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The Need for Christ
GA 220

5 January 1923, Dornach

Originally published in Anthroposophical Quarterly, Volume 15, Number 3, Autumn 1970.

In the lectures given here just before the burning of the Goetheanum I spoke to you of man’s connection with the course of the year and of other related subjects.1English translation published by Anthroposophic Press, Inc. New York, with the title: Man and the World of Stars. The spiritual Communion of Mankind. As a continuation of those lectures I want to take your minds back again today to an epoch of history which we have often studied and which must be thoroughly understood if genuine insight into the present phase of the evolution of humanity is to be acquired.

We have heard that certain processes taking place in the human being can be recognised in the ever-repeated happenings of the course of the year. I also said that it was the aim of earlier Mystery-science, Initiation-science, to spread such knowledge among persons able to accept it. By spreading this knowledge the aim was to strengthen man’s thinking, feeling and willing, to strengthen his foothold and position in the world.

We may ask: Why was it that in earlier times human beings were able by their very nature to understand the relation of man the microcosm, to the great world, the macrocosm, as this relation is expressed in the seasonal course of the year? For there was indeed such understanding. This was because in those ancient times man’s inner life, his life of soul, was more closely linked with the etheric or formative forces body than is the case today.

You will remember from the outline which I was able to give in the lectures of the so-called French Course,2Ten lectures given from 6 to 15 September 1922. A précis of the contents written by Dr. Steiner himself is translated into English and published with the title: Cosmology, Religion and Philosophy. that when man has passed through the supersensible life between death and a new birth, when he has sent down to Earth the spirit-seed of his physical body, while he himself, as a being of soul-and-spirit before conception, has not yet descended, he gathers together from the Cosmos the forces of the cosmic ether and with them builds his etheric body which he thus possesses before he unites with his physical body. Thus as man descends from the supersensible worlds as a being of soul-and-spirit, he first envelops himself with an etheric body. Then he unites the physical body given him through the physical stream of inheritance by the father and mother.

In earlier ages of evolution the union into which man could enter with the etheric body before his actual earthly life was far more intimate than it was in later times and is today. And it was because of this more intimate union with the etheric body that it was possible for an earlier humanity to understand what was meant when from the Mysteries it was proclaimed: the physical Sun seen by the bodily eyes is the physical expression of a spiritual reality. Men understood what was meant by the ‘Sun Spirit’. They understood it because when that intimate union between the human soul-and-spirit and the etheric body was still present it would have seemed absurd to expect man to believe that somewhere up in universal space there hovered that physical globe of gas of which modern astrophysics speaks today. To those human beings of an earlier epoch it would have seemed a matter of course that to this physical phenomenon there belongs a spiritual reality and it was this spiritual reality which in all the ancient Mysteries was recognised and revered as the Sun Spirit.

We can point to the fourth century after Christ as the epoch when human beings descending from the supersensible world were no longer united in this intimate way with the etheric body. (These details are only approximately accurate, although in essentials they are correct). There was now a looser union and for this reason the time drew nearer and nearer when in their earthly life too men could use only the physical body when gazing at the Heavens. In earlier times when they looked up to the Heavens they too beheld the Sun but an impulse arose from within them not to see this Sun as a merely physical phenomenon but to recognise soul-and-spirit in the Sun. After the fourth century A.D., however, men could use only the physical body, the physical eyes, when they gazed at the Sun, for their sight was no longer borne and sustained by the power of the etheric body. Hence as time went on they saw merely the physical Sun and to teach of a Sun Spirit was possible only because this had been known by men in earlier epochs and the tradition still survived.

Julian the Apostate was one who learnt from his teachers of the Sun Spirit. But we know that in the Mystery of Golgotha this Sun Spirit came down to the Earth. He transferred the course of His heavenly life to the Earth, changed it into a course of earthly life. For since the Mystery of Golgotha His activity has been concerned with guiding the evolution of mankind in the sphere of the Earth.

You will notice that the two points of time do not coincide. The Mystery of Golgotha tells us, when we look back at it today, that it was then that Christ, the sublime Sun Being, united Himself with Earth-existence. Popularly expressed: since that point of time, Christ has been on the Earth.

Vision of the Sun Spirit was possible to men until the fourth century A.D., because up to then they were still intimately united with the etheric body, as I have already said. And although Christ Himself was already on the Earth, until well into the fourth century the etheric body still enabled men to behold His after-image in the Sun. Just as in the physical world when we gaze at some object and then shut our eyes, the eyes retain an after-image, so in personalities in whom this faculty had remained, the etheric body retained an after-image of the great Sun Spirit when such men looked up into the Heavens. Hence those human beings who were still closely united with their etheric body – and there were many, especially in the regions of Southern Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor – realised from actual experience: The Sun Spirit is to be seen when our eyes gaze into the heavenly expanse. And they could not understand what it meant when the teachers and leaders of those other Mysteries of which I spoke during the French Course declared that Christ was on the Earth.

You must remember that nearly four centuries had elapsed since the Mystery of Golgotha, during which time, for the reason I have just given, a large number of sound human beings were unable to make anything of the declaration that Christ had appeared on Earth. What had taken place in Palestine was for them an insignificant event, just as insignificant as it was for the Roman writers who merely mentioned it as an aside. The death of an individual of no importance had taken place under unusual circumstances. The men of whom

I am speaking simply did not understand the depths of the Mystery. It can be said that these men did not need the Christ on Earth for in the old sense He was still there for them in the Heavens. For them He was still the Cosmic Spirit, the Spirit working in the light. For them He was the all-embracing illuminator of mankind. There was still no need for them to look into the human being and seek Him in the ego.

A man who could not grasp why Christ should be sought in a human being on the Earth since He was obviously to be sought in the Heavens, living in the light which from sunrise shines daily upon the Earth and ceases to shine at sunset – such a man was Julian the Apostate. For him, and others of his kind, what had taken place in Palestine was an event on a par with any other historical event, but altogether insignificant. For such men it was an ordinary, actually unimportant event, for the need for Christ was not yet alive in them.

When was it that the need for Christ began to live in men? This is what we shall be thinking about today. When could the need for Christ arise in mankind at all?

Let us now think of the successive epochs of earthly evolution after the great Atlantean catastrophe. The catastrophe took place in the eighth/ninth millennium before Christ and after it we come to the first post-Atlantean civilisation-epoch which in the book Occult Science I called the ancient Indian epoch. In that ancient time man lived paramountly in his etheric body. His union with the etheric body was so close that we can say quite simply: man lived in the etheric body. His life was such that the physical body was really more like a garment for him, something quite external. He looked out into the world far more with his etheric eyes than with his physical eyes.

The second period was the ancient Persian epoch. Man now looked into his environment mainly through the sentient body. In the third, the Egypto-Chaldean epoch, he looked into the world with the help of the Sentient Soul, and at length, in the fourth, the Graeco-Latin epoch, he looked into the world with the powers of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul.

Atlantean catastrophe
I.Ancient Indian epochEtheric Body
II.Ancient Persian epochSentient Body
III.Egypto-Chaldean epochSentient Soul
IV.Graeco-Latin epochIntellectual or Mind-Soul
V.Present epochSpiritual or Consciousness Soul

In our own fifth civilisation-epoch since the fifteenth century, which we may call the historic present, man looks into the world with the Spiritual or Consciousness Soul. This brings about the results I have described in their historic sequence in the Natural Science Course.3A Course of nine lectures given in Dornach during December 1922 and January 1923, entitled: Natural Science in the History of the World. Its moment of origin and subsequent development. A translation by George Adams is contained in Anthroposophical Movement, vols. VI (1929) and VII (1930).

But we must now be clear about what this really signifies. The soul makes itself felt to begin with in the etheric body. In the first epoch man is still living altogether in the etheric body. Then he lives in the sentient body. But this, in reality, is still immersed in the etheric body. Only in the Egypto-Chaldean epoch does he begin to live in the soul itself, but even now the soul is still living in the etheric body. In this epoch, when man experiences himself inwardly as a being of soul, he still feels half immersed in the etheric body.

It is in the Graeco-Latin epoch that in his life of soul man grows out of and beyond the etheric body. The etheric body is still within him, of course, until about the year A.D. 333. Then he begins to grow beyond the etheric body in such a way and to such an extent that his soul is only loosely united with it; there is no longer a strong, inner union. In the outer world the soul feels deserted, being obliged to go out into the world without the support of the etheric body. And it is now that the need for Christ arises. Man’s soul is no longer united with the etheric body so he no longer sees the great Sun Spirit, does not even see His afterimage when he looks out into the Heavens.

But world-evolution is a very gradual process, lasting for long, long periods of time. From the fourth century onwards the soul was as it were inwardly emancipated from the etheric body but not yet strengthened in itself; it was still inwardly weak. And if we survey the centuries, the fifth, sixth and seventh, right on into the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, even on into our own time (but we will consider primarily the period until the fifteenth century) we find the human soul inwardly emancipated, it is true, but weak and ineffectual. It feels the need for something but is not strong enough yet to meet this need from its own inner forces, not strong enough yet to seek the Christ, not, as formerly, in the Sun, but now in the Mystery of Golgotha; to seek Him, not in cosmic space but in the course of Time. The soul of man had to grow inwardly strong enough to develop forces within itself. Through all the centuries until the fifteenth, man was not strong enough to develop inner forces whereby he could have acquired understanding of the world through his own soul. Hence he was content to gather knowledge from the writings left by the ancients, from surviving traditions.

This is something we must bear in mind. The soul of man had to grow strong. In the fifteenth century it had reached the point of being able to experience as its own what it was no longer able to experience through the etheric body or through the etheric body out of the physical body, namely, the mathematical domain which it could now experience as abstraction. With this experience mankind has not yet achieved a great deal. But as you will be aware, it is now a totally different kind of experience. It is the impulse, out of the innermost soul itself, to arrive at something which mankind had not been able to reach in ancient times by using the etheric body with which the soul had been so intimately united.

Men had to grow inwardly strong enough to reach the Christ, whereas in earlier times the etheric body had enabled them to behold Him s He appeared in the Sun. We may therefore say that up to the fourth century A.D. it was precisely the most highly cultured men who were unable to make anything of the tidings about the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha.

It is interesting to be able to say that neither the Emperor Constantine’s adoption of Christ nor the Emperor Julian’s rejection of Him was based on any firm ground. The historian Zozimus even goes so far as to declare that Constantine himself went over to Christianity because he had committed so many crimes against his family that the priests of the old religion refused to pardon him. He therefore broke away from the old Paganism and its priests, the Christian priests having promised him that they would be able to forgive his iniquities. This was hardly a very valid foundation for the adoption of Christianity. Indeed one can truly say that it was by no means out of a deep or intense need for Christ that Constantine turned his allegiance to Him.

In Julian’s case it only required initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries – an initiation which by that time was a very external matter – to fill him with enthusiasm for the Sun Spirit in the form in which that Spirit had been known. In his case too, therefore, the foundation of it was not really profound, although Julian did indeed acquire remarkable insight through his initiation into the Mysteries of Eleusis. But in regard to the Christ question, neither the pros nor the cons were at that time really powerful or profound, for men simply did not know the meaning of the statement that Christ must now be sought for in history, in the body of a man.

And again, from the fourth century onwards, when their souls were inwardly emancipated but not strong enough as yet, men could find no other way to the Christ or indeed to any explanation of the world – for this had to be entirely recast – than through historical tradition, written and oral tradition, largely oral tradition, since few were cognisant of the written traditions and interpreted them to others by word of mouth.

This state of things remained for many centuries, indeed so far as perceptive understanding of Christ is concerned it remains so to this day. But it is of great significance that the soul had become free. Although in history it is true that every change has its preliminaries and its after-effects, nevertheless the year A.D. 333 can be cited as the point of time when the emancipation of the soul became a reality in the more advanced men. But the soul was still too lacking in strength to acquire any inner knowledge by its own efforts. In those times, when a man pondered earnestly and deeply about the surviving traditions and teachings, he could say: ‘Quite a short time ago there were people who still beheld divine-spiritual reality in the Sun. But I see nothing. Those to whom this divine-spiritual reality was revealed drew from it a wealth of other knowledge – mathematical knowledge, for example. My soul does indeed feel itself independent but it cannot yet muster its own forces to acquire such knowledge.’

In the fifteenth/sixteenth century the important symptom was that people began at least to for-mulate mathematical-mechanistic knowledge by using the forces of the soul itself. And Copernicus was the first to apply to the structure of the Heavens what he experienced through an emancipated soul. All earlier cosmologies had been evolved by souls not yet emancipated from the etheric body, who were still using the faculties of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul and who were thus able to apply the powers of the etheric body to look out into the Universe. The Intellectual or Mind-Soul was still active until well into the fifteenth century, but men could make use only of the physical body, the physical eyes, when they gazed upwards to the Heavens. These are the reasons why through all the centuries to this very day, knowledge of Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha could be transmitted only by scripture or oral tradition.

And now – what have we gained as yet through the soul which has become gradually stronger since the fourth/fifth century? External mechanistic knowledge, physical knowledge, of which I spoke in the Course on Natural Science. But now the time has come when the soul must become even stronger; for whereas in earlier days, when gazing up into the Heavens with the help of the etheric body the soul beheld in the physical Sun the Spirit Sun, so now, gazing inwardly into the ego it must feel, behind the ego, the Christ. By physical eyes the physical Sun is seen and by the eyes belonging to the etheric body, the Sun Spirit, the Christ, is seen.

When man looks into himself today he finds the ego. He is aware of the ego, has a feeling of the ego, but it is very shadowy. This feeling of the ego was an experience which first arose in the emancipated soul. Formerly man had looked out into the world; now he must look into his own inner being. Gazing out into the world brought him into touch with the Sun and with the Christ, the Sun Spirit; gazing inward has brought him, so far, into touch only with the ego. He must now reach the stage of finding behind the ego the reality of being which in ancient times the Sun revealed to him. The Christ he once experienced in the light from sunrise to sunset, the illuminator of his life, he must now feel radiating as a light from within himself, from his own ego. In Christ he must find the strong support of his ego.

And so we may say: Formerly man gazed outwards to the Sun and found the Christ-filled light. Now he feels his way into his own being and must learn to recognise and experience the Christ-filled ego. True, we are at the very beginning of this development and we must remember what Anthroposophy tells mankind, namely that the centuries since the fourth century A.D. have been an intermediate period. In the previous centuries men were able to look out into the Heavens and find the Christ as the Sun Spirit in outer space. Now that these intermediate centuries are past a new humanity must arise. Men must find the way into their own inmost being and along this path find the inner Sun, the Christ; for He now appears when the ego is experienced as in former ages He was revealed in the Sun. He who was once the Sun Spirit is now the pillar and support of the ego.

With the fourth century, in that humanity which was gradually evolving out of the Graeco-Latin races, there began the need for Christ which at first could find satisfaction only through written or oral tradition. But today, especially for the more advanced members of humanity, this written and oral tradition has lost its power of conviction. Today, therefore, men must learn to find the Christ inwardly, even as a humanity of olden times found Him outwardly through the Sun and its light. It is important to understand the intermediate centuries during which the soul of man was independent but in a certain sense empty of content. When the soul looked out into the Universe while endowed with the power of the etheric body, it could not possibly perceive in the phenomena of the Heavens that mechanistic-mathematical system which subse-quently became the Copernican system. Everything was perceived in far closer union with the human being. And the result was not some arbitrary cosmic system abstracted entirely from the human being, but the system which then, already decadent, became known as the Ptolemaic.

But when the soul began no longer to be rooted in the cosmic ether with its own etheric body, a new mental attitude in man was gradually being prepared. And this mentality subsequently pro-duced a science of the stars in which it was a matter of indifference whether man is related or is not related to the Heavens. The one and only tribute paid by this transformed mentality to ancient times was that men placed the starting-point of the new system in the Sun. Through Copernicus, the Sun was made the centre of the Universe – not of the spiritual but of the physical Universe. This indicates the existence of a dim feeling that once upon a time the Sun, with the Christ, was felt to be the centre of the Universe. We must not, as has gradually become the custom nowadays, study the external aspect of history only; we must also pay attention to the development of inner feelings, inner perceptiveness, in human beings.

If we really understand how to read Copernicus, in whom this element of feeling was obviously present, we realise that he did not merely calculate. He was aware of an urge to restore to the Sun something of the old glory. This inner impulse led him to the discovery of three laws, the third of which actually makes everything that is said in the first and second, questionable and uncertain. For Copernicus had formulated a third law, which subsequent astronomy, reducing everything to a mechanistic system, simply omitted. This was a law according to which the movement of the Earth around the Sun was by no means described in such absolute terms as it is today. For today, as I have often said, the whole matter is regarded as a simple fact of observation, as if one were to place a gigantic chair far out in cosmic space, view the Sun from there with the Earth circling around it. But the chair would have to be far out in cosmic space and sitting on it the pedant, observing the system from outside. This could not, of course, be regarded as a result of observation at all. Copernicus himself, if I may put it so, had a conscience in these matters not quite as stubborn or hardened as those who later on mechanised the whole structure of the Universe. Moreover he cited phenomena which indicate that this movement of the Earth around the Sun is not, after all, absolute and unconditional. But as I said, this third law was simply ignored and suppressed by later science. The scientists confined themselves to the first two laws – the rotation of the Earth on its own axis and around the Sun – thus obtaining a very simple system which in this form was gradually introduced into the schools. Needless to say, there is no question here of raising opposition to the Copernician system. Its advent was a necessity in the course of evolution. But today the time has come when we must speak of these matters as I tried to do in the Course of lectures on Natural Science and Astronomy, given in Stuttgart.4Eighteen lectures, January 1921, entitled: The Relation of the different Sciences to Astronomy. When the German text is published by the Nachlassverwaltung, the bibliographical number will be 323. A provisional translation is available in typescript only. I showed that we must think about these things quite differently from what is possible in the field of materialistic science today.

In Copernicus himself, in the whole conception of his system, there is still an element of feeling. After all, he did not wish to apply a purely mathematical system of co-ordinates to our solar system with the Sun at the centre. He wanted to give back to the Sun what had been taken away from it because men were no longer able to behold the Christ in the Sun.

Such things as these should show you how necessary it is to observe not only the external facts and the change in men’s thinking in the course of history, but also the change in their feelings. This was especially striking when the mechanistic principle came decisively to the fore. In Copernicus, and notably in Kepler, these elements of feeling are still perceptible and in Newton very emphatically so. A few days ago in the lectures on science I explained how Newton subsequently became rather ill at ease with his mathematical natural philosophy. To begin with he had conceived of space as being permeated with purely mathematical-mechanistic forces, but later on, after reading through what he had written he became uneasy about such an abstract conception, and he thereupon declared that what he had thus posited as abstract space with the three abstract dimensions, was in reality the Sensorium Dei – the Sensorium of God. Newton had grown a little older. These ultra-mathematical ideas pricked his conscience and he now declared space to be the most important realm in the brain of God: the Sensorium.

It was not until later that men of knowledge were judged entirely as thinkers, the element of feeling being ignored altogether. But this ought not to have happened in the case of Newton, above all not in that of Leibnitz and the natural scientists of that time. And anyone who reads a life of Galileo will find on every page how human nature in its fullness was at all times active. Man as a thinking apparatus, feeding himself as such with the results of experiment and observation as any steam-engine is fed with coal, man as a thinking apparatus does not appear on the scene until a later time, and only then becomes the authoritative leader in science which is said to be free of a priori premises. And it is indeed free of a priori premises of true knowledge.

The soul is no longer the empty soul which it became in the fourth century of the Christian era. It is no longer empty for it has filled itself with a multitude of mathematical-mechanistic ideas. But to all this, something must be added: the inner light must be found within the ego, which in order to avoid speaking merely in a figurative or symbolic sense, we should call the Being who is the pillar and support of the soul.

And here we come to something that became more and more apparent in the course of the cen-turies and is strong today but is cast by men who have dulled their senses to sleep into the sub-conscious foundations of their souls. It is: the need for Christ. Only a spiritual knowledge, a knowledge of the spiritual Universe, can satisfy this need for Christ. A characteristic of our own age, the twentieth century, is the need for Christ and with it the inner effort of the soul to muster the power to find the Christ in the ego, or behind the ego, even as in past times He was found in the Sun.

The relation of men to the Sun Spirit in the Graeco-Latin epoch was in the state of evening twilight. For it was in the ancient Indian epoch that men beheld the Sun Spirit with full clarity of vision. We ourselves are living in an age when we should be aware of a dawn – the dawn of the true knowledge of Christ won by man’s own forces. The ancient knowledge of the Sun Spirit which Julian the Apostate still wished to galvanise into new life, can no longer afford any satisfaction to mankind. Even the endeavours of Julian were in vain because of the march of evolution. But the epoch of the first four centuries of our era, when men did not know what to make of Christ and the following epoch when they already felt the need for Him but could satisfy this need only through written or oral tradition – these epochs must be followed by the new age in which there is understanding for words in the Gospel such as these: ‘I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now.’

An age must come which understands what Christ meant when He said: ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of earthly time.’ For verily Christ is not dead; He is alive and He speaks not through the Gospels only. He speaks for the eye of Spirit, when the eye of Spirit opens again to the mysteries of man’s existence. Then He is present at all times, speaks and reveals Himself. Truly it is a feeble humanity that will not strive for the time when men can be told what they could not be told two thousand years ago because they were not then able to bear it. As souls they were still in a condition which made it impossible for them to understand what Christ was offering to humanity. Certainly, those immediately around Him could understand something of it. But the Gospel was given for all beings and the saying just quoted resounds through the whole world.

We must strive to promote a humanity which puts the living Christ in the place of mere tradition. But even without discrediting tradition, nothing could be more unchristian than repeatedly to declare that only what has actually been written down has validity, thus ignoring the revelation of Christ that comes from the spiritual world today, speaking to our thinking as it strives for illumination, to our feeling heart, and to the fullness of manhood in our will.

Erster Vortrag

Ich möchte heute, im Anschluß an die Vorträge, die ich in den letzten Tagen des dahingegangenen Goetheanum gehalten habe, über den Zusammenhang des Menschen mit dem Jahreslauf und über Erkenntnisse, die sich auf diesen Zusammenhang beziehen, Sie noch einmal zurückführen in ein Zeitalter, das wir öfter betrachtet haben und das voll verstanden werden muß, wenn man die Gegenwart der Menschheitsentwickelung in der rechten Weise erkennen will. Wir haben ja von der Möglichkeit gesprochen, daß im Menschen in der bestimmtesten Weise Vorgänge geschehen, die man wieder erkennen kann in dem sich immer wiederholenden Geschehen des Jahreslaufes. Und ich habe ja auch darauf hingewiesen, wie ältere Mysterienwissenschaft, Initiationswissenschaft, darauf ausgegangen ist, unter den Menschen, die dafür zugänglich waren, solche Erkenntnisse auszubreiten. Dadurch, daß man solche Erkenntnisse ausbreitete, sollte gestärkt werden das menschliche Denken, das Fühlen, das Wollen, das ganze Sich-Hineinstellen des Menschen in die Welt.

Nun können wir uns fragen: Wovon hing es denn ab, daß in älteren Zeiten die Menschen von vornherein ein Verständnis gehabt haben für dieses Verhältnis des Menschen, des Mikrokosmos zur großen Welt, zum Makrokosmos, wie sich dieser im Jahreslaufe ausdrückt? Denn ein solches Verständnis hatten die Menschen. Dieses Verständnis hatten sie deshalb, weil in jenen älteren Zeiten das seelische Innere des Menschen enger gebunden war an den Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib, als das heute der Fall ist. Wir wissen ja aus den skizzenhaften Darstellungen, die ich habe geben können innerhalb des Französischen Kurses, daß der Mensch, wenn er seinen übersinnlichen Lebenslauf durchgemacht hat zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, nachdem er den Geistkeim seines physischen Leibes auf die Erde heruntergeschickt hat und als seelisch-geistiges Wesen noch nicht selber heruntergestiegen ist vor der Konzeption - daß er dann aus dem Kosmos sich die Kräfte des Weltenäthers zusammenzieht, und daß er daraus seinen ätherischen Leib bildet, den er also hat, bevor er sich mit seinem physischen Leibe verbindet. Der Mensch steigt also aus geistig-übersinnlichen Welten in der Weise herunter, daß er sein Geistig-Seelisches zunächst umkleidet hat mit seinem ätherischen Leibe. Dann verbindet er sich mit demjenigen, was ihm durch die physische Vererbungsströmung, durch Vater und Mutter, als physischer Leib übergeben wird.

Nun war in älteren Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung die Verbindung, die der Mensch vor seinem Erdenleben mit dem Ätherleib eingehen konnte, eine viel innigere, als sie später war und ist. Diese innigere Verbindung mit dem Ätherleibe machte es eben einer älteren Menschheit möglich, zu verstehen, was gemeint war, wenn aus den Mysterien heraus die Erkenntnis kam: Dasjenige, was man als physische Sonne sieht, das ist der physische Ausdruck von etwas Geistigem. — Verständnis war vorhanden, wenn man von dem Sonnengeiste sprach. Verständnis war deshalb vorhanden, weil bei jener innigen Verbindung des menschlichen geistig-seelischen Wesens mit dem Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib es den Menschen ganz töricht geschienen hätte, wenn sie hätten glauben müssen, daß da oben irgendwo im Weltenraum jener physische Gasball schwebe, von dem uns zum Beispiel die heutige Astrophysik erzählt. Es war diesen älteren Menschen selbstverständlich erschienen, daß zu diesem Physischen ein Geistiges gehört. Und dieses Geistige war eben dasjenige, was in allen alten Mysterien als der Sonnengeist erkannt und verehrt wurde.

Nun können wir — natürlich sind alle diese Dinge nur annähernd richtig, aber im wesentlichen sind sie eben doch so — das 4. nachchristliche Jahrhundert als denjenigen Zeitraum angeben, in dem die aus der geistig-übersinnlichen Welt herunterkommenden Menschenwesen diese innigere Verbindung mit dem Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib eben nicht mehr hatten. Es war eine losere Verbindung. Daher bereitete sich ja immer mehr und mehr vor, daß auch im physischen Erdenleben die Menschen sich nurmehr ihres physischen Leibes bedienen konnten, wenn sie, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, zum Himmel emporschauten. In älteren Zeiten, wenn die Menschen zum Himmel emporschauten, da sahen sie die Sonne, aber aus ihrem Innern stieg der Antrieb auf, in dieser Sonne doch nicht etwas bloß Physisches zu sehen, sondern ein Geistig-Seelisches damit verbunden zu wissen. Nach dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert konnte man sich, um die Sonne zu sehen, nur eben des physischen Leibes, der physischen Augen bedienen, durch die nicht mehr der Blick, wenn er nach außen schweifte, getragen wurde von der Kraft des ätherischen oder Bildekräfteleibes. Man sah daher immer mehr und mehr nur die physische Sonne. Und daß es einen Sonnengeist gab, konnte man nur noch lehren, weil die Früheren es wußten und weil es als Tradition vorhanden war. So lernte zum Beispiel Julianus Apostata, der Abtrünnige, bei seinen Lehrern, wie ich früher einmal angegeben habe, daß es solch einen Sonnengeist gibt. Nun, dieser Sonnengeist aber ist ja durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, wie wir wissen, auf die Erde heruntergestiegen. Er hat seinen Himmelslebenslauf herunterverlegt und ihn verwandelt in einen Erdenlebenslauf, indem er sein künftiges Wirken seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha darauf hinorientiert hat, die Menschheitsentwickelung innerhalb der Erdenwirksamkeit zu führen.

Sie bemerken: die beiden Zeitpunkte fallen nicht zusammen. Der Zeitpunkt des Mysteriums von Golgatha — als was erscheint er uns, wenn wir heute auf ihn zurückblicken? Wir müssen dann sagen: In diesem Zeitpunkt geht der Christus, das Hohe Sonnenwesen, durch das Mysterium von Golgatha und verbindet sich mit dem Erdendasein. Populär ausgedrückt: seit jenem Zeitpunkt ist der Christus auf der Erde. Das Sehen des Sonnengeistes war den Menschen möglich bis zum 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert, weil sie bis dahin noch inniger mit ihrem Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib verbunden waren.

Wenn nun auch der Christus selbst schon auf Erden war, so sah man doch bis in das 4. Jahrhundert die Sonne so, daß man gewissermaßen noch das Nachbild durch den ätherischen Leib sah. Wie man im Physischen, wenn man auf irgend etwas scharf hinschaut und dann das Auge schließt, ein Nachbild hat im Auge, so hatte der menschliche Ätherleib, indem er die Sonne sah, bei denjenigen Persönlichkeiten, bei denen eben das noch geblieben war, ein Nachbild des Sonnengeistes, wenn der Mensch in den Kosmos hinaussah. Daher kam es, daß solche Menschen, die so mit ihrem Ätherleib noch verbunden waren — und das war namentlich in südlichen europäischen Gegenden, in nordafrikanischen, in vorderasiatischen Gegenden bei sehr vielen Menschen der Fall -, sich einfach durch ihre Erfahrung sagten: Der Sonnengeist ist zu sehen, wenn man in die Weiten der Himmel hinausblickt. -— Und sie verstanden nicht, was das heißen soll, was die Lehrer und Führer jener andern Mysterien sagten, von denen ich Erwähnung getan habe während dieses Französischen Kurses; sie verstanden nicht, was das heißen soll: der Christus wäre auf der Erde.

Bedenken Sie, daß ja fast vier Jahrhunderte vergangen waren seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha, in denen eine große Anzahl gutorganisierter Menschen durch das, was ich eben gesagt habe, keinen rechten Begriff damit verbinden konnten: Der Christus ist auf der Erde erschienen. — Für sie war das, was in Palästina vor sich gegangen war, ein unbedeutendes Ereignis, ein so unbedeutendes Ereignis, wie es tatsächlich für jene römischen Schriftsteller war, die das in nebensächlicher Erwähnung aufgeschrieben haben. Es war eben eine unbedeutende Persönlichkeit, die unter merkwürdigen Umstanden den Tod gefunden hatte. Denn das ganze tiefe Mysterium wurde gerade von diesen Menschen nicht begriffen. Im Grunde genommen kann man sagen: Diese Menschen brauchten ja nicht den Christus auf Erden, denn sie hatten ihn noch in der alten Weise in den Himmeln. Für sie war er noch derjenige Geist des Weltenalls, der im Lichte wirkte. Für sie war er der allumfassende Erleuchter der Menschheit. Für sie war noch kein Bedürfnis da, hineinzublikken in den Menschen und ihn im Ich zu suchen.

Ein solcher Mensch, der gar nicht begreifen konnte, warum man den Christus in einem Menschen auf Erden suchen sollte, da er doch in den Himmeln zu suchen ist und in dem Lichte lebt, das täglich mit Sonnenaufgang auf die Erde scheint und mit Sonnenuntergang aufhört zu scheinen, ein solcher Mensch war eben Julian der Abtrünnige, Julianus Apostata. Es war für diese Menschen das, was in Palästina vor sich gegangen war, eben ein Ereignis wie andere geschichtliche Ereignisse, aber ein höchst unbedeutendes. Und es war namentlich deshalb ein gewöhnliches, und zwar unbedeutendes geschichtliches Ereignis, weil in diesen Menschen noch nicht die Not nach dem Christus lebte. Wann konnte denn erst anfangen zu leben im Menschen die Not nach dem Christus? Das wollen wir uns einmal heute vergegenwärtigen, wann diese Not nach dem Christus in der Menschheit überhaupt auftauchen konnte.

Wenn wir die aufeinanderfolgenden Epochen der Erdenentwikkelung nach der großen atlantischen Katastrophe ins Auge fassen, so ist es ja so: Wir haben also, wenn wir zurückgehen in das 8., 9. Jahrtausend, die atlantische Katastrophe, die ich öfter geschildert habe. Wir haben dann die erste nachatlantische Kulturperiode, über die Sie nachlesen können in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß», die ich die urindische genannt habe (siehe Schema). In dieser urindischen Periode lebt der Mensch vorzugsweise in seinem Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib. Da ist noch die Verbindung eine so intensive, daß man überhaupt sagen kann: Der Mensch lebt in seinem Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib. Er lebt so, daß im Grunde genommen der physische Leib für ihn mehr noch ein Kleid ist, etwas Äußerliches ist. Er sieht viel mehr mit seinem ätherischen Auge in die Welt hinaus als mit den physischen Augen. Die zweite Periode ist die urpersische. Da sieht der Mensch in seine Umwelt vorzugsweise durch dasjenige, was man nennen kann den Empfindungsleib. In der dritten, in der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Periode sieht der Mensch in die Welt mit Hilfe seiner Empfindungsseele. Endlich in der vierten, in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit, sieht der Mensch in die Welt mit der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele.

Und in unserer fünften Zeit, seit dem 15. Jahrhundert, die man nennen kann die geschichtliche Gegenwart, sieht der Mensch mit der Bewußtseinsseele in die Welt. Und dieses Sehen mit der Bewußtseinsseele bewirkt ja alles das, was ich in dem Naturwissenschaftlichen Kursus an historischer Aufeinanderfolge dargestellt habe.

Nun machen wir uns aber klar, wie das nun eigentlich ist. Es ist das sogar sehr schwer, aber wenn man diesen Tatbestand schematisch aufzeichnen wollte, so müßte man sagen: Physischer Leib (siehe Schema), Ätherleib (schraffiert), und in diesem Ätherleib macht sich zunächst das Seelische geltend, aber so, daß zuerst der Mensch überhaupt im Ätherleib noch lebt. Dann aber im Empfindungsleib, der in Wirklichkeit noch ganz Ätherleib ist. Denn erst in der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit lebt der Mensch in der Seele, aber da lebt die Seele durchaus noch im Ätherleibe drinnen. So daß ich etwa die Seele so zeichnen könnte (rot schraffiert). Indem der Mensch sich seelisch innerlich fühlt, fühlt er sich noch zur Hälfte im Ätherleib drinnen.

In der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit ist es so, daß der Mensch herauswächst mit seinem Seelischen aus dem Ätherleib. Er hat auch noch den Ätherleib in sich etwa bis zum Jahre 333. Dann wächst der Mensch so heraus aus dem Ätherleib, daß seine Seele nur ganz lose mit dem Ätherleib verbunden ist, gar nicht mehr eine innere Verbindung hat (violett schraffiert). Die Seele fühlt sich nach außen hin verlassen. Sie ist genötigt jetzt, ohne die Stütze des Ätherleibes hinauszugehen in die Welt. Dadurch entsteht die Not nach Christus. Denn jetzt, da man nicht mehr in der Seele innig verbunden ist mit dem Ätherleib, sieht man nichts mehr vorn Sonnengeist, nicht einmal das Nachbild, wenn man in die Himmel hinausschaut. Aber in der Weltenentwickelung ist alles so, daß es sich erst durch lange Zeitlagen allmählich entwickelt. Zunächst war vom 4. Jahrhundert ab die Seele gewissermaßen innerlich emanzipiert vom Ätherleib, aber sie war noch nicht in sich erstarkt, sie war noch in sich schwach. Und wenn wir die ganzen Jahrhunderte durchgehen, vom 5., 6., 7. Jahrhundert bis ins 14., 15., 16. Jahrhundert, ja bis in unsere Zeit — aber namentlich wollen wir zunächst bei der Periode bis ins 15. Jahrhundert bleiben —, so haben wir die innerlich eben emanzipierte, aber schwache Seele, die zwar die Not nach etwas fühlt, aber noch nicht stark genug ist, aus innerem Impuls heraus dieser Not entgegenzukommen und, statt wie früher den Christus in der Sonne, jetzt den Christus im Mysterium von Golgatha zu suchen; statt ihn im Raume draußen, ihn im Zeitenlaufe zu suchen. Die Seele mußte innerlich erstarken, um in sich überhaupt Kräfte auszubilden. Die ganzen Jahrhunderte bis ins 15. Jahrhundert herein war man nicht stark genug, um innerlich Kräfte auszubilden, um überhaupt zu einer Erkenntnis von der Welt durch die Seele zu kommen. Daher beschränkte man sich darauf, die Erkenntnisse aus den Büchern zu nehmen, welche die Alten hinterlassen hatten, das historisch Bewahrte als Erkenntnis zu nehmen.

Das ist etwas, was man berücksichtigen muß. Die Seele muß innerlich erstarken. Im 15. Jahrhundert war sie so weit, daß sie dasjenige, was sie nicht mehr aus dem Ätherleibe oder auf dem Umwege durch den Ätherleib aus dem physischen Leibe heraus erlernte als Mathematisches, daß sie das nun in Abstraktion — den abstrakten Raum als Gedanken - anfing, als ihr Eigenes zu erleben. In diesem Erleben ist die Menschheit noch nicht weit, aber es ist, wie Sie merken, ein anderes Erleben, als es früher war. Es ist der Drang, aus dem Innerseelischen heraus zu etwas zu kommen, wozu die Menschheit kommen konnte in alten Zeiten, als sie sich noch ihres Ätherleibes, mit dem die Seele innig verbunden war, bedienen konnte. Die Menschen mußten sich jetzt innerlich so erstarken, daß sie zum Christus kamen, während ihnen früher der Ätherleib gedient hatte, um von der Sonne herunter den Christus zu sehen. Und so können wir sagen, bis ins 4. Jahrhundert ist es so, daß gerade die zivilisiertesten Menschen überhaupt nicht recht etwas anzufangen wissen mit den Nachrichten über den Christus, über das Mysterium von Golgatha.

Es ist interessant, daß man sagen kann: Weder das Bekenntnis des Kaisers Konstantin zum Christus noch die Abwendung des Julianus vom Christus stehen eigentlich auf irgendwelchem festem Boden. Der Historiker Zosimos erklärt sogar, daß der Kaiser Konstantin für seine Person deshalb zum Christentum übergetreten sei, weil er so viele Verbrechen an seiner Familie begangen hatte, daß ihm die alten Priester es nicht mehr verziehen. Deshalb sagte er sich vom alten Heidentum und seinen Priestern los, weil ihm die christlichen Priester versprochen hatten, sie könnten ihm das verzeihen. Also es war im Grunde genommen ein recht wenig intensiver Grund. Man kann schon sagen, er lenkte sein Bekenntnis zu dem Christus gar nicht aus der Not nach dem Christus hin.

Bei Julianus bedurfte es eben nur der Einweihung in die eleusinischen Mysterien, die ja dazumal schon eine sehr außerliche war, um ihn für den Sonnengeist eben in der alten Form der Erkenntnis zu begeistern. Auch bei ihm ruhte das nicht gerade auf einem ganz tiefen Grund, obwohl er ja außerordentlich bedeutsame Kenntnisse durch seine Einweihung in die eleusinischen Mysterien erhielt. Aber jedenfalls weder das Pro noch Kontra war dazumal etwas Starkes und Intensives in bezug auf die Christus-Frage, weil eben die Menschen gar nicht wußten, was die Behauptung bedeutete, der Christus solle historisch in einem Menschenleib gesucht werden.

Vom 4. Jahrhundert angefangen war es wiederum so, daß die Menschen in den zwar innerlich emanzipierten, aber noch schwachen Seelen keinen andern Weg fanden zum Christus, überhaupt zu einer Welterklärung — denn es mußte ja die ganze Welterklärung neu aufgebaut werden -, als eben die historische Tradition, die geschriebene, beziehungsweise mündliche Überlieferung; das heißt die mündliche Überlieferung in der Weise, daß nur einige Menschen die schriftliche Überlieferung hatten und den andern eben eine mündliche Interpretation gaben.

Das blieb durch viele Jahrhunderte so und ist eigentlich in bezug auf die Anschauung des Christus bis heute so geblieben. Aber das ist etwas sehr Bedeutsames, daß die Seele jetzt innerlich frei geworden war. Wie gesagt, wenn auch im Historischen alles Vorboten und Nachwirkungen hat, so können wir doch auf das Jahr 333 als auf das Jahr hindeuten, in dem diese Emanzipation der Seele für die vorgerücktesten Menschen geschah, wenn auch die Seele noch zu schwach war, um überhaupt innerliche Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen. Es war so, daß, wenn damals ein Mensch sich so recht tief besann da ja noch gute Nachrichten da waren aus früheren Zeiten -, er sagen konnte: Da hat es noch vor ganz kurzer Zeit Menschen gegeben, die haben in der Sonne noch etwas Göttlich-Geistiges gesehen. Ich sehe nichts mehr. Aber die Menschen, die in der Sonne etwas Göttlich-Geistiges gesehen haben, haben auch aus dem Innern noch andere Erkenntnisse herausgeschöpft, zum Beispiel die mathematischen Erkenntnisse. Meine Seele ist zwar so, daß sie sich als ein selbständiges Wesen fühlt, aber sie kann sich nicht zusammenraffen, sie kann nicht aus sich heraus Kräfte ziehen, um irgend etwas zu erkennen.

Das war eben das Bedeutsame dann im 15., 16. Jahrhundert, daß wenigstens die Leute anfingen, mathematisch-mechanische Erkenntnisse aus der Seele heraus zu konzipieren. Und Kopernikus wandte das zuerst auf das Himmelsgebäude an, was er in dieser Weise in der emanzipierten Seele erlebte. Die früheren Weltensysteme waren eben so, daß sie mit Hilfe derjenigen Seelen gewonnen waren, die noch nicht emanzipiert waren vom Ätherleib, die noch Verstandes- oder Gemütsseelen waren, aber als Verstandesoder Gemütsseelen gewissermaßen noch die Kraft des Ätherleibes hatten, um in die Welt hinauszuschauen. Jetzt war auch noch die Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele da, bis ins 15. Jahrhundert, aber man konnte sich nur des physischen Leibes, des physischen Auges bedienen, um in die Welt hinauszuschauen. Das sind die Gründe, warum durch alle diese Jahrhunderte und bis heute nur durch die Schrift oder durch die mündliche Tradition die Kunde von dem Christus und dem Mysterium von Golgatha sich fortpflanzen konnte.

Was haben wir denn im Grunde genommen durch die nun allmählich durch die Jahrhunderte, vom 4., 5. Jahrhundert an, erstarkte Seele gewonnen? Äußerlich mechanische Erkenntnisse, diejenigen physikalischen Erkenntnisse, die ich in dem Naturwissenschaftlichen Kursus charakterisiert habe. Aber jetzt ist die Zeit eingetreten, wo die Seele so weit erstarken muß, daß sie so, wie sie früher mit Hilfe des Ätherleibes beim Hinausschauen in die Himmel mit der physischen Sonne die Geistsonne sah, jetzt innerlich in das Ich hineinschaut, das Ich empfindet und gewissermaßen hinter dem Ich den Christus.

Wenn wir uns das nicht schematisch, aber eigentlich sehr real vorstellen, so ist es so: Durch das physische Sehen wird die Sonne gesehen (hell schraffiert), durch das Sehen mit dem Ätherleib hinter der Sonne der Sonnengeist, der Christus (alte Zeit, rot). Heute ist es so, daß wenn der Mensch in sich hineinschaut, er jenes Ich hat. Er empfindet das Ich, er hat ein Ich-Gefühl. Aber das ist sehr dunkel. Dieses Ich-Gefühl ist ja in der emanzipierten Seele zunächst entstanden. Früher schaute der Mensch in die Welt hinaus, jetzt muß er in sich hineinschauen. Das Hinausschauen in die Welt brachte ihn mit der Sonne und mit dem Christus zusammen. Das Hineinschauen hat ihn zunächst nur mit dem Ich zusammengebracht. Er muß dazu kommen, hinter dem Ich nun das zu finden, was er früher vor der Sonne gefunden hat. Er muß dazu kommen, dasjenige, was er in dem Lichte erlebte, was er vom Sonnenaufgang bis zum Sonnenuntergang erlebte, den Christus, den Erleuchter seines eigenen Wissens, aus seinem Ich heraus innerlich erstrahlen zu fühlen, daß er in dem Christus die starke Stütze des eigenen Ich findet. So daß man sagen kann: Früher schaute man in die Sonne hinaus und fand das durchchristete Licht. Jetzt fühlt man in sich selber hinein und lernt erkennen das durchchristete Ich (rot, violett).

Allerdings stehen wir in bezug darauf ganz im Anfange. Denn Anthroposophie besteht darin, gewissermaßen der Menschheit zu sagen: Diese Jahrhunderte seit dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert sind Zwischenjahrhunderte. Was vorher liegt, hatte eine Menschheit, die hinausschauen konnte in die Himmel und den Christus als äußeren räumlichen Sonnengeist fand. Eine Menschheit muß nach diesen Zwischenjahrhunderten erstehen, welche hineinfühlt in ihr Inneres und welche auf dem Wege zu diesem Inneren wiederum die innere Sonne findet, den Christus, der aber jetzt mit dem Ich so erscheint, wie er früher mit der Sonne erschienen war, der jetzt der Ich-Träger ist, wie er früher der Sonnengeist war.

Mit dem 4. Jahrhundert beginnt in der Menschheit, die sich allmählich herausentwickelt aus den griechisch-lateinischen Rassen, die Not nach dem Christus, die zunächst nur durch die schriftliche oder mündliche Tradition befriedigt werden kann. Aber heute ist ja die Sache so, daß diese schriftliche oder mündliche Tradition gerade bei den vorgerückteren Geistern an Kraft der Überzeugung verloren hat, und daß die Menschen lernen müssen, aus dem Inneren den Christus so zu finden, wie eine alte Menschheit ihn äußerlich durch die Sonne und deren Licht gefunden hat. Die Zwischenjahrhunderte müssen wir nur in der richtigen Weise verstehen, so verstehen, daß eben da die Seele zunächst selbständig, aber in einem gewissen Sinne leer war. Wenn die Seele hinausschaute, bewaffnet mit dem ätherischen Leib, konnte sie nicht jenes mechanisch-mathematische System in den Himmelserscheinungen sehen, das dann später das Kopernikanische geworden ist. Die Dinge wurden viel enger an den Menschen gebunden genommen. Und da stellte sich nicht ein ganz beliebig aus dem Menschen herausgerissenes Weltensystem hin, sondern eben dasjenige Weltensystem, das dann, auch schon in Dekadenz, als das Ptolemäische erscheint.

Aber als die Seele anfing, nicht mehr im Äther zu wurzeln mit dem eigenen Ätherleibe, da bereitete sich allmählich auch jene Stimmung vor, die später eine Sternenwissenschaft begründete, der es gleichgültig war, ob der Mensch zum Sternenhimmel dazugehört oder nicht. Den einzigen Tribut, den dieser gewandelte Mensch der alten Zeit brachte, war der, daß er den Ausgangspunkt für sein mechanisches System dorthin verlegte, wo früher der Christus gesehen worden war, nämlich in die Sonne. Die Sonne wurde durch Kopernikus zum Mittelpunkt des Weltenalls, aber nicht des geistigen, sondern des physischen Weltenalls gemacht. Darin lebt noch ein dunkles Gefühl davon, wie stark die Menschheit einstmals die Sonne als den Mittelpunkt der Welt mit dem Christus gefühlt hat. Man muß nicht nur die äußere Erscheinung der Weltgeschichte betrachten, wie das allmählich Sitte geworden ist, sondern man muß auch die Entwickelung der. Empfindungen etwas ins Auge fassen.

Da wird man gerade, wenn man den Kopernikus wirklich zu lesen versteht, in diesem merkwürdigen Empfindungselemente, das einem bei Kopernikus entgegentritt, merken: Er rechnete nicht nur; er hatte einen innerlichen Empfindungstrieb, der Sonne irgend etwas von dem Alten zurückzugeben. Durch diesen innerlichen Empfindungstrieb war es gekommen, daß er drei Gesetze fand, von denen das dritte eigentlich alles wiederum in einen gewissen fragwürdigen Zustand bringt, was in den zwei ersten gesagt ist. Denn Kopernikus hat ein drittes Gesetz, das dann die spätere Astronomie einfach ausgelassen hat, weil sie alles mechanisiert hat. Er hat ein Gesetz, wonach die Bewegung der Erde um die Sonne durchaus nicht so absolut hingestellt wird, wie man sie heute ansieht. Heute sieht man ja, wie ich schon erwähnt habe, die Sache als einen Tatbestand an, der sich etwa ergeben würde für die Beobachtung, wenn man sich einen Stuhl in den weiten Weltenraum, aber ziemlich weit hinaus, stellen würde, und von dort aus dann sehen würde, wie die Sonne ist und wie da die Erde herumkreist. Aber da müßte der Stuhl draußen stehen, und auf dem müßte der entsprechende Schulmeister sitzen, der sich nun das Weltensystem von da draußen ansieht. Ein Beobachtungsresultat ist das ja nicht. Kopernikus hatte, ich möchte sagen, noch nicht ein so robust konträres Gewissen in solchen Dingen, wie es die späteren Menschen beim Mechanisieren des ganzen Weltengebäudes hatten. Er hat auch diejenigen Erscheinungen angeführt, die eigentlich dafür sprechen, daß es doch nicht so ganz unbedingt richtig ist mit der Bewegung der Erde um die Sonne. Aber wie gesagt, dieses dritte Gesetz wurde ja einfach ignoriert, unterschlagen von der späteren Wissenschaft. Man blieb bei den zwei ersten — Erdendrehung um sich selbst, Drehung der Erde um die Sonne — und hatte ein sehr einfaches System, das nun allmählich in dieser einfachen Weise in den Schulen gelehrt wird. Hier soll selbstverständlich nicht gegen das Kopernikanische System Opposition getrieben werden. Es war notwendig im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung. Heute ist aber die Zeit gekommen, wo doch über die Dinge in einer solchen Weise gesprochen werden muß, wie ich es in einem naturwissenschaftlichen Kursus in Stuttgart versucht habe, wo ich über astronomische Dinge sprach. Da habe ich gezeigt, wie über diese Dinge doch ganz anders gedacht werden muß, als es im Sinne der heutigen materialistisch-mechanischen Konstruktion möglich ist.

Aber bei Kopernikus ist eben durchaus in der ganzen Auffassung seines Systems noch eine Empfindung, die man so charakterisieren kann, wie ich eben gesagt habe. Er wollte doch noch in einem gewissen Sinne nicht bloß ein mathematisches Koordinatenachsensystem für unser Sonnensystem schaffen und die Sonne in den Mittelpunkt dieses Koordinatenachsensystems stellen, sondern er wollte der Sonne zurückgeben, was ihr dadurch genommen war, daß die Menschen nicht mehr den Christus in der Sonne wahrnehmen konnten.

Das sind Dinge, die Ihnen zeigen sollen, daß man nicht nur die äußere Tatsache und den Gedankenwandel der Menschen in der geschichtlichen Entwickelung verfolgen sollte, sondern auch die Umwandlung der Empfindungen. Das wurde zwar erst so, als der Mechanismus dann ganz vollkommen auftauchte. Bei Kopernikus, und namentlich bei Kepler, kann man noch Empfindungen finden, bei Newton sogar schon sehr stark. Ich habe im Naturwissenschaftlichen Kursus ja schon auseinandergesetzt, wie Newton bei seiner mathematischen Naturphilosophie später etwas unwohl wurde. Nachdem er erst den Raum so betrachtet hatte, daß er ihn mit lauter mathematisch-mechanischen Kräften durchsetzte, und nachdem er später die Sache noch einmal durchsah, da wurde ihm schwül dabei und da sagte er, daß das, was er so als abstrakten Raum mit den drei abstrakten Dimensionen statuiert hatte, eigentlich das Sensorium Dei, das Sensorium Gottes sei. Jetzt war es so für den etwas älter gewordenen Newton, dessen Gewissen sich regte gegenüber den mathematisch-mechanischen Vorstellungen, daß der Raum, den er genügend mathematisiert hatte, nun der wichtigste Raum im Gehirn Gottes war, nämlich das Sensorium, der wichtigste Teil des Gehirns Gottes.

Man kam erst später in die Lage, die erkennenden Menschen vollständig nurmehr auf ihre Gedanken, gar nicht mehr auf ihre Empfindungen zu prüfen. Newton muß man noch auf seine Empfindungen prüfen, Leibniz erst recht und überhaupt die Naturforscher dieser Zeit. Und auch wer das Leben Galileis vornimmt, der findet, ich möchte sagen, auf jeder Seite, wie da noch der ganze Mensch hineinspielt. Dieser Gedankenapparat Mensch, der sich selbst als seinen Gedankenapparat speist mit den Ergebnissen der Beobachtung und des Experimentes, so wie man eine Dampfmaschine mit Kohle speist, dieser Mensch taucht ja erst später auf, und er wird erst später der autoritative Führer der voraussetzungslosen Wissenschaft. Voraussetzungslos ist diese Wissenschaft eigentlich nur aus dem Grunde, weil ihr eben jede Voraussetzung fehlt zur wirklichen Erkenntnis.

Aber was eben hinzutreten muß zu den Errungenschaften der erstarkten Seele, die ja allerdings jetzt nicht mehr eine leere Seele ist, wie sie es im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert wurde, sondern die sich nun ihrerseits angefüllt hat mit vielen mathematisch-mechanischen Vorstellungen, das ist, daß eben innerhalb des Ich das innere Licht gefunden wird, das man vielleicht jetzt nicht mehr bloß Ich nennen sollte, um nicht nur figürlich oder symbolisch zu sprechen, sondern das man nennen müßte: die stützende Wesenheit für die Seele.

Und damit lernen wir etwas erkennen, was im Laufe der Jahrhunderte immer mehr und mehr herauftauchte, was heute stark ist, aber von den Menschen, die sich darüber betäuben, in die unterbewußten Untergründe der Seele hinuntergeschoben wird: die Not zu Christus. Nur eine geistige Erkenntnis, eine Erkenntnis des geistigen Weltenalls kann dieser Not zu Christus entgegenkommen. Zualledem, was wir als charakteristische Momente unseres eigenen Zeitalters im 20. Jahrhundert anschauen müssen, gehört dies dazu: die Not zu Christus und das innere Aufraffen der Seele zu der Kraft, den Christus zu finden im Ich, hinter dem Ich, so wie er früher vor der Sonne gefunden worden ist.

Die Art und Weise, wie die Menschen zu dem Sonnengeiste standen in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit, war eine Abenddämmerung. Denn ganz hell, möchte ich sagen, seelisch-geistig hell sah den Sonnengeist nur die urindische Periode. Jetzt leben wir in einer Zeit, in der wir Morgendammerung fühlen sollten, Morgendämmerung der wirklichen, durch die Kraft des Menschen errungenen Christus-Erkenntnis. Die alte Erkenntnis des Sonnengeistes, die noch Julianus der Apostat galvanisieren wollte, kann nicht mehr der Menschheit in irgendeiner Weise Befriedigung gewähren. Schon das Bestreben des Julianus war gegenüber dem geschichtlichen Werden ein vergebliches. Aber nach der Epoche der ersten vier Jahrhunderte, wo man eigentlich nicht gewußt hat, was man anfangen sollte mit dem Christus, nach der Epoche, die dann gekommen ist, wo man die Not nach dem Christus hatte, aber diese Not nur durch die mündliche oder schriftliche Tradition befriedigen konnte, muß das Zeitalter kommen, das so etwas versteht wie den Zusatz zum Evangelium: «Ich hätte euch noch viel zu sagen, aber ihr könnt es jetzt nicht tragen.»

Ein Zeitalter muß kommen, das versteht, was der Christus gemeint hat, wenn er sagte: «Ich bin bei euch alle Tage, bis ans Ende der Erdenzeiten.» Denn der Christus ist kein Toter, sondern ein Lebendiger. Er spricht nicht nur durch die Evangelien, er spricht für das Geistesauge, wenn das Geistesauge sich den Geheimnissen des Menschendaseins wiederum öffnet. Da ist er jeden Tag und spricht und offenbart sich. Und es ist eine schwache Menschheit, die gar nicht die Zeit erstreben will, in der auch das gesagt werden kann, was dazumal nicht gesagt wurde, weil die Menschen es noch nicht tragen konnten, jene Menschen, die noch in einer Verfassung waren, in der sie im Grunde genommen nicht verstehen konnten, was der Christus ihnen bot.

Gewiß, die Umgebung konnte etwas davon verstehen, aber das Evangelium ist ja für alle gesprochen, und dieser Ausspruch geht natürlich in die Weiten der Welt hinaus. Eine Menschheit muß angestrebt werden, welche den lebendigen Christus an die Stelle der bloßen Überlieferung vom Christus setzt. Und es ist das Unchristlichste auch sogar im Sinne der Überlieferung, wenn man nur immer dasjenige gültig haben will, was niedergeschrieben ist, und nicht das, was jeden Tag zu unserem nach Erleuchtung strebenden Denken, zu unserem fühlenden Herzen und zu unserem ganzen wollenden Menschen heute als die Christus-Offenbarung aus der geistigen Welt heraus spricht.

First Lecture

Today, following on from the lectures I gave in the last days of the Goetheanum, I would like to take you back once again to an age which we have often considered and which must be fully understood if the present development of humanity is to be recognized in the right way. We have spoken of the possibility that processes occur in man in the most definite way, which can be recognized again in the ever-repeating events of the course of the year. And I have also pointed out how older mystery science, initiation science, aimed to spread such knowledge among people who were accessible to it. By spreading such knowledge, human thinking, feeling, willing, the whole of man's involvement in the world was to be strengthened.

Now we can ask ourselves: on what did it depend that in older times people had an understanding from the outset of this relationship of man, of the microcosm to the great world, to the macrocosm, as it expresses itself in the course of the year? For people had such an understanding. They had this understanding because in those older times the inner soul of the human being was more closely bound to the etheric body or the body of formative forces than is the case today. We know from the sketchy descriptions I have been able to give within the French Course that man, when he has gone through his supersensible course of life between death and a new birth, after he has sent the spirit-germ of his physical body down to earth and has not yet descended himself as a soul-spiritual being before conception - that he then draws together from the cosmos the forces of the world ether, and that he forms from them his etheric body, which he thus has before he unites with his physical body. Man therefore descends from the spiritual-supersensible worlds in such a way that he has first clothed his spiritual-soul with his etheric body. Then he unites with that which is given to him as a physical body through the physical hereditary current, through father and mother.

Now in older times of human development the connection that man could enter into with the etheric body before his life on earth was a much more intimate one than it was and is later. This more intimate connection with the etheric body made it possible for an older humanity to understand what was meant when knowledge came out of the Mysteries: That which is seen as the physical sun is the physical expression of something spiritual. - Understanding was present when one spoke of the sun spirit. Understanding was present because with that intimate connection of the human spiritual-soul being with the etheric body or body of formative forces, it would have seemed quite foolish to people if they had had to believe that somewhere up there in the universe floats that physical ball of gas of which today's astrophysics, for example, tells us. It seemed self-evident to these older people that there was a spiritual element to this physical world. And this spiritual was precisely that which was recognized and worshipped in all ancient mysteries as the sun spirit.

Now we can - of course all these things are only approximately correct, but essentially they are so - indicate the 4th century after Christ as the period in which the human beings coming down from the spiritual-supersensible world no longer had this more intimate connection with the etheric body or the body of formative forces. It was a looser connection. That is why more and more preparations were made for the fact that even in physical life on earth people could only use their physical body when they looked up to heaven, if I may put it that way. In older times, when people looked up to the heavens, they saw the sun, but from within them arose the impulse not to see something merely physical in this sun, but to know that something spiritual-soulful was connected with it. After the 4th century AD, in order to see the sun, one could only use the physical body, the physical eyes, through which the gaze, when it wandered outwards, was no longer carried by the power of the etheric or formative body. Therefore one saw more and more only the physical sun. And that there was a sun spirit could only be taught because the earlier ones knew it and because it existed as a tradition. For example, Julianus Apostata, the apostate, learned from his teachers, as I once stated, that there was such a sun spirit. Now, as we know, this sun spirit descended to earth through the Mystery of Golgotha. He has shifted his heavenly life course downwards and transformed it into an earthly life course by orienting his future work since the Mystery of Golgotha towards leading the development of humanity within the earthly effectiveness.

You will notice that the two points in time do not coincide. The time of the Mystery of Golgotha - what does it appear to us as when we look back on it today? We must then say: at this point in time the Christ, the High Solar Being, passes through the Mystery of Golgotha and unites with earthly existence. To put it in popular terms: the Christ has been on earth since that time. It was possible for people to see the sun spirit until the 4th century AD, because until then they were still more intimately connected with their etheric body or formative body.

Although the Christ himself was already on earth, people saw the sun until the 4th century in such a way that they still saw the afterimage through the etheric body. Just as in the physical world, when one looks sharply at something and then closes the eye, one has an afterimage in the eye, so the human etheric body, by seeing the sun, had an afterimage of the sun spirit in those personalities with whom this still remained, when man looked out into the cosmos. Hence it came about that such people, who were thus still connected with their etheric body - and this was the case with very many people, especially in southern European regions, in North African, in Near Eastern regions - simply said to themselves through their experience: "The sun spirit can be seen when one looks out into the vastness of the heavens. -- And they did not understand what the teachers and leaders of those other mysteries I have mentioned during this French Course meant; they did not understand what it meant to say that the Christ was on earth.

Keep in mind that almost four centuries had passed since the Mystery of Golgotha, during which a great number of well-organized people could not connect a proper concept with what I have just said: The Christ has appeared on earth. - For them, what had happened in Palestine was an insignificant event, as insignificant an event as it actually was for those Roman writers who wrote it down in passing. It was just an insignificant personality who had died under strange circumstances. Because the whole profound mystery was not understood by these people. Basically, you could say that these people did not need Christ on earth, because they still had him in the old way in heaven. For them, he was still the spirit of the universe who worked in the light. For them he was the all-encompassing enlightener of mankind. For them, there was still no need to look into the human being and search for him in the ego.

Julian the Apostate, Julianus Apostata, was just such a person who could not understand why one should seek Christ in a person on earth, since he is to be sought in the heavens and lives in the light that shines on earth daily at sunrise and ceases to shine at sunset. For these people, what had happened in Palestine was an event like other historical events, but a highly insignificant one. And it was an ordinary, and indeed insignificant, historical event because the need for Christ was not yet alive in these people. When could the need for Christ begin to live in man? Let us visualize this today, when this need after Christ could arise in humanity at all.

If we look at the successive epochs of the earth's development after the great Atlantean catastrophe, it is like this: If we go back to the 8th, 9th millennium, we have the Atlantean catastrophe, which I have described several times. We then have the first post-Atlantean cultural period, which you can read about in my “Secret Science in Outline”, which I have called the primeval Indian period (see diagram). In this primeval Indian period man lives preferably in his etheric body or body of formative forces. Here the connection is still so intense that one can even say: Man lives in his etheric body or body of formative forces. He lives in such a way that basically the physical body is more of a garment for him, something external. He looks out into the world much more with his etheric eyes than with his physical eyes. The second period is the primordial period. Here man sees into his environment preferably through what may be called the sensory body. In the third, in the Egyptian-Chaldean period, man sees into the world with the help of his sentient soul. Finally, in the fourth, in the Greco-Latin period, man looks into the world with the help of the intellectual or emotional soul.

And in our fifth time, since the 15th century, which can be called the historical present, man looks into the world with the consciousness soul. And this seeing with the consciousness soul brings about everything that I have described in historical sequence in the Natural Science Course.

But now let us realize how this actually is. It is actually very difficult, but if one wanted to draw this fact schematically, one would have to say: physical body (see diagram), etheric body (hatched), and in this etheric body the soul first asserts itself, but in such a way that first the human being still lives in the etheric body. But then in the sensory body, which in reality is still entirely etheric. For only in the Egyptian-Chaldean period does the human being live in the soul, but there the soul definitely still lives within the etheric body. So that I could draw the soul like this (hatched in red). In that man feels inwardly in his soul, he still feels half of himself within the etheric body.

In the Greco-Latin period it is the case that the human being grows out of the etheric body with his soul. He also still has the etheric body within him until about the year 333, when the human being grows out of the etheric body in such a way that his soul is only loosely connected to the etheric body and no longer has any inner connection at all (shaded purple). The soul feels outwardly abandoned. It is now compelled to go out into the world without the support of the etheric body. This creates the need for Christ. For now that one is no longer intimately connected in the soul with the etheric body, one no longer sees anything in front of the sun spirit, not even the afterimage, when one looks out into the heavens. But everything in the development of the world is such that it only develops gradually over long periods of time. At first, from the 4th century onwards, the soul was to a certain extent inwardly emancipated from the etheric body, but it was not yet strengthened in itself, it was still weak in itself. And if we go through the entire centuries, from the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries up to the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, indeed right up to our own time - but in particular we want to stay with the period up to the 15th century for the time being. We have the inwardly emancipated but weak soul, which feels the need for something, but is not yet strong enough to meet this need out of an inner impulse and, instead of seeking Christ in the sun as before, now seeks Christ in the Mystery of Golgotha; instead of seeking him in space outside, he seeks him in the course of time. The soul had to strengthen itself inwardly in order to develop any strength at all. Throughout the centuries up to the 15th century, people were not strong enough to develop inner powers in order to gain any knowledge of the world through the soul. Therefore, people limited themselves to taking the knowledge from the books that the ancients had left behind, taking what had been historically preserved as knowledge.

This is something that must be taken into account. The soul must be strengthened inwardly. In the 15th century it was so far advanced that it began to experience in abstraction - abstract space as thought - as its own what it no longer learned from the etheric body or by a detour through the etheric body out of the physical body as mathematics. Mankind has not yet progressed far in this experience, but it is, as you realize, a different experience than it used to be. It is the urge to come out of the inner soul to something that humanity could come to in ancient times, when it could still make use of its etheric body, with which the soul was intimately connected. People now had to strengthen themselves inwardly in such a way that they came to the Christ, whereas previously the etheric body had served them to see the Christ from the sun. And so we can say that right up to the 4th century, the most civilized people did not really know what to do with the news about the Christ, about the Mystery of Golgotha.

It is interesting that one can say: Neither the Emperor Constantine's confession of Christ nor Julianus' turning away from Christ actually stand on any solid ground. The historian Zosimos even explains that the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity because he had committed so many crimes against his family that the old priests no longer forgave him. He therefore renounced the old paganism and its priests because the Christian priests had promised him that they could forgive him. So basically, it was a reason that was not very intense. You could say that he did not direct his confession of Christ towards Christ out of necessity.

Julianus only needed to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which at that time was already a very extraordinary one, in order to inspire him with enthusiasm for the Sun Spirit in the old form of knowledge. In his case, too, this did not exactly rest on a very deep foundation, although he received extraordinarily significant knowledge through his initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries. But in any case, neither the pros nor cons at that time were anything strong and intense with regard to the question of Christ, because people did not even know what the assertion that Christ should be sought historically in a human body meant.

From the 4th century onwards, it was again the case that people, in their inwardly emancipated but still weak souls, found no other way to Christ, to an explanation of the world at all - because the whole explanation of the world had to be rebuilt - than the historical tradition, the written or oral tradition; that is, the oral tradition in such a way that only some people had the written tradition and gave the others an oral interpretation.

This remained the case for many centuries and has actually remained so to this day with regard to the view of Christ. But it is something very significant that the soul had now become inwardly free. As I said, even if everything in history has forerunners and after-effects, we can still point to the year 333 as the year in which this emancipation of the soul happened for the most advanced people, even if the soul was still too weak to gain any inner knowledge at all. It was so that when a man at that time reflected deeply - since there was still good news from earlier times - he could say: Only a short time ago there were people who saw something divine and spiritual in the sun. I no longer see anything. But the people who saw something divine-spiritual in the sun also drew other insights from within, for example mathematical insights. My soul is such that it feels like an independent being, but it cannot pull itself together, it cannot draw strength from itself to recognize anything.

That was the important thing in the 15th and 16th centuries, that at least people began to conceive mathematical-mechanical knowledge from the soul. And Copernicus first applied this to the celestial system, which he experienced in this way in the emancipated soul. The earlier world systems were precisely such that they were gained with the help of those souls that were not yet emancipated from the etheric body, that were still souls of intellect or mind, but as souls of intellect or mind still had the power of the etheric body, so to speak, to look out into the world. Now the intellectual or emotional soul was also still there until the 15th century, but one could only use the physical body, the physical eye, to look out into the world. These are the reasons why, through all these centuries and to this day, it is only through the Scriptures or oral tradition that the story of Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha has been able to spread.

Basically speaking, what have we gained through the soul that has gradually grown stronger over the centuries, from the 4th and 5th centuries onwards? Outwardly mechanical knowledge, the physical knowledge that I characterized in the Natural Science Course. But now the time has come when the soul must strengthen to such an extent that, just as it used to see the spiritual sun with the help of the etheric body when looking out into the heavens with the physical sun, it now looks inwardly into the ego, feels the ego and, as it were, behind the ego the Christ.

If we imagine this not schematically, but actually very real, it is like this: through physical vision the sun is seen (light shaded), through vision with the etheric body behind the sun the sun spirit, the Christ (old time, red). Today it is the case that when man looks into himself, he has that ego. He feels the I, he has an I-feeling. But that is very dark. This sense of self first arose in the emancipated soul. Formerly man looked out into the world, now he must look into himself. Looking out into the world brought him together with the sun and with Christ. Looking inwards initially only brought him together with the ego. He must now come to find behind the ego that which he previously found in front of the sun. He must come to feel that which he experienced in the light, which he experienced from sunrise to sunset, the Christ, the illuminator of his own knowledge, shining inwardly out of his ego, so that he finds in the Christ the strong support of his own ego. So that one can say: Formerly one looked out into the sun and found the light shining through. Now one feels into oneself and learns to recognize the through-characterized I (red, violet).

However, we are at the very beginning with regard to this. For anthroposophy consists in telling humanity, so to speak, that these centuries since the 4th century after Christ are inter-centuries. What lies before had a humanity that could look out into the heavens and find the Christ as an outer spatial sun spirit. A humanity must arise after these intermediate centuries which feels into its inner being and which, on the way to this inner being, finds the inner sun, the Christ, who now appears with the ego as he had appeared earlier with the sun, who is now the ego-bearer as he was earlier the sun spirit.

With the 4th century the need for the Christ begins in humanity, which is gradually developing out of the Greek-Latin races, and which at first can only be satisfied by the written or oral tradition. But today the situation is such that this written or oral tradition has lost its power of conviction, especially among the more advanced spirits, and that people must learn to find the Christ from within in the same way that an ancient humanity found him externally through the sun and its light. We only have to understand the intervening centuries in the right way, to understand that the soul was initially independent, but in a certain sense empty. When the soul looked out, armed with the etheric body, it could not see that mechanical-mathematical system in the celestial phenomena which later became the Copernican system. Things were taken to be much more closely linked to the human being. And it was not a world system torn out of the human being at will, but rather the world system that then appeared, even in decadence, as the Ptolemaic.

But when the soul began to no longer be rooted in the ether with its own etheric body, that mood gradually prepared itself which later established a star science that was indifferent as to whether the human being belonged to the starry heavens or not. The only tribute that this changed man paid to the old time was that he moved the starting point for his mechanical system to where the Christ had previously been seen, namely the sun. Copernicus made the sun the center of the universe, not the spiritual but the physical universe. In it still lives a dark feeling of how strongly mankind once felt the sun to be the center of the world with the Christ. We must not only look at the outward appearance of world history, as has gradually become the custom, but we must also consider the development of feelings. We must also consider the development of feelings.

If one really understands how to read Copernicus, one will notice in this strange element of feeling that one encounters in Copernicus: he not only calculated; he had an inner instinct to return something of the old to the sun. It was through this inner instinct of feeling that he found three laws, the third of which actually brings everything that is said in the first two into a certain questionable state. For Copernicus had a third law which later astronomy simply omitted because it mechanized everything. He has a law according to which the movement of the earth around the sun is not at all as absolute as it is seen today. Today, as I have already mentioned, the matter is regarded as a fact that would arise for observation if one were to place a chair in the far reaches of space, but quite far out, and then see from there what the sun is like and how the earth revolves around it. But the chair would have to be outside, and the corresponding schoolmaster would have to sit on it, looking at the world system from out there. This is not the result of an observation. Copernicus, I would say, did not yet have such a robustly contrary conscience in such matters as later men had in mechanizing the whole world structure. He also cited those phenomena which actually indicate that the movement of the earth around the sun is not necessarily correct. But as I said, this third law was simply ignored, suppressed by later science. They stuck to the first two - the Earth's rotation around itself and the Earth's rotation around the Sun - and came up with a very simple system that is now gradually being taught in schools in this simple way. Of course, this is not to oppose the Copernican system. It was necessary in the course of mankind's development. Today, however, the time has come when things must be spoken about in such a way as I tried to do in a natural science course in Stuttgart, where I spoke about astronomical matters. There I showed how these things must be thought about in a completely different way than is possible in the sense of today's materialistic-mechanical construction.

But in Copernicus' whole conception of his system there is still a feeling that can be characterized as I have just said. In a certain sense, he did not merely want to create a mathematical coordinate axis system for our solar system and place the sun at the center of this coordinate axis system, but he wanted to give back to the sun what had been taken from it by the fact that people could no longer perceive the Christ in the sun.

These are things that should show you that one should not only follow the external fact and the change of thoughts of men in the historical development, but also the transformation of feelings. This only became so when the mechanism emerged completely. With Copernicus, and especially with Kepler, one can still find sensations, with Newton even very strong ones. I have already explained in the science course how Newton later became somewhat uncomfortable with his mathematical philosophy of nature. After he had first considered space in such a way that he interspersed it with nothing but mathematical-mechanical forces, and after he later looked through the matter again, he became sultry and then he said that what he had thus statuated as abstract space with the three abstract dimensions was actually the sensorium Dei, the sensorium of God. Now it was so for the somewhat older Newton, whose conscience was stirred against the mathematical-mechanical ideas, that the space he had sufficiently mathematized was now the most important space in the brain of God, namely the sensorium, the most important part of the brain of God.

It was only later that we were able to test the cognizing humans completely only on their thoughts, no longer at all on their sensations. Newton still has to be tested for his sensations, Leibniz even more so and the natural scientists of that time in general. And anyone who examines Galileo's life will find, I would say, on every page, how the whole human being still plays a part. This human thought apparatus, which feeds itself as its own thought apparatus with the results of observation and experiment, just as a steam engine is fed with coal, only emerges later, and only later does it become the authoritative leader of unconditional science. This science is actually only unconditional because it lacks any prerequisite for real knowledge.

But what must be added to the achievements of the strengthened soul, which is no longer an empty soul, as it became in the 4th century AD, but which has now filled itself with many mathematical-mechanical ideas, is that within the ego the inner light is found, which perhaps should no longer be called merely ego, so as not to speak only figuratively or symbolically, but which should be called: the supporting entity for the soul.

And thus we learn to recognize something that has emerged more and more over the centuries, something that is strong today but is pushed down into the subconscious depths of the soul by people who numb themselves over it: the need for Christ. Only a spiritual realization, a realization of the spiritual universe can meet this need for Christ. This is part of what we must regard as characteristic moments of our own age in the 20th century: the need for Christ and the inner stirring of the soul to the power to find the Christ in the ego, behind the ego, just as he was found before the sun in the past.

The way in which people related to the spirit of the sun in the Greco-Latin period was a twilight. For I would like to say that only the primeval Indian period saw the sun spirit in a completely bright, soul-spiritual light. Now we live in a time in which we should feel the dawning of the dawn, the dawning of the real knowledge of Christ achieved through the power of man. The old knowledge of the Sun-Spirit, which Julian the Apostate still wanted to galvanize, can no longer give mankind any kind of satisfaction. Even Julian's endeavor was futile in the face of historical development. But after the epoch of the first four centuries, when people did not really know what to do with Christ, after the epoch that then came, when there was a need for Christ, but this need could only be satisfied by oral or written tradition, there must come an age that understands something like the addition to the Gospel: “I still have much to say to you, but you cannot bear it now.”

An age must come that understands what Christ meant when he said: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” For the Christ is not a dead man, but a living one. He not only speaks through the Gospels, he speaks for the spiritual eye when the spiritual eye opens itself again to the mysteries of human existence. He is there every day, speaking and revealing himself. And it is a weak humanity that does not want to strive for the time in which even that which was not said at that time can be said, because people could not yet bear it, those people who were still in a condition in which they basically could not understand what the Christ offered them.

Certainly, those around him could understand something of it, but the Gospel is spoken for all, and this saying naturally goes out into the vastness of the world. We must strive for a humanity that puts the living Christ in the place of the mere tradition of Christ. And it is also the most unchristian thing, even in the sense of tradition, if one only ever wants that which is written down to be valid, and not that which speaks every day to our thinking, which strives for enlightenment, to our feeling heart and to our whole willing human being today as the revelation of Christ from the spiritual world.