The Principle of Spiritual Economy
GA 109
16 May 1909, Kristiania (Oslo)
9. Ancient Revelation and Learning How to Ask Modern Questions
Today we shall stress more the occult side of yesterday's observation. The four post-Atlantean cultures somehow had to reflect the great cosmic events in the souls of human beings as they had happened in historical sequence. However, beginning with the thirteenth or fourteenth century of our cultural epoch, such a reflection no longer took place because the external events in human evolution must be traced to more profound reasons.
We know that the etheric bodies of the great Atlantean initiates had been preserved for the Seven Holy Rishis, and we also know how the etheric and astral body of Zarathustra had been woven into those of Moses and Hermes. At any time the possibility existed that such etheric bodies, which had been cultivated and prepared by the initiates, could be further used in the spiritual economy of the world. But other things took place as well. For especially important personalities, such etheric bodies are formed in the higher worlds. When somebody was especially important for the mission of humanity, an etheric body or an astral body was woven in the higher worlds and was then imprinted on this personality.
This is what happened in the case of Shem who indeed has something to do with the whole tribe of the Semites. A special etheric body was coined for such a tribal ancestor, and Shem became a sort of dual personality by this process. It may sound fantastic to the modern mind, but a clairvoyant would see a personality like Shem as he would see an ordinary human being with his or her aura; but then also in such a way as if a higher being that extends down from higher worlds completely filled his etheric body and as if the aura became a mediator between this personality and the higher world. Residing in a human being, such a divine being, however, has a very special power: it can multiply such an etheric body, and the multiplied etheric bodies then form a web that is continually woven into the descendants. Thus the descendants of Shem received an imprint of the copy of his etheric body. However, the Mystery Centers kept not only the multiplied copies but also the etheric body of Shem himself. Any personality that was meant to receive a special mission had to use this etheric body if it wanted to be able to communicate with the Semitic people, similar to the way in which a very educated European would have to learn the language of the Hottentots if he wanted to communicate with them. Therefore, the personality with a special mission had to bear within himself the real etheric body of Shem in order to be able to communicate with the Semitic people. Such a personality, for example, was Melchizedek: he could show himself to Abraham only in the etheric body of Shem.
We now have to ask ourselves something. If it is only now, in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, possible for us to develop an understanding for Christianity, what was the situation in the remainder of the Graeco-Latin era, which lasted into the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries? A mysterious, occult process took place. Christ lived only three years in the sheaths of Jesus of Nazareth, who was such a sublime individuality that He was able to leave the physical world at the age of thirty when the dove appeared over His head so that He could enter the spiritual world. Since the Christ-Individuality lived in the physical body, it filled out the three highly developed bodies of Jesus. Invisible to the physical eye, they were now multiplied as had formerly been the case with the etheric body of Shem so that the copies of the etheric and astral bodies of Jesus of Nazareth were available from the time he died on the cross. This has nothing to do with His ego; it passed into the spiritual world and has repeatedly reincarnated itself afterward.
We see how Christian writers in the first few centuries after the Christ-Event still worked on the basis of an oral tradition that was transmitted by the disciples of the Apostles, who set great value on a direct, physical transmission of the Christ-Event. However, this would not have been a sufficient building block for later centuries, and that is why a copy of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into especially eminent heralds of the Christian message beginning with the sixth and seventh centuries. One such herald was Augustine, who in his youth had to go through tremendous struggles. However, only when the impulse of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth came to work in him in a significant way did he begin to become engaged in Christian mysticism of his own initiative. His writings can be understood only in this light. Many other personalities in the world, such as Columban,40Columban (545–615) was an Irish missionary. Gallus,41Gallus was a sixth-century Irish-Scotch missionary. and Patrick,42Patrick (c. 384–c. 460) was an English missionary. carried within themselves such a copy of Jesus's etheric body and were therefore in a position to spread Christianity and built a bridge from the Christ-Event to the succeeding times.
By contrast, we see human beings whose astral body received the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Such a personality was Francis of Assisi. When we look at his life from this point of view, we will understand it in quite a few ways. His qualities of humility and Christian devotion will become especially clear to us when we tell ourselves that such a mystery lived in him. In the time from about the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries such human beings became the heralds of Christianity by the very fact that the astral body of Jesus was woven into their own astral body. Hence, they received Christianity by virtue of Grace.
Although the ego of Jesus of Nazareth left its three sheaths at the baptism of John, a copy of this ego remained in each of them similar to the imprint a seal leaves behind. The Christ-Being took possession of these three bodies and of that which remained as the imprint of the Jesus-Ego. Beginning with the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, something like an ego copy of Jesus was woven into human beings who began to speak of an “inner Christ.” Meister Eckhart and Tauler were individuals who spoke from their own experience like an ego copy of Jesus of Nazareth.
There are still many people present who carry within themselves something like the various bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, but these are now no longer the leading personalities. Increasingly we can see how there are human beings in the fifth epoch who must rely on themselves and on their own ego and how such inspired people have become a rarity. It was therefore necessary that a spiritual tendency develop in our fifth epoch to ensure that humanity would continue to be imbued with spiritual knowledge. Those individualities who were capable of looking into the future had to take care that human beings in the times to come would not be left simply to rely on their human ego only. The legend of the Holy Grail relates that the chalice from which the Christ Jesus took the Last Supper with his disciples was kept in a certain place. We see in the story of Parsifal the course of a young person's education typical for our fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Parsifal had been instructed not to ask too many questions, and his dilemma arose from his following those instructions. That is the important transition from the traditional to more modern times: in ancient India and later with Augustine and Francis of Assisi the student had to live in a state of the highest degree of passive devotion. All these humble people allowed themselves to be inspired by what was already alive in them and by what had been woven into them. But now things changed in that the ego became a questioning ego. Today, any soul that accepts passively what is given to it cannot transcend itself because it merely oberves the happenings in the physical world around it. In our times the soul has to ask questions; it has to rise above itself; it has to grow beyond its given form. It must raise questions, just as Parsifal ultimately learned to inquire after the mysteries of the Grail's Castle.43Steiner is referring to the German courtly epic Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach (about 1200/10). The Frenchman Chretien de Troyes was the author of the first great artistic treatment of the theme; in his unfinished poem “Percivale” finds the Grail and heals the king. Wolfram's story is drawn from Chretien's model but is much more spiritualized in its triadic structure: innocence, fall, salvation. The Simpleton Parsifal is educated as a knight who knows proper courtly behavioral codes, one of them being not to ask too many questions. This attitude causes him to be expelled from the Grail's Castle, and only after he has undergone a second, Christian phase of education does he know how to express his charity by asking the appropriate question of the ailing king.
Spiritual investigation today begins only where there is questioning, and the souls today that are stimulated by external science to ask questions and to search are the Parsifal souls. And this has led to the introduction of Rosicrucian education—that much maligned mystery school of thought—that accepts tradition gratefully but does not accept traditional wisdom blindly. Yet that which today constitutes Rosicrucian spiritual orientation has been investigated in the higher worlds directly with the spiritual eye and with the means the student himself has been instructed to utilize This has not come about simply because this or that is written in old books or because certain people believed one thing or another. Rather, the Rosicrucian spiritual method proclaims wisdom that has been investigated today. It was gradually prepared in the Rosicrucian schools that were founded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as a result of the work of an individuality by the name of Christian Rosenkreutz.
This accumulated wisdom can today be proclaimed as Spiritual Science. This is so because today it is no longer possible to instill in human beings what is to inspire them from the inside without their having a hand in the process. Today people who feel that Spiritual Science speaks to their hearts must approach it through their own free will, through their own free impulse, and through the fact that they feel enlivened by spiritual knowledge. Hence we need not attempt to stir up an interest in Spiritual Science.
Through this theosophical-Rosicrucian orientation of the spirit, we again bring close to ourselves what is still present in the copies of Jesus of Nazareth's ego. Those who prepare themselves in this manner will pull into their souls the copy of the ego of Jesus of Nazareth so that they become like imprints of a seal, and it is in this way that the Christ- Principle finds its way into the human soul. Rosicrucianism prepared something positive, and since anthroposophy is meant to become life, the souls that absorb and truly accept it will gradually undergo a metamorphosis. To accept anthroposophy within yourself means to change the soul in such a way that it is able to come to a true understanding of the Christ.
The anthroposophist makes himself or herself a living recipient of what was given to Moses and Paul in the JavehChrist-Revelation. It is written in the fifth letter of the Apocalypse that the people in the fifth cultural epoch are those who can really absorb the things that will be quite obvious for the cultural period of the Philadelphia community. The wisdom of the fifth cultural period will open as a flower of love in the sixth period.
Today mankind is called upon to accept into itself something new, something divine, and thereby to undertake again the ascent into the spiritual world. The Spiritual Scientific teaching of evolution is being imparted not because people are supposed to put their blind faith into it, but because mankind is supposed to reach an understanding of it through its own powers of judgment. This teaching is being directed to those who bear the core of the Parsifal nature within themselves. And it is not being proclaimed just in special places or to a special group of people, but human beings from all of humanity will come together to listen to the call of spiritual wisdom.
Alte Offenbarung Und Neuzeitliches Fragenlernen
Es soll heute die mehr okkulte Seite unserer gestrigen Betrachtung zur Geltung kommen. Die vier nachatlantischen Kulturen hatten sozusagen widerzuspiegeln in den Seelen der Menschen die großen kosmischen Vorgänge, wie sie sich in der Zeitenfolge abgespielt haben, während wir in unserer Kulturperiode vom 13., 14. Jahrhundert ab keine solche Spiegelung mehr haben, denn das, was sich äußerlich in der Menschheitsentwickelung abspielt, ist auf tieferliegende Gründe zurückzuführen.
Wir wissen, wie für die sieben heiligen Rishis aufbewahrt worden waren die Ätherleiber der großen atlantischen Eingeweihten und wissen auch, wie der Ätherleib und der Astralleib des Zarathustra einverwoben worden sind dem Moses und dem Hermes. In aller Zeit gab es die Möglichkeit, daß solche Ätherleiber, welche durchgearbeitet und vorbereitet waren von den Eingeweihten, weiter benutzt wurden in der spirituellen Ökonomie der Welt. Es fand auch anderes statt. Für besonders wichtige Persönlichkeiten werden solche Ätherleiber in den höheren Welten geformt. Wenn jemand für die Menschheitsmission besonders wichtig war, so wurde in den höheren Welten ein solcher Ätherleib oder Astralleib gewoben und diesen besonderen Persönlichkeiten eingeprägt.
So geschah es mit Sem, der in der Tat etwas zu tun hat mit dem ganzen Stamm der Semiten. Für einen solchen Stammvater wurde ein besonderer Ätherleib geprägt. Sem war dadurch eine Art Doppelpersönlichkeit. So fabelhaft es dem heutigen Menschensinn auch vorkommt, es erschien eine solche Persönlichkeit wie Sem dem Hellseher wie ein gewöhnlicher Mensch mit seiner Aura, aber so, als ob ein höheres Wesen, das herunterragt aus höheren Welten, seinen Ätherleib ausfüllte und die Aura dieses Menschen dadurch den Vermittler bildete zwischen dieser Persönlichkeit und den höheren Welten. Ein solches göttliches Wesen hat aber, als in einem Menschen wohnend, ganz besondere Macht: Es kann dann einen solchen Ätherleib vervielfältigen; und diese vervielfältigten Ätherleiber bilden dann ein Gewebe, das den Nachkommen immer wieder einverwoben wird. So bekamen die Nachkommen des Sem eingeimpft die Abbilder seines Ätherleibes. Aber auch der Ätherleib des Sem selbst, nicht nur die vervielfachten Abbilder, wurde in den Mysterien aufbewahrt. Und eine Persönlichkeit, die eine besondere Mission erhalten sollte, mußte, um sich ganz verständigen zu können mit dem semitischen Volke, diesen Ätherleib benutzen; so wie ein hochgebildeter Europäer etwa die Sprache der Hottentotten lernen müßte, um sich mit ihnen zu verständigen. Die Persönlichkeit, die eine besondere Mission hatte, mußte also, um sich dem semitischen Volke verständlich zu machen, in sich tragen den nun wirklichen Ätherleib des Sem. Solch eine Persönlichkeit zum Beispiel war Melchisedek; der sich nur in dem Ätherleibe des Sem dem Abraham zeigen konnte.
Und nun müssen wir uns die Frage stellen: Wenn wir erst jetzt, in der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturperiode, ein Verständnis entwickeln können für das Christentum, wie war es denn da in dem Rest der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit, die noch bis in das 13. und 14. Jahrhundert dauerte?
Da findet ein geheimnisvoller okkulter Vorgang statt. Der Christus lebte ja nur während dreier Jahre in den Hüllen des Jesus von Nazareth, der eine so hohe Individualität ist, daß er im dreißigsten Lebensjahre die physische Welt verlassen konnte, um in die geistige Welt einzugehen, damals, als über seinem Haupte erschien die Taube. Die drei hochentwickelten Leiber werden nun ausgefüllt von der ChristusIndividualität dadurch, daß diese Christus-Individualität in dem physischen Menschenleibe lebt. Diese für das physische Auge unsichtbaren Leiber des Jesus von Nazareth werden nun in ähnlicher Weise vervielfältigt wie dazumal der Ätherleib des Sem, so daß vom Tode am Kreuz an nun vorhanden sind Abbilder des Ätherleibes und des Astralleibes des Jesus von Nazareth. Das hat nichts zu tun mit seinem Ich; dies ging ja in die geistige Welt und hat sich später immer wieder verkörpert.
In den ersten Jahrhunderten nach dem Christus-Ereignis sehen wir, wie die christlichen Schriftsteller noch auf Grund mündlich überlieferter Tradition der Apostelschüler arbeiten. Sie legten Wert auf physische Überlieferung. Auf diese allein hätten aber spätere Jahrhunderte nicht bauen können. Vom 6. und 7. Jahrhundert an geschieht es nun, daß besonders hervorragenden christlichen Verkündern einverwoben wurde ein Abbild des Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth. Ein solcher Mensch war Augustinus. Er hatte gewaltige Kämpfe durchzumachen in seiner Jugend. Dann aber wurde in bedeutsamer Weise in ihm wirksam der Impuls des Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth, und da beginnt er erst, aus sich selbst heraus christliche Mystik zu treiben. Wir können seine Schriften eben nur in diesem Lichte verstehen.
Viele Persönlichkeiten sind in der Welt herumgegangen, in sich tragend eine solche Kopie. Columban, Gallus, Patrick, sie trugen alle solch ein Abbild des Ätherleibes in sich, und gerade dadurch waren sie in der Lage, das Christentum zu verbreiten. So konnte eine Brücke geschlagen werden vom Christus-Ereignis zur nachfolgenden Zeit.
Und nun sehen wir im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert solche Menschen, die einverwoben erhalten in den eigenen Astralleib fein Abbild vom Astralleib] des Jesus von Nazareth. Eine solche Persönlichkeit war Franz von Assisi. Wenn wir sein Leben verfolgen, wird es uns in manchem unverständlich sein; aber gerade seine Impulse der Demut, der christlichen Hingebung, können wir verstehen, wenn wir uns sagen, daß ein solches Geheimnis in ihm lebte. Durch solche Einverwebungen [von Abbildern] des Astralleibes [des Jesus von Nazareth] werden nun um das 11., 12. und 13. Jahrhundert solche Menschen Verkündiger des Christentums. Sie haben also das Christentum durch Gnade empfangen.
Das Ich des Jesus von Nazareth hat ja die drei Hüllen bei der Johannestaufe verlassen; aber es ist doch ein Abbild dieses Ich gleich einem Siegelabdruck verblieben in den drei Hüllen. Von diesen drei Leibern nimmt die Christus-Wesenheit Besitz, aber auch von noch etwas, das wie ein Abdruck des Jesus-Ich zurückbleibt. So etwas wie eine Ich-Kopie des Jesus wird nun einverwoben vom 12., 13., 14. Jahrhundert ab in solche Menschen, die nun zu sprechen beginnen von einem «inneren Christus». Meister Eckart, Tauler, sie sprechen dann aus ihrer eigenen Erfahrung heraus wie [aus] einem Ich-Abdruck von Jesus von Nazareth.
Es sind nun noch viele Menschen da, die so etwas in sich tragen wie Kopien der verschiedenen Leiber des Jesus von Nazareth, aber diese werden nun nicht mehr die führenden Persönlichkeiten. Wir sehen nun immer mehr, wie es in unserem fünften Zeitraum Menschen gibt, die sich auf sich selbst, auf ihr eigenes Ich stellen müssen. Immer seltener werden solche inspirierte Menschen. Deshalb mußte vorgesorgt werden, daß in unserem fünften Zeitraum eine geistige Strömung entstehe, die dafür zu sorgen hätte, daß auch noch weiter spirituelle Erkenntnisse zur Menschheit dringen könnten. Es mußte für die Menschen, die angewiesen sind auf ihr bloßes menschliches Ich, vorgesorgt werden von jenen Individualitäten, die in die Zukunft schauen konnten. Es wird uns erzählt in einer solchen Legende, daß das Gefäß, in dem der Christus Jesus das Abendmahl mit seinen Jüngern genommen hatte, aufbewahrt wurde. Das ist die Legende vom Heiligen Gral, und wir sehen in der Erzählung von Parzival typisch ausgedrückt einen Schülerwerdegang unserer fünften nachatlantischen Zeit. Da hat er eins versäumt, der Parzival: Es war ihm nämlich gesagt worden, er sollte nicht viel fragen. Das ist der wichtige Übergang von der alten Zeit zur neuen Zeit: Möglichst passive Hingabe war das Notwendige im alten Indien für den Schüler; später auch noch bei ‚Augustinus, bei Franz von Assisi. Alle diese demütigen Leute ließen sich inspirieren durch das, was in ihnen lebte, was ihnen einverwoben war. Nun aber sollte das Ich die Frage in sich tragen. Jede Seele, die heute einfach passiv hinnimmt, was ihr gegeben wird, die kommt dadurch nicht über sich selbst hinaus. Sie kann dann nur beobachten, was in der physischen Welt um sie her vorgeht. Die Seele muß heute fragen, muß sich über sich selber erheben, aus sich selber herauswachsen. Die Seele muß heute fragen, wie einstmals Parzival fragen mußte nach den Geheimnissen der Gralsburg.
So beginnt heute die geistige Forschung erst da, wo das Fragen ist. Die Seelen, die heute angeregt werden durch die Geisteswissenschaft zum Fragen, die da fragen und suchen, das sind die Parzival-Seelen. So ist sie also eingeleitet worden die Mysterienströmung, die viel angefeindete Rosenkreuzerschulung, die mit keiner überlieferten Weisheit rechnet, wenn sie auch die Überlieferungen dankbar hinnimmt. Aber das, was heute die rosenkreuzerische Geistesrichtung ausmacht, das ist unmittelbar in den höheren Welten mit dem geistigen Auge erforscht worden und mit den Mitteln, die der Schüler selbst angewiesen bekommt. Nicht, weil dies oder jenes in alten Büchern steht, weil diese oder jene dieses oder jenes geglaubt haben, sondern heute erforschtes Weisheitsgut wird verkündet durch die rosenkreuzerische Geistesrichtung. Und solches wurde nach und nach in den Rosenkreuzerschulen vorbereitet, die gegründet worden sind im 13., 14. Jahrhundert durch die Individualität, die Christian Rosenkreutz genannt wird.
So kann dieses Weisheitsgut heute als Geisteswissenschaft verkündet werden. Heute sind eben nicht mehr solche Menschen da, die ohne ihr Zutun eingeimpft bekommen das, was sie innerlich inspiriert. Heute sollen die Menschen, die fühlen, daß Geisteswissenschaft zum Herzen spricht, an sie herankommen. Es soll nicht agitiert werden für Geisteswissenschaft; ein jeder soll zur Geisteswissenschaft durch seinen eigenen freien Impuls kommen, dadurch, daß er in lebendiger Weise ergriffen wird von dem spirituellen Wissen.
So ziehen wir durch diese theosophisch-rosenkreuzerische Geistesströmung das wieder an uns heran, was vorhanden ist von den Kopien des Ich des Jesus von Nazareth. So werden diejenigen, die sich dazu vorbereiten, hineinziehen in ihre Seelen das Abbild des Ich des Jesus von Nazareth. Dadurch daß sein Inneres wie ein Siegelabdruck ist von dem Ich des Jesus, dadurch wird ein solcher Mensch das ChristusPrinzip in seine Seele aufnehmen. - So bereitete die Rosenkreuzerei etwas Positives vor, Anthroposophie soll Leben werden, und die Seele, die sie wirklich in sich aufnimmt, verwandelt sich nach und nach. Anthroposophie in sich aufnehmen, das heißt, die Seele so verwandeln, daß sie zu dem Christus-Verständnis kommen kann.
Der Anthroposoph macht sich zu einem lebendigen Empfänger dessen, was in der Jahve-Christus-Offenbarung dem Moses, dem Paulus gegeben wird. So heißt es im fünften Brief der Apokalypse, wie die Menschen der fünften Kulturepoche diejenigen seien, die wirklich in sich aufnehmen, was dann für die Kulturperiode der Gemeinde von Philadelphia etwas Selbstverständliches sein wird. Die Weisheit der fünften Kulturperiode wird als Liebesblume aufgehen in der sechsten.
Die Menschheit ist heute dazu berufen, etwas Neues, Göttliches in sich aufzunehmen und dadurch den Aufstieg in die geistige Welt wieder vorzunehmen. Die geisteswissenschaftliche Entwickelungslehre wird mitgeteilt; sie soll nicht geglaubt werden, sondern die Menschheit soll durch eigene Urteilskraft dazu kommen, sie zu verstehen. Sie wird verkündet denen, die den Keim der Parzival-Natur in sich tragen. Und nicht lokal, nicht an einem besonderen Ort wird sie verkündet, sondern aus der ganzen Menschheit heraus werden die Menschen zusammengeführt werden, die den Ruf hören der spirituellen Weisheit.
Ancient Revelation and Modern Questioning
Today we will focus on the more occult side of yesterday's reflection. The four post-Atlantean cultures had, so to speak, to reflect in the souls of human beings the great cosmic processes as they unfolded in the sequence of time, whereas in our cultural period since the 13th and 14th centuries we no longer have such a reflection, for what takes place outwardly in human evolution is due to deeper causes.
We know how the etheric bodies of the great Atlantean initiates were preserved for the seven holy Rishis, and we also know how the etheric body and the astral body of Zarathustra were interwoven with those of Moses and Hermes. Throughout time, it has been possible for such etheric bodies, which had been worked through and prepared by the initiates, to be used further in the spiritual economy of the world. Other things also took place. For particularly important personalities, such etheric bodies are formed in the higher worlds. If someone was particularly important for the mission of humanity, such an etheric body or astral body was woven in the higher worlds and imprinted on these special personalities.
This is what happened with Shem, who indeed has something to do with the entire Semitic tribe. A special etheric body was imprinted for such a progenitor. Sem was thus a kind of double personality. As fabulous as it may seem to the modern mind, such a personality as Sem appeared to the clairvoyant as an ordinary human being with his aura, but as if a higher being, towering down from higher worlds, filled his etheric body, and the aura of this human being thus formed the mediator between this personality and the higher worlds. However, such a divine being, dwelling in a human being, has a very special power: it can then multiply such an etheric body; and these multiplied etheric bodies then form a fabric that is woven into the descendants again and again. In this way, the descendants of Sem were imbued with the images of his etheric body. But the etheric body of Shem himself, not just the multiplied images, was also preserved in the mysteries. And a personality who was to receive a special mission had to use this etheric body in order to be able to communicate fully with the Semitic people, just as a highly educated European would have to learn the language of the Hottentots in order to communicate with them. The personality who had a special mission therefore had to carry within himself the now real etheric body of Sem in order to make himself understood to the Semitic people. Such a personality was, for example, Melchizedek, who could only show himself to Abraham in the etheric body of Sem.
And now we must ask ourselves the question: If we are only now, in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period, able to develop an understanding of Christianity, what was it like during the rest of the Greco-Latin period, which lasted until the 13th and 14th centuries?
A mysterious occult process is taking place here. Christ only lived for three years in the shell of Jesus of Nazareth, who was such a highly individual being that he was able to leave the physical world at the age of thirty in order to enter the spiritual world, at the moment when the dove appeared above his head. The three highly developed bodies are now filled by the Christ individuality through the fact that this Christ individuality lives in the physical human body. These bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, invisible to the physical eye, are now multiplied in a similar way to the etheric body of Sem at that time, so that from the moment of death on the cross, images of the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth now exist. This has nothing to do with his ego; this entered the spiritual world and has since been incarnated again and again.
In the first centuries after the Christ event, we see how Christian writers still worked on the basis of oral tradition handed down by the disciples of the apostles. They attached importance to physical tradition. However, later centuries could not build on this alone. From the 6th and 7th centuries onwards, a picture of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into the lives of particularly outstanding Christian preachers. One such person was Augustine. He had to go through tremendous struggles in his youth. But then the impulse of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth became effective in him in a significant way, and only then did he begin to pursue Christian mysticism out of himself. We can only understand his writings in this light.
Many personalities have walked the earth carrying such a copy within themselves. Columbanus, Gallus, Patrick—they all carried such an image of the etheric body within themselves, and it was precisely this that enabled them to spread Christianity. In this way, a bridge could be built from the Christ event to the following era.
And now, in the 11th and 12th centuries, we see such people who have retained a fine image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their own astral bodies. One such personality was Francis of Assisi. If we follow his life, we will find it incomprehensible in many ways; but we can understand his impulses of humility and Christian devotion when we tell ourselves that such a mystery lived within him. Through such interweaving [of images] of the astral body [of Jesus of Nazareth], around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, such people became proclaimers of Christianity. They thus received Christianity through grace.
The I of Jesus of Nazareth left the three sheaths at the baptism of John, but an image of this I remained in the three sheaths like a seal impression. The Christ being takes possession of these three bodies, but also of something else that remains like an impression of the Jesus I. Something like a copy of the Jesus ego is now woven into those people from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries who begin to speak of an “inner Christ.” Meister Eckhart and Tauler then speak from their own experience as if from an imprint of the Jesus of Nazareth ego.
There are still many people who carry within themselves something like copies of the various bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, but these are no longer the leading personalities. We are now seeing more and more how, in our fifth period, there are people who have to rely on themselves, on their own ego. Such inspired people are becoming increasingly rare. Therefore, precautions had to be taken to ensure that a spiritual current would arise in our fifth period that would ensure that spiritual insights could continue to reach humanity. Those individualities who could look into the future had to make provisions for people who are dependent on their mere human ego. We are told in a legend that the vessel in which Christ Jesus took the Last Supper with his disciples was preserved. This is the legend of the Holy Grail, and we see in the story of Parzival a typical expression of the development of a disciple in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Parzival failed to do one thing: he had been told not to ask too many questions. This is the important transition from the old era to the new: in ancient India, passive devotion was essential for disciples; later, this was also the case with Augustine and Francis of Assisi. All these humble people were inspired by what lived within them, what was woven into their being. Now, however, the I must carry the question within itself. Any soul that simply passively accepts what is given to it today cannot transcend itself. It can then only observe what is happening in the physical world around it. Today, the soul must ask questions, must rise above itself, must grow out of itself. Today, the soul must ask questions, just as Parzival once had to ask questions about the secrets of the Grail Castle.
Thus, spiritual research today begins only where there is questioning. The souls that are stimulated by spiritual science to question, to ask and to seek, are the souls of Parzival. Thus has been initiated the stream of mysteries, the much-maligned Rosicrucian training, which does not rely on any traditional wisdom, even though it gratefully accepts the traditions. But what constitutes the Rosicrucian spiritual direction today has been researched directly in the higher worlds with the spiritual eye and with the means that the student himself is instructed to use. Not because this or that is written in old books, because this or that person believed this or that, but because the wisdom that has been researched today is proclaimed by the Rosicrucian spiritual movement. And this was gradually prepared in the Rosicrucian schools that were founded in the 13th and 14th centuries by the individuality known as Christian Rosenkreutz.
Thus, this wisdom can now be proclaimed as spiritual science. Today, there are no longer people who are instilled with what inspires them inwardly without their own effort. Today, people who feel that spiritual science speaks to their hearts should approach it. There should be no agitation for spiritual science; everyone should come to spiritual science through their own free impulse, by being seized in a living way by spiritual knowledge.
In this way, through this theosophical-Rosicrucian spiritual current, we draw back to ourselves what is available from the copies of the I of Jesus of Nazareth. In this way, those who prepare themselves will draw into their souls the image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth. Because his inner being is like a seal imprinted with the I of Jesus, such a person will take the Christ principle into their soul. Thus, Rosicrucianism prepared something positive: anthroposophy is to become life, and the soul that truly takes it in is gradually transformed. To take anthroposophy into oneself means to transform the soul so that it can come to an understanding of Christ.
The anthroposophist becomes a living recipient of what is given to Moses and Paul in the Yahweh-Christ revelation. Thus, the fifth letter of the Apocalypse says that the people of the fifth cultural epoch are those who truly take into themselves what will then be self-evident for the cultural period of the community of Philadelphia. The wisdom of the fifth cultural epoch will blossom as a flower of love in the sixth.
Humanity today is called upon to take something new and divine into itself and thereby resume its ascent into the spiritual world. The spiritual-scientific doctrine of evolution is communicated; it is not to be believed, but humanity is to come to understand it through its own power of judgment. It is proclaimed to those who carry the seed of the Parzival nature within themselves. And it is not proclaimed locally, in a particular place, but from the whole of humanity, those who hear the call of spiritual wisdom will be brought together.