The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. Pentecost, the Feast of Free Individuality

[ 1 ] You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

[ 2 ] As commemorations of time, festivals direct our thoughts and feelings toward the past. Through their significance, they awaken within us images that connect us to all that was sacred to our souls in times past. But through an understanding of what such festivals entail, other images are also stirred within us—images that direct our gaze toward the future of humanity, which for us means: toward the future of our own soul. Feelings are evoked that inspire us to live fully into the times of the future, and ideals inspire our will, giving us the strength to act in such a way that we can increasingly fulfill our tasks for the future.

[ 3 ] In the deepest sense of the word, the Feast of Pentecost can thus be characterized as having a spiritual face that looks both forward and backward. What this Feast of Pentecost means for the people of the West is presented to us in a powerful image that speaks deeply to the soul. This image is surely familiar to everyone present here. The founder, the originator of Christianity, remains for a while, after having accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha, among those who are able to see him in that physical form he assumed after the Mystery of Golgotha. And then the further sequence of events is brought before our souls in a meaningful series of images. The physical form that the founder of Christianity assumed after the Mystery of Golgotha dissolves, visibly in a mighty vision for his closest followers, in what is known as the Ascension.

[ 4 ] And then, ten days later, comes what is now depicted to us through an image that speaks powerfully to all hearts willing to understand it. Gathered are the followers of Christ, gathered are those who understood him first. They deeply feel the mighty impulse that has entered human development through him, and their souls wait expectantly for the promise that has been given to them, for the events that are to take place within these souls themselves. Gathered with deep fervor are these first confessors and understanders of the Christ impulse, on the day of the Pentecost festival, which is time-honored in their regions. And their souls are lifted to a higher vision; they are called, as it were, by what is described to us as a “mighty roaring,” to direct their powers of contemplation toward what is to come, toward what lies ahead of them when, in ever-new reincarnations, they will live on this earth of ours with the fiery impulse they have received into their hearts.

[ 5 ] And the image of the “tongues of fire” settling upon the head of every believer is painted before our soul, and a powerful vision reveals to those present what the future of this impulse will be. For the first understanders of Christ, gathered together in this way and beholding the spiritual world in spirit, feel as though they were not speaking to those who are in their immediate spatial proximity, in their immediate temporal proximity: they feel their hearts transported far, far away to the most diverse peoples of the globe, and they feel as if something lives in their hearts that can be translated into all languages, into the understanding of the hearts of all people. How surrounded the first confessors feel in this mighty vision that dawns upon them of the future of Christianity, how surrounded by the future understanders from all the peoples of the earth. And they feel as though they might one day have the power to clothe the Christian message in words that are understandable not only to those who are immediately close to them in space and time, but to all people on earth who will encounter them in the future.

[ 6 ] This was the inner emotional and spiritual experience that arose for the first followers of Christianity on the first Christian Pentecost. But the explanations given in the spirit of true esoteric Christianity, clothed in imagery, say: The Spirit, who is also rightly called the Holy Spirit, who is present, who sent his power down to earth at the time when Christ Jesus sent his Spirit into the world, who first reappeared when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, that same Spirit, in a different form—in the form of many individual, luminous, fiery tongues—descended upon the individual souls of the first Christian disciples. — This Holy Spirit is spoken of to us in a very special way during the Feast of Pentecost. Let us once consider the meaning of the word “Holy Spirit,” as it is understood in the Gospels, in our hearts. How, then, did people speak of the Spirit in ancient times, even in the periods preceding the Christian proclamation?

[ 7 ] In ancient times, people spoke of the “spirit” in many contexts, but particularly in one specific sense. They held the view—which is now vindicated by our modern spiritual scientific understanding—that: When a human being enters existence through birth, the existence that flows between birth and death, then the body into which this individuality incarnates is determined in two ways. This human physicality essentially has two tasks to fulfill. Through our physicality, we are human beings in general; but through our physicality, we are above all human beings of this or that people, this or that race, or family. In those ancient times that preceded the Christian proclamation, there was still little sense of what might be called “universal humanity,” of that feeling of belonging that has become increasingly present in the human heart since the Christian proclamation, and which tells us: You are human with all the people of the earth! — In contrast, people had all the more of that feeling that made the individual a member of a particular people or tribe.

[ 8 ] We have expressed this ourselves in the time-honored Hindu religion through the belief that a true Hindu can only be one who is a Hindu by blood. In many respects, the members of the ancient Hebrew people also adhered to this—even though they had frequently violated this principle—before the arrival of Jesus Christ. According to their view, a person was a member of their people only if a pair of parents who belonged to that people—that is, who were blood relatives—had placed him within that people.

[ 9 ] But there was something else that people always felt as well. In ancient times, people of all nations always felt, to a greater or lesser extent, like a member of a tribe, like a member of the people; yet the further back we go into the distant past, the more intense this feeling becomes—not of being a single individual, but of being a member of a people. But gradually, people also learned to feel themselves as individual human beings, as individual human entities with individual human characteristics. This was felt, as it were, as the two principles at work in our outward humanity: belonging to the people and individualization as a single human being.

[ 10 ] The forces associated with these two principles were attributed to the parents in various ways. The principle through which one belonged more to one’s people, through which one integrated more fully into the community, was attributed to inheritance through the mother. When people felt in accordance with these ancient views, they said of the mother that the spirit of the people reigned within her. She was filled with the spirit of the people and bequeathed to her child the qualities common to the people as a whole. And of the father, it was said that he was the bearer and transmitter of that principle which gave human beings their more individual, personal characteristics. Thus, even in the sense of the ancient Hebrew people of pre-Christian times, when a human being came into existence through birth, one could say: He is a personality, he is an individuality through the forces of his father. But his mother was filled throughout her entire being with the spirit that reigns in the people, and which she transmitted to the child. It was said of the mother that the spirit of the people dwelt within her. And in this context, one spoke primarily of the spirit that sends its forces down from the spiritual realms into humanity, allowing its forces to flow into humanity through the physical world via the mothers.

[ 11 ] Now, however, a new perspective had emerged through the Christ impulse—a perspective that this spirit, of which one had spoken earlier, this national spirit, was to be superseded by a spirit that, while related to it, would have a much higher effect; by a spirit that relates to all of humanity as the old spirit had related to individual nations. This spirit was to be imparted to humanity and fill it with the inner power that says: I no longer feel that I belong merely to a part of humanity, but to all of humanity; I am a member of all of humanity, and will increasingly become a member of all of humanity! — This power, which thus poured out the universal human essence over all of humanity, was attributed to the Holy Spirit. Thus the Spirit, which expressed itself in the power flowing from the national spirit into the mothers, was elevated from Spirit to Holy Spirit.

[ 12 ] The one who was to bring humanity the power to develop what is universally human more and more in earthly existence could only dwell, as the First, in a body that was inherited in the sense of the power of the Holy Spirit. This, however, was received as a proclamation by the mother of Jesus. And in the Gospel of Matthew, we hear how dismayed Joseph is—of whom we are told that he was a devout man, which, in the sense of the old usage, means one who could only believe that if he were ever to have a child, it would be born of the spirit of his people—when he learns: the mother of his child is with child, is “impregnated,” for that is the true meaning of the word in our usage—by the power of a Spirit that is not merely the spirit of a people, but the Spirit of all humanity! And he does not believe that he could have a relationship with a woman who could bear him a child that carries within itself the Spirit of all humanity and not the spirit to which he, in his piety, had held fast. So he wanted to, as it is said, “divorce her quietly.” And only after he had received a message from the spiritual worlds that gave him strength was he able to resolve to have a son by that woman, who was permeated and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

[ 13 ] This Spirit is thus creatively active, infusing its powers into the development of humanity through the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. And it is further active in that mighty act of John’s baptism in the Jordan. Now we understand what the power of the Holy Spirit is: it is the power that is meant to lift human beings ever higher and higher from all that differentiates and separates them, toward that which makes them a member of the whole of humanity filling the earth—a power that acts as a soul-bond from one soul to every other soul, regardless of the body in which they dwell.

[ 14 ] But we are told that it is this very Holy Spirit who, through a different revelation on the day of Pentecost, now pours into the individual beings of the first followers of Christianity. At the baptism of John, we are presented with the image of the Spirit in the form of a dove. Now, however, a different image appears: the image of fiery tongues. It is a dove, a unified form, in which the Holy Spirit manifests itself at the baptism of John; at Pentecost, it manifests itself in many individual tongues! And each of these individual tongues is an inspiration to the individuals, to every single individual among the first professed followers of Christianity. What, then, does this symbol of Pentecost represent before our soul?

[ 15 ] After the bearer of the universal human spirit has worked on Earth, after Christ has dissolved the final veils into the universal, after the unified nature of Christ’s veils has merged into a single entity within the spiritual existence of the Earth, only then is the possibility given that from the hearts of those who understand the Christ impulse may arise the ability to speak of this Christ impulse, to act in the spirit of this Christ impulse. The Christ impulse, insofar as it manifested itself in outer forms, passed away into the unified spiritual world through the Ascension; ten days later it reemerged from the hearts of the individual personalities, the first understanders. And because the same Spirit that had worked in the power of the Christ impulse reappeared in manifold forms, the first confessors of Christianity became the bearers and proclaimers of the Christ message, thereby setting at the beginning of Christian development the mighty emblem that can tell us: Just as the first believers—each one—received the Christ impulse, were permitted to receive it as fiery tongues inspiring their own souls, so all of you, if you strive to understand the Christ impulse, can individualize the forces, receive the Christ impulse into your hearts, and take in forces that will enable you to act in accordance with this impulse ever more perfectly and perfectly.

[ 16 ] A profound hope can spring from this symbol, which was established at the very beginning of Christianity. And the more a person perfects themselves, the more they can feel that the Holy Spirit speaks from within them to the extent that the person’s thinking, feeling, and willing are permeated by this Holy Spirit, which, through its division and multiplication, is also an individual spirit within every single human individuality. Thus, for us humans, this Holy Spirit is, in relation to our future development, the Spirit of development toward the free human being, toward the free human soul. The Spirit of freedom reigns in the Spirit that was poured out upon the first understanders of Christianity at the first Christian Pentecost, the Spirit whose most significant characteristic is indicated by Christ Jesus himself: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!”

[ 17 ] Human beings can become free only in the spirit. As long as they are dependent on that in which their spirit dwells—namely, their physicality—they remain slaves to that physicality. They can become free only when they find themselves in the spirit and, from the spirit, become masters of what is within them. “Becoming free” presupposes finding oneself as spirit within oneself. The true spirit in which we can find ourselves is the universal human spirit, which we recognize as the power of the Holy Spirit moving into us at Pentecost, which we must give birth to within ourselves and allow to come into being. Thus, for us, the symbol of Pentecost is transformed into our most powerful ideal of the free development of the human soul into a self-contained, free individuality.

[ 18 ] Even those who had something to do with the establishment of the Feast of Pentecost on a specific day of the year—not out of clear consciousness, but out of inspiration—have sensed this, albeit more or less vaguely. Yet even this outward fixing of feast days is strangely profound; and he understands little of the world who cannot sense the prevailing wisdom even in the fixing of such feast days. Let us take the three feasts: Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. As a Christian feast, Christmas falls on a very specific day of the year. It is fixed once and for all on a specific day in December. Every year we celebrate Christmas on this very same day. It is different with Easter. Easter is a movable feast, determined by the constellations in the sky: Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox. To understand this, one must cast one’s gaze out into the vastness of the heavens, where the stars follow their courses and proclaim to us from the heavens the laws of the world. Easter is a movable feast, just as the moment when the power of the higher human being awakens with a higher consciousness—to become free from ordinary, lower humanity—is variable within the individual’s own being. Just as in one year Easter takes place on this day, and in another year on that day, so too will the moment come sooner or later for the individual, depending on their past and the strength of their striving, when they become aware: I can find within myself the strength to let a higher human being arise from me!

[ 19 ] Christmas, however, is a fixed feast day. This is the festival at which humanity has allowed nature’s blossoming and withering, all the joys of the welling and flowing forces of nature, to pass over the course of the year. Here humanity sees earthly existence in a state of sleep, having drawn the power of the seeds into itself; outer nature has withdrawn with all the welling forces within it. Where the outer sensory world perceives the least of the manifestations of these springing forces, where the earth itself shows how, at a certain time, the spiritual forces withdraw to gather themselves for the coming year, where outer nature is most silent—there, at Christmas, a person should allow the thought to stir within them that there is hope for them: that he is not only united with the forces of the earth, which now lie silent during the Christmas season, but that he is united with those forces that never fall silent, with forces that dwell not merely on earth but in spiritual realms. This hope should arise in his soul, for he has, as it were, seen the earth fall asleep. This hope should spring from the deepest innermost part of the soul itself, and it should become spiritual light where it is darkest in the outer physical world. Through the symbol of the Christmas festival, people should remember that they are initially just as bound to their earthly body with its ego forces as the phenomena around them are bound to the course of the earth throughout the year. With the Earth’s slumber, which occurs at the same time each year, Christmas is set for the same moment: the moment when human beings are to remember that they are bound to a body, but are not condemned to be united with this body alone, but rather that they may draw hope within themselves to find the strength to become a free soul within themselves. What we recognize in the meaning of Christmas should thus remind us of our connection to the body and of our hope to free ourselves from this body.

[ 20 ] It depends on our own efforts, however, whether sooner or later we will bring to fruition the powers we may hope for—powers that will guide us back up toward the spiritual realm, toward the heavens. This is the thought that the symbol of Easter should inspire in us.

[ 21 ] Easter is meant to remind us that we possess not only the powers that arise from our physical bodies—which are, after all, divine-spiritual powers—but also that we, as human beings, can rise above the earth. That is why it is the Easter festival that reminds us of that power which will sooner or later be awakened within us. The Easter festival has been set as a movable feast according to the constellations in the sky. Human beings must evoke the memory of what they can be by lifting their gaze to the heavens to see how they can be liberated from all earthly existence and rise above all earthly existence.

[ 22 ] In the strength that is ours by nature lies the possibility of our inner freedom, our inner liberation. When we feel within ourselves that we can rise above ourselves, then we will strive to truly achieve this elevation. Then we will want to set our inner being free, as it were, tearing it away from its bondage to the outer being. Then we will indeed dwell in our outer being, but we will become fully aware of the inner spiritual power of the inner being. And from the moment we become aware that we can liberate ourselves—from this inner Easter—it then depends on whether we also reach the time of Pentecost, when we now fill the Spirit, which has found itself within itself, with a content that is not of this world, but comes from the spiritual worlds. This content from the spiritual worlds alone can set us free. It is the spiritual truth of which Christ says: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!”

[ 23 ] That is why Pentecost depends on Easter. It is a consequence of Easter: Easter, determined by the constellations in the sky, and Pentecost, something that must follow Easter as a necessary consequence after a certain number of weeks.

[ 24 ] Thus, upon deeper reflection, we see a prevailing wisdom even in the timing of these festivals. We see that these festivals are necessarily set precisely in this way within the course of the year, and that with each new year they show us what we as human beings have been, are, and can become. If we are able to think in this way about these festivals, then they will become for us festivals that connect us with all that has gone before—something embedded in humanity as an impulse to help us move forward. Pentecost in particular, when we understand it in this way, fills us with confidence, strength, and hope, when we know what we can become in our souls by becoming followers of those who, through their initial understanding of the Christ impulse, made themselves worthy to have the fiery tongues poured out upon them. The prospect of receiving the Holy Spirit appears before our spiritual eye when we understand the Feast of Pentecost as a festival of the future as well. But then we must also learn to understand this Feast of Pentecost in a truly Christian sense. Then we must learn to understand what the mighty tongues, the mighty Pentecostal inspirations, first spoke. What emerged as thunderous sounds from the “roaring” that took place according to that image which is set before our souls as the Pentecost image of the first Christian Pentecost? What were those voices that said, in a wondrous harmony of the spheres: “You have felt the power of the Christ impulse, you first understanders!” And the power of Christ has thus become within you a power of your own soul, so that every single soul has become capable, after the event of Golgotha, of beholding Christ in the present. So strongly has the Christ impulse worked upon each and every one of you!

[ 25 ] The Christ impulse, however, is an impulse of freedom. What it accomplishes in the truest sense of the word is not evident when it acts outside the human soul. The true effect of the Christ impulse only becomes apparent when it takes effect within the individual human soul itself. And the first followers of Christ felt called by the event of Pentecost to proclaim what was within their own souls—what was revealed to them through the revelations and inspirations of their own souls as the content of the Christ teaching. Christ gave them the power to allow the Word, which they were to proclaim as the Christian message, to arise within their own souls. As they became aware that the Christ impulse had been at work in the sacred preparation they had undertaken before the Feast of Pentecost, they felt called by the power of the Christ impulse active within them to let the fiery tongues, the individualized Holy Spirit, speak within themselves and to go forth and proclaim the message of Christ.

[ 26 ] Those who understood the meaning of the Pentecost event did not merely acknowledge what Christ had told them, nor only the words that Christ had spoken; rather, they recognized as the words of Christ that which comes from the power of a soul that feels the Christ impulse within itself. That is why the Holy Spirit pours into every single human soul as an individualized presence, into those who develop within themselves the power to feel the Christ impulse. And then the word becomes new for such a soul: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age!”

[ 27 ] Then those who make a serious effort to understand the Christ impulse may also feel called to proclaim the Word of Christ through the inspiration that the Christ impulse works in their hearts, even if it sounds ever new, even if it sounds ever different in every epoch of humanity. The Holy Spirit was not poured out so that we might cling to the few words of the Gospels spoken in the first decade of Christianity’s founding, but rather so that the message of Christ might be told in ever-new ways. As human souls progress from epoch to epoch, from incarnation to incarnation, something ever new must be spoken to the human soul. Or should the souls, as they progress from incarnation to incarnation, be dependent on always hearing the same words as the proclamation of Christ—words spoken back when these souls were incarnated in bodies that were contemporaries of Christ’s earthly appearance? The Christ impulse possesses the power to speak to all people until the end of the Earth cycle. But for this to happen, something had to come about that made it possible for the message of Christ to be proclaimed in every epoch in a manner appropriate to the human souls that have advanced once more. And when we feel the full power and might of the Pentecost impulse, then we should feel that we are obliged to heed the word: “I am with you always, even to the end of the Earth’s development!” When you fill yourselves with the Christ impulse, you can hear the word, which was inspired by the Founder at the establishment of Christianity, resounding through all epochs—the word that Christ speaks at all times, because he is with humanity at all times, audible to those who wish to hear him.

[ 28 ] Thus we understand the power of the Pentecost impulse as something that gives us the right to view Christianity as an ever-growing reality that continually offers us new revelations. We, who are conscious of proclaiming the very words of Christ that reach us from the spiritual choirs through today’s spiritual science, say to those who wish to preserve Christianity in its original form: We are the ones who truly understand Christ, for we understand the true meaning of the Feast of Pentecost.

[ 29 ] If we feel called upon to draw ever new insights from Christianity, then we draw precisely those insights that are in harmony with the soul as it evolves from incarnation to incarnation.

[ 30 ] Christianity is of infinite abundance and infinite richness; but people were not always endowed with infinite abundance and richness during the centuries when Christianity first had to be proclaimed. What presumption it would be to say today: Humanity is already mature enough to understand Christianity in its infinite abundance and infinite greatness! — That alone is true Christian humility, which says: The scope of Christian wisdom is infinite, but humanity’s capacity to receive this wisdom was initially limited; yet it will become ever more perfect and mature.

[ 31 ] Let us look at the first centuries of Christianity, and even up to our own time. A great, mighty impulse—the greatest ever given during humanity’s earthly evolution—was provided by the Christ impulse. Anyone who learns to recognize the fundamental laws of earthly evolution can bring this to their consciousness. But one thing should not be forgotten: very little of what the Christ impulse contains is understood today. In the nearly two millennia of Christian development, what is given in esoteric Christianity—which, however, could only become a hidden teaching for those to whom Christianity was brought—could not be incorporated into outer exoteric life. For example, what cannot be incorporated is what can be proclaimed as a Christian truth in the present epoch: the reincarnation of the human being. And when we proclaim reincarnation today, we are aware—in the very sense in which we have characterized the meaning of the Feast of Pentecost—that reincarnation is a Christian truth that can now be proclaimed exoterically to human souls who have become mature, but could not be proclaimed to the immature souls of the first centuries of Christian proclamation.

[ 32 ] It is not enough simply to point out in isolated instances that the idea of reincarnation is also present in Christianity. From all opponents of spiritual science who call themselves Christians, one can learn just how little is known about reincarnation in exoteric Christianity. The only thing people know is that spiritual science teaches something like reincarnation! — That is enough for people to say that it is an Indian or Buddhist teaching. They do not know that today the living Christ, from the spiritual worlds, is the living teacher of reincarnation. It is believed that only ancient, preserved teachings should be communicated to humanity. Reincarnation and also the doctrine of karma—which will occupy us in the coming days—are concepts that have not yet been able to penetrate exoteric Christianity. Bit by bit, in individual parts, the fullness of the truth contained in Christianity had to be taught to humanity little by little.

[ 33 ] But with the Christ impulse itself—which is not a teaching or a doctrine, but a force that must be experienced in the innermost depths of the soul—with this impulse itself, something is given. It is precisely when we connect the Christ impulse with the teaching of reincarnation that we can understand what is contained within it. We know that only a few centuries before the emergence of Christianity, a distinct teaching had been established in the East: the teaching of the great Buddha. And while the power and impulse of Christianity spread from the Near East to the West, the East witnessed a widespread expansion of Buddhism. Of this, however, we know that it contains within itself the teaching of reincarnation. But how does it contain it?

[ 34 ] To those who know the facts, Buddhism appears as the culmination of the teachings and revelations that preceded it. It therefore embodies all the greatness of antiquity. Yet it also represents something like the ultimate consequence of humanity’s primordial wisdom, which included the doctrine of reincarnation. But how does Buddhism incorporate this into its revelations? In such a way that the human being looks back upon the incarnations he has undergone and looks forward to the incarnations he has yet to undergo. It is a thoroughly exoteric teaching of Buddhism that the human being lives through a series of incarnations. Let us not speak of an abstract equality of all religions! In truth, there are indeed profound, vast distinctions, such as between Christianity, which for centuries harbored no thought of reincarnation, and exoteric Buddhism, which lived and breathed this idea. One must not combine things abstractly, but must acknowledge the world of reality. It is a certainty in Buddhism that man will return to Earth again and again. But the Buddhist views this in such a way that he tells himself: Fight the urge to enter these incarnations, for your task is to free yourself as soon as possible from the thirst for passage through incarnations and to live in liberation from all earthly incarnations in a spiritual realm!

[ 35 ] This is how Buddhism views the succession of human incarnations; but it strives to acquire as much power as possible in order to free itself from these incarnations as soon as possible. There is something Buddhism lacks, and this is evident in the exoteric teaching. It lacks within itself what might be called an impulse so powerful that it can become ever more perfect within us, so that the Buddhist might say to himself: Let the incarnations come! Through the Christ impulse, we can shape ourselves in such a way that we draw ever more deeply from the experiences and events within these incarnations. Through the Christ impulse, we receive a power that can give these incarnations an ever-higher content. Infuse Buddhism—or whatever in it constitutes the true teaching of reincarnation—with the Christ impulse, and you will have a new element that gives the Earth a new meaning in the development of humanity!

[ 36 ] On the other hand, Christianity: Christianity also possesses the Christ impulse as something exoteric. But how has it held this impulse over the past centuries? Certainly, the exoteric Christian sees in it something infinitely perfect, which is to live within him as the great ideal toward which he draws ever closer. But what presumption it would be for the Christian to think that in a single incarnation he could possess any powers to bring to fruition the seed of development that can be kindled by the Christ impulse! What presumption it would be for the exoteric Christian to believe that we are capable of doing anything sufficient to bring the Christ impulse to fruition in a single lifetime! Therefore, the exoteric Christian will say: We are simply passing through the gate of death; then, in the spiritual realm, we will have the opportunity to develop further and to bring the Christ impulse to further fruition there. — Thus the exoteric Christian links death to a spiritual life from which he does not return to Earth. Does an exoteric Christian who believes that an existence in a spiritual realm follows life on Earth understand the Christ impulse? He does not understand it! For if he did understand it, he would never believe that what the Christ impulse is meant to give him can be attained in a spiritual life that follows death—without a return to Earth.

[ 37 ] In order for the event at Golgotha to take place, in order for this victory over death to be achieved, the Christ Himself had to descend into this earthly life; indeed, He had to do so in order to accomplish something that can only be experienced and lived through on our Earth. That is why the Christ came down to Earth: because the power of the Mystery of Golgotha had to work upon human beings in their physical bodies. Therefore, the Christ-power can initially work only upon human beings in their physical bodies. And once a human being in a physical body has received the power of the Mystery of Golgotha, this impulse can continue to work even after the person passes through the gate of death. But only to the extent that a human being has absorbed the Christ impulse during the life between birth and death will that which has been absorbed be perfected within them through this impulse. A human being must strive to perfect what has been absorbed when they return to Earth. And only in the successive later earthly lives can a human being learn to understand what lives in the Christ impulse. A human being could never understand the Christ impulse if they lived only once; rather, this impulse must guide us through repeated earthly lives, because the Earth is the place for understanding and experiencing the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 38 ] Thus, Christianity can only be understood if one replaces the presumptuous notion that one could live out the Christ impulse in a single incarnation with the following: that it is only through repeated earthly lives that a human being can perfect themselves to the point where they are able to live out the Christ ideal within themselves. Then one can bring what one has experienced of it up into the spiritual world. But one can bring up only as much as one has grasped on Earth of that impulse which had to be accomplished precisely on Earth itself as the most important content of all earthly events.

[ 39 ] Thus we see that the next element that must be added to Christianity from the spiritual revelations is the idea of reincarnation, which has its origins in Christianity itself. When we understand this, we will realize what the consciousness we form from the Pentecost revelation means for us today in the field of spiritual science. For us, it means the justification that we may listen to the revelation, that we may feel a renewal of the revelation of that power which lay in the fiery tongues that descended upon the first understanders of Christ.

[ 40 ] Some of what has been said in our movement in recent times may once again come to mind today. It appears to be a coming together of East and West, of the two mighty revelations of Christianity and Buddhism. We see them converging in the spiritual realm. And a proper understanding of the Christian concept of Pentecost gives us the opportunity to justify the convergence of these two greatest religions currently present on Earth. But such revelations cannot be brought together merely through external impulses; that would remain mere theory. Anyone who, for example, were to take what Christianity has offered so far and what Buddhism has offered so far, and were to fuse the two into a new religion, would not bring about a new spiritual content for humanity, but only an abstract theory that could not warm the soul of any human being. If such a thing is to happen, new revelations must occur. And this is what resounds for us as the proclamation of spiritual knowledge—though today it is audible only to those who, through training in spiritual science, have prepared themselves to let Christ speak within them, who is with us to the ends of the earth. But it has been indicated that we are in an important period of human development: that even before the end of this century, new powers will develop in the human soul that will lead people to develop a kind of etheric clairvoyance, through which, for certain individuals, the event that Paul experienced before Damascus will be renewed as if through a natural development. So that Christ will return in an etheric garment for the heightened spiritual powers of humanity. More and more souls will share in what Paul saw on the road to Damascus. And then people in the world will perceive that spiritual science is something that will be present as the foretold revelation of a renewed and transformed truth of the Christ impulse. Only those who believe that the fresh stream of spiritual life, into which Christ once poured Himself—inseparably for all time—will remain alive for all time will understand this new revelation. Whoever does not wish to believe this may proclaim a Christianity that has grown old. But whoever believes in and understands the true event of Pentecost will also come to realize that what began with the Christian proclamation will continue to develop further and further, speaking to humanity in ever-new tones, that the individualized soul-worlds of the Holy Spirit, the fiery tongues, will always be present, and that in ever-renewed fire and impulse, the human soul will be able to experience and live out the Christ impulse.

[ 41 ] We can believe in the future of Christianity if we truly understand the idea of Pentecost. And then the mighty vision appears before us with a power that acts as if it were a force present within the soul itself! Then we feel the future, just as the first believers felt the future under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, if we are willing to bring to life within our souls something that knows no boundaries drawn by individual human divisions, and that speaks a language that all souls across the entire earth can understand. We feel the thought of peace, love, and harmony that lies within the Pentecost idea. And we feel this Pentecost idea enlivening our Pentecost celebration. We feel that it is a pledge of our hope for freedom and eternity.

[ 42 ] Because we feel the Spirit awakening individually within our souls, the most significant quality of the Spirit awakens within us: the infinity of the spiritual. Through participation in the spiritual, human beings can become conscious of their immortality and eternity. And in the thought of Pentecost, we truly feel the power of those ancient words, which initiates have passed down from one to another in various languages, and which reveal to us the meaning of wisdom and eternity. We feel them as a Pentecost thought that has been handed down from epoch to epoch, in words that can only now resound exoterically so as to be understood by all humanity:

Beings follow one another across the vastness of space,
Beings follow one another through the flow of time.
If you remain within the vastness of space, within the flow of time,
Then you, O human, are in the realm of transience.
But your soul rises mightily above them,
When, sensing or knowing, it beholds the Imperishable,
Beyond the expanses of space, beyond the flow of time.