LECTURE 3.
THE INNER ASPECT OF THE
SUN-EMBODIMENT OF THE EARTH.
7th November, 1911.
You will have gathered
from our last lecture how extremely difficult it is to describe the
early condition of our evolution before our own Earth came into
being. For we have seen that we must first of all build up concepts
and ideas through which we may reach those strange and distant
conditions of the evolution of our world. I have already called
attention to the fact that the description in my Occult
Science of the period of ancient Saturn, as well as that of the
following embodiments of our Earth is not only not exhaustive, but
that, in a sense, we had to be satisfied (in order not to startle the
public, to whom the book is accessible) with clothing the subject in
pictures taken from what is near at hand and familiar. The
description given there is in no respect incorrect, but it is very
deeply immersed in Maya and Illusion; and we must first work our way
through the illusion in order to penetrate further into the truth of
the matter. For instance, the old Saturn period is described (and
this is quite correct within certain limits) as a heavenly body whose
essential parts did not consist of what we know as earth, water and
air, but of ‘heat.’ So, too, in first speaking of
‘space,’ that also is merely a pictorial description;
for, as we saw in the last lecture, ‘time’ itself did not
even exist. When we speak of ‘space’ we are speaking
pictorially. Of space there was none in our sense. And time first
came into being on Saturn itself. When we carry our thought back to
ancient Saturn we are absolutely in the realm of spaceless eternity.
When, therefore, something is said to call up a picture before our
minds, we must be clear that it is only a picture. If we could have
observed the space of ancient Saturn we should have found no
substance dense enough to be called gas, nothing but heat and
cold.
In reality we could
not speak of coming from one part of space into another, but only the
sensation of passing through warmer and colder conditions; so
that even the clairvoyant, when he transports himself back to the
time of Saturn, receives the impression of being in spaceless ebb and
flow of heat. That is only the outer veil of the Saturn condition.
For this ‘heat’ or ‘fire’ as it is called in
occultism, is concealed from us in the fundamental depths of its
being; and we have seen that spiritual achievements formed in truth
the very existence of ancient Saturn; and we have formed a picture of
the spiritual deeds then existing. We have said that the Spirits of
Will or Thrones achieved sacrificial acts; so that when we look back
to the concrete occurrences on Saturn, we have the Cherubim and the
sacrifice flowing forth from the Thrones. Sacrifice streamed from the
Thrones to the Cherubim. And it is these sacrificial deeds seen from
without, as it were, which appear as ‘heat.’ Conditions
of heat are the external expression — speaking in a general
sense — the external physical expression of sacrifice, and
throughout the world, wherever heat is perceptible it is the outer
expression of what lies behind it. Conditions of heat are the
sacrificial acts of beings. Thus in describing heat we must say
‘Cosmic beat is the manifestation of Cosmic sacrifice, or
of Cosmic sacrificial deeds.’
For we have seen that
from this sacrificial deed offered by the Thrones to the Cherubim is
brought to birth that which we call time: though I have already
called attention to the fact that ‘brought to birth’ is a
modern term and does not quite apply. For time was not then that
abstraction man now accepts as time, but a totality of beings, the
Spirits of Personality, whom we have therefore come to recognise as
‘Time-Spirits.’ The Time-Spirits are the true ancient
time — and they are the children of the Thrones and the
Cherubim. The condition by means of which the Beings of Time
originated on ancient Saturn was sacrifice. Thus, in order to obtain
an actual comprehension of what lies behind, when it is said:
Ancient Saturn consists of ‘heat,’ we do not merely
require external, physical concepts (for ‘heat’ is a
physical concept), but we must acquire concepts which can only be
derived from the soul-life itself, from the ethical wisdom-laden life
of the soul. No man can know what heat is who is not able to form a
conception of what it means; to be ready to sacrifice what he has,
everything he possesses, indeed, not only everything he possesses,
but also what he himself is. The sacrifice of the individual being,
the soul's determination to renounce individual being, so regarding
it as to be ready to devote its best to the welfare of the world,
wishing to keep back nothing of the beat for itself, but gladly to
offer it in sacrifice on the altar of the universe; if this becomes a
living idea permeating our soul, it will gradually lead to the
understanding of what lies behind the phenomenon of beat. If it
is to be recognised as what in our modern life — even
today — is bound up with the conception of sacrifice, it
is hardly thinkable that anyone sacrificing himself with
understanding ever does so against his own will. A sacrifice offered
against the will argues some compelling motive; there must be
compulsion. But this would not apply to what we are now discussing.
The sacrifice that flows forth from a being as a matter of course is
what is meant here. And if a man should make a sacrifice, not because
he is forced to do so by any external motive, not because he hopes to
gain something by so doing, but because he feels within him the
impulse to sacrifice, it is then unthinkable that he should feel
anything but inner warmth of bliss. If we feel ourselves glowing with
this inner warmth of bliss, it is an expression of what can be
described in no other way than by saying that the one making the
sacrifice feels himself warmed through and through, glowing with
bliss. In this way it is possible for us to feel the glow of
sacrifice in the outer Cosmic heat. He alone understands what really
is who can grasp the thought: Whenever heat appears in the world
there is always in some way underlying it something of a
soil-spiritual nature which is behind the heat and brings about the
warmth through the special bliss. He who can feel all this about the
warmth will gradually arrive at the reality of what is concealed
behind the illusion of warmth, behind the phenomenon of
heat.
Now if we wish to
penetrate further, from the life of ancient Saturn to that of the
Sun, we must again first form an idea by which we can imagine the
substance of the ancient Sun — not our present Sun. For when we
read in Occult Science that ancient Sun re-organised heat by
adding to it air and light, that again is depicted merely by an
external phenomenon. Just as behind the heat we must seek for the
glow of sacrifice of the Spirits of Will, so must we look behind
‘air’ and ‘light’ for something ethical if we
wish to understand the air and the light which are added to the
heat on ancient Sun. Now we can only obtain a feeling of this
substance of the ancient Sun through something of a spiritual
psychic nature which we may experience in our souls.
We can describe it in
the following way as a soul-experience. Let us imagine that a man
were to see a real, genuine act of sacrifice, or that he were to
picture to himself what we described in the last lecture as the
sacrificial act of the Thrones, the Thrones offering up their
sacrifice to the Cherubim — so that he is moved by the picture
of the beatific sacrifice which he contemplates and which awakens the
life in the soul. What would our souls feel through either the vision
of the sacrificing Beings themselves, or by the picture we make truly
living in our souls? If the feelings of this man are vivid, if the
beatific sacrifice does not leave him unaffected, he will feel a
profound feeling of bliss at the vision of the sacrifice; he will
feel in his soul that it is the most beautiful deed, the most
beautiful experience that can be called forth in our souls, the
vision of the beatitude of sacrifice! We should be soul-less lumps if
this experience did not arouse in the soul a passionate desire
to understand inwardly with intensest reverence, what the beatitude
of sacrifice is — if we did not learn the spirit of utter
devotion. Sacrifice is devotion transformed into activity. The
contemplation of active practical devotion may call forth the
attuning of the soul's being to self-surrender, to the casting off of
self, to self-effacement. Imagine this spirit of disinterested
casting off of self wholly flooding the soul through the vision; then
we have with this spirit that which can come nearer to us for our
understanding, inasmuch as without such a spirit — without at
least a hint, a foretaste of such a spirit — never could we
really attain to what the higher knowledge gives. He who is unable to
feel this spirit of self-surrender can never attain to higher
knowledge. For what would be the opposite of this spirit? It would be
self-will, assertion of individual will. These are, as it were, the
two opposite Cosmic poles; devoted absorption in that which is
contemplated, and self-willed assertion of individuality. These are
two great opposites. Personal will fatally opposes the permeation of
the higher Self with wisdom. In ordinary life we only know self-will
in the form of prejudice, and prejudices always destroy the higher
insight. But we must imagine what is here called self-surrender as
intensified; for this can only be conceived when a man has worked his
way up to the higher worlds. There he must be able to experience this
casting off of self — at least as a frame of mind. Therefore it
must always be emphasised that we can never attain higher
knowledge so long as we work after the fashion of ordinary
science and trivial thought. Let us be clear; ordinary science and
everyday thought work out whatever self-will has created by means of
the ordinary will of man, through the inherited or educated
sensations and feelings. We can deceive ourselves greatly as to this.
For instance, people may say: ‘Suppose one takes up any
science, such as that set forth in spiritual science or Theosophy; I
will not accept anything that does not agree with my thought, I
will accept nothing unproved.’ Certainly we should not accept
anything unproved. But neither do we advance a single step further if
we only accept what is proved. And a man who wishes to be clairvoyant
will never say that he can only accept what he has first proved. He
must be completely free of all self-seeking and must wait what comes
to him from the Cosmos, and which can only be designated by the word
‘grace.’ From the grace which illuminates he expects
everything. For how do we acquire clairvoyant knowledge? Only by
eliminating everything we have ever learnt. As a rule a man says, I
have my own opinion. But what he ought to say is: This only comes
because I have revived what my ancestors have thought, or what my
desires have aroused in me, etc. For there can never be any question
of these being his own opinions, and those who attach most value to
their own opinions are not in the least aware that they are being led
by the leading-strings of their prejudices. All this must be done
away with when we wish to attain to higher knowledge. The soul must
be empty able to wait quietly for what may enter into it from the
concealed secret world free from space and time, free from things and
deeds. And we must never believe that we can acquire any conception
of clairvoyant knowledge except by creating a suitable frame of mind
through which we may receive what may be offered to us as revelation
or illumination, so that we can never expect anything to come to us
except from the grace which approaches and brings gifts.
How then does such
knowledge reveal itself? How is that which comes to us revealed when
we have prepared ourselves sufficiently? It reveals itself as the
feeling of being endowed with grace through the gifts that come to
meet us from the spiritual world. If we wish to describe what thus
approaches us, bringing us grace and pouring knowledge into us, we
can only make use of the expression: it is that which comes to meet
us, an active inspiring with grace; a bestowing, a giving. Let us
grasp the nature of a being chiefly characterised by what I have just
described, so as to say of him: he is a bestower, a giver, an
offerer of gifts. Such a being whose chief characteristic is the
showering of grace around him, the shedding forth of grace from
himself. Let our conception of this being show us that in order to
attain this possibility of giving forth grace there must be the
vision of the sacrifice made by the Thrones to the Cherubim; let us
suppose that he was present when the sacrifice was being offered. Let
us clearly imagine a being such as this, who through having had this
vision is stimulated to shower the gifts of his grace around him.
Suppose we were to see a rose and were charmed by it, experiencing
the feeling of one enraptured by what we call
‘beautiful.’ Suppose another being through the vision of
what we have described as the sacrifice by the Thrones to the
Cherubim, were inspired to pour forth into the world, to offer to the
world as a gift, everything ho possessed — we should thus be
describing those beings spoken of in Occult Science as Spirits
of Wisdom who on the Sun were added to the beings with whom we become
acquainted on ancient Saturn. If now we were to put the question,
what is the character of these Spirits who appeared on the Sun in
addition to the Saturn Spirits? We must reply: The principal
characteristic of these spirits is the virtue of giving, of pouring
forth grace. If we wish to find a title for them, we must say: These
are the Spirits of Wisdom, the great Bestowers, the great Givers of
the Universe. Just as we have called the Thrones ‘The great
Sacrificers,’ so we must say of the Spirits of Wisdom, they are
‘the great Givers’ who so devote their gift that it
weaves and lives in the universe, flowing out into it and first
bringing about its order.
That is the activity
of the Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, they endow their environment
with their own being. And what is presented to the external
view when we look up and wish to have a higher sense-perception of
what takes place on the Sun?
When we look at it, it
is as described in Occult Science. Besides heat, the Sun
consists externally of air and of light. But when we say this, it is
as though someone were to say: ‘In the distance I see a grey
cloud.’ And if he were an artist he would paint the impression;
but if he were to come nearer he might perhaps see, instead of the
grey cloud, a swarm of midges. Thus in reality, what he took for a
grey cloud is nothing but a number of living beings. In like manner
do we confront the ancient Sun-existence. Seen from afar it appears
as the illusion of a body consisting of light and air; but if we
approach nearer, we have no longer a body of light and air but it
appears as the great bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom. And
no one learns the real nature of air who only describes it according
to its external physical properties. That is only maya and illusion,
only outer manifestation. For wherever there is air in the world, the
deeds of the Spirits of Wisdom lie behind it. Weaving, active air
means the manifestation of the bestowing virtue of the macrocosm, and
only he looks rightly upon air who says: ‘I see air in this
way,’ in reality within it something is bestowed by the Spirits
of Wisdom, something streams out into their environment.
And now we know what
was meant by describing ancient Sun as consisting of air. We now know
that what appears outwardly as air is a gift which the Spirits of
Wisdom allow to flow forth from their own being. But now
something wonderful is seen by the clairvoyant. We must clearly
understand how we obtain from our own soul-life a still more accurate
idea of this virtue of giving. Let us bring home to our mind the
feeling we may ourselves have if through the above-described mode of
devotion we are able to permeate ourselves with a perception, with an
idea; such an idea may produce in us a distinct perception of
which the best is the artistic longing to master colour or form in
some way or other, to send it forth into the world, thus to give to
the world something having an independent existence. We may describe
the nature of such a capacity of giving by saying that productivity
and creative activity is connected with it; this giving is
self-creative. Anyone who has an idea and feels that he can give it
forth for the good of the world, and can represent it in a work
of art, has the right conception of this productivity of the virtue
of giving. This it is which as air weaves through the Sun. When we
think of this creative idea in the mind of the artist, and how it
imprints itself into matter (besides everything else), this is the
spiritual being of air. Wherever there is air we are concerned with
it in some such way. But from the living productivity having been on
the Sun, proceeds the following.
Let us hold firmly in
mind that on ancient Saturn the Spirits of Time had been born,
therefore ‘time’ could be present on the Sun; for it came
over from Saturn. Thus on ancient Sun there was the possibility of
giving, which could not have been found on ancient Saturn. For just
imagine. How could there have been any giving if there had been no
time? It would not have been possible, for giving must include
acceptance, the one is not to be thought of without the other. Thus
giving must consist of two actions, giving and accepting, otherwise
giving has no object. On the Sun, however, giving and accepting
occupied a peculiar relation to one another, for — as time was
already there — the gifts offered to the environment on ancient
Sun had been, as it were, stored up in time: as it were, guarded in
time so that the Spirits of Wisdom pour forth their gift — and
it endures. But now something must enter to accept this. This occurs
comparatively speaking at a later time than the gifts of the Spirits
of Wisdom. They give at an earlier moment, and that which is
necessarily connected with receiving appears later. We can only
obtain a correct conception of this if here too we use our own
soul-experience as a foundation.
Suppose you are trying
very hard to understand something, or to form some sort of thought.
Suppose you have formed the thought. The next day you will make your
mind as clear as possible so that the thought you formed yesterday
may come back into it. What you formed yesterday is received by you
to-day. Thus it was on ancient Sun; what was given at an earlier time
was guarded till a later moment and was then received. What then was
this acceptance? It was a deed, an occurrence only distinguished from
the other occurrence in that it occurred later. The giving comes from
the Spirits of Wisdom. Who then accepts? If there is to be an
acceptance there must be someone to accept! In the same way as the
Spirits of Time arose from the sacrifice of the Thrones to the
Cherubims on ancient Saturn — through an act of nativity
— so through ‘an act of giving’ to the world by the
Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, the Spirits we call Archangels or
Archangeloi, came into being. They are these who accept on ancient
Sun. But they receive in a very special way, for they do not retain
for themselves the gift received from the Spirits of Wisdom, but
reflect it, just as a mirror reflects an image. Thus the task of the
Archangels on the Sun was to collect at a later epoch what had been
given earlier, what was still there and could be reflected by the
Archangels. Thus we have on the Sun an earlier act of giving and a
subsequent accepting, but this accepting is a reflection back. Just
suppose that the earth were not as it is now, but that what occurred
at an earlier age could be reflected again at the present time. We
actually know that something of the sort does take place. We are now
living in the fifth post-Atlantean age of civilisation, when the
events of the third, the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean age are being
reflected. What formerly was received is now reflected. Everything
that formerly existed is recapitulated. So that we have to think of
the Archangels on the one side and as the recipients on the other the
Spirits of Wisdom who in the ancient Sun-period were the bestowers.
From this something quite special arises, which can only be properly
conceived by thinking of a globe complete in itself and radiating
forth from its centre that which is given. It radiates out to the
periphery — whence it is radiated back to the centre. Thus we
have to think of what comes from the Spirits of Wisdom as proceeding
from the centre; this radiates forth in all directions, is collected
by the Archangels and reflected back. What is thus reflected back
into space is the gift from the Spirits of Wisdom. It is light that
re-conducts the radiations of the Spirits of Wisdom, and the
Archangels are at the same time creators of light. Light is not in
the least the external illusion presented to us; but wherever light
appears we have the gifts of the Spirits of Wisdom radiated back to
us. And the beings whose existence must be presumed behind all light
are the Archangels. Hence we must say: Wherever light appears to us,
behind it are the Archangels; but they are only able to ray forth
light to us because they reflect back what has streamed out to them
— namely, the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of
Wisdom.
In this way we obtain
a picture of ancient Sun: We think of a centre in which is focussed
what came over from ancient Saturn; the sacrificial acts of the
Thrones to the Cherubim. Absorbed in contemplation of these acts of
sacrifice are the Spirits of Wisdom. This vision causes them to
radiate forth from themselves that which is their real being:
streaming, flowing wisdom is the virtue they give. However, as this
is radiated through by ‘time’ it is sent forth and sent
back again, so that we have a globe, inwardly illuminated by the
virtue returning to it; for we must not think of the ancient Sun as
outwardly but as inwardly luminous, because the Spirits of Wisdom
radiate outwards. Thus something new is created which we may describe
as follows: Let us imagine the Spirits of Wisdom as sitting at the
centre of the Sun absorbed in contemplation of the vision of
the sacrificing Thrones; and by reason of this vision, radiating
forth their own being; and receiving back their radiating being which
they sent forth, receiving it reflected back from the surface, so
that they receive it back as light. Everything is illuminated. What
then do they receive back! Their own being surrendered by them became
a gift to the Macrocosm, it was their inner being. Now it rays back
to them; their own being meets them coming back from outside. They
see their own inner being outspread in the Cosmos — and
reflected back as light, as the reflection of their own
being.
The inner and the
outer are the two opposites which we now meet. The earlier and the
later are transformed into the inner and the outer; and spate is
born! Space comes into existence through the bestowing virtue of the
Spirits of Wisdom on ancient Sun. Before that, space could only have
pictorial value. Now we have space — but consisting at first of
only two dimensions. There was as yet no above and below, no right or
left, nothing but an outer and an inner. — In reality these
opposites appear at the end of ancient Saturn; but they repeat
themselves as space-creation on ancient Sun. And if we wish to obtain
a conception of all these occurrences, as we did of the last when the
picture appeared before our soul of the sacrificing Thrones, giving
birth to the Spirits of Time, we must not even picture a body
consisting of light, for the light within it was only a reflection.
We must think of it as a globe of inner space, in the centre of which
the picture of Saturn is recapitulated: the Thrones as Spirits as
though kneeling before the Cherubim, those winged beings, sacrificing
their own being, and, in addition to these, the Spirits of Wisdom,
absorbed in the vision of the sacrifice. And now it is also possible
to have the vision of the heat of the sacrifice being so transmitted
that we may think of it objectively as the incense of sacrifice, as
air ascending from the sacrifice as incense. We obtain a complete
picture if we imagine: the sacrificing Thrones kneeling before the
Cherubim, and as though participating, the Spirits of Wisdom,
absorbed in the contemplation of what they perceive in the centre of
the Sun as the sacrifice of the Thrones, and thereby ascending in
their conception to the idea of the sacrificial incense pouring
forth and spreading out on all sides, and finally condensing, while
from its clouds proceed the figures of the Archangels,--who reflect
back the incense from the periphery as light, illuminating the
interior of the Sun, returning the gift of the Spirits of Wisdom, and
in this way creating the sphere of the Sun. This sphere consists of
the outpoured gift of glowing heat and sacrificial incense. At the
outer periphery are the Archangels, the creators of the light, who,
later depict what was first on the Sun; it then returns as light.
What then, do these Archangels preserve! They guard the beginnings,
what was formerly there, the earlier. The gifts they receive they
reflect. That which was there in the beginning they radiate forth at
a later time, and in as much as they do this, they are the Angels of
the Beginning, because they bring into activity in later times what
was previously there. ‘Archangeloi’ ‘Messengers of
the Beginning’!
It is very wonderful
when such a word arises from the depths of true occult knowledge and
we remember that this word comes across to us from primeval
traditions, along the path of the School of Dionysius the Areopagite,
who was the pupil of Paul. It is wonderful to see that this word is
so deeply stamped that when we evolve it again, independently of what
is written, what stands there arises before us. And we then feel
ourselves united with the ancient holy schools of Initiation-Wisdom,
of the science of Initiation, so that we feel as though this ancient
time were streaming into us, we picture it with understanding after
having ourselves created the possibility of accepting it
Independently of what we have heard. Anyone feeling even a little of
the spirit of these old expressions which have descended to us
without our having paid attention to them, will feel himself within
the current of the mighty power of the Spirits of Time passing
through humanity. What is thus felt in contemplation of these
things is in marvellous connection with the whole human evolution, it
makes us feel one with it. The Archangels preserve the memorial of
the primordial beginnings; but whatever takes place on any one planet
is always recapitulated later, only when it occurs later there is
always something added to it. So that we meet with the being of the
Sun again in what we find on our own earth.
The whole conception,
the whole feeling that we are thus able to acquire — which gives
us a picture of the sacrifice of the Thrones, of the Cherubim receiving
the sacrifice, of the glow given forth by the sacrifice, of the
sacrificial incense spreading out as air, of the light radiated back
by the Archangels who preserve for later ages what took place at the
beginning — this feeling is something that can call up inns a
true understanding of everything connected with the creation of such
a feeling, with the sacrifice proceeding from it.
We have now
contemplated in a more spiritual sense, what I have just described as
a soul-sphere whereas previously we considered it from a physical
aspect. And we shall now see that the Being who appeared on earth as
the Christ-being when we grasp the idea of the bestowing virtue, the
grace-bestowing virtue in its reflection in the light of the universe
in the inner substance of the Sun-body, which was permeated and
illuminated through and through by this light. If we can exalt our
conception of what has just been described and transform that into an
imagination, bearing in mind that something of all that was brought
to the earth by the Christ-Being is on the earth, fulfils its life on
the earth, we can then go still more deeply into the actual spiritual
nature of the Christ-impulse. We are then able to understand the dim
idea that can stir in a human soul on hearing such an account, when
it dawns on the soul that what has been described may in a certain
sense again come to life on earth. Just imagine all that has been
described of the Sun as absolutely concentrated in the soul of one
Being, suppose all this gathered up and taken away to reappear
at a later period and so to reappear and work, that He would bring
with Him an extract of what came into existence through the ancient
primordial sacrificial deed and the smoke of sacrifice through the
light-creating time and the bestowing Virtue and would reflect it out
of the universe of radiant light. Imagine all this concentrated in
one soul, think of that soul as giving all this to the
Earth-existence; around Him are assembled those who now as
earth-beings are destined to radiate this back again and preserve it
for the remainder of the earth-existence. In the centre is the One
Who comes forth from the Sacrifice and Who bestows through the
sacrifice, and around Him are gathered those who are to receive it
— on the one side all that the sacrifice is and
everything belonging to it, as it were translated into earthly
life; on the other hand the possibility of destroying the sacrifice
for everything that can be given to the human being in the way of
Divine grace may be either accepted or rejected. If we think of all
this as embodied in an intuition, we can, on looking at the
‘The Last Supper’ by Leonardo da Vinci, have somewhat the
following feeling. The entire Sun with the sacrificial Beings the
Beings of Bestowing Virtue, the Beings of warmth-giving bliss, of the
radiant light, spiritually grasped, radiated back by those selected
to preserve into later ages what belongs to the earlier, and so
ordained for the earth that it may also be rejected by the traitor.
We may feel that this is the Earth-Being, in as much as the Sun-Being
reappears on the Earth. If this is felt — not in an external
intellectual manner, but in true artistic way; then something of the
actual driving-force of such a great work of art can be felt, a work
which reflects, as it were, the extract of the Earth existence. When
we see this picture again, and see how the Christ grows forth from
the Sun-Sphere, we shall better understand what I have often said: If
a spirit were to come down to the Earth from Mars, while he would not
be able to understand everything that he saw here, he would
understand the actual mission of the Earth if he allowed the
‘Last Supper’ of Leonardo da Vinci to work upon him. The
inhabitant of Mars would then see that the Sun-existence must lie
concealed within that of the Earth; and thereby everything he
might be told concerning the meaning of the Earth would become clear
to him. He would understand that the Earth had a meaning, and he
would know what was involved. He would say to himself: ‘What is
taking place on the Earth may perhaps be only of importance to one
part of it: but could the deed represented in the colouring of this
picture really take place? When I concentrated on the central Figure
with those other around Him, I feel what the Spirits of Wisdom felt
on the Sun, and what is re-echoed here in the words; “This do
in remembrance of me.”‘ The earlier preserved in the
later: this saying will only be comprehensible to us when we grasp it
in its whole cosmic connection, as we have just learnt to do.
In the next lecture it
will be our task to study the Christ-Being in the spiritual nature of
the Sun, in order to pass on from that to the spiritual nature of the
Moon.
|