Lectures to Priests: The Apocalypse
GA 346
6 September 1924, Dornach
Lecture II
[ 1 ] We will now take a closer look at the connection between the act of consecration of man and apocalyptic things, so that we will then be able to approach the Apocalypse and to see its significance for the present and future activities of priests.
[ 2 ] Yesterday we had to point to three past epochs of the mysteries, in so far as these mysteries tried to give each priest experiences which put him into an apocalyptic mood. We pointed out that there was a very ancient mystery period during which the gods descended into the mystery centers in order to work with human beings, and a semi-ancient mystery period when the gods sent down their forces, so that the men who lived in this sphere of forces were able to work with the gods in the cosmos.
[ 3 ] One could say that the path was completely reversed during the third epoch when the mysteries were partly renovated. At that time man shaped and developed forces so that they could lead him up to the gods. We saw that man looked for a way up to the world's divine, spiritual forces through the intonation of magical words in cultic ceremonies. These words either worked directly upon the auditor's whole soul mood, so that he became aware of the spiritual activities of the gods in the words, or else magical words were spoken into the smoke in the way which was indicated yesterday, and the smoke drew Imaginations out of the words.
[ 4 ] This development of a certain religious feeling, which one can really only describe separately, always went parallel with a certain condition or a certain kind of transubstantiation which was the center of the holy act of consecration of man. Priests are now being called upon to experience this transubstantiation and everything else that is connected with their activities in a new way. They will not be able to do this very well without an understanding of what transubstantiations and apocalypses were really like in each of these four successive periods of human evolution.
[ 5 ] One thing we have already seen is that the act of consecration of man and its transubstantiation process involves a working together of human beings and the gods in the spiritual world. Priests cannot really work properly unless they're aware that men and the gods can work together.
[ 6 ] If we take another look at the oldest form of transubstantiations and acts of consecration of man we find that the gods found the way to men at certain times that are really differences between what one can calculate in the course of time and what the cosmos does. The gods descended during such blank or holy times when men must add something to the times they calculated because their calculations are incorrect. In these times men had to expose themselves to cosmic influences directly in order to carry our transubstantiations, and they saved what had occurred in the substances during such times in order to carry out transubstantiations with the preserved things that had been transformed by forces from the cosmos.
[ 7 ] The right place for priests and lay brothers to be in for these transubstantiations at that time was a cave or a grotto. And in fact, wherever people were fully aware of the presence of the gods and of the significance of transubstantiations in the ancient mysteries, we see that they tried to carry out the sacred rites in subterranean rock temples or caves.
[ 8 ] The fact that they tried to do this is connected with the experiences which priests had during the transubstantiations. A transubstantiation consists of a transformation of the given earthly materials. If one wants to understand the process completely one should add the communion or the ingestion of the transformed substances by the human being to it, so that actually the two last parts of the act of consecration of man, transubstantiation and communion, constitute a unity, whereas the gospel reading and the offering are a preparation for them. Taking transubstantiation and communion as a unified priestly or cultic act, let's look at a view which the initiates we call fathers had in the oldest mysteries.
The “fathers” refers to the father grade of initiation, and this name is still given to priests in many confessions today,—pater. [ 9 ] Now when a priest carried out a transubstantiation in his earth or rock temple, he experienced the union of his physical organism with the whole earth. This is why they had the temple underground or in a rock. Today we can also feel united with the surrounding cosmos in our ordinary earthly consciousness as we live between birth and death, and this has been the case during the whole time that mankind has been evolving on earth.
[ 10 ] The air which is in your body now was outside it a moment ago, and it will soon be outside again. The air which is outside your body and the air inside your body constitute a whole. The real state of affairs is that there is an aery ocean, and when man inhales, one part of this aery ocean becomes transformed in the human being. The air is absorbed, and it penetrates and fills man and thereby assumes a human form. Then this form immediately dissolves again in the ocean of air. An aeriform man is continually being created and destroyed, although one is usually unaware of it.
[ 11 ] However, Indian yogis knew about it whenever they did their conscious breathing exercises. They didn't feel separate from the earth's ocean of air; they felt that they were united with it, and they felt this creation and destruction at each systole and diastole. One can easily experience this by doing these breathing exercises, although they are no longer appropriate for men today.
[ 12 ] However, man is not just a man in connection with physical, earthly things. Although he is an earthly man where the so-called physical, body is mainly active, he is also a fluidic man. The whole human being is filled with circulating fluids which work upon each other. This fluidic man is mainly dependent upon the ethers. For the forces in the etheric body work more upon fluids and not so much upon solids.
[ 13 ] We also bear an aery man and a warmth man in us. This aery man, which takes care of respiration, is controlled by the forces of the astral body. And the warmth man: you need only recall that if you measure some place on the surface of your body or inside it with a thermometer, you get different temperatures. This crude procedure already shows one that man is a differentiated warmth organism. The latter is mainly under the influence of the ego—organization or ego.
[ 14 ] Thus, we find four elements in man. Earth is under the influence of the physical body, water is influenced by the etheric body, air is under the influence of the astral body, and warmth or fire is under the influence of the ego.
[ 15 ] The transubstantiations and communions which the ancient fathers carried out made them feel that their physical body was connected with the earth, when they had gone into their rock temple or earth temple, in order to unite themselves with these earthly developments. What actually happened here? [ 16 ] A man's supposedly scientific view of himself today is really wrong; it is really complete nonsense. We must rethink all of our ideas about human beings. The ancient fathers received the right ideas about man through direct perception when they carried out transubstantiations during sacrificial rites which consecrate human beings.
They knew that we don't just breathe air in through our respiratory organs, but that we are continually taking in all kinds of substances from the cosmos through our sense organs. All kinds of substances are continuously being taken in through our hair and skin. Just as someone who is watching his breathing feels that air is entering his respiratory organs, so the ancient priest felt that substances passed over from the siliceous environment of the consecrated subterranean temple and penetrated his nerve-senses system just as aery man feels the air which is going through him, for when he breathes in a conscious way he can feel that these substances permeate his entire organism. The priests knew that none of the substances in the metabolic-limb man come from what we eat. Nothing of what one eats becomes part of the metabolic-limb man. [ 17 ] One takes in substances from the cosmos. The whole modern nutritional theory is really wrong. The celebrating father felt that what is eaten and then transformed by the digestive system passes over from the metabolic man to the nerve-senses man and especially to the head. He knew that what you eat is transformed into the substances of your head and what is connected with it. But the substances which become the organs that take care of your metabolic functions are taken in from the cosmos by a finer breathing. Thus he felt that his metabolic-limb man consisted of cosmic substances which are taken in from all sides through the senses and nerves. And he felt that the food that one eats and transforms goes the opposite way and becomes the upper man.
[ 18 ] When a father carried out a transubstantiation he had a current in him which flowed upwards and another one which flowed downwards. Then when he took communion he knew that he was connected with the cosmos, because he had become aware of his physical body by means of these streams. He had become united with the earth and he united what he had prepared at the altar with his body, with currents that belong to both the earth and his body, and with divine things on the earth which are a reflection of the universe.
He knew that he was united with the outside universe. He knew that the meal which he had taken in in this way was a meal which his cosmic man had completed. He felt that his divine man arose through what streamed into the current which went upwards and the one which went downwards, and that it could be a companion of the gods who had descended. He felt that the gods had transformed him into a divine human being in his physical body, that is, he felt that he had been transubstantiated. And at this moment he could say from the depths of his heart: Now I am not the one who walks around in the physical world; I am he in whom the descended god lives; I am he whose name includes all sounds and who was at the beginning, is in the middle and will be at the end. I am alpha and omega.
[ 19 ] The extent to which he could really participate in the secrets of the cosmos, in the divine working and creating in the cosmos, and in the manifestation of forces, substances and beings there while divine, spiritual work was being done, depended on the way his inner life was shaped by this feeling. This is the way priests worked in the ancient mysteries.
[ 20 ] If we go on to the semi-ancient mysteries we find that holy water and washing and sacrificial actions which are connected with water had become very important, and also that the temples had been moved aboveground. They were no longer put into subterranean caves out of the same longings as before, or if they were placed there it occurred through tradition and it was no longer understood in a living way, and it was precisely for this reason that the tradition lived on, even though it had lost its living content.
[ 21 ] Such traditions also remained with regard to the dipping of people into the dew, as it were. What the priest did at baptisms was less dependent upon the actual watery element than upon the Inner force which he applied during the sacrificial action in order to unite the fluidic man in whom the forces of the etheric body were active with the universe.
When a transubstantiation was being carried out and one observed things which involved the fluidic element before or after it in the act of consecration, one felt that the etheric organization was working in a temporal way. While the transubstantiation was being carried out one felt that one's growth since childhood had occurred under the influence of the fluidic element in one, and that the etheric body was active in this streaming from the past through the present and into the future.
[ 22 ] In ancient times priests felt that their physical body was connected with the earthly element, and during the less ancient mysteries the one who performed transubstantiations felt united with the watery element which exists in the whole universe. He felt the growth forces of all creatures sprouting, germinating, growing and unfolding in him into fully developed organisms and then contracting into seeds again. He felt this sprouting, shooting living and dying activity whenever he carried out a transubstantiation.
At every moment he could say to himself: Now I know how creatures come into being in the world and how they die. For both ascending and descending etheric forces were active in him. He could, as it were, feel eternity in the sacred transubstantiation.
[ 23 ] The priest who was performing a communion in conjunction with a sacred act of transubstantiation knew that the substances which were transformed in the way we described yesterday were absorbed by his etheric, fluidic man. He felt that he was united with everything which preserves immortality in the universe and with everything which is created and born or is killed and destroyed. Birth and death wafted over the altar and from there into the faithful who were assembled. The priest became permeated with feelings of eternity. This permeation with feelings of eternity had replaced the previous feeling of being united with the whole cosmos through the earth.
[ 24 ] Then when the third epoch of holy acts of consecration arose, man was to experience his union with the aery element and thereby with the cosmos. [ 25 ] Oriental yogis could become aware of the streaming of divine, supersensible world forces in inhalation and exhalation in a different way and for their own personal development. They took hold of breathing in a direct way.
People intoned magical words into their breath in Europe, and to a lesser extent in Asia Minor, but they didn't take hold of the undifferentiated breath directly. Thereby the breath or the air streaming in and out of them was taken hold of by magical, cultic words. The striving up of magical forces towards divine ones became manifest indirectly in what was spoken into the sacrificial smoke, or directly in what was experienced in the intonation of the magical, cultic words. Whenever someone prays, he is basically trying to ascend to divine, spiritual regions with his forces, and these people felt that when they intoned magical, cultic or prayerful words they were ascending to a region where they met the gods. When someone intones things, the godhead becomes manifest and speaks in the cultic words, so that it's not he who is speaking anymore. The godhead was now revealing itself in the aery element. Man felt that he was in something which controls the forces in the air from his own astral body.
[ 26 ] The transition from the second, semi-ancient mystery epoch to the third, partly new mystery epoch was a large one. In ancient times fathers experienced things in their physical body. This involved an intensification of its activities. The sun priests of the second epoch experienced an enhancement of their etheric or fluidic body. When a priest intoned cultic words in the third epoch he experienced the streaming of divine spiritual forces in his astral body. The astral body of the average person was only a mediator of consciousness to a very slight extent. At the beginning of the third epoch a priest could still say: when I speak magical cultic words, a god is speaking in me. However later on this awareness diminished. The new consciousness which arose was unaware of the astral body's activities. Today, ordinary consciousness is completely oblivious to the latter. The verbal content of the ritual gradually became something which made qualified people aware of the gods' presence, whereas unqualified people were unaware of what was connected with the intoned words. The latter was increasingly the case for a large number of priests who were active in Catholicism.
[ 27 ] Hence it gradually came about that the act of consecration of man or mass became something that the priest celebrated, although he himself was not present in it. However, one cannot celebrate with words or intone words which have aery beings incorporated in them in such a way that there is no spirituality there. Spiritual things immediately appear whenever something material is being shaped. And so if an act of consecration is celebrated with real cultic words by even the most unworthy priest, his soul, may be absent but something spiritual is present. So the fact is that if the liturgy is correct, the believers who are listening to it are participating in a spiritual event under all circumstances.
[ 28 ] While things were developing like this at the end of the third epoch, some of the Protestant confessions which were working in a more rationalistic way thought that they could throw the mass out altogether. They were no longer aware of the significance of cultic rites or of a real collaboration between gods and men.
This inner circumstance then led to the time in which we are living. There was less and less understanding for the act of consecration of man which brings the divine, spiritual life right down to earth. People no longer understood the apocalyptic things which the rites were supposed to take one experience. [ 29 ] This is basically the experience you had when you came one day and said: A Christian renewal must occur. You felt that the religious life of all the confessions and other things that exist in our civilization had become separated from real spiritual things in the real spiritual world. You were looking for the path to the real spiritual world again. [ 30 ] This impulse can show us the way and can lead us into the depths of the mysteries, which are connected with apocalyptic things.
So we saw that in the first epoch transubstantiation was connected with experiences with the physical body, in the second epoch the connection was through experiences with the etheric body and in the third epoch through experiences with the astral body. The grasping of apocalyptic things and of the act of consecration by the ego of mankind depends upon you and your inner experience of the working and weaving of spirituality in the world. [ 31 ] Therewith we only have a right view of what should be done by this movement for religious renewal if we look upon what is to be done as the carrying out of a task which has been given us by the supersensible world and as a task which places what one does at the service of supersensible powers. For if you don't take your task seriously enough, what you do will come to nothing in the present evolution of the world, and it will only have been a kind of disturbance. Or else you will see how deep and profound your task is and you will Immediately feel that this task is connected with the activity of the gods throughout earth evolution, and not just with human activities. In that case you can say: we are called upon to help with the shaping of the fourth mystery epoch in human earth evolution. This task will only be placed in the service of the powers in the spiritual world from whom the content of the ritual flowed two years ago when we were assembled here, if you have the courage, strength, seriousness and perseverance to find your way into your task in this way. Only then will what you took upon yourselves through the content of this ritual, which is a revelation from the spiritual world and which radiated down upon you as such, become real.
[ 32 ] Then you will increasingly sense and feel: it's really the case that Christ came into earth life in a real cosmic and tellurian ritual. The Mystery of Golgotha is present as a real ritual. In our time man must first unite this ritual with his ego; for the first commemorations of the Lord's Supper were still immersed in the third mystery epoch, when the astral body took in and controlled the cultic activities which occurred in the aery element. But now it's a question of connecting one's innermost core with the Christ so that each human being can begin to understand apocalyptic things in a new way.
[ 33 ] How did one look upon apocalyptic things in the first mystery epoch? One experienced them as the presence of the gods, which are the beginning, the middle and the end, alpha and omega.
[ 34 ] How did one look upon the presence of divine forces in the second mystery epoch? One experienced them as something which resounds through the world as the music of the spheres, and which lives in the cosmic word that created everything and that creates in everything, and which streams from the heavens to the earth. One experienced what is at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of time simultaneously, as it were. One experienced the alpha and the omega in the cosmic, world word. Whenever the subject of the Greek alpha and omega, the first and the last, came up in this or that epoch, people always tried to find out what the first and last letters of various alphabets really contain.
[ 35 ] And how did one understand apocalyptic things during the third mystery epoch? One understood apocalyptic things in such a way that people were developing cultic words which were still half conscious. Apocalyptic things were perceived during the third epoch when these half-conscious cultic words transubstantiated themselves as they were being intoned and when things were as follows. Most of you have probably heard some music on a day when your soul and senses could be entirely receptive to the impressions of the outer world, and then you fell asleep and woke up in the middle of your sleep. It was as if you lived in a surging back and forth, but in a transformed surging of the symphony you heard during the day. This is the way it was for priests in the third mystery epoch.
What happened to them is comparable to the trivial thing I just mentioned. They celebrated the act of consecration with cultic words, and they experienced that the godhead appeared in them. They had sent the cultic words up and the godhead had streamed into them. Then they left the sacred ritual in an appropriate mood. They not only experienced the presence of divine spirituality in human, cultic words during the act of consecration of man, but afterwards, they experienced a supersensible echo of what they had spoken in the liturgy of the mass. These transubstantiated, transformed words streamed towards them and revealed apocalyptic things.
The god revealed apocalyptic things as a counter present for an appropriately celebrated sacrificial rite. This is how one experienced apocalyptic things during the third mystery epoch.
[ 36 ] The one who felt that he had been made into a priest, by Christ Jesus himself, namely, the author of the book which we want to study, the Apocalypse, was more or less the first to feel that an apocalyptic content merged with his ego,—and only very few people have experienced this since. For it was the astral body which received the echo that. I mentioned, where the god gave apocalyptic things as a counter present for words. However, the one who wrote John's Apocalypse felt that his fully conscious ego was united with the content which he had given the Apocalypse.
[ 37 ] The priest who wrote the Apocalypse and who felt that he had been anointed by Christ Jesus himself, was inspired by the afterglow of ancient Ephesian rituals, and he felt as if he were continuing frequent celebrations of this ancient act of consecration up to an advanced age. One day he felt that the ego which had been completely filled with the significance of the sacred ritual was now also completely filled with an apocalyptic content.
[ 38 ] Hence John expressed his Apocalypse in the same way that one says the single word “I” in one's ordinary consciousness. When a human being says “I” he is expressing his inner nature with a single sound. The only thing which can be meant by this is what the individual human being is. But this one thing has a large content. This large content is the content of apocalyptic things.
[ 39 ] If everything which religious feeling can give a meditating soul and if all the enlightenment which is gained by energetic effort and by a striving towards an understanding of the supersensible can work in men's spirits,—if all of this is oriented in the way it can be oriented and if we let ourselves be stimulated by everything that can stimulate us through a contemplation of the three past mystery epochs which can become the inspirer of the fourth one, and if we let ourselves be stimulated by what was outlined in an introductory way yesterday and today, that is, by what lived in the first, second and third mystery epoch which was the living inspirer of the fourth, and if we let the power of the Spirit God—which is possible again today work in our souls—we will be able to experience that there is not just one Apocalypse but that there are numerically just as many apocalypses as there are human, God-fearing, priest's egos in the priest-renewal who speak to the Christ who is to be found again through this Christian renewal.
[ 40 ] There is only one apocalypse from a qualitative point of view, but from a numerical viewpoint it can become the content of the soul of each individual priest. Conversely, every single soul that undergoes the act of consecration of man, so that it prepares the ego to become identified with the content of the apocalypse, can become a proper priestly soul. We are egos as human beings. We become priests in the modern sense of the word if the ego becomes aware that it is creating a copy of the Apocalypse at every moment in life, so that it isn't just something which is finished and printed in the bible, and it isn't just memorized by heart. [ 41 ] Take the following analogy. Someone gives the content of a book. It is sent to the printers. This might seem like a pedantic, philistine analogy, but it's useful nevertheless. The book is printed and a large number of copies go through the world which are different, although they all have the same content. What you are referred to right at the beginning of the Apocalypse is a single thing and what Christ revealed to John is a single thing. For this is “The revelation of Jesus Christ” which was received by “his servant John.” There is only one content, but it is multiplied by those who recreate this content in themselves after they have been prepared through the wisdom of supersensible worlds.
[ 42 ] This is an understanding of John's apocalyptic things. In the deeper sense of the word, this also amounts to an understanding of the words: Christ has ordained us to be priests. You have felt how the Apocalypticer says that Christ Jesus anointed him to be a priest; one becomes anointed as soon as one feels how the content of the Apocalypse arose in John and as soon as one feels that people want to become priests today by creating the Apocalypse in themselves so that they experience that their ego is in the Apocalypse. If the ego becomes apocalyptic, the ego is priestly. We will take this up again tomorrow.
Zweiter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Den Zusammenhang zwischen der Menschenweihehandlung und dem Apokalyptischen wollen wir zunächst näher betrachten, um dann an die Apokalypse des Johannes und ihre Bedeutung für das gegenwärtige und zukünftige Priesterwirken selbst herangehen zu können.
[ 2 ] Wir mußten gestern hinweisen auf drei vergangene Epochen der Mysterien, insofern diese Mysterien versuchten, durch dasjenige, was im Priester vorging, den Priester zur apokalyptischen Stimmung zu bringen. Wir haben auf schr alte Mysterien hingewiesen, in denen die Götter selbst herabstiegen, um in den Mysterien mit den Menschen zusammen zu wirken, und wir haben auf halbalte Mysterienzeiten hingewiesen, in denen die Götter ihre Kräfte herabschickten und so den Menschen ermöglichten, dadurch, daß sie in dem Bereich der Götterkräfte lebten, mit den Göttern zusammen im Weltall zu wirken.
[ 3 ] Ich sagte: Der Weg kehrte sich völlig um in der dritten Epoche, in den halbneuen Mysterien. Da handelte es sich darum, daß der Mensch diejenigen Kräfte, die er zunächst selbst entwickeln mußte, so gestaltete, daß sie zu den Göttern hinaufführen konnten. Und wir sehen da, wie der Mensch durch die Intonierung des magischen Wortes in der Kultuszeremonie den Weg zu den göttlich-geistigen Kräften der Welt suchte - sei es, daß er dieses magische Wort in den Rauch sprach auf die gestern angedeutete Weise und durch das Wort aus dem Rauch die Imaginationen hervorholte, sei es, daß das Wort unmittelbar in der ganzen Seelenstimmung des Menschen wirkte —, so daß er im Worte gewahr wurde des göttlich-geistigen Wirkens.
[ 4 ] Und diesem Entwickeln eines gewissen religiösen Sinnes durch den Menschen — den man eigentlich nur gesondert beschreiben kann -, ging ja immer parallel das, was notwendige Voraussetzung war: eine gewisse Form der Transsubstantiation, die der Mittelpunkt der heiligen Menschenweihehandlung war. Die Priester der Gegenwart und der nächsten Zukunft sind dazu berufen, diese Transsubstantiation und damit alles, was eigentlich im priesterlichen Wirken liegt, in einer neuen Form zu erleben. Das wird nicht gut möglich sein, ohne gründlich zu verstehen, worin die Transsubstantiation und die Apokalypse in den vier aufeinander folgenden Perioden der Menschheitsentwickelung eigentlich dem Leben nach bestehen.
[ 5 ] Das eine haben wir gesehen: Die Menschenweihehandlung mit der Transsubstantiation — ist ein Handeln der Menschen in Gemeinschaft mit der göttlich-geistigen Welt. Ohne das Bewußtsein, daß der Mensch gemeinschaftlich mit den Göttern handeln kann, ohne dieses Bewußtsein ist ein priesterliches Wirken überhaupt nicht möglich.
[ 6 ] Werfen wir noch einmal den Blick auf die älteste Form der Menschenweihehandlung und auf die älteste Form des Transsubstantiierens, dann finden wir, daß zu gewissen Zeiten, die eigentlich Differenzzeiten darstellen zwischen dem, was der Mensch als Zeitfolge im Jahreslauf berechnen kann und dem, was im Kosmos sich vollzieht, die Götter den Weg zu den Menschen finden. Die Götter stiegen herab in solchen ausgesparten Zeiten, in den heiligen Zeiten, in denen der Mensch in die von ihm berechnete Zeit gewissermaßen etwas einfügen mußte, weil der Gang des Kosmos nicht mit seinen Berechnungen übereinstimmt. In diesen Zeiten also, in denen der Mensch sich unmittelbar unter kosmischen Einfluß stellen mußte, um die Transsubstantiation zu vollziehen, bewahrte er dann etwas von diesen Substanzen auf, die aus dem Kosmos heraus eine Verwandlung erfahren hatten, um mit diesem Aufbewahrten die Transsubstantiation in den folgenden Zeiten zu vollziehen.
[ 7 ] In diesen Zeiten war der angemessene Aufenthalt der Priester und der Laiengläubigen für die Transsubstantiation die Erdhöhle, die Felsenhöhle. Und in der Tat, überall in den alten Mysterienzeiten, in denen ein volles Bewußtsein von der Anwesenheit der Götter und der Bedeutung der Transsubstantiation entwickelt wurde, sehen wir, daß erstrebt wird, die heilige Handlung zu verlegen in Felsentempel, in Erdtempel, in das Unterirdische der Erde.
[ 8 ] Daß das versucht wurde, hängt zusammen mit den Erfahrungen und Erlebnissen, die der Priester bei der Transsubstantiation machte. Die Transsubstantiation besteht ja in der Verwandlung der in der irdischen Materie gegebenen Substantialität. Und man kann, wenn man den Prozeß vollständig überschauen will, die Kommunion, das Aufnehmen des Transsubstantiierten in die eigene Menschenwesenheit, dazurechnen, so daß eigentlich die zwei letzten Hauptteile der Menschenweihehandlung, die Transsubstantiation und die Kommunion, in dieser Beziehung eine Einheit bilden, und das Evangeliumlesen und das Offertorium die Vorbereitung dazu darstellen. Wenn wir in diesem Zusammenhang in der Transsubstantiation und in der Kommunion eine einheitliche priesterliche Handlung, eine einheitliche Kultushandlung schen, so können wir auf jene Auffassung deuten, die in den ältesten Mysterien jene Initiierten hatten, die man auch wohl die «Väter» nannte. Die «Väter», das bezeichnete einen Grad des Initiiertseins, den Grad des «Vaters». Daher ist ja der Name geblieben, den heute noch die Priester vieler Konfessionen tragen: Pater.
[ 9 ] Nun, der Priester erlebte, während er die Transsubstantiation im Erdtempel, im Felsentempel vollzog, das Einswerden seines physischen Organismus mit der ganzen Erde. Deshalb der Felsentempel, deshalb der Erdtempel. In Wahrheit müssen wir uns ja auch wenn wir in unserem heutigen gewöhnlichen Erdenbewußtsein leben zwischen Geburt und Tod - in der Wirklichkeit eins fühlen mit dem, was uns im Kosmos umgibt. Und so war es ja während der ganzen irdischen Entwickelung der Menschheit.
[ 10 ] Die Luft, die Sie jetzt in ihrem Leib haben, war ja kurz vorher außerhalb des Leibes, und sie wird kurze Zeit nachher wieder außerhalb des Leibes sein. Die Luft, die außerhalb Ihres Leibes ist, und die Luft, die innerhalb Ihres Leibes ist, ist ein Ganzes. Die ganze Erscheinung ist diese: Es ist ein Luftmeer da, und indem der Mensch einatmet, verwandelt sich ein Teil dieses Luftmeeres in den Menschen. Die Luft ist aufgenommen, sie dringt überall hinein, sie füllt den Menschen aus, sie wird selbst menschliche Form. Diese Form löst sich beim Ausatmen sogleich wieder auf in das Luftmeer. Es ist ein fortwährendes Entstehen und Vergehen des luftförmig gestalteten Menschen. Es fällt uns nur nicht ins Bewußtsein.
[ 11 ] Wenn der alte indische Yogi seine Atemübungen bewußt vollzogen hat, war das jedesmal auch in seinem Bewußtsein. Er fühlte sich nicht abgesondert, sondern eins mit dem ganzen Luftmeer der Erde, er fühlte das fortwährende Entstehen und Vergehen des luftförmigen Menschen in jeder Systole und Diastole. Das kann man ohne weiteres durch bloße Atemübungen erleben, die nur heute nicht mehr angemessen sind für die Menschen.
[ 12 ] Aber der Mensch ist ja nicht bloß im Physischen irdischer Mensch. Er ist irdischer Mensch, indem vorzugsweise das tätig ist, was wir den physischen Leib nennen, er ist aber auch Flüssigkeitsmensch. Der ganze Mensch ist ausgefüllt von der in ihm zirkulierenden Flüssigkeit, wodurch irdischer Mensch und Flüssigkeitsmensch aufeinander wirken und sich gegenseitig beeinflussen. Der Flüssigkeitsmensch ist vorzugsweise abhängig von dem Ätherleib, denn die Kräfte des Ätherleibes wirken weniger in dem, was fest ist, sondern mehr in dem, was flüssig ist.
[ 13 ] Und dann tragen wir noch den Luftmenschen und den Wärmemenschen in uns. Der Luftmensch, der die Atmung besorgt, steht unter den Kräften des astralischen Leibes, und der Wärmemensch ist vorzugsweise unter die Wirkung der Ich-Organisation gestellt. Sie brauchen nur sich daran zu erinnern, daß, wenn Sie mit dem Thermometer an irgendeiner Stelle des Körpers messen, außen oder innen, diese Temperatur differenziert ist. Schon bei dieser groben Art der Wärmemessung zeigt sich, daß der Mensch ein differenzierter Wärmeorganismus ist.
[ 14 ] So finden wir im Menschen die vier Elemente: die Erde unter dem Einfluß des physischen Leibes, das Wasser unter dem Einfluß des Ätherleibes, die Luft unter dem Einfluß des astralischen Leibes, und die Wärme, das Feuer, unter dem Einfluß der IchOrganisation.
[ 15 ] Das, was durch die Transsubstantiation im Verein mit der Kommunion bei den alten Vätern bewirkt worden ist, ist das, daß sie nun die physische Organisation in Zusammenhang mit der Erde fühlten, wenn sie sich in den Felsen- oder Erdtempel begeben hatten, um unmittelbar zusammenzuwachsen mit dieser irdischen Entwickelung.
[ 16 ] Alles, was der Mensch heute denkt über seine eigene Wesenheit — wie er sagt: wissenschaftlich denkt —, ist ja eigentlich grundfalsch, ist ja im Grunde genommen Unsinn. Alles, was sich auf den Menschen bezieht, muß ganz anders vorgestellt werden. Und diese Vorstellungen ergaben sich für die alten Väter aus dem heiligen Menschenweiheopfer durch eine unmittelbare Anschauung infolge der Transsubstantiation. Sie wußten, wir atmen nicht nur Luft durch unsere Atmungsorgane, wir nehmen fortwährend aus dem Kosmos alle möglichen Stoffe durch unsere Sinnesorgane auf; durch das Haar, durch die Haut werden fortwährend alle möglichen Stoffe aus dem Kosmos aufgenommen. Und so, wie der bewußt Atmende die Luft einziehen fühlt in seine Atmungsorgane, so fühlte der alte Priester aus der Kieselumgebung, in der er im unterirdischen Weihetempel war, die Substanzen in sich übergehen und seine Nerven-Sinnesorganisation durchdringen. So wie der Luftmensch die Luft weitergehen fühlt, wenn er bewußt atmet, so durchdringen diese Substanzen den ganzen Organismus. Der alte Priester wußte, daß der Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-Mensch in seiner substantiellen Zusammensetzung nichts hat von dem, was man ißt. Nichts von dem, was man ißt, geht in den Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-Menschen hinein.
[ 17 ] Substantielles wird aufgenommen aus dem Kosmos. Die ganze Ernährungstheorie von heute ist in Wahrheit unwahr. Dasjenige, was gegessen wird und umgewandelt wird durch die Verdauungsorganisation, das fühlte der zelebrierende Vater den Weg nehmen vom Stoffwechsel-Menschen zum Nerven-Sinnes-Menschen, vorzugsweise zum Kopf, und er wußte: Was du ißt, wird in dir verwandelt zur Substanz des Hauptes und desjenigen, was damit zusammenhängt. Gerade das aber, was in dir die Organe bildet, welche den Stoffwechsel besorgen, wird aus dem Kosmos durch eine feinere Atmung aufgenommen. Und so fühlte er die Substantialität des Kosmos von allen Seiten aufgenommen durch die Sinne und Nerven und konstituieren seinen Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-Menschen. Er fühlte die nach unten gehende Strömung, die von allen Seiten des Kosmos ihren Ursprung nimmt und von oben nach unten in seinen Organismus strömt. Und er fühlte, daß das, was der Mensch unmittelbar als Nahrung aufnimmt und was im Körper verwandelt wird, den umgekehrten Weg nimmt und gerade den oberen Menschen konstituiert.
[ 18 ] Eine abwärtsfließende und eine aufwärtsfließende Strömung hatte der Vater in sich, indem er die Transsubstantiation vollzog. Vollzog er dann die Kommunion, so wußte er, weil sein physischer Leib ihm in diesen Strömungen bewußt geworden war, sich in Zusammenhang mit dem Kosmos. Er einverleibte das, was er eben durch das Zelebrieren auf dem Altar erhalten hatte, der von oben nach unten gehenden und der von unten nach oben gehenden Strömung in sich; er einverleibte, indem er eins geworden war mit der Erde, das, was er auf dem Altar zubereitet hatte, mit Strömungen, die gemeinsam der Erde und seinem Leib angehören, mit dem Göttlichen auf der Erde, das ein Spiegel ist des Universums. Er wußte sich eins mit dem Universum, mit dem, was außerhalb war. Er wußte, daß diese Mahlzeit, die er auf diese Weise eingenommen hatte, eine Mahlzeit war, die sein kosmischer Mensch vollzog. Aufgehen fühlte er durch das, was einströmte in die nach abwärts und in die nach aufwärts gehende Strömung, den göttlichen Menschen selber, der ein Genosse der herabgestiegenen Götter sein durfte. Er fühlte sich von den Göttern in seinem physischen Leibe zum göttlichen Menschen umgestaltet, selber transsubstantiiert. Und in diesem Augenblick war es, daß er aus dem tiefsten Herzen das aussprach: Ich bin jetzt nicht der, der da herumgeht in der physischen Welt; ich bin der, in dem der Gott, der herabgestiegen ist, lebt; ich bin der, dessen Name alle Laute umfaßt, der gewesen ist im Anfang, der ist in der Mitte, der sein wird am Ende. Ich bin das Alpha und das Omega.
[ 19 ] Und es hing dann ab von der Art und Weise, wie sein Inneres durch dieses Erfühlen sich gestaltete, wieweit er wirklich teilnehmen konnte an den Geheimnissen des Kosmos, an dem göttlichen Wirken und Schaffen im Kosmos, an dem Sich-Offenbaren der Kräfte und Substanzen und Wesenheiten im Kosmos unter dem göttlich-geistigen Schaffen. Das war das Wirken des Priesters in den alten Mysterien.
[ 20 ] Gehen wir in die halbalten Mysterien, dann finden wir, daß da innerhalb der Tempel, die nun nicht mehr aus denselben Sehnsuchten heraus in das Unterirdische der Erde verlegt wurden — oder wenn sie dahin verlegt wurden, so geschah es aus Tradition, es wurde nicht mehr lebendig verstanden, aber es lebte gerade dadurch die Tradition weiter, auch wenn sie den lebendigen Inhalt verloren hatte -, daß da in den Tempeln, die bereits über die Erde herauf sich erhoben hatten, namentlich alles das eine große Rolle spielte, was Weihwasser ist, was Waschungen sind, was solche Opferhandlungen sind, die mit dem Wasser zusammenhängen.
[ 21 ] Es sind ja noch solche Traditionen vorhanden geblieben in dem Vollziehen der Taufe, in dem Untertauchen ins Wasser beim Taufen. Es handelt sich hier darum, daß nun dasjenige, was der Priester vollzog, weniger mit dem unmittelbaren Elemente zusammenhing, sondern daß schon durch die aufgewandte innere Kraft der Opferhandlung nunmehr eins wurde mit dem Universum der Flüssigkeitsmensch, der Mensch, in dem die Kräfte des Ätherleibes wirken. Es war so, daß jetzt, wenn die Transsubstantiation vollzogen wurde und wenn alles das in der Weihehandlung vorausging und folgte, was in irgendeiner Weise zu tun hat mit dem flüssigen Element, daß dann der Mensch wieder fühlte, wie in ihm nunmehr zeitlich arbeitete die Organisation des ätherischen Leibes. Und im Vollzug der Transsubstantiation fühlte der Mensch, wie gewissermaßen sein Wachstum von Kindheit auf sich gestaltete unter dem Einfluß des flüssigen Elementes in ihm, wie es sich weitergestaltete und wie in diesem Strömen von der Vergangenheit durch die Gegenwart bis in die Zukunft hinein der Ätherleib wirkt.
[ 22 ] Wie sich durch den physischen Leib die alten Priester eins fühlten mit dem irdischen Element, so fühlte sich der Transsubstantiierende in den halbalten Mysterien der zweiten Mysterienepoche eins mit dem, was als Wäßriges im ganzen Kosmos lebt. Er fühlte die Wachstumskräfte von allen Wesen in sich selbst aufkeimen, sprossen, wachsen, sich entfalten zu dem entwickelten Organismus und sich wieder zusammenziehen zum Keim. Er fühlte diese sprossende, sprießende, lebende, sterbende Tätigkeit, indem er die Transsubstantiation vollzog. Er konnte sich in jedem Moment sagen: Jetzt weiß ich, wie Wesen in der Welt entstehen, wie Wesen in der Welt sterben. — Denn die aufsteigenden und die absteigenden Kräfte des Ätherischen waren in ihm tätig. Er fühlte sozusagen die Ewigkeit in der heiligen Transsubstantiation.
[ 23 ] Und wenn wir wiederum zusammennehmen die Transsubstantiation mit der Kommunion als eine einheitliche Opferhandlung, Weihehandlung, dann wußte der kommunizierende Priester von dem Aufgehen der auf diese Art verwandelten Substanzen, wie es gestern geschildert worden ist, in seinem ätherischen WasserMenschenwesen. Eins fühlte er sich da mit allem, was bewahrt die Unsterblichkeit, was entsteht und vergeht, geboren wird und stirbt im Weltenall. Geburt und Tod wehten über den Altar und vom Altar in die Schar der Gläubigen hinein. Es war ein Durchströmtwerden mit Ewigkeitsgefühlen. Und dieses Durchströmtwerden mit Ewigkeitsgefühlen war eben dasjenige, das an die Stelle des Alten getreten war, das ein Sich-Einsfühlen war mit dem gesamten Kosmos durch die Erde.
[ 24 ] Und als dann das dritte Zeitalter heraufkam, sollte gerade der Mensch in der heiligen Weihehandlung bewußt miterleben sein Einswerden mit dem Luftelement und durch das Luftelement mit dem Kosmos.
[ 25 ] In einer anderen Weise wurde drüben im Orient bei dem als Menschenindividualität einsam strebenden Yogi bewirkt, daß er sich bewußt wurde des Strömens göttlich-geistiger übersinnlicher Weltenkräfte im Einatmen und im Ausatmen. Der Yogi ergriff direkt den Atem. Schon in Westasien, noch mehr in Europa, wurde nicht mehr direkt, unmittelbar der undifferenzierte Atem ergriffen, sondern es wurde in den Atem hinein intoniert das magische Wort. Dadurch wurde im magischen Wort, im Kultwort, der Atem, die im Menschen ein- und ausströmende Luft erfaßt. Daher kam es, daß in dem, was entweder in den Opferrauch gesagt wurde oder was unmittelbar durch die Intonation des magischen, des Kultuswortes erlebt wurde, sich offenbarte das Hinaufstreben der menschlichen Kräfte zu den göttlichen Kräften. Man fühlte gewissermaßen: Man selber intonierte das magische, das Kultuswort, das Gebetswort. — Jedes Gebet hat im Grunde genommen diesen Sinn: Der Mensch bemüht sich, mit seinen Kräften hinaufzusteigen in die göttlich-geistige Region; er begegnet da den Göttern. Und indem er da das Wort intoniert, spricht nicht mehr er, sondern es spricht im Kultwort die sich offenbarende Gottheit; sie offenbart sich im Luftelement. Der Mensch fühlte sich von seinem eigenen Astralleib aus in demjenigen, was die Kräfte der Luft beherrscht.
[ 26 ] Und nun müssen Sie sich einmal überlegen, wie groß, wie stark der Übergang war von den halbalten Mysterien zu den halbneuen Mysterien, von der zweiten in die dritte Epoche. Das, was die alten Väter erlebten, wurde ja im physischen Leib erlebt. Es war eine Steigerung der Tätigkeit des physischen Leibes. Das, was der Sonnenpriester der zweiten Epoche erlebte, war eine Steigerung des Ätherleibes, des Flüssigkeits-Menschenleibes. Das, was der Priester der dritten Epoche erlebte, indem er das Kultwort intonierte und da erlebte das Strömen der göttlich-geistigen Kräfte, das wurde im Astralleib erlebt. Der astralische Leib ist für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein da schon nur mehr zum geringsten Teil ein Vermittler des Bewußtseins gewesen. Nur in den älteren Zeiten der dritten Epoche konnten die Priester noch im magisch gesprochenen Kultwort erfühlen: Indem ich spreche, spricht der Gott in mir. - Dann aber nahm das ab. Der astralische Leib blieb in seinen Wirkungen unbewußt dem Bewußtsein, das immer mehr heraufkam. Er ist ja völlig unbewußt dem heute vorhandenen Bewußtsein. Daher wurde nach und nach der verbale Inhalt des Kultus etwas, was bei denjenigen, die berufen waren, die göttliche Gegenwart bedeuten konnte, und bei denen, die unberufen waren, das Intonieren eines ihnen nicht zum Bewußtsein Kommenden war.
[ 27 ] Das ist ja dann immer mehr so geworden bei einer großen Anzahl der Priester, die im Katholizismus dienten. Es kam daher so, daß die Menschenweihehandlung, die Messe, nach und nach das wurde, was allerdings der Priester zelebrierte, in dem er aber nicht mehr selbst anwesend war. Aber man kann nicht mit diesen intonierten Worten zelebrieren, ohne die Inkorporation von Luftwesenheiten, das heißt, ohne daß Geistigkeit anwesend ist. Es gibt nirgends ein gestaltetes Materielles, in dem nicht sofort Geistigkeit Platz greifen würde. Und so ist, wenn mit dem wirklichen Kultwort die Weihehandlung zelebriert wird - sei es auch durch den unwürdigsten Priester -, vielleicht nicht seine Seele, aber immer Geistiges vorhanden; so daß in der Tat der Gläubige unter allen Umständen, wenn die Liturgie eine richtige ist, einem geistigen Vorgang beiwohnt.
[ 28 ] Aber nachdem das im letzten Stadium der dritten Epoche immer mehr dekadent wurde, glaubten die mehr nach dem Rationalistischen hin arbeitenden Bekenntnisse, die evangelischen Bekenntnisse, das Zelebrieren im Kultus überhaupt von sich abwerfen zu können. Es war kein Bewußtsein von der Bedeutung des Kultus mehr vorhanden, von der unmittelbar realen Zusammenarbeit der Menschen mit den Göttern. Das hat dann die Zeiten innerlichen Erlebens herbeigeführt, in denen wir heute leben. Die Menschenweihehandlung, die unmittelbar das göttlich-geistige Leben herunterbringt auf die Erde, wurde allmählich etwas Unverstandenes. Was durch sie erlebt werden soll, Apokalyptik, wurde etwas Unverstandenes.
[ 29 ] Das waren im Grunde genommen die Erlebnisse, die diejenigen von Euch gehabt haben, die da eines Tages gekommen sind und gesagt haben: Es muß eine christliche Erneuerung eintreten. - Sie empfanden das, was in der heutigen Zivilisation lebt und was auch im religiösen Leben der heutigen Zivilisation lebt, sie empfanden das religiöse Leben aller Konfessionen bereits als getrennt von der wirklichen, realen geistigen Welt. Sie suchten den Weg wieder zur wirklichen, realen geistigen Welt.
[ 30 ] Das ist es ja, was wegweisend ist und was uns zugleich in die Tiefe der Mysterien hineinführen wird, die mit der Apokalypse zusammenhängen: daß die Transsubstantiation in der ersten Epoche zusammenhängt durch das Erleben mit dem physischen Leib, in der zweiten Epoche durch das Erleben mit dem Ätherleib und in der dritten Epoche durch das Erleben mit dem Astralleib; und an Euch, an Eurem innerlichen Erleben des Wirkens und Webens der Geistigkeit in der Welt hängt es, daß die Weihehandlung und die Apokalyptik von dem Ich der Menschheit ergriffen werde.
[ 31 ] Damit ist aber jede richtige Auffassung von dem, was durch diese Bewegung für religiöse Erneuerung getan werden soll, davon abhängig, daß dies zu Tuende unmittelbar aufgefaßt werde als die Ausführung einer uns gestellten, einer uns übersinnlich gestellten Aufgabe, einer Aufgabe, die in den Dienst der übersinnlichen Mächte das stellt, was sie tut. Denn entweder muß das, was Ihr tut, in das Wesenlose verrinnen und nur eine Art von Störung gewesen sein in der jetzigen Evolution des Weltalls, wenn Ihr nicht die Tiefe Eurer Aufgabe erfaßt; oder aber Ihr erfaßt die Tiefe Eurer Aufgabe, Ihr fühlt diese Aufgabe von vornherein verbunden nicht mit dem Wirken von Menschen, sondern verbunden mit dem Wirken von Göttern durch die Erdenevolution hindurch. Dann müßt Ihr Euch sagen: Wir sind dazu berufen, die vierte Mysterienepoche der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung mitzugestalten. - Dann allein, wenn Ihr den Mut und die Kraft und den Ernst und die Ausdauer habt, in dieser Weise Euch in Eure Aufgabe zu finden, dann allein ist diese Aufgabe in den Dienst der Mächte gestellt, welche den Inhalt jenes Kultus haben unmittelbar herunterfließen lassen aus der geistigen Welt, als wir vor zwei Jahren hier zusammen waren. Dann allein ist das real, was Ihr durch den Inhalt dieses Kultus, der eine Offenbarung aus der geistigen Welt ist und der als solcher Euch überstrahlt hat, übernommen habt.
[ 32 ] Und dann werdet Ihr immer mehr fühlen und empfinden, es war so: Der Christus ist zunächst in einer kosmisch realen, tellurisch realen Handlung in das Erdenleben eingezogen. Das Mysterium von Golgatha ist als reale Handlung da. Der Mensch muß es in unserer Zeit mit seinem Ich erst vereinigen. Denn das erste Angedenken an das heilige Abendmahl war noch getaucht in die dritte Mysterienepoche, in die Epoche, wo der astralische Leib die in dem Luftigen sich vollziehenden Kultwirkungen aufnahm und beherrschte. Jetzt aber handelt es sich darum, daß mit voller Bewußtheit der Mensch sein tiefstes Inneres verbindet mit dem Christus und anfängt, die Apokalypse in einer neuen Weise zu verstehen.
[ 33 ] Und wie verstand man in der ersten Mysterienepoche die Apokalypse? Man erlebte sie als die Anwesenheit der Götter, die da sind der Anfang, die Mitte und das Ende, das Alpha und das Omega.
[ 34 ] Wie verstand man in der zweiten Mysterienepoche die Anwesenheit der göttlichen Kräfte? Man erlebte sie in dem, was als Sphärenmusik durch die Welt klang, in dem vom Himmel zur Erde strömenden Weltenwort, das alles geschaffen hat, das in allem schafft, in allem lebt. Man erlebte in dieser Zeit dasjenige wie in einem Augenblick, was im Anfang, in der Mitte und am Ende ist. Man erlebte in dem kosmischen Weltenwort das Alpha und das Omega. Und immer, wenn in den verschiedenen Epochen von dem Alpha und dem Omega gesprochen wurde — gewiß mit anderen Lauten, aber eigentlich ähnlich noch den griechischen Lauten -, immer war das Bestreben da, zu erkennen, was eigentlich in diesem Alpha und Omega enthalten ist, in dem Ersten und dem Letzten.
[ 35 ] Und in der dritten Mysterienepoche, wie verstand man da die Apokalyptik? Man verstand die Apokalyptik so, daß der Mensch das noch halbbewußte Kultwort entfaltete. Wenn der Mensch dies halbbewußte Kultwort intonierte und dies sich selber transsubstantiierte, wie ich es durch das folgende veranschaulichen kann, dann wurde in der dritten Epoche das Apokalyptische wahrgenommen. Vielleicht hat jemand von Euch - oder die meisten von Euch - an einem Tage, wo er empfänglich mit Sinnen und Seele den Eindrücken der Außenwelt hingegeben sein konnte, irgend etwas Musikalisches gehört, ist mit diesem musikalischen Eindruck schlafen gegangen, und ist dann mitten im Schlafen aufgewacht. Da war es vielleicht so, wie wenn er lebte in einem Gewoge, aber in einem transformierten Gewoge desjenigen, was er am Tage als Symphonie gehört hatte. So war es bei den Priestern in der dritten Mysterienepoche. Es ist das, was für sie geschah, vergleichbar mit diesem trivialen Erleben, das ich eben herangezogen habe. Sie zelebrierten die Weihehandlung mit dem Kultwort, von dem sie erlebten, daß in ihm anwesend wurde die Gottheit. Sie hatten das Kultwort hinaufgeschickt, die Gottheit war in das Kultwort eingeströmt. Sie gingen in jener Stimmung, in der es sich gebührt von der heiligen Handlung wegzugehen, von ihr weg, und sie erlebten in dem Transsubstantiierten nicht nur das, was menschliches Kultwort war, in dem anwesend wurde die göttliche Geistigkeit, sondern sie erlebten nun dasjenige, was sie ausgesprochen hatten, transsubstantiiert, transformiert; sie erlebten das übersinnliche Echo dessen, was sie selbst intoniert hatten in der Liturgie der Messe, indem es ihnen transformiert zuströmte und ihnen das Apokalyptische offenbarte. Der Gott offenbarte als Gegengabe für die entsprechend zelebrierte Opferhandlung das Apokalyptische. So empfand man das Apokalyptische in der dritten Mysterienepoche.
[ 36 ] Derjenige, der sich zum Priester gemacht fühlte durch den Christus Jesus selber, der Verfasser der Apokalypse, die uns beschäftigen soll, er fühlte gewissermaßen als der erste, was nachher kaum je oder wenigstens nur von sehr wenigen wiedererlebt worden ist; er fühlte das Aufgehen des apokalyptischen Inhaltes in dem eigenen Ich. Denn der astralische Leib war es, der das Echo in sich aufnahm, von dem ich gesprochen habe, wo der Gott das Apokalyptische gab als Gegengabe gegenüber dem Worte.
[ 37 ] Derjenige, der die Apokalypse des Johannes verfaßt hat, der fühlte sein vollbewußtes Ich eins mit jenem Inhalt, den er niedergelegt hat in der Apokalypse. Das war so, daß gerade aus dem längst verglommenen Opferdienst von Ephesus aus inspirierende Anregung kam für den von Christus Jesus selber sich gesalbt fühlenden Priester, den Verfasser der Apokalypse, so daß er sich fühlte wie in einem fortwährenden Zelebrieren der uralt heiligen Weihehandlung. Er fühlte, wie dieses völlige Erfülltsein des Ich mit dem Sinn der Weihehandlung nun auch ein völliges Erfülltsein mit dem Inhalt des Apokalyptischen war.
[ 38 ] So ist die Apokalypse so aus Johannes herausgesprochen, wie eigentlich im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein einzig das Wörtchen «Ich» herausgesprochen wird aus dem Menschen. Wenn der Mensch «Ich» sagt, spricht er sein Inneres aus in diesen wenigen Lauten. Es kann nichts anderes damit gemeint sein als die eine, individuelle menschliche Wesenheit. Aber dieses eine enthält einen reichen Inhalt. Und ein reicher Inhalt ist der Inhalt der Apokalypse.
[ 39 ] Wenn wir alles das, was religiöses Fühlen und Vertiefen der Seele geben kann, wenn alles das, was als energisch angestrebte Erleuchtung, als Hinstreben zum Verständnis des Übersinnlichen, im Geiste des Menschen wirken kann, wenn wir uns anregen lassen durch die Betrachtung der drei vergangenen Mysterienepochen, wenn dasjenige, was in der ersten, zweiten und dritten Mysterienepoche lebte, uns zum lebendigen Inspirator für die vierte werden kann, und wenn wir die Kraft des Geistes Gottes in der Seele wirken lassen, wie es heute wiederum möglich ist -, dann werden wir erleben können, daß es numerisch nicht nur eine Apokalypse gibt, sondern daß es so viele Apokalypsen gibt, wie menschliche Gott-hingegebene Iche aus den einzelnen Priestern zu Christus sprechen, der durch diese Bewegung für christliche Erneuerung wiedergefunden werden soll.
[ 40 ] Die Apokalypse bleibt eine ihrer Qualität nach, numerisch kann sie der Inhalt werden jeder einzelnen Priesterseele. Umgekehrt, jede einzelne Seele, die die Menschenweihehandlung vollzieht, kann Priesterseele werden dadurch, daß sie in sich die Vorbereitung durchmacht, das Ich zu identifizieren mit dem Inhalt der Apokalypse. Wir sind als Menschen Iche, wir werden im modernen Sinne des Wortes Priester, wenn die Apokalypse nicht bloß im Evangelium steht, wenn die Apokalypse aber auch nicht nur in unseren Herzen steht als ein fertig Geschriebenes, sondern wenn das Ich sich bewußt wird, daß es in jedem Augenblick des Lebens selbsterzeugend einen Abdruck der Apokalypse hervorbringt.
[ 41 ] Nehmen Sie dies als Bild: Jemand schreibt den Inhalt eines Buches. Es wird in die Druckerei geschickt. Es ist das ein scheinbar pedantisch-philiströses Bild, das Ihnen aber doch dienen kann. Das Buch wird gedruckt und geht in soundsovielen numerisch voneinander verschiedenen, aber inhaltlich einsseienden Exemplaren in die Welt. Eines ist es, worauf Ihr hingewiesen werdet gleich im Beginn der Apokalypse, eines ist es, was von Christus selbst dem Johannes geoffenbart wird. Denn «dies ist die Offenbarung Jesu Christi, empfangen von seinem Diener Johannes» (Apk. 1, 1). Eines ist der Inhalt, aber vervielfältigt wird es im Selbsterzeugen dieses Inhalts aus der Weisheit der übersinnlichen Welten.
[ 42 ] Das ist Verstehen der Apokalypse des Johannes. Das heißt aber auch, im tieferen Sinne des Wortes das Wort verstehen: Der Christus hat uns zu Priestern geweiht. — Ihr habt gefühlt, was es bedeutet, wenn der Apokalyptiker sagt, ihn habe der Christus selber zum Priester gesalbt. Die Salbung zum Priester erfolgt, wenn gefühlt wird, wie in Johannes der Inhalt der Apokalypse entstanden ist. Wenn gefühlt wird, daß diese Menschen von heute, die Priester werden wollen, es dadurch werden, daß sie selbsterzeugend in sich selbst das Ich in der Apokalypse erleben, wird das Ich apokalyptisch; dann ist das Ich priesterlich.
Davon dann morgen.
Second lecture
[ 1 ] We want to first take a closer look at the connection between the Act of Consecration of Man and the apocalyptic, in order to then be able to approach the Book of Revelation and its significance for the present and future priestly work.
[ 2 ] Yesterday we had to refer to three past epochs of the mysteries, insofar as these mysteries sought to bring the priest to the apocalyptic mood through what was going on in the priest. We have referred to ancient mysteries in which the gods themselves descended in order to work together with humans in the mysteries, and we have referred to semi-ancient mystery times in which the gods sent down their powers, thus enabling humans to work together with the gods in the universe by living in the realm of the powers of the gods.
[ 3 ] I said: The way was completely reversed in the third epoch, in the semi-new mysteries. There it was about the fact that man formed those forces, which he had to develop first, so that they could lead up to the gods. And we see there how man sought the way to the divine-spiritual forces of the world through the intonation of the magic word in the cultic ceremony - whether he spoke this magic word into the smoke in the and through the word conjured up images from the smoke, or whether the word had a direct effect on the whole mood of the soul, so that in the word he became aware of the divine spiritual working.
[ 4 ] And this development of a certain religious sense by man - which can actually only be described separately - was always paralleled by what was a necessary prerequisite: a certain form of transubstantiation, which was the centerpiece of the sacred Act of Consecration of Man. The priests of the present and the near future are called upon to experience this transubstantiation and thus everything that actually lies in priestly work in a new form. This will not be possible without a thorough understanding of what transubstantiation and the apocalypse actually consist of in the four successive periods of human development.
[ 5 ] We have seen one thing: the Act of Consecration of Man with transubstantiation – is an act of people in communion with the divine spiritual world. Without the awareness that man can act in communion with the gods, without this awareness, priestly work is not possible at all.
[ 6 ] If we look again at the oldest form of the Act of Consecration of Man and at the oldest form of transubstantiation, we find that at certain times, which actually represent the difference between what man can calculate as the sequence of the year and what takes place in the cosmos, the gods find their way to man. The gods descended at such set times, at the holy times, when man had to, as it were, insert something into the time calculated by him, because the course of the cosmos does not correspond to his calculations. In these times, then, when man had to place himself directly under cosmic influence in order to perform transubstantiation, he then kept some of these substances, which had undergone a transformation from the cosmos, in order to perform transubstantiation with this kept substance in the following times.
[ 7 ] In those times, the appropriate place for priests and lay believers to undergo transubstantiation was a cave or a rock shelter. And indeed, everywhere in the ancient mystery times, where a full awareness of the presence of the gods and the meaning of transubstantiation was developed, we see that efforts were made to relocate the sacred act to rock temples, to earth temples, to the underground of the earth.
[ 8 ] This attempt is connected with the experiences and insights that the priest gained during the transubstantiation. Transubstantiation consists in the transformation of the substantiality present in earthly matter. And if one wants to have a complete overview of the process, one can include Communion, the absorption of the transubstantiated into one's own human existence, so that actually the last two main parts of the Act of Consecration of Man, transubstantiation and communion, form a unity in this respect, and the reading of the gospel and the offertory represent the preparation for this. If we see transubstantiation and communion as a unified priestly act, a unified cultic act, then we can point to the view that the ancient mysteries held among those initiated, who were also called “fathers”. The “fathers” indicated a degree of initiation, the degree of the “father”. That is where the name comes from, which is still borne by the priests of many denominations today: Father.
[ 9 ] Now, while performing transubstantiation in the Earth Temple, in the Rock Temple, the priest experienced the merging of his physical organism with the whole Earth. That is why there is the rock temple and the earth temple. In truth, even when we live in our present ordinary earth-consciousness between birth and death, we must feel in reality one with that which surrounds us in the cosmos. And so it was during the whole earthly development of humanity.
[ 10 ] The air that you now have in your body was just outside the body shortly before, and it will be outside the body again shortly afterwards. The air that is outside your body and the air that is inside your body is one whole. The whole phenomenon is this: There is a sea of air, and when a person inhales, part of this sea of air is transformed into the person. The air is absorbed, it penetrates everywhere, it fills the person, it itself becomes human form. This form immediately dissolves back into the sea of air when the person exhales. It is a continuous coming into being and passing away of the human being shaped like air. It just does not enter our consciousness.
[ 11 ] When the ancient Indian yogi performed his breathing exercises consciously, it was always in his consciousness. He did not feel separate, but at one with the entire sea of air on earth; he felt the continuous arising and ceasing of the air-shaped human being in every systole and diastole. This can easily be experienced through mere breathing exercises, which are just no longer appropriate for people today.
[ 12 ] But the human being is not only an earthly human being in the physical sense. He is an earthly human being in that what we call the physical body is primarily active, but he is also a liquid human being. The whole human being is filled with the fluid circulating within him, whereby the earthly human being and the liquid human being interact and influence each other. The liquid human being is primarily dependent on the etheric body, because the forces of the etheric body work less in what is solid and more in what is liquid.
[ 13 ] And then we still carry the air man and the heat man in us. The air man, who takes care of breathing, is under the forces of the astral body, and the warmth man is mainly under the effect of the ego organization. You only need to remember that if you measure with the thermometer at any point on the body, outside or inside, this temperature is differentiated. Even with this rough way of measuring warmth, it can be seen that man is a differentiated warmth organism.
[ 14 ] Thus we find the four elements in man: earth under the influence of the physical body, water under the influence of the etheric body, air under the influence of the astral body, and warmth, fire, under the influence of the ego organization.
[ 15 ] What transubstantiation, in conjunction with Communion, brought about in the ancient Fathers was that they now felt the physical organization in connection with the earth when they went into the rock or earth temple in order to grow together directly with this earthly evolution.
[ 16 ] Everything that man thinks today about his own being — as he says: thinks scientifically — is actually fundamentally wrong, is actually nonsense. Everything that relates to man must be imagined quite differently. And these perceptions arose for the ancient fathers from the Holy Sacrifice of Man through an immediate intuition as a result of transubstantiation. They knew that we not only breathe air through our respiratory organs, we constantly absorb all kinds of substances from the cosmos through our sense organs; all kinds of substances from the cosmos are constantly being absorbed through the hair and skin. And just as the consciously breathing person feels the air entering his respiratory organs, so the old priest felt the substances passing into him and permeating his nervous-sensory organization from the environment of the pebbles in which he was in the underground consecrated temple. Just as the air man feels the air passing through when he breathes consciously, so these substances permeate the whole organism. The old priest knew that the metabolic-limb man has nothing in his substantial composition of what one eats. Nothing of what one eats goes into the metabolic-limb man.
[ 17 ] Substantial matter is absorbed from the cosmos. The whole theory of nutrition today is in truth untrue. That which is eaten and transformed by the digestive system, the celebrating father felt take the path from the metabolic human being to the nerve-sense human being, preferably to the head, and he knew: What you eat is transformed in you into the substance of the head and that which is connected with it. But precisely that which forms the organs in you that take care of the metabolism is absorbed from the cosmos through a finer breathing. And so he felt the substantiality of the cosmos being absorbed from all sides through the senses and nerves and constituting his metabolic-limb-human. He felt the downward current that originates from all sides of the cosmos and flows into his organism from top to bottom. And he felt that what a person directly absorbs as nourishment and what is transformed in the body takes the opposite path and constitutes the upper man.
[ 18 ] The Father had a downward and an upward current within him as he performed transubstantiation. When he then celebrated communion, he knew, because his physical body had become aware of these currents, that he was connected to the cosmos. He incorporated into himself what he had just received by celebrating at the altar, the currents going from top to bottom and from bottom to top; he incorporated what he had prepared on the altar by becoming one with the earth, with currents that together belong to the earth and his body, with the divine on earth, which is a mirror of the universe. He knew himself at one with the universe, with that which was outside. He knew that this meal, which he had taken in this way, was a meal that his cosmic self performed. He felt absorbed by that which flowed into the downward and upward currents, the divine self, which was allowed to be a companion of the descended gods. He felt that the gods had transformed him in his physical body into a divine human being, that he himself had been transubstantiated. And it was at that moment that he uttered from the bottom of his heart: “I am not now the one who walks in the physical world; I am the one in whom the God who has descended lives; I am the one whose name encompasses all sounds, who was in the beginning, who is in the middle, who will be at the end. I am the Alpha and the Omega.
[ 19 ] And it then depended on the way in which his inner being was shaped by this feeling, to what extent he could truly participate in the secrets of the cosmos, in the divine work and creation in the cosmos, in the self-revelation of the powers and substances and entities in the cosmos under the divine-spiritual creation. That was the work of the priest in the ancient mysteries.
[ 20 ] If we turn to the semi-ancient mysteries, we find that in the temples, which were no longer built underground out of the same yearning — or if they were built that way, it was out of tradition, it was no longer understood in a living way, but it was precisely through this that the tradition lived on, even though it had lost its living content. In the temples, which had already risen above the earth, everything that plays a major role, what holy water is, what ablutions are, what such sacrificial acts are that are connected with water.
[ 21 ] Such traditions still remain in the performance of baptism, in the submerging into the water during baptism. The point here is that what the priest performed was not so much connected with the immediate element, but rather that through the inner power applied in the sacrificial act, he now became one with the universe of liquid humans, the human being in whom the forces of the etheric body are at work. It was the case that now, when transubstantiation was taking place, and when everything that preceded and followed in the act of consecration that had anything to do with the liquid element, then the human being felt again how the organization of the etheric body was now working within him over time. And in the performance of the transubstantiation, the person felt how, as it were, his growth from childhood on was shaped under the influence of the liquid element within him, how it continued to develop and how the etheric body works in this streaming from the past through the present into the future.
[ 22 ] Just as the ancient priests felt themselves at one with the earthly element through their physical bodies, so the transubstantiator in the semi-ancient mysteries of the second mystery epoch felt at one with that which lives as watery in the whole cosmos. He felt the growth forces of all beings sprout, sprout, grow, unfold within himself to become a developed organism and contract again into a germ. He felt this sprouting, sprouting, living, dying activity as he performed the transubstantiation. He could say to himself at every moment: Now I know how beings come into being in the world, how beings die in the world. — For the ascending and descending forces of the etheric were active in him. He felt, so to speak, eternity in the sacred transubstantiation.
[ 23 ] And when we again combine transubstantiation with communion as a unified sacrificial act, an act of consecration, then the communicating priest knew of the dissolution of the substances thus transformed, as described yesterday, in his etheric watery human being. He felt at one with everything in the universe that preserves immortality, that arises and passes away, that is born and dies. Birth and death wafted over the altar and from the altar into the crowd of believers. There was a flowing through with feelings of eternity. And this flowing through with feelings of eternity was precisely that which had taken the place of the old, which was a feeling of empathy with the entire cosmos through the earth.
[ 24 ] And when the third age arose, it was precisely man's conscious experience in the sacred act of consecration to become one with the air element and through the air element with the cosmos.
[ 25 ] In a different way, the yogi, who was a lonely human striving in the Orient, became aware of the flow of divine-spiritual supersensible world forces in inhalation and exhalation. The yogi grasped the breath directly. In Western Asia, and even more so in Europe, the undifferentiated breath was no longer grasped directly and immediately, but the magical word was intoned into the breath. In this way, the magical word, the cultic word, grasped the breath, the air flowing in and out of the human being. Thus it came about that in what was either spoken into the sacrificial smoke or what was directly experienced through the intonation of the magical, cultic word, the upward striving of human forces to divine forces was revealed. One felt, so to speak, that one was intoning the magical, cultic word, the word of prayer. Every prayer has this meaning at its core: the human being strives to ascend to the divine spiritual region with his powers; there he encounters the gods. And by intoning the word, it is no longer he who speaks, but the revealing deity speaks in the cultic word; it reveals itself in the element of air. Man felt his way from his own astral body to that which rules the powers of the air.
[ 26 ] And now you must consider how great and powerful the transition was from the half-ancient mysteries to the half-new mysteries, from the second to the third epoch. What the ancient fathers experienced was experienced in the physical body. It was an intensification of the activity of the physical body. What the priest of the second epoch experienced was an intensification of the etheric body, the fluid human body. What the priest of the third epoch experienced by intoning the cultic word and there the streaming of the divine spiritual forces was experienced in the astral body. For ordinary consciousness, the astral body was already only to a very small extent a mediator of consciousness. Only in the older times of the third epoch could the priests still sense in the magically spoken cultic word: “In speaking, the God in me speaks.” But then this lessened. The astral body and its effects remained unconscious to the consciousness that was emerging more and more. It is completely unconscious to the consciousness that exists today. Therefore, little by little, the verbal content of the cult became something that could signify the divine presence for those who were called, and for those who were not called, it was the intoning of something that was unconscious to them.
[ 27 ] This has increasingly become the case with a large number of priests serving in Catholicism. It therefore came about that the Act of Consecration of Man, the Mass, gradually became something that the priest celebrated, but in which he was no longer present himself. But one cannot celebrate with these intoned words without the incorporation of air entities, that is, without spirituality being present. There is nowhere a formed material in which spirituality would not immediately take hold. And so, when the act of consecration is celebrated with the actual cultic word, even if it is by the most unworthy of priests, there may not be his soul, but there is always spirituality present; so that in fact the believer, under all circumstances, if the liturgy is a correct one, attends a spiritual event.
[ 28 ] But as this became more and more decadent in the last stage of the third epoch, the denominations that were more rationalistic believed that they could discard the celebration of worship altogether. There was no longer any awareness of the significance of worship, of the direct, real collaboration of human beings with the gods. This then led to the times of inner experience in which we live today. The Act of Consecration of Man, which brings the divine spiritual life directly down to earth, gradually became something not understood. What is to be experienced through it, apocalypticism, became something not understood.
[ 29 ] These were basically the experiences of those of you who came one day and said: There must be a Christian renewal. They felt that what lives in today's civilization and what also lives in the religious life of today's civilization, they felt that the religious life of all denominations is already separated from the real, real spiritual world. They sought the way back to the real, real spiritual world.
[ 30 ] That is what is leading the way and what will also lead us into the depths of the mysteries related to the apocalypse: that transubstantiation is related to the first epoch through experiencing with the physical body, in the second epoch through the experience with the etheric body and in the third epoch through the experience with the astral body; and it depends on you, on your inner experience of the working and weaving of spirituality in the world, that the Act of Consecration and the Apocalypticism will be grasped by the I of humanity.
[ 31 ] Thus, however, every correct conception of what is to be done through this movement for religious renewal depends on this being understood directly as the fulfillment of a task set for us, a task set for us supersensibly, a task that places in the service of the supersensible powers what it does. For either what you are doing must end in nothingness and have been only a kind of disturbance in the present evolution of the universe if you do not grasp the depth of your task; or you grasp the depth of your task, you feel this task from the outset connected not with the work of men, but connected with the work of gods through the evolution of the earth. Then you must say to yourselves: We are called upon to help shape the fourth mystery epoch of human development on earth. Only if you have the courage and strength and seriousness and perseverance to find yourselves in this way in your task, only then is this task placed in the service of the powers that let the content of that cult flow down directly from the spiritual world when we were here together two years ago. Only then is it real, what you have taken on through the content of this cult, which is a revelation from the spiritual world and which, as such, has illuminated you.
[ 32 ] And then you will feel more and more that it was so: the Christ initially entered into earthly life in a cosmically real, tellurically real act. The Mystery of Golgotha is there as a real act. In our time, the human being must first unite it with his or her self. For the first remembrance of the Holy Communion was still immersed in the third mystery epoch, the epoch in which the astral body absorbed and ruled over the cultic effects that took place in the airy. But now it is a matter of man consciously connecting his innermost being with Christ and beginning to understand the Apocalypse in a new way.
[ 33 ] And how was the Apocalypse understood in the first mystery epoch? It was experienced as the presence of the gods, who are the beginning, the middle and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.
[ 34 ] How was the presence of the divine powers understood in the second mystery epoch? They were experienced in the music of the spheres that resounded throughout the world, in the streaming of the cosmic word from heaven to earth, the word that created everything, creates in everything, and lives in everything. In this time, one experienced in a moment what is in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. One experienced the Alpha and the Omega in the cosmic word. And whenever the Alpha and the Omega were spoken of in the various epochs – certainly with different sounds, but actually similar to the Greek sounds – there was always the endeavor to recognize what is actually contained in this Alpha and Omega, in the first and the last.
[ 35 ] And in the third mystery epoch, how were the apocalyptics understood? The apocalypticism was understood in such a way that man unfolded the still half-conscious cult word. When man intoned this half-conscious cult word and it transubstantiated itself, as I can illustrate with the following, then in the third epoch the apocalyptic was perceived. Perhaps some of you, or most of you, have heard something musical on a day when you were receptive to the impressions of the outside world with your senses and soul, went to bed with this musical impression, and then woke up in the middle of your sleep. It may have been as if you were living in a surge, but in a transformed surge of what you had heard as a symphony during the day. This was the case with the priests in the third mystery epoch. What happened to them is comparable to the trivial experience I have just mentioned. They celebrated the act of consecration with the cultic word, in which they experienced the presence of the deity. They had sent up the cultic word and the deity had entered into it. They left the sacred rite in the proper frame of mind in which one departs from a sacred action, and they experienced in the transubstantiated not only what was the human cultic word in which the divine spirituality became present, but they now experienced what they had spoken was transubstantiated and transformed. They experienced the supersensible echo of what they themselves had intoned in the liturgy of the Mass, as it flowed to them in a transformed state and revealed the apocalyptic to them. The God revealed the Apocalyptic in return for the appropriately celebrated sacrificial act. Thus one sensed the Apocalyptic in the third mystery epoch.
[ 36 ] The one who felt that he had been made a priest by Christ Jesus himself, the author of the Apocalypse, which is to occupy us, felt to some extent what was subsequently hardly ever relived, or at least only by very few; he felt the apocalyptic content merging into his own self. For it was the astral body that absorbed the echo within itself, of which I have spoken, where the God gave the apocalyptic in return for the word.
[ 37 ] The one who wrote the Apocalypse of John felt his fully conscious self as one with the content that he set down in the Apocalypse. It was so that precisely from the long-extinct sacrificial service of Ephesus came inspiring stimulus for the priest, the author of the Apocalypse, who felt himself anointed by Christ Jesus himself, so that he felt as if he were in a continuous celebration of the ancient sacred act of consecration. He felt how this complete fulfillment of the self with the meaning of the act of consecration was now also a complete fulfillment with the content of the apocalyptic.
[ 38 ] Thus the Apocalypse is spoken out of John as we actually speak the little word “I” in our ordinary consciousness. When a person says “I,” he expresses his innermost thoughts in these few sounds. Nothing else can be meant by them but the one, individual human essence. But this one essence contains a wealth of content. And this wealth of content is the content of the Apocalypse.
[ 39 ] If we consider everything that religious feeling and the soul's deepening can give, if everything that can work in the human spirit as energetically striven enlightenment, as striving for understanding of the supersensible, , if we allow ourselves to be inspired by the contemplation of the three past mystery epochs, if that which lived in the first, second and third mystery epochs can become a living inspirer for the fourth, and if we allow the power of the Spirit of God to work in the soul, as it possible today, we will be able to experience that there is not only one apocalypse in numerical terms, but that there are as many apocalypses as there are human, God-given selves speaking through the individual priests to Christ, who is to be rediscovered through this movement for Christian renewal.
[ 40 ] The Apocalypse remains one in quality; numerically, it can become the content of every single priestly soul. Conversely, every single soul who performs the Act of Consecration of Man can become a priestly soul by undergoing the preparation within themselves to identify the “I” with the content of the Apocalypse. We become priests in the modern sense of the word when the Apocalypse is not only written in the Gospel, but when the Apocalypse is not only written in our hearts as a finished product, but when the I becomes aware that in every moment of life it produces an imprint of the Apocalypse through its own self-generation.
[ 41 ] Take this as an image: someone writes the content of a book. It is sent to the printing press. It is a seemingly pedantic and philistine image, but it can serve you nonetheless. The book is printed and goes out into the world in so many numerically different copies, but with the same content. One thing it is, to which your attention is drawn right at the beginning of the Apocalypse, one thing it is, what is revealed by Christ himself to John. Because “this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, received by his servant John” (Rev. 1, 1). One is the content, but it is multiplied in the self-generation of this content from the wisdom of the supersensible worlds.
[ 42 ] That is the understanding of the Apocalypse of John. But it also means, in the deeper sense of the word, to understand the word: the Christ has ordained us as priests. — You have sensed what it means when the apocalyptic says that Christ Himself has anointed him as a priest. The anointing as a priest takes place when it is felt how the content of the Apocalypse came about in John. When it is felt that these people of today, who want to become priests, become priests by self-generatingly experiencing the I in the Apocalypse within themselves, the I becomes apocalyptic; then the I is priestly.
More about that tomorrow.