III
IN ACCORDANCE
with what has been said in the preceding chapters, the spiritual guidance
of the course of human evolution may be sought for amongst those
beings who went through their stage of humanity during the previous
embodiment of the Earth-planet, during the ancient Moon
period. This guidance stood contrasted with another which
checked, and yet in a certain sense furthered it, and which was
carried out by those beings who had not completed their own evolution
during the Moon-period. Reference is made in both these
cases to those guiding beings immediately above man; to those who
lead humanity forward, and to those who provoke resistance, thereby
strengthening and confirming the forces arising through the
progressive beings, by bestowing on them balance and individuality.
In Christian Esotericism, these two classes of superhuman beings are
called Angels (Angeloi). Above these beings in ascending order, stand
those of the higher hierarchies, the Archangels, the Archai, and so
forth, who likewise take part in the guidance of humanity.
Within
the ranks of these different beings there are all possible gradations
in regard to perfection. At the beginning of the present
Earth-evolution, some in the category of the Angels stand
high, while others are less developed. The former have progressed far
beyond the minimum of their Moon-development. Between these
and those who had just reached this minimum when the Moon-evolution
had come to an end, and the Earth-evolution had begun,
are all possible gradations. Conformably with this gradation of rank,
the beings in question entered during the Earth-period upon
the leadership of human evolution. Thus the evolution of the Egyptian
civilization was effected under the guidance of beings who had become
more perfected on the Moon than those who were the leaders of
the Graeco-Roman period, and these again were more perfect than those
who have the leadership at the present time. In the Egyptian as also
in the Greek Period, those who later on assumed the direction, were
meanwhile developing, and making themselves ready to guide the
civilization of later periods.
Since
the time of the great Atlantean catastrophe, seven consecutive epochs
of civilization have to be differentiated; the first is the ancient
Indian epoch, and it is followed by the ancient Persian.
[By “ancient Persian” is not meant
“Persian” in the usual historic sense, but a
pre-historic Asiatic (Iranian) civilization which developed in
that land over which, later on, the Persian Kingdom extended.]
The third is the Egypto-Chaldæic,
the fourth is the Graeco-Roman, and the fifth is our own, which,
since about the twelfth century, has been gradually developing and in
which we are still living. And since the separate periods overlap, we
see already in our times those early events preparing which will lead
over into the sixth post-Atlantean epoch. And a seventh epoch will
succeed the sixth in due course. On closer observation we find the
following evidence with regard to the guidance of mankind. It was
during the third epoch of civilization, the Egypto-Chaldæic,
that the Angels (or lower dhyanic beings according to Oriental
mysticism) were to some extent independent leaders of humanity. They
were not so during the ancient Persian civilization. For then they
were subject to a higher direction in a much greater degree than in
the Egyptian times, and had to regulate everything in conformity with
the impulses of the hierarchies immediately above them. In this way
everything was under the immediate guidance of the Angels, who
themselves submitted to the rulership of the Archangels. And in the
Indian epoch when post-Atlantean life had reached such a height in
spiritual matters as has never been attained since — a natural
height under the direction of great human teachers — the
Archangels themselves were subject in a similar sense to the guidance
of the Archai or Primal Powers. Thus if we trace the evolution of
humanity from the Indian epoch through the ancient Persian and
Egypto-Chaldæic civilizations, we may say that certain beings
of the higher hierarchies withdrew ever more and more from the direct
guidance of humanity. In the fourth post-Atlantean period, the
Graeco-Roman, man bad become quite independent. The guiding
superhuman beings were certainly intervening to develop humanity, but
only in such a way that the reins were tightened as little as
possible, and also that the spiritual leaders themselves might profit
as much through the deeds of men as men profited through them. Hence
arose that peculiar and quite “human” civilization in the
Graeco-Roman time in which man was made to rely entirely on himself.
For all the distinctive characteristics of art and political life in
Greek and Roman times are traceable to the fact that man had to live
out his own life in his own way.
So,
when we look back to the most ancient times of civilization, we find
evolution guided by beings who, in earlier planetary conditions, had
accomplished their development as far as the human stage. But the
fourth post-Atlantean period of civilization was intended as a time
when man should be put to the test as much as possible. Consequently
the whole spiritual guidance of humanity had to be reorganized. We
are now living in the fifth post-Atlantean period of civilization.
The leading beings of this period belong to the same hierarchy as
that which ruled the ancient Egyptians and Chaldæans. In fact
those beings who then took the lead, have again begun to be active in
our times. As has been stated certain of these beings remained behind
during the Egypto-Chaldæic civilization, and are to be found
manifest in the materialistic feelings and perceptions of our own
period.
Now
the progress made by the two classes of Angels or lower dhyanic
beings — the class which leads mankind forward and that which
obstructs — consisted in their being able to be leaders among
the Egyptians and Chaldæans. They achieved this by means of
those qualities which they had acquired in primordial times, and
which they had further developed by their work as leaders. The
progressive angels are intervening to guide the fifth post-Atlantean
civilization by means of capacities which they themselves had won
during the third or Egypto-Chaldæic civilization. Through the
progress they make they are acquiring for themselves quite special
capabilities, for they are qualifying themselves to receive the
influx of forces emanating from the most important Being in the whole
evolution of the Earth.The power of the Christ is working
in them; for that power
works not only on the physical world through Jesus of Nazareth, but
also in the spiritual worlds upon the super-human beings. The Christ
exists not only for the earth but also for these beings. The beings
who guided the old Egypto-Chaldæic civilization were not under
the direction of the Christ. It is only since that period that they
have placed themselves under His guidance. Their progress consists in
their following Him in the higher worlds, so that they may guide our
fifth post-Atlantean period of civilization in accordance with His
influence. Those beings who operate as obstructive powers remain
behind because they failed to put themselves under the leadership of
the Christ. Thus they continue to work independently of Him. More and
more in human evolution will become evident a materialistic movement
under the guidance of these backward Egypto-Chaldæic spirits.
This movement will have a materialistic character and the greater
part of contemporary science is under its influence. There are, for
example, people today who say that our earth in its final essence
consists of atoms. Who instills this thought into men's minds?
It is the super-human angel beings who had remained behind during the
Egypto-Chaldæic period. But, side by side with this movement,
there is another making itself felt, the one which has as its
goal the eventual finding of the Christ-principle by man in all that
he does.
Now
what will those beings teach who attained their goal in the old
Egypto-Chaldæic sphere of civilization, and who then learned to
know the Christ? They will be able to instill into man other thoughts
than those that assert that there are only material atoms; they will
be able to teach that, even to the minutest particle of the
world, the substance is permeated with the Spirit of the Christ. And,
strange as it may seem, there will be in the future chemists and
physicists who will not teach chemistry and physics as they are now
taught under the influence of the backward Egypto-Chaldæic
spirits; but who will teach that ‘matter is built up in the way
in which the Christ gradually ordained it,’ The Christ will be
found working even in the very laws of chemistry and physics. It is a
spiritual chemistry and spiritual physics that will come in the
future. Today such a statement may appear to many people as fanciful
or worse. But often the sense of the future seems folly to the past.
The factors which enter into the evolution of human civilization are
there for the careful observer. But be will know quite well the
objections which may, with apparent justice, be urged against such
alleged folly from the modern scientific or philosophic point of
view.
From
such hypotheses we are able to understand the advantage the guiding
super-human beings have over man. Humanity learned to know Christ in
the fourth civilization period of the post-Atlantean times, the.
Graeco-Roman epoch, for it was in the course of this civilization
that the Christ-event found its place in evolution, and it was then
that man learned to know the Christ. The guiding super-human beings,
however, learned to know Him during the Egypto-Chaldæic times,
and worked themselves up to Him. Then during the Graeco-Roman
civilization they had to leave man to his own fate in order that,
later on, they might re-enter the sphere of human evolution. And if
nowadays anthroposophy is cultivated, this constitutes recognition of
the fact that the super-human beings who formerly guided humanity are
now continuing their task as leaders in such a way as to be
themselves under the direct guidance of the Christ. Thus it is with
other beings also.
In
the ancient Persian epoch, the leadership of humanity was apportioned
to the Archangels. They put themselves under the direction of the
Christ earlier than did the beings in the rank next below them. Of
Zarathustra it can be said that pointing to the sun, he spoke to his
followers and his people in some such words as these: “In the
sun there lives the great Spirit Ahura Mazdao, who will one day come
down to the earth.” For the beings out of the region of the
Archangels who guided Zarathustra, pointed to the great sun-leader
who had not at that time come down upon the earth but had only begun
his journey thither in order, later on, to enter directly into the
earth evolution. And the guiding beings who directed the great
teachers of the Indians, also pointed out to these the Christ of the
future; for it is a mistake to think that these teachers had no
foreknowledge of the Christ. They said that He was “beyond
their sphere” and that they “could not attain” unto
Him.
As
now in our fifth period of civilization, it is the Angels who bring
down the Christ into our spiritual evolution, so the sixth period of
civilization will be directed by beings belonging to the ranks of the
Archangels who guided the ancient Persian civilization. And the
spirits of Personality — the Primal Powers — or Archai
— who guided humanity during the ancient Indian epoch will have
to guide humanity in the seventh period of civilization. In the
Graeco-Roman period the Christ descended from the heights of the
spirit-world and revealed Himself in the physical body of Jesus of
Nazareth. He then came down as far as the physical world. It will be
possible to find Him in the world immediately above ours when
humanity shall have become sufficiently ripe. It will not be possible
in the future to find Him in the physical world, but only in the
world immediately above, for human beings will not always remain the
same. Having become more mature, they will then find the Christ in
the spiritual world, as Paul found Him in his experience before
Damascus, which event prophetically foreshadowed the future means of
finding the Christ. And since in our times the same great teachers
who have already guided mankind through the Egyptian civilization are
working, so also in the twentieth century it will be these same
teachers who will lead men out to behold the Christ as Paul beheld
Him. They will show mankind how the Christ not only works upon the
earth, but how He spiritualizes the whole solar system. And those who
will be the reincarnated holy teachers of India in the seventh period
of civilization will proclaim the Spirit Who was foreshadowed by the
undivided Brahma. To such teaching, however, the right content and
meaning can only be given through the Christ, as the great, the
immense Spirit, of Whom these teachers formerly said He hovered above
their sphere. Thus will humanity be led upwards from stage to stage
into the spiritual world.
To
speak in this way about the Christ — how He is the leader of
the higher hierarchies also in the successive worlds, is to teach the
science which, under the sign of the Rose Cross, has endured in our
civilization since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. If from this
aspect we observe more closely the Being Who lived in Palestine, and
Who consummated the Mystery of Golgotha, we shall find the following:
up to the present time many ideas concerning the Christ have found
expression. There was for instance the idea of certain Christian
Gnostics in the first centuries who said that the Christ Who lived in
Palestine was not present in any physical body of flesh at all; that
He had only an apparent body — an etheric body which had become
physically visible; so that His death on the Cross had been no real
death but only an apparent one. Then we find diverse disputes among
those who professed Christianity, as for example, the well-known
controversy between the Arians and Athanasians, and the most varied
explanations concerning what the Christ really was. Indeed, right up
to our own times people express and have expressed the most
different ideas concerning the Christ.
Now spiritual science must
recognize in Christ not merely an earthly but also a cosmic Being.
In a certain sense man is, taken as a whole, a cosmic being. He lives
a twofold life — one in a physical body from birth to death,
another in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth. When
he is incarnated in a physical body, he is living in dependence on
the earth, because the physical body is restricted by the forces and
conditions of existence belonging to the earth. The human being,
however, does not only take the substances and forces of the earth
into himself, but is joined to the whole of the earth's
organism. When he has passed through the gate of death, he no longer
belongs to the forces of the earth; but it would be incorrect to
imagine that he belongs to no forces at all, for he is then connected
with the forces of the solar system and the more distant
star-systems. In this way, between death and a new birth, he lives in
the domain of the cosmic, just as in the period between birth and
death he lived in the domain of the earthly. From death to a new
birth he belongs to the cosmos, as on the earth he belongs to the
elements — Air, Water, and Earth. Accordingly, while he is
passing through a life between death and a new birth, he comes into
the region of cosmic influences. For the planets send forth not
merely the physical forces of what astronomy teaches, such as
gravitation and others, but also spiritual forces. With these
spiritual powers of the cosmos man is connected, each person in a
special manner according to his own individuality. If he is born in
Europe, he lives in a different relation to warmth conditions, and so
forth, than if he had been born, let us say, in Australia.
Similarly, during his life between death and a new birth, one person
may stand more closely related to the spiritual powers of Mars,
another to those of Jupiter, others again to those of the whole
planetary system in general, and so on. It is also these forces which
bring man back again to the earth. Thus before he is born he is
living in connection with the collective whole of stellar space.
According
to the way in which a man stands individually related to the cosmic
system, so are the forces directed which lead him to this or that set
of parents and to this or that locality. The impetus, the inclination
to incarnate here or there, in this or that family, in this or that
people, at this or that time, depends on how the person was
organically connected with the cosmos before birth. In former times,
in that territory where the German tongue was spoken, a specially apt
expression was used to indicate a person's entrance into the
world through birth. When a person was born, people said that in such
and such a place he had “become young” (junggeworden).
Therein lies an unconscious reference to the fact that man in the
time between death and a new birth continues at first to be subject
to the powers which had made him old in a previous incarnation, but
that before birth there come iii their place such forces as again
make him “young.” Thus Goethe in “Faust”
still uses the expression “to become young in Nebelland.”
— Nebelland being the old name for mediæval Germany.
The
truth underlying the casting of a horoscope is that those who know
these things can read the forces which determine a person's
physical existence. A certain horoscope is allotted to a person
because, within it, those forces find expression which have led him
into being. If for example in the horoscope Mars stands over Aries
(the Ram), this signifies that certain of the Aries forces are not
allowed to pass through Mars, and are weakened. Thus is a man put
into his place within physical existence, and it is in accordance
with his horoscope that he guides himself before entering upon
earthly existence. This subject, which in our times seems so much a
thing of chance, should not be touched upon without our attention
being called to the fact that nearly everything practised in this
connection today is simply dilettantism. It is pure superstition, and
for the external world the true science of these matters has been for
the most part completely lost. Consequently, the principles expressed
here are not to be judged according to that which nowadays frequently
leads a questionable existence under the name Astrology.
Now
it is the active forces of the stellar world that impel a man into
physical incarnation; and when clairvoyant consciousness observes a
person, it can perceive in his organization how this has resulted
from the cooperation of cosmic forces. We may now attempt to
illustrate this hypothetically, but in a form corresponding entirely
with clairvoyant observation. If a person's physical brain were
extracted and its construction clairvoyantly examined, so that it
might be seen how certain parts are situated in certain places and
how they send out appendages, it would be found that each
individual's brain is different from that of every other. No
two people have brains alike. Let us imagine further that such a
brain could be photographed in its complete structure so that one
would have a kind of half sphere in which every detail was visible.
In a series of such pictures each would be different according to the
brains of the different individuals. And if one were to photograph a
person's brain at the moment of birth and then photograph also
the heavens lying exactly over the person's birthplace, this
latter picture would be of exactly the same appearance as that of the
human brain. As certain centers were arranged in the latter, so would
the stars be in the photograph of the heavens. Man has within himself
a picture of the heavens, and every man has a different one,
according to whether he was born in this place or that, and at this
or that time. This is one indication that man is born from out of the
whole cosmos.
When
we keep this clearly in view we can rise to the idea of how the
macrocosm manifests itself in each separate individual, and then,
starting from this point, we can attain a conception of how it showed
itself in the Christ. But if we were to imagine the Christ after the
Baptism of John as though the macrocosm had then been living in Him
in the same way as in other people, we should be mistaken.
Let
us first consider Jesus of Nazareth. His conditions of existence were
quite exceptional. At the beginning of our era two boys were born and
named Jesus. The one came through the Nathan line of the house of David,
[Luke III, 23–38.]
the other through the Solomon line of the same house.
[Matthew 1, 1–17. See also Appendix.]
These two children were not born quite at the same time, but
nearly so. In the Jesus descended from Solomon, described in the
Gospel of St. Matthew, there was incarnated the same individuality
who had formerly lived on the earth as Zarathustra, so that in this
Child Jesus there appears the re-incarnated Zarathustra or Zoroaster.
The individuality of Zarathustra grew up in this Child until, as St.
Matthew says, His twelfth year. In that year, Zarathustra left
the body of this Child and passed over into that of the other Child
Jesus Whom the Gospel of St. Luke describes. In consequence of this
the latter Child became suddenly quite different. The parents were
astonished when they found Him in Jerusalem in the temple after the
spirit of Zarathustra had entered into Him. This is intimated when it
is said that the Child, after having been lost and found again in the
temple, so spake that his parents did not recognize Him. They only
knew Him, the Child descended from Nathan, as He had been up to this
time. But when He began to reason with the doctors in the temple, it
was possible for Him to speak as He did because the spirit of
Zarathustra had come into Him. Until the thirtieth year did the
spirit of Zarathustra live in the Jesus who was descended from the
Nathan line of the house of David. In this body He ripened to a still
higher perfection. The following remark must here be added: as
regards this personality in which the spirit of Zarathustra now
lived, an extraordinary feature was that into his astral body the
Buddha rayed forth his impulses from the spiritual worlds.
The
oriental tradition is correct which says that the Buddha was born as
a “Bodhisattva” and only during his time on earth, in his
twenty-ninth year, rose to the dignity of a Buddha. When the Gautama
Buddha was a little child, the Indian sage Asita came weeping into
the royal palace of his father, Suddhodana. He wept because, as a
seer, he knew that this King's son would become the Buddha, and
because as an old man, he felt that he would no longer be living to
see that event take place. Now this sage was born again in the time
of Jesus of Nazareth. It is he who is brought before us in the Gospel
of St. Luke as the priest of the temple who saw the revelation of the
Buddha in the Child Jesus descended from Nathan. And seeing this he
was able to say: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in
peace for I have seen my Master,” What he had not been able to
see previously in India, he saw through the astral body of the Boy
Jesus, Who comes before us in St. Luke's Gospel: the
Bodhisattva become Buddha.
All
this was necessary in order that that body might be produced which
received the baptism of St. John in the Jordan. At that moment the
individuality of Zarathustra left the threefold body, the physical,
the etheric and the astral body of that Jesus Who had grown up in so
complicated a manner, in order that the spirit of Zarathustra might
be able to dwell in Him. The reincarnated Zarathustra had to pass
through two possibilities of development which were given in the two
Jesus children. Thus there stood before the Baptist the body of Jesus
of Nazareth and in it from that time onwards there acted the cosmic
individuality of the Christ. Now, as we have shown, in the case of
any other human being, the cosmic spiritual laws work upon him only
in so far as they give him a start in earth-life. Afterwards there
appear in opposition to these laws, others which arise out of the
conditions of the earth-evolution. In the case of the Christ-Jesus,
after the baptism of John the cosmic-spiritual forces alone remained
effective without being influenced in any way through the laws of the
earth evolution.
Thus
in Palestine during the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked on earth
as Christ-Jesus — during the three last years of his life, from
his thirtieth to his thirty-third year, the entire Being of the
cosmic Christ was acting uninterruptedly upon Him, and was working
into Him. The Christ stood always under the influence of the entire
cosmos — He made no step without this working of the cosmic
forces into and in Him. That which here took place in Jesus of
Nazareth was a continual realization of the horoscope, for at every
moment there occurred that which otherwise happens only at a person's
birth. This could be so only because the whole body of Jesus
descended from Nathan had remained open to the influence of the sum
total of the forces of the cosmic spiritual hierarchies which direct
our earth. If thus the whole spirit of the cosmos worked into the
Christ Jesus, who was it that went, for example, to Capernaum? He who
went about as a being upon the earth appeared quite like any other
man. The forces active within Him, however, were the cosmic forces,
coming from the sun and stars; and these directed His Body. And it
was always in accordance with the collective Being of the whole
Universe with whom the earth is in harmony, that all which the Christ
Jesus did took place. It is because of this that in the case of the
acts of the Christ-Jesus there is so often some slight hint given in
the Gospels about the relative grouping of the stars at the time. We
read in St. John's Gospel how the Christ finds His first
disciples. There we are told: “It was about the tenth hour,”
because in this fact the spirit of the whole cosmos found expression
in conformity with the appointed moment of time. Such intimations are
less clear in the other Gospel passages, but he who can truly read
the Gospels finds them everywhere. From this point of view also the
miracles are to be judged. Let us take one passage — the one
that runs thus: “When the sun was set, they brought the sick
unto Him, and He healed them.” What does that mean? The
evangelist is drawing attention to the fact that this healing was
connected with the whole position of the constellations and that, at
the time in question, the constellations throughout the heavens stood
as they only could have when the sun had set. The meaning is that, at
the time, the requisite healing forces could make themselves felt
after sun-set, and the Christ Jesus is represented as the
intermediary Who brought the sick into connection with the
forces of the cosmos which, just at that time, could work curatively.
These forces were the same as those which worked as Christ
in Jesus. It was through the presence
of Christ that the healing took place. Only thus could the
sick person be exposed to the healing forces of the cosmos which
could only work as they did when they were in the right relationship
to time and space. Thus these forces worked on the sick person
through their representative, the Christ. But it was only just during
the time of Christ on earth that they could so work. It was only then
that such a connection existed between the cosmic constellations and
the powers of the human organism that for certain illnesses, healing
could intervene when through the instrumentality of the Christ Jesus
the cosmic grouping of the same forces was able to work on men. A
repetition of this relationship in the evolution of the cosmos and
the earth is as little possible as is a second incarnation of the
Christ in a human body. Regarded in this way, the life of the Christ
Jesus appears as the earthly expression of a definite connection
between the cosmos and the forces of man. The tarrying of a sick
person by the side of Christ means that through the proximity of
Christ this sick person found himself in such a relation with the
macrocosm that the latter could work upon him curatively.
* * *
Herewith
the points of view have been stressed which enable us to discern how
the guidance of humanity has come under the influence of the Christ.
The other forces, however, which had remained behind in the
Egypto-Chaldæic times worked on side by side with those that
are permeated by the Christ. This is evident even in the attitude
frequently adopted today towards the Gospels. Literary works appear
in which great pains are taken to show that the Gospels can be
understood through an astrological interpretation. The greatest
opponents of the Gospels employ this astrological interpretation to
prove, for example, that the way taken by the Archangel Gabriel from
Elizabeth to Mary signifies merely the progress of the sun from the
constellation of Virgo to another. This, in a certain sense, is
correct, except that these thoughts were poured in this manner into
our age by the beings who had remained behind during the
Egypto-Chaldæic period. Under such an influence people are
induced to a make-belief that the Gospels present only allegories in
the place of definite cosmic relations. The truth really is that in
the Christ the whole cosmos finds expression. Therefore one can
express the life of the Christ by connecting its separate events with
the cosmic relations which work into earth existence unceasingly
through the Christ. A right understanding of this matter will
thus lead to a full recognition of the Christ as having lived on
earth. Whereas if the interpretation were true that the Christ life
as expressed in the Gospels is only a matter of constellations being
treated allegorically, then we should have to conclude that there was
no real earthly Christ at all.
If a
comparison were to be used, we might think of each human being as
represented by a spherical mirror — which, if it were set up,
would give pictures of all its surroundings. Let us suppose we were
to trace with a pencil the outline of all that is shown from the
surroundings. We could then take the mirror and carry the picture
about with us wherever we went. Let this be a symbol for the fact
that when a person is born, he brings with him a copy of the cosmos
in himself, and afterwards carries about with him all through his
life the effect of this one picture. The mirror might, however, be
left untouched by the pencil, so that wherever the person carried it,
it would depict the immediate surroundings. It then would always be
giving a picture of the collective environment. This would be a
symbol of the Christ from the baptism of St. John up to the Mystery
of Golgotha. That which, in the case of any other person, passes into
his earthly existence only at birth, flowed into the Christ-Jesus at
every moment. And when the Mystery of Golgotha was consummated, that
which had been radiating from the cosmos passed over into the
spiritual substance of the earth, and has from that time forward been
united with the spirit of the earth.
When
St. Paul became clairvoyant before Damascus, he could recognize that
That Which had formerly been in the cosmos has passed over into the
spirit of the earth. Of this every one can be convinced who can bring
his soul into such a condition that he can have the same experience
as had St. Paul. It is in the twentieth century that those people
will first appear who will have St. Paul's experience of the
Christ event in a spiritual way.
Whereas
up to our times this event could be experienced only by such persons
as had gained clairvoyant powers by means of an esoteric training;
hereafter to look upon the Christ in the spiritual sphere surrounding
the earth will be possible for the advanced powers of the soul in the
course of the natural evolution of humanity. This — as a
repetition of the experience of the event before Damascus —
will be possible for some people from a certain point of time in the
twentieth century. The number of such people will afterwards
increase, until in the distant future, it will be a natural faculty
of the human soul.
* * *
With
the entrance of Christ into the evolution of the earth an entirely
new impulse or direction was given to this evolution. External facts
of history also express this. In the early times of post-Atlantean
evolution men knew very well that above them there was not merely a
physical Mars, but that what they saw as Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn was
the expression of a spiritual being. In later times this perception
was completely forgotten. The heavenly bodies became, according to
human ideas, mere bodies to be estimated according to their physical
condition. In the Middle Ages people saw in connection with the stars
what only the eyes can see — the sphere of Venus, the sphere of
the Sun, the sphere of Mars and the other planets, up to the sphere
of the fixed stars. Then came the eighth sphere like a solid blue
wall behind. Later Copernicus appeared and broke down the idea that
only that which is perceptible to the senses can be authoritative.
The modern physical scientists may indeed say: “It is madness
to declare that the world is Maya, or illusion, and that you must
look into a spiritual world in order to see the truth, for in spite
of all you say true science is that which relies on the senses and
records what these senses tell.” But when did astronomers rely
only on the senses? Surely at the very time when that
astronomical science was dominant which is attacked by the science of
today! It was at that time when Copernicus began to think out what
exists in the cosmic space beyond the evidence of the senses, that
our modern astronomy as a science began. And so it is in every domain
of science. Wherever science, in the most modern sense of the word,
has arisen, it has done so in opposition to what had been apparent to
the senses. When Copernicus declared “what you see is Maya or
deception; rely on what you cannot see” — that was the
moment when the science came into being which is recognized as such
today. It might thus be said to the representative of modern science
“your science itself only became ‘science’ when it
was no longer willing to depend upon the senses only.”
Giordano
Bruno came as philosophical interpreter of the teachings of
Copernicus. He led the gaze of man out into cosmic space, and
announced that what people had called the limitations of space, what
they had placed there as the eighth sphere limiting everything in
space — was in reality no limitation;
it was Maya, or illusion; for an infinite
number of worlds had been poured forth into cosmic space. That which
was formerly considered to be the boundary of space was shown to be
only the boundary of the sense-world of man, and if we direct our
gaze beyond the sense-world, we shall no longer see the world only as
known to the senses, but we shall also recognize Infinity.
From
this it is apparent that in the course of human evolution man
originally started from a spiritual view of the cosmos and in time
lost it. In its place there came a mere sense-perception of the
world. Then there came into evolution the Christ Impulse. Through
this, mankind was led to stamp the spiritual view once more upon the
materialistic. At that moment when Giordano Bruno burst the fetters
of sense illusion, the Christ evolution was so far advanced that the
soul power which bad been kindled by the Christ Impulse could then
become active within him. An indication is thus given of the whole
significance of the manner in which the life of Christ penetrates all
human evolution, at the mere beginning of which humanity stands
today.
To
what then does spiritual science now aspire? It completes the work
begun for external science by Giordano Bruno and others in that it
says: that which external science is able to perceive is Maya, or
illusion. Just as formerly one looked to the “eighth sphere”
and thought that space was thereby bounded, so contemporary human
thought believes that man is shut in or enclosed between birth and
death. Spiritual science, however, expands man's vision by
directing his attention out and beyond the limits of birth and death.
There
is a continuous chain in human evolution which such ideas as these
make us recognize. And in the true sense of the words, that which
resulted in the conquest of sense illusion through Copernicus and
Giordano Bruno proceeded from the inspiration arising from that
spiritual current now working in the modern spiritual science of
anthroposophy. What one might call the newer esotericism worked in a
mysterious manner on Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler and others. Those
therefore who now base their thought on foundations laid by Giordano
Bruno and Copernicus and do riot wish to accept anthroposophy, are
unfaithful to their own traditions in desiring to hold fast to sense
illusion. As Giordano Bruno forced a way through the blue firmament
of heaven, even so does spiritual science break down the barriers of
birth and death for man by showing how he originates from out of the
macrocosm, lives in a physical existence, passes through death, and
reenters macrocosmic life. And what we see in a limited degree in
each individual meets us unrestrictedly and in a larger sense in the
representative of the spirit of the cosmos — in the
Christ-Jesus. Once and once only could that impulse be given which
the Christ gave. Once only could the whole cosmos be thus reflected,
for the conjunction of the stars which then took place can never be
repeated. In order to give an impulse to the earth, this conjunction
was obliged to work through a human body. As it is true that this
same grouping cannot occur a second time, so it is equally true that
the Christ was only once incarnated. Only if one did not know that
the Christ is the representative of the whole universe and only if it
were impossible to win one's way to this Christ-Idea, the
elements for which are given through spiritual science — only
then would it be possible to maintain that Christ could appear more
than once upon the earth.
Thus
we see how an idea of Christ arises out of the new spiritual science,
which reveals to man in a new form his connection with the whole
macrocosm. Certainly, in order to gain a true knowledge of the
Christ, those inspiring forces are absolutely necessary which are now
being bestowed by the same super-human beings who formerly guided the
Egypto-Chaldæic epoch and who have now put themselves under the
Christ. There is need of a new inspiration of this kind, of an
inspiration which the great esoteric teachers of the middle ages had
prepared from the thirteenth century onwards, and which from this
time forth must ever come more and more into publicity. When man,
according to the meaning of this science, prepares his soul aright
for the knowledge of the spirit-world, he can then hear
clairaudiently and he can see clairvoyantly what is revealed by the
old Chaldæic and Egyptian angel beings who are now again acting
as spiritual leaders under the guidance of the Christ. That which
humanity will some time later actually gain thereby, could only be
prepared in the first centuries of Christianity and up to our times.
Consequently
we may say that in the future there will live in the hearts of men an
idea of the Christ incomparable in greatness with anything which
humanity has so far recognized. That which arose as a first impulse
through the Christ, and has lived as an idea of Him up to the present
time — even in the case of the best representatives of the
Christ-principle — is only a preparation for the true
understanding of the Christ. It would be strange indeed if, against
those who in the West gave expression in such a way as this to the
Christ-idea, it were brought as a reproach that they do not stand on
the foundation of western Christian tradition. But it is quite
possible, for this western tradition does not by any means suffice to
help us to comprehend the Christ of the near future.
From
the hypothesis of western esotericism we can see the spiritual
direction of humanity gradually flowing into what may be in a real,
true sense called the guidance which comes from the Christ-impulse.
That which is appearing as the new esotericism will flow slowly into
the hearts of men, and the spiritual guidance of men and of humanity
will ever more and more be consciously seen in such a light. We
realize within ourselves how at first the Christ-principle flowed
into the hearts of men because the Christ had gone about Palestine in
the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. Because men by that time were
gradually surrendering themselves to reliance on the world of sense,
they could receive the impulse which corresponded to their
perception. Afterwards that same impulse so worked through the
inspiration of the new esotericism that such spirits as Nicholas of
Cusa, Copernicus, and Galileo were inspired, and Copernicus, for
instance, was enabled to make this assertion: “That which is
evident to the senses cannot teach the truth about solar systems; if
we want to find the truth we must investigate behind sense
appearances” At that time men, even spirits like Giordano
Bruno, were not yet ripe enough to join consciously to the new
esoteric stream. The spirit of the movement had to work in them
unconsciously. Yet powerful and magnificent was the announcement of
Giordano Bruno: “When a human being enters into
existence by means of birth, then it is something macrocosmic that
concentrates itself as a monad; and when a human being passes through
death the monad spreads itself out again; that which was enclosed
within the body spreads itself out in the cosmos in order to draw
itself together again in other stages of existence, and again to
spread itself out.” There Bruno gave expression to mighty
conceptions which, even if expressed in stammering tongue, were in
entire accord with the sense of the new esotericism.
The
spiritual influences which lead humanity need not work in such a way
that man is always conscious of them. For example, they put Galileo
in the cathedral of Pisa. Thousands had seen the old church lamp
there, but they had not seen it as did Galileo. He saw the church
lamp swinging; compared the time of its oscillation with the beat of
his own pulse; found that the church lamp swung in a regular rhythm
resembling his pulse-beat; and from this discovered the laws of the
pendulum in the sense of modern physics. Anyone acquainted with
contemporary physics knows that this science would not be possible
without Galileo's principle. In this way the force was then
working which is now appearing as spiritual science; Galileo was
placed in the cathedral of Pisa before the oscillating church lamp,
and modern physics gained its principles. In such a mysterious way do
the guiding spiritual forces of humanity perform their work.
We
are now approaching the time when people are to become conscious of
these guiding powers. We shall always come to a better and better
understanding of what has to happen in the future if we rightly
understand what is working inspirationally as the new esotericism. We
must recognize that those same spiritual beings indicated as their
gods by the ancient Egyptians when the Greeks asked them about their
teachers, are now again assuming control through having placed
themselves under the leadership of the Christ Ever more and more will
men feel how they can cause to reappear in a brighter lustre, in a
nobler style and on a higher level, that which was pre-Christian. The
consciousness necessary for the present time, which must be an
intensified consciousness, ought to give us a feeling of our high
duty and great responsibility in reference to the recognition of the
spiritual world. This can only penetrate our souls when we have
recognized, in the sense indicated, the task of spiritual science.
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