When a man knows
Christ, when he absorbs the wisdom which begets insight into what
Christ truly is, then he redeems himself and the Luciferic Beings
through this knowledge of Christ. Were man merely to say: I am content
with the fact that Christ appeared and to allow myself to be redeemed
by Him unconsciously — then he would contribute nothing to the
redemption of the Luciferic Beings. These Luciferic Beings who have
brought man freedom, also make it possible for him, if he so wills, to
turn it to account in order to understand Christ.
Then the Luciferic
Spirits are cleansed and purified in the fire of Christianity and the
wrong done to the earth by them is changed into blessing. Freedom has
been attained; but it will also be carried into the spiritual sphere
as a blessing. That man is capable of this, that he is capable of
understanding Christ, that Lucifer, resurrected in a new form, can unite
with Christ as the good Spirit — this, as prophecy still, was told by
Christ Himself to those around Him, when He said: “Ye shall be illumined
by the new Spirit, by the Holy Spirit!” This “Holy Spirit”
is none other than the Spirit through whom man can apprehend what
Christ has wrought.
Christ desired not merely to work, but also to be
apprehended, to be understood. Therefore the sending of the Spirit by
whom men are inspired, the sending of the “Holy spirit”, is implicit
in Christianity.
In the spiritual sense, Whitsuntide belongs inseparably to Easter.
This “Holy Spirit” is none other than the Lucifer-Spirit, resurrected now in higher, purer glory — the Spirit of independent understanding, wisdom-inwoven. Christ Himself foretold that this Spirit would come to men after Him, and in the light of this Spirit their labors must proceed.
What
is it that works onward in the light of this Spirit? The world-stream
of spiritual science, if rightly conceived! What is this spiritual
science? It is the wisdom of the Spirit, the wisdom that lifts into the
full light of consciousness that in Christianity which would otherwise
remain in the unconscious. The torch of the resurrected Lucifer, of the
Lucifer now transformed into the good, blazons the way for Christ.
Lucifer is the bearer of the Light — Christ is the Light! As the word
itself denotes, Lucifer is the “Bearer of the Light”. That is what the
spiritual scientific movement should be, that is implicit in it.
Those
who know that the progress of mankind depends upon living apprehension
of the mighty Event of Golgotha are they who as the “Masters of Wisdom
and of the Harmony of Feelings” are united in the great Guiding Lodge of
mankind. And as once the “tongues of fire” hovered down as a living
symbol upon the company of the apostles, so does the “Holy Spirit”
announced by Christ Himself reign as the Light over the Lodge of the
Twelve. The Thirteenth is the Leader of the Lodge of the Twelve. The
“Holy Spirit” is the mighty Teacher of those we name the “Masters of
Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings”. It is through them that his
voice and his wisdom flow down to mankind in this or that stream upon
the earth. The treasures of wisdom gathered together by the spiritual
scientific movement in order to understand the universe and the Spirits
therein, flow through the “Holy Spirit” into the Lodge of the Twelve; and
that is what will ultimately lead mankind step by step to free,
self-conscious understanding of Christ and of the Event of Golgotha Thus
to ‘cultivate’ spiritual science means to understand that the Spirit
has been sent into the world by Christ; the pursuit of spiritual science
is implicit in true Christianity.
This will become more and
more evident to men; and then they will realize that in spiritual
science they have a potent asset in their lives. Men owe to spiritual
science the consciousness which dawns in them by degrees, that Christ is
the Spirit Who fills the world with light. And the consequence will be
that here on this earthly globe, in the physical world itself, men will
make progress in their moral life, in their life of will, in their
intellectual life. Through physical life itself the world will be
spiritualized in ever-increasing measure. Men will grow in goodness,
strength and wisdom and will gaze with ever deepening vision into the
foundations and origins of existence. They will bear with them into the
super-sensible life the fruits acquired in this physical life, and ever
and again bring these fruits back from the super-sensible life into a
new incarnation.
-Rudolf Steiner
The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers
1 comment:
"Lucifer" can refer to many beings- beings of the laggard kind - but at their head is an adversary of humankind, cause of evil, of error, now and in the past. Some occultists confuse what has been redeemed by Christ with the unredeemed aspects, making Lucifer a benefactor of mankind.
Christ is the true Light bringer. Christ has mingled His Being with those gifts from Lucifer, (the Arts) making them suitable for us. He has vouchsafed our freedom- He has given us the substance not just the possibility of.
I found a quote by Adolf Arenson, which puts into words this idea better than I was able to do:
"We had to have the possibility of evil, in order to have the possibility of spiritual freedom; the two concepts are mutually inclusive. Lucifer gave us the possibility of spiritual freedom, Christ gave us the reality, the actual substance. Hence the esoteric saying in the early days of Christianity: Christus verus Luciferus, i.e., Christ is the true Lucifer, the true Light-bringer."
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