The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. The Mission of the New Spiritual Revelation

Introduction to the series “The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity”

[ 1 ] Over the next few days, I will have the opportunity to speak here on a theosophical “topic” that I consider important: the spiritual guidance of the individual and of humanity. At the request of our friends, I would like to preface these lectures with a few words, which may serve as a sort of introduction or preface to the topic at hand.

[ 2 ] The theosophist must possess what can be called, in the broadest sense, a longing for true self-knowledge. For anyone who has delved even slightly into theosophical life senses that from this self-knowledge must arise that comprehensive understanding of every human feeling and thought, of every other being, and that such an understanding must be inseparably linked to our entire theosophical movement.

[ 3 ] It is so easily misunderstood that within our German Theosophical Movement, the symbol that you know as the Sign of the Cross with the Roses shines before us. It is easy to harbor misunderstandings, especially toward that spiritual, theosophical movement which, under this sign of the Rose Cross, seeks to become part of the spiritual life of our time, to become part of human hearts and their feelings, to become part of human will and its deeds. It is easy to arrive at a misunderstanding on this ground, because it is extraordinarily difficult for many, even well-meaning souls of the present day, to realize that the spiritual movement which seeks to work under this sign is in fact, through all its principles, through its entire feeling and sensibility, inspired to understand every human striving and every direction in the most tolerant manner. This is indeed deeply rooted in the Rosicrucian movement, so that this tolerance may at first seem less obvious, but it is an integral part of this movement. Therefore, you will easily find this movement misunderstood in those circles that confuse tolerance with one-sided tolerance toward one’s own opinion, one’s own principles, and one’s own methods.

[ 4 ] People imagine this tolerance to be incredibly easy, but it is one of the most difficult things for a person to achieve in the truest sense of the word. For it is all too easy to believe that anyone who says something different from oneself is an opponent. It is also easy to confuse one’s own opinion with what is generally held to be the truth. 'Theosophical life, however, will flourish and bear the right fruits for the spiritual life of the future if it becomes a comprehensive ground on which we meet—in deep spiritual understanding—not only with those who believe what we ourselves believe, but also with those who, under certain circumstances, due to their own experiences and their own life path, perhaps even seemingly advocate the opposite of what we ourselves proclaim. An old morality, now approaching its twilight, taught us to practice love and tolerance among those who share the same thoughts and feelings as we do. Theosophical life, on the other hand, in its truth, will increasingly radiate into the hearts of people that much deeper tolerance which will make it possible for us to find common ground on the basis of mutual understanding, mutual human inspiration, and human coexistence, even where we do not initially agree in our thoughts and feelings. This touches upon an important point at the same time. For what is the first thing that confronts one who turns to our Theosophical Movement? What is he led to profess first? Although this insight need not be a dogma within our ranks, and although there might even be differences of opinion regarding this fundamental insight, it may nevertheless be said: What, in the broadest sense, is a general realization from the very beginning when anyone approaches Theosophy is the idea of repeated earthly lives and the doctrine of the carrying over of causes from one earthly life into the next. Reincarnation and karma are convictions that impose themselves upon us from the very start. But it is a long way from the first day these truths become our conviction to the day when we can even to some extent place our entire life, our entire being, in the light of these ideas, these truths. A long time elapses between the day this conviction dawns upon us and the day it can become a full-fledged reality in our soul.

[ 5 ] For example, we might find ourselves facing someone who treats us with scorn, perhaps even with insults. But if we have long since embraced the teachings of reincarnation and karma, we will ask: Who spoke those hurtful, insulting words that pierced our ears and showered us with scorn? Who perhaps even raised a hand to strike? — And we will then be able to say to ourselves: We did it ourselves! The hand is only seemingly the other person’s hand, for it is I myself who, through my past karma, caused the other to raise their hand against me.

[ 6 ] This merely hints at how long the path can be from an abstract, theoretical belief in karma and reincarnation to the point where we understand how to view our entire life in the light of this idea. Then we truly feel God within our hearts in such a way that we experience Him not merely as our own higher self, teaching us how humanity participates in the divine through a spark of its being. Rather, we learn to feel this higher self in such a way that it permeates us with a sense of unlimited responsibility—not only toward what we do, but also toward what we suffer—for the simple reason that what we suffer at the present moment is merely the necessary consequence of what we did in a time long past.

[ 7 ] And now let us feel such a mindset flowing into our souls like the warm spiritual lifeblood of a new culture. Let us feel how new concepts of responsibility, and also new concepts of love for humanity, are emerging—concepts that must take hold of our souls through theosophical life. Let us feel that it is no mere phrase when it is said that the Theosophical Movement arose in our time because humanity needs new moral impulses, new intellectual and spiritual impulses. And let us feel that a new revelation in the spiritual realm does not assert itself for humanity and flow into our hearts and convictions through theosophical life because of some arbitrary whim, but that it must flow in because such a new spiritual revelation is necessary for those new moral impulses, for those new concepts of responsibility—indeed, the destiny of humanity, such a new spiritual revelation is necessary. Then one also feels immediately and vividly what coherent meaning there is in the world when the very same souls who now sit in bodies gathered here today have been incarnated time and again on this earth in past ages. In this sense, one must ask: Why again and again? — This meaning becomes clear to us through theosophy, which teaches us that every time we look out into the splendors of the world through newly formed eyes in a new body, we glimpse the divine revelations behind the veil of the sensory world; or that, through newly formed ears, we listen to what may reveal itself to us as divine in the world of sounds, and thereby learn to recognize how, in every new incarnation, we can and should experience something new on the earth. Then one surely also feels that there must be people who, through their karma, are destined to prophetically foretell what must gradually take hold of all humanity as the meaning of an age.

[ 8 ] What can be grasped today within the ranks of the Theosophical Society and the Theosophical Movement through revelations from the spiritual world must find its way into human culture as a whole. The souls who are living their way into the world through their present bodies feel drawn to Theosophy because they sense the need to add this new element to what has been gained by humanity from the spiritual world throughout the various epochs. We must, however, realize that in every epoch we must anew understand the full meaning of the mystery of the world, that in every epoch we must approach in a new way that which can flow down to us through the revelations from the spiritual worlds.

[ 9 ] Ours is a very special time. Although people often casually refer to any era as a time of transition, what is usually just a cliché applies to our time in the truest sense of the word. An age is indeed dawning in which people will have to experience many new things regarding the entire evolution of our Earth. People will have to rethink many things. Indeed, some of these new developments are still, one might say, understood today in the old style and in the old sense. For many people, it is still impossible to truly grasp this new reality in a new way. Often, people lag behind the new revelations with their old concepts.

[ 10 ] Let us consider just one example. It has rightly been emphasized time and again what an immense advance in human thought it represents that, for four centuries, people have penetrated the physical structure of the universe. On the one hand, the great achievements and successes of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and so on have rightly been highlighted. But on the other hand, I would like to recall a saying that sounds quite wise and goes something like this: Now the thoughts of Copernicus have led us out into the world in a spatial sense, and it has been shown that it is as Giordano Bruno had intuited: that our Earth is a small celestial body alongside countless other celestial bodies in space. And on this Earth, it is said, the greatest drama—which forms the center of evolution—is said to have taken place, and we are to place the story of Jesus Christ at the center of this entire evolution? How, then, could such an event, significant for the whole world, be transplanted onto the small planet Earth, since we have come to know that this Earth is merely one small planet among countless others in existence! This is a thought that certainly seems obvious, so obvious that it appears extraordinarily wise and clever if one considers only the intellect, but a thought that does not take into account the depth of spiritual feeling. This is expressed in the fact that, at the very beginning of Christianity, the origin of this event on Earth was not even transposed to a royal palace or to any of the Earth’s places of splendor, but to a stable among poor shepherds. Spiritual feeling was thus not satisfied merely with transposing this event to Earth, but even to a despised corner of the Earth. This then stands in stark contrast to the claim that it would no longer be appropriate “to have the greatest drama of world history play out in a provincial theater”—this expression has been used—which seems very strange. But Christianity has a way of staging this greatest drama of world history not only in a provincial theater, but somewhere entirely different.

[ 11 ] We can see from this how difficult it is to approach things with the right, true feeling, and how much people will have to learn in order to understand what the right thoughts and feelings are regarding human development. We are heading toward turbulent times; this can be said of our present and the near future. For it is true: much of the old has worn itself out, and the new is flowing in from the spiritual world into humanity. Not because they wish it so, but because the history of humanity compels it, those who know something of human development speak of how our entire spiritual life will change over the course of the next centuries, and that at the starting point of this change must stand the theosophical movement that understands itself correctly, must stand in all humility, but with a genuine understanding of what must unfold for humanity over the course of the coming centuries. For just as it is true that people have only learned over time to view the structure of the world with their intellect in the same way as Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Kepler, or Galileo, just as people have only in the course of our last few centuries learned to interpret the world intellectually, and just as human souls in earlier times arrived at their knowledge in a completely different way, so it is equally true that intellectual knowledge in our time will be superseded for the human soul by a new, spiritual insight. Already, human souls within their bodies are urging us to no longer view the world merely intellectually. And if materialism had not set so much in motion to suppress spiritual impulses, such souls, in whom one senses a veritable storm of longing for spiritual content, would come to the fore even more, and the spiritual impulses within people—who are only waiting to look out into the cosmos and into existence in a different way than has been the case so far—would make themselves felt much more clearly.

[ 12 ] Favoured spirits, to whom is bestowed what is called “grace,” often foresee centuries in advance what may later become common knowledge among humanity. I have often pointed out how something that a man filled with grace, Paul, once experienced as an individual—the impulse of the Christ event—during the Damascus experience will gradually become the common heritage of humanity. Just as Paul knew through a spiritual revelation who the Christ is and what the Christ has done, so will people experience such knowledge and such insight once again. The time is immediately at hand when a number of people will experience something like a renewal of the Pauline Christ event. This is part of the evolution of our Earth: that spiritual eye which opened to Paul before Damascus, which looks into the spiritual worlds and brings forth from there the truth that Paul had never believed when he was told about the Christ event in Jerusalem—many people will experience this spiritual vision. That this event will occur is a historical necessity. This is what has truly been called the Second Coming of Christ in the 20th century. Christ as an individuality will be recognized as he has revealed himself, drawing ever closer to the physical plane from the moment he appeared to Moses in the burning bush—as in a reflection—up to the time when he lived for three years on the physical plane in a human body. Through such a vision, he will be recognized as the focal point of the entire evolution of the Earth.

[ 13 ] A system has only one center of gravity; a balance has only one pivot point. As soon as you support the balance beam at multiple points, you would be violating the laws of gravity. You need only one point—a center of gravity—for a system. That is why occultists of all ages, both ancient and modern, when speaking of the center of gravity of Earth’s evolution in the true sense, acknowledge this turning of evolution toward that one point—the Mystery of Golgotha—and the ascent of human development once again from that point. It is true: it is extraordinarily difficult to recognize the true meaning of this Christ event, the Mystery of Golgotha, for the spiritual guidance of humanity. For this requires that all the feelings and judgments we bring with us from one worldview or another fall silent within us. We must approach Christian educational methods—which have prevailed in the West for many centuries—with the same detachment and objectivity as we do other religious educational methods of the world, if we wish to truly understand what constitutes the spiritual focal point of Earth’s evolution. Therefore, we will see that over the coming decades, those who become the most ardent proclaimers of the spiritual focus of human development will be regarded as “bad Christians,” and may even be denied the title of Christian.

[ 14 ] Even the single idea that Christ could have been incarnated in a human body only once, for a brief period of three years, is incredibly difficult to grasp. Those who have familiarized themselves more closely with what Rosicrucian theosophy has to say about these matters know how complex the physical body of that Jesus of Nazareth must have been in order to be able to contain within itself the mighty Individuality that is the Christ Individuality. We know that not one person, but two people had to be born for this purpose. The Gospel of Matthew tells us about one of them, and the Gospel of Luke about the other. We know that the Individuality which was incarnated in the body of the boy Jesus described in the Gospel of Matthew had previously achieved great things in earlier earthly lives, and that this Individuality left its body at the age of twelve to take on another earthly body until the age of thirty and to continue developing with different abilities in this other body. In this way, everything that had previously been experienced in humanity—both the great and mighty, and on the other hand the humble—had to interact within the personality known as Jesus of Nazareth, so that a body might be capable of receiving the being who, in the true sense, may be called the Christ. A deep understanding will be necessary to grasp the uniqueness of the Christ, to understand what the occultists mean when they say: Just as in mechanics there can be only one center of gravity in a system, so too can there be only one event of Golgotha.

[ 15 ] A time that stands on the threshold of such momentous spiritual events—which can only be vaguely described at this point—is particularly well-suited to prompting us to turn inward. And among the various tasks that the true theosophist has within the Theosophical Movement today, this one is certainly among them: to turn inward to one’s own soul, to one’s own heart, in order to gain a little clarity about the fact that only through renunciation can we walk the path that leads to the comprehension of this unique truth, of which the occultism of all ages has spoken to us in unambiguous terms.

[ 16 ] Such times, in which brilliant lights of wisdom and warm gifts of love are to be radiated upon humanity, must also bring about something that confirms the truth of the saying: Where there is much light, there are deep shadows. — The deep, dark shadows that accompany the gifts just mentioned are the potentials for error. Great gifts of wisdom, which are to flow into human evolution, are necessarily accompanied by the fact that the human heart can very easily be exposed to error in such times. Let us therefore not believe that the erring human soul will be any less prone to error in the times to come than in other times; rather, we must understand that in those times, more than in any other, the human soul will be exposed to error and errors. This is what occultists of all ages have prophetically foretold, as if from a gray twilight. It is true that in the days of enlightenment, to which we could only allude, the slightest possibility of error—indeed, the greatest aberration—can take hold. All the more necessary, then, is it to look clearly at this possibility of error, to be clear about the fact that, because we are to anticipate great things, error can all the more easily afflict the weak human heart.

[ 17 ] If we now wish to consider the spiritual guidance of humanity, we must draw a lesson from this idea of the possibility of error—from what occultists of all ages have foretold with a warning hand—namely: to practice that highest tolerance spoken of at the beginning of this talk, and to rid ourselves of everything that belongs to a blind belief in authority, for such a belief in authority can be a powerful temptation and can actually encourage error. On the other hand, however, we must keep our hearts open and warm to everything that seeks to flow down to humanity from the spiritual worlds in a wholly new way. Therefore, a good Theosophist will above all be one who knows: If we wish to be custodians within our movement of that light which is to flow into human evolution, we must become guardians against all the errors that may creep in alongside this light. Let us also feel the full weight of this responsibility, and let us have the open heart we need to understand that there has never been a movement on our Earth in which such open, loving hearts could be nurtured. Let us learn to understand that it is still better to be opposed by those who believe they alone possess the sole source of salvation in their own opinions than for us to oppose these others ourselves. There is a long way between these two extremes. But those who embrace the Theosophical Movement in spirit will know how to live by something that has rightly passed through all ages as a guiding principle, as a motto for all spirituality. Even if doubt should occasionally overcome you at the thought: “True, there is strong light, but also a great possibility of error; how are you, a weak human being, to find your way in this?” How can you possibly decide what stems from the truth and what is error? — When such a thought arises in your heart, you can find strength and encouragement in the guiding principle: The truth will be that which provides the highest impulses for the development of humanity, and the truth shall be closer to me than I am to myself. If I relate to the truth in this way, and if I err in this incarnation, the truth will have the power to draw me to itself in the next incarnation. If I err honestly in this incarnation, this error will be balanced out in the next. It is better to err honestly than to cling dishonestly to dogmas. And the word will shine before us: Not through our own will, but through the divine power of truth itself will this truth prevail. But if what we are driven toward by whatever circumstances in this incarnation is not the truth, if it is error, if we are too weak to be drawn toward the truth, then may that to which we profess our allegiance simply perish, for then it has no power to live, nor should it have the power to live. If we strive honestly toward the truth, then it will be the victorious impulse in the world. And if what we already possess is a fragment of truth, this will not prevail within us through what we can offer in support of this truth, but through the power inherent in the truth itself. But if it is error, then we also have the strength to say: May this error perish.

[ 18 ] If we make this our motto, we will find the right perspective, telling ourselves: No matter the circumstances, we can gain what we need within a spiritual movement: trust. If what inspires this trust is the truth, then that truth will prevail, no matter how fiercely its opponents may fight against it.

[ 19 ] This feeling can live in the soul of every Theosophist. And if we are to be the mediators of that which flows down to us from the spiritual world—and which awakens in the human heart such feelings that give security and strength for life—then the mission of the new spiritual revelation, which has come to humanity through what we call Theosophy, will be fulfilled, and it will carry human souls ever more deeply into a more spiritual future.