THE
MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA.
Lecture
by Dr. R u d o l f S t e i n e r.
Given
at C o l o g n e on the 2nd of December, 1906.
[From greatly abbreviated notes unrevised by the lecturer]
The
Mystery of Golgotha is one of the profoundest secrets of the
evolution of the world. In order to understand it, we must shed
light upon the occult wisdom of thousands of years ago, an the
remote past of the world's development. It is not a plausible
argument against a more penetrating knowledge of the
Mystery of Golgotha to say that the life and work of Christ
Jesus should be accessible to the simplest mind. This is indeed
the case. But a full, encompassing comprehension of this
greatest event on earth must be drawn out of the depths of
Mystery-wisdom.
In
this lecture we shall penetrate into the depths of
Mystery-wisdom in order to understand how an event such as the
Mystery of Golgotha could take place. In this connection we
should bear in mind that with the appearance of Christ Jesus
upon the earth something occurred which divided mankind into
two parts. We can grasp this best of all by seeking an answer
to the question: Who was Christ Jesus?
For
the occultist this question is a double one: For we must
distinguish between the personality who lived at that time in
Palestine and reached the age of thirty, and what became of him
afterwards. In the 30th year of his life Jesus became
Christ.
In
the case of ordinary people, only insignificant portions of the
astral body, the etheric body and the physical body are
transformed into Manas, Buddhi and Atma, or into Spirit Self,
Life-Spirit and Spirit-Man. Jesus of Nazareth was a Chela of
the third degree, and his bodies were therefore in a state of
high purification.
When a Chela has absolved the purification of his three bodies,
then he acquires at a certain moment of his life the capacity
to sacrifice himself. In his 30th year, the Ego of Jesus left
his three bodies and passed over into the astral world, so that
the three sanctified bodies remained behind on earth, emptied
as it were of their Ego, so that room was made for a higher
individuality. In the 30th year of his life, the Ego of Jesus
of Nazareth made the great sacrifice of placing his purified
bodies at the disposal of the individuality of Christ. Christ
filled out these bodies. And from that time onwards we speak
of Christ-Jesus who lived upon the earth for three years and
fulfilled all his great deeds within the body of Jesus.
In
order to understand the true being of Christ, we must go far
back into the history of the development of the earth and of
mankind. Before the earth became Earth, it was the old Moon,
and the present moon is only a fragment of the old Moon. Before
the Earth was Moon, it was Sun, and at a still earlier stage it
was Saturn. We should bear in mind that milliards of years ago
there existed in the cosmic spaces a heavenly body, Saturn.
Also planets develop through different incarnations:
Before the Earth was EARTH, it existed as Saturn, Sun and
Moon.
Let
us now transfer ourselves upon the Sun. There, the so-called
Fire-Spirits had the same rank which human beings now have upon
the earth. Of course, they did not have the same appearance,
they did not look like men of to-day; these high
individualities passed through the human stage upon the Sun
under conditions which were quite different from the present
human conditions. Also upon the Moon a host of Beings passed
through the stage of humanity, and they came down to the Earth
as higher Beings, as Lunar Pitris or Moon-Spirits, that had
reached a higher stage than that of man upon the Earth. In
Christian esotericism they are called Angeloi = Angels. Only
upon the Earth the human being became MAN. The Lunar Pitris are
Beings one degree higher than man, and above them stand the
Fire-Spirits, who are one degree higher than the Lunar Pitris.
The Fire-Spirits have reached a very high stage of
development.
Now
we come to the Earth, to the Lemurian race which lived upon a
continent situated between present-day Asia, Africa and
Australia. There, man took on his present form through the fact
that below, upon the physical earth, there lived highly
developed beings, but physical beings, higher than the present
animals and less developed than present-day man. These
physical beings formed a kind of shell, a dwelling-place
and they would have been condemned to decadence had they not
been fructified by higher Beings. Only at that time the
human souls entered the physical human bodies, and then
began to shape the Subsequent form of the human body. In the
past, the human soul was an integral part of higher Spiritual
Beings. The physical shells of human bodies were upon the
earth, and into these streamed the souls of higher Beings
coming from above, from the spiritual worlds. In the spiritual
worlds the souls were connected like drops of water in a
sea, which were then poured into a number of vessels.
The
beings who poured out the souls from above were those who had
passed through their human stage upon the Moon, the
Moon-Spirits, whose stage of development was one degree higher
than that of Man so that they could pour one part of their
being into mankind, thus enabling it to develop further, Man
could then transform his organism more and more. He could lift
himself up from the earth and stand upright, he learned to
walk, to speak and to become independent.
There was a certain relationship between all these souls, for
they came from a common spiritual chorus. All those who had
received a drop from the same being, greatly resembled each
other. Members, of the same tribe first had such related souls,
then the members of a race or nation, for example, the whole
Egyptian or the whole Jewish nation. They had souls that had
come from a common source. From the Moon-Spirits man had
received the Spirit-Self and this enabled him to become an
independent being, an Ego.
But
something which man could not obtain from the Moon Spirits,
could only be given to him by a still higher Being, common to
all men, who had already completed its humanity upon the Sun: a
Fire-Spirit. Many Fire-spirits had developed upon the Sun and
exercised their influence upon the Earth, for they were high
spirits. One of these Fire-Spirits was called upon to pour out
his being upon the whole of mankind. A Spirit who belonged to
the whole Earth was able to pour out over the whole of mankind,
into each one of its parts, the element of the Sun or
Fire-Spirits, the Buddhi, or the Spirit of Life. But in the
Lemurian and in the Atlantean age the human beings were not
ripe enough to receive this from the Sun-Spirit.
When we read the Akasha Chronicle
(See Rudolf Steiner's book.
“THE AKASHA CHRONICLE”)
we find that something
very strange took place at that time: The human beings
consisted of physical body, etheric body, astral body and
Spirit Self, but this only lived in them in a very weak form.
The Buddhi or Life-Spirit soared above every human being — it
could be perceived in the Akasha spaces. In the astral space
every human being was surrounded by Buddhi, but it remained
outside and was not strong enough to enter man. This Buddhi was
a part of the great Fire Spirit who had poured out his drops on
the human beings, but these drops could not enter the human
beings.
Christ's deeds on earth gave man the capacity to absorb into
his Manas what we designate as Buddhi.
What Christ fulfilled upon the earth, was prepared by other
great teachers who had preceded him, by Buddha, by the last
Zarathustra, by Pythagoras, who all lived about 600 years
before Christ, and who were men who had already absorbed a
great deal of what lived in the surroundings of man. They had
absorbed the spark of Christ. Also Moses belongs to them. But
the Ego of the other people had not yet absorbed this
spark.
Into the physical, etheric and astral body of Jesus of
Nazareth had entered the whole Fire-Spirit, the one source of
all the different sparks that lived in the human beings. This
Fire-Spirit is the Christ, the only divine Being who lived on
earth in this form. He entered the body of Jesus of Nazareth
and as a result, all those who feel united with Christ Jesus
are able to absorb Buddhi. The possibility to absorb and take
in the Buddhi begins with the appearance of Christ Jesus. St.
John the Evangelist designates it as the Divine Creative Word.
The Fire-Spirit that poured his sparks into men is this Divine
Creative Word.
As
a result, the following took place: Whereas the Moon-Spirits
could create differentiated tribes among men by sending down
their drops, Christ was a uniting Spirit for the whole earth,
and the human beings were thus united into a family all over
the world. Whereas the differentiations among men were brought
about by the drops poured out by the different Moon-Spirits,
the unity among men was brought about by the Spirit poured out
by Christ Jesus. What unites men came down to the earth through
Christ Jesus.
When speaking of the last Judgement, Christ says in his
prophecy: “When the Son of Man shall Come in his glory”
(he means by this: when the drops of Christ shall all have entered
into the human beings, when all shall have become brothers)
“he shall say unto them on his right hand:
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungred and
ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink.”
(St. Matthew 25, 35)
Then the only difference among men will be that between good and evil.
Christ says to His disciples: “What ye have done unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done unto me.” This
signifies: Christ Jesus indicates the time when the drops
poured out by Him will all be absorbed, so that when one man
faces another, this drop of Christ within him will face the
drop of Christ in the other. The power whereby the Buddhi could
be called into life in man, this power went out from the life
of Christ upon the earth. We should therefore look upon Christ
as the uniting Spirit of the Earth.
If
we could look down upon the earth from a distant star, through
an epoch of many thousands of years, we would find a moment
when Christ was active on the earth, so that the whole astral
substance of the earth was permeated by Christ. Christ is the
Spirit of the Earth, and the Earth is His Body. Everything that
grows upon the earth is Christ. He lives in every seed, in
every tree, all that grows upon the earth. That is why Christ
indicated the bread and said: “This is my Body.” And of the
juice of the grapes
(at the LAST SUPPER the juice of grapes was passed round, not
fermented wine)
he had to say: “This is my Blood,”
for the juice of the fruits of the earth is his blood.
Consequently mankind must appear to him like beings who walk
about upon his body. That is why he told his disciples after
having washed their feet: “He that eateth bread with me, lifts
up his heel against me.” (Treads on me). This must be taken
literally, in the meaning that the earth is the body of Christ
Jesus. Because he took upon himself the evolution of the
earth, a distant spiritual being might see that more and more
of Christ's spirit flows into the human beings; the single
drops of Christ Jesus penetrate into the individual human
beings. Finally the whole earth will be peopled by transformed,
Christianised men, by men who have become divine through
Christ. Only those who do not participate in this, will be put
aside as evil; they must wait for a later time in order to
follow a course of development leading to goodness.
All
the different nations had Mysteries, before Christ appeared on
earth. The Mysteries revealed what was to take place in the
future. After a long training, the pupils had to undergo a
preparation which consisted in a sepulchre. The hierophant was
thus able to transfer the pupil into a higher state of
consciousness which made his body lie inert in a kind of deep
slumber. In ancient times, the consciousness always had to be
abated in order that the divine essence might enter man. In
this lowered state of consciousness, the soul was led through
the spheres of the spiritual world and after three days the
hierophant called the pupil back into life. Through this
experience he felt that he had become a new man and he obtained
a new name. He was called Son of God. The whole process
took place upon the physical plane, when
Christ appeared and passed through the Mystery of Golgotha. In
the ancient initiations the life-drops of Christ's spirit first
called the pupils back into life and they were told: “He who
will Christianize all men, will appear one day. And He will
truly be the Incarnated Word. You can only experience this for
three days, when you travel through the kingdoms of heaven; but
One will come, Who will bring the Kingdoms of Heaven down to
the physical world.”
The
Initiate experienced upon the astral plane what Christ lived
through upon the physical plane, namely that from the very
beginning there existed a Divine Word that poured out its drops
over the human beings; but the Ego-men could not absorb these
drops. St. John, the herald of the Christianized Ego-man who
has taken in the Christ, or the Word, reveals this. St. John
speaks of the Word that existed upon the earth from the very
beginning:
“In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the
Word was God.
The
same was in the beginning with God.
All
things were made by him and without him was not anything made
that was made.
In
him was life and the life was the light of men.
And
the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth
it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The
same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all
men through him might believe.
He
was not the light-, but a witness of the Light.
For
the true Light that lighteth every man was to come into the
world.
He
was in the world and the world was made by him and the world
knew him not.
He
came to each man (to the individual Ego-man) but the individual
men (the Ego-men) received him not.
But
as many as received him, to them he gave power to manifest
themselves as children of God.
Those who believe in his name, are born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we have heard
his teaching, the teaching of the only begotten of the Father
full of grace and truth.”
The
word “grace” in verse 14 has for St. John the same meaning as
Buddhi; “truth” is Manas, the Spirit-Self.
“John bare witness of him and cried saying: This was he of whom
I spoke. After me cometh one who existed before me. For he is
my predecessor.
And
of his fullness have we all received grace upon grace.
For
the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ.
No
man hath at any time seen God with eyes. The only begotten Son who
lived in the bosom of the Cosmic Father hath become our guide in
this vision.”
[Dr.Rudolf Steiner's rendering of the text.]
All
initiations into the Mystery of the Spirit pointed to the
coming of Christ Jesus. This initiation was attained in the
Yoga sleep, in the Orphic sleep, in the Hermes sleep. When the
initiate woke up again and returned into his body, so that he
could again hear and speak with his physical senses, he uttered
the words which are rendered as follows in the Hebrew language:
“Eli, Eli, lama sabathani.” The pupil of the Mysteries
woke up with the words: “My God, My God, how thou hast raised
me!”
This was the initiation during the ancient Jewish epoch. During
his three days' sojourn in the higher worlds, the initiate
experienced the whole course of mankind's future development,
all that awaited him in the future development of humanity. As
a rule, these future stages of human development were not
perceived abstractly in his vision.. Each stage was represented
by a personality. The seer saw twelve individualities. They
represented twelve stages of soul-development. The soul-forces
thus appeared in the external form of twelve persons. At a
certain moment, the initiate saw a certain scene: His own
individuality became transfigured — the stage which the whole
of humanity will reach when it shall be filled by Buddhi, when
it shall be Christianized. He identified himself with God
and behind him he saw the twelve soul-forces. John was
immediately behind, he was the last of the twelve who announced
his fulfilment. And he saw himself transfigured, he saw the
stage which he would reach when perfection will be attained; he
saw his soul-forces in the external form of persons, and
perceived St. John, the herald of the Christ-stage of
development. During the Yoga-sleep, these twelve figures
grouped themselves around him, and the scene arose which was
designated as the Mystical Supper. This image had the
following meaning: When the initiate sits there
surrounded by his soul-forces, he says to himself: These are
one with me; they have led me through the development of the
earth; the feet of this apostle enabled me to walk on along my
path, the hands of that apostle gave me the power to work. ...
The Holy Supper is the expression of man's fellowship with the
twelve soul-forces.
Human perfection consists in the falling away of the lower
soul-forces, so that only the higher forces remain behind; in
future, man will no longer have the lower forces; he will, for
example, no longer have the forces of procreation. John's
soul-power above all will raise those lower forces to the
loving heart. It will send out streams of spiritual love. The
heart is the most powerful organ, when Christ lives in man. The
lower soul-forces are then raised from the abdominal regions to
the heart.
Every initiate experienced this in the Mysteries of the heart.
It re-echoed in the words: “My God, my God, how thou hast
raised me!” With the appearance of Christ Jesus, the whole
Mystery, the whole experience, became reality upon the physical
plane. At that time there were brotherhoods in Palestine which
had developed out of the old order of the Essenes. Among their
institutions, they also had a meal symbolizing the
mystical Holy Supper. “To eat the Easter Lamb” is a
general expression for something which took place at
Easter. Jesus sat down with the Twelve and inaugurated the Holy
Supper with the words: “At the end of the evolution of the
earth, all men will have absorbed what I brought down to the
earth, and the words,
‘This is my Body, This is my Blood,’
will then be true.” Afterwards he said:
“There is one among you who will betray me.”
This is brought about by the power of egoism.
But as surely as this power of egoism is the source of treason,
so surely will this lower soul-force be raised to a higher
stage. One of the disciples rested upon Jesus' bosom, he rested
upon Jesus' heart. This means that all the lower forces, every
form of egoism, will be raised to the heart. At this point
Jesus repeated to his Disciples the words: “Eli, Eli, lama
sabathani” — “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is
glorified in Him!”
The
same event which took place upon Golgotha took place in the
ancient Mysteries. Under the Cross stood the Disciple “whom the
Lord loved,” the Disciple who had rested upon his bosom and had
been raised to his heart. Also the women are there
under the Cross: the mother of Jesus, his mother's sister Mary,
and Mary Magdalene. John does not say that the mother of Jesus
was called “Mary,” but that this was the name of his
mother's sister. His mother's name was “Sophia.”
John baptises Jesus in the river Jordan. A dove descends from
heaven. At this moment a spiritual act of conception takes
place. But who is the mother of Jesus who conceives at this
moment.
The
Chela, Jesus of Nazareth, at this moment divests himself of his
Ego, his highly developed Manas is fructified and the Buddhi
enters into it. The highly developed Manas that received the
Buddhi is Wisdom — Sophia, the Mother who is fructified by the
Father of Jesus. Maria, which is the same as Maya, has the
general meaning of “Mother name.” The Gospel records:
“The Angel came in unto her and said: Hail thou that art highly
favoured, — behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring
forth a son — the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” The Holy Ghost is
Jesus' father: the descending dove fructifies the Sophia that
lives in Jesus.
The
Gospel should therefore be read as follows: “Under the Cross
stood the mother of Jesus, Sophia.” To this mother Jesus says:
“Woman, behold thy son.” He himself had transferred the Sophia
that lived within him to the Disciple John; he transformed him
into a son of Sophia and said: “Behold, thy mother.”
“Henceforth you should recognise the divine wisdom as
your mother and dedicate yourself to her alone.” John had
recorded this divine wisdom; Sophia is embodied in the Gospel
of St. John. Jesus had given him this wisdom, and he was
authorized by Christ to transmit it to the world.
The
highest Spirit of the Earth had to incarnate in a physical
body; this body had to die, it had to be killed and its blood
had to flow. A special meaning is attached to this. Wherever
there is blood, there is Self. The Self rooted in the blood had
to be sacrificed in order that the old communities based
on Self might come to an end. All individual forms of egoism
flow away with the blued of the Crucified Christ. The blood of
racial communities changes into a blood which is common to the
whole of mankind, because the blood of Christ was sacrificed at
the moment when he hung upon the Cross.
Here too something took place which might have been observed by
an astral observer in the astral atmosphere. When Christ died
upon the Cross, the whole astral atmosphere changed, so that
events could take place which could never have taken place
before. This has become possible because by shedding His blood,
Christ gave the whole of mankind a Self that is common to all.
The blood that streamed out of the wounds of Christ Jesus gave
to the whole of humanity a Self which is shared by all. His
three bodies remained hanging upon the Cross and were then
revived by the Risen Christ. When Christ abandoned his physical
frame, the three bodies were so strong that they could utter
the words of initiation which follow the transfiguration: “Eli,
Eli, lama sabathani!”
To
all who know something of the Mystery-truths, these words must
have revealed that a Mystery had been enacted. A small
correction in the Hebrew text therefore gave rise to the words
contained in the Gospel: “Eli, Eli, lama sabathani!”
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!”
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