VI
IN material science
it is customary — with the exception of a few circles who
in modern times have come to a different explanation — to
represent our present solar system as having developed out of
a kind of nebula which embraced a space as far as the orbit
of Neptune, that is, as far as the orbit of the outermost
planet of our solar system. And then, it is supposed, through
a condensing process, our sun and the planets moving round it
gradually formed. As we have said, there are now a few
exponents -who have a somewhat different view; but they too
do not bring forward anything essential for us who take a
spiritual view. So our sun and the planets circling round it
are supposed to have formed themselves into globes. In
connection with this a neat little comparison has always been
made use of in the schools, and it is still employed to-day,
to show by ocular demonstration how a whole planetary system
can originate through rotation. Some oily liquid is taken,
which, when placed in water takes a globular form. Then a
small disc is cut and inserted through the equatorial line of
this oily ball so that it is divided into two halves. This is
then rotated by means of a pin stuck through the centre of
the disc, and one sees at first one drop separate itself and
circle as a separate body round the large globe, then a
second and a third drop, and finally a large drop remains in
the centre around which many smaller ones revolve. “A
planetary system in miniature!” says the experimenter. Then
he says: Why should not our solar system originate from that
primeval nebula in this way, if we can now imitate it in this
miniature solar system? Usually this comparison seems to be
extremely illuminating and people now understand how once
upon a time Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury
separated from that primeval nebula. But the whole affair,
not only the comparison but the whole idea, proceeds from the
emptiness of all present-day thinking, for the persons in
question, otherwise quite learned men, who put for-ward this
illustration in such an illuminating manner, forget only one
thing, namely, that they themselves are present and turn the
pin. Now self forgetfulness is very good in certain realms of
life, but in this case, if the experimenter is forgotten, the
most important thing is forgotten, for without him the drop
of oil would never rotate at all. The learned person who
believes in such a superstition — this superstition is
called the Kant-Laplace system — should at least be
logical in his thinking, he should at least presume that some
sort of being must have sat on a gigantic stool in space at
that time and set a gigantic axis in motion. But human
thought has gradually become so accustomed to consider only
the material, that the contradiction in such a comparison is
no longer noticed. As a matter of fact, there is a certain
truth in this so-called Kant-Laplace system, although the
truth is different from the materialistic explanation of the
matter. There is a certain truth in it because to spiritual
vision everything contained in our present solar system
actually appears as having proceeded from such a primeval
nebula; only to him who can really investigate historically
it is clear that the good in the Kant-Laplace hypothesis
comes from occult traditions. This was forgotten when the
word “occultism” became something of which one was afraid,
as children are of the chimney-sweep. That which really took
place did not happen without the influence of spiritual
beings and powers. Matter can do nothing unless spiritual
beings are behind it.
It would take
us too far to-day if, linking on to what was said yesterday,
we were to explain the whole of our solar system. Leaving the
planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, etc., out of our present
study, let us only keep in mind what is of special importance
to human life and human evolution.
At one time
there was, in fact, such a nebula; and in this all the parts
of our solar system were as if dissolved. But, bound up with
this nebula, so that they belonged to it, were all the beings
mentioned in the course of our observations yesterday. For example,
all the beings who passed through the human stage in the
twenty-four Rounds were connected with this cosmic nebula.
Other beings too were bound up with it. They all dwelt in
this nebula which, if not thought of in connection with these
beings, is a fantastic abstraction. In the way the
materialistic chemist imagines this nebula, it is impossible;
it exists only in thought, there is no reality. In reality,
the nebula only exists because it is inhabited by a number of
spiritual beings. For when this nebula again became visible,
there were connected with it all the beings who once
inhabited ancient Saturn, who then passed through the various
stages of evolution through Sun and Moon right on up to
Earth, when after a long intermediate pause the Earth-nebula
arose, so to speak. The other beings also with whom we became
acquainted on the Sun, were connected with this nebula. It is
the whole choir of these beings, who filled the nebula, who
produced the movements. For it is beings who create their
field of work.
For example, there were beings who needed a
dwelling place quite different from that of man if they were
to undergo the evolution suited to them. The men who lived
upon the ancient Moon as the ancestors of the present men had
only physical body, etheric and astral bodies. With these
three members of their being they came out of the so-called
pralaya again like a plant from the seed. Thus when the
entire system began it was unsuitable for the beings who had
brought with them the germs for the present man. Had the
speed of development been maintained which our solar system
had at the beginning when it came forth from the cosmic
twilight, man would have been unable to find the path of his
evolution. It would have been as if you were now to be born
and then in a very short time become old. If the speed of
evolution natal to the Sun had been maintained, man would
have grown old quickly; he would be unable to take the slow
course through the decades which he now actually does; after
a short time he would have white hair, he would be old almost
before he was a child.
But this was not to be. There were
beings who needed a quicker tempo. These only went through a
part of evolution with man, then they took out the heavenly
body which now stands as the sun in the heavens and made it
their dwelling place. They drew out the substance of the sun
together with their own being. For the sun which sends its
light to us to-day is inhabited by spiritual beings, just as
our earth is. With every sunbeam descending to the earth come
the actions of those spiritual beings who in the course of
the evolutions of Saturn, Sun and Moon had progressed so far
that they were able to participate in the rapid development
taking place on the present sun. High, exalted beings were
connected with this sun existence at the beginning of our
earth development. These separated from the earth; and that
which then remained you must imagine as if you had mixed
together the present moon and earth in a great cauldron, and
this mingled earth and moon circled round the sun for a time.
Thus before
we reached the point described yesterday as human
incarnation, we have first to recognize the separation of the
sun from the earth, that is, the present earth plus the
present moon. Upon the sun remained the beings who are the
spiritual directors of earthly events. When they came over
from the ancient Moon there were seven such beings; in
Genesis they are called Elohim, Spirits of Light. For a time
they went through their evolution together with the earth,
then they drew forth the sun so that they could now work upon
the earth from the sun. These Elohim, these Spirits of Light,
were seven in number. Six of them united their existence with
the actual cosmic sun, and one, known in the Old Testament
as Jehovah, separated from them and remained at first united
with the earth. He guided and directed the earthly evolution
from within, while the others worked upon it from without.
That was the position for a time. But after what was pointed
out yesterday concerning the ancient Moon, you will
understand that with the withdrawal of the sun was connected
a condensation of all that emerged as earth plus moon. There
came a period in the earth's evolution when not only the
substance, but all beings, underwent a coarsening. For
example, the beings who later became man, who at that time
were very soft and delicate, underwent a coarsening through
taking on horrible instincts. A coarsening of all life took
place.
Evolution
could not remain thus if man were to arise. A coarsening
would have taken place, everything would have become more and
more dense and the human beings would have stiffened into
mummies, they would have become mummified. And there would
very soon have been a planet upon which some-thing not
exactly beautiful, but human-like mummies, statues would have
collected. The earth would have become mummified. A different
event had to take place. Through the government of Jehovah,
as cosmic spirit, that which you now see as the moon as the
burnt-out moon-dross in the heavens, was separated from the
whole mass of earth plus moon. Not only were the grossest
substances separated but also the grossest beings. Hence only
through the withdrawal of the sun it was brought about that
man did not proceed too quickly in his evolution, and through
the withdrawal of the moon it was brought about that he did
not develop towards a condition of drying up, densification,
or mummification.
Thus the
earth was separated from the whole mass, and now the course
of human evolution was guided on the earth under the
influence of these two heavenly bodies — that is, of
course, of their beings, the six sun Spirits and the moon
Spirit, who had separated himself for the salvation of man.
And it was so guided that on the whole these two forces were
balanced. Through the exit of both the sun-forces and the
moon-forces, exactly the right tempo for human development
was attained.
Now in order
to understand this more clearly, imagine a man as if
influenced only by the sun. You know that man goes through
his evolution upon the earth in many, many incarnations. Man
began with his first incarnation, then took on a new body
over and over again, until he goes through his last
incarnation. He passes through a series of incarnations, as a
result of which he develops slowly and rises from one
incarnation to the next. Men trod the surface of our earth as
true spiritual infants. Since the separation of sun and moon
from our earth they have risen to the present stage. All
these souls will return in different bodies up to the end of
the earth's evolution. Now if man were influenced by the sun
alone he would have to pass through in a single incarnation
all that he now goes through in so many. The right tempo
comes into the many incarnations through the balancing of
the forces between the sun and moon from without.
Modern
man was gradually shaped during the period which followed the
withdrawal of sun and moon; the first germs of the
present-day man were then created. That was at a time when
man moved upon this earth in quite a different way from that
in which he moves now. You must not imagine that when the
moon had just gone forth man moved upon this earth in a
fleshly form as he does now. There appear again all the forms
which had previously been there, as a repetition; and when
the earth was liberated from the sun and moon it looked
approximately like the old Moon, even softer. And if a being
with eyes organized like those of the present day had looked
at the earth he would not yet have been able to see man. On
the other hand, certain other beings were there who were not
sufficiently mature to await a later time. These had to take
bodily form while the stage of evolution was still
incomplete; so that some time after the moon's departure from
the earth certain forms of the lower animals could already be
seen physically condensed. Man had not yet descended, nor yet
the higher mammals. Man was still a spirit being. He floated
as a spirit round the earth and took into himself the finest
substances from the environment of the earth. Then gradually
he densified so far that he could descend to where the earth
had already become solid and islands had formed.
Thus we see
that the first human beings appeared comparatively late in
the earth's evolution and at that time they had a very
different constitution from the present human being. I cannot
describe to you the forms of those men which first
crystallized, so to speak, out of the spirit. Although you
have already heard much that is difficult to believe, you
would be greatly shocked if I were to describe to you the
grotesque forms of the bodies in which your souls were then
incarnated. You would not be able to bear such a description.
However, at a later date, when these things which are only
now beginning to come to the consciousness of man through
Anthroposophy, when they more and more penetrate men's
consciousness, this will have to be made known, and it will
have a tremendous result, it will be extremely important to
the whole life of man. For only when man learns how his body
has developed, how the organs he now possesses have gradually
developed out of entirely different forms, will he feel that
remarkable relationship existing between the organs in the
human body which to-day are apparently far apart. He will
then see the correspondence between certain organs, for
example, between the appendix and the windpipe, which in
their earlier form grew together in those remarkably formed
beings. All that to-day is man is the previous form unrolled
as it were, the previous form unfolded in the most varied
ways. Organs which to-day are separated formerly grew
together. They have, however, kept their relationship, and
very frequently this relationship is manifested in illnesses.
It is seen that when a certain organ is diseased another one
is of necessity involved. Hence those who really study
medicine will have to make many discoveries, of which the
present medical age, which is only a collection of notes,
does not dream; then only will physicians really learn
something about the true nature of man. All this is merely to
point out how entirely different was man's earlier form.
The solid
parts have only been built into this human form gradually.
There were originally no bones in the human body, even when
it had already descended. The bones were developed from soft
cartilaginous structures which traversed the human body like
cords. These in their turn originated from quite soft
substances, and these soft substances from fluid substances,
these from airy, the airy from etheric and the etheric from
astral which had densified from spiritual substantiality. If
you trace it back you will find that everything material has
originated from the spiritual. Everything is in archetype in
the spiritual world. It was only the Atlantean epoch that the
bones, formerly merely indicated, actually developed in man.
We must now
more closely examine Lemurian humanity in order the better
to understand the writer of the Apocalypse. I need only
indicate that following the first period, when the moon had
separated from the earth and man descended, he was of a very
different nature as regards his will power from what he
became later. At that time the will of man worked
magically — by his will he could work upon the growth of
flowers. When he exerted his will he could make a flower shoot
up quickly, a capacity which can only be acquired to-day by
an abnormal process of development. Hence at that time the
natural surroundings depended upon how the will of man was
constituted. If it was good it worked soothingly upon the
billowing waters, upon the storm and upon the fiery
structures which were then all around, for the earth was to a
great extent of a volcanic nature. Man worked soothingly upon
all this through a good will and destructively through all
evil will. Whole islands could be destroyed by evil will.
Thus the human will was in complete correspondence with its
environment. The tracts of land upon which man then lived
were destroyed essentially by the evil will of man, and only
a small part of mankind was saved (we have here to
distinguish between race-development and soul-development)
who lived on into the epoch which we may describe in so far
as words can express clairvoyant perception.
After this
catastrophe by fire we come to the Atlantean epoch when the
human race developed essentially on a continent which now
forms the bed of the Atlantic Ocean, between the present
Europe and America. At that time man lived under very
different physical conditions. At the beginning of the
Atlantean epoch he was a structure which perceived in quite a
different way from the present man; we have already indicated
this in the first lecture and again later; to-day we shall
again point out this different kind of vision of the man of
that epoch. He still had a kind of spiritual vision, because
the construction of his body was different from what it is
now. The etheric body was not yet so firmly bound up with the
physical body. The etheric body of the head extended far
beyond the physical body. Only towards the last third of the
Atlantean epoch did the projecting etheric body draw in and
take the form of the present physical human head. Since the
form of the ancient Atlantean was so very different from that
of present man and his members so differently joined
together, his whole life of consciousness, his whole soul
life was also different. And here — if we wish to
understand the Apocalyptist — we must touch upon a
very important, but a very mysterious, chapter.
If
you were to enter this ancient Atlantis, you
would find that it was surrounded not by such pure air as the
present earth but by air saturated with volumes of mist, with
water. This air became clearer and more transparent the
further Atlantis developed, but the mists were densest where
the more advanced Atlantean civilization referred to
developed. The thickest mists were there, and from these
developed the foundations of the later civilizations.
Atlantis was covered far and wide by those mists. A division
of rain and sunshine such as we have to-day did not then
exist. Hence in ancient Atlantis that which you know as the
rainbow could not appear. You might search the whole of
Atlantis and you would not find it. Only when the
condensation of the water led to flooding, when the great
flood spread itself over the earth, could the rainbow
originate physically. And this is a point where from
Spiritual Science you will gain the greatest respect for the
religious records. For when you are told that after the
flood, Noah, the representative of those who then saved the
human race, sees the rainbow first appear, this is really an
historical event. After the flood humanity saw the first
rainbow; previously it was not physically possible. Here you
will see how profound, how literally true the religious
records are. To-day many are distressed when one says that
the religious records are literally true. Many quote a saying
which is true; it is quoted, however, by lazy people, not as
a true statement but from indolence. It is the saying:
“The letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.”
From this they deduce the right to take no notice at all of
what stands in the records, to have no longer the will to
recognize what is actually there, for it is the “dead
letter” they say. And so they like to let their spirit
shine and concoct all sorts of fantasies. These persons may
indeed be very clever in their explanations, but that is not
the point; the point is that we ought really to see in the
records what is contained in them. “The letter killeth
but the spirit giveth life” has the same significance
in mystical language as the saying of Goethe, “He who
has not this, this dying and becoming, is but a sad guest
upon the dark earth.” This saying does not mean:
“If you wish to lead some one to a higher knowledge you
must slay him,” but it means that just through the
culture of the physical world man must uplift himself to
spirituality. So also the letter is the body of the spirit,
and we must first have and understand it, then we may say
that we can find the spirit in it. The letter, the
understood letter, must then die so that the spirit may be
resurrected from it. This saying is not an injunction to
fancy anything you please about what is contained in the
religious records. When we recognize the true significance of
this rainbow as we have represented it, something like deep
respect for the religious records invades our soul, and we
get an idea of how, through the deepening of the
understanding by the teachings of Anthroposophy, man first
attains to true and real feelings and advances to a true
understanding of the religious records by an act of will.
We will now
look back into ancient Atlantis. We have already said that
man then lived in a different state of consciousness and
that his memory was different from what it is now; but the
difference is much more considerable. If we go far back not
merely into the later period of Atlantis but to the
beginning, we then find the human consciousness very
different from that which we possess to-day.
Let us once
more consider the present consciousness. During the day a
person uses his senses. At night he goes to sleep. On the bed
lie the physical body and the etheric body; the astral body
and the “I” withdraw. The sphere of consciousness
darkens. The man of to-day sees nothing and hears nothing.
Then again in the morning when the astral body and the
“I” re-enter the physical body and etheric body,
physical objects again confront him. How was it in the early
Atlantean epoch? Let us take the moment when in the morning
man plunged into the physical body and etheric body; at that
time he did not have a physical world around him such as we
have to-day. All the present objects which are now seen with
clear outlines were then seen as if surrounded with an aura,
with coloured edges, quite indistinct. In ancient Atlantis
the appearance was somewhat similar to what is now seen when
in the evening there is a dense fog and you cannot see the
street lamps clearly, but surrounded by coloured edges. Thus
it was in early Atlantis. All objects were seen indistinctly,
not with clear outlines and surfaces as to-day, everything
was as if enveloped in coloured mist. Only gradually have
clear outlines developed. Had we looked at a rose in the
first portion of Atlantis it was as if a cloudy structure
arose and in the middle something red. Only gradually did the
external colour appear to be laid on the surface; only later
did objects obtain sharp outlines.
Hence you see
that the physical world surrounding man was quite different
in ancient Atlantis. It was also different when at night he
rose out of his physical body when — shall we say
— he went to sleep. Really it was not sleep in the
present sense. However, the entire world of the misty
physical formations remained below, and a spiritual world
arose. Possessing no sharp outlines man lived within a
spiritual world. Spiritual beings were his companions. In the
first portion of the Atlantean epoch day and night alternated
in such a way that when man plunged into his physical body he
had only hazy, indistinct pictures of the physical world; but
when at night he left the physical body he was able to live
spiritually, although somewhat indistinctly, among spirits;
he moved among spirits. And above all, man's entire life of
feeling was also different in the Atlantean epoch. At that
time when he went out of his physical body and etheric body,
he did not feel fatigue and the need for rest. Neither did he
find rest. He had to enter into the spiritual world; that was
then his sphere of activity. On the other hand, when the
morning came, he felt the need for rest and sought out his
resting-place, which was his own body. There he lay peacefully.
He crept into his own body and rested during the day.
Thus in the
first period of Atlantis it was entirely different from what
it is now. During the Atlantean epoch, man gradually passed
from the very opposite conditions into those of the later
period. This came about more and more as the etheric body was
driven into the physical body. This occurred during the last
third of the Atlantean epoch. Before this event man felt
himself as a waking being above in the spiritual world; but
as yet he did not say to himself “I,” he did not possess
self-consciousness. When he withdrew from the physical body
and etheric body in order to go into the brilliance of the
night, he felt himself to be a member of the spirituality
which was above, he felt himself safely hidden, so to speak,
in his group-soul. It always became bright around him during
the night; but he felt himself dependent. Just as our finger
belongs to our “I,” so man felt that he belonged
to the group-souls which are seen spiritually as the four
heads of the Lion, Eagle, Bull and Man, described in the
Apocalypse of John. Man felt himself transposed into one such
group-soul. And only when, snail-like, he was in his bodily
shell did he feel that he possessed something of his own. For
the circumstance that man became an independent being
resulted from his being able to envelop himself in his body.
He had, however, to pay for this confinement in his body by
the gradual obscuration of the spiritual world, until it
completely withdrew. In its place the world which he saw
below when he was in the physical body became brighter and
clearer. In this way it gradually dawned upon him that he was
an “I,” that he had self-consciousness within
him. He learned to say “I” to himself.
If we wish
to characterize what took place at that time we must imagine
man creeping out of his “snail-shell,” as it
were, into the spiritual world. There he is among spiritually
divine beings. There resounds to him from without the name
of what he is. One group heard the word which in the original
language was the word for that group; another group heard a
different word. Man could not name himself from within; his
name sounded into him from without. When he thus crept out of
the “snail-shell” of his body he knew what he
was, because this knowledge was poured into his soul. Now
when in his body he learned to perceive the physical
environment, he learned to feel himself as “I,”
he learned to feel within himself the divine power which
previously was poured into him, he learned to feel God within
him. The God nearest to him, who pointed to his
“I,” he called Jehovah. This God was the
“I”-leader, and man felt the power of this God
arising within his “I.”
External events were
connected with this. When the first Atlantean thus descended
into his physical body and looked out into space, he did not
see an actual rainbow; in the place where the sun later
emerged, he saw something like a circle formed of colour; the
sun did not yet penetrate in power, but acted through the
mist; though hindered and held back by the fog, its forces
influenced the earth. It appeared very gradually. All that we
have described as the awakening of external consciousness was
connected with the emergence of the sun from the mist. That
which was up above where the other six spirits had their
abode, who together with Jehovah had to guide the earth
evolution, gradually emerged and shone down upon the earth in
deeds.
What had
taken place in man? When previously he rose out of his body,
when it was night, so to speak, his soul and spirit entered
into the inner astral brilliance to which the external sun is
not necessary. This brilliance surrounded him. It was the
same light which later shone down physically from the sun,
from mighty spiritual beings. As he gradually enclosed
himself in his physical consciousness, the door of inner
vision was closed. Darkness surrounded him when at night he
left his physical and etheric bodies and entered the
spiritual world. To the extent to which he confined himself,
to the same extent arose the external light which represents
the deeds of the spiritual beings of the sun; the light of
the spiritual beings shone externally upon the earth. Man
prepared himself to look upon the external light as something
material. The light shone in his then darkened inner being,
but the light was not then comprehended by his darkness. This
is a world-historical event. Man bought his
self-consciousness at that time through spiritual darkening.
In this way man grew out of the brilliance connected with the
group-souls. But it was only the very first dawning of the
individuality. It was a long, long time before he really grew
possessed of it. The last portion of the Atlantean epoch
passed away and the flood came.
The
post-Atlantean epoch began. The ancient Indian civilization
passed away. True self-consciousness had not yet developed.
Then came the Persian and Babylonian-Egyptian ages. Man
gradually matured so as to develop self-consciousness within
him. At length came the fourth age. At this stage something
of tremendous importance took place for which all that had
gone before was the preparation. Imagine yourself now
uplifted from the earth to a distant star and gifted with
spiritual vision, looking down to the earth from that distant
star. You would then see that this earth as physical body is
not only physical body, but that an etheric body and an
astral body belong to it, just as with man. The earth has all
this too. You would see the earth surrounded by its aura and
from that star you would be able to follow the development of
the earth's aura for thousands of years. You would see this
earth surrounded by all sorts of colours; in the centre the
physical kernel and around it the aura floating in various
forms and colours; and in this spiritual atmosphere of the
earth you would see the most varied structures. You would see
these colours and forms change in various ways in the course
of thousands of years; but there would come a moment, a
moment of great importance, when the whole aura assumes a
different form and colour. Seen from outside the earth then
appears in a new light; and this takes place extremely
quickly, so that one has to say: From this moment a
fundamental trans-formation of the earth has taken place; its
aura has changed completely. When is this? It is the moment
when upon Golgotha the blood flowed from the wounds of the
Redeemer. This moment is an extremely important one, the most
important moment in the whole of the earth's evolution! The
moment when the blood flows from the wounds of the Redeemer
is the same as that in which the aura of the earth shapes
itself anew. An entirely new power enters in, the power which
gives the most important impulse to the earth's evolution,
for which all that we have considered up to now was only the
preparation.
To the
chemist the blood of Golgotha is the same as any other blood;
but in reality it is quite different. It signifies that the
substance of the blood flows down to the earth, and that the
spirit corresponding to it fills the aura of the earth with
new impulses and new forces which have significance for the
future evolution of humanity. From there the forces which
change the earth stream forth, from there they stream through
man. Only a small part of what flowed in at that moment has
been realized up to now. Ever more and more man will learn to
understand what the earth has become through that moment of
Golgotha, and what man can develop towards in that
consciousness which he has gained since Atlantis. What, then,
has man gained since Atlantis? Two things: the
“I”-consciousness and the faculty of sight in the
external world. That which previously was open to him, the
spiritual world, has been closed. Truly these earlier men saw
what the later myths relate — Woden, Mercury, Jupiter,
Zeus. They saw all these beings at night; they were then
among them. This door to the spiritual beings has closed. In
its place man gained the world now surrounding him. The
spirits have withdrawn from him; all that he was able to see
at that time has disappeared. Formerly he saw the Divine when
he slipped out of the snail-shell of his physical body. He
had now to see the Divine within the body if it were to
appear before him. This means nothing else than that we must
receive the Divine in bodily visible shape because human
consciousness has become adapted to physical vision, and for
this reason the Divine Itself had to assume bodily physical
form. Therefore the Divine appeared once on the earth in a
fleshly body. It had to appear in this form because man had
advanced to this stage of perception it had to be presented
in this way to his perception so that he could understand it.
And all the appearances which had previously taken place at
other stages of evolution had to be united in that greatest
event in the earth's history, which will throw light on the
whole future and which we shall now unveil from the
Apocalypse; in that event which physically looks as if drops
of blood stream down to the earth, but spiritually as if
something rises up which changes the aura of the earth. The
force which then flowed in will work together with the earth
throughout the whole future. The earth-soul, the spirit of
the whole earth, was then inoculated with something new. The
Christ principle united with the earth at that time and the
earth has become the body of this Christ principle. So that
the statement is literally true, “He who eats my bread
treads me underfoot.” When man eats the bread of the earth he
eats the body of the earth and this is the body of the
earth-spirit which, as the Christ-Spirit, since the event on
Golgotha, is united with the earth. And man walks upon the
earth-body, he treads this body underfoot. All can be
understood literally if only we are able first of all to
comprehend the text in the right way.
To such a man
as the writer of John's Gospel, all that he knew, all that he
could grasp with spiritual vision, was a summons to
understand the greatest event in the earth's evolution. Of
all that he was able to stream through spiritual vision he
said, “I must use it in order to understand Christ and His
work.” It was the intention of the writer of the Apocalypse
to use all his occult knowledge in order to explain the Event
of Golgotha. Whatever he could learn from occult science was
regarded by him as a road to wisdom, helping him to
understand this event which he has placed before us in such a
wonderful way, and regarding which we shall see what it
signified for him.
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