The Fifth Gospel
GA 148
2 October 1913, Oslo
Lecture II
Our considerations will begin with the so-called Pentecost event. In the first lecture I indicated that our investigation can at least begin with this event. For this event presents itself to clairvoyance as a kind of awakening which the personalities on a certain day, Pentecost, experienced—the personalities normally called the apostles or disciples of Christ Jesus. It is not easy to evoke an exact perception of all those extraordinary events, and we will have to recall – from the depths of our souls, so to speak – much of what we have already gained from our anthroposophical considerations if we want to combine exact perceptions with all which our lecture cycle has to say about this subject.
The apostles felt like awakened individuals who had lived for a long time in an unusual state of consciousness. It was really like a kind of awakening from a deep sleep, from a strange, dream-filled sleep, in which one carries out the everyday tasks of life as reasonable people do, so that others do not notice that one is in a different state of consciousness. Then came the moment when it seemed to the apostles that they had lived through a long time as in a dream from which they awoke with the Pentecost event. And they experienced this awakening in an extraordinary way: they really felt as though something we can only call the substance of all-encompassing love had descended on them from out of the universe. The apostles felt impregnated by all-encompassing love and awakened from the described dream-like state. As though they had been awakened by all that which as the source of the power of love pervades and warms the universe, as though this source of the power of love had penetrated the soul of each one of them. They seemed very strange to the others who heard how they talked. Those others knew that they had previously led very simple lives, but some of them had been acting strangely in the previous days, as though lost in dreams. Now, however, they were as transformed: like people who had achieved a new state of mind or soul disposition, like people who had lost all the narrow restrictions, all the egotism of life, who had gained an infinitely wide heart and all-embracing tolerance, a deeply heartfelt understanding of all that is human on earth. They could also express themselves so that everyone present could understand them. One felt also that they could see into each heart and soul and clarify the secrets of the soul, so they could comfort the other, could tell him exactly what he needed.
It was of course astonishing that such a transformation could happen to a number of people. But those people who experienced the transformation, who had been awakened by the cosmic spirit of love, those people felt in themselves a new understanding for what had acted in common in their souls, but which they had until then not understood. Now, in that instant, understanding of what actually happened on Golgotha appeared before their minds' eye. And if we look into the soul of one of those apostles, the one usually called Peter in the other gospels, clairvoyant observation sees his normal consciousness as having been completely obliterated from the moment the gospels usually call the denial. He looked back to the denial scene, when he was asked if he had a connection to the Galilean, and he knew now that he denied it because his consciousness had begun to fade and an abnormal state to take its place, a kind of dream state, which meant removal into a completely different world. For him it was like a person who upon waking in the morning remembers the last events before going to sleep the night before; that's how Peter remembered what is called the denial, the triple denial before the cock crowed twice. And then the intermediate state of Peter's consciousness unfurled. It wasn't filled with mere dream-images, but with images presented by a kind of higher state of consciousness, which presented an experience of purely spiritual matters. And everything that happened, that Peter had slept through since that time, appeared before his soul as a clairvoyant dream. Above all he learned to see the event, about which one can truly say he slept through, because for a full understanding of that event the fecundation by all-encompassing love was necessary. Now the images of the mystery of Golgotha appeared before his eyes in a way similar to how we can recall them with clairvoyant vision if we establish the necessary conditions.
Frankly, it is with a unique feeling that one decides to put into words what is revealed when looking into the consciousness of Peter and the others who were gathered on that Pentecost day. One can only bring one's self to speak of these things with a holy awe. One could even say that he is almost overcome with awareness that he is treading on the holy ground of human esteem when expressing what is revealed to the soul's vision. However, it seems to him necessary, due to certain spiritual considerations, to speak of these things in our times; with full knowledge that other times will come in which these things will meet with more understanding than is the case now. For in order to understand much of what will be said at this opportunity, the human soul must free itself of quite a few things which are necessary to it during this cultural period.
First of all, something which is offensive to contemporary natural scientific consciousness appears to clairvoyant vision. Nevertheless, I feel myself obliged to express in words as well as I can what appears to the soul's vision. I can't do anything about it if what I must say is communicated to less prepared minds and souls and the whole thing is exaggeratedly described as something which cannot stand up to the scientific concepts which dominate the present time.
The clairvoyant glance first falls on an image that depicts a reality which is also indicated in other gospels, but which presents a very special view when selected from the fullness of views which clairvoyant observation can receive when looking back in time. Clairvoyant observation is drawn to a kind of darkening of the earth. And one feels, as in an imagination, the meaningful moment when for hours the physical sun is darkened over the land of Palestine, over the site of Golgotha, like an eclipse of the sun.
One has the impression that spiritual-scientifically trained observation can now verify if a physical eclipse of the sun really occurred over that land: that for this observation the whole human environment takes on a completely different aspect. I would like to put aside what human technology has to say about a solar eclipse. A strong mind and the conviction that all had to happen as it did are necessary in order to withstand the demonic powers which arise during a solar eclipse. But I prefer not to go into that further, only to bring to your attention the fact that during such a moment what otherwise can only be obtained through difficult meditation appears light-filled. One sees plants and animals differently, every butterfly looks different. It is something which in the deepest sense can bring forth the conviction of how in the cosmos a certain spiritual life – which belongs to the sun and what one sees in the sun also as its physical life – is connected to life on the earth. And how when the physical glow is drastically darkened by the covering moon, it is different from when the sun simply doesn't glow during the night. The appearance of the earth around us is quite different during a solar eclipse than when it is night. One feels the group-souls of the plants and animals arise during a solar eclipse. One feels a dimming of the corporality of plants and animals and a brightening of their group-souls.
This experience is especially strong for clairvoyant observation when directed towards the moment in earthly evolution which we call the Mystery of Golgotha. And then one learns what this notable natural phenomenon means. I really can't help it if I am obliged to read in the occult text about a natural phenomenon as it occurred exactly at that point in the earth's evolution – as it has of course also earlier and later occurred – in contradiction to contemporary materialistic thinking. When one opens a book and reads the text, one has the impression that what one should read comes forth from the letters. Thus also from the cosmic letters comes forth the necessity of reading something which humanity should learn. It appears as a word written in the cosmos, as a cosmic phonetic symbol.
And what does one read when he opens his soul to it? Yesterday I pointed out that during Greek times humanity had developed to the point in which through Plato and Aristotle it rose to a very high level of learning, of intellectuality. In many respects the knowledge achieved by Plato and Aristotle could not be superseded in later times, for the summit of human intellectuality had already been reached. And when we consider that this intellectual knowledge was made extremely popular in the Greek and Italian peninsulas by wandering preachers during the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, when we consider how this knowledge was spread in a way which we cannot understand, then one has the possibility of an impression of reading the letters of the occult cosmic text. When one has attained to clairvoyant consciousness he can say: everything which humanity had gathered as knowledge in pre-Christian times comes under the sign of the moon, which from the viewpoint of the earth travels through space, and it is the moon because for higher human perception this knowledge had not enlightened, had not solved riddles, but for higher perception was darkening, as the moon darkens the sun during an eclipse. That is what one reads.
So at that time knowledge was not enlightening, but acted as a darkening of the riddle of the world, and one feels as a clairvoyant the darkening of the higher, spiritual regions of the world through the knowledge of ancient times, which acted in respect to higher knowledge as the moon acts during a solar eclipse. And this external event is an expression of man having achieved a stage in which man's self-created knowledge was placed in front of higher knowledge as the moon stands before the sun during an eclipse. In that solar eclipse one feels humanity's darkening of the sun within the earth's evolution written in an awesome sign of the cosmic occult text. I said that contemporary consciousness can consider this offensive because it has no understanding of the spiritual power in the universe. I do not wish to speak of miracles in the usual sense, of the breaking of natural laws, but I can do no other than inform you how one can read that solar eclipse – how one can do no other than position one's soul before that solar eclipse as though reading what that natural event signifies: With moon-knowledge an eclipse of the higher solar message occurred.
And then one's clairvoyant consciousness perceives the raised cross on Golgotha on which the body of Jesus hangs between the two thieves. Then the removal from the cross and the burial appears – and I might add that the more one tries to avoid this image the stronger it appears. Now a second powerful sign appears which must be read in order to understand it as a symbol of what has happened in the evolution of humanity: One follows the image of Jesus taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb, and one is thoroughly shaken by an earthquake which went through the area.
Perhaps the relation between that solar eclipse and the earthquake will someday be better understood scientifically, for certain teachings which are prevalent today but incoherent, indicate a relation between solar eclipses and earthquakes and even firedamps in mines. That earthquake was a consequence of the solar eclipse. That earthquake shook the tomb in which Jesus' body lay – and the stone which had been placed before the tomb was ripped away and a crevice opened in the ground and the body fell onto the crevice. Further vibrations caused the ground to close over the crevice. And when the people came in the morning the tomb was empty, for the earth had received Jesus' body; the stone, however, remained apart from the tomb.
Let us follow the sequence of images! Jesus dies on the cross. Darkness suddenly covers the earth. Jesus' body is laid in the tomb. An earthquake opens the earth's crust and Jesus' body is received by the earth. The crevice caused by the quake closes. The stone is thrown aside. These are all factual events; I can do naught else but describe them as such. May those who wish to approach these things from a natural scientific viewpoint judge as they wish and use every possible argument against them. What clairvoyant observation sees is as I have described it. And if someone wishes to say that such things cannot happen, that a symbol is placed in the cosmos as a powerful sign-language to indicate that something new has occurred in human evolution; when someone wishes to say that the divine powers do not write about what happens on the earth with such sign-language as a solar eclipse and an earthquake, I can only reply: All respect to your belief that it can not be so. But it happened anyway! I can imagine that an Ernest Renan, who wrote the peculiar “Life of Jesus” would come and say: One does not believe such things, for one only believes what can be duplicated by experiment. But that argument is unfeasible, for would a Renan not believe in the ice age although it is impossible to reproduce it by experiment? It is of course impossible to reproduce the ice age, and nevertheless all scientific investigators believe in it. It is also impossible to reproduce that once-occurring cosmic sign. Nevertheless, it happened.
We can only approach these events if we clairvoyantly take the path which I have indicated, if we first examine Peter's or one of the other apostle's souls, who felt themselves fecundated by all-encompassing cosmic love. Only if we look into their souls and see how they experienced things do we find via this detour the ability to observe the raised cross on Golgotha, the darkening of the earth and the earthquake which followed it. That the eclipse and the quake were normal natural events is not denied; but he who follows these events clairvoyantly reads them as I have described, insofar as he has created the necessary conditions in his soul. For in fact what I have described was for Peter's consciousness something which had crystallized from the basis of the long sleep. From the many images which crossed through Peter's consciousness the following were emphasized: The cross raised on Golgotha, the eclipse and the quake. Those were for Peter the first fruits of the fecundation by all-encompassing love at the Pentecost event. And now he knew something which he had not previously known: that the event of Golgotha really took place, and that the body which hung on the cross was the same body with which he had often wandered in life. Now he knew that Jesus died on the cross, that this death was really a birth, the birth of that spirit who as all-encompassing love exuded in the souls of the apostles gathered at Pentecost. Peter sensed it as a ray of the infinite, aeonic love. He sensed it as what was born as Jesus died on the cross. An awesome truth penetrated Peter's soul: a death only seemed to have taken place on the cross.
In reality that death, preceded by infinite suffering, was the birth of what entered his soul like a ray. With the death of Jesus something entered the earth which had previously existed only externally: all-encompassing cosmic love. That's easy to say abstractly. But one must penetrate the Peter-soul for a moment to imagine how it felt: In the instant that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross at Golgotha, something had been born to the earth which previously only existed in the cosmos. The death of Jesus of Nazareth was the birth of cosmic love within the earth's sphere.
That is the first insight which we can gather from what we call the Fifth Gospel. With what is called in the New Testament the arrival, the pouring out of the spirit, begins with what I have now described. The apostles, due to their soul constitution, were not able to accompany the death of Jesus of Nazareth except with an anomalous consciousness.
Peter, also John and James, recollected still another moment in his life, which can only be revealed to us in all its grandeur through the Fifth Gospel. He with whom they wandered led them to the mount and said: Stand guard! And they fell asleep. Their souls were already being gradually overtaken by the sleeping state. Their normal consciousness sank into a sleep which lasted through the event of Golgotha, and out of which beamed what I have been trying to describe in stammering words. And Peter, John and James had to recall how they fell into that state and how now, as they looked back, the great events dawned on them which had to do with the physical body of him with whom they had wandered. And gradually, as dreams emerge in human consciousness, in human souls, the previous days emerged in the apostles' consciousness. What emerged was the whole time which they had experienced from the Mystery of Golgotha to Pentecost, which had remained hidden in their subconscious. Especially the ten days between the so-called Ascension until the Pentecost event seemed to be a period of deep sleep. Looking back, however, the time between the Mystery of Golgotha and the Ascension of Christ Jesus emerged day by day. They had experienced it, but it only emerged now, and in a remarkable way.
Excuse me if I add a personal comment. I must admit that I was astonished when I became aware of how what they experienced between the Mystery of Golgotha and the so-called Ascension emerged in the apostles' souls. Images like these: Yes, you were together with him who was born on the cross, you encountered him – like when one wakes up in the morning and it seems like out of a dream emerges: you were with someone during the night. But it was peculiar how the individual events emerged in the apostles' souls. They had to ask themselves: Who was it with whom we were together? And they didn't recognize him again and again. They knew: We certainly wandered around with him – but they didn't recognize him in the form in which he then stood before them, and which now appeared in images as they received fecundation by all-encompassing love. They saw themselves wandering after the Mystery of Golgotha with him whom we call Christ. And they saw how he had really taught them about the kingdom of the spirit. And they were able to understand how they had wandered with the being who was born on the cross, how this being – the all-encompassing love born from the cosmos – was their teacher, how they were not mature enough to understand what this being had to say, how they had to receive it with the subconscious powers of their souls and couldn't receive what this being had to give with normal reason, how they went like sleepwalkers alongside Christ during those forty days and couldn't understand with normal reason what he had to give them. He appeared to them as their spiritual teacher and instructed them in secrets which they could only understand when he transferred them to a completely different consciousness. And now they realized that they had been with the Christ, had walked with the resurrected Christ. Now they realized what had happened to him. But how did they recognize that he was really the same one with whom they had traveled with love before the Mystery of Golgotha? That happened as follows.
Let us imagine that such an image appeared before the soul of one of the apostles after Pentecost. He saw that he had walked with the resurrected one. But he didn't recognize him. He saw a heavenly spiritual being, but he didn't recognize him. Another image, which showed that the apostles had really been with Christ Jesus before the Mystery of Golgotha, interfered with the purely spiritual one. There was a scene in which they felt they were instructed in the secrets of the spirit by Christ Jesus. But they didn't recognize him, they saw themselves standing before this spiritual being. And in order to recognize him, this image was transformed into the image of the Last Supper, which they had experienced together with Christ Jesus. Just imagine that the apostle had before him the super-sensible experience of the resurrected one and, as though hovering in the background, the image of the Last Supper. Then they recognized that the one with whom they had wandered with love was the same as the one who now taught them, in a completely different form, which he had taken on after the Mystery of Golgotha. It was a flowing together of the memories from the sleeping consciousness with the memories which preceded it. They experienced two images: one image of the occurrences after the Mystery of Golgotha, and one of the occurrences before their consciousness had been dimmed. They therefore realized that the two beings belong together: the resurrected one and he with whom they had lovingly wandered a relatively short time ago. And they thought: Before we were awakened through the fecundation by all-encompassing love, our normal consciousness was taken away. And Christ, the resurrected one, was with us. He had taken us into his kingdom without our knowing it; he wandered with us and revealed to us the secrets of his kingdom, which now, after the Pentecost-Mystery, emerge as having been experienced in a dream.
This is what causes such astonishment: the coinciding of an image of an apostle's experience with the Christ after the Mystery of Golgotha with an image before the Mystery of Golgotha, which they experienced in the physical body in a normal state of consciousness.
We have begun to indicate what can be read in the so-called Fifth Gospel, and I would like to say a few words to you at the end of this report as an aside. I feel myself obliged to speak of these things now. What I would like to say though, is the following. I know very well that we live in a time in which much is being prepared for the earthly future of humanity, and that we within our – now Anthroposophical – Society, should realize that something must be prepared for the future in human souls. I know that the time will come when one will be able to speak of such things in a different way than is allowed in our times. For we are all children of our time. But a near future will come in which one can speak more precisely, in which perhaps much of what can be perceived today only by way of indication will be much more precisely perceived in the spiritual Script of Becoming. Such times will come, even though it seems so improbable to the people of today. Nevertheless, it is just for this reason that a certain obligation exists to speak of these things today as a kind of preparation. And although I had to overcome a certain resistance to speak on this theme, the obligation for preparation in these our times outweighed the resistance. That led to my speaking to you for the first time about these things.
When I say “overcoming”, please understand the word as it is meant. I explicitly request that what I have to say on this occasion be understood as a stimulation, as something which in the future will be explained much better and more precisely. And you will understand the word “overcoming” better if you allow me to make a personal remark. It is completely clear to me that for the spiritual investigation to which I have devoted myself, it is at first extremely difficult to extract many things from the Script of the World – especially things of this nature! And I would not be surprised if the word “indication”, which I used, may have a more difficult and broader meaning than it normally has. I can not at all say that I am able today to say precisely what is in the Spiritual Script. For it is very difficult and takes much effort to extract images from the Akasha Record which have to with Christianity. It takes much effort to give these images the necessary condensation, to hold them fast, and I consider it my karma that my duty is to say what I am saying. Without doubt it would cost me less effort if in my early youth I had received a real Christian upbringing. I did not have that; I was brought up in a completely free cultural environment. My education was purely scientific. And for that reason it costs me effort to find these things about which I am obligated to speak.
I make this personal comment for two reasons: because of a peculiar unscrupulousness, a foolish, silly fairy tale about my relationship with certain Catholic currents is being spread about. Not one word of this is true. And what that which is often called Theosophy today has come to may be judged by the fact that such unscrupulous assertions and rumors come from that source. And because we are obliged to tell the truth and not avoid such assertions, this personal remark is made.
On the other hand, due to my lack of contact with Christianity during my youth I feel more objective about Christianity and believe that I have been led to Christianity and to Christ by the spirit. Especially in this area I think I have a certain right to claim objectivity and lack of prejudice. Perhaps one can rely more on the words of a person who comes from a scientific background, who in his youth was distant from Christianity, than one who had a relationship with Christianity from early youth on. But when you hear these words, you may feel an indication of what lives in me when I speak about the secrets which I would like to call the secrets of the so-called 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.