When one inwardly pursues the course of spiritual life down to Michael's workings at the present day, it becomes possible to obtain a light from Spiritual Science upon Freedom in its cosmic character.
This does not apply to my ‘Philosophy of Freedom,’ which is something that proceeds from the purely human powers of cognition themselves, if once they can enter upon the field of the spirit. To arrive at the knowledge there arrived at, requires, so far, no intercourse with beings of other worlds. But the ‘Philosophy of Freedom’ makes — one may say — a good preparation for that other knowledge about freedom which may afterwards be learnt in spiritual intercourse with Michael. And this is as follows.
If freedom is really to have life in human actions, that which is performed in freedom's light must be in no way dependent upon the human physical and etheric organization. A ‘free’ performance can proceed from the I alone, and the astral body must also be able to vibrate along with the free action of the I, so as to transmit it to the physical and ether-bodies. This however is only one side of the matter. The other side is the one that becomes clear in connection with Michael's mission. Namely, whatever a man realizes in freedom in his inward life, must again have no sort of action upon his etheric nor physical body. Were it to do so, the man would inevitably be brought completely out of line with all that he has come to be during the different stages of his evolution under the influence of divine-spiritual Being and divine-spiritual Revelation.
What Man brings to realization in his inward life from all that is the wrought work only of divine spirit round about him, must exert no influence of any but his spiritual part — his I. The only thing that may influence his physical and etheric organism, is what comes through the evolutionary stream, not in his surroundings, but in his own being itself, as the continuation of what had its first beginnings in the being and revelation of divine spirit. But this element in the human being must on no account become involved in its workings with what lives in the element of freedom.
What alone makes this possible, is that Michael carries over from a very remote past in evolution, something which gives Man a link with that divine-spiritual reality which no longer intervenes, in the present day, in the physical and etheric structures. So that by this means, there grows up in the Michael Mission the basis for an intercourse between Man and the spiritual world, which does not interfere in the workings of Nature.
It is elevating to watch how, through Michael, Man's being becomes lifted ever higher into the spiritual sphere; whilst what is going on below, unconscious and subconscious, beneath the sphere of freedom, becomes ever more deeply wedded to the world of matter.
Man will find his relation to world-being growing ever more incomprehensible as time goes on, unless he will consent to recognize his relation, not merely with natural beings and natural processes, but also with things of another kind, such as the Michael Mission. One's relations to the natural world are something that one learns to know as viewed from outside. Relations with the spiritual world proceed from something like an inner conversation with a reality of being, to which one has opened access by one's readiness to view the world in a spiritual aspect.
For Man, therefore, to carry the impulses of freedom into actual life, he must be in a position to hold aloof from his own being certain affectations of nature that act upon his being from out of the Cosmos, and to keep them from affecting it. This ‘holding aloof’ goes on then in the subconscious, whilst in the consciousness those other forces are at work, which represent the life of the I in freedom.
For the man's inward perception, there is this consciousness of creative freedom. For the spiritual beings connected with Man from other world-spheres it is different. The being from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, whose work it is to conduct the man's identity from one earth-life to another, becomes at once visibly aware that man is repelling cosmic forces which are seeking to continue his development — forces which are seeking to give the necessary physical support to his I-system, as they did previous to the age of Michael.
Michael, as a being from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, receives his impressions by aid of the beings from the Angeloi-Hierarchy. He devotes himself to the task of conveying to Man from the spiritual part of the Cosmos, in the manner described, forces which can replace the suppressed forces of his natural existence.
This he accomplishes by bringing all he does into most perfect unison with the Mystery of Golgotha.
The workings of the Christ in earthly evolution contain the forces which Man needs when he works in freedom, in order to make good the suppressed impulses of Nature. Only, Man must then actually bring his soul into that inner intercourse of life with the Christ, already spoken of in these descriptions of the Michael Mission.
Man is conscious of being in the midst of a reality, when he stands in the face of the physical Sun, and it gives him warmth and light.
Even so he must live before the face of the Spiritual Sun, the Christ, who has united His life with the life of Earth; and from this Spiritual Sun he must receive, alive within his soul, what in the spiritual world corresponds to warmth and light.
He will feel himself filled through and through with ‘spiritual warmth,’ when he realizes the life of the ‘Christ within him.’ And feeling how this warmth flows through him, he will say: This warmth dissolves my human being from bonds with the Cosmos which must not hold it. The divine-spiritual Being of yore led me to regions where it needs must leave me, in order that I might achieve my freedom. But in these regions it has given to me the Christ, that from His forces I may receive as a free man, what the divine-spiritual Being of yore once gave to me by way of Nature — which, in those days, was also the way of the Spirit. To the divine source whence I came, this warmth leads me back once more.
And as this feeling rises in him, Man's sense of his life in and with the Christ will become one in inner soul-warmth with his sense of real, true manhood. ‘Christ gives me my human being,’ — this will be a dominant feeling, breathing, pulsing through all the soul. And if this feeling be once there, there will come too that other feeling, where Man feels himself by Christ lifted up above the life of earth, and feels himself one with the stars that environ the earth and with all that may be read in this starry environment of the spiritual and divine.
So too will it be with the spiritual light. Man can have the full feeling of himself in his own being as a man, when he wakens to the consciousness of himself as a man, when he wakens to the consciousness of himself as a free individual. Nevertheless this is accompanied with a certain darkness. The Divine and spiritual of ancient days no longer shines. In the light which Christ brings to the I of Man, the ancient, primal light is there once more. In such a life in community with Christ, the thought may arise, shedding bliss and brightness like the sun through the whole soul: The divine light of old is there, in all its pristine glory; it shines, though not with the light of Nature. And Man unites himself in the present with the spiritual cosmic Light-Powers of the past, that shone in the times before he was a free individual. In this light he can find the paths which will lead him aright as human being, if he understandingly unites himself in soul with the Michael Mission.
In the spirit's warmth Man will feel the impulse that can carry him on in such a way into his cosmic future, that he can there remain true to the gifts given him by the divine spirit-beings at his origin — notwithstanding that he has since developed in their worlds to a free individuality. And in the spirit's light he will find the power which will lead him, with open eyes and ever higher and broader consciousness, to that world where he shall find himself again as free Man in the company of the Gods of his first origin.
To want to remain in the first, original state of existence — to want to keep the original naïve simplicity of divine goodness, of the time when the gods ruled in Man, and to shrink from making use of his freedom, — this leads Man in the present-day world, where everything is disposed for the evolution of his freedom, only in the end leads to Lucifer, whose aim it is to see the present world repudiated.
To give himself over to the present state of existence; to admit through all the worlds nothing save the rule of that natural law, accessible to the present-day intellect, to which goodness is a neutral matter; to want to enjoy the use of freedom in the intellect alone; this, in the present-day world — where, while freedom reigns in the upper regions, evolution must be carried further in the deeper regions of the soul — only leads Man in the end to Ahriman, whose aim it is to see the present world transformed entirely into a Cosmos of Intellectual Being.
In regions such as this, where Man is able to feel that when he turns his eyes upon the outer world they fall spiritually upon Michael, and when he turns them to the inner world of the soul they fall spiritually upon Christ, here he will gather such security of soul and spirit, as shall enable him to travel along that cosmic road, on which without the loss of his first origin he shall find the true and right consummation of his future.
Leading Thoughts
A free action can only be one in which no process of Nature, in or outside of Man, plays a part.
The polaric counter-proposition in this: In all free action of human individuality, a process of Nature in man is suppressed, which in an unfree action would be there and would give the man's being the formation cosmically predestined for it.
This formation of his being, which a man fails to receive by the natural road if in his life and being he follows the course of cosmic evolution through its present and future stages, comes to him by a spiritual road through the union with Michael, whereby he also finds the way to Christ.
-Rudolf Steiner
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Here is the part we should like to talk about:
"Do you see yonder large tree?" said the witch, pointing to a tree that stood close by the wayside. "It is quite hollow. Climb up to the top, and you will find a hole large enough for you to creep through, and thus you will get down into the tree. I will tie a rope round your waist, so that I can pull you up again when you call me."
"But what am I to do down in the tree?" asked the soldier.
"What are you to do?" repeated the witch; "why, fetch money, to be sure! As soon as you get to the bottom, you will find yourself in a wide passage; it is quite light, more than a hundred lamps are burning there. Then you will see three doors; you can open them, the keys are in the locks. On opening the first door you will enter a room. In the middle of it, on the floor, lies a large chest. A dog is seated on it, his eyes are as large as tea-cups; but never you mind, don't trouble yourself about him! I will lend you my blue apron; you must spread it out on the floor, then go briskly up to the dog, seize him, and set him down on it. When that is done, you can open the chest, and take as much money out of it as you please. That chest contains none but copper coins. If you like silver better, you have only to go into the next room; there you will find a dog with eyes as large as mill-wheels. Don't be afraid of him; you have only to set him down on my apron, and then rifle the chest at your leisure. But if you would rather have gold than either silver or copper, that is to be had too, and as much of it as you can carry, if you pass on into the third chamber. The dog that sits on this third money chest has eyes as large as the Round Tower. But don't be alarmed; if you set him down on my apron, he will do you no harm, and you can take as much golden treasure from the chest as you like.
"Not a bad plan that, upon my word!" said the soldier. "But how much of the money am I to give you, old woman?"
"Not a penny will I have," returned the witch. "The only thing I want you to bring me is an old tinder-box which my grandmother left there by mistake last time she was down in the tree."
"Well, then, give me the rope and I'll be gone," said the soldier.
"Here it is," said the witch, "and here is my blue apron."
So the soldier climbed the tree, let himself down through the hole in the trunk, and suddenly found himself in the wide passage, lighted up by many hundred lamps, as the witch had described.
And so, in the hollow of a deceased tree the soldier ventures down - down into a realm which is lit by many hundreds of lamps. Do you recall in previous lessons how it has been discussed that this journey inward may often be confused with a journey outward into the Cosmos at large?
The word 'lamps' is actually far more accurate than to say 'stars', because even though one might very much confuse the lamps for stars in a starry space, they are not. This is what one is first met with however, venturing into the realms within. They signify also the starry points of conjuncture within one's own astral body that are 'alight' with activity.
The witch in this story personifies the corrupted condition which is taking the soldier into these depths he is about to encounter. He is secured to the upper world by a "rope tied to the waist"” - his astral chord intact - and he ventures into the realm of death.
The first dog is sitting, guarding the chest of copper pieces. What may appear contrary to some, is that there is a correspondence between Venus and the etheric world. The goodness in the etheric world is supremely affectionate - the principles of propagation and of life, are verily of Love actively manifesting continually, and the forces which have imbibed it in the past are of this domain.
The second dog is sitting guarding the chest which holds the pieces of silver. This connects us with the Moon and the realm of the astrality - the second sphere encountered on our journey in.
The third dog is sitting guarding the chest with the disks of gold … the metal of the Sun - this denotes the final treasure to be uncovered - hoarded and stored by the dog.
The dog is obedient to the protection of all three realms. He has no will in this matter, and when later placed upon the blue apron of the witch's own egoic willing, he does not resist, but dutifully sits where put, without cunning or reaction or offering a threat to the soldier.
He is a soldier of Christ that can move about these three chambers without interference or fear. Interestingly the witch herself could not go to these places as she might instruct another.
Of the first realm come to we find a dog whose eyes are smaller than the other two. His appearance by contrast would be gentle. This Venus condition here pertains to the singularity we first spoke of in the soulic consciousness as experienced in the world before the egoic condition predominated.
There is a divine cooperation here, and yet it is also quite an automatic cooperative … and when Paradise overwhelms men to become witless and will-less, it then becomes the realm of Lucifer. You can often find it difficult to find the differences between descriptions of the true paradisiacal state and Lucifer's paradise ad perpetua. However we can remember here that these inner realms now spoken of are the contrary adjuncts to the conditions which preceded them, that live on today in the current etheric and pure astral as it still is. Also, that the ancient Sun still imbibes the old etheric world, as it does the New.
Armies of dark spirits have long campaigned the lower realms of the Earth. Hell was ever depicted traditionally as 'below' the earth and not as part of the Heavens above.
The second sphere come to, that of the ancient Moon, is of the time in which the senses were awakened and the stars began to resonate in Man. Forces outside of himself entered in, compelling and sometimes dividing forces, sparring tensions, which now may be known as desires, and later to thoughts. The ancient Moon did not reflect back the Sun when it was not-so-old as to be living. For it was, in part, just as our Earth is now - the Sun itself, in the making.
This ancient Sun, the kernel to the Globe, is of the first ego but not of the ego today. It was the feminine ego, a womb of knowing; not adventurous, but receptive - a very different type of "I". Even today the form of the ego is as a containing womb and its action is retentive rather than advancing.
-B.Hive
on The Tinder Box by Hans Christian Andersen
According to the priest Rudolf Meyer the following statement was made by Rudolf Steiner long before his illness: “The Christmas Conference is not being taken up. There is still time. But if it is not taken up by the autumn, the Ahrimanic powers will launch their attack”.
The Stuttgart state attorney Dr. Bruno Kruger has testified that as early as June 1924 Rudolf Steiner said to him personally with firm insistence: “This impulse has failed. Come back to Dornach in October. Then everything will be arranged differently – including the situation in Stuttgart”.
A member who wishes to remain anonymous received from Rudolf Steiner, in response to a question about the Christmas Conference and its effects within the Society, the answer: the spiritual world allows nine months to see whether an echo comes from the members. If no echo comes, the impulses of the Christmas Conference have come to an end. When the nine months had passed, this member asked Rudolf Steiner about it again. He replied: “No echo has come. The Society has not taken up the Christmas Conference”.
The eurythmist Ina Schuurman testifies to having received personally from Rudolf Steiner the following statement, which she reports thus: “It was during a eurythmy dress rehearsal in the course of the Christmas Conference…. That Rudolf Steiner was walking past on his way from the auditorium, stopped in front of me and said: ‘Now let us hope that things can continue in this way for ten years’. In September 1924 there was again a dress rehearsal in Dornach…. When Rudolf Steiner came by and stopped in front of me. He said with great emphasis: ‘the Christmas Conference has failed’, and walked on into the auditorium.
There is also a communication said to have been received by Countess Keyserlingk after Rudolf Steiner’s death. Countess Keyserlingk had attained certain degrees in occult training. She writes as follows: “It was on the morning of Rudolf Steiner’s cremation, which I did not attend. The earthly body of the great Teacher was still laid out near to where I stood in the room of the carpentry shop, when close to me the aura of the beloved Teacher appeared.
"From this aura the instruction came that I should write. I took paper and pencil and from his presence came the following words – often I could not write quickly enough, then he stopped and waited until I had caught up with writing, as Rudolf Steiner had done on earlier occasions when he was dictating something to me: ‘My mission is ended. What I was able to give human beings at their present level of maturity, I have given them. I go away, because I found no ears able to hear the spirit-word behind the word. I go away, because I found no eyes able to behold the spirit-pictures behind the earthly pictures – I go away, because I found no human beings able to bring my will to realization. The Mysteries remain veiled or hidden until I come again. I will come again and unveil the Mysteries when I have succeeded in establishing in spirit-worlds an altar, a place of worship, for human souls. Then I will come again, then I will continue to reveal the Mysteries. Responsibility for my death is borne by those who have suppressed the culture of the heart. If human beings had gone through their hearts and penetrated into the depths they would have found the strength to fulfil the tasks of the present age’."
-Excerpts from General Renewal– or Illusion – of the Anthroposophical Society by Harald Giersch
A lecture held in Villingen–Schwenningen, Germany, on 19.01.2005
Giersch lecture
Like new-born Thoughts that glow and burn, suspended
In the vast pantheon of an Angel's mind,
All thought with love, all love with wonder blended,
We rest, and lo ! with vision unconfined,
See a DIVINELY HUMAN FORM who stands
Upon the sun, and holds a diamond rod.
It is a shadow from the face of God,
In-formed in quivering light.
Seraphic bands
Rise from the sun like many-colored rays,
Chanting around it melodies of praise.
"Know ye that Angel standing on the sun?"
A ministering spirit asks.
That look
The very look, the great, yet Crucified One,
Divine with love that Evil could not brook,
But turned with all its alien hosts and fled
Into the dark dominions of the dead
That look, whose light o'er darkened Calvary shone,
In-streams on me I know it know it well.
Not in man's heart doth thy dear likeness dwell,
O Lord ! alone.
'Tis imaged o'er the dome
That spans the sun, the bright imperial home
Of angel-nations, and forever shines,
Filling with seven-fold light those vast and tranquil
climes
Forever beaming there, the Day of day,
Whose glory clothes the orb with Love's perennial May.
Thou Sun, rejoice !
Ye goodly company
That round it throng, and fill with harmony
Of planetary life, the stellar space
Ye too rejoice, run brightening on your race !
Not from the sun alone ye draw your light :
The great Creator's image stands thereon,
Outpouring from your system's inner height
Such floods of glory, that the horizon
Rolls back an evening splendor on the morning.
Cease, cease, oh, mortal man, the idle scorning
Of the high mystery God in Christ ; for lo,
Yon sun His image to the stars doth show,
And all the stars from God in Christ derive
Their light, and from His life their nations live.
The origin of Beauty, Love, and Truth
Of light, life, motion, and immortal youth
Of form, of music, sweetness, and delight,
Flashes from God's own Image on my sight.
I feel the pulses of the Eternal Soul
In all my veins.
My thoughts within me roll
Like newborn planets, flushed with happy life.
My nature is at rest.
There is no strife,
No battle of contending forms above
Earth and its spheres.
-T.L. Harris, An Epic of the Starry Heaven
Do you remember the story of the shoemaker and the elves? How it came to be that master shoemaker had so much work to do that the little people would come to his aid, and as night fell the pieces would be cut and stitched and there were perfect shoes as ordered?
Quite so it happens that before we are born we have much assistance in the cutting and the piecing and the stitching of our many substances which will then unfurl; and for the main part it then becomes out of the angel's domain once the 'shoes' have been sent out into the care of the governing soul. There were a very special pair ordered for a princess as one story goes, that they were to be just so.
As remarked, the evolution of the body is not something that we have had a full hand in, but that rather, over many periods of change, we have gathered and equipped to ourselves the means to have the angels build with properties which are still to be refined and adapted and made perfect.
We may then know also that the question of disease and of weakness can be addressed in this way; that is to understand that our bodies as we have them today in the common world are belonging very much to a corporate whole, one which manifests illness from that whole, rather than in the particular.
The question as to whether or not we may relate specific physical problems to psychological and spiritual origin is perhaps best answered thus: of the many spokes there are to this wheel, one can choose any to begin from and attribute cause to such. If Man is held to be the central being (with Father God being most central and whole to him also) and out from Man we draw spokes which imply all that he has to his makeover, we can place them in part and in any order and turn the wheel, viewing the relationship one has upon another. It can be proven because of the fundamental principle of origin itself. That which is, is because is was, and that which was, is no more.
-B.Hive
We begin with the picture of the hearth, as it was the sweet Cinders’ title to attend to the space in which the fires would burn heartily. Let this space be now her heart, which is given over to the household and to the world. She does clear away the ashes that she may prepare for the fires to burn again. In this there is truth that the soul’s love which inflames our inner spaces, graced by spirit and the life of the spirit, becomes choked with residue and the impulses subside, ever needing prompting back to life; for love and love’s passion, does ebb and flow in rhythmic obedience. There is the time in which we contain the fire, and the time in which we clean the hearth and prepare for its coming again.
Cinders had two sisters which dominated this story: Slovenliness and Wickedness. These sisters were unlike her in nature, bearing little or no resemblance to the child of the heart/hearth.
There was to be an occasion. A prince of the district was to hold a gala party that he may choose a wife to couple with. The sisters were eager to try their chances. The prince resembled all that a stately soul should be, in upright virtue, in strength and in capability. Therefore the acquaintance and subsequent mingling was desirable. For it can be said too, that when an individual truly meets in soul with another friend, then the qualities are shared. This is why we seek our Christ in combining, as best influence upon our humble natures.
Returning to the story: The haughty sisters mocked Cinders that she would wish to go to the Prince’s party. This party was the community host of all his invited confederates. This other soul has opened himself to the world at large, that he may seek out true commune in spirit, and so by inviting all of those who would accept the invitation (and others who would not) he has gone through the necessary obligations of being openhearted as well as openminded. For we must remember that all men are unknown to us, unless we truly know them. Should we really come to know them, then there is much love and affinity thereby. However, at the stage he was at, the Prince was seeking for his soul’s commune (that being the theme of this story) and so he was open to all, that he may find that which was especial.
The sisters are attributed to be quite ugly, but did do the best they could, dressing themselves in common finery, pretending that the outer appearance could conceal their sinful and lazy natures. In the outer world this does happen, that a man may feel uplifted, almost morally, by such clothes which are stately- however, it may be but a good guise and little more; particularly if the individual wears pride as well. And proud these two were, as they did strut with self admiration.
Here now, our picture of sweet Cinders is of rags, and she is overcome with the soot-black of ash upon her white skin. Why then should it be this way, that the pure of heart is portrayed so forlorn? This is because the soul is wanting and is not fulfilled. The closer to God that a soul does become, the more it suffers the world. It does also come to great happiness accordingly, however.
When the sisters had departed, Cinders fell into great upset at her self’s condition. If we are to review ourselves by comparison, we shall always find disparity; and so it is that the sadness came, but was answered in the appearance of an Angel. The Angel appeared to Cinders in beauty and in radiance, saying "You shall go to the party tonight, and I have come to help you."
That Cinders was to attend was ordained by her right to do so. The assistance that she was given is one that we all have. Although our angel’s presence goes unrecognized (for they are forbidden to make themselves known), in this special story our Cinders catches the vision of her intervening Angel and hears her speak.
Our physical presence which carries us through a lifetime in the world, is comprised of the service of both the animal and plant kingdoms. The transformation of pumpkin into coach was an example of this; as quite so, our physical bodies are just such an issue, wherein the dear contributory kingdoms serve to bear our souls by their constant reformation.
Cinders herself was clothed anew in the most beautiful of wraps, with also two crystal shoes upon her feet. In her case the outfit bore the resemblance of her inner nature, inasmuch as she was worthy to wear the finery. It was produced from the Angel herself, and of much better material than could be purchased within the world.
The crystal shoes are significant, for they are the connection she has within the world, and they represent the very clarity of being, true to the world in perceiving how it is for what it is. Shoes are our protection, and they may be of fashion as well as practical, however they are worn to soften our relationship with the world, and do cordon our selves from the immediate reality. By the wearing of crystal slippers, Cinders is still quite separate and protected from the tearing and scratching and skinning of coarse grounds, but is connected in the most refined way possible, as her perceptions of the world are nonetheless accurate – therefore she meets with the world in a consciousness of purity. Only she was entitled to wear them; and this was so because there was no selfishness to mark and mar the clarity.
The Angel made warning that there was but a definite time for which Cinders could make use of her equipment; that she must indeed return home before midnight, for then it should happen that all would return to how it was.
When Cinders made her entrance she appeared exquisite and quite obviously beautiful. The Prince immediately recognized this, and had come to see the quenching of his longings; for there was this other soul which was in likeness to his, and with space waiting there to fill; for she had gone in faith and with open expectation.
The love became a rapture and they danced together for the length of the night. But as the late hours did filter into the new morning’s day, Cinderella (Cinders now made beautiful), lost her strength in magic glamor as she remembered the Angel’s warning of returning back. She fled the court lest he catch her great indignity - leaving behind one of two crystal shoes.
That which the Prince had retained was rightfully now his to keep. For this is the way of soul commune, that there is always the remaining evidence and shared qualities; so one of the shoes became of his belonging. It is significant also because they both shared now a same connection with the world, and that he would come to know this to seek it further.
The Prince had no immediate way of finding his love directly. The powers of soul are illusive, and perhaps better understood to say that our comprehensions are many, with not one being so constant as to prevail over all. Continuance is always assured - that we pick up and return to this and that understanding, situation or soul. But change occurs in lively fashion, for without change, there becomes inertia leading to subsequent expiration; which necessitates a different change regardless. So he took charge to find his beloved, in whom he experienced a mutual knowing - but he knew not enough to simply recognize her by sight alone!
How often Christ has appeared to those who knew Him, but knew Him not! The way in which they could come to Him, once again, was not by this the visual appearance, and not by expectation born of themselves, but in being true to the spiritual reality, in meeting with crystal clear connection (the other half recollected), knowing that the love between you both verily made two sets of keys. You may go into the space of faith, into the heart, to find Him.
The noble search continued until the Prince happened upon the cottage in which Cinders took rest. Pushing their way before her, the sisters were determined to press their feet into the shoe - bleeding and crushing, bones cracked and toes looped off. But even so, there was no fit, and their false proof of soul-hood came to no real description. It was then that Cinderella was given the opportunity and so placed her foot in his half of the pair. Of course, the fit was perfect! It could not have been otherwise, and he knew her to be the one that he longed for.
Without the shoe he may have well bypassed this individual and kept up the lonely search. By appearance only we are ill-informed. Her costume given to her from the Angel, was one which showed only substance of soul; but it could not survive as visible within the outer world for long – it had to withdraw.
As it is said, the heart sees what the eyes do not; and contrariwise, the heart is a gentle informant. We can be peaceful in the proposition that others rarely see us as we are in truth. Although there most certainly will come the day when aspects are shared openly and obviously, for the time being there is a self protection for immature egos, that they develop a sense of self firstly; and then may go on to such sharing amongst selves in the greater outreach.
If we are aware of this, then we shall immediately lessen our penetrating influences upon others: those that impinge or dominate, or devastate the less developed individual. Once again it is a matter of understanding and attitude that people shall come to understandings with us and by us at the time when we cease to force ourselves upon them.
Our cloaks of humility are apparent when we are relaxed in our selves (and no, this does not mean inebriated or casual, or inconsiderate or sleepy). In spiritual definition it means that the inner tensions of want and will are divorced from our interest in another, and our love for their being prevails over personal desire. Our desire here of course, is that of being seen for who we are etc., and so we may forgo even that in order to meet them with love. This is not to say that we wear a cloak of falsehood or deception, for that kind brings sadness to both souls and no real convening.
Expressions of love from men and women, bring the gods their great happiness. We can only give love where it is chosen to be received; and if the space is not there for us to go into, there is no reality thus given it. And the space shall not be made if there is no faith there within that heart – as so cried Christ, for us to believe in Him.
The Prince did find his sweetheart and delivered her from the service of the sisters. The three were truly the one – our sweet souls are mocked thus by our own laziness and wickedness, which pretend to be beauteous and worthy of another soul’s consideration. When we have departed from these two undesirables, when we listen to our Angel’s counsel and pursue our heart’s destiny with clarity within the world, then it shall happen accordingly that we will find our destiny through faith, in believing of the greater love that shall one day come to reclaim us.
-B.Hive
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]
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
