The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Three Spiritual Stages Leading Up to the Mystery of Golgotha

[ 1 ] Building on the reflections in The Fifth Gospel, we wish today to bring to mind the influence of the Christ Spirit on human evolution, as it unfolded in the spiritual worlds prior to the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 2 ] We must remember the fact of the two Jesus boys: the Solomonic one, in whom the Zarathustra ego lived, and the Nathanic Jesus boy. We must look at the Nathanic Jesus-child and ask ourselves now: What kind of being was this child, into whom the I of Zarathustra later entered?

[ 3 ] To understand this being, we must go far back in the evolution of the Earth and humankind. This being, which worked within the Nathanic Jesus child, had entered a physical incarnation for the first time in the Jesus of Bethlehem. Previously, it had participated in human evolution from the spiritual world, but had never lived in a physical human body. It had lived through the times when the human sheaths were created, lived through the Saturn era, in which the seed for the physical body was laid, the Sun and Moon eras, when the etheric and astral bodies formed, and also lived through the smaller stages that repeated the great periods of time. But when the human ego descended into the three bodies during the Lemurian epoch, this being remained, as it were, in the spiritual worlds as a part of the divine human being and had not participated in the development of the ego within the three bodies nor in its seduction by the Luciferic-Ahrimanic influence. This part of the divine human being that remained in the spiritual worlds—this spiritual being—descended for the first time into a physical body as the Nathanic Jesus child, in order to be permeated by the Christ as such. The baptism by John represents the permeation of Jesus by the Christ Spirit.

[ 4 ] However, this was not the first time it had allowed itself to be permeated by the Christ. While living as a spiritual being in the spiritual worlds, it had already been able to allow itself to be permeated by the Sun Spirit on several occasions. In preparation for the Christ event in the physical body, something similar had previously taken place in the spiritual worlds and had an impact on human development.

[ 5 ] Let us look back to the Lemurian epoch, when human beings were connected to their physical bodies, and consider how human beings would have developed at that time if only the cosmic forces with which they were then connected had acted upon them. At that time, there was a danger that the twelve cosmic forces acting upon humanity would be thrown into disorder by demonic beings. As a result, humanity would have had to develop quite differently from how it has today. The human senses, which were developing at that time, would have become hypersensitive under the influence of the forces seeking to throw them into disorder. Today, humanity is able to take in the sensation of light and all perception with equanimity. Under the influence of the Luciferic-Ahrimanic impact, sensory life would have had to trigger the strongest desires and impulses. If, for example, a human being had seen the color red—and the sun’s rays would have had to act in this way above all—the desiring soul would have had to flee in burning pain, and upon perceiving blue, it would have had to overcome itself in agony, consumed from within. The soul would have had to suffer terribly with every sensory perception, driven by animal lust and desire to scorching pain and torment.

[ 6 ] Then the cry of pain from tormented humanity rose up to that spiritual being. It drew it toward the Sun Spirit, so that it could allow itself to be permeated by Christ. This tempered the inner intensity of sensory perception, and through this the being repelled the strongest temptation of Lucifer and Ahriman. By tempering the excessive effect of the forces on the senses, it transformed the life of perception into a moderate, passive one.

[ 7 ] And let us move further into the Atlantean epoch. A new danger loomed over humanity: the Luciferic-Ahrimanic influence threatened the vital functions, the life organs of human beings. If, for example, a meal had been set before a person, an animalistic greed to devour it would have been aroused. His soul would have been entirely consumed by greed. Breathing—inhaling and exhaling—would have been particularly sensitive. Bad air would have filled the human being with shuddering revulsion. Everything connected with the functions of nutrition and life triggered an immense stirring of sympathy and antipathy, driving the soul from devouring greed to repulsive revulsion.

[ 8 ] And once again, it was that spiritual being that averted this danger for humanity. A second time, it allowed itself to be permeated by the Christ Spirit, thereby saving the life forces of humanity that would otherwise have fallen into disorder.

[ 9 ] And at the end of the Atlantean epoch, a third danger arose for humanity due to the Luciferic-Ahrimanic influence. There was a threat that the human soul forces—thinking, feeling, and willing—would fall into disorder and disharmony with one another, that the three forces would no longer be able to resonate properly within the human soul. Consumed by passion, human beings would have followed every impulse, or, filled with fear and hatred, would have fled, without reason being able to regulate these forces. How did the spiritual being bring help? The spiritual being had to immerse itself in the human soul filled with passion, had to become the passion itself, had to become a dragon, in order to transform the soul forces, and to allow itself to be illuminated a third time by the Christ Spirit.

[ 10 ] We find this spiritual event reflected in the myths of all peoples, in the myth of Saint George, the Archangel Michael, slaying the dragon. In post-Atlantean cultures, we see a consciousness alive with the spiritual influences of Christ on the becoming of humanity through that spiritual being, as they unfold in the spiritual worlds. In the Zoroastrian cult, the high solar being appears before us, and the worship of Apollo in Greek consciousness presents itself as a reflection of this. At the Castalian Spring stands the temple of Apollo, to which the Greeks journey well-prepared to seek counsel from Apollo. Python, who rests upon the vapors rising from the crevice and winding around Mount Parnassus like a serpent, is vanquished by Apollo, and in his place stands the priestess Pythia, through whose mouth Apollo reveals his wisdom to the Greeks. From spring to autumn, Apollo dwells in his sanctuary; then he journeys north to the land of the Hyperboreans. Apollo must journey north as the spirit of the sun, while the physical sun journeys south. And we find music, the playing of strings, associated with Apollo. It represents the expression of the harmony of the three human soul forces. And of a famous man with ears too large, King Midas, it is said that Apollo caused donkey ears to grow on him as punishment for Midas having ruled against Apollo in the musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas, because he preferred Marsyas’ flute to Apollo’s stringed instrument.

[ 11 ] Thus, three times before the Mystery of Golgotha took place, Christ had connected with humanity from the spiritual worlds by threefold penetration of that spiritual being who later became the boy Jesus of Nazareth: First, to regulate sensory experience in a measured way during the Lemurian epoch; second, to regulate the life forces at the beginning of the Atlantean epoch; third, to regulate the soul forces at the end of the Atlantean epoch. Only then did the Mystery of Golgotha take place as the fourth event, to regulate the ego in its relationship to the world.

[ 12 ] The danger to the human ego—into which it had been led by the temptations of Lucifer and Ahriman—was sensed in the Egyptian priestly sanctuaries during the Greco-Roman period. People sensed the ego approaching and sought to struggle against the forces that sought to throw it into disorder. Thus, in many places within the temples, one witnessed ceremonies such as the following, often repeated: The priest fashioned a hideous, misshapen figure—a crocodile—spat upon it, threw it to the ground, and burned it. Other priests told the people: Re, the sun god, travels his path across the sky from east to west. In the west, he grows pale and plunges downward because he must fight against demonic beings.

[ 13 ] One could feel the forces of the ego pushing their way out. It confronts us in two forms. We see the Sibylline tradition emerge in the 7th to 8th centuries B.C. and spread throughout all the southern European countries. Within it lived that which demonstrated that the ego can develop. But the Sibylline phenomenon was connected to the elemental forces of the earth, which work in the subconscious of the soul and push their way out in a passionate manner. Opposed to this Sibylline phenomenon is the prophecy of the Jewish people. The prophets seek to repress all Sibylline elements in their souls and listen only to the revelation that opens itself to the conscious forces of the ego. Michelangelo depicts the prophets in contemplative absorption, and opposite them the Sibyls, connected to the elemental forces of the earth—wind, fire, and air.

[ 14 ] Without the Mystery of Golgotha, the Sibylline element would have triumphed over the conscious ego forces and pushed them back. The ego would have been lost to human development. We see the Christ impulse at work in the course of human history as a force—even without human consciousness having taken it in—as a force that shapes cultures, that shapes the history of the European peoples, that determines the shaping of Europe. On October 28 of the year 312, Maxentius was defeated by Constantine. Maxentius consults the Sibyls and receives the answer: If you march out with your army before the gates of Rome, you will defeat Rome’s greatest enemy. — Maxentius subsequently has a dream, and he follows the Sibyl’s prophecy and his dream. He marches out before Rome, against all reason, the advice, and all the plans of his generals. Constantine also has a dream: He sees himself, carrying the banner of Christ before him, defeating an enemy four times his strength. Against all human reason, battle ensues, and Constantine is victorious, carrying the cross before his army.

[ 15 ] We can trace the course of human history from 800 B.C. to the present day. In the centuries before Christ, we see profound Greek wisdom rising to its zenith. In it, humanity draws upon the last of the inherited divine powers. Then, at the zero point, the Mystery of Golgotha enters and begins to work within humanity. The inspiring forces of the Christ impulse worked in various ways in the time following the Mystery of Golgotha, emanating from different planes of the spiritual worlds.

	I	II	III	IV
0–800	Higher Spirit World
800–1600		Lower Spirit World
1600–2400			Soul World
2400–				Physical World

[ 16 ] To begin with, we can consider the period of the first eight centuries after Christ. We saw how human reason fails in the face of the Christ impulse (Gnosis), yet how this impulse is at work as a reality in human history (Maxentius and Constantine). During the first eight centuries, the force from the highest spiritual worlds, from the upper Devachan, was at work. We see a transition and culmination of this period in the work of Scotus Erigena around 850. In his system of thought, the Christ impulse still acts like a wave of force from the highest spiritual world into the physical world.

[ 17 ] Then, from 800 to 1600, the impulse from the lower Devachan works its way into the physical world. People seek, through various mental images, to bring the Christ impulse closer to their souls. But thought proves to be clumsy, and their efforts fruitless. Neither the Crusades nor attempts to prove the existence of God can establish a living inner connection.

[ 18 ] The Virgin of Orleans stands at the threshold of the next epoch. The impulses of the Christ were revealed to her in her inner life from the spiritual worlds, and it is in His name that she intervenes in the shaping of human history.

[ 19 ] The power that once manifested itself directly in human beings from the higher spiritual realms is increasingly being lost. These forces are growing ever weaker; since 1600, their influence has been felt only from the astral world, the world of souls. Consequently, theology is becoming ever more scholarly and abstract. In place of the cosmic divine being, Christ, it sets the “simple man from Nazareth.” Yet if our age had advanced even further into materialism, had been even more deeply permeated by the anti-Christian element, the forces of Christ working in from the astral world would not have made themselves felt in a special way: In the 15th and 16th centuries, strange tales began to appear everywhere, spreading throughout the entire European West. In the most diverse places, in all the countries of Europe, men appeared, their feet covered in calluses, in ragged clothing, with long, flowing hair, and told that they had been present at the Mystery of Golgotha, had seen Christ walking on earth, but when he passed by their house, they had not shown him reverence; they had insulted him. Therefore, since that time, they have had to wander ceaselessly, without rest or respite, and recount, as penance, what they once experienced. (The Eternal Jew.) They recounted all this as if from memory. They were welcomed everywhere, received by bishops and prelates. In them, an insight into the Akashic Records was realized, and these people could do nothing else but live their entire lives in this manner and bear witness to the Christ event. The rest of their consciousness was clouded, but through the impulses from the astral world they were able to attain this vision. Through this, people were saved from the spread of anti-Christianity, saved from the worst materialism.

[ 20 ] Then, starting in 2400, the epoch will dawn in which the forces for understanding Christ will emanate from the Earth alone, and Christ will work upon humanity from the physical plane. But in our time, the harbingers of what will be essential after 2400 are already making their presence felt: Christ will reveal himself on the physical plane in an aesthetic form. Thus we see history unfolding in cycles of eight hundred years in connection with impulses from the spiritual worlds. In my book Worldviews and Life-Views of the 19th Century, as expanded in the new edition titled The Riddles of Philosophy, one will be able to trace the development of human consciousness in this same periodic progression.

[ 21 ] The history of human thought shows us that, if the powers necessary for a future understanding of Christ are to be present, thought itself must take on a different form, and the act of thinking must undergo a transformation. Today we see the life of thought caught between two perspectives, and humanity suffers from this “being squeezed in between” and cannot find the transition from one view to the other. On one side stands Haeckel, who, relying solely on external perception, has constructed a worldview of reality that cannot, however, acknowledge the reality of thought. And on the other side stands F7ege/, who, starting from the thought as spiritual reality—the weaving and life of thought in truth is the active spirit—constructs a worldview of thought, which, however, cannot acknowledge its time as reality. What thought needs is to be allowed to become living reality.

[ 22 ] Thoughts must be brought to life, just like a plant seed. Seeds can be sown, harvested, and then used for food. In doing so, they stray from their true path, which would allow new plants to sprout from the seed. In the same way, humanity has gathered the seeds of thought into the barns of natural science and philosophy, piled them up, and allowed them to wither. By its very nature, the plant seed must be planted in the environment that gives it life if it is to sprout anew. Thus, Hegel’s seeds of thought must be planted in the soil of Spiritual Science, where they can grow into fruitful life, into the spiritual faculties of imagination, inspiration, and intuition. In place of the categorical imperative, the “moral imagination” will be activated by the ego through the power of awakened thinking. Then, however, it will also be possible to understand the coming Christ impulse from within the forces of the earth. This is the connection between the world of thought in the “Philosophy of Freedom” and the higher powers of knowledge arising in our soul, through the paths shown by Spiritual Science.

[ 23 ] In harmony with the coming Christ event, I felt compelled today to speak to you about the revitalization of thought leading to future spiritual insight.