EXCURSUS — Lecture II
FROM
MY
BOOK,
“Christianity as Mystical Fact,”
it can be gathered that the Gospels, when rightly understood, must be
accepted in a very special way. As I intend to speak on the Gospels during
this winter I would like to say that it is not possible for me always to
begin again from the beginning for the sake of the younger members, so that
there will certainly be much in these lectures that will be difficult
of comprehension for younger members.
It has frequently been remarked on the occasion of the annual meeting
how necessary it is that our younger members should take part in the
courses of lectures, that these should be arranged so that early
teachings are constantly repeated. May I say here something rather
strange — it does not seem practical that the younger members
should work so very energetically at going over the beginnings of
theosophical life. In that case it might happen that the higher
realms of spiritual science were incomprehensible to them, and they
might for this reason form strange opinions as to what spiritual
science is. This is, however, a matter for the individual member.
I showed in the book mentioned above that we have to accept the
Gospels as “books of initiation.” This means that they
are nothing less than accounts of the ancient ritual of initiation,
paraphrased in a certain way. What is stated in these ancient
writings? They mainly contain accounts of how the candidate in his
training was led step by step along the path to higher worlds. How he
gradually went through certain soul-experiences and was finally
brought to the point where certain forces slumbering in his soul were
awakened. We read how higher stages gradually evolved out of lower
ones, up to that stage when the spiritual world dawned within the
soul of the would-be initiate and the secrets of the spiritual world
were revealed to him. He could then look into the spiritual world. He
could behold, for example, the Beings of the different hierarchies as
we have described them in other connections on many occasions. Thus
the content of such “books of initiation” was what anyone
seeking initiation had to carry out.
In studying pre-Christian ages we find that many persons passed
through initiation in different centres of the Mysteries; that this
was not always exactly the same in form, though similar in character,
that the stages were introduced one by one up to the point where the
person seeking initiation could see into the spiritual world, where
the Beings of the Hierarchies appeared before him spiritually —
that is in a different way to a physical appearance.
This was how it was in pre-Christian times.
What meaning for Christianity had these initiations into the ancient
Mysteries? What was their significance towards the Christ-Impulse?
Their significance was that a Being, outwardly visible on the
physical plane and known as “Jesus of Nazareth,”
disclosed the secrets of the spiritual world in a way that was not
customary, in a way not in accordance with the methods of
pre-Christian times. An individual initiated in accordance with
ancient ritual (when the events just described had taken place in his
soul) could come before men and speak of the secrets of the spiritual
kingdoms. But in the case of Christ Jesus something was present by
which this personality, Jesus of Nazareth, could speak of these
hidden matters without having been led to them in the ancient
customary manner.
Jesus of Nazareth had been led to them through what is called the
baptism in Jordan. The Spirit of Christ then entered into him. From
this moment — that is from the moment of an historic event when
the person of Christ Jesus was initiated in so open a way — the
Spirit of Christ spoke to the people around Him of the Mysteries of
the spiritual realms, but in a higher way than had been done before.
Something had there-fore been accomplished on the physical plane,
open for all the world to see, which formerly had been attainable
— and to a certain extent only by initiates in the depths of
the Mysteries, so that they might then go forth and speak of these
mysteries to their fellow men. To put the matter pictorially we might
say: — We look back to the ancient temple of the Mysteries, we
see the Heirophant performing the rites of initiation, so that the
person initiated can look into the spiritual world, and can then go
forth and teach others of this world. This had always been carried
out gradually and in the secret depths of the Temple. Any talk of
such things in the world outside the Mysteries, any talk concerning
the spiritual world, was an utter impossibility. But now, what had
often and often taken place in the depths of the Mysteries, had been
transferred to the outer world, it took place in Palestine. There it
was enacted as an historic fact, as the development of Jesus of
Nazareth; it was enacted historically in the Mystery of Golgotha. And
we have to accept this Mystery, set forth as it was historically
before all the world, as forming the link between the Mystery of
Golgotha and those ancient Temple-Mysteries of the past.
Writings descriptive of initiation, though dealing in essence with
the same stages of development differed in certain particulars in
different parts of the earth, and were suited to the differences in
human individuals according to space and time. Knowing this let us
endeavour to enter into the soul of one of those, generally called
Evangelists, who concerned themselves with the writing of our
Gospels. These men, through their own occult schooling, had some
knowledge of the initiation literature of the various peoples and
Mysteries. They knew what men had to pass through before it was
possible for them to speak of the secrets of spiritual realms and
spiritual Hierarchies. And now through the events that had occurred
in Palestine, and through the Mystery of Golgotha, they were aware
that what formerly had only been seen by initiates in the temple of
the Mysteries, had been enacted openly on the plane of history before
all the world, and that it would henceforth enter ever more and more
deeply into the minds and souls of men.
The Evangelists were not biographers in the ordinary sense of the
word when things are written which really do not concern the world,
and which no one requires to know about any actively creative
personality. They were not biographers like those who ferret out each
private concern of the person they write of, but they were
biographers in so far as they described the life of Christ by saying:
— “Something happened at a certain time to Jesus of
Nazareth, into whom the Christ entered, which we have seen happen
again and again in the Mysteries; but there it was not compressed as
a historic event into a few short years; here, on the contrary, it
has become an event of history, yet is at the same time a repetition
of Temple-ritual; we can therefore describe this life by describing
the different stages formerly passed through during
initiation.”
Thus were have to regard the Gospels as books of instructions
concerning initiation. In them are found again the ancient directions
for initiation, but so that we are shown in a certain way the reason
why that which formerly occurred in the depths of the Mysteries now
emerges on to the great plane of history. The Evangelist who begins
his Gospel by stating the reason for this, who tells from the
beginning why he is in a position to write of an historic event
which, transformed into something greater, fulfils the instructions
given for initiation, is the writer of the Gospel according to Mark.
He tells from the first how man has evolved so that this great fact
of the removal of initiation from the secret depth of the temples and
the setting of it openly on the plane of history, might come to pass.
He tells us from the beginning that this is connected with an event
of immeasurably great importance to human evolution; an event
foretold by the Hebrew Prophets. For what occurred in Palestine as
the Mystery of Golgotha had been seen and spoken of prophetically by
Hebrew Initiates and Prophets.
If we try to enter into the soul of such a man as the Prophet Isaiah,
with whose words the Gospel according to Mark begins, we find that he
declares somewhat as follows: — A time will come when the souls
of men will perceive differently than they do now; this time is now
being prepared for. (Isaiah refers here to his own day.) What is it
he wishes to tell us? You know that the Gospel according to Mark
begins with the introduction of a mighty saying of this Prophet. You
know the words well, and how they are employed. I make use here of
the ordinary translation of C. Weizsäcker: —
Behold I send my messenger before thee, he shall prepare thy way.
Hark to the cry in the wilderness: Make ready the way of the Lord.
Make his path straight.
Thus, it is fairly well translated in our Gospel literature. The
Prophet refers in these words to the greatest event in history
— to the Mystery of Golgotha.
You, know that in our studies of the other Gospels great trouble has
been taken to translate important passages in a comprehensible way.
What matters most in this, is not the giving of a correct verbal
translation according to the dictionary, but in choosing words that
reproduce the deep significance of the original and convey this to us
in our own language; not only in presenting them theoretically to our
understanding, but so that the whole feeling that accompanied the
peculiar quality of the language of that day is also passed on to us.
For speech at that time was totally different from the present manner
of speech. I would like to impress this fact on you, that speech was
then not so abstract, so trivial as it is to-day.
The whole manner of expressing anything was
such that an ever deeper meaning, a richer significance and
feeling-content was imparted to the listener along with the actual
words, yet he knew most unmistakably what this feeling-content was. A
whole WORLD was then heard in the spoken word compared with what is
ordinarily heard to-day. This is a special quality of the Hebrew
tongue, it is exceedingly rich in this power of concealing a very
great deal behind the words, because the images employed were taken
altogether from the sense-world. Expressions such as “prepare
the way” or “make straight the path” are pictures
drawn from the sense-world. It is as if the path were prepared with
spades and shovels. But when such words were used, the peculiarity of
this language compared with others was that behind the expressions
employed to denote outward things, a whole spiritual world stood
— it stood there so clearly and incontestably that no one could
interpret it to their own liking, as is so often done with poetry,
where all kinds of things are sometimes read into it. The reason for
this was that in the ancient Hebrew language, in the personal use of
the language, which cannot be shown in the script, it was possible
for whole hidden worlds to be given in the tone. A feeling for
such secret things existed.
In Greek, the language of the Gospel text, this is not nearly so much
the case. All the same it was still possible, without occult
knowledge, to obtain far better translations from the Greek than from
the language used by the Evangelists.
As a matter of fact, one translator has merely copied another in this
without going into the matter philologically or proving how the
original compared with the Greek text. I will give you later a single
example of how great were the errors that arose through this. To-day
I will not interrupt the course of our studies, but will try, not
philologically, but with the help of what can be learnt through
spiritual investigations, to put before you some important things
concerning the beginning of the Gospel of Mark.
I will start with this important passage from the prophecies of
Isaiah, wherein he tries to show what is to come to pass through the
Event of Palestine, so that you may discover through your feeling
what it means.
The Greek text is as follows:
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We must in the first place clearly understand that the word messenger
or angel was only used in olden times in the sense employed by us
when describing the Hierarchies, that is when we describe those
Beings who stand immediately above man in the ranks of the
hierarchies. We must feel when we read the words “his
angel” that a Being belonging to this realm is meant. If this
is not felt then the meaning of the whole passage is lost. Spiritual
science alone can provide a foundation for such an understanding, and
also for all it has to tell us about the Christ-Event.
What is the fact of greatest importance in the Christ-Impulse? The
fact that through it full consciousness first entered the human soul
so that a place might be prepared there for a self-conscious ego. So
that there might gradually arise within this self-consciousness ego
in the further course of earthly evolution, all the secret things
(Geheimnisse) which formerly arose by a kind of natural clairvoyance
within the astral body.
The present epoch was preceded by one in which men still carried over
with them into post-Atlantean culture a natural clairvoyance which
enabled them to look into the spiritual world. In certain abnormal
conditions of soul the secrets of the spiritual world still poured
down into men, and they were able to look up to the Hierarchies. They
naturally saw more often, and for a longer period, the Hierarchy
which stands nearest to man — The Hierarchy of Angels. They saw
them as the Beings standing immediately above man. In the time of
this ancient clairvoyance men were not aware that they possessed
something within them that was to lead them to the spiritual world.
They looked on it as a grace accorded to them from without, as
something granted to their souls by spiritual powers. Therefore the
Prophets looking to the future could speak as follows: —
“A time is coming when man will be aware of his ego; he will
then know that it is through the self-conscious ego that the secrets
of the spiritual world will come to him.” All this was to come.
A time was to come in which man would say: “When I have my ego
in me, I shall be able through the power it brings, to penetrate to
the secrets of the spiritual world.” This had, however, first
to be prepared for.
Thus man, who is as it were, the lowest of the Hierarchies, had to he
prepared for what he was to become by being equipped with something
which as yet he did not possess. The messenger or Angel, announced
that man would become an ego-being in the fullest sense of the word.
While the mission of former Angels had been to reveal to man the
spiritual world, a special Angel was now to receive a special
mission. This Angel was to carry revelation a stage further, and make
known to man that he was to enter consciously into his ego, while the
revelations of former Angels had not been suited to a self-conscious
ego.
So Isaiah announces: — “The age of the Mystery of the Ego
is to come, and from among the host of Angels one will be specially
chosen to declare to you this Mystery!” Only in this way can we
understand what is meant when it says that the Messenger or Angel was
sent before. Before whom was the Messenger sent? He was sent
beforehand to those who were to attain their self-conscious ego, and
was to come as a Being from the Hierarchy of Angels. No angel had as
yet announced generally to men that it was foretold they were to
receive a self-conscious ego. So this messenger of whom the Prophet
Isaiah spoke came to tell them to prepare themselves inwardly, to
create within their souls a place for the ego, to prepare for the
full validity of the ego. What is most important in this passage is
the reference to the great change in the evolution of the human soul;
whereas formerly men had to go out of themselves in order to enter
the spiritual world, from this time onwards they could continue
within their ego, and could, through it, discover the secrets of that
world.
Let us now compare a soul of olden times with one from the time when
the Christ-Impulse was drawing near; picture a man of the earlier
pre-Christian centuries. If wishing to enter the spiritual world he
could not to do so and maintain his self-consciousness however highly
he was developed. To do this he had to divest himself of his
self-consciousness, had to pass into an unconscious condition; he had
to rise into the world of the Hierarchies — the world of the
spirit. His consciousness was lowered. This was an old feeling
belonging to pre-Christian times. What then was the position of a man
who did not altogether belong to the age when it was natural for him,
on the withdrawal of self-consciousness, to find himself in the
spiritual world; and what was the position of the man who did not
live at a time when humanity was at the stage when his ego could be
developed? The ego existed already in Atlantean times, but complete
certainty that the greatest mystery of the spiritual world could well
up within it came first to man through the Impulse of Christ. This
was the feeling that caused men in the days of the old initiation to
say: — “When I desire to enter the spiritual world and
learn what these worlds can reveal to me, I have to suppress a
certain part of me and stimulate and bring life to another part of my
soul.” What had to be suppressed? And what had to be made
especially alive? That part of his soul which was gradually to
develop into the “I” had to be suppressed; this is what
had to become darker, heavier. It could retain no memory. It had to
become void and empty. On the other hand the astral body, the body
which can give a certain degree of clairvoyance, had to be specially
stimulated. When this happened ancient clairvoyant powers of
perception entered the astral body.
I have said that the ego was already present to a certain extent, but
man could not make use of it when he desired to investigate the
secrets of the spiritual world. The ego had in this case to be
suppressed and the astral body stimulated. This stimulation of the
astral body had become ever more and more impossible. In ancient
times suppression of the ego and stimulation of the astral body so
that the secrets of the spiritual world could pour into it, was
something that belonged to the elemental attributes of man. Advance
in evolution consisted in the increasing incapacity of the astral
body to receive the secrets of the spiritual world. At this stage men
acknowledged: — “My astral body will become ever less
able to attain what once was mine through the old form of
clairvoyance, my ego also will cease to pass out of me in the way it
was wont to do, and as yet it is unable to rise to anything of
itself.” The most gifted clairvoyant was at most aware of
something empty, something void, within his soul. Such was the ego to
which as yet no Impulse had been imparted. At the same time men were
aware it was not possible for them to enter the spiritual world
through the ego.
From this you can gather what was the soul-attitude of those who
desired to look into the spiritual realms at the time when the
Christ-Impulse was approaching. They might have said: —
“I can no longer develop in my astral body what formerly it was
possible to develop; and no impulse has yet come to my ego; my soul
is chaotic, I feel unable to rise to the spiritual world.”
Then as the time for the coming of the Christ-Impulse drew near
certain methods were employed, men underwent a certain training, with
the result that they made the acquaintance of those who were not as
yet filled with the spirit. When seeking entrance into higher worlds
they were told: — “Realise that thou canst not rise to
these worlds through thy astral body; thou must first of all enter
that inward place where thou feelest thyself as man, where thou art
no longer conscious of the smallest connection with the outer
world.”
This was how men felt as the time for the
coming of the Christ-Impulse drew near. Everyone who sought for
initiation realised that his astral body was no longer fitted to be
the means for his entrance into the spiritual world; that the time
for this was past; and that the ego was not as yet ready for it. But
those who desired to receive the Impulse, who longed to leave the
body and penetrate to spiritual worlds, divined (more than divine
they could not) that there was some-thing in them that strove with
all its might towards that Spiritual Impulse. This soul-experience
which all passed through who sought at that time the path to
spiritual illumination was called “the path of
loneliness.” What, then, had the messenger to do who prepared
the way for the Christ-Event? He had to tell those who desired to
know of the approaching Impulse, about “the path of
loneliness.” He had to know loneliness fundamentally. He had to
be the preacher of this loneliness of soul. You will come to know, as
you study the Gospel of Mark further, that in certain cases great
Spiritual Beings through whom some important advance in human
evolution was to be carried out found the instruments they required
in living men, and that they entered into them so as to live within a
soul in bodily incarnation. The “messenger” spoken of by
Isaiah, who must not be accepted as a man quite in the ordinary
sense, took possession of the soul of the re-incarnated Elias, lived
in him and announced the approach of the Christ-Impulse. It was this
messenger who spoke from the soul of John the Baptist. Whence came
this voice? It sprang from what I have just described as a great
loneliness of soul. We read of this in the Gospel according to Mark,
it says: — “Listen to the cry of soul-loneliness.”
The Greek word
“ὲν τη ὲφήμω”
should not be translated in a symbolic sense by
“wilderness,” thus giving them an external meaning. In these
words an image is presented to us by which the whole spiritual world may
be grasped. Their real meaning is “in loneliness.”
To understand this expression better, we must
occupy ourselves a little with the true meaning of what is felt by
the word
“κνφιος”
or Lord, as it is usually translated in the lines “prepare the
way of the Lord.” The true meaning is something we can still
divine in the Greek, and is confirmed when we associate it with
ancient tradition. In ancient usage this word had not the trivial
meaning it has to-day.
In this materialistic age man has become a great Philistine in
respect of language. Words are no longer “the bodies of
soul-beings,” so that it is possible to sense a whole world in
them.
What was felt in the Greek word
“κνφιος”
or Lord when spoken in the connection I have indicated? Men felt that
it was an image of what went on within them, of what they
sensed was happening in their soul-life. The uprising of the “I
am” from the depths of the soul was felt as the coming of the
“Lord” and “Ruler,” he who regulated and
ordered the soul-forces and is used in the sense employed to-day when
we say the various soul-forces possessed by man — thinking,
feeling and willing, are the servants of his soul. But within the
soul there is a master, the ego.
This is shown by the fact that whereas in old times men said
“it thinks,” and in respect of feeling and willing
“it feels,” “it wills within me”; men now say
when the ego, the Lord of the soul-forces is in command and the
mighty change in human evolution is felt, “I think,”
“I feel,” “I will.” In earlier days the soul
was to a certain extent unconscious, it was imprisoned and submerged
within the forces that served it. But now the ego, the Lord of the
soul-forces was to be born! The cry went forth: — “He who
is Lord of the soul is coming!” No person or Being is meant by
these words, but only the emergence of the ego as “Lord”
of the soul.
This was taught in the Temples where preparation was made for what
was to come to pass in human nature. With holy reverence and deep
humility it was made known: — For a time the condition of souls
was such that they had in them only the serving powers of thinking,
feeling and willing; but now the “Ruler” was to be
born.
This mighty fact is now proceeding; its development will go slowly on
until the end of the earth-age, when it will have gained ever more
and more power. Yes, this will come to pass! And it is the Christ who
gives the first impulse to this development. This is the “Great
Hour,” the turning point of the world's time-piece, the
hour when Christ lived on earth. The hands of the world clock now
point to the moment of the coming of the ego. As Lord of the forces
of the souls it now begins to evolve ever greater power and will have
reached its goal when the earth perishes and man passes on to still
higher stages of development.
It is only when we try to feel, as people must
have felt in those early days, that it is possible for us to form
some idea of what Isaiah desired to say, and John the Baptist to
repeat. Isaiah referred to the great event that was to take place
within the souls of men, and to the course of the further development
of these souls. But then we must not translate the word
“λνφιοσ,”
as “straight” as is usually done, nor as
“level,” but as
“open,” so that the road could be used.
It is then the “Lord” comes, he takes his way towards the
human soul. But man must do something so that he can really take
possession of the soul. The way must be made free, open. In short,
if we translate this passage so that it means something, and if at
the same time we hold to tradition, it must be done some-what as
follows:
Take heed,
[ 1 ]
I send my Angel before the ego in thee, he shall prepare the direction
(Richtung).
Hark to the cry in the (souls) loneliness, (the cry of longing for
the Lord of the soul): prepare the direction for the (soul's)
ruler; work that the way be open for him.
In this form of words you have approximately an idea of what can be
felt in the words of Isaiah. These words or their content, was
carried over by the Angel into the soul of the Baptist. Why could the
Angel do this? To answer this question we must consider for a little
the nature and method of the initiation of John the Baptist, and how
this initiation affected his soul.
From former lectures you know that a man can either be initiated by
descending into his own soul or by going forth from his soul, by
liberation from the body and uniting his soul-forces with the cosmos.
These two paths were followed by different peoples in the most varied
manner. When a man desired to pour out his soul into the macrocosm,
the twelve stages through which he had to pass to attain to this were
“marked” by the twelve signs of the Zodiac; for his soul
had to expand in certain clearly defined directions of the Macrocosm.
Now a very great deal was already attained — something
important that is for the historical evolution of the
world — when any soul had evolved so far as to be able to receive
into it all the macrocosmic forces springing from those hidden things
which are the meaning of each of the constellations. As a rule the
ancient rites of initiations were conducted so that the
soul-expansion of one Initiate was directed to the macrocosmic
secret, say of Capricorn, another to those of Cancer, of the Balance,
and so on. I have explained on other occasions that there are twelve
different possible ways of expansion into the Macrocosm, and that
these are indicated symbolically by the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
Anyone attaining initiation through expansion of his soul into the
macrocosm, and who does not attain at once to the highest — the
Sun initiation — but only to a partial initiation, would have
his soul-vision directed to the mysteries connected with some special
constellation. To attain this he would have to turn his gaze away
from everything of a material nature. This means, care would have to
be taken that his gaze was directed, either through the rites of the
Mysteries, or through John the Baptist by “Grace from
above,” in such a way that he would have the earth between him
and the special constellation. In other words, his glance had to be
directed at night to the constellation through the earth. When a
constellation is seen with physical eyes it is the physical
constellation that is seen. But when a man's gaze can penetrate
the substance of the earth, which is between him and the physical
constellation, he does not see the physical but the spiritual part of
the earth; that is he sees the mysteries (Geheimnesse) which the
constellation expresses.
The training that John the Baptist had passed through had made it
possible for him to gaze at night through the material earth upon the
constellation Aquarius, the Waterman. He had received therefore
(after the Angel had entered into his soul) the initiation of
Aquarius. Thus, through all he knew and had felt, John the Baptist
was able to put himself in touch with the faculties of the Angel, so
that through this Being he could make the content of the
“Waterman-initiation” known; and the information he gave
respecting this was: that the lordship of the ego, the
“Lord,” would enter men's souls. This is what the
initiation of the Waterman gave.
But simultaneously the Baptist declared that the time had now come
when a change was to take place in this initiation, it was to be
replaced by another, one by which men would be able to understand the
approaching lordship of the ego. Therefore he said to his disciples:
—“I am he who, through the initiation of the Waterman has
all the powers of his Angel at his disposal. But after me ONE will
come who has at his command all the subsequent powers of his
Angel!”
If you advance by day toward the sun from the constellation of Ares,
through that of the Bull, the Twins and so on to Virgo, you must
advance at night from the direction of the Waterman (Aquarius) to the
constellation of the Fishes, that is, you must advance in the
direction of the Spiritual Sun. John had received the
Waterman-initiation, and he pointed out that he who was to come after
him would be an Initiate of Picis, the initiation which follows on
the initiation passed through by John, and was therefore of a higher
order. The Baptist told his intimate disciples: —
“Through the initiation of Aquarius I have only those powers at
my disposal by which I can announce through my Angel that the Lord
— the ruler — is coming, but after me One will come who
has powers symbolised by the initiation of the sign of the Fishes.
Into him the Christ will enter!”
In these words John the Baptist refers to Jesus of Nazareth. Ancient
tradition has on this account assigned to Christ Jesus the symbol of
the Fish; and as everything that occurs outwardly is symbolic of
in-ward events — though these may occur outwardly — the
helpers appointed to Him were fishermen. This is an external historic
fact, at the same time as regards spiritual secrets it is profoundly
symbolic. John declared “a higher initiation is to come to
humanity,” and he described himself as a
“Waterman.” This is absolutely clear. But we must learn
to see ever more clearly how the images employed to express the
hidden things of men are at the same time connected with astronomical
and cosmic mysteries.
“I have baptised you with water,”
said John. Water baptism was specially the baptism within the power
of those who had received from heaven the initiation of the
“Waterman.” But in that the Spiritual Sun progresses in
the opposite direction to the physical sun, which advances from the
sign of the Virgin to that of the Balance; the Spiritual Sun (as in
the advance from John the Baptist to Jesus of Nazareth) progresses
from the Waterman to the Fishes. And were anyone to appear in the
world having experienced the initiation of the Fishes and able
therefore to receive into him those spiritual forces, those spiritual
impulses, which are the instruments of the Fish-initiation, then it
would be possible for him to baptise not only as John did with water,
but to baptise in the higher sense described by John as the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
In this lecture I have put before you in a certain way a two-fold
conception: — Firstly, I have shown that in the Gospel
according to Mark facts of human evolution, historical events, are
dealt with in which mention is made of a higher Power, of an
“Angelic,” not a human power; and that this Power spoke
through John the Baptist. On the other hand I have shown that in the
accounts given here reference is made to heavenly events; namely, to
the progress of the Spiritual Sun from the sign of the Waterman to
that of the Fishes. Indeed the Gospel according to Mark contains in
every verse something which can only be read aright, when, in the
sequence of the words, we keep before us both their human and their
cosmic, astronomical meaning, and when we realise that something
lives in man, the true significance of which is only to be found in
heaven. Only when this is done can the connection between the
mysteries of the cosmos and the mysteries of human nature be more
clearly understood. To-day, at the close of my lecture, I can but
hint at what lies behind such things. I merely wished to-day to give
you some premonitions of what lies in this direction. For we shall
have to dive to very great depths in studying the Gospel of Mark, and
you will have to ponder long and deeply if you are to attain to
something more than “premonitions.” In what follows I
will try to make clear to you the way this Gospel has to be read.
You all know the rainbow. To a child it appears as something real in
the firmament. Until explained to him, he believes he can grasp it
with his hands. Later, man learns that the rainbow does not depend on
itself, but that it only appears when rain and sunshine stand related
to each other in a certain way; when this relationship is changed it
disappears. Thus it is not a reality; it is but an illusion. The
realities as regards the rainbow are rain and sunshine.
If anyone has made a little progress on the path of occult
development something is revealed to him which quite of himself he
compares with the rainbow. Of this he says: — It is actually
not true, it is but an appearance held together by things outside it.
Do you know what this “appearance” is? It is man
himself!
Man is only an appearance, a semblance, and if with his physical
senses he regards himself as reality, he has given himself over to
illusion — to Maya the great “Non est.” For the
word “Maya” is compounded of “Mahat aya.”
(Mahat=great, ya = Being, and a= not); signifying the great
non-being. On the path of occult development man reaches a point
where he compares himself with something resembling a rainbow; he
realises he is but a semblance, a delusion, and that everything that
is perceived by the senses is delusion also. The sun as physical
globe is a delusion. What physical science describes as a ball of gas
in space is quite correct for practical purposes, but anyone who
regards this as reality is giving himself over to delusion — to
Maya. The truth regarding the sun is that it is a meeting-place of
the spiritual Hierarchies, whose deeds are expressed in warmth and
light, and who approach us in the warmth and light of the sun. The
warmth and light we perceive is illusion. All appearance is
illusion.
A man thinks he has a heart in his breast, but this heart is a
delusion, nothing more. It is like the rings we see round street
lamps on a misty autumn evening. These rings are not reality, but are
produced by clearly defined forces. So is the human heart. You can
perceive this in the following way. Suppose that this circle I have
drawn represents the vault of the heavens one kind of force streams
into us from one side, other forces from other sides, these forces
split up here in the centre where I have drawn a small circle.
Nothing of the forces that stream into man from heaven and split up
there (sich schneiden) really exist where he thinks they do, in his
heart. Think everything else away except the forces that meet in you,
as light meets in the rainbow — what remains is the human
heart. It is the same with our other organs: they are fragments of
forces (Schnittkräfte) caused by the breaking up of world
forces.
When you move from one place to another you say “There is an
impulse in me to move from here to there.” In saying this you
say something that appertains to Maya. Why? Because forces come from
the Macrocosm, which are split up down here (sich schneiden), and
these broken-up fragments give rise to: illusion concerning the power
and direction in walking. The results met with down here are but
fragments of cosmic forces. If we desire to know the truth we must
ask: — What takes place in the Macrocosm? What do cosmic forces
bring about, both the upper and the lower? They bring that about in
us that makes it appear as if we had a heart, a liver, etc., or that
has such an appearance that we say: I walk from here to there. If the
truth regarding this were to be described, we would have to describe
cosmic forces.
If we wish to describe what John the Baptist did when he baptised, we
must describe what the Macrocosm, that is the forces represented by
the sign of the Waterman, charged him to do. This was determined at
one time within the great cosmic lodge, and the forces necessary for
it were sent down into John. It is thus, in the language of the
Cosmos, we must read what took place at a certain point of time. It
was thus the writer of the Gospel according to Mark read the heavenly
events corresponding with the earthly events that occurred in
Palestine. He describes astronomical occurrences when he says:
— “Understand what I have to say to you in this way:
suppose there is here a wall on which visible shadows play. If you
wish to know the real cause of these shadows you must consider the
things of which they are the reflections. I describe what took place
at Jordan, all the same they are but the instruments of something
else; in reality I am describing what was brought about on earth
through the astronomical forces of the Macrocosm!”
The writer of the Gospel of Mark describes cosmic forces. He
describes the shadow-pictures or projections thrown by mighty
macrocosmic events on to the screen provided by the small district of
Palestine. We must realise this clearly if we are to enter into the
full greatness and importance of the document we call the Gospel of
Mark; but we must first try to form something of the nature of a
divination of what it is that is here presented to us. We must
endeavour to understand what it is we are told in the beginning of
the Gospel. The Prophet Isaiah had foretold that the Lord of the
soul-forces of mankind would come, that in John the Baptist the
“messenger” would dwell, who would prepare man for the
reception of this ruler of his soul-forces. This messenger had first
to take as his dwelling place the body of one who had passed through
the initiation of the Waterman, who was able therefore to lead men on
the path that is connected on earth with such an individuality as
Jesus of Nazareth; one who because he had received the
Fish-initiation had prepared himself for the reception of the
Christ.
All the events that take place on earth are the reflections of cosmic
events, and are connected with cosmic conditions in the same way as
the rainbow is connected with rain and sunshine, and as, if we wish
to describe the rainbow, we must study rain and sunshine. If we wish
to know what was in the heart of John the Baptist or of Jesus of
Nazareth, in whom the Christ dwelt, we must study cosmic conditions.
So far as man is concerned, the whole world is explained by what took
place in Palestine and on Golgotha. He who does not read the Gospel
of Mark otherwise than merely as a document, which provides him with
groups of letters descriptive of great world events, is on a level
with one who says: — “Here I have one group of lines and
strokes, there another;” he has no conception of what is
referred to in the word “Lord,” but thinks only of the
black letters. It is mostly in this way that the Gospel of Mark is
read in our day. For what is told in it is but the outer lettering of
what it really contains. To understand this Gospel we must rise to
the level of those things to which, as in a shadowy reproduction, the
events in Palestine refer.
Try to get at the meaning of the words: —“Earthly events
are the shadows of macrocosmic events.” When you have done this
you will have taken the first step in the understanding of one of the
greatest documents in the world — the Gospel according to St.
Mark.
Notes:
1.
“Behold” is no longer correct.
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