The Fifth Gospel
GA 148
2 October 1913, Christiania
Lecture II
We will begin to-day by turning our thoughts to the event known as Pentecost. I said in the first lecture that clairvoyant research may first of all be directed to this event, for as we look back into the past it presents itself as a kind of awakening, experienced on the day commemorated in the Whitsun Festival, by those who are generally known as the Apostles or Disciples of Christ Jesus. It is not easy to form clear and precise pictures of all these undoubtedly strange phenomena. And if we want to think truly about the matter we shall have to call up from deep down in our souls, many things we have learned from previous studies of Theosophy. It seemed to the Apostles that they were like men who had awakened, feeling at the moment of waking that they had been living for a long time in an unusual state of consciousness. In very truth it was a kind of awakening from a deep sleep, a wonderful, dream-filled sleep ... remember that I am speaking of how it was experienced by the Apostles themselves ... a sleep of such a kind that at the same time a man carries out all the affairs of everyday life and goes about just like a normal person, so that those with whom he comes into contact do not notice at all that he is in a different state of consciousness. The moment came when it seemed to the Apostles as if they had been living for a long time, for many, many days, in a kind of dream from which they woke at this time of Pentecost; and the awakening itself was a strange experience. The Apostles felt as if there had actually descended upon them from the Cosmos, something which could only be called the Substance of the all-prevailing Love. They felt as if they had been quickened from on high by the all-prevailing Love and awakened from the condition of dream into which they had fallen. It seemed to them as if they had been wakened to life by the primal force of Love pervading and warming the Cosmos, as if this primal force of Love had come down into the soul of each one of them. And to others who could observe them and hear how they were speaking now, they seemed altogether strange. The others knew that they were men who until now had lived in extraordinary simplicity, a few of whom had, it is true, behaved somewhat strangely during recent days, as if lost in dream. This they knew. But now it seemed to the people as if these men had been transformed, as if their very souls had been made new; they seemed to have lost all narrowness, all selfishness in life, to have acquired largeness of heart, an all-embracing tolerance and a deep understanding for everything that is human on the earth. Moreover they were able to express themselves in such a way that everyone present could understand them. It was felt that they could look into every heart, could read the deepest, innermost secrets of the soul and so were able to bring consolation to every single individual, to say to him exactly what he needed. It was naturally amazing that such transformation could take place in a number of men. But these men themselves in whom the transformation had come about, who had been awakened by the Spirit of Cosmic Love, now felt within them a new understanding of what had, it is true, come to pass in intimate connection with their own souls, but which they had not previously grasped. Now, at this moment, there dawned in their souls an understanding of what had actually transpired on Golgotha.
And when we look into the innermost soul of one of these Apostles, into the soul of him who is called Peter in the other Gospels, it is revealed to clairvoyant sight as it gazes backwards into the past, that his normal earthly consciousness completely ceased to function from the moment referred to in the other Gospels as the Denial. He beheld this scene of the Denial, how he had been asked whether he knew the Galilean; and now he knew that at that moment he had denied any such connection because his normal consciousness was beginning to fade and an abnormal condition to set in—a kind of dream condition indicating a withdrawal into an altogether different world. Peter's experience was like that of a man who when he wakes in the morning remembers the last events of the previous evening. Thus did Peter remember the scene usually known as the Denial, the triple Denial before the cock had crowed twice. And then, like outspreading night, the intermediate condition came upon his consciousness. But this intermediate condition was filled, not with mere dream-pictures but with pictures representing a kind of higher consciousness, an experience of things belonging to the world of pure Spirit. And all that had happened, all that Peter had as it were slept through since that time arose before his soul like a vision. Above all he was now able to gaze at that event of which it can truly be said that he had slept through it, because for a full understanding of this event the quickening by the all-prevailing Cosmic Love was necessary. Now there came before the eyes of Peter the pictures of the Mystery of Golgotha, as we, looking backwards with clairvoyant consciousness, can again evoke them if the conditions necessary for such vision are induced.
Frankly, it is with a feeling altogether unparalleled that one makes the decision to put into words what is revealed when one gazes into the consciousness of Peter and of the others who had gathered together at that Whitsun Festival. The decision to speak of these things can only be fraught with holy awe. One is almost overpowered by the consciousness of treading on the most sacred soil of human vision when one puts into words what is here revealed to the eyes of the soul. Nevertheless for certain inner reasons it seems necessary to speak of these things in our time, while realising that in ages other than our own and yet to come, they will find more understanding than is possible now. For in order to comprehend many a thing that will have to be said on this occasion, the human soul will have to break free from much that has been and will be instilled into it, quite inevitably, by the culture of the times.
To begin with, there arises before the gaze of clairvoyance something that seems like an affront against the conceptions of modern science. Nevertheless I feel compelled to put into words what presents itself here to the eyes of soul—as far as I am able to do so. I cannot help it if what has to be said finds its way to inadequately prepared hearts and souls and if the whole thing is mooted as untenable in face of the scientific views by which the present age is entirely dominated. The gaze of clairvoyance lights, to begin with, upon a picture that represents an actual happening, one that is hinted at in other Gospels too, but is a particularly striking spectacle when one sees it emerging from the myriad pictures arising before the backward-turned eye of vision. This clairvoyant gaze actually beholds a kind of darkening of the earth. And one feels, as it were in aftermath, that deeply significant moment when, as in a solar eclipse, the physical sun was darkened over the land of Palestine, over the place of Golgotha. And one has the impression, which vision schooled in the sense of Spiritual Science can still confirm when an actual, physical eclipse of the sun casts shadow over the land: that to the eyes of soul the whole environment of man looks quite different during the time of an eclipse. I shall refrain from dealing with the spectacle presented during a solar eclipse and with all those things that are the creations of human artifice and technique. To be able to endure the spectacle of those demonic powers and entities which during an eclipse of the sun rise out of the creations of art-forsaken, technical science, requires great courage and the realisation that all these things were inevitable. I do not propose, however, to go further into this particular matter but merely draw attention to the fact that a vision, at other times only to be reached after very difficult meditation, lights up and reveals that during a solar eclipse all plant-life, all animal life, every butterfly, take on quite a different appearance. It is an experience that in the very deepest sense brings the conviction of how intimately a certain form of cosmic-spiritual life belonging to the sun and having its physical body in the visible sun, is connected with life on the earth. And when the physical radiance is darkened by the intervening moon, this is different from when, during the night, the sun is merely not shining. The spectacle of the earth around us is quite different during an eclipse of the sun from what it is during an ordinary night. During an eclipse of the sun one feels the group-souls of the plants and of the animals lighting up ... all the physical embodiments of the animals and plants seem to pass into shadow, while the group-souls become radiant. All this presents itself very vividly when the backward-turned gaze of seership contemplates that moment in the earth's evolution when the Mystery of Golgotha took place. And then comes an experience which may be described by saying: one learns to read what this remarkable phenomenon of nature perceived in the Cosmos really signifies! I cannot help it if—in defiance of all contemporary materialism—I am obliged to read in the occult script at this particular point in the earth's evolution, a purely natural event, one that has also occurred, of course, both before and since, and to speak of the direct impression it makes. It is like opening a book and reading the script ... one feels when this event is there before one that what one should read comes out of the very script itself. This cosmic script compels one with a kind of necessity to read something that mankind must come to know. It appears before one like a word inscribed in the Cosmos, like a sign in the Cosmos. And when one opens the soul to it, what is it that one reads?
In the lecture yesterday I spoke of how by the time of Greek culture, mankind had evolved to the point where, in Plato and Aristotle, a very high development of the human soul, a very high level of intellectuality had been attained. In many respects the intellectual knowledge attained by Plato or Aristotle has never since been surpassed. Intellectuality in mankind there reached a certain zenith. A vast store of knowledge had been acquired. And if one pictures this intellectual knowledge to which humanity had attained, which at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha had been spread abroad by wandering preachers far and wide over Greece and Italy, if one pictures how this knowledge had spread in a way incomprehensible to-day—then it is possible to receive the impression which seems to be like a reading of that occult script out in the Cosmos. And when clairvoyant consciousness has been mustered, one realises: all this knowledge, gathered and garnered by humanity in pre-Christian times, has its symbol in the moon, as for earthly sight it passes through the Cosmos. The moon is the symbol, because for all higher stages of human cognition this knowledge has acted, not as a light-bringer or solver of riddles, but rather as a bringer of darkness, just as the moon darkens the sun during a solar eclipse. That is what one reads. All the knowledge existing at that time shed darkness, not illumination, upon the riddle of the universe. And as a seer one feels the higher, truly spiritual regions of the world darkened by the intellectual achievements of antiquity which placed themselves like a screen in front of the real knowledge, just as the moon screens the sun during a solar eclipse. And the external event becomes a symbolic expression of the fact that human evolution had reached a stage where the knowledge born of man's own mind placed itself in front of the higher knowledge, like the moon before the sun during an eclipse. In that eclipse of the sun one feels the darkening of the sun of humanity in earthly evolution, engraved into the Cosmos in a stupendous sign of the occult script. I have said that the modern scientific mind may take this as an affront, because it has no understanding of the sovereign power of the Spirit in the universe. I do not want to speak of miracles in the ordinary sense of the word, of any infraction of the laws of nature, but I cannot do otherwise than convey to you how one can read that darkening of the sun—read with the eyes of soul what it is that this happening of nature expresses. With the moon-knowledge, darkness crept over the higher message of the sun.
And then there actually comes before the clairvoyant consciousness, the picture of the Cross raised on Golgotha, of the body of Jesus hanging upon it between the two thieves; the picture, too, of the body being taken down from the Cross and laid in the grave ... And here I will add that the more one tries to prevent it, the more forcibly does it present itself. And now comes a second mighty sign, whereby again there is written into the Cosmos something that one must read in order to discern it as a symbol of what has actually transpired in the evolution of humanity. One contemplates the picture of Jesus taken down from the Cross and laid in the grave, and then, while the gaze of the soul is thus directed, one has the experience of being shaken through and through by an earthquake which spread through that region.
One day, perhaps, people will understand—in the scientific sense too—more about the connection between that darkening of the sun and the earthquake, for certain theories which are already current in the world, but somewhat haphazardly, indicate that there is a connection between solar eclipses and earthquakes, and even fire-damp in mines. That earthquake followed upon the eclipse of the sun. It shook the grave in which the body of Jesus had been laid, and the stone covering it was wrenched away; a fissure was rent in the earth and the corpse was received into it. Another tremor caused the fissure to close again over the corpse. And when the people came in the morning the grave was empty, for the dead body of Jesus had been received into the earth. The stone, however, still lay where it had been hurled.—Once again let us follow the sequence of pictures! Jesus dies on the Cross of Golgotha. Darkness breaks in upon the earth. The corpse of Jesus is laid into the grave. A tremor shakes the land and the corpse is received into the earth. The fissure caused by the tremor closes; the stone is hurled aside. These are all actual happenings. I cannot describe them in any other way. Let those who wish to approach these things from the basis of natural science form what opinion they like, bring forward all kinds of contrary arguments: what the gaze of clairvoyance perceives is as I have described it. And if anyone were to say: it is impossible that from the Cosmos there should be set up, as it were in a mighty language of signs, a symbol of something New having entered into the evolution of mankind; if anyone were to say: the Divine Powers do not write into the earth in such signs a happening like an eclipse of the sun and an earthquake ... then I could only answer: You believe in all sincerity that such things are impossible. Nevertheless they actually happened. I can imagine someone like Ernest Renan, the author of that strange work, The Life of Jesus, saying that such things are incredible, because one only believes in what can at any time be re-confirmed by experiment. But this thought is not tenable ... for would a man like Renan not believe, let us say, in the Ice Age, although that cannot be confirmed by experiment? It is quite impossible to reconstruct the conditions prevailing in the Ice Age and yet all scientists believe in it. Equally impossible is it that this unique cosmic sign can ever appear again to men—yet for all that, the sign was there.
We can only be led to these events when, as seers, we find the way to them as I have indicated, when we sink in deepest contemplation into the soul of Peter or of one of the other Apostles who at the time of Pentecost felt themselves quickened by the all-prevailing Cosmic Love. Only when we contemplate the souls of those men and discern the nature of their experiences, is it possible in this indirect way to gaze at the Cross raised on Golgotha, to behold the darkening of the earth at that time and the subsequent earthquake. It is not denied that in the external sense this darkening and earthquake were ordinary happenings of nature, but one who having induced the requisite conditions in his soul, follows and reads these events with clairvoyant sight, will be emphatic that they were as I have described them. For in the consciousness of Peter, what I have now described was, in very truth, an experience that crystallised out of the long sleep. Among the manifold pictures crossing Peter's consciousness, those of the Cross raised on Golgotha, the darkening and the earthquake, for example, stood out in vivid relief. These experiences were for Peter the first result of the quickening by the Cosmic Love at Pentecost. And he now knew something he had not really known before: that the event of Golgotha had taken place and that the body on the Cross was the very same body with which he had often gone about together in life. Now he knew that Jesus had died on the Cross, that this dying was in reality a birth: the birth of that Spirit outpoured as the all-prevailing Cosmic Love into the souls of the Disciples assembled at Pentecost. Peter felt it as a ray of the primordial, aeonic Love ... born when Jesus died on the Cross. And this stupendous truth sank down into Peter's soul: It is only illusion that on the Cross a death took place. This death, preceded as it had been by infinite suffering, was in truth the birth of the ray now penetrating the soul. The all-prevailing Cosmic Love which had previously been present everywhere outside and around the earth, had, with the death of Jesus, been born into the earth. In the abstract, such words seem facile, but one must for a moment actually be transported into the soul of Peter to realise what he experienced then for the first time: When Jesus of Nazareth died on the Cross, at that moment there was born for the earth something that was previously to be found only in the Cosmos. The death of Jesus of Nazareth was the birth of the Cosmic Love within the sphere of the earth.
This is, so to speak, the first knowledge we are able to read from the Fifth Gospel. What I have now been describing begins with what is called in the New Testament the coming, or the outpouring, of the Spirit. The nature and character of the souls of the Apostles at that time did not make it possible for them to participate in the real sense in this event of the death of Jesus of Nazareth otherwise than in an abnormal state of consciousness.
To Peter, as also to John and James, there came, inevitably, the remembrance of another moment in their lives, the moment that can only be revealed to us in all its majesty by the Fifth Gospel. He with whom they had gone about on earth had led them out to the mount and had bidden them: Watch! And they had fallen asleep. The condition which spread with greater and greater intensity over their souls had already then set in. Their normal consciousness faded, they sank into the sleep which lasted beyond the time of Golgotha; and from this sleep the experiences I have been trying in halting words to describe, shone forth. Peter, John and James were inevitably reminded of how they had fallen into this condition of sleep and now, as they looked back, the vision lit up of the mighty events which had transpired around the earthly body of Him with whom they had gone about together. And gradually ... as submerged dreams rise up into the consciousness of men ... gradually the Apostles became conscious of what had transpired during those past days. During those days they had not experienced these happenings in their normal consciousness. What now came into their ken had lain deep down in their souls, submerged as it were for the whole of the period between the event of Golgotha and Pentecost. This period seemed to them to have been one of deepest sleep—above all through the days between the event known as the Ascension, and Pentecost. As they looked backwards, the whole period—day by day—between the Mystery of Golgotha and the Ascension of Christ Jesus into heaven, came before their souls. They had lived through it all but only now did they become conscious of it—and in a strange and mysterious way. Forgive me if I here interpose a personal remark. I must confess that I myself was amazed in the highest degree when I became aware of the manner in which all that the Apostles had lived through between the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and the Ascension rose up into their consciousness. It is indeed remarkable.
Pictures like these came before the souls of the Apostles: You were together with the Being who has been born on the Cross, you were with Him in very truth ... Just as on waking in the morning the remembrance of a dream might tell one: during the night you were with this or that person! ... But what is so remarkable is how the particular events came up into the Apostles' consciousness. Over and over again they were compelled to ask themselves: Who, then, is that Being with Whom we have been together? And time after time they did not know who He was. They knew with certainty that they had gone about with Him, but they did not recognise Him in the Form which had then been before them and which now, after they had been quickened by the all-prevailing Cosmic Love, appeared to them in a picture. They saw themselves going about after the Mystery of Golgotha with Him whom we call the Christ. And they saw, too, how He had taught and instructed them from the realm of the Spirit. They came to realise that for forty days they had gone about with this Being who upon the Cross had been born, that this Being—the All-prevailing Love itself born out of the Cosmos into the world—had been their Teacher, but that they had not been mature enough to understand His words; they realised that they had been obliged to receive His teachings with the subconscious forces of their souls, that they had gone about with the Christ like sleep-walkers, unable to understand with their ordinary minds what this Being imparted to them. During these forty days they had listened to Him with a kind of consciousness quite unfamiliar to them and which now, at Pentecost, became alive in them for the first time. They had listened to Him like sleep-walkers. This Being had come to them as their spiritual Teacher and had instructed them in mysteries which it was only possible for them to understand because He transported them into quite a different state of consciousness. Therefore not until now did they realise that they had gone about with Christ, with the Risen Christ. It was only now that they recognised what had really happened to them. And how did they recognise that this was the very same Being with whom they had gone about in the body, before the Mystery of Golgotha? This can be described in the following way:—
Let us suppose that now, after the event of Pentecost, a picture of this kind came before the soul of one of the Apostles. He saw how he had gone about with the Risen One. But he did not recognise this Being. Then another picture interposed itself, a picture which, mingling with the purely spiritual picture, represented an experience actually undergone by the Apostles in the presence of Christ Jesus before the Mystery of Golgotha. There was a scene where they felt that they were being taught by Christ Jesus about the Mystery of the Spirit. But they did not recognise Him, they merely saw themselves in the presence of this spiritual Being. And in order that they might recognise Him, this picture, while still intact, merged into the picture of the Last Supper—an experience they had shared with Christ Jesus. Try to envisage in all reality that as the super-sensible experience with the Risen One lit up in the consciousness of an Apostle, there—working as it were in the background—was the picture of the Last Supper. Then the Apostles knew that He with whom they had gone about in the body was the very same Being who was teaching them now—in the quite different Form in which He appeared after the Mystery of Golgotha. Remembrances from the state of consciousness that had been like a sleep were interwoven with the memory-pictures of events preceding the onset of this sleep. The Apostles experienced this as if two pictures were superimposed: one picture was of their experiences after the Mystery of Golgotha and another of the time before their consciousness had clouded. Then they realised that these two Beings belonged together: the Risen One and He with whom, a relatively short time before, they had gone about together in the body. And now they said to themselves: Before we were awakened by the all-prevailing Cosmic Love, we were as if transported from our ordinary consciousness. And Christ, the Risen One, was with us. All unknowing, we were taken up into His Kingdom; He went about with us, revealed to us the mysteries of His Kingdom of which we are now becoming conscious as if we had once experienced them in dream.—That is what causes amazement: the invariable coincidence of one picture of an experience of the Apostles with Christ after the Mystery of Golgotha with a picture of a happening which before the Mystery of Golgotha they had actually lived through in their normal consciousness while together in the physical body with Christ Jesus.
A beginning has thus been made to impart what can be read in the so-called Fifth Gospel. And at the end of this first communication to-day it may be allowable for me to add a few additional and necessary words. In an occult sense I feel it my duty to speak about these things now. What I want to say is the following. I know well that we are living in a time when many things are being prepared for the near future of mankind on earth, and that within our Anthroposophical Society—as it has now become—we must feel ourselves as those in whom an inkling is dawning that something essential for the future has to be made ready in the souls of men. I know that times will come when it will be possible to speak of these matters in a way quite other than present conditions allow. For we are all of us children of the age. But a time will come in the near future when it will be possible to speak with greater precision, when a great deal that can at present only be of the nature of indication may perhaps be discerned with far, far greater exactitude in the spiritual chronicle of World-Becoming. Improbable as it seems to the modern mind, such a time will come. For this reason it is a certain matter of duty to speak about these things to-day by way of preparation. And although I have had to overcome a certain reluctance in speaking as I have done, this was outweighed by the duty to the preparation that must be made in our time. This was what led me to speak on this subject to you here. When I speak of having overcome reluctance, please take this exactly as it is meant. I ask explicitly that what I have to say on this occasion shall be taken merely as a kind of stimulus, as something which in the future it will be possible to express much more adequately and with greater precision. You will better understand what I mean by “overcoming reluctance” if you will allow me not to withhold a personal remark. I know full well that in the spiritual research to which I have devoted myself, many things can only be extracted with the very greatest difficulty and effort from the spiritual record of the world's happenings—particularly things of this nature! And I myself should not be in the least surprised if the word “indication” which I have used in connection with them were to prove to have still weightier and wider implications than need to be attributed to it now. I do not say—most emphatically I do not say—that I am already in a position to say with all precision what presents itself in the spiritual script. For particularly in my own case I am aware of all kinds of difficulties and of the labour required when it is a question of drawing from the Akasha Chronicle pictures relating to Christianity. It costs me great effort to make these pictures sufficiently concrete to be able to fix them and I regard it, so to speak, as my karma that the duty is imposed upon me to say what I have now brought myself to say. For without any doubt it would cost me less effort if, as in the case of many of our contemporaries, circumstances in my early youth had enabled me to have a genuinely Christian education. I had no such education. I grew up in an entirely free-thinking environment. My own education was of a purely scientific character. And that is why it costs me great effort to discover these things of which it is my duty to speak. This personal reference may be justified for two reasons.—One is that with an utter lack of probity, an absurd story [It had been alleged by Annie Besant that Dr. Steiner had been educated by the Jesuits.] has been sent broadcast through the world about my having been connected with certain Catholic influences. There is not a single word of truth in this. And it is easy to judge the pass to which things have come in what calls itself Theosophy nowadays when such dishonest statements and rumours emanate from its soil. As, however, we cannot ignore them but must confront them with the truth, this personal reference is justified. Just because of my remoteness from Christianity when I was young, I feel all the freer from bias in regard to it; I believe that the Spirit has led me to Christianity and to the Christ. Especially in this domain I think I have a certain right to claim freedom from bias and prejudice. Perhaps—in this particular epoch of world-history—more reliance can be placed upon the words of a man who has come from a scientific education, who in his youth stood at a distance from Christianity, than upon the words of someone who has been connected with Christianity since early childhood. If you ponder these words you will realise that they indicate something of what lives within me when I speak of the mysteries which I will designate as the mysteries of the Fifth Gospel.
Zweiter Vortrag
Von dem sogenannten Pfingstereignis ist bei dieser Betrachtung zu beginnen. Im ersten Vortrag habe ich bereits angedeutet, daß der Blick der hellsichtigen Forschung zuerst auf dieses Ereignis wenigstens hingelenkt werden kann. Denn dieses Ereignis stellt sich dem nach rückwärts gerichteten hellseherischen Blick so dar wie eine Art Erwachen, das diejenigen Persönlichkeiten an einem gewissen Tage, an den eben das Pfingstfest erinnern soll, empfunden haben, die Persönlichkeiten, welche man gewöhnlich die Apostel oder Jünger des Christus Jesus nennt. Es ist nicht leicht, eine genaue Vorstellung von all diesen ja zweifellos seltsamen Erscheinungen hervorzurufen, und wir werden uns schon an manches sozusagen in den Untergründen unserer Seele erinnern müssen, was sich uns aus den bisherigen anthroposophischen Betrachtungen hat ergeben können, wenn wir genaue Vorstellungen mit all dem verbinden wollen, was gerade über dieses Thema unseres Vortragszyklus heute zu sagen ist.
Wie erwachend kamen sich die Apostel vor, wie Menschen, welche in diesem Augenblick das Empfinden hatten, daß sie lange Zeit - viele Tage hindurch - in einem ihnen ungewohnten Bewußtseinszustand gelebt hätten. Es war tatsächlich etwas wie eine Art Aufwachen aus einem tiefen Schlaf, allerdings einem merkwürdigen, traumerfüllten Schlaf, wie aus einem Schlaf, der aber so ist - ich bemerke ausdrücklich, ich spreche immer von der Art, wie es dem Bewußtsein der Apostel erschienen ist —, daß man daneben alle äußeren Verrichtungen des Tages vollbringt, als leiblich gesunder Mensch herumgeht, so daß gewissermaßen auch die anderen Menschen, mit denen man umgeht, einem gar nicht ansehen, daß man in einem anderen Bewußtseinszustand ist. Dennoch trat der Zeitpunkt ein, wo es den Aposteln so vorkam, als ob sie eine lange, tagelang dauernde Zeit verlebt hätten wie in einem traumerfüllten Schlafe, aus dem sie nun mit diesem Pfingstereignis erwachten. Und dieses Erwachen, schon das fühlten sie in einer eigentümlichen Weise: sie fühlten tatsächlich, wie wenn aus dem Weltenall niedergestiegen wäre auf sie etwas, was man nur nennen könnte die Substanz der allwaltenden Liebe. Wie gleichsam von oben herab befruchtet durch die allwaltende Liebe und wie auferweckt aus dem geschilderten traumhaften Lebenszustand, so fühlten sich die Apostel. Wie wenn durch alles dasjenige, was als die ursprüngliche Kraft der Liebe, die das Weltenall durchdringt und durchwärmt, sie auferweckt worden wären, wie wenn diese ursprüngliche Kraft der Liebe in die Seele eines jeden Einzelnen sich gesenkt hätte, so kamen sie sich vor. Und den anderen Menschen, die sie beobachten konnten, wie sie nun sprachen, kamen sie ganz fremdartig vor. Sie wußten, diese anderen Menschen, daß das Leute waren, die bisher in einer außerordentlich einfachen Weise gelebt hatten, von denen allerdings einige in den letzten Tagen sich etwas sonderbar, wie traumverloren, benommen hatten. Das wußte man. Jetzt aber kamen sie den Leuten wie verwandelt vor: wie Menschen, die in der Tat erlangt hatten eine ganz neue Verfassung, eine ganz neue Stimmung der Seele, wie Menschen, die alle Engigkeit des Lebens, alle Eigensüchtigkeit des Lebens verloren hatten, die ein unendlich weites Herz, eine umfassende Toleranz im Inneren gewonnen hatten, ein tiefes Herzensverständnis für alles, was menschlich auf der Erde ist, die sich so ausdrücken konnten, daß jeder, der da war, sie verstand. Man empfand gleichsam, daß sie in eines jeden Herz und Seele schauen konnten und aus dem tiefsten Inneren heraus Geheimnisse der Seele errieten, so daß sie einen jeden trösten konnten, dasjenige sagen konnten, was er gerade brauchte.
Es war natürlich im höchsten Grade verwunderlich für diese Beobachter, daß eine solche Umwandlung mit einer Anzahl von Menschen vorgehen konnte. Diese Menschen selber aber, die diese Umwandlung erfahren hatten, die gleichsam durch den Geist der Liebe des Kosmos auferweckt worden waren, diese Menschen fühlten jetzt in sich selber ein neues Verständnis, fühlten ein Verständnis für dasjenige, was sich allerdings in innigster Gemeinschaft mit ihren Seelen abgespielt hatte, das sie aber damals, als es sich abgespielt hatte, nicht begriffen hatten: Jetzt erst, in diesem Augenblick, da sie sich befruchtet fühlten mit der kosmischen Liebe, trat vor ihr Seelenauge ein Verständnis für das, was auf Golgatha eigentlich geschehen war. Und wenn wir in die Seele des einen dieser Apostel hineinsehen, desjenigen, der gewöhnlich in den anderen Evangelien Petrus genannt wird, so stellt sein Seeleninneres für den rückschauenden hellsichtigen Blick sich so dar, daß sein irdisches normales Bewußtsein in jenem Augenblicke gleichsam wie vollständig abgerissen war, von jenem Augenblicke an, der in den anderen Evangelien gewöhnlich bezeichnet wird als die Verleugnung. Er sah hin auf diese Verleugnungsszene, wie er gefragt worden war, ob er einen Zusammenhang habe mit dem Galiläer, und er wußte jetzt, daß er das dazumal abgeleugnet hatte, weil sein normales Bewußtsein begann sich herabzudämpfen, weil sich ausbreitete ein anomaler Zustand, eine Art Traumzustand, der eine Entrücktheit in eine ganz andere Welt bedeutete. Es war ihm jetzt an diesem Pfingstfest so zumute, wie einem zumute ist beim Aufwachen am Morgen und man sich da an die letzten Ereignisse am Abend vor dem Einschlafen erinnert; so erinnerte sich Petrus an die letzten Ereignisse, bevor dieser abnorme Zustand eintrat, an dasjenige, was man gewöhnlich die Verleugnung nennt, die dreimalige Verleugnung, bevor der Hahn zweimal gekräht hatte. Und dann erinnerte er sich, daß sich ausbreitete über seine Seele jener Zustand, so wie für den Schlafenden die Nacht sich ausbreitet. Aber er erinnerte sich auch, wie sich jener Zwischenzustand erfüllte nicht mit bloßen 'Traumbildern, sondern mit Gebilden, die eine Art höheren Bewußtseinszustand darstellten, die darstellten ein Miterleben von rein geistigen Angelegenheiten. Und alles, was geschehen war, was Petrus gleichsam verschlafen hatte seit jener Zeit, das trat wie aus einem hellschauenden Traum vor seine Seele. Vor allem lernte er jetzt schauen das Ereignis, von dem man wirklich sagen kann, er habe es verschlafen. Er hatte es nicht mit seinem Verständnis erlebt, weil zum vollen Verständnis für dieses Ereignis notwendig war die Befruchtung mit der allwaltenden kosmischen Liebe. Jetzt, wo diese erfolgt war, traten ihm vor Augen die Bilder des Mysteriums von Golgatha. So traten sie ihm vor Augen, wie wir sie wiederum erleben können, wenn wir sie wachrufen können mit rückschauendem hellsichtigem Bewußtsein, wenn wir die Bedingungen dazu herstellen.
Offen gestanden: mit einem Gefühl, das ganz eigenartig ist, entschließt man sich, in Worte zu prägen dasjenige, was sich da eröffnet dem hellsichtigen Bewußtsein, wenn man hineinschaut in das Bewußtsein des Petrus und der anderen, die bei jenem Pfingstfeste versammelt waren. Mit einer heiligen Scheu nur kann man sich entschließen, von diesen Dingen zu reden. Man möchte sagen, man ist fast überwältigt von dem Bewußtsein, man betrete heiligsten Boden des menschlichen Anschauens, wenn man in Worten auszudrücken versucht, was sich dem Seelenblicke da eröffnet. Dennoch erscheint es aus gewissen Vorbedingungen unserer Zeit heraus notwendig, über diese Dinge zu sprechen; allerdings mit dem vollen Bewußtsein, daß andere Zeiten kommen werden als die unsrigen sind, in denen man mehr Verständnis entgegenbringen wird demjenigen, was gesagt werden muß über das Fünfte Evangelium, als man es heute schon kann. Denn um vieles von dem zu verstehen, was bei dieser Gelegenheit gesagt werden muß, muß die Menschenseele sich noch befreien von mancherlei Dingen, die sie ganz notwendig aus der Zeitkultur heraus heute noch erfüllen müssen.
Zunächst stellt sich, wenn man hellsichtig zurückschaut auf das Ereignis von Golgatha, vor den hellsehenden Blick etwas hin, was — wenn man es in Worte faßt - sich ausnimmt wie eine Art Beleidigung des gegenwärtigen naturwissenschaftlichen Bewußtseins. Dennoch fühle ich mich gezwungen, so gut es geht, dasjenige in Worte zu prägen, was sich dem hellsichtigen Blick also darstellt. Ich kann nichts dafür, wenn das, was da gesagt werden muß, etwa hinausdringen sollte in weniger vorbereitete Gemüter und Seelen hinein und das Ganze aufgebauscht würde wie etwas, was gegenüber den wissenschaftlichen Anschauungen, welche die Gegenwart nun einmal beherrschen, nicht standhalten könnte. Es fällt der hellsehende Blick zunächst auf ein Bild, das eine Realität darstellt, das auch in den anderen Evangelien angedeutet ist, das aber doch einen ganz besonderen Anblick darbietet, wenn man es gleichsam heraustreten sieht aus der Fülle der Bilder, die der hellsehende Blick in der Rückschau erhalten kann. Es fällt dieser hellsehende Blick tatsächlich auf eine Art von Verfinsterung der Erde. Und man fühlt, wie in diesem bedeutungsvollen Augenblick, der durch Stunden hindurch anhält, wie da die physische Sonne verfinstert war über dem Lande Palästina, über der Stätte von Golgatha. Man hat denselben Eindruck, den der geisteswissenschaftlich geschulte Blick jetzt noch nachprüfen kann, wenn wirklich eine äußere physische Sonnenfinsternis durch das Land geht. Für den Seelenblick nimmt sich die ganze Umgebung des Menschen während einer solchen mehr oder weniger starken Sonnenfinsternis folgendermaßen aus. Da sieht alles ganz anders aus. Ich möchte absehen von jenem Anblick, der sich bei einer Sonnenfinsternis darbietet, von all den Dingen, welche Menschenkunst und Menschentechnik hervorgebracht haben, denn es bedarf eines gewissen starken Gemütes und eines Durchdrungenseins von dem Bewußtsein der Notwendigkeit, daß das alles entstehen mußte, um den dämonischen Anblick zu ertragen, den diejenigen Wesen darbieten, die sich während einer Sonnenfinsternis aus der äußeren kunstlosen Technik erheben. Aber ich will auf diese Schilderung nicht weiter eingehen, sondern nur darauf aufmerksam machen, daß in einer solchen Zeit dasjenige lichtvoll erscheint, was man sonst nur durch sehr schwierige Meditationen erreichen kann: Man sieht dann alles Pflanzliche und Tierische anders, jeder Vogel, jeder Schmetterling sieht dann anders aus. Man bemerkt eine Herabdämpfung des Lebensgefühles. Es ist etwas, was im tiefsten Sinne die Überzeugung hervorrufen kann, wie innig zusammenhängt im Kosmos ein gewisses geistiges Leben, das zur Sonne gehört und das in dem, was man in der Sonne sieht, gleichsam seinen physischen Leib hat, mit dem Leben auf der Erde. Und man bekommt das Gefühl, wenn dem physischen Leben das physische Leuchten der Sonne gewaltsam verdunkelt wird durch den davortretenden Mond, so ist das etwas ganz anderes, als wenn die Sonne bloß nicht scheint in der Nacht. Ganz anders ist für den beobachtenden Seelenblick der Anblick der uns umgebenden Erde während einer Sonnenfinsternis als während einer bloßen Nacht. Man fühlt während einer Sonnenfinsternis etwas wie ein Aufstehen der Gruppenseelen der Pflanzen, der Gruppenseelen der Tiere, dagegen wie ein Mattwerden aller physischen Leiblichkeit der Pflanzen und Tiere. Es tritt etwas ein wie ein Hellwerden alles dessen, was geistig ist, was Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit darstellt.
Das alles stellt sich in einem hohen Maße dar, wenn der hellsehende Blick in der Rückschau hinsieht auf den Augenblick der Erdenevolution, den wir bezeichnen als das Mysterium von Golgatha. Und dann taucht etwas auf, was man nennen könnte: man lernt lesen, was dieses merkwürdige Naturzeichen, diese plötzlich auftretende Verfinsterung der Sonne, die der nach rückwärts gewendete, hellseherische Blick im Kosmos erschaut, was das eigentlich bedeutet. Ich kann wirklich nichts dafür, wenn ich genötigt bin, ein reines Naturereignis, wie es natürlich früher und später auch stattgefunden hat, gerade an diesem Punkte der Erdenevolution in okkulter Schrift so zu lesen - in Widerspruch mit allem gegenwärtigen materialistischen Bewußtsein -, wie es eben unmittelbar den Eindruck macht. Wie wenn man ein Buch aufschlägt und die Schrift liest, so fühlt man sich, wenn man dieses Ereignis vor sich hat, so daß einem wie aus dem Schriftzeichen entgegenkommt, was man lesen soll. So kommt einem aus diesem Schriftzeichen des Kosmos die Notwendigkeit entgegen, man solle etwas lesen, was die Menschheit kennenlernen soll. Wie ein in den Kosmos geschriebenes Wort kommt das einem vor, wie ein Lautzeichen im Kosmos.
Und was liest man dann, wenn man ihm seine Seele öffnet? Ich habe gestern aufmerksam gemacht, wie in die Griechenzeit hinein die Menschheit sich so entwickelt hat, daß sie in Plato und Aristoteles aufgestiegen ist zu einer ganz besonders hohen Ausbildung der Intellektualität der menschlichen Seele. In vieler Beziehung konnte dasjenige Wissen, das von Plato oder Aristoteles erreicht worden ist, in der späteren Zeit gar nicht überholt werden, denn es war für die Intellektualität der Menschheit damit in gewisser Beziehung ein Höchstes herangekommen. Man kann viel erkennen, wenn man dies wirklich erkennt. Und wenn sich die hellsichtig beobachtende Seele, die die Zeit von Palästina beobachtet, anschaut, wie dieses intellektuelle Wissen, zu dem sich die Menschheit heraufentwickelt hatte, das gerade in der Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha auf der griechischen und italischen Halbinsel durch Wanderprediger ungeheuer populär geworden war, wenn man das alles ins Auge faßt, wie dieses Wissen verbreitet worden war in einer Art, wie man es sich heute gar nicht vorstellen kann, dann bekommt diese hellsichtig beobachtende Seele die Möglichkeit eines Eindruckes, der sich wie ein Lesen jenes genannten, in den Kosmos hineingestellten Schriftzeichens ausnimmt. Man sagt sich dann, wenn man das hellsichtige Bewußtsein so herangezogen hat: Das alles, was die Menschheit da an Wissen gesammelt hat, wozu sie sich erhoben hat in der vorchristlichen Zeit, dafür ist ein Zeichen der Mond, der für den Erdengesichtspunkt durch das Weltenall geht, und deshalb der Mond, weil sich für alles höhere Erkennen der Menschheit dieses Wissen nicht wie aufschließend, wie Rätsel lösend verhalten hat, sondern für das höhere Erkennen wie verdunkelnd, so wie der Mond die Sonne verfinstert bei einer Sonnenfinsternis. Das liest man, wenn man das okkulte Schriftzeichen der Sonne, die vom Mond verdunkelt wird, liest.
Man weiß dann: So trat alles Wissen damals nicht aufklärend, sondern das Welträtsel verdunkelnd auf, und man fühlt als Hellseher die Verfinsterung der höheren, eigentlich spirituellen Regionen der Welt durch das Wissen der alten Zeit, das sich vor die wirkliche Erkenntnis hingestellt hat wie der Mond vor die Sonne bei einer Sonnenfinsternis. Und das äußere Naturereignis wird ein Ausdruck dafür, daß die Menschheit eine Stufe erreicht hat, innerhalb welcher sich das aus der Menschheit selbst geschöpfte Wissen vor das höhere Erkennen hingestellt hat wie der Mond vor die Sonne bei einer Sonnenfinsternis. Der Menschheit Seelenverdunkelung innerhalb der Erdenevolution fühlt man hingeschrieben in einem ungeheuren Zeichen der okkulten Schrift in den Kosmos in jener Verfinsterung der Sonne im Momente des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Ich habe gesagt, daß das Gegenwartsbewußtsein es wie eine Beleidigung empfinden kann, wenn man so etwas ausspricht, weil es kein Verständnis mehr hat für das Walten spiritueller Kräfte im Weltenall, die im Zusammenhang stehen mit dem, was in der Menschenseele als Kräfte waltet. Ich will nicht im gewöhnlichen Sinne von Wundern sprechen, von einem Durchbrechen der Naturgesetze, aber ich kann nicht anders als Ihnen mitteilen, wie man jene Verfinsterung der Sonne lesen muß — wie man nicht anders kann, als sich mit seiner Seele vor diese Verfinsterung der Sonne hinzustellen gleichsam wie lesend, was durch dieses Naturereignis ausgedrückt wird: Mit dem Mondenwissen ist eine Verfinsterung eingetreten gegenüber der höheren Sonnenbotschaft.
Und dann — nachdem man diese okkulte Schrift gelesen hat - stellt sich in der Tat vor das hellsichtige Bewußtsein das Bild des erhöhten Kreuzes auf Golgatha, des an ihm hängenden Körpers des Jesus zwischen den beiden Räubern. Und es stellt sich ein — und ich darf wohl in Parenthese einfügen, je mehr man sich gegen dieses Bild wehrt, desto heftiger stellt es sich ein -, das Bild stellt sich ein der Kreuzabnahme und der Grablegung. Jetzt tritt ein zweites gewaltiges Zeichen ein, wodurch wieder wie in den Kosmos hineingeschrieben wird etwas, was man eben lesen muß, um es zu begreifen, als ein Symbolum dessen, was in der Evolution der Menschheit eigentlich geschehen ist: Man verfolgt das Bild des vom Kreuze herabgenommenen Jesus, der in das Grab gelegt wird, und man wird dann durchrüttelt, wenn man den Seelenblick darauf richtet, in der Seele von einem Erdbeben, das durch jene Gegend ging.
Vielleicht wird man einmal den Zusammenhang jener Verfinsterung der Sonne mit diesem Erdbeben auch naturwissenschaftlich besser einsehen, denn gewisse Lehren, die heute schon, aber zusammenhanglos, durch die Welt ziehen, zeigen einen Zusammenhang zwischen Sonnenfinsternissen und Erdbeben und sogar schlagenden Wettern in Bergwerken. Jenes Erdbeben war eine Folge der Sonnenverfinsterung (siehe Hinweis). Jenes Erdbeben durchrüttelte das Grab, in das der Leichnam des Jesus gelegt war - und weggerissen wurde der Stein, der darauf gelegt worden war, und ein Spalt wurde aufgerissen in der Erde, und der Leichnam wurde aufgenommen von dem Spalt. Durch weitere Aufrüttelung wurde über dem Leichnam der Spalt wieder geschlossen. Und als die Leute am Morgen kamen, war das Grab leer, denn die Erde hatte aufgenommen den Leichnam des Jesus; nur der Stein lag noch da, hinweggeschleudert.
Verfolgen wir noch einmal die Bilderreihe! An dem Kreuze auf Golgatha verscheidet der Jesus. Finsternis bricht herein über die Erde. In das offene Grab wird der Leichnam des Jesus hineingelegt. Ein Beben durchrüttelt den Erdboden, und der Leichnam des Jesus wird aufgenommen von der Erde. Der durch das Beben entstandene Spalt schließt sich, der Stein wird danebengeschleudert. Das alles sind tatsächliche Ereignisse; ich kann nicht anders als sie so schildern. Mögen die Leute, die aus der Naturwissenschaft heraus solchen Dingen sich nähern wollen, urteilen wie sie wollen, alle möglichen Gründe dagegen vorbringen: Das, was der hellseherische Blick sieht, ist so, wie ich es geschildert habe. Und wenn jemand sagen wollte, so etwas könne nicht geschehen, daß aus dem Kosmos heraus wie in einer gewaltigen Zeichensprache ein Symbolum hingestellt wird dafür, daß etwas Neues eingezogen ist in die Menschheitsevolution, wenn jemand sagen wollte, so schreiben die göttlichen Gewalten dasjenige, was geschieht, nicht in die Erde hinein mit einer solchen Zeichensprache wie einer Verfinsterung der Sonne und einem Erdbeben, so könnte ich nur erwidern: Euer Glaube in allen Ehren, daß das nicht so sein kann! Aber es ist halt doch geschehen, es hat sich ereignet! - Ich kann mir denken, daß etwa ein Ernest Renan, der ja das eigenartige «Leben Jesu» geschrieben hat, kommen und sagen würde: An solche Dinge glaubt man nicht, denn man glaubt nur an dasjenige, was sich jederzeit im Experimente wieder herstellen läßt. -— Aber der Gedanke ist nicht durchführbar, denn würde zum Beispiel ein Renan nicht an die Eiszeit glauben, obschon es unmöglich ist, durch Experiment die Eiszeit wieder herzustellen? Das ist doch ganz gewiß unmöglich, die Eiszeit wieder über die Erde zu bringen, und dennoch glauben alle Naturforscher daran. So ist es unmöglich, daß dieses einmal geschehene kosmische Zeichen beim Ereignis von Golgatha jemals wieder vor die Menschen hintritt. Dennoch aber ist es geschehen.
Wir können zu diesem Ereignis nur vordringen, wenn wir hellseherisch den Weg einschlagen, den ich angedeutet habe, wenn wir uns zunächst etwa vertiefen in die Seele des Petrus oder eines der anderen Apostel, die beim Pfingstfeste sich befruchtet fühlten von der allwaltenden kosmischen Liebe. Nur, wenn wir in die Seelen jener Leute schauen und da sehen, was diese Seelen erlebt haben, finden wir auf diesem Umwege die Möglichkeit, hinzuschauen auf das auf Golgatha erhöhte Kreuz, auf die Verfinsterung der Erde zu jener Zeit und auf das Beben der Erde, das darauf folgte. Daß im äußeren Sinne diese Verfinsterung und dieses Beben ganz gewöhnliche Naturereignisse waren, das wird durchaus nicht geleugnet; daß aber für denjenigen, der diese Ereignisse hellseherisch verfolgt, sich diese Ereignisse so lesen, wie ich sie geschildert habe als gewaltige Zeichen der okkulten Schrift, das muß entschieden gesagt werden von demjenigen, der in seiner Seele die Bedingungen dazu hergestellt hat. Denn in der Tat war, was ich jetzt geschildert habe, für das Bewußtsein des Petrus etwas, das auf dem Felde des langen Schlafes sich herausktistallisierte. Auf dem Felde des durch mancherlei Bilder durchkreuzten Bewußtseins des Petrus hoben sich zum Beispiel heraus: das auf Golgatha erhöhte Kreuz, die Verfinsterung und das Beben. Das waren für den Petrus die ersten Früchte der Befruchtung mit der allwaltenden kosmischen Liebe beim Pfingstereignis. Und jetzt wußte er etwas, was er früher mit seinem normalen Bewußtsein tatsächlich nicht gewußt hatte: daß das Ereignis von Golgatha stattgefunden hat, und daß der Leib, der am Kreuze hing, derselbe Leib war, mit dem er oftmals im Leben gewandelt war. Jetzt wußte er, daß Jesus am Kreuze gestorben ist und daß dieses Sterben eigentlich eine Geburt war, die Geburt desjenigen Geistes, der als allwaltende Liebe sich jetzt ausgegossen hatte in die Seelen der beim Pfingstfeste versammelten Apostel. Und wie einen Strahl der urewigen, äonischen Liebe fühlte er in seiner Seele aufwachen den Geist als denselben, welcher geboren worden war, als der Jesus am Kreuze verschied. Und die ungeheuere Wahrheit senkte sich in die Seele des Petrus: Es ist nur Schein, daß am Kreuze ein Tod sich vollzogen hat, in Wahrheit war dieser Tod, dem unendliches Leiden vorangegangen war, die Geburt desjenigen, was wie in einem Strahle jetzt in seine Seele hineingedrungen war, für die ganze Erde. Für die Erde war mit dem Tode des Jesus geboren dasjenige, was früher allseitig außerhalb der Erde vorhanden war: die allwaltende Liebe, die kosmische Liebe.
Solch ein Wort ist scheinbar abstrakt leicht auszusprechen, aber man muß sich einen Augenblick wirklich hineinversetzen in diese PetrusSeele, wie sie empfunden hat, in diesem Moment zum allerersten Male empfunden hat: Der Erde ist etwas geboren worden, was früher nur im Kosmos vorhanden war, in dem Augenblick, als Jesus von Nazareth verschied am Kreuze auf Golgatha. Der Tod des Jesus von Nazareth war die Geburt der allwaltenden kosmischen Liebe innerhalb der Erdensphäre.
Das ist gewissermaßen die erste Erkenntnis, die wir herauslesen können aus dem, was wir das Fünfte Evangelium nennen. Mit dem, was im Neuen Testamente die Herabkunft, die Ausgießung des Heiligen Geistes genannt wird, ist gemeint dasjenige, was ich jetzt geschildert habe. Die Apostel waren nicht geeignet durch ihre ganze damalige Seelenverfassung, dieses Ereignis des Todes des Jesus von Nazareth anders mitzumachen als in einem abnormen Bewußtseinszustande.
Noch eines anderen Momentes seines Lebens mußte Petrus, auch Johannes und Jakobus, gedenken, jenes Momentes, der auch in den anderen Evangelien geschildert wird, der uns aber nur durch das Fünfte Evangelium in seiner vollen Bedeutung erst verständlich werden kann. Derjenige, mit dem sie auf der Erde gewandelt waren, hatte sie herausgeführt zum Ölberge, zum Garten Gethsemane und hatte gesagt: Wachet und betet! — Sie aber waren eingeschlafen und jetzt wußten sie: Dazumal war schon gekommen jener Zustand, der sich immer mehr und mehr ausbreitete über ihre Seelen. Das normale Bewußtsein schlief ein, sie versanken in Schlaf, der andauerte während des Ereignisses von Golgatha, und aus dem herausstrahlte dasjenige, was ich in stammelnden Worten zu schildern versuchte. Und Petrus, Johannes und Jakobus mußten gedenken, wie sie in diesen Zustand verfallen waren und wie jetzt, als sie zurückblickten, heraufdämmerten die großen Ereignisse, die sich um den irdischen Leib Desjenigen abgespielt hatten, mit dem sie umhergewandelt waren. Und allmählich, wie versunkene Träume herauftauchen im Menschenbewußtsein, in der Menschenseele, so tauchten die verflossenen Tage in dem Bewußtsein und den Seelen der Apostel auf. Während dieser Tage hatten sie das alles nicht mit normalem Bewußtsein miterlebt. Jetzt tauchte das in ihr normales Bewußtsein herein, und dasjenige, was hereintauchte, das war die ganze Zeit, die sie miterlebt hatten seit dem Ereignis von Golgatha bis zu dem Pfingstereignis, in den Untergründen ihrer Seele versunken geblieben. Das fühlten sie, wie diese Zeit ihnen vorkam wie eine Zeit tiefsten Schlafes. Besonders die zehn Tage von der sogenannten Himmelfahrt bis zum Pfingstereignis kamen ihnen vor wie eine Zeit tiefsten Schlafes. Rückwärtsschauend aber kam ihnen Tag für Tag herauf die Zeit zwischen dem Mysterium von Golgatha und der sogenannten Himmelfahrt des Christus Jesus. Das hatten sie miterlebt, das kam aber erst jetzt herauf, und in einer ganz merkwürdigen Weise kam es herauf.
Verzeihen Sie, wenn ich hier eine persönliche Bemerkung einschalte. Ich muß gestehen, daß ich selbst in höchstem Maße erstaunt war, als ich gewahr wurde, wie das in den Seelen der Apostel heraufkam, was sie erlebt hatten in der Zeit zwischen dem Mysterium von Golgatha und der sogenannten Himmelfahrt. Es ist ganz merkwürdig, wie das heraufkam, auftauchte in den Seelen der Apostel. -— Da tauchte auf in den Seelen der Apostel Bild nach Bild, und diese Bilder sagten ihnen: Ja, du warst ja beisammen mit dem, der am Kreuze gestorben oder geboren worden ist, du bist ihm ja begegnet. So wie man am Morgen beim Aufwachen sich erinnert an Träume und da weiß, du warst ja in diesem Traum zusammen mit diesem oder jenem, so kamen wie Träume herauf in die Seelen der Apostel die Erinnerungen. Aber ganz eigenartig war, wie die einzelnen Ereignisse ins Bewußtsein heraufkamen. Immer mußten sie sich fragen: Ja, wer ist denn das, mit dem wir da zusammen waren? — Und sie erkannten ihn immer wiederum und wiederum nicht. Sie fühlten, das ist eine geistige Gestalt; sie wußten, sie sind sicher in diesem schlafartigen Zustand mit ihm herumgewandelt, aber sie erkannten ihn nicht in der Gestalt, in der er ihnen jetzt aufgegangen war, nach der Befruchtung mit der allwaltenden Liebe. Sie sahen sich wandelnd mit demjenigen, den wir Christus nennen, nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Und sie sahen auch, wie er tatsächlich dazumal ihnen Lehren gab vom Reiche des Geistes, wie er sie unterwies. Und sie lernten verstehen, wie sie vierzig Tage lang mit diesem Wesen, das am Kreuze geboren war, herumgegangen waren, wie dieses Wesen - die aus dem Kosmos in die Erde geborene allwaltende Liebe - ihr Lehrer war, wie sie aber mit ihrem normalen Bewußtsein nicht reif gewesen waren, zu verstehen, was dieses Wesen zu sagen hatte, wie sie mit unterbewußten Kräften ihrer Seele das hatten aufnehmen müssen, wie sie wie Nachtwandler neben dem Christus gegangen waren und nicht hatten aufnehmen können mit dem gewöhnlichen Verstande, was dieses Wesen ihnen zu geben hatte. Und sie hörten auf ihn während dieser vierzig Tage, mit einem Bewußtsein, das sie nicht kannten, das jetzt erst in sie heraufdrang, nachdem sie das Pfingstereignis durchgemacht hatten. Wie Nachtwandler hatten sie zugehört. Als der geistige Lehrer war er ihnen erschienen und hatte sie unterwiesen in Geheimnissen, die sie nur verstehen konnten, indem er sie entrückte in einen ganz anderen Bewußtseinszustand. Und so sahen sie jetzt erst: Sie waren mit dem Christus, mit dem auferstandenen Christus gegangen. Jetzt aber erkannten sie erst, was mit ihnen geschehen war. Und wodurch erkannten sie, daß das wirklich Derjenige war, mit dem sie im Leibe vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha umhergegangen waren? Das geschah in der folgenden Weise.
Nehmen wir an, solch ein Bild träte jetzt nach dem Pfingstfest vor die Seele eines der Apostel. Er sah, wie er gewandelt war mit dem Auferstandenen, wie der Auferstandene ihn unterrichtet hatte. Aber er erkannte ihn nicht. Er sah zwar ein himmlisches, geistiges Wesen, aber er erkannte es nicht. Da mischte sich ein anderes Bild herein. Ein solches Bild vermischte sich mit dem rein geistigen Bilde, das ein Erlebnis der Apostel darstellte, das sie wirklich durchgemacht hatten mit dem Christus Jesus vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Da gab es eine Szene, wo sie sich fühlten wie unterrichtet von dem Geheimnis des Geistes, von dem Christus Jesus. Aber sie erkannten ihn nicht. Sie schauten sich gegenüberstehend diesem geistigen Wesen, das sie unterrichtete, und damit sie das erkannten, verwandelte sich dieses Bild, indem es sich zugleich aufrechterhielt, in das Bild des Abendmahles, das sie miterlebt hatten mit dem Christus Jesus. Stellen Sie sich wirklich vor, daß solch ein Apostel vor sich hatte das übersinnliche Erlebnis mit dem Auferstandenen und, wie im Hintergrunde wirkend, das Bild des Abendmahles. Da erst erkannten sie, daß es Derselbe ist, mit dem sie einstmals gewandelt sind im Leibe, wie Derjenige, der sie jetzt unterrichtete in der ganz anderen Gestalt, die er angenommen hatte nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Es war ein vollständiges Zusammenfließen der Erinnerungen aus dem Bewußtseinszustand, der gleichsam ein Schlafzustand war, mit den Erinnerungsbildern, die vorangegangen waren. Wie zwei Bilder, die sich deckten, erlebten sie das: Ein Bild aus den Erlebnissen nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha, und eines vor demselben, wie hereinleuchtend aus der Zeit, bevor sich ihr Bewußtsein so getrübt hatte, daß sie nicht mehr miterlebten, was sich da abspielte. So erkannten sie, daß diese zwei Wesenheiten zusammengehören: der Auferstandene und Derjenige, mit dem sie einstmals, vor verhältnismäßig kurzer Zeit, im Leibe herumgewandelt waren. Und sie sagten sich jetzt: Bevor wir also aufgewacht sind durch die Befruchtung mit der allwaltenden kosmischen Liebe, waren wir wie hinweggenommen von unserem gewöhnlichen Bewußtseinszustand. Und der Christus, der Auferstandene war mit uns. Er hat uns gleichsam unwissend in sein Reich aufgenommen, wandelte mit uns und enthüllte uns die Geheimnisse seines Reiches, die jetzt, nach dem Pfingstmysterium, wie im Traume erlebt herauftauchen ins normale Bewußtsein.
Das ist dasjenige, was man als Staunen-Hervorrufendes erlebt: Dieses Zusammenfallen immer eines Bildes von einem Erlebnis der Apostel mit dem Christus »ach dem Mysterium von Golgatha mit einem Bilde vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha, das sie wirklich normal wissend im physischen Leibe erlebt hatten mit dem Christus Jesus.
Wir haben den Anfang damit gemacht, mitzuteilen, was sich lesen läßt in dem sogenannten Fünften Evangelium, und ich darf am Ende dieser ersten Mitteilung, die ich heute zu machen hatte, vielleicht ein paar persönliche Worte zu Ihnen sprechen, die neben dieser Tatsache doch eben ausgesprochen werden müssen. Ich fühle mich gewissermaßen okkult verpflichtet, von diesen Dingen jetzt zu sprechen. Dasjenige aber, was ich sagen möchte, ist das Folgende: Ich weiß sehr wohl, daß wir gegenwärtig in einer solchen Zeit leben, in der sich mancherlei für die nächste Erdenzukunft der Menschheit vorbereitet, und daß wir innerhalb unserer - jetzt Anthroposophischen — Gesellschaft gleichsam als diejenigen uns fühlen müssen, denen eine Ahnung aufgeht, daß in den Seelen der Menschen etwas vorzubereiten ist für die Zukunft, was vorbereitet werden muß. Ich weiß, es werden Zeiten kommen, in denen man noch ganz anders, als es unsere heutige Zeit uns gestattet, wird über diese Dinge sprechen können. Denn wir alle sind ja Kinder der Zeit. Es wird aber eine nahe Zukunft kommen, in der man genauer, präziser wird sprechen können, in der vielleicht manches von dem, was heute nur andeutungsweise erkannt werden kann, viel, viel genauer wird erkannt werden können in der geistigen Chronik des Werdens. Solche Zeiten werden kommen, wenn es auch der heutigen Menschheit noch so unwahrscheinlich vorkommt. Dennoch liegt gerade aus diesem Grunde eine gewisse Verpflichtung vor, schon heute wie vorbereitend über diese Dinge zu sprechen. Und wenn es mich auch eine gewisse Überwindung gekostet hat, gerade über dieses Thema zu sprechen, so überwog denn doch die Verpflichtung gegenüber demjenigen, was sich in unserer Zeit vorbereiten muß. Das führte dazu, zum ersten Male gerade bei Ihnen hier über dieses Thema zu sprechen.
Wenn ich von Überwindung spreche, so fassen Sie dieses Wort wirklich so auf, wie es ausgesprochen wird. Ich bitte ausdrücklich, dasjenige, was ich gerade bei dieser Gelegenheit zu sagen habe, wirklich nur aufzufassen wie eine Art Anregung, wie etwas, was ganz gewiß in Zukunft viel besser und präziser wird ausgesprochen werden können. Und das Wort Überwindung werden Sie besser verstehen, wenn Sie mir gestatten, eine persönliche Bemerkung nicht zu unterdrücken: Es ist mir durchaus klar, daß für die Geistesforschung, der ich mich ergeben habe, zunächst manches außerordentlich schwierig und mühevoll herauszuholen ist aus der geistigen Schrift der Welt; gerade Dinge von dieser Art! Und ich würde mich gar nicht wundern, wenn das Wort «Andeutung», das ich gebrauchte, eine noch viel schwerere und weitere Bedeutung hätte, als es vielleicht jetzt aufgefaßt zu werden braucht. Ich will durchaus nicht sagen, daß ich heute schon imstande bin, alles das präzise zu sagen, was sich in der geistigen Schrift darstellt. Denn gerade ich fühle mancherlei Schwierigkeiten und Mühe, wenn es sich darum handelt, Bilder, die sich auf die Geheimnisse des Christentums beziehen, aus der Akasha-Chronik zu holen. Ich fühle Mühe, diese Bilder zu der nötigen Verdichtung zu bringen, sie festhalten zu können, und betrachte es gewissermaßen als mein Karma, daß mir die Pflicht auferlegt ist, dies zu sagen, was ich eben ausspreche. Denn ganz zweifellos würde ich weniger Mühe haben, wenn ich in der Lage gewesen wäre, in der mancher unserer Zeitgenossen ist, in meiner ersten Jugend eine wirklich christliche Erziehung erhalten zu haben. Das habe ich nicht gehabt; ich bin in einer vollständig freigeistigen Umgebung aufgewachsen, und auch mein Studium hat mich zum Freigeistigen geführt. Mein eigener Bildungsgang war ein rein wissenschaftlicher. Und das macht mir eine gewisse Mühe, diese Dinge jetzt zu finden, von denen ich zu sprechen verpflichtet bin.
Gerade diese persönliche Bemerkung darf ich vielleicht machen aus zwei Gründen: aus dem Grunde, weil ja gerade durch eine ganz eigenartige Gewissenlosigkeit ein törichtes, albernes Märchen über meine Zusammenhänge mit gewissen katholischen Strömungen durch die Welt gesendet worden ist. Von allen diesen Dingen ist nicht ein einziges Wort wahr. Und wohin es gekommen ist mit dem, was sich heute vielfach Theosophie nennt, das kann man einfach daran ermessen, daß auf dem Boden der Theosophie solche gewissenlose Aufstellungen und Gerüchte in die Welt geschickt werden. Da wir aber gezwungen sind, nicht in nachsichtiger Weise, phrasenhaft darüber hinwegzugehen, sondern demgegenüber die Wahrheit hinzustellen, so darf diese persönliche Bemerkung gemacht werden. — Auf der anderen Seite fühle ich mich gerade dadurch, daß ich in meiner Jugend dem Christentum fernstand, diesem um so unbefangener gegenüber und glaube, da ich erst durch den Geist zu dem Christentum und der Christus-Wesenheit geführt worden bin, gerade auf diesem Gebiete ein gewisses Recht zu haben auf Vorurteilslosigkeit und Unbefangenheit, um über diese Dinge Aussagen zu machen. Vielleicht wird man gerade in dieser Stunde der Weltgeschichte - mehr geben können auf das Wort eines Menschen, der aus wissenschaftlicher Bildung kommt, der in seiner Jugend dem Christentum ferngestanden hat, als eines solchen, der seit der frühesten Jugend mit dem Christentum im Zusammenhang gewesen ist. Und ich glaube wahrhaftig nicht, daß das Christentum etwas verlieren kann, wenn es in seinen tieferen Elementen dargestellt wird von einem Bewußtsein, das erst aus dem Geist selber sich zu dem Christentum hingefunden hat. Aber wenn Sie diese Worte ernst nehmen, so werden Sie wie angedeutet fühlen, was in mir selber lebt, wenn ich jetzt spreche von den Geheimnissen, die ich bezeichnen möchte als die Geheimnisse des sogenannten Fünften Evangeliums.
Second Lecture
This discussion should begin with the so-called Pentecost event. In the first lecture, I already indicated that the gaze of clairvoyant research can at least be directed toward this event first. For this event presents itself to the backward-looking clairvoyant gaze as a kind of awakening that was experienced on a certain day, which the feast of Pentecost is intended to commemorate, by those personalities who are usually called the apostles or disciples of Christ Jesus. It is not easy to form a precise picture of all these undoubtedly strange phenomena, and we will have to recall from the depths of our souls, so to speak, much of what we have learned from previous anthroposophical considerations if we want to connect precise ideas with everything that needs to be said today on the subject of our lecture cycle.
The apostles felt as if they were awakening, like people who at that moment had the feeling that they had been living for a long time — many days — in an unfamiliar state of consciousness. It was indeed something like waking up from a deep sleep, but a strange, dream-filled sleep, like waking up from a sleep but one in which — I emphasize that I am speaking of the way it appeared to the consciousness of the apostles — one continues to perform all the external activities of the day, walking around as a physically healthy person, so that the other people one interacts with do not notice that one is in a different state of consciousness. Nevertheless, the moment came when it seemed to the apostles as if they had lived through a long period of time, lasting days, as if in a dream-filled sleep, from which they now awoke with this Pentecost event. And they felt this awakening in a peculiar way: they actually felt as if something had descended upon them from the universe, something that could only be called the substance of all-pervading love. The apostles felt as if they had been fertilized from above by the all-pervading love and awakened from the dreamlike state of life described above. They felt as if they had been awakened by everything that is the original power of love that permeates and warms the universe, as if this original power of love had descended into the soul of each individual. And the other people, whom they could observe as they now spoke, seemed quite strange to them. They knew that these other people were people who had previously lived in an extremely simple way, some of whom, however, had behaved somewhat strangely in recent days, as if lost in a dream. That was known. But now they seemed transformed to the people: like people who had indeed attained a completely new state of being, a completely new mood of the soul, like people who had lost all the narrowness of life, all the selfishness of life, who had gained an infinitely broad heart, a comprehensive tolerance within themselves, a deep heartfelt understanding of everything that is human on earth, who could express themselves in such a way that everyone who was there understood them. One had the impression that they could look into everyone's heart and soul and guess the secrets of the soul from the deepest depths, so that they could comfort everyone and say exactly what they needed to hear.
It was, of course, highly astonishing to these observers that such a transformation could take place in a number of people. But these people themselves, who had experienced this transformation, who had been awakened, as it were, by the spirit of love of the cosmos, now felt within themselves a new understanding, an understanding of what had indeed taken place in the most intimate communion with their souls, but which they had not understood at the time when it happened: Only now, at this moment, when they felt themselves fertilized with cosmic love, did an understanding of what had actually happened on Golgotha appear before their soul's eye. And when we look into the soul of one of these apostles, the one who is usually called Peter in the other Gospels, his inner soul appears to the retrospective clairvoyant gaze in such a way that his normal earthly consciousness was, as it were, completely torn away at that moment, from the moment that is usually referred to in the other Gospels as the denial. He looked at this scene of denial, as he had been asked if he had any connection with the Galilean, and he now knew that he had denied it at that time because his normal consciousness had begun to fade, because an anomalous state, a kind of dream state, was spreading, which meant a rapture into a completely different world. Now, at this feast of Pentecost, he felt as one feels when waking up in the morning and remembering the last events of the evening before falling asleep; so Peter remembered the last events before this abnormal state set in, what is commonly called the denial, the threefold denial before the cock crowed twice. And then he remembered that a state spread over his soul, just as night spreads over a sleeping person. But he also remembered how that intermediate state was filled not with mere “dream images,” but with images that represented a kind of higher state of consciousness, that represented a sharing in purely spiritual matters. And everything that had happened, everything that Peter had, as it were, slept through since that time, appeared before his soul as if from a clear-sighted dream. Above all, he now learned to see the event that one can truly say he had slept through. He had not experienced it with his understanding, because full understanding of this event required fertilization with the all-pervading cosmic love. Now that this had taken place, the images of the mystery of Golgotha appeared before his eyes. They appeared before him as we can experience them when we can recall them with retrospective clairvoyant consciousness, when we create the conditions for this.
Frankly speaking, it is with a very strange feeling that one decides to put into words what opens up to clairvoyant consciousness when one looks into the consciousness of Peter and the others who were gathered at that Pentecost. Only with holy awe can one decide to speak of these things. One might say that one is almost overwhelmed by the awareness that one is entering the most sacred ground of human perception when one tries to express in words what is revealed to the soul's gaze. Nevertheless, certain preconditions of our time make it necessary to speak about these things, albeit with the full awareness that times will come, different from ours, in which people will be able to show more understanding for what must be said about the Fifth Gospel than is possible today. For in order to understand much of what must be said on this occasion, the human soul must still free itself from many things that it must still fulfill today as a necessary part of the culture of the times.
First of all, when we look back clairvoyantly at the event of Golgotha, something appears before our clairvoyant gaze which, if we put it into words, seems like a kind of insult to the present scientific consciousness. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to express as best I can what appears to the clairvoyant gaze. I cannot help it if what must be said should reach less prepared minds and souls and the whole thing should be exaggerated as something that cannot stand up to the scientific views that dominate the present day. The clairvoyant gaze first falls on an image that represents a reality that is also hinted at in the other Gospels, but which nevertheless presents a very special sight when one sees it, as it were, stepping out of the abundance of images that the clairvoyant gaze can perceive in retrospect. This clairvoyant gaze actually falls on a kind of darkening of the earth. And one feels how, at this moment of great significance, which lasts for hours, the physical sun was darkened over the land of Palestine, over the site of Golgotha. One has the same impression that the spiritually trained gaze can still verify today when a real external physical eclipse of the sun passes over the land. During such a more or less strong solar eclipse, the whole environment of the human being appears as follows to the soul's vision. Everything looks completely different. I would like to disregard the sight that presents itself during a solar eclipse, all the things that human art and technology have produced, for it requires a certain strength of mind and an awareness of the necessity that all this had to come into being in order to endure the demonic sight presented by those beings who rise up from the external, artless technology during a solar eclipse. But I will not go into this description any further, only point out that at such a time, things appear luminous that can otherwise only be achieved through very difficult meditation: one sees everything plant and animal differently; every bird, every butterfly looks different. One notices a dulling of the sense of life. It is something that can evoke a deep conviction of how intimately connected in the cosmos is a certain spiritual life that belongs to the sun and has, as it were, its physical body in what one sees in the sun, with life on earth. And one gets the feeling that when physical life is violently darkened by the physical light of the sun being obscured by the moon, it is something completely different from when the sun simply does not shine at night. The sight of the earth surrounding us during a solar eclipse is completely different to the observing soul than during a mere night. During a solar eclipse, one feels something like the rising of the group souls of plants and animals, in contrast to a dulling of all physical corporeality in plants and animals. Something like a brightening of everything that is spiritual, that represents group soulhood, occurs.
All this is highly evident when the clairvoyant gaze looks back on the moment of Earth's evolution that we call the Mystery of Golgotha. And then something emerges that one might call: one learns to read what this strange sign of nature, this sudden eclipse of the sun, which the clairvoyant gaze turned backward into the cosmos beholds, actually means. I really cannot help it if I am compelled to read a pure natural event, such as has naturally occurred before and will occur again, at this particular point in the evolution of the earth, in occult writing—in contradiction to all present materialistic consciousness—in the way that it immediately makes an impression. When one has this event before one, one feels as if one were opening a book and reading the writing, so that what one is to read seems to come toward one from the letters themselves. Thus, from these letters of the cosmos, the necessity comes to one that one should read something that humanity needs to know. It seems like a word written in the cosmos, like a sound symbol in the cosmos.
And what do you read when you open your soul to it? Yesterday I pointed out how, in Greek times, humanity developed in such a way that it rose in Plato and Aristotle to a particularly high level of intellectual development of the human soul. In many respects, the knowledge attained by Plato and Aristotle could not be surpassed in later times, for in a certain sense it represented the highest level of intellectual development that humanity had reached. One can recognize much when one truly recognizes this. And when the clairvoyantly observing soul, observing the time of Palestine, looks at how this intellectual knowledge, to which humanity had developed, had become immensely popular on the Greek and Italian peninsulas through itinerant preachers, especially during the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, when one considers all this, how this knowledge was spread in a way that is unimaginable today, then this clairvoyantly observing soul has the opportunity to gain an impression that is like reading the aforementioned script placed in the cosmos. When one has drawn upon this clairvoyant consciousness in this way, one says to oneself: All the knowledge that humanity has gathered there, to which it has risen in pre-Christian times, is symbolized by the moon passing through the universe from the Earth's point of view, and why the moon, because for all higher knowledge of humanity, this knowledge has not behaved as revealing, as solving riddles, but rather as obscuring higher knowledge, just as the moon obscures the sun during a solar eclipse. This can be read when one reads the occult symbol of the sun being obscured by the moon.
One then knows that all knowledge at that time did not appear enlightening, but rather obscured the mystery of the world, and one feels, as a clairvoyant, the eclipse of the higher, actually spiritual regions of the world by the knowledge of ancient times, which stood before real knowledge like the moon before the sun during a solar eclipse. And the external natural event becomes an expression of the fact that humanity has reached a stage within which the knowledge created by humanity itself has placed itself in front of higher knowledge like the moon in front of the sun during a solar eclipse. The darkening of humanity's soul within the Earth's evolution can be felt written in an enormous sign of occult writing in the cosmos in that eclipse of the sun at the moment of the Mystery of Golgotha. I have said that the present consciousness may feel it as an insult when something like this is said, because it no longer has any understanding of the working of spiritual forces in the universe that are connected with what works as forces in the human soul. I do not want to speak in the ordinary sense of miracles, of a breaking of the laws of nature, but I cannot help telling you how this eclipse of the sun must be interpreted — how one cannot help standing with one's soul before this eclipse of the sun, as it were reading what is expressed through this natural event: With the knowledge of the moon, an eclipse has occurred in relation to the higher message of the sun.
And then—after reading this occult writing—the image of the raised cross on Golgotha, with the body of Jesus hanging on it between the two thieves, appears before the clairvoyant consciousness. And there arises — and I may add in parentheses that the more one resists this image, the more vividly it arises — the image of the descent from the cross and the burial. Now a second powerful sign appears, through which something is written into the cosmos again that one must read in order to understand it as a symbol of what actually happened in the evolution of humanity: One follows the image of Jesus being taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb, and one is shaken when one focuses one's soul on it, in one's soul, by an earthquake that shook the whole region.
Perhaps one day the connection between that eclipse of the sun and this earthquake will be better understood from a scientific point of view, for certain teachings, which are already circulating throughout the world, albeit in a disconnected manner, show a connection between solar eclipses and earthquakes and even violent storms in mines. That earthquake was a consequence of the solar eclipse (see note). That earthquake shook the tomb in which the body of Jesus had been laid, and the stone that had been placed on it was rolled away, and a crack opened in the earth, and the body was taken up from the crack. Further shaking caused the crack above the body to close again. And when the people came in the morning, the tomb was empty, for the earth had received the body of Jesus; only the stone lay there, rolled away.
Let us follow the series of images once more! Jesus dies on the cross at Golgotha. Darkness falls upon the earth. The body of Jesus is laid in the open tomb. An earthquake shakes the ground, and the body of Jesus is taken up from the earth. The crack caused by the earthquake closes, and the stone is thrown aside. These are all actual events; I cannot describe them any other way. Let those who approach such things from a scientific point of view judge as they will, and put forward all possible reasons against it: what the clairvoyant eye sees is as I have described it. And if someone were to say that such a thing cannot happen, that a symbol is placed out of the cosmos, as in a powerful sign language, to indicate that something new has entered into human evolution, if someone were to say that the divine powers do not write what happens into the earth with such a sign language as an eclipse of the sun and an earthquake, I could only reply: With all due respect to your belief that this cannot be so! But it has happened, it has taken place! — I can imagine that someone like Ernest Renan, who wrote the peculiar “Life of Jesus,” would come and say: One does not believe in such things, for one believes only in what can be reproduced at any time by experiment. But the idea is not feasible, because would Renan, for example, not believe in the Ice Age, even though it is impossible to recreate the Ice Age through experiment? It is certainly impossible to bring the Ice Age back to Earth, and yet all natural scientists believe in it. So it is impossible that this cosmic sign, which once occurred at the event of Golgotha, will ever appear before human beings again. Nevertheless, it did happen.
We can only get to this event if we take the clairvoyant path I've hinted at, if we first immerse ourselves in the soul of Peter or one of the other apostles who felt enriched by the all-pervading cosmic love at Pentecost. Only when we look into the souls of those people and see what these souls experienced do we find, by this roundabout route, the possibility of looking at the cross raised on Golgotha, at the darkening of the earth at that time, and at the earthquake that followed. It is by no means denied that, in the outer sense, this darkening and this earthquake were quite ordinary natural events; but it must be said emphatically by those who have created the conditions in their souls for this, that for those who follow these events clairvoyantly, they appear as I have described them, as mighty signs of the occult script. For in fact, what I have now described was something that crystallized in Peter's consciousness during his long sleep. In Peter's consciousness, which was crisscrossed by various images, the following stood out, for example: the cross raised on Golgotha, the eclipse, and the earthquake. For Peter, these were the first fruits of the fertilization with the all-pervading cosmic love at the event of Pentecost. And now he knew something that he had not actually known before with his normal consciousness: that the event of Golgotha had taken place, and that the body hanging on the cross was the same body with which he had often walked in life. Now he knew that Jesus had died on the cross and that this death was actually a birth, the birth of that Spirit who had now poured Himself out as all-pervading love into the souls of the apostles gathered at the feast of Pentecost. And like a ray of eternal, aeonic love, he felt the Spirit awakening in his soul as the same Spirit that had been born when Jesus died on the cross. And the tremendous truth sank into Peter's soul: It is only an appearance that a death took place on the cross; in truth, this death, which was preceded by infinite suffering, was the birth of that which had now penetrated his soul like a ray, for the whole earth. For the earth, with the death of Jesus, there was born that which had previously existed everywhere outside the earth: all-powerful love, cosmic love.
Such a word seems abstract and easy to say, but one must really put oneself for a moment into the soul of Peter, as he felt it, as he felt it for the very first time in that moment: Something was born to the earth that had previously only existed in the cosmos, at the moment when Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross at Golgotha. The death of Jesus of Nazareth was the birth of all-pervading cosmic love within the sphere of the earth.
This is, in a sense, the first insight we can glean from what we call the Fifth Gospel. What is referred to in the New Testament as the descent, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, is what I have just described. The apostles were not suited by their entire state of mind at that time to experience the event of the death of Jesus of Nazareth in any other way than in an abnormal state of consciousness.
Peter, John, and James had to remember another moment in his life, a moment that is also described in the other Gospels, but whose full meaning can only be understood through the Fifth Gospel. The one with whom they had walked on earth had led them out to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane, and had said: “Watch and pray!” But they had fallen asleep, and now they knew that the time had come when that state was spreading more and more over their souls. Their normal consciousness fell asleep, they sank into a sleep that lasted throughout the events at Golgotha, and out of this sleep shone forth what I have tried to describe in stammering words. And Peter, John, and James had to remember how they had fallen into this state, and now, as they looked back, the great events that had taken place around the earthly body of the One with whom they had walked began to dawn on them. And gradually, like dreams that emerge from the depths of human consciousness, the days that had passed emerged in the consciousness and souls of the apostles. During those days, they had not experienced all this with normal consciousness. Now it emerged into their normal consciousness, and what emerged was the entire time they had experienced since the events of Golgotha until the events of Pentecost, which had remained submerged in the depths of their souls. They felt that this time seemed to them like a time of deepest sleep. Especially the ten days from the so-called Ascension to the Pentecost event seemed to them like a time of deepest sleep. Looking back, however, the time between the Mystery of Golgotha and the so-called Ascension of Christ Jesus came up to them day by day. They had experienced it, but it only came up now, and in a very strange way.
Forgive me for inserting a personal remark here. I must confess that I myself was extremely astonished when I became aware of how what they had experienced in the time between the mystery of Golgotha and the so-called Ascension came up in the souls of the apostles. It is quite remarkable how this came up, how it emerged in the souls of the apostles. — Image after image appeared in the souls of the apostles, and these images told them: Yes, you were together with the one who died or was born on the cross, you did indeed encounter him. Just as when you wake up in the morning and remember your dreams and know that you were together with this or that person in your dream, so the memories came up in the souls of the apostles like dreams. But it was very strange how the individual events came up into consciousness. They always had to ask themselves: Yes, who is this with whom we were together? — And they recognized him again and again and again. They felt that this was a spiritual form; they knew that they had certainly wandered around with him in this dreamlike state, but they did not recognize him in the form in which he now appeared to them, after being fertilized with all-pervading love. They saw themselves walking with the one we call Christ, after the mystery of Golgotha. And they also saw how he actually taught them about the kingdom of the spirit at that time, how he instructed them. And they came to understand how they had walked around for forty days with this being who was born on the cross, how this being—the all-pervading love born from the cosmos into the earth—was their teacher, but how, with their normal consciousness, they had not been mature enough to understand what this being had to say, how they had had to absorb it with the subconscious powers of their souls, how they had walked beside Christ like sleepwalkers and had not been able to grasp with their ordinary minds what this being had to give them. And they listened to him during those forty days with a consciousness that was unknown to them, which only now came up within them after they had gone through the event of Pentecost. They had listened like sleepwalkers. He had appeared to them as a spiritual teacher and instructed them in secrets that they could only understand by being transported into a completely different state of consciousness. And so they now saw that they had been walking with Christ, with the risen Christ. But now they realized what had happened to them. And how did they recognize that this was really the One with whom they had walked in the flesh before the mystery of Golgotha? It happened in the following way.
Let us assume that such an image now appeared before the soul of one of the apostles after the Feast of Pentecost. He saw how he had walked with the risen Christ, how the risen Christ had taught him. But he did not recognize him. He saw a heavenly, spiritual being, but he did not recognize it. Then another image mingled with it. Such an image mingled with the purely spiritual image that represented an experience of the apostles, which they had actually undergone with Christ Jesus before the mystery of Golgotha. There was a scene where they felt as if they were being taught by the mystery of the Spirit, by Christ Jesus. But they did not recognize him. They looked at this spiritual being who was teaching them, and in order for them to recognize him, this image transformed, while remaining intact, into the image of the Last Supper they had experienced with Christ Jesus. Imagine really that such an apostle had before him this supernatural experience with the risen Lord and, as if working in the background, the image of the Last Supper. Only then did they recognize that it was the same One with whom they had once walked in the flesh, as the One who was now teaching them in the completely different form He had taken on after the Mystery of Golgotha. It was a complete merging of the memories from the state of consciousness, which was like a state of sleep, with the images of memory that had preceded it. They experienced this as two images that coincided: one image from their experiences after the mystery of Golgotha, and one from before it, as if shining in from the time before their consciousness had become so clouded that they were no longer able to witness what was happening. Thus they recognized that these two beings belonged together: the risen one and the one with whom they had once, relatively recently, walked around in the body. And they now said to themselves: Before we were awakened by the fertilization with the all-pervading cosmic love, we were as if taken away from our ordinary state of consciousness. And Christ, the risen one, was with us. He took us into his kingdom, as it were, in ignorance, walked with us, and revealed to us the mysteries of his kingdom, which now, after the mystery of Pentecost, emerge into normal consciousness as if experienced in a dream.
This is what one experiences as something that evokes wonder: the constant coincidence of an image of an experience of the apostles with Christ “after the mystery of Golgotha” with an image before the mystery of Golgotha, which they had experienced with Christ Jesus in their physical bodies with normal knowledge.
We have begun to share what can be read in the so-called Fifth Gospel, and at the end of this first communication I have to make today, I would like to say a few personal words to you, which must be said in addition to this fact. I feel, in a sense, occultly obliged to speak about these things now. But what I would like to say is this: I am well aware that we are currently living in a time when many things are being prepared for the future of humanity on Earth, and that within our society—now anthroposophical—we must feel ourselves to be those who have a sense that something must be prepared in the souls of human beings for the future. I know that times will come when it will be possible to speak about these things in a completely different way than our present age allows. For we are all children of our time. But a near future will come when it will be possible to speak more accurately and precisely, when perhaps much of what can only be glimpsed today will be recognized much more clearly in the spiritual chronicle of becoming. Such times will come, even if they seem unlikely to the people of today. Nevertheless, it is precisely for this reason that we have a certain obligation to talk about these things today, as a kind of preparation. And even though it took me some effort to talk about this subject in particular, my obligation to what must be prepared in our time outweighed that. This led me to speak about this subject for the first time here with you.
When I speak of overcoming, please take this word at face value. I expressly ask you to regard what I have to say on this occasion as merely a kind of suggestion, something that will certainly be expressed much better and more precisely in the future. And you will understand the word “overcoming” better if you allow me to make a personal remark: I am well aware that for the spiritual research to which I have devoted myself, it is initially extremely difficult and laborious to extract certain things from the spiritual writings of the world, especially things of this kind! And I would not be at all surprised if the word “hint” that I used had a much heavier and broader meaning than it perhaps needs to be understood now. I do not mean to say that I am already able to express precisely everything that is presented in the spiritual writings. For I myself feel many difficulties and struggles when it comes to extracting images relating to the mysteries of Christianity from the Akashic Records. I find it difficult to condense these images to the necessary degree, to be able to hold on to them, and I regard it as my karma, so to speak, that I have been given the duty to say what I am saying. For I would undoubtedly have less difficulty if I had been in the position of many of our contemporaries and had received a truly Christian upbringing in my early youth. I did not have that; I grew up in a completely free-thinking environment, and my studies also led me to free thinking. My own education was purely scientific. And that makes it somewhat difficult for me now to find the words to express what I am obliged to say.
I may perhaps make this personal remark for two reasons: because it is precisely through a very peculiar lack of conscience that a foolish, silly fairy tale about my connections with certain Catholic movements has been spread throughout the world. Not a single word of all these things is true. And you can see where what is often called theosophy has ended up today simply by the fact that such unscrupulous statements and rumors are being spread on the basis of theosophy. But since we are compelled not to gloss over this in a lenient manner, using empty phrases, but to set the truth before you, I feel I must make this personal remark. On the other hand, precisely because I was distant from Christianity in my youth, I feel all the more impartial toward it and believe that, since I was led to Christianity and the Christ being through the spirit, I have a certain right to be unprejudiced and impartial in this area in order to make statements about these things. Perhaps at this moment in world history, people will be able to give more credence to the words of someone who comes from a scientific background and who was distant from Christianity in his youth than to someone who has been associated with Christianity since his earliest youth. And I truly do not believe that Christianity has anything to lose when its deeper elements are presented by a consciousness that has found its way to Christianity from the spirit itself. But if you take these words seriously, you will feel, as I have indicated, what lives within me when I now speak of the mysteries that I would like to describe as the mysteries of the so-called Fifth Gospel.