LECTURE SEVEN
The
two Jesus-children. The Incarnation of the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth.
Vishva Karman, Ahura Mazdao, Jahve. The Lodge of the Twelve Bodhisattvas
and the ‘Thirteenth’.
In the foregoing lectures we have tried to gain some idea of the
most important figures in the Gospel of St. Luke. Although
far-reaching conceptions of the facts underlying this Gospel have
been acquired, it still remains for us to follow the further
development of the central Being of our Earth — Christ Jesus
Himself.
To begin with it will be necessary to recall that Christ Jesus, as He
is afterwards described in the Gospel of St. Luke, was born — or
rather His physical body was born — as the Nathan Jesus of the
House of David. At about his twelfth year there passed into the body
of this child the Ego once incarnated in the Being who had been the
inaugurator of the ancient Persian civilization. Thus from the
twelfth year onwards, the Ego of Zarathustra was living in the body
of the Nathan Jesus, and we must now follow the development of this
Being more closely, bearing in mind something for which our previous
studies have prepared us.
We know that in normal cases the first and second septenaries of
human life are important periods of development; a third period
follows, from puberty (the fourteenth year) to the twenty-first year;
another from the twenty-first to the twenty-eighth and again another
from the twenty-eighth to the thirty-fifth year. These divisions of
time are not, of course, to be taken so pedantically that they are
thought to end exactly at the ages specified, but when the second
dentition takes place an important transition in the development of
the human being occurs, approximately at the close of the seventh
year.
This transition does not come about suddenly, but gradually,
during the period of the change of teeth. During the other
periods too, the process is a gradual one. As is described in greater
detail in my book
The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy,
the close of the seventh year is marked by a
spiritual occurrence which in some respects resembles physical birth:
a kind of etheric birth then takes place. In the fourteenth year,
at puberty, there is an astral birth: the astral body of the human
being becomes free. If followed with close attention and with the
eyes of spirit, the development of the human being shows itself to be
a very complicated process. Ordinary observation fails to notice many
important differences in human life — differences which also become
evident in more advanced years. It is usually thought that from a
certain point of time onwards, few if any changes take place in the
human being, but this idea arises from very rough and ready
observation. The truth is that closer scrutiny can perceive certain
differences taking place even in the later years of human life.
When the physical environment of the mother's body is abandoned at
birth, the part of the human being then born is really his physical
body only; what comes to the fore during the first seven years is the
physical body. In various lectures on the education of children the
great importance of this knowledge for the teacher has been
emphasized. Then, when the etheric sheath has been discarded, the
etheric body is set free. Again, in the fourteenth year, when the
astral sheath is discarded, the astral body is set free. Strictly
speaking, however, the constitution of the human being cannot be
fully understood unless the organization indicated in my book
Theosophy
is taken as a basis. There you will find that a further
distinction is made in the soul-elements of human nature. Immediately
connected with the life-body (etheric body) is what is called the
sentient (astral) body which does not become completely free as
regards the outer world until about the twenty-first year. Then what
is called the sentient soul becomes gradually free. At the
twenty-eighth year the intellectual or mind-soul (Gemütseele)
becomes free, and later the spiritual soul (or consciousness-soul).
This applies, to the human being of to-day. Observation of human life
guided by spiritual science clearly reveals these stages of development.
The great leaders and leading figures of humanity have also known why
the thirty-fifth year is so important. Dante was aware why he made
particular mention of his thirty-fifth year as the time when he had
the visions set down in his great poem. At the very beginning of the
Divine Comedy there is an indication to this effect. At the age of
thirty-five man's being has progressed to the point where the can
make full use of the faculties dependent upon the sentient (astral)
body, the sentient soul and the intellectual or mind-soul.
Those who have spoken of man strictly in accordance with the process
of evolution in the West have always recognized this classification.
In Orientals the periods are not exactly the same. Hence in the case
of Oriental civilization it was quite correct not to make the same
classification as in the West where it has always been the right one.
The Greeks, for instance, merely used different words to express
what now concerns us. When speaking of the element of soul in man,
they began with what we call the life-body (etheric body) and called
it ‘treptikon’; for what we call the sentient (astral) body
they used the very expressive word ‘aisthetikon’; our sentient
soul they called ‘orektikon’; the intellectual or mind-soul,
‘kinetikon’, and the most precious possession now being
acquired by man, the spiritual soul, they called ‘dianoetikon’.
Such is the development of the human being when considered in detail.
Owing to certain conditions that will become clearer to us to-day,
the development of the Nathan Jesus was somewhat accelerated — a
fact also rendered possible because in those regions puberty was
reached at an earlier age.
In the case of the Nathan Jesus there were very special reasons why
the change usually occurring in the fourteenth year should take place
in the twelfth. So too the other changes connected with the
twenty-first, twenty-eighth and thirty-fifth years came about in his
nineteenth, twenty-sixth and thirty-third years respectively. This
indicates in broad outline the development of the central Figure of
our Earth.
| Diagram 1 Click image for large view | |
It must be borne in mind that up to the twelfth year the physical
body was that of the Nathan Jesus, but that after the twelfth year
the Ego of Zarathustra was living in that body. What does this mean?
It means that from the twelfth year onwards, this mature Ego was
working upon the sentient (astral) body, the sentient soul and the
mind-soul of the Nathan Jesus, elaborating these members in a way
possible only to an Ego of great maturity — an Ego that had
undergone the destinies of the Zarathustra-Individuality through many
incarnations. We therefore meet with the wonderful fact that
the Ego of Zarathustra passed into the body of the Nathan Jesus in
the twelfth year of life and elaborated the faculties of the soul to
the highest degree of excellence. Thus there developed a sentient
body able to gaze into the Cosmos and experience something of the
spiritual nature of Ahura Mazdao; there developed a sentient soul
able to harbour the knowledge and wisdom based on the teaching
concerning Ahura Mazdao; and there developed a mind-soul able to
apprehend, to formulate in intelligible concepts and words, that
which men had hitherto been able to acquire only through spiritual
currents flowing into them from outside.
The Nathan Jesus, having within him the Zarathustra-Ego, lived on
until his thirtieth year was approaching. The event that had occurred
when he was twelve, when his inmost nature was filled with a new
Egohood, now took place again — but this time on an infinitely
more sublime, more universal scale. Towards the thirtieth year the
Zarathustra-Ego had accomplished its work in the soul of the Nathan
Jesus; the faculties of this soul had been developed to the highest
possible degree and the mission of the Zarathustra-Ego was thus
fulfilled. Having instilled into the soul all the faculties he had
acquired through his own previous incarnations, Zarathustra could
declare: ‘My task is now accomplished!’ — and a moment
came when his Ego left the body of the Nathan Jesus.
The Zarathustra-Ego had lived in the body of the Solomon Jesus until
the twelfth year. No further development in earthly existence would
thereafter have been possible for this boy. Because the
Zarathustra-Ego had gone out of him, his development came to a
standstill at the point reached at that time, although exceptional
maturity had been attained owing to the presence of such a highly
advanced Ego. Anyone observing the Solomon Jesus-child would have
found him prematurely advanced to a conspicuous degree; but from the
moment the Zarathustra-Ego left him he came to a standstill and could
make no further progress. And when — comparatively soon — the
mother of the Nathan Jesus died and the spiritual part of her being
was translated into the spiritual world, she took with her what was
of eternal value and formative power in the
Solomon Jesus child. This child also died — at about the same
time as the mother of the Nathan Jesus.
It was an etheric sheath of utmost value which then left the body of
the Solomon Jesus. As we know, the development of the etheric body
takes place mainly between the seventh year of life and puberty. This
was an etheric body that had been worked upon and elaborated by the
forces of the Zarathustra-Ego. In normal human existence, when the
etheric body leaves the physical body at death, everything that is of
no eternal use is discarded and the human being takes with him a kind
of extract of the etheric body. In the case of the child of the
Solomon line the etheric body was of eternal use in the fullest
possible sense and the whole life-body of this child was taken by the
mother of the Nathan Jesus with her into the spiritual world.
Now the etheric body forms and shapes the physical body of man and it
is not difficult to realize that there was a very deep connection
between this etheric body of the Solomon Jesus which had been
translated into the spiritual world, and the Zarathustra-Ego; for
this Ego and etheric body had been united until the twelfth year of
earthly life. And when the Zarathustra-Ego left the body of Jesus of
Nazareth, the power of attraction between this Ego and the original
etheric body in the Solomon Jesus asserted itself. The maturity of
the Zarathustra-Ego was such that a further passage through Devachan
was unnecessary and after a comparatively short time this Ego was
able, in conjunction with his former etheric body, to build up a new
physical body. This resulted in the birth of the Being who thereafter
appeared again and again, always with relatively short intervals
between physical death and rebirth; whenever this Being left the
physical body at death, he soon appeared again on the Earth in a new
incarnation. Having sought and found the etheric body he had once
relinquished in the circumstances indicated, this Being went on his way
through history as the ‘Master Jesus’, becoming, as you can
well imagine, the great helper of those who have endeavoured to understand
the Event of Palestine. Thus it was the Zarathustra-Ego, Zarathustra
himself, who having found
his etheric body again began to move through the evolution of mankind
as the Master Jesus, incarnating again and again to give guidance and
direction to the spiritual stream of Christianity. He is the Inspirer
of those who strive to understand Christianity in its living growth
and development; within the esoteric schools he inspired those whose
perpetual duty it was to cultivate the teachings of Christianity. He
stands behind the great spiritual figures of Christianity, ever
teaching what the great Event of Palestine signifies.
Having indwelt the body of the Nathan Jesus from the twelfth to the
thirtieth year, the Zarathustra-Ego was hence-forth outside that
body and another Being descended into it. This happened, as all the
Gospels relate, at the Baptism by John in the Jordan, when an Ego of
untold sublimity entered into the Nathan Jesus in place of the
Zarathustra-Ego. In the lectures on the Gospel of St. John,
[ 1 ]
attention was drawn to the fact that ‘baptism’ in those
olden days was something very different from the mere symbol which it
became later on. It was also enacted differently by John the Baptist.
The body of one who was baptized was completely submerged in the water.
You know from preparatory lectures that a definite experience may be
connected with such a happening. Even in everyday existence it may
happen that when a man is in danger of drowning, or sustains a
violent shock, a tableau of his life hitherto appears before him.
This is because something that otherwise takes place only after
death, occurs momentarily: the etheric body is lifted out of the
physical body and is freed from its power. This happened to most of
those who were baptized by John, and in a very special way to the
Nathan Jesus. His etheric body was drawn out — and during that
moment the sublime Being we call the Christ descended into his
body.
Thus from the time of the Baptism, the Nathan Jesus was filled with
the Christ Being as is indicated in the words contained in the
earlier Gospel records: ‘This is my well-beloved Son; this day have I
begotten Him!’ — meaning: the Son of
Heaven, the Christ, is now begotten — begotten of the
all-pervading Godhead and received into the body and whole
constitution of the Nathan Jesus who had been prepared to receive the
seed from heavenly heights. ‘This is my well-beloved Son; this day
have I begotten Him!’ — These were the words contained in the
earlier manuscripts and this is how they ought still to stand in the
Gospels.
(Luke III, 22.)
Who is this Being who united at that time with the etheric body of
the Nathan Jesus?
The Christ Being cannot be understood if we think of Earth evolution
alone. The Christ is the Leader of those spiritual Beings who left
with the Sun when it separated from the Earth and established for
themselves this higher sphere of action in order to work upon the
Earth from outside. If we think back to the pre-Christian period of
Earth evolution, from the time of the separation of the Sun until the
appearance of Christ, we must say: When men looked up to the Sun
with mature faculties they would have recognized the truth of what
Zarathustra taught, namely that the light and warmth streaming from
the Sun are but the physical vestment of the spiritual Beings behind
the Sun's light; for behind the physical phenomena are hidden the
spiritual rays of power which stream from the Sun to the Earth. The
Leader of all the Beings who send their beneficent influences from
the Sun to the Earth is He who was later called Christ. In
pre-Christian times, therefore, this Being was not to be sought on
Earth but on the Sun. And Zarathustra rightly called Him ‘Ahura
Mazdao’, saying in effect: ‘On the Earth we do not find the
Light-Spirit; but when we look up to the Sun we behold the spiritual
Being — Ahura Mazdao — who has his habitation there. The
light that streams to us is the body of the Sun-Spirit, Ahura Mazdao,
even as the human physical body is the body of the human spirit. But
in the course of great happenings in the Cosmos this sublime Being
drew ever nearer to the Earth-sphere; His approach could be perceived
more and more distinctly by clairvoyance, and was unmistakable when
in the flame of lightning on Mount Sinai the revelations came to
Moses, the great forerunner of Christ Jesus.
What did these revelations to Moses signify? They signified that the
Christ Being, while approaching the Earth, was revealing Himself
— in reflection to begin with — as if in a mirror-image. Let
us consider, in its spiritual aspect, the process in evidence at
every full Moon. When we look at the full Moon we see the rays of the
Sun in reflection. It is sunlight that streams towards us, only we
call it moonlight because we see it reflected by the Moon. What Being
did Moses behold in the burning bush and in the fire on Sinai? He
beheld the Christ! But just as the sunlight is not seen directly but
reflected from the Moon, so did Moses see the Christ in reflection. And
as we call the sunlight ‘moonlight’ when we see it reflected
from the Moon, Christ was called at that time, Jahve, or Jehovah. Jahve
or Jehovah is the reflection of the Christ before He Himself appeared on
Earth. Christ announced Himself thus indirectly to a humanity as yet
unable to behold Him in his immediate reality, just as the sun-light
manifests itself through the rays of the Moon in the otherwise dark
night of full Moon. Jahve or Jehovah is the Christ — but seen as
reflected light, not directly.
The faculties of human cognition and perception were to come within
nearer and nearer range of the Christ. Having previously manifested
His presence to the Initiates from the Cosmos, He was now Himself to
tread the Earth for a season as a man among men. But this could not
come to pass until the right time had arrived. That Christ is a
reality has always been known wherever men have steeped themselves in
the wisdom of the world, and because He has revealed Himself in so
many different ways He has been called by diverse names. Zarathustra
called Him ‘Ahura Mazdao’ because He revealed Himself in the raiment
of the Sun's light. The great Teachers of humanity in ancient India
during the first period after the Atlantean catastrophe — the
holy Rishis — had known full well of this Being, for they were
Initiates. They knew too that in their epoch He was beyond the range
of earthly wisdom and would be accessible to it only later on. Hence
it was said that this Being was beyond the sphere of the seven Rishis.
‘Vishva Karman’ was the name given to Him. The Rishis taught
of the Being whom they called ‘Vishva Karman’ and Zarathustra
called ‘Ahura Mazdao’. Vishva Karman and Ahura Mazdao were two
of the names for this Being who was gradually approaching the Earth from
heights of spirit, from cosmic realms.
But preparation had to be made in the evolution of humanity to ensure
the existence of a body fit to receive this Being. It was necessary
for a Being such as had lived in Zarathustra to mature from
incarnation to incarnation in order that in a body as pure as that of
Jesus of Nazareth he could bring the faculties of the sentient
body, of the sentient soul and of the mind-soul to the degree of
perfection that would render this human being fit to receive into
himself so sublime a Being. Such preparation had to be made. Before a
sentient soul and a mind-soul could be adequately developed it was
necessary that an Ego should first have undergone the many
experiences and destinies of Zarathustra and then transform the
faculties present in the Nathan Jesus. This would not have been
possible at any earlier time, for the Nathan Jesus-child had to be
worked upon not only by the Zarathustra-Ego but also by the lofty
spiritual power we have characterized as the Nirmanakaya of Buddha.
From the child's birth until his twelfth year this power worked
chiefly from outside. But the Bodhisattva himself had had first to
become Buddha before he was able to develop in himself the spiritual
body, the Nirmanakaya, wherewith to work upon the Nathan Jesus during
this period of his life. At the time of the incarnation in the course
of which he was destined to become Buddha he had not yet acquired
this power; the Buddha-life had first to be lived through.
Some day, when humanity understands what deep wisdom has been
preserved in many ancient legends, it will be found that everything
deciphered from the Akashic Chronicle is contained in a wonderful way
in those legends. We are told, and rightly told, that in ancient
India too, men were taught of Christ as a cosmic Being beyond the
sphere of the seven holy Rishis. The Rishis knew that He dwelt in
lofty spiritual regions and was only gradually approaching the Earth.
Zarathustra too knew that he must turn his gaze from the Earth to the Sun;
and the ancient Hebrews, because of the faculties and attributes
indicated in the last lecture, were the first people to whom the
proclamation of the Christ Being in His reflection could be made.
We are also told in a legend how the Bodhisattva, when about to
become Buddha, came into spiritual contact with Vishva
Karman — the Being who was later called Christ. The legend
relates that when his twenty-ninth year was approaching the
Bodhisattva made his famous exit from the palace where he had been
strictly guarded and fostered. Then he saw, first, an old man, then a
sick man, then a corpse, thus becoming gradually aware of the
miseries of life. Then he saw a monk who had forsaken this life with
its accompanying phenomena of old age, sickness and death.
Thereupon — so it is related in this profoundly true
legend — he resolved not to leave the palace immediately but to
return once more. But during this first departure from the
palace — so runs the legend — he was invested from spiritual
heights with the power which the Divine Artificer, Vishva Karman, who
appeared to him, sent down to the Earth. The Bodhisattva was invested
with the power of Vishva Karman, of Christ. Thus for the Bodhisattva,
Christ was a Being outside — not yet united with him. At that
time the Bodhisattva too had nearly reached his thirtieth year but he
could not then have made it possible for Christ to be received in the
fullest sense into a human body. He had first to become sufficiently
mature, and this stage was attained through his Buddha-existence. And
when, later on, he appeared in the Nirmanakaya, his task was to make
the body of the Nathan Jesus — in which he was not himself
embodied — fit to receive Vishva Karman, the Christ.
In this way the forces in earthly evolution had worked in concert to
bring about the great Event. It is now on our lips to ask: What is
the relationship of Christ, of Vishva Karman, to Beings such as the
Bodhisattvas, of whom the Bodhisattva who afterwards became Buddha
was one?
This question brings us to the threshold of one of the greatest
mysteries of Earth evolution. Generally speaking, it will
be difficult for the feelings and perceptive faculties of men at the
present time to have even an inkling of what lies behind this
mystery. The mission of the Bodhisattva who became Buddha was to
incorporate into humanity the principle of compassion and love.
Twelve such Beings are connected with the Cosmos to which the Earth
belongs. The Bodhisattva who became Buddha in the fifth/sixth century
B.C.
is one of these Twelve, all of whom have specific missions:
Just as the mission of this particular Bodhisattva was to bring to
the Earth the teaching of compassion and love, the other Bodhisattvas
too have their missions which must be fulfilled in the different
epochs of Earth evolution. Gautama Buddha's connection with the
mission of the Earth is especially close inasmuch as the development
of the moral sense is precisely the task of our own epoch — from
the time when the Bodhisattva appeared five to six centuries
B.C.
to the time when the Bodhisattva who succeeded him in that office will
live on Earth as the Maitreya Buddha. That is how Earth evolution
advances; the Bodhisattvas descend and have to incorporate into
evolution from time to time what constitutes the object of their
mission.
A survey of the whole of Earth evolution would reveal that there are
twelve such Bodhisattvas. They belong to that great community of
Spirits which from time to time sends one of the Bodhisattvas to the
Earth as a special emissary, as one of the great Teachers. A Lodge of
twelve Bodhisattvas is to be regarded as the Lodge directing all Earth
evolution. The concept of ‘Teacher’ familiar to us at lower
stages of existence can be applied, in essentials, to these twelve
Bodhisattvas. They are Teachers, the great Inspirers of one portion
or another of what mankind has to acquire.
Whence do these Bodhisattvas receive what they have to proclaim from
epoch to epoch? — If you were able to look into the great
Spirit-Lodge of the twelve Bodhisattvas you would find that in the
midst of the Twelve there is a Thirteenth — one who cannot be
called a ‘Teacher’ in the same sense as the Bodhisattvas, but
of whom we must say: He is that Being from
whom wisdom itself streams as very substance.
It is therefore quite correct to speak of the twelve Bodhisattvas in
the great Spirit-Lodge grouped around One who is their Centre; they are
wrapt in contemplation of the sublime Being from whom there streams
what they have then to inculcate into Earth evolution in fulfilment of
their missions. Thus there streams from the Thirteenth what the others have
to teach. They are the ‘Teachers’, the ‘Inspirers’;
the Thirteenth is himself the Being of whom the others teach, whom they
proclaim from epoch to epoch. This Thirteenth is He whom the ancient
Rishis called Vishva Karman, whom Zarathustra called Ahura Mazdao,
whom we call the Christ. He is the Leader and Guide of the great
Lodge of the Bodhisattvas. Hence the content of the proclamation made
through the whole choir of the Bodhisattvas is the teaching
concerning Christ, once called Vishva Karman. The Bodhisattva who
became Buddha five to six centuries before our era was endowed with
the powers of Vishva Karman. The Nathan Jesus who received the Christ into
himself was not merely ‘endowed’ but ‘anointed’
— that is to say, permeated through and through by Vishva Karman,
by Christ.
This mystery was portrayed in a symbol or in a picture wherever men
had an inkling of the great secrets of evolution or acquired
knowledge of them through Initiation. In the little known, enigmatic
Trottic Mysteries of Northern Europe before the coming of
Christianity, an earthly symbol of the spiritual reality of the Lodge
of the twelve Bodhisattvas was created. Those who were Teachers were
always associated with a community of twelve. It was for the Twelve
to proclaim the message and there was a Thirteenth who did not teach
but who through his very presence radiated the wisdom which the
others received. This was the picture on Earth of a heavenly,
spiritual reality. Again, in Goethe's poem Die Geheimnisse
[ 2 ]
where the poet has given an indication of his Rosicrucian inspiration,
we are reminded how Twelve sit around a Thirteenth who is not
necessarily a great Teacher. Brother Mark, in his simplicity, is
himself to be addressed by the Twelve as the Thirteenth — when
the former Thirteenth shall have left them. He is to be the bringer,
not of teaching, but of the spiritual substance itself. And it
was the same wherever an inkling or actual knowledge of this lofty
spiritual fact existed among men.
The Baptism by John in the Jordan marked the point of time in the
evolution of humanity when this heavenly ‘Thirteenth’ — as
spiritual substance itself — appeared on the Earth. This was the
Being of whom all others — Bodhisattvas and Buddhas — had had
to teach, and for whose descent into a human body such stupendous
preparations had been necessary. That is the mystery of the Baptism
in the Jordan. The Being is He who is described in the Gospels:
Vishva Karman, Ahura Mazdao, or the Christ as He was called later on
when in the body of the Nathan Jesus. As Christ, this Being was to
tread the Earth in human form for three years, a man among men,
within that purified terrestrial Being who up to his thirtieth year
had undergone all the experiences of which we have heard in these
lectures. The Being formerly hidden in the light- and warmth-giving
rays of the Sun streaming down from the Cosmos, the Being, that is,
who had gone with the Sun when it separated from the Earth, now
descended into the Nathan Jesus.
We may now ask another question: Why was the union of this Being with
the evolution of humanity on the Earth so long postponed? Why had He
not descended at an earlier time to the Earth. Why had He not
penetrated before into a human etheric body, as He did at tlhe
Baptism by John in the Jordan?
This will be intelligible to us if we grasp the nature of the
happening described in the Old Testament as the ‘Fall into Sin’.
During the epoch of ancient Lemuria, certain beings insinuated
themselves into the human astral body — they were beings who had
remained at the stage of Old Moon evolution. The human astral body
was permeated at that time by the Luciferic beings and this is
presented pictorially as the Fall into Sin in Paradise. Because these
forces penetrated into his astral body, man became more deeply
entangled in the things of
the Earth than would otherwise have been the case. Had he not been
subject to the Luciferic influence he would have been less deeply
entangled in earthly matter. Consequently he descended to the Earth
earlier than was originally intended. Now if nothing else had
intervened, if nothing had taken place except what has just been
indicated, the Luciferic forces anchored in the human astral body
would have taken effect in the etheric body as well. But it was
essential for the cosmic Powers to take special measures to prevent
this. In the book
Occult Science — an Outline
[ 3 ]
the subject is
dealt with from a different aspect. Man might not remain as he was
after the Luciferic forces had penetrated into his astral body. He
had to be protected against the effect of the forces upon his etheric
body. This end was achieved at that time by making it impossible for
him to use the whole of his etheric body, part of it being removed
from his arbitrary control. If this beneficent deed of the Gods had
not been accomplished, if man had retained power over the whole of
his etheric body, he could never have found his right path through
Earth evolution. Certain parts of the human etheric body had at that
time to be withdrawn in order to be preserved for later times. Let us
try to picture what this means.
Man's physical body — as everything else that is physical — is
composed of the elements also to be found in the world outside: the
‘earthy’ or solid, the ‘watery’ or fluid, and
the ‘airy’ or gaseous. The etheric realm begins with the
first state of ether — the ‘fire-ether’ or simply
‘fire’. Fire or warmth, regarded by modern physics merely
as motion and non-substantial, is the first state of the ether. The
second is the ‘light-ether’, or simply ‘light’.
And the third state — sound, tone, or number — is one that is
not revealed to man in its original form at all; it is only a reflection,
as it were a shadow of this ether that can be perceived in the physical
world as tone or sound. Behind external ‘sound’, however,
there lies something of a finer etheric nature, something spiritual.
Physical tone or sound is a mere phantom of spiritual tone, of
‘sound-ether’ or also ‘number-ether’. The
fourth etheric realm is the ‘life-ether’ — that
which underlies actual ‘life’.
As physical man is constituted to-day, everything that is of the
nature of soul expresses itself in his physical and etheric
constitution, but is also connected with certain etheric substances.
What we call ‘will’ expresses itself etherically in what we call
‘fire’. Anyone who is at all sensitive to certain sentient
experiences will be aware that there is justification for saying that
the will, which expresses itself physically in the blood, lives in
the fire-element of the etheric; physically, the will expresses
itself in the blood, that is to say in the movement of the blood. What
we call ‘feeling’ expresses itself in the part of the etheric
body that corresponds to the light-ether. Because this is so, a
clairvoyant sees the will-impulses of a man flashing like flames
through his etheric body and raying into his astral body; and he sees
the feelings as forms of light. But the thinking that is experienced
by man in his soul as his own, and expressed in words, is only a
phantom of thinking — as you will readily believe, because
physical sound too is only a phantom of something higher. Words have
their organ in the sound-ether; our thoughts underlie our words;
words are forms of expression for thoughts. These forms of expression
fill etheric space inasmuch as they send their vibrations through the
sound-ether; ‘tone’ or ‘sound’ is only the shadow
of the actual thought-vibrations. The inner essence of all our thoughts,
that which endows our thoughts with meaning (Sinn), actually
belongs; in respect of its etheric nature, to the life-ether itself.
Meaning (Sinn) .................... Life-Ether
Thinking .......................... Tone- or Sound-Ether
Feeling ........................... Light-Ether
Will .............................. Fire-Ether
Air
Water
Earth
In the Lemurian epoch, after the onset of the Luciferic influence, of
these four forms of ether only the two lower (light-ether and
fire-ether) were left at the free, abitrary disposal of man; the two
higher kinds of ether were withdrawn from him. That is the inner
meaning of the passage where it is said that when, as a result of the
Luciferic influence, men had become able to distinguish between good
and evil (pictorially expressed as eating of the ‘Tree of
Knowledge’), the ‘Tree of Life’ was kept out of their
reach. That is to say, the power freely and arbitrarily to penetrate
the thought-ether and the sense-ether (‘meaning’-ether) was
withdrawn from them.
The conditions of man's development were therefore necessarily as
follows. His will was given into his power to assert as his
‘personal’ expression; the same applies to his feelings. Both feeling
and will are at man's personal disposal. Hence the individual
character of the world of feeling and the world of will. This
individual character, however, ceases immediately we pass from
feeling to thinking — yes, even to the expression of thoughts, to
the words on the physical plane. Whereas each man's feeling and will
are personal, we immediately come into something universal when we
rise into the realm of words and the realm of thoughts. No one
individual can form thoughts that are his alone. If thoughts were as
individual as feelings we should never understand one another. Thus
thought and ‘meaning’ (Sinn) were withheld from the
power of arbitrary human will and preserved for the time being in the
world of the Gods, in order not to be given to man until a later time.
Everywhere on the Earth, therefore, we can find individual men with
individual feelings and individual impulses of will; but thinking is
uniform everywhere and language is uniform among the several peoples.
Where there is a common language, there reigns a common Folk-Deity.
This sphere is withheld from the arbitrary power of man, remaining
for the time being a field into which the Gods work.
When Zarathustra, with his pupils around him, spoke of the realm of
spirit, he could say: ‘Out of heaven there streams down warmth, or
fire; out of heaven there streams down light.
These are the vestments of Ahura Mazdao. But behind these vestments
is hidden that which has not yet descended but has remained above in
spiritual heights, casting only a shadow in the physical thoughts and
words of men.’ Behind the warmth and light of the Sun is hidden that
which lives in tone or sound, in meaning, manifesting itself only to
those who are able to see behind the light that which is related to
the earthly word as the heavenly Word is related to the part of Life
that was withheld for the time being from humanity. Hence Zarathustra
said: ‘Look upwards to Ahura Mazdao; see how He reveals Himself in
the physical raiment of light and warmth. But behind all that is the
Divine, Creative Word — and it is approaching the Earth!’
What is Vishva Karman? What is Ahura Mazdao? What is Christ in His
true form? The Divine, Creative Word! Hence in Zarathustra's
teaching the momentous communication is made that he was initiated in
order not only to apprehend in the light the Being he called Ahura
Mazdao, but also the Divine, Creative Word, Honover — which
was to descend to the Earth and for the first time did descend into
an individual etheric body at the Baptism by John. The Divine-Spiritual
Word which had been preserved since the Lemurian epoch came forth
from ethereal heights at the Baptism by John and entered into the
etheric body of the Nathan Jesus. And when the Baptism was completed,
what was it that had happened? The Word had become Flesh!
What had Zarathustra, or those who had knowledge of his Mysteries,
proclaimed? As seers they had proclaimed the ‘Word’ that is
hidden behind the warmth and the light. They were ‘servants of the
Word’. And the writer of the Gospel of St. Luke recorded what the
‘seers’ proclaimed — those who had become
‘servants of the Word’.
This example again shows us that the Gospels must be taken literally.
What had been withheld from men for so long because of the
Luciferic influence, became flesh in a single personality, descended
to the Earth and lived on the Earth. Hence this Being is the great
prototype of all those who by degrees will understand His nature. Our
wisdom on Earth must follow the lead of the Bodhisattvas, whose
unceasing task it is to proclaim the Thirteenth among them. All
spiritual science, all our wisdom, all our knowledge, must be devoted
to understanding the nature of Vishva Karman, of Ahura Mazdao,
of CHRIST.
Notes:
1.
Lecture-Course entitled:
The Gospel of St. John in relation to the other Gospels, especially to the Gospel of St. Luke.
2.
See the lecture entitled The Mysteries. Given at Cologne, 25th
December 1907.
3.
See
pp. 185–6 in the 1963 edition.
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