From Akashic Research
The Fifth Gospel
GA 148
6 January 1913, Berlin
Translated by Steiner Online Library
The Fifth Gospel IV
[ 1 ] In our examination of the life of Christ Jesus, as we have now undertaken it based on what I would like to call the Fifth Gospel, everything that happened after that conversation between Jesus of Nazareth and his mother—which I have also described here—must appear to us as of great importance. I would now like, as I hope is possible within the intimate circle of a working group such as this one, to first draw attention to what happened immediately after the conversation between Jesus of Nazareth and his mother—that is, what took place, so to speak, between this conversation and the baptism of John in the Jordan. What I have to tell are facts that arise from intuitive insight and that should simply be stated without further explanation, so that everyone can form their own thoughts about them as they wish.
[ 2 ] We have seen that, following the life we have described in detail—the life Jesus of Nazareth led from the age of twelve to his twenty-ninth or thirtieth year—a conversation took place between him and his mother, that mother who was actually his step or foster mother and the biological mother of the Solomonic Jesus—that conversation in which what had resulted for him as a consequence, as the effect of his experience, flowed so intensely, so energetically into the words of Jesus of Nazareth: that through his words, an immense power passed into the soul of his step- or foster mother. It was such a power that made it possible for the soul of the biological mother of the Nathanic Jesus of Nazareth to descend from the spiritual world—where she had been since roughly the twelfth year of the Nathanic Jesus’s life—and to permeate and spiritualize the soul of the step- or foster-mother, so that the latter henceforth lived on, permeated by the soul of the mother of the Nathanic Jesus. For Jesus of Nazareth himself, however, it turned out that, as it were, the I of Zarathustra had departed with his words. What now set out on the way to the baptism of John in the Jordan was, in essence, the Nathanic Jesus, who had shaped the three sheaths in the manner often discussed, without the I of Zarathustra, but with the effects of this Zarathustra-I, so that in fact everything the Zarathustra-I could pour into this threefold shell was also present in this threefold shell.
[ 3 ] You will understand that this being, who now went to the baptism of John in the Jordan—as Jesus of Nazareth—out of what one might call an indeterminate cosmic impulse—an impulse indeterminate to him, yet very definite to the cosmos—cannot be addressed as a human being in the same sense as other human beings. For what had filled this being as the “I” since the age of twelve was the Zarathustra-I. This Zarathustra-I was now gone. It lived on only in the effects of this Zarathustra-I.
[ 4 ] When this being, Jesus of Nazareth, set out on his way to John the Baptist, he—as the Fifth Gospel recounts—first encountered two Essenes. They were two Essenes with whom he had often conversed on the occasions I have mentioned. But since the I of Zarathustra had departed from him, he did not recognize the two Essenes at first. They, however, recognized him, for that significant physiognomic character—which this being had acquired through the indwelling of Zarathustra—had, of course, not changed in outward appearance. The two Essenes addressed him with the words: “Where are you going?”—Jesus of Nazareth replied: “To where souls of your kind do not yet wish to look, where the pain of humanity can feel the rays of the forgotten light!”
[ 5 ] The two Essenes did not understand what he was saying. When they realized that he did not recognize them, they said to him, “Jesus of Nazareth, do you not know us?” — But he replied: “You are like lost lambs; yet I must be the shepherd from whom you have run away. If you truly recognize me, you will soon run away from me again. It has been so long since you fled from me! — The Essenes did not know what to make of him, for they did not know how it could be possible that such words could come from a human soul. And they looked at him uncertainly. But he continued: What kind of souls are you, where is your world? Why do you cloak yourselves in deceptive veils? Why does a fire burn within you that is not kindled in my Father’s house? You bear the mark of the Tempter; he has made your wool shiny and gleaming with his fire. The hairs of this wool pierce my gaze. You strayed lambs, the Tempter has saturated your souls with pride; you met him on your flight.
[ 6 ] When Jesus of Nazareth had said this, one of the Essenes spoke up: “Have we not shown the Tempter the door? He no longer has any part in us.” —- And Jesus of Nazareth said: “True, you showed the Tempter the door, yet he ran off and went to the other people. So now he grins at you from all sides through the souls of those other people! Do you really believe you could have elevated yourselves by humiliating others? You feel superior, but not because you have risen high, but because you have humiliated others. Thus they are lower. You have remained where you were. That is the only reason you feel so superior to others. — Then the Essenes were startled. But at that very moment, Jesus of Nazareth vanished from their sight. They could no longer see him.
[ 7 ] After their eyes had been clouded for a brief moment, they felt the urge to look into the distance. And in the distance they saw something like a mirage. It showed them, magnified to gigantic proportions, the face of the one who had just been standing before them. And then they heard words spoken to them as if from the mirage, piercing their souls terribly: “Your striving is vain, for your hearts are empty, since you have filled yourselves with the spirit that deceptively conceals pride within the guise of humility!” And after they had stood there for a while, as if stunned by this face and these words, the mirage vanished. But Jesus of Nazareth, too, was no longer standing before them. They looked around. He had already moved on, and they saw him far away from them. And the two Essenes went home and told no one what they had seen, but remained silent for the rest of their lives until their death.
[ 8 ] I intend to present these facts and state them purely on their own terms, as they can be found in what we call the Akashic Records, and everyone is free to draw their own conclusions. This is particularly important right now because this Fifth Gospel may yet be revealed in greater detail, and because any theoretical interpretation could only serve to distort what it is meant to convey.
[ 9 ] As Jesus of Nazareth continued on this path toward the Jordan—the path to which he had been driven—he encountered a person of whom one could say: his soul was filled with the deepest despair. A man in despair crossed his path. And Jesus of Nazareth said: “Where has your soul led you? I saw you eons ago; you were quite different then.” Then the man in despair said: “I held high offices; I rose high in life. I have held many, many offices in the human hierarchy, and I rose quickly. Often, when I saw how others lagged behind in their positions while I rose higher, I said to myself: What a rare person you are; your noble virtues elevate you above all other people! I was happy and fully enjoyed that happiness. — So said the Desperate One. Then he continued: Then once, while sleeping, something like a dream came to me. In the dream, it was as if a question were being asked of me, and then I knew at once that I myself was ashamed in the dream before this question. For the question that was asked of me there was this: Who has made you great? —- And a being stood before me in the dream, who said: I have exalted you, yet you are mine for it! — And I was ashamed; for I believed I owed my exaltation solely to my own merits and talents. And now—I felt how ashamed I was in the dream—another being approached me, who said that I had no merit in my exaltation. Then, in the dream, I had to flee out of shame. I left all my offices and dignities behind and wander about, searching and not knowing what I seek. — So spoke the Desperate One. And as he was still speaking, the being stood before him again, between him and Jesus of Nazareth, and covered the figure of Jesus of Nazareth with its own form. And the Desperate One had a feeling that this being had something to do with the Lucifer being. And while the being still stood before him, Jesus of Nazareth vanished, and then the being also disappeared. But then the Desperate One saw, already at some distance, that Jesus of Nazareth had passed by, and he wandered on his way.
[ 10 ] As Jesus of Nazareth continued on his way, he met a leper. When Jesus of Nazareth asked, “Where has the path of your soul led you? I saw you eons ago, yet you were different then,” the leper replied, “People have cast me out—cast me out because of my illness!” No one wanted anything to do with me, and I didn’t know how to provide for my basic needs. So I wandered about in my suffering and once came to a forest. Something I saw in the distance, like a glowing tree, drew me in. And I could do nothing but walk toward that glowing tree as if driven by some force. Then it was as if something emerged from the tree’s glimmer of light, like a skeleton. And I knew: Death itself stood before me. Death said: I am you! I feed on you. — Then I was afraid. But Death spoke: Why are you afraid? Have you not always loved me? — And yet I knew that I had never loved him. And while he spoke to me thus: “Why are you afraid? Have you not loved me?”—he transformed into a beautiful archangel. Then he vanished, and I fell into a deep sleep. It was not until morning that I awoke again and found myself sleeping by the tree. From then on, my leprosy grew ever worse. — And when he had told this, what he had seen by the tree stood between him and Jesus of Nazareth and transformed into a being he knew: Ahriman, or something Ahrimanic, stood before him. And while he was still looking at it, the being vanished, and Jesus of Nazareth vanished as well. Jesus had already gone on ahead a while. And the leper had to move on.
[ 11 ] After these three experiences, Jesus of Nazareth came to the baptism by John in the Jordan. I would like to mention once again here that, once John’s baptism had taken place, what occurred was also described in the other Gospels and is referred to as the temptation. This temptation unfolded in such a way that Christ Jesus was not confronted by a single being, but rather that the temptation proceeded, as it were, in three stages.
[ 12 ] At first, Christ Jesus stood face to face with a being who was now close to him because he had seen him when the desperate man had approached him, and whom he was thus able to perceive as Lucifer. This is a very significant connection. And then, through Lucifer, that temptation took place which is expressed in the words: “I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if you acknowledge me as your Lord!” — The temptation by Lucifer was rejected.
[ 13 ] The second attack consisted of Lucifer returning, but with him came the being who had stood between Jesus of Nazareth and the leper, and whom he therefore sensed as Ahriman. And now the temptation took place, which in the other Gospels is expressed in the words: “Throw yourself down; nothing will happen to you if you are the Son of God.”—This temptation, too, which took place in such a way that Lucifer could be paralyzed by Ahriman and Ahriman by Lucifer, was repelled.
[ 14 ] Only the third temptation, which was carried out by Ahriman alone to test Christ Jesus—to see if stones could be turned into bread—only this temptation was not completely resisted at that time. And this fact—that Ahriman was not completely defeated—then led to things taking the course they have just taken. As a result, Ahriman was able to work through Judas; as a result, it was possible at all for all subsequent events to occur in the manner we shall yet hear of. You see, an Akashic intuition has arisen here regarding the moment that we must regard as infinitely important in the entire development of Christ Jesus and thus in the development of the Earth. As if to pass before us once more the way in which the Earth’s development is connected with the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements, the events unfolded between the conversation of Jesus of Nazareth with the foster mother and the baptism of John in the Jordan. The one who was the Nathanic Jesus, and in whom the I of Zarathustra had been at work for eighteen years, was prepared by the events described to receive the Christ-being within himself. And thus we stand at the point which is so extraordinarily important that it must present itself to our soul in the right way if we are to understand the development of humanity on Earth accordingly. That is why I have also attempted to compile various insights, as they emerge from occult research, which can help us understand the development of humanity on Earth in this sense.
[ 15 ] Perhaps there will also be an opportunity to discuss here the topics currently being addressed in the Leipzig lecture series, where I attempted to draw a line from the Christ event to the Parzival event. Today I would like to make only a few remarks on this in connection with the facts of the Fifth Gospel, which I would then like to discuss further at our next meeting. I would like to draw attention to how, through the most diverse aspects of human development—aspects that are, as it were, imprinted upon this human development so that it might understand the course of events to some extent—how the entire meaning and course of this human development is expressed, provided one understands these aspects and views them in the proper light. I do not wish to go into what I expounded in Leipzig regarding the connection between the Parzival idea and the Christ development; but I would like to address something that permeated all the discussions there.
[ 16 ] In this regard, however, I must point out that we should remember: How does Parzival stand before us, who, several centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha took place, represents, as it were, an important step in the continuing effect of the Christ event within a soul?
[ 17 ] Parzival is the son of an adventurous knight and his mother, Herzeleide. The knight had already left before Parzival was born. His mother suffers pain and agony even before the birth. She wants to protect her son from everything he might encounter—such as chivalric virtue and the development of his strength through service to knighthood. She raises him in such a way that he learns nothing of what occurs in the outer world, nor of what can be imparted to a person through the influences of the outer world. In the solitude of nature, left to nothing but these impressions of nature, Parzival is to grow up. He is to know nothing of what goes on among the knights and other people. It is also said that he knows nothing of what is said in the outer world about this or that religious concept. The only thing he learns from his mother is that there is a God, that a God stands behind everything. He wants to serve God. But he knows nothing more than that he can serve God. Everything else is kept from him. But the urge toward knighthood is so strong that he is driven to leave his mother one day and set out to discover what it is that drives him. And then, after many wanderings, he is led to the castle of the Holy Grail.
[ 18 ] What he experiences there is best described—that is, in a way that best corresponds to what we can glean from the spiritual-scientific document—by Chrestien de Troyes, who was also a source for Wolfram von Eschenbach. We learn that Parzival once came upon a wooded area during his travels, by the seashore, where two men were fishing. And when he asked them a question, they directed him to the castle of the Fisher King. He arrived at the castle, entered, and saw a man, sick and weak, lying on a bed of rest. The man gave him a sword, the sword of his niece. And he further saw a squire enter with a lance from which blood dripped down to the squire’s hands. Then a maiden entered with a golden bowl from which shone such a light that it outshone all the other lights in the hall. Then a meal was served. With each course, this bowl was carried past and taken into the adjoining room. And the Fisher King’s father, who lay there, was strengthened by what was in this bowl.
[ 19 ] All of this had seemed wondrous to Parzival, but he had once been advised by a knight during his travels not to ask too many questions. So he did not ask about what he saw; he intended to wait until the next morning. But when he awoke, the entire castle was empty. He called out, but no one came. He thought the knights had gone hunting and wanted to follow them. In the castle courtyard, he found his horse saddled. He rode out, but had to cross the drawbridge quickly; the horse had to make a leap because the drawbridge was being raised right behind him. But he found no trace of the knights.
[ 20 ] But we know, of course, what matters: that Parzival did not ask. Even though the most wondrous thing appeared before his soul, he failed to ask. And he must hear again and again that it has something to do with his mission, that he should have asked, that his mission was, in a sense, connected to asking about the wondrous thing that had appeared before him. He did not ask! He was made to realize that by not asking, he had brought about a kind of calamity.
[ 21 ] How does Parzival stand before us here? He stands before us in such a way that we say to ourselves: In him we have a personality who has been raised apart from the culture of the outer world, who was not meant to know anything of the culture of the outer world, who was meant to be led to the wonders of the Holy Grail so that he might ask about these wonders, but ask with a virgin soul, uninfluenced by the rest of the culture. Why should he ask in this way? I have often pointed out that what was brought about through the influence of the Christ impulse was brought about as an act, that people could not immediately understand what had been brought about. Thus, on the one hand, we have what was continually brought about by the fact that the Christ flowed into the Earth’s aura—what people also thought about, argued over, and conceived in the manifold theological dogmas. For the Christ impulse continued to work! And the shaping of the West took place through the influence of this Christ impulse, which worked, as it were, in the depths of human souls and in the depths of the entire historical process. Had it been able to work only through what people understood and quarreled about, it would have been able to do little in the development of humanity. Now, in the Parzival era, we see an important moment approaching when the Christ impulse is to take its work a step further.
[ 22 ] Therefore, Parzival is not to be one of those who have, so to speak, learned what was once sacrificed on Golgotha, or what was subsequently taught by the Apostolic Fathers, the Church Fathers, and the various other theological schools of thought. He was not to know how the knights had placed themselves in the service of Christ through their virtues. He was to come into contact solely with the Christ impulse in the depths of his soul, to which he was able to attain in accordance with the times. This connection would have been clouded only if he had taken in what people had taught or learned about Christ. Not what people did or said, but what the soul experiences when it is devoted solely to what occurred supersensually in the continuing effect of the Christ impulse. This is how it was to be with Parzival. Outward teaching always belongs to the sensory world as well. But the Christ impulse has worked supersensibly and was to work supersensibly into the soul of Parzival. His soul was to be driven to nothing else but to ask where the significance of the Christ impulse could meet him: at the Holy Grail. He was to ask! He should ask, not prompted by what the knights believed they had to venerate in Christ, or by what the theologians believed they had to venerate in Christ; but solely and exclusively through the virgin soul, yet one living in the spirit of its own age, he should be inspired to ask what the Holy Grail might reveal, and what the Christ event itself might be. He should ask! Let us hold fast to this word.
[ 23 ] Another should not ask. He is well known enough, the one who should not ask: the youth of Sais should not ask. For it was his doom that he had to ask, that he did what he should not have done, that he wanted the image of Isis to be unveiled. The Parzival of the time preceding the Mystery of Golgotha—that is the youth of Sais. But in that time he was told: Beware lest what lies behind the veil be unveiled to your unprepared soul!—The youth of Sais after the Mystery of Golgotha is Parzival. And he was not to be specially prepared; he was to be led to the Holy Grail with a virgin soul. He misses the most important thing, for he does not do what was forbidden to the youth of Sais, since he does not ask, does not seek the unveiling of the mystery for his soul. Thus do times change in the course of human development!
[ 24 ] We know, of course—though we must first hint at such things in abstract terms, we will be able to discuss them in greater detail later—that this concerns what was to be revealed in Isis. We picture the image of the ancient Isis with the boy Horus, the mystery of the connection between Isis and Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. But that is speaking in abstract terms. Behind it, of course, lies a great mystery. The youth at Sais was not ready to learn this mystery. When Parzival, having failed to ask about the wonders of the Holy Grail at the Grail Castle, rides on, among the first to meet him is a woman, a bride, mourning her newly deceased bridegroom, whom she holds in her lap: Truly the image of the grieving mother with her son, which later so often served as a Pietà motif! This is the first hint of what Parzival would have learned had he asked about the wonders of the Holy Grail. He would have experienced, in a new form, the connection that exists between Isis and Horus, between the mother and the Son of Man. And he should have asked!
[ 25 ] Here we see how profoundly such indications reveal the progress taking place in the development of humanity: What was not permitted in the time before the Mystery of Golgotha—after the Mystery of Golgotha it is to take place, for humanity has, in the meantime, moved forward. The soul of humanity has, in a sense, become something different.
[ 26 ] As I said, we will discuss all these things further later; I merely wish to touch on them here. But all these things have value for us only if we make them fruitful for ourselves—truly fruitful. And what can flow to us from the mystery of Parzival—which is truly enriched for us by the image of the young man at Sais—is that we learn to ask questions in the right sense, in a way that also corresponds to our time. For in this learning to ask questions lies the upward current of human development.
[ 27 ] Following the Mystery of Golgotha, we necessarily have two currents in human development: one that carries the Christ impulse within itself and gradually leads upward toward the spiritual heights; the other, which is, as it were, a continuation of the descent and leads into material life, into materialism. At present, these two currents are so intertwined that the vast majority of our culture is indeed permeated by the materialistic current; so that today, human beings must look without prejudice or bias at everything that spiritual science can tell us about the Christ impulse and what is connected with it, so that they may realize that the soul needs that inner progression in the sense of spirituality to counterbalance the external world, which is necessarily becoming ever more materialistic. To this end, however, we must learn something precisely from such things as those mentioned: We must learn to ask questions.
[ 28 ] In the spiritual tradition, we must learn to ask questions. In the materialistic tradition, however, people are led away from asking questions. We simply want to set these two things side by side to show what each tradition is like. In one, we have those people who are steeped in materialism. These may well be people who adhere to this or that spiritual dogma, who acknowledge the spiritual world through words and “theories.” But that is not what matters; what matters is that we enter the spiritual current with the entirety of our soul. Of the people who are immersed in the materialistic current, one can say: they are not “questioners.” They are truly not questioners, for they already know everything. This is the hallmark of materialistic culture: that these people know everything, that they do not want to ask. Even the youngest people today know everything and do not ask. People regard it as freedom and an elevation of personal worth when one can form one’s own judgment about everything. But we simply do not notice how this personal judgment matures. We grow into the world. With the first words of childhood, we take in this or that. Then we grow up, take in more and more, without realizing how we absorb things. We are shaped in this or that way by our karma. As a result, we like this or that to a greater or lesser extent. We grow up and, with our judgment, reach the age of twenty-five—an age that some critics already consider quite respectable—and we feel mature in our judgment because we believe it comes from our own soul. But anyone who can look into souls knows that behind this lies nothing but the external life focused on one’s own soul, into which we have just been placed. We can also come into conflict with this when we believe that this or that is taught to us by our own judgment. By believing ourselves to be independent, we become all the more slavishly dependent on our own inner selves. We judge, but we completely forget how to ask.
[ 29 ] We learn to ask questions only when we are able to cultivate within ourselves that equanimity of soul which can maintain reverence and respect for the sacred realms of life; when we are capable of having within our soul something that always feels the urge not to commit itself—even through our own judgment—to what is meant to come to us from the sacred realms of life. We learn to ask questions only when we can put ourselves in a mood of anticipation, so that through this or that event, this or that may be revealed to us in life; when we can wait; when we have a certain reluctance to apply our own judgment to precisely what is meant to flow forth with holiness from the sacred realms of existence; when we do not judge, but ask, and not merely ask people who can tell us something, but above all ask the spiritual world, to which we do not oppose our judgment, but our question—our question already in the mood, in the attitude.
[ 30 ] Try, through meditation, to gain a clear understanding of the difference between offering judgments and offering questions regarding the spiritual realms of life. One must experience this inwardly to realize that there is a radical difference between the two. This difference is connected to something that runs through our entire era and that we should pay particular attention to in our spiritual movement. For this spiritual movement can only flourish if we learn to understand the difference between questions and judgments. Certainly, we must judge with regard to the external circumstances of life. That is why I have not said that we should restrict our judgments everywhere; rather, regarding what the deeper mysteries of the world are, we should become acquainted with the expectant mood of questioning. Our spiritual movement will be advanced by everything through which this mood of questioning is recognized and fostered in a larger portion of humanity; our spiritual movement will be hindered by everything that, through frivolous judgment, opposes this current. And when, in moments of true celebration in our lives, we try to consider what we can gain from a depiction such as that of Parzival journeying toward the Grail Castle, who is to ask, then we find in this very figure of Parzival a model for our spiritual movement. And in connection with this, we can then understand many other things.
[ 31 ] If we look back once more at the period of human development prior to the Mystery of Golgotha, we must say: At that time, the human soul possessed an ancient genetic heritage from the era when it descended from the spiritual heights into earthly incarnations. It preserved this heritage from incarnation to incarnation. Therefore, in those times there was an ancient clairvoyance that gradually ebbed away, becoming weaker and weaker. The further the incarnations progressed, the weaker the ebbing ancient clairvoyance became. To what was this ancient clairvoyance bound? It was bound to that to which external perception through eyes and ears is also bound, to that which is precisely what the human being is in the external world. For people before the Mystery of Golgotha, it was the case that they grew up like children: they learned to walk, to speak, and—as long as the elemental forces in the sense of the old clairvoyance were still present—they naturally learned to see clearly as well. They learned it as something that arose in their interaction with humanity, just as it arose in their interaction with humanity that one learned to speak through the organization of the larynx. But they did not stop at learning to speak; rather, they progressed to elementary clairvoyance. This elementary clairvoyance was bound to the ordinary human constitution just as the human constitution was situated within the physical world; therefore, clairvoyance necessarily had to take on the character of the human constitution as well. A person who was a debauchee could not bring a pure nature into their clairvoyance; a pure person could bring their pure nature into their clairvoyance as well. This is quite natural, for clairvoyance was bound to the immediate human constitution.
[ 32 ] A necessary consequence of this was that a certain mystery—the mystery of the connection between the spiritual world and the physical world of the Earth—which existed before the descent of Christ Jesus, could not be revealed to this ordinary human organization. Humanity first had to be transformed, first had to be made ready. The youth of Sais was not permitted to simply come from outside and see the image of Isis.
[ 33 ] With the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, into which the Mystery of Golgotha fell, the old clairvoyance had disappeared. A new organization of the human soul emerged, an organization of the human soul that must remain completely closed off from the spiritual world unless it asks questions, unless it possesses the impulse that lies in the act of questioning. The same harmful forces that approached the human soul in ancient times cannot approach it when one specifically asks about the mystery that is the mystery of the Holy Grail. For within this mystery lies that which has now flowed into the Earth’s aura since the Mystery of Golgotha. What had not flowed into it before, what has now flowed into the Earth’s aura as the mystery of the Grail, would remain forever closed to one if one did not ask. One must ask, which means nothing other than: one must have the impulse to truly unfold that which lives in the soul anyway.
[ 34 ] Before the Mystery of Golgotha, it was not present in the soul, for Christ was not in the Earth’s aura. Before the Mystery of Golgotha, anyone who had merely viewed the image of Isis in the right sense and fathomed her mystery would, through whatever remnants of ancient clairvoyant powers still existed within him, have projected his entire human nature into it, and he would then have recognized it as such.
[ 35 ] In the time following the Mystery of Golgotha, a soul that comes to ask questions will do so in the true sense, and it will also be able to perceive the new Isis Mystery in the true sense. That is why, today, what matters is asking the right questions—that is, adopting the right attitude toward what can be proclaimed as a spiritual worldview. If a person approaches this merely with a judgmental attitude, then they can read all the books and study all the cycles—they will gain nothing, for they lack the Parzival spirit. If someone approaches with a questioning attitude, then they will experience something quite different from what lies merely in the words. They will experience the words fruitfully in connection with the source forces within their own soul. That what is spiritually proclaimed to us may become such an inner experience—that is what matters.
[ 36 ] We are reminded of this in particular when we are confronted with events such as those that took place between Jesus of Nazareth’s conversation with his mother and John’s baptism in the Jordan. For these things can only mean anything to us if we seek them out, if we have a living need to recognize what took place at that crucial turning point where the time before the Mystery of Golgotha separates from the time after the Mystery of Golgotha. It is best to allow precisely these things to work upon one’s soul. Essentially, everything they are meant to say to our soul is already contained within the narrative. We need not read much into them.
[ 37 ] It is precisely in connection with this section of the Fifth Gospel that I wanted to make this general remark and point out how, in a certain sense, it is once again becoming important for our time to understand the Parzival spirit. One will have to understand it. It did, after all, emerge with Richard Wagner, who sought to embody it musically and dramatically. I do not wish to get involved in the great controversy that has flared up in the outer world today over “Parsifal.” Spiritual science is not there to take sides. Therefore, let it be far from its purpose to interfere here in the dispute between those who wish to keep Wagner’s “Parsifal”—first and foremost the most significant document for the modern world regarding the new Parzival mood—in Bayreuth, and wish to protect it, and those who wish to hand it over to the realm of Klingsor. After all, the latter is already coming to pass. But I would like to point out the following: that in the continuing effect of the Christ impulse—where, as it were, the power of judgment and the higher consciousness of human beings do not yet stand in the way, but where this higher consciousness is increasingly to be interpreted through the spiritual worldview—there must always be the Parzival mood, and many other things as well, which we shall discuss further in the course of this winter.