Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Search results 701 through 710 of 6551

˂ 1 ... 69 70 71 72 73 ... 656 ˃
109. Rosicrucian Esotericism: On Karma, Reincarnation and Initiation 12 Jun 1909, Budapest
Translated by Helen Fox

It is therefore clear to occultism why the contrast between religion and science, expressed as it is in the many different movements is so great and the cleft between them so wide. The conflict between religion and science, under which art also suffers, is always in evidence when the level of culture declines. This can be detected in the science of today, which has become irrevocably entangled in a materialistic and abstract mode of thinking.
The group soul draws it in again like a limb. On Old Moon the human soul underwent the same process. The human soul was then a member of its group soul and returned to it. The soul, as the Bible puts it, is sheltered in the bosom of Father Abraham.
In the sixth cultural epoch, human beings will already understand better how to arrange their lives; concepts of race will no longer have validity. Men will no longer order their lives according to external, physical considerations but rather on a spiritual basis.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: The Principle of Spiritual Economy in Connection with Questions of Reincarnation 21 Jan 1909, Heidelberg
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

Much of what will be mentioned here seems to be remote, and yet even though we will first have to go back to far-distant periods of human evolution, all these things have an enlightening effect on our understanding of life and its phenomena. We must start by putting before our souls how the process of reincarnation takes place in general.
We have seen not only that the egos are capable of reincarnation, but that the lower members of the human constitution in a certain sense undergo a similar process. The result of this is that the whole configuration of the process of reincarnation is much more complicated than is usually supposed.
Rudolf Steiner had refined his spiritual faculties to such a degree that he was able to read the “Akasha Chronicle.” To understand his work, it is necessary to assume that he did possess this capacity. For a thorough description of the nature of the Akasha Chronicle, see Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory, pp. 38–41.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: Christianity in Human Evolution, Leading Individualities and Avatar Beings 15 Feb 1909, Berlin
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

Hence, what in the beginning could be presented as elementary truths is undergoing a metamorphosis, so that gradually we rise to ever higher truths. It is therefore correct to present general cosmic truths in their initial stage in as simple and elementary a form as possible.
By contrast, these beings only give; they take nothing from the earth. To gain a perfect understanding of this idea, you have to distinguish between such a lofty avatar being as the Christ and lower avatar beings.
We study his life and cannot, as modern people, understand what his conscious ego was; yet we cannot help having the most profound reverence for the richness and range of his feelings and for all that he did.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: More Intimate Aspects of Reincarnation 07 Mar 1909, Munich
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

Thus by processes we will gradually learn to understand, the astral body of Zarathustra was preserved and was transmitted to one disciple when he was born again as Hermes.
Unlike ordinary human beings, this higher being did not undergo various incarnations, but descended only once into a human body. Such a being is called an avatar.
Only human beings who prepare themselves gradually for a full understanding of the Christ and who understand through their knowledge of the spiritual worlds what the Christ really is, as He surfaces time and again in ever changing forms during the course of human evolution—only those human beings will also gradually gain the maturity necessary to experience Christ in themselves.
111. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: Results of Spiritual Scientific Investigations of the Evolution of Humanity II 31 Mar 1909, Rome
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

What happened at Golgotha as a germinal event has undergone a slow and gradual development. This mystery built the bridge from the past to the future because the soul life of humanity underwent a profound metamorphosis.
Not to do this would make it impossible to gain a thorough understanding of these personalities. As we know, all nations or peoples in the past had the so-called mystery centers.
To gain knowledge in ancient times, everything had to be learned and understood in the Mysteries, but things are different in more modern times, as the lives of St. Augustine and Thomas of Aquinas prove.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: On the Occasion of the Dedication of the Francis of Assisi Branch 06 Apr 1909, Malsch
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

Just as the despised human beings characterized above gathered around the Great Initiate and after generations made the existence of Christ on earth possible, so the anthroposophical movement must facilitate a comprehensive understanding of Christ. Christ descended to earth in the fourth major era, and those who wish to understand Him completely will be able to do so from the anthroposophical vantage point.
It is necessary that humanity understand the Christ-Impulse and that we can say who the Christ was. Such an understanding is now only in the beginning stages, but in direct proportion to its increasing spiritual insights, mankind will gradually understand how the Christ-Impulse has penetrated this worldly edifice.
We are born into a life in which we can unite with Christ.” Likewise, sickness is not suffering if one understands Christ. People will have to learn to understand through the Christ-Impulse what, from a spiritual point of view, creates health.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: The Macrocosmic and Microcosmic Fire. The Spiritualization of Breath and Blood 10 Apr 1909, Cologne
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

The Buddha had one great disciple, Kashyapa, who was able to understand his teachings, whereas his other disciples were more or less incapable of grasping the comprehensive wisdom taught by Buddha.
The first emblem is the burning bramblebush of Moses, and the second is the fire appearing under lightning and thunder at Sinai from which Moses received the pronouncement of the “I am the I am.”36 Who is that spiritual being in the two apparitions announcing himself to Moses? Anyone who understands the Christian message in a spiritual sense will also understand the words that announce to Moses the Being in the burning bramblebush, and later in the fire on Mt.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: The Event of Golgotha. The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. The Spiritualized Fire 11 Apr 1909, Cologne
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

Only through this process will human beings learn to understand in what respect Christ Jesus is the great model of humanity, and only then will they begin to understand that the certainty and the truth of the life everlasting emanates from the corpse on the wooden cross at Golgotha. Those Christians of the future who are inspired and imbued by the Christ-Ego will also understand something that was formerly known to no one but the illuminates. Not only will they understand the Christ who has gone through death, but they will also understand the triumphant Christ of the Apocalypse, whose coming was previously prophesied and who arose from the dead into the spiritual fire.
Similarly, mankind will understand the primeval wisdom of the world by looking back at it in the light of Christ and through the Event of Golgotha.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: Ancient Revelations and Learning: How to Ask Modern Questions 16 May 1909, Oslo
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

Rosicrucianism prepared something positive, and since anthroposophy is meant to become life, the souls that absorb and truly accept it will gradually undergo a metamorphosis. To accept anthroposophy within yourself means to change the soul in such a way that it is able to come to a true understanding of the Christ.
Today mankind is called upon to accept into itself something new, something divine, and thereby to undertake again the ascent into the spiritual world. The Spiritual Scientific teaching of evolution is being imparted not because people are supposed to put their blind faith into it, but because mankind is supposed to reach an understanding of it through its own powers of judgment.
This attitude causes him to be expelled from the Grail's Castle, and only after he has undergone a second, Christian phase of education does he know how to express his charity by asking the appropriate question of the ailing king.
109. The Principle of Spiritual Economy: The God of the Alpha and the God of the Omega 25 May 1909, Berlin
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

From now on, it could say to itself: “In the underworld, too, I can find the light of Christ—that which has immersed itself into the earth, for the Christ has become the spirit of the earth.
And six hundred years before Christ, Zarathustra was born again in the land of Chaldaea and became the teacher of Pythagoras under the name Zarathos, or Nazarathos. Within the Chaldaean culture he then prepared the new impulse that was to come into the world.
These words are spoken by the soul of Achilles after Ulysses had conjured it up from the Underworld.

Results 701 through 710 of 6551

˂ 1 ... 69 70 71 72 73 ... 656 ˃