LECTURE 7
When we are
engaged in the study of one or other of the Gospels and
trying to explain it, it would doubtless be best to leave the
other Gospels altogether out of account. By this means it
would be possible to reach the purest and best understanding
of the prevailing tone of each. But it is obvious that such
an approach could lead to misunderstandings, unless a ray of
light were thrown upon it from one of the other Gospels. And
precisely what we called yesterday the “greatest
monologue in world history” can easily be misunderstood
if someone were to consult in a superficial and not too
accurate manner what had, for example, to be said in
connection with the similar passage in the
Matthew Gospel in the lectures I gave in Bern.
[ Note 16 ]
Indeed, an objection made from such a standpoint
would really in a deeper logical sense be the same as if the
statement were made that a man once stood on this platform
and on his left was a bouquet of roses. Then another
statement would be made that a man once stood on this
platform and on his right was a bouquet of roses, and a man
who had not been present proceeded to object, saying that
there must be a mistake since one time the bouquet of roses
was on the right and the other time on the left. It all
depends on where the observer in question was standing, for
both statements can be correct. So it is with the Gospels,
where we are not concerned simply with an abstract biography
of Christ Jesus, but with a rich world of external and occult
facts that are presented in them.
In order to
picture to ourselves this viewpoint let us now consider again
what we called yesterday the “greatest monologue in
world history,” the soliloquy of the God. We must
recognize that the whole episode was especially concerned
with the relationship between Christ Jesus and His closest
disciples. And we must include in such a study most
particularly what was said yesterday, that the spirit of
Elijah, after it had been freed from the physical body of
John the Baptist, was actually active as a kind of group soul
of the disciples. What happened then cannot just be related
in a simple external way since it took place in a much more
complicated manner. To a certain extent there was a deep and
inner connection between the soul of the Christ and the souls
of the Twelve. Everything that took place within the soul of
Christ was made up of processes of significance for that
time, rich and manifold processes. But all that took place in
the soul of Christ took place again in a kind of reflected
image, a reflection in the souls of the disciples, but
divided into twelve parts. In this way each of the Twelve
experienced, as in a reflected image, a part of what happened
in the soul of Christ Jesus; but each of the Twelve
experienced it somewhat differently. What took place within
the soul of Christ Jesus was like a harmony, a great
symphony, reflected in the souls of each of the Twelve, in
much the same way as twelve instruments can give forth a
harmony. So any event that concerns one or more of the
disciples in particular may be described from two sides. It
is possible to describe how the event in question appeared
within the soul of Christ, as, for example, in the case of
the great world-historical monologue of Christ Jesus. It is
possible to describe how it was experienced within His soul,
and then it appears as it was described yesterday. But it
also takes place in a certain reflected image in the soul of
Peter. Peter has the same soul experience. But, whereas in
the case of Christ Jesus it encompasses the whole of mankind,
Peter's identical experience encompasses only a twelfth part
of all mankind, a twelfth, a single zodiacal sign of the
entire Christ spirit. For this reason it must be pictured
differently when it concerns Christ Jesus Himself.
It must be
spoken of in this way if we are to describe it in the sense
of the Mark Gospel, for most remarkable things are described
in it, and especially what is presented as having taken place
within the soul of Christ Jesus Himself. By contrast the
Matthew Gospel pictures more what has reference to the soul
of Peter, and what Christ Jesus added to explain what took
place within Peter's soul. If you read the Gospel carefully,
you will notice how in the Matthew Gospel certain words have
been added which give us the picture as perceived from the
side of Peter. Otherwise, why should the words have been
added, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh
and blood have not revealed it to you but my Father in the
heavens.”
(Matt. 16:17)?
In other words the soul of
Peter felt something of what the soul of Christ had been
feeling. But while Peter's soul felt that his master was
Christ, this should be understood as meaning that Peter was
for a time raised upward to an experience in his higher
“I,” and that he was overwhelmed by this
experience and then fell back, as it were, afterward.
Nevertheless it was possible for him to penetrate through to
a knowledge which, with a different aim and purpose, came
about within the soul of Christ. Because Peter was able to do
this, there followed the handing over of the power of the
keys mentioned in the Matthew Gospel
(Matt. 16:19),
about which we spoke in our interpretation of that Gospel. By
contrast, in speaking of the Mark Gospel we have emphasized,
forcefully and simply, those words that indicate that the
event, quite apart from what happened within Peter, took
place at the same time and in a parallel manner as the
monologue of God.
This is how
we must look at these things, enabling us to feel how Christ
Jesus deals with His own, how He leads them on from stage to
stage, and how after the spirit of Elijah-John had passed
over into them He could lead them more deeply than He could
earlier into the comprehension of spiritual secrets. And one
of our first impressions is that it is significant that the
passage we discussed at the end of our last lecture, the
monologue of the God, should be closely followed by the
so-called Transfiguration or Transformation scene. That is
also a significant element in the dramatic composition of the
Mark Gospel. In order to shed light on the Transfiguration we
need to point out a few facts that are related to many things
necessary for the understanding of the picture presented in
the Gospels. Let us begin by referring to one of these.
You can read
often in the Mark Gospel, as well as in the other Gospels,
how Christ Jesus speaks of how the Son of Man must suffer
many things, that He would be set upon by the scribes and
high priests, that He would be put to death and after three
days would be raised. You will notice how up to a certain
point the apostles are unable to understand at first what is
meant by the suffering, death and raising of the Son of Man,
how they experience a real difficulty particularly in
understanding this passage
(Mark 9:31-32).
Why are we confronted with this peculiar fact? Why is it precisely
with reference to the understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha
itself that the apostles experience these difficulties? What
then is the Mystery of Golgotha? We have already spoken of
this. It is nothing else but the drawing forth of initiation
from the depths of the mysteries onto the plane of world
history. Of course there is a crucial difference between the
average initiation and the Mystery of Golgotha. This
difference consists in the following.
All those who
were initiated into the mysteries of the various peoples had
in a certain sense experienced the same thing. An initiate
was made to suffer, and one could say that he was apparently
dead for three days, during which his spirit remained in the
spiritual worlds outside his body. Then his spirit was
brought back into his body in such a way that the spirit in
his body could remember what it had undergone in the
spiritual world, and could then appear as a messenger,
proclaiming the secrets of the spiritual world. Thus we can
say that initiation is a journey into death, though in such a
death the spirit is not separated entirely from the body, but
only for a limited time. Initiation involves remaining
outside the physical body and returning into it, thereby
becoming a messenger for the secrets of the divine world. It
took place after careful preparation, and after the candidate
had reached a condition where his soul forces were so
concentrated within him that he could live without using the
instrument of his physical body. Then after these three and a
half days he had to unite himself again with his physical
body. We may say that the initiate passed through this by
withdrawing into a higher world unconnected with ordinary
historical events.
Although the
Mystery of Golgotha was, to outward appearance, similar, it
differed in its inner nature. The events that occurred during
the period when the Christ dwelt in the body of Jesus of
Nazareth had actually resulted in the genuine physical death
of the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. The spirit of
Christ remained for three days outside the physical body but
it then returned. And now it was not in the physical body but
in the concentrated etheric body, concentrated in such a way
that it was possible for the disciples to perceive it, as
described in the Gospels — with the consequence that
Christ could walk and become visible also after the event of
Golgotha. Thereby initiation, which formerly took place in
the depths of the mysteries, hidden from external eyes, was
presented as a historical event, a unique event, before all
mankind. Through this, initiation was, in a sense, lifted out
of the mysteries; it had been accomplished by the one Christ
before the eyes of everyone. And precisely with this event
the ancient world came to an end and the new era began.
From the
picture that has been given you of the prophets you have seen
that the prophetic spirit, and what was given by this
prophetic spirit to the ancient Hebrew people, differed from
the spirit of initiation prevalent among other peoples. These
other peoples had their initiates, who were initiated in the
manner we have just described. This was not the case with the
ancient Hebrew people. With them it was not a question of
initiation of the same kind as among the other peoples. Here
we have to do with an elemental emergence of the spirit
within the bodies of those who appeared as prophets;
something resembling “geniuses of spirituality”
appeared. To enable this to happen we see that in the middle
prophetic period souls appear in the ancient Hebrew people
who in earlier incarnations had been initiates among the
other peoples, so that they experience everything they give
to the ancient Hebrew people as a memory of what they
themselves had received in their initiation. For this reason
spiritual life did not shine into the ancient Hebrew people
in the same way as it did into other peoples. In the case of
these other peoples it occurred through an act, through
initiation, whereas in the case of the Old Testament people
it came by virtue of the gifts that had been implanted in
those who worked actively as prophets among the people.
Through the activity of their prophets the Hebrew people were
made ready to experience that unique initiation which was no
longer that of a human individuality but of a cosmic
individuality, if, indeed one may speak of an initiation at
all in this case, which is no longer correct. Through this
the Hebrew people were prepared to receive something that was
to take the place of the old initiation: they were made ready
to view the Mystery of Golgotha in the right way. But one
consequence of this was that the apostles, who belonged to
the Old Testament people, had at first no understanding of
the words that characterize initiation. Christ Jesus spoke
about initiation when He expressed himself in such terms as
hastening toward death, remaining in the grave for three days
and being raised from the dead. This is a description of
initiation. If He had described it in a different way they
would have understood Him. But because such a way of speaking
of initiation was foreign to the Old Testament people the
Twelve could not at first understand His description. So it
is quite correctly pointed out to us that the disciples were
astonished and did not know to what He was referring when He
spoke of the suffering and death and raising of the Son of
Man.
Such things
are therefore entirely in accord with the spiritual content
of the events as they are historically presented. When the
ancient initiate experienced his initiation it is true that
he was in a higher world while he was outside his body; he
was not in the ordinary sense-perceptible world. We may say
that while he was outside his body he was at one with the
realities of a higher plane. While he was free of his body in
the spiritual world, returning later to his body, what had he
experienced? It was memory. He had to speak in such a way
that he could say, “I remember my experiences when I
was free of my body, in the same way as in ordinary life one
can remember what one experienced yesterday or the day
before.” He could bear witness to them. As far as these
initiates are concerned it did not amount to much more than
that they bore in their souls the secrets of the spiritual
worlds in the same way that the human soul retains in memory
what it experienced yesterday. And as the soul is united with
what it retains as memory, so the initiates were united with
the secrets of the spiritual world that they carried within
themselves.
What was the
reason for this? It was because before the Mystery of
Golgotha human souls on earth were not adapted to allowing
the kingdoms of the heavens, the super-sensible worlds, to
penetrate into the ego. They could not approach the true ego,
could not unite themselves with it. Only if a man could see
beyond himself or could glimpse the divine by means of the
clairvoyance that existed in those ancient times, if, as I
might put it, he dreamt himself away or were freed from his
ego through initiation, could he enter the super-sensible
worlds. But within the ego there was no comprehension, no
understanding of the higher worlds. This is how it was in
those ancient times. Before the Mystery of Golgotha man could
not unite himself with the spiritual worlds even by making
use of all the forces pertaining to his ego.
The secret
that was to be revealed to the people through the baptism of
John was that the time had now come near when the kingdoms of
heaven were to shine right into the ego; they were to
approach the ego, the earthly ego. In truth it has been
indicated all through the ages how what man could experience
as his soul element could not in ancient times enter the
super-sensible worlds. In ancient times there was something
like a disharmony between the way in which the true home of
man, the spiritual world, was experienced, and that which, if
we wish to describe the old soul nature as “ego,”
was active in the inner being of man. This human inner self
was separated from the spiritual world, and only in
exceptional conditions could it be united with it. And when
all the might of what was later to become the ego and to live
within man, when all the power and the impulses of the ego
filled him, for example through initiation, or through
remembering the experience of initiation in a former
incarnation in a later one — when the power and might of
the ego prematurely penetrated into his bodily nature, what
happened then? It has always been pointed out that in the
pre-Christian era the ego force, too powerful for the human
bodily nature, could find its proper place in the body, and
broke through what was destined for the ego.
For this
reason those human beings who bear within themselves more of
the super-sensible world, bearing within themselves in
pre-Christian times something of what would in a later age
become the ego, such persons split apart their human bodily
constitution with this ego force because this force is too
strong for the pre-Christian era. This is clearly alluded to,
for example, in the case of certain individualities during a
particular incarnation who possess this ego force in
themselves, but this ego can remain within them only because
the body is in some way wounded, or vulnerable, wounded and
having a vulnerable spot. It is in this spot that the
individuality is exposed to danger from his surroundings more
than in any other part of his body. We need only recall the
vulnerability of Achilles' heel, of Siegfried and Oedipus
whose bodies are split asunder by the force of the ego. These
examples of wounds demonstrate to us how only a damaged body
is compatible with the greatness of the ego, and the
superhuman ego force that is within it.
Perhaps the
significance of what I am trying to place before our souls
could be grasped better if I formulate it in a different way.
Let us suppose that someone in pre-Christian times were to be
filled, not necessarily consciously, with all those impulses
and forces that later on will penetrate the ego, and that
these forces which I might call a superego force, a
superhuman force, were to dive down into his body. He would
have to break apart his body and not perceive it as it was
when it had its weak ego, its weak inner self, within it. A
man of olden times would necessarily have seen it differently
if he possessed within himself the whole power of the ego,
enabling him to rise up out of his body. He would have seen
the body as it actually was, broken under the influence of
the superego. He would have seen it with every kind of wound
imaginable because in ancient times only a weak ego, a weak
inner self, penetrated the body so slightly that it could
remain whole.
What I have
just said was indeed stated by the prophets. The passage
(Zechariah 12:10)
is so formulated that it runs approximately
as follows, “A man who unites in himself the full force
of egohood and is confronted with the human body, sees it
wounded, pierced through with holes. For the higher ego force
which in ancient times could not yet live within the inner
self, pierces through, penetrates and makes holes in the
body.” This is an impulse that runs through the
evolution and development of mankind for the reason that as a
result of the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman in pre-
Christian times only a portion of the ego could be bestowed
on man. And because the body is adapted only to the smaller
portion and not to the whole force of the ego, it is worn
down. It was not because this took place in the pre-Christian
era but because in the case of Christ Jesus the full power of
the ego entered all at once, and entered with the utmost
strength into His bodily being, that this body had to appear
not only with a single wound, as was the case with so many
human individualities who carried a superego, but with five
wounds. These were necessary because the Christ-Being, that
is, the full ego of man, projected far beyond the bodily form
appropriate for those times. It was for this reason that the
cross had to be erected on the physical plane of world
history, that cross that bore the body of Christ, a human
body such as that of man would be if for a moment the whole
of man's nature, a large part of which has been lost through
the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman, were to live within one
single human being.
It is a
profound mystery that is given to us by occult science in the
picture of the Mystery of Golgotha. Anyone who understands
the true nature of the human being and of humanity, and the
nature of the earthly ego and its relation to the form of the
human body, knows that when the human body is entirely
penetrated by the earthly ego such a penetration would be
abnormal for the ordinary man as he walks about on earth. But
when a man goes out of himself and sees himself from outside
and is able to ask the question, “How would this body
be if the totality of egohood were to enter into it?”
then his answer must be that it would be pierced by five
wounds. The form of the cross on Golgotha with Christ upon it
with His wounds is derived from the nature of man and from
the very being of the earth itself. From our study of the
nature of man it is possible for the picture of the Mystery
of Golgotha to arise for us out of our own knowledge. Strange
as it may seem, it is actually possible to see how the cross
is raised on Golgotha, how the crucifixion takes place, and
to perceive directly the truth of this historical event, and
all this without the use of clairvoyance when such a vision
would be natural. Because of the Mystery of Golgotha it is
possible for the human intellect to approach so closely to
this mystery that if it is used with sufficient sharpness and
subtlety it can be transformed into an imagination, into a
picture that then contains the truth. If we understand the
nature of Christ and His relation to the human bodily form,
our imagination can be guided in this way in such a manner
that the picture of Golgotha itself arises for us. The older
Christian painters were often guided in this way. Even though
they were not perhaps in all cases clairvoyant, their
knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha was so powerful that it
impelled them so far that they were able to picture it in
such a way that they could paint it. It was just at this
great turning point of human evolution that the understanding
of the being of Christ, in other words, the primal ego of
man, emerged out of clairvoyance and rose up into the
ego-soul of man.
It is
possible to see the Mystery of Golgotha through clairvoyance
outside the body. By what means? If while within the body a
relationship has been established to the Mystery of Golgotha,
it is possible also today to perceive it in the higher
worlds, and in so doing to receive a full confirmation of the
truth of this great nodal point in the evolution of mankind.
It is, however, also possible to comprehend the Mystery of
Golgotha, and the words I have just spoken ought to make this
understanding possible. It is, of course, necessary to
reflect and meditate on them for a long time. If anyone
should feel it difficult to grasp what has just been said,
such a feeling is perfectly justifiable, for it goes without
saying that anything that can lead the human soul to a full
understanding of the highest and most significant event that
has ever happened on earth is bound to be difficult. In a
certain way the disciples had to be led toward this
understanding; and of all those who had to be led gradually
to a new understanding of the evolution of mankind, Peter,
James, and John proved to be the most suitable.
It is good
for us to picture to ourselves from as many sides as we can
the significant epoch that began at the time of the Mystery
of Golgotha. Therefore it was especially helpful that you
were able to hear this morning how Hegel
[ Note 17 ]
envisaged this turning point of
time. We need everything that human understanding can
contribute if we are to grasp the significance of what
entered into human evolution at that time, something that had
been maturing during the preceding centuries and took place
about the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, thereafter slowly
preparing and conditioning the further evolution of humanity.
It manifested itself in various parts of the earth and we can
trace it not only in Palestine where the Mystery of Golgotha
itself occurred, but in other parts of the earth where the
Mystery of Golgotha did not occur. If we proceed in
the right way we can trace how as a result of the Mystery of
Golgotha mankind descended and then reascended, and was
uplifted as the Mystery of Golgotha spread throughout the
Western world. In particular we can trace the descent of
mankind, and this indeed is especially interesting.
Let us
consider once again the land of Greece, and picture to
ourselves what happened there half a millennium before the
Mystery of Golgotha. In the East, where Krishna appeared,
people were in a certain way ahead of their time in the
period when the old clairvoyance was dying out. Indeed, there
was something remarkable about the culture of ancient India.
During the time immediately following the Atlantean age with
the great cultural flowering of the first post-Atlantean
epoch, the human soul still had the possibility of seeing
into the spiritual world in the purest manner. In the case of
the Rishis this faculty was accompanied by the wonderful
ability to present what they had seen in such a way that it
could influence later ages. Then when the clairvoyance
disappeared, what they had given could be preserved in such
significant revelations as those given out by Krishna;
although the true clairvoyance already had been extinguished
by the end of the third epoch. But what had been perceived in
this earlier age was preserved in wonderful words through
Krishna and his pupils, with the result that what at an
earlier time had been seen could now be expressed in writing.
So what happened further west, for example in Greece, never
happened in India at all.
If we
perceive correctly the Indian world we may say that the old
clairvoyance died out, and because it died out some men,
among whom Krishna was the most important, wrote down in
wonderful words what had formerly been seen. This, then,
appears in the Vedas, in the word; and anyone who immerses
himself in the word experiences an echo of it in his soul.
But this is quite different from what came forth, for
example, in Socrates or other philosophers. What may be
called Western intellect, Western power of judgment, never
appears in Indian souls. Nor can there be found one example
in India of what we today speak of in the fullest sense as
the inborn power of the ego. As a result just as the old
clairvoyance was dying out there came an urge toward Yoga, a
new means of ascending into the spiritual worlds through
training as a compensation for the loss of natural
clairvoyance. Yoga therefore became an artificial
clairvoyance, and the philosophy of Yoga appeared without a
time interval, such as that during which, in Greece, for
example, a rational philosophy appeared. Nothing of this
appeared in India; an interim phase was totally lacking. If
we take up the Vedanta philosophy of Vyasa we may say that it
is not distinguished for its ideas and intellect as are the
teachings of the Western world conceptions, but it appears to
have been brought down from higher worlds though expressed in
human speech. What is remarkable about it is that it was not
achieved through human thinking, nor is it thought out like
the characteristic teachings of Socrates and Plato. It was,
indeed, the product of clairvoyant perception.
It is
difficult to come to a clear idea about such matters.
Nevertheless, there is a possibility even at the present time
to experience the difference between these two kinds of
philosophy. Take up any book on philosophy, any presentation
of some Western philosophical system. How has anything that
can be regarded as a serious philosophy been achieved? If you
could see into the workroom of anyone who can be regarded
today as a serious philosopher you would see how it is
through the power of logical thinking and logical judgment
that such systems are created, and each is built up step by
step. But those who work out their philosophies in this way
are quite unable to understand that their kind of conceptual
weaving can also to a certain extent be perceived
clairvoyantly, that a clairvoyant can see it in front of him
through his clairvoyance. If therefore, instead of passing
through all the individual stages of thought we were to
survey clairvoyantly, in one fell swoop so to speak, a number
of philosophical theses that have been woven together by the
sweat of one's brow, concept by concept, then we shall
experience much difficulty in making ourselves understood.
Yet the concepts of the Vedanta philosophy are concepts of
this kind, and they were seen clairvoyantly. They were not
acquired by the sweat of the brow, like the concepts of
European philosophers, but were brought down clairvoyantly.
They are just the last remnants of the ancient clairvoyance,
diluted into abstract concepts. Or else they are the first
fragile conquests of Yoga in the super-sensible worlds.
Those people
who lived more to the West went through different
experiences. There we see remarkable and important inner
events in the evolution of mankind. Let us take the case of a
remarkable philosopher of the sixth century before the
Christian era, Pherecydes of Syros.
[ Note 18 ]
He was indeed a remarkable philosopher, though
present-day philosophers do not count him even as a
philosopher at all. There are books on philosophy which
actually say — I will quote a few words verbatim
— that all he gives are childish symbols, childish
descriptions. So does a man today speak who imagines himself
to be greatly superior to those ancient philosophers. He
calls these notions “childish and ingenious.”
Nevertheless, half a millennium before the Christian era a
remarkable thinker emerged in Syros. Certainly he describes
things differently from other thinkers, who were later to be
called philosophers. For example, Pherecydes says,
“Underlying everything visible in the world is a
trinity: Chronos, Zeus and Chthon. From Chronos comes the
airy, the fiery and the watery element. Ophioneus, a kind of
serpent being, comes into conflict with all that stems from
these three powers.” Even if we have no clairvoyance
but only some imagination it is possible to see in front of
us everything that he describes. Chronos is put forward not
merely as abstract passing time but as a real being in a
perceptible form. It is the same with Zeus, the limitless
ether, as a living self-perpetuating being; while Chthon,
who draws down to earth what once was heavenly, draws
together into the planet earth all that is woven in space, in
order to make earthly existence possible. All this happens on
earth. Then a kind of serpent being interferes, and
introduces, so to speak, a hostile element. If we examine
what this remarkable Pherecydes of Syros describes, it can
easily be understood without the aid of spiritual research.
He is a last straggler endowed with the clairvoyance of
earlier times. He sees behind the sense world to the real
causes, and these he describes with the aid of his
clairvoyance. Naturally this does not at all please those who
prefer to juggle concepts. He sees the living weaving of the
good gods and how hostile powers interfere in their work; and
all this he describes from the viewpoint of a clairvoyant. He
sees how the elements are born out of Chronos, out of Time
seen as a real being.
So we have in
this philosopher Pherecydes of Syros a man who still sees
into the world with his soul, gazing into the world disclosed
by clairvoyant consciousness, and describing it; and we are
able to follow his description. Thus he stands before us in
the Western world as late as the sixth century,
[ Note 19 ]
who are almost his contemporaries, stand
there in a quite different manner. Here two worlds actually
come together. But how does it appear within the souls of
these men? The old clairvoyance has been extinguished,
paralyzed in them, and at most all that is left is a longing
for the spiritual worlds. What, then, do they experience in
place of the living vision that the sage of Syros still
possessed, a man who could still look into the world of
primal causes? This world has closed to them; they can no
longer see into it. It is as if this world wished to close
itself to them, as if it was still half present for them but
nevertheless eluded them, with the result that they replace
the old clairvoyance with abstract concepts that belong to
the ego. This is how it appears in the souls of these men.
Indeed within these Western souls there was a very remarkable
condition of soul at that time. It is moving in the direction
of intellect and judgment, which are precisely the
characteristics of the ego. We see this within individual
souls, as, for instance, in Heraclitus who still describes
the living weaving fire as the cause of everything, with, we
could say, a last trace of true clairvoyant vision. Thales
spoke of water, but he did not mean physical, material water
any more than Heraclitus meant physical material fire. But it
remains something from the elemental world, which they can
still half see through while at the same time it half eludes
them, so that all they can give out are abstract concepts. In
looking into these souls we can understand how something of
the soul mood of these men can still echo into our own
time.
If only our
contemporaries were not so prone to skim thoughtlessly over
so much that is of value! It is so easy to skim lightly over
a passage in Nietzsche that can profoundly move us, take
possession of us and shake our souls. The passage occurs in
his posthumous work
Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks,
where he describes Thales, Anaximander,
Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras and Empedocles. Right at
the beginning of this work there is a passage where, if we
truly enter into it, we can see that Nietzsche perceived
something of what these first lonely Greek thinkers
experienced in their souls. Look up the passage in Nietzsche
where he says, “How must it have been with the souls of
those heroes of philosophy who had to make the transition
from the period of living vision (of which Nietzsche knew
nothing but that he was able to sense) to an age when what
had formerly been alive in their souls was superseded by dry,
abstract, prosaic concepts; when ‘being,’ that
cold, abstract, prosaic notion, appeared, as a
‘concept,’ replacing the full aliveness of
clairvoyant consciousness?” And Neitzsche feels,
“It is as if our blood would freeze in our veins when
we cross over from the realm of life into the world of
concepts in Thales or Heraclitus who use such concepts as
‘being’ and ‘becoming,’ so that we
pass from the warm realm of becoming over into the icy region
of ‘concepts.’ ”
We must
transport ourselves in feeling into the age in which these
men were living, and how they stood when the Mystery of
Golgotha was approaching. We must enter into their being in
such a way that we can perceive how there is still within
them a dim echo of former times, yet how they must content
themselves with the power of abstract judgment that lives in
the human ego, a power that was unnecessary in earlier times.
And whereas in later eras the world of concepts became richer
and richer, in the first period when the world of concepts
was coming closer the Greek philosophers could grasp nothing
but the most simple of them. How they tormented themselves
with such concepts as abstract “being,”
especially the philosophers of the Eleatic school! But it was
in this way that the present-day abstract qualities of the
ego were prepared.
Let us now
think of a soul which is rooted in the West, prepared for the
mission of the West, and yet bears within itself the powerful
echo of ancient clairvoyance. In India these echoes have long
since died away, but they are still present in the West. The
soul has the impulse to enter the elemental world, but it is
prevented by its consciousness. A mood such as that of the
Buddha could not arise in such souls. The Buddha mood would
have said, “We are brought into the world of suffering.
Let us free ourselves from it.” But Western souls
wanted to take hold of what was ahead of them. They could not
go back into what lay behind them. But in the world in front
of them they could find only cold, icy concepts. Consider
such a soul as Pherecydes of Syros who was the last to be
able to see into the elemental world. Now let us think of one
of the other souls who cannot see how the elements are born
in a living way out of Chronos. It is unable to see how
Ophioneus, the serpent-being, enters into conflict with the
higher gods, but it is able to glimpse that something is at
work in the physical material world. It cannot see through to
Chronos, but it sees the imprint of Chronos in the world of
sense, in fire, water, air and earth. It is not able to see
how the higher gods are opposed by the lower gods, and how
Lucifer, the serpent-god, rebels; but it does see how harmony
and disharmony, friendship and enmity prevail. It sees love
and hate as abstract concepts, and fire, water, air, and
earth as abstract elements. The soul beholds all that still
at that time penetrated into it, but what had been seen
earlier by contemporaries is now hidden.
Let us think
of such a soul still standing within the livingness of the
earlier era, but unable to see into the spiritual world, able
only to grasp its external counterpart, a soul which because
of its special mission found that what had previously brought
bliss to human beings was hidden from it. Yet this soul has
nothing from the new world of the ego save a few concepts to
which it feels obliged to cling. What we have before us is
the soul of Empedocles. If we wish to comprehend the inner
being of such a soul, then it is the soul of Empedocles that
stands before us. Empedocles is almost a contemporary of the
sage of Syros; he lives scarcely two-thirds of a century
later. But his soul is constituted quite differently. It had
the task of crossing the Rubicon that separated the old
clairvoyance from the abstract comprehension of the ego. We
see here two worlds suddenly clashing with one another. Here
we see the dawning of the ego and how it advances toward its
fulfillment. We see the souls of the ancient Greek
philosophers who were the first to be condemned to take up
what we now call intellect and logic; and we see at the same
time how their souls were emptied of the old revelations.
Into these souls the new impulse, the impulse of Golgotha,
had to be poured.
Thus were
their souls constituted when the new impulse was born. But
they had to yearn for a new fulfillment; without such a
yearning they could not understand it. In Indian thinking
there is scarcely any transition comparable with what we find
in the lonely Greek thinkers. Therefore Indian philosophy
which had just made its transition to the teaching of Yoga
hardly offers any possibility of discovering the transition
to the Mystery of Golgotha. Greek philosophy was prepared in
such a way that it thirsted for the Mystery of Golgotha.
Consider the Gnosis, and how it longed in its philosophy for
the Mystery of Golgotha. The philosophy of the Mystery of
Golgotha rests on a Greek foundation because the best of the
Greek souls longed to receive into themselves the impulse of
Golgotha.
In order to
understand what happened in mankind's evolution we must have
good will. We might then be able to perceive something that
might be described as a call, and an answering call from the
very soil of the earth. If we look at Greece and then further
toward Sicily and look into such souls, among whom Empedocles
is one of the most outstanding, then we become aware of an
astonishing kind of appeal. How can we characterize this for
ourselves? What are such souls saying? If we look into the
soul of Empedocles we hear something like this, “I know
of initiation through history. From history I know that the
super-sensible world entered into human souls through
initiation. Initiation can no longer come alive in us. Now we
are living in a different phase of evolution, and we have
need of a new impulse that reaches into the ego. Tell me,
Impulse, where are you, you who are to take the place of the
initiation of the past that we are no longer able to
experience, whose task is to place before the new ego the
same mystery that was once contained within the old
clairvoyance?”
To this
appeal there came in answer the cry from Golgotha, “By
obeying the gods and not human beings I was permitted to
bring down the mysteries and set them before all mankind, so
that what could hitherto be found only in the depths of the
mysteries might now be bestowed on all mankind.”
What was born
in Greek souls in southern Europe comes to us as a request
from the Western world for a new solution of the world
riddle. And as the answer, an answer that can be understood
only in the West, comes the great monologue of the God, of
which we spoke at the conclusion of yesterday's lecture, and
of which we shall speak again tomorrow.
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