignisse kommen müssen, und wie er selber zu arbeiten hat, vorbereitend zu arbeiten hat, damit sie eintreten können.
Wir werden in den nächsten Tagen noch öfter zu sprechen haben von dem Vorläufer des Christus Jesus. Heute wollen wir ihn zunächst nur unter dem Gesichtspunkt betrachten, daß er einer derjenigen war, welche durch besondere Geistesgaben tiefer hineinschauen können in den Zusammenhang der Menschheitsentwickelung und dadurch wissen, daß es ausgezeichnete Punkte gibt innerhalb dieser Menschheitsentwickelung. Daher war er geeignet, dem Christus Jesus die Wege zu ebnen. Wenn wir aber auf den Christus Jesus selber sehen, um sozusagen sogleich an den Hauptgegenstand unserer Betrachtung zu kommen, so müssen wir uns klarmachen, daß wahrhaftig nicht umsonst ein großer Teil der Menschheit die Zeitrechnung einteilt in eine Epoche vor der Erscheinung des Christus Jesus auf Erden und in eine Epoche nach derselben. Damit zeigt dieser Teil der Menschheit, daß er eine Empfindung hat von der einschneidenden Bedeutung des Christus-Mysteriums. Aber das, was wahr ist, was wirklich ist, das muß immer wieder und wieder in neuen Formen und in neuen Arten der Menschheit verkündet werden. Denn die Bedürfnisse der Menschheit ändern sich von Zeit zu Zeit. Unsere Zeit braucht in gewisser Beziehung eine neue Verkündigung auch dieses größten Ereignisses der irdischen Menschheitsentwickelung, des Christus-Ereignisses, und diese Verkündigung will die Anthroposophie sein.
Diese anthroposophische Verkündigung des Christus-Mysteriums ist nichts dem Inhalte nach Neues, auch nicht für uns. Sie ist aber etwas Neues in bezug auf die Form. Denn das, was hier in den nächsten Tagen wird ausgesprochen werden, das wurde in engeren Kreisen auch innerhalb unserer Kultur und unseres Geisteslebens seit Jahrhunderten ausgesprochen. Das eine nur unterscheidet die heutige Verkündigung von jeder vorhergehenden: daß sie zu einem größeren Kreise sprechen darf. Diejenigen kleineren Kreise, in denen dieselbe Verkündigung seit Jahrhunderten schon innerhalb unseres europäischen Geisteslebens ertönte, sie hatten dasselbe Zeichen, das Ihnen hier [im Vortragssaal] entgegenschaut, das Rosenkreuz, als ihr Symbolum anerkannt. Und so darf wohl auch jetzt, wo diese Verkündigung in unserer Gegenwart vor ein größeres Publikum tritt, wiederum das Rosenkreuz als das Symbolum dieser Verkündigung gelten. Lassen Sie mich zunächst wiederum sinnbildlich charakterisieren, worauf ungefähr diese RosenkreuzerVerkündigung über den Christus Jesus fußt.
Die Rosenkreuzer sind eine Gemeinschaft, die seit dem vierzehnten Jahrhundert innerhalb des europäischen Geisteslebens ein geistiges, ein echt geistiges Christentum pflegten. Diese Rosenkreuzer-Gesellschaft, die, abgesehen von allen äußeren geschichtlichen Formen, die tiefste Wahrheit des Christentums an den Tag zu bringen suchte für ihre Bekenner, diese Gesellschaft nannte ihre Bekenner immer auch « Johannes-Christen». Wenn wir den Ausdruck Johannes-Christen verstehen werden, dann werden wir den ganzen Geist und die Gesinnung der folgenden Vorträge, wenn auch nicht mit dem Verstande erklären, so doch wenigstens ahnend erfassen können.
Sie wissen, das Johannes-Evangelium, diese gewaltige Urkunde des Menschengeschlechtes, beginnt ja mit den Worten: «Im Urbeginne war das Wort. Und das Wort war bei Gott, und ein Gott war das Wort. Dieses war im Urbeginne bei Gott.» (Joh 1, 1).
Das Wort - oder der Logos — war also im Urbeginne bei Gott. Und von ihm heißt es weiter, daß das Licht in die Finsternis schien, und daß die Finsternis zunächst das Licht nicht begriff; daß dieses Licht in der: Welt war, daß es unter den Menschen war, daß diese Menschen aber wiederum nur eine kleine Anzahl unter den ihrigen zählten, die das Licht zu begreifen vermochten. Dann erschien das fleischgewordene Wort als ein Mensch, in einem Menschen, dessen Vorläufer der Täufer war, der Johannes. Und nun sehen wir, wie diejenigen, die etwas begriffen haben von der Bedeutung dieser Erscheinung des Christus auf Erden, sich klarzumachen bemühen, was der Christus eigentlich ist, und wie der Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums unmittelbar darauf hinweist, daß das, was in dem Jesus von Nazareth als tiefste Wesenheit lebte, nichts anderes war als das, woraus auch alle andern Wesenheiten entstanden sind, die um uns herum sind, — daß es der lebendige Geist, das lebendige Wort, der Logos selbst war.
Aber auch die andern Evangelisten haben sich, ein jeder nach seiner Art, bemüht darzustellen, was in dem Jesus von Nazareth eigentlich erschienen ist. Da sehen wir zum Beispiel, wie der Schreiber des LukasEvangeliums bemüht ist zu zeigen, wie etwas ganz Besonderes erschienen ist, als durch die Taufe des Christus Jesus durch Johannes den Täufer der Geist sich vereinigte mit dem Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth.Und dann stellt uns der Schreiber des Lukas-Evangeliums weiter dar, wie dieser Jesus von Nazareth der Abkömmling von Vorfahren ist, die weit, weit hinaufreichen. Da wird uns gesagt, daß der Stammbaum des Jesus von Nazareth hinaufreicht bis zu David, bis zu Abraham, bis zu Adam, ja bis zu Gott selber. Wohlgemerkt, im Lukas-Evangelium ist überall darauf hingewiesen: Jesus von Nazareth war der Sohn des Joseph, Joseph war der Sohn des Eli, der war ein Sohn des Matthat..., dann: der war ein Sohn des David, und weiter heißt es dann: der war ein Sohn des Adam, und Adam war Gottes! Das heißt, der Schreiber des Lukas-Evangeliums legt einen besonderen Wert darauf, daß von diesem Jesus von Nazareth, mit dem sich der Geist vereinigt hat bei der Taufe des Johannes, eine gerade Abstammungslinie hinaufgeht bis zu dem, den er den Vater des Adam, den Gott, nennt. Solche Dinge muß man durchaus wörtlich nehmen.
Im Matthäus-Evangelium wird versucht, diesen Jesus von Nazareth wiederum seinem Stammbaum nach bis hinauf zu Abraham zu führen, dem sich der Gott geoffenbart hat.
Dadurch, und durch manches andere auch, durch viele Worte, die wir in den Evangelien finden können, wird die Individualität, die der Träger des Christus ist, und die ganze Erscheinung des Christus als etwas hingestellt, was nicht nur eine der größten, sondern was die größte aller Erscheinungen in der Menschheitsentwickelung ist. Dadurch ist doch unbedingt ausgedrückt, was man mit schlichten Worten in der folgenden Art sagen kann: Wenn der Christus Jesus von denen, die seine Größe ahnen, angesehen wird als die wichtigste Erscheinung in der Menschheitsentwickelung der Erde, dann muß dieser Christus Jesus irgendwie zusammenhängen mit dem Wesentlichsten und Heiligsten im Menschen selbst. Es muß also innerhalb des Menschen selber etwas geben, was man unmittelbar auf das Christus-Ereignis beziehen kann. Könnten wir denn nicht die Frage aufwerfen: Wenn der Christus Jesus wirklich entsprechend den Evangelien das wichtigste Ereignis der Menschheitsentwickelung ist, muß sich dann nicht überall, in jeder von all den Seelen der Menschen etwas finden, was Bezug hat zu dem Christus Jesus?
Das ist es auch, was insbesondere den Johannes-Christen der Rosenkreuzer-Gesellschaften das Wichtigste und Wesentlichste war: daß sich in jeder Menschenseele etwas findet, was unmittelbar Bezug hat, was ein Verhältnis hat zu dem, was in Palästina durch den Christus Jesus geschehen ist. Und wenn der Christus Jesus für die Menschheit das größte Ereignis genannt werden kann, dann muß. auch in der Menschenseele das, was dem Christus-Ereignis entspricht, das Größte und Bedeutungsvollste sein. Was kann das sein? Darauf haben sich die Schüler der Rosenkreuzer geantwortet: Für jede Menschenseele gibt es etwas, was man bezeichnet mit den Worten «Erweckung» oder «Wiedergeburt» oder «Initiation ». Wir wollen sehen, was mit diesen Worten gemeint ist.
Wenn wir den Blick richten auf die verschiedenen Dinge um uns herum, die unsere Augen sehen, die unsere Hände greifen, dann sehen wir, wie diese Dinge entstehen und vergehen. Wir sehen, wie die Blume entsteht und vergeht, wie die ganze Vegetation des Jahres heraufkommt und wieder hinuntergeht. Und wenn es auch Dinge gibt in der Welt, wie die Berge und Felsen, die den Jahrhunderten zu trotzen scheinen, schon in dem Sprichwort «Steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein» drückt es sich aus, daß die Menschenseele eine Ahnung davon hat, daß selbst die majestätischen Felsen und Berge den Gesetzen der Vergänglichkeit unterworfen sind. Und der Mensch weiß: Es entsteht und vergeht das, was selbst auferbaut ist aus den Elementen; es entsteht und vergeht das, was der Mensch nicht nur seine Leiblichkeit nennt, sondern was er nennt sein «vergängliches Ich». Aber diejenigen, welche da wissen, wie man in eine geistige Welt gelangen kann, die wissen auch, daß der Mensch zwar nicht durch Augen und Ohren und durch die anderen Sinne hineindringt in diese geistige Welt, daß er aber dorthin gelangen kann durch den Weg der Erweckung, der Wiedergeburt, der Initiation. Und was wird wiedergeboren?
Der Mensch, wenn er in sein Inneres blickt, kommt zuletzt dazu, zu sagen: Was mir in meinem Innern entgegentritt, das ist das, wozu ich «Ich » sage. Dieses Ich unterscheidet sich schon durch den Namen von allen Dingen der Außenwelt. Zu einem jeden Ding der Außenwelt kann man den Namen von außen hinzufügen: zu dem Tisch kann jeder «Tisch », zu der Uhr jeder «Uhr» sagen. Niemals aber kann der Name «Ich » an unser Ohr klingen, wenn er uns selbst bedeuten soll; denn das «Ich» muß im Innern ausgesprochen werden. Für jeden anderen sind wir ein «Du». Dadurch schon findet der Mensch, wie sich diese IchWesenheit unterscheidet von dem, was sonst in ihm und um ihn herum ist. Aber nun kommt das hinzu, was die Geistesforscher aller Zeiten immer wieder und wieder aus ihren eigenen Erlebnissen für die Menschheit betont haben: daß innerhalb dieses Ich ein anderes, ein höheres Ich geboren wird, geboren wie das Kind aus der Mutter.
Wenn der Mensch uns in seinem Leben entgegentritt, können wir sagen: Wir sehen ihn zuerst als Kind, wie er ungeschickt in bezug auf die äußere Umgebung die Dinge anschaut, wie er dann nach und nach lernt, die Dinge zu begreifen, nach und nach verständig wird und an Intellekt und Willen wächst; wir sehen, wie der Mensch zunimmt an Kraft und Energie. Aber es gibt Menschen, die nicht nur in dieser Weise zunehmen, sondern es hat auch immer solche Menschen gegeben, die noch zu einer höheren Entwickelung gelangen über der gewöhnlichen, die dazu kommen, daß sie sozusagen ein zweites Ich finden, das zu dem ersten Ich vermag «Du» zu sagen, wie das Ich selbst zur Außenwelt und zu seinem Leibe «Du » sagt, das gewissermaßen hinunterschaut auf dieses erste Ich.
So steht es als ein Ideal vor der Menschenseele, und so tritt es als eine Wirklichkeit ein für diejenigen, welche die Anweisungen der Geistesforscher befolgen und sich sagen: Das Ich, von dem ich bisher wußte, nimmt teil an der ganzen Außenwelt, es ist mit der Außenwelt vergänglich. Aber in mir schlummert ein zweites Ich, dessen sich die Menschen nicht bewußt sind, aber sich bewußt werden können, das ebenso verbunden ist mit dem Unvergänglichen, wie das erste Ich mit dem Vergänglichen und Zeitlichen verbunden ist. Und mit der Wiedergeburt kann dies höhere Ich ebenso hineinschauen in eine geistige Welt, wie das niedere Ich durch die Sinne - Augen, Ohren und so weiter - in die sinnliche Welt schauen kann. Was man so Erweckung, Wiedergeburt, Initiation nennt, das ist das größte Ereignis der menschlichen Seele auch nach der Ansicht derjenigen, die sich Bekenner des Rosenkreuzes nannten. Sie wußten, daß mit diesem Ereignis der Wiedergeburt des höheren Ich, das auf das niedere Ich herabschauen kann, wie der Mensch auf die äußeren Gestalten schaut, das Ereignis des Christus Jesus zusammenhängen muß. Das heißt, wie für den einzelnen Menschen innerhalb seiner Entwickelung eine Wiedergeburt stattfinden kann, so ist für die ganze Menschheit eine Wiedergeburt eingetreten mit dem Christus Jesus. Was für den einzelnen Menschen ein inneres, wie man sagt, mystisch-geistiges Ereignis ist, was er als die Geburt seines höheren Ich erleben kann, das ist in der Außenwelt, in der Geschichte, mit dem Ereignis von Palästina durch den Christus Jesus für die ganze Menschheit eingetreten.
Wie stellte sich das zum Beispiel einem Menschen dar wie dem, der das Evangelium des Lukas geschrieben hat? Er konnte sich sagen: Der Stammbaum des Jesus von Nazareth führt hinauf bis zu Adam und Gott selber. Was heute Menschheit ist, was heute im physischen Menschenleibe wohnt, das stieg einst herunter aus göttlich-geistigen Höhen, das ist aus dem Geiste geboren, das war einmal bei Gott. Adam war derjenige, der aus den geistigen Höhen in die Materie heruntergeschickt worden ist; er ist in diesem Sinne der Sohn des Gottes. Es war also einst ein göttlich-geistiges Reich, sagte sich der Schreiber des Lukas-Evangeliums; das verdichtete sich gleichsam zu dem vergänglichen irdischen Reich: Adam entstand. Adam war ein irdisches Abbild des Sohnes des Gottes, und von Adam stammen die Menschen ab, die im physischen Leibe sind. Und in diesem Jesus von Nazareth lebte auf eine besondere Weise nicht nur das, was in jedem Menschen lebt, und was sonst in dem Menschen ist, sondern es lebte in ihm etwas, was man nur finden kann seiner Wesenheit nach, wenn man sich bewußt wird, daß das Wesentliche im Menschen vom Göttlichen abstammt. In dem Jesus von Nazareth ist noch etwas ersichtlich von dieser göttlichen Abstammung. Der Schreiber des Lukas-Evangeliums findet sich daher genötigt zu sagen: Seht euch an den, der durch den Johannes getauft worden ist. Er hat besondere Kennzeichen an sich für das Göttliche, aus dem ursprünglich der Adam abstammt. Das kann sich in ihm erneuern. Wie der Gott herabgestiegen ist in die Materie und als Gott verschwunden ist im Menschengeschlecht, so erscheint er wieder. Die Menschheit konnte in ihrem Innersten, Göttlichen wiedergeboren werden in dem Jesus von Nazareth. — Es wollte der Schreiber des Lukas-Evangeliums sagen: Wenn wir den Stammbaum des Jesus von Nazareth hinaufverfolgen bis zu seinem Ursprung, so finden wir den göttlichen Ursprung und die Eigenschaften des Gottes-Sohnes in ihm in einer erneuerten Weise wieder und mehr, als es in der bisherigen Menschheit sein konnte.
Und der Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums betonte nur noch schärfer, daß in dem Menschen etwas Göttliches lebt, und daß dieses Göttliche in seiner großartigsten Gestalt erschien als der Gott und der Logos selber. Der Gott, der gleichsam in die Materie hinein begraben wurde, wird wiedergeboren als Gott in dem Jesus von Nazareth, das wollten diejenigen sagen, die also ihre Evangelien einleiteten.
Und jene, welche die Weisheit dieser Evangelien fortsetzen wollten, wie sagten sie? Wie sagten die Johannes-Christen? Also sagten sie: Im einzelnen Menschen gibt es ein großes, gewaltiges Ereignis, das man nennen kann die Wiedergeburt des höheren Ich. Wie das Kind aus der Mutter geboren wird, so wird das göttliche Ich geboren aus dem Menschen. Die Initiation, die Erweckung ist möglich, und wenn sie einmal eingetreten ist — so sagten die, welche etwas davon verstanden -, dann wird etwas anderes wichtig als das, was vorher wichtig war. Was da wichtig wird, das wollen wir uns einmal durch einen Vergleich näherbringen.
Denken wir, wir haben einen Menschen vor uns, der siebzig Jahre geworden ist, aber einen erweckten Menschen, der sein höheres Ich gewonnen hat. Und denken wir uns, es wäre im vierzigsten Jahre gewesen, daß er die Wiedergeburt, die Erweckung seines höheren Ich, erlebt hat. Wäre damals jemand an ihn herangetreten und hätte sein Leben beschreiben wollen, so hätte er sich sagen können: Ich habe hier einen Menschen vor mir, der sein höheres Ich eben geboren hat. Das ist derselbe, den ich vor fünf Jahren in dieser Lage, und in jener Lage vor zehn Jahren gekannt habe. - Und wenn er uns hätte darstellen wollen die Identität dieses Menschen, wenn er uns hätte zeigen wollen, daß dieser Mensch einen ganz besonderen Ausgangspunkt schon bei seiner Geburt hatte, dann würde er die Jahre von vierzig zurück in bezug auf sein physisches Dasein verfolgen, und dieses physische Dasein, so wie es in Betracht kommt, beschreiben im Sinne dessen, der vom geisteswissenschaftlichen Standpunkt aus spricht. Mit dem vierzigsten Jahre ist aber in diesem Menschen ein höheres Ich geboren. Von jetzt ab überstrahlt das höhere Ich die ganzen Lebensverhältnisse. Jetzt ist das ein neuer Mensch. Jetzt ist uns nicht mehr wichtig, was vorher da war, jetzt handelt es sich darum, daß wir vor allem erkennen, wie das höhere Ich von Jahr zu Jahr zunimmt und sich weiterentwickelt. Wenn dann dieser Mensch siebzig Jahre alt geworden ist, dann würden wir uns erkundigen, welchen Weg vom vierzigsten bis zum siebzigsten Jahre das höhere Ich durchgemacht hat. Und wichtig würde für uns sein, daß es das echt geistige Ich ist, das er uns in seinem siebzigsten Jahre darbietet, wenn wir uns zu dem bekennen, was damals vor dreißig Jahren in der Seele dieses Menschen geboren worden ist. - So machten es die Evangelienschreiber, und so machten es im Zusammenhange damit die JohannesChristen des Rosenkreuzertums mit dem Wesen, das wir den Christus Jesus nennen.
Die Evangelienschreiber hatten sich die Aufgabe gestellt, zunächst zu zeigen, daß der Christus Jesus seinen Ursprung hat in dem Urgeiste der Welt, in dem Gott selber. Der Gott, der in der ganzen Menschheit verborgen gelebt hat, tritt in dem Christus Jesus besonders hervor. Das ist derselbe Gott, von dem das Johannes-Evangelium sagt, daß er im Urbeginn, von Anfang an da war. Dieses Interesse: zu zeigen, daß eben dieser Gott in dem Jesus von Nazareth war, das hatten die Evangelienschreiber. Diejenigen aber, welche bis in unsere Zeit hinein die urewige Weisheit fortzusetzen hatten, sie hatten jetzt das Interesse, zu zeigen, wie das höhere Ich der Menschen, wie der göttliche Geist der Menschheit, der durch das Ereignis von Palästina in dem Jesus von Nazareth geboren wurde, wie er derselbe geblieben und bewahrt worden ist bei all denen, die das rechte Verständnis dafür gehabt haben.
Wie wir bei dem von uns zum Vergleich gestellten Menschen beschrieben haben, daß er im vierzigsten Jahre sein höheres Ich geboren hat, so haben die Evangelienschreiber den Gott im Menschen beschrieben bis zu dem Ereignis in Palästina: wie sich der Gott entwickelt hat, wie er wiedergeboren ist und so weiter. Diejenigen aber, die zu zeigen hatten, daß sie die Fortsetzer sind der Evangelienschreiber, sie mußten darauf hinweisen, daß das die Zeit ist der Wiedergeburt des höheren Ich, wo man es nur zu tun hat mit dem geistigen Teil, der jetzt alles andere überstrahlt. Die, welche sich Johannes-Christen nannten und das Rosenkreuz zu ihrem Symbolum hatten, die sagten: Gerade das, was für die Menschheit wiedergeboren ist als das Geheimnis von dieser Menschheit höherem Ich, das ist bewahrt worden. Das ist bewahrt worden von jener engeren Gemeinschaft, die von dem Rosenkreuzertum ihren Ausgang genommen hat. Sinnbildlich ist diese Kontinuität angedeutet: Jene heilige Schale, aus welcher der Christus Jesus gegessen und getrunken hat mit seinen Jüngern, die man den «Heiligen Gral» nennt und in der das Blut, das aus der Wunde floß, aufgefangen wurde durch Joseph von Arimathia, sie ist, wie erzählt wird, durch Engel nach Europa gebracht worden. Ihr wurde ein Tempel gebaut, und die Rosenkreuzer wurden die Bewahrer dessen, was da war in dem Gefäße, das heißt dessen, was das Wesen des wiedergeborenen Gottes ausmachte. Das Mysterium von dem wiedergeborenen Gotte waltete in der Menschheit: das ist das Grals-Mysterium.
Das ist das Mysterium, das wie ein neues Evangelium hingestellt wird und von dem gesagt wird: Wir sehen hinauf zu einem solchen Weisen, wie dem Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums, der da sagen konnte: Im Urbeginne war das Wort, und das Wort war bei Gott, und ein Gott war das Wort. Das, was im Urbeginne bei Gott war, das ist wiedergeboren worden bei dem, den wir haben leiden und sterben sehen auf Golgatha, und der auferstanden ist. - Diese Kontinuität des göttlichen Prinzips durch alle Zeiten hindurch, und die Wiedergeburt dieses göttlichen Prinzips, das wollte der Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums darstellen. Aber alle, die solches darstellen wollten, die wußten: Das, was von Anfang an war, ist erhalten geblieben. Im Anfange war das Mysterium vom höheren Menschen-Ich; im Gral war es aufbewahrt; mit dem Gral blieb es verbunden, und im Gral lebt das Ich, das verbunden ist mit dem Ewigen und Unsterblichen wie das niedere Ich mit dem Vergänglichen und Sterblichen. Und wer das Geheimnis des Heiligen Gral kennt, der weiß, daß aus dem Holz des Kreuzes hervorgeht das lebendig sprießende Leben, das unsterbliche Ich, das symbolisiert ist durch die Rosen am schwarzen Kreuzesholz. So ist das Geheimnis des Rosenkreuzes etwas, was wie eine Fortsetzung des JohannesEvangeliums sich ausnehmen kann. Und wir können geradezu in bezug auf das Johannes-Evangelium und das, was es fortsetzt, die folgenden Worte sagen:
«Im Urbeginne war das Wort, und das Wort war bei Gott, und ein Gott war das Wort. Dieses war im Urbeginne bei Gott. Alles ist durch dasselbe geworden, und ohne durch dieses ist nichts von dem Entstandenen geworden. In diesem war das Leben, und das Leben war das Licht der Menschen. Und das Licht schien in die Finsternis, aber die Finsternis hat es nicht begriffen.»
Nur einige der Menschen, die etwas hatten von dem, was nicht aus dem Fleisch geboren ist, die begriffen das Licht, das in die Finsternis schien. Da aber ist das Licht Fleisch geworden und wohnte unter den Menschen in der Gestalt des Jesus von Nazareth.
Nun könnte man ganz im Sinne des Geistes des Johannes-Evangeliums sagen: Und das, was als Christus in dem Jesus von Nazareth lebte, war das höhere göttliche Ich der ganzen Menschheit, des wiedergeborenen, in Adam als in seinem Ebenbilde irdisch gewordenen Gottes. Dieses wiedergeborene Menschen-Ich setzte sich fort als ein heiliges Geheimnis, wurde aufbewahrt unter dem Symbolum des Rosenkreuzes und wird heute verkündet als das Geheimnis des Heiligen Gral, als das Rosenkreuz.
Dasjenige, was in jeder Menschenseele als das höhere Ich geboren werden kann, das weist uns hin auf die Wiedergeburt des göttlichen Ich in der Entwickelung der ganzen Menschheit durch das Ereignis von Palästina. Wie in jedem einzelnen Menschen das höhere Ich geboren wird, so wird in Palästina das höhere Ich der ganzen Menschheit, das göttliche Ich geboren, und es wird erhalten und weiter entwickelt in dem, was sich hinter dem Zeichen des Rosenkreuzes verbirgt. Aber wenn wir des Menschen Entwickelung betrachten, haben wir nicht nur dieses eine große Ereignis, die Wiedergeburt des höheren Ichs, sondern außer diesem einen großen eine Menge kleinerer. Bevor der Mensch sein höheres Ich gebären kann, bevor dieses große, umfassende, durchdringende Erlebnis für die Seele eintreten kann - die Geburt des unsterblichen Ichs im sterblichen -, müssen umfassende Vorstufen durchschritten werden. Der Mensch muß sich in der mannigfaltigsten Weise vorbereiten. Und wenn er in sich das große Erlebnis gehabt hat, durch das er sich sagt: Jetzt fühle ich etwas in mir, jetzt weiß ich etwas in mir, das hinunterschaut auf mein gewöhnliches Ich, wie mein gewöhnliches Ich auf die Sinnesdinge herunterschaut, jetzt bin ich ein Zweites in dem Ersten; jetzt bin ich hinaufgeschritten in diejenigen Reiche, wo ich mit den göttlichen Wesenheiten vereint bin, wenn der Mensch dieses Erlebnis gehabt hat, dann kommen andere, weitere Stufen, die er zu durchschreiten hat, zwar anderer Natur als die Vorstufen, die aber doch auch zu durchschreiten sind.
So haben wir das eine große, einschneidende Ereignis, die Geburt des höheren Ich in jedem individuellen Menschen. Aber auch in der ganzen Menschheit haben wir eine solche Geburt: die Wiedergeburt des göttlichen Ichs. Und dann gibt es vorbereitende Stufen dazu, und Stufen, die auf dieses einschneidende Ereignis folgen müssen. Auf die vorbereitenden Stufen sehen wir zurück von dem Christus-Ereignis aus. Da sehen wir andere große Erscheinungen innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung, sehen, wie es nach und nach herankommt, dieses ChristusEreignis, wie etwa der Schreiber des Lukas-Evangeliums sagte: Erst war ein Gott, ein Geist-Wesen in Geisteshöhen. Es ist heruntergestiegen in die materielle Welt, und es ist Mensch geworden, Menschheit geworden. — In dem Menschen, wie er sich entwickelt, konnte man zwar sehen, daß ihm der Gott zugrunde liegt. Aber den Gott konnte man nicht sehen, wenn man nur mit äußeren physischen Augen die Menschheitsentwickelung ansah. Der Gott war sozusagen hinter der irdisch-physischen Welt, und da sahen ihn diejenigen, die da wußten, wo er ist, die hineinschauen konnten in seine Reiche.
Gehen wir einmal zurück bis in die erste Kultur nach einer großen Katastrophe, bis in die uralt-indische Kultur. Da sehen wir sieben große heilige Lehrer, die man als die heiligen Rischis bezeichnet. Sie weisen hinauf auf ein höheres Wesen, von dem sie sagten: Unsere Weisheit kann dieses hohe Wesen ahnen, aber nicht kann unsere Weisheit dieses hohe Wesen schauen! Die sieben heiligen Rischis sehen viel. Jenseits ihrer Sphäre aber ist dieses hohe Wesen, das sie nannten «Vishva Karman». Und Vishva Karman ist ein Wesen, das zwar die geistige Welt erfüllte, aber jenseits dessen war, was sonst das hellseherische Menschenauge in diesen Zeiten schauen konnte. Dann kam die Kultur, die man benannt hat nach ihrem großen Führer Zarathustra, und Zarathustra saßte zu denen, die er zu führen hatte: Wenn das hellseherische Auge auf die Dinge der Welt sieht, auf die Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tiere und Menschen, so sieht es hinter diesen Dingen allerlei geistige Wesenheiten. Aber dasjenige geistige Wesen, dem der Mensch sein eigentliches Dasein verdankt, das in des Menschen tiefstem Ich einmal leben muß, das sieht man noch nicht, wenn man die Dinge der Erde anschaut, nicht mit physischen und nicht mit hellseherischen Augen. - Wenn aber der Zarathustra seinen hellseherischen Blick zur Sonne hinauf richtete, dann - sagte er - sieht man nicht nur die Sonne, sondern, wie man bei dem Menschen eine den Menschen umgebende Aura sieht, so sieht man bei der Sonne die große Sonnen-Aura, Ahura Mazdao. — Und die große Sonnen-Aura ist es, die einmal auf eine Weise, die später charakterisiert werden soll, den Menschen hervorgebracht hat. Der Mensch ist das Abbild des Sonnengeistes, des Ahura Mazdao. Auf der Erde aber wohnte er noch nicht, der Ahura Mazdao.
Und dann kommt die Zeit, in welcher der hellsichtig werdende Mensch beginnt, in dem, was ihn auf der Erde umgibt, den Ahura Mazdao zu sehen. Der große Moment ist eingetreten, wo das geschehen konnte, was in Zarathustras Zeiten noch nicht möglich war. Wenn Zarathustras hellsichtiges Auge sich öffnete und sehen konnte, was im irdischen Blitz, was im Donner sich kundgab, da war es nicht Ahura Mazdao, war es nicht der große Sonnengeist, der das Urbild der Menschheit ist. Aber wenn er sich zur Sonne wendete, da sah er Ahura Mazdao. — Als Zarathustra in Moses einen Nachfolger gefunden hatte, da öffnete sich des Moses hellseherisches Auge, und er konnte dann sehen im brennenden Dornbusch und im Feuer auf Sinai denjenigen Geist, der sich ihm ankündigte als «Ehjeh ascher ehjeh», als der «Ich bin, der da war, der da ist, der da sein wird», der Jahve oder Jehova. Was war da geschehen?
Seit jener Vorzeit, seit der Erscheinung des Zarathustra, vor der Erscheinung des Moses auf der Erde, war der Geist, der früher nur auf der Sonne war, heruntergewandert zur Erde. Er leuchtete in dem brennenden Dornbusch, leuchtete in dem Feuer von Sinai auf. Er war in den Elementen der Erde. Und noch eine Zeit, und der Geist, den die großen Rischis erahnten, von dem sie aber sagen mußten: Unsere Hellsichtigkeit kann ihn noch nicht sehen, — der Geist, den der Zarathustra auf der Sonne suchen mußte, der im Blitz und Donner dem Moses sich kundgab, war in einem Menschen erschienen, in dem Jesus von Nazareth. Das war die Entwickelung: aus dem Weltenall heruntergestiegen zunächst bis zu den physischen Elementen, dann bis in einen menschlichen Leib hinein; da erst war das göttliche Ich, von dem der Mensch stammte und auf das der Schreiber des Lukas-Evangeliums den Stammbaum des Jesus von Nazareth zurückführt, wiedergeboren. Da war das große Ereignis der Wiedergeburt des Gottes im Menschen eingetreten.
Da sehen wir zurück auf die Vorstufen. Vorstufen also hat auch die Menschheit durchgemacht. Und diejenigen, die mit der Menschheit fortgeschritten waren als ihre früheren Führer, auch sie mußten diese Vorstufen durchmachen, bis einer von ihnen so weit gekommen war, daß er der Träger des Christus werden konnte. So sehen wir, wie sich vor einer geistigen Betrachtung die Entwickelung der Menschheit darstellt.
Und noch etwas anderes ist wichtig. Was die heiligen Rischis als Vishva Karman verehrten, was Zarathustra als den Ahura Mazdao der Sonne ansprach, was Moses als «ehjeh ascher ehjeh» verehrte, das mußte in einem einzelnen Menschen, in dem Jesus von Nazareth, in begrenzter irdischer Menschlichkeit erscheinen. So weit mußte es kommen. Aber daß in einem solchen Menschen, wie es der Jesus von Nazareth war, diese hohe Wesenheit wohnen konnte, dazu war Mannigfaltiges notwendig. Dazu mußte der Jesus von Nazareth selbst schon auf einer hohen Stufe stehen. Nicht ein jeder Mensch konnte der Träger eines solchen Wesens werden, das in die Welt kommt in der geschilderten Weise.
Nun wissen wir, die wir an die Geisteswissenschaft herangetreten sind, daß es eine Wiederverkörperung gibt. Daher müssen wir uns sagen, daß der Jesus von Nazareth — nicht der Christus - viele Verkörperungen hinter sich hatte, und daß er über mannigfaltigste Stufen in den früheren Verkörperungen hinweggeschritten war, bevor er Jesus von Nazareth werden konnte. Das heißt nichts anderes als: Jesus von Nazareth selber mußte ein hoher Eingeweihter werden, bevor er der Christus-Träger werden konnte. Wenn nun ein hoher Eingeweihter geboren wird, wie unterscheidet sich da eine solche Geburt und das nachherige Leben von der Geburt und dem nachherigen Leben eines gewöhnlichen Menschen? Im allgemeinen kann man annehmen, daß der Mensch, wenn er geboren wird, wenn auch nur annähernd, nach dem gestaltet ist, was von einer früheren Verkörperung kommt. So ist es aber nicht bei einem Eingeweihten. Der Eingeweihte könnte kein Führer der Menschheit sein, wenn er nur das in seinem Innern hätte, was ganz dem Äußeren entspricht. Denn sein Äußeres muß der Mensch aufbauen nach den Verhältnissen der äußeren Umgebung. Wenn ein Eingeweihter geboren wird, muß in seinen Körper hinein eine hohe Seele kommen, die schon in früheren Zeiten Gewaltiges in der Welt erlebt hat. Daher ist bei allen solchen die Sage, daß ihre Geburt in anderer Weise erfolgte als bei anderen Menschen. Warum und wie?
Die Frage «Warum?» haben wir eben schon berührt: weil ein umfassendes Ich, das früher schon Bedeutsamstes durchgemacht hat, sich mit dem Leib verbindet. Aber der Leib kann anfangs nicht das aufnehmen, was sich als die geistige Natur in diesen Leib verkörpern will. Daher ist es bei einer Wesenheit, die als ein hoher Eingeweihter in einen vergänglichen Menschen hinein verkörpert wird, notwendig, daß mehr als bei einem-anderen Menschen das sich wiederverkörpernde Ich von vornherein die physische Gestalt umschwebt. Während bei einem gewöhnlichen Menschen die physische Gestalt bald nach der Geburt ähnlich ist und angepaßt ist der geistigen Gestalt oder der menschlichen Aura, ist die menschliche Aura eines Eingeweihten, der wiedergeboren wird, leuchtend. Es ist der geistige Teil, der ankündigt, daß hier mehr vorhanden ist, als man im gewöhnlichen Sinne sehen kann. Was kündigt dieses Geistige an? Es kündigt an, daß nicht nur in der physischen Welt ein Kind geboren ist, sondern daß in der geistigen Welt etwas vorgegangen ist! Das wollen die Erzählungen sagen, die an alle wiedergeborenen Eingeweihten sich anschließen: Nicht nur ein Kind wird geboren; sondern in dem Geistigen wird etwas geboren, was nicht umfaßt werden kann durch das, was da unten geboren wird. — Wer erkennt aber das? Nurderjenige erkennt es,der selber ein hellsichtiges Auge für die geistige Welt hat. Daher wird erzählt, daß bei der Geburt des Buddha ein Eingeweihter erkannte, daß hier ein anderes Ereignis vorging als sonst bei der Geburt eines Menschen. Daher wird von dem Jesus von Nazareth erzählt, daß ihn erst einmal der Täufer vorherzuverkündigen hatte.
Wer einen Einblick in die geistigen Welten hat, der weiß, daß der Eingeweihte kommen muß und wiedergeboren wird, und er weiß, daß das ein Ereignis in der geistigen Welt ist. Das wußten aber auch die drei Könige aus dem Morgenlande, die da gekommen sind, um zu opfern bei der Geburt des Jesus von Nazareth. Und dasselbe wird auch dargestellt durch den eingeweihten Priester im Tempel, der da sagt: Jetzt mag ich gerne sterben, nachdem meine Augen denjenigen gesehen haben, der das Heil der Menschheit sein wird!
So sehen wir, daß wir hier genau zu unterscheiden haben: Wir haben einen hohen Eingeweihten, der wiedergeboren wird als Jesus von Nazareth, von dessen Geburt gesagt werden muß: Es wird ein Kind geboren. Aber mit diesem Kinde erscheint etwas, was nicht umfaßt werden wird durch den physischen Leib des Kindes. — Und dann haben wir mit diesem Jesus von Nazareth zugleich etwas gegeben, was in der geistigen Welt eine Bedeutung hat, was erst nach und nach diesen Leib hinauf entwickeln wird bis zu einem Punkt, wo dieser Leib reif sein wird für diesen Geist. Als aber dieser Leib reif war für diesen Geist, da ist auch das Ereignis geschehen, wo der Täufer herantritt an den Jesus von Nazareth, und wo ein höherer Geist sich heruntersenkt, mit dem Jesus von Nazareth sich verbindet, wo der Christus in den Jesus von Nazareth einzieht. Da aber kann derjenige, der als der Täufer der Vorläufer des Christus Jesus war, sagen: Ich trat in die Welt. Ich war derjenige, der einem Höheren den Weg bereitet hat. Ich habe mit meinem äußeren Munde verkündet, daß das Gottesreich, das Reich der Himmel nahe ist, daß die Menschen den Sinn ändern sollen. Ich bin unter die Menschen getreten und habe davon sprechen können, daß ein besonderer Impuls in die Menschheit kommen wird. Wie die Sonne im Frühling weiter heraufgeht, um zu verkündigen, daß etwas Neues aufsprießt, so bin ich erschienen, um zu verkündigen dasjenige, was da aufsprießt in der Menschheit als das wiedergeborene Menschheits-Ich!
Da aber, als das Menschliche in dem Jesus von Nazareth am höchsten gestiegen war, so daß der menschliche Leib des Jesus von Nazareth ein Ausdruck des Geistes des Jesus von Nazareth war, da wurde er auch reif, in der Johannes-Taufe den Christus in sich aufzunehmen. Der Leib des Jesus von Nazareth war entfaltet wie die helle Sonne am Johannistage im Juni. Das war vorherverkündet worden. Dann sollte der Geist aus dem Dunkel heraus geboren werden wie die Sonne, die bis zum Johannistage immer mehr und mehr an Kraft gewinnt, immer wächst und wächst und dann beginnt abzunehmen. So war das, was der Täufer zu verkündigen hatte. Er hatte zu verkündigen, wie die Sonne heraufzieht in immer höherem Glanz bis zu dem Punkte, wo er sagen konnte: Derjenige, den die alten Propheten verheißen haben, der aus den geistigen Reichen heraus der Sohn der geistigen Reiche genannt worden ist, er ist erschienen! — Bis zu dem Punkte hat Johannes der Täufer gewirkt. Dann aber, wenn die Tage wieder kürzer werden, wenn das Dunkel wieder überhandnimmt, dann soll durch die Vorbereitungen das innere Geisteslicht leuchten, soll immer heller und heller werden, wie der Christus in dem Jesus von Nazareth aufleuchtet.
So sah der Johannes den Jesus von Nazareth herankommen. Und er empfand das Heranwachsen des Jesus von Nazareth als sein eigenes Abnehmen, und wie das Zunehmen der Sonne. Ich werde von jetzt an abnehmen, sagt er, wie die Sonne vom Johannistage an abnimmt. Er aber wird zunehmen, er, die geistige Sonne, und aus der Verfinsterung heraus leuchten! — So hat er sich angekündigt. So hat begonnen die Wiedergeburt des Menschheits-Ich, von der die Wiedergeburt eines jeden individuellen höheren menschlichen Ich in der Menschheit abhängt.
Damit ist das wichtigste Ereignis in der Entwickelung des einzelnen Menschen charakterisiert: die Wiedergeburt dessen, was als Unsterbliches aus dem gewöhnlichen Ich hervorgehen kann. Sie ist geknüpft an das größte Ereignis, an das Christus-Ereignis, dem nun die folgenden Stunden gewidmet sein sollen.
First Lecture
On this day of the year, a certain festival was celebrated by a large part of the striving humanity. And those of us here in this city who call ourselves friends of the anthroposophical movement have attached a certain importance to this series of lectures beginning on this very day, St. John's Day. The day of the year designated for this celebration was already a festival in ancient Persia. On a day corresponding roughly to a day in June today, the festival of the so-called baptism of water and fire was celebrated. In ancient Rome, the festival of Vesta was celebrated on a similar day in June; this was in turn the festival of baptism by fire. And if we go back to the time of European culture before Christianity and to those times when Christianity was not yet widespread, we find again such a June festival, a festival that coincided with the time when the days were longest, the nights became shortest, when the days began to shorten again, when the sun began to lose some of the power it gives to all growth and prosperity on earth. Like a decline, a gradual disappearance of the god Baldur, who was associated with the sun, this June festival appeared to our European ancestors. And in Christian times, this June festival gradually became the feast of St. John, celebrating the precursor of Christ Jesus. Thus, it can also become for us, in a sense, the starting point for the reflections we wish to make over the next few days on this most significant event in human development, which we call the deed of Christ Jesus. This deed, its entire significance for human development, and how it is presented first in the most important Christian document, the Gospel of John, and then in comparison with the other Gospels, will be the subject of this series of lectures. St. John's Day reminds us that this greatest individuality who took part in human evolution was preceded by a forerunner. This brings us straight to an important point which we must also consider as a kind of forerunner at the starting point of our lectures. In the course of human evolution, deeply significant events occur again and again, shedding a stronger light than other events. From epoch to epoch, we see how such essential events are recorded in history. And again and again we are told that there are people who, in a certain relationship, can foresee and foretell such events. This makes it clear that these events are not arbitrary, but that those who see into the whole meaning and spirit of human history know how such events must come about and how they themselves must work, must work preparatory, so that they can occur.
In the next few days, we will talk more about the forerunner of Christ Jesus. Today, we will just look at him from the point of view that he was one of those who, through special spiritual gifts, could see deeper into the context of human development and therefore knew that there are special points within this human development. That's why he was the right person to pave the way for Christ Jesus. But when we look at Christ Jesus himself, in order to come straight to the main subject of our consideration, so to speak, we must realize that it is truly not without reason that a large part of humanity divides the calendar into an epoch before the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth and an epoch after it. In this way, this part of humanity shows that it has a sense of the decisive significance of the Christ Mystery. But what is true, what is real, must be proclaimed again and again in new forms and in new ways to humanity. For the needs of humanity change from time to time. In a certain sense, our time needs a new proclamation of this greatest event in the earthly evolution of humanity, the Christ event, and anthroposophy aims to be this proclamation.
This anthroposophical proclamation of the mystery of Christ is nothing new in terms of content, not even for us. But it is something new in terms of form. For what will be spoken here in the next few days has been spoken for centuries in smaller circles within our culture and our spiritual life. The only thing that distinguishes today's proclamation from all previous ones is that it is allowed to speak to a wider circle. The smaller circles in which the same proclamation has been heard for centuries within our European spiritual life recognized the same sign that you see here [in the lecture hall], the Rosicrucians, as their symbol. And so now, when this proclamation is presented to a wider audience in our time, the Rosy Cross may once again be regarded as the symbol of this proclamation. Let me first characterize symbolically the basis of this Rosicrucian proclamation about Christ Jesus.
The Rosicrucians are a community that has cultivated a spiritual, a genuine spiritual Christianity within European spiritual life since the fourteenth century. This Rosicrucian society, which, apart from all external historical forms, sought to reveal the deepest truth of Christianity to its followers, always called its followers “Johannes Christians.” When we understand the expression “John Christians,” we will be able to grasp, if not with our intellect, then at least intuitively, the whole spirit and attitude of the following lectures.
You know that the Gospel of John, this powerful document of the human race, begins with the words: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1).
The Word—or the Logos—was therefore with God in the beginning. And it goes on to say that the light shone in the darkness, and that the darkness did not comprehend the light; that this light was in the world, that it was among men, but that only a small number of these men were able to comprehend the light. Then the Word became flesh and appeared as a human being, in a human being whose forerunner was John the Baptist. And now we see how those who have understood something of the meaning of this appearance of Christ on earth strive to make clear to themselves what Christ actually is, and how the writer of the Gospel of John immediately points out that what what lived in Jesus of Nazareth as his deepest essence was nothing other than that from which all other beings around us arose — that it was the living Spirit, the living Word, the Logos itself.
But the other evangelists, each in his own way, also endeavored to describe what actually appeared in Jesus of Nazareth. We see, for example, how the writer of the Gospel of Luke endeavors to show how something very special appeared when, through the baptism of Christ Jesus by John the Baptist, the Spirit united with the body of Jesus of Nazareth. And then the writer of the Gospel of Luke goes on to show us how this Jesus of Nazareth is the descendant of ancestors who reach far, far back. We are told that the family tree of Jesus of Nazareth goes back to David, to Abraham, to Adam, even to God Himself. Mind you, the Gospel of Luke points out everywhere that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of Joseph, Joseph was the son of Eli, who was the son of Matthat..., then: he was the son of David, and further on it says: he was the son of Adam, and Adam was God's! This means that the writer of the Gospel of Luke attaches particular importance to the fact that this Jesus of Nazareth, with whom the Spirit united at the baptism of John, has a direct line of descent back to the one whom he calls the father of Adam, God. Such things must be taken literally.
In the Gospel of Matthew, an attempt is made to trace this Jesus of Nazareth back through his family tree to Abraham, to whom God revealed himself.
Through this, and through many other things, through many words that we can find in the Gospels, the individuality that is the bearer of Christ and the whole appearance of Christ are presented as something that is not only one of the greatest, but the greatest of all appearances in human evolution. This expresses in no uncertain terms what can be said in simple words as follows: If Christ Jesus is regarded by those who sense his greatness as the most important manifestation in the evolution of humanity on earth, then this Christ Jesus must somehow be connected with the most essential and most sacred in human beings themselves. There must therefore be something within human beings themselves that can be directly related to the Christ event. Could we not then ask the question: If Christ Jesus really is, according to the Gospels, the most important event in human evolution, must there not be something in every human soul that relates to Christ Jesus?
This is also what was most important and essential to the John Christians of the Rosicrucian societies: that something can be found in every human soul that is directly related to what happened in Palestine through Christ Jesus. And if Christ Jesus can be called the greatest event for humanity, then what corresponds to the Christ event must also be the greatest and most significant thing in the human soul. What can that be? The disciples of the Rosicrucians answered this question as follows: For every human soul there is something that can be described with the words “awakening” or “rebirth” or “initiation.” Let us see what is meant by these words.
When we look at the various things around us that our eyes see and our hands touch, we see how these things come into being and pass away. We see how a flower comes into being and passes away, how the entire vegetation of the year rises and falls again. And even though there are things in the world, such as mountains and rocks, that seem to defy the centuries, the proverb “constant dripping wears away the stone” expresses the human soul's intuition that even the majestic rocks and mountains are subject to the laws of transience. And man knows that what is built up from the elements arises and passes away; what arises and passes away is not only what man calls his physical body, but what he calls his “transient ego.” But those who know how to enter a spiritual world also know that although man does not enter this spiritual world through his eyes, ears, and other senses, he can reach it through the path of awakening, rebirth, and initiation. And what is reborn?
When a person looks within himself, he finally comes to say: What I encounter within myself is what I call “I.” This “I” is already distinguished from all things in the external world by its name. To every thing in the external world, one can add a name from outside: everyone can say “table” to the table and “clock” to the clock. But the name “I” can never sound to our ears if it is meant to refer to ourselves, for “I” must be spoken inwardly. For everyone else, we are a “you.” This alone shows us how this I-being differs from everything else in and around us. But now comes what spiritual researchers of all ages have emphasized again and again for humanity from their own experiences: that within this I, another, higher I is born, born like a child from its mother.
When we encounter a human being in their life, we can say: we first see them as a child, clumsy in relation to their external environment, looking at things, then gradually learning to understand them, gradually becoming intelligent and growing in intellect and will; we see how the human being increases in strength and energy. But there are people who do not only grow in this way; there have always been people who attain a higher level of development than the ordinary, who come to find, so to speak, a second self that is able to say “you” to the first self, just as the self says “you” to the outside world and to its body, looking down, as it were, on this first self.
This is the ideal before the human soul, and it becomes a reality for those who follow the instructions of spiritual researchers and say to themselves: The self that I have known up to now participates in the whole external world; it is transitory, like the external world. But within me there slumbers a second self, of which people are not aware, but of which they can become aware, which is just as connected with the imperishable as the first self is connected with the perishable and temporal. And with rebirth, this higher self can look into a spiritual world just as the lower self can look into the sensory world through the senses—the eyes, ears, and so on. What is called awakening, rebirth, initiation, is the greatest event in the human soul, even according to those who called themselves Rosicrucians. They knew that this event of the rebirth of the higher self, which can look down on the lower self as the human being looks at external forms, must be connected with the event of Christ Jesus. This means that just as rebirth can take place for the individual human being within his or her development, so rebirth has taken place for the whole of humanity with Christ Jesus. What is an inner, mystical-spiritual event for the individual human being, what he can experience as the birth of his higher self, has occurred in the outer world, in history, with the event in Palestine through Christ Jesus for the whole of humanity.
How did this appear, for example, to someone like the person who wrote the Gospel of Luke? He could say to himself: The family tree of Jesus of Nazareth goes back to Adam and God Himself. What is humanity today, what dwells today in the physical human body, once descended from divine-spiritual heights, was born of the Spirit, was once with God. Adam was the one who was sent down from the spiritual heights into matter; in this sense, he is the Son of God. So there was once a divine-spiritual realm, said the writer of the Gospel of Luke; this condensed, as it were, into the transitory earthly realm: Adam came into being. Adam was an earthly image of the Son of God, and from Adam descended the human beings who are in the physical body. And in this Jesus of Nazareth, not only did that which lives in every human being and which else is in the human being live in a special way, but there was something living in him which can only be found in its essence if one becomes conscious that the essential in the human being comes from the divine. In Jesus of Nazareth, something of this divine descent is still evident. The writer of the Gospel of Luke therefore feels compelled to say: Look at the one who was baptized by John. He has special characteristics that point to the divine from which Adam originally descended. This can be renewed in him. Just as God descended into matter and disappeared as God in the human race, so he appears again. Humanity could be reborn in its innermost, divine nature in Jesus of Nazareth. The writer of the Gospel of Luke wanted to say: If we trace the family tree of Jesus of Nazareth back to its origin, we find the divine origin and the characteristics of the Son of God in him in a renewed form and more than could have been possible in humanity up to that point.
And the writer of the Gospel of John emphasized even more sharply that something divine lives in human beings, and that this divine appeared in its most magnificent form as God and the Logos himself. The God who was, as it were, buried in matter is reborn as God in Jesus of Nazareth, that is what those who began their Gospels in this way wanted to say.
And what did those who wanted to continue the wisdom of these Gospels say? What did the Christians of John say? They said: In each individual human being there is a great, powerful event that can be called the rebirth of the higher self. Just as the child is born from the mother, so the divine self is born from the human being. The initiation, the awakening, is possible, and once it has taken place — so said those who understood something of it — then something else becomes important than what was important before. Let us try to understand what becomes important by means of a comparison.
Let us imagine that we have before us a person who has reached the age of seventy, but who is an awakened person who has gained his higher self. And let us imagine that it was in his fortieth year that he experienced rebirth, the awakening of his higher self. If someone had approached him at that time and wanted to describe his life, he could have said: I have here before me a human being who has just given birth to his higher self. This is the same person I knew five years ago in this situation, and ten years ago in that situation. And if he had wanted to describe to us the identity of this person, if he had wanted to show us that this person had a very special starting point at birth, then he would have traced back the forty years of his physical existence and described this physical existence, as it appears, from the point of view of spiritual science. But at the age of forty, a higher self was born in this person. From now on, the higher self outshines all the circumstances of life. Now this is a new person. Now it is no longer important to us what was there before; now it is important that we recognize above all how the higher self grows and develops from year to year. When this person has reached the age of seventy, we would then inquire what path the higher self has taken from the age of forty to the age of seventy. And it would be important for us that it is the genuine spiritual self that he presents to us in his seventieth year, if we acknowledge what was born in this person's soul thirty years ago. This is what the Gospel writers did, and this is what the John Christians of the Rosicrucian movement did in connection with the being we call Christ Jesus.
The Gospel writers set themselves the task of first showing that Christ Jesus has his origin in the primordial spirit of the world, in God Himself. The God who has lived hidden in all humanity comes forth especially in Christ Jesus. This is the same God of whom the Gospel of John says that He was there in the beginning, from the very beginning. The Gospel writers were interested in showing that this very God was in Jesus of Nazareth. But those who had to continue the eternal wisdom into our time now had an interest in showing how the higher self of human beings, how the divine spirit of humanity, which was born in Jesus of Nazareth through the events in Palestine, remained the same and was preserved in all those who had the right understanding of it.
Just as we have described in the man we have set up for comparison that he was born into his higher self at the age of forty, so the Gospel writers described God in man up to the event in Palestine: how God developed, how he was reborn, and so on. But those who had to show that they were the continuators of the Gospel writers had to point out that this is the time of the rebirth of the higher self, when one has to deal only with the spiritual part, which now outshines everything else. Those who called themselves John Christians and had the Rosicrucians as their symbol said: Precisely that which has been reborn for humanity as the mystery of this higher self of humanity has been preserved. This has been preserved by that inner circle which originated from Rosicrucianism. This continuity is symbolically indicated: the holy chalice from which Christ Jesus ate and drank with his disciples, which is called the “Holy Grail” and in which the blood that flowed from the wound was collected by Joseph of Arimathea, is said to have been brought to Europe by angels. A temple was built for it, and the Rosicrucians became the guardians of what was in the vessel, that is, of what constituted the essence of the reborn God. The mystery of the reborn God reigned in humanity: this is the mystery of the Grail.
This is the mystery that is presented as a new gospel and of which it is said: We look up to such a wise man as the writer of the Gospel of John, who was able to say: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That which was with God in the beginning has been reborn in the one whom we saw suffer and die on Golgotha, and who rose again. The writer of the Gospel of John wanted to portray this continuity of the divine principle throughout all ages and the rebirth of this divine principle. But all who wanted to portray this knew that what was from the beginning has been preserved. In the beginning was the mystery of the higher human ego; it was preserved in the Grail; it remained connected with the Grail, and in the Grail lives the ego, which is connected with the eternal and immortal, just as the lower ego is connected with the transitory and mortal. And whoever knows the secret of the Holy Grail knows that from the wood of the cross springs forth the living, sprouting life, the immortal I, symbolized by the roses on the black wood of the cross. Thus, the secret of the Rosicrucians is something that can be seen as a continuation of the Gospel of John. And we can say the following words in relation to the Gospel of John and what it continues:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made through it, and without it nothing was made that has been made. In it was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Only some of the people who had something that was not born of the flesh understood the light that shone in the darkness. But then the light became flesh and dwelt among men in the form of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, in keeping with the spirit of John's Gospel, one could say: And that which lived as Christ in Jesus of Nazareth was the higher divine I of all humanity, of God reborn in Adam as his image made earthly. This reborn human I continued as a sacred mystery, was preserved under the symbol of the Rosicrucians, and is proclaimed today as the mystery of the Holy Grail, as the Rosicrucians.
That which can be born in every human soul as the higher self points us to the rebirth of the divine self in the development of the whole of humanity through the events in Palestine. Just as the higher self is born in every individual human being, so in Palestine the higher self of the whole of humanity, the divine self, is born, and it is preserved and further developed in what lies behind the symbol of the Rosicrucians. But when we consider human development, we have not only this one great event, the rebirth of the higher self, but besides this one great event, a multitude of smaller ones. Before human beings can give birth to their higher self, before this great, comprehensive, penetrating experience can occur for the soul—the birth of the immortal self in the mortal—comprehensive preliminary stages must be passed through. Human beings must prepare themselves in the most varied ways. And when they have had the great experience within themselves that makes them say: Now I feel something within me, now I know something within me that looks down on my ordinary self, just as my ordinary self looks down on the things of the senses, now I am a second being within the first; now I have ascended into those realms where I am united with the divine beings, when human beings have had this experience, then other, further stages follow which they must pass through, stages which are of a different nature from the preliminary stages, but which must nevertheless be passed through.
Thus we have one great, decisive event, the birth of the higher self in each individual human being. But we also have such a birth in the whole of humanity: the rebirth of the divine self. And then there are preparatory stages for this, and stages that must follow this decisive event. We look back on the preparatory stages from the Christ event. There we see other great phenomena within human evolution, we see how this Christ event gradually approaches, as the writer of the Gospel of Luke said: First there was a God, a spirit being in the spiritual heights. He descended into the material world and became human, became humanity. In the way human beings developed, it was possible to see that God was at their foundation. But God could not be seen if one looked at human development with only the outer physical eyes. God was, so to speak, behind the earthly physical world, and those who knew where He was, who could look into His realms, saw Him there.
Let us go back to the first culture after a great catastrophe, to the ancient Indian culture. There we see seven great holy teachers, who are called the holy Rishis. They point to a higher being, of whom they said: Our wisdom can sense this high being, but our wisdom cannot see this high being! The seven holy Rishis see much. But beyond their sphere is this higher being, whom they called “Vishva Karman.” And Vishva Karman is a being who filled the spiritual world, but was beyond what the clairvoyant human eye could see in those times. Then came the culture named after its great leader Zarathustra, and Zarathustra sat down among those he was to lead: When the clairvoyant eye looks at the things of the world, at minerals, plants, animals, and human beings, it sees all kinds of spiritual beings behind these things. But the spiritual being to whom man owes his actual existence, which must once live in the deepest self of man, cannot yet be seen when one looks at the things of the earth, neither with physical eyes nor with clairvoyant eyes. But when Zarathustra turned his clairvoyant gaze toward the sun, he said, one sees not only the sun, but just as one sees an aura surrounding human beings, so one sees the great sun aura, Ahura Mazdao. And it is the great sun aura that once brought human beings into being in a way that will be characterized later. Man is the image of the sun spirit, Ahura Mazdao. But Ahura Mazdao did not yet dwell on earth.
And then comes the time when clairvoyant man begins to see Ahura Mazdao in what surrounds him on earth. The great moment has come when what was not yet possible in Zarathustra's time can now happen. When Zarathustra's clairvoyant eye opened and he could see what was revealed in the earthly lightning and thunder, it was not Ahura Mazdao, it was not the great sun spirit who is the archetype of humanity. But when he turned toward the sun, he saw Ahura Mazdao. When Zarathustra found a successor in Moses, Moses' clairvoyant eye opened, and he could then see in the burning bush and in the fire on Sinai the spirit who announced himself as “Ehjeh ascher ehjeh,” as “I am who was, who is, and who will be,” Jahve or Jehovah. What had happened there?
Since that time, since the appearance of Zarathustra, before the appearance of Moses on earth, the spirit that had previously been only in the sun had descended to earth. It shone in the burning bush, shone in the fire on Mount Sinai. It was in the elements of the earth. And after a while, the spirit that the great Rishis sensed, but of which they had to say, “Our clairvoyance cannot yet see it” — the spirit that Zarathustra had to seek on the sun, that revealed itself to Moses in lightning and thunder — appeared in a human being, in Jesus of Nazareth. That was the development: descending from the universe first to the physical elements, then into a human body; only then was the divine I, from which man originated and to which the writer of the Gospel of Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth, reborn. There the great event of the rebirth of God in man had taken place.
We look back on the preliminary stages. Humanity also went through preliminary stages. And those who had advanced with humanity as its earlier leaders also had to go through these preliminary stages until one of them had progressed so far that he could become the bearer of Christ. Thus we see how the development of humanity appears when viewed spiritually.
And there is something else that is important. What the holy Rishis revered as Vishva Karman, what Zarathustra addressed as the Ahura Mazdao of the sun, what Moses revered as “ehjeh ascher ehjeh,” had to appear in a single human being, in Jesus of Nazareth, in limited earthly humanity. It had to come to this. But for such a high being to dwell in a human being such as Jesus of Nazareth, many things were necessary. Jesus of Nazareth himself had to be on a high level. Not every human being could become the bearer of such a being who comes into the world in the manner described.
Now we who have approached spiritual science know that reincarnation exists. Therefore, we must say that Jesus of Nazareth—not the Christ—had many incarnations behind him and that he had passed through the most varied stages in his earlier incarnations before he could become Jesus of Nazareth. This means nothing other than that Jesus of Nazareth himself had to become a highly initiated being before he could become the bearer of Christ. When a highly initiated being is born, how does such a birth and the subsequent life differ from the birth and subsequent life of an ordinary human being? In general, one can assume that when a human being is born, he is shaped, at least approximately, according to what comes from a previous incarnation. But this is not the case with an initiate. The initiate could not be a leader of humanity if he had only that within him which corresponds entirely to the outer world. For human beings must build up their outer appearance according to the conditions of their external environment. When an initiate is born, a high soul must enter his body, a soul that has already experienced great things in the world in earlier times. That is why it is said of all such people that their birth took place in a different way than that of other human beings. Why and how?
We have already touched on the question “Why?” because a comprehensive I, which has already gone through the most significant experiences, connects itself with the body. But in the beginning, the body cannot take in what wants to embody itself as spiritual nature in this body. Therefore, in the case of a being who is incarnated into a transitory human being as a highly initiated person, it is necessary that the reincarnating ego surrounds the physical form from the outset more than in other people. While in an ordinary human being the physical form is similar and adapted to the spiritual form or the human aura soon after birth, the human aura of an initiate who is reborn is luminous. It is the spiritual part that announces that there is more here than can be seen in the ordinary sense. What does this spiritual aspect announce? It announces that not only has a child been born in the physical world, but that something has happened in the spiritual world! This is what the stories that follow all reborn initiates want to say: Not only is a child born, but something is born in the spiritual realm that cannot be comprehended by what is born down here. But who recognizes this? Only those who themselves have a clairvoyant eye for the spiritual world can recognize it. That is why it is said that at the birth of the Buddha, an initiate recognized that something different was happening here than at the birth of a human being. That is why it is said of Jesus of Nazareth that he first had to be announced by the Baptist.
Those who have insight into the spiritual worlds know that the initiate must come and be reborn, and they know that this is an event in the spiritual world. But this was also known by the three kings from the East who came to offer sacrifices at the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. And the same thing is also represented by the initiated priest in the temple, who says: Now I am ready to die, after my eyes have seen the one who will be the salvation of mankind!
So we see that we have to distinguish very carefully here: we have a highly initiated person who is reborn as Jesus of Nazareth, of whose birth it must be said: A child is born. But with this child there appears something that cannot be encompassed by the physical body of the child. And then, with this Jesus of Nazareth, we have at the same time something that has a meaning in the spiritual world, something that will gradually develop this body upward to a point where this body will be ripe for this spirit. But when this body was ripe for this spirit, the event took place where the Baptist approached Jesus of Nazareth, and where a higher spirit descended and united itself with Jesus of Nazareth, where Christ entered into Jesus of Nazareth. But then the one who was the forerunner of Christ Jesus as the Baptist can say: I entered the world. I was the one who prepared the way for a higher being. With my outer mouth I proclaimed that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is near, that people should change their ways. I came among men and was able to speak of a special impulse coming into humanity. Just as the sun rises higher in the spring to proclaim that something new is sprouting, so I appeared to proclaim what is sprouting in humanity as the reborn human ego!
But when the human nature in Jesus of Nazareth had risen to its highest point, so that the human body of Jesus of Nazareth was an expression of the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, he also became ready to receive Christ into himself at the baptism of John. The body of Jesus of Nazareth was unfolded like the bright sun on St. John's Day in June. This had been foretold. Then the spirit was to be born out of darkness like the sun, which gains more and more strength until St. John's Day, growing and growing and then beginning to wane. This was what the Baptist had to proclaim. He had to proclaim how the sun rises in ever greater splendor until the point where he could say: The one whom the ancient prophets promised, who was called the Son of the spiritual realms from the spiritual realms, has appeared! — Up to this point, John the Baptist had worked. But then, when the days grow shorter again, when darkness gains the upper hand, the inner spiritual light will shine through the preparations, becoming brighter and brighter, as Christ shines forth in Jesus of Nazareth.
This is how John saw Jesus of Nazareth approaching. And he felt the growth of Jesus of Nazareth as his own decline, and as the increase of the sun. From now on, he says, I will decrease, as the sun decreases from St. John's Day onwards. But he will increase, he, the spiritual sun, and shine out of the darkness! — Thus he announced himself. Thus began the rebirth of the human I, on which the rebirth of every individual higher human I in humanity depends.
This characterizes the most important event in the development of the individual human being: the rebirth of that which can emerge as immortal from the ordinary ego. It is linked to the greatest event, the Christ event, to which the following hours are now to be devoted.