The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] Unlike in previous years, I will not be speaking today about Christmas in general; I would like to save that for Tuesday. Instead, I would ask you to regard what I have to say today as a kind of Christmas gift; as something I would like to place under the Christmas tree for your souls—a Christmas reflection that is certainly anthroposophical, but which, through the significance we can draw from it if we unite it properly with our souls, may keep us engaged in contemplation and meditation for a long time to come. Surely we may, during the Christmas season, commemorate that being who may indeed seem mythical or mystical to some, but whose name we nevertheless associate—or at least have become accustomed to associating in a certain way—with the spiritual impulses of Western cultural life. I am referring to the being of Christian Rosenkreutz.

[ 2 ] With this individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz and its influence since the 13th century—as we have often described—we associate everything that encompasses us: the continuation of the impulse given by the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth and by the fulfillment of the Mystery of Golgotha. We have previously discussed what we might call the final initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz in the 13th century. Today we shall speak of an act of Christian Rosenkreutz that took place toward the end of the 16th century; of an act of Christian Rosenkreutz that is so significant for the Christ impulse because it linked to it what was one of the most important acts in the history of human development in recent times, before the Mystery of Golgotha took place.

[ 3 ] Among all the things that can truly help us understand just how profoundly the Mystery of Golgotha shaped the history of humanity on earth, one of the most significant is the work of another religious founder: the work of Gautama Buddha. The Eastern worldview tells us how Gautama Buddha, in that life commonly referred to as the Buddha’s life, ascended from a Bodhisattva to a Buddha at the age of twenty-nine. And we know what it means for a Bodhisattva to ascend to a Buddha. We have also often emphasized the full significance, the world-historical significance, of what resonates with us as the first act of the Buddha—who became a Buddha from a Bodhisattva—and we have emphasized the full significance of the “Sermon at Benares.” All of this is surely deeply inscribed in our souls. There is only one thing we wish to commemorate in particular today: what it means, among other things, in the great context of the world, for a Bodhisattva to have ascended to become a Buddha. Such is the Eastern teaching, and such is also everything that Western occultism teaches us about this phenomenon: that when a human being ascends from a Bodhisattva to a Buddha, they no longer need to return to our Earth in a human physical body, but that such a being, having ascended to the dignity of a Buddha, can henceforth continue to work in purely spiritual worlds. And so we fully recognize as a truth applicable to us that the human individuality which was, for the last time, the Gautama Buddha on Earth, has since lived on in spiritual heights, initially continuing to work from these spiritual heights into the development of humanity, sending from those spiritual heights into the development of humanity its impulses, its forces for the further development and shaping of humanity.

[ 4 ] And we have highlighted an important deed that the Buddha performed as his contribution to the Mystery of Golgotha. We recalled the beautiful legend, the beautiful story found in the Gospel of Luke: that the shepherds gathered together when the Jesus described in that Gospel was born. We know that the legend tells of an angelic song that rang out at that birth and which the shepherds took into their believing, intuitive souls. We then pointed out where that song came from: The revelations are meant to speak of the Divine in the heights, and peace shall be upon those on earth who are of good will. — It is the song of the revelation of the divine-spiritual forces in the spiritual worlds and of their reflection in the hearts of people who are of good will. We have emphasized that what resounded then as a song of peace was precisely the Buddha’s contribution from the spiritual heights to the Mystery of Golgotha. For the Buddha united with the astral body of that Jesus who appears to us in the Gospel of Luke. And what the Gospel conveys as the song of angels is the influx of the Buddha’s Gospel of Peace into the deed that was then to be accomplished through Christ Jesus. The Buddha spoke at the time of Jesus’ birth, and what appeared to the shepherds as an angel’s song was that which, from ancient pre-Christian times, was to be incorporated into the mission of Christ Jesus as the message of peace and universal love.

[ 5 ] Yet what might be called the essence of the Buddha remained active in the ongoing stream of Christian development in the West. In particular, one deed of that Buddha may be highlighted, who no longer worked in a human body thereafter, but who worked in a spiritual body, just as he had worked at the birth of Jesus; who continued to work, perceptible to those who, through some form of initiation, are able to enter into a relationship not only with physical human beings, but also with the great, high-ranking guides and teachers who approach humanity in purely spiritual bodies.

[ 6 ] Several centuries, indeed a number of centuries, after the Mystery of Golgotha had been accomplished, a school of mysteries flourished in southern Russia, in the region of the Black Sea. There were significant teachers at that school of mysteries. Only a hint can be given here—and a half-figurative one at that—of what actually took place there. Among the teachers who worked there in physical bodies was also one who did not work in a physical body, but could only approach those students and pupils who were able to enter into a relationship with those guides and teachers who were not incarnated in physical bodies, but who appeared in the mysteries only in spiritual bodies. And among these teachers who appeared in spirit bodies at the aforementioned mystery site at that time was the very same being of whom we are told as the Gautama Buddha. And this being had a significant disciple at that time, in the 7th and 8th centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha. The Buddha, in his true essence at that time, was not concerned with perpetuating what is called Buddhism in its old form, but rather he had gone along with the entire evolution of the age, with all development. He had taken up the Christ impulse; he himself, as we have seen, had participated in the Christ impulse. And only in the mood, in the fundamental character of what he had to give at the indicated place of the mysteries, was expressed what was still to come from the old Buddha stream. But it was expressed in such a way that it was entirely clothed in a Christian mood, in a Christian garment. One might say, in a certain sense: After the Buddha had become a being who no longer needed to incarnate in a human body, he had become a helper of Christian evolution from the spiritual world. — And a faithful disciple had at that time deeply absorbed what the Buddha could offer in that era; had deeply absorbed something that could not become the common heritage of humanity, but which was like a union of the Buddha’s teaching with the Christ’s teaching: the absolute devotion to that which is supersensory in the human being, the being lifted above the immediate connection with the sensuous — and not with the intellect, with reason, but with the heart, with the soul devoting itself to the soul-spiritual of the world, the withdrawal from the externalities of the world, the devotion with one’s whole soul to the spiritual and its mysteries. And when that soul, which had been a Buddha-Christ disciple—having, so to speak, heard of the Christ through the Buddha—reappeared on Earth, it was incarnated in the human being whom we know in the history of human development as Francis of Assisi. And whoever wishes to get to know the figure of Francis of Assisi spiritually in all his uniqueness from the occult depths of human development, let him look to the preceding incarnation of Francis of Assisi; let him familiarize himself—if one wishes to understand the peculiar nature of Francis of Assisi’s life, especially with what confronts us as great and mighty in him, because it is at once so unworldly and so far removed from all that is immediately sensually experienced—let them familiarize themselves with the fact that Francis of Assisi, in his previous incarnation, as has been indicated, was a disciple of the Buddha at the indicated place of mystery.

[ 7 ] Thus the Buddha-essence continued to work—invisibly, supernaturally—within the current that had entered human evolution through the Mystery of Golgotha. But it is precisely in Francis of Assisi that we can truly see what this Buddha influence would have been like for all subsequent ages, had nothing else happened except that the Buddha had continued to work as he did in that act we have just described, and through which he prepared Francis of Assisi for his mission. Had he continued to work in this way—many, many people would have been inspired by the spirit and mood of Francis of Assisi. They would have become disciples of the Buddha within Christianity, would have become followers of the Buddha. But what lived on as a Buddha-like spirit, for example, in those who had become followers of Francis of Assisi, would have been impossible to reconcile with all that modern times—the era since the dawn of the new spiritual life—have demanded of humanity.

[ 8 ] Let us recall how we have described the human soul’s passage through the various regions of the world between death and rebirth. Let us recall that between death and rebirth, the human soul must pass through what we call the planetary spheres, that it must journey out into the vastness of outer space. Let us recall that between death and rebirth, we indeed successively become inhabitants of the Moon, Venus, Mercury, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, become inhabitants of the starry heavens, only to gather together again from these worlds, to reincarnate anew through some parental couple, and to undergo what can be experienced on the stage of Earth, while we complete outside the Earth’s sphere what we must undergo as inhabitants of other worlds. Of every soul that enters existence through birth, we can say that since its last death it has undergone the various experiences that can be undergone out there in the starry heavens. Through birth, we bring into existence the forces that we experience in the various realms of the starry heavens.

[ 9 ] Now let us take a look at how life unfolds on our Earth, how, with every new incarnation, with every new embodiment here on Earth, human beings find the Earth changed, and how they experience new things. Let us recall how, in their various incarnations, human beings lived through the pre-Christian era, how they were reincarnated after the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place in the course of human development and was to continue to work as an impulse in the further development of humanity. Let us engrave this deeply upon our souls: how the Earth undergoes a development, descending from divine-spiritual heights to a certain lowest point; how this was then linked to Earth’s development by what we may call the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha, and how, from that point onward, an upward development of the Earth takes place, which is only just beginning now, but which will continue as long as human beings take the impulses from this Mystery into their souls, so that they will later ascend again to that stage where they stood before the temptation by Lucifer took place. Let us realize that in this way—precisely because of its deepest conditions of development—we always find the development of the Earth to be different when we return to earthly existence through birth.

[ 10 ] But this is also the case when we enter the other celestial bodies between death and rebirth. Yes, these celestial bodies also undergo a process of development. They undergo an evolution, a descent and an ascent in their development, just as our Earth itself does. And every time we enter one of the celestial bodies out there—Mars, Venus, or Mercury—we encounter different conditions, and when we encounter these different conditions, we also absorb different experiences and different impulses from these celestial bodies and bring back different impulses each time, say, from Mercury, from Venus, and so on; for we absorb all the impulses there, which we then bring back into existence through birth. Because the other celestial bodies also undergo their own evolutions, we bring back different inner forces in our souls each time.

[ 11 ] Today, as we are, so to speak, guided by the profound meaning of Christmas into the essence of the cosmos—the spiritual essence of the cosmos itself—today we wish to commemorate in particular a development that presents itself to occult research when this research truly penetrates to a certain depth into that which it can penetrate: into the essence of other worlds that are linked to other planets and other planetary systems in the same way that the spiritual life of the Earth is linked to the Earth itself. Just as in the spiritual life of the Earth there is a descending development leading up to the Mystery of Golgotha, and from there an ascent that is now merely masked and concealed—because the Christ impulse must be understood more and more, and because humanity will then already be undergoing an ascending development— so—let us bear this in mind—an ascending and a descending development also took place on Mars, whose stage we also enter between death and new birth. It was precisely up into the 15th and 16th centuries that Mars underwent such a development that what had been given to it from the beginning from the spiritual worlds was in a state of descending development. Just as the Earth’s development was a descending one up to the beginning of our era, so too was the development of Mars a descending one up to the 15th and 16th centuries. It was to become an ascending one, it had to become an ascending one, for the consequences of that descending development had become apparent above. After all, as human beings, we bring with us the impulses, the forces from the starry worlds, when we enter earthly existence again through birth, and among the various forces, the forces of Mars as well. In an individual, we can see particularly clearly how what one brings from Mars onto Earth has been transformed.

[ 12 ] It is well known to all occultists that the same soul that appeared in Nicolaus Copernicus to usher in, so to speak, the dawn of the modern era, had previously been incarnated from 1401 to 1464 in Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, Nicholas Cusanus. Yet how different are these two personalities, who in a certain sense harbored the same soul within them! Nicholas of Cusa in the 15th century, wholly, wholly devoted to the spiritual worlds, rooted in his contemplations of the spiritual worlds—and when he reappeared, bringing about that tremendous upheaval that could only be brought about by, so to speak, casting out from the worldview of space, of the planetary system, and one focused only on the external movements and external relationships of the celestial bodies! Why, then, was the same soul who had been on Earth as Nicholas of Cusa and was still wholly devoted to the spiritual worlds able, when it reappeared in its next incarnation, to conceive of celestial relationships in an abstract, mathematical, purely spatial-geometric way? One could do so because, having passed through the sphere of Mars in the interval between the lives of Nicholas of Cusa and Copernicus, one had just entered the decline of Mars. One did not bring back from Mars any forces that inspired the soul in life to such an extent that one soared up into the spiritual worlds. Only what was physical and sensory lived in such souls who had just passed through Mars at that time. If everything on Mars had continued in that way, if Mars had remained in its decline, then the souls would have brought back from this celestial body only what would have enabled them here on Earth to have a purely material conception of the world. But through what arose from the decline of Mars, modern natural science came into being; this poured into the souls in such a way that it led from triumph to triumph in the realm of material knowledge of the world, and this would continue to work in the further development of humanity in the sense of all that material natural science can become—that which can form the basis for industry and commerce, for the external shaping of earthly culture.

[ 13 ] It would indeed be possible that the class of people who have developed under the influence of the absence of certain ancient Mars forces—forces that no longer exist—that this class of people, who are thus devoted solely to external culture, might be counterbalanced by another class of people, a class consisting entirely of followers of Francis of Assisi or of Buddhism as it has been adapted to Christianity. A being such as the Buddha—as he continued to work in the manner indicated today up to Francis of Assisi—could have formed a counterweight on Earth against the purely materialistic view of the world by pouring strong forces into the souls. But these forces would have led to the formation of a class of people capable of leading only a monastic life like that of Francis of Assisi, and only this class would have been able to ascend to the spiritual heights.

[ 14 ] Had everything remained as it was, humanity would have become increasingly divided into two classes: on the one hand, those devoted to material life, because this class had once become necessary on Earth for the propagation of the outer, material Earth culture; and, raised up by the continuing Buddha impulse, would be the guardians, nurturers, and preservers of spiritual culture. But the latter would not have been allowed to participate—just as Francis of Assisi was not allowed to participate—in the outer material culture, and these two categories of people would have become increasingly and increasingly separated. And when it could be prophetically foreseen that such a thing would have to come to pass, it was the task of that individuality whom we revere under the name of Christian Rosenkreutz not to allow earthly development to proceed in such a way that such a division of earthly development would take place. Rather, Christian Rosenkreutz felt it was his mission to offer every human soul, wherever it may stand on any plane in modern life, the possibility that every soul might ascend to spiritual heights. We have always emphasized this, and it is indeed emphasized in my work *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*, that our goal in Western occult spiritual development is not to achieve ascent into the spiritual worlds through separation from life, through an ascetic withdrawal from life, but to provide the possibility that every soul, wherever it may be, may find its own way up into the spiritual world. That the ascent into the spiritual worlds is compatible with every other life position, that it could come to pass that humanity would not split into two separate categories, one of which would be devoted solely to external industrial, commercial, and material culture and thereby, while becoming ever more spiritually sophisticated, yet increasingly animalistic and materialistic, while the other would separate itself more and more and lead a life in the spirit of Francis of Assisi—that this might not happen was to become the concern of Christian Rosenkreutz as the modern era approached, which was to bring about materialistic culture, where all souls would have to bring with them the Mars forces that were in decline. And since what would have prevented that division could not be found within the souls, it was necessary for the forces of Mars to impel humanity to commit itself with its whole soul to the spiritual, to the intellectual. Humanity had to be won over, for example, to think scientifically, to view the world scientifically, to form ideas and concepts about the world entirely according to the pattern of modern scientific thought, but at the same time to have the possibility within the soul to deepen these ideas spiritually, to develop them spiritually, so that the path from a scientific view might be found leading upward to a spiritual height.

[ 15 ] This possibility had to be created! And it was created by Christian Rosenkreutz, who, toward the end of the 16th century, gathered his faithful followers from all over the Earth to share in what, although it takes place outwardly and spatially from star to star, but is nevertheless prepared in the sacred mystery sites, where work is carried out within the world bodies, beyond these world bodies, toward world culture—not merely planetary culture. Christian Rosenkreutz gathered around him those who had also been gathered at his initiation in the 13th century. Among them was also one who had long since become his disciple and friend—he who had once incarnated on Earth but now no longer needed to appear on Earth: Gautama Buddha as a spiritual being, just as he was after he had become the Buddha. Thus he was the disciple of Christian Rosenkreutz! And so that everything that could be accomplished through the Buddha might be directed in such a way that it culminates in that mission which has just been described as that of Christian Rosenkreutz in that time, the sending forth of the Buddha from merely earthly activity to cosmic activity came about as a joint act of Christian Rosenkreutz and the being of the Buddha. The Gautama Buddha, or rather the individuality of the Gautama Buddha, was enabled by what it could absorb from the impulses of Christian Rosenkreutz to accomplish the following—we will speak more precisely later about the relationship between Gautama Buddha and Christian Rosenkreutz, but for now it suffices to note that through these relationships, the individuality of the Buddha did indeed cease to work on Earth as it once taught at the Mystery Center on the Black Sea—instead, this Buddha left the immediate sphere of activity of the Earth and transferred his sphere of activity to Mars. Thus, at the beginning of the 17th century, something similar took place in the evolution of Mars as had occurred at the beginning of the ascending development of the Earth in the Mystery of Golgotha. What was brought about by Christian Rosenkreutz is what one might call: the appearance of the Buddha on Mars. This initiated the ascending culture of Mars. From that point on, the ascending development of Mars began, just as the ascending culture on Earth began with the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 16 ] Thus, in a similar way, the Buddha became a savior, a redeemer, for Mars, just as Christ Jesus became for Earth. The preparation for this was, for the Buddha, what he had to teach as the Buddha: the teaching of Nirvana, of dissatisfaction with the Earth, of liberation from earthly incarnations. What he taught in this way was prepared from outside the Earth, directed toward earthly goals. Look into the soul of the Buddha, comprehend the “Sermon at Benares,” understand how, in this preparation, a different kind of activity is revealed than that which takes place merely on Earth, and one understands how wise the agreement between Christian Rosenkreutz and the Buddha was, as a result of which, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Buddha left his sphere of activity on Earth, where he had been working in the earthly sphere on human souls between birth and death, but could have worked from the spiritual worlds, in order to work henceforth on the stage of Mars for human souls between death and new birth. This is the significant thing that has been brought about, one might say through the transfer of the Christmas festival from Earth to Mars. So that from now on, all human souls undergo, in a certain sense, a kind of devotion to Francis of Assisi and thereby indirectly to the Buddha; but people do not undergo this on Earth, rather all people—if we may use the paradoxical term—undergo their monastic life, a devotion to Francis of Assisi, on Mars, and bring the powers from there back to Earth. Through this, they can have what they have attained there as dormant powers in their souls, wherever they may be placed, and need not be placed into a special monastic life in order to undergo a process, as was the case with the special disciples of Francis of Assisi. The latter was prevented by the fact that the Buddha was sent out into the cosmic worlds in accordance with Christian Rosenkreutz, who now worked on Earth without the Buddha. Had the Buddha continued to work in the Earth sphere, he would have been able to achieve only that he could have produced Buddhist or Franciscan monks, and the other souls would then have been devoted to material culture. But because what took place—what might be called a kind of “Mystery of Golgotha” for Mars—the human souls outside of Earth—in a sphere where they are not in an earthly incarnation—undergo what they need for their future earthly life, what must be absorbed as a genuine Buddha-element into the souls, and which, in the post-Christian era, can only be absorbed between death and birth.

[ 17 ] We stand here on the very threshold of a great mystery, the mystery that has given rise to an impulse which continues to shape the course of human development. Oh, whoever truly understands the development of humanity knows that whatever has ever asserted itself on our Earth continually fits into the overall current of human development in its proper way. The Mystery of Golgotha on Mars was different from that on Earth: not so powerful, not so decisive, not leading to death. But you can form a mental image of it if you consider what it means that the one who was the greatest prince of peace and love, the bearer of compassion on Earth, was transferred to Mars to work at the head of the entire Martian evolution. This is not mythology; rather, Mars has derived its name from the fact that it is the planet where the forces present there are most at war with one another. And the Buddha’s mission is that he had to “crucify” himself on the stage of this planet, where the most warlike forces are found, even though the forces there are entirely of a psychic-spiritual nature.

[ 18 ] Thus we stand before the work of the one who was tasked with receiving and carrying forward the Christ impulse in the proper way, and with being the great servant of Christ Jesus. Thus we stand before the mystery of Christian Rosenkreutz, finding him so wise that he rigorously integrates the other impulses—which served as a preparation for the Mystery of Golgotha and which, as it were, are arrayed throughout human evolution around the Mystery of Golgotha—into the entire course of human evolution, insofar as it is his task to do so.

[ 19 ] Something like this, as it has now been described, cannot simply be grasped through words and ideas; rather, one must feel it in all its depth and breadth with one’s whole soul and heart. One must feel what it means to know: Along with the forces we now bring into our present human cycle as we proceed through birth into earthly incarnation are also the forces of the Buddha. They have been transferred to the place where we pass through the life between death and new birth, so that we may enter earthly life in the right way; for within earthly life, between birth and death, it is our task to gain the right relationship to the Christ impulse, to the Mystery of Golgotha. We can do this only if all the impulses work together in the right way. Christ descended from other worlds and united with Earth’s evolution. Here He is to give humanity the greatest thing that can unite with the human soul as an impulse. But this can only happen if the forces connected with human evolution all intervene in this human evolution from their proper places. The great Teacher of Nirvana, who exhorted people to free their souls from the urge and impulse toward reincarnation, was not meant to work where human beings must enter into reincarnation, but according to the great plan woven by the gods, but in which human beings must participate because they serve the gods; according to this plan, that great teacher should continue to work in the life that always stands beyond birth and death.

[ 20 ] Now try to sense the inner validity of such a mental image; try to use this idea to trace the course of human development, in order to understand why the Buddha had to precede Christ Jesus, and how he worked after the Christ impulse had been incorporated into human evolution. Try to process this, and you will see the new development of humanity—the more recent spiritual development beginning in the 17th century, in which you yourself are living—in its proper light, because you will see how human souls take in the forces meant to carry them forward before they enter existence through birth.

[ 21 ] That is what I wish to place under the Christmas tree today, on this significant holiday—not as a direct Christmas sermon, but as a kind of Christmas gift that I have to offer you through Christian Rosenkreutz. Perhaps some, or many, of you will take it as it is meant: as a strengthening of the heart, as a strengthening of the soul’s powers—a strengthening we need if we wish to live securely with our soul within whatever harmony and disharmony life offers us. And if, especially around the Christmas season, we can take in such strengthening and fortification of the soul through the awareness of how we are connected to the great world forces, then perhaps through such a festive gift placed under the Christmas tree, we also take with us from such an anthroposophical center that which remains alive throughout the entire year and which we must shape—but which we can shape better if we can continue living our lives with such encouragement between one Christmas Eve and the next.