The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Christ Impulse as Real Life I

[ 1 ] Theosophy, as we have often emphasized, is based on occult science, which, through its research findings, familiarizes us with the forces of the various historical epochs; it also enables us to recognize these forces within our own cultural epochs. Thus, whenever we gather together, we must also speak of these inner forces of our own time, so that the tasks of Theosophy may become as evident as they are to be understood from the depths of our lives, and so that, on the basis of occult research, we may organize our lives in accordance with their great goals.

[ 2 ] To speak of occult time perspectives, it will be helpful if we build upon what the sources of higher occult research can reveal to us regarding what is taking place in the supersensible world even in our own time. To begin with, we must also orient ourselves regarding what we ourselves have before us in the present, though no details can be given, only a general outline of characteristic features. After all, one can speak freely about many things only in theosophical gatherings, for our age is one of dogmatism and abstraction. What is curious is that people misunderstand this fundamental character of our age in exoteric life and generally believe they are thinking and acting free of dogma, even though they are deeply entrenched in dogma. People believe they are engaging with realities, even though they are deeply lost in the wildest abstractions. Therefore, it is useful to bring Theosophy, with its real things, to wider circles in order to facilitate an understanding of our epoch, but it will likely be some time yet before the outside world is ready to develop a deeper understanding. One realizes just how deeply our civilization is entangled in dogmas and abstractions only when one views it not from such abstract perspectives, but in a truly life-affirming way. One then encounters a school of thought whose character consists in establishing ready-made dogmas and demanding that an enlightened person adhere to them, while believing that one is behaving in a purely critical manner. Something of this nature is demonstrated by the so-called monistic movement, which, however, wrongly calls itself monistic. It derives its principal tenets from modern natural science, specifically from that branch which, in the narrower sense, seeks to draw its insights from purely external, sensory methods. If this natural science were to remain within its own field of work, it could achieve something very significant; instead, it leads to the formation of a new religion. One takes the facts of materialistic natural science and brews abstract dogmas out of them. And anyone who thinks they are on top of things because they swear by these dogmas then believes that others have fallen far behind them. One completely disregards the entire life of human individuals and strives only to fill one’s head with what the external worldview regards as dogmas, and to consider as most essential that which follows from the abstract. From this then arise sects of adherents to doctrines, maxims, principles, and dogmas, which they then advocate as the main thing.

[ 3 ] In contrast, we must clarify what is meant by the Theosophical Movement. It is not a matter of accepting a set of dogmas, but rather of placing the value of the individual human being at the forefront.

[ 4 ] Theosophy leads to a social life based on human reciprocity, which is founded on the trust that one person places in another. People who trust one another should and will come together there. And in matters of common concern, one should say: You are the right person, not because you follow this or that principle, but because you can accomplish this or that and do not disrupt the circles of others through your own actions. — Nothing would be worse than if the bad habits of modern sectarianism were to spread into theosophical life. One should not follow another merely when one agrees with them completely; rather, one should reserve freedom and flexibility for oneself and others in other cases as well, and thus have an educational influence on individuals within the Theosophical Movement through this perspective. Our time has very little understanding of this. It strives for what is generally established. What one person considers correct is seen by another as foolish and backward. But this must be cleared up within the Theosophical Movement. If such an attitude were not widespread in the materialistic world outside, people would naturally be drawn to understand human individuals in our sense, and then a scientific spirituality would soon emerge that would lead to a spiritual worldview. But people are frozen in dogmas and therefore cannot attain this.

[ 5 ] Anyone who engages with the guiding principles espoused at monistic gatherings might, upon closer examination of the facts, soon realize that all the principles and dogmas presented there are by no means based on the views and findings of modern science, but rather on those of fifteen to twenty years ago. For example, a figure highly regarded in modern scientific circles recently stated at the natural scientists’ gathering in Königsberg: The physical facts today point in a very specific direction. In the past, people always spoke of ether, which was supposed to be present in our matter and spread throughout the external world, and they assumed its existence without reference to the otherwise known material sciences. However, this has gradually given rise to justified doubts, and one must therefore now ask what the physicist is to assume in place of this ether. - The answer was: purely mathematical constructs, Hertz’s and Maxwell’s equations, conceptual and theoretical formulas. Light therefore does not propagate through space via ether vibrations, but rather, without assuming them, it traverses non-material space as a vacuum in the sense of the equations mentioned, so that the propagation of light appears to be bound to concepts and ideas. - It could very well happen that someone who were to point out such hypotheses of the latest science in a monist gathering would be regarded as a twisted theosophist who was spouting nonsense by assuming that thoughts are the carriers of light. But such a view has been presented as his scientific opinion by a serious representative of the natural sciences, Max Planck of Berlin. If, therefore, the monists wished to advance with science, they would also have to accept this opinion, represented by leading figures. Since this is not the case, however, a monistic religion is only possible if its adherents believe they are standing on scientific ground, but do not know that their assumptions have long since been superseded. Only the results of so-called intellectual research and its worldview, or the prejudiced dogmas derived from it, hold monistically minded people together. In contrast, the Theosophist adheres to facts against which no one can be unfree, thereby preventing the formation of sects and allowing every individuality to remain free.

[ 6 ] The Theosophical Movement is a significant step toward self-education, the likes of which have rarely been seen in the present day. It need only understand itself correctly and realize that this movement is founded on principles that can be found only within itself, and never outside of it.

[ 7 ] This can be seen from the facts of life. Many are of the opinion that what Theosophy has to offer should be cast into philosophical forms similar to those of official science, in order thereby to bring Theosophy itself closer to official representatives and followers. But this is untenable, because it is impossible to strike any compromises between the occult current of Theosophy and another movement which, like the monist movement for example, arises from the characteristic fundamental views of our time—that is, is rooted in entirely different soil. It is impossible to reach even a superficial compromise between the two. Rather, a new approach to the formation of our times must be attempted. The others, after all, cannot understand their own fundamental facts, cannot explain them, cannot assess them a day further; they lack the courage to draw the consequences from what arises within these facts. In all groups, including scientific sects, we see upon closer examination half-truths that Theosophy must see through, for it knows that a half-truth or a quarter-truth is worse than a complete error, because it blinds the external world, which lacks sufficient discernment. The theosophist, however, must tap into the nerve center of the theosophical movement in order to understand the dominant, materialistic movement outside, because within it, too, facts sometimes urge themselves to be lived out in spiritual truth, but are then developed only imperfectly.

[ 8 ] A branch of medical science that takes physical research seriously cannot ignore the fields, concepts, and findings of occult theosophical research. An instructive example of the difficulties that arise in this context is provided by Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis in Vienna, which has gained widespread and still-growing popularity. Initially, it dealt with the life of the soul by attempting to investigate certain psychological causes in the inner life of mentally and physically ill patients—for example, in their long-forgotten youth—because one sensed quite clearly that the unconscious, which had remained as such, held lasting significance for later life. A brilliant physician from this school, Dr. Breuer, attempted to induce a state of hypnosis in those seeking healing, during which he would then take a kind of confession from them in order to explore the depths of their souls. You all know that simply speaking about what is weighing on you brings great relief. Through such hypnotic confessions, healing often occurred or was significantly facilitated. Even without hypnosis, Freud frequently achieved the same results through skillfully posed questions. He also found that such often unconscious events reveal themselves in dream life, and from this arose a kind of dream interpretation characteristic of the psychoanalytic school. If someone were now to say that here lies a favorable opportunity to strike a compromise between Theosophy and what has emerged from these endeavors, such an opinion can only be described as deceptive, for despite the partial truth found here, one will soon realize that the direction described leads into the wildest errors, and would do better to stick with purely materialistic interpretations. Theosophy, correctly understood, must reject such notions. The profound significance of this lies in the fact that the conceptions of the soul’s dream life and the theory derived from them are steeped in a crude, sensory-based imagination, and thus there is no possibility of cultivating them into spiritual truth on this foundation. For this requires what theosophy offers in spiritual foundations; otherwise, one stumbles about in dark hypotheses and theories and interprets them materialistically. This has also been demonstrated by the Freudian school. It did indeed arrive at the symbolism of the dream, but then incorporated into it the ideas of the materialistic age, while the correct understanding pioneered by Schubert and Volkelt in Leipzig could not be continued. Dreams were interpreted as a symbolization of sexual life because our time is incapable of realizing that this realm is the lowest manifestation of countless worlds whose spiritual significance far surpasses our own. This turns it into a matter that imparts an inappropriate tone to an entire field of research and consequently leads to the gravest errors. Theosophy can therefore say only this to the Freudian school: it must reject the results of its research because they are amateurish; let it first familiarize itself thoroughly with Theosophy, and then its truths will yield entirely different research results. One will then begin to realize that our time is an age of intellectualism, an age of dogmas that drives us into a wild chaos of instincts and passions and finds pleasure only in the intellectual and the abstract.

[ 9 ] Thus, taking the example of the Freudian school, we see how the most extreme materialism casts a false light on a realm of the soul and demeans it by attempting to reduce all phenomena occurring there to the sexual sphere, an approach that one could also say arises from a personal preference of the researchers themselves, of which they are simply unaware, but which also comes across as professionally amateurish.

[ 10 ] We must feel within ourselves the necessity that Theosophy must reject half-truths and quarter-truths and accept only those truths that it can uphold on the basis of its own foundations, for we see that Theosophy today can provide the strength to work from within itself. I would like to emphasize that my first books did not grow out of Theosophy, but those who are unfamiliar with it find it strange that I nevertheless later became a Theosophist. But that is a short-sighted, narrow-minded opinion. These books do have one thing in common: that, despite their strictly scientific stance, they do not engage with what is otherwise regarded as official science; that they do not fall into the kind of mindset from which one believes one can define everything comprehensively and universally.

[ 11 ] Theosophy is meant to draw a rich life from the depths of occult sources, to make no compromises, and to demonstrate a courage that is lacking in fields outside its own. Those who, in this sense, refuse to make any compromises at all are regarded as inadequate by those who constantly demand that others yield, yet do not do so themselves. In contrast, however, Theosophy stands in the world as a spiritual movement firmly grounded in itself, and its adherents must always be aware of this fact and recognize it as the lifeblood of the Theosophical Movement. It sometimes happens that people with special interests come to Theosophy, but Theosophical interest and Theosophical research are not about special interests. Let each person pursue these for themselves and not demand that Theosophy follow them in this. Theosophy must penetrate our entire cultural context and must have the courage to carry out its life’s work in a consistent manner in an age that is rightly called intellectualistic.

[ 12 ] Let us not, however, assume that this intellectuality must play a role in theosophical life in exactly the same way; here we must proceed from facts that have been established through clairvoyance. We then find three basic elements of the soul’s life. First, the life of imagination and concepts—intellectuality—which initially manifests itself only in perception. When we consider this intellectuality in and of itself, it becomes clear that, in the broadest sense, it is bound to the sensory world from which human beings abstract their ideas. These ideas themselves, however, are supersensory. It is already evident from the connection between the life of imagination and the life of perception that the former is [not] connected to the physical plane. When we engage in difficult imaginative work, think deeply, and grow weary of it, we also sleep well, provided that only the life of imagination—and not the life of feeling—was involved in our activity. Thus we understand why it has been said that the life of imagination is a supersensible process; it is therefore connected with the next element, the astral world. From the astral plane, then, flow the forces that awaken and sustain the life of imagination in the human soul.

[ 13 ] The second element consists of the emotional stirrings that course through our soul—such as desire, aversion, joy, pain, worry, love, dislike, and so on. They are closely and intimately connected to our ego as mental and emotional movements and rob us of sleep because they do not allow us to enter the astral plane with this emotional restlessness. Thus we also understand that we are thereby connected to the lower Devachan, which does not accept our emotional stirrings if they are not pure, but rather rejects them from that part of the astral world that belongs to the lower Devachan.

[ 14 ] We find the third element in morality, in the impulses of the will. When falling asleep, the person who can look back on good deeds in their daily review enjoys a blissful moment. They enjoy a state of which they can say: If only it were possible to prolong it, to enjoy it as a life-giving element that might spread as a fertilizing force over our soul life! — From this we will understand what occult research states: The impulses of the will point toward the higher Devachan, into which they are admitted only if they spring from a pure will and fit into this spiritual world. Thus, the life of imagination and concepts—our intellectuality—stands in close relation to the astral world; our emotional life to the lower Devachan; and our volitional life to the higher Devachan.

[ 15 ] Added to this is our sensory perception on the physical plane. These four elements develop unevenly in human incarnations across various cultural epochs.

[ 16 ] When one delves into such occult foundations, one sees how sensory life flourished during the Greco-Roman era, and how the Greeks and Romans were entirely attuned to the physical world they held in such high esteem. Our age, as the fifth cultural epoch, is that of thinking, of intellectuality. Hence the flourishing of the abstract sciences. The coming sixth age will retain intellectual life, just as we have retained sensory life in the fifth, and will manifest itself primarily in the soul life of emotional movements. The environment will affect people particularly from the side that causes them pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, sympathy and antipathy—in the sense that today only the occultist can already perceive this, who is capable of overcoming mere intellectuality by grasping and seeing through certain connections of life with the right feeling, without lengthy logical justification. The occultist feels aversion to the illogical, joy and peace of mind in the logical. But if he advocates something he readily grasps correctly, he must today justify it only through a lengthy exposition in order to make himself understood. Thus, especially when reading newspapers, the occultist feels keen pain, for it is precisely in the daily papers that one frequently finds illogic incarnate. Nevertheless, one must read them—selectively, if possible—to remain in touch with the world. One need not do as that professor of Chinese did, who one day said to his colleagues in great agitation: “I have just learned—it was in 1870/71—that Germany has been at war with France for half a year; I only read the Chinese newspapers.”

[ 17 ] In the final post-Atlantean, that is, the seventh epoch, the moral sense will develop—that is, the sense for the impulses of the will. This will bring about remarkable progress. Occult research, indeed even today’s research, shows us that a person can be very clever and intellectual without being moral. Intellectuality and morality go hand in hand today. Gradually, however, the peculiar fact will arise that the cleverness of an intelligent person will be nullified by their immorality, so that in the distant future, the immoral person must indeed be or become stupid at the same time. We are thus moving toward a moral age in which morality in all aspects of our spiritual life and subsequent intellectuality will become one.

[ 18 ] Although human beings possess all four of the aforementioned elements in their souls, sensory perception was the dominant force above all others during the Greco-Roman era, while intellectuality has come to the fore to a greater degree in the present; in the penultimate, the sixth period, emotional movement will prevail, and in the seventh, the final cultural epoch, morality will prevail—in a way that we can only dream of today. We cannot yet imagine its emergence in the way Socrates did, who believed that virtue could be taught and learned. All of this, however, will become reality by the seventh epoch, for the tendencies already clearly discernible in occultism prophetically foretell it to us.

[ 19 ] Thus, the overarching spiritual character of our age is intellectuality, but there is a difference in how it manifests itself in a materialistically minded environment and in Theosophy. Through their intellectuality, human beings are connected to the astral plane, but they are only aware of this—and can only make proper use of it—when they have developed clairvoyance. This will begin to occur in an ever-increasing number of people over the course of the twentieth century. Progress then lies solely in the fact that people not only develop a heightened intellectuality for themselves, but also carry it up into the astral world. Through such intellectual clairvoyance, the etherically visible Christ can and will appear more and more clearly to those who have advanced in this sense over the course of the next three millennia. In the past, however, when human beings were predominantly connected to the physical plane, Christ could not appear except in physical form. In the present age of intellectuality, he can appear only in ethereal form. To this end, Theosophy seeks to prepare people so that they may correctly recognize and apply the clairvoyant powers that will gradually emerge in their natural development, so that the coming half of our intellectual age will undoubtedly behold Christ in his ethereal form with clear vision.

[ 20 ] The Age of Emotional Stirrings will then further develop the soul in a different way, enabling it to enter the lower Devachanic world in a conscious manner. Christ will reveal Himself there to a number of people in the lower Devachan world in a form of light as the sounding Word, speaking from His astral body of light into the receptive minds of humanity that Word which was already active in astral form at the very beginning, as John explains in the opening words of his Gospel.

[ 21 ] In the moral age, a number of people will perceive the Christ as he reveals himself from the higher Devachan in his true Self, which towers above every human self to an incomprehensible height, and in the radiance of all that can provide humanity with the highest possible moral impulses even then. Thus, the influence of the individual cultural epochs is connected to the soul. From higher and ever higher worlds, the forces will flow into human beings and become effective. Wonderful indeed is perception in the physical world, even more so the intellectuality developing as the dominant force and the connection to the astral world formed thereby, and in a higher sense, the emotional movement and morality in connection with the Devachan world.

[ 22 ] Upon logical reflection, one will find the development outlined here to be logical, since life itself provides confirmation of this everywhere and at all times. The theosophist consciously embraces such developments, not only in broad strokes and general truths, but also in the specific details of human evolution. In the excesses of the environment, the intellectual element stands out strongly in its striving to form dogmas, but in Theosophy, intellectuality is meant to spiritualize itself into spirituality in order to be able to understand the higher results of occult research. This can be described more precisely by noting that in the Greco-Roman era, what later unfolded as the Mystery of Golgotha in physical form first appeared to us, and then, through its influence on the human soul as an impulse, led humanity upward. Above all, it is necessary for humanity to learn to understand what this Christ impulse means for our world. It must be pointed out that this Christ impulse is real life flowing into humanity, that Christ did not bring a doctrine or a theory to the world, but the impulse of a new life. Let us seriously consider this.

[ 23 ] Since the Saturnic Age, through the Solar and Lunar Ages, human beings have developed in their physical, etheric, and astral bodies. The ego could only enter bodies sufficiently prepared on Earth and continue to unfold there under the fostering influences of the Christ impulse, because Christ is, in the macrocosm, what our ego is in the microcosm and what it means for us humans. The four principles of the macrocosm stand in manifold relation to our four lower principles, including the most significant of these, the ego. In our present epoch, the higher human principles are already beginning to shine into our development. The life spirit, the spiritual self, and the spiritual human are developed within us from the higher spiritual worlds through the macrocosmic principles, but not through the fourth macrocosmic principle, rather through the fact that beings who themselves have no macrocosmic but only a microcosmic significance act formally as teachers within humanity, since they have already advanced by one or more principles beyond human beings themselves. In contrast, Christ is a macrocosmic being who stands on the fourth stage of his macrocosmic development, just as the human being stands on the fourth stage microcosmically.

[ 24 ] One must therefore distinguish between macrocosmic and microcosmic principles, but be aware that the first four macrocosmic principles naturally encompass all the higher microcosmic principles. The microcosmic beings thus act as teachers and seek to propel humanity forward through their teachings. Christ, on the other hand, who acts as a macrocosmic reality, is not a teacher like the other teachers; rather, he has united himself with the Earth as a reality, as a force, as life.

[ 25 ] The highest teachers of successive eras are the so-called Bodhisattvas, who already in pre-Christian times pointed to Christ as a reality and who, in post-Christian times, again designate this same Christ as such a reality, one that has now become united with the Earth. Thus, the Bodhisattvas are active both before and after the earthly-physical life of Christ. For example, there was one who was born in India 550 years before Christ as a prince, lived and taught as a Bodhisattva for twenty-nine years, and then ascended to the dignity of a Buddha. He thereby became an individuality who was no longer to appear in the flesh on Earth, but who worked down from the spiritual world. This Bodhisattva had a successor the very moment he became a Buddha, and this new Bodhisattva has the task of introducing humanity to an understanding of the essence of the Christ impulse. This occurred even before the appearance of the Christ on Earth, for about 105 years before the birth of Christ, a man lived in Palestine—slandered to this day by rabbinic literature—named Jeshu ben Pandira, whom we must regard as this Bodhisattva. Jesus of Nazareth differs significantly from him in that, at the age of thirty, through his baptism in the Jordan, he became the bearer of the Christ essence.

[ 26 ] Jeshu ben Pandira was particularly active in spreading the teachings of the Essenes. One of his disciples, named Mathai, is mentioned by name; like Jeshu, he pointed to the mystery of Golgotha. Jeshu ben Pandira was stoned to death by his opponents and then, to humiliate him further, hung dead on a cross. He is a figure whose existence does not even require recourse to occult research, as he is sufficiently described in rabbinic literature, albeit in a misunderstood or intentionally distorted manner. He embodied the individuality of the new Bodhisattva and became the successor to Gautama Buddha. The disciple’s name Mathai was passed on to later disciples, and the Gospel of Matthew had, in a sense, already existed since the time of the first Matthew as a description of the rituals of the ancient mystery texts. Its essential content later unfolded on the physical plane with Christ Jesus as a reality of earlier images of the mysteries, the seeds of later realities. Thus, the Christ Mystery had already been prophetically foreshadowed and had played out figuratively in the ancient mystery ceremonies until it later occurred uniquely on the physical plane as a reality of world events.

[ 27 ] The Bodhisattva who once lived as Jeshu ben Pandira repeatedly descends to our Earth in human form and will continue to return time and again to fulfill the remainder of his task, his special mission, which cannot yet be carried out today. Although its completion can already be foreseen clairvoyantly, no human voice can yet produce the sounds of the language that will be spoken when this Bodhisattva ascends to Buddhahood. One can therefore say, in accordance with Eastern occultism: Five thousand years after Gautama Buddha, the succeeding Bodhisattva will ascend to Buddhahood, that is, toward the end of the next three millennia. But since he is to prepare humanity especially for the moral age, he must later speak a language that is such that everything the one who has become a Buddha will then utter is imbued with a magical power of goodness. This is why the Eastern tradition has also foretold for millennia: This coming Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha, will be a bringer of good through the word. He will then be able to teach humanity about the nature of the Christ impulse, and in this age the currents of the Buddha and the Christ will converge, and the Christ mystery will thereby become all the more comprehensible.