IV
THE RAISING OF LAZARUS
From the three
foregoing lectures, it should have become somewhat clear that
in the Gospel of St. John the truths of Spiritual Science can
be found again. However, it must be very clear that in order
to discover these truths, it will be necessary to weigh every
word thoroughly. In fact the important thing in a
consideration of this religious document is that the true,
exact meaning be perfectly understood, for as we shall see in
particular instances everything in it has the deepest
possible significance. Moreover, not only the wording of
special passages is of importance, but something else must be
considered and this is the division, the composition, the
structure of the document. As a matter of fact, people no
longer have the right feeling for such things. Authors of the
past — if I may so designate them — introduced
into their works much more of an architectural structure,
much more of an inner arrangement than is usually imagined.
You need only to recall from among them a relatively modern
poet, Dante, to find this confirmed. Here we see that the
Divine Comedy is architecturally composed of parts based upon
the number three. And it is not without meaning that each
division of Dante's Comedia closes with the word
“Stars.” This I mention only to suggest how
architecturally ancient writers constructed their works, and
especially in the great religious documents we should never
lose sight of this architectural form, because in certain
cases the form signifies a very great deal. To be sure, we
must first discover this meaning.
Here at the
end of the 10th Chapter of this Gospel of St. John we should
recall the following verse, which we should keep clearly in
mind. In the first verse we read: —
And many
came to him and said:
John
performed no miracles, but all that he said of this man is
true.
This means
that we find in this verse of the 10th Chapter, an indication
that the testimony given of Christ Jesus by John is true. He
expresses the truth of this testimony in very special
language. Then we come to the end of the Gospel and there we
find a corresponding verse. Here we read in the 24th verse of
the 21st Chapter: —
This is the
disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these
things: and we know that his testimony is true!
Here at the
end of the entire Gospel, we have a statement that the
testimony of the one who reported these things is a true one.
The coincidence that something very special is being said,
here and there, by means of some particular word, is never
without significance in ancient writings and just behind this
coincidence is concealed something very important. We shall
proceed with our considerations in the right manner if we
direct our attention to the reason for this.
In the middle
of the Gospel of St. John a fact is presented which, if not
understood, would render this Gospel incomprehensible.
Directly following the passage in which these words are
introduced as confirmation of the truth of the testimony of
John the Baptist stands the chapter concerning the raising of
Lazarus. With this chapter the whole Gospel falls into two
parts. At the end of the first part it is pointed out that
the testimony of John the Baptist should be accepted for
everything that is maintained and affirmed concerning Christ
Jesus and at the very end of the Gospel it is pointed out
that all that follows the chapter on the raising of Lazarus
should be accepted on the testimony of the Disciple whom we
have often heard designated as “the Disciple whom the
Lord loved.” What then is the real meaning of the
“raising of Lazarus?”
Let me remind
you that following the narration of the raising of Lazarus
there stands an apparently enigmatical passage. Let us
picture the whole situation: — Christ Jesus performs
what is usually called a miracle — in the Gospel itself
it is called a “sign” — namely, the raising
of Lazarus. And subsequently we find many passages which
attest that “this man performs many signs,” and
all that follows indicates that the accusers did not wish to
have intercourse with Him because of these signs. If you read
these words, whatever their translation (this has already
been referred to in my book Christianity as Mystical Fact),
you would need to ask: — What is really at the bottom
of it all? The raising of some one provoked the enemies of
Christ Jesus to rise up against Him. Why should just the
raising of Lazarus so provoke these opponents? Why does the
persecution of Christ Jesus begin just at this stage? One who
knows how to read this Gospel will understand that a mystery
lies hidden within this chapter. The mystery concealed
therein is, in truth, concerned with the actual identity of
the man who says all that we find written there. In order to
understand this, we must turn our attention to what in the
ancient Mysteries is called “initiation.” How did
these initiations in the ancient Mysteries take place?
A man who was
initiated could himself have experiences and personal
knowledge of the spiritual worlds and thus he could bear
witness of them. Those who were found sufficiently developed
for initiation were led into the Mysteries. Everywhere
— in Greece, among the Chaldeans, among the Egyptians
and the Indians — these Mysteries existed. There the
neophytes were instructed for a long time in approximately
the same things which we now learn in Spiritual Science. Then
when they were sufficiently instructed, there followed that
part of the training which opened up to them the way to a
perception of the spiritual world. However, in ancient times
this could only be brought about by putting the neophyte into
a very extraordinary condition in respect of his four
principles — his physical, ether and astral bodies and
his ego. The next thing that occurred to the neophyte was
that he was put into a death-like sleep by the initiator or
hierophant who understood the matter and there he remained
for three and a half days. Why this occurred can be seen if
we consider that in the present cycle of evolution, when the
human being sleeps in the ordinary sense of the word, his
physical and ether bodies lie in bed and his astral body and
ego are withdrawn. In that condition he cannot observe any of
the spiritual events taking place about him, because his
astral body has not yet developed the spiritual sense-organs
for a perception of the world in which he then finds himself.
Only when his astral body and ego have slipped back into his
physical and ether bodies, and he once more makes use of his
eyes and ears, does he again perceive the physical world,
that is, he perceives a world about him. Through what he had
learned, the neophyte was capable of developing spiritual
organs of perception in his astral body and when he was
sufficiently evolved for the astral body to have formed these
organs, then all that the astral body had received into
itself had to be impressed upon the ether body just as the
design on a seal is impressed upon the sealing-wax. This is
the important thing. All preparations for initiation depended
upon the surrender of the man himself to the inner processes
which reorganized his astral body.
The human
being at one time did not have eyes and ears in his physical
body as he has today, but undeveloped organs instead —
just as animals who have never been exposed to the light have
no eyes. The light forms the eye, sound fashions the ear.
What the neophyte practiced through meditation and
concentration and what he experienced inwardly through them,
acted like light upon the eye and sound upon the ear. In this
way the astral body was transformed and organs of perception
for seeing in the astral or higher world were evolved. But
these organs are not yet firmly enough fixed in the ether
body. They will become so when what has been formed in the
astral body will have been stamped upon the ether body.
However, as long as the ether body remains bound to the
physical, it is not possible for all that has been
accomplished by means of spiritual exercises to be really
impressed upon it. Before this can happen, the ether body
must be drawn out of the physical. Therefore when the ether
body was drawn out of the physical body during the three and
a half days deathlike sleep, all that had been prepared in
the astral body was stamped upon the ether body. The neophyte
then experienced the spiritual world. Then when he was called
back into the physical body by the Priest-Initiator, he bore
witness through his own experience of what takes place in the
spiritual worlds. This procedure has now become unnecessary
through the appearance of Christ-Jesus. This three and a half
day death-like sleep can now be replaced by the force
proceeding from the Christ. For we shall soon see that in the
Gospel of St. John strong forces are present which render it
possible for the present astral body, even though the ether
body is still within the physical, to have the power to stamp
upon the etheric what had previously been prepared within it.
But for this to take place, Christ-Jesus must first be
present. Up to this time without the above characterized
procedure, humanity was not far enough advanced for the
astral body to be able to imprint upon the ether body what
had been prepared within it through meditation and
concentration. This was a process which often took place
within the Mysteries; a neophyte was brought into a
death-like sleep by the Priest-Initiator and was guided
through the higher worlds. He was then again called back into
his physical body by the Priest-Initiator and thus became a
witness of the spiritual world through his own
experience.
This took
place always in the greatest secrecy and the outer world knew
nothing of the occurrences within these ancient Mysteries.
Through Christ-Jesus a new initiation had to arise to replace
the old, an initiation produced by means of forces of which
we have yet to speak. The old form of initiation must end,
but a transition had to be made from the old to the new age
and to make this transition, someone had once more to be
initiated in the old way, but initiated into Christian
Esotericism. This only Christ-Jesus Himself could perform
and the neophyte was the one who is called Lazarus.
“This sickness is not unto death,” means here
that it is the three and a half day death-like sleep. This is
clearly indicated.
You will see
that the presentation is of a very veiled character, but for
one who is able to decipher a presentation of this kind it
represents initiation. The individuality Lazarus had to be
initiated in such a way that he could be a witness of the
spiritual worlds. An expression is used, a very significant
expression in the language of the Mysteries, “that the
Lord loved Lazarus.” What does “to love”
mean in the language of the Mysteries? It expresses the
relationship of the pupil to the teacher. “He whom the
Lord loved” is the most intimate, the most deeply
initiated pupil. The Lord Himself had initiated Lazarus and
as an initiate Lazarus arose from the grave, which means from
his place of initiation. This same expression “Whom the
Lord loved” is always used later in connection with
John, or perhaps we should say in connection with the writer
of the Gospel of St. John, for the name “John” is
not used. He is the “Beloved Disciple” to whom
the Gospel refers. He is the risen Lazarus himself and the
writer of the Gospel wished to say: — “What I
have to offer, I say by virtue of the initiation which has
been conferred upon me by the Lord Himself.” Therefore
the writer of the Gospel distinguishes between what occurred
before and what occurred after the raising
of Lazarus. Before the raising, an initiate of the old order
is quoted, one who has attained a knowledge of the Spirit,
one whose testimony is repeatedly announced to be true.
“However, what is to be said concerning the most
profound of matters, concerning the Mystery of Golgotha, I
myself say, I the Risen One; but only after I have been
raised, can I speak concerning it!” And so we have in
the first part of the Gospel, the testimony of the
old John — in the second half, the testimony
of the new John whom the Lord Himself had initiated,
for this is the risen Lazarus. Only thus do we grasp the real
meaning of this chapter. These words are written there
because John wished to say: I call upon the testimony of my
super-sensible organs, my spiritual powers of perception. What
I have related I have not seen in the ordinary physical
world, but in the spiritual world in which I have dwelt by
virtue of the initiation which the Lord has conferred upon
me.
Thus we must
attribute the characterization of Christ-Jesus, which we find
in the first chapters of the Gospel of St. John as far as the
end of the loth Chapter, to the knowledge which might be
possessed by any one who had not yet, in the deepest sense of
the word, been initiated through Christ-Jesus Himself.
Now, you will
say: “Yes, but we have already in these lectures
listened to profound words about Christ-Jesus as the
incarnated Logos, the Light of the World, etc.” It is
no longer surprising that these profound words concerning
Christ-Jesus were spoken even in the very first Chapters, for
in the ancient Mysteries, Christ-Jesus, who was to appear in
the world at a future time, in other words, the Christ, was
not perhaps an unknown being. And all the Mysteries point to
One who was to come. For this reason the ancient initiates
were called “prophets” because they prophesied
concerning something that was to take place. Thus the purpose
of initiation was to let it be clearly understood that in the
future of mankind the Christ would be revealed, and in what
he had already learned at that time, the Baptist found the
truth which made it possible to state that He, who had been
spoken of in the Mysteries, stood before him in the person of
Christ-Jesus.
How all this
is connected and what the relationship was between the
so-called Baptist and Christ-Jesus will become clearer to us
if we answer two questions. One of these questions is the
following: — What was the position of the Baptist in
his own age? The other leads back to the explanation of
various passages at the beginning of the Gospel.
What was the
position of the Baptist in his own age? Who, in fact, was the
Baptist? He was one of those who — like others in their
initiation — had received indications of the coming
Christ, but he was represented as the only one to whom the
true mystery concerning Christ-Jesus had been revealed,
namely, that He who had appeared was the Christ Himself.
Those who were called Pharisees or were designated by other
names saw in Christ-Jesus some one who in fact opposed their
old principles of initiation, one who in their eyes did
things to which they in their conservatism could not accede.
Just because of their conservatism they said: — We must
adhere to the old principles of initiation. And this
inconsistency of constantly speaking about the future Christ,
yet never admitting that the moment had arrived when He was
really present, was the reason for their conservatism.
Therefore when Christ-Jesus initiated Lazarus, they looked
upon it as a violation of the ancient Mystery-traditions.
“This man performs many signs! We can have no
intercourse with him!” According to their
understanding, He had betrayed the Mysteries, had made public
what should be confined within their secret depths. Now we
can see how to them this was like a betrayal and seemed to be
a valid reason for rising up against Him. From that time,
because of this, a change takes place; the persecution of
Christ-Jesus begins.
How did the
Baptist represent himself in the first chapters of this
Gospel? In the first place, as one who was well acquainted
with the Mystery-truths of the Christ Who was to come; as one
who knew very well that the writer of the Gospel of St. John
himself could repeat all that he, the Baptist, already knew,
having become convinced of its truth through what we are now
about to learn.
We have heard
what the very first words of the Gospel mean. We shall now
consider for a moment what is said there about the Baptist
himself. Let us present it once more in the best possible
translation. Thus far we have only heard the very first
words:
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the
Word was a God.
The same was
in the beginning with God.
All things
came into being through It and save through It was not
anything made that was made.
In It was Life
and Life was the Light of men.
And the Light
shone into the darkness but the darkness comprehended it
not.
There was a
man; he was sent from God, bearing the name John. The same
came as a witness in order to bear witness of the Light that
through him all might believe.
He was not
the Light but was a witness of the Light.
For the true
Light which lighteth every man should come into the
world.
It was in
the world and the world came into being through It, but the
world knew It not.
It entered
into individual men (that is, the ego-men); but individual
men (the ego-men) received it not.
But they who
received it could reveal themselves as Children of God.
They who
trusted in His name were not born of the blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man — but of
God.
And the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us and we have heard His
teaching, the teaching of the once born Son of the Father
filled with Devotion and Truth.
John bare
witness of Him and proclaimed clearly: He it was of whom I
said: — He will come after me, who was before me. For
He is my forerunner.
For out of
His fullness have we all received Grace upon Grace. For the
law was given through Moses, but Grace and Truth came
through Jesus-Christ.
Hitherto
hath no one beheld God with his eyes. The once-born Son,
who was in the bosom of the Universal-Father, has become
the leader in this beholding.
These are the
words which give again approximately the meaning of those
first verses of the Gospel of St. John. However, before we
come to their interpretation, we must add something else. How
did John describe himself? You will remember that people were
sent to discover who John the Baptist was. Priests and
Levites came to him to ask him who he was. Why he gave the
foregoing answer, we have yet to discover. Just at present we
shall only consider what he said.
He said,
“I am the voice of one calling in solitude.”
These are the words which stand there. “I am the voice
of one calling in solitude.” “In solitude”
stands there quite literally. In Greek, the word
eremit signifies the “solitary one.” You
can then understand that it is more correct to say, “I
am the voice of one calling in solitude,” than “I
am the voice of one preaching in the wilderness.” We
shall better understand all that is presented in the opening
words of the Gospel, if we call to mind John's own
characterization of himself. Why does he call himself
“the voice of one calling in solitude?”
We have seen
that in the course of human evolution, the true Earth-mission
is the evolution of love, but that love is only conceivable
when it is given as a voluntary offering by self-conscious
human beings. We have also seen that the human being little
by little gains control of his ego and that slowly and
gradually this ego sinks into human nature. We know that the
animal, as such, has no individual ego. If the individual
lion were able to say “I” to itself, the
individual animal would not be meant thereby, but the
group-ego in the astral world. All lions would say
“I” to this group-ego. Thus whole groups of
animals of like form say “I” to the supersensibly
perceptible group-ego in the astral world. The great
advantage human beings have over the animals is that of
possessing an individual ego. The latter, however, only
evolved by degrees, for human beings also began with a
group-ego, with an ego belonging to a whole group of
individuals.
If you were to
go back to ancient peoples, to ancient races, you would find
that originally human beings were everywhere formed into
little groups. With the Germanic peoples you would not need
to go very far back. In the writing of Tacitus it is quite
evident that the German thought more of his whole tribe than
of himself as an individual. The individual felt himself more
as a member of the Cheruskian or of the
Sigambrian tribe than as a separate personality.
Therefore he partook of the fate of the whole tribe and when
an individual member or the entire tribe received an affront,
it did not matter who was the avenger.
Then in the
course of time it happened that individual personalities gave
up their tribal membership, and this resulted at last in the
breaking up of the tribes so that they no longer held
together. Human beings also evolved out of this group-soul
characteristic and little by little they developed to a point
where they could experience the ego in their own individual
personalities. We can only understand certain things,
especially religious documents, when we understand this
mystery of the group-souls, of the group-egos. For those
peoples who had come already to a certain conception of the
individual ego, there still always existed a greater ego that
spread out not only over groups living contemporaneously in a
certain place, but also far beyond these groups. Human memory
at the present time is of such a character that the
individual remembers only his own youth. But there was a time
when a different kind of memory existed, a time when the
human being not only remembered his own deeds but also those
of his father and of his grandfather as though they were his
own. Memory reached out beyond birth and death as far as the
blood relationship could be traced. The memory of an ancestor
whose blood, as it were, flowed down through generations was
preserved for centuries in this same blood, and a descendant
or offspring of a tribe said “I” to the deeds and
the thoughts of his forebears as though to himself. He did
not feel himself limited by birth and death, but he felt
himself as a member of a succession of generations, the
central point of which was the ancestor. For what held the
ego together was the fact that the individual remembered the
deeds of the fathers and of the grandfathers. In ancient
times this had its outer expression in the giving of names.
The son remembered not only his own deeds but also those of
his father and of his grandfather. Memory extended far back
through generations and all that the memory thus encompassed
was called in ancient times, for example, Noah or Adam. The
individual human beings were not meant by these names, but
the egos which for centuries had preserved the memory. This
mystery was also concealed behind the names of the
Patriarchs. Why did the Patriarchs live so long? It would
never have occurred to the people of ancient times to
denominate an individual human being by a special name during
his life between birth and death. Adam was looked upon as a
common memory, because the limits of time and space in
ancient days played no part in the giving of names.
By degrees the
human individual ego slowly freed itself from the group-soul,
from the group-ego. The human being came gradually to a
consciousness of his own individual ego. Formerly he felt his
ego in his tribal membership, in the group of human beings to
whom he was related through the blood tie, either as to time
or space; hence the expression, “I and Father Abraham
are one,” which means one ego. The individual felt
himself safe within the whole, because a common blood ran
through the veins of all of the members of his particular
people. Evolution progressed and the time became ripe for
individuals right within their race to feel their own
separate egos. It was the mission of the Christ to give to
human beings what they needed in order that they might feel
themselves secure and firm within their separate individual
egos. In this way we should also interpret those words which
can be so easily misunderstood namely, “He who does not
deny wife and child, father and mother, brother and sister,
cannot be my disciple!” We must not understand this in
the trivial sense of instruction to run away from the family.
But it means that every one should feel that he is an
individual ego and that this individual ego is in direct
union with the Spiritual Father who pervades the world.
Formerly a follower of the Old Testament said, “I and
Father Abraham are one,” because the Ego felt itself
resting within the blood relationship. At that moment this
feeling of oneness with the Spiritual Father-Substance had to
become independent; no longer should the blood relationship
be a guarantee of membership in the whole, but the knowledge
of the pure Spiritual Father-Principle in whom all are
one.
Thus we are
told in the Gospel of St. John that the Christ is the great
bestower of the Impulse which gives to men what is needed to
make them feel themselves forever within their own separate,
individual egos. This is the transition from the Old
Testament to the New, for the old had always something of a
group-soul character in which one ego felt itself associated
with the others, but in reality never felt either itself or
the other egos. Instead, it experienced the folk or tribal
ego within which they all had a common shelter.
What must be
the feeling of an ego that has become so matured that it no
longer feels the connection with the other individual
personalities of the group-soul? What must have been the
feelings of the individualized ego in a period in which it
could be said: “The time is now past when union with
other persons, union with all egos belonging to a group-soul
can be felt as an actual life-reality; first, however, One
must come who will give the spiritual Bread of Life to the
soul from which the individual ego may receive
nourishment.” This separate ego had to feel itself
solitary and the forerunner of the Christ was compelled to
say: I am an ego that has broken away, that feels itself
alone, and just because I have learned to feel solitary, I
feel like a prophet to whom the ego gives real spiritual
nourishment in solitude. Therefore the herald had to
designate himself as one calling in solitude, which means the
individual ego isolated from the group-soul calling for what
can give it spiritual sustenance. “I am the voice of
one calling in solitude.” Thus we hear again the
profound truth: — Each human individual ego is one
wholly dependent upon itself; I am the voice of the ego that
is freed, seeking a foundation upon which it, as an
independent ego, can rest. — Now we understand the
passage, “I am the voice of one calling in
solitude.”
In order that
we may accurately understand the words of the Gospel, we
shall need to familiarize ourselves a little with the way
names and designations were then usually given. The giving of
names at that time was not so abstract and devoid of meaning
as it is at present, and if the exponents of biblical
documents would only consider a little how much is expressed
in this way, many trivial interpretations would never come to
the light of day. I have already pointed out that when the
Christ said, “I am the Light of the World,” He
really meant that He was the first to give expression to the
“I AM” and was the Impulse for it. Therefore in
the first chapters wherever “I AM” is to be
found, it must be especially emphasized. All names and
designations in ancient times in a certain sense are very
real — yet at the same time they are used in a
profoundly symbolical manner. This is often the source of
tremendous errors made in two directions. From a superficial
point of view, many say that according to such an
interpretation a great deal is meant symbolically, but with
such an explanation in which everything has only a symbolical
meaning, they wish to have nothing to do, since historical,
biblical events then disappear. On the other hand, those who
understand nothing at all of the historical events may say:
— “This is only meant symbolically.” Those,
however, who say such things, understand nothing of the
Gospel. The historical reality is not denied because of a
symbolic explanation, but it must be emphasized that the
esoteric explanation includes both, the interpretation of the
facts as historical and the symbolic meaning which we ascribe
to them. Of course, if anyone sees only the prosaic external
facts, namely, that a man was born somewhere, at some
particular time, he will not understand that this man is
something more than just a person with a particular name
whose biography can be written. But whoever knows the
spiritual relationship will learn to understand that besides
being born in some particular place this living human being
is also a symbol of his age and that what he signifies for
the evolution of humanity is expressed in his name. It is
something symbolic and historical at the same time, not
simply the one or the other. This is the important thing in a
true interpretation of the Gospel. Therefore in almost all of
the events and allusions, we shall see that John — or
the author of the Gospel bearing his name — really has
a super-sensible perception; he sees at one and the same time
the outer events and the manifestation of deep spiritual
truths. He has in mind the historical figure of the Baptist;
he is considering the historical figure. But the true
historical figure is for him at the same time a symbol for
all men who were in ancient times called upon to receive the
imprint of the Christ Impulse upon their egos, a symbol for
those into whose individual egos the Light of the World might
shine, although they had just started on the path. It was
not, however, a symbol for those who in their darkness were
not yet able to apprehend the Light of the World. What
appeared as Life, Light, and Logos in Christ-Jesus, has
always shone in the world, but those who were first to become
matured did not recognize it. The Light was always there, for
had it not been there, the germ of the ego could not possibly
have come into existence.
Only the
physical, ether and astral bodies of the present human being
existed within the Moon Evolution; there was no ego in them.
Only because the Light became transformed into that light
which now shines down upon the earth did It have the power to
enkindle the individual egos and to bring them gradually to
maturity. “The Light shone in the darkness but the
darkness could not yet comprehend it.” It entered into
the individual human being — right into the human ego
— for an ego-humanity could not have come into
existence at all, had not the Light been rayed into it by the
Logos. However, ego-humanity as a whole did not receive It,
but only certain individuals, the initiates. They raised
their souls to the spiritual worlds and they always bore the
name, “Children of God,” because they possessed
knowledge of the Logos, of the Light, and of Life and could
always bear witness of These. There were certain ones who
already knew of the spiritual worlds through the ancient
Mysteries. What was present there in these initiates? It was
the eternal human living within them in full consciousness.
In the mighty words, “I and the Father are one,”
they felt, in fact, I and the great Primal Cause are one! And
the most profound thing of which they were conscious, their
individual ego, they received not from father and mother but
through their initiation into the spiritual world. Not from
the blood nor from the flesh did they receive it, nor from
the will of father or mother, but “from God,”
which means from the spiritual world.
Here we have
an explanation of why it was that although the majority of
mankind had already received the rudiments of an ego-being
they could not as individuals receive the Light which had
only descended, in fact, as far as the group-ego. Those,
however, who received the Light — and they were few,
indeed — could by means of it make themselves
“Children of God.” Those who put their trust in
the Light were through initiation born of God. This gives us
a clear picture. But in order that all men might perceive the
living God, with their earthly senses, He, the Christ, had to
appear upon earth in a way that made it possible for Him to
be seen with physical eyes; in other words, He had to take on
a form of flesh, because only such a form can be seen with
physical eyes. Prior to this, only the initiates could
perceive Him through the Mysteries, but now He took on a
physical form for the salvation of every soul. “The
Word or the Logos became flesh.” Thus the writer of the
Gospel of St. John links the historical appearance of
Christ-Jesus together with the whole of evolution. “We
have heard His teaching — the teaching of the once-born
Son of the Father!” What manner of teaching is this?
How were other men born?
In the ancient
times in which the Gospels were written, those who were born
of the flesh were called “twice-born.” They were
called twiceborn — let us say — because of the
intermingling of the blood of father and mother. Those who
were not born of flesh and did not come into existence
through a human act or through the mingling of blood, were
“born of God,” that is to say, they were
“once-born.” Those who were previously called
“Children of God” were always in a certain sense
the “once-born” and the teaching about the Son of
God is the teaching of the “once-born.” The
physical man is “twice-born,” the spiritual man
is “once-born.” You must not understand it to
mean born into (hineingeboren) — no,
“once-born” (eingeboren) is the
antithesis of “twice-born”
(zweigeboren). These words point to the fact that
besides the physical birth, the human being can experience
also a spiritual birth, namely, union with the Spirit, a
birth through which he is “once-born,” a child or
a son of the Godhead.
Such a
teaching had first to be heard from Him who represented the
Word-made-Flesh. Through Him this teaching became general
— “this teaching of the once-born Son of the
Father, filled with Devotion and Truth.” Devotion is
the better translation here, because we have to do not only
with being born out of the Godhead, but also with continued
union with It, with the removal of all illusions which only
come from being “twice-born” and which surround
men with sense-deceptions. On the contrary it is a teaching,
the truth of which is substantiated by Christ-Jesus Himself,
living and dwelling among men as the incarnated Logos.
John the
Baptist called himself — literally interpreted —
the forerunner, the precursor, the one who goes before as
herald of the ego. He designated himself as one who knew that
this ego must become an independent entity in each individual
soul, but he also had to bear witness of Him who was to come,
in order that this be brought about. He said very clearly,
“That which is to come is the ‘I AM,’ which
is eternal, which can say of Itself, “Before Abraham
was, was the I AM.” John could say, “The I (the
ego) which is spoken of here existed before me. Although I am
Its forerunner, yet It is at the same time my Forerunner. I
bear witness of what was previously present in every human
being. After me will come One Who was before me.”
At this point
in the Gospel very significant words are spoken: —
“For of His Fulness have we all received grace upon
grace.” There are men who call themselves Christians,
who pass over this word, “Fulness,” thinking that
nothing very special is meant by it. “Pleroma” in
Greek means “Fulness.” We find this word also in
the Gospel of St. John: “For from the Pleroma have we
all received grace upon grace.” I have said that if we
wish really to understand this Gospel, every word must be
weighed in the balance. What is then, Pleroma, Fulness? He
alone can understand it who knows that in the ancient
Mysteries Pleroma or Fulness was referred to as something
very definite. For at that time it was already being taught
that when those spiritual beings manifested themselves who
during the Moon period evolved to the stage of divinity
namely, the Elohim, one of them separated from the others.
One remained behind upon the Moon, and thence
reflected the power of Love until humanity was
sufficiently matured to be able to receive the
direct Light of the other six Elohim. Therefore they
distinguished between Jahve, the individual God, the
reflector, and the Fulness of the Godhead,
“Pleroma,” consisting of the other six Elohim.
Since the full consciousness of the Sun Logos meant to them
the Christ, they called Him the “Fulness of the
Gods” when they wished to refer to Him. This profound
truth was concealed in the words: — “For out of
the Pleroma, we have received grace upon grace.”
Now let us
continue by transplanting ourselves back into the age of the
group-souls, when each individual felt his own ego as the
group-ego. Let us now consider what kind of a social
organization existed in the group. As far as they were
visible human beings, they lived as individuals. They felt
inwardly the group-ego, but outwardly they were individuals.
Since they did not yet feel themselves as separate entities,
they were also unable yet to experience inner love to its
fullest extent. One person loved another because he was
related to him through blood. The blood relationship was the
basis of all love. First those related by blood loved each
other and all love, as far as it was not sex-love, sprang
from this blood relationship. Men must free themselves more
and more from this group-soul love and proffer love as a free
gift of the ego. At the end of the earth evolution, a time
will come for mankind when the ego, now become independent,
will receive into its inner being, in full surrender, the
impulse to do the right and good. Because the ego possesses
this impulse, it will do the right and the good. When love
becomes spiritualized to such a degree that no one will wish
to follow any other impulse. than this, then that will be
fulfilled which Christ-Jesus wished to bring into the world.
For one of the mysteries of Christianity is that it teaches
the seeker to behold the Christ, to fill himself with the
power of His image, to seek to become like Him, and to follow
after Him. Then will his liberated ego need no other law; it
will then, as a being free in its inner depths, do the good
and the true. Thus Christ is the bringer of the impulse of
freedom from the law, that good may be done, not because of
the compulsion of any law, but as an indwelling Impulse of
Love within the soul. This Impulse will still need the
remainder of the Earth period for its full development. The
beginning has been made through Christ-Jesus, and the Christ
figure will always be the power which will educate humanity
to it. As long as men were not yet ready to receive an
independent ego, as long as they existed as members of a
group, they had to be socially regulated by an outwardly
revealed law. And even today men have not, in all things,
risen above the group-egos. In how many things in the present
are men not individual human beings, but group-beings? They
are already trying to become free, but it is still only an
ideal. (At a certain stage of esoteric discipleship, they are
called the homeless ones.) The man who voluntarily places
himself within the cosmic activities is an individual; he is
not ruled by law. In the Christ Principle lies the victory
over law. “For the law was given by Moses, but Grace
through Christ.” According to the Christian acceptation
of the word, the soul's capacity for doing right out of the
inner self was called Grace. Grace and an inner recognition
of truth came into being through the Christ. You see how
profoundly this thought fits into the whole of human
evolution.
In earlier
ages, those who were initiated developed higher spiritual
organs of perception; previously no one ever saw God with
physical eyes. The once-born Son who rests in the bosom of
the Father is the first who made it possible for us to behold
a God in the way we see a human being upon earth with the
physical earthly senses. Previously God had remained
invisible. He revealed Himself in the super-sensible world
through dreams or in other ways in the places of Initiation.
Now God has become an historical fact, a form in the flesh.
We read this in the words: “Before this no one had
beheld God. The once-born Son who dwelt in the bosom of the
Universal Father became the guide to this perceiving.”
He brought mankind to the point where it could behold God
with earthly senses.
Thus we can
see how sharply and clearly the Gospel of St. John points to
the historical event of Palestine and in what exemplary and
concise words which must be accurately weighed in the balance
if we wish to use them for an understanding of Esoteric
Christianity.
Now we shall
see in the following lectures how this theme is further
developed and at the same time how it is shown that the
Christ is not only the guide of those who are united with the
group-soul, but how He enters into each individual human
being and endows the individual ego itself with His Impulse.
The blood-tie indeed remains, but the spiritual aspect of
love is added to it, and to this love which passes over from
one individual, independent ego to another, He gives His
Impulse.
Day by day,
one truth after another was revealed to the neophyte in the
course of his initiation. A very important truth is always
disclosed, for example, on the third day. Then it is that one
learns fully to understand that there is a point in the
evolution of the earth when physical love, bound up with the
blood, becomes ever more spiritualized. This point of time is
the event which demonstrated the transition from a love
dependent upon the blood-tie to a spiritualized form of love.
In significant words Christ-Jesus makes reference to this
when He says: “A time will come which is my time, a
time when the most important things will no longer be
accomplished by men bound by the tie of blood, but by those
who stand alone by themselves. This time however is yet to
come.” The Christ Himself who gave the first impulse,
says on one important occasion that this ideal will sometime
be fulfilled, but that His time is not yet come. He
prophetically points to this when His mother stands there and
asks Him to do something for mankind, hinting that she has
the right to induce Him to an important deed for humanity. He
then replies, “What we are able to do today is still
connected with the blood bond, with the relationship between
thee and me, for My time is not yet come.” That such a
time will come when each must stand alone is expressed in the
narrative of the Marriage at Cana when the announcement:
“They have no wine,” was answered by Jesus with
the words: “That is something that has still to do with
thee and me, for My time is not yet come.”
Here we have the words, “between thee and me” and
“My time is not yet come.” What stands there in
the text refers to this mystery. Like many others, this
passage also is usually very roughly translated. It should
not read: “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”
but: “This has to do with me and thy blood
relationship.” The text is very fine and subtle, but
comprehensible only to those who have the will to understand
it. But when, in our age, these religious documents are
repeatedly interpreted by all kinds of people, one would like
to ask, have those who call themselves Christians then no
feeling for all this, that they make the Christ utter the
words, incorrectly translated, “Woman, what have I to
do with thee?”
In much that
today calls itself Christianity which rests upon the teaching
of the Gospel, we are inclined to ask, Do they really possess
the Gospel? The important thing is that they should first
possess it. And with such a profound document as the Gospel
of St. John every word must be weighed in order that its
proper value be recognized.
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