II
ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY
The first
words of the Gospel of St. John touch, in fact, upon the
deepest mysteries of the world. This can be seen when we
allow the truths of Spiritual Science which lie at their very
foundation to pass before our souls. And we must dip deeply
into spiritual knowledge, if these first words of this Gospel
are to appear to us in the right light. We must recall to
memory much that is well known to those of you who for a long
time have been occupying yourselves with the Anthroposophical
world conception. But today we shall need to expand certain
elementary truths of this conception by penetrating further
into various significant cosmic mysteries. We need but
briefly call to mind how the human being appears to us
between the time of waking in the morning and the evening,
when he again sinks into sleep. We know that he is composed
of a physical body, an ether or life body, an astral body,
and an ego. These four members of the human being, however,
are in close relationship only during the waking state. It is
quite necessary that we remember that during the night, while
sleeping, the human creature is, in reality, entirely
different from the same creature during the day, during
waking day consciousness, for then his four members are
assembled in a very different manner. When he sleeps, the
physical and ether bodies lie in bed. The astral body and
ego, in a certain sense, are loosened from their connections
with the physical and ether bodies and are in fact outside of
them — we must understand the word outside in a
spiritual, not in a purely spatial sense. Therefore during
the night the human being is a creature consisting of two
parts, one that remains lying in bed and another part which
separates from the physical and ether bodies. Now we must
first of all clearly understand that if, during the night,
from the moment of going to sleep to the moment of waking
again in the morning, the physical and ether bodies lying in
bed were completely abandoned by what fills them throughout
the day — that is, the astral body and ego — they
could not then exist at all by themselves.
Here at this
point we must enter a little more deeply into the cosmic
mysteries. When we have the human physical body here before
us, we should clearly understand that behind what we can see
with the eyes and touch with our hands there is a long
evolutionary process. It has passed through this process of
evolution in the course of the entire development of our
earthly planet. To those of you who have concerned yourselves
a little with this subject, it is already well known that our
earth has passed through previous states of existence and
just as the human being has gone from one incarnation to
another or, in other words, has passed through repeated earth
lives, so too has the earth passed through other life-states
before it reached the condition in which we find it today.
There are previous incarnations of a planet just as there are
previous incarnations of a human being. Everything in the
great world and in the small world is subject to the law of
repeated incarnations, and before the earth finally became
this earth of ours it had passed through a condition of being
which we call the “Ancient
[Note 1]
Moon,” so called because the present
moon contains a portion of that ancient planet. So when we
speak of the “Ancient Moon,” we do not at all
mean the present moon, but a planet similar to the present
earth in its earliest stages. Nov, just as there is a period
between one incarnation and a new birth in the case of human
beings, so also is there a period between the incarnation of
this planet of ours which we call the Earth, and that one we
designate as the Ancient Moon, and the same is true of that
life-condition which we call the “Sun.” A state
which we call the “Sun” preceded the Moon-state
of our planet and again this Sun-state was preceded by a
“Saturn” life-condition. Thus we can look back on
three earlier incarnations of our planet but not as it is
today.
Our physical
human body received its very first rudiments upon the ancient
Saturn. Upon that ancient planet the very first germ of a
physical body was at that time created, but, of course, one
very different from the human body of the present. Besides
the physical body, nothing that is a part of the human being
of today was present on ancient Saturn. Only when Saturn was
transformed into the Sun, that is to say, during the second
incarnation of our Earth-planet, was the ether body added to
the physical body, penetrating and impregnating it. And what
was the result? The physical human body underwent a
transformation, acquired another form and attained a very
different state of existence. During the Sun incarnation of
our Earth, the physical body stood at a second stage of its
development. But how did it reach this second stage? By
becoming an inwardly living body on the Sun, while on Saturn
it was still machine-like and automatic. The ether body,
which had slipped in, transformed the physical body. Then on
the Moon, the astral body slipped into this union of physical
and ether bodies. Thus the physical body was again
transformed a third time and the ether body a second time. At
last upon the Earth, the ego was added to the physical, ether
and astral bodies and having now entered into this threefold
union, the ego transformed this physical body again, so that
at last it became the complicated structure which it is
today. Therefore, what you have before you now as the human
physical body is a many times transformed entity, and just
because it has passed through four stages of evolution it has
its present complicated appearance.
If we say,
when speaking of our present physical body, that it is
composed of the same physical and chemical substances and
forces to be found in the minerals out in the cosmos, it
must, nevertheless, be quite clear to us that there is an
enormous difference between this physical human body and the
mineral. Speaking in very elementary terms, we emphasize the
difference between the physical human body and the physical
body of a mineral — for example, of a rock crystal
— when we say that the rock crystal retains its form
unless shattered from without. The human physical body, on
the contrary, cannot of itself retain its form. It has its
form only because and as long as there are within it an ether
body, an astral body, and an ego. The moment the ether body,
the astral body, and the ego are separated from it, it
becomes something quite different from what it is between
birth and death; it follows the laws of the physical and
chemical substances and forces and decays, while on the other
hand the physical body of the mineral remains unchanged.
Something
similar is the case with the ether body. Immediately after
death the ether and astral bodies and the ego separate from
the physical body; then after a time the ether body also
leaves this union of astral body and ego and resolves itself
into the cosmic ether, just as the physical body
disintegrates and goes back into the earth kingdom. There
remains behind only that extract of the ether body of which
we have often spoken. This remains united with the human
being. Therefore we may say that the physical human body is
in a certain sense of the same nature as the mineral kingdom
about us, nevertheless, we must keep in mind the great
difference which exists between the mineral kingdom and the
physical human body.
One might say:
— Indeed, but you have just stated that on Saturn our
physical body was not yet permeated by an ether body, an
astral body and an ego, for they were only added on the Sun,
Moon and Earth. Therefore at that time, in fact — one
might say — the physical body had the character of a
mineral. That is true, but we have mentioned three
metamorphoses of this physical body that one after the other
have succeeded that early life-state of the Saturn period.
Even the present mineral, which you have before you as a dead
mineral, cannot possibly exist with only a physical body. Let
us make it very clear that what has been said and must be
repeated is true, that as far as the physical world is
concerned, the mineral has only a physical body. Here in the
physical world the mineral has only a physical body —
however, that is not literally true. Just as the
physical human body, standing before us, has within it its
etheric and astral bodies and its ego which belong to it, so
too has the mineral not only a physical body, but also an
ether and an astral body, and an ego, however, these higher
members of its being are to be found only in higher realms.
The mineral has an ether body, but it is to be found in the
so-called astral world; it has also an astral body, but it is
in the so-called devachanic or heaven-world, and it has an
ego, but this exists in a still higher spiritual world. Thus
the physical human body differs from the physical body of a
mineral in having here in this physical world, in a waking
state, its ether and astral bodies and ego within it, while
the mineral has not. We know that besides our world there are
still other worlds. The world which we ordinarily perceive
with our physical senses is permeated by the astral world and
this again by the devachanic world which consists of an
inferior and a superior region.
In comparison
with the mineral, the human being is an especially favored
creature, because during waking-consciousness he has his
other three members within him. The mineral does not contain
these members within itself, so we must think of it as not
existing wholly upon the physical plane. Think of a human
finger-nail. You will concede that nowhere outside in Nature
can you find this finger-nail existing as an independent
entity, for if it is to grow, it presupposes the rest of the
human organism — it cannot exist without this. Now
imagine a tiny creature with eyes that can see only your
finger-nail, but has no capacity to see the rest of your
organism. Such a tiny creature would look out into the rest
of space, but would see nothing besides your finger-nail.
Thus the minerals on the physical plane are like the
finger-nail and you only perceive them in their entirety when
you rise into higher realms. There they have their ether and
astral bodies and egos and here only their physical member.
All this we must hold firmly in mind in order that it may be
quite clear that in a higher reality there can be no entity
that does not possess some kind of ether and astral body and
ego. A purely physical being can have no existence; to exist
at all it must have an ether and an astral body, and an
ego.
However, in
all that has been said today there is in fact a certain
contradiction. We have stated that the human being, in the
night while asleep, is entirely different from the creature
we see during the day when he is awake. By day he is quite
comprehensible to us; we have him there before us as a
four-fold being. But now let us approach him in sleep and
observe his physical nature. Here we have the physical body
and the ether body lying in bed — the astral body and
ego outside. Thus arises the contradictory condition of
having before us a being deserted by its astral body and ego.
The stone does not sleep. Its ether and astral bodies and ego
do not penetrate it, but remain constantly in the same
relationship with it. With the human being, on the contrary,
the astral body and ego depart each night and he does not
concern himself about his physical and ether bodies, but
leaves them to themselves. This fact is not always fully
considered. Every night the human being, in his truly
spiritual part, takes leave of his physical and ether bodies
which he himself deserts. However, these bodies would not be
able to exist by themselves, because no physical body, and
for that matter no ether body, can exist by itself. Even the
stone must be permeated by its higher members. Therefore you
can easily comprehend that it is wholly impossible for your
physical body and ether body to remain in bed at night
without an astral body and ego. What occurs then during the
night? Your own astral body and ego are indeed not within the
physical and ether bodies, but present in their place there
is another ego and another astral body. At this point,
occultism calls your attention to a divine-spiritual
existence and to higher spiritual powers. During the night,
while your own ego and astral body are outside your physical
and ether bodies, the astral body and ego of higher,
divine-spiritual powers are actually active within them. And
the reason for this is the following:
When we
consider the whole of human evolution from the Saturn stage
through the Sun and Moon periods as far as the Earth, we
might indeed say that upon Saturn only the physical human
body existed, that there was no human ether body, no human
astral body and no human ego within this physical body. But
this physical body, at that time, could have no more existed
by itself than the stone today can exist by itself. The
physical body of that time could only exist because it was
permeated by the ether and astral bodies and the ego of
divine-spiritual beings which dwelt within it, and they still
dwell there today. Then on the Sun, when our own ether body
entered into this physical body, the smaller human ether body
amalgamated, as it were, with the earlier ether body of
divine-spiritual powers. Even upon Saturn the physical body
was permeated by divine-spiritual beings.
If we have now
understood this properly, we come to a deeper comprehension
of the present human being and we are in a position to repeat
and to understand better what has been taught in Esoteric
Christianity from the beginning. This Esoteric Christianity
has always been fostered alongside the outer Christian
exoteric teaching. I have often pointed out that Paul, the
great apostle of Christianity, used his powerful, fiery gift
of eloquence to teach Christianity to the people, but that at
the same time he founded an esoteric school, the director of
which was Dionysius, the Areopagite, mentioned in the Acts of
the Apostles. In this Christian Esoteric School at Athens
which was directly founded by Paul himself, the purest
Spiritual Science was taught. And now, having brought
together the necessary material in the above observations, we
shall be able to place before our souls what was taught
there.
This school
also taught that when we observe the human being standing
before us in his waking state, we find him composed of
physical body, ether body, astral body, and ego. It is of
little importance that the names used were not exactly the
same as those used today. Even at that time the stage of
evolution at which humanity now stands was already
predicated. This human being, consisting of these four
members, has not always been as he now appears to us. If we
wish to observe him composed of these four members only, then
we must not observe him as he is today, but we must retrace
our evolutionary steps back to the Lemurian period. It was at
that time that the ego became united with the human being
composed of physical, ether, and astral bodies. Thus one
might truly say that then, in the real sense of the word, the
human being consisted of physical, ether, and astral bodies,
and ego.
But since that
time every human being has passed through many incarnations.
What then is the significance of this evolution by means of
incarnations? It is that from incarnation to incarnation the
ego works upon and transforms the three members of its being.
It begins by first transforming its astral body. In the
average man of today the astral body is not just as it was in
the first earthly incarnation before the ego had worked upon
it. In the first incarnation upon the earth the ego, working
from within outwardly, transformed certain thoughts,
feelings, and passions which originally had been given to
men, and from incarnation to incarnation these were changed
more and more through the activity of the ego. Thus it may be
said that the human being has today not only the four
members, physical, ether, and astral bodies, and ego, but
through the activity of the ego within the astral body, he
has now a member which is the actual creation of the ego
itself. In each human being of today, the astral body is
two-fold; it has one part that has been transformed by the
ego, and another part not so transformed. This will continue
and a time will come for every human being when his entire
astral body will become a creation of his ego. It is the
custom in oriental wisdom to call that part of the astral
body, which has already been transformed by the ego, by the
name of Manas; in English, Spirit-Self. Although the human
being is still composed of his four members, we can now
distinguish five parts: physical, ether, and astral bodies,
and ego; and as fifth member, the transformed part of the
astral body, Manas or Spirit-Self. Thus we may say that in
every human being the astral body contains within it Manas or
Spirit-Self, the work of the ego, the product of the activity
of the ego.
The human
being will continue to work upon himself. The Earth will pass
through further incarnations and humanity will acquire by
degrees the capacity — which today can be acquired by the
initiate — of working also upon the ether body. It is
true the average man today is already working upon his ether
body and that part of it which is transformed into a product
of the ego is called Budhi or Life-Spirit. He will finally
reach the point where, by means of his ego, he will transform
his physical body also. That part of the physical body which
is transformed by the ego is called Atman or Spirit-Man.
Let us allow
our glance to sweep to the far distant future after the Earth
has passed through other planetary forms, other incarnations,
after — as occultism describes it — it has gone
through the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan states of existence.
The human being will then stand upon a very much higher
level, and will have transformed his entire astral body into
Manas or Spirit-Self, his entire ether body into Budhi or
Life-Spirit and his whole physical body into Atman or
Spirit-Man.
Compare this
human being as he will appear to us at the end of our earthly
course with the same human creature as he appeared at its
beginning. In the beginning there was only the physical body,
and it was permeated by an ether and an astral body and an
ego, but these belonged to divine higher beings who only
dwelt within it. At the end of the Earth's evolutionary
course, the human being will be entirely permeated by his
ego. And this ego itself dwells within the astral body, when
as Manas or Spirit-Self it permeates this astral body. The
ego then permeates the ether body, which becomes impregnated
by Budhi or Life-Spirit and the physical body becomes
entirely transfused by Atman or Spirit-Man, also the product
of the ego. What a tremendous difference between the creature
at the beginning of this evolution and the same human being
as he will be at the end of it! But by bringing this great
difference clearly before our minds, what I purposely called
a contradiction — the sleep state — then becomes
comprehensible to us. The very form of the explanation in
Esoteric Christianity makes it entirely intelligible to us.
What then is this physical body that we shall have before us
when the earth has reached the goal of its evolution? Will it
be the present physical body? Not in any sense will it be the
present physical body, but what the ego shall have made of
it. This physical body, as well as the ether and astral
bodies, will be wholly spirit-filled. But they were
spirit-filled even before the human being transformed them
into spirit through the activity of his ego. Even the stone,
as we have said, is today permeated by the ether and astral
bodies, and ego belonging to it, although they exist in
higher spiritual realms.
Thus we see
that Esoteric Christianity has good reason for stating that
the human being cannot yet master what he today possesses as
physical body, because he has not yet reached the end of his
evolution when his ego will have worked down even into the
physical body. He also cannot yet master the ether body. He
will only be able to master that when the Earth has reached
the Venus state. Thus he cannot yet master physical and ether
bodies through his ego. Only when he has developed Budhi and
Atman will he be able to do this. But a physical and ether
body of this kind must be controlled in a spiritual way. What
the human being himself will some day be able to give to the
physical and ether bodies must already be present within
them. Those spiritual parts which the ego will at some time
give to the ether and physical bodies must be there even now.
They were already within the physical body in the beginning
when the human creature was in the Saturn Evolution; they
were in him when he was on the Sun, and they have continued
to remain within him ever since. Thus Esoteric Christianity
speaks truly when it says: When the human being has reached
the summit of his evolution, what is now already within the
human physical body, the divine Atman, a divine spiritual
being, will then become a part of it. Budhi also is already
within the ether body, but it is the divine Life-Spirit. The
human astral body consists, as we have said, of two parts,
one of which has been mastered by the human being and another
which has not. What, then, is present there within that part
which he cannot yet control? It is the Spirit-Self, but a
divine Spirit-Self. The real spiritual life of mankind is
only present in that part of the astral body in which the ego
has already been active since the first incarnation. Thus we
have the human being before us.
Let us now
look at him in his waking state. What shall we say? The
physical body as it appears to us is only the exterior.
Within, he is what may be called an atmic being. Interiorly,
he is composed of and permeated by higher divine-spiritual
beings. The same is true of the ether body. Exteriorly, it is
what holds the physical body together; interiorly it is the
divine Life-Spirit. And the astral body also is permeated by
a divine being, the Spirit-Self. But out of this whole
combination, the transformed portion of the astral body alone
has been mastered by the ego.
Let us now
observe the human being while he sleeps. Here this
contradiction disappears at once. We approach him when he is
in this state and observe that, as astral body and ego, he is
outside the physical body. He calmly abandons it and the
ether body every night. Were he to leave the physical body
without its being cared for by a divine-spiritual being, he
would find it again, but in a shattered condition. A
divine-spiritual physical and a divine-spiritual ether are
present within the physical and ether bodies and they remain
there while these bodies are lying in bed, with the astral
body and ego outside. The physical body and ether body are
permeated by beings of an atmic and budhic nature.
Now, look back
to the beginning of our earthly evolution when nothing in the
human being had yet been mastered by the ego. Before his
first incarnation the ego was not yet united with the three
other members, the physical, ether, and astral bodies. These
last came over from the Moon, but the ego did not enter them
until the Earth period. On the other hand, a divine Ego was
present within them. They would not have been able to exist
had not this divine Ego completely permeated them. The astral
body was permeated by a divine Spirit-Self, the ether body by
a divine Life-Spirit and the physical body by a divine Atman
or Spirit-Man.
Let us look
back still further to the Moon, Sun, and Saturn evolutions.
Upon Saturn, the divine Life-Spirit — which still in the
night dwells within the human being lying in bed — had
the power to form the human body, as a matter of fact the
physical body, into something like a mineral. During the Sun
stage, this Life-Spirit transformed the physical body into
something of the nature of a plant and on the Moon it was
able to form this body into something that experiences
pleasure and pain, but which could not yet say
“I” to itself. The physical body passed through
these lowest stages.
Now, let us
proceed to the real Earth incarnation. Here, by experiencing
a further transformation, the physical human body became
still more perfected than previously. What had it previously
been unable to do? What was yet quite foreign to it? What had
the divine Spirit kept within itself? What had it not yet
entrusted to the human body? It was the power to express in
sound the inner life of the soul. On the Moon, this human
body, then at the animal stage, was mute. The capacity to
permit the soul-life to express itself outwardly in sounds
was still with the Divine. It was not yet entrusted to the
body's own being. Although there are also animal creatures
today able to utter cries, such sounds are, however,
something very different from the human vocal sounds. These
animals still exist under quite different conditions from the
human creature, — they make sounds, it is true, but it is
the Divine within them sounding forth. The power to express
the inner feelings of the soul in words was only bestowed
upon men here upon the Earth. Before this, they were mute;
thus this capacity for speech came with life upon the
earth.
Let us
consider now for a moment as a whole what we have today
brought before our souls. The power of speech, namely the
Word, was originally with the Divine, and the whole of
evolution was so directed that the Godhead first created, as
pre-requisite, a physical apparatus which only later acquired
the power to allow this Word to sound forth out of itself.
Everything was thus guided and directed. Like the flower
within its seed, the tone-uttering human being, endowed with
the Word or Logos, existed already in germ upon Saturn. Sound
was concealed within this germ and developed out of it just
as the whole plant grows out of the seed in which it has been
hidden.
Let us look
back upon the physical human body as it existed upon Saturn
and ask ourselves: — Whence came this physical human
body? What was its primal source? What did it need to carry
it through the whole of evolution? — It came from the
Logos or the Word. For even as early as the Saturn period
this physical human body was directed in such a way that it
later became capable of speech, became a witness of the
Logos. That you are formed as you are today, that this human
body has its present shape, rests upon the fact that the
“Word” lies at the very foundation of the whole
plan of our creation. The whole human body has been
constructed upon the Word and from the very beginning it was
so endowed that at last the Word was able to spring forth
from it. When, therefore, the esoteric Christian, looking at
this physical human body, asked: What is its original
prototype and what is its image? the answer was: This
physical human body has its origin in the Word or Logos. This
Word or Logos was active from the beginning within the
physical human body — and it is still active there
today when the physical body lies in bed deserted by the ego.
During that time, the divine Logos is active within the
members thus forsaken by the human soul. If we ask: What was
the very first beginning of the physical body? then the
answer is: — The Logos or the Word.
We shall now
follow evolution still further. Saturn passed over into the
Sun Period; and then to the human physical body, the life or
ether body was added. But what must have entered in order
that such a step forward could be made? While on Saturn, the
physical body was a kind of machine, a sort of automaton,
wholly permeated and maintained, however, by the Logos; on
the Sun, the life body was added within which the divine
Life-Spirit was active. During the Saturn Period, the human
body was an expression of the Logos; then Saturn disappeared,
and this human body was reborn upon the Sun. To the physical
body was added the life body, permeated by the Life-Spirit.
The Logos became Life upon the Sun, while advancing the human
creature to a higher stage. The Logos became Life upon the
Sun!
Let us now
continue further. Upon the Moon, the astral body was added to
this human creature. What is the astral body? It appears to
the clairvoyant consciousness, even today, like an aura
surrounding the human being. It is a body of light, only it
cannot be seen in the present state of consciousness. But
when seen with clairvoyant vision, it appears as Light,
spiritual Light. Our physical light is only transformed
spiritual Light and the physical sunlight is the embodiment
of the divine-spiritual auric, cosmic Light which is its
source. In the present world there is a light streaming down
upon us from the sun. But there is yet another light which
streams forth out of our own inner radiance. Upon the Moon,
the human astral body still shone for the beings in its
environment. Thus upon the Moon, the human astral body was
united with the physical and ether bodies.
Let us now
observe the progress of evolution as a whole. Upon Saturn, we
have the physical body as the expression of the Logos; upon
the Sun, the ether body is added as an expression of the
Life-Spirit. The Logos becomes Life. Upon the Moon, the
light-body is added: Life becomes Light! Here we have the
story of the evolution of the human body. When the human
being began life upon the Earth, he was a creation of the
divine-spiritual powers. At that time he existed because
within his physical, ether, and astral bodies the Logos was
living, the Logos which was Life and which became Light. What
now occurred upon the Earth? In the human being and for the
human being the ego now entered, and because of this, he was
now able not only to live in Light and in Life, but also
became capable of observing everything externally, capable of
confronting the Logos, Life, and Light. Therefore everything
became material to him and he acquired a physical material
existence.
Now that we
have developed our train of thought thus far, we have
approximately reached the point where we shall begin our next
lecture, when we shall show how the human creature, born out
of the Godhead, has developed into the present ego-being. For
we see that prior to this present ego-being, there existed a
divine pre-human creature. All that part which has been
mastered by the ego is each night torn away from the physical
and ether bodies, but the part which from the beginning has
always been there within him remains and watches over these
bodies when unconcerned, the soul faithlessly deserts them.
This original divine-spiritual being remains firmly
implanted there.
All that we
have been trying to present in the language of Esoteric
Christianity, deep mysteries of existence familiar to those
who were “servants of the Logos in the earliest
times,” all this is presented unequivocally in sublime,
clear-cut verses in the Gospel of St. John. One must,
however, translate these first words in the right way, in
conformity with their meaning. Properly translated, these
words give the actual facts which have just been presented.
Let us bring these facts again before our souls, in order
that we may fully comprehend their value.
In the
beginning was the Logos which was the archetype of the
physical human body, the foundation of all things. All
animals, plants and minerals appeared later, for the human
creature alone was present upon Saturn. In the Sun Period,
the animal kingdom was added, in the Moon Period, the plant
kingdom and upon the Earth the mineral kingdom appeared. Upon
the Sun, the Logos became Life and upon the Moon, it became
Light; then when the human creature became endowed with an
ego, the Logos as Light confronted him. But he had to learn
to know the nature of the Logos and learn in what form It
eventually would make its appearance. First there was the
Logos which became Life, then Light, and this Light lives in
the astral body. Into the human inner being, into the
darkness, into the ignorance, the Light shone. And the
meaning of life upon Earth is this: — That men should
overcome this darkness of the soul, in order that they may
recognize the Light of the Logos.
The first
words of the Gospel of St. John are incisive, although,
perhaps, very difficult to understand, as many may say. But
should the most profound mysteries of the world be expressed
in trivial language? Is it not a strange point of view, a
real insult to what is Holy when one says, for example, that
in order to understand a watch one must penetrate deeply into
the nature of the thing with the understanding, but for a
comprehension of the Divine in the world, the simple, plain,
naive human intelligence should suffice? It is a very bad
thing for present humanity that it has reached the point of
saying, when reference is made to the profoundness of
religious documents: 0! why all these complicated
explanations? It should all be plain and simple. However,
only those who have the good intention and good will to
plunge down into the great cosmic facts can penetrate into
the deep meaning of such words as those at the very beginning
of the most profound of the gospels, this Gospel of St. John,
words that are in fact a paraphrase of Spiritual Science.
Let us now
translate the introductory words of this Gospel:
In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was a God (or divine). This was in the beginning with
God. Through the same all things were made and save through
this Word, nothing was made. In It was Life, and Life
became the Light of men. And the Light shone into the
darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.
How the
darkness, little by little, comes to an understanding of the
Light is recounted later on in the Gospels.
Notes:
Note 1.
The words Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and
Vulcan when spelt with an initial capital refer to the
great cosmic evolutionary periods called
“man-bearing periods.” The words earth, moon,
and sun, spelt with small letters refer to the planets of
our present solar system. Ed.
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