The Son of Man & the Cosmic Christ by Oskar Kuerten

There are many occurrences reported in the Gospels that pose riddles for present-day human beings. Rudolf Steiner has made their comprehension accessible to us through his spiritual research. Among them is an event that took place when Christ Jesus was taken prisoner in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

In Mark 14, verse 51, we read: “And a youth was among His followers who wore a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and fled naked.” In his lectures on the Gospel of St. Mark, Rudolf Steiner remarks: Who is this youth? Who escapes? Who is it that appears near Christ Jesus almost without clothing, and then slips away naked? It is the young cosmic impulse. It is the Christ that slips away and now has but a loose connection to the Son of Man....

Nothing is left to protect the new impulse; it has none of those elements with which the earlier times could envelop Mankind. It is the entirely exposed new cosmic impulse of earth evolutional. The fleeing youth is interpreted here as the cosmic impulse, the Cosmic Christ — as we learn in the further course of the lecture — who had been united with the Son of Man but then withdrew from him. Henceforth, He maintained only a loose connection with the Son of Man. 

Only after the Resurrection did He reunite with him. This cosmic element had enveloped the Christ in the form of an aura during the three years of His earthly life, . . . an aura through which cosmic forces and cosmic laws descended to earth. . . Christ was surrounded by a far- reaching, mighty aura. This aura with its powerful influence was there because He was united with the souls of those He had chosen; and it remained so long as He was united with them. (l)


This inner bond of Christ with His disciples was to remain throughout the events of Golgotha. This was Christ’s great concern as He embarked on the path leading to His passion and death; for even the disciples had not recog­nized the cosmic spirit in Christ. Thus Christ made a final attempt to maintain the inner union, at least with the specially chosen disciples, when He led Peter, James and John to the Mount of Olives.

And on the way He becomes afraid. . . Why is the Christ sorrowful? He does not recoil from the Cross. This can be taken for granted. He recoils at the thought, the question:

“Will those, whom I have brought with Me, be steadfast at the decisive moment that shall prove if they can go with Me in their souls — if they can experience with Me all things, even to the Cross?”. . . This is the “cup” approaching Him. And He leaves the three disciples so that they may remain “wake­ful”. . . Then He goes aside and prays: “Father, let this cup pass from Me, yet not My will but Thy will be done!”' This means: Do not let Me undergo the sorrow that I, as the Son of Man, will be left utterly alone. Let the others go with me.(l)

Yet, even the three chosen disciples could not remain wakeful. In their souls and in those of the other apostles, a strange condition of consciousness overcame them. They went about as in a dream for fifty days and only awakened from it when, at the event of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Universe descended upon them. They realized only then, in retrospect, what had occurred on Golgotha.

The cup had not passed from Him. Those whom He had chosen showed no understanding. Thus the aura gradually withdrew from the man, Jesus of Nazareth. The Christ and the Son of Man became ever more separated. Jesus of Nazareth became ever more alone toward the end of his life, and the Christ ever more loosely connected with him. Whereas the cosmic element was completely united with Jesus of Nazareth up to the moment when the “sweating of blood” takes place on Gethsemane, man’s incomprehension now loosens this con­ nection.... Although the cosmic element is still present, we find it joined less and less to the Son of Man. This makes the whole event so deeply moving.

And because the comprehension was not forthcoming — what did men attain in the end? Whom did they capture, sentence and crucify? The Son of Man! And the stronger their action became, the more the cosmic element withdrew, which as a youthful impulse was to enter earth life. It withdrew...

There remained behind the Son of Man, around whom now merely hovered what was to come forth as the young cosmic element. (1)

This cosmic element in the figure of the fleeing youth “is a spiritual, a supersensible element that became visible to the senses only because of the unique circumstances of that moment”. (1) It remained with the Son of Man, although loosely connected. And we see this youth again (in Mark 16, verses 5 and 6) when, at the early dawn of Easter morning, Mary Magdalene, with two other women, approaches the empty tomb and encounters a youth sitting there, clad in a white garment. Rudolf Steiner explains:

This is the same youth! Nowhere else in the artistic composition of the Gospels do we encounter this youth who slips away the instant that human beings condemn the Son of Man, who appears again after the three days are past, and who will henceforth be active as the cosmic principle of the earth.(l)

II

Who is this Son of Man, abandoned by the Cosmic Christ in the spirit-form of the fleeing youth? It would signify a complete contradiction to everything Rudolf Steiner says concerning the Mystery of Golgotha, if, from the above quotation, we were to conclude that it had been only the human being, Jesus of Nazareth, who as the Son of Man suffered the death on the Cross. After all, it is the unique significance of the Mystery of Golgotha that a god experienced death on earth.

Out of their midst, the gods had to send a being to the physical plane to experience something that gods otherwise cannot experience in the spiritual worlds. The gods had to send Christ to Earth . . . so He could learn the infinite agonies of men, agonies that for a god signify something totally different than for a human being.... A god had to suffer death on the Cross.(2)

As the only being of the spiritual worlds, Christ was to come to know death.... Hence, of all the celestial beings above man, Christ is the only One to have learned about death through His own experience. (3)

It had to be a divine being who would actually suffer human death on earth: Christ, who had entered the human sheaths of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism in the Jordan; who, united with Jesus as Christ Jesus, had then lived for three years on earth, and as an immortal passed through death on the Cross in the dying body of Jesus.

Rudolf Steiner stresses this fact again and again. Thus directly following his remarks about the fleeing youth, he speaks of the "judging, condemning, and crucifying of Christ Jesus,” (4) hence, not of Jesus alone. In another lecture he refers to Christ as “the One who dwelt on earth, was crucified as Jesus of Nazareth and laid in the earth, then appeared to His initiated disciples in a spiritual body.” (5) Indeed, how could we speak of Christ as the “Resurrected One,” if Christ had not actually undergone death?

Therefore, Christ could not possibly have separated from Jesus in Gethsemane but remained united with him even beyond death. The Son of Man is thus the Christ Jesus, the union of the two beings. The Cosmic Christ, however, must be something different. And indeed, Rudolf Steiner says that the youth, the Cosmic Christ, appeared “next to Christ Jesus” and “at the decisive moment separated, as it were, from Christ Jesus.” (1) Thus Rudolf Steiner distinguishes between Christ Jesus and the Cosmic Christ, the fleeing youth. Concerning Christ’s prayer on the Mount of Olives, he relates how Christ called Himself the Son of Man.

III

How, then, are we to understand the “Cosmic Christ”? Comparing many of Rudolf Steiner’s statements, we may conclude that a trinity of divine-spiritual Beings stands behind the Christ appearance on earth. First the Logos, the second principle of the Divine Trinity; then, His direct bearer and body of light, Christ, the Lofty Sun Spirit, the Ahura Mazdao of Zarathustra; and third, the leader of the hierarchy of the archangels.(6)

Mark describes the Sun Aura, the Great Aura, the Light Body, the Spirit Light that permeates the universe and that works into the being of Christ Jesus. Mark therefore begins with the Baptism by John, when the Cosmic Light descends. In the Gospel of St. John, however, the soul of this Sun Spirit is described to us, the Logos, the Sun Word, the inner aspect.(7)

Here, the Sun Word, the Logos, and then the Sun Spirit, the mighty Sun Aura, are clearly distinguished from the Christ in Jesus. Rudolf Steiner calls this Lofty Sun Spirit “a cosmic deity,” (7) the “leading Cosmic Spirit,” (8) and also “the leader and guide of all the beings of the higher hierarchies, an all-encompassing, cosmic, uni­versal Being.” (9)

During the ancient Sun evolution, the Logos and, as its bearer, the Lofty Sun Spirit, had descended from cosmic heights to the sun to unite with the leader of the archangels, the regent of the sun. Thereby, this leader of the archangels became the bearer of the Logos and of the Lofty Sun Spirit, and thus the ruler of our whole solar system. (10) As a divine mediator, he served the Logos and the Lofty Sun Spirit during Their descent from the sun to the earth by incarnating in Jesus of Nazareth. This Christ-Archangel stood only two levels above the level of man, and in his divine nature was still relatively close to the human nature of Jesus, whereas the other two Christ Beings are infinitely far above man. They could not unite with Jesus directly in a bodily manner. The Logos, and the Lofty Sun Spirit, and the Christ-Archangel, termed “Christ” in equal measure by Rudolf Steiner, are united in triune manner, as it were. The knowledge of this trinity concerning the Christ phenomenon clarifies many otherwise incomprehensible statements by Rudolf Steiner.

Only in reference to the Christ-Archangel does Rudolf Steiner say that He was “physically incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth”, that He “actually dwelt among us in a physical sheath; that He was truly within a physical body.”(11) Therefore, if we read elsewhere that only “one— mark this well — one being of the divine-spiritual world descended to the level of dwelling in a human body within the sense world, living as man among other men” (12) then this being can only have been the Christ-Archangel. Through Him, however, the Logos and the Lofty Sun Spirit were linked to the human being, Jesus of Nazareth, due to Their Oneness with the Christ-Archan­gel. Thus, it can be said of Them, too, that They took possession of the body of Jesus and “became flesh” in Jesus, spoke and worked through him and participated in the event of Golgotha in mysterious ways veiled from us.

IV

The Logos and the Lofty Sun Spirit are the actual bearers of the cosmic element that was to enter earth evolution as the new impulse of the future. This cosmic element enveloped Christ Jesus like a protective aura, safeguarding Him from His opponents so that fundamentally, Christ was active in such a manner that nothing could be done against Him.... Whereas earlier, the Cosmic Christ had extended His influence into the temple, spreading the most powerful teachings, and nothing had happened; the soldiers could now draw near, when Jesus of Nazareth stood in a much looser connection with the Christ (1)

Only after the protective aura had left Christ Jesus, could the soldiers lay hands on Him. The Christ-Archangel in Jesus could not have protected Himself; because of His union with the bodily sheaths of Jesus, He had become human like other men. Rudolf Steiner once actually speaks of Christ’s “becoming Jesus.” (13) Beginning with the Baptism in the Jordan, in unimaginable agony the Christ Being descended ever more deeply into the body of Jesus, which increasingly wasted away under the power of the Christ force penetrating it like fire. And with His becoming human, Christ increasingly lost His divine power.

The Christ Being had to experience how the divine power and force increasingly vanished as He became one with the body of Jesus of Nazareth. A god gradually became a human being.

Like a person who in unceasing suffering watches his body waste away, so the Christ Being saw His divine substance diminish. As an etheric Being He increasingly came to resemble the earthly body of Jesus of Nazareth, until He became so similar that He could actually feel fear like a human being.... The miraculous divine power left Him.” (14)

As a divine Being in the abundance of His divine powers Christ had entered His earthly incarnation of three years’ duration with the Baptism in the Jordan. At the end, only weak human forces were left at His disposal. For a time, the Christ in Jesus, the Christ-Archangel, had to relin­quish his divine powers in the course of becoming human, so that He could suffer death on the Cross as a god become man. And the Logos and the Lofty Sun Spirit had temporarily to withdraw Their powerful cosmic forces from Christ Jesus so far as external effects were concerned, so that He could be apprehended by the soldiers.

It must have been the forces of the Logos and of the Lofty Sun Spirit that withdrew from Christ Jesus as the “Cosmic Christ” in the image of the fleeing youth. After the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, They then reunited Their cosmic forces with the divine forces of the risen Christ-Archangel in order henceforth to live in Their triune Oneness as the Spirit of the Earth in human souls on earth.


- By OSKAR KUERTEN (1886-1973) 

From Mitteilungen aus der anthroposophischen Arbeit in Deutschland, Easter 1971. Translated by Maria St. Goar.




Notes: 
1. Sept. 23, 1912: The Gospel of St. Mark, lecture IX.

2. April 17, 1912: The Three Paths of the Soul to Christ, lect. II.

3. April 27, 1913: Life Between Death and a New Birth.

4. Sept. 24, 1912: The Gospel of St. Mark, lect. X.

5. April 24, 1922: Man 's Life on Earth and in the Spiritual Worlds.

6. For more details see Oskar Kuerten: Der Sonnengeist Christus in der Darstellung Rudolf Steiner's, Verlag Die Pforte, Basel 1967.

7. Sept. 12, 1910: The Gospel of St. Matthew, lect. XII.

8. June 27, 1909: The Gospel of St. John, lect. IV.

9. Aug. 21, 1911: Wonders of the World, Ordeals of the Soul, Revelations of the Spirit, lect. IV.

10. June 12, 1912: Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy & Philosophy, lect. X.

11. June 6, 1907: Theosophy of the Rosicrucians, lect. XIV.

12. Aug. 28, 1909: The East in the Light of the West, lect. VI.

13. Aug. 24, 1918: The Mysteries of the Sun and of Threefold Man, lect. I (Typescript).

14. Oct 3, 1913: The Fifth Gospel, lect. III.

[Easter]

Anthroposophy & Christianity

The gifts of Christianity that will be carried forward into all future times, will, once religion no longer exists, give rise to one of the most important impulses of mankind. Even when humanity has overcome the need for a religious life, Christianity will still remain. The fact that it was originally a religion is connected with human evolution; as a comprehensive world-view, though, it is greater than all religions.

- Rudolf Steiner, May 13th, 1908, GA 102

We can ask ourselves the following: when religion is assumed into knowledge, when religion in its old form - in which the wisdom guiding evolution is gained merely through belief - is no longer available to people, will Christianity exist? No other religion, based solely on belief, will remain; but Christianity will still be there, for although is was originally a religion, it is greater than all religion! This is Rosicrucian wisdom.

The original principle of Christianity was more all-encompassing than that of all other religions. But Christianity is also greater than the very idea of religion itself. When the outer husks of belief fall away, its inner core - the very form of wisdom itself - will appear. It has the innate capacity to shed its outer husks of belief and become a religion of wisdom; the science of the spirit will help prepare humanity for this. Humanity will be able to survive without the old forms of religion and belief, but it will not survive without Christianity, for Christianity is greater than all religion.

Christianity exists to break through all religious forms; the core of Christianity which fills human souls will still be there after they have outgrown all mere religious life.

- Rudolf Steiner, 24th of March, 1908, GA 102

Spiritual Science does not want to usurp the place of Christianity; on the contrary it would like to be instrumental in making Christianity understood. Thus it becomes clear to us through Spiritual Science that the being whom we call Christ is to be recognized as the center of life on earth, that the Christian religion is the ultimate religion for the earth's whole future. Spiritual science shows us particularly that the pre-Christian religions outgrow their one-sidedness and come together in the Christian faith. It is not the desire of Spiritual Science to set something else in the place of Christianity; rather it wants to contribute to a deeper, more heartfelt understanding of Christianity.


Anthroposophy is further reproached for making Christ a cosmic being; however, it only widens our earthly way of looking at things beyond merely terrestrial concerns into the far reaches of the universe. Thus our knowledge can embrace the universe spiritually, just as Copernicus, with his knowledge, embraced the external world. The need Spiritual Science feels to encompass what is most holy to it is simply due to a feeling that is religious and deeply scientific at the same time. Before Copernicus, people determined the movements of the stars on the basis of what they saw. Since Copernicus, they have learned to draw conclusions independent of their sensory perception. Is Spiritual Science to be blamed for doing the same with respect to the spiritual concerns of mankind? Up until now, people regarded Christianity and the life of Christ Jesus in the only way open to them. Spiritual Science would like to widen their view to include cosmic spiritual reality as well. It adds what it has researched to what was known before about the Christ. It recognizes in Christ an eternal Being Who, unlike other human beings, entered once only into a physical body and is henceforth united with all human souls.

May I be allowed to draw attention once again to the fact that Spiritual Science has no desire to found a religion of any kind; rather does it want to set a more religious mood of soul-life and to lead us to the Christ as the Being at the center of religious life. It brings about a deepened religious awareness. 

Anyone who fears that Spiritual Science could destroy his religious awareness resembles a person — if I may use this analogy — who might have approached Columbus before he set sail for America and asked, “What do you want to discover America for? The sun comes up so beautifully here in our good old Europe. How do we know if the sun also rises in America, warming people and shining on the earth?” Anyone familiar with the laws of physical reality would have known that the sun shines on all continents. But anyone fearing for Christianity is like the person described as fearing the discovery of a new continent because he thinks the sun might not shine there. He who truly bears the Christ-Sun in his soul knows that the Christ-Sun shines on every continent. And regardless of what may still be discovered, either in realms of nature or in realms of spirit, the “America of the spirit” will never be discovered unless truly religious life turns with a sense of belonging toward the Christ-Sun as the center of our existence on the earth, unless that Sun shines — warming, illumining, and enkindling our human souls. Only a person whose religious feeling is weak would fear that it could die or waste away because of some new discovery. But a person strong in his genuine feeling for the Christ will not be afraid that knowledge might undermine his faith.

Spiritual Science lives in this conviction. It speaks out of this conviction to contemporary culture. It knows that truly religious thinking and feeling cannot be endangered by research of any kind, but that only weak religious sentiment has anything to fear. Spiritual Science knows that we can trust our sense for truth. Through the shattering events in his soul life which he has experienced objectively, the spiritual researcher knows what lives in the depths of the human soul. Through his investigations he has come to have confidence in the human soul and has seen that it is most intimately related to the truth. As a result, he believes — signs of the times to the contrary — in the ultimate victory of Spiritual Science. And he counts on the truth-loving and genuinely religious life of the human soul to bring about this victory.

-Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy & Christianity, Norrköping, July 13th, 1914 GA 155

Anthroposophy has set itself the task of sweeping human souls clean of those strong doubts that have been placed in them by external science. In a true scientific spirit, anthroposophical science has the task of overcoming what external science has the task of overcoming what external science cannot overcome. It will be able to reintroduce genuine religious life into human souls. It will not contribute to the slaying of religious feeling but will reintroduce into human evolution a religious sense for everything. Human beings will gain a new understanding of Christianity when they turn towards the Mystery of Golgotha which anthroposophy alone can help people to understand and accept fully.

Since anthroposophy gives human beings not only a reawakening of old religious understanding but also a new religious sense through knowledge, it can most certainly not be said to be aiming for anything sectarian. It has as little intention in this direction as any other science. 

Anthroposophy does not strive to form sects. It wants to serve the religions that already exist, and in this sense it wants to bring new life into Christianity. It does not want to preserve old religious feelings and help religion press forward in the old way. It wants to contribute to a resurrection of religious life, for this religious life has suffered too much at the hands of modern civilisation. Therefore anthroposophy wants to be a messenger of love. It does not want merely to bring new life to religion in the old sense; it wants to regenerate and reawaken the inner religious life of humanity.

-Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Christ through Anthroposophy, London 15th of April, 1922

Those who do not admit that the religions were adapted to particular conditions, but maintain that all religious systems have emanated from one undifferentiated source, can never acquire real knowledge.

To speak only of unity amounts to saying that salt, pepper, paprika and sugar are on the table, but we are not concerned with each of them individually. What we are looking for is the unity that is expressed in these different substances. Of course, one can speak like this, but when it is a question of passing on to practical reality, of using each substance appropriately, the differences between them will certainly be apparent. Nobody who uses these substances will claim that there is no difference, then just put salt or pepper instead of sugar into your coffee or tea, and you will soon find out the truth! Those who make no real distinction between the several religions, but say that they all come from the same source, are making the same kind of blunder. If we wish to know how a living thread runs through the different religions towards a great goal, we must seek to understand this thread, and study and value of each religion for its particular sphere.

- Rudolf Steiner

AUM Mantra

AUM. One wards off bad influences when one says it in the right way; it connects man with the creating Godhead, the three Logoi. The evil beings who want to tear men away from the Godhead can't stand it. AUM must be spoken with the awareness:

Primal Self from which everything came,

Primal Self to which everything returns:

Primal Self that lives in me,

Towards you I strive.

Peace-peace-peace = AUM

A is Atma, U is Budhi, M is the wisdom that directs the Higher Self to AUM.

-Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Lesson, 29-1-1907

"OM also represents the trinity of the upper, spiritual members of the human being Atma, Budhi and Manas, including the igniting ego spark and the associated levels of consciousness. 

"It is related to the thousand-petalled crown chakra and the two-leaved forehead chakra, the I-point, and according to the Mandukya Upanishad is decomposed into the sound components A - U - M, so it is synonymous with the Old Sun sound AUM. 

"A is our earthly waking consciousness, U the dream-consciousness of the Old Moon, M the dreamless deep sleep consciousness of the Old Sun and all three together in the OM are the all-consciousness (trance consciousness) of the Old Saturn. Only the waking consciousness (ego-consciousness) becomes aware of us today, but it is initially bound to the physical body. Consequently, Om is therefore assigned to the body. At the same time, OM is an invitation to purify and spiritualize the lower three essences in order to come to true Buddhahood, through which one no longer needs an earthly incarnation for his further spiritual development. This will be realized already in the Sixth Post-Atlantean Cultural Epoch for a larger number of spiritually aspiring people.

"Through rhythmically repeated speaking of the sacred syllable Om, one can put oneself into a state between waking and sleeping:

"The o is the confluence of a and u, is the confluence of waking up and falling asleep." 

"The moment of either falling asleep or awakening is the o. When the Oriental instructed his disciples not to sleep nor to watch, but to that limit between waking and sleeping, where one can experience so much, then he told them to speak the syllable Om; and who often repeats the syllable Om comes into an experience between waking and sleeping." 

-Rudolf Steiner ( Ref : GA 282, p. 24 )

My God come closer to me,

My God I am here in Thee,

My God be closer in me,

My God only in Thou I be,

My God in You I reside,

My God right here You abide,

My God move closer in me,

My God come forth to me.

The above is the signature theme for the favored AUM mantra decreed. One may wager that the monk's constancy in repeated effort does work inwardly the desired connections.

The etheric body overall is strengthened by repeated meditation or repeated incantation, providing that the material is compatible to a healthy soul-life. Intuitively, many do already know this and practice hard with their favored piece. The discipline of such exercises may need time to develop to such a degree that progress is marked and apparent; however, progress there will be, whether appreciated or not.
Many martyrs having to endure torturous episodes, have relieved themselves by coordinated decrees.

-B.Hive 



Omraam M. Aïvanhov canta AUM (Music by Peter Deunov):

Master Jesus & Rudolf Steiner

Peter Selg Note 26: Margareta Morgenstern informed Emil Bock in a written note: "R. Steiner had said to Rittelmeyer that Master Jesus had referred him to Fichte".

"Schure asked Rudolf Steiner who had initiated him and the answer was Master Jesus. Schure confirmed this on his deathbed"
From a lecture by Walter Stein, note 29 Selg.

"(This personality's) way of proceeding was to take the works of Fichte as the basis for certain considerations which generated seeds that came to fruition in the book 'An Outline of Esoteric Science' which the man (Steiner) whom the boy had become, later wrote. Certain aspects which led to that book were considered in connection with Fichte's writings."
-RS Autobiography

***
"Stein and Rittelmeyer, also Edouard Schure, seemed to indicate that this was Master Jesus"

"He approached Rudolf Steiner in the shape of an ordinary man, whose identity could not be established."

-Selg page 4

"Steiner told him [Rittelmeyer] in the presence of Mrs Steiner, that he had two initiators: Christian Rosenkreutz and Master Jesus (Zarathustra): The latter referred him to Fichte. The former worked through Felix Balde."

From Walter Stein's diary- a conversation with Rittelmeyer on July 9, 1924

https://www.amazon.com/Rudolf-Steiner.../dp/0880106603

Meditation on the Prologue of John

By continually meditating upon passages of the Gospel of St. John, the Christian pupil is actually in a condition to reach initiation without the three and a half day continued lethargic sleep. 

If each day he allows the first verses of the Gospel of St. John, from “In the beginning was the Word” to the passage “full of devotion and truth” to work upon him, they become an exceedingly significant meditation. They have this force within them, for this Gospel is not there simply to be read and understood in its entirety with the intellect, but it must be inwardly fully experienced and felt. 

It is a force which comes to the help of initiation and works for it. Then will the “Washing of the Feet,” the “Scourging” and other inner processes be experienced as astral visions, wholly corresponding to the description in the Gospel itself, beginning with the 13th Chapter. 

-Rudolf Steiner