LECTURE TEN
September 14, 1924
We
have placed the Apocalypticer's concluding perspective before
our souls. If we understand it correctly we see that this last
perspective is described in a way which is in complete
agreement with everything one can say about evolution from the
viewpoint of the most exact spiritual science. We saw that the
building of cultural phenomena and of the human body changed
from a below upwards mode to an above downwards mode, and that
this is reflected in the Apocalypse. At the end of the last
lecture I pointed out that if one honestly tries to understand
the Apocalypse one must become acquainted with the things which
can be said about world evolution from the viewpoint of
spiritual research.
However, we see that a meaning is incorporated in certain
places in the Apocalypse which one will find one can only grasp
if one goes into the knowledge of the human being which is
found in Anthroposophy. This is definitely the case when one
has to do with a revelation which is based on experiences of
the spiritual world. Of course one has to be able to see that
the images which are presented in the Apocalypse are
revelations from the spiritual world. Here one will disregard
the question as to whether the Apocalypticer would really have
been able to present all of the details which we rediscover in
his work in an intellectualistic way, that is, whether he
understood them to that extent. For that is not important at
all. The only important thing is whether he is a real seer. He
looks into the things in the spiritual world, but it's not he
who makes them true, they are true through their own content,
and they have this content and reveal it through themselves and
not through him. So that even outer, rationalistic experts
could come and could prove: The one who gave us the Apocalypse
had this or that amount of education, and one cannot really
expect him to have had these wide perspectives of things
through his own soul. I don't want to discuss whether the
writer of the Apocalypse had them here; I: just want to point
out that this is not important. We must place the
Apocalypticer's pictures which are revelations of the
spiritual world before; our soul and we must let their content
work upon us.
Now
we have the magnificent concluding picture of the new Jerusalem
before us, which has the experiential backgrounds of which I
spoke. We will do well to go backwards from this picture a
little bit. Here we have the important passage where another
magnificent picture appears before our soul, namely, that
magnificent picture where the Apocalypticer sees what he calls
heaven open, and where a power approaches him on a white horse
of whom he speaks in such a way that we become aware: he
doesn't just have the trichotomy or the threefoldedness of the
Godhead in his intellectuality — he has it in his whole I
human being. He speaks in such a way that he is really still
aware with I his whole soul that one has the three forms of the
one God before one, and that if one places oneself outside of
the physical world one can alternately speak of the one or the
other of them, because they intermingle.
Of
course, when they're put into the physical World one gets a
picture of three persons, so that one has to distinguish
between the Father God who underlies all facts of nature,
including the ones which work into human nature, the Son God
who has to do with everything which leads to freedom in the
soul's experience and the Spirit God who lives in a spiritual,
cosmic order which is far away from nature and foreign to
nature. This is how sharply contoured the three persons of the
Godhead appear here upon the physical plane.
Now
when man crosses the threshold to the spiritual world, he gets
into the condition which I described in my book
How Does One Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds?
where he splits up into
three beings, so that thinking, feeling and willing become
somewhat independent. However, if we go to higher worlds from
the physical plane we see the triune Godhead approaching us
ever more as a unity. And so of course, the Apocalypse must be
read in this light. One shouldn't distinguish between the
Father God, the Son God and the Spirit God as directly as one
would do this in the physical world.
Thus the one who approaches us on a white horse in that
magnificent Imagination is none other than the unified God. And
in the form in which he is' the Son of God, we have to see Him
more in the free soul development of human beings on earth. But
now something very strange occurs, which is what makes the
picture that comes before the concluding one seem very
magnificent. It is quite natural and a matter of course that
John sees heaven open — I will call the one who wrote the
Apocalypse John — for the new thing which is descending
from the spiritual world. The whole culture must be arranged in
such a way that it comes down from the spiritual world to the
physical world. Now if we place this before our soul correctly,
then of course the condition which must precede this is that
John looks into the spiritual world. But this means: heaven is
opened for him. However, he wants to indicate a future
situation which will exist for human beings. He's actually
saying nothing less than the following.
Before that state of affairs will arise on earth where the
spiritual ingredients for the building up of the new Jerusalem
will sink down from the spiritual world and will be received by
men — just as men previously raised material ingredients
from the earth upwards — before this state will come,
before men become aware that they must build from above
downwards — as I said recently, he considers this state
to be a real one — before this will come, the state of
affairs where man is mainly engaged with his will will be
replaced by another one where he is only concerned with
knowledge and where he has to look into the spiritual world:
heaven is opened. The one who underlies the beings of the world
in a radiating and creative and sanctifying way appears. And
now the significant reason which makes the picture so
magnificent: He has a name written on him which is known to no
one besides himself. That is very significant. When one comes
to the place in the Apocalypse where this is written, one sees
another clear sign that one is dealing with one of the greatest
spiritual revelations. The name which is given to the ego
varies considerably in various languages, but I have pointed to
the spiritually trivial fact that the name for the ego can
never be spoken by someone in such a way that it can be given
to someone else. I cannot say I to someone else; this
distinguishes the name of the self from all other names. They
are given to objects, to either inner or outer objects. But
when I say “I” in any language I can only say it to
myself; I can only say it to another person if I have slipped
into him — which must be a real spiritual process; but
there is no need to speak about that now.
Now
let's imagine the things which describe the self in various
languages the self was not given a name in the older languages;
it was in the verb. The ego was not a direct designation. One
described oneself through what one did in a kind of
demonstrative way, but no name for the self-existed. This name
for the self of one's human being only began to be used later;
it's a significant symbolic fact that the German word for I
— “ich” — contains the initials of
Jesus Christ. But now let's think of an enhancement of this
fact that we have a name in our languages which every one can
only say in connection with himself. The enhancement consists
in what is now said in the Apocalypse — that He who comes
down from the supersensible world has a name written on Himself
where He not only is the only one who can use it to refer to
Himself, but where He is the only one who understands it; no
one else understands it.
Now
just think that this Revealer approaches John showing him in a
prophetic picture what will later occur for humanity. There He
comes down in future times the one who has the name which He
alone understands. What can all of this really mean? If one
honestly wants to understand it, the whole thing seems to be
meaningless at first. Why does He come, the one who is to bring
the salvation of the world, the justice of the world all of
this is written in the Apocalypse —, “who shall
make faith and knowledge true;” not what the (King James
version has: “was called Faithful and True”) but
“who shall make faith and knowledge true.” This is
really like hide-and-seek, for if He has an inscribed name
which only He understands, what is that supposed to mean? It
makes us ask a question which goes deeper. What is this really
all about?
Imagine it quite vividly: He has a name which only He
understands. How can we relate to this name? It should really
acquire a significance for us; this name should really be able
to live in us. How can this occur? It can occur if the being
who understands this name becomes united with us and enters our
own self, then this being in us will understand the
name and we will understand it also. We will have Him in us and
we will continually have the awareness of Christ in
us. He is the only one who understands the things, which are
connected with His being; but He understands them in us, and
the Christ-insight of the Christ being in us gives the light
which is rayed out in us, because He becomes this light in us,
in our own being. It will be an insight which dwells in
men.
You
see, something has occurred thereby. The first thing which has
occurred is an intended, necessary consequence of the Mystery
of Golgotha. This being who went through the Mystery of
Golgotha, this being who must enter us, so that we comprehend
the world with his understanding and not with our
understanding, this being wears a garment which is sprinkled
with blood, the blood of Golgotha. And we take in this picture.
However, John the Apocalypticer tells us that this garment
which is sprinkled with the blood of Golgotha has a name. This
is not the same name he was talking about before; this is the
name of the garment which is sprinkled with blood. And the name
of this vesture dipped in blood is the logos of God, the Logos,
God, the word of God. Thus the one who should live in us and
should give the light in us through his own understanding fills
us with the word of God.
The
pagans read the word of God in natural phenomena. They had to
receive it through outer manifestations. Christians must
receive the word of God or the Creative word by taking the
Christ into themselves. The time will come when all human
beings who take Christianity into their souls in an honest way
will know through the course of the events that the word of God
is with Christ, and that this word of God has its seed in the
understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha and of the garment
which is sprinkled with blood. Thus we have the Christ,
enclosed in the Mystery of Golgotha in the language of the
Apocalypticer.
However, a third thing appears. Christ in three forms: firstly,
through himself, secondly through his garment, and thirdly
through the deeds which he does for men on earth. Here again a
condition is described which must set in, and which will of
course not begin in such a way that one can point to a
particular year but Christian development must move in that
direction.
The
third thing that our attention is drawn to is the sword with
which he works, which is the sword of his will, the sword of
his deeds, the sword of what he has done among human beings
upon earth by living in them. But what he's doing now, what he
does in his comings and goings, as it were, bears the third
name: King of all Kings, Lord of all Lords. That is the third
form. What is the nature of a king or the nature of a lord? If
we go into the real inner meaning of the Latin word dominus, we
arrive at what linguistic usage indicates in this case, quite
independently of spiritual investigation: A lord is someone who
is designated to give guidance to some other being on earth or
in the whole world. 3ut how long will external lords be
necessary upon earth? How long will one need the commands of
outer lords upon earth and even the commands of external
spiritual lords above the earth? Until that point in time when
Christ lives in men with the name which only he understands.
Then everyone will be able to follow Christ in his own being
and in his own soul. Then everyone will try to realize in
himself what man's will wants to realize out of inner love.
Then the Lord of lords and King of kings will live in each
individual.
Seen from an inner spiritual viewpoint, this is really the time
in which we're living now. The fact that we're living in it is
concealed by the fact that men are continuing to live in their
old ruts, and they're really denying this indwelling of the
Christ as much as possible, denying it as much as possible,
they're denying it as much as possible in all fields. One can
certainly say that a great deal exists in a large number of
people today which is preparing in the right way for the
etheric appearance of the Christ, who is a being that came down
from the divine world. But men must prepare themselves by
finding the source of their actions and deeds in
themselves.
Therewith we really touch upon a difficulty with the
present-day activities of priests out of the spirit of the
Apocalypse. A priest should guide and direct in a certain
sense. A priest has the faithful before him, and his priestly
dignity presupposes that he, the leader, is a king over the
ones he is to lead' in a certain way. He is the giver of the
sacraments; he is the minister. On the other hand, we live in a
time where men have the potential to take in the Christ to such
an extent that they can become their own leaders ever more.
You
see, this is the situation which the one who wants to become a
priest gets into today. And yet the ordination of priests is
fully justified today, completely justified. It's fully
justified because although men really do bear something in them
as an essence, it must be brought out of them, it must really
be brought out of them. And one really needs everything which
lies behind priestly dignity in order to bring out what is in
human beings today. For we live in a time which really requires
something quite definite. The outer world cannot really
completely confront what is required here. For the outer world
must deal with men insofar as they are bearers of a physical
body. But it would be a terrible prospect if men — the
way they are through our civilization, which hasn't arrived at
the standpoint on which man is standing — would live over
into the next earth life in this form.
We
know that one tries to avoid this in the Anthroposophical
sphere. Human souls are offered something whereby they are
supposed to live over into the next incarnation with the things
men are supposed to take in today. But this must become
universally human. Men must develop an ego or an individuality
with which they can live over into the next incarnation. This
is only possible if what is given through the grace of
sacrifice, through the grace of a sacrament is added to men's
experiences. This doesn't separate men from their karma but it
does separate them from what is clinging to them in a very
intensive way today. Human beings are walking around with masks
on. They're going around masked. And it can lead to tragic
conflicts if the need arises at some point to really see human
beings and their individualities.
Such a tragic conflict arises with Hölderlin, who
once said: when he looks around in the world he
sees Germans, Frenchmen, Turks and Englishmen, but no human
beings, young, mature and old people but no human beings. And
he enumerates more types. Men bear an extra-human stamp, as it
were.
We
need a priestly activity today which speaks to human beings as
human beings and which cultivates humanity. Of course none of
the present-day confessions can really do this. Just consider
how dependent the confessions are. The community for Christian
renewal must get beyond the dependency of these confessions. It
must do this through its own destiny. No one who grows out of
Anthroposophy is in the same position that priests are. That is
a quite special position. And it is perhaps quite right to
point to what is present here out of the spirit of the
Apocalypse. Just consider that in every other activity which
grows out of Anthroposophy today, people become dependent upon
the outer world in some way through the powers that be.
If
someone becomes a teacher out of Anthroposophy, one can see the
tremendous obstacles which are put in their way. People deceive
themselves about this. But we won't get a second Waldorf
school, because they will set up the condition everywhere that
all the teachers one hires must be approved by the state in
some way. The Waldorf School could only come into existence
because we started at a time when no such school law existed in
Württemberg yet.
Take doctors: we cannot make doctors out of people in the
Anthroposophical movement from scratch without further ado. To
be sure, we could make doctors. But they wouldn't be
recognized, they would not be accredited. To some extent we
even have this difficulty in artistic things. It won't be very
long before things will tend in the direction of what is
happening in Russia, and people will demand a stamp from the
state. A priest who grows out of the Anthroposophical Society
is the only one who can strip everything off, as it were. It's
all right if he learned something, but he throws off everything
in his work. He's really laying the first foundation stone of
the new Jerusalem in the theology which he supports; for he
represents a theology which doesn't have to be recognized by
anyone besides himself. That is the important thing.
You
are the only ones who are in this position. You should also
feel that you are in this position, and you will feel the
specific quality of your priestly dignity. If one is dealing
with a country like Russia they can drive out certain kinds of
priests, but people in such a country will never do anything
which would make it necessary for priests to get an official
stamp of approval. For one will either leave priests the way
they are, or one will not want them, which has already been
realized in Russia as far as the tendency goes. Thus priests
are the first ones who will be able to feel the approach of the
new Jerusalem, the approach of the indwelling Christ, the
Christ who becomes the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.
Hence it is very good for a priest to dwell on this passage \in
the Apocalypse, to dwell on it with an ardent heart and to
develop the entire enthusiasm of his priestly soul which he
should develop at this place in the Apocalypse. For the
Apocalypse should not be a teaching; the Apocalypse should be
life which works in each of our souls. We should feel that we
are united with the Apocalypse. We should be able to place what
we're working and living with into the stream of prophetic
things in the Apocalypse. Here we see ourselves gathered around
John the Apocalypticer, who has the vision Heaven has been
opened, the one who only understands his name himself comes,
the one whose garment bears the name the “word of
God,” the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords
— he comes. The priesthood which gathers around the John
who sees this, the priesthood that unites itself with the
cultic rite which has been drawn from the spiritual world, that
raises up the transubstantiation in the sense of the Holy
Spirit again, that has the new act of, consecration of man, the
transformed old one which has taken the valid things from the
old one, but which has taken on the form which flows out of the
spiritual world today — this priesthood may gather around
John the Apocalypticer, who looks up into the opened
heaven.
For
we are permitted to look at the inauguration which took placed
in the room which the fire then took hold of —, we should
look at it in the light which rays out here when heaven opens
— the white horse comes out with the one who sits upon it
and who only knows his name himself, who must be incorporated
into us if this name is to mean something to us, and who has
the other characteristics which are mentioned. This is how one
should understand the Apocalypse, for the Apocalypse must be
understood in a living way and not just with the top
of one's head.
However, I would like to say that very deep wisdom is connected
with the magnificent Imagination that appears here. Just
consider what appears in close proximity to this significant
vision, as it were. The reader is told how active the beast
that I described is — the beast which induces human
beings to go down from the spiritual to the physical, which the
Apocalypticer divided into three stages; the beast whose one
form is a materialistic way of living and not just a
materialistic view of life. However, the Apocalypticer refers
to two points in time. He tells us how the beast is overcome,
and on the other hand he tells us that the adversary of
mankind, the stronger adversary of mankind, is bound for a
thousand years and is then released again for a short time.
Thus we really have to do with two adversaries of the good
principle, with the beast and with what is traditionally
referred to as Satan.
Now
the beast is overcome with respect to the outer physical world,
in the sense that a spiritual world view can always be opposed
to materialism. And Satan is chained at the present time in a
certain way. But he will be released again. Satan is fettered,
and anyone who sees through the important things in evolution
knows that he is fettered. For if Satan was not
chained at the present time and if everything which could
really pour out the vials of wrath would appear — if
Satan was not bound, — the connection between the
materialistic way of living and the materialistic view of life
which is present on earth today would show up in the outer
world in a ghastly way. Then the people who proclaim
materialism as a truth with the deepest inner cynicism today
would arouse such a desire in the unbound Satan that one would
see this extraction of the materialistic view and a
materialistic way of living and their acquisition by Ahrimanic
powers, one would see this as the most horrible and most
terrible diseases.
If
Satan was not bound one would not only have to speak of
materialism as a view and a way of living, one would have to
speak of materialism as the worst kind of a disease. Instead of
this people go through the world with the cynicism and
frivolity of materialism and even with religious materialism,
and nothing happens to them. But the only reason nothing
happens to them is because Satan is bound and the Godhead still
makes it possible for one to come to spiritual things without
succumbing to Satan. If Satan was here, many a teacher who is
standing in some confession and is infected by materialism
would be a terrible, gruesome sight for mankind. The idea which
arises when one points to the possible disease of materialism,
to the leprosy of materialism which would really be there if
Satan were not bound, if one points to this, it certainly gives
rise to a terrible mental image.
However, anyone who is aware of his spiritual responsibility
towards knowledge today will not make use of such an idea
within any other context than the context of the Apocalypse. I
myself would not speak of the leprosy of materialism in any
other context than in the one I'm speaking of it here, where I
have to connect things with the Apocalypse and where the one
who becomes familiar with the ideas of the Apocalypse has these
gruesome pictures before him, which however definitely
correspond to the real state of the spiritual affairs.
The
Apocalypse should not only permeate, our life, it should also
permeate our words. If we take in the Apocalypse it is not only
an enlivening element in priests' work, it is something that,
permits us to point to things which we otherwise point to in
exoteric life. The Apocalypse should not only live with our
ego, if we want to understand it, the Apocalypse also wants to
speak in our words: and if you are real priests there will be
some things which you will say to each other when you are in a
room with other priests so that they will live in you and
remain amongst yourselves. Then you will gain the strength to
say the right words when you are standing before your faithful
followers.
Priests are priests today because they are the first ones who
may speak about the Apocalypse freely amongst themselves. This
Apocalypse is a priestly thing, that is, it is a priests' book
which is appended to the Gospels. You will become priests all
the more, the more you find your way into the inner spirit of
the Apocalypse. We will speak about this some more
tomorrow.
|