The Christian Mystery
GA 97
13 February 1906, Cologne
IV. The Gospel of John as an Initiation Document II
The second part of the gospel of John
The experiences John described from the 13th chapter onwards refer to the devachanic level. John indicated this by saying he had been raised from the dead. John was Lazarus raised from the dead. We can understand therefore why it is only now that mention is made of the disciple whom the Lord loved. This is the secret at the centre of the gospel, that the writer was Lazarus raised from the dead.
John then went through experiences with the Christ in the world of the spirit. The second part in particular does not merely tell what has happened on some particular level but describes the things every human being can inwardly experience. The way in which one can inwardly know oneself to be at the level John spoke of is the following. From a certain point in his development the individual no longer feels separate from all things. He enters wholly into the things that are around him. This is to expand one's self into a universe. John felt himself to be part of the whole world around him. This comes to expression in the devachanic image of the washing of the feet.46John 13: 1-11. John experienced this in the world of the spirit, though it was at the same time also a historical event.
A higher realm of nature always develops at the cost of a lower one. If there were no mineral world, the plant world would not be able to take nourishment from it. The plant world is pushed lower down so that a yet higher realm, the animal world, may develop, and so on. The human world also depends on the other realms. A more highly developed form needs the one that is less developed. There could be no higher caste if there were not also a lower one. Just as there has to be a mineral world so that the plant world may exist, so did the apostles have to exist for Christ Jesus to be there. No one can be a saint without pushing others lower down. It says in chapter 13, verse 16: ‘The servant is no greater than his lord.’ The Christ has evolved on the basis of the apostles and is therefore able to call them the lords out of whose community he has arisen. He washes their feet to indicate that he is lower than they are in so far as he owes his existence to them. This is something we must all experience in our own bodies. Anyone who has not had this experience has no true perception of the path of Christian mysticism.
Jesus also said: ‘He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.’47John 13: 18. He felt himself to be in the community of the whole earth. He felt that the whole of humanity was resting upon him, that he was under its heel.
Having experienced all this at the devachanic level, John was able to understand the words of the vine and its branches that followed.48John 15: 1 -8. They refer to the community of the whole Christian congregation.
We are now in the fifth root race of our earth existence. This has seven sub-races, the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egypto-Babylonic-Chaldean, the Graeco-Roman-Semitic, the Germanic, the Slavonic and the seventh sub-race. The last three sub-races of the fourth root race, which was the Atlantean one, were particularly important. From the third from last, the ancient Semitic race, has come the fifth root race. This sub-race dwelt in the region where Ireland is today. It migrated from there, letting itself be guided to the Gobi desert or Shamo. This is the region where the present, the fifth root race originated. Three sub-races of the Atlanteans, seven sub-races of the Aryan root race and two of the sixth root race, belong together in some respect. When humanity has gone through all these races it will have reached a point where a great part of humanity will have achieved what it is meant to achieve.
The twelve apostles are symbols of those twelve sub-races. Jesus has evolved from the twelve apostles. In the washing of the feet he bows before the races to whom he must bring salvation.
In the parable of the vine, the Christ feels himself to be connected with all races; he provides them with the spiritual life blood.
Many different images also come into this in the higher world. We are told of Judas Iscariot's betrayal. He represents one of the races, the race which is now bringing everything down on to the material level, our own fifth sub-race, which is materialistic. In the process of evolution in which humanity first lived in direct spiritual perception and then had to be taken into the physical world it was perfectly natural for the representative of this fifth sub-race to be the betrayer. Judas Iscariot represented the race that descends deeper than any other. The gospel of John continues to be valid beyond space and time for the very reason that it must be seen in symbolic terms. The act of Judas forms an organic part of the Christ's mission. Judas went through a form of martyrdom. He was the traitor and in a sense also a martyr. He brought about the sacrifice of the Christ.
The sequence of parables served to take the apostles up into the inner nature of Christianity. At the Christ's sacrificial death everything that had in earlier times been mystery rite appeared before the world as a historical event. In the mysteries, the pupils went through what here has become the three days of Lazarus' symbolic death. With the Christ this was to appear in the great historical level. From then on a human being was to be redeemed if he believed, without having gained direct vision in the mysteries. Everyone was to have that experience when the spirit of truth came. It would tell of the element brought into world history with the Christian events. ‘He will proclaim to you the things that are to come.’49John 16: 13.
John was speaking out of this spirit of truth. The historical betrayal of the Christ was to happen in the future in the race of which Judas was the representative.
The events that follow are exemplary of the Christian mystic's inner experience. Then the Christ was given a slap in the face.50This and the following events John 18 and 19. This was the second important event after the washing of the feet. It is something everyone must receive who inwardly seeks to go through the life of Christ. It has to be borne with complete inner composure that the people to whom one is giving the best one has, will not acknowledge this. The scourging also follows. In moral terms it means that we bear the pain the world causes us and do so calmly. Together with the slap on the face this is the second stage the Christian mystic must go through.
It is something pupils of Christian mysticism have really and truly been going through since that time. The ability to bear the pain calmly is learned in the pupil's own body. He really gets a feeling as if he is pierced with needles.
The next, third stage is the wearing of the crown of thorns. It is to accept humiliation calmly. It is the human I which is humiliated. The forebrain, which developed during the last period of ancient Atlantis, senses the crown of thorns. Genuinely painful experiences develop in this mystical soul state and have to be overcome.
The fourth stage is the crucifixion. It is a mystical experience which signifies that one's own body has become as foreign to one as an outside object. The human being then bears the burden of the cross. His soul has grown independent. It is only tied to the body the way the body of Christ was nailed to the cross. This is an inner experience for the mystic. He now knows himself to be living in a spiritual body. A blood trial goes hand in hand with this. The wounds of the Christ truly appear on hands and feet when the Christian mystic has gone through this. There is a physical aspect to everything that is of the spirit.
When the human being has reached this point, death on the cross ensues. This is a spiritual experience. Goethe brought it to expression in the following words:
So long as you don't have it,
this word: ‘Die and become!’
you're but a miserable guest
here on this earth.51Goethe, West-östlicher Diwan, poem ‘Selige Sehnsuch’.
Jakob Boehme said: ‘If you don't die before your death comes, you will perish when you die.’52Boehme, Jakob (1575–1624); see chapter on Valentin Weigel and Jakob Boehme in Steiner R. Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age (GA 7). Tr. K. E. Zimmer. Blauvelt: Steinerbooks 1980; and two lectures (not translated) given in Berlin on 3 May 1906 (in GA 54) and 9 Jan. 1913 (in GA 62). The Christian mystic must go through the whole of death. Otherwise he cannot enter into a higher life. The sixth event is the entombment. This is mystic realization of community with the earth organism. The pupil unites with the planet earth, becoming a planetary spirit. Everything around him then becomes his body. The seventh stage is the higher life, the resurrection, given to man. These are the seven stages of Christian mystic development: the washing of the feet, the slap on the face and the scourging, the crown of thorns, the crucifixion, death, entombment and resurrection. It is an inner development with external symbols.
John wrote about it in a way that has truly given us a basic work for mystics. The sentences must become the subject of meditation as we read them. This gives us the meditation we need to go through these events. The gospel of John is a book of miracles for it brings about miracles in the soul. It has been written for every human being and everyone can gain inward experience of the gospel of John.
Let us consider the second chapter once more, now from this point of view. Before the washing of the feet man faced the need to give birth to the new human being. He then went through the seven stages and became the new human being. The new human being related to the old one as a child does to his mother. The old human being conceived him and bore him. This is how we must see the image of the mother of Jesus. Every old human being has the ability to become a new human being.
The old human beings are of different types. When the new human being is born of them, all will give birth to the same Christ. The old human being, the mother, may exist in different ways. When the Christ was on the cross he looked back to his mother, and those were three women representing three different human configurations from whom the mystic may come. The mother of Jesus cannot be given a name. She is, however, called Mary. Mary is the same as Maya, the womb from which the new human being has come.
When the Christ was taken down from the cross, his legs must not be broken. This has to do with the whole development of our civilization. In ancient Atlantis human beings were still able to influence the generative etheric forces. They were able to use the germinative powers of grain to set airships in motion. The mission of the twelve sub-races, starting with the fifth Atlantean sub-race, is to develop powers and abilities relating to the mineral world, powers of making combinations. The twelve races have to take the earth to the point where the mineral world is essentially conquered. The time when Christianity is the central member is the time when man transforms the mineral world. Man will make the earth's magnetism serve him once he has the moral powers to influence the earth. He still more or less lacks conscious awareness of everything else.
The gospel of John is one of the works that have the infinite in them and this is like a well-spring.
Das Johannes-Evangelium als Einweihungsurkunde
Der zweite Teil des Johannes-Evangeliums
Die Erlebnisse des Johannes von Kapitel dreizehn an beziehen sich auf den Devachanplan. Das deutet Johannes dadurch an, daß er auferweckt ist: Der auferweckte Lazarus, das ist Johannes. Daher kann man verstehen, daß erst von nun an die Rede von dem Jünger ist, den der Herr lieb hatte. Das ist das Mittelpunktsgeheimnis des Johannes-Evangeliums, daß der Schreiber der auferweckte Lazarus ist.
Johannes macht nun in der geistigen Welt die Erlebnisse mit dem Christus durch. Namentlich der zweite Teil ist nicht bloß eine Erzählung dessen, was sich auf irgendeinem Weltenplane ereignet hat, sondern es wird beschrieben, was jeder in seinem Inneren erleben kann. Die Art und Weise, wie man empfindet, daß man auf der Stufe ist, die Johannes schildert, ist folgende: Der Mensch fühlt sich von einem bestimmten Punkte der Entwickelung an nicht mehr getrennt von allen Dingen. Er taucht unter in den Dingen um ihn her. Das bedeutet das eigene Selbst zum Universum erweitern. Johannes fühlt sich als ein Glied der ganzen ihn umgebenden Welt. Das kommt zum Ausdruck in dem devachanischen Bild von der Fußwaschung. Die erlebt Johannes in der geistigen Welt, wenn die Fußwaschung auch zu gleicher Zeit historisches Ereignis ist.
Immer erhebt sich ein höheres Naturreich auf Kosten eines niedrigeren Reiches. Gäbe es kein Mineralreich, so könnte das Pflanzenreich nicht seine Nahrung daraus nehmen. Das Pflanzenreich wird hinuntergestoßen, damit sich wieder ein höheres Reich, das Tierreich, entwickeln kann und so weiter. Das Menschenreich braucht auch die andern Reiche. Der höher Entwickelte braucht den weniger Entwickelten. Wenn sich nicht eine untergeordnete Kaste bildete, so könnte es keine höhere Kaste geben. So wie das Pflanzenreich das Mineralreich voraussetzt, so setzt der Christus Jesus die Apostel voraus. Kein Heiliger könnte sich entwickeln, wenn nicht andere hinuntergestoßen würden. In Kapitel 13, Vers 16 steht: «Der Knecht ist nicht größer denn sein Herr.» Christus ist aus den Aposteln herausgewachsen, daher kann er sie die Herren nennen, aus deren Gemeinschaft er herausgewachsen ist. Er wäscht ihnen die Füße, um anzuzeigen, daß er insofern unter ihnen steht, als er ihnen sein Dasein verdankt. Diese Empfindung muß jeder durchmachen am eigenen Leibe. Wer niemals diese Empfindung durchlebt hat, der hat den christlich-mystischen Weg nicht erkannt.
Weiter sagt Jesus: «Wer mein Brot isset, der tritt mich mit Füßen.» Er fühlt sich als in einer Gemeinschaft mit der ganzen Erde befindlich. Er fühlt die ganze Menschheit als auf ihm lastend, ihn mit Füßen tretend.
Nachdem Johannes dies alles auf dem Devachanplan erlebt hat, kann er verstehen, was jetzt im Gleichnis vom Weinstock und den Reben kommt. Die Gemeinschaft der ganzen christlichen Gemeinde kommt darin zum Ausdruck.
Wir leben in der fünften Wurzelrasse unseres Erdendaseins. Diese fünfte Wurzelrasse hat sieben Unterrassen, die urindische, die urpersische, die ägyptisch-babylonisch-chaldäische, die griechisch-römisch-semitische, die germanische, die slawische und die siebente Unterrasse. Die drei letzten Unterrassen der vierten Wurzelrasse, der atlantischen, sind besonders wichtig. Aus der drittletzten, der ursemitischen Unterrasse, ist die fünfte Wurzelrasse hervorgegangen. In der Gegend, wo heute Irland ist, saß diese fünfte Unterrasse. Sie wanderte von dort aus und ließ sich in die Wüste Gobi oder Schamo führen. Von hier ging die Stammrasse für die jetzige Wurzelrasse, die fünfte, aus. Nun sind drei Unterrassen der Atlantier, sieben Unterrassen der arischen Wurzelrasse und zwei der sechsten Wurzelrasse, die in gewisser Beziehung zusammengehören. Dann, wenn die Menschheit alle diese Rassen durchlaufen hat, dann wird sie soweit gekommen sein, daß ein großer Teil der Menschheit das erlangt hat, wozu sie veranlagt ist.
Die zwölf Apostel sind die Sinnbilder für diese zwölf Unterrassen. Jesus ist aus den zwölf Aposteln herausgewachsen. Jesus neigt sich in der Fußwaschung zu den Rassen, denen er das Heil zu bringen hat.
Im Gleichnis vom Weinstock fühlt Christus sich als derjenige, der mit allen Rassen in Verbindung steht; er versorgt sie mit dem, was das geistige Lebensblut ausmacht.
Nun kommen da noch die verschiedensten Bilder in der höheren Welt hinein. Es wird uns der Verrat des Judas von Iskarioth vorgeführt. Er ist der Vertreter einer der Rassen, und zwar der Rasse, welche gerade alles auf den materiellen Plan herabbringt, unserer jetzigen fünften Unterrasse, der materialistischen. Die Entwickelung, derzufolge die Menschen vorher in der geistigen Anschauung gelebt hatten und nun in die physische Welt hineingeführt werden mußten, machte es ganz selbstverständlich, daß der Vertreter dieser fünften Unterrasse gerade der Verräter wurde. Judas von Iskarioth war der Vertreter der Rasse, die am tiefsten herunterkommt. Das Johannes-Evangelium erlangt dadurch, daß es symbolisch aufzufassen ist, die Möglichkeit, über Raum und Zeit hinaus seinen Wert zu behalten. Die Tat des Judas gliedert sich ganz organisch in die Mission Christi ein. Judas geht durch eine Art Märtyrertum. Er ist der Verräter und auch in gewissem Sinne Märtyrer. Er führt die Opferung Christi herbei.
Durch die Reihe von Gleichnissen sollen die Apostel hinaufgeführt werden in die innere Natur des Christentums. Bei dem Opfertode Christi trat alles auf den Weltenplan, auf den Plan der Geschichte, was früher sich im Mysterienkultus selbst abgespielt hatte, indem der Schüler es so durchlebte, wie hier im Evangelium Lazarus es durchlebte als den dreitägigen sinnbildlichen Tod. In Christus sollte das auf den großen Plan der Geschichte heraustreten. Ein Mensch sollte von nun an auch dadurch erlöst werden, wenn er nur glaubte, ohne selbst in den Mysterien geschaut zu haben. Jeder sollte das erleben, wenn der Geist der Wahrheit kam. Er verkündet, was durch die christlichen Ereignisse als eine Kraft in die Weltgeschichte gelegt wird. «Was zukünftig ist, wird er euch verkündigen.»
Aus diesem Geiste der Wahrheit verkündet Johannes voraus. Der geschichtliche Verrat Christi spielt sich in der Zukunft ab in der Rasse, die dem Judas entspricht.
Nun folgen die Ereignisse, die vorbildlich sind für das eigene innere Erlebnis des christlichen Mystikers. Christus erhält den Bakkenstreich. Das ist das zweite wichtige Ereignis nach der Fußwaschung. Das muß jeder empfangen, der in seiner Seele das ChristusLeben durchmachen will. Man muß es mit völliger Seelenruhe ertragen, von denen, vor denen man sein Bestes vertritt, nicht Anerkennung zu finden. Als zweites folgt auch noch die Geißelung. Dies heißt moralisch-seelisch, daß wir die Schmerzen, die uns von der Welt kommen, in Ruhe ertragen. Das ist, mit dem Backenstreich zusammen, die zweite Stufe, die der christliche Mystiker durchzumachen hat.
Dies machen seit jener Zeit wirklich die Schüler der christlichen Mystik durch. Daß man fähig ist, in dieser Ruhe die Schmerzen zu ertragen, das drückt sich am eigenen Leibe des Schülers aus. Er bekommt tatsächlich eine Empfindung, als ob er mit Nadeln gestochen würde.
Das nächste, die dritte Stufe, ist das Tragen der Dornenkrone. Das ist: Erniedrigung ruhig hinzunehmen. Das, was niedergedrückt wird, ist gerade das menschliche Ich. Das Vorderhirn, welches in der letzten Zeit der Atlantis ausgebildet wurde, das empfindet die Dornenkrone. Es treten wirklich schmerzhafte Erscheinungen dieses mystisch-seelischen Zustandes auf, die man überwinden muß.
Dann kommt als vierte Stufe die Kreuzigung. Dies ist das mystische Erlebnis, welches bedeutet, daß einem der eigene Leib so fremd geworden ist wie etwas Äußerliches. Der Mensch trägt dann die Last des Kreuzes. Seine Seele ist nun selbständig geworden. Sie ist dann nur noch so an den Leib gefesselt, wie der Leib Christi an das Kreuz genagelt war. Es ist dies ein Vorgang im Inneren, den der Mystiker empfindet. Der Mensch weiß jetzt tatsächlich, daß er in einem geistigen Leibe lebt. Die Begleiterscheinung dieses Vorganges ist die Blutsprobe. Dann treten wirklich an den Händen und Füßen die Wundmale Christi auf, wenn der christliche Mystiker das durchgemacht hat. Für alles, was geistig ist, gibt es eine physische Begleiterscheinung.
Wenn der Mensch soweit ist, dann tritt der Tod am Kreuz ein. Das ist ein geistiges Erlebnis. Es wird ausgedrückt in dem Ausspruch Goethes:
Und solang du das nicht hast,
Dieses: Stirb und Werde!
Bist du nur ein trüber Gast
Auf der dunklen Erde.
Und Jakob Böhme sagt: «Wer nicht stirbt, bevor er stirbt, der verdirbt, wenn er stirbt.» Der christliche Mystiker muß den Tod ganz und gar durchmachen. Anders kann er nicht in ein höheres Leben eingehen.
Dann tritt als sechstes Ereignis die Grablegung ein. Das ist die mystische Verwirklichung der Gemeinschaft mit dem Erdenorganismus. Der Schuler vereinigt sich dann mit dem Erdplaneten, er wird ein planetarischer Geist. Alles um ihn her ist dann für ihn sein Körper.
Die siebente Stufe ist das höhere Leben, die Auferstehung, die dem Menschen zuteil wird.
Das sind die sieben Stufen der christlich-mystischen Entwickelung: die Fußwaschung, der Backenstreich und die Geißelung, die Dornenkrönung, die Kreuzigung, der Tod, die Grablegung und die Auferstehung. Es ist ein innerer Weg mit äußeren Symbolen.
Johannes stellt das alles in einer solchen Weise dar, daß er tatsächlich ein mystisches Grundbuch gegeben hat. Die Sätze müssen, indem sie gelesen werden, als Meditationsstoff verwendet werden. Dann hat der Mensch die Meditation, welche notwendig ist, um . diese Ereignisse durchzumachen. Es ist das Johannes-Evangelium ein Wunderbuch, indem es in der Seele Wunder wirkt. Es ist geschrieben für alle Menschen, und alle können das Johannes-Evangelium in sich erleben.
Wir betrachten von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus nochmals das zweite Kapitel. Der Mensch vor der Fußwaschung ist derjenige, der den neuen Menschen gebären soll. Durch die sieben Stufen ist der Mensch dann hindurchgegangen. Er wird nun der neue Mensch. Der neue Mensch verhält sich zu dem alten Menschen, wie das Kind zu der Mutter. Der alte Mensch hat ihn empfangen, der alte Mensch hat ihn getragen. So haben wir das Bild von der Mutter Jesu zu verstehen. Jeder alte Mensch ist dazu veranlagt, ein neuer Mensch zu werden.
Verschiedene Typen haben die alten Menschen. Wenn der neue Mensch in ihnen geboren wird, so werden alle den gleichen Christus aus sich heraus gebären. Der alte Mensch, die Mutter, kann in verschiedener Weise da sein. Als Christus am Kreuze ist, blickt er zurück auf seine Mutter, und zwar auf die drei Frauen als seine Mutter, als Repräsentanten dreier verschiedener Menschengestaltungen, aus denen der Mystiker herauswachsen kann. Nicht mit einem Eigennamen kann man die Mutter Jesu nennen. Dennoch nennt man sie Maria. Maria ist dasselbe Wort wie Maja, die Hülle, aus der der neue Mensch hervorgegangen ist.
Bei der Herabnahme vom Kreuz sollte dem Christus kein Bein gebrochen werden. Das hängt mit unserer ganzen Kulturentwickelung zusammen. In der Atlantis besaß der Mensch noch die Fähigkeit, auf die ätherischen Bildekräfte einzuwirken. So konnte er die Keimkraft der Körnerfrüchte benutzen, um Luftschiffe in Bewegung zu bringen. Die Aufgabe der zwölf Unterrassen, von der fünften atlantischen Unterrasse an, ist es, die Kräfte und Fähigkeiten zu entwickeln, die sich auf das mineralische Reich beziehen, die kombinatorischen Fähigkeiten. Die zwölf Rassen haben die Erde so weit zu bringen, daß das mineralische Reich im wesentlichen erobert wird. Die Zeit, für die das Christentum im Mittelpunkt steht, ist die Zeit, in welcher der Mensch das mineralische Reich umwandelt. Der Mensch wird sich den Erdmagnetismus dienstbar machen, wenn er einmal durch seine moralischen Kräfte auf die Erde wirkt. Für alles übrige ist der Mensch noch mehr oder weniger unbewußt.
Das Johannes-Evangelium ist eine der Schriften, die das Unendliche wie einen Quell in sich tragen.
The Gospel of John as a Document of Initiation
The second part of the Gospel of John
The experiences of John from chapter thirteen onwards refer to the Devachan plane. John hints at this by saying that he has been raised: Lazarus, who was raised from the dead, is John. Therefore, we can understand that from now on, the Gospel refers to the disciple whom the Lord loved. This is the central mystery of the Gospel of John, that the writer is Lazarus, who was raised from the dead.
John now experiences Christ in the spiritual world. The second part in particular is not merely a narrative of what happened on some world plane, but describes what everyone can experience within themselves. The way one feels when one is at the stage John describes is as follows: From a certain point in their development, human beings no longer feel separated from all things. They immerse themselves in the things around them. This means expanding one's own self to the universe. John feels himself to be a member of the whole world surrounding him. This is expressed in the devachanic image of the washing of feet. John experiences this in the spiritual world, even though the washing of feet is also a historical event.
A higher kingdom of nature always arises at the expense of a lower kingdom. If there were no mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom could not draw its nourishment from it. The plant kingdom is pushed down so that a higher kingdom, the animal kingdom, can develop again, and so on. The human kingdom also needs the other kingdoms. The more highly developed needs the less developed. If a subordinate caste did not form, there could be no higher caste. Just as the plant kingdom presupposes the mineral kingdom, so Christ Jesus presupposes the apostles. No saint could develop if others were not pushed down. In chapter 13, verse 16, it says: “The servant is not greater than his master.” Christ grew out of the apostles, so he can call them the masters from whose community he grew out. He washes their feet to show that he is beneath them insofar as he owes his existence to them. Everyone must experience this feeling for themselves. Anyone who has never experienced this feeling has not recognized the Christian mystical path.
Jesus goes on to say, “He who eats my bread tramples me underfoot.” He feels himself to be in communion with the whole earth. He feels the whole of humanity weighing on him, trampling him underfoot.
After John has experienced all this on the Devachan plane, he can understand what now comes in the parable of the vine and the branches. The community of the whole Christian congregation is expressed in it.
We live in the fifth root race of our earthly existence. This fifth root race has seven sub-races: the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Chaldean, the Greek-Roman-Semitic, the Germanic, the Slavic, and the seventh sub-race. The last three sub-races of the fourth root race, the Atlantean, are particularly important. The fifth root race emerged from the third last, the Proto-Semitic sub-race. This fifth sub-race was located in the area where Ireland is today. It migrated from there and settled in the Gobi or Shamo Desert. From here, the ancestral race for the current root race, the fifth, originated. Now there are three sub-races of the Atlanteans, seven sub-races of the Aryan root race, and two of the sixth root race, which are related to each other in a certain way. Then, when humanity has passed through all these races, it will have progressed to the point where a large part of humanity has attained what it is predisposed to attain.
The twelve apostles are the symbols of these twelve sub-races. Jesus grew out of the twelve apostles. In the washing of the feet, Jesus bows down to the races to whom he has to bring salvation.
In the parable of the vine, Christ feels himself to be the one who is connected with all races; he supplies them with what constitutes the spiritual lifeblood.
Now the most diverse images enter the higher world. We are shown the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. He is the representative of one of the races, namely the race that reduces everything to the material plane, our current fifth sub-race, the materialistic one. The development, according to which people had previously lived in spiritual perception and now had to be led into the physical world, made it quite natural that the representative of this fifth sub-race should become the betrayer. Judas Iscariot was the representative of the race that descends the deepest. The Gospel of John, because it is to be understood symbolically, retains its value beyond space and time. Judas's deed fits quite organically into Christ's mission. Judas undergoes a kind of martyrdom. He is the traitor and also, in a certain sense, a martyr. He brings about Christ's sacrifice.
Through the series of parables, the apostles are to be led up into the inner nature of Christianity. With Christ's sacrificial death, everything that had previously taken place in the mystery cult itself, in which the disciple lived through it as Lazarus lived through it here in the Gospel as the three-day symbolic death, came onto the world stage, onto the stage of history. In Christ, this was to emerge into the great plan of history. From now on, a person could be redeemed simply by believing, without having seen the mysteries themselves. Everyone would experience this when the Spirit of Truth came. He proclaims what is laid down as a force in world history through the Christian events. “What is to come, he will proclaim to you.”
John prophesies from this Spirit of Truth. The historical betrayal of Christ takes place in the future in the race that corresponds to Judas.
Now follow the events that are exemplary for the Christian mystic's own inner experience. Christ receives the betrayal. This is the second important event after the washing of the feet. Everyone who wants to experience the Christ life in their soul must receive this. One must endure with complete peace of mind not being recognized by those before whom one represents one's best. Second, there is also the scourging. Morally and spiritually, this means that we endure the pains that come to us from the world with calmness. Together with the slapping of the cheeks, this is the second stage that the Christian mystic must go through.
Since that time, the disciples of Christian mysticism have truly been going through this. The disciple's own body expresses his ability to endure pain with this calmness. He actually feels as if he were being pricked with needles.
The next, the third stage, is wearing the crown of thorns. This means calmly accepting humiliation. What is being oppressed is precisely the human ego. The forebrain, which was developed in the last period of Atlantis, feels the crown of thorns. Truly painful manifestations of this mystical-soul state arise, which must be overcome.
Then comes the fourth stage, the crucifixion. This is the mystical experience which means that one's own body has become as foreign as something external. The person then bears the burden of the cross. Their soul has now become independent. It is then only bound to the body in the same way that Christ's body was nailed to the cross. This is an inner process that the mystic experiences. The person now truly knows that they live in a spiritual body. The accompanying phenomenon of this process is the blood test. Then the wounds of Christ really appear on the hands and feet when the Christian mystic has gone through this. For everything that is spiritual, there is a physical accompaniment.
When the person is ready, death on the cross occurs. This is a spiritual experience. It is expressed in Goethe's saying:
And as long as you do not have this,
This: Die and become!
You are only a gloomy guest
On the dark earth.
And Jakob Böhme says: “He who does not die before he dies will perish when he dies.” The Christian mystic must go through death completely. Otherwise, he cannot enter into a higher life.
Then, as the sixth event, the burial takes place. This is the mystical realization of communion with the earthly organism. The student then unites with the Earth planet and becomes a planetary spirit. Everything around him then becomes his body.
The seventh stage is the higher life, the resurrection, which is granted to man.
These are the seven stages of Christian mystical development: the washing of the feet, the slapping of the cheeks and the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, death, the burial, and the resurrection. It is an inner path with outer symbols.
John presents all this in such a way that he has actually provided a mystical foundation. The sentences must be used as material for meditation when they are read. Then the human being has the meditation that is necessary to go through these events. The Gospel of John is a book of miracles in that it works miracles in the soul. It is written for all people, and everyone can experience the Gospel of John within themselves.
Let us look at the second chapter again from this point of view. The person before the washing of the feet is the one who is to give birth to the new person. The person has then gone through the seven stages. They now become the new person. The new person relates to the old person as a child relates to its mother. The old person conceived them, the old person carried them. This is how we are to understand the image of the mother of Jesus. Every old person is predisposed to become a new person.
The old humans have different types. When the new human is born in them, they will all give birth to the same Christ from within themselves. The old human, the mother, can be present in different ways. When Christ is on the cross, he looks back at his mother, namely at the three women as his mother, as representatives of three different human forms from which the mystic can grow. The mother of Jesus cannot be called by her own name. Nevertheless, she is called Mary. Mary is the same word as Maja, the shell from which the new human being emerged.
When Christ was taken down from the cross, his leg was not to be broken. This is connected with our entire cultural development. In Atlantis, human beings still possessed the ability to influence the etheric formative forces. This enabled them to use the germinative power of grain to set airships in motion. The task of the twelve sub-races, starting with the fifth Atlantean sub-race, is to develop the powers and abilities related to the mineral kingdom, the combinatory abilities. The twelve races have to bring the earth to the point where the mineral kingdom is essentially conquered. The time when Christianity is at the center is the time when humans transform the mineral kingdom. Humans will make the earth's magnetism serve them once they act on the earth through their moral powers. For everything else, humans are still more or less unconscious.
The Gospel of John is one of the writings that carries the infinite within itself like a source.