The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. The Beginning of Spring, the Easter Moon, and Easter Sunday

[ 1 ] It may remain unclear how many hearts in Western Europe today still feel such a connection between the spiritual-psychic and the divine-natural that, on this day, this festival of hope for the future, in this year, the thought passes through their souls: how we live in a year in which this spring festival of hope may come as early as possible, when the fresh shoots of the year sprout from the bosom of our Mother Earth, when that which we call spring enters human life. Three days that are usually far apart are compressed into one another in years such as this one. Easter Sunday—it is, after all, the Sunday that follows the full moon, which in turn follows the beginning of spring on March 21. Three days that can be relatively far apart follow one another this year: the beginning of spring the day before yesterday, the spring full moon yesterday, Easter Sunday today. In such years, for those who enter into the spiritual understanding of the world, a very special inscription is written into the universe, and on this very day of such a year, it is especially fitting for the soul that strives to learn to feel the spiritual mysteries of the universe and the unfolding of time, and also to learn to feel what is to be inscribed into our human earthly development through this spring festival.

[ 2 ] The person who understands the connection between the sun and the moon—as one can come to understand it by contemplating the interplay of the sun and moon with the Earth in esoteric writings—also knows the profound mystery that reigns between the Earth Spirit, Christ, and the Spirit we express with the word Yahweh, Jehovah. And whoever knows the connection between the sun and the moon hears, with a sound that awakens understanding, the Paradise legend of the Fall of Man and their seduction by Lucifer, of the words of God resounding in righteous judgment. Those who attempt to understand some of what is contained between the lines of my *Outline of Esoteric Science* can sense the connection between the mystery of the Sun and Moon and the mystery usually characterized as the temptation of Lucifer and the influence of Yahweh-Jehovah.

[ 3 ] Today, however, let us focus more on the fact that the sun and moon, as they follow one another in their influence on the Earth—from this Good Friday to this Holy Saturday—appear to the occultist, as described in their cosmic script, like a question mark written deep and mysteriously into the spiritual cosmos, and the answer is given to us this year, as quickly as possible, by the immediate succession of Easter Sunday following the Saturday of the spring full moon: Easter Sunday, the day of remembrance and the day of hope, the day that symbolically expresses to us the Mystery of Golgotha. Many mysteries lie hidden behind what surrounds us in the outer, physical-sensory nature, and the unveiling of such mysteries always brings us, in a certain way, into the presence of the stern guardian of the threshold. The mystery of Easter is also one that, in a certain sense, demands the maturing of the human soul in order to be understood, although in instinctive feeling everyone can always perform the inner sacrifice of devotion that may fill our soul when the day of trust in the Earth, the day of redemption and resurrection, Easter Sunday, is linked to the beginning of spring. When spring begins, when the sun moves into such a position relative to the Earth that through its power the plant seeds can sprout from the womb of Mother Earth, then the human soul begins to rejoice inwardly as if in the brightness of Paradise, because it knows there are forces moving through the cosmos which, in a cyclical sequence with each new year, conjure forth from the Earth’s bosom what is necessary for outer life and also for the life of the soul, so that humanity may follow its course in the Earth’s development from the beginning to the end of this earthly evolution. And when the impressions of winter, which there covers the soil of Mother Earth with its blanket of ice, when all this evokes the thought of all that which will one day bring the Earth to ruin in the cosmos, which will one day lead the Earth into a state of cosmic solidification that will render it incapable to continue to be a dwelling place for humanity—when winter evokes these thoughts, then every new spring calls forth a different thought into the human soul: Yes, Earth, since your very beginning you have been endowed with ever-renewing youthful power, ever-renewing life. You are given the power to call the soul once more to inner jubilation, but also to inner devotion. And even when the cold blanket of ice has spread over the earthly realm, hopeful mental images still unite in the human soul with the premonitory feeling that the Earth will still be able to sustain humanity for a long time through its spring and summer forces, so that humanity may find the opportunity to develop from within all the abilities, all the inner powers rooted in its innate potential. This is the soul’s inner, reverent exultation at the turn of spring. It arises from the soul’s feeling of hope that the earth can endure and that the earth can provide the opportunity for human powers to develop fully.

[ 4 ] But the question surely also arises in the human soul: Will all the forces of the sun be able to overcome all the forces of winter, or at least hold them in balance? Might the forces of winter not exert such a powerful influence on the Earth that the Earth must fall into a state of paralysis before the human soul has fulfilled its full mission on Earth? Will summer hold its own against winter? Will spring always possess its necessary power? — a thought that may not come so easily to human souls who observe only external nature, but which must increasingly occur to those souls who are able to immerse themselves in the true spiritual essence of the universe. These souls seek to decipher the great, mighty script with which the mysteries of the world are inscribed into the cosmos. Then, in contrast to the aforementioned script of the struggle between winter and summer, another script of the soul becomes audible—that script which inscribes itself into our universe as we follow the moon in its mysterious course, as it completes its cycle, invisible yet visible. Oh, this moonlight, like an enigmatic letter of the world’s script, it enters into the eternal word of creation of earthly life. This moonlight, when the occultist seeks to fathom it, first reminds him of the punishing voice of Yahweh in Paradise after the temptation of Lucifer; then, of course, it also reminds him of the wondrous, mysterious fact of how the Buddha, on a silver moonlit night, breathed his spirit out into the cosmic universe. What does the moonlight tell us, which is there in the darkness of the night like a dream in human sleep? — The occultist learns that from the forces of the active Sun, from the forces of the Sun that continually renew the evolution of the Earth, as much is always taken away as the light of the Sun is reflected back by the full moon. The human soul may dream itself into the moonlit, enchanted nights, but the occultist knows that as much is taken from the power of the sunlight and the sun’s warmth as the full moon reflects back to Earth from this sunlight.

[ 5 ] Thus, the full moon is the constant symbol of that which is taken from the sun. And when the sun, with its powers, once again breaks into earthly life with each new spring, the occultist knows that, even though this is scarcely perceptible to the external observer, with each new spring the sun has weaker powers than it had in the old, preceding spring, and that just as much of its power has been taken from it as the light of the full moon has shone upon the earth. Thus the full moon that appears after the beginning of spring, however mysterious and soul-uplifting it may seem to humans, is at the same time a serious, stern reminder of the earthly-cosmic fact that the sun’s powers have diminished with each new spring, and that humanity could never achieve in its earthly mission what it would achieve if these powers were not taken from the sun. To perceive this fact is to place a tremendous question mark in the cosmos; sensing this question mark, the ancient occultists held this in their hearts.

[ 6 ] Thus the ancient occultists said to themselves: We look up to the sun, whose mysteries Zarathustra once proclaimed to humanity. We look up to the moon, whose mystery found its most significant expression in the religion of Yahweh. When we look at these two celestial signs, we know: the interaction of sun and moon signifies the decline of the Earth. — Then these ancient occultists looked to a specific point in Earth’s own evolution, to that point where, in the fullness of time, the Spirit of the Sun arose from the Earth itself within the body of Jesus of Nazareth. At that time, when Christ died on the cross at Golgotha and the Spirit of Christ united with the Earth, a cosmic event occurred in Earth life whereby a counterforce was created against all that the Moon takes away from the Sun’s forces, while this Sun acts upon the Earth from the cosmos. By the Christ Spirit taking up residence in a human soul and from there spreading throughout all earthly existence in the course of future earthly development, a substitute is created for what the lunar forces continually withdraw from the solar forces penetrating the Earth from the Sun. Therefore, this human soul understands its relationship to the cosmos when, morally and spiritually, it adds from within itself the third day—the day of death and resurrection on Golgotha—to the days dictated by the cosmos. And when the advancing cosmic solar forces—which, in their infinite goodness, seek to bestow ever-new life upon the Earth—and the stern lunar spirit, which, because of the nature of Lucifer and his forces, must take away from the Sun insofar as it is merely the natural sun, its powers—then the human soul can add to these two, as a third day, morally and spiritually, this Easter Day, as the answer to the great cosmic question. They stand wonderfully side by side in years such as this one.

[ 7 ] Good Friday! — This year, it serves as a special reminder to us, in cosmic-occult terms, that the sun loses strength with every new spring, and that the Earth might perish before the human soul has fully developed all its powers. A full moon on Holy Saturday—a wondrous mystery! Above in the cosmos, the wondrous sign, the symbol of the stern Yahweh, who lets his thunderous voice roll through Paradise, where human sin radiates the consequence of temptation; below on Earth, the symbol of the newly risen Earth force, Christ resting in the tomb! It penetrates deeply into the soul that is capable of occult perception when, just above the Easter tomb—the symbol of the Christ impulse penetrating the Earth’s body—the silver, solemn, and stern light of the full moon spreads. Following this is the symbol of the resurrected sun, the sun resurrected from the human soul: Easter Sunday! If we feel this trinity in our soul, if we feel the cosmic sun, followed by the cosmic moon, followed by the moral-spiritual sun, if we feel in this trinity within our soul the symbol of how the spirit overcomes matter, how life overcomes death, if we sense something of what can fill us when we are, in the true sense of the word, occultists of our time, how that power we call the Christ Impulse will dawn ever more strongly upon the people of Earth, so that, in the Christ Impulse revealing itself more and more, people may learn to feel what must be contained within themselves, so that they, as human beings, may find the way out of the dying Earth to higher stages of development of the immortal human soul, living on into eternity!