From Akashic Research
The Fifth Gospel
GA 148
13 January 1913, Berlin
Translated by Steiner Online Library
The Fifth Gospel V
[ 1 ] It seems to me that by considering what I have taken the liberty of calling the “Fifth Gospel,” we might have gained some insight into the finer nuances of what we have often discussed regarding the development of humanity on Earth and the influence of the Mystery of Golgotha on this human development. After all, we have previously sought to gain this or that insight from the most diverse perspectives regarding what took place above all with the baptism of John in the Jordan; we have already pointed out how the Christ-being united with that being we designate as Jesus of Nazareth, and precisely through this, sought to elucidate the profound significance of the Golgotha event for human development.
[ 2 ] We have now examined the early life of Jesus of Nazareth, as it can be ascertained through spiritual scientific methods, in order to see how the being we refer to as Jesus of Nazareth arrived before John the Baptist, when the Christ-being was to take possession of him. Now, let us use what we have gained through this concrete examination of the Fifth Gospel to gain a deeper understanding of what is connected with the Mystery of Golgotha. Let us try today, above all, to turn our soul’s gaze toward the one who is usually referred to as the “forerunner”: John the Baptist, and toward certain aspects connected with the Baptist’s mission.
[ 3 ] If we wish to understand John the Baptist and the relationship between Jesus Christ and John the Baptist—as it is also hinted at by name in the Gospel of John—it is necessary to take a look at the spiritual world from which John the Baptist emerged. It goes without saying that this is the spiritual world of ancient Hebrew antiquity. Now let us call to mind what is distinctive about this world of ancient Hebrew antiquity.
[ 4 ] This ancient Hebrew era, however, had a very special mission in the course of human evolution. We recall that, from the standpoint of our spiritual science, we must understand the Earth’s evolution as having emerged from the Saturn, Sun, and Moon phases, and that we must attribute it specifically to the Earth’s evolution that, in the course of the Earth’s development, the human ego finds its place alongside what emerged from the earlier stages of our Earth’s evolution as the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. This ego, of course, cannot emerge in a single leap; rather, the entire course of Earth’s evolution is necessary to shape the ego as it must be, so that humanity may, so to speak, find its development in the course of eternity.
[ 5 ] Having said this, we must indeed regard the Earth, in a sense, as the stage within the cosmos on which human beings are to develop their sense of self. Ancient Hebrew tradition designated Yahweh or Jehovah as the being of the higher hierarchies under whose influence it placed itself. If we examine the biblical story of creation—I attempted to analyze the relevant circumstances in the lecture series on “The Mysteries of the Biblical Story of Creation,” Munich 1910—to examine the relevant circumstances—it is very clearly shown to us there as well how, out of a sevenfold group of beings of the higher hierarchies, out of the sevenfold group of the Elohim, one of the Elohim, Yahweh or Jehovah, develops. One might say that just as the entirety of the human organism is structured toward the head, so the sevenfold number of the Elohim is structured in such a way that this sevenfold number finds a special manifestation in one of them, in Yahweh or Jehovah, so that this one becomes, as it were, the principal being for the development of the Earth. Ancient Hebrew antiquity sees this; it acknowledges it. And it therefore sees in Yahweh or Jehovah the being from the ranks of the higher hierarchies with whom one must establish a special relationship in order to bring the ego to development. The unfolding of ancient Hebrew antiquity is truly a special stage in the development of the human ego, and within ancient Hebrew antiquity the influence of Yahweh or Jehovah was felt in such a way that, through the manner in which one related to him, perceived him, and felt him, the ego could gradually awaken.
[ 6 ] What kind of being is Yahweh or Jehovah, really? It is precisely the entity that must be conceived of as intimately connected with the development of the Earth. It is, so to speak, the Lord, the Ruler of the Earth’s development, or rather, the figure in whom ancient Hebrew antiquity sees the Lord, the Ruler of the Earth’s development. Hence we see that the entire ancient Hebrew world is actually organized around regarding Yahweh or Jehovah as the God of the Earth, to think that the Earth is interwoven with such a divine-spiritual government, one might say, and that the human being who wishes to become aware of his or her rightful connection to the universe through the Earth must, above all, hold fast to the Earth God Yahweh or Jehovah. The entire ancient Hebrew world is structured toward this end.
[ 7 ] Right at the beginning of Genesis, we are told that Yahweh created man from the substance of the earth. Adam means “the one made from earth,” the earthly one. And while the religious systems surrounding the ancient Hebrew people — as can be demonstrated in detail — tend everywhere to see the elements in which they worship their gods in that which does not actually originate from the earth but enters the earth from outside, ancient Hebrew antiquity sees in that which takes place on earth through the earth the elements in which the god Yahweh or Jehovah is to be worshiped. Some of the surrounding peoples look up to the starry sky, observing the celestial bodies and their courses. They have what is called an astral religion. And other peoples, in turn, observe lightning and thunder and how the elements manifest themselves therein, and then ask themselves: How do the divine-spiritual beings announce themselves through the language of lightning and thunder, of cloud formations, and the like?
[ 8 ] In a sense, the peoples surrounding the ancient Hebrews sought their religious symbols in what lies above the earth—in the stars or in the atmosphere—as a way to express their connection to the supernatural. Today, however, far too little attention is paid to the fact that it is characteristic of ancient Hebrew antiquity to regard itself as entirely connected with the earth, with that which comes from the earth’s interior. Every detail points to this connection of the ancient Jews with what originates from the earth. It is said that they followed a cloud or a pillar of fire during their wanderings. They “followed a pillar of fire” in the sense that such a pillar of fire can be brought about by the forces of the earth.
[ 9 ] In certain regions of Italy where the soil is volcanic, if one simply lights a piece of paper and runs it along the cracks in the ground, clouds of smoke immediately rise from the earth because the earth’s forces push back against the heated air. This is how one must imagine the pillar of fire caused by the forces of the earth’s interior, which the Jews follow. And likewise, one must not imagine the pillar of water and mist as caused by atmospheric forces, but rather as arising from below, from the desert. The signs of Yahweh or Jehovah in ancient Hebrew times are connected to the processes of the Earth. And the origin of the “Great Flood” itself must be sought in the forces of the Earth that pulsate within it—forces not caused from without by cosmic conditions, but by telluric conditions.
[ 10 ] This was the great protest of the ancient Hebrew people against the surrounding nations: that they refused to acknowledge the god of the earth. But everything that comes from above, that comes to Earth from outside, was perceived as that which, so to speak, had not advanced as far as the task of Earth formation, but had remained behind in the stage of lunar formation. It was summed up under all that which the “serpent” had wrought on Earth, that which Lucifer—who had remained behind in the lunar development—had wrought. One can, as it were, characterize this protest of ancient Hebrew antiquity against the surrounding religious systems by saying that these other religious systems held the view: If one wishes to rise to the divine, one must turn away from the earth; one must go out into the cosmos. What is wrought in the cosmos, or what enters the Earth’s atmosphere from the cosmos—that is what we must worship. But ancient Hebrew tradition said: We do not worship what comes from above; we do not worship what is wrought by extraterrestrial forces; rather, the true God is with the Earth!
[ 11 ] This is taken into account far too little today, for when one utters a word such as “God” or “Spirit” and then looks back to ancient times, one always has the feeling: Yes, that must have been what was meant by it then. — Because Western humanity today, under the influence of nearly two thousand years of Christian development, looks upward again—and rightly so—it is assumed that ancient Hebrew antiquity also looked upward. On the contrary! Ancient Hebrew antiquity said: The mission that Yahweh had planned for the earth has been disrupted by the god who came from outside and who is symbolized by the serpent in Paradise.
[ 12 ] But the Jews had, of course, adopted much from the neighboring peoples, and we can understand that the Jews, in particular, had adopted a great deal from the neighboring peoples. After all, they had, so to speak, the most insidious religion in all of antiquity—something people today can hardly believe: that Yahweh or Jehovah is an earth deity—in the sense I have just explained, which of course does not rule out the possibility that Yahweh, despite being an earth deity, as I have described in *Outline of Esoteric Science*, acts within the Earth’s lunar forces, and is thus, from another perspective, a lunar deity. But that is not what matters in this context. The most prominent religion among the peoples of that time was that of the ancient Jews. And just as people today cannot believe that one can look, so to speak, not upward but toward the center of the Earth when speaking of the God to whom one first turns as the highest, so too did the Jews feel this striving upward; and they felt this striving upward especially when they saw among all the surrounding peoples: those who worship what has its origin outside the earth.
[ 13 ] But it was precisely the great difference between the Jewish esoteric teaching and those outside of it that it made it perfectly clear to people: Forces arise from the earth, even up to the moon, to which we must adhere, and it is a temptation to adhere to other forces; for the other forces are concentrated in what the symbol of the serpent expresses. Thus, the ancient Hebrew people sensed in their teachings a part of what, in a sense, confronts us once again in our spiritual-scientific worldview.
[ 14 ] For the reasons just mentioned, however, this ancient Hebrew people—especially as the Mystery of Golgotha drew near—increasingly turned away from this view. Then came one who felt within himself a mission to strongly emphasize what should be characteristic of the Jews. That was none other than John the Baptist. Above all, he felt called to strongly point out what constituted the strength of the Jewish people and what we have just described. As he observed the development of the Jewish religion around him, he clothed his feelings in words. He clothed his feelings in powerful, meaningful words. He said, for example: You call yourselves “children of Abraham.” If you were children of Abraham, then you would know that your God, who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God Yahweh or Jehovah—is connected to the earthly realm, which He expressed by forming the first human being from the earth. But you are no longer children of Abraham in your souls. You are of the race of those who look upward and toward the higher powers. You have fallen prey to what is rightly symbolized by the “serpent.” You are of the brood of the serpent!
[ 15 ] There is a profound significance in many respects—I have, after all, already spoken of these words from other perspectives—in the fact that John the Baptist used precisely these words. As they are usually found in the Bible, what do they actually mean? If only we would admit a little more readily how poorly we read today! How do people usually interpret this phrase found in the Gospel, the phrase “You brood of vipers”? They take it as though John had actually scolded the people around him so forcefully and crudely as “You brood of vipers.” That would not have been polite. But it would also serve no particular purpose, if one wants to speak to people’s souls, to start right off by hurling an insult at them. And there is no special image of John either when one says: That was simply his divine wrath! — Here I would like to use the trivial phrase: Others can scold too! That is not the point. But in this word, which many perceive merely as a curse, lies the very essence of what John wanted to bring to the attention of those around him: You no longer know what the mission of the God Yahweh consists of; for just as you do not appeal to the powers of the earth, but to the powers outside the earth, you are not children of Abraham, for you worship what the serpent has brought you. Thus you are of the same kind as those around you who worship their gods under various names, yet who mean exactly what characterizes you as the “serpent”!
[ 16 ] And then let us put ourselves in the innermost depths of John the Baptist’s mind. He probably had his reasons for approaching the people in this way. I am not saying this based on the Fifth Gospel—for as far as the Fifth Gospel is concerned, it has not yet reached the figure of John the Baptist—but I say it based on what might otherwise have emerged. So John the Baptist likely had his reasons for speaking to those who came to him at the Jordan as if he could tell that they had adopted certain customs from the Gentiles. Indeed, there was even something in the name given to him by those who came there that he initially did not want to hear.
[ 17 ] In the regions where John the Baptist preached, there were ancient teachings that can be characterized roughly as follows: Yes, at the beginning of human evolution, humans and higher animals once received the breath of air from the source of Yahweh; but through the deed of Lucifer, the breath of air became corrupted. Only those animals that do not possess the breath of air—the fish—have remained good, remaining, so to speak, in the stage of their original development. — So some may have gone to the Jordan—as Jews still do in some regions today—and at a certain time of year stood by the water and shook out their clothes, believing that by doing so they were casting their sins onto the innocent fish, which would then have to carry them away. Such and other customs, connected with the surrounding paganism, John the Baptist observed in those of whom he had just said: You have understood more of the serpent than of Yahweh. You therefore wrongly call yourselves children of the one who was destined to be your forefather, children of Abraham. I tell you: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob might return to his original mission and bring forth from these stones—that is, from the earth—a human race that understands him better!
[ 18 ] At this point, where the Bible conveys to us precisely this expression—“God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones”—there are so many words in the language of that time that are quite ambiguous and contain allusions. And these words are used intentionally in this way, precisely to draw attention to the fact that there is a deeper meaning in these things. However, one can only fully understand this matter by connecting what I have just explained with the mission of Paul.
[ 19 ] I have spoken about Paul’s mission on several occasions, and today I wish to highlight the very aspect that can be crucial to our understanding of what is to be achieved. How is it, then, that Paul—who, as we have often mentioned, was not moved by what he experienced in Jerusalem to incorporate the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha into his worldview—how is it that he was fully convinced by the event at Damascus of what he called the Resurrection of Christ? Here we must, of course, look a little more closely at the way in which Paul was prepared for what appeared to him in the event at Damascus.
[ 20 ] Paul had gone through the Jewish school of prophecy of his time. He knew full well: up to a certain point in human development, salvation—at least for that stage of human development—depends on holding fast to the God of the Earth, on understanding how Yahweh’s mission is connected to the Earth. — But there must come a time—Paul knew this—when the “higher,” that which enters the Earth from extraterrestrial realms, becomes important once again. And it is important to realize that before Christ took on his mission for the Earth through the Mystery of Golgotha, he had his mission as Christ in cosmic regions, that he lived in super-earthly regions. The details of this are explained in the lecture series I recently gave in Leipzig.
[ 21 ] We can trace back the extraterrestrial conditions and will discover how the Christ first worked in the super-earthly realms, how he then, so to speak, came closer and closer to Earth until he entered the Earth’s aura through the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul knew that this moment would come one day, but before the event at Damascus, he had not yet seen it in the Earth’s aura: “The Christ is already here!” But he was prepared for it, and he tells us clearly that he was prepared. Read the twelfth chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians:
[ 22 ] 1. Boasting is of no use to me; yet I will speak of the visions and revelations of the Lord.
[ 23 ] 2. I know a man in Christ [Paul is referring to himself here]; fourteen years ago (whether he was in the body, I do not know; or whether he was out of the body, I do not know; God knows), he was caught up to the third heaven.
[ 24 ] 3. And I know that man (whether he was in the body or out of the body, I do not know; God knows);
[ 25 ] 4. He was transported to paradise and heard indescribable words that no human can utter.
[ 26 ] 5. I will boast about him, but I will not boast about myself—except about my weaknesses.
[ 27 ] What is Paul saying in these sentences? He is saying nothing less than that, as early as fourteen years ago—based on the chronological context, one would have to assume that this experience took place about six years after the events at Golgotha—he was able to rise clairvoyantly into the spiritual realms. That is to say, he assures us himself: Within him lives a human being—and he wishes to boast only of that one, not of the physical human being—who is indeed able to look up into the spiritual worlds. — And when he had that experience, it became clear to him: What did you see in the spiritual worlds before, when you looked up? You saw the Christ as he was still up there in the heavenly realms! — Through the Damascus experience, it became clear to him that the Christ had entered the Earth’s aura and was living within it.
[ 28 ] This is the significant point, which is why certain spirits, in the period around the founding of Christianity, spoke a phrase that sounds rather strange to us today. “The true Lucifer is Christ,” they said. They understood precisely this: When one looked up into the supersensible realms in earlier times, one had to hold fast to the “serpent” if one was to understand human evolution correctly. After the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place, however, the Overcomer of the serpent came down and has now become the Lord of the Earth. — All of this, however, is connected with the entire evolution of humanity.
[ 29 ] What is the significance of the fact that ancient Hebrew culture represents, so to speak, a protest against the astral religions of the surrounding peoples—against religions that see symbols of the divine in the clouds, in lightning, and in thunder? The point is that the human soul must prepare itself to perceive the I in such a way that it no longer receives the revelations of the Spirit through the writing of the stars, no longer through what appears in lightning and thunder, but rather receives these revelations in the spiritual realm, through the Spirit itself. If, in the past, a person truly wished to look up to the Christ, they could only do so in the sense of Zoroaster, by looking up to what one might call the physical shell of the Christ, of Ahura Mazda. A person could look up to the physical sun and its effects and know: the Christ lives within it. - But as it were, peeled out of the physical effects of the sun and permeating the earth’s aura as a spiritual sun, Christ has become the Mystery of Golgotha. Yes, this is how Christ has become, permeating the Earth’s aura, after the worshippers of Yahweh or Jehovah, so to speak, had prepared him. And John the Baptist is to be understood in his most significant words if we understand him in precisely this way.
[ 30 ] And now the Mystery of Golgotha was taking shape. As it took shape—I want to describe things in more abstract terms for now; we will be able to go into more concrete details later—Christ Jesus and John the Baptist stood, so to speak, in opposition to one another. If we hold before our soul what we have just said about John the Baptist, it will show us in what sense Christ Jesus stood, so to speak, opposite John the Baptist: in John the Baptist he stood opposite the one who, in a sense, best understood what it means to worship the spirit of the earth.
[ 31 ] Where, then, did these abilities come from—particularly within Judaism and also within other circles—since there were other people as well who, to a greater or lesser extent, were inspired by the mysteries—who worshipped the Spirit of the Earth in the true sense? Where, then, did these abilities come from? Before the Mystery of Golgotha, these abilities were bound to what we might call physical heredity in human beings, to that physical heredity which is, after all, also an earthly law. For modern science, it is still utter folly to say what I am about to say; but it could also be a folly that is “foolishness to men and wisdom to God.” Before the Mystery of Golgotha, what we call cognitive faculties were, in essence, dependent in a certain sense on hereditary conditions, and the very progress of human development consisted in the fact that cognition through imagination became independent of all natural hereditary conditions.
[ 32 ] That is why, in the ancient mysteries, it was often quite right to pass the office of the mystery priest from father to son, and so on. The significant point is that, at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, knowledge ceased to be dependent on purely physical conditions for humanity on Earth. Through the progress of humanity, knowledge became a purely spiritual matter. A purely spiritual matter becomes the innermost core of the human soul, no longer dependent on external hereditary conditions.
[ 33 ] What, then, made it possible for human beings to retain their innermost being, so to speak, intact? Just grasp the full significance of the fact that the innermost aspect of the human soul—the capacity for knowledge—became a purely spiritual matter, that human beings could, so to speak, no longer inherit anything from their ancestors with regard to their abilities. Certainly, many people today would still like to inherit their cognitive abilities from their ancestors, but it is not possible. One can already see this. Goethe’s abilities were not exactly passed down to his descendants, and one cannot observe this in others either.
[ 34 ] But what would have become of these faculties if they had not been, as it were, spiritually sustained by anything else, if they had not received a spiritual impulse? The faculties that had become internalized within the human being would have been left orphaned. Humanity would have been placed on Earth in such a way that it would have had to wait for whatever the Earth, depending on the nature of its karma, would have provided from its surroundings—whatever would have shone into its senses. But it would not have been able to particularly appreciate this; rather, it would have had to be glad if it could soon leave Earth again, since it would not have been able to acquire any particularly valuable abilities there. Buddha had made this very clear to people; hence his teaching, which diverts attention from all earthly sensory perceptions.
[ 35 ] Christ was now made tangible in Jesus of Nazareth as that of which Christ Jesus could say at his baptism by John in the Jordan: “Something came down into me from the supermundane world that can take a fertilizing hold on the I.” — In the human soul, contents will henceforth live that come from extraterrestrial regions, that are not merely inherited. Everything that one could have known before: it is merely inherited; it has passed from generation to generation through physical conditions. And the last one who had managed to acquire higher abilities on the basis of what can be inherited is John the Baptist. “One of the greatest among those born of women,” said Christ Jesus of him. There he pointed out how the old age differs from the new, how the old age can rightly say: When I seek what is to live in my soul as that which leads me to the heights of humanity, I remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for from them, through the line of inheritance, the abilities that enable humanity to reach the heights have come down to me. — But now these abilities must come from extraterrestrial regions. No longer merely looking to the earth and finding the God of the earth in Christ, but being conscious of Christ’s heavenly entry into the soul—that is what Christ Jesus was pointing to at the moment when he spoke of John the “Baptist” as one of the greatest of those “born of women,” that is, those who carry within themselves the abilities that can be attained directly through physical heredity.
[ 36 ] But this answers a question that could become quite important for our time. It was during the period when, in a sense, the third post-Atlantean epoch emerged within our fifth cultural epoch—in the way I have often discussed—that people began once again to look toward what might appear to the earthly human being as extraterrestrial. But the revived astral religion could not be perceived in the same way that the ancient Egyptians or Chaldeans perceived their astral religion; rather, it had to be perceived as one who truly had a right to speak on these matters would have perceived it.
[ 37 ] In the year 1607, the following words were spoken, which I would like to share here as well: “Throughout all of creation there is a magnificent, wondrous harmony, both in the sensible and the supersensible, in ideas as well as in things, in the realm of nature and of grace. This harmony exists both in things themselves and in their relationships to one another. The highest harmony is God, and he has imprinted an inner harmony upon all souls as his image. Numbers, figures, the stars, and nature in general harmonize with certain mysteries of the Christian religion. Just as, for example, in the universe there are three stationary things—the sun, the fixed stars, and the intermediate sphere—and everything else is in motion, so in the one God there are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The sphere likewise represents the Trinity—the Father is the center, the Son the surface, the Spirit the equality of the distance from the center to the surface, the radius—as well as other mysteries. Without spirits and souls, there would be no harmony anywhere. In human souls, there are harmonious predispositions of infinitely varied kinds. The entire Earth is animated, and through this, the great harmony is brought about both on Earth and between it and the celestial bodies. This soul acts throughout the entire body of the Earth, but has its seat in a certain part of it, just as the human soul has its seat in the heart; and from there, as from a focus or a source, its effects radiate out into the ocean and the atmosphere of the Earth. Hence the sympathy between the Earth and the celestial bodies, hence the regular effects of nature. That the Earth truly has a soul is most clearly shown by the observation of the weather and the aspects through which it is produced each time. Under certain aspects and constellations, the air always becomes restless; if there are none, or few, or only fleeting ones, it remains calm.”
[ 38 ] “Kepler also expounds on these and similar ideas in his book *Harmonices Mundi*.” For much of this, just this original passage: “The globe will be a body like that of an animal, and what is the soul to the animal, that will be the ‘Natura sublunaris’ to the Earth, which stirs up weather conditions in the presence of the aspects. This is not refuted by the fact that the weather disturbances do not always coincide exactly with the aspects; the Earth sometimes seems sluggish, sometimes agitated, so that it continues to emit vapors even without the presence of the aspects. It is simply not as docile an animal as a dog, but rather like an ox or an elephant: slow to anger, but all the more violent once provoked.” [Libri IV, Cap. VIL.]”
[ 39 ] “These and countless other changes and phenomena occurring within and upon the Earth are so regular and measured that they cannot be attributed to blind chance; and since the planets themselves know nothing of the angles formed by their rays upon the Earth, the Earth must have a soul.”
[ 40 ] In his own way, he then says: “The Earth is an animal. One will perceive in it everything that corresponds to the parts of an animal’s body. Plants and trees are its hair, metals its veins, and seawater its drink. The Earth possesses a formative power, a kind of imagination, movement, certain diseases, and the ebb and flow of the tides are the breathing of the animals. The soul of the Earth appears to be a kind of flame, hence the underground heat and hence no reproduction without heat. A certain image of the zodiac and the entire firmament has been imprinted by God into the soul of the Earth.”
[ 41 ] “This is the bond between the heavenly and the earthly, the source of the harmony between heaven and earth: the archetypes of all their movements and actions have been implanted in them by God, the Creator.”
[ 42 ] “The soul is at the center of the earth; it sends out images or impressions of itself in all directions and in this way perceives all harmonious changes and objects outside itself. What is true of the soul of the earth is also true of the soul of man. All mathematical ideas and proofs, for example, are generated by the soul from within itself; otherwise, it could not possess this high degree of certainty and precision.”
[ 43 ] “The planets and their aspects influence the powers of the human soul. They stir up emotions and passions of all kinds, and through them often bring about the most terrible acts and events. They influence conception and birth, and thereby the temperament and character of human beings, and a large part of astrology is based on this. — It is likely that the Sun not only radiates light and heat throughout the entire universe, but is also the center and seat of pure intellect and the source of harmony in the entire universe—and all the planets are animated.”
[ 44 ] Thus, in this spirit that confronts us in the 17th century—these words, as I said, date from 1607—the gaze upward took shape. But one can already see it in these words: the gaze upward is permeated by Christ. It was, however, a profound spirit that spoke the words I have just read aloud; the connection between the human soul and that which, in a divine way, ripples through and weaves through the world had a deep, deep effect on that spirit. Thus, the following beautiful words also come from the same spirit from whom we have just heard him speak of the “soul of the Earth”:
[ 45 ] Hymn to God
Creator of the world, you eternal power! Through all the realms
Your glory resounds; it echoes through heaven and earth.
Even the infant babbles after that voice, proclaiming,
That the blasphemer be silenced, loud is your infinite praise.
Great Artist of the world, I gaze in wonder at the works
Of your hands, built according to artful forms,
And in the center the sun, dispenser of light and life,
Which, according to holy law, governs the earth and guides
In varied courses. I see the labors of the moon
And there stars scattered across an immeasurable expanse -
Ruler of the world! You eternal power! Through all the worlds
Your immeasurable splendor soars on wings of light.
[ 46 ] And we get an even deeper glimpse into his soul when he says:
If now you may behold the images of things in the mirror
But are destined one day to recognize
The essence itself—why, O eye, do you delay
To exchange a nobler being for mere appearance?A fragment of knowledge, if it delights you so sweetly
How blissfully you shall behold the whole!
Give up, soul, boldly the lowly,
To swiftly gain the eternally great.If here life is daily dying,
Yes, if death is the source of life,
O child of man, why do you delay, dying,
To greet the light reborn?
[ 47 ] Who spoke these words—and also the words about the soul of the Earth—at the beginning of the 17th century? They were spoken by the man who laid the foundations of modern astronomy, Johannes Kepler, without whom modern astronomy could not exist. What monist would not praise Johann Kepler? Let the adherents of monism be made aware of these words of Johann Kepler that have just been shared; otherwise, all talk about Johann Kepler remains what I would not wish to describe in a single word.
[ 48 ] Here we can already hear the echoes of what gazing at the stars is once again meant to become: it is the new way of reading the language of the stars, as we are attempting to do within our spiritual-scientific worldview. And the question with which we began today’s reflection answers itself: How do we draw closer to the Christ impulse? How do we understand Christ? How do we establish the right relationship with him so that we can say: We are truly taking in the Christ impulse? — By learning, with the same fervor and depth of feeling as was expressed in ancient Hebrew times: I look up to Abraham, my father—that is, to the physical line of descent—to the forefather Abraham, when I wish to speak of the foundation of what I hold most precious in my soul—if we look today with the same depth of feeling and spiritual mood toward what comes from the spiritual heights and what spiritually enriches us, toward Christ, if we attribute each of our abilities, everything we are capable of, that which makes us human, not to any earthly power but to Christ, then we gain a living relationship with Christ. “If you take delight in any ability, even the most ordinary one, that makes you human, where did you get it?” From Christ!
[ 49 ] Just as the ancient Jew said when he died, he would return to Abraham’s bosom—which in turn had a profound meaning—so we learn to grasp the meaning of our time, the time that lies after the Mystery of Golgotha, by adding to the ancient words “We are born of God” the words that correspond for us to the ancient “returning to Abraham’s bosom”: “In Christ we die.”
[ 50 ] If we learn to understand the Mystery of Golgotha, we can gain that living relationship with Christ that we need, just as in ancient Hebrew times there was a living relationship with the God who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and which was expressed by everyone acknowledging that they would return to the forefather Abraham through death. And for those who live according to the Mystery of Golgotha, this must be expressed by their awareness that: In Christ we die!