The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. The Return of Christ in the Etheric Realm

Notes from the lecture

[ 1 ] People who live in abstract concepts and have no particular inclination to engage with spiritual life in its reality very often speak, when discussing the course of human development, of there having been a transitional epoch here or there. The spiritual researcher must not be so generous with the phrase “we are living in a transitional period.” Anyone who truly observes spiritual life must know that such times of transition occur, as well as times when the course of development proceeds more evenly. In this sense, we can indeed say that we are living in a spiritual transitional period. Some of what is taking place within it will be the subject of our consideration today.

[ 2 ] Every process of development, whether that of the individual between birth and death or the evolution of the planets, always contains currents; it does not proceed in a straight line. Even in an individual life, we must distinguish between two currents. You can already find one of these currents in the upbringing of a child. This is discussed in the booklet The Upbringing of the Child from the Point of View of Spiritual Science and also in the second part of the recently published Outline of Esoteric Science. In fact, a human being experiences several births. First, the physical birth. Here, only what we call the physical body is born. Until then, it was enveloped by the physical mother’s womb. This first state lasts until the age of seven. Until then, the child is surrounded by the etheric body. Now, until about the age of puberty, the human being is also freed from this body, and then the astral body is born. At the age of twenty-one, the ego is born.

[ 3 ] When we consider this development, we can say that it takes place in every human being according to certain laws. Certain guidelines can be followed in this process, which are outlined in the small treatise The Education of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science, and it is beneficial to follow them. But now comes what is individual to each person: this is an inner current that runs parallel to the first current. The second takes place within the first. This second current encompasses everything from past lives and from one’s own experiences. The difference between the outer and inner currents of development can be recognized in every person, especially in those with significant character traits.

[ 4 ] Petöfi is a Hungarian poet. His compatriots saw something very special in him. His Hungarian identity is expressed in his lyrical poems. Through them, one comes to understand the Hungarian way of thinking, feeling, and acting. If one looks into this more closely, one learns that his name was not Petöfi at all; rather, his father was Serbian and his mother Croatian. There was nothing Magyar in him. What developed in him was not Hungarian: that was his external development. Then there is his inner development, which reflects what is present from earlier lives: Hungarian in essence.

[ 5 ] Another example is the German painter Asmus Carstens. He had an unbridled urge to paint. If you have the chance to see his work, you’ll say: “This is the work of someone who can’t paint at all.” — But his individuality is evident in his paintings. He wanted to study painting under a famous artist, but when the artist went out, he was supposed to drive the carriage. He didn’t want to do that and left. He then became an apprentice to a wine merchant and had to wash barrels. Later, he went to Copenhagen. There, he was not accepted into the academy: he was said to be too old. — So he never learned to paint, has no sense of color, but what he created has become something significant for art. This is an example of such cases where there is a special urge from past lives, but external circumstances are not favorable to its development.

[ 6 ] We must apply such findings from spiritual research to our lives if we wish to approach life correctly; otherwise, life itself might prove that we have failed in some way. For example: A particular individual enters life. They are predestined to accomplish something. But we fail to properly develop their physical bodies through education. In the seventeenth and eighteenth years—years of crisis—it becomes apparent that the bodies have not been properly developed: the astral body has not been developed in harmony with the drives and desires; the etheric body has not been developed with the corresponding skills and habits. Then the outer and inner development are not in harmony. In milder cases, people lose their inner balance; but a complete disruption of the soul life can also occur. When something like this happens during the crisis years, it is due to nothing other than the lack of harmony between the various currents.

[ 7 ] We must provide the human ego with concepts and an understanding of life: habits for the etheric body, concepts for the astral body. What carries over from the previous life must be allowed to develop freely.

[ 8 ] In the grand evolution of humanity, we can see how the two currents of development merge. The souls now incarnated here were previously incarnated in other epochs: the Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Persian, and Indian. The world was different when your souls gazed up at the venerable pyramids. If the Earth were always the same, then incarnations would serve no purpose. They have meaning precisely because something new occurs time and again.

[ 9 ] Now, it could be that one, two, or three lifetimes were not fully utilized, for example, during the Egyptian-Babylonian period. In that case, one would have missed out on something that could never be regained. Inner development thus unfolds alongside external life, drawing on what we can learn from it. Thus, a disharmony can also arise between the currents of outer and inner development. Now one might say: What you are telling us is rather distressing; it could be that we have missed out on something we can never make up for. Only spiritual science can shed light on this for us, and now we can no longer make up for it. — But that is not the case. Until now, human beings were not at all in a position to choose and miss out freely and independently. Only now is the time beginning when souls can miss out on something. That is why spiritual science is coming only now, so that people may now hear what they can miss out on, to see how people burden themselves with guilt when they miss out on something. That is why spiritual science is being proclaimed now, because humanity needs it now.

[ 10 ] The human soul, with all its faculties, was not always as it is today. In the past, people possessed an ancient, dim form of clairvoyance. In ancient times, the waking states were not as developed as they are today. Objects were surrounded by an etheric aura. Between waking and sleeping, human beings lived in the spiritual worlds and were there among spiritual-divine beings. Back then, people knew not only from stories but from experience that spiritual worlds exist. The further back we go, the more we see human beings in this spiritual world. The gates of this spiritual world then gradually closed before them. One can pinpoint such moments quite precisely. A proverb says, “Nature takes no leaps.” This proverb is very imprecise and inaccurate. Where a green leaf blossoms into a flower, there is a leap, and so it is

[ 11 ] Just as we can pinpoint the exact transition from green leaf to blossom, so too can we specify the time when clairvoyance ceased. Of course, it was a gradual process, but on average it came to an end at a specific point in time. This point in time can be dated to 3101 B.C. That was when people lost their ancient clairvoyance. Before this time, a dim form of clairvoyance still existed, like a memory of an even older form of clairvoyance. In this early age, people could truly see clearly into the spiritual world. And there was an even earlier time when people regarded the physical world as something of the utmost insignificance. That was the Golden Age. This was followed by the Silver Age, in which people still looked into the spiritual worlds. Then came the Bronze Age, in which people had a memory of the old clairvoyance, and following that—beginning in 3101—the next age, our age, in which the gates to the spiritual world have closed.

[ 12 ] Krita Yuga is the first, the Golden Age; the second, Treta Yuga, the Silver Age; the third, Dvapara Yuga, the Bronze Age; the fourth, Kali Yuga, also known as the Dark Age, beginning in the year 3101 B.C. Within the Dark Age, we must find that which could not possibly be found elsewhere: 3,000 years after the beginning of this age, we find the event of Golgotha.

[ 13 ] Humanity could no longer ascend to the gods. Therefore, a god had to descend. This is what happened with the Christ event. The human ego could only find its full expression in the Kali Yuga. Therefore, the event of Golgotha had to take place here. The destinies that can be told in earthly words were those of Christ Jesus. When initiates of old ascended to the spiritual world, this had to be expressed in spiritual words. That is why people do not understand it today. Because this God led an earthly life, one could speak of him in earthly words. That was also a time of transition. One cannot express this more clearly than with the words: Change the state of your souls, for the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near to you. — The understanding of the connection with the Kingdom of Heaven can only be found by the ego within itself. You can no longer find this beyond your earthly ego; rather, Heaven has drawn near to your very ego. “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit” also points to this. In the past, the Spirit was given to them. Now people have become poor. They can now find the Spirit only within their own self.

[ 14 ] It is a childish view to say that Christ or John the Baptist preached a kingdom that was to return after a thousand years. The point was simply to suggest that we should enter the kingdom through our own selves. Such a special time has come again today. It could be that we might miss this opportunity.

[ 15 ] The Latin historian Tacitus does not speak of Christians as something significant, but rather as a new sect. It was said in Rome that there was a new sect in a remote street, led by a certain Jesus. — That’s how something important can be overlooked! Just as that era was a crucial transitional period, we now find ourselves in a transitional period that may not be quite as significant, but is nonetheless important. Humanity is acquiring new abilities. These abilities must be applied in order to increasingly discover the Christ.

[ 16 ] The Kali Yuga came to an end in 1899. New powers are emerging within human beings, but not only those that, as is written in Occult Science, can be attained through occult training. In the coming decades, some people will say that they now see others in a completely different light. Science will no longer satisfy them. People will gradually begin to see the etheric body. Some people will foresee and predict this and that, connections, and so on. This is gradually coming to pass.

[ 17 ] Two things can now happen. Let us suppose that there had never been an anthroposophy claiming to be able to explain such things. Then people would say: Those who see such things are insane—and they would lock them up in mental institutions. Or, on the other hand, anthroposophy might be fortunate and find its way into people’s hearts. Thus we have two streams of development: the abilities just described develop within the outer current of humanity; our individuality, however, must grow into these abilities. The human “I” must learn to understand what it is that is actually developing there.

[ 18 ] It is by no means necessary that what anthroposophy now proclaims as prophecy be believed or heeded. And if what was prophesied were not to come to pass, people would say: “See, that was just fantasy.” — ‘But people just don’t understand; development then took a course it shouldn’t have. Humanity would then wither and become rigid.’

[ 19 ] Christ lived in a physical body only once. In ancient times, before the advent of Christianity, when a person could glimpse into the spiritual worlds, they were told: There is something else, a spiritual being, that is not yet visible today, but a time will come when this will be seen, and then a time will come when this great Spirit will live in a physical body. — A man who knew of this lived in Palestine, but he did not recognize the Christ. Yet when, through clairvoyance, he perceived the Christ in His etheric body, he realized that what he had known was to come had been fulfilled. Then he knew that the Christ had lived. That was the event at Damascus.

[ 20 ] Christ can always be found in his etheric body by clairvoyant consciousness. When this further development of humanity takes place, people will experience the Damascus event. These abilities will emerge with the passing of the Kali Yuga. And the ability to experience the Damascus event will emerge in the years 1930 to 1940. And if one does not pass blindly by at this time, then one will be able to speak of a coming to Christ. This is what is called in the occult schools: the Second Coming of Christ. - Then an age will come that will last 2,500 years. More and more people will rise up to Christ through the anthroposophical perspective. In the first half of the 20th century, the Second Coming of Christ will be able to take place. Christianity will be deepened and further developed by this.

[ 21 ] We can say the same thing today as we did then: Change your state of mind so that you may find the Kingdom of Heaven, which is drawing near!—We must ensure that this time does not pass unnoticed.

[ 22 ] It will also have the same effect on those who have passed through physical death between now and then as Christ has. For someone who dies around 1920, it will be possible to understand in Devachan what is happening here at that time, but only if they have acquired an understanding of it and prepared themselves for it during their earthly life.

[ 23 ] What has just been said will be repeated even more frequently over the next ten years, so that this time is not wasted. It must also be heard by those who are so deeply entrenched in materialism that they can only conceive of Christ appearing again in a physical body. False messiahs will appear around the middle of the 20th century who will tell people that they are Christ. And it will be up to true anthroposophy to know that they are not, that only materialistic ideas are at play here. Thus, it is important for anthroposophists to know that life in the spirit must be present.

[ 24 ] We are living in an important transitional era, so to speak. Time is passing quickly. The Kali Yuga lasted 5,000 years. The next era will last 2,500 years.

[ 25 ] The union with Christ is what now lies immediately ahead. Christ will not descend to humanity, but humanity will ascend to Christ.