Lecture XI
May 23, 1916 Dornach
If you take
the concept of Jesus from the Koran, for example, and consult
from 19th Surah, you will see that it specifically mentions
that the Nathan Jesus Child actually spoke immediately at his
birth. This is what the Koran says: “Jesus spoke and
said:‘See, I am the servant of God. He has given me the
book and He has made me to a prophet and He has blessed me
wherever I am, and He has given me His blessings so long as I
live, and love to my mother and peace upon the day of my
birth and the day when I die and the day when I am
resurrected again to life. This is Jesus, the son of Mary,
the Word of truth’ ”. This actually appears in the
Koran.
In the ancient
Jewish teachings as they are contained in the Talmud and
other writings apart from the Old Testament, you learn that
which is more of a conceptual nature, but on the other hand
the Haggadah is the name given to that which modern people
would call legends and tales. However, these legends and
tales in the Haggadah refer more to actual perception in the
spiritual world; they go back to imaginative knowledge.
I am going to
share a portion from the Haggadah about Solomon with you. It
says: “Rabbi Joachin says: The feet of man guarantee
for him that they bring him to that place where he is
supposed to go. And they tell about those Moors who are the
sons of Shesher named Elacoraf and Akia who are the scribes
of Solomon. One day Solomon saw the Angel of Death who was
very sad and he asked: Why are you sad? The Angel of Death
replied: Because I require these two Moors. As a result of
that Solomon gave his Moors to the Seherem (Seherem are those
demons who for imaginative vision look like goats and fly
through the air) and sent them into the City of Loos. When
these two Moors arrived there, they died. A few days
afterwards, Solomon again saw the Angel of Death and this
time the Angel was laughing. And Solomon said to the Angel:
Why do you laugh? The Angel of Death replied: You sent them
precisely to the place where I wanted them to go. So at that
time Solomon said the following: The feet of the human being
guarantee for him that they bring him to the place where he
is supposed to be. Thus Solomon had an experience with the
Angel of Death, an experience which confirmed the truth of
that which Rabbi Joachin said, namely, the feet of man
guarantee for him that he is taken to the place where he
needs to be.”
Now, my dear
friends, you will see that a number of questions are raised
in this story from the Haggadah. The feet of the man
guarantee that he is brought to the place where he is
supposed to go. Why are the feet spoken of so precisely? In
such ancient imaginative legends, nothing of an arbitrary
nature is there, everything has its definite deep
significance. So we have the first question which one can
ask. Then we also have another: Why was the Angel of Death
sad when he appeared before Solomon with the statement that
he is going to take the two scribes away? It seems
ridiculously trivial to say that the Angel was sad; he was
going to do his job. Then Solomon asks him: “Why are
you sad?” What is the significance of this question?
The Angel of Death says he is sad because he demands the two
scribes. But Solomon gives them to the demons who carry them
into the City of Loos.
Now, you see
the question about the city of Loos can be more easily
answered. The city of Loos was so organized that no one was
allowed to die within the city, hence those people who were
ready to die were carried outside the city. It was the only
city which had this organization. Therefore when Solomon
heard that the Angel of Death was going to take his scribes,
he sent them to the city because he believed that if they
were in the city, the Angel of Death could not get hold of
them. This is the story given in the Haggadah. However, these
stories are found in many other places in Jewish tradition.
There it is related in this way: They had only arrived at the
gates of the city because they fell down during their flight.
And because they were not able to enter the city, the Angel
was able to get hold of them. However, the next day you have
the Angel of Death standing before Solomon and laughing. This
is very strange; the Angel is laughing because he was able to
get hold of these two scribes for death. Solomon recognizes
the truth of Rabbi Joachin when he says: “The feet of
human beings are a guarantee that he is brought to the place
where he is supposed to be.”
Now, it is
important to understand that both scribes, both Moors, are
the sons of Shesher, who himself was the scribe for David.
Thus, this indicates that these two scribes of King Solomon
were very special. we must put all these things together if
we want to perceive the whole significance of the questions
which surface when we speak about this very significant
cognitive moment in the life of King Solomon. Now, remember
that King Solomon was not wise because he was clever in the
sense that modern man is clever, he was called the wise
Solomon because he was able to have real vision into the
spiritual world; the spiritual world was open to him.
Therefore Solomon was to experience that truth which Rabbi
Joachin imparted, namely, the truth in connection with the
feet of human beings.
When you
consider the human being in comparison with the animal, then
you see a very important difference. Through the fact that
man has a vertical spine, he is at right angles to the
surface of the earth. The spine of the animal, however, is
parallel to the surface of the earth. Now I hope that no one
here is going by object to telling us about the kangaroo.
These are exceptions which can be explained if we go into the
details of the situation. But let us put that on the side for
the moment. We know man has an upright spine and the spine of
the animal is horizontal. Now, when we draw a line through
the spine of the animal — it is not a straight line,
but a curved one — then we have a line curving parallel
to the curvature of the earth which means when we draw a
circle parallel to the earth then that passes through the
spine of the animal. However, when we draw the same curve for
the human being, then we find that this curve has a middle
point. In the case of the animal we have seen the middle
point of the curve was the middle point of the earth. However
in the middle point of the curve that we draw through the
spinal column of man, there you have the middle point of the
moon. Why? Because that particular stage of development which
the animal is going through at present, man already went
through in the ancient Moon period. Therefore, at the present
time man still has a connection with the moon insofar as the
curve passing through his spine has its center point in the
moon, just as the curve passing through the animal has its
center point in the earth. Therefore man is connected with
the moon in a similar descriptive way as the animal is
connected with the earth.
Now, man has
torn himself away from the earth; man is not as united with
the earth as is the animal kingdom. As far as his external
physical nature is concerned, man has torn himself loose from
his earth planet. However, he has only torn himself loose in
one aspect of his nature; he has another aspect through which
he is attached to the earth, and that is with his feet. Man
has to stand upon the earth with his feet. However, passing
over from the Moon development to the earth development, he
has torn himself away from the earth with his hands. His
feet, however, are still connected with the earth. If you
understand the human form as it has developed itself in the
transition from the Moon evolution to the Earth evolution, so
you must say: In so far as man belongs to the earth, the
earth has been able to attach itself to him in his feet. What
guarantees does man have to come to the earth? This is
guaranteed by man's foot situation. Hence we have the
explanation in the Hebrew: The feet guarantee him. The word
‘guarantee’ in the Hebrew is the same as the word
you use in reference to guaranteeing someone an amount of
capital, the word guarantee indicates that as far as his feet
are concerned, it is guaranteed that he has a connection with
the earth. That does not mean that the feet of the human
being carry him to the place of his death, but the whole
secret of the human form lies in this sentence as Solomon has
recognized it through the fact that he is able to look into
the spiritual world.
Now, I have
yet to describe that which Solomon revealed when he had words
with the Angel of Death. We will see this from the example of
how we have a wisdom present in humanity which we previously
called the primal wisdom. This primal wisdom passed away in
order that man could have an opportunity during the Earth
evolution to develop this wisdom again, but to develop it out
of himself in complete freedom.
Now, there is
another riddle in this story about the Angel of Death. At one
time he is sad and at another time he is laughing. We can
just think about the true nature of laughing and weeping. You
know very well that if you see a person walking along the
street who is laughing to himself, you would say that he is
crazy. You see that laughing is something which you expect
one to participate in with other people. On the other hand,
when it comes to crying, you know that usually you cry when
you are alone. To explain this phenomenon of weeping and
laughing, we have to remember that we generally think that
what we are as human beings is only enclosed within our skin
and we forget the fact that the air is outside us and when we
breathe it in, it becomes part of us and then we breathe it
out again. Therefore we are part of our whole environment.
And when we go to sleep, we breathe out our ego and astral
body, we breathe it in again when we wake up. So we see that
there is a flowing life between us and the spiritual world.
Actually when we laugh, we spread out our ego and astral body
outside us. You stretch out, you expand your astral body and
your ego when you laugh. And this expansion of the astral
body goes out to the ether body. The invisible man spreads
himself out elastically. That is the process when you laugh.
The reverse process takes place when you weep. There you have
the astral body contracting together with the ether body and
pressing itself an the physical body which then presses out
tears.
Now we go back
to Solomon. When Solomon looked at the Angel of Death, he did
not see a physical body, but he saw a spiritual being. What
he really saw when the Angel laughed was the Angel spreading
himself out. The first time he saw the Angel, he was weeping,
that means the Angel was drawing himself together. Here we
see how spiritual beings fulfil their activities. Laughing
and weeping is an accompaniment of life with us human beings
through which we only express our inner being; we show how
our inner being is constituted. In the case of spiritual
beings, they show their actions. As far as we are concerned,
when we laugh and cry, it has very little significance for
other people. We do not produce activities through our
laughing and crying. These are accompaniments of our life.
However, in the moment when we approach certain spiritual
beings who with their actual self are occupied more in
working than we are, there you have the significance of the
expanding out and the contracting in. The Angel of Death,
because he was in the position of having to fetch these two
Moors to death, had to hold his forces together, he had to
condense himself in order to give support for his forces
because he was about to perform some activity which expressed
itself in the fact that he was sad. That is only an
indication of how he is drawing himself together. The next
day when he had accomplished his task, then the elasticity
expressed itself again, he spread himself out and you had the
appearance of laughter.
Now we come to
the next question: Why were they led to the City of Loos and
what is the meaning of this whole process with Solomon? In
the first place we must contemplate the fact that Solomon was
a person who stands in connection with the spiritual world. I
told you that it is very significant that both scribes were
the sons of Shesher who had been the scribe of King David.
Thus they are very valuable personalities and scribes at that
ancient time signified something different from what it means
today. Scribes in Egypt, for example, were people who were
able with all sorts of inner fervor to paint letters in the
sense of the ancient Egyptian script, and when someone
painted a false letter, he stood under the penalty of death,
because he was dealing with something of a holy nature. There
was something of a holy nature in the letters; this applied
to the scribes of King Solomon who also stood in connection
with the spiritual world. They stood in communion with
Solomon who imparted his knowledge of the spiritual world to
them. And the City of Loos points out the fact to us that
there was something in these scribes which enabled them to
have a feeling of their immortality even during their life,
they had this connection with the spiritual world. We ought
to bring our attention to the fact that they knew of their
soul-spiritual kernel which passes through the portal of
death. They knew this not only theoretically, but they
belonged to those who, as it were, were initiated in a
certain degree into these mysteries.
Hence the
Angel of Death had some difficulty here, because it was
necessary to put himself in a certain connection with King
Solomon, which means that both scribes, as well as King
Solomon, lived in the consciousness of their immortality.
Therefore it was necessary for the Angel of Death to enter
into the whole process which he had to execute because a
consciousness was present of the death which was involved
here. This did not mean that King Solomon wanted to protect
his scribes from death and therefore sent then to the City of
Loos, but it was supposed to indicate that here we are
dealing with death which was completely conscious, that the
knowledge of death was part of their knowledge. Here the main
emphasis was that Solomon was conscious of the death of his
scribes and when it is said that he sent then to the city of
Loos, that should only indicate to us how the Ahrimanic force
represented by the Angel of Death is represented by its agent
as the demonic goat which enters into the situation. Thus the
whole process which occurs consciously is supposed to be
explained to us through the story in the following way: A
death once occurred in such a way that a wise man was
conscious of it. That is what Rabbi Joachin wanted to
indicate. The whole process is connected with the spiritual
world. This arising of knowledge of the super-sensible world
in King Solomon is indicated by this story. Rabbi Joachin
said: “Man is bound to the earth through the form of
the feet and its relationship to the earth, and it is
expressed that man is connected to the earth in a one-sided
way, that only his feet are guarantee for the fact that man
belongs to the earth. The upright posture of man is a
guarantee for the fact that he is given over to the spiritual
world with his essential kernel. And because Solomon was able
to believe him, he was able to be made consciously aware of
the death of his scribes who were dear to him.
Therefore we
see that the idea of these ancient traditions can only be
understood with the aid of spiritual science. You learn from
that that Solomon's wisdom is connected with the fact that he
was able to look into the spiritual world and discover the
mystery of death. In the line of the generations which
descends from King Solomon, you have the physical
preparation, as it were, for this clairvoyance in so far as
it is able to enter the portal of death. Therefore we see the
body of Jesus descending from the Solomon line of the House
of David, but the soul is that of Zarathustra. We have to be
clear about the soul being that of Zarathustra and why it had
to enter into a body which descended from someone who was
permeated with clairvoyance.
Now, I have
often spoken about that which came with the soul of
Zarathustra. Today I only want to emphasize the fact that
that which came later was mostly removed from the teaching of
Zarathustra and then passed over into the teaching of Mani,
and further on into the teaching of Manichaeisn. We know the
deepest questions of the riddle of man belongs to the
question of the relationship of good and evil, and we know
that we can understand it when we have insight into the
working of Lucifer and Ahriman. But this working of Lucifer
and Ahriman leads us back to Zarathustra. Lucifer and Ahriman
are already present as a fact of the spiritual world in the
teaching of Zarathustra. And let us try to bring the
Zarathustrian teaching of the good and evil into connection
with the teaching of predestination which is connected with
the Islamic religion.
Let us
consider the import of this teaching of predestination. On
the one side it says: Everything which occurs has been
predetermined, so that even taking a step in front of my door
was predetermined. Even when I die that was predestined.
Everything is strongly predestined, which means that for the
consciousness of the Islamic person, everything that occurs
was already previously written in the Book of God. However,
every time this Islamic person is confronted with something,
he says: “If it is the will of God.” He is
completely convinced of the fact that everything is written
in the Book of God; however, he says: “I will only do
this thing if it is the will of God”. A Westerner would
say to this Islamic person: “If you say that everything
is predestined, then it does not make any sense to say I will
do it if God wills it. Why do you say: ‘I will do it if
God wills it?’ There is no doubt about it since
everything is already determined from the beginning.”
Here we have an insoluble contradiction; it really is an
insoluble contradiction. Look at Western philosophy, at
Spinoza, Descartes, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling and so on,
and you will find the after-working of this insoluble
contradiction, but it appears in a particularly crass way in
the teaching of Kismet, of everything being predestined. Here
we have a teaching which, in this connection, is different
from the teaching of Zarathustra, that the people who know
Zarathustra know about Lucifer and Ahriman. At first we have
the teaching of primal wisdom which did not contain any
contradictions and this transforms itself into teaching which
does carry a contradiction. A person who does not recognize
that life is filled with contradictions will really never
understand life. Life, when it is only approached with the
human understanding is bound to give many contradictions.
First we have
the age of Zarathustra and then this is followed by a time
when man is confronted by contradictions. But through these
contradictions he should be stimulated to develop his real
inner life. Now, you have something happening in the earth
evolution where something which did not belong to the earth
evolution comes in in order that man can resolve these
contradictions. Here we have the Nathan Jesus coming into
earth evolution and with this Nathan Jesus you have something
which helps to solve all the earth contradictions, because
the Nathan Jesus comes from the spiritual world and is not
attached to the earth. In the Nathan Jesus we have a healing
of the contradictions which occurs in human beings during the
earth sojourn. So we find where you have this contradiction
of the predestination and the idea ‘If God wills
it’ in the Koran, and you have in this very same Koran
the allusion to the Nathan Jesus which I quoted earlier, who
spoke immediately at birth. You see, all these things are
very complicated.
It requires
courage, courage in order to think things toward the end. And
this is the sort of courage that we get from spiritual
science. Too often today people are apathetic, but in
spiritual science we want to replace apathy with calmness.
With apathy you do not care; with calmness you are able to
absorb these things in a mood of equanimity.
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