The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. The Cosmic Self and the Human Self. Microcosmic-Supersensible Beings. The Nature of Christ

My dear Theosophical friends!

[ 1 ] There is a need for us to speak a little more this evening about the nature of Christ Jesus. This need arises from the fact that so much is currently being said on this subject, especially in theosophical circles, and that there is a pressing need to achieve full clarity on various points in this area.

[ 2 ] Today we will discuss an aspect of this question that may seem somewhat peculiar to many, but is nonetheless very important. We will begin, my dear Theosophical friends, with the evolution of humankind. We know, of course, that this evolution proceeds in such a way that, throughout the course of Earth’s development, all of humanity passes through certain cyclical epochs. And we have often spoken of the fact that, since that great catastrophe we call the Atlantean one—through which life on the ancient Atlantean continent was transformed into the life on the newer continents, which is precisely our own life—we can distinguish five cultural periods up to our own time. We speak of the first, the ancient Indian cultural epoch; of the second, the great primordial Persian cultural epoch; of the third, the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian; of the fourth, the Greek-Latin, which, from a broader world perspective, actually only began to ebb, let us say, around the eighth to twelfth centuries A.D.; and then, since 1413, we speak of the existence of our own, present, fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch.

[ 3 ] Now, human souls—including all the souls sitting here—have undergone various incarnations throughout these successive cultural epochs up to the present time; some souls have had more or fewer incarnations, while others have had a relatively smaller number. These souls, in accordance with the characteristics of these cultural epochs, have, so to speak, assimilated this or that from their experiences, have carried it over from earlier to later incarnations, and then appear as souls at this or that stage of development, depending on what they have previously undergone in the various cultural epochs.

[ 4 ] Now, however, we can also say that, for the most part—but mind you, only for the most part—of the various aspects of human nature, in the individual cultural epochs, this or that aspect of the human being has come to be shaped and developed, but for the most part always a specific aspect of human nature. Thus we can say that in our cultural epoch, human beings are essentially called upon, if they allow everything that our cultural epoch has to offer to take effect upon them, to bring to fruition what we call, within our spiritual scientific view, the consciousness soul. In contrast, it was primarily during the Greco-Latin cultural epoch that the intellectual or emotional soul was developed, during the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian epoch the sensory soul, during the ancient Persian cultural epoch the sensory or astral body, and in the ancient Indian epoch that which we designate as the etheric or life body. These various aspects of human nature have undergone, or will undergo, their corresponding development in individual souls throughout these cultural epochs, in one or, for the most part, in several incarnations. And in the epoch that now follows ours as the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, what we call the spiritual self—what has come to be known in theosophical literature as Manas—will be developed in particular, and in the last, the seventh post-Atlantean cultural epoch, that which we call the life-spirit, which in theosophical literature has come to be called Buddhi, while that which is the spirit-man or Atma is to be developed in a certain way following a renewed catastrophe in the distant future.

[ 5 ] So we find ourselves in the midst of shaping—through the normal conditions of our culture, so to speak, through what surrounds us—that which is called the conscious soul in the present and in the near future.

[ 6 ] But we know that this entire formation of the human being, this entire development of the individual soul members, as we distinguish them, is essentially linked to something else as well; it is essentially linked to the gradual integration of the human “I.” For this integration of the human ego into human nature is, in fact, the very task of earthly evolution. Thus, we have, as it were, two converging currents of development, in that we must pass through earthly evolution following the Saturn, Sun, and Moon phases, and in that we, as human beings on Earth, must develop this fourth member of human nature—the ego—in particular, adding this ego to the other main members of human nature that were already predisposed earlier: the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. You must now distinguish this great, primary stream of development, which is bound up with the great incarnations of our Earth planet itself, from that smaller stream of development, from that more limited stream of development which I have just described as taking place within such a short period of time as the post-Atlantean epoch.

[ 7 ] No one who has understood what has been said so far should ask the question: “How is it that human beings had already developed the etheric or life body on the ancient Sun, and that a special development of this body is now to take place during the ancient Indian cultural epoch?” Anyone who has understood these things should not actually raise this question, for the matter is this: Certainly, the human etheric or life body was predisposed during the ancient Sun. Human beings have thus arrived on Earth already possessing an etheric or life body. But this etheric or life body can now be further refined; it can be worked into it through the later members that human beings develop within themselves. So that, naturally, the human being has his etheric or life body at a relatively high level when he is incarnated in an ancient Indian body, but in this post-Atlantean cultural period he works with the conquered ego—with all that the human being has since worked out—into his etheric or life body, working finer forms into it. And it is essentially a finer working into the various members of human nature that takes shape in our post-Atlantean cultural period.

[ 8 ] If you now consider the entire course of evolution and take into account what has just been said, the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch—the Greco-Latin epoch—will appear to you as a particularly important one. For there, within human nature, what we call the intellectual or emotional soul must be worked upon in a certain more refined way. But by that time, the ego—which thus belongs to the great current of development—has already undergone a particularly high level of development. So that we can say: This human ego has developed to a certain level by the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, by the Greco-Latin period, and it is incumbent upon it there to work into the intellectual or emotional soul, and in our time into the conscious soul.

[ 9 ] In a certain sense, there is a close connection between the human “I” and the three aspects of its soul nature: the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness. It is primarily within these three members that the human ego lives its inner life, and it lives—and will live, especially in our fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, most intimately within the soul of consciousness—because, so to speak, in the soul of consciousness the pure ego can express itself entirely unhindered by the other members. Indeed, we are living in an epoch in which this “I” has the great and special task of developing itself and building upon itself.

[ 10 ] If we then take a kind of look into the future at what is to come, if we say that in the next, the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, human beings will develop the spiritual self or Manas, we realize: The spiritual self or Manas actually already lies beyond the sphere of the ego. And humanity could not, in essence, develop its spiritual self through its own powers in this later future; rather, when it comes to developing its spiritual self, it must be aided in a certain way by what flows to Earth through the powers of higher beings. Humanity has progressed so far in the development of its ego that, relying solely on itself, it can actually only develop up to the level of the consciousness soul. But this development would not be complete if human beings did not already anticipate, in a certain sense, that which will only attain its proper, full, and self-directed human development on Jupiter, the next incarnation of our planet. By the end of Earth’s development, human beings should have formed their ego. They would have the opportunity to accomplish this formation within the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness. But the actual spiritual self is to become a human possession only on the later Jupiter; there it is to become a truly human asset. On Jupiter, humanity will relate to the spiritual self in much the same way as it relates to the ego on Earth. So even if humanity develops the spiritual self during the Earth period, it cannot relate to this spiritual self in the same way as it does to the ego. Of our ego we say: That is ourselves, that is who we truly are. When, in the next epoch—the sixth post-Atlantean one—the spiritual self comes to expression, we will not be able to address this spiritual self as our own self; rather, we will say: “Yes, our ego has developed to a certain stage, so that our spiritual self can shine in from higher worlds like a kind of angelic being—one that we are not ourselves, yet which shines into us and takes possession of us.” — This is how our spiritual self will appear to us. And only on Jupiter will it appear as our own being, just as our ego does. Thus does human development proceed.

[ 11 ] So in the next, the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, we will feel as if we are being drawn upward toward something that shines within us. We will not say, “You, my spiritual self, there within me,” but rather we will say: ‘I am a participant in a being that shines into me from the higher worlds, that guides and directs me, that has become my guide and director through the grace of higher beings!’—What will first come to us as our own on Jupiter, we will perceive as a kind of guide shining in from the higher worlds. And so it will be later with the life spirit or Buddhi, with the spiritual human being, and so on. So that a time will come when human beings will speak of themselves differently than they do now. How does a person speak of themselves now when speaking of themselves in the theosophical sense? They say: I have three sheaths, my physical body, my etheric or life body, and my astral body. Within these I have my I, the true earthly essence, which develops within these three sheaths. These three sheaths are, as it were, my lower nature. I have outgrown them; I look down upon this lower nature of mine and see in that which has become my I my provisional, most essential being, which is to grow more and more, to develop more and more.

[ 12 ] In the future, human beings will have to speak differently. They will say: I have not only my lower nature and my ego, but I also have a higher nature, which I look up to as something that is part of me, just as my physical bodies from the past are now. - So in the future, human beings will, so to speak, feel placed at the center between their lower and higher natures. They already know their lower nature; the higher nature will appear to them in the future as standing above them, just as the lower nature now stands below them. So that we can say: Human beings grow from their fourth to their fifth, sixth, and seventh fundamental parts during the course of Earth’s development. But this fifth, sixth, and seventh fundamental part will not become his immediate possession during the actual course of Earth’s development, but rather something he will gradually reach up to. This is how we must actually picture the matter.

[ 13 ] We will have to go through a time when we say: Yes, it was our mission on Earth to develop our sense of self. But with prophetic foresight, we see something that is to unfold within us on Jupiter. - What we are now experiencing during Earth’s evolution—that we are, so to speak, permeating ourselves with a human ego-nature, and have developed the finer elaboration of the lower fundamental parts from past Earth epochs up to the present, and will develop the higher fundamental parts in the future—what we thus experience as human beings on Earth: this has been exemplified for us by preceding beings whom we designate as angels or Angeloi —that is, beings who precede us—have exemplified in earlier planetary incarnations. But the higher members of the hierarchy as well—archangels or Archangeloi and Archai—have lived through this in earlier incarnations of our Earth planet, on the Moon, the Sun, and Saturn. For them, too, there was at that time a kind of fourth member that they brought to development. And then, in the second half of the corresponding planetary incarnations, they anticipated what was actually to reach full development within them on Earth—just as the spiritual self did on Jupiter in our case. At that time, they did not fully incorporate this as their own property, but rather looked up to it.

[ 14 ] If we first look back at the ancient lunar evolution, we must speak of beings who, just as we humans during the Earth evolution, should have reached their seventh fundamental stage at that time; but just as we humans on Earth reach the seventh fundamental stage, they do not fully incorporate it into themselves, but rather look up to it. When we speak of the Luciferic beings, we are speaking of those who, during the ancient lunar evolution, remained in a state akin to that of a human being who, during Earth evolution, would not bring his fifth, sixth, and seventh root bodies to full development but would reject them—who might perhaps stop at the fourth or the fifth, and so on. These beings, who stand at the most diverse stages of precisely Luciferic beings, have thus not fully developed. So that we can say: It is human beings who have come over from the old lunar evolution to the Earth evolution. Human beings have come over in such a way that they have brought with them from the old lunar evolution a normal development. Those human beings who have reached completion have brought with them a normal development: their physical body, etheric or life body, and astral body, and are meant to develop the ego on Earth, into which they are then to take in the other. Other beings, who stand higher than human beings, were supposed to develop on the old Moon what corresponds to the human ego in them. But they could only have fully developed this lunar ego within themselves if they had already taken on everything that would now be their fifth, sixth, and seventh fundamental parts—what they were supposed to have fully developed as the fifth on Earth. They should have reached their seventh fundamental part. But these Luciferic beings did not reach this seventh fundamental part. They developed only as far as the fifth or sixth, so they did not remain at the fourth as such, but they did not fully develop it because they did not anticipate the fifth, sixth, and seventh fundamental parts, but remained at the fifth or sixth.

[ 15 ] Let us consider two classes of these lunar beings. First, those who have just developed their fifth fundamental part, just as we humans would be if, in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch, we were to develop and then complete the spiritual self without going on to develop the sixth and seventh fundamental parts. Let us consider this one class, which, as Luciferic beings, has developed its fifth fundamental part, and let us consider another class of lunar beings of a Luciferic nature, which has developed its sixth fundamental part but not its seventh. Such beings existed at the beginning of Earth’s development, when humanity was preparing to develop its I. So we may ask: What was present with regard to these beings at the beginning of Earth’s development? There were beings who were eagerly waiting to develop their sixth root element during Earth’s development—beings of a Luciferic nature, that is, who had only reached the development of their fifth root element on the Moon and wished to develop their sixth root element on Earth. And there were second-class beings who had already developed their sixth fundamental part on the Moon and wished to develop their seventh on Earth. This is what they expected from Earth’s evolution. Then came the human being with three fundamental parts to develop his fourth.

[ 16 ] So we can distinguish between human beings waiting to develop their “I,” the Luciferic beings who were waiting to develop their sixth fundamental part, and the Luciferic beings who were waiting to develop their seventh fundamental part. We will leave aside those who wished to develop their fifth fundamental part; such beings also existed.

[ 17 ] We have thus considered, so to speak, three classes of microcosmic beings on Earth—three classes of beings that had arrived on the stage of Earth’s evolution. Of the three classes, however, only one was able to acquire a physical body on Earth. For the conditions that Earth provides for the development of a physical, corporeal body can only be provided, by virtue of its overall earthly conditions, for a fourth human element. Only that which sought to develop its fourth element as an “I” while existing as a being on Earth was able to acquire a physical body. The other beings who wished to develop a sixth and seventh fundamental part could not attain a physical body. For there is no possibility on Earth that could have led beings—who had entered this earthly development in such a way as to be unsuited to it—to attain a direct physical human body. There is no possibility of immediately acquiring such a physical body. What did these beings have to do? They had to do the following. They had to say to themselves: Yes, we cannot immediately find a physical human body consisting of flesh and bone, for such bodies are meant for those who wish to develop their I. We must therefore take refuge in a kind of surrogate for a physical body; we must seek out human beings who are among the most developed, who have, so to speak, developed their fourth fundamental part. We must enter into them, and within them our being must work in such a way that it can bring its sixth or seventh fundamental part to maturity.

[ 18 ] As a result, among the ordinary people of ancient times there appeared some who could be possessed by higher beings of a Luciferic nature—who, of course, stood higher than human beings, since they were meant to develop their sixth and seventh fundamental parts, whereas human beings had only developed their fourth—by these higher Luciferic beings. Such higher beings of a Luciferic nature thus walked the earth in human bodies. They were the leaders of humanity; they knew, understood, and were capable of much more than other people. We hear of these beings in ancient tales and legends, which tell us that they were great city-builders, great leaders of peoples, and the like. These were not merely ordinary human beings on Earth, but rather human beings who were possessed by such higher beings of a Luciferic nature—possessed in the best sense of the word. Only then can we understand human development on Earth when we are able to take such things into account.

[ 19 ] However, the lowest of these entities, in particular, always seek to continue their development within other human bodies, since they themselves are unable to attain a human body. And that is precisely what could be characterized. Luciferic beings have always longed to continue their development in the manner described by taking possession of other human beings—and they still do so today. It is precisely within the human soul that Lucifer and his hosts are at work. We are the stage for Luciferic development. While we humans simply take the physical body of the Earth to develop ourselves, these Luciferic entities take us and develop within us. And that is precisely the temptation for humans: that the Luciferic spirits are at work within them.

[ 20 ] However, just as human beings have progressed, these Luciferic spirits have also progressed. So that quite a few of these spirits, who—let us say—at the time when humanity entered the Atlantean epoch stood at the threshold to develop their sixth fundamental part, have now already reached the point—since their development on Earth is, after all, abnormal—of developing their seventh fundamental part. They do this by once again possessing a human being, perhaps using that person for only a few years to draw upon what that person can experience, in order to further their own development. There is nothing evil in human nature. For, because we are able in our time to express the consciousness soul, we can be possessed by a Luciferic spirit that is in the process of developing its seventh fundamental part. What does one become by being possessed by a high Luciferic spirit? A genius who, although—because he is possessed as a human being and his actual human nature is outshone by this higher being—is impractical for ordinary tasks, yet is groundbreaking and sets the tone in some field.

[ 21 ] One must not speak of the Luciferic spirit as though it were something to be hated; rather, because it develops within the human being like a parasite, it causes the person to become possessed by it and, under its influence, to work as a person of genius, as an inspired person. Thus, the Luciferic spirits are absolutely necessary. And the geniuses of the earth are those in whom—usually for a few years—the Luciferic entity works very intensely.

[ 22 ] If that were not the case, Edouard Schur would not have been able to portray Lucifer as a sympathetic being, for Lucifer is essentially involved in the great cultural advances of the Earth, and it is a narrow-mindedness of traditional Christianity to see in the Luciferic being nothing but the evil devil. This amounts to nothing more than a severe philistinism. “Nature is sin, Spirit is the devil; between them they harbor doubt, their misshapen hybrid child,” we read in “Faust.” Certainly, it befits narrowly traditional Christianity to address Lucifer as the devil and to hate him, but those who understand human evolution know that the Luciferic principle is at work precisely in the geniuses. It befits the theosophist to look these things squarely in the eye. And we would have no guidance at all to ascend to our fifth and sixth principles ourselves if these spirits were not pushing us forward. In fact, it is the Luciferic spirits to whom we owe this forward momentum—because they seek their own development in the process—so that we ourselves can grow beyond our ego, just as people commonly say that poets, geniuses, and artists grow beyond the narrowly limited human ego.

[ 23 ] In a certain sense, we do look up to the Luciferic spirits as a kind of guide for humanity. We must free ourselves from narrow-mindedness, free ourselves from all orthodox Christianity, which calls Lucifer merely a devil who is worthy of hatred. We must recognize the liberating aspect of the Luciferic principle—which was also introduced by the good gods—as such, for it drives us beyond ourselves during the course of Earth’s development, so that we prophetically anticipate what will become our own only during the Jupiter epoch and so on. Thus, there is actually a mutual influence on Earth between microcosmic beings who were present at the beginning of Earth’s development; such a mutual influence that we can say: Human beings are guided forward, while they develop their own ego, by such beings who are higher than human beings, for they have developed their fifth root and are developing toward the sixth, or are already developing their seventh root, while human beings are only working on their fourth.

[ 24 ] We thus see superhuman beings in these Luciferic beings—microcosmic, superhuman beings. And now we turn away from these spiritual beings, whom we regard as Luciferic, and turn to the nature of Christ.

[ 25 ] Christ differs radically from other beings involved in the development of the Earth. He is a being of an entirely different order. He is a being who did not merely lag behind during the lunar evolution like the Luciferic spirits, but who, foreseeing the lunar evolution, actually lagged behind even earlier—already during the ancient solar evolution—and did so out of a certain assured, far-superhuman wisdom during the ancient solar evolution. We must not regard this being as microcosmic in the same sense as the other beings mentioned, for we must regard as microcosmic those who have been connected with Earth’s development from the very beginning of that development. Christ was not directly connected to the development of the Earth, but to the development of the Sun. He was a macrocosmic being from the beginning of the Earth’s development, a being who was thus subject to entirely different conditions of development than the microcosmic beings. And his conditions of development were of a unique kind. They were such that this macrocosmic Christ being had developed the macrocosmic fourth principle, the macrocosmic I, outside the earthly realm. For his—that is, for this Christ development—it was normal to bring an I of a macrocosmic nature to the point of I-perfection outside the Earth and then to descend to Earth. It was therefore normal for the development of the Christ-being—as it descended from the macrocosm to our Earth—to bring in the great impulse of the macrocosmic I, so that the microcosmic I, the human I, could take up this impulse and progress in its development. It was normal for the Christ to possess not the microcosmic ego impulse, but the macrocosmic ego impulse to the very same extent that the human being possessed the microcosmic one on Earth. Thus, the Christ-being is a being that in a certain respect resembles the human being, except that the human being is microcosmic and has expressed his four principles microcosmically—that is, his I is also microcosmic as an Earth-I—whereas the Christ has a World-I. But his development had proceeded in such a way that he was precisely great and significant through the full development of this ego, which he brought down to Earth. And he did not possess the fifth macrocosmic principle nor the sixth macrocosmic principle, for he will develop these so that he can give them to humanity on Jupiter and Venus.

[ 26 ] Christ is thus a being of fourfold nature—up to his macrocosmic I—just as human beings themselves are microcosmically such beings. And just as human beings have the mission during their time on Earth to develop their I in order to be able to receive, so Christ had to develop his I in order to be able to give. When he descended to Earth, he was such that everything in his being was directed toward expressing his fourth principle in the most perfect form possible. Now, every principle of the same number in the macrocosm and the microcosm has an intimate kinship with the corresponding one in the other, which has the same number. The fourth macrocosmic principle in Christ corresponds to the fourth microcosmic principle in man, and the fifth in Christ will correspond to the spiritual self in man.

[ 27 ] Thus Christ began his earthly mission by bringing down to humanity from the macrocosm that which humanity was to develop microcosmically; only, Christ brought it as a macrocosmic principle. He entered into Earth’s evolution in such a way that, during the course of it, he possessed no fifth, sixth, or seventh principle as his own, just as humanity, in its own way, does not possess them either.

[ 28 ] Christ is a being who, on a macrocosmic level, had developed up to the fourth principle and who, during his earthly sojourn, will see the development of his fourth principle in the act of giving up everything so that human beings may develop their own sense of self.

[ 29 ] If we consider the entire situation, we find that at the beginning of Earth’s development there were three classes of beings: human beings, who are to fully develop their fourth principle on Earth; a class of Luciferic beings, who are to develop their sixth; and a class of Luciferic beings, who are to develop their seventh principle—who, by virtue of developing the sixth and seventh principles, stand higher than human beings and thus, in this respect, transcend them. But in this respect they also transcend the Christ, for the Christ is precisely to express his fourth principle on Earth in devotion to humanity. It will not be the Christ who, so to speak, will inspire human beings in the future to express something other than the actual ego, the innermost human being, to ever higher and higher levels. It will be the Luciferic spirits who will then lead human beings beyond themselves in a certain respect.

[ 30 ] Anyone who then looks at things from the outside can say: Yes, in that sense, Christ actually stands lower than, for example, the Luciferic spirits, because Christ comes to Earth with something that is closely related to the fourth principle of the human being. - He is not at all inclined to lead human beings beyond themselves, but only deeper into their own soul nature. He is inclined to bring human beings’ own soul nature ever more fully into alignment with itself. The Luciferic beings have developed the fourth, fifth, and sixth principles, and thus stand, in a certain sense, higher than Christ. In practical terms, this will play out in the future in such a way that, through the incorporation of the Christ principle into human nature, this nature will be deepened more and more; this human nature will take in more and more light and love within its own being, so that human nature will have to experience light and love as something that is inherently its own. The deepening of the human soul into infinite depths—that will be the gift of the Christ impulse, which will continue to work further and further. And when the Christ comes, as has been described in the various lectures, he will act solely to deepen the human soul. The other spirits, who have higher principles than Christ—even if only of a microcosmic nature—will, in a certain sense, lead humanity beyond itself. Christ will lead people inward, but also make them humble; the Luciferic spirits will lead people beyond themselves, making them wise, clever, and brilliant, but in a certain sense also making them haughty, teaching them that they could become something superhuman even during their earthly development. Therefore, everything that will lead humanity in the future to something through which they will, as it were, rise above themselves—which will make them proud of their own human nature even here on Earth—will thus be of Luciferic origin. But whatever deepens the human being, whatever leads the human being to such depths in his inner life as he can only reach precisely through the full development of the fourth principle—that will originate from Christ.

[ 31 ] People who view the matter from the outside will say: Christ is actually lower than the Luciferic beings, for he brings only the fourth principle to development, while the others bring the higher principles. The difference is simply that these other beings graft the higher principles onto human nature like something parasitic, whereas Christ brings the fourth principle in such a way that human nature is fully permeated, penetrated, and empowered by this principle. Just as the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth was once permeated, penetrated, and empowered by the fourth macrocosmic principle, so too will the bodies of those who receive the Christ within themselves be permeated by the fourth macrocosmic principle. Just as the fourth macrocosmic principle is the gift of Christ, so will the sixth and seventh principles be the gifts of the Luciferic spirits. So that in the future we will be able to experience it—and the times are already preparing themselves—when unwise people will say: Yes, Christ—when we go through the Gospels or otherwise allow what he has given to humanity to take effect upon us, in terms of his teaching, of what flows from him as teaching—is actually not at all on the same level as perhaps other spiritual beings who are related to humanity. They rise above humanity in a certain way; they cannot permeate the whole human being, but they permeate his intellect, his genius! — And the external observer says: These beings actually stand higher than the Christ.

[ 32 ] A time will come when people will come to view the matter in such a way that they will elevate the most powerful, the most significant of these Luciferic spirits—who, so to speak, will want to lead people beyond themselves—onto a pedestal and regard him as a great leader. They will say: “Ah, what Christ was able to give was, after all, merely a stepping stone! Even now there are people who speak like this: ‘Ah, what are the teachings of the Gospels, really? We have already outgrown them.’ — As I said, a comprehensive, brilliant spirit, an outstanding spirit, will be held up, one who will take possession of a human, physical nature, which he will permeate with his brilliance. People will say: He surpasses Christ, for Christ was, in essence, nothing more than the one who provided the opportunity to develop the fourth principle; but this one provides the opportunity to bring it up to the seventh principle during the course of Earth’s evolution!

[ 33 ] Thus the Christ Spirit and the spirit of this entity will stand in opposition to one another: the Christ Spirit, from whom human beings can hope to receive the powerful macrocosmic impulse of their fourth principle, and the Luciferic spirit, which, in a certain sense, will seek to lead them beyond that.

[ 34 ] If people could stick to this and say to themselves: We must take from the Luciferic spirits only that which we look up to as we look down upon our lower nature—then people would be doing the right thing. But when people come to say: ‘Look, Christ gives only the fourth principle, but there are spirits who give the sixth and seventh’—then those who think this way about Christ will worship and hold up the Antichrist as their standard. Thus will the Antichrist’s position vis-à-vis Christ assert itself in the future. And with the outer intellect, with outer genius, one will be unable to object to such things, for one will be able to point to much that, in terms of reason and genius, will be more clever in the Antichrist than that which, as the deepest human principle, will flow ever more deeply into the soul from Christ. Because Christ brings humanity the fourth macrocosmic principle, which, since it is macrocosmic, is infinitely more important than all microcosmic principles —it is stronger than them, even though it is related to the human ego, stronger than all others that can be attained during Earth’s evolution—people will say, precisely because it is only the fourth principle, that it is lower than the fifth, sixth, and seventh, which come from the Luciferic spirits; they will say, in particular, that it is lower than what comes from the Antichrist, It is important that, on the basis of spiritual science, one recognize that this is so. For even now, in connection with the Copernican doctrine—which, so to speak, set the Earth in motion, snatched it from the state of stagnation into which it had previously been placed, led it around the Sun, and showed how the Earth is a speck of dust in the universe—people say: Yes, how can the Christian idea stand by this! — A contradiction is constructed between the Christian idea and this natural science by saying: In earlier times, people could look up to the cross on Golgotha and to Christ, for then the Earth appeared to them as the chosen place in the universe, and the other celestial bodies seemed small to them and actually existing for the sake of the Earth. Then—one might say—the Earth seemed worthy to humanity to bear the cross of Golgotha! But when the Copernican theory took hold of people’s minds, they began to mock and said: Since the other celestial bodies have at least the same significance as the Earth, Christ must have moved from celestial body to celestial body. But since the other celestial bodies are much larger than the Earth, it would actually be strange for the God-man to have accomplished the work of redemption on the small Earth!—So spoke a Nordic scholar. He said: Just as if one were to perform a powerful drama on a small suburban stage or in a village theater instead of on a grand metropolitan stage, so the drama of Christ appeared to him. He said: It is absurd, after all, that the greatest drama in the world should not be performed on a great celestial body. It is just as if one were to stage a powerful play not in a magnificent theater, but in a miserable village theater!

[ 35 ] Such a statement is quite strange, and one might reply: Christian legend has ensured that one should not really be able to say something so foolish, for it did not even place this mystery in a splendid location on earth, but rather in a humble shepherd’s stable. This actually already demonstrates that one should not make such an objection as the Nordic scholar did. People simply never consider how inconsistent they are with their particularly clever ideas. The idea does not hold up against the simple, great truth already present in the Christian legend. And if this Christian legend does not place the birth of Jesus on Earth in a splendid, outstanding residence, but rather in the humble shepherd’s stable, then it does not seem absurd that, in contrast to the greatest celestial bodies, Earth was chosen as the place that bore the cross. Indeed, in the very way that Christian teaching, in its own manner, conveys what Christ had to bring to humanity, there is already a hint of those great teachings that spiritual science is meant to give us again today. Let us allow the Gospels to work upon us: we can find the deepest spiritual-scientific truths, as we have often seen. But how are these great truths contained in the Gospels? Indeed, I would say: If those people who do not possess even a spark of the Christ impulse within themselves are to rise to an understanding of what is written in the Gospels, they must literally rack their brains; a certain genius must even be developed. That normal human consciousness is not sufficient can be inferred from the fact that so few people understand the spiritual-scientific interpretation of the Gospels even in the slightest. Thus, one can understand the Gospels only superficially through Luciferic forces and the cultivation of genius. But as they are given, how do their truths meet us? They meet us as if they were springing forth directly, like the ripest fruit, from what we call the essence of Christ—without effort, without any strain—and thus speak to hearts that allow themselves to be permeated by the Christ impulse, so that they immediately illuminate and warm the soul in unity.

[ 36 ] The way in which the greatest wisdom approaches people is the opposite of the way in which wisdom is imparted. It is such that it is expected that these truths will gush forth in that immediate, original, elemental manner from the fourth macrocosmic principle in Christ Jesus as if already complete, so that they pass directly onto human beings. Indeed, it is even ensured that human cleverness—the cleverness of all that is Luciferic in human development—will interpret these words of Christ in many ways and will only gradually come to terms with their simplicity and grandeur, with their elemental character. And just as with the words of Christ, so too with the facts of Christ.

[ 37 ] When we examine a fact such as—let us say—the Resurrection, using the tools provided by spiritual science, what a peculiar phenomenon do we find ourselves facing? A very prominent German theosophist already stated in the 1820s that one could see how human reason is increasingly permeated by the Luciferic principle. It was Troxler. He said: human reason is entirely Luciferic in everything it seeks to comprehend. — It is generally difficult to point specifically to the deeper theosophical teachings. Those of you who were present at my lecture series in Prague will recall that I referred to Troxler at that time to show how what is now taught about the human etheric body or life body was already present in him. He made the statement that human reason is permeated by the Luciferic forces.

[ 38 ] If we wish to understand the Resurrection today from the perspective of the positive theosophical forces, setting aside the Luciferic forces, we must point out that something significant happened at the baptism of John in the Jordan, that the three bodies of the boy Jesus of Luke were permeated by the macrocosmic Christ-being, who then lived on Earth for three years, and then went through the Mystery of Golgotha with this Christ-being. This development of the Christ Jesus was, of course, different during those three years than that of any other human being. What was it like, so that we can understand, using the principles of spiritual science and going to the very foundation, what the Resurrection was actually like?

[ 39 ] There stood Jesus of Nazareth by the Jordan. His ego separated from the physical body, the etheric or Life-Body, and the astral body, and the macrocosmic Christ-being descended, took possession of these three bodies, and then lived until April 3 of the year 33—as we have been able to establish. But it was a different life. For even from the baptism onward, this life of the Christ in the body of Jesus of Nazareth was a slow process of dying. With each passing period of time during these three years, something of the physical forms within Jesus of Nazareth died away, so to speak. Slowly these outer layers died away, so that after three years the entire body of Jesus of Nazareth was something that was already on the verge of being a corpse and was only just held together by the power of the macrocosmic Christ-Being. You must not form a mental image of this body, in which the Christ dwelt—let us say a year and a half after the baptism of John in the Jordan—as being like any other body, but rather that an ordinary human soul would have felt it slip away immediately, because it could only be held together by the powerful macrocosmic Christ-Being. It was a continuous, slow process of dying away that lasted three years. And this body had reached the brink of disintegration when the Mystery of Golgotha took place. Then all that was needed was for those men, of whom we are told, to approach this body with their strange substances, called spices, and to create a chemical bond between these peculiar substances and the body of Jesus of Nazareth, in which the macrocosmic Christ-Being had dwelt for three years, and then to lower him into the tomb. Then it took only a very little for this body to crumble to dust in the tomb and for the Christ Spirit to clothe itself in an etheric body that, one might say, had condensed to the point of physical visibility. So that the risen Christ was enveloped in an etheric body condensed to the point of physical visibility. Thus he went about and appeared to those to whom he could appear. He was not visible to everyone, because it was actually only a condensed etheric body that Christ wore after the Resurrection. But what had been laid in the tomb crumbled to dust. And according to the latest occult research, it did indeed turn out that an earthquake had taken place. It struck me as remarkable, after I had discovered through occult research that an earthquake had taken place, to find this alluded to in the Gospel of Matthew. The earth split open, the dust of the body fell into it and mingled with the very substance of the earth. Through the violent shaking caused by the earthquake, the cloths were shaken just as they are described in the Gospel of John. This is wonderfully described in the Gospel of John. Thus, we must understand the Resurrection from an occult perspective and need not contradict the Gospels at all. For I have often pointed out that Mary Magdalene did not recognize Christ when he met her. Who wouldn’t be afraid to recognize someone they had seen just a few days earlier, especially if that person is as important a figure as Christ Jesus was? When it is said that Mary Magdalene did not recognize him, he must have appeared to her in a different form. She only recognizes him when she hears him speak, so to speak. That is when she takes notice.

[ 40 ] And all the details in the Gospels are perfectly understandable to us from an occult perspective.

[ 41 ] But someone might say: Thomas was asked by the Risen One, who appeared to the disciples, to put his hands into the wounds. This would require us to assume that the wounds were still there, that Christ had come to the disciples in the very same body that had turned to dust. No! Just imagine: if someone has a wound mark, the etheric body contracts particularly there, forming a kind of scar. And in that particularly contracted etheric body—from which the components for the new etheric body were taken, with which the Christ-being clothed itself—these wound marks were made visible; they were particularly dense areas, so that even Thomas could feel that a reality was present.

[ 42 ] This passage in particular is a marvelous one from an occult perspective. This is by no means inconsistent with the idea that we are dealing with an etheric body condensed to the point of visibility by the power of Christ, and that the Emmaus scene can then take place. We find it described in the Gospel in such a way that what takes place is not an ordinary intake of food, but a dissolution of what has been eaten directly through the etheric body, through the forces of Christ, without the involvement of the physical body.

[ 43 ] All these things can be understood today on the basis of theosophy, drawing on occult principles. The Gospels can, in a certain sense, be understood literally—apart from those passages that have been handed down through poor translations. Every detail is explained in a marvelous way, and anyone who has grasped these things says to himself when he notices a contradiction: I am still too ignorant!—He does not feel as clever as the modern theologians, who say: We cannot comprehend the Resurrection as it is described in the Gospels! - But we can understand it precisely in this way if we grasp things from their very foundations.

[ 44 ] How does everything that has just been said affect human reason? Well, it leads people to say: If I am to believe in the Resurrection, then I must discard everything I have gained so far through my reason. I cannot do that. Therefore, the Resurrection must be dismissed. - The reason that speaks in this way is precisely the reason permeated by Lucifer, which cannot comprehend these things. It will increasingly come to reject the great, elementally effective discourses and events that took place previously and surrounding the Mystery of Golgotha. But Theosophy will be called upon to comprehend these things down to the finest detail. It will not reject what, as a fifth, sixth, or seventh principle, may extend beyond the fourth macrocosmic principle. Nevertheless, it will see in the fourth macrocosmic principle the greatest impulse that has been given to the development of the Earth.

[ 45 ] From this, however, you can see, my dear Theosophical friends, that in a certain sense it is not entirely easy to understand the Christ evolution within the Earth, because the objection—that certain spirits, Luciferic spirits, lead to other, albeit merely microcosmic, principles—is, in a certain sense, justified. I have expressed this before by saying: The Christ is like a kind of center where the Being acts through His deed; the Being acts through what He is. Surrounding the Christ sit the twelve Bodhisattvas of the world, upon whom shines what emanates from the Christ, and who first elevate it to higher principles in the sense of the processing of wisdom. But everything radiates from the fourth principle onto the higher principles as well, insofar as these develop on Earth. This gives rise to much confusion regarding the uniqueness of the Christ, in that one is unclear about how one is dealing, albeit with the fourth, but with the fourth macrocosmic principle in the Christ, and even if higher principles can be developed, these are merely microcosmic principles of beings who did not reach full development on the ancient Moon, but who, in their nature, transcend human beings; who, because they had already unfolded during the Moon’s development, in turn developed on the Moon what human beings on Earth must first develop.

[ 46 ] We must also rise above such matters, as they have now been discussed, if we are to understand the true place of the Christ principle within our earthly evolution, and if we are to grasp why, in the future, the Antichrist will be held in higher esteem than Christ himself in many respects. People may find the Antichrist more clever, more brilliant than Christ. He will gain a powerful following. But theosophists must prepare themselves not to be deceived by what has now been described. Above all, a firm grounding in sound theosophical principles will be necessary in order not to be deceived in this area. Above all, it has been the task and mission of that esotericism which has developed in the West since the thirteenth century—and about which much has been said—to clearly elucidate what needs to be said about the nature of the Christ in this regard. So that whoever stands firmly on the ground of this esotericism will recognize, clearly and ever more clearly, the central position the Christ occupies within the development of the Earth. And one will come to assert—in the face of all so-called reincarnations of the Christ on our Earth—the very simple fact: just as a balance beam must be supported at only one point and not at two or more, so must the development of the Earth have a single fundamental impulse. And whoever assumes multiple incarnations of the Christ makes the same mistake as the one who thinks that for a balance beam to function properly, it must be supported at two points. If this happens, then it is no longer a balance beam. And that which were to pass through the Earth in multiple incarnations would no longer be the Christ. This is what every trained occultist will assert regarding the nature of the Christ. A simple comparison always points to the uniqueness of the Christ nature. Here, the Gospel and Theosophy are in complete harmony.