Festivals of the Seasons
GA 156
26 December 1914, Dornach
10. A Christmas Lecture
The remembrance of this Christmas Festival will be strongly imprinted on the souls of many, for a sharper mental contrast can scarcely be imagined than that which arises, when we lift our souls to the voices which sounded to the shepherds, presenting an eternal truth for all human progress of the post-Christian times:
‘Divine revelation in the heights and upon earth peace to the men who have goodwill,’
when we raise our souls to the ‘peace upon earth to men’ and then look at the facts of the present day which we find outspread over a great part of the civilised world.
By reason of this contrast, this Christmas Festival will be a permanent token in the memories and hearts of men upon the earth. For certainly, if we preserve that which we must always preserve within the fields of our occult thought, if we preserve our uprightness of heart and our inner sincerity of soul, we cannot celebrate this Christmas Festival with the same feeling with which we have celebrated others; for it must stimulate us to more profound reflection, must stimulate us very specially to that which arises from our occult deepening as ideas for the future of humanity—to that which can lead human hearts to the ages which will be so different from our own.
In the course of years we have registered much within our souls, which can indicate to us the sort of soul-condition which such ages will bring. Let us ask ourselves, what is that, of which we must feel that it is still so much needed at the present time? If we call up before the eyes of our soul that which has frequently formed the centre of our consideration, we shall see that within the depths of the human soul a true knowledge is wanting of that which drew into the world upon the day which we celebrate every year in this wintry Christmas.
The whole significance, the whole profundity, of that which took place in the time which we call to remembrance in this Christmas Festival, is truly not expressed unavailingly, but profoundly and significantly, in the passage which humanity of earth has accepted from affection, one might say, the passage which runs thus:
‘Divine revelation in the heights and upon earth peace to the men who have goodwill,’
The simplest things are often to the human heart the most difficult of comprehension, and simple as this verse sounds, we do well if we make it ever clearer to ourselves that all the future ages of the earth existence will be able to understand this verse more and more profoundly, to enter more and more deeply into the significance of these important words.
It is not without reason that out of all the secret history of the appearing of Jesus upon the earth, the Festival of Christmas has become the most popular—nothing has become more popular than the entrance of the Jesus-child into earth life. For with this we have the possibility of placing before the souls of men something which is received lovingly even by the heart of a little child, in so far as he is able to receive external sense impressions, even though perhaps not yet from words, and yet at the same time it is something which sinks deeply into the depths of those human souls through which the gentlest and yet at the same time the strongest love flows warmly.
Truly the humanity upon earth is not yet advanced beyond a childish comprehension of the Mysteries of Christ Jesus, and epoch after epoch will still have to elapse ere human souls again acquire those forces, by means of which they will be able to absorb the complete magnitude of the beginning of the Mystery of Golgotha. Thus on this occasion may no Christmas consideration as in other years be brought before your souls, but something which may show us how much we are wanting in that depth which is necessary in order to let the Mystery of Golgotha flash up rightly within our souls.
In the course of the last few years we have often spoken of the fact that on occult grounds we really have to celebrate the birth of not only one Jesus child but of two, and it may be said that because through the observations of Spiritual Science this mystery of the two Jesus children has been revealed, a faint beginning has been made to a new comprehension of the Mystery of Golgotha.
Only slowly and gradually could this Mystery of Golgotha grip the minds of men. How it has been absorbed into human minds can be brought before our souls when, for example, we glance at the fact that, to a certain extent, that which Christian humanity has gained in the idea of the Christmas child had to struggle through from East to West, by making its way through other versions of a Divine Mediator between the highest Divine-spiritual Beings and the human soul.
We have often considered the fact that, running parallel with the stream of Christian life from East to West, another stream of revelation flowed from the North, over the Black Sea, along the Danube, upwards to the Rhine, to Western Europe. The worship which we know as the worship of Mithras disappeared in the early centimes of the Christian era. But in the first centuries of the Christian era it had gripped as many hearts in Europe as had Christianity itself, and impressed itself deeply and extended in the regions of central and Eastern Europe. To those who followed this worship, Mithras appeared just as sublime and great a Divine Mediator descending from spiritual heights into earth existence, as the Christ appeared to the Christians. In the same way we hear of the entrance of Mithras into earth existence in the Winter Holy-night, the shortest day! In the same way we hear that he was born secretly in a cave, that shepherds were the first to hear his Song of Praise: in the same way was Sunday dedicated to him in contradistinction to the other more ancient feast days. And if we ask what is the characteristic feature in the descent of this Mithras-figure, we must say as follows: Mithras was not represented as was the Christ within Jesus. When an image, a symbolical representation, was formed of him, it was known that it was only a symbolical representation. The true Mithras was only to be seen by those who had the faculty of clairvoyance. Certainly he was represented as a mediator between man and the spiritual Hierarchies, but he was not represented as having been incarnated in a human child. He was represented in such a way that when he descended to the earth, in his true being he was only visible to the Initiates, to those who had clairvoyant vision. The idea did not exist in the Mithras worship that that spiritual Being, who was represented as a mediator between the Spiritual Hierarchies and the souls of men, was incarnated in an earthly body as a child. For the worship of Mithras depended upon the fact that the ancient primitive clairvoyance was still in existence in a large number of human beings.
If we investigate the path of worship of Mithras from East to West, we find that amongst the people who were worshippers of Mithras a large number were those who could see in those intermediate conditions between waking and sleeping, when the soul lives not in dreams, but in spiritual reality. These could see in such intermediate conditions the descent of Mithras from aeon to aeon, from stage to stage, from the spiritual world down to the earth. Many could see and bear witness that such a Mediator had arisen for man, a Mediator in the spiritual worlds.
That which lived as the cult of Mithras was an externalisation of the more or less symbolical representation seen by the seer. What is it really that we meet with in this worship of Mithras? Our whole understanding of the Cosmos makes it impossible to believe that the Christ has only been known since the Mystery of Golgotha. The Initiates and their pupils also knew Him in the pre-Christian times as that Spirit Who was to come. The Initiates always pointed again and again to Him Whom they saw as the Sun-spirit descending from the heights, Who was approaching the earth in order to take up His abode within it. They designated Him as the One Who was to be, the One Who was to come. They knew Him in spirit and saw Him descending.
Then the Mystery of Golgotha took place. We know what it signifies. We know that through this Mystery of Golgotha that Spirit through Whom the earth has gained its meaning drew into a human body. We know that since then this Spirit is connected with the Earth and we know how man is to develop in order, in no very distant future, to see again in spirit the Christ Who through the Mystery of Golgotha united His Own Life with the life of the earth I humanity. We are expressing nothing figurative when we say that That Which the ancient Initiates saw in the various Sanctuaries of the Spiritual is since then to be recognised as pressing through, streaming through, pulsating through, living through the earth-life.
But the clairvoyant perception had to be lost more and more, and with it the power to look up into the spiritual spheres to behold the Christ, Who had now descended to the earth. For now those who could not perceive clairvoyantly could see that He was permeated with divine love, that He was That Which they were always to possess as the highest treasure of the earth-man. Thus men were to feel fully that they had to receive within their earthly habitation the great gift of cosmic Love, the Christ, sent by the God Who is called the Father-God; they were to learn to know Him fully as the Being Who henceforth was to remain connected with the ages as the meaning of the earth evolution; they were to learn to know Him fully in His life, from the first respiration as a Child to the spiritual deed of Christ on Golgotha which can be revealed to the hearts of men.
In the course of later times, it has been possible for us to fill this gap by means of the Fifth Gospel, which has been added to the other Gospels, as in our age it was destined for us to know every step of this Divine Life upon earth yet more minutely. And thus because men were, as it were, to become familiar with Christ Jesus as with a brother, as with One Who from love of man has drawn out of the wide spiritual realms into the narrow valley of earth, because men were to learn to know Him in the most familiar, most intimate knowledge, therefore had the powers of perception and love in the human mind to be gathered together in order to perceive intuitively in a purely human-divine manner, I might say, that which was enacted among men as the beginning of a new age, the Christian age.
For this end the power of man had to be concentrated upon the life of Christ Jesus: for a time it had to be diverted from the vision upwards into the spiritual spheres by means of That Which had drawn into the Child of Bethlehem, Which had descended from cosmic heights. But to-day, we are living in a time in which the vision must again be extended, in which human progress and human evolution must again dominate evolution if the Christ, as descending from divine spiritual heights, is to remain what He is in the life of the earth.
The worship of Mithras was a last powerful remembrance of the Christ Who had not yet reached the earth but was descending. For humanity was destined to receive the Christ ever more into the soul in such a way that even the smallest child could receive Him; in such a way that with it there came a closing of the spiritual vision with regard to the spiritual world, that vision by means of which we know that the Christ is a Cosmic Being, by means of which we know what importance He has for the valley of the earth.
Slowly and gradually the worship of Mithras flowed away, owing to the fact that Christ could appear to man as a Cosmic Being. The worship of Mithras was an echo of the old clairvoyant perception.
Then we see how, with the gradual flowing away, the clairvoyant perception also diminished, how even for those who still had the clairvoyant perception of the old sort, a flowing away of the clairvoyant capacities began, and how, with this flowing away, the possibility also ceased of perceiving the Christ completely in His true nature. He was perceived in His true nature when He was perceived not only in His earthly activity, but in His heavenly glory. The possibility gradually diminished, disappeared, of seeing Him in His heavenly glory beside His earthly existence. We see that it again appeared in a weakened form, in spite of the greatness of the teaching in other respects, in the founder of Manicheism. The Manu pointed to Jesus, but it was not an indication which was suited to simple, primitive, believing minds, because in this spirit which founded Manicheism the ancient clairvoyance still existed.
Yet there was nothing in it which could be counted as an opposition with regard to the comprehension of Christianity. Christ Jesus was for the Manu a Being Who had not taken on earthly corporality but had lived in a phantom body, as it were, in an etheric body upon the earth.
Now we see that with regard to the comprehension of the appearing of Christ Jesus a struggle began. Why was this? There was a striving to look upwards, as it were, to see how the Being of Christ descended. They were not, however, yet capable of seeing how the descending Being actually took up His abode in human flesh. A struggle of soul was inevitable before this complete comprehension was possible.
Again we see the teachings of the Manichees extending from East to West, a teaching which still looked up towards the Divine Spirit Who was descending, looked towards everything which the old conception of the world possessed, looked towards the permeation of the world not merely with the physical Being which presented itself to the human sense existence, but also with the Being which with the movements of the stars pervades the Cosmos.
The linking of human fate, of human life, with cosmic life, this pervaded the soul of the Manichee, this was deeply rooted within him, shunning the evil, which rules in human life in common with the activity of the good God. Deeply, deeply did Manicheism look into the riddle of evil. But this riddle of evil at the same time can only appear before the human soul when we are able to grasp it in connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, when we penetrate the Mystery of Golgotha with the riddle of evil in Manicheism.
Truly those who were called upon to yield their souls in the deepest, most intense manner, to the Mystery of Golgotha, have contended with that which shone into more modern times from the residue of the ancient clairvoyant perception. We need only think of one great leader of the West, St. Augustine. Before he struggled through to the Christianity of Paul he was given up to the teaching of the Manichees. A yet greater impression was made upon him when he was able to perceive how from aeon to aeon the Being of the divine spiritual mediator descended from divine spiritual spheres. This spiritual vision also illumined for Augustine in the first period of his struggle the perception of how the Christ had taken up His abode upon the earth in a fleshly body, and how with Him the riddle of evil was solved.
It is striking to see how Augustine conversed with the celebrated Bishop Faustus of the Manichees, and only because this Bishop was not able to make the requisite impression upon Augustine, he turned away from Manicheism and towards the Christianity of Paul. Here we see the flow and ebb of that which we can call the perception of the super-earthly Christ as He was before the Mystery of Golgotha. And in the main, only with the raising of the new age of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch did that completely disappear which was the residue of the old clairvoyant perception.
This old clairvoyant perception knew the heavenly Christ. Even in the beginning of Christianity He could be felt, but to see how He descended was only possible for the old clairvoyant perception. Deeply, deeply, must it affect us when we perceive how in the first age of the spreading of Christianity those who had drawn their perception from the old clairvoyance wished to picture the Christ; how in order to perceive the Christ they looked not merely towards Bethlehem but into the spheres of heaven, in order to see how He descended from thence to bring salvation to men.
We know that besides the worship of Mithras, and besides Manicheism, there existed in the West the Gnosis which wished to connect the old clairvoyant perception of the great Sun-Spirit, Who descended from the divine sphere, with the perception of the course of earthly life of Christ Jesus. And then it is striking to see how the human mind wished to concentrate itself ever more upon the earthly connections of Christ Jesus. It is striking to see how this simple human mind which can find nothing simple enough to represent it, is afraid of the greatness of the feeling which had to be experienced with regard to the lofty conception of the old Gnosis. The early Christians were afraid of these lofty conceptions. Up to our own age the fear strikes those who come into touch with spiritual knowledge that it is easy for the mind to come into confusion if it raises itself into the ages in which it could be seen that Christ descended from the loftiest heights in order to be able to dwell in a human body.
That which the Gnostics were able to say regarding the heavenly Christ beside the earthly Christ affects us very deeply and I should like to say that our soul-vision of the earthly life of Christ Jesus will in no way be blunted if, through Spiritual Science, it is shown the way to the new clairvoyance in order to find the Christ as He descended from the heights of heaven. Here we have a verse evidently of Gnostic origin:
‘Behold, O Father, how, distant from Thy Breath, this being upon earth
Wanders, the target and victim of all ill.
Lo, ill, perplexed, it flies the deadly chaos—how can it find its way?
Therefore send me, O Father,
Descending, victory to bring,
I traverse all the aeons,
Teaching all sacred knowledge;
Thus may God’s image be manifested,
And thus to you I give
The deeply hidden knowledge of the sacred way:
“Gnosis” it is called for you.’
We feel that the new Spiritual Science must again lead us into these things in order that we, in our conceptions, may be able to weave round the Christ- Event the spiritual Aura which for good reasons, as we have often emphasised and had to mention again to-day, was for a time lost to humanity. We must do it slowly and gradually: we must, to a certain extent, try to express that which Spiritual Science is able to reveal to us in such a way that the human mind, which to-day is far from the science of spiritual knowledge, may be able to grasp it.
And so we have endeavoured to express the whole anthroposophical wisdom concerning the Christ-Event, and especially concerning the Christmas night and its connection with the human mind, in simple words which are here presented to you:
In the eyes of the soul reflected
In the light of the cosmic hope,
In the human heart to the spirit exalted wisdom speaks:
The eternal love of the Father
To the earth has sent His Son
Who, filled with grace, on the human path sheddeth the light of heaven.
It is to be hoped that a time will come for earthly evolution in which more, much more can be expressed, and in far, far clearer words, regarding the Mystery of Golgotha, simple words in which for the whole world can be expressed that which Spiritual Science has to say to humanity regarding the Mystery of Golgotha.
We see how, up to the end of the fourth post-Atlantean period, even up to the beginning of the fifth, the old clairvoyant perception ebbed away in such a maimer that the last remains which were still left to man fell into disrepute. We see this downfall, as I might call it, embodied in that form which appeared in Europe and spread much further than is thought during the ebb of the fourth post-Atlantean period, in the figure of the popular adventurer (for he was an adventurer), who was still able to exhibit the last sign of clairvoyant perception—“Magister Georgius Sabellicus Faustus Junior, Magus Secundus, philosophus philosophorus, fons necromanticorum, chiromanticus, agromanticus, pyromanticus, in hydra arte secundus.” So ran the complete title of that Faust who lived in the sixteenth century as a representative of the moribund clairvoyance, that Faust who still had a vision into the spiritual worlds, even though the vision was chaotic. But it no longer happens in modern times that when the human soul is passive in certain conditions it can see spiritually, as in ancient times. For it can only see what is material and can acquire that which the intellect can combine out of the material. The whole tragedy of the final spiritual vision is brought to expression in the primitive communications regarding Faustus junior. By giving himself such a title we can perceive that he is, as it were, the final offshoot of those who were able to see into the spheres through which the Christ descended. He called himself Faustus junior, in allusion to the Manichee Bishop Faustus.
We know that he knew all about the Bishop Faustus for whom Augustine had longed, for the writings of Augustine were never so widely spread in Europe as at the time in which the writings of Faust junior appeared. And he called himself Magus Secundus, referring to the Magus Primus, the Simon Magus of old, who for those who were yet able to see, represented one whose vision towered up into the spheres of heaven, and of whom they stood in awe who were only desirous of concentrating within themselves the heavenly power.
Faustus alluded to him. And he alluded to yet another of whom we know through our observations of Spiritual Science that his vision unfolded in order to see into spiritual spheres. He called himself Pythagoras Secundus as the successor of that Pythagoras who was called Primus in this art.
We see the last glimmering evening-glow of that which existed as the ancient clairvoyance and we see how incomprehensible this ancient clairvoyance already was to men. Indeed that was actually realised which has been represented so strikingly to us in the legend of Faust, that Augustine longed for Faustus senior and that he became acquainted with the teaching of Faustus senior through an old man, a doctor. In the same way, carried forward into different circumstances, Faustus junior encounters us in the popular legend, and the old man again appears here, warning him: but he had already made his compact. He entrusted to Dr. Wagner his inheritance. When in surveying the ages and that which arose therein as conceptions of a spiritual world we see the age of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch approaching, we have to say: That is the legacy entrusted to Dr. Wagner. The question is how such a legacy can be administered. In the case of Faust, it is still a seeing into the spiritual worlds; in the case of this Dr. Wagner it is what can be described by saying that a man digs greedily for treasure and rejoices if he finds a glow-worm.
Such is the materialistic conception of the world of our modern times. It is no wonder that in this materialistic conception of the world the whole view of the heavenly Christ was lost, so that to-day people are afraid of the expansion of that picture upon which the earth-forces up till the present should have been concentrated. For we also know that the earth-humanity would have to lose, completely lose, all comprehension of this, if through a new spiritual view it were not able to weave a new aura round the touching picture of the Christ-child and His growth through thirty-three earth years. Spiritual Science will be called upon, as those souls who seriously apply themselves to Spiritual Science will perceive, again to quicken the vision of human minds for the heavenly Christ beside the earthly Christ. Then will the Christ be known for all the future earth-ages in such a way that He can never be lost to the progress and the salvation of mankind.
When wisdom shall again press upwards into the heights where, in the divine spheres, the fire of love bums, then will the human soul certainly not lose all that is wonderful, all that presses into the profoundest life-springs of men, all that human knowledge can know regarding Christ Jesus. And infinitely much will be acquired in addition: there will be acquired that which must be acquired if the evolution of humanity is to advance as it should.
The fresh springs of a new spiritual knowledge have already been opened; nevertheless, that which we are able to say to-day is truly such that we celebrate it at this time still in the symbol of the Christmas Festival. Deep, deep humility overcomes him who rightly experiences that which is to-day our occult knowledge. For we can only very dimly sense that which Spiritual Science will become for humanity in future days. For that which we are able to know of it to-day is in the same relation to that which in the days to come, when many, many ages have passed away, will be presented to humanity as that of the little Christmas child to the full-grown Christ Jesus. To-day in our newly-arisen Spiritual Science we have truly still the child. Hence the Christmas Festival is rightly our festival, and we perceive that, with regard to what can hold sway in the evolution of the earth as human light, we are to-day living in the profoundly dark winter night. Also with regard to our present-day knowledge we are actually standing before what is revealed in the profound wintry darkness of the earth evolution, just as once the shepherds stood before the Christ-child which was first revealed to them. With regard to the comprehension of Christ Jesus we can feel to-day exactly as did the shepherds at that time. We can so truly implore the springs of spiritual life which can ever more and more flow to mankind, implore them that indeed they may more and more bring to pass the Divine Revelation in the spiritual heights and through this revelation give to the human minds that peace which is in truth good for them. Then this Christmas Festival appears to us as a token. We still know little of that which the world will have as Spiritual Science in the days to come. We dimly sense what is to come, we dimly sense it in profound humility. But if we allow that little truly to enter our hearts, how does it appear to us then?
Let us cast a glance over present-day Europe—how the peoples think of one another, how each one seeks to lay the guilt of what is taking place upon the others. If the true anthroposophical conception is really impressed on our minds, then we shall understand the guilt which is now sought for by one people in the other, by one nation in the other. Truly, the guilt belongs to someone who is really and truly international, who guides his steps from nation to nation. But he is only spoken of in the circle of those into whose hearts a little Spiritual Science has penetrated. There we speak of Ahriman, the truly international being, who in conjunction with Lucifer is the truly guilty one. We do not find him if we turn our glance always to others, but if we seek the way to knowledge through self-knowledge. There, below in the chaotic depths, he goes; we feel him, this Ahriman. We shall learn to know him rightly and to know him in connection with that which the Mystery of Golgotha can be to us, namely, the proclamation of the revelation of wisdom and of peace in the heights and depths of the valley of the earth. Then only do we perceive what the whole fire of the Love is which can ray forth from the Mystery of Golgotha, which knows none of the limits which are set between the nations of the earth.
Much is contained in that which as Spiritual Science stands before our souls. Yet if we look at that which had already been manifested before this our chaotic present and which has now found an expression so convulsing, so sad and so painful, then we find how very very small is that dwelling, that soul-dwelling, in which to-day must dwell the new comprehension of the Christmas child which is to come to the earth. That Christmas child had to appear to poor shepherds, had to be born in a stable, concealed from those who at that time governed the world. Is it not again the same with regard to the new comprehension of that which is connected with the Mystery of Golgotha? Is not that which appears to us to-day outside in the world far removed from this comprehension? How far removed is the world at the beginning of our age from that which was revealed to the shepherds in the words:
Divine Revelation in the heights and upon earth peace to the men who have goodwill.
Let us celebrate this Christmas Festival of the renewed Christ comprehension in our hearts and in our souls if we wish to celebrate a true Christmas Festival, let us feel, as did the shepherds, far away from that which has now gripped the world. And through that which is revealed to us, as it was to the shepherds, we realise what had to be realised at that time, the promise of a certain future. Let us build within our souls confidence in the fulfilment of this promise, confidence that that which we feel to-day as the child which we must worship (the new Christ-comprehension is this child) will grow, will live, will grow to maturity in the near future, so that in it can be embodied the Christ appearing in the etheric, just as the Christ could be embodied in the fleshly body at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Let us fill ourselves with the light which through the confidence in this out-pouring can shine into the deepest inner being of our souls. Let us permeate ourselves with the warmth which can flow through our minds. If we feel thus with regard to the heights in which the light of Spiritual Science appears before our souls, then alone can we be certain that it will some day fill the world.
When we thus think, we celebrate a genuine Christmas Festival even in this grave and painful time, for not only is it the profoundly dark winter night of the time of the year, but there is over the horizon of the nations the result of the Ahrimanic darkness which has been growing up since the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean age. And just as the announcement of the Christ could only come at first to the shepherds but then filled the world ever more and more, so will also the new comprehension of the Mystery of Golgotha fill the world ever more and more, and times will come which as times of light will replace for humanity the time of winter darkness in which we are living to-day.
Thus let us feel as did the shepherds with regard to that which is still a child, with regard to the new Christ-comprehension, and let us feel that in all humility we can permeate with the new meaning the verse which is not only for ever to be preserved within the progress of the evolution of the earth, but is also to become more and more full of meaning. Let us with our minds and with heightened consciousness make ourselves one at this Christmas time with the motto so full of promise:
Divine Revelation in spiritual heights,
Peace ever and yet more peace
To all the souls of men on earth
Who have goodwill.
Erster Vortrag
Mit scharfen Zügen wird sich vielen Seelen die Erinnerung gerade an dieses Weihnachtsfest einprägen, denn es ist wohl kaum ein schärferer Gemütskontrast zu denken als der, welcher sich ergibt, wenn wir unsere Seele erheben zu der Stimme, die den Hirten ertönte, darstellend einen ewigen Wahrspruch für alle menschliche Erhebung der nachchristlichen Zeit:
Göttliche Offenbarung in den Höhen
Und Friede den Menschen auf Erden,
Die eines guten Willens sind
wenn wir unsere Seelen erheben zu dem «Friede den Menschen auf Erden» und die heutige Tatsache betrachten, dasjenige, was wir ausgebreitet finden über den Horizont eines großen Teiles der gebildeten Welt.
Gerade um dieses Kontrastes willen wird ein lange in der Erinnerung bleibendes Wahrzeichen für die Menschenherzen der Erde das nun erlebte Weihnachtsfest sein. Können wir doch gewiß, wenn wir dasjenige wahren, was wir unaufhörlich zu wahren haben auf dem Felde unseres geisteswissenschaftlichen Denkens - innere Herzensaufrichtigkeit und innere Seelenwahrhaftigkeit -, können wir doch wahrlich dieses Weihnachtsfest nicht mit denselben Gefühlen begehen, wie wir andere Weihnachtsfeste begangen haben. Denn anregen muß es uns zu tiefem Nachdenken, anregen muß es uns ganz besonders zu dem, was sich uns aus unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Vertiefung heraus als Idee für die Menschenzukunft ergibt, zu dem, was Menschenherzen zurückführen kann zu Zeiten, die der unsrigen nicht ähnlich sind.
Wir haben im Laufe der Jahre gar manches in unsere Seele eingeschrieben, das uns hinweisen kann auf die Art von Seelenverfassung, welche solche Zeiten herbeiführte. Was ist es denn, wovon wir fühlen müssen, daß es auch noch der Gegenwart so sehr fehlt? Wenn wir dasjenige, was oftmals das Herz unserer Betrachtungen gebildet hat, uns vor das Seelenauge rufen, dann werden wir sehen: es fehlt in den Tiefen der menschlichen Seele doch noch die Wahrheitserkenntnis davon, was in die Welt gezogen ist an dem Tage, dessen Erinnerung wir in dieser Winterweihenacht jedes Jahr begehen.
Das ganz Bedeutungsvolle, das ganz Tiefe, das geschehen ist in der Zeit, an die uns diese Winterweihenacht erinnert, es ist wahrhaftig nicht umsonst tief bedeutsam ausgedrückt in dem Spruche, den die Erdenmenschheit ja auch, man möchte sagen, als den eindringlichsten angesehen hat, eben in dem Spruche:
Göttliche Offenbarung in den Höhen
Und Friede den Menschen auf Erden,
Die eines guten Willens sind.
Das Einfachste, es ist oftmals für die Menschenherzen das am schwersten Verständliche, und so einfach dieser Spruch uns erklingt, so tun wir doch recht, wenn wir uns immer klarer und klarer machen, daß alle kommenden Zeiten des Erdendaseins fähig sein werden, diesen Spruch gerade immer tiefer und tiefer zu verstehen, sich immer mehr und mehr in seine bedeutsamen Worte hineinzuleben.
Nicht umsonst ist am populärsten geworden aus der geheimnisvollen Geschichte des Erscheinens des Christus Jesus auf Erden die Erscheinung des in der Weihnachtsweihenacht in das Erdenleben eintretenden Jesuskindes. Haben wir doch damit die Möglichkeit, etwas vor die Menschenseele hinzustellen, das liebevoll aufgenommen wird, auch von dem Herzen des noch kleinsten Kindes, sofern dieses Kind die äußeren Sinneseindrücke, wenn auch vielleicht noch nicht einmal mit Worten, empfangen kann - und das doch zugleich etwas ist, was so tief sich hineinsenkt in diejenigen Seelengründe, wo die Liebe am sanftesten und zugleich am stärksten wärmend den Menschen durchwellt.
Wahrhaftig, die Erdenmenschheit ist noch nicht viel weiter als bei der kindlichen Auffassung des Christus Jesus-Geheimnisses, und Epoche über Epoche wird noch vergehen müssen, bis die Menschenseele wiederum jene Stärke gewinnt, durch welche sie die ganze Größe des beginnenden Mysteriums von Golgatha in sich aufzunehmen vermag. So sei denn dieses Mal nicht eine Weihnachtsbetrachtung wie in anderen Jahren angestellt, sondern einiges vor Ihre Seelen gebracht, das uns hinweisen kann darauf, wie manches uns noch fehlt von jener Tiefe, die notwendig ist, um das Mysterium von Golgatha so recht in unseren Seelen aufleuchten zu lassen.
Wir haben gerade im Laufe des letzten Jahres öfter gesprochen davon, wie wir eigentlich auf unserem geisteswissenschaftlichen Boden nicht den Eintritt nur eines Jesuskindes, sondern zweier Jesuskinder zu feiern haben. Und es darf gesagt werden, daß damit, daß sich uns durch geisteswissenschaftliche Betrachtung dieses Geheimnis von den zwei Jesuskindern geoffenbart hat, der schwache Anfang gemacht worden ist zu einem neuen Verständnisse des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Langsam und allmählich nur konnte dieses Mysterium von Golgatha die Menschengemüter ergreifen. Wie es eingezogen ist in diese Menschengemüter, das kann sich vor unsere Seelen hinstellen, wenn wir zum Beispiel einen Blick darauf werfen, daß gewissermaRen dasjenige, was sich die heutige Christenmenschheit erkämpft hat in der Anschauung des Weihnachtskindes, sich durchringen mußte, von Osten nach Westen gehend, durch andere Auffassungen von einem göttlichen Mittler zwischen den höchsten göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten und der menschlichen Seele.
Auch darauf haben wir schon öfter den Blick geworfen, daß parallelgehend mit dem Strome christlichen Lebens von Osten nach Westen ein anderer Offenbarungsstrom ging, mehr im Norden, nordwärts vom Schwarzen Meer, der Donau entlang aufwärts bis zum Rhein herüber, bis nach Westeuropa hinein. Jener Dienst, den wir kennen als den Mithrasdienst, er ist verschwunden in den ersten Jahrhunderten der christlichen Zeit. Aber in den ersten Jahrhunderten der christlichen Zeitrechung hatte er in Europa ebenso viele Herzen ergriffen wie das Christentum selber, hatte sich tief eingeprägt und sich verbreitet in den Gegenden Mittel- und Osteuropas. Mithras erschien denen, die sich zu ihm bekannten, ebenso hehr und groß als der göttliche Mittler, der heruntergestiegen ist aus geistigen Höhen in das Erdendasein herein, wie den Christen der Christus erschien. Ebenso hören wir, wie das Hereintreten des Mithras in das Erdendasein in der Winterweihenacht des kürzesten Tages gefeiert worden ist; ebenso hören wir, daß er verborgen in einer Höhle geboren worden ist, daß Hirten zuerst seine Offenbarung hörten. Der Sonntag wurde ihm, ebenso wie andere christliche Festtage, geweiht.
Und wenn wir fragen: Was ist das Charakteristische an dem Herabsteigen dieser Mithrasgestalt?, so müssen wir sagen: So wie der Christus vorgestellt wurde in dem Jesus, so konnte der Mithras nicht vorgestellt werden. Das Bewußtsein war vorhanden, daß, wenn man ihn äußerlich abbildete, eine bildhafte Vorstellung von ihm machte, daß man dann nur eine äußere symbolische Vorstellung habe. Denn der wahre Mithras war nur zu schauen von denen, die hellseherisches Schauen hatten. Zwar wurde er vorgestellt als Mittler zwischen den Geistern der höheren Hierarchien und der Menschenseele; aber nicht so wurde er vorgestellt, daß er sich in einem Menschen verkörpert habe. Vorgestellt wurde er als herabsteigend zur Erde, doch in seiner wahren Wesenhaftigkeit - nicht im Bilde, wo alle ihn sehen konnten, sondern in seiner wahren Wesenhaftigkeit - nur sichtbar für die Initiierten, für diejenigen, die hellseherisches Schauen hatten. Daß diejenige göttlich-geistige Wesenheit, die als Mittler vorzustellen ist zwischen den Geistern der höheren Hierarchien und der Menschenseele, in einem Erdenleibe selber sich verkörpert, diese Vorstellung war im Mithrasdienste noch nicht vorhanden. Denn der Mithrasdienst fußte noch darauf, daß altes primitives Hellsehen bei einer großen Anzahl von Menschen vorhanden war. |
Wenn wir den Weg, den der Mithrasdienst von Osten nach Westen ging, untersuchen, so finden wir, wie unter den Menschen, die Mithrasdiener wurden, eine große Anzahl von solchen war, die selber schauen konnten in jenen Zwischenzuständen zwischen Schlafen und Wachen, wo die Seele nicht im Träumen, sondern in geistiger Wirklichkeit lebt, das wirkliche Herabsteigen des Mithras von Äon zu Äon, von Etappe zu Etappe, aus den geistigen Welten bis zur Erde hin. Und die andern wurden mitgerissen von diesen Sehern. Zeugnis ablegen konnten viele davon, daß den Menschen ein solcher Mittler, aber ein Mittler zu den geistigen Welten gegeben sei.
Was man als Mithraskultus hatte, war eben eine äußere, mehr oder weniger bildhafte Darstellung dessen, was die Seher schauten. Was ist es eigentlich, was uns in diesem Mithrasdienst entgegentritt? Wir dürfen nicht glauben - das geht aus unserer ganzen Weltanschauung hervor -, daß von dem Christus erst etwas gewußt wird seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Als denjenigen Geist, der kommen wird für die Menschheit, haben ihn die Eingeweihten der Mysterien und deren Schüler auch in den vorchristlichen Zeiten wohl gekannt. Die Eingeweihten haben auf ihn hingewiesen als den hohen Sonnengeist, den sie von den geistigen Höhen herabkommend schauten, der sich der Erde nahte, um in der Erde seine Wohnung aufzuschlagen. Als den Künftigen, als den Kommenden haben sie ihn bezeichnet. Ste haben ihn gewußt im Geiste und haben ihn herabsteigend geschaut.
Dann trat ein das Mysterium von Golgatha. Wir wissen, was es bedeutet. Wir wissen, daß durch dieses Mysterium von Golgatha der Geist, durch den die Erde ihren Sinn bekommen hat, in einen Menschenleib gezogen ist. Wir wissen, wie seither dieser Geist mit der Erde verbunden ist, und wir wissen auch, wie die Menschheit sich entwickeln soll, um in gar nicht so ferner Zukunft auch wieder im Geiste zu schauen den Christus, der durch das Mysterium von Golgatha sein eigenes Leben mit dem Leben der Erdenmenschheit vereinigt hat. Wir sprechen nichts Uneigentliches aus, wenn wir sagen: Dasjenige, was die alten Eingeweihten an den verschiedenen Orten oder Pflegestätten des Geistigen geschaut haben, das ist seither zu erkennen als durchdringend, durchwellend, durchpulsend, durchwebend das Erdenleben.
Aber so war es, daß sich immer mehr und mehr verlieren mußte für das hellseherische Erkennen, mit diesem hellseherischen Erkennen selber, das Hinaufschauen in die geistigen Sphären, um den Christus zu schauen, nachdem er heruntergestiegen war auf die Erde zu denjenigen, die da auf der Erde erkennen sollten, daß die Erde nicht nur menschliche Liebe birgt, sondern durchpulst ist von göttlicher Liebe, die sich immer mehr als höchster Schatz der Erdenmenschen offenbaren will. So recht sollten die Menschen empfinden, daß sie in ihrem Erdenhause das große Geschenk der kosmischen Liebe, den Christus, von dem Gotte, den man den Vatergott nennt, empfangen haben; so recht sollten sie ihn kennenlernen als das Wesen, das fortan mit den Taten, mit dem ganzen Sinn der Erdenevolution verbunden sein soll; so recht sollten sie ihn kennenlernen in seinem Leben, von dem ersten Atemzuge als Kind bis zu der größten Tat durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, die Menschenherzen offenbart werden kann.
Noch war es uns ja möglich, im Laufe der letzten Zeit jene Lücke durch das Fünfte Evangelium auszufüllen, welche in den vier anderen Evangelien geblieben ist. Ja, es ist unserer Zeit beschieden worden, noch genauer, man möchte sagen, jeden Schritt dieses Gotteslebens auf Erden kennen zu lernen. Und weil die Menschen also gleichsam ganz vertraut werden sollten mit dem Christus Jesus als einem ihrer Brüder, als einem solchen, der aus den weiten geistigen Reichen in das enge Erdental gezogen ist aus Liebe zu den Menschen, weil die Menschen ihn so kennenlernen sollten in vertrautester, intimster Erkenntnis, deshalb mußten eine Weile die Erkenntnis- und Liebekräfte des menschlichen Gemütes gesammelt werden, um in rein menschlich-göttlicher Gedrungenheit, möchte ich sagen, anzuschauen dasjenige, was sich abspielte unter den Menschen als der Anfang einer neuen, der christlichen Zeit. Dazu aber mußte die Kraft im Menschen gleichsam ganz hinkonzentriert und hingelenkt werden auf das Leben des Christus Jesus, und mußte abgelenkt werden eine Zeitlang von dem Hinaufblicken zu den geistigen Sphären auf dasjenige, was eingezogen ist in das Kind von Bethlehem, was heruntergestiegen ist aus den kosmischen Höhen.
Heute aber leben wir in der Zeit, in welcher der Blick sich wieder weiten muß, wenn Menschenfortschritt und Menschenheil wirklich die Erde beherrschen sollen. Weiten muß sich dasjenige, was der Christus in dem Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth war, zu dem, was er ist: zu dem Leben der Erde herabsteigend aus göttlich-geistigen Höhen.
Man möchte sagen: Der Mithrasdienst war etwas wie eine letzte, starke Erinnerung an den noch nicht zur Erde gekommenen, aber herabsteigenden Christus. Dann aber war es der Menschheit beschieden, den Christus immer inniger in das Gemüt aufzunehmen, so daß das Aufnehmen bis in das kleinste Kind hinein möglich war, aber in der Weise, daß neben diesem, mit diesem zusammen lief ein Abfluten der alten Art, hinaufzuschauen mit hellseherischem Blick zu den Höhen, aus denen Christus herabgestiegen ist, durch deren Anschauung wir erkennen, daß der Christus ein kosmisches Wesen ist, aus dessen Anschauen wir auch nur wissen, welchen Wert er für das enge Erdental hat. Langsam und allmählich flutete ab dieses hellseherische Hinaufschauen in kosmische Weiten, in denen Christus als kosmisches Wesen den Menschen erscheinen kann. Ein starker Anklang noch an das alte Wissen von dem überirdischen Christus war der Mithrasdienst.
Dann sehen wir, wie gleichsam allmählich abflutet, abnimmt die hellseherische Erkenntnis, wie selbst für diejenigen, die noch hellseherische Erkenntnis im alten Stile haben, ein Abfluten der hellseherischen Fähigkeiten eintritt, und wie mit diesem Abfluten auch die Möglichkeit aufhört, den Christus ganz in seiner wahren Wesenheit zu erkennen. Man erkennt ihn in seiner wahren Wesenheit, wenn man ihn nicht nur in seinem irdischen, menschlichen Wirken, sondern in seiner ganzen himmlischen Glorie erkennt.
Immer mehr schwand aber die Möglichkeit, Christus neben dem irdischen Dasein in seiner Himmelsglorie zu sehen. Wir sehen, wie das, was im Mithrasdienst noch lebte, schon abgeschwächt erscheint - trotz der hehren Größe, welche die entsprechende Lehre in sich birgt - in demjenigen, dessen Namen wir auch öfter erwähnt haben: in dem Begründer des Manichäismus. Mani weist uns auf den Jesus hin, aber es ist nicht ein solcher Hinweis, wie er bei dem einfachen, primitiven, gläubigen Gemüte ist, weil in diesem Geiste, der das Manichäertum begründete, noch altes Hellsehen war. Es ist aber auch noch nicht dasjenige, was der Gegenwart werden kann in bezug auf die Auffassung des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Der Christus Jesus ist für Mani ein Wesen, das nicht wirklich irdische menschliche Leiblichkeit angenommen hat, sondern nur in einem Scheinleibe, in einem ätherischen Leibe auf Erden gelebt hat. Wir sehen das Ringen ‚.im Manichäertum zum Begreifen des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Warum findet dieses Ringen statt? Weil es dem Begründer des Manichäertums noch möglich war, zu schauen in geistige Höhen, zu sehen, wie das geistige Wesen, das Christus-Wesen heruntersteigt. Aber es war noch nicht die Möglichkeit vorhanden, wirklich einzusehen, wie in die irdische Welt eindringt dieses geistige Wesen, wie es wirklich in einem menschlichen Leibe Wohnung nimmt. Ein Ringen der Seele war erst notwendig, bevor dieses volle Verständnis möglich war. |
Wir sehen auch wiederum die Lehre der Manichäer sich ausbreiten von Osten nach Westen, eine Lehre, welche auf der einen Seite noch hinblickt zu dem göttlichen Geiste, der herniedersteigt, hinblickt auf alles dasjenige, was die alte Weltanschauung noch hatte: zu schauen nicht nur nach den physischen Wesen, die sich den menschlichen Sinnesaugen bieten, sondern zu den Wesen, die als Sternenwesen durch das Weltenall ziehen. Andererseits durchdrang die Zusammenkettung des menschlichen Schicksals, des menschlichen Lebens mit diesem kosmischen Leben die Seele des Manichäers. Tief wurzelte sich in ihm ein die Frage: Wie ist vereinbar das Böse, das im Menschenleben waltet, mit der Wirkung des guten Gottes? Tief, tief hineingeschaut in das Rätsel des Bösen hat das Manichäertum. Aber dieses Rätsel des Bösen kann uns doch nur in seiner Tiefe vor das Seelenauge treten, wenn wir es im Zusammenhange mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha aufzufassen in der Lage sind, wenn wir das Mysterium von Golgatha durchdringen mit dem Rätsel des Bösen, wie es auch der Manichäismus erstrebte. Daher das Ringen der Überreste alter hellseherischer Erkenntnis mit dem Problem des Bösen, mit dem Rätsel des Bösen im Manichäertum.
Und wahrhaftig, gerade diejenigen, welche am tiefsten und intensivsten berufen waren, ihre Seelen hinzugeben an das Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha, sie haben gerungen mit dem, was noch hereinleuchtete in die neueren Zeiten von den Überresten der alten hellseherischen Erkenntnis. Wir brauchen nur zu denken an einen großen Lehrer des Abendlandes, den heiligen Augustinus. Bevor er sich durchgerungen hatte zu der Erkenntnis des paulinischen Christentums, war er hingegeben an die Lehre der Manichäer. Einen größeren Eindruck machte es ihm noch, wenn er vernehmen konnte, daß heruntergestiegen war das göttliche Mittlerwesen aus göttlich-geistigen Sphären von Äon zu Äon. Dieses geistige Schauen überleuchtet auch für Augustinus in den ersten Zeiten seines Ringens noch die Erkenntnis, wie in einem fleischlichen Leibe der Christus auf der Erde Wohnung genommen hat, und wie sich mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha das Rätsel des Bösen löst. Ergreifend ist es, zu schauen, wie Augustinus mit Faustus, dem berühmten Bischof der Manichäer, Zwiesprache hält und eigentlich nur dadurch, daß dieser Bischof nicht den nötigen Eindruck auf ihn machen kann, sich wegwendet von dem Manichäertum und sich dann dem paulinischen Christentum zuwendet.
Dann sehen wir immer mehr abfluten dasjenige, was wir nennen können die Erkenntnis des überirdischen Christus, wie er war vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha; und im Grunde genommen schwindet erst mit dem Heraufkommen der neuen Zeit, des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraums, vollständig dahin däs, was die Überreste des alten hellseherischen Erkennens waren. Diese alte hellseherische Erkenntnis kannte noch den himmlischen Christus neben dem irdischen Christus. Fühlen konnte man natürlich diesen himmlischen Christus auch noch in den Anfängen des Christentums, aber anschauen, erkennend anschauen, wie er heruntersteigt, das war nur dem alten, hellseherischen Erkennen möglich. Uns muß es tief berühren, wenn wir vernehmen, wie in den ersten Zeiten der Ausbreitung des Christentums diejenigen, die ihre Erkenntnis noch aus dem alten Hellsehertum genommen haben, den Christus sich vergegenwärtigen wollten: wie sie, um den Christus zu erkennen, nicht bloß nach Bethlehem hinblickten, sondern in die Himmelssphären schauten, um zu sehen, wie er von da heruntersteigt, den Menschen das Heil zu bringen.
Wir wissen, daß neben dem Mithrasdienst, neben dem Manichäertum im Abendlande die Gnosis vorhanden war. Auch diese wollte verbinden, wenigstens soweit sie christliche Gnosis war, das Herabsteigen des Christus aus göttlichen Sphären von Äon zu Äon mit dem Erkennen des irdischen Lebenslaufes des Christus Jesus. Und dann ist es ergreifend, zu sehen, wie das menschliche Gemüt sich immer mehr und mehr konzentrieren will auf die Anschauung des bloß irdischen Lebens des Christus Jesus. Ergreifend ist es, zu sehen, wie dieses einfache menschliche Gemüt, das nicht das alte Hellsehen hat, um das Leben Jesu darzustellen, sich fast fürchtet vor der grandiosen Vorstellung, die man haben mußte für den aus Himmelshöhen herabsteigenden Christus. Ganz betäubt von den Vorstellungen, die noch die Gnosis hatte, sind die ersten Christen. Sie fürchteten sich vor diesen Vorstellungen.
Bis in unsere Zeit geht bei denen, die zwar im tiefsten Gemüt berührt sind vom Mysterium von Golgatha, aber sich nicht aufschwingen können zu jenem Geist-Erkennen, eine gewisse Furcht, das Gemüt könne in ein Chaos hineinkommen, wenn es sich erhebt in die Zeiten, in denen man sehen kann, was an geistiger Erkenntnis in den Lehren der Gnostiker wohnt. Uns aber berührt das, was noch die Gnostiker sagen konnten über den Himmels-Christus neben dem irdischen Christus, gar sehr. Ich möchte sagen, es wird unser Seelenblick keineswegs stumpfer für das irdische Leben des Christus Jesus, wenn er hinaufgezogen wird jetzt durch neues Hellsehen zu geistigen Höhen, wo der himmlische Christus zu finden ist, und von wo er herabgestiegen ist. Dann berührt es uns so tief, wenn die Gnosis erzählt: «Jesus sprach:
Sieh hin, o Vater,
Wie dies Wesen auf der Erde,
Aller Übel Ziel und Opfer,
Fern von deinem Hauche irrt.
Sieh, das bitt’re Chaos flieht es,
Ratlos, wie’s hindurch soll finden.
Darum sende mich, o Vater!
Siegeltragend steig ich abwärts,
Der Äonen Zahl durchschreit ich,
Jede heilge Kunde deut ich,
Zeige dann der Götter Bildnis.
Und so schenk ich euch
Des heiligen Weges
Tief verborgne Kunde:
«Gnosis> heißt sie nun für euch.»
Wir fühlen, daß die neue Geisteswissenschaft uns wiederum dahin führen muß, daß wir um das Christus-Ereignis herumweben können in unserer Anschauung die geistige Aura, die aus Gründen, die wir schon oftmals erörtert haben und auf welche wir auch heute wieder hindeuten mußten, für die Menschheit eine Zeitlang verlorengehen mußte. Wir müssen es langsam und allmählich tun. Wir müssen gewissermaßen das, was uns die Geisteswissenschaft zu offenbaren vermag, so zu fassen suchen, daß das menschliche Gemüt, das heute noch weit von der Geisteswissenschaft entfernt ist, es zu fassen vermag.
Darum wurde versucht, im Grunde genommen die ganze anthroposophische Weisheit von dem Christus-Ereignis, namentlich von der Weihenacht und ihrer Verbindung mit dem menschlichen Gemüt, in einfache Worte zu fassen, die Ihnen auch hier vorgeführt worden sind:
Im Seelenaug’ sich spiegelt
Der Welten Hoffnungslicht,
Dem Geist ergebne Weisheit
Im Menschenherzen spricht:
Des Vaters ew’ge Liebe
Den Sohn der Erde sendet,
Der gnadevoll dem Menschenpfade
Die Himmelshelle spendet.
Hoffentlich werden Zeiten kommen für die irdische Evolution, in denen mehr, viel mehr und mit deutlicheren Worten gesprochen werden kann über das Geheimnis von Golgatha, mit einfachen Worten für die ganze Welt; in denen ausgesprochen werden kann für die ganze Menschheit dasjenige, was die Geisteswissenschaft der Menschheit auch über das Mysterium von Golgatha zu sagen hat.
Wir sehen ja, wie gerade bis zum Ende des vierten, sogar bis zum Beginn des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraumes, das alte hellseherische Erkennen so abflutet, daß die letzten Reste, die den Menschenseelen noch gegeben sind, der Verachtung anheimfallen. Wir sehen dieses erschütternd verkörpert in derjenigen Gestalt, welche in Europa auftritt - viel weiter verbreitet, als man denkt - gerade bei dem Abfluten des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes, in der Gestalt des volkstümlichen Abenteurers - denn ein Abenteurer istergeworden -, der noch tragen kann die zeitgemäßen letzten Reste der hellsehertschen Erkenntnis in demjenigen, den das Volksbuch nennt: «Magister Georgius Sabellicus, Faustus junior, fons necromanticorum, astrologus, magus secundus, chiromanticus, aeromanticus, pyromanticus, in hydra arte secundus.» So lautet der vollständige Titel jenes Faustus, der dann im 16. Jahrhundert als Repräsentant des völlig abklingenden alten Hellsehens dasteht, desjenigen Faust, der noch einen Blick in die geistigen Welten hinein hatte, wenn er auch schon chaotisch war, dieser Blick.
Dann kommt das herauf mit der neueren Zeit, daß es der Menschenseele nicht mehr gegeben ist, wenn sie sich wie in den alten Zeiten passiv in gewisse. Zustände versetzt, geistig zu schauen, sondern in der sie passiv nur das Sinnliche schauen kann und das, was der Verstand aus dem Sinnlichen kombinieren kann. Die ganze Tragik des letzten geistigen Schauens ist in den einfachen Mitteilungen über den Faustus junior zum Ausdruck gekommen. Im Grunde genommen nennt er sich schon in seinen Titeln so, daß wir erkennen können, er ist gleichsam der letzte Ausläufer derjenigen, die noch hineinschauen konnten in die Sphären, aus denen der Christus heruntergestiegen ist. Er nannte sich Faustus junior mit deutlicher Anspielung auf den alten Faust, den Manichäer Bischof Faustus, den Lehrer des Augustinus, der noch das besaß, nach dem Augustinus sich gesehnt hatte; denn die Schriften des Augustinus waren niemals so sehr verbreitet in Europa als in der Zeit, in der die Sagen von Faustus junior entstanden sind. Und er nannte sich Magus secundus, anspielend auf den Magus primus, der für diejenigen, die hineinschauen in diese Verhältnisse, auch noch dasteht als einer, der mit hellseherischem Blick hinausschaute, hinaufragte zu den Himmelssphären, vor dem sich aber fürchteten diejenigen, die nur anerkennen wollten, nur sich konzentrieren wollten auf das irdische Leben des Christus Jesus. Auf den alten Simon Magus, den Magus primus, weist Faustus damit hin, indem er sich nennt Magus secundus. Aber noch auf einen anderen weist er uns hin, von dem wir aus unseren geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtungen ja auch wissen, wie sein Blick hinaufgerichtet war in die geistige Welt, um zu schauen in den geistigen Sphären. «In hydra arte secundus» nennt er sich noch, hinweisend auf Pythagoras, der in der damaligen Zeit auf diesem Felde der Kunst der Primus genannt worden ist.
Wir sehen die letzte verglimmende Abendröte dessen, was altes Hellsehen war, und wir sehen, wie den Menschen schon unverständlich wird dieses alte Hellsehen. Ja, es hat sich wirklich erfüllt das, was uns so ergreifend in der Faust-Sage dargestellt worden ist: wie sich Augustinus sehnt nach dem Faustus senior, und wie er dann mit der Lehre des Faustus senior bekannt wird, wie uns gesagt wird, durch einen alten Mann und Arzt. Ebenso tritt uns, übertragen auf moderne Verhältnisse, Faustus junior entgegen in der Volkssage. Auch der alte Mann erscheint da wieder, der ihn warnt, aber Faustus junior hat seinen Pakt schon geschlossen; seine Erbschaft übergibt er dem Doktor Wagner.
Und wahrhaftig, wenn wir die Zeiten überblicken und das, was herübergekommen ist als Anschauung von einer geistigen Welt seit dem Herankommen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraumes, so müssen wir sagen: Es ist das dem Doktor Wagner übergebene Erbe. Denn es kommt darauf an, wie man ein solches Erbgut verwalten kann. Bei Faust ist es noch ein Hineinschauen in die geistigen Welten; bei Wagner ist es dasjenige, was nur in Pergamenten kramt, ausschaut nach alten Zeiten, und was im Grunde doch ganz richtig charakterisiert ist mit den Worten: daß man gierig nach Schätzen gräbt und froh ist, wenn man Regenwürmer findet.
Das ist die matertalistische Weltanschauung unserer neueren Zeit, und es ist kein Wunder, daß in dieser materialistischen Weltanschauung alle Anschauung von dem Himmels-Christus verlorengegangen ist, ja, daß heute noch immer Furcht vorhanden ist vor der Erweiterung des Bildes, auf das sich die Erdenkräfte konzentrieren sollten bis heute. Aber wir wissen auch: die Erdenmenschheit müßte alles Verständnis für dieses Bild wahrhaft verlieren, wenn sie nicht zu weben vermag, durch eine neue, geistige Anschauung, eine neue Aura um das so ergreifende Bild von dem Weihnachtskinde und von seinem Werden durch dreißig und drei Erdenjahre. Die Geisteswissenschaft wird berufen sein - die Seelen, welche sich ernstlich mit Geisteswissenschaft beschäftigen, werden es verspüren, daß sie dazu berufen ist -, den Blick der Menschengemüter wieder zu schärfen neben dem irdischen Christus für den Himmels-Christus. Denn dann wird der Christus erkannt werden für alle künftigen Erdenzeiten so, daß er niemals wieder verlorengehen kann dem Menschenfortschritt und dem Menschenheil.
Wenn die Weisheit wieder hinaufdringen wird in geistige Höhen, wo in göttlichen Sphären auch das Feuer der Liebe brennt, dann wird die Menschenseele wahrhaftig nicht wieder verlieren all das Wunderbare, all das in tiefste Liebeskräfte Hineindringende, was Menschen gewinnen können durch den Christus Jesus. Aber Unendliches wird dazugewonnen werden. Es wird dazugewonnen werden, was dazugewonnen werden muß, wenn die Menschheitsentwickelung in der entsprechenden Weise weitergehen soll.
Das aber, was wir heute zu sagen vermögen, es ist wahrhaft so trotzdem sich schon eröffnet haben die neuzeitlichen Quellen einer neuen Geisteserkenntnis -, daß man es gut im Symbolum des Weihnachtsfestes begeht. Wer sich so recht einlebt in das, was heute noch unser geisteswissenschaftliches Erkennen ist, dessen Seele überkommt tiefe, tiefe Demut. Denn nur ahnen dürfen wir, was die Geisteswissenschaft einstmals in der Zukunft für die Menschheit werden soll, denn was wir heute von ihr zu erkennen vermögen, es kann sich nur verhalten zu dem, was einstmals der Menschheit geschenkt werden wird, wenn viele, viele Zeit noch verflossen sein wird, wie das ganz junge Weihnachtskind zu dem erwachsenen Christus Jesus.
Wir haben wirklich heute in unserer neubeginnenden Geisteswissenschaft erst noch das Kind. Daher ist das Weihnachtsfest so recht unser Fest, und wir verspüren, daß wir gegenüber dem, was als Menschenlicht walten kann in der Erdenentwickelung, heute leben in tiefer, finsterer Winternacht, und daß wir wirklich stehen mit unserem heutigen Wissen vor dem, was sich uns in tiefer Winterfinsternis der Erdenentwickelung offenbart, wie einstmals die Hirten gestanden haben vor dem Christuskinde, das sich ihnen zuerst offenbarte. Gegenüber dem Verständnis von dem Christus Jesus können wir uns heute so recht fühlen wie die damaligen Hirten und so recht bitten die Quellen des geistigen Lebens, die immer mehr und mehr fließen mögen den Menschen, so recht, recht bitten, sie mögen immer mehr und mehr wahrmachen göttliche Offenbarung in den geistigen Höhen, und jenen Frieden geben, den diese Offenbarung den Menschengemütern geben kann, die wirklich guten Willens sind. Wie ein Wahrzeichen erscheint uns dann wohl gerade dieses Weihnachtsfest. Wir wissen noch wenig von dem, was die Welt einstmals als Geisteswissenschaft haben wird. Wir ahnen, was noch kommen mag, wir ahnen es in tiefer Demut. Aber das Wenige, wenn wir es so recht in unser Herz eindringen lassen wollen, ach, wie kommt es uns dann vor!
Ein Blick über das heutige europäische Erdenrund, meine lieben Freunde: Wie denken die Völker über einander? Wie suchen die Völker jedes bei dem andern die Schuld für dasjenige, was geschieht! Schreibt sich uns die Geist-Erkenntnis wahrhaft ins Gemüt ein, oh, dann werden wir die Schuld verstehen, die da gesucht wird von dem einen Volke bei dem andern, von der einen Nation bei der andern. Wahrhaftig, diese Schuld hat jemand, der recht, recht international ist, der seine Schritte von Nation zu Nation lenkt. Aber man redet von ihm nur in den Kreisen derer, in deren Herzen ein wenig Geisteswissenschaft eingezogen ist. Da reden wir von Ahriman, dem so recht internationalen Wesen, das im Bunde mit Luzifer die wahre Schuld hat. Aber man findet ihn nicht, wenn man immer den Blick hinwendet zu den andern, sondern nur, wenn man die Wege zur Erkenntnis sucht durch Selbsterkenntnis. Da hinunter in die chaotischen Tiefen geht es. Dann fühlen wir ihn, diesen Ahriman. Aber wenn wir ihn recht erkennen und ihn im Zusammenhange erkennen lernen mit dem, was uns das Mysterium von Golgatha sein kann: die Verkündigung der Offenbarung der Weisheit in den Höhen und des Friedens in den Tiefen des Erdentales, dann erst verspüren wir, was das ganze Feuer der Liebe ist, die von dem Mysterium von Golgatha ausstrahlen kann, und die nicht Grenzen kennt, die aufgerichtet sind zwischen Nationen und Völkern.
Manches steht bereits in dem, was als Geisteswissenschaft schon vor unsere Seelen getreten ist. Aber blicken wir hin auf dasjenige, was sich vor dieser unserer chaotischen Gegenwart schon geoffenbart hat und was jetzt einen so erschütternd traurig-schmerzlichen Ausdruck gefunden hat, dann finden wir, wie so sehr klein jene Seelenwohnung ist, in der heute wohnen muß das neue Verständnis von dem Weihnachtskinde, das zur Erde gekommen ist. War es mit diesem Weihnachtskinde so, daß es den armen Hirten erscheinen mußte, daß es im Stall geboren werden mußte, verborgen vor dem, was damals die Welt beherrschte - ist es nicht mit dem neuen Verständnis dessen, was mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha zusammenhängt, jetzt wieder so? Ist nicht so unendlich weit von diesem Verständnisse dasjenige entfernt, was draußen in der Welt uns heute erscheint, wie entfernt war die Welt im Beginne unserer Zeitrechnung von dem, was sich enthüllte den Hirten, als sie hörten:
Göttliche Offenbarung in den Höhen
Und Friede den Menschen auf Erden,
Die eines guten Willens sind.
Feiern wir, meine lieben Freunde, dieses Weihnachtsfest des erneuerten Christus-Verständnisses in unseren Herzen und in unseren Seelen; fühlen wir uns, wenn wir ein rechtes Weihnachtsfest feiern wollen, gleich jenen Hirten, weit weg von dem, was jetzt die Welt erfüllt. Aber erkennen wir durch das, was uns als Hirten sich offenbart, dasjenige, was damals erkannt werden mußte, erkennen wir die Verheißung einer sicheren Zukunft. Und bauen wir auf in unseren Seelen das Vertrauen zur Erfüllung dieser Verheißung: das Vertrauen dazu, daß dasjenige, was wir heute empfinden wie das Kind, das wir anbeten wollen - das neue Christus-Verständnis ist dieses Kind -, werde wachsen, es werde leben und es werde in nicht zu langer Zeit so heranwachsen, daß sich in ihm verkörpern kann der ätherisch erscheinende Christus, wie sich der Christus verkörpern konnte im fleischlichen Leibe zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Erfüllen wir uns mit dem Lichte, das uns durch das Vertrauen in diese Verheißung bis ins tiefste Seeleninnere erleuchten kann, durchwärmen wir uns mit der Wärme, welche unser Gemüt durchpulsen kann! Wenn wir uns also gegenüber der geistigen Höhe fühlen, in welcher das Licht jener Geisteswelt vor unsere ahnende Seele treten kann, dann allein können wir sicher sein, daß es einmal die Welt erhellen werde.
Wenn wir also denken, begehen wir - gerade in dieser schweren, schmerzlichen Zeit - ein echtes Weihnachtsfest. Denn nicht nur ist die tiefe, finstere Winternacht der Jahreszeit da; es ist über den Völkerhorizont hin das Ergebnis ahrimanischer Finsternis da, wie sie allmählich heraufgezogen ist seit dem Beginne des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters. Wie aber die Christus-Verkündigung zuerst nur den Hirten zukommen konnte und dann die Welt immer mehr und mehr erfüllte, so wird immer mehr und mehr die Welt erfüllen auch das neue Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Und Zeiten werden kommen, die als Lichtzeiten auch für die Menschheit ablösen werden die Zeit der Winterfinsternis, in der wir heute leben.
Fühlen wir uns also als Hirten gegenüber dem, was auch noch ein Kind ist: gegenüber dem neuen Christus-Verständnis, und fühlen wir, daß wir durchpulsen können, in aller Demut durchpulsen können mit einem neuen Sinn den Spruch, der nicht nur ewig währen soll innerhalb des Fortschrittes der Erdenentwickelung, sondern der auch immer bedeutungsvoller werden soll. Vereinigen wir uns mit dem Gemüte, aber mit erhöhtem Bewußtsein, in dieser Weihnachtszeit in dem so verheißungsvollen Wahrspruch:
Göttliche Offenbarung in geistigen Höhen,
Friede, Friede immer mehr und mehr
Allen Menschenseelen auf Erden,
Die eines guten Willens sind.
First Lecture
Many souls will remember this Christmas with particular vividness, for there can hardly be a sharper contrast of mood than that which arises when we lift our souls to the voice that sounded to the shepherds, proclaiming an eternal truth for all human elevation in the post-Christian era:
Divine revelation in the heights
And peace on earth to men of good will
when we lift up our souls to “peace on earth” and consider the reality of today, what we find spread out across the horizon of a large part of the educated world.
It is precisely because of this contrast that the Christmas we are now experiencing will remain a lasting symbol in the hearts of the people of the earth. For if we preserve what we must preserve unceasingly in the field of our spiritual scientific thinking—inner sincerity of heart and inner truthfulness of soul—we can truly celebrate this Christmas with feelings different from those with which we have celebrated other Christmases. For it must inspire us to deep reflection, it must inspire us especially to what emerges from our spiritual scientific deepening as an idea for the future of humanity, to what can lead human hearts back to times that are not like ours.
Over the years, we have inscribed many things in our souls that can point us to the kind of soul state that brought about such times. What is it that we must feel is still so lacking in the present? When we call to mind what has often formed the heart of our reflections, we will see that what is still missing in the depths of the human soul is the true knowledge of what came into the world on the day whose memory we celebrate every year on this winter solstice.
The truly significant, the truly profound that happened in the time that this winter solstice reminds us of is truly not expressed in vain in the saying that humanity on earth has also, one might say, regarded as the most powerful, namely in the saying:
Divine revelation in the heights
And peace on earth to people
of good will.
The simplest things are often the most difficult for human hearts to understand, and as simple as this saying sounds to us, we are right to make it clearer and clearer to ourselves that all future ages of earthly existence will be able to understand this saying more and more deeply, to live more and more into its meaningful words.
It is not without reason that the most popular aspect of the mysterious story of the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth is the appearance of the baby Jesus entering earthly life on Christmas Eve. For this gives us the opportunity to present something to the human soul that is lovingly received, even by the heart of the smallest child, provided that this child can receive the external sensory impressions, even if perhaps not yet with words — and yet at the same time is something that sinks so deeply into the depths of the soul, where love flows through human beings most gently and at the same time most warmly.
Truly, humanity on earth is not much further than the childlike understanding of the mystery of Christ Jesus, and epoch after epoch will have to pass before the human soul regains the strength to take in the full greatness of the beginning mystery of Golgotha. So let us not offer a Christmas reflection as in other years, but rather bring before your souls something that can point out to us how much we still lack of the depth that is necessary to allow the mystery of Golgotha to truly shine forth in our souls.
Over the course of the last year, we have often spoken about how, on our spiritual scientific ground, we should actually celebrate not only the arrival of one Jesus Child, but of two Jesus Children. And it can be said that the spiritual scientific contemplation of this mystery of the two Jesus children has revealed to us the weak beginnings of a new understanding of the mystery of Golgotha. Only slowly and gradually could this mystery of Golgotha take hold of the human mind. How it has entered into the human mind can be seen before our souls when we consider, for example, that in a sense what modern Christianity has achieved in its view of the Christ Child had to struggle its way from East to West, through other conceptions of a divine mediator between the highest divine-spiritual beings and the human soul.
We have also often noted that parallel to the flow of Christian life from East to West, there was another stream of revelation, more in the North, northward from the Black Sea, along the Danube up to the Rhine, and into Western Europe. The service we know as the Mithras cult disappeared in the first centuries of the Christian era. But in the first centuries of the Christian era, it had captured as many hearts in Europe as Christianity itself, had become deeply ingrained and spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Mithras appeared to those who professed him to be as noble and great as the divine mediator who descended from spiritual heights into earthly existence, just as Christ appeared to Christians. We also hear how the arrival of Mithras into earthly existence was celebrated on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year; we also hear that he was born hidden in a cave and that shepherds were the first to hear his revelation. Sunday was dedicated to him, as were other Christian holidays.
And when we ask: What is characteristic of the descent of this figure of Mithras? We must say: Just as Christ was presented in Jesus, so Mithras could not be presented. There was an awareness that if one depicted him outwardly, if one made a pictorial representation of him, one would then only have an external, symbolic representation. For the true Mithras could only be seen by those who had clairvoyant vision. He was indeed presented as a mediator between the spirits of the higher hierarchies and the human soul, but he was not presented as having incarnated in a human being. He was presented as descending to earth, but in his true essence — not in an image where everyone could see him, but in his true essence — visible only to the initiated, to those who had clairvoyant vision. The idea that the divine-spiritual being who is to be conceived as a mediator between the spirits of the higher hierarchies and the human soul incarnates himself in an earthly body did not yet exist in the Mithras cult. For the Mithras cult was still based on the fact that a large number of people possessed ancient, primitive clairvoyance.
If we examine the path that the Mithras cult took from East to West, we find that among the people who became followers of Mithras there were a large number who themselves could see into those intermediate states between sleeping and waking, where the soul lives not in dreams but in spiritual reality, the actual descent of Mithras from Aeon to Aeon, from stage to stage, from the spiritual worlds down to the earth. And the others were carried away by these seers. Many of them were able to testify that such a mediator, but a mediator to the spiritual worlds, had been given to human beings.
What was known as the cult of Mithras was simply an external, more or less pictorial representation of what the seers saw. What is it actually that we encounter in this Mithras service? We must not believe—this is clear from our entire worldview—that anything has been known about Christ since the mystery of Golgotha. The initiates of the mysteries and their disciples knew him well even in pre-Christian times as the spirit who would come for humanity. The initiates pointed to him as the high sun spirit whom they saw descending from the spiritual heights, approaching the earth to take up his dwelling there. They described him as the one who was to come, the one who was coming. They knew him in the spirit and saw him descending.
Then came the mystery of Golgotha. We know what it means. We know that through this mystery of Golgotha, the spirit that gave the earth its meaning entered into a human body. We know how this spirit has been connected with the earth ever since, and we also know how humanity must develop in order to see again, in the not-too-distant future, the Christ who, through the mystery of Golgotha, united his own life with the life of the earth's humanity. We are not speaking inaccurately when we say that what the ancient initiates saw in various places or centers of spiritual life can now be recognized as permeating, pulsating, and interweaving earthly life.
But it was so that more and more had to be lost to clairvoyant knowledge, with this clairvoyant knowledge itself, the looking up into the spiritual spheres to see Christ after he had descended to earth to those who were to recognize there that the earth not only harbors human love, but is permeated by divine love, which wants to reveal itself more and more as the highest treasure of earthly human beings. People should truly feel that in their earthly home they have received the great gift of cosmic love, the Christ, from the God who is called the Father God; they should truly get to know him as the being who from now on is to be connected with the deeds and the whole meaning of earthly evolution; they should truly get to know him in his life, from his first breath as a child to the greatest deed through the mystery of Golgotha, which can be revealed to human hearts.
In recent times, it has been possible for us to fill the gap left in the four other Gospels with the Fifth Gospel. Yes, it has been granted to our time to get to know even more precisely, one might say, every step of this God-life on earth. And because human beings should become, as it were, completely familiar with Christ Jesus as one of their brothers, as one who came from the vast spiritual realms into the narrow valley of earth out of love for human beings, because human beings should get to know him in this way, in the most intimate most intimate knowledge, therefore the powers of knowledge and love in the human mind had to be gathered for a while in order to view, in pure human-divine conciseness, I would say, that which took place among human beings as the beginning of a new, Christian era. To this end, however, the power within human beings had to be concentrated and directed entirely toward the life of Christ Jesus, and had to be diverted for a time from looking up to the spiritual spheres to that which had entered into the child of Bethlehem, which had descended from the cosmic heights.
Today, however, we live in a time when our view must widen again if human progress and human salvation are to truly rule the earth. What Christ was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth must expand into what he is: the life of the earth descending from divine-spiritual heights.
One might say that the Mithras cult was something like a last, powerful reminder of Christ, who had not yet come to earth but was descending. But then it was granted to humanity to take Christ ever more deeply into their hearts, so that even the smallest child was able to receive him, but in such a way that alongside this, and together with this, there was a draining away of the old way, to look up with clairvoyant vision to the heights from which Christ descended, through the contemplation of which we recognize that Christ is a cosmic being, from whose contemplation we also know what value he has for the narrow valley of Earth. Slowly and gradually, this clairvoyant looking up flooded into cosmic expanses in which Christ can appear to human beings as a cosmic being. The Mithras cult was still strongly influenced by the ancient knowledge of the super-earthly Christ.
Then we see how, as it were, the clairvoyant knowledge gradually ebbs away, how even for those who still have clairvoyant knowledge in the old style, a decline in clairvoyant abilities sets in, and how with this decline the possibility of recognizing Christ completely in his true essence also ceases. One recognizes him in his true nature when one recognizes him not only in his earthly, human activity, but in all his heavenly glory.
However, the possibility of seeing Christ in his heavenly glory alongside his earthly existence gradually disappeared. We see how what was still alive in the Mithras cult already appears weakened – despite the noble greatness inherent in the corresponding teaching – in the one whose name we have mentioned several times: in the founder of Manichaeism. Mani points us to Jesus, but it is not a reference such as that found in the simple, primitive, believing mind, because in the spirit that founded Manichaeism there was still ancient clairvoyance. But it is also not yet what can become the present in relation to the understanding of the mystery of Golgotha. For Mani, Christ Jesus is a being who did not really take on earthly human physicality, but only lived on earth in an apparent body, in an etheric body. We see the struggle in Manichaeism to understand the mystery of Golgotha. Why does this struggle take place? Because the founder of Manichaeism was still able to look into spiritual heights and see how the spiritual being, the Christ being, descends. But it was not yet possible to really understand how this spiritual being enters the earthly world, how it truly takes up residence in a human body. A struggle of the soul was necessary before this full understanding was possible.
We also see the teachings of the Manichaeans spreading from east to west, teachings which, on the one hand, still look to the divine spirit descending, look to everything that the old worldview still had: to look not only at the physical beings that present themselves to the human senses, but also at the beings that move through the universe as star beings. On the other hand, the interconnection of human destiny, of human life with this cosmic life, permeated the soul of the Manichaean. Deeply rooted in him was the question: How is the evil that reigns in human life compatible with the workings of a good God? Manichaeism looked deeply, deeply into the mystery of evil. But this mystery of evil can only appear in all its depth before the eye of the soul if we are able to understand it in connection with the mystery of Golgotha, if we penetrate the mystery of Golgotha with the mystery of evil, as Manichaeism also strove to do. Hence the struggle of the remnants of ancient clairvoyant knowledge with the problem of evil, with the mystery of evil in Manichaeism.
And truly, it was precisely those who were most deeply and intensely called to devote their souls to understanding the mystery of Golgotha who struggled with what still shone through into the newer times from the remnants of the old clairvoyant knowledge. We need only think of a great teacher of the Western world, St. Augustine. Before he had brought himself to the realization of Pauline Christianity, he was devoted to the teachings of the Manichaeans. It made an even greater impression on him when he heard that the divine mediator had descended from divine-spiritual spheres from eon to eon. In the early days of his struggle, this spiritual vision also illuminated for Augustine the knowledge of how Christ took up residence on earth in a physical body and how the mystery of Golgotha solved the riddle of evil. It is moving to see how Augustine converses with Faustus, the famous bishop of the Manicheans, and how, only because this bishop fails to make the necessary impression on him, he turns away from Manichaeism and then turns to Pauline Christianity.
Then we see more and more of what we can call the knowledge of the super-earthly Christ, as he was before the mystery of Golgotha, ebbing away; and basically, it is only with the advent of the new era, the fifth post-Atlantean period, that what remained of the old clairvoyant knowledge disappears completely. This old clairvoyant knowledge still knew the heavenly Christ alongside the earthly Christ. Of course, this heavenly Christ could still be felt in the early days of Christianity, but to see him, to see him descending, was only possible through the old clairvoyant knowledge. We must be deeply moved when we hear how, in the early days of the spread of Christianity, those who still drew their knowledge from ancient clairvoyance wanted to visualize Christ: how, in order to recognize Christ, they did not merely look toward Bethlehem, but looked into the heavenly spheres to see him descending from there to bring salvation to humanity.
We know that alongside the cult of Mithras and Manichaeism, Gnosticism existed in the West. This too, at least insofar as it was Christian Gnosticism, sought to connect the descent of Christ from divine spheres from Aeon to Aeon with the recognition of the earthly life of Christ Jesus. And then it is moving to see how the human mind wants to concentrate more and more on the view of the merely earthly life of Christ Jesus. It is moving to see how this simple human mind, which does not have the ancient clairvoyance to depict the life of Jesus, is almost afraid of the grandiose idea one had to have of Christ descending from the heights of heaven. The first Christians were completely stunned by the ideas that Gnosticism still held. They were afraid of these ideas.
Even today, those who are deeply touched by the mystery of Golgotha but cannot rise to that spiritual recognition still feel a certain fear that their minds might fall into chaos when they ascend to the times when one can see what spiritual knowledge dwells in the teachings of the Gnostics. But we are deeply moved by what the Gnostics were able to say about the heavenly Christ alongside the earthly Christ. I would like to say that our soul's vision does not become any less sensitive to the earthly life of Christ Jesus when it is now drawn up through new clairvoyance to spiritual heights where the heavenly Christ can be found and from where he descended. Then it touches us so deeply when the Gnosis tells us: “Jesus said:
Look, O Father,
How this being on earth,
The goal and victim of all evil,
Far from your breath, errs.
See, the bitter chaos flees from it,
Clueless as to how to find its way through.
Therefore send me, O Father!
Bearing the seal, I descend,
I pass through the number of eons,
I interpret every sacred message,
Then I show the image of the gods.
And so I give you
The sacred path
Deeply hidden message:
“Gnosis” is its name for you now.
We feel that the new spiritual science must lead us back to the point where we can weave around the Christ event in our perception the spiritual aura which, for reasons we have often discussed and which we have had to point out again today, had to be lost to humanity for a time. We must do this slowly and gradually. We must, as it were, try to grasp what spiritual science can reveal to us in such a way that the human mind, which is still far removed from spiritual science today, can grasp it.
That is why an attempt has been made to express the whole of anthroposophical wisdom about the Christ event, especially about Christmas and its connection with the human mind, in simple words, which have also been presented to you here:
In the soul's eye is reflected
The light of the world's hope,
Wisdom devoted to the spirit
Speaks in the human heart:
The Father's eternal love
Sends the Son to Earth,
Who graciously bestows upon the human path
The light of Heaven.
Hopefully, times will come for earthly evolution when more, much more, and with clearer words can be spoken about the mystery of Golgotha, with simple words for the whole world; when what spiritual science has to say to humanity about the mystery of Golgotha can be expressed for the whole of humanity.
We see how, right up to the end of the fourth, even to the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the old clairvoyant knowledge is ebbing away to such an extent that the last remnants still given to human souls are falling prey to contempt. We see this shockingly embodied in the figure that appears in Europe — much more widespread than one might think — precisely at the end of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, in the figure of the popular adventurer — for an adventurer has become an adventurer — who can still carry the last remnants of clairvoyant knowledge in the one whom the folk book calls: “Magister Georgius Sabellicus, Faustus junior, fons necromanticorum, astrologus, magus secundus, chiromanticus, aeromanticus, pyromanticus, in hydra arte secundus.” This is the full title of that Faustus who then stands in the 16th century as the representative of the completely fading old clairvoyance, that Faust who still had a glimpse into the spiritual worlds, even if it was already chaotic, this glimpse.
Then, with the advent of modern times, it became impossible for the human soul to see spiritually when it was passively placed in certain states, as in ancient times. Instead, it could only passively see the sensual and what the intellect could combine from the sensual. The whole tragedy of the last spiritual vision is expressed in the simple messages about Faustus Junior. Basically, he already calls himself this in his titles, so that we can recognize that he is, as it were, the last remnant of those who could still look into the spheres from which Christ descended. He called himself Faustus Junior in clear allusion to the old Faust, the Manichean bishop Faustus, the teacher of Augustine, who still possessed what Augustine had longed for; for Augustine's writings were never so widely read in Europe as in the time when the legends of Faustus Junior arose. And he called himself Magus secundus, alluding to Magus primus, who, for those who look into these circumstances, still stands as one who looked out with clairvoyant vision, towering above the heavenly spheres, but who was feared by those who only wanted to acknowledge and concentrate on the earthly life of Christ Jesus. Faustus refers to the old Simon Magus, the Magus primus, by calling himself Magus secundus. But he also refers us to another person, whom we know from our spiritual scientific observations, whose gaze was directed upward into the spiritual world in order to see into the spiritual spheres. He calls himself “In hydra arte secundus,” referring to Pythagoras, who was called Primus in this field of art at that time.
e see the last dying embers of what was once clairvoyance, and we see how this ancient clairvoyance is already becoming incomprehensible to people. Yes, what was so movingly depicted in the Faust legend has truly come to pass: how Augustine longs for Faustus senior, and how he then becomes acquainted with the teachings of Faustus senior, as we are told, through an old man and doctor. Similarly, transferred to modern circumstances, Faustus junior appears to us in the folk tale. The old man also appears again, warning him, but Faustus Junior has already made his pact; he hands over his inheritance to Doctor Wagner.
And truly, when we look back over the ages and consider what has come down to us as a view of the spiritual world since the dawn of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, we must say: it is the legacy bequeathed to Doctor Wagner. For what matters is how such a legacy can be administered. In Faust, it is still a matter of looking into the spiritual worlds; in Wagner, it is that which only rummages in parchments, looks back to ancient times, and which is basically quite correctly characterized by the words: that one digs greedily for treasures and is happy when one finds earthworms.
This is the materialistic worldview of our modern times, and it is no wonder that in this materialistic worldview all perception of the Heavenly Christ has been lost, indeed that even today there is still fear of expanding the image on which the earthly forces should have concentrated until now. But we also know that humanity on earth would truly lose all understanding of this image if it were not able to weave, through a new, spiritual view, a new aura around the moving image of the Christmas Child and his development through thirty-three earthly years. Spiritual science will be called upon—and souls who are seriously engaged in spiritual science will feel that they are called upon—to sharpen the gaze of human minds once again, alongside the earthly Christ, toward the heavenly Christ. For then Christ will be recognized for all future earthly ages in such a way that he can never again be lost to human progress and human salvation.
When wisdom rises again to spiritual heights, where the fire of love also burns in divine spheres, then the human soul will truly not lose all that is wonderful, all that penetrates into the deepest powers of love, which human beings can gain through Christ Jesus. But something infinite will be gained. What must be gained will be gained if human development is to continue in the appropriate manner.
But what we are able to say today is truly so, even though the modern sources of a new spiritual knowledge have already opened up, that it is good to celebrate it in the symbolism of Christmas. Those who truly immerse themselves in what is still our spiritual scientific knowledge today will be overcome by deep, deep humility. For we can only guess at what spiritual science will one day become for humanity, because what we are able to recognize today can only be related to what will one day be given to humanity when much, much time has passed, just as the very young Christmas Child is related to the adult Christ Jesus.
Today, in our spiritual science that is just beginning, we really still have the child. That is why Christmas is truly our festival, and we feel that, compared to what can reign as human light in the evolution of the earth, we are living today in a deep, dark winter night, and that with our present knowledge we really stand before what is revealed to us in the deep winter darkness of the earth's evolution, just as the shepherds once stood before the Christ Child who first revealed himself to them. Compared to the understanding of Christ Jesus, we can feel today just as the shepherds did then, and we can rightly ask the sources of spiritual life, which may flow more and more to human beings, to make divine revelation in the spiritual heights more and more real, and to give the peace that this revelation can give to human minds that are truly of good will. How like a beacon this Christmas season appears to us! We still know little of what the world will one day have as spiritual science. We sense what may still come, we sense it in deep humility. But the little we know, when we allow it to penetrate our hearts, oh, how it affects us!
Take a look at the European world today, my dear friends: how do the peoples think about each other? How do the peoples seek to blame each other for what is happening! If spiritual knowledge truly becomes engraved in our minds, oh, then we will understand the blame that is sought by one people from another, by one nation from another. Truly, this blame lies with someone who is truly international, who directs his steps from nation to nation. But people only talk about him in circles where a little spiritual science has found its way into their hearts. There we talk about Ahriman, the truly international being who, in alliance with Lucifer, is truly to blame. But you will not find him if you always turn your gaze to others, but only if you seek the paths to knowledge through self-knowledge. Down there, in the chaotic depths, that is where he is. Then we feel him, this Ahriman. But when we recognize him correctly and learn to recognize him in connection with what the mystery of Golgotha can be for us: the proclamation of the revelation of wisdom in the heights and of peace in the depths of the valley of Earth, only then do we feel what the whole fire of love is that can radiate from the mystery of Golgotha and that knows no boundaries erected between nations and peoples.
Much of this is already contained in what has come before us as spiritual science. But if we look at what has already been revealed before our chaotic present and what has now found such a shockingly sad and painful expression, we find how very small is the soul dwelling in which the new understanding of the Christmas Child who came to earth must live today. Was it not so with this Christmas Child that He had to appear to the poor shepherds, that He had to be born in a stable, hidden from those who ruled the world at that time—is it not so again now with the new understanding of what is connected with the mystery of Golgotha? Is not what appears to us today in the world infinitely far removed from this understanding, just as the world at the beginning of our era was far removed from what was revealed to the shepherds when they heard:
Divine revelation in the heights
And peace on earth to men
of good will.
Let us celebrate, my dear friends, this Christmas of renewed understanding of Christ in our hearts and souls; if we want to celebrate a true Christmas, let us feel like those shepherds, far away from what now fills the world. But through what is revealed to us as shepherds, let us recognize what had to be recognized at that time, let us recognize the promise of a secure future. And let us build up in our souls the confidence that this promise will be fulfilled: the confidence that what we feel today as the child we want to worship—the new understanding of Christ is this child—will grow, will live, and will grow up in not too long a time so that the Christ who appears ethereal can embody himself in it, just as Christ was able to embody himself in the physical body at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Let us fill ourselves with the light that can illuminate us to the depths of our souls through our trust in this promise, let us warm ourselves with the warmth that can pulse through our minds! When we feel ourselves in the spiritual heights where the light of that spiritual world can appear before our anticipating souls, then alone can we be sure that it will one day illuminate the world.
When we think in this way, we celebrate a true Christmas, especially in these difficult and painful times. For it is not only the deep, dark winter night of the season that is upon us; it is the result of Ahrimanic darkness that has gradually gathered since the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch that is visible on the horizon of the nations. But just as the proclamation of Christ could first only reach the shepherds and then filled the world more and more, so too will the new understanding of the mystery of Golgotha fill the world more and more. And times will come that will replace the time of winter darkness in which we live today as times of light for humanity.
Let us therefore feel like shepherds toward that which is still a child: toward the new understanding of Christ, and let us feel that we can pulsate, in all humility, with a new meaning, the saying that is not only to last forever within the progress of Earth's development, but that is also to become ever more meaningful. Let us unite with the mind, but with heightened consciousness, during this Christmas season in the promising saying:
Divine revelation in spiritual heights,
Peace, peace more and more
To all human souls on earth,
Who are of good will.