The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The great German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte once said meaningful words about the interaction between two layers of the population in one of his inspiring “Speeches to the German Nation”. He said that the spiritual life of a nation can only be directly active if there is full understanding between the way in which the leaders at the forefront of this spiritual life express themselves and the way in which those who receive, who listen in their hearts and souls to what the leaders of the nation have to say, conceptualize and feel. And Fichte called those nations more or less dead nations in terms of their intellectual life, in which a stratum of learned education, a stratum of higher intellectual life, speaks a language and has a thought life that does not immediately find a living, full echo in those who are meant to listen to the voices of the leaders, to the voices of those who have something to proclaim about the highest questions of existence, about the riddles and the secrets of the world that are hidden in our existence.

What the philosopher and orator said at the time in relation to a nation, we can also apply to other forms of spiritual life, and indeed we see it confirmed more and more in what we experience in the field of religious coexistence between those who are supposed to listen, those who have a longing and a need to receive something, and the leaders in this field of spiritual life, in the field of religious life.

If we take a closer look at the last few decades, or perhaps the whole century, and survey these facts, we see how, in relation to those documents that have actually provided spiritual nourishment for thousands of years for broad sections of our population, how a scholarship is asserting itself in relation to these religious documents that is no longer directly understood by the broadest sections of the population, by those who are to be heard. We see how those who are scholars, leaders, and teachers in this regard have different things to say about the religious documents of Christianity and what is connected with them, and have different things to say about what has created a deep gulf between this scholarship and the immediate religious needs of wider and wider sections of the population: the two groups no longer understand each other properly. If you look at the matter with an unbiased eye, you will notice this very, very soon.

Theologians and other learned circles who deal with the Bible, whether scientifically or popularly, with that document that is the most important for our national life, have been led by their research to a way of understanding what these documents are , what value and origin they have, and of the content of the same, to a way of understanding them so that what they have to say no longer finds a living response, no longer can ignite the living life in the hearts of those who are supposed to listen.

When we take such popular writings on these matters into our hands, through which we are to educate ourselves, books that are distributed among the people in thousands and thousands of copies, when we look at them and ask ourselves: Is this scholarship such that what is spoken of it and distributed through thousands and thousands of channels into the people, is it such that it can satisfy the deepest religious needs of man, that the simple man, who seeks spiritual nourishment in religious documents above all things, seeks something that solves the highest questions of existence for him, the riddles of world life, is what is offered here such that this man can find what he seeks?

If we look at the facts at hand impartially, we have to say: little, very little, of real, truly deep religious feeling is to be found in our theological scholarship, and little, very little, of what comes out of this erudition, approaches us, little of it is suitable to penetrate the heart, to uplift and unfold the mind. We need only look around a little, and this will be confirmed.

Let us take a look at what has been developed in this direction over the last 100 years: The time is over when the Old and New Testaments were considered books in which truly inspired personalities once solved the riddles of existence under higher inspiration, as needed for the religious mind. For many, many centuries, there were times when the widest circles of the population listened so intently to the words of the Holy Scripture, as if the highest truths were proclaimed here, then, when they received it - not directly, but indirectly through the mouths of priests and sages, what the religious documents offer, that they then listened as if they were convinced that when the content was proclaimed to them, they were given the highest truths about the spiritual-divine realities underlying our everyday sensual life. There was a time when people were convinced that the Bible is no ordinary book, but that it originated from the very Being that has also brought forth all the phenomena that surround us. The Bible was spoken of as an inspired book, and it was felt to be a book whose words resounded from spiritual worlds themselves, whose words therefore proclaimed the eternal wisdoms that mankind needs on its path of development in the course of world evolution. In those ancient times, no one dared to think of criticizing this book in any way. That this book has been subjected to criticism is the result of 100 years of research by scholars. They no longer had the same reservations about accepting this book as it is, they asked themselves: Do the individual parts agree with each other, do they not contradict the scientific findings of other fields of research? Are they such that one could think it was an inspired book from beginning to end? The answer to these questions provides the basis for a critical work that has been done by the science of our time for 100 years. And what has come to light in the process? It is not necessary for our purpose – which is to consider the relationship of wisdom literature to the Bible – to talk about biblical criticism; we will say a few words about the spirit of this biblical criticism only in this introduction.

For example, it has been seen – I can only touch on what is important here briefly and summarily – that there is a peculiarity in the first parts of the Old Testament: two ways in which the divine presence in the world is named. It was noticed that in certain parts the divine presence is referred to as Yahweh, in other parts in a kind of plural: the Elohim.

And yet another observation has been made that seemed to point to something: that right at the beginning of the Old Testament, as is believed, a fact: the creation of man, is told twice. The creation is told in the seven-day work, and it is told how, finally, on the sixth day, man, as the crowning glory of creation, was created as it says, “male-female” (Genesis 1:27). Strangely enough, they say, this creation of man, and specifically of male-female man, is retold! Now the matter is presented as if man had already existed, as if no animals had yet been created around him. In short, critical research says that the same fact is being retold.

Furthermore, many passages were found in the writings named after Moses that could not be believed, and for which evidence was also believed to have been found, that they originated in the sense of the old opinion of the great inspired Moses himself, for example when it is said about the land of Canaan, so that it was seen: It could not be said in this old time, in which Moses lived, in this way about this land, but only in a later time. Then they examined the style in which it was written and found that the individual parts showed a great difference in expression; in one case they found it to be more popular, in the other more priestly and learned.

I would have to tell you much, much more in order to explain the spirit and meaning of this biblical research to you in detail. We do not need this, we just have to realize that under the impression of such critical research, scholars came to say: a unified meaning, a unified author cannot have written these so different, pieced-together parts that we call the individual books of the Bible. So they came to say to themselves: These most diverse parts originated at the most diverse times, formed in the most diverse manner among the people and were then collected. In particular, two parts were distinguished: a first part and a second, distinctly different part. Each of these parts was to have its special writer. The former was called the Jahwist. And to this Jahvist was attributed everything that seemed to be more original and imbued with popular force. Thus everything in the style of the Paradise Narrative, where Adam is led into paradise and Eve is created out of his own substance, was attributed to this source.

All of this was attributed to one source. On the other hand, everything that seemed more like speculation was attributed to another source. This source was called the so-called Priest Book, which alone was said to contain the more scholarly, priestly parts that were more speculative in character, like the six- or seven-day work. So, little by little, these stylistic and source investigations have been extended to the smallest individual parts, yes, one might say scraps, and traced back to their various origins.

Yes, today there are Bible translations, the so-called rainbow Bibles, in which the individual parts that are said to come from different sources are printed in different colors. Often you can even see the color changing in the middle of a line, in the middle of a sentence, for example, which means that this sentence is considered to come from different sources. The parts that are attributed primarily to the Yahwist are said to have originated in David's time, the others after the Babylonian exile. Thus the Old Testament gradually emerged as a collection, as something that had been compiled over a long period of time. In the way it was conceived, what was lost was necessarily that which, in its ancient greatness and significance as religious sentiment, was incorporated into what had been found in the Bible as revelation through centuries, even millennia.

Seen in this light, we have to say that the attitude of the broadest sections of society towards the Bible has changed more than people are usually willing to admit.

More than those who still have a deep religious fervor realize, this gap exists between those who are supposed to say what the Bible is actually about and those who are supposed to believe. And anyone who is able to look impartially into these circumstances, who has an unbiased view of the spiritual currents of our time, will see that the time is not far off when this gulf between theological scholarship and warm religious feeling among the people can no longer be bridged if things continue in this way, if nothing changes.

Religious life in the old way is no longer possible under these circumstances, and if you just don't want to close your eyes, you can see the time when Bible criticism – despite all the objections of those who want to cover up these facts , where this Bible criticism must have a killing effect on religious life, the gap will become unbridgeable if another spiritual current does not give the matter a completely different turn, a direction that brings about such a change. This spiritual current can only be one that has been referred to as theosophical wisdom for several decades.

Here in Munich, we have discussed the most diverse topics over the course of this winter; today and tomorrow, we want to consider the relationship between this theosophical school of thought and the view of this religious document, the Bible, which is so significant for our cultural life.

The theosophical approach to the world has to take a very peculiar attitude toward the Bible. Our conception of the Bible cannot and must not be something that is extraneous to the necessary historical course of our modern spiritual life, but something that is completely in line with the program of our modern spiritual life.

Theosophy seeks to renew and restore direct knowledge of the spiritual worlds. All those who have imbued their lives with this theosophical school of thought are firmly convinced that behind the world that our senses see there is a spiritual world, a world of spiritual beings. It is further the firm conviction of this same school of thought that this spiritual world is not something inaccessible and unsearchable for man, but something that man can search and recognize. Particularly under the influence of the materialistic school of thought in recent times, something like timidity, like hopelessness, has entered into our quest for knowledge: never in the development of the world has there been so much talk about the limits of knowledge as there is in our time, when people talk about the real why of existence, about the real creative and active entities that stand behind the world of the senses. Today, people easily say: Our powers of knowledge are not sufficient for this, we cannot explore this.

Our school of thought, however, spiritual science, says: We believe in development quite honestly and with all the consequences; not only everything else in the world, but also the human being develops, and the way he stands before us today, his development is not complete, he can continue this development at any moment, but especially the spiritual development. There are forces slumbering in him that can be drawn from his soul and then become active in higher knowledge.

To those who speak of the limits of knowledge, spiritual science says: Certainly, you are right, quite right, when you say that the source of existence cannot be explored with the powers of knowledge you are talking about. If you only speak of these powers you are quite right; but we, we do not speak of these powers in the field of spiritual science, but of powers which man does not have from the outset, but which everyone can have if he does not close himself to them by saying: I do not want to go further. Man lives in this world, which surrounds him with color and sound. Through his senses and with his mind limited to the world of the senses, he gains knowledge in it. In the same way, the higher worlds also surround him: but for them he has not yet brought any organs within himself into activity; he lives in these higher worlds like the blind man in the physical world of colors and light. But man can also live in this higher world as one who sees.

Just as the man born blind, when operated on, enters into a world that was previously unknown to him, while it has always been around him, so does the one to whom the spiritual eye is opened, to whom the spiritual senses are revealed, enter into a new world that has also surrounded him before, but which he could not perceive because he has not yet opened the organs for it. Only someone who does not want to think logically can dispute the possibility of such a higher world. Only someone who can see for himself is qualified to decide what it looks like in this world.

So what does this spiritual science have to say about religious documents? For anyone who really engages with the subject, it is a source of ever new and ever greater satisfaction and uplift. But before we discuss this in more detail, we would like to touch on something else.

In our time, there are four ways of relating to religious documents. These four types can be experienced by someone born into our time, who seeks out everything that seems capable of giving them satisfaction. Let us assume that a person is born and then introduced to a more or less naive religious life through school and family, so that he first receives the ideas of the Bible in a naive way, as the naive believer receives them. He believes in it for a while. Then, perhaps in our present time, the time comes for him when he becomes, as they say, as many people say, “enlightened,” when he becomes an “enlightened” person, and then he moves away from his old childlike faith!

What I am about to say is not meant as mockery, but as an expression of the truly tragic experience of many, many of our contemporaries. They come to the conclusion: When I look at modern science with its irrefutable results, which contradict so much of what I was taught and what I accepted with religious faith, I cannot help but have to give up my beautiful childhood faith. It is often tragic for such people to part with such beliefs; many cling to their old beliefs with all their hearts, but their sense of the truth of natural science separates them from them. They then become “enlightened people”; they try to be satisfied with what purely external natural science provides them with. These are the “clever people”, among whom many often look down with a certain arrogance and even some mockery on the naive believers.

Strangely enough, a group has now formed within these circles, within freethinking itself, which has come to the conclusion that these religious documents do not merely contain naive children's beliefs. They say to themselves: Admittedly, the things we are told here are not facts, but they are symbols for developmental processes - for inner development, if you like - and so now one person interprets these things in one way, the other in a different way, and so on. Recently a group has formed within the so-called freethinkers that has taken on the symbolic interpretation of the Bible. When you look at the work of this group, you have to say that you find many beautiful, spiritual things in it, they have thought about many myths and legends in an excellent way. But here the worst arbitrariness prevails. Everything depends on the interpreter's state of mind. One thinks more, the other less, into the things he wants to explain. What each one knows and is able to understand, that is just different. Some come to these points of view; but some can also shorten the way by leaving out one or the other of them.

Finally, after going through such preliminary stages, some people are able to truly penetrate the religious documents with the help of spiritual science, and there they notice something peculiar. They increasingly notice that what is written in the Bible can be taken literally, truly literally. It dawns on them like a new light, like a revelation, and on a higher level they come back to recognizing the value and significance of these religious documents. This is an experience that many have certainly gone through through theosophy. Starting out with a sincere striving for knowledge, they came to throw everything, absolutely everything, overboard. After a shorter or longer period of time, they came to Theosophy, guided by this striving for truth, and through it, the religious documents became valuable to them again, and what they once gave them, they have regained! The deeper one penetrates into the meaning of this wonderful book, the more one recognizes that everything, everything is as it is told to us there, and that precisely the passages that may have most provoked our disbelief, our criticism and our ridicule, can reveal the deepest spiritual truths to us.

The position of spiritual science in relation to the Bible and other religious documents will also be characterized from another perspective. You see, what Theosophy can be in relation to the Bible has long been established in another area of spiritual life, in the field of natural science, in order to determine its position in relation to another great document. What has taken place since Copernicus and Galileo in the field of external knowledge of nature is now taking place in our time in the field of religious knowledge and in relation to the religious scriptures through spiritual science, through Theosophy.

I would like to tell you a fact that will make this clearer: Throughout the Middle Ages, in all schools, what Aristotle had achieved was regarded as an incontrovertible fact with regard to the external knowledge of nature; for his time, he had been an important naturalist and collector of scientific knowledge. What he had compiled in his writings about nature is truly astounding. These were available as books, and at that time they were considered to be dogmatic documents about nature. Throughout the Middle Ages, teaching was based on these books; what he had to say about stars, plants, animals and human beings, and what they contained as a new revelation, was considered the ultimate authority. Then came Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler and their great leader Giordano Bruno; a completely new position with regard to knowledge of nature took hold. These people turned their gaze to nature itself; they no longer asked, “What did Aristotle say about this or that organ of the human body?” Instead, they examined everything themselves, they looked at the objects of nature themselves with their instruments and methods; they wanted to see with their own eyes, and for them only what they had found themselves was considered the authoritative thing, and no longer what Aristotle had said.

A short story may show how difficult it was for them to overcome their old faith in Aristotle and how deeply rooted it was. Through his detailed studies of the human body, Galileo had found various things that could not be reconciled with Aristotle. It is interesting to note what an old Aristotelian, a friend of Galileo, once said to him in this regard. He was invited by Galileo and shown by him to a human organism, and shown that one of Aristotle's assertions turned out to be incorrect when observed on the human body. Galileo wanted to make it clear to his friend that the true source of science about nature is the direct knowledge of nature itself. This friend, then, looked at what Galilei showed him, and had to admit, like it or not, that Galilei was apparently right, but he continued to swear by Aristotle's claim as only some orthodox theologian can swear by the Bible today: “It's true,” he said, “the facts are like this, but Aristotle said it differently, and I believe Aristotle more than my own eyes.” Tradition and prejudice have such a strong effect on people.

But today we see something different, and we have to say: Such are the changes of the times; another fact has taken the place of those prejudices. Today we are imbued with the attitude that we must approach nature itself directly if we want to come to a correct understanding. We are aware that it is not old traditions that can be decisive for us, but our judgments and insights gained through our own observations. At the same time, however, we are learning more and more through science to recognize that people in those days had not yet understood Aristotle at all, but had misunderstood him completely. Today we have come so far that we are making the amazing discovery that Aristotle meant the right thing after all, if only we understand him correctly. Thus, it is only through the fact that we have gained access through the direct knowledge of the facts of nature that we have been given the opportunity to recognize tradition in its true value, in its true meaning.

Where natural science stood at that time, today we stand in the presence of the spiritual science of the Bible. Through the stream of spiritual science that is brought to humanity today, the human being stands in relation to the spiritual world as the sensual human being of Galileo's time stood in relation to external, real nature. Just as there have been researchers since that time who approach the sensual facts of nature directly with their methods and instruments, so there will be more and more researchers who look directly into the spiritual worlds and directly recognize what is told in the Bible. This has been in preparation for a long time. It has been achieved for natural science; for spiritual science it must be achieved.

The Germans have a saga that points to this in its meaning: the Faust saga. Faust – it is said of him that he put the Bible behind the bench for a while. He no longer wanted to be a theologian, but a man of the world and a physician, because he put the Bible behind the bench for a while. He wanted to approach the secrets of nature directly and gain direct wisdom.

Thus, spiritual wisdom does not look to the Bible for the content and knowledge of the spiritual world, but independently of any tradition, it seeks to explore the factual content of the spiritual world and approaches the records with what it already has in order to test the records in its findings. If I am to characterize this position for you, I would like to do so with an example. What every schoolboy learns in geometry today was once discovered by ancient researchers. What schoolboys learn today is called Euclidean geometry, after that great Greek researcher to whom we owe the oldest work on these things. Is every schoolboy instructed to take the first work by Euclid and learn from it what he has to learn? The schoolboy knows nothing about these ancient documents; he learns from within himself, from his own ability to grasp the right thing, from the rightness, clarity and truth of the matter itself, and only much later, when he studies history, does it become apparent to him that the right thing is already contained in that work by Euclid and can therefore be found there.

Just as geometry is true in itself, so are the facts of the spiritual world true in themselves, and just as little as one needs the old documents to research the theorems of geometry today, so little does one need old documents to recognize the truths of the spiritual world. This is supposed to be the direct path, the immediate way into the spiritual world, which is shown by modern spiritual science. Here the Bible is the historical document that, like Euclid, is not necessary for understanding, but can confirm what has been found independently. So you see that spiritual science is as independent as possible of the Bible and is therefore also called upon to research it and recognize its real value. Let us ask ourselves: Who is actually called upon to recognize this? Our example can lead us to the answer: Only someone who is actually familiar with geometry can be called upon to recognize the value and significance of a work on geometry! Likewise, we must say: Only someone who is able to explore the content of the Bible from the spiritual world itself is called upon to judge and recognize its value and significance! As you can see, a completely new relationship to the Bible as a document has emerged through spiritual science.

Now, in the light of spiritual science, the things that “critical research” has brought to light about the Bible appear in a peculiar light! It seems relatively unimportant, quite unimportant and irrelevant when the individual pieces, parts of this document were written, created, we are only interested in this as a historical fact. But we gauge the value of the book itself as what we ourselves recognize as the content, by the correctness of the content.

Those who study this Bible from the point of view of spiritual science sometimes have the feeling when considering modern Bible criticism - I myself once had this feeling towards philological scholarship, sometimes towards this critical philology - because modern theology is, after all, only philology - a feeling that I will now describe to you.

It seems far-fetched, but there is a very beautiful prose hymn to nature by Goethe, which I have mentioned several times. In it, Goethe expresses his religious conviction in his enthusiastic way at the time:

Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by it, unable to step out of it and unable to get deeper into it. Uninvited and unwarned, she takes us into the cycle of her dance and carries on with us until we are tired and fall out of her arms. ... People are all in her, and she is in everyone. ... Even the most unnatural is nature, even the most crude philistinism has something of her genius. ... One obeys her laws even when one resists them; one works with her even when one wants to work against her. ... It is everything. It rewards itself [and punishes itself], delights itself and torments itself. ... It has brought me in, it will also lead me out. I trust it. It may do with me as it likes; it will not hate its work. I did not speak of it; no, what is true and what is false, it has spoken everything. All is its fault, all is its merit.

And then he concludes with the words:

Her crown is love, and she holds a few sips from the cup of love harmless for a lifetime of toil.

This is an essay full of many pearls of wisdom steeped in enthusiasm. Goethe was once asked in his later years when he had written this essay. In response to this question, you will then find a second essay in which Goethe says that he no longer remembers when he wrote this first essay, and that he no longer remembers that he wrote it, but that it is entirely an expression of his views at the time, and that it is quite possible that he wrote it. What Goethe said here has given learned Goethe researchers much to think about and occasion for incredible research; there was a time when Goethe researchers spent long, long hours investigating whether this essay was written by Goethe himself or not.

When I was appointed to the Goethe Archive in Weimar years ago to reissue Goethe's scientific writings, I was once asked to examine this question as well, and I was asked to pay particular attention to clarifying this controversial issue. I came to the conclusion that I was now able to determine that at the time when the aforementioned hymn was written, Goethe often went for walks with a younger person, and that one day, during a walk along the Ilm, he recited this essay to this young person in those beautiful words. This person was a certain Tobler, who had an excellent memory and was able to write down this essay word for word from memory. So in Tobler's transcript we have a genuine Goethe essay.

With a kind of pedantic philological precision, I myself proved at the time that every sentence was written by Goethe, although it was written down by someone else. Shortly thereafter, I met one of the most well-known Goethe researchers [whose name I understandably do not mention]. He approached me with the following words: [You have truly earned recognition for what you have brought to light, because] now we finally know who wrote the essay, that it was not Goethe who wrote it, but Tobler.

This is an experience that can show us how today's biblical criticism is to be taken. It was not important to this gentleman where the spiritual source was, but only to determine who dipped the pen in the ink and ran it over the paper.

It may seem almost grotesque, but today's biblical criticism is basically taking the same approach. It is not important to them where the spiritual sources for what is told come from, but rather to show with meticulous precision – in a figurative sense – who ultimately put the pen in the inkwell, and that is exactly what these people want to do: to distinguish with colors what flowed from one pen and what flowed from another. Not the slightest criticism is intended here. The scholar was right at the time: Tobler had dipped that pen into the ink and written the essay. Therefore, not the slightest doubt is to be cast on the value of this research. That is not the point. Full recognition is to be given to the true and infinite diligence that is displayed here, because anyone who is familiar with it knows what diligence, what amazing diligence is applied to answering these questions. Perhaps everything this science finds is true, but the only question is: is it fruitful for the inner life of human beings, is it of value for those who hope for an answer to the great questions of existence from the depths of their hearts? One more thing must be pointed out for a better understanding of these lectures. The word inspiration, which played a major role when the concept of the Bible was discussed earlier: it was said that what is in the Bible arose from inspiration. The wisdom from the same spiritual sources that are related to creation and production in the world itself flowed into it – the Bible. Gradually, the materialistic age came; it could not believe in such inspiration. The moment humanity ceased to believe in the spiritual worlds themselves, this concept had to fall. Spiritual science now knows this concept and traces it back to its true content and true meaning.

Spiritual science first recognizes a world, a physical world, the world of our senses, which we perceive with our eyes, can grasp with our hands, which we hear when we direct our ear to something that makes a sound. This whole world of the senses and of the mind that comprehends this world is the only real one for the materialistic mind. The spiritual world is a second world for those who, with unprejudiced senses, want to penetrate it through spiritual science. As already mentioned, spiritual wisdom shows that there are abilities that usually lie dormant in people today, but that can be awakened and that then really let people experience the spiritual worlds. In the human organism, the eye developed only gradually; with the development of the eye, the surrounding darkness, light and color first penetrated it. With the formation of the ear, the world of sounds resounded to it. With the development of the brain, man became able to develop and recreate the sensory world in his mind, to grasp it spiritually.

Just as the eye once lay dormant in the human organism, so other spiritual organs lie dormant in the human spirit, in the human soul. These organs can be awakened from the soul and spirit by certain methods that spiritual science offers to man, and then there is a second and a third world in the same world that surrounds us. I will first characterize the second world in a few words. When a person, whose physical senses are merely unlocked, looks at any object, he sees that thing with a certain color. The surface of that being is afflicted with a certain color. He can then hear what emerges as a sound from the soul of that being, and so on, but within the limits of that being's skin, there is something else, but it is just as true and just as real as what he can perceive with his senses: Within this being is a sum of pain and joy, urges, desires and passions. You cannot penetrate into this second world with your senses.

But there is a way to open up the spiritual eye, then this inner soul world of the other being does not remain hidden from you, then it appears before you as these external colors and sounds appear to the senses. You can perceive as much of the world as you have senses for perception. We only recognize a certain amount of realities when we have senses for them. What all there is that would confront a person if only they had more senses, more abilities to perceive. We can experience it through what is called initiation, that the sense is open to us, not only for what the outer senses tell us about the outer world, but also for what is going on in the soul of a being within. It is possible for us to perceive the joy and suffering of a being with the open mind of a seer. A certain color sensation arises before the spiritual eye of the seer when a person stands before him with some inner experience, and the same inner color appears to him every time he has the same experience.

In the case of sympathy, for example, we see with a seeing eye how this sympathy takes on a certain color and form; antipathy and pain appear to us in such a world of images, in different colors and forms. This world of second sight exists; this world can be developed, it has always been known in spiritual science. This world is called the imaginative world, and the ability to see in this way is called imagination. The person who has these abilities encounters a strange being within himself with the sensation of his joy and suffering. He perceives the soul life of the other being in the image; at the same time, he is surrounded by the imaginations of the inner being, the inner life of this entity. This world, to which all this belongs, is also called the astral world. Once the eye is opened to this world, one perceives not only the soul experiences that are actually present in sensual beings, but one also makes the discovery that there are also soul entities in our environment that have no sensual expression. Such beings exist. Everyone who knows spiritual science as the chemist knows chemistry, knows this world of imagination, because if he develops further, if he applies the methods that spiritual science provides in the right way, then he enters this world of flowing colors, and if he now continues to progress further on the path of inner development, then what could be called clairaudience - in contrast to clairvoyance - approaches him and now gives him knowledge of the truly so-called spiritual or even heavenly world.

This further world is also referred to by the term used in theosophical literature as the devachanic world; the old Pythagorean school called this world the world of the harmony of the spheres: one hears the tones of the harmony of the spheres when one develops up to this region.

Thus we are surrounded by three worlds; by the sensual world, which we perceive with our outer senses, by the astral world, in which we encounter - when we penetrate into it - the images of soul entities. These imaginations are the expression of a much truer and more real world than the sensual world is. Then, when we penetrate even further, to clairaudience, we enter the world of inspiration. Spiritual science has known about these worlds since the earliest times, and they are to be made accessible to today's humanity again through the theosophical movement of modern culture. The realization of this spiritual world of Devachan, in the form of clairaudience, has been called inspiration at all times.

Man can reach yet another level, where he can see into yet another world, the world of intuition. This occurs when man sees not only that which is recognizable on the surface as astral, when he not only hears what emerges from their soul as sound, only when he can become one with the whole world. This characterizes it in a technical sense: in ordinary life, we stand outside of a thing – you stand outside of a plant or a mineral that you want to explore. But when you have reached this level of knowledge, your own being flows into the foreign object and you speak with your soul from within the object itself. There is no thing in itself outside of you, there you are in all beings, there you have become one with the whole environment; there the things themselves speak to us.

Through inspiration, the things around us express their essence in the harmony of the spheres. In the images of the imagination, they reflect their soul-like outer sides to us in colors and shapes. The spiritual researcher knows that there are three such worlds outside our physical world, that there are beings in these worlds that elude our physical sense world, that the creative entities of our sense world are contained in these higher worlds.

What created minerals, animals and plants is contained in these worlds, and what is contained in man as a real higher being is also a citizen of this higher world, which can only be seen in imagination. Man is not only enclosed in the world of the senses, no, he is something that has its home in the imaginative world and can only be properly recognized through imagination. And in all of us lives an innermost being – in ourselves – but only when we are able to step out of ourselves so that it seems to come to us in others and can be recognized in its real form, that is, only intuitively, in intuition. And if humanity is to be informed of those entities, which as the creating original entities underlie our world of sense facts, then people must bring the message out of their higher developed perception, out of their imagination, intuition.

When today man penetrates spiritual truth himself, when the spiritual researcher penetrates into spiritual realms, then he can proclaim from his own experience what the leaders of mankind once put into the religious scriptures, what they gave to mankind as a guide to higher development. In primeval times there was a kind of dim clairvoyance. This gradually disappeared, and our present-day “scientific”, critical awareness of facts took its place. This will be overcome by the fact that higher spiritual-scientific knowledge must in turn be added to this day-awake object consciousness.

For certain intermediate stages, the sense of the spiritual-scientific foundations of knowledge from the higher worlds had to be lost. In older spiritual times, however, it was generally known that those people who had struggled to achieve inspiration were inspired, that they had truly laid down their own experiences in the religious documents.

There will be more and more people who can recognize more and more directly – independently of these documents – what is true in these documents. The concept of inspiration will be rediscovered; then the time will come when there will be a new relationship between wisdom and the Bible. Everything that can be known about divine spiritual things can be directly researched using the methods of spiritual science, everything that has ever been brought in a religious document. Then the human being recognizes the truth of these documents again; when he can look into these worlds himself, then he experiences again that these things are all true, that there was indeed good reason why people could naively believe in all that is reported in such holy books for a time. The fact that this awareness can be regained will indicate a time when people, precisely by knowing something of the spirit that underlies all matter, will come to recognize again that those records are true that criticism cannot begin to understand, those records that this criticism has devalued in the eyes of many people today. Recognizing the Bible in its value as a book that emerged from inspiration will be a success of the theosophical movement, because one will again recognize what inspiration is, what inspired knowledge is. One will again be able to find wisdom in the Bible if one can independently recognize what is described in it and is to be given to people.

There will again be wise men who, from their own spiritual experiences, will be able to give an account of what the origins of existence look like and how the riddles of existence can be solved. And when there are such wise men who, from their direct knowledge, can say what the riddle is, then the gulf between those who are to be guides in religious knowledge and those who want to look up, who want to have content for their existence, who want something more than the most empty everyday life, who want to live a dignified existence at all, can be bridged. A connection between the broadest layers of those who want to listen and those who are to teach will again become possible. Then the ground will be laid for a healthy national life and for a healthy religious development. These two are connected: this healthy religious development will mean healthy national development.

In this way we shall learn to see deeply into many a thing and then recognize how literally we can take again many a thing that was no longer understood because the sense for spiritual research had been lost. We shall see that it is true: there is a naive relationship to that great religious document of which Goethe said that it must be a land register for the religious development of mankind for an incalculable time.

There is a certain justification for this relationship of doubt and rejection in our time, but those who say that true wisdom and knowledge of facts must necessarily lead away from what is given in this document are wrong.

So you then find more and more that you understand, and you are surprised that you criticized some things earlier that you just did not understand, and that now it appears to you in a completely new light. Then comes the point where one becomes modest and humble in the face of such a book, which not only contains human wisdom but goes far beyond everything human. Then one is inclined to say: Through spiritual science I have come to understand some things, have learned to appreciate some things – there is much I do not yet understand, but now I no longer criticize, but wait quietly and patiently until I too will one day understand the rest. There is no more beautiful sensation than this: to look into the source of wisdom with modesty and humility, because this looking is connected with a feeling of an opening up infinity of existence into an ever-widening perspective of wisdom. We have recognized some things, and the little we have learned has taught us the idea that, with increasing development, we will be able to unlock more and more, that the stronger and brighter light will come to meet us from the great religious documents of the human race, the more we approach the sources of the divine being from which we once sprang, unknowingly, and to which we will approach again in the course of our development. We see this goal as a flourishing, satisfying fact before us, inviting us to never cease in our efforts to perfect and spiritualize humanity in its development.

Yesterday we tried to penetrate the relationship between what is called wisdom in the spiritual scientific sense, immediate, direct knowledge of the spiritual worlds, and that religious document that is the most important for our culture, the Bible. Today, let us take a look at some specific facts that can illustrate this relationship to us, that can show us how, if we understand this relationship in this way, we can indeed arrive at a new understanding of this religious document. You will understand that it is impossible to even touch on such a broad subject in summary, considering all the things that could be considered. It will therefore be best if we try to pick out individual things in particular to see how certain things that are also told in this biblical document can be understood through direct insight into the higher worlds and how one can then find that which one can grasp so immediately and directly in this religious document.

I would like to start with a very specific individual fact, a fact that has already been touched on here in a different context. I would like to show you how spiritual science introduces us to a certain law of human development. Today, this law is even already suspected by the more materialistically colored natural science. Spiritual science has known the law for long, long times and regards life from the point of view of this law. If we want to characterize this law in one word, we say: This law expresses the development of the spiritual life of humanity. You know that the idea of development is something that has had a truly fascinating effect on the external science of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. You know that external science has been completely moved into this perspective and that as a result the development of the simplest living beings up to the most complicated ones has become understandable.

Spiritual science has always had this idea of development, only much more comprehensive, much more universal than this natural science of the nineteenth century.

Spiritual science says: Everything is in the process of development. Everything develops from simple, very simple forms in the distant past to those forms that are so intricately interwoven that humans are still far from being able to comprehend them today. Spiritual science speaks above all of a development of human consciousness itself, and it is important that we follow the development of this human consciousness through its various stages. For this will cast a spotlight on certain chapters of the biblical records. What the vast majority of individuals today call consciousness is, for spiritual science, a state of consciousness that has developed from other forms of consciousness. We describe this present human state of consciousness as the so-called waking daytime consciousness, or also the object consciousness. Why? If we want to characterize this consciousness that a person has today from morning, when he wakes up, until evening, when he falls asleep, we have to say: This consciousness acquires its knowledge as follows: First, it acquires its perceptions of the objects through the external senses, of the objects in space and in the time around us, and our mind, which is limited to the sensory world, processes the perceptions that the human being receives through the external senses; and through such perceptions and such processing of perceptions in our conscious mind, we form the treasures of our knowledge, which are stored in our memory and guide and accompany us through life.

However, there are other forms of consciousness besides this state of consciousness; this state of consciousness is one that humanity has not always had in the past, and we have to look back to recognize the development of this state of consciousness, to times in the distant, distant past, to times that lie far, far behind our own.

In the past, people had a different form of consciousness, and at one point a different state of consciousness. How we perceive today, how we think today, has developed from other forms of consciousness, and the state of consciousness that once existed in humanity, but which today's state of consciousness has replaced, is called pictorial consciousness, the imaginative consciousness of the distant past.

The higher imaginative consciousness of which I spoke yesterday is not meant here. If we want to understand how this earlier pictorial consciousness relates to the consciousness that the initiate, who has undergone the inner spiritual development, already has today and that all of humanity will have at some future stage, if we want to recognize the two levels of consciousness If we want to recognize the two stages of imaginative consciousness, these two phases of the development of our consciousness in their relationship, we have to say: what we will speak of here precedes our own and is a dim, more dream-like clairvoyance. In that very distant past, people had a dream-like clairvoyance, and from this, today's object consciousness has only just developed; and a future state of consciousness stands before our soul, which the initiate already has today and which all of humanity will have in the distant future, in that man will have today's object consciousness and clairvoyance, both in bright, clear clarity. Early man, our ancient ancestor, had a consciousness that could not yet calculate in the same way that today's consciousness can. But instead he had a kind of dull, dream-like clairvoyance. He could see more into the spiritual and soul-life of his surroundings, either continually or in specially evoked states. He could receive images of what was spiritually and soul-wise in his environment. Today's object consciousness only sees spiritual entities when they are physically embodied externally.

I can best describe the former clairvoyance to you by means of an example. A person approaches another; the second harbors feelings of antipathy in his soul towards the approaching person. Modern man can only guess at what lives in the soul from external sensory perceptions. In the dim clairvoyance that man of ancient times had, however, a picture in color and form appeared freely floating before the clairvoyant gaze, indicating to him what the other felt towards him. The innermost attitude of a being was clothed in a color and form floating in space for the spiritual eye, just as certain ether vibrations express themselves today for the physical eye through color and form.

There are times in the distant past when this clairvoyance was developed to a certain extent. Today, however, we can only look back in history to a time when the last remnants of this somnambulistic clairvoyance, so to speak, were still present in people. These remnants were present in times not much more than a thousand years ago. We find such dim clairvoyance in every people in its initial stage, and it is from this dim clairvoyance that the myths and legends and fairy tales that originated among peoples in the early days were born. These myths and sagas did not come into being through that abstract thing we call the child's creative imagination, but out of the remnants of this former clairvoyance, as a reproduction of what an original, dim clairvoyance originally saw in all, all peoples from whom today's humans descended. This dim clairvoyance is connected with other conditions in the development of mankind, and if we want to characterize this development that has taken place in the transition to our present object consciousness, then we have to point to an external event that has taken place in our physical world and that is an expression of this transformation of that consciousness into our present one. This found expression in what we can call the transition from near-marriage to distant-marriage. In ancient times, among the most diverse peoples, there was an age in which what we call consanguineous marriage was common practice, a matter of course. People lived in small tribes and married within these small tribes, and it was considered somewhat immoral and incorrect to marry outside one's tribe; so in those times, related blood mixed with related blood, and those times these times of close marriage prevailed were also the times when the last remnants of a dim form of clairvoyance were present.

It is an extremely important moment in the development of all peoples: the transition from close marriage to distant marriage. One could point out how this is expressed in the most diverse myths and legends, how the whole cycle of the Siegfried saga is connected with that transition from close marriage to distant marriage, but that would be going too far today. What is important for us is the effect of foreign blood on foreign blood, which is that the original clairvoyance is killed; and this consciousness, which we know today, which is characterized by calculating, combining, logical thinking, this achievement emerged from that mixing of foreign blood with foreign blood!

Thus, we can trace in all ancient times how a different form of living together is linked to a different state of consciousness and vice versa. It has also been pointed out that even today, under certain circumstances, the last vestiges of this clairvoyance remain; I have already referred to the conversation between Rosegger and Anzengruber. I will take it up again here: Rosegger, the amiable and significant descriptor of what he sees around him in farm life and elsewhere, is a descriptor based on external sensory observation. Compare this with Anzengruber, and you will see that Anzengruber is able to present figures from folk life with wonderful plasticity, so that they stand on their own two feet with wonderful truth and naturalness. Now Anzengruber never saw the things he describes with his senses, he never lived among the farmers. Now Rosegger said to Anzengruber: You know, it seems to me that if you went out into the farming world and observed what happens there, you would be able to describe it even better. Anzengruber, on the other hand, replied: No, then I probably wouldn't be able to describe it at all. I have never seen farmers, but my ancestors were farmers, all my ancestors were farmers, and so the peasantry still lives and stirs in my blood, and I describe what my fathers saw, my ancestors, it runs down to me in my blood, and that is how I describe peasant life.

There you have the last remnants of what was once present in a much higher degree in all humanity. If you realize this, you will have to say: the way Anzengruber worked had the effect that a dark power of consciousness lives down in the blood through his ancestors to himself, and that lives itself out in him. Imagine this state of consciousness intensified, intensified to such an extent that the son can really remember what the father experienced, yes, what the grandfather experienced, then you have characterized that dim state of clairvoyance after a certain side, which once belonged to all our ancestors. There is a much higher, a real memory in the blood of what the ancestors had experienced, and as true as it is that today's man with his object consciousness can only store what he himself has experienced since childhood, it is just as true, incredible and grotesque as it may appear to today's materialistic way of thinking, it is true that there was a time when there was a dim awareness that the following generations remembered what their father, grandfather, ancestor and great-ancestor had experienced. Not just a vague feeling of it rumbled in the blood that had come from marriage between relatives, it was a real memory of it. Now let's see: what was the result of such a very different state of consciousness? The result of this was a very different naming than what takes place within humanity today. Today, man calls his ego that which holds together the experiences of his person since his youth. It was different then. Imagine those people who had a clear memory of what their ancestors had experienced; they also used the term “I” to describe what had been experienced in their ancestors over the generations. So someone was telling the experiences of his grandfather as those of his own “I” – if you want to express it radically. So he said: My “I” does not end with my birth, it extends up the generations, and that is why in such distant times, of which, however, no reports and documents report, what was remembered was given a uniform name, and so we must first learn to understand the meaning of the naming for those ancient times. Names were not only given to individual persons in those days; the whole context of all experiences in which one was present had a name in one's memory. When we know that there were names that designated many generations that went back centuries, then we understand an important chapter in which the patriarchs lived through the centuries.

Adam is not a person like those who live today as personal human beings on our physical earth. Adam was that which lived through generations and found expression in the collective memory. He did not denote a tribe or race, but that which passed through the generations as a common memory of consciousness in the old dim clairvoyance.

Thus it becomes clear that we need only understand the naming of ancient times, then it becomes bright within us in what the documents of the Bible tell us from this chapter of the history of creation. In those ancient times of dim clairvoyance, man did not attach much importance to his own personal experiences; they were only a small part of that great circle of experience to which he felt he belonged. He spoke of that which his consciousness overlooked as a unified entity. And so, just as when you talk to another person today, that person appears to you as something real, and the succession of generations as a whole appears more or less abstract, so to those people the individual person was insignificant, and what was important to him was what held his consciousness, reaching back over generations, together. Thus, in the patriarchal names, we do not have names for individual personalities, but rather a designation of a sum of beings. Thus, something in the Bible shines for us, which we recognize in its true sense when we face it equipped with higher spiritual-scientific knowledge. That is the way in which the person who recognizes it can look at the Bible. He first sees how it was in ancient times, and then, when he can understand correctly, he finds that the description of the Bible is just the same, wants to say the same thing. At that time, those who wrote down these records simply described what they were aware of.

Another example: in spiritual science, we follow the human being in his development far, much further back than to the point in time we have just discussed. Since I have often spoken about the idea of development here, I hope I will not be misunderstood today. Spiritual science traces the human being far, far back, and when it traces the human being back, it always comes across such human beings through long, long periods of time, where the physical body of the human being is the expression of the soul living in the physical body of the human being. But then, going further and further back, we come to a point in human development when this is no longer the case, when we can see how, so to speak, the paths of physical development and of soul-spiritual development separate further backwards. The spirit and the soul of man are rooted in the spiritual world, and when I use the expression of descending from the spiritual world, those who have already penetrated deeper into theosophy know that this expression is only figurative, an expression for something spiritual in a language that is only suitable for the external material. We are coming to times in the development of humanity when we see how the human soul and spirit is still united with other spiritual and soul-like entities. Out of spiritual entities, man's soul and spirit are born. There is a point in our earthly development when these human soul and spirit have only just entered this physical body, but we must not believe that this physical body, as it has taken in the soul and spirit, has not also undergone a long, long development.

At this point, two developmental currents meet. One of these currents is that of the physical world: We see how physical entities – headed by the physical human body – develop up to a certain level of perfection. Then there comes a point in time when this physical human body has become so perfect that it is now able to accommodate this spiritual-soul entity, which has developed to such an extent that it could find expression in the physical human body. since that spirit, that soul, has moved within the human body from the imperfect form that that body had, up to the present human form, the soul and spirit itself has worked in the human body through long, long periods of time. And through the forces through which they worked, the soul and spirit within the human body developed this body ever higher and higher, to its present form. Soul and spirit are, so to speak, the transformers and redevelopers of the human body. From that time on, we can also characterize the form of the physical human body, as it existed at that time, suitable for receiving the soul-spiritual, today, without any religious document, but only from the developed abilities of the seer.

These two human body in such a way that the human body as yet without a human soul was certain — I know how I shock all those who have only a materialistic way of thinking; but that does not matter; but if we want to know the truth, we have to tackle this great difference . The reasons why materialistic science may find this strange and grotesque are already known to the spiritual researcher himself, he has already dealt with them, otherwise he would not dare to tell such things – they are formed quite differently than he later became. But the earth was also shaped quite differently in those ancient times.

I will speak only of a single thing in the human body and its transformation at that time. Before that time, it was necessary for the human body to have an organ that still exists today in a last rudiment and remnant, in the swim bladder of fish. Since the physical human ancestor had to move by floating and swimming on the earth, he needed such a organ. The physical human ancestor had this organ in ancient times. This organ has transformed itself in the course of human physical development into the lungs. This has enabled man to breathe in and process the air as he does today. Connected with this is what we know about other processes in the body that have some kind of relationship to this lung breathing. We see the transition from the old gill breathing, which is still present in human embryonic development, to lung breathing, which is the preparation for red blood, which plays such an important role in human beings as well as in the life of nations. This moment of capturing the oxygen in the air through the lungs is also the moment of the human being being endowed with a human soul. Only then was he a suitable vessel for what we call a human soul.

These things took place over long, long periods of time: the transformation of the swim bladder into lungs that are able to process the oxygen in the external air. Now, if an observer wanted to describe this important moment of development in emotional and sensory terms, he could have said: “With the inhalation of the air, we breathed in the divine soul.” That is indeed how our ancestors felt, they gratefully felt the breath as the inspirer. You see, that is why the legends and myths of all peoples saw the body of the deity in the air, which had given man his individual consciousness. In the drifting air, the one who sees out of dull clairvoyance or out of the developed consciousness of the seer, sees the body of the animating deity, that deity of which his individual soul is a part. Imagine that all this extended over long, long periods of time, what was expressed pictorially in such legends and myths.

This image for all that I have described to you can be found again in the biblical record: “And God breathed into the man the breath of life, and he became a living soul.

Yes, why then clothe such a powerful fact, which goes through millions of years of development, in such an image? Yes, it is not unimportant in which image such a fact is presented to the consciousness at a particular stage of development. In the form in which it was expressed just now, it would not have been understood by anyone at that time. At that time it was necessary to speak in images, in imaginations. Everything, absolutely everything is in development! You will only understand what that means when I tell you how it all affects you.

Those who have already delved deeper into the theosophical teachings know that the human soul is not embodied only once, but passes through human bodies over and over again, going through many, many lives. They know that That which is in you today as soul has developed over and over again through life and life; that which is able to understand and comprehend this great law of becoming human in you today would understand nothing, absolutely nothing, would not have the ability to grasp such concepts if you had not also listened before or more often to how others have described this same process of becoming world in images and imaginations. Only this enabled this soul to understand the concept of it in today's incarnation.

Everything that only later appears in concepts must first be brought to humanity in imaginations, in images. The wisest of humanity, the leaders of the people, have known all that we describe today. But for the majority it had to be brought in images, because they had a dim clairvoyance and could not yet absorb these things in concepts, but only in images, and that was to be given in this form: “And God breathed into the man the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)

Let us now ask ourselves: What does Jahve, Jehovah stand for? Jehovah is the expression for that which we perceive as the individual, the I-giving. At the same time, it has the secondary meaning “the blowing one,” “the one blowing in the air,” and there you have the Yahweh himself, that is, the deity who gave man the I: “I am who am” (Ex 3:14). And if you go from there up to the Central European old legends and myths, you will find that there you also have the Wotan, who rides in the air storm, the Wotan who blows. Thus, the blowing spirit, the spirit that blows in the air, was always felt to be the bringer of human consciousness.

This is only one of the concepts we can develop. Going further back into the distant past, we would arrive at the line of development of the spiritual core of the human being, and from there to spirit itself. Even in those ancient times, the old consciousness looked back to the time when the soul and spirit were still united with the original divine spirituality; our spiritual-soul human ancestor was within this. What you call your self today, your most intimate inner being, was at that time, when it had not yet united with your body, was at that time in that divine primordial being within it. Above all, it was in a state that we must describe as being without gender. Spirit and soul have no gender. They acquire gender when they take on a physically formed body, but their innermost being is not gender-related. This soul also underwent development, and every spiritual researcher looks back on this as well, and saw man and woman united in one before the two genders appeared to us in the outside world. The spirit of man, the spirit that was not yet sexual, united both sexes within itself.

Thus we have the one point of the incarnation of man in the sense of the soul, the spirit, entering the physical, appropriately prepared body, and an earlier, equally salient point: the incarnation of the soul, the spiritual man himself, and how from an even earlier spiritual state the asexual, spiritual-soul man emerged from the one original spirituality.

Thus we see the incarnation twice: once above in the spiritual world, once below on the physical plane. This twofold human becoming for our Earth appears to us in the mirror image in the description in the biblical document; we see it truly in that twofold human becoming in biblical history.

First, the human becoming in the spiritual-soul world: the biblical writer says of that time: man came into being as a male-female being. (Genesis 1:27) And then this male-female being, which was of a spiritual and soul nature, came down into the physical world, and there we are dealing with the physical body, which now simultaneously begins to breathe. Thus we see how a twofold form of human incarnation entered into the Bible. We now recognize that if one wanted to describe the truth, then this is how this twofold human incarnation would have to be described.

Now let us consider another case that comes closer to what touches us even more intimately, which introduces us introduces us to the New Testament and familiarizes us with the mystery of Golgotha, with Jesus Christ. You will easily be able to see that another element remains that is still present as a shared humanity that will not be destroyed if close marriage is destroyed. It is true that the love that attaches people to close marriage can only exist through shared blood, but there is a love that is more comprehensive and higher than that of blood. Thus there is something in humanity that is truly common, that exists as a common bond of humanity, even when that bond is severed, a bond that is more comprehensive than the love that is woven through blood relationship. When that human ancestor looked back at the time of the near marriage, it was a generational, tribal self that he designated as I. The boundaries of the tribes stretched further and further; tribes became nations, and the consciousness of the tribes was destroyed, and a common bond, which was no longer so strong, embraced the people, a national consciousness. It was most clearly and distinctly evident in that body of people who are called the Hebrew.

The tendency to expand the national consciousness to include that which holds all humanity together, the force that brings people together beyond the nation state, only came to Earth with the appearance of Christ Jesus. Even today man cannot clearly recognize what lives in all men as a common bond, but a future will come, still far distant from us, in which the consciousness will be so vividly present in a large number of people, the consciousness of brotherhood without blood. And to prepare this consciousness to act as a real power in preparation for this brotherhood, that is the mission of Christianity. If, therefore, the God who was felt in ancient times as the blowing one is also called the one who gave the I, then we must call the God who lives in that consciousness, which is not so dimly , but which will develop to feel and clearly recognize that which is common to all of humanity, we must describe this human consciousness and describe it, when we speak in the Christian sense, as the Christ consciousness. The Christ consciousness denotes, as it were, an I that embraces all of humanity in a common consciousness. There is a sentence: “If anyone does not leave wife and child and mother and brother, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29) This must not be understood in a trivial, ascetic sense. It must be understood in such a way that Christianity paves the way for an all-encompassing human brotherhood, which is not based on blood ties, but on the fact that a person says brother to every human being, not in the everyday sense , but to gain an awareness that is not enclosed and limited within the blood ties, that gradually extends to more and more people in our later life, and is ultimately able to embrace all of humanity. Therefore, if one calls Jehovah the god of the people, then one comes to call Christ Jesus the god of humanity, the god of all humanity, the “Son of Man”. He, the Master, had to prepare the bond of love for all mankind.

If Jehovah is called a national god, then the Christ, who was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth, must be called the Son of Man, as He called Himself. Thus you see the truth of the word “Before Abraham was, I Am” or, better, “I AM” (John 8:58), who has brought the forces of humanity for the first time, which embrace all of humanity, who is able to bring about all of humanity's brotherhood.

How did this great event come about through external real facts, through real events? The Son of Man has been embodied in a human personality. Spiritual science points this out to us again. It points out to us, if we understand it correctly, what is called prophecy, that which underlies all of this. Only the initiate can and can clearly recognize this, but humanity can have a feeling for it, an awareness of it, since the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth.

What is prophecy? Do not believe that what the Christian can know since the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth has only just begun in those times. The one who is a true Christian and does not want to stop at what Christianity, for example, tells its believers today, knows that he is one with what Augustine said. That which is called Christianity today is the religion that has always been called the true religion in ancient times. But not all people have been able to understand this religion since ancient times; in ancient times there were always only a few who were chosen to be initiated into the great mysteries. They became the prophets of a certain time, able to see what must happen in the future. Initiation means: to develop those higher abilities in man that lie dormant in every human being!

And now a law that tells us: That which moves down into the physical world in the future is already present today in the spiritual world, and that which lives today in the spiritual world will one day descend into the physical regions. But because the one who becomes an initiate already ascends today into the spiritual regions, he can perceive in spirit today that which will descend into the physical world in the future. He can see it today from above and now say: This will happen in the future. Initiation is now attained in a certain sequence, only according to the methods prescribed in spiritual science and also in all great religions. There have been such methods of initiation in all times, just as there have been initiates in all times.

There is a tremendous difference in the initiation principle between those ancient pre-Christian times and the post-Christian times. In those pre-Christian times, much less of those methods was written down, but they were passed on through the tradition in those schools, which are called the mystery schools. Those who were recognized as being ready to be accepted into these schools were introduced to them in stages, undergoing severe tests, and were initiated into what what is called a mystery, a thing from which two things developed in the future: the school on the one hand and the church on the other – science and religion.

So you have a rough idea of those ancient wisdom schools where initiates were initiated, but it was prescribed step by step what the one who wanted to be initiated had to do first, and what he then had to go through as a second step, up to the highest step of the spiritual worlds.

You now have an idea of those wisdom schools, in which those entities work that underlie our physical world. There were ancient initiation rites, a canon of initiation in each school of initiation. Those who were deemed suitable to become students of the sacred mystery doctrine were accepted into this school of initiation and went through the stages that led them up into the spiritual worlds. The life of such a person was strictly prescribed. Imagine this life: Once he had been initiated into the mysteries, he had to lead a life in which everyday experiences were of no significance, while what he experienced in terms of the initiation methods was of great importance for the life of such a person.

Those who had reached a certain level of initiation was called a sun man, because his life had to be lived in such a regulated way that he could not stray from his path; just as the sun cannot deviate from its path, so the one who has made it to the level of a sun hero on his path of initiation is just as sure. He shares the truths of the spiritual world from his own experience; he is a leader of humanity.

The myths and legends contain this and tell us again and again about sun heroes, and when they speak of such people, when they agree with each other even among the most diverse peoples, what is described to us is what made him a sun hero. Then such a story seems to us like a repetition of the canon of initiation, and so in those ancient times a principle was formed in relation to the life of the initiate that is just the opposite of the principle of the biographers of today. For those who told something about the lives of the great leaders of humanity in ancient times, it was important to blur what made them appear as special beings, what made them become solar heroes, what they had to go through according to the initiation rite, and what all of them went through in the same way. The goal of this initiation was also to develop in those initiated a living vision of the all-human ego, of the unified consciousness, but the chosen ones only had it.

Only a few people could achieve this. Now, in the course of time, an event was to occur in development that what could be achieved individually in the old days, within the mysteries, could now be achieved by all of humanity in general. And this event was precisely the Mystery of Golgotha. How did that come about? We will understand this if we look into the mysteries: then, when he had experienced all these things at first hand, which one had to experience before that great final moment of initiation, then the time came when he was placed by the initiating priest-hierophant in such a state that he could experience in the clearest clarity of vision that which raised him above his tribe and people, and into what he has in common with all humanity.

You know from other lectures that the human being consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the I and its higher members. During sleep, the physical and etheric bodies lie in bed, and during sleep the astral body with the higher limbs of human nature is out. Then, when the etheric body also separates from the physical body, death occurs. That is the spiritual difference between sleep and death. But then, when the person to be initiated had come so far that he could undergo the last stage of initiation, the hierophant, the initiating priest, led him to it, so that for a short time of three and a half days the etheric body could also leave, so that the physical body was in a kind of state of death. The result of this was that someone who had been prepared through the necessary stages could experience everything that was prepared for him in his own vision, and he could experience the higher worlds in real vision. Then, after three and a half days, the one to be initiated was called back to the ordinary physical, and now he was one who could proclaim, from his own experience, the secrets of the higher worlds to those who wanted to hear it. From his lips flowed the word of the spiritual world; he had become a witness that there is a spiritual world, that life in the spirit can conquer death. For he himself was in that world in which one gains the conviction that life will always conquer death. And again and again, the one who had thus traversed the spiritual worlds in three and a half days, again and again the initiate came back when he was awakened, with an exclamation that would be something like in German: “My God, my God, how You have glorified me.”

In ancient times, anyone who wanted to become such a proclaimer of spiritual wisdom from their own experiences had to enter into the mysteries and experience them outside of their physical body. Only in this way could it be done in the ancient, pre-Christian times. This is the world-historical moment of Christianity: that in the one event of Golgotha, everything that the one to be initiated experienced during the three and a half days was drawn into the physical world as a historical fact of physical reality. The Mystery of Initiation has become physically real in the Mystery of Golgotha. The sequence of initiations could be physically experienced in the physical world by the one who had the consciousness of the unity of humanity, the Son of Man. Physically, he could experience what was only possible for people to experience outside of their physical body before his appearance.

Thus, the mystery of initiation, having become physical, shines out to us from the event of Golgotha. So how will those who wanted to describe this mystery present the special events of the life of Christ Jesus? They knew that the one who, as the Son of Man, brought the secrets into the physical world, also had to experience these stages of initiation in the sense of the initiation canon here in the physical world, which the one to be initiated had always experienced outside of his physical body. Thus, the life of this unique being, who appeared only once in the development of humanity, had to be described in such a way that it was, of course, a reflection of the ancient initiation canon.

Now the various forms had been written down, fixed in different ways, in different forms of ritual, of rite, but all leading back to a unified mode of development. This mode of initiation, which also represents the life of Christ Jesus, was one that underlay all mystery schools, and it is only natural that it was applied to the external physical life of Christ Jesus, for this is truly how it happened. They describe to us something which they have taken from the old initiation canon, as they had received it in the mystery schools. Therefore, we find in the Gospels various outwardly seemingly divergent forms of the initiation canon, which appear as the biography of Christ Jesus.

Thus, we see in the Gospels the fixed initiation canon , and in Christ Jesus, whom they describe, we see the only Son of Man who presents that which others could only experience within the mysteries, outside of them in the physical life, in order to make their blessings accessible to all people. The sentence that life conquers death, which the initiate had experienced in the higher worlds, was outwardly manifested by Christ Jesus in the physical world, and is now accessible to all people in the same way.

Spiritual science knows that the gospel is history, extraordinary history, and at the same time a symbol. That is precisely the essential point, that here the symbol has become outer reality, that what had previously only taken place symbolically in the higher worlds, that it has become outer historical truth in the Mystery of Golgotha. Very few people want to understand that historical Christianity is so historical, and that it is also symbolic. Once this is understood, one can penetrate deeply into the spirit and meaning of the New Testament, and then one sees that the spirit and meaning of these documents is so infinitely deep that one can only gradually penetrate into its deepest depths. Let us look at a few more passages in this light. We recognize the three and a half days in the three and a half days, as it is reported (John 11), that Lazarus had already been dead when the Lord resurrected him, and we recognize again in another place those words – for that is how they should actually be translated – that Christ Jesus speaks on the cross at the moment when he arrives at the last act of his life in the physical body: “My God, my God, how hast thou glorified me”, for that is what these words should mean — and not “how hast Thou forsaken me” (Matt. 27,46, cf. Psalm 22,1; Mark 15,34), which is only an inaccurate rendering.

Thus we see that spiritual science, in its turn, becomes acquainted with initiation, experiences that life in the spirit conquers death, that this life, this wisdom, in its turn, makes understandable makes the deep meaning of the New Testament understandable, and so the wisdom-filled deepening of humanity within the theosophical movement will again lead to an appreciation, to a valuation of the biblical documents, of both parts of them.

Precisely because this wisdom will testify to the truth of this testament independently of it, it will have such a significant effect when you rediscover this truth in the Bible.

Thus will the man who penetrates it through theosophical study rediscover the value of this book, which could no longer be appreciated by someone who had lost touch with the spiritual world. And so no other biblical research, criticism, and so on, will be able to bridge the gap between scholars and believers than this spiritual science or and it will bridge this gulf and will bring a wisdom that will understand everything, everything that is expressed in the mighty words of the biblical documents. It will bring the solution to the great riddle of existence that is sought by the intellect and the mind in the Bible. And this will be recognized in the Bible, that it was and is the actual basis for the actual culture of humanity. Thus the Bible will again become a book that will be recognized in its full significance and value, and one will no longer be able to approach it indifferently, but with awe for the great, infinite sources of wisdom that bubble forth in it.

Thus, who is able to penetrate into the spiritual world independently will be filled with ever deeper and deeper awe in the face of this book, and it will become for him in turn a book of proclamation, which must be understood ever deeper and deeper, and a book in which the greatest riddles of man and of the development of humanity find their solution. Thus the Bible will rise higher and higher in value through wisdom, and if this movement succeeds in pointing people to the direct path to knowledge, then this reference will at the same time be something of immense value for the whole religious life of the broadest humanity.

The conquest of wisdom will at the same time be a reconquest of that charter which after all underlies our culture, that is to say, of that which lives as the spirit of our culture.

Then this penetration into wisdom, this conquest of the spiritual worlds through wisdom, will at the same time be the conquest of these valuable sources for wisdom, the conquest of the Biblical charters themselves.

Whether this applies to Romance and Germanic peoples is not necessary to discuss further here. It is a disaster for a people when those who are or are supposed to be leaders speak a different language and have different thoughts. Today there is one area where such a gap exists: it is the area of religious life. I will speak of the basis of this religious gap: the Bible.

Questions that occupy all people are: Where do people come from, what is the meaning, the goal of life, what is the essence and what is its form? Endless layers seek the solution to such questions in the Bible; but precisely what matters, the living feeling and attitude to the Bible, is lacking. There is a gulf between the theologians who study the Bible and the believers, and when someone says, “We want it to close,” for the time being it is only a wish. There are enough reasons, even without resorting to mysticism and occultism, to believe that the gulf is widening. There comes a time when teachers and believers no longer understand each other. People usually do not realize how great this gap is. Teachers of the past, who studied the Bible, based their teachings on the highest truths. There was a sense that what the Bible contains is something unspeakably high, that one is wise at the beginning, becomes wiser as one understands more and more. Teachers were formed through this wisdom-filled study of the Bible, and there were teachers. Those who listened, who listened intently, felt that this was where wisdom could be found. This is not to say that there are no such men today.

If we look back 150 years, there was still something of that feeling towards the Bible, a feeling of sacred awe, that such writing should be treated quite differently. Goethe was also familiar with this. Today, all this seems difficult to understand. We must realize that the spirit of materialism is not very intrusive where it appears as theoretical materialism. We see this in Haeckel's views. These are not the worst. The worst is the one that guides people to understand things materially and to see only what is tangible and to overlook the meaning behind it.

We want to touch on two things: biblical criticism and inspiration.

Tell a materialist about inspiration and he will laugh at you. Nevertheless, it is the current that we now call theosophical that is reawakening the dulled sense of the concept of inspiration. Inspiration, that is, inspiration from a higher world, would take a different position on what is in the Bible than on another book. The writer of those books was a point of passage, a conduit for the transmission of higher knowledge. This is a crude way of expressing the concept of inspiration, which is completely misunderstood, even in theology. Materialistic believers have suffered the greatest harm.

We will now only talk about what some Bible scholars say. Older and newer ones state that certain statements are made to us that prove that Moses could not have written the books in question, that passages must have been written centuries after Moses, that therefore the passages in question cannot be from him. I will mention one example that most likely makes people head shy. It is the twofold account of the creation of man. First it says: God created man male and female (Gen. 1:27). To make it quite clear: it does not say male and female. Then it says that God created man first and then the woman, his rib (Gen. 1:21-22). What is the basis for this? This is particularly characteristic. It was said that one and the same personality could not give rise to two different descriptions, so they must have been welded together.

So they searched the Bible for contradictions. Furthermore, they found certain differences in style and expression, so they concluded again that these are different sources and that some collector has combined both.

Let us take the six- or seven-day work. It presents in lofty thoughts the creation of the world from the first formation to the day on which God rested. It is a cosmic work that points out to us in vivid terms and intense images that we are dealing with an ancient document of inspiration. The creation of Adam, the leading to the animals, Eve's fall into sin, the snake as a symbol of sin (Genesis 3) led to the assumption that the six- or seven-day work came from a different source. Supercritical Bible researchers found the two designations: Elohists and Jahvehists; others found other discrepancies, so that finally it became clear what is now called the Rainbow Bible.

Thus the Bible work is fragmented. Now you may think that my word should be Bible criticism. That is not the case at all. I only know that in few areas so much diligence, ingenuity and intellect has been applied as to the fragmentation of the Bible. The original fervor, the devotion to this book, as inspiration from another world, has suffered. Now it is necessary to shine a light into this cleft in order to bring it back together again. It depends on the meaning behind it. I would like to use an example to illustrate the state of the art of this question. I will use a simple experience - I have experienced it - to explain. For many years I worked in the Goethe Archive in Weimar. In the records Goethe organized in the 1880s, there was a foreign transcript whose content he mistook for his own thoughts. However, he could not remember how he came to have this essay. When I came to Weimar in 1889, there were doubts that the essay was actually by Goethe. It was a scholarly question. I was able to prove that at that time Goethe had a man by the name of Tobler at his side, of whom Goethe said that he had an excellent memory. I thought that this settled the question; Goethe expressed the thoughts that Tobler wrote down, and so Goethe is the author. It is the passage that you find in the last Goethe volume: “Nature we are” and so on to the final sentence “Love is the crown”. A famous Goethe scholar – I won't mention any names, we owe him a great debt of gratitude – was keen to prove that the ink for these words had not flowed from Goethe's pen. It is not a sufficient comparison, but it is similar to biblical research. Efforts are made to prove when the content was created historically, factually, sensually, because thinking has a materialistic tendency. The sense of the spirit has been lost.

Now something else has to be added. Again, I can best make it clear with an example. Take geometry, this very ordinary school geometry. You can understand it from itself. You do not need to know how it came about. What does a schoolboy know about Euclid? What do we care who wrote it first? What matters is to explore it. When a learned house for all languages, which knows nothing about geometry, approaches Euclid, he is not yet explored by that. So something monstrous can come out at times. No philologist, no matter how famous, will understand Vedanta philosophy just because he is a philologist. If you know geometry, you know Euclid.

The question that now arises is: Is there any possibility at all of investigating the Bible? One must first know the worlds of which the Bible speaks, only then is one a qualified investigator. Is there access to the great riddles of existence? This is the path followed by the theosophical worldview. Just as there are ways to understand geometry, there are means and ways to penetrate into the spiritual world. A number of people are already walking these paths; they are seeking wisdom about the higher worlds. The result is that with each step one takes, the old religious documents arise before him in ever new forms. What does it matter from which sources, if we have the truth?

You know that for theosophical views, this world that we can see and touch is considered one world. This world would be different for us if we had other senses. Fichte once used the example: Imagine you are the only seeing person among blind people and enter the world of people who only grope around. You would be considered a fantasist if you still ascribed the quality of color to things. No one has the right to say that something is not. A person's perception depends on their organs, and how many of them they have.

Through the principle of initiation, an inner sense reveals itself to man, and with it the next world opens up to him, the imaginative or astral world, so called because it works in images. This pictorial consciousness can be tapped into. Those who apply the method described will enter this world. There is nothing, absolutely nothing of magic about it. The imaginative world presents itself as a flowing sea of light and color. These are not mere spots, but clearly defined forms, inwardly glowing and bright. So you rise to the world from which you come.

Develop these organs further and you will enter the world of inspiration. The School of Pythagoras called this world the harmony of the spheres. This is not an image, it is reality. It is not a sensual sound. Goethe and others point to this harmony of the spheres. Christianity calls it the Kingdom of Heaven or the Heavenly Kingdom. Goethe has his Faust say: “The sun resounds in the ancient way” and so on. That is not a poetic image. He knew that this was how to describe the characteristic. In the second part, Goethe says, “Sounds for spiritual ears” and so on, and by that he means the same thing.

This, then, is the world of inspiration, and beyond that is the world of intuition. There, there is an experience of the “thing in itself”, as our great philosopher Kant called it. There, love is something much higher, there is a merging with things.

Those who engage with the meaning of the concept of inspiration know what it means. In this way, a person can go through the world in his development. First, with the sensual eyes and the physical mind, the materialistic development of the human being begins. His astral development preceded this. Just as ice is related to water – water in another form – so your body is soul. Before it took on this form, it was merely soul. You lived in a world that can only be perceived by the imaginative senses. If you examine the world only with the outer senses, you can describe what Haeckel describes. It is all true, but only insofar as the ice remains only ice.

Go back even further, and the human soul was not yet condensed into the physical. The line does not end with imaginative knowledge. The soul has lived much earlier and comes to a point in its development that opens up the soul of man. Imagine this development in such a way that the soul lived separately because the physical world was not yet ready to offer it a suitable body. The world was a kind of stream in which the human being floated.

What enabled man to reclassify? A very specific organ, a kind of swim bladder was transformed into lungs. These were the times when the body became capable of being a condensed soul. In the Bible this is referred to as: “God breathed into the man the breath of life and he was a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) There is an even higher world than that of inspiration. If we go even further, man was spirit. The body is a condensed soul; the soul is a condensed spirit.

As soon as one enters inspiration from imagination, male and female disappear. The Bible says: God created man male and female – undifferentiated. (Genesis 1:27) They all were in the spiritual body. Even without taking the Bible into consideration, we can establish this. Anyone who approaches the Bible quite freely today will feel it literally.

There are four possible attitudes towards the Bible:

1. The naive person takes it as it is offered to him.
2. the enlightened person sees it as a childish folk fantasy. These are the freethinkers. But some of them, and one of their most important representatives, Bruno Wille, has come to a symbolic interpretation.
3. Those who are beyond cleverness find a mystical-symbolic meaning for the Bible.
4. The theosophist adopts a literal interpretation.

Then comes the time when the person says to himself, “Now you are beginning to understand some of it.” One comes to assume that where one cannot keep up, one just does not yet understand. The Bible is conquered in such a way that the gap is filled again, and those who create the means to do so are inspired men. Those who grasped this initially did so under the influence of inspiration. We are heading towards a new conquest of the Bible and a new relationship between wisdom and the Bible.

Today, it is our turn to explain the relationship between the Bible and wisdom in more detail, but first we need to discuss the “Old Testament” some more. Yesterday, we only mentioned the creation of man and the important passage: God breathed into the man and so on. (Genesis 2:7) Today, we want to try to penetrate the content of the original source of the Bible. So let us first consider what may arouse wonderment in people. It is useful to pick out individual facts. The long lives of the patriarchs in the Bible can arouse amazement. The material scientist would of course say: that is not possible. A theosophy that indulges in generalizing a concept says: Adam, Seth and Enoch are not to be understood as individual people, but as tribes; thus, they are names of tribes. It is not that simple. We have to go deeper into the laws of life. We have to refrain once and for all from symbolizing and allegorizing, and not ask: What does it mean?

I have already spoken to you about the cause of this old age in another context. At the time, I cited a conversation between two poets, Anzengruber and Rosegger. You know Rosegger's charming description of the mountain people. Everything he presents to us has been carefully observed. When you see Anzengruber's plays, you see farmers who stand firmly on their feet. Now something very strange. Anzengruber never lived among farmers. He lived in the city and didn't like to go out. Rosegger said to him: If you would observe the farmers more closely, you would be able to describe them much better. Anzengruber replied: I have never seen farmers, but my father, mother, grandparents were farmers, and that has remained in my blood and rumbles in me.

Direct inheritance seems much more vivid than when the blood is mixed. This is still the case today when a son comes from unmixed blood. In the past, this was the case to a high degree; it was not only in the imagination. In the old days, people did not marry outside their tribe. It was considered a great sin to step outside the blood. In all ancient peoples you find sagas and structures where breaking this commandment had to be atoned for. No blood brotherhood existed among ancient peoples, and what was in the blood was a completely different power. In those days, consanguinity brought with it a kind of clairvoyance. Today that has passed, today it would even cause harm. This clairvoyance was expressed in such a way that one not only lived in the imagination, but one had real memories that went back a long way. Just as you remember your youth today, so one remembered events from the life of the father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Today's man does not believe that. At that time, what the father had done was felt as: I have done it. For today, this is a highly wonderful situation. Thus, what was the experiences of the fathers, as in Anzengruber, passed into the memory. You could have felt your father as your self at that time, so that you did not say “I” to yourself, but you took father, mother, grandfather and great-grandfather all together as “I”, you felt the whole generation as “I”. So Adam was everything that people felt for centuries as a common consciousness, patriarchs are a whole generation embracing self-awareness. You have to know that consciousness arose through blood-brotherly memory. This is how we understand those statements in the Bible, and a great wisdom is revealed to us. So I could explain from chapter to chapter how theosophy is based on our religious feeling.

And now from the “Old Testament” to the “New”, to the actual Gospel. We distinguish the time before Christ Jesus and the time after Christ Jesus. The coming of Christ Jesus into this world is the most significant, most powerful event in the development of humanity. Something completely new occurred there. Recent research has gradually unraveled the Gospels. Contradictions were sought and these have done little to further understanding. What confusion would such a dissection of the Apocalypse create, for example? I will mention only one fact here: the secret revelation of John was seen by Bible researchers as a prophecy of future events of humanity, or even of past ones. For example, some said that the presbyter John lived after Nero and only wrote what happened in terms of earthquakes, plagues and so on. Now I still want to point out a remarkable passage where great events and upheavals were brought about by a beast. The number of this beast is a human number, “666”. The researchers have heard something ringing here; they have heard that things have been expressed through numbers, certain names, forms. There was a possibility of using the alphabet as numbers. This was the practice in certain secret schools. Now researchers have found out, diligent, hard-working researchers, that Nero is supposed to mean the beast, just to avoid believing that there is something spiritual behind it. They simply did not know what it was. The true theosophist must first learn wisdom to understand the meaning of the Bible.

666 is composed of 400, 200, 60 and 6. This means or is called: Sorat. This also has a specific sign: a staff with two wings or ram horns. (Rev 13:11) That is the sign for this being. Spiritual science sees in everything not only a material but also a spiritual essence; for example, the sun is the body of the sun soul. For spiritual science, it is the spirit that moves people forward; its opponent is Sorat – 666. The Book of Revelation says: This beast has two horns, like a lamb or a ram. If you know these things, then you also know what the writer says. You see that you first have to know what it is about, and this requires wisdom.

Augustine, the recognized church teacher of various denominations, said an important sentence regarding the secular position of Christianity: “What is called Christianity has always been there, only that the true religion, which has always existed, has been understood in different ways.

But where did Christianity live before Christ Jesus appeared? In the mystery. What was mystery? That which is today called a church, school or art institution. The knowledge of things was used as a preparation to then serve as an introduction to understanding, just as the divine spirit bent down and ascended again. There one also learned to listen to the secrets of world existence expressed in sounds. Richard Wagner felt this again and tried to reproduce it. Such schools existed, and each person was first tested to see if they were capable of being gradually introduced to a tangible self-awareness through their comprehension, feeling, and understanding. This was the initiation or initiation. There were different levels, because people progressed to different degrees. One thing was necessary: that one went through a prescribed course of development, and this was passed on in the schools of the initiated. The different levels had different names:

1st stage: the Ravens.
2nd degree: the Occultists.
3rd degree: the fighters.
4th level: the lions.
5th stage: had a national name, for example, Persians. Christ says of Nathanael: true Israelite. (John 1: 47)
6th stage: the sun hero (son). 7th stage: one did not say (father).

Let us take one of the 6th stage, a sun hero. His life was as it has been for thousands of years. He could no more stray from his prescribed path than the sun can step out of its orbit, and so he follows the strictly harmonious world orbits. If he were to step out, an unimaginable disaster would occur, as if the sun were to step out. In ancient, ancient legends, there is talk of solar heroes: Hermes, Buddha, Zarathustra, Pythagoras; even in Germanic countries: Siegfried, with a few changes, a basic type. Why is that? Because in those days the process was exactly the opposite of what it is today. The old principle was: not to concern oneself with everyday matters, but to seek the essential. At that time, one described what one had to go through for initiation. The prescribed life of a thousand years was the description of life. Hermes had lived according to this prescription, and thus, when he described his life, he described what others had already experienced before him.

We will better understand the matter if we understand the meaning of the stages: one was used to form the character, another brought the phenomena of the astral world closer, and others brought explorations of even higher worlds. When one had grasped that at the time, then something special occurred. Then there was a final act of initiation. The initiate, through the initiated hierophant, was brought into a state in which the body was dead for three and a half days. The etheric and astral bodies were drawn out and wandered around in the spiritual worlds, guided by the high priest-hierophant. Then they were led back into the body and the person received a new name. Now he knew from his own experience what happens in the spiritual worlds, and was now reborn. He could bear witness that the spiritual life conquers death. Every time a person came back into the body, he woke up with the cry: “My God, my God, how you have glorified me.

Only those who achieved the victory of life over death could attain knowledge. This has happened over and over again in the secret schools of spirituality. This process has been veiled.

Compare this with the description of the life of Christ Jesus. In his case, what happened within in the mysteries took physical appearance. First came the test by the wise man, then came the baptism, and finally he was placed in a coffin similar to a cross. Outwardly, this took place historically in the Mystery of Golgotha. Some do not want to understand this and say, “You interpret it that way and take it as a historical event.”

The hanging on the cross is the outer representation of what previously applied prophetically to the initiated; a deep meaning that is mystically and historically true at the same time. It is as if you were entering a temple of art, where a drama depicts the year 1920 and what was seen would later come true. Before that, the mysteries depicted what later happened in the life of Christ Jesus. Those who described this life brought over ancient initiatory traditions from prophetic mysteries. Such a solar hero had to live according to the rules of initiation. They existed for thousands and thousands of years and therefore the same applied to the Gospels. Hence the great agreement, the exclamation: my God, my God, how hast thou glorified me, or: how hast thou forsaken me, looks very similar in writing and pronunciation. So Augustine could say: Christianity is the true religion.

The saying, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have come to believe” (John 20:29), referred to the vision of the initiates. Thus the Gospels are the same as the ancient books of initiation. They existed before Christ Jesus. But He lived through them in the physical world, because the mighty power of this unique personality made it possible. Thus Christianity appears to us as the fulfillment of ancient wisdom, and in the Bible we have what could be experienced in the initiations, the wisdom of the initiates.

The simple person who simply approaches the Bible builds his heart on it, and with fervor he feels the wisdom that underlies it all. No one would feel this wisdom if wisdom did not bring the Bible about.

Today, with a few exceptions, people are no longer able to approach it with faith. A new understanding of the Bible must now be opened up. I will give you a comparison here. In the Middle Ages, people swore by the books of Aristotle. Galileo could not do that. He was the first to perform an autopsy on a human body and to show that certain nerves originate in the brain and not, as Aristotle taught, in the heart. At that time, things really contradicted each other, and Galilei said: Get rid of the whole of Aristotle. — What about today? What Aristotle called a nerve was not a nerve at all, and so Aristotle was proved right again. First you have to go to the things themselves, then you come back to Aristotle.

The same thing must happen with regard to the Bible. What he himself sees, imagined inspiration – figuratively presenting inspiration, independent of any book, describes the spiritual researcher, and we can thus assume that what he himself sees is literally written correctly. When we understand this, great reverence for this book arises, and we feel that this Redeemer's life was truly written by inspiration.

Through such an achievement, our relationship to the spiritual worlds will change, and we will learn to look up to the inspired with great reverence. First, a bridge must be found to those who are exploring the wisdom of the Bible. The teacher will be wiser, the listener more fervent – the hearts of teachers and believers will resonate. That will be the success of Theosophy:

two things will come:

1. wisdom independent of the Bible,
2. How

Thus the book that used to be sacred will become sacred to us again, and so a true spiritual movement will be the reconquest of the ancient wisdom taught by the Bible. Through the Bible, the most free knowledge and true progress must be made fruitful again for religious life through theosophy. Questions

Question: [Not handed down].

Rudolf Steiner: Everything is in development, including the I. This I has emerged from a group I. Just as the finger of your hand does not feel itself as an I, so the human being at that time felt itself as a group I.

Question: [Not handed down].

Rudolf Steiner: There are personalities who were contemporaries of Christ Jesus. There are no historical sources about him. One passage in Josephus is a forgery; and so is one in Tacitus. Historians therefore say: There is no testimony of this Christ Jesus.

In our time there are deeply initiated people; but if someone wanted to prove historically whether there were initiates after 1900 years, they would find nothing about the initiates. But today there are personalities who were contemporaries who know and can testify that they stood eye to eye with Christ Jesus.

Question: Does keeping silent develop certain powers?

Rudolf Steiner: Through the suppression of certain words that are not said. Certain religious communities are led according to certain basic laws. The Trappists know full well that whoever is a good man of silence now will be a good speaker in the next incarnation.

Goethe, who had such a penetrating insight into so many things, once said the following remarkable words about the fate of the Bible in more recent times: For many centuries, people did not actually get their hands on the Bible, but only got to know it indirectly. When wider circles began to take an interest in the Bible, people were more inclined to think critically about the Bible and its origin and much less to delve directly into its content and its effect, so that actually, as Goethe says, since the acquaintance with the Bible in wider circles, much less has been spoken out of the spirit of this document than has been spoken about it.

What Goethe felt a hundred years ago has intensified significantly over the course of this century. In research, it has become increasingly rare to immerse oneself in the spirit of this religious scripture without prejudice; instead, critical research is increasingly conducted to determine how the individual parts correspond, when and how each part originated, and what the external history of this work is. People are paying less and less attention to the spiritual content.

At the same time, Goethe remarks that basically the Bible is the book of books; so says Goethe, this so-called pagan. Yes, he says that it is not going too far to say that everything that lives in our attitudes and feelings, in our perceptions and ideas, in our way of thinking today, is based on the Bible. It is particularly noteworthy that even that in our civilization which has seemingly made us independent of the Bible is nevertheless, if you follow things closely, a result of the Bible. It is so easy to believe that modern science since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is merely an opponent of the Bible. But the power of thought, the direction of imagination, even if seemingly contrary to the Bible, are taken from the depths of the Bible.

Copernicus may have explored the heavens in a way that seemingly contradicted the Bible, but he drew the power of thought from the Bible. Yes, the thought forms of modern monism, of materialism, have gained their strength from the Bible. Those social parties that radically oppose biblical faith have also — this is recognized by anyone who understands the psychology of the soul — drawn the strength of thought and feeling from the Bible. This is most the case with so-called biblical criticism, which, after all, most strongly opposes the Bible. They have gone through this in the culture of the Bible. If one follows this intimate historical course of the new time, one could say in view of this:

Your good nature, in foreign veins,
will soon quarrel with you.

Goethe said this with reference to one of his students who, in certain views, opposed Goethe and became his critic. Thus, it is the thoughts that have taken root in people over the centuries in our Western culture that have made our thinking, feeling and willing strong, the thoughts of our ancestors that struggle with the ancestors in the veins of their descendants.

Among the parts of the Bible that have suffered the most from modern thinking is the Gospel of John, which for centuries was considered the most vivid source of Christianity. This is far less appreciated by modern Bible criticism than the first three, so-called synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Bible critics try, to the best of their ability, to test the books of Scripture for their historical value. They say that if you examine the first three Gospels, which, if you ignore the details, agree, you will find a picture of Christ Jesus that turns out to be credible. If you add the Gospel of John, there are so many contradictions to the first three Gospels that it is impossible to reconcile it with the first three Gospels. The first three Gospels report historical facts that give a vivid picture of the one who walked around in Palestine. The fourth evangelist, they say, cannot be regarded as a presenter of historical truths. He is rather an enthusiast for the personality of Christ Jesus. His aim was to compose a significant hymn to Christ Jesus, to express in lyrical form what he felt to be the truth about this revered personality, and to merely wrap this in historical facts.

Thus, to many, the fourth gospel does not appear as a historical document, but as a teaching in which one can be edified, like a poem, but which is not suitable to say something about the one who was the founder of the Christian religion on earth. As this view became more and more widespread in the course of the nineteenth century, the scholar Bunsen said in the 1850s: If it were really the case that the Gospel of John could not be taken as a historical document, then it would be bad for historical Christianity.

It cannot be denied that in the first three gospels, Jesus is presented even more humanly than the personality that gradually unfolds in its greatness, but that in the fourth gospel, an accomplished being , who has descended from invisible heights, who has nothing more to learn from his surroundings, who is endowed with grace and truth from the very beginning, who himself carries the fullness of the Godhead within himself.

The first three gospels contain beliefs and doctrines. In the fourth gospel, the essence of Christ Jesus apparently speaks mostly of itself, of what he is supposed to be to humanity and his disciples. These are differences that everyone notices. Those who notice them are pushed to the question: How does this fourth gospel relate to the other three gospels? We must realize that these contradictions have actually always been present, but that through the centuries the wisest people have not taken offense at them. Anyone who does not subscribe to the view that only in the nineteenth century did people become wise knows that in the most ancient times the wisest people endeavored to establish a harmony between the Gospels and also thought that they had succeeded.

Every age understands every thing in the way that the age itself is characterized. In other ages, there was not this exclusively materialistic way of thinking, which has even crept into the criticism of religious writings. Another age did not have that preference for the “simple man from Nazareth”. The urge has arisen more and more to push Christ Jesus down to the level of humanity, to say more and more, “In Him there is indeed an ideal figure, but He is still human.” To measure Him against other people has increasingly become the thinking habit of our time. Other ages have not had this urge; throughout centuries of Christian development there was a different ideal, a different aspiration. In an inaccessible distance stood the Christ Being. All human learning, all depth of wisdom, all depth of feeling and sensing sought to lift themselves up to those heights where one could sense something of that Being. It was believed that only the purest, most refined knowledge could approach this Being. The urge of the older times was to lift oneself up in knowledge and feeling in order to sense the height of that being. Thus nothing other than the spirit of the age in which one thinks, feels and searches is reflected in the conception of the Gospels.

We are now once again in an epoch that wants to elevate people to a higher world. But even though it is only at the beginning, this epoch knows its goal precisely and also knows how to pursue it in detail. The aim of Theosophy is to grasp and understand the Gospel of John. It could well be that the Gospel of John will celebrate a kind of resurrection through the means of this research. Through spiritual research, we will come to understand the evangelist again, who so sublimely presents the essence of Christ Jesus. If we first immerse ourselves in the content using the means of spiritual research, this gospel indeed presents itself as the deepest book of humanity. This gospel has been taken as a book of life throughout many centuries. Perhaps it can become a book of life again.

Let us try to consider some of the things that arise for those who seek to understand in this area. It turns out that the Gospel of John is a writing that is in wonderful congruity with the Old Testament. The Gospel of John begins with the beginning of things, as does the Old Testament. There, the gods create heaven and earth from what was chaos at the beginning. The Gospel of John also begins with the words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

Thus both documents refer us to the beginning. In both cases, humanity's gaze is directed towards the same thing. There is a congruence here, but one that nevertheless reveals a remarkable difference. In the Gospel of John, there is something actually new. In the Old Testament, we are transported to the starting point of humanity. In grand and powerful images, the genesis of the world is shown, up to the human being, who appears to us as the companion of other beings in the world of minerals, plants and animals, presented as an external, visible being. His development is traced back to the development of a people, the Jewish people. It is not a particular human becoming that is described, but rather humanity as it arises in the world, and then ascends to a people. A people is described as a whole. Only those who appreciate the guiding thread in the right way understand the Old Testament correctly. The meaning of the Old Testament lived in the soul of every single Jew. The individual human being feels himself as a member of the whole people. When the Jew wanted to express his innermost feelings, he spoke of his common bond with Abraham. When he wanted to speak of his transcendental nature, which extends beyond death, he spoke of his transcendental self going to Abraham's bosom. He did not feel the separate self, but rather the great national self, and that the common blood connected him with the nation, which leads up to the father Abraham. When he looked up to the Highest, he looked up to a Being Who revealed Himself through the blood of the whole people. Not only was the memory of the patriarch Abraham sacred to him, but also the feeling of unity with him. Further up, the beginning of the world was taken up, how one blood flowed in a coherent human whole and how the cosmic order, God Himself, permeates and spiritualizes such a group of people.

Let us contrast this with the Gospel of John. This also takes as its starting point the beginning of our entire development. However, it does not begin where the Old Testament begins, but rather, in a certain way, before that. The Old Testament places the emergence of the material world, of what can be seen, of what is there for the outer senses, at the very beginning. “And God said, ‘Let there be light!’” (Genesis 1:3) The author of the Gospel of John takes us further back, to an even earlier time, to a point when nothing material yet existed, when only the spiritual was there: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” (John 1:1), which is nothing other than the spiritual, of which all material things are the manifestation. He says: It is true that the visible world began as it is described in the Old Testament. But it was preceded by a spiritual world. All the laws that were lived out in that primeval beginning are expressed not in any individual, but in the common blood that connects him to the whole people. If we go back to the spirit that precedes this sensual beginning of the world, we also come to that in man which is exalted above all sensuality, above all national context and to that which is found in every human being, in every human individuality. If we put ourselves in the place of the Jew for the God principle, we find: He felt united with the father Abraham when he traced back the whole line of blood.

In John, we find a tremendous advance in relation to this view. What does the Christ of John's Gospel say? In what he says, there is tremendous progress compared to the spirit of the Old Testament. If you examine what appears to us as the deepest human essence, then you need not go beyond the individual human being. The individual human being can stand alone, by himself; he finds the Father within himself, that from which he emerged.

I, my innermost being, I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

This is the meaning of the herald's call, the revelation of the individual human being. How did Christ Jesus relate to the Jews who went up to the Father Abraham? He said exactly: This human ego lives in you; when you find the human “I” or “I am” in yourselves, the power of individuality, then everyone may say: There is something living in me that is out of time.

Before Abraham was, the I AM was.

What can be experienced in the innermost core of a person's being is more eternal than anything that can be experienced in the external world. We no longer go up to Abraham; we go up to that which will be eternal in us.

I and the Father are one.

Every single person finds access to the eternal through themselves. Thus we ascend to the very beginning of that which lives eternally in each individual.

Thus, the Gospel of John is the significant continuation of what is written in the Old Testament. It presents itself as a revelation of what was before the very beginning of what is presented in the Old Testament. To understand what is meant in the Gospel of John, we have to engage with the use of words. What is meant by the Logos, the Word? One scholar says of the beginning of the Gospel of John that it is not found in the other gospels. They simply tell, albeit steeped in miracle stories, what happened externally. It is said that the writer of the fourth gospel, on the other hand, was a philosopher. John must have known Philo. It can be said of him that he expresses similar speculations to those in the Gospel of John. He also says that the Word stands between the Creator of the world and man. From Alexandrian and Greek education, John drew the elements of his writing. From this, John had conceived that he would tell the story in the Gospel in such a way that the Christ is the Word made flesh. This had not occurred to any other evangelist.

Let us read the beginning of the Gospel of Luke with this in mind:

Since many have undertaken to set in order an account of the same words that have been handed down to us, as they were delivered to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,

Here stands the exact same word or logos. It is said that one wants to retell it to those who have been “servants of the word”. In truth, something else is also there: “as those who have been eyewitnesses and servants of the word know”. — In Luke, there is also a way of speaking that John speaks of the word. He also says that those who know something from the beginning have been eyewitnesses of the word. Among the initiates, it was common at the time to speak of the being that lived in Christ as the Word and to call themselves servants of the Word. The author of the Gospel of John adopted the term “the Word” from the language of the initiates. Only spiritual science can explain what is actually meant by the “Word”. To understand this, we must consider the nature of man in terms of theosophy.

What is known from the external senses is only a part of the human being. Wherever spiritual science or theosophy has been present, there has been exactly the same division of the human being as is taught now. Spiritual science speaks of a second part of the human being, the etheric or life body. It says that the human physical body consists of the same substances as all of nature. But in the human body, these substances are combined in such a way that, if they followed their own laws, the physical body would disintegrate. However, the etheric body prevents this decay. The moment the ether body leaves the physical body, the physical body follows its own laws and decays. The fact that this does not happen during a person's lifetime is due to the fact that the physical body is imbued with the ether or life body.

If we consider that when we look at a person, we are not just looking at their physical and etheric bodies, but also at something that is much closer to them than their physical and etheric bodies, that they are permeated by a sum of pleasure and pain , joy and pain, drives and passions, wishes and desires, we have in it what spiritual science calls the astral body, the third part of the human being, which is much more original than the ether body and the physical body. Just as ice forms out of water, water in a different form, so the ether body and the physical body are a condensed astral body. Spiritual science shows that the etheric and physical bodies are denser astral bodies. The astral body is the cause of the etheric body and the physical body. The human being shares the physical body with all visible beings of nature, with minerals, plants and animals. The etheric body is shared with plants and animals, and the astral body with animals. But there is one thing that human beings have alone that makes them the crown of all beings. Everyone can only say a name to themselves, and that is the name 'I'. No one can pronounce the name 'I' if it is meant to refer to someone else. Everyone can only say this name to themselves. This is where the actual center of a person's nature is revealed; so that spiritual science imagines the human being as having four parts, with the 'I am' as the fourth. This is a power and entity of its own. Jean Paul describes in his biography how the thought first occurred to him: You are an I. He said: “There I looked into the most hidden sanctuary of my soul.” All religions based on spiritual wisdom have sensed this fact. The Hebrew people have also sensed it. Yahweh or Jehovah is nothing other than the “I am”. (Ex 3:14) He is the “I am” and points to the innermost core of human nature. In this ancient Hebrew people, the “I am” or Jehovah was felt to be something that expressed itself in the whole group. They applied this name to that which flowed down through the whole stream of Abraham's blood.

This “I am” – how was it seen? In those places of ancient times, which were called mystery schools, one can say that they were both church and school at the same time. In the mysteries, the mystery students sought to rise to the nature of the “I am”. There they were led from the sensual into the spiritual. A complete renewal of this fourth link of the human being occurred through the appearance of Christ Jesus. The term for this “I am” is the Logos or the Word. From the invisible worlds, the spiritual in the I announced itself, revealed itself in the I, permeated the I.

In terms of their physical body, human beings are an extract of the entire mineral world. This is why we call human beings a microcosm. Their etheric body is an extract of the life forces that live outside in the plant and animal kingdoms. Their astral body is an extract of all the astral forces that live in animals. The I is not related to the surrounding mineral, plant and animal world, but only to the invisible, divine spiritual world. It is an extract of the spiritual, a drop of the substance of the divine. A drop from the ocean of the divine is the I. Thus the Divine penetrates into man and sends its drop into the innermost part of man, and the expression of this Divine is the “I am”. This drop of the divine nature is even older than the astral body. It was in the bosom of the Divine before our astral body came into being.

“In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1), or the “I am”, that innermost power of the human being that represents the eternal. People should become educated so that everyone can find the drop of divinity within themselves if they seek this community within. Man should become educated so that he can find communion with God as an individual individuality within himself.

The knowledge of the Word penetrated into the world, it shone into the darkness of the astral, etheric and physical bodies. Only a few who were not born of the flesh understood it. They could reveal themselves as children of God. But now the eternal, all-embracing aspect of human nature, which was before Abraham, entered in, which every human individuality has. This supersensible power has become flesh in Christ Jesus. Thus, Christ Jesus is the power in the evolution of humanity that wants to lead humanity to the realization of its innermost being, of its “I am”. From this point of view, the Gospel of John and especially that most profound chapter in which so much is said about the “I am” becomes understandable. He says explicitly: “All I say of the ‘I am,’ I do not say of myself” (John 14:10), but He says that when people recognize the power of the “I am,” then they have something higher than all other powers. When you express the “I am,” you speak of the power that also lives in the Light of the world. “I am” lives in everything; it is what permeates the entire being of the earth in all realms. You can only properly explore what the earth gives you as food if you understand the ‘I am.’

I am the bread of life (John 6:48),
I am the vine (John 15:5),
I myself am planted by the Father, and the Father is the vinedresser (John 15:1).

Thus this chapter of John's Gospel presents itself as something that must give people strength and life. These powers are rooted in the Father, the spirit of the world: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

If we go far back in time, we come to times when blood ties played an increasingly important role. They were the basis of what we call love. Love existed only between those in whose veins related blood flowed. In those days, close marriage prevailed. Later, distant marriage replaced close marriage. At that time, only shared blood brought about love. As humanity developed through later eras, the peoples became more and more mixed. The Jewish people felt even more the togetherness of the common blood. But in those days, when Christianity arose, the time began when the peoples were mixed up. That was also the beginning of the time of a new love that is not based on blood. Christ Jesus said: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37). “If anyone comes to me and does not hate (leave) his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, he cannot be my disciple.” This saying must be interpreted in such a way that at the beginning of the development of the earth, those who were related loved each other; but at the end of the development of the earth, people will love and recognize each other in soul love. That brotherly love that goes from soul to soul, that comes from the spirit, that is the love that takes its starting point from the power of Christ Jesus, which will gain more and more ground in humanity. Where the same blood flowed, there one felt as a member of a group ego. At the end of human development, one will feel as a member of the whole of humanity. One will then seek the “I am” not in the blood of the tribe or people, but in the spirit and in the truth. The Old Testament worships the God in the foundations of nature; in the New Covenant, God will be worshipped in that which is prior to nature, in the spirit and in truth. Even for those who were intimately connected with the Lord, it was not readily understandable how that other love should take the place of the love of blood. Only the Lord's favorite disciple understood this. The other evangelists still tell the whole line of descent to the father Abraham. But the one who came into the world as the being that was embodied in Christ Jesus, he could say: “Before Abraham was, the I AM was.” (John 8:58) That the favorite disciple had understood. He goes up to the extra-temporal in his presentation. There is no external contradiction between the Gospel of John and the other Gospels. It is only the difference between a subordinate and a higher point of view. We are dealing here with different perspectives. If we know this, then we also understand the old Bible interpreters. They knew that one can describe the truth from different points of view.

We so often find the expression “one” and “we” in today's scientific writings: “one cannot see this,” “we cannot see this,” and so on. These “one”s and “we”s take the standpoint of the blind man who wants to judge what can be seen or not seen. Man can judge only what he knows, but not what he does not know. The higher man rises in the spiritual world, the deeper he also looks into the spiritual world. John's perspective may differ from that of the other evangelists, but not the content.

The task of Theosophy is to reawaken understanding of this neglected gospel and to show people its power. Because this gospel has the greatest power, it will also play the greatest role in the future of humanity. Those who delve into the gospel of John will find something that lifts them above all the doubts of science.

In modern times, the world has divided into two halves: the world of nature and the world of moral life. The law of nature is seen as something special, and the moral law as something special. This dichotomy in particular will not be able to exist in the long term. Man had to seek something deeper, something that encompasses both. He must not feel a dichotomy between inside and outside. He no longer feels this dichotomy if he understands the innermost core of the Gospel of John. We find the origin of the world within ourselves through the development of our innermost self. We come to something that encompasses the laws of nature and our innermost being. What the “I am” reveals to us was there as the original spiritual before the external world. The Logos, the Word was there before the outer world. — Thus there is a reconciliation between the external and the innermost nature of man. Especially the chapter of John's Gospel, where the “I am” is spoken of, will be an invincible conqueror of human nature. Only man has lost the thread of recognizing the purely spiritual in it.

Theosophy will again attempt to understand what was said by the one who gave the Gospel of John to mankind. When the revealed word is understood, all natural laws will be recognized as the revealed word, but the inner moral law will also appear as the revealed word. Whether one calls himself an idealist or not, if one judges the document of the spirit only according to what the senses see, then a materialistic attitude lives in us. This has been felt by deeper minds, and they sensed and longed for a time when humanity would learn to understand such things again, for example, Goethe and also Carlyle, who said: “We see in this day and age how external institutions have turned away from the spirit that originally emerged from the grasp of the spirit (religion), and how the spiritual seeks a refuge in the individual soul, or, where it does not find it, how it seeks it in external organizations and founds sect after sect and so on, in order to seek again ways to the original spirit.

But the future of humanity and of Christianity lies in learning to understand again a document such as the Gospel of John. We can follow different points of view in their relationship to the teachings about the world in the religious scriptures as humanity develops.

The first point of view is that of naive belief. The second is the point of view of clever people. When we arrive at the third point of view, people interpret the document of humanity in a mystical sense; they understand it as allegories, as symbols.

The fourth point of view is where we learn to recognize spiritual facts in their unambiguous nature through theosophy. Then one encounters such a document with the deep reverence that its inner greatness demands. This is how one will understand the Gospel of John in the future. In the future, spiritual science will again point the way to the true understanding of the Gospel of John and to the true form of Christianity.

The word initiation belongs to the field of theosophy. When one speaks of theosophy or spiritual science, one should not have the feeling of dealing with something that has only come into being recently. Theosophy is as old as thinking, the yearning of humanity for something eternal, something lasting, which, as a supersensible element, underlies everything that is transitory. In the course of his existence, man becomes more and more familiar with the things and beings around him, insofar as they make an impression on him, hindering or promoting his volitional impulses. He comes to a more or less clear understanding of these things through the forces that prevail behind them; he cannot get to know that which is hidden behind the visible in this way.

Spiritual science is now based on two solid pillars. They may seem like hypotheses to someone who has not yet penetrated spiritual science, but they are certain facts for someone who is increasingly immersed in it.

The first pillar is the belief that behind everything the mind can perceive as the visible world, there is an invisible world, and the second pillar is that man is able to penetrate into this world of the invisible and hidden. Those people who are completely fascinated by materialistic views will consider such a pursuit as fantastic. The judgment of our contemporaries says that in the childhood stage of humanity, people dreamt of something inexplicable behind appearances; because they could not see, they dreamt of gods, ghosts! But today, through science, man has penetrated into the laws of existence, he stands on the manly stage of his existence and could no longer hold on to such childish views.

It is absolutely true that our admirable science has offered us the opportunity to see everything that transcends the knowledge of the physical plane quite differently from how our ancestors saw it. But if, at the same time, it wants to replace the views of our ancestors about the knowledge of the invisible, if, for example, it presents only the most perfect knowledge of the physical as the ideal of natural science, then it is no longer true for us.

Anyone who, knowing the laws of mechanics, looks at a watch, for example, will be able to say, based on this law: This is how the wheels turn, this is how the entire mechanism of the clock moves. He can explain the clock completely from itself. But can we therefore say that the watchmaker is superfluous? If we should ever be able to explain the world like a clock from itself completely and utterly, that does not make what lies behind the world unnecessary.

Others say that there may well be something transcendental behind the sensual, but that we are limited in our knowledge and that human beings are not capable of penetrating into the knowledge of this transcendental. Therefore, they say, there is no need to concern ourselves with it. All this belongs to the realm of faith or belief, and should remain where it belongs.

Spiritual science, however, says the opposite. It says that it is possible for man to gain knowledge of these worlds, that he can make himself capable of penetrating into the supersensible. Admittedly not with the abilities and means that the naturalistic researcher applies in his research; with those one cannot penetrate into the realm of the supersensible. But there are dormant powers in man that he can develop. When he develops them, something occurs for him that can be compared to the operation of a person born blind. It is a tremendous event for a person born blind when the bleak darkness that has surrounded him until now disappears and the world of light and colors emerges for him out of the darkness. A world that has always been around him and that he could not perceive, he can now perceive. But it is an even more powerful, glorious, and higher event for a person when, through inner awakening, through rebirth, inner spiritual senses are awakened in him. Goethe was well informed in these matters. He says: There are many unrecognized and unacknowledged worlds around us, spiritual worlds, and no man today has the right to deny them because he does not recognize them. That would be just as logical as if the blind wanted to deny the world of colors and light around him because he cannot perceive them.

We can develop the ability to perceive the worlds around us. Goethe points this out when he says: Our eyes were indifferent, as yet non-seeing organs. The moment the elemental powers of light conjured up the eyes, a new world of light and color was there for the human being. The development is endless and goes on and on, and when man develops these non-sensory, these supersensible spiritual senses, then new, unknown, unrecognized worlds open up for him, but they were always around him.

Our contemporaries, however, are not inclined to recognize this. Spiritual science encounters much opposition, it is said that it deals with dreamt, fantastic objects. The spiritual scientist can best see how justified it is that people of the present day make this accusation against spiritual science. But it is necessary today to present this spiritual science to people. Humanity will recognize it, it just needs time.

When we speak about the development of such organs and abilities that lie within the human being and that open up new worlds for the human being, we are dealing with people who could be called “we-people” or “man-people”.

When we pick up newspapers or magazines that deal with these things, they say, “We cannot recognize,” or, “One cannot recognize.” They consider the spiritual scientist to be immodest when he says, “We can recognize.” But what is immodest? To want to decide something that one knows nothing about. It is logical to only talk about and decide something that one knows something about.

The source is already indicated, from where what spiritual science says is taken. It is taken from those worlds that can be entered when man develops his spiritual senses. The ordinary knowledge that man has consists of a series of judgments and so on, which man strings together, and this thread constantly slips out of his hand, constantly leaves him. It also leaves him when he sinks into sleep, when happiness and suffering, joy and pain, everything that surrounds him in his daily life, disappears for him. But no one can say, if he possesses logic, that this sum of joy and suffering, of pain and sorrow, etc., disappears in the evening and reappears in the morning. It survives the state of sleep, and man must ask himself: Where then is man's soul, that which we feel as our inner being, that which enchants and moves us, where are these inner powers while we sleep until the moment when they move back into man and become scouts for the world around us? Where is that which conjures up a world of dreams for us, of light, color, warmth and cold? Where is it during the state of sleep? There knowledge escapes man and it also escapes him when death occurs, when that mysterious hour occurs in which man leaves his physical cover forever. Has then the whole content of the soul gone with those physical organs when man no longer retains any physical organs? There it is again, where knowledge of the senses escapes man. Man can say: there must be something behind it, but the man who lives in the world has no need to know what death's gate closes, what sleep hides, we are here to create, to work in the visible world, what do we care about the invisible? But if man could develop his full activity in the sensual, then that could well apply, then he could say: may there be something after death! But the knowledge of what lies beyond death has the greatest significance for life. For the forces in the invisible continually extend into the world of the senses, and we can make use of them if we gain access to the supersensible world. The person who knows nothing of it will gradually, as he lives estranged, be weak and powerless in the knowledge of the supersensible world even in the sensual world. Every object, every being in our environment is permeated by the supersensible world, and we behave weakly and powerlessly if we know nothing of this supersensory. Take, for example, a piece of iron: it contains supersensible magnetic power. If we know nothing of this power, we can only use this iron halfway. And so, everywhere in the sensible, supersensible forces and entities lie dormant. Knowledge of the supersensible is necessary for the human being; it is not something that merely satisfies curiosity. The human being needs this knowledge for his work and activity in this world.

This supersensible world can be reached by developing the powers and abilities that lie dormant in people. Spiritual science points people to these powers and abilities and shows them how to develop them. Spiritual science is not new; there have always been initiates in humanity, and initiation is nothing more than the development of these supersensible powers in people. However, very few people know that there have always been initiated people who were prepared in initiation or secret schools and were able to use the powers and abilities developed there to have experiences in the supersensible worlds just like ordinary people in the sensual world. Such people were always called initiates.

Only those who had passed exact tests in moral, intellectual and spiritual respects could be admitted to such a school, so that they would be able to use those powerful experiences that open up to man when he has crossed the gates to the higher worlds in the right way for the benefit of his fellow human beings. Therefore man had to pass tests; he could only become a disciple if he passed such tests. Of course, people imagine them differently than they actually lie behind them. A person can become initiated if he is able to cross the great secret threshold that lies between the sensual and the supersensual. Initiation is nothing more than what in everyday life would be an operation for someone born blind, but even greater and more powerful, because the senses that make a person capable of perceiving the spiritual worlds are operated on for the person to be initiated. These senses are present in every human being in the germ, they only need to be developed, and that is what is called initiation.

The elementary knowledge that is imparted in Theosophy is only the foundation for a much, much higher knowledge. Even this elementary knowledge of Theosophy today is already one that could not be imparted to wider circles until recently. For it is not without danger for people when they approach this knowledge, although these dangers are often wrongly assessed and exaggerated. The abilities that lie dormant in every soul are those that must be developed: we call them thinking, feeling and willing. Every soul has these abilities. It is a fact that through the habitual exercise of these faculties, when man develops them in the right way, he becomes able to open up a whole range of worlds.

These three abilities can be trained to penetrate ever higher and further into the spiritual worlds if the person has patience and energy to devote to their training. When the person has risen to a certain level, only then are they ready to become an initiate.

We distinguish preliminary stages and actual initiation. However, there is something else associated with it that justifies keeping this knowledge secret from the general public. It still exists as a secret in the sense that for those who are not yet known, for those who have not yet penetrated, what Theosophy communicates initially seems strangely paradoxical; one must not associate anything magical with it. However, there is something else associated with it that justifies the fact that this knowledge still has to be kept secret from the general public. Even what is communicated gives the impression of being fantastic and strange, so that many consider it immature; the spiritual scientist is well aware of this and it cannot be otherwise. But when a person ascends to the sources that underlie everything here in the world of sense, then the human being's judgment about the world and life is so radically transformed that one can say it must seem completely and utterly paradoxical to the ordinary person, so that he cannot do anything with it.

One must be prepared slowly and gradually to be able to bear the truth, and a large part of the secret training consists of learning to bear the great, all-encompassing truths. Initiation comes to him who is prepared and developed to be able to bear these truths. The time must come when a larger number of people, for their good and further development, must have the opportunity to receive this initiation.

Thus we speak first of a preliminary training. In this training, there must be a development of thinking, feeling and will. The former is easily neglected. There is often a greed to be able to look into the supersensible worlds. But those who are to make such knowledge possible for people must first insist that firm, secure thinking be developed first, a thinking that is free of sensuality. What is sensuality-free thinking? If we recall how much of our thinking is built on sensuality: we see the world around us, we absorb its impressions through our senses. An image remains in the person, a memory remains of it, then we think about it; we calculate, everything that is reminiscences of external impressions in our thinking, if we disregard what has been ignited by the outside world, then so little remains that a philosopher says: “It is impossible for a person to develop a thought that is not fueled by the outside world.” Plato had a strange inscription placed above his Temple of Truth: “No stranger to geometry may enter here.” This is not to be taken literally, but rather to mean that one does not necessarily need to learn geometry in order to penetrate into the supersensible world, nor did Plato mean that with this inscription, but that everyone must think as one must think in geometry if one wants to penetrate into the higher worlds. A child, when it learns 2 x 3 = 6 with beans or on the fingers, learns the truth that 2 x 3 = 6. But it is not necessary for a person to learn thinking based on a number in this way. Using points instead of beans is much more useful. It is necessary to arrive at this truth through inner contemplation and to thus obtain contemplation that is free from the senses. For example, a circle is constructed through thinking that is free from the senses. A circle that I draw on the board is a series of chalk mountains when I look at it under the microscope; it is not a circle, the senses cannot give it, it must be there in the inner vision. One must seek the circle in a vision free of the senses.

There is such a thinking free of sensuality in all fields, even if it is denied by some people, for example, for the living beings around us. This has been proven by Goethe. He says in his “World View”: Just as man can construct a triangle, so he can also construct a plant, he calls this the original plant. The archetypal plant is a spiritual being and Goethe says: With this plant in mind, one can follow all plants in their becoming, growing and flourishing. People do not easily understand what Goethe means by this. Schiller was once with him at a lecture given by the naturalist Batsch. The subject was botany. As they were leaving, Schiller said to Goethe, “It is strange how we look at the world in a fragmented way, with no one pointing out the great unifying bond.” Goethe, who had already developed his morphology at the time, replied that there could be another way of looking at it, and drew his “primordial plant” in front of Schiller. Schiller said that this was just an idea, and Goethe replied to him quite sadly: “But then I have my idea in mind.”

He was clear that this was no mere idea. What he had grasped in the primal plant was not just a thought, but he was clear that the plants were created from the spiritual worlds according to this image of the primal plant. How the plants came into being has been grasped here by the human spirit. This is a living thinking into the world of thinking that is free of the senses. We have within us a source from which the whole material world has sprung, and we can resurrect this source. But we can only do so if we have the strength to let the spirit come forth from us. Man can also shape the evolution of history, the course of human development out of himself.

There have been thinkers of this kind. People thought they were fantasists, for example Hegel in his philosophy of history. That is a purely ideal history of humanity. Not all the details in it are to be represented by me, but the principle applies, this attitude underlies the work. There is a kind of mathematics of history, and those who allow themselves to be fertilized and inspired by it will see that it is possible to speak of inner mathematics in relation to history as well.

But all this is not necessary for today's man; but it was demanded in all secret schools in the first stage a thinking free of sensuality in all fields. Elementary Theosophy gives this. How it speaks about the various members of human nature, we do not see them when it presents the development of man, these are images from spiritual experience. Man must live into them with his whole thinking. This is done so that man learns to detach himself from sensuality with his thinking. Initiation is needed to explore the supersensible worlds, but understanding does not require it; only ordinary human logic is needed. For every simple mind, for the most uneducated, there is access to that which Theosophy gives in terms of sensuality-free thinking.

And we should not undervalue what is given to us in theoretical theosophy. The student who approaches the higher worlds is told: first familiarize yourself with what is communicated by those who know about man, his development, his past and future. You must become thoroughly familiar with it. Why is that? Because only those who have trained their thinking in these areas can be protected from certain dangers of supersensible knowledge. When a person enters these invisible worlds, he experiences feelings that are completely unknown to those who do not experience them. He feels in the depths of his soul as if he were standing on a sheet of ice. The ice melts away on all sides, and he sees that the ice has now melted and there is water under his feet. That is how the person feels, because everything he has known so far, his sensory experiences, prove to be a collection of illusions; they melt like ice that has become water. The person realizes that all the ideas he has known so far through his senses are not the real ones. He feels as if he has no grounding. There is a certain difference, the analogy is flawed, like all analogies. Nothing special is happening in the external world when the person who is being initiated undergoes this, but something tremendous is happening within the person. It is not what we see and hear that changes, but all the ideas we have had about it so far sink into the indefinite. It is as if everything we have previously considered to be truth is no longer truth.

This is heightened by another impression. When a person crosses the threshold of the higher worlds that separates the physical from the supersensible, they perceive something completely new. Things and experiences that they could not have dreamt of before approach them. This cannot be compared to anything that a person perceives in the sensory world. But there is one thing that is the same in both worlds and in all worlds that are accessible to man: it is thinking, the kind of thinking that man acquires when he thinks without sensuality. He needs this thinking up there to distinguish illusions from reality, deception from truth. Here in the physical, wrong thinking is corrected by the things themselves; if someone wanted to turn a machine, an incorrect crank, the machine would not work properly or would stand still. In the higher worlds, however, we are solely the beings who have to give ourselves our firm direction. There we cannot distinguish between illusion and reality, between deception and truth, if we are unable to give ourselves this fixed direction through our trained thinking; if we are incapable of doing so, we cannot find our way in these higher worlds. Our thoughts are what will guide us safely, for they are the same here in the physical and there in the spiritual worlds.

Only when the disciple has overcome this preliminary stage is he ready to cross the threshold that leads to the higher worlds, which he cannot see without the supersensible organs of perception that he has developed. Here too we must describe a field that is quite unknown to many: feelings must be developed by moving from mere thinking, from ideas, to what is called imagination, images. Through this imagination, true feeling is trained so that we can pass through things to their eternal, immortal essence, in the sense that Goethe says: “All that is transitory is but a parable.” We become accustomed to seeing things in this way, as a parable for the eternal, when we become students.

Today, we can hear the magic word “evolution” being bandied about everywhere. People talk about how man, a subordinate being, has risen, has become more and more perfect, and has evolved from a lower being to his present form. They put forward abstract ideas. Those who really want to penetrate the development of the world and of man must learn to transform their concepts into images. Only in this way can he penetrate behind the veil; we must learn this, the teacher makes clear to the pupil what is meant by it, in such a dialogue, which is never held, but which nevertheless belongs to a development of the pupil that lasts for months, sometimes years: 'Look at the plant, it thrusts its roots into the earth, stems rise from the earth, leaves, finally flowers and calyxes. The corolla rises towards the sun, and within it rests the fruit. By stretching its calyx towards the sunbeam, its innermost part is drawn out, so that it can produce new seeds and thus new plants. The plant owes its ripening to the kiss of the sunbeam, so that it can produce something similar. Now compare the human being with the plant, but in such a way that you compare the human being's head with the plant's root. What the plant extends purely and chastely toward the sunbeam, its organ of fertilization, the human being shamefully hides and extends toward the earth. The human being is the transformed plant; he freely extends the head, which represents the root of the plant, out into the cosmos to absorb those forces as the plant also absorbs them when it receives the power from the sunbeam to produce seeds. We thus understand a saying of the great Plato: 'The soul of the world is crucified on the cross of the body of the world'. The soul of the world develops through the living beings; it lives in plants, animals and human beings. These are its bodies, the kingdoms of nature. We find this symbolically indicated in the cross. The three kingdoms are in the downward-pointing beam, the plant with its roots in the earth, the upper beam is man, who freely stretches into the cosmos what is at the plant root, in the middle the animal, the crossbar, which corresponds to the horizontal position of the animal. That is the deepest meaning of the cross in all religions. This was made clear to the disciple. Man has risen from the plant. Look at the plant, why is it allowed to stretch freely towards the sunbeam? The whole substance of the plant is chaste, free from desire, but it has no consciousness through which it can perceive like man. It sleeps like man in the night. Man has bought the consciousness he now has by permeating the pure, chaste plant substance with passion and desire. The plant substance has become flesh in him. In this substantial that has become flesh, man lives in waking consciousness. Now look into the future, when the human being will have transformed himself. He will have purified the impure, desire-filled fleshly substance; human nature will become pure and chaste again. Then the lower organs of desire will have fallen away, he will be equipped with higher organs and a higher consciousness, and he will stretch out his pure, chaste organs of fertilization towards the spiritual sunbeam of the holy love lance. He who can look into the process of world evolution knows: There are organs in the human body that will wither away, that will wither away, and those that will be developed higher and higher, that will bring forth similar things in a pure and chaste manner, equipped with a higher consciousness. This real ideal, which stands before the eyes of the human being as a disciple, as something that will truly reach all of humanity, gives a different concept of development than abstract concepts. When we turn to this real ideal, which is called the Holy Grail, when we survey this development, then we pursue such a development not only with thoughts, not only with the mind, but our feelings are carried away. Shivers run through the one who follows the course of human development in this way, and what we then feel is something that passes like a breath through the soul. Then we develop inner organs in our soul and new worlds appear to us – through such intimate processes of the inner being, the spiritual organs are awakened. As thinking was developed before, so now feeling is developed.

If the student has the energy to go further and further, to experience the world in images within himself, then the world of the spiritual rises, the world of the astral. This is the preparation for crossing the threshold.

Then the will is developed through the so-called occult writing. What is found in the whole of the Apocalypse, in the Gospel of John, such images belong to the occult writing. When we immerse ourselves in it, we educate our will to enter the spiritual worlds. The first seal is one that brings to mind the beginning and end state of our becoming on earth. We are introduced to the state of the earth when the temperature was much higher than on today's earth. Even then, man was connected to the earth; even then, he was united with the earthly body in a different form. This is expressed in the man whose feet are in the metal flow. They consist of liquid metal. Just as other spiritual beings created in fire in the human being at that time, so will be the final state of man. The earth will be fire again, and man will be able to create with the power of fire. This is indicated by the fiery sword that comes out of the mouth. In these images, everything is of profound significance, every sign, every number. Such a seal refers to the deep secrets of existence. When man familiarizes himself with this writing, he penetrates into the spiritual essence behind the phenomena of our existence. In this way, the will of man becomes one with the will of nature; magical powers flow out from man into the cosmos, his will plunges into every being, he feels one with the whole cosmos, he merges into the whole cosmos. He gradually becomes one with the powers of the beings around us. If a person patiently works his way through occult writing, then his will, by penetrating the whole cosmos, becomes not only volitional, but also seeing and, in particular, hearing. Then it becomes truth what Goethe expresses when he speaks of the spiritual worlds, he speaks of the way the will is developed, as just described. Then it is truth:

The sun resounds in the ancient way
In brother spheres of song,
And its prescribed journey
she completes with a thunderclap.

Those who wanted to understand it have sought mystery in these words, but they are borrowed from reality. The spiritual sun resounds for those who have developed the spiritual ear, that is, who have a developed will and have expanded it to include spiritual hearing, which is higher than astral vision. And in the words: “The young day is already born for spiritual ears,” even the expression “spiritual ears” is true. This is not a mythical image; it is truer than one generally assumes.

Today we have been talking about the principle of initiation; tomorrow we want to talk about its so-called dangers.

The awakening of the individual can only be achieved through patient and energetic progress. Step by step, spiritual science reveals the lofty goal that man can achieve. Man should not merely reflect on his inner self, that is mere phrase. He must merge in the universe, in the cosmos, for that contains our ego.

By patiently absorbing the beings around us, we develop our inner selves in such a way that we learn to embrace the whole cosmos with love.

Then we may recognize our higher self. We have arisen in the womb of the world, we must connect with the secrets of the world's womb, we must recognize them. In the harmony between the inner and outer world, in the balance between the life that we feel as our deepest within us and what we recognize as the highest outside of us, we can find bliss, knowledge and peace. Initiation is something that not only reaches into the inner being of the human being, but also reaches far out into the world. Every step you take must be in harmony with the beings that belong to you, except for you. It is not by looking into your inner self, but by breaking away from your selfish ego, that you reach a higher level of being. As a guiding principle, as a motto for each person to be initiated, there are Goethe's words, which express that a person can only create harmony when he frees himself from his own ego. Only then can he find his own center when he aligns the inner and the outer in concepts.

For all power strives onward into the distance
To live and work here and there
But on every side the stream of the world
the stream of the world, and sweeps us along with it.

In this inner storm and outer battle, the spirit hears a word that is difficult to understand:
From the force that binds all beings, man frees himself who overcomes himself.

The sources of what we call spiritual science, which we visited yesterday, are, on the one hand, criticized by our contemporaries as fantastic and dreamy, if not even more severely, and on the other hand, they are criticized in a very specific way, which we shall deal with today. It consists in the fact that when the subject of initiation is broached, certain dangers are also mentioned that are said to be associated with what is called spiritual science. However, those who speak of these dangers usually have very dark, hazy ideas about what they are supposed to think about these dangers. This cannot be otherwise, because most of them do not have much concept of the content, the task and mission of spiritual science in our time. If we want to shed light on these dangers, we must first distinguish between the fear that our contemporaries have of the general proclamation of spiritual science; this must be distinguished from the dangers of spiritual science that really do exist in some cases, which arise for the one who wants to go to the higher worlds himself, who seeks access to knowledge in the invisible, supersensible.

Then there is talk of how it is dangerous to talk about such things at all, to spread such teachings and to twist people's minds. One reproach, which is made over and over again by a completely misleading view that remains on the surface, is made against Theosophy; it consists of the fact that by dealing with Theosophy, man is alienated from life. It is said that he is led into a world-unrelated, world-distant life, that he is deprived of interest and sympathy for true life. Many a family that sees one of its members turn to Theosophy because they believe they will find the satisfaction there that their previous life could not give their heart and soul says: Theosophy has taken that person from us. — It is dangerous when such people are driven into an ascetic, unworldly way of life, because then their relatives say it is Theosophy that has driven them into it. But there is a good deal of intolerance behind such an assertion. Such people believe that only the way they want to live is justified, and that it is asceticism not to live exactly the same way as they do; anyone who does not exactly share their idea and outlook on life practices asceticism. But when you look at the lives of some people, at what a man and woman do from morning till night – we are not talking here about those who are really involved in practical life – when you see how the lives of some people are exhausted in soupers and dinners and other trivial pleasures, then you understand that a person who seeks higher things cannot live this life. If someone withdraws from this life, people say that he has fallen into unworldly asceticism and that he is preoccupied with all kinds of abstract, confused ideas. They cannot imagine that for someone living their life must be the greatest asceticism. A person who has come to know the sources from which the life of reality flows that surrounds us would have to mortify himself greatly if he had to participate in what is called life in such circles. It would be a real asceticism for him. Not because he has become alienated from life, but because he knows life in its real form, so he does not mortify himself by participating in it.

However, people in such circles will think that a person who occupies himself with such complicated ideas is somehow deprived. They are not thinking correctly, because he is not denying himself anything. As long as a person finds pleasure and enjoyment in such trivial everyday things, such a way of life is not for him. It is not a matter of changing his life, but his feelings and perceptions must have changed. He must know that true life only flows where the higher reasons for existence are to be found.

Then some families see one of their members rush to the ways of life of Theosophy. They say: Theosophy has snatched this person from us. Is that so? Those who know how to examine the souls of people will find that this is not the case. The very member who turns to Theosophy was initially repelled by what was going on around him. Then it somehow became aware of Theosophy and found there exactly what it lacked in its circles. Is it now right to say that Theosophy has driven it out of its circles? Theosophy has given it what its circles could not give it. Longing souls, searching for a true purpose in life and not finding it where life has led them, they seek it where they can find it. While such souls have been driven away, one now thinks they have been taken! Theosophy does not agitate; there would be no Theosophical movement if there were not people who have been driven out of today's life and now go to what is offered to them from the other side.

However, a certain danger arises when such people come to Theosophy immaturely and are then literally blinded, literally crushed by what they encounter there. One must not forget that the basis of Theosophy is a coherent and strict thinking, a firmly structured logic that searches step by step for the structure of the world building. There is not much real logic in our lives, no matter how much we boast about how wonderfully far we have come! Even where man seeks advice in popular and other sciences about the questions of existence, one finds only a short-meshed logic. Anyone who is accustomed to rigorous thinking and examines the results of science, when he is forced to follow the lines of thought as science is usually disseminated today, will often feel physical pain from the brutal, rough conclusions. Because as admirable as what science has discovered through its instruments and methods is, the content of thought is usually an incredibly short.

Thus it happens that the man who stands in everyday life is as a rule little practiced, little prepared for real logical thinking. The importance of the collision of people with Theosophy is usually underestimated when the soul is accustomed to having the dull trains of thought that people have today, and then there is the collision with the penetrating sequences of thoughts that confront people in spiritual science. A person with a sensitive soul, when feeling rules in his heart, notices that true nourishment flows towards him, that a wonderful light shines towards him. When he realizes his inability to grasp it with his trains of thought, it has a devastating, debilitating effect on his soul. This affects the nervous system; especially when he can only rush into theosophy in festive moments, can only take a piece and then has to go back to life. There he feels the unhealthy contrast; there arise those dissatisfied, sick souls, which we see emerging today in many cases from contact with the spiritual teachings.

But we see even more. Those who understand the signs of the times see a bleak picture of the future. Humanity today lives in darkness and chaos in many ways; they judge life without knowledge of the driving forces of life, which have arisen solely as a result of human attitudes. Those who believe that attitudes have no effect on life do not know what real facts of thought are. They have an effect on life right down to the health of a nation. Anyone who is aware that materialism has held sway in the innermost depths of humanity for so long, at a time when great contemporary issues were being worked out, knows that it has produced something that is often wrongly judged. One admires many a writer who gives a dazzling account of many a discussion on the most varied areas of life; and one does not know that he speaks or writes empty phrases. The knowledgeable person could show in many cases what is behind this cleverness. Sometimes there is really something behind it that could be called idiocy. Today you can be idiotic and still be a clever writer. Decades ago, someone said that it is no longer considered special for someone to write long, beautiful poems, because today our language is so advanced that it thinks for people. The general level of education today is such that someone who has perhaps studied it since the age of sixteen and absorbed all the judgments that are bandied about can write wittily and yet be weak-minded. This is a seemingly paradoxical assertion, but factually it is true. This should be seen only as a symptom of how superficially life is lived today; how little there is in-depth power of judgment; how little they are able to grasp the forces that stand behind life. These are the leading spirits! And what about those who are the led? If we judge the state of mind of those who often experience this confrontation with what Theosophy gives, we have to say: if they had remained within their previous lives, they might have remained reasonably intelligent people; but now they come to Theosophy, and it is as if a mighty light shines into a room where there is much impurity.

This was not seen as long as it was dark. But now, when the knowledge of the true sources of life shines into the darkness, the contrast of the one with the other may cause someone who would otherwise have remained a sober, reasonably reasonable person to be unable to bear the light of knowledge and now go completely mad. There is a danger here! But can one say that Theosophy is to blame? Is it not rather the materialistic school of thought that has brought man to this state? And should not spiritual science bring this light to mankind because of these dangers? Even if one or the other may suffer harm, it must not be denied, because humanity must receive it for true progress and salvation.

However, there are also real dangers for those who seek access to the higher worlds. Unfortunately, we can only read too much about this in some theosophical writings, and they have been written far too blackly there. We do not want to gloss over anything, but we want to watch calmly and objectively to see what the situation is regarding these dangers.

There is a particular difficulty at the threshold, because there are difficult deceptions, hallucinations, to be distinguished from what is reality and truth: that which is most difficult for a person to overcome certain prejudices and premonitions that he brings with him from ordinary life. When people hear that there is a way to penetrate into higher worlds, they are often seized by an enormous greed and passion; but to strictly follow what was emphasized in yesterday's lecture, to strictly train thinking, feeling and willing, that does not seem necessary to them. But it must be said to those that today, just as a thousand years ago, this is an indispensable condition and must be strictly adhered to by all teachers of the mystery schools. Those who did not engage in thinking free of sensuality were not allowed to join the secret training. This cannot be followed so strictly today, because those who were the guardians of knowledge in the past gave humanity no opportunity at all to come to this knowledge without fulfilling this condition. Today, however, it is different. Through a thousand and one channels, knowledge flows to humanity. But it is amazing how even great minds in the field of science are completely unaware of this ancient knowledge of humanity!

What man cannot learn through science is the solution to the world's riddles. It is often only through science that questions arise for man. Questions are raised that have existed for man since time immemorial; and man would be consumed with longing for answers if theosophy did not provide the answers. A true leader of truth cannot, for example, put Haeckel's “Welträtsel” (World Mysteries) out of his hand without the feeling: here not only are no mysteries solved, but new ones are presented. Questions are raised that did not even exist for prehistoric man. People would have to burn with longing if Theosophy could not give them answers to all their questions. Today's science is more a questioner than an answerer.

Theosophy was not founded on some arbitrary basis, but out of the deepest knowledge of the needs of humanity, which will need more and more what only Theosophy gives. Humanity cannot do without it.

Many people believe, however, that they can be satisfied with the materialistic views of our environment. They say: I find explanations for everything in them, I do not need anything from spiritual worlds. But there is something in man that can never say so in the long run. The wish, the innermost longing of the soul will always say no and no again to such an intellectual knowledge of the world around us. This longing of the soul cannot be appeased; it grows; it makes the person weak, ill, unable to work in life. There are many derailed souls today who are searching for something but repel what they are seeking. If what the soul longs for is not met with what spiritual science can give, then doubt, hopelessness, even despair takes hold of the soul.

Thus, out of the necessity of the time, Theosophy had to be proclaimed to our world. Then you often see that people are seized by greed, but they shy away from the hard work that the preparation requires; they are too lazy. They say: We want to uplift our souls, we want to flow into bliss! But you only give again in terms of ideas, in concepts! We do not want the mind, we want the soul! If only people would realize how they are making themselves their own worst enemies through the things they foster within themselves! It is precisely the calm, step-by-step realization that can satisfy their soul's longings; it is only satisfied when it quietly surrenders to these insights. There are therefore many souls in the world that could be called derailed souls, but which really stand in opposition to themselves as their own enemies.

And there are souls who carry within them the desire for higher knowledge, as described above, but who do not want to break out of their customary logic. They cannot enter the higher worlds. An increasing number of souls are afflicted. They rave about all kinds of spiritual concepts. The basis of this illness is attributed to Theosophy, while in reality it is the materialistic attitude that makes the souls ill. It is only the final clash with Theosophy that conjures up the illness. One does intend to penetrate more seriously into the higher regions of existence, but very soon slackens, especially when a serious test approaches. This test consists in the fact that one must see the dangers that surround life from all sides at the threshold, and which the human being had not seen before. If someone has his home near a powder factory, he may have lived there contentedly and quietly for years, but then hears about the powder factory and fears for his life every hour. He does not realize that seeing a danger is no reason to fear. Something external has not changed, only his knowledge about it has changed. It is the same when a person approaches the supersensible worlds. In this world are the sources of bliss and sublimity that cannot be compared with anything that people can experience in the sensual world. But there are equally powerful enemies of human nature there, horrible things; everything that lives in the sensual world that is dreadful cannot be compared with the dangers that surround people in these worlds. If he takes a look inside, then he experiences worlds of bliss – but at the same time he must experience the dreadful, the terrible, and he must experience it with cold blood.

The actual facts have not changed, only his feelings and perceptions; the facts were already there before he could recognize them, only his perception of the facts has changed. A person must remain fearless and calm. As simple as it seems, it is difficult to carry out. But if it is not carried out, feelings of fear and terror of the spiritual worlds arise in a person. This is not a matter of indifference, because these are real forces. There are beings in the spiritual world for whom the feelings of fear that we radiate are welcome nourishment. They suffer from emaciation if they do not receive this nourishment. They surround the person like vampires; when you give them nourishment in the form of feelings of fear and anxiety, they fill themselves up with it. The human being must be firm; he must have thoroughly overcome all feelings of fear if he wants to enter. He must also discard other feelings that he takes with him from the sensual world long before, because they become disadvantages, terrible obstacles in these worlds. These are all negative feelings: ambition, vanity, anger, hatred, annoyance, selfishness. Those feelings that mean little in ordinary life become real monsters in terms of their dangerous side. The person who enters these higher worlds and has not yet discarded these feelings provides welcome nourishment for these beings. He does not need to see them, but they destroy his physical health; they ruin his nervous system, his sleep. All this is true!

Even worse dangers arise. When a person is to be initiated through the methods the teacher gives him, when he has undergone his exercises and then sees what is approaching him, sees the dangers – and then gives up the attempt, then what is called in spiritual science occurs: the reflection of the human spiritual work. At the moment when man gives up the attempt, grotesque figures of a dreadful, quite impossible kind appear to him in visions. Man is as if enclosed by these figures. It forms itself around him like a clamp, made of such figures of horror.

All this could deter a person from seeking the path; but it must not deter anyone. That would be selfish. Anyone who has the opportunity to penetrate into the higher worlds must not miss these opportunities. It is easy to say: I am afraid of it. But man must be aware that by doing so he harms not only himself but the whole world. He has no right to let these abilities lie fallow. Just as the finger is not an independent part of the human organism, we are not independent either. And just as the finger cannot live only for itself, we cannot live only for ourselves. The whole world is one organism. We should work on ourselves and develop our powers. If we do not do this, we neglect a sacred duty towards humanity. Each one of us must realize that obstacles must be overcome. They must be overcome! If a person follows the instructions he receives energetically and correctly, then it is impossible for anyone to be in danger. There is no place for scaremongering when it comes to conscientious guidance. You have to know the dangers, but you must not be afraid of them. That must be a firm principle.

Of course, certain dangers also come from another direction. For example, anyone who carries social prejudices into the higher worlds — they are of no use there — and cannot discard them, will not be able to ascend without danger. Therefore, man must acquire a high degree of inner freedom and independence. Those who cannot do so can only advance to a small degree. It is not a matter of external independence here; a person can be as dependent as he likes externally, but internally the soul can be completely free. We must beware of the numerous misunderstandings that we encounter. Anyone who really wants to walk the path of truth should realize that a sentence can contain worthless words and that the same sentence can carry profound truth. Those who seriously want to follow the path must beware of empty phrases and mere set expressions, for although the highest light prevails in Theosophy, so too does the most extreme phrase-mongering and hollowness. This is a bad habit of our time, but it contains a real danger for Theosophy.

If we go back to the earliest times, we see that the leading personalities who have guided life have attached great importance to a person's judgment at a certain age; today, the very youngest can give their authoritative judgments. Above all, people today do not know that although one can achieve a great deal in terms of intellect, science and art at an early age, only someone who has reached the middle of their life is able to convey the experiences of the spiritual worlds to his fellow human beings in a truly correct way. That is why no secret school sends out anyone who has not passed the age of 35. As long as man still needs certain powers to build up his organism, he does not have them freely to put them into service. It is not permitted to communicate the occult teachings authoritatively to anyone before the powers are no longer needed for building up; only when the physical is in the process of declining in life is it permitted. Anyone who examines life will see the justification for this rule. Even a spirit such as Goethe: What he achieved before this point was a revival of what he had gathered from here and there; what would not have been there if Goethe had not been there, that only came about after the middle of his life. It means the greatest danger when we see how great truths are spoken of as mere phrases. For example, you can hear over and over again: You must be unselfish, you must sacrifice your personality to the All! — This is a profound truth if it is really understood; but it can be the most absurd phrase if this truth is presented without understanding. Egoism is not given to man by a wise world government for nothing; it is a means of education, it makes man richer and fuller; through it many a person is prevented from doing something that could harm him. It is a healthy force, it fills the personality with strength and energy, it is something wholesome! To say that one should discard it is a morbid phrase. Nevertheless, it is true that a sacrifice of the personality is necessary if we want to find the way up into the higher worlds.

How should this be understood? Let us take an example. Someone is asked to sacrifice all their cash. One person sacrifices fifty pfennigs, another twenty thousand marks. But both sacrifice everything they have. If these sacrifices are to help, then it is clear that twenty thousand marks will help much more than fifty pfennigs. So one must compare the sacrifice of a personality who has nothing within him, who perhaps has no particular ego at all, with the sacrifice of a personality who has accumulated within himself enormous energy and strength. What good does it do humanity to sacrifice a human being who is still nothing? The personality must first make itself strong and energetic; it depends on how it is sacrificed, not what is sacrificed. Man must know that egoism is a healthy force; it drives man to obey the sentence:

When the rose adorns itself,
It also adorns the garden!

A personality who first learned to develop the forces within himself and then sacrificed himself is a valuable sacrifice in the great course of life. But if a personality without strength and energy takes this word: You shall sacrifice yourself, as a word of life, it becomes a phrase here and, because it is empty, will produce a life without content. In this sphere there is a vampire of life; it sucks out the forces of life. It is necessary to see clearly in this sphere. In no wise must there enter into this work that sense of well-being which a man so easily experiences when uttering fine phrases. Here the man who really wants to ascend into the higher worlds needs care and patience, for only little by little can he learn to distinguish aright.

Another thing must be considered by those who develop the forces slumbering within them into higher abilities that lead them up into the higher worlds. All human beings have them; they are within each person as a germ, only most people develop them over long periods of time. If the development of these forces is accelerated, then everything else in human life is accelerated as well. Let us assume that a 20-year-old person would reach the point that he would otherwise have reached at the age of 80 in just five years. All the things written in his karma are compressed into one twelfth. Everything he will experience in the way of adversity and obstacles in life will occur in five years. This acceleration of life acts like a locomotive that rushes through a snowy area at breakneck speed compared to a slow one. The latter pushes the snow aside slowly, while the former will quickly stir it up. That is really how it is in life. That which would otherwise be experienced over a longer period of time now comes together, and so it becomes apparent to the person who begins to walk the path of knowledge that he must experience many things that seem strange to him, especially at the beginning. Bad habits, vices, passions suddenly arise; everything that lies at the bottom of the soul must come out. At every opportunity, the person will find passions and desires that he believes he has long since overcome. But they must appear in order to be completely overcome, to disappear completely. For the one who truly comes to the threshold, there stands a mighty one that shows in a great image everything that is still base in the depths of his soul. All passions stand in one image before the soul. This is the Guardian of the Threshold. He meets the Pathfinder, and he must face him without fear. If he is not fearless, he turns back, then those hideous images arise that imprison man. All his lower passions imprison him in the mirror image of the spiritual as in a chamber. This is not described to deter anyone from seeking the path, but only to enable the seeker to find the path in the right way.

No one should let this deter them. One must know that the very sight of these dangers is the greatest purifying agent. People usually have no idea how wisely they are guided. It is a powerful healing agent for the soul when it has to experience fear and hope, tension and release, agitation and reassurance. These feelings are extremely important, even in all art. These are important medicines for the soul. It heals from the dangers it has to go through, and we should be grateful to these teachers; after all, we cannot escape them. There are no dangers other than those that are also there for man. Only in relation to knowledge does it change for him. He learns about the facts, but the facts themselves do not change. When we learn this, we can set out on the path to the higher worlds without worry, without danger. If a person does this, then he is following an important mission. Our time needs spiritual knowledge. If it were denied to humanity, then general materialism would fill the hearts of men with doubt, despair, and a lack of comfort and hope. It would make people gloomy and despairing; it would affect their temperament, make life dull and stunted, and ultimately also make the physical part of the human being fall ill. Materialism would completely enervate people. For physical recovery, people need what spiritual science offers.

Only he can be a truly useful member in the progress of the human race who allows himself to be seized by the spiritual current. And it is justified for a person to sometimes worry about his own development; he must first acquire the true powers for himself, with which he will be able to help people, and he must have patience to acquire them. This must be emphasized in Theosophy. What matters is not a theory, but that it flows into life; it has in itself a healthy, energetic life, and it must be a remedy for humanity!

Reasons can be given for and against all things; the true secret scientist is not interested in this, he knows. Theosophy is given to humanity as a remedy. No matter how much it is attacked, it is destined to make man whole in body and soul when it is introduced into life. And it is in this recovery of life that it will express its affirmation. Therefore, when a person works on himself, he does not work for himself; he works for the whole of human progress, for the true and right salvation of humanity. And that this is achieved, that this is experienced, will then be the only sure proof of spiritual or secret knowledge.

What is today referred to as the theosophical movement or the theosophical worldview did not come into existence as a result of recent cultural developments, as did many other movements. The theosophical movement did not arise out of the arbitrary will of a single agitator. Sometimes a movement comes into being through an individual who is able to make an impact on people and to inspire them with his words. The Theosophical movement as such, however, has a completely different basis. It arose out of the realization that humanity needs such a movement, out of the realization that the spiritual treasures that have given people hope and joy since time immemorial must be brought to humanity in a new form.

When we look into the soul of a growing child, who is to grow up to face life and be equipped with the powers that prepare him for a healthy life, we see how, from the earliest age, the harshest doubts must take hold in his soul under the impressions of today's education. We see how the child is led into the knowledge of a supersensible world, a world in which answers are to be given to the questions about the riddles of life, to the question of how it relates to death and other serious questions, to all the great riddles of existence, which every human being must have answered not only from a mere feeling.

In the face of all these questions, which point to the supernatural, man is plunged into anxious doubt and bitter disappointment, even as a child, when he experiences what today's natural science, seemingly so powerful, presents to man. Especially those people who are predisposed to have the best sense of truth come, in their earliest youth, to the harshest doubts through what comes to them in our time. Many are often dominated by a great sense of apprehension; they do not want to touch on anything that goes beyond the visible. Indifference to these questions is one thing that is found in some people; the other is the bitter division of the soul between what science seems to give on the one hand and religious truths on the other.

One may wonder what is better: if a person goes through life indifferently, or experiences the tragic fate of being broken mentally. Perhaps one can say that there are always those who do not fall prey to such doubts. But anyone who understands the signs of the times knows that what is happening now is only the beginning of what will intensify more and more. Something must be offered so that people who, as a result of the findings of science, no longer believe that they can hold on to their belief in the supernatural, can find a way to it again. A way must also be found for those who believe they must break with religious traditions. We see how the best minds of our time see religious creeds as something that was right for a child's age, in their opinion; they need something that satisfies their consciousness. The theosophical worldview is there to open up a path to the primary sources of existence for even the most modern consciousness.

Those who seek such a path may recall one of the great minds of modern times, who never uttered the word “theosophy”, but whose entire thinking, feeling and sensing expressed the spirit of theosophy. He said: “He who possesses science and art also has religion; he who does not possess these two, let him have religion.” We may recall the moment when Goethe stood in Italy before the great works of art he had longed for so much before coming to Italy. “There is necessity, there is God,” he said when speaking of them. When he wanted to explain why necessity and God shone out of artistic form for him, he said: “I suspect that the Greeks proceeded according to the laws by which nature itself proceeds, and which I am on the trail of.

Let us summarize how Goethe's view of nature, his worldview and religious feeling interacted. Goethe had something of what we want to learn as a theosophical basic feeling. As a child, he already had this feeling. He sought out all sorts of minerals and plants, laid them on a music stand, and then he placed an incense stick on top; he ignited it with a burning glass through the first rays of the sun. In this way, he believed that he was close to the God who emerged from all of nature's works through this sacrifice that he offered him. Are we surprised that such a powerful religious feeling also comes to light in his scientific endeavors later on?

Goethe tried to discern how the ancient artists allowed the divine order to shine through in their works of art. In what the old artists created, he saw necessity, God. For him, the genuine artist was the one who caught the spiritual light of God in his soul, as a burning glass catches physical light. When Goethe saw in colors and forms, it appeared to him as genuine art. He who looks into nature longs for its creative interpreter, art. Goethe recognized the close connection between nature and art, how the same laws prevail in both, and for him science is the right one if it leads to this realization. “He who possesses science and art also has religion,” he says. For a mind as high as his, this realization could only give rise to a feeling for God in His lawfulness permeating all of nature.

Human nature needs impulses whereby this feeling penetrates into every soul. — Let us take a look at the much-maligned Middle Ages, when a scientific fact had not yet been transmitted through a thousand channels to the simplest human soul. Let us place ourselves in the position of an aspiring, simple human heart, as it was in relation to its teachers, and let us place ourselves in the course of historical events, as it all gradually came about back then, how the new era began and the Copernican world view brought about such a great change in the development of mankind. We want to realize how what is now called Theosophy was not necessary for people of the older times, how the vast majority of humanity at that time received it out of feelings that arose from religious convictions in most of them. It is precisely the development into our time that makes theosophy necessary. If it were not for modern science with its doubts and scruples, which it itself generates, there would be no need for theosophy.

Those who are familiar with Theosophy know that in reality there is no contradiction between religious beliefs and scientific truths. Since modern science has been influencing the world, there has been a need for an instrument of knowledge that goes deeper than science, which only looks at the world on the surface. Theosophy is entirely consistent with science. If we delve deeper into Theosophy, we will find that it is completely in line with science. It just goes deeper. It deals with the supersensible, with the superphysical world. The way it deals with it is exactly the same as the way research is done in modern science. Only it has to do with the supersensible world. By dealing with the world in which man himself is a supersensible being, it becomes a kind of religious knowledge. Theosophy does not doubt the truth of real religious knowledge. It wants to give new means to man, who is no longer able to hold on to this religious conviction with the old means.

Now that we have seen that the Theosophical worldview does not just correspond to arbitrariness, we want to point out the places where Theosophy has an enlightening and illuminating effect. Natural science is concerned only with that which can be derived from external experience. Since Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Kirchhoff and [Bunsen], and all those who in our own time have shed light on the material world, with what could this natural science not agree? We could cite a long series of wonderful results of modern science. The theosophist has no reason to withhold his admiration for this world of facts. But modern science has risen to its present eminence precisely because it has limited itself to the periphery of the external world.

Du Bois-Reymond, in his Ignorabimus speech at the Natural Scientists' Convention in Leipzig in 1872, said something remarkable about human knowledge. He says that the natural scientist is actually only able to understand the sleeping person, but not the waking person. He says that the natural scientist has to investigate the material foundations of the human being, how the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen combine in the human brain when any impulse or thought comes about. He says that nothing is yet understood about the actual soul. He quotes Leibniz, who says: Imagine that the brain is so enlarged that you could walk around in it as if it were a factory. Even so, you would not know how the movements arise, nor why they give rise to the sensations: I see red, I smell the scent of roses, I hear the sound of an organ. Du Bois-Reymond did not want to admit to science that it had the possibility of finding out the bridge between the physical movements of the atoms and the mental sensations. Quite right he said: “If we have a sleeping person in front of us, then we can recognize him, because then what we call the inner soul experiences is not there. It has vanished down into an indefinite darkness while man sleeps.

Yet something else disappears when we are asleep: what we can call the sense of self, that which is at the center of our being. During sleep, the human being does not feel the experiences of the soul in his ego, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, etc. It would be the most nonsensical thing imaginable to claim that what says “I” to itself, what smells the scent of roses, hears organ tones, sees colors, that this disappears completely in the evening and is recreated every morning. No explanation based on external sensual facts is capable of saying a word that can resolve this. This is why Du Bois-Reymond was also able to say: The natural scientist can recognize the sleeping human being, but not the waking human being. — When falling asleep, the true human being disappears from the scientific explanation.

Only spiritual science can shed light on the true process. The sleeping person leaves his outer cover in bed in the evening and moves back into this body in the morning. He himself disappears into another world in the evening. To study him is the task of theosophy or spiritual science. It is possible to follow this person, but it is not easy for the present person to come to believe in this possibility. The theosophical world view introduces the human being to another world. It speaks of supersensible and superphysical worlds, not in a magical or superstitious sense, but in a completely natural sense, in the sense in which Johann Gottlieb Fichte spoke of them. In the fall of 1813, he said to his audience: “Imagine a world of the blind and born blind, for whom only the things and their relationships that exist through the sense of touch are known. Enter this world and speak to them of colors and the other relationships that exist only through light and for the seeing. Either you talk to them about nothing, and this is the happier outcome, if they say so; for in this way you will soon notice the mistake and, if you are unable to open their eyes, you will stop talking in vain.

For the blind from birth, this world of colors and light does not exist. We now imagine that a blind person is operated on in this room, so a whole new world would appear to him, which was there before, but for which he lacked the organ. A world that was not there for him before, now becomes his possession, by receiving a new organ. There are as many worlds for us as we have organs to perceive them.

It is the worst kind of illogicality when man wants to limit existence to what is within his reach. — We cannot operate on everyone born blind, but every person has dormant powers and abilities in their soul that can be awakened, what Goethe calls the spiritual eye. Then there comes a moment when a new world opens up for that person. There have been such awakened or initiated ones at all times. When the spiritual organs are awakened, man perceives a new world; what he then perceives is explained to him by the world of the supersensible. Just as there is always light and color around the blind, there are spiritual worlds around people in which spiritual beings exist. Religions have always spoken of these worlds in terms that people could understand. Theosophy speaks of them in terms that are appropriate for the present time.

Only those who have glimpsed these spiritual worlds or who know about it from those who have glimpsed it can narrate, communicate and research in relation to these spiritual worlds. To research, looking into it is necessary, but to understand, the ordinary logical human understanding is enough. Many things that people are told about these spiritual worlds may seem fabulous and fantastic to them. But take it as a story. If you immerse yourself in it, you will see that common sense and ordinary human logic are enough to understand it.

Even the reports of science are largely accepted without people themselves having followed the path of the researcher and tested everything. How many of those people who consider Haeckel's “History of Creation” to be a gospel have convinced themselves of what is written in it? It is extraordinarily difficult to carry out such tests; for example, the experience of the development of the human germ from stage to stage is something so difficult that one very rarely finds the opportunity to do so. It all looks different when you read about it in a finished, popular work. But even if you can't verify it all yourself, you can still say that you understand and believe.

There are higher spiritual methods for exploring the world of the senses, just as there are natural scientific methods. When we apply these methods, it becomes apparent that in sleep the true human being emerges from the human being that our eyes see. The physical human being cannot see this with his physical sense organs. But the awakened eye of the seer sees the I, sees the bearer of desires and passions. Man is there, even in sleep, but his consciousness can only sprout up in him when he plunges back into what his eyes see of the physical body.

In the theosophical worldview, we are shown how the true human being exists, who, during sleep, leaves the outer shells, and how this consists of two parts, the actual self and the astral body, the carrier of desires and passions. Two parts of the human being are spiritual. During sleep, from evening until morning, they are in another world. In the morning they re-enter the physical body.

Is the physical body itself so simple? We cannot get by with a simple explanation of it either. The same being that sinks into unconsciousness when falling asleep in the evening says “I” to itself again in the morning. The thinking observer of the world must find it understandable when the spiritual researcher tells him: When we look at man from birth to death, we see his nature is by no means exhausted in the physical. Only if we surrender to the most shortsighted prejudice can we stop at what really appears to us as man from the sensual-physical world.

If we observe the human being from birth, we see the unfolding qualities of the child as something that is not limited to the physical; we recognize how something spiritual is at work. In the growing human being, too, we see something working its way out from within that was there before the physical forms were there. In the Bach family, about 29 more or less significant musicians lived within 250 years. One could say: There you can see how the disposition of father and mother is inherited. But that does not contradict the fact that a spiritual process is at work behind the physical process. The musical ear is only one particular physiognomy of the inner ear. One inherits the physical from one's ancestors, but one does not inherit that for which the physical is the instrument, the spiritual, from one's ancestors. The spiritual predispositions are bound to the individual.

When a person realizes this, he sees something similar in the developing human individuality as in a person waking up in the morning. He says to himself that the spiritual person grows and develops in the developing human being. He does not just see a physical connection, but just as he does not just see a physical process in the waking person, he also sees something spiritual unfolding in the growing person.

This other spiritual element that unfolds in the developing human being remains with the sleeping physical human being. The sleeping physical human being remains in bed, but is also still connected to a spiritual element. This spiritual element, which we see gradually unfolding from childhood onwards, what was there before birth, what was there before conception, we call the human etheric body. Just as we see the carrier of feelings, passions and desires in the astral body, we call that which we see growing in the human being the etheric or life body. No plant exists without an etheric or life body. In the plant, it is still limited to regulating the forces of growth and reproduction. But in the human being, it is the carrier of all spiritual abilities, of habits, of memory. In the human being, it increasingly becomes the carrier of a higher spiritual essence, increasingly becoming the spirit of life. Just as the I leaves the human being with the astral body when sleep occurs, so the etheric or life body leaves the physical body at death, and the physical body decays.

Thus, Theosophy leads us beyond the riddles of existence; it shows us the reality that is still there when a person passes through the gate of death. The theosophical world view gives us a glimpse of the realms that man passes through when he passes through the gate of sleep, through the gate of death. Through knowledge, through insight, we are introduced to those worlds that are also sought in religions. Modern humanity needs this harmonization, this balance. That is why this world view has been brought to the world. Mankind can now only be seized by such impulses as the young Goethe sought to feel before his altar, as they were alive in the old Goethe when he was inspired by the works of art, if they are again able to penetrate into the higher, spiritual worlds through the knowledge of the theosophical world view. The theosophical world view shows the modern man his connection with the supersensible world again. Without this connection, man cannot remain healthy.

The theosophist is aware that not only a world of the senses surrounds man, but also a world of the supersensible. He who knows only this world sensually, loses the sense for this world, and the hope that the physical world is supposed to bring him disappears.

Theosophy wants to bring man back to a correct, a strong view of the supersensible world, which not only satisfies curious or tired knowledge, but which makes man, especially in this world, fit for work, full of hope and joy, because he knows: The meaning of this physical world is an eternal one, and because he knows: Everything I do in this sense has an eternal meaning. This gives people joy in their lives, diligence in their work, and that is what makes people healthy for life.

The Gospel of John is not only a confessional writing, but it also presents a wonderful description of what makes it an extraordinarily important document for the world. The sending of the Spirit of Truth, first to the disciples, is dramatically presented to the soul. The promise of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit, the Spirit of Pentecost upon the twelve.

There are four stages to the way we relate to the Bible.

1. the naive, naive believers,
2. the clever, the enlightened,
3. those who interpret allegorically,
4. the theosophists.

It is a refreshing experience for the theosophist to discover that spiritual beings are truly behind the scriptures of religion today. Theosophy seeks to develop and unravel the spirit contained in the scriptures. [Theosophy is not a new religion, but the most faithful instrument for understanding the Gospels.

Let us now consider the Gospel of John, especially the passage where the Spirit of Truth is mentioned.

I and the Father are one.

I am in you and you are in me (John 14:20). I must go to the Father, because if I do not go to the Father, the Spirit of Truth will not come to you.

So I must pass through death so that the Spirit of Truth can enter you. Only he who finds the way to the Father can proclaim the Spirit of Truth.

What I say is not mine, but the Father's.

He who keeps my commandments loves me, and he who loves me keeps my commandments.

[Gap in the transcript?] If we have understood the matter of the astral body, we are satisfied. But as for the etheric body, a prayer, a meditation, if one were to say that one has grasped the prayer or the meditation, that would mean: not being able to do anything with it. Always repeating the same prayer; it is as if a plant, which indeed has the etheric body but no astral body, repeatedly uses the same force to form a leaf again and again.

And when someone gains control over their physical body and can send their blood corpuscles wherever they want, then one says: This person is forming their seventh limb, Atma.

When man has transformed a large part of his etheric body into Budhi [spirit of life = Budhi], then he knows that death is nothing, that the spirit endures; because that which is transformed remains eternal, is something eternal. He becomes aware of the victory over death. Thus man is transformed. As much as he has transformed.

of the astral body is in him of the Holy [Manas],
spirit of the etheric body is in him, of the Son, the Christ [Budhi],
of the physical body is in him from the Father [Atma].

What people heard in religious writings and messages elevated them beyond themselves.

In earlier times, if you wanted to receive knowledge from the spiritual worlds, you had to undergo initiation. Just as light and color existed before our physical eyes were formed, so the spiritual worlds are around us, even though we have not yet developed spiritual eyes.

During the earlier development of spiritual vision, the student was brought into a death-like state for three and a half days. While the etheric body was out of the physical body, it was able to absorb what the astral body had already absorbed through prayer-like exercises.

When the person then returned to the physical body, he could tell of the spiritual worlds; he had experienced that life is eternal.

In the past, only a few were able to experience the mysteries for themselves, but now it is possible for everyone. [What had been experienced countless times in the mysteries now occurred as a historical event at Golgotha. This event was so much greater because here the body really died. In the mysteries, the body was only immersed in catalytic sleep for a few days.

You have to delve into the gospel of John to understand how the miracle at Golgotha defeated and overcame death.

One is a Jew because one believes what Moses gave his people, a Buddhist because of what Buddha left behind, and so on.

For a Christian, it is not the doctrine, the content, that is important, but rather that he believes in Christ Himself, in the exalted being who was incarnated at that time. Not only did Christ bring us doctrine, but also strength.

Among the ancient Jews: blood relationship = I-relationship. Through Christ came a spiritual conception of the I. The I is already there before it is in the physical body.

Before Abraham was, the I AM (John 8:58). I and the Father are one (John 10:30),

this is not the physical father, but the great community in every individual, which has descended into every individual ego.

Instead of blood ties or blood community, spiritual community had to arise. Only by developing the small individual ego can it become selfless.

With the preservation of the blood, man has received too much selfishness. With the blood that flowed from the wounds of the Redeemer on Golgotha, the superfluous, selfish blood of sinful humanity flowed away. [This is the redemption through the blood of Christ.] Thereby man received the claim to the great brotherhood. The ego could grow beyond itself. This is the mystery of Golgotha. This will transform the earth into a planet of love.

Not without the outer, historical Christ can there be a Christ in us. [Each one must experience this inner Christ within himself. Just as the eye owes its existence to the sun, so the inner Christ owes his awakening to the historical Christ.] The miracle of Golgotha is the greatest that has occurred during the entire evolution of the earth.

What happened as fact at Golgotha flowed as life, as the Spirit of Truth, into the disciples in the mystery of Pentecost, so that they could go out and teach what they themselves had seen.

Everything was shared by the henchmen under the cross, except for the rock, which cannot be shared. That is to say: the land, the continents were divided, everything that the ego can distribute, what it can force upon itself. But the rock cannot be divided: the Paraklet, the Spirit of Truth, that is the air circle around the continents, this Spirit of Truth cannot be divided.

The freest self, which can give love as a gift to the other self, will arise through the miracle at Golgotha.

Report in “The 17th May”, April 11, 1908

It was the Theosophical Society that had prompted him to speak about this subject, and it was from a Theosophical point of view that he wished to consider it.

The theosophical movement is hardly more than thirty years old, and yet it has now long since taken deep roots in the intellectual life of the present.

Nevertheless, most people misunderstand the theosophical movement. In many circles, theosophy is seen as a renewal of ancient, childish ideas about the world and existence in general – ideas that, in their eyes, naturally contradict all current science.

Others, in turn, see in Theosophy a new religion that is to replace the old ones. This, however, is also not correct. Theosophy is nothing but a new scientific method. Just as every branch of modern science has its scientific method, so does Theosophy. Theosophy is not a new religion. Theosophy is a tool, an instrument to help humanity to penetrate into the world of the spirit, into the spiritual foundation on which the physical world is built. However, religions are also a revelation of the spirit, and if Theosophy is to accomplish its task, it must also be in harmony with the core of all religions. And now an attempt should be made to consider the connection that exists between the Christian religion and in particular the Gospel of John, and Theosophy. This document in the New Testament is not held in high regard in our day. Modern people have virtually lost all understanding.

For a long time, we have been so busy with all kinds of historical research back and forth about the origin of this gospel and the context, or rather, the difference between this and the three other gospels, that the actual spirit of the work has almost disappeared.

The three Gospels in the New Testament describe Jesus Christ in vivid images, how he behaved, taught and healed, and laid the foundation for our own Western culture.

The Gospel of John, on the other hand, has its own special way of reporting on Christ and his act of redemption.

Mark, Luke and Matthew tell, and want to tell, of what happened in Palestine at the time – telling of the great historical drama that was played out at the great arena of life.

The fourth gospel, however, wants to give a picture of Christ and of the Christ idea as it grows in the human heart. Like a powerful hymn writer, the author of the Gospel of John describes the Christ, the wonderful ideal man, how he transforms and recreates the human heart.

This fourth gospel, as already mentioned, has been completely lost for many people. But if Theosophy is to rise to its great task, it must bring precisely this fourth gospel closer to people's hearts.

Listen to the introductory words. Everyone knows these monumental words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

It has been said that this introduction is purely philosophical and must have been written by a philosopher – that the author of the Gospel of John thus differs from the three other gospel writers in that he would have been well acquainted with all contemporary science.

But this opinion is not well founded. It is strange that someone should have come up with such thoughts through something as simple and straightforward as these introductory words. Whoever wrote the fourth gospel was truly not influenced by any particular philosophy. He just told the story in a completely different and intimate way. That is why it was said that this gospel was written by the apprentice whom the master loved the most, that is, understood him best.

The Gospel of John is the deepest, most spiritual account we have of the Christian mysteries, the account of the task of Christ, the mission of Christ here in the world. But if one is to understand this mission, one must look a little at all of humanity, for one's calling is most closely related to it.

If one single word is to be named for the path of development that the human race has followed on earth, then that word is love. Another aspect of this same love is wisdom. Wisdom and love are one.

One need not look far to realize that wisdom is the fundamental law in the world.

Consider a plant, a flower. How wonderfully cell upon cell is built until the whole plant stands there with leaf and blossom and fruit. Consider the bees. How wonderful their dwellings are. No building in the world, built by hands, can measure up to this.

And when you look at the human body and see how each limb has been given its appropriate task, how the skeleton supports the body with the greatest possible strength in the smallest possible space, and see how every thing in the human body is gloriously conceived and laid out, then you understand in truth that the human body is, as it were, crystallized wisdom.

Yes, wisdom is the primary law of the whole world. Not only on this earth, but in all the kingdoms of the world.

In human life, the law of wisdom changes and becomes a law of love that permeates everything. And here on earth we can see how this law of love has gradually transformed people.

The form of love that humanity knew exclusively in times long past was the blood bond, the love between those who were closely related by blood. It was the sex drive, the tribal bond, the feeling of the national community, which would be the first form of love. In and through the kinship bond, people learned their first lesson in loving others. How deep the roots of this primitive form of human love go can be seen from all the legends and myths, and from the tragic and sad fate that befalls those who marry into a foreign family or tribe.

As a modern person, it is difficult for us to find our way in these old circles of ideas. We have developed an individual ego, an independent sense of person. Each of us perceives that we hide our own self, our own self-awareness, in our innermost being.

But it was not so in the old days. If someone in those times had said “I”, they would have meant their gender, their relatives. Over time, the boundaries have been pushed further and further out. It would be the people, the national community, that has now become the higher unity into which the individual is absorbed. And this has found its most peculiar expression in the national feeling of the Old Testament. The Jew felt himself to be one with his people. For him, it was considered that he belonged to the entire line of his ancestors: father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on down to the patriarch Abraham. The higher self of the Jew would be the people itself, if all these long lines were relatives by blood. He thought something like this: My life has an end, but in the blood that flows in the family, I live again. This is how people in all nations, in all the peoples of the earth, thought.

Only a few individuals think differently. For them, the whole human race, all creatures on earth, are relatives and blood friends. They have enough love in them to embrace the whole earth.

This small group are the “initiates”, who together form a school, the so-called mysteries.

What is the purpose of these mysteries? Truly, they should be a school where people learn to rise to a higher self-awareness.

When we speak of initiates, we mean people who have freed themselves from all earthly fetters, who have detached themselves from everything they used to love about sensual things. And in this way they have developed higher senses and powers within themselves.

Man is not just a body, but a complex being. And every single person has the ability to develop senses other than the physical ones.

Everyone is familiar with the alternation between sleep and wakefulness. When you fall asleep, your self-awareness fades away, at least for the time being. Pain, pleasure, all the thousands of composite feelings that fill our days disappear, because the soul, the self-awareness, has left the body and is gone until it descends back into the physical body in the morning. And in the evening, when the body sleeps, the soul goes out again; man is only spiritually human during this time, and all sensual things fade away.

Imagine a man who is blind, blind from birth. Everything the world possesses of light and color is not there for him because he has no organ with which to receive it.

But if someone with good eyesight were to describe to such a man all the wonderful things he sees, and if the man were to say that he is a poet, a dreamer, and that things like light and color do not exist, we would truly call that nonsense. We would know better.

And if the eyes of someone born blind were somehow opened, we could say that this person had been initiated into light, colors, and radiance.

So it is in the spiritual world. In the physical world we have our eyes open, but in the other worlds, in the spiritual world, we grope around blindly. In those worlds, almost all people are blind. They have no senses, no eyes, no ears.

These spiritual worlds are certainly there, but if people are to receive knowledge of them, the eyes of those who are blind must be opened, that is, they must be “initiated” or taught to acquire organs of perception themselves that are adapted to these worlds. In the old mysteries, there would be special methods for developing the soul in such a way that it would acquire spiritual senses. And when it had received these and descended again into the physical body, it could remember and make use of what it had learned and experienced in the spiritual worlds. In ancient times, anyone who wanted to become an initiate had to submit completely to a leader – the master. This master himself was a master who had long since been initiated and could therefore bear witness from his own experience to what he had seen and heard in those spiritual worlds. One such master was the Christ. His mission on earth was to draw all of humanity under the law of love. He had come to teach people that they no longer needed to cling to their gender or their people if they were to escape damnation. He taught them to rise above the sense of gender—up to a Father other than Father Abraham, up to the God hidden in their own innermost soul. Love of one's own sex and love of one's own people should be elevated to love of all people, to love of all living creatures in the world. In the past, love was particular, fragmented and divided, bound to a particular sex, people or nation. And the various mysteries or initiations of the peoples were always only for this one people. Hermes, Zarathustra, Buddha were masters and founders of faith, each for his own people. The old pagan mysteries taught people to develop the “self”, to build themselves up into spiritual human beings. But each of them was confined to his own people. They did not go beyond the feeling of nationality. But they served to prepare the world for the greatest event that has taken place so far, the coming of Christ into the world.

For with Christ it is different. He did not establish a popular religion, a popular faith; but a religion for all people. Christ is the one who was destined to teach the world, to expand popular love so that it encompasses the whole human race. He is the one who brought out the mysteries and gave them to everyone.

And this is particularly evident in the Gospel of John. If we read the introductory words correctly, we see that in the background of all physicality there is a spiritual world of origin, the divine Father-thought. And when Christ says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), then with this Father he means precisely this divine spark, which is the breath of life in every human soul.

And through Christ, every soul has received an impulse, a revival, to release the eternal in human nature.

In the age of the Old Testament, the Jew alone had the blood bond to cling to – union in Abraham's bosom was his only hope if he wanted to escape damnation.

Jesus, on the other hand, is said to have said: “In my Father's house are many rooms.” (John 14:2) It is precisely this that matters: to break away from these family ties. “Whoever does not renounce father and mother is not worthy of me” (Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29), he says.

No blood ties apply anymore, only the eternal father principle in every human soul. The Old Testament has been expanded by Christ and has been perfected in the Gospel of John. But even in the old scriptures, one need not search in vain for the same idea: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) and so on. If you compare these words with the introductory words of the Gospel of John, you understand the connection between the physical and the spiritual world. The words in Genesis concern the external material world, the words in the Gospel of John deal with the new creation that is needed in our own soul. The Gospel of John is therefore not just a book like other historical documents, but an initiation book, a book that should be brought to life for the soul. Above all, it is a book of devotion, a book of meditation. And every human soul that wants to be a disciple of Christ must live through these events itself, must go through them itself.

Christ had become the impulse, the driving force, for the individual soul to free itself. From now on, wisdom was to be drawn not only in the mysteries, for the few alone. It was no longer necessary to surrender to a “master” if one wanted to be initiated. Christ brought the Christian mysteries to all those who could accept them. The event at Golgotha is a great event in the world, and the blood that flowed there gives the impulse, releases forces that should lead the whole world to seek God in their own souls.

That is why Christianity is the greatest of all religions and can live longer than any of the others. And the Gospel of John is the very cornerstone of this teaching of Christ.