From Akashic Research
The Fifth Gospel
GA 148
10 February 1913, Berlin
Translated by Steiner Online Library
The Fifth Gospel VI
[ 1 ] From the insights I have been able to glean from the Fifth Gospel, it becomes clear once again what events were, so to speak, necessary throughout the entire cosmos for what we know as the Mystery of Golgotha to take place. And this Mystery of Golgotha is, even from the perspective of spiritual science, a kind of provisional conclusion to other processes to which it is linked in the sequence of world events.
[ 2 ] We have spoken of how two Jesus children were to prepare the Mystery of Golgotha. We have seen how one of the two Jesus children, the so-called Solomonic Jesus, had within him the I of Zarathustra. We have seen how this I of Zarathustra, after the two Jesus children—who were roughly the same age—had reached the twelfth year, passed over into the body of the other Jesus child, the one from the Nathanic line of the House of David. We were then able to examine in greater detail from the Fifth Gospel the destinies endured by that Jesus of Nazareth, who thus bore the three physical bodies that were born with the Nathanic Jesus child, and who carried the I of Zarathustra within himself until his thirtieth year, up to the conversation with his mother that was recounted to you, where, through the power of the speech he delivered at that time—and into whose words he himself had infused his I—the I of Zarathustra, so to speak, left the physical bodies of this Jesus of Nazareth. And we know how, through the baptism of John in the Jordan, the Christ-being then entered into the threefold physical body of Jesus of Nazareth.
[ 3 ] If we are now able to grasp it in this way, we truly gain not a lesser, but an immensely greater impression of the significance of the Christ-Jesus Being than those who are able to grasp it only on the basis of current knowledge and the accounts in the Gospels, as they are currently understood.
[ 4 ] This entire event, however—which we refer to, together with the crucifixion and resurrection, as the Mystery of Golgotha—follows on from three others. It is, so to speak, the provisional culmination of the three others. One of these other events already took place in the ancient Lemurian epoch; of the other two, one occurred more toward the beginning, the other more toward the end of the Atlantean epoch. However, these first three events are such that they did not take place on the physical plane, but in the spiritual worlds. We must, so to speak, look at these four events from a spiritual perspective, of which the last—the one with which we have primarily concerned ourselves thus far, and which we call the Mystery of Golgotha—took place on the physical plane, while the other three were preparatory events in the spiritual worlds.
[ 5 ] I have told you that the being we refer to as the Nathanic Jesus revealed his very special nature by being able to speak a few words immediately after his birth—words, however, that were spoken in such a strange language that it could not be understood at the time, and that only the mother, based on her intuition, had a sense of what these words meant. We must also be clear about this Nathanic Jesus child that he is not a human being like other human beings, that he did not—like, for example, the Solomonic Jesus child, who had the I of Zarathustra within him, and like other human beings —had many earthly lives behind him, had such many earthly lives behind him in the same way, but that he had lived out his previous existence entirely in the spiritual worlds. I have already hinted at this on earlier occasions by saying: Of what has passed into human incarnations as human souls since the Lemurian epoch, something was, as it were, retained in the spiritual worlds that was not led to human embodiment, but was only then led to human embodiment when it was born as the Nathanic Jesus-child. That which remained behind at that time—which cannot, in the ordinary sense of the word, be called a human ego, for a human ego is that which passes from incarnation to incarnation on Earth—underwent its destinies in the spiritual worlds. And only the members of the ancient Mysteries, who were able to observe the processes in the spiritual worlds, could know that this being, who would one day appear as the Nathanic Jesus child—who was to be animated by the Christ-being—had first to undergo certain destinies in the spiritual worlds. To understand these destinies, we must bear the following in mind.
[ 6 ] Most of you will still remember the lectures given here a few years ago on anthroposophy, in which I began by speaking about the human senses. At that time, I explicitly stated that the five human senses usually listed are only a part of the totality of the senses, and that human beings essentially have twelve senses. I shall not go into further detail on this here. However, it should be pointed out that what the human senses are—that is, what is embedded in our physical body as senses—would actually have been condemned to a fate that would have been disastrous for humanity had the first Christ event not taken place in the spiritual worlds during the ancient Lemurian epoch, as it were, the first precursor to the Mystery of Golgotha. In the Lemurian epoch, humanity was incarnated in such a way that it essentially possessed the predisposition for its senses. But we also know that during the Lemurian epoch, the influence of the Luciferic forces on human evolution took place. This influence of the Luciferic forces extended to everything in the human organism. If nothing else had actually taken place other than what led humanity to its earthly incarnation in the Lemurian epoch, and then the Luciferic influence, our senses would have become quite different from what they have now become. These senses would, one might say, have become hypersensitive, overly sensitive. They would have become such that we would not, so to speak, move through the world with our senses tempered, but rather, for example, the color red would have made such an impression on the human eye that the eye would have felt, as it were, a very specific pain through the impression of the red color. Other impressions would have affected the senses painfully in other ways. How drained, for example, the eye would have felt from the color blue. And so it would be with all the other senses. One would have had to go through the world in such a way that the senses would have been continually affected in a painful manner, or perhaps in an excessive and therefore also harmful pleasure. The senses would have been impressed by all external influences more strongly than is healthy for them. This would have come about through the Luciferic influence.
[ 7 ] This was averted for humanity, not through an event that took place in the physical realm of the Earth, but through a process that is, in a sense, the first preparatory step for the Mystery of Golgotha. In the Lemurian epoch, the same Christ-being—who later united with the body of Jesus of Nazareth through the baptism of John in the Jordan—united with a being who was still in the spiritual worlds at that time: with the being who was later born as the Nathanic Jesus-child, but who was still in the spiritual worlds at that time. If one can say of the Palestinian event that the Christ-being incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth, then one would have to say of this first Christ-event that it animated itself in the spiritual world during the Lemurian epoch in a being who later descended to Earth as the Nathanic Jesus. Thus there lived in the spiritual worlds a spiritual-soul being who, through this act of uniting—that is, the uniting of the Christ Being with the soul of the later Jesus of Nazareth— and through all that followed from this act, removed the calamity from the human senses, thus, as it were, shining down upon humanity from the spiritual worlds so that the senses would not have to endure the calamity of having to walk upon the earth in such a painful or hypersensitive manner. The first preparatory event of the Mystery of Golgotha took place for the sake of the senses. The fact that we can walk through the world with our senses in our present form is a consequence of this first Christ event.
[ 8 ] At the beginning of the Atlantean epoch, a second event took place. It consisted once again in the being who later became the Nathanic Jesus being imbued with the Christ-essence. This averted another calamity from human nature. For even if the senses had already been healed by the first Christ event, human nature would still have become such through the Luciferic and later Ahrimanic influences that the so-called seven life organs—I have also spoken of the seven life organs on occasion during my lectures on anthroposophy; they are vessel-like organs in the physical body, but what underlies them is actually an organization of the etheric body —would have become such that we could not go through the world as human beings as we do now with sympathy and antipathy, but rather the human being would have alternately felt savage greed and the most terrible revulsion in relation to what he enjoys with his life organs, what can be his nourishment. But even what might approach his respiratory organs, he would have felt in such a way that he would have wanted to either seize it with wild greed or reject it with the deepest revulsion. Thus, the seven life organs, too, would have become excessively active through the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman. Then the second Christ event occurred, again an event in the supersensible worlds. Through this, the life organs of human beings were enabled, in a certain sense, to be moderate and restrained. Just as our senses could never have viewed the world with wisdom, so to speak, had the first Christ event not taken place in the Lemurian epoch, so our life organs could never have been moderate had the second Christ event not occurred at the beginning of the Atlantean epoch.
[ 9 ] But a third calamity still lay in store for humanity—a calamity that affected the astral body, specifically the balance of thinking, feeling, and willing. Today, thinking, feeling, and willing exist in a certain harmony within the human being, and when this harmony is destroyed, human health is destroyed. If thinking, feeling, and willing do not interact in the proper measure, then the human being either falls into excessive hypochondria or even into states of madness. Thus, human beings could have fallen into complete disorder with regard to thinking, feeling, and willing—even to the point of madness—had the third Christ event not taken place toward the end of the Atlantean epoch. This event—which was once again an infusion of the Christ into the soul of the Nathanic Jesus, who was still in the supersensible worlds—brought measured harmony into the soul forces of human beings: into thinking, feeling, and willing.
[ 10 ] These three events I have just mentioned all took effect in human beings from the spiritual worlds; they did not take place on the physical plane. But the third event, in particular, has been well preserved in mythical traditions. And just as spiritual insight often leads us to understand such symbols—which have been preserved in legends and myths—in the right way, to delve into them, so to speak, in the proper manner, so it may be with this symbol as well. We are all familiar with this symbol, which represents a supersensible being—be it the Archangel Michael, be it Saint George slaying the dragon. This is the pictorial representation of the third Christ event: the Archangel Michael or Saint George, the later Nathanic Jesus child, imbued with the Christ essence. Hence the archangelic figure exists in the spiritual worlds. And the overcoming of the dragon signifies the suppression of that element in human thinking, feeling, and willing—that is, in the human nature of passion—which would throw thinking, feeling, and willing into confusion, into disorder. One can feel this deeply, as in such powerful images, which are, as it were, set up so that what cannot be grasped by the intellect may at least be presented to the human soul for symbolic contemplation and for feeling, and how deep, deep connections are expressed therein.
[ 11 ] We have mentioned on previous occasions how Greek culture, in its world of gods and spirits, contained reflections—as it were, shadow images—of what, during the Atlantean epoch, existed as actual divine-spiritual beings in the world immediately above humanity. Now the Greeks had a clear awareness precisely of the third Christ event—that Christ event which is otherwise represented for the human soul only figuratively through Saint George or the Archangel Michael overcoming the dragon. The Greeks depicted Christ, animating the later Nathanic Jesus-child, as their Apollo. And in a profoundly significant way—one might say, placed within the cosmos itself—is Saint George with the dragon in Greece. The Greeks had that Castalian spring on Mount Parnassus, where a chasm opened up from the earth, from which vapors rose. These vapors encircled the mountain like serpents, so that in these vapors encircling the mountain like serpents one had an image of the wildly storming human passions that throw thinking, feeling, and willing into disorder. Above the chasm, at the spot where these serpentine vapors emerged—in which the Python lived—they erected that oracle site dedicated to the Pythia. The Pythia sat on her tripod above this chasm and was brought into a visionary state by the rising vapors, and whatever she spoke in this state was taken as the utterance of Apollo himself. And those who sought counsel sent for the Pythia and received advice from Apollo through the mouth of the Pythia.
[ 12 ] The Greeks, then, held the view that Apollo was rooted in a real being. We now know this being. It is the later Nathanic Jesus child, imbued with the spirit of Christ, whom the Greeks called Apollo. He removes the Luciferic-Arimanic influence from what rises from the earth into the soul of the Pythia. And because the sacrifice of Apollo rises in the vapors, they are no longer confusing but wisely order the thinking, feeling, and willing of the Greeks. Thus we see how the idea of Apollo among the Greeks embodies the fact that the God we later call Christ—the God who sacrificed himself at that time by entering the soul of the later Nathanic Jesus child—has entered into the thinking, feeling, and willing of human beings is the God whom we later call Christ, the God who sacrificed himself at that time by entering into the soul of the later Nathanic Jesus-child and pouring out harmony into that which the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman—in thinking, feeling, and willing—was bound to act upon in a confusing manner within the human soul.
[ 13 ] Thus we have three Christ events in the supersensible worlds that actually prepare the way for the event of Golgotha. If we now ask about the significance of the event of Golgotha itself: What was actually brought about by this event, and what would have been thrown into disorder if the event of Golgotha had not taken place? — then we know, of course, that in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, the Greco-Latin period, humanity became ripe to develop the ego. Initially, it was precisely that corner of the West—spanning West Asia, Southern, and Central Europe—that was ripe for the development of the ego. Specifically, the ego was to be developed through the clash of the Romance peoples with the Germanic peoples in Central and Southern Europe. The ego was thus to be developed in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. But it would have developed in a disorderly manner. For just as the senses would have developed in a disorderly manner during the Lemurian epoch had the first Christ event not occurred, just as the seven life organs would have developed in an incorrect manner had the second Christ event not taken place at the beginning of the Atlantean epoch, just as the three soul activities of the human being —thinking, feeling, and willing—would have developed in a disordered manner had the third Christ event not occurred toward the end of the Atlantean epoch, so the ego would have developed in a disordered manner had the fourth Christ event not occurred in the Greco-Latin epoch, namely the Mystery of Golgotha. For—as we have often emphasized—it was in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch that human beings had arrived at the ego, at the consciousness of the ego.
[ 14 ] For those people who were not meant to attain this, a different kind of revelation was initially given. For this is the characteristic difference between the Buddha’s revelation and the Christ’s revelation: the Buddha’s revelation was given to people who were not actually meant to become aware of their I, which runs through their incarnations. Anyone who does not grasp this point correctly does not understand Buddhism. I have often referred to a parable used in later Buddhism, in which it is said that the true Buddhist regards that which passes from one incarnation to another in such a way that he compares it to the mango fruit, which, when placed in the earth, produces a new tree on which a new fruit grows. Name and form are the only things the new mango fruit has in common with the old one. This is the characteristic feature of Buddhism: that no mention was made of a real self that persists through the incarnations. The reason this was not discussed is that a real self has not fully come to consciousness among the peoples of the East. Even today one can see: When people grounded in Eastern teachings seek to understand Western worldviews, they cannot penetrate to the point where the self begins.
[ 15 ] The ego was to be born from the peoples of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. However, it would have been born in a disorderly manner. That it would have been born in a disorderly manner is evident from a phenomenon that occurs with great significance in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. The element of Greek philosophy stands there as a significant expression of the birth of the ego. But as a concomitant of Greek philosophy stands, on the other hand, the Sibylline tradition—that Sibylline tradition of which we must say: Sibyls are all those female beings who, unlike the Pythia, were not harmonized in their inner life by Apollo, but who allowed their revelations to work in a disorderly manner through thinking, feeling, and willing. Through these Sibylline revelations, which existed from the 8th century B.C. onward and extended into the Middle Ages, something of the highest truths often flowed, but in a disorderly manner, interspersed with all manner of strange material. Sibyllinism reveals in particular how the birth of ego-consciousness must initially have had a confusing effect, how the ego, under the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman, would have emerged just as disorderly as the twelve senses did in the Lemurian epoch, as the seven life organs did in the early Atlantean epoch, and as the three soul organs would have had to emerge in the later Atlantean epoch without the first three Christ events. Thus, in the post-Atlantean era, the ego would have emerged in a disordered state had the Mystery of Golgotha not taken place.
[ 16 ] Thus we see how this Mystery of Golgotha descends, as it were, from a spiritual height—where it first takes place as a Christ event during the Lemurian epoch—step by step until it reaches the physical plane, precisely in our earthly Mystery of Golgotha. This, in turn, can point us to the full significance of this unique event for the development of the Earth, and can show us how this unique event was, in fact, well-prepared from the spiritual worlds. The connection with the high solar being, which we have often emphasized in relation to the Christ being, is also evident in the Greek idea of Apollo, since Apollo is the sun god.
[ 17 ] I have only sketched out in broad strokes what has thus far been contributed toward a complete explanation of the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha. All these things could be elaborated in detail and would then reveal the full, immense cosmic magnitude of this Mystery of Golgotha. Thus, one can approach this Mystery of Golgotha through contemplation of the cosmos. But one can also approach it from another angle. This can be done, for example, in the following way.
[ 18 ] Let us assume that a person enters the spiritual world, either through the gate of death or through initiation. And if we consider the case where a person enters the spiritual world through the gate of death, the first thing that happens is that the person sheds their physical body, as it were, as the outermost shell. This physical body is handed over to the elements of the earth. Let us suppose that a person, from the spiritual world in which they find themselves after passing through the gate of death, were to look back upon the fate of their physical body as it is handed over to the physical elements of the earth, whether decayed or cremated. What the human being sees in these processes, when looking back from the spiritual world upon the fate of the physical body, could be called a natural phenomenon like any other natural phenomenon—an event to which one applies moral concepts just as little as one applies moral concepts when clouds form and lightning flashes from one cloud to another, and the like. Just as one views these natural phenomena, so one must initially view what is dissolving there as the physical body. We know, however, that the human being then remains connected for a few days to their etheric body, and that a kind of second detachment occurs—that of the etheric body from the astral body and from the I. |
[ 19 ] When a person then looks back at the shed etheric body, it already appears different in its processes than the shed physical body. Above all, after death, we cannot view the etheric body from the spiritual world in such a way that we can regard what the etheric body then is and what becomes of it as a natural phenomenon. That is not the case at all; rather, this etheric body reveals to us, as if woven into it, what we have carried within us as the dispositions of our soul up until our death. If we have had good dispositions, this is evident in the etheric body; if we have had treacherous, evil dispositions, this is also evident in it. Indeed, one sees and feels in it, one might say, the entire spectrum of good and evil feelings and sensations. All of this is expressed within it. We place our inner state of mind, just as it is, into the etheric body. This can be seen within it, and it dissolves in a complex manner in the etheric world, being absorbed by it. When we thus look back on the fate of our etheric body, we are actually looking back at a reflection of what we ourselves were in our earthly life.
[ 20 ] We can say something very special about what we are looking at here. We can say to ourselves: If you have had this or that positive feeling, this or that devotion to the spiritual worlds, then you have given something to the general etheric cosmos that continues to work as a force for good there. If you have had negative feelings and emotions and have not wanted to engage with the descriptions of the spiritual worlds, then you have given something to the etheric cosmos that causes harm and devastation in the etheric world.
[ 21 ] It is part of the destiny of our soul—that is, of our astral body and our ego—to behold, in the spiritual world, what one has brought upon oneself in the destiny of one’s etheric body, which can no longer be altered once it has been separated from the physical body. It is, in fact, the primary vision one has after death. Just as one previously had the sight of clouds, mountains, and so on in the sensory world, so now, after death, one has, as a backdrop, the sight of that which one has oneself imprinted into one’s etheric body through one’s soul disposition and one’s attitudes. This becomes ever larger and larger the more the etheric body dissolves, and indeed becomes like the firmament upon which everything else appears. It is therefore part of a person’s destiny after death to behold the destinies of the etheric body.
[ 22 ] In addition, something else becomes apparent: that this etheric body, which is dissolving there, actually—one might say—has two distinct characteristics. One of these characteristics is connected to something that, fundamentally speaking, always makes a depressing, sorrowful impression after death. What this characteristic is connected to will become clearest to us if we consider briefly the fate of the physical Earth.
[ 23 ] This fate of the physical Earth is already recognized by physicists today. Physicists acknowledge as true that the Earth, as a physical entity, will one day succumb to what is known as the “heat death.” The relationship between heat and the other physical forces of the Earth is such that, at some point in the future—and this is already a established fact of physics—everything will have reached a state of uniform heat. Then there will be nothing left that could happen on Earth in terms of events or activities within its physical realm. The entire Earth will have succumbed to heat death.
[ 24 ] Those who are materialists must, of course, take it for granted—for otherwise they would not be consistent—that with this heat death everything, including what they call human culture, human thought, feeling, and striving, must come to an end, that all human life must vanish into the uniform heat of the Earth. Anyone who understands the circumstances as spiritual science can reveal them knows what this heat death means: that the physical Earth will fall away from its spiritual aspect—which belongs to it—just as the human physical body falls away from what passes through the gate of death. And just as the human corpse remains behind with death from the human’s spiritual-soul aspect, which passes through an intermediate state between death and new birth, and just as the human being passes from one state to another, so will the spiritual aspect of the Earth, when its earthly existence comes to an end with the heat death, pass over into a Jupiter existence. This Jupiter existence will be a further embodiment of all that is spiritually connected with the Earth.
[ 25 ] If we can look back at the etheric body after death, we really notice—through a certain sensation we have toward this etheric body—that some of the etheric body’s qualities are connected to everything within the earthly realm that is succumbing to the heat death, that is dissolving. Such forces are present in our etheric body; these are the active forces that lead the Earth into heat death. But other forces are still there.
[ 26 ] A second type of forces within this etheric body should be noted, and these relate to all earthly things in the same way as if one were to look at a plant seed and see how the seed is surrounded by a plant substance from which the next plant will emerge. In a similar way, one sees in the etheric body: there are forces that need only be active for the Earth as long as the Earth exists, until the Earth succumbs to heat death. But then there are young forces within it that are connected to what the Earth contains in the cosmos as germinative potential, to be carried over to the Earth’s next incarnation. But this part of the etheric body, which is, as it were, full of germinative power, can only be seen—and here we touch upon a very important mystery of spiritual science—if one has attained a certain relationship to the Christ Being, to the Christ Impulse. For this part is permeated by the Christ forces that poured into the spiritual sphere of the Earth through the Mystery of Golgotha. They are present within this part. For these Christ forces represent that which also carries the germinative potential of human beings over to Jupiter. This thus enables us to perceive our connection with the Christ impulse—the seed-bearing, future-bearing aspect—within our etheric body.
[ 27 ] When viewed in this light, one can be certain that what has often been mentioned has indeed flowed from the Mystery of Golgotha into the earthly sphere, and that it has something to do with the revitalization of the entire spiritual life of the Earth, into which we ourselves, as human beings, are embedded. And among the experiences that a human being must have—one who possesses a true sense of the I, as is the case with modern Westerners—it is precisely part of these experiences that, after death, when looking upon one’s etheric body, one does not see this etheric body without it being permeated by the Christ impulse. For it is an unhappy life after death if, upon beholding one’s etheric body, one must do without the etheric body’s being imbued with the Christ impulse. This is why I have always pointed out that Christ came to Earth as a fact, and that even those people who today still resist the Christ impulse with their higher consciousness will gradually find access to the Christ impulse, even if they may find it one or two incarnations later than the population of the Western cultural regions of the Earth.
[ 28 ] What constitutes a person’s bliss after death is having the assurance of the Christ impulse when beholding their etheric body. What constitutes a person’s misery after death is perceiving in the etheric body only that which, in a sense, must succumb to earthly death. For the person who, through Western culture, possesses a distinct sense of self—Eastern people do not yet have this distinct sense of self—for the person who is born with this distinct sense of self, as is the case with Western peoples, it is certainly a source of unhappiness to look upon his etheric body and see there only the forces destructive to earthly development, but not to be able to perceive that the Christ impulse is present there as a substance. It is somewhat like having to live constantly under the impression of an earthquake or a volcanic eruption after death, if one cannot perceive the young, germinating forces of the Christ impulse in the etheric body.
[ 29 ] What exactly are these young germinal forces of the Christ impulse? Well, I have already mentioned one aspect of this on various occasions over the years. We have spoken of the role that blood plays in the physical body of Christ Jesus. Blood is, of course, one of the physical substances of the body, and in the ordinary human body, it is among those things that physically dissolve into the elements upon death. That was not the case, at least not for the portion of the blood of Christ Jesus that flowed from the wounds onto the earth at Golgotha. This portion of the blood became etheric, was truly absorbed by the etheric forces of the earth, so that the blood that flowed from the wounds at that time became an etheric substance. And this etheric substance glows, illuminates, and radiates within the etheric body—and one perceives it thus after death—revealing itself in such a way that the human being knows: There is fresh, sprouting life that leads the human being, capable of life, toward the future.
[ 30 ] The ingredients also enter the etheric body from another direction, which can show us just how vibrant the life within it is. The perspective offered by the Fifth Gospel in particular indicates—and this is one of the profound impressions one gains when exploring what the Fifth Gospel has to offer—that after the body of Christ Jesus had been laid in the tomb, something truly occurred, as a result of which things could ultimately be as the Gospel of John describes so wonderfully precisely: how the tomb is empty and how the cloths lay all around. That is how it was. The Fifth Gospel shows us this. It was so because a wave-like earthquake had taken place, causing the earth to split open. The body of Christ Jesus fell into this fissure. This fissure then closed again. And through the wave-like movement and upheaval, the burial cloths were indeed tossed about just as they are described in their positions in the Gospel of John in the account of the empty tomb. This is the profound, heart-stirring impression one receives when one learns of these things through the Fifth Gospel and then finds confirmation in the Gospel of John.
[ 31 ] So something else has entered the etheric body: what was absorbed from the earth’s fissure permeated what we have called the blood that shimmers and glitters within the etheric substance, and through this, the shimmering and glittering blood becomes visible in the etheric body; so that one has the sensation—as I said earlier: the etheric body expands after death, and one beholds it as a kind of firmament against which everything else stands out, spanning out in this expanding etheric body like a fundamental substance is the body, the blood-emptied body of Christ Jesus, which has been received by the cleft in the earth and has thus passed into the earth, and appears as a life-giving presence within the outstretched tableau of the etheric body.
[ 32 ] And this vision provides the certainty that humanity will not perish, but will live on as the spiritual essence of the Earth when the Earth’s physical form falls away, just as the individual human body falls away from the human spirit. The ego and the astral body certainly guarantee human beings freedom and immortality. But human beings would live on only for themselves. They would arrive on Jupiter and not fit into Jupiter life unless what has been attained on Earth were carried over to Jupiter: unless what was brought into the Earth sphere through the Christ impulse were carried over.
[ 33 ] One could say that individual human beings would be scarcely more enriched than they were in the Lemurian epoch; they would pass into Jupiter in a state of poverty if they were not embedded in an earthly sphere permeated by Christ. And this poverty, which would give the impression that earthly life is actually lost—it would stand before the human being as something unfortunate in the life between death and new birth, whereas what the Christ impulse has made of the spiritual part of the Earth gives the soul bliss in the life between death and new birth: Yes, everything the soul can experience after the Mystery of Golgotha comes through what has flowed out through the Christ impulse into the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth!