LECTURE VIII
THE raising of the two sides of initiation
to the heights of a world-historical transaction comprises
what is most essential for us in the Christ Event.
In the form
of initiation found more especially in the Mysteries and
Sanctuaries of Egypt, a man experienced his daily awakening,
that is, the descent into his physical and etheric sheaths,
so that his perceptive organs were directed, not to his
physical environment but to the occurrences within these
bodies. Those who were initiated according to this ancient
method, in which they received guidance and help to shield
them from its inherent dangers, became in a certain sense,
different men. They were able, during the act of initiation
at least, to behold the spiritual world, to see in the first
place those spiritual forces and beings which are associated
with our physical and etheric bodies.
Were we to
describe the initiation of the Essenes from this point of
view, we should have to say that after passing through the
forty-two stages, the Essene would arrive at a more intimate
knowledge of his true inner being, his own ego-nature, and of
everything that made him capable of spiritual perception
through the external organs acquired by inheritance; he would
be led beyond the forty-two stages to that divinely spiritual
Being who, as Jahve orJehovah, had brought about the
formation of the special organ first possessed by Abraham, as
I have already explained. In spirit he would recognize in
this organ what was essential to the age in which he lived;
he would look back to the composition of his inner being and
see it as the product of Divinity; in this form of initiation
his attention was, therefore, not directed to knowledge
concerning man's own inner nature.
The danger
resulting from a man entering his inner being unprepared, was
described in general terms in the last lecture. I showed how
egoism was then aroused in him so that he said: ‘I will
summon all my powers, all my egoistic passions and emotions,
all that is antagonistic to spiritual knowledge; I will
marshal these within me so as to become one with them; in
this way I will act, perceive, and feel, only from out my own
egoistic inner being.’ Descent into a man's own
inner being brings with it the danger of excessive egoism. It
is this which as a special kind of illusion again and again
approaches those who seek entrance into their inner being by
means of esoteric development. In such cases many forms of
egoism become apparent in people which they do not as a rule
recognize to be egoism. They believe it to be anything rather
than egoism. There are many who would fain see into the
higher worlds but they lack the will to endure the training.
They find it most uncomfortable to watch the deeply-rooted
characteristics of human nature rising within them. They
would like to reach the spiritual world without this eruption
of egoism. They fail to realize that the dissatisfaction felt
towards an experience that is quite in order, is in itself
evidence of the bitterest and most marked egoism. They ought
rather to ask: Must not I too, since I am a man, call up all
sorts of such powers? They find such phenomena extraordinary
— in spite of innumerable explanations of their
inevitability at a certain stage. It is easy to give examples
of these illusions and deceptions to which people are liable.
For instance, human beings to-day are in many respects very
indolent — they prefer to tread the way of initiation
with the accustomed ease of ordinary life; but this comfort
cannot be experienced on the path leading to the spiritual
world.
In ancient
times the man who trod the inner path was led to the divine
spiritual powers, because to them he owed the creation of his
inner being. He could perceive them at work on his physical
body and etheric body. Such a man could bear witness to the
mysteries of the spiritual worlds, and could tell his fellow
men what he passed through while being led in the Mysteries
into his own inner being and hence into the spiritual world.
Returning from the higher worlds he could say, ‘I have
gazed into spiritual existence, but I was helped. Helpers of
the Initiator in the Mysteries enabled me to outlast the time
in which otherwise the demons of my own nature would have
overwhelmed me.’ But because he was indebted to outside
help for his view of the spiritual world, he remained all his
life dependent upon the collegium and on those who had helped
him. The powers who had aided him went out with him into the
cosmos.
This had to
be changed; this dependence had to be overcome. The seekers
after initiation had to grow less and less dependent on their
teachers and initiators — for something else of great
importance was closely associated with that help.
At a certain
moment in life, a distinct ego-feeling dawns in our everyday
consciousness. This has often been described, and you find
the moment described in my book,
Theosophy.
It is the moment when a human being first addresses himself as
‘I.’ This is something an animal cannot do. If an
animal were to look into its own inner nature as a man does,
it would find not an individual ego, but a group ego. In the
old initiations this ego-feeling was, to a certain extent,
suppressed. When a man ascended into the spiritual world his
feeling of self was clouded. In the light of these lectures
it can be seen that it was well this should be so, for
egoism, passions, all that tends to separate man from man in
the external world, are connected with the ego-feeling. To
prevent these passions and emotions from reaching an
excessive strength, suppression of the ego-feeling was
necessary. During ancient initiation therefore, not exactly a
dream-consciousness, but a suppressed condition of
the ego-feeling occurred. More and more effort had to be
directed towards making a man capable of initiation while
maintaining full consciousness of the ego —
the ego-consciousness he had in waking life. The ancient
practices were to cease. This change could only be achieved
in the course of time by slow and gradual stages, but already
to-day in all rightly constituted initiations, the point has
been reached where the ego-feeling to a high degree is not
extinguished when a man rises up into higher worlds.
Let us now
examine the pre-Christian initiation of the Essenes more
closely. With this initiation was also associated a certain
weakening of the ego-feeling. That which gives man his
feeling of self in earthly existence, which enables him to
confront external objects, had to be suppressed. A little
reflection on even the most trivial side of waking life will
suffice to make us realize that in another condition, that of
sleep, when man is in the spiritual world, he has no
consciousness of self. Ego-consciousness belongs to
day-consciousness, when the attention is withdrawn from the
spiritual world, and is directed to the world of the senses.
Thus it is to-day, and so it was in the days when Christ was
on earth. The man of to-day is for the most part, and in
normal conditions, not awake to the spiritual world.
Christian initiation really consists in the Ego remaining as
wide-awake in the higher worlds as it is in the external
world.
Let us
consider quite clearly the moment of awakening. This moment
confronts us as that in which man descends from higher worlds
and plunges down into his physical and etheric bodies, the
inner happenings of which, however, he fails to perceive, his
attention being immediately attracted towards his
environment. Everything upon which his glance falls at the
moment of awakening, everything he perceives through eye or
ear, everything he grasps with the understanding bound to the
physical brain — everything in fact that exists in his
physical environment, was included in the word
‘Malchut’ or ‘the Kingdom’ as
employed in the mystery language of the ancient Hebrews. To
the Hebrew, ‘Malchut’ stood for everything in
which the human ego could consciously take part. ‘The
Kingdom’ is primarily the sense-world, the world of
waking man, man in the full possession of his ego.
Let us now
follow the stages of initiation by which man descends into
his own inner being. The first stage preceding the entrance
into and the perception of the secrets of the etheric body is
easy to surmise. The human outer sheaths consist, as we know,
of the astral body, the etheric and the physical body. Into
these man must enter. If he is to pass through this kind of
initiation he must be able to perceive his astral body
consciously from within. This he must experience
first, if he wishes to enter the interior of his physical and
etheric body. This is the door through which he must go. Here
ever new experiences await him, and what he experiences is
objective, as objective as the things he encounters in the
world of the senses.
In perceiving
the objects in our environment with our sense-perception, we
distinguish three kingdoms, that of minerals, plants, and
animals; but the ancient Hebrew did not make this
distinction, he regarded them as one and summed them up in
the one conception, that of the Kingdom. In
the same way as our outer eye perceives animals, plants, and
minerals when we direct our glance to the sense-world in
which our ego is conscious, so the eye of those able to sink
down into their inner nature can perceive everything that is
to be perceived in the astral body. These things are
not as yet beheld consciously by man through his ego, but the
ego makes use of the instruments of the astral body in order
to perceive them. What a man sees when he makes use of
other powers of perception — that is, when his
ego is active in a world with which he is connected through
his astral organs — was always described in
the ancient Hebrew language by three words. Just as we speak
of an animal, plant, and mineral kingdom, they expressed this
trinity of the astral body in the three words: Nezach, Jesod,
and Hod. If these three expressions are to be made in some
way conformable to our language we must enter more deeply
into the old Hebrew feeling for language than is possible
with the aid of an ordinary lexicon. We must call to our aid
the sense for language that existed in pre-Christian times.
For example, the combination of sounds in the word Hod sought
to express the idea of something spiritual appearing
outwardly. Try to picture this something spiritual that
desires to make itself known outwardly, to express itself
outwardly, but a spirituality that must be conceived of as
astral in nature. This desire for outward expression is
implied in a much stronger form in the word
‘Nezach.’ What is here striving to reveal itself
might perhaps be rendered as ‘Something that appears to
be impenetrable.’
In modern
handbooks on Physics it is stated as an opinion —
though it is really to be regarded as a definition, but it is
not a matter of logic) — that the physical body is
‘impenetrable.’ A physical body should be defined
as that of which it can be said, that when in one place, no
other body can occupy the same place at the same time. This
must be put down as a definition — instead of which we
now have the dogma: the bodies of the physical world have the
quality of impenetrability. Whereas it ought to be: two
bodies cannot occupy the same place simultaneously. (This,
however, is philosophy.) ‘Nezach’ expresses the
self-manifestation of something in space to the exclusion of
something else; it represents something a degree coarser than
Hod. What lies between these two is the degree expressed in
the word ‘Jesod.’
There are
thus three degrees. In the first, ‘Hod’ we have
the manifestation of any astral fact revealing itself
outwardly. When conditions are coarsened to physical
impenetrability it is called ‘Nezach’ in the
Hebrew language; and the word ‘Jesod’ is used to
define the intermediate conditions. These words express the
three different characteristics peculiar to the beings of the
astral world.
We can now
enter further into man's inner nature with those who
seek initiation by this method. Having overcome whatever has
to be overcome in the astral body, the seeker enters into his
etheric body. He then perceives something higher than is
expressed by the three Hebrew words we have just considered.
You may wonder why this should be higher. There is
something strange here which must be noted if we are to
arrive at any real knowledge of the nature of the universe.
You Must realize that the highest spiritual forces are active
in what are apparently the lowest manifestations of the
external world. I have often drawn your attention to this and
demonstrated it especially in reference to the nature of
man.
Man is
described as being composed of physical body, etheric body,
astral body, and ego. From a certain point of view it is true
that the ego is the highest of these, but at its present
stage of development it is the baby among the four principles
of human nature. Though it contains the seed of the highest
to which man can attain, it is at present in itself the least
advanced. The physical body, on the other hand, is in itself
the most perfect of the human principles, no thanks to man,
but because throughout the Saturn, Sun, and Moon Periods
divine beings worked upon it. Even the astral body has become
more perfect than the ego. The human ego is that which is so
close to us that we identify ourselves with it; in fact
anyone who does not wilfully close his eyes or is not too
superficial to look within himself; has only to do so to find
his ego there. In comparison, think how far removed man is
from the comprehension of the mysteries of his own physical
body. Spiritual beings have been working on the physical body
of man not for millions, but for millions of millions of
years, to bring it to its present perfection of structure.
Between the physical body and the ego lie the astral and
etheric bodies. Compared with the physical principle the
astral is very imperfect: in it are the emotions, passions,
and desires. Through the emotions of the astral body many
things are enjoyed which have a detrimental effect on the
wonderful organism of the physical body, even though the
etheric acts as an impediment between the two. Allusion has
often been made to the many enjoyments that are injurious to
the heart, and how the astral body would undermine the health
of the human heart were it not that it is so wonderful and
perfect an organization that for many decades it can
withstand the attacks of the astral body. But so it is. The
deeper we descend, the higher are the spiritual forces at
work on our different principles. One might say: It is the
youngest gods, the more recent divinely spiritual forces who
have given us our ego; and the older gods who have bestowed
that perfection on the lower principles of our being which
man has hardly even begun to comprehend, much less to imitate
with the instruments at his disposal.
This
perfection was perceived more especially by those who made a
descent into their inner being by the methods of initiation
practised among the Essenes. Such an Essene Initiate might
say: ‘Only after I have passed the first fourteen
stages shall I be able to enter my astral body there I
encounter all the passions and emotions connected with this
astral body, together with all the harm I have done to it
during this incarnation. But I am not as yet in a position to
do injury to my etheric body, for it is in fact purer and
more divine; and will be seen by me when I have passed
through the second fourteen stages.’ He felt that if he
could but withstand the attacks of the astral body, the
greatest difficulties of the first fourteen stages would be
overcome, and he could then enter the light spheres of his
etheric body on which he had not as yet been able to inflict
so much injury.
What the
seekers after initiation next beheld is described in the
ancient Hebrew occult teaching by three expressions which are
very difficult to translate; they are Gedulah,
Tipheret, and Geburah. Let us try to form some
idea of the realms described by these words.
When a man
perceived that which united him with his etheric body, he
felt affected by the first of these — by Gedulah. The
effect of Gedulah was that the individual gained a conception
of the majesty, the grandeur, and over-whelming
power of the spiritual world. What, on the other hand,
is expressed by Geburah, though connected with the first, has
a quite different quality of greatness, a greatness that is,
as it were, lessened through activity. Geburah is that degree
of greatness, or of power, which reveals itself outwardly in
order to defend itself and to make itself known as
an independent being. Thus, while the word Gedulah implies
activity through intrinsic worth, Geburah is activity
manifesting outwards in what might be called an aggressive
way. Tipheret is an expression for greatness at rest
within itself; an inwardness certainly that manifests
outwardly, but without aggression; a being that because it
gives expression to spiritual greatness, is such as we can
only express through a combination of the two ideas,
‘goodness’ and ‘beauty.’
A being
expressing its inner nature in outward form appears beautiful
to us. A being giving outward expression to its intrinsic
worth appears good to us. These two conceptions were both
inherent in the ancient Hebrew word
‘Tipheret.’
It was
descent into the etheric body that brought man in
touch with the beings revealing themselves through these
three attributes.
The next step
is the descent into the physical body. In his physical body
man learns to know (if one can so express it) the most
ancient of the divine spiritual Beings who have worked
on him. In
Occult Science
and in communications
From the Akashic Records
it is explained how the
physical body first came into being on ancient Saturn. Very
exalted spiritual beings, the Thrones, offered up their own
will-substance to provide the first germ of the human
physical body; and in its further development throughout the
Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods, exalted beings co-operated in
the work on germinal humanity. In the Lectures given at
Munich on
Biblical Secrets of Creation
I described how these exalted beings remained united with man
throughout the Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods, organizing and
developing ever more highly and widely the primal germ of the
physical organization, so that it might become the marvel of
construction we see to-day, and within which man dwells with
his etheric body, astral body, and ego.
A man who is
really able to descend into his own inner being perceives
something that has qualities which, according to the ancient
Hebrew mystical teaching, can only be imagined when
concentrating on the most exalted wisdom to which the soul
can attain. Such a man regards wisdom as an ideal, he feels
his being exalted when he can fill it to some extent with
wisdom. Those who at the time of the Essenes were able to
plunge down into the physical body knew they approached
beings whose whole substance consisted of what a man can
attain, in small measure at least, when he strives for
wisdom; a wisdom that is not won through ordinary external
understanding but only through an understanding born of
difficult soul experiences, and that cannot be acquired in
one incarnation but in many, and only then in part
— for only by acquiring every form of wisdom can man
possess it completely. The beings perceived at this stage of
initiation were beings of Wisdom — in them the peculiar
qualities of pure unalloyed wisdom could be seen. The Hebrew
word used to express the qualities of these beings, which
to-day we somewhat vaguely call wisdom, was
‘Chokmah.’ A somewhat denser form of this quality
of wisdom is that which is found in man, although in his
individuality he can attain it only in small measure. On
making the descent into his physical organism a man is again
confronted with beings who possess in vast measure an
attribute that is a denser form of wisdom, and which, in
Hebrew terminology, was called ‘Binah.’ As beings
they appeared completely illumined by this attribute. It is
what is aroused in man when he is reminded of his reason,
though he may indeed only achieve reason in a very restricted
form. We have to imagine beings who are completely permeated
by the effects of reason; it is these who are referred to
when the word ‘Binah’ is used. It is a denser
form of ‘Chokmah.’ In the secret doctrine of the
ancient Hebrews, ‘Chokmah’ is the name for the
original creative wisdom which brought forth from itself the
Mysteries of the World. It was there compared to a spring of
water, while ‘Binah’ was compared to the sea,
thereby indicating its denser nature.
The most
exalted state which could be gained through descending into
the physical body was called ‘Keter.’ It is
difficult to translate this word. It represents, though but
faintly, the qualities of very exalted, divine spiritual
beings, and can only be indicated symbolically by that which
raises a man above himself, which stands for something more
than he himself — hence we translate it with
‘crown.’
Binah
|
Chokmah
|
Keter
|
Geburah
|
Tipheret
|
Gedulah
|
Nezach
|
Jesod
|
Hod
|
Malchut
|
The Kingdom
|
‘I’
|
Here is the
scale of qualities of those beings into whose realm man
strives to evolve after having made the descent into his own
inner nature. This must be regarded as a growing upwards.
An Essene
initiation must be pictured as bringing entirely new
experiences and new knowledge, and that it impressed on the
pupil the reality of these qualities. It differed
entirely from the initiation of neighbouring nations, which
was still of the ancient form. This difference must be now
explained.
All ancient
initiations were especially directed towards the suppression
of the feeling of self which a man has when looking upon
Malchut, the Kingdom. This feeling had to be blotted out. On
initiation a man cannot remain as he is in the physical
world; he is certainly led into the spiritual world, but
cannot remain such a man as he was when in the
‘Kingdom.’ A sharp distinction has to be made in
ancient initiation between the experiences of an Initiate and
how he felt when within his ego.
Were I to
compress into one sentence how ancient initiation was carried
out in the mystery schools of olden times, and how this life
could be compared with life in the outer world I should say:
‘It must not be thought that the same feeling of self
which a man experiences in the “kingdom” remains
when he has developed the three times three attributes,
described above, in their reality. He must withdraw from all
such feelings of self. What is experienced as Nezach, Jesod,
and Hod cannot be carried down into the Kingdom, or remain
associated with the ordinary ego-feeling of a man.’
This was common knowledge. Whoever dared to contradict it
would have been regarded as a fool, a liar, and a madman.
But the
Essenes were the first to teach: ‘A time is coming when
all that is above will be brought down, so that man will be
able to experience it and yet maintain his ego feeling
intact!’ This was what the Greeks called
‘Basileia.’ The Essenes were the first to teach
of the coming of One ‘Who would bring down what is in
the “Kingdoms of the Heavens” into
“Malchut”, the kingdom in which the human ego
dwells.’ This was first taught in mighty words by Jesus
ben Pandira to his Essene followers and to certain others who
were near him.
Jesus ben
Pandira was the first to foretell this through the
inspiration which he had received from the successor of
Gautama Buddha (from the Bodhisattva who was destined to be
the Maitreya Buddha); and he gave the following teaching to
his pupil Mathai: ‘Hitherto the Kingdoms of Heaven
could not be brought down into Malchut, the Kingdom to which
the ego belongs; but when the three times fourteen
generations shall be fulfilled, there will be born of the
race of Abraham, in the house of Jesse (the Jessians or
Essenes) One Who will bring the nine attributes of the
Kingdoms of Heaven down into the Kingdom in which the ego is
present.’
Such teaching
was regarded as sacrilege; it was considered the vilest abuse
of initiation by those who refused to recognize that what is
right for one age is not necessarily right for another
— bcause humanity is always advancing. Jesus ben
Pandira, who taught this sacrilege, was therefore stoned to
death.
Then came the
time when what had been foretold was to be fulfilled, when
the three times fourteen generations had been accomplished,
and a physical body could arise from the blood of the race
meet for Zarathustra— such a physical body as after
Zarathustra had incarnated in it and brought it to fuller
perfection, he could offer up to the Christ. The
time had come of which the forerunner of the Christ declared:
The time is at hand when ‘The Kingdoms of Heaven’
will approach the ego dwelling in the outer Kingdom —
in Malchut.
We can now
understand what the first self-imposed task of Christ was
after he had passed through the Temptation. He had withstood
temptation through the forces of His own inner
being, through what, in men, we to-day call the
‘ego.’ He had succeeded in enduring and
overcoming all the trials and temptations which assail a man
who makes the descent into his astral, etheric, and physical
bodies. This is clearly shown. All forms of egoism are
represented, so that our attention is directed to them in
their intensest form.
The greatest
obstacle encountered by the esoteric student, as is only
natural when sinking within his own inner being, is the
unwise tendency to occupy himself more and more with his own
much loved personality. Indeed, one never finds this more
readily than in those who seek entrance into the spiritual
world. They love to occupy themselves with their own
personality, giving it the minutest attention. While formerly
they had resolutely kept themselves away from this, as soon
as they attempt development, or even as soon as they bcome
Anthroposophists, they begin to occupy themselves very
largely with their own ego; then all kinds of illusions arise
that formerly the ordinary trend of life easily spared them.
The reason for this is that such people are ignorant of how
to act when everything arising from their own being becomes
one with them, they are quite without experience as to what
they should do. Formerly, such people were easily interested
in external things; now they are more withdrawn, more
interested in inner experiences. All kinds of emotions now
emerge from their own nature. Why?
Such a person
would like to become a complete ego, to be entirely
independent of the outer world. Above all, he is now apt to
fall into the error of preferring to be treated like a child
who has to be told clearly what to do and to have everything
explained to him. He would indeed prefer anything rather than
to direct himself to the goal which esoteric life discloses.
He is not yet able to give his mind to this; yet his
dependence on the outer world disturbs him, especially when
he wishes to be most detached from it and to interest himself
in his own ego. But there is always one thing that prevents
his detaching himself completely from the external world
— trivial though it may be, this is the fact that he
must eat! This fact shows how helpless man is without his
environment; such dependence on the outer world may aptly be
compared with the dependence of the finger on the hand; if
severed the finger perishes. It needs but little insight to
realize man's dependence on the outer world. Egoism
stretched to its limits may even produce in a man the desire:
If only I could become independent of my environment; if only
I could create, magically within myself that which as
ordinary man forces me to feel so bitterly my dependence on
what is outside me
Such a wish
may actually arise in the seeker after initiation. Similarly
hatred may be roused by the feeling of dependence on the
surrounding world and the impossibility of creating
nourishment magically. It may seem extraordinary to say such
things, because desires that are apparent in small things
become absurd when carried to extremes. No-one really gives
way to the illusion that he could create nourishment
magically, and live without what comes from the
‘Kingdom,’ but carried to an extreme he might
exclaim, ‘Could I but reach a stage of development
where I live so truly in my astral body and ego that I no
longer have need of the world about me!’ This form of
temptation does arise; and it is described of One Who had
experienced it most acutely, that the tempter who confronted
Jesus Christ told Him to change stones into bread. Here we
have temptation in its extremest form. It is in fact
man's descent into his own being that is so wonderfully
described in the story of the Temptation, as related in the
Gospel of Matthew.
The second
stage of temptation arises after the descent into the astral
body has taken place, when the novice is confronted by those
desires and emotions which so easily transform him into an
extreme egoist. When a man feels himself confronted by these
he might, instead of resisting and overcoming them, cast
himself down into the etheric and physical body. This is a
situation which might be described as hurling himself into
the abyss. This is how it is described in the Gospel of
Matthew: as a plunging down into the etheric body and
physical body, into that which has so far remained almost
unspoiled by man. But this cannot be until all desires and
emotions have been overcome. The Christ knew this, and facing
and subduing the tempter by His own power, He said,
‘Thou shalt not tempt the Being to Whom thou must
surrender thyself!’
Then comes
the third stage, the descent into the physical body. When
this descent appears as a temptation, it is described in a
special way. It is an experience actually endured by everyone
who reaches this stage on the path of initiation. Everything
is then seen, as it were, from within, everything
that is associated with the three highest principles. The
seeker after initiation sees this as a world — but a
world of his own illusions, a world in which it is impossible
to recognize intrinsic truth without breaking through the
shell of the physical body and rising to those Spiritual
Beings, who have themselves left the physical body, who are
no longer within it, but only work upon it. Unless we free
ourselves from egoism, Lucifer or Diabolus, the tempter of
the physical world continually rouses self-deception in us.
He promises to give us all that we behold, but this is really
Maya, the creation of our own illusion. So long as this
Spirit of Egoism remains with us, we perceive a complete
world — but a world of deception and lies; he promises
to give us this world — but we must not think it is a
world of reality. We have first to enter this world, but
unless we escape from it again we remain in a world
of Maya.
Christ Jesus
lived through these three stages of temptation as a model and
a pattern for man. Because they were once experienced outside
the ancient Mysteries, experienced through the power of a
Being Who Himself dwelt within the three human bodies, an
impulse was given which enables man in the future course of
evolution to experience the spiritual world in his own ego,
even in that ego in which he dwells in Malchut. That was to
be reached by what has held the two worlds apart coming to an
end, so that man with his ego that lives in Malchut will be
able to ascend into the spiritual world. This was the result
gained for humanity in the overcoming of temptation as
related in the Gospel of Matthew. It was attained through the
fact that a Being living on the earth had now become a
pattern for the passing over of the ego as it exists in
the Kingdom, into higher kingdoms and higher worlds.
What was found to result from Christ having experienced in
outward historical form what had hitherto been confined to
the Mysteries? What naturally followed from this? What
followed was the preaching of the Kingdom.
The Gospel of
Matthew therefore first describes the Temptation, and then in
ordered sequence tells of the phases of the ascent of the
ego, which is now able to experience the spiritual world
within itself without the necessity of first going out of
itself. The secret of this ego — which as it lives in
the outer kingdom, ascends into the spiritual
world—this secret was now to be revealed through the
Christ to all the world during the time following on the
story of the Temptation, as told in the Gospel of Matthew.
Then come the chapters, beginning with the Sermon on the
Mount, which show what Christ meant by ‘Malchut’
— the Kingdom.
Profound
indeed is the Gospel of Matthew. So profound that its sources
must be sought in the secret teachings, not only of the
Essenes, but of the ancient Hebrews, and the Greek world in
general. Realization of this truth awakens in us a holy
reverence and a profound respect for this document, a
reverence which deepens when, furnished with the
investigations of Spiritual Science, we meet with what the
seers told us of old. When we hear that such things were
related by the ancient seers, we feel as if we heard them
speaking to us directly from far-off time. It is like the
transmission of some spirit-language in which mighty
individuals have conversed with one another throughout the
centuries — so that those who have the will to hear can
hear it. Those can hear at least who understand the words in
the Gospel — ‘He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear!’
But just as
at one time much had to happen before the physical ear could
be formed, so much, very much is necessary in order that
spiritual ears may be developed by which we shall be able to
understand what is told us in these mighty original spiritual
documents.
The purpose
of our new Spiritual Science is to teach people to read these
spiritual documents once more. Only when we are equipped with
an understanding of the ego — an understanding of the
nature of the ego in the Kingdom — will it be
possible for us to understand the teaching that begins with
the words, ‘Blessed are those who are beggars in regard
to the spirit, for through themselves, through their own ego,
they will find the Kingdoms of the Heavens!’
An Initiate
of olden times would have said, ‘It would have been in
vain for you to seek the Kingdoms of the Heavens in your own
ego.’ But Christ Jesus said: ‘The time is now
come when those who seek the Kingdoms of the Heavens can find
the Spirit!’
The carrying
into effect in the external world of the profound secrets of
the Mysteries is the historical side of the Christ Event, and
in this sense we propose to study this Event yet more
closely. You will then understand what interpretation to put
on the words, ‘Blessed are those,’ with which the
Sermon on the Mount begins.
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