The Christian Mystery
GA 97
15 December 1906, Leipzig
VII. The Significance of Christmas in the Science of the Spirit
Today the only connection many people still have to Christmas is to light the candles on the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is, however, the most recent symbol of Christmas.81See also the lectures given in Berlin on 19 Dec. 1904 (GA 92) in The Supersensible in Man and World, tr. p. M. Allen, and 21 Dec. 1909 (GA 117) in Festivals of the Seasons Even in the regions where it first appeared, people have only known it for about a hundred years. It is not the ancient pagan tradition many people believe it to be. But whilst the Christmas tree is a recent development, the great festival for humanity that is about to come is old, indeed ancient. For as long as people on earth felt, had a sense of what it means to be human, and also knew of the principle that takes us beyond being human to being divinely human, taking us beyond ourselves, they have known this sublime Christmas festival. In John's gospel we find words that may be a leitmotiv for the idea of Christmas. ‘He must wax, but I must wane.’82John 3: 30. This points to the relationship between two important annual festivals. John bears witness that he himself must wane, whilst the other one, the Christ, waxes. When the length of day is greatest, it is St John's tide. But behind the external material and ephemeral phenomenon something arises which John put most beautifully into words: ‘And the light shone into the darkness’83John 1: 5. into the days which at St John's tide begin to get shorter. Within the darkness lives the light that is more luminous, more alive than all physical light phenomena—the light of the spirit. And the content of the Christian Christmas is the life of the great light in the darkness. When the festival was celebrated in all religions in ancient times, it pointed prophetically to Christ Jesus, the great spirit and Sun hero.
Today the science of the spirit helps us to understand Christmas, which for two millennia has been felt to be the feast of great idealism. When the service begins in that holy night, in the midnight darkness, and the candles are lit, they shine out into the darkness. It means that when the time comes and everything on earth is destined to die—everything that is purely human, too, will be subject to death—the soul triumphant lives in the body, as made to come true by the Christ, and rises from the shell of the body to live in the light, even if the earth, being physical matter, will shatter into countless atoms. Out of this darkness, this death of the earth, the soul of the whole earth will rise with all the human souls that will have been received into this earth soul. And Christ Jesus was the example, the ideal, to show that not only will the earth soul achieve this but all human beings on earth shall have the same certainty.
And so it is not only the physical sun which is a reflection of the Christ spirit but indeed the waxing sun of the spirit. When all energies will be transformed and love is aglow everywhere in the earth's body, the Christ principle will flow through every part of the earth. The light of Christmas is the symbol of this.
The three kings are symbols, as are their gifts, with gold the symbol of wisdom and kingly power, myrrh the symbol for overcoming death, incense the symbol for ether substances made spiritual in which the god enters into reality who has overcome death. With the three symbols we have Christ the king, the vanquisher of death, the fulfilment of all earthly evolution. That was the experience of the birth of the God child for every esoteric initiate, foreseen in the mysteries even before the Christ came and also experienced afterwards. The mysteries were not church establishments or schools in the ordinary sense but places of training where rites were also observed, where people learned wisdom, surrender and a faith that is both knowledge and insight. There were greater and lesser mysteries. In the lesser mysteries, people admitted after going through many trials would see dramatic presentations of the eternal truths which higher initiates experience in their own hearts. The greatest elements of human evolution may be compared, on a small scale, with the experiences someone who was born blind has after an operation. A completely new world opens up. An initiate has the eyes of the spirit opened. A world of the spirit opens up in light and colour, completely new and much wider than the physical world with all its spirits and inhabitants. All things seem full of life to him. This is the moment when initiates experience the birth of their higher self. It was known as the inner Christ festival. The experiences of those chosen people, experiences that can still be had by initiates today, were an ideal for those in the lesser mysteries, something they might hope to achieve, some sooner and some later. Anyone who knows that everyone has to go through many lives may be certain that for him, too, this awakening, this initiation will be reality one day; that the awakening of the Christ will be achieved in him, the holy night when the light will shine within him. Then the words of John will be reversed: ‘And the light shall be comprehended in the darkness.’
This was also presented in the mysteries. The great Christian event was a physical recapitulation of events every initiate had known in the mysteries, as images presented in the lesser mysteries and inside the human being in the greater mysteries. In the lesser mysteries the important experience of the inner Christ was shown at a particular time of the year, when the sun gives least light to the earth, in the longest night of winter—as is still done today at Christmas. Let us consider the image which symbolized the meaning of human inner development in the lesser mysteries. The people who were about to see it would be in a solemn mood, gathering in holy night, in the utter darkness of the midnight hour. Then a strangely booming, thundering sound would be heard, gradually changing into a wonderful rhythmic harmony—the music of the spheres. A faintly illumined body, a sphere shining dimly in the darkness would appear. This was meant to symbolize the earth. Gradually rainbow-coloured rings, one merging into the other, would arise from the dimly lit earth disk, spreading in all directions—the divine iris. That is how the sun would be seen to shine in ancient Atlantis, in the Niflheim of Norse mythology. The colours would gradually grow brighter, with the seven colours slowly turning into a faint gold and a faint violet. And the form would shine more and more brightly, with the light getting stronger, until it was transformed into the most luminous of the heavenly bodies, into the sun. In the middle of this sun the name of Christ would appear, written in the language of the people who were there. It was then true to say of those who had been present that they had seen the sun at midnight. This means that a symbol of spiritual vision had appeared to them. When their spiritual eyes had been opened they found that all matter became transparent, they saw through the earth, truly seeing the sun at midnight, having overcome matter. The sun at midnight would appear in reversed colour, a violet, reddish colour. For Christians, translated into human terms, the great cosmic symbol thus seen is Christ Jesus coming to the earth. We shall all of us see the sun at midnight. This also does not contradict the New Testament.
Christ is thus the spirit who will transfigure the elements that are still connected with the lower aspect, deify anything which is still connected with worldly aspects. He is the Sun in the realm of the spirit. That is how the Christian esoteric or theosophical Christian inwardly knows him to be. Spiritual awakening comes at the time when cold and darkness are greatest on earth because initiates know that it is the time when certain powers are present in cosmic space and the constellation is most favourable for the awakening. The pupils were taught that they should not be satisfied with ordinary human knowledge but must gain an overview over the whole of humanity, the whole of earth history. Consider the time—they would be told—when the earth was still united with sun and moon. Humanity then lived in the light of the Sun. The body that was later to become the earth was filled with a power of the spirit that also shone forth in every entity. Then the time would come when the sun separated from the earth, when the light shone down on the earth from outside and human beings were in inner darkness. This marked the beginning of their evolution towards a far distant future when they would have the light of the Sun in them again. The higher human being, Sun man, would then develop in them who bears light in him and has power to illumine.
The earth thus arose out of the light, is going through darkness and will come to have the light of the Sun again. Just as the power of the sun's rays decreases as autumn comes and in winter, so does the spiritual principle recede completely during the time when human beings must learn to perceive the external things on earth, perceive matter. But the power of the spirit waxes again, and at Christmas something happens which Paul described by using the parable of the grain of wheat. If the seed that is sown does not perish there can be no new fruit.841 Cor. 15:35-44.
At Christmas time the old life passes away, with new life arising in its womb. The sap rises in the trees from this day on, new life wells up, light begins to wax again in the darkness that has been increasing until then. A Christian thinks of this translated into terms of the spirit. Everything that draws us down in the material world must perish to make room for new growth. The Christ came into the world so that from the depths of lowness the principle could be born that will take us to the highest. The stable in the gospel tale is a transformation, a variant of what most ancient wisdom knew as a cave. The feast would be celebrated in hollowed out rock, in different ways, depending on the nation. On the next day there would be a second feast, when it would be shown how sprouting life comes from the rock. This, too, was to show how the spiritual arises from the earthly when it dies.
In all the inner sanctuaries of Egypt, in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Orphic cult of ancient Greece, in Asia minor, among the Babylonians and Chaldeans, in the Mythraic cult of the Persians and in the mysteries of the Indians—in all of these Christmas would be celebrated in the same way. Those who took part in the lesser mysteries would have presented to them in visible form what the initiates lived through inwardly. They would be shown a prophetic vision of the birth of the Christ in man. Initiates who had already reached that level were said to have reached the sixth stage. There were seven such stages. Stage one was the raven who mediated between the spiritual and the outside world. In the Bible we read of the raven of Elijah,851 Kings 17: 4-6. legend tells of Wotan's raven or the ravens of Barbarossa.86Frederick Barbarossa (redbeard) or Frederick I, Holy Roman emperor (1152–1190), king of Germany and Italy. Led the Third Crusade, during which he drowned. Legend has it that he sleeps in the Kyffhäuser mountain until the ravens come to wake him because he is needed again. Translator.
At the second stage the initiate would be an occult individual. He would be admitted to the sanctuary and be present within it.
The third grade was that of the warrior or fighter. Those who had reached this stage were permitted to stand up for spiritual truths before the outside world.
Someone who had reached the fourth grade would be called a lion. His conscious awareness had expanded beyond his own person and become awareness of the whole tribe. Think of the lion of the house of Judah, for instance.
An initiate of the fifth grade not only had awareness for the tribe but had taken in conscious awareness of the spirit of the nation. He would therefore be given the name of his nation, being called a ‘Persian’, for instance, among the Persians. Jesus called Nathanael ‘a true Israelite’,87John 1:47. recognizing him for an initiate of the fifth grade.
The name given to someone who had reached the sixth stage refers to an important quality. Looking at the world of nature around us, we see life forms develop from the lowest ones up to the human being, and from the average human being up to the one who let the Christ be born in him. Among the lower life forms we always see rhythm in life, a rhythm imposed by the sun. Plants always flower at the same time of the year, depending on the species, and open their flowers at the same time of day, depending on the species. Animals, too, show an annual rhythm in their most important vital functions. Only man is gradually losing this regularity. He is coming free of a rhythm that originally was also imposed on him. Yet when love for everything that is awakens in him, flows through him, a new rhythm is born that is his own. This is as regular as the sun's rhythm, which never deviates even the least bit from its orbit—one can hardly imagine what the consequences would be otherwise. An initiate of the sixth degree would be seen to reflect the movement of the sun as it pours its blessings into cosmic space, an image of the Christ in man and in the world of the spirit. The sixth degree initiate would therefore be called the sun hero.
Shivers would pass through the soul of a pupil when he saw such a sun hero in whom the Christ had been inwardly born. This was an event that was felt to be a birth on a physical plane. Initiates of the early centuries put the birth of the historical Jesus at the darkest time of the year, for the soul of the spirit had then risen. It is also why the midnight mass was introduced among the early Christians, a rite held at the dark midnight hour during which a sea of lights would be lit on the altar. The highest degree would then be that of father.88See also Steiner R. An Esoteric Cosmology (in GA 94), lecture of 30 May 1906. Tr. R. Querido. St George 1978.
These things, which had happened so often in the individual mysteries, far removed from the affairs of the world, took place in the open, in world history, with Christ Jesus. There can be no more sublime experience for the human soul than the events that happened in the outer, physical world with the conqueror of death who brought the pledge of life everlasting for the soul. The new life fruit that grew from a dying world the initiates of old felt to be the birth of the Christ child in the world of the spirit. Anyone who does not think of the spiritual as separate from the physical world feels a deep connection between the sun at holy night and the life of the spirit that develops out of the world's life. In that holy night we have the birth of the greatest ideal that exists for this world and will come to realization when the earth reaches its goal. Now told in prophesy, it will one day be reality. Love conquering death shines in the lights on the Christmas tree, and in future it will come alive in all of humanity. Now it is the prospect before us.
We can thus sense that the meaning of Christmas is something that comes to us from far ahead but has also been celebrated in earliest times. Seen in the right way, the feast will again have much higher significance for us. The tree, too, will become more important to us as a symbol of that tree in paradise which you all know from the Book of Genesis. Paradise is a picture of man's higher nature, with no evil attached to it. Insight could only be gained at the price of life. A legend can show us how those who had the knowledge saw it.89See also Steiner R. The Temple Legend (GA93), especially the lecture given in Berlin on 29 May 1905. Tr. J. Wood. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1985. When Seth wanted to return to paradise, the cherub with the fiery sword allowed him to enter. He found that the tree of life and the tree of knowledge had intertwined. The cherub told him to take three seeds from this united tree. The tree shows what man will be one day, something which only initiates have so far achieved. When Adam died, Seth took the three seeds and put them in Adam's mouth. A flaming bush grew out of them, with the words ejeh asher ejeh appearing in it—I am he who is, was and shall be. The legend goes on to tell that Moses made his staff with magic powers of its wood. Later the gate to Solomon's temple is said to have been made of it. A piece of it is reputed to have dropped into the pool at Bethesda and given it special powers. Finally, it is said, the cross of Christ was made of it. It is an image for life that is dying, passing away in death, and has the power in it to produce new life.
A great symbol stands before us—life that has overcome death, the wood from the seed taken from paradise. This life, dying and rising again, is the Rose Cross. It was not without reason that Goethe, that great man, said:
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’
It is a wonderful thing to see the relationship between the tree of paradise, the wood of the cross and the new life that grows from it. To gain an inner feeling for the birth of the eternal human being in temporal life—let that be our Christ idea, our Christmas. Man must apply it to himself even now: ‘The light shines into the darkness’, and the darkness must gradually come to comprehend the light. All the souls in whom Christmas ignites the right spark will be alive to the principle that comes to birth in them at Christmas, the ability that will become a power in them to see, to feel and to will it that the gospel words are turned around to become: ‘The light shines into the darkness, and the darkness has gradually come to grasp the light.’
Die Bedeutung des Christfestes vom Geisteswissenschaftlichen Standpunkt
Viele Menschen der Jetztzeit haben zum Weihnachtsfest keine andere Beziehung mehr als das Anzünden des Christbaumes. Dieser Christbaum ist aber das jüngste Sinnbild des Weihnachtsfestes. Selbst in den Gegenden, wo er zuerst aufkam, kennt man ihn erst etwa hundert Jahre lang. Er ist nicht, wie viele meinen, eine uralte heidnische Überlieferung. So neu wie der Weihnachtsbaum, so alt, so uralt ist indessen das große Menschheitsfest, das uns jetzt bevorsteht. Solange Menschen auf Erden mit dem Menschentum fühlten, ahnten und wußten von dem, was über das Menschentum hinaus zum Gottesmenschentum hinaufführt, was die Menschen über sie selbst erhebt, so lange kannte man diese erhabene Weihnachtsfeier. Im Johannes-Evangelium findet sich ein Ausspruch, der als ein Leitmotiv für die Idee des Weihnachtsfestes gelten kann: «Er muß wachsen, ich aber muß abnehmen.» Hierin finden wir den Zusammenhang zwischen zwei wichtigen Jahresfesten angedeutet. Johannes bezeugt selbst von sich, daß er abnehmen muß, währenddessen aber der andere, der Christus, wächst. Wenn der Tag am längsten ist, dann ist Johanni. Aber hinter der äußeren materiellen Erscheinung in ihrer Vergänglichkeit erhebt sich etwas, was im Johannes-Evangelium schön mit den Worten ausgedrückt wird: «Und das Licht schien in die Finsternis», in die abnehmenden Johannistage. Innerhalb der Finsternis lebt das Licht, das leuchtender, lebendiger ist als alle materiellen Lichterscheinungen - das geistige Licht. Und das Leben des großen Lichtes in der Finsternis ist der Inhalt des christlichen Weihnachtsfestes, das in den alten Zeiten in allen Religionen gefeiert wurde und das prophetisch hindeutete auf den großen Geistes-Sonnenhelden, den Christus Jesus.
Heute verstehen wir durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung das christliche Weihnachtsfest, das durch zwei Jahrtausende hindurch als das Fest des großen Idealismus empfunden wurde. Wenn in der Weihenacht, in der Finsternis der Mitternacht, der Gottesdienst beginnt und die Lichter angezündet werden, dann leuchten sie hinaus in die Finsternis. Das bedeutet, daß, wenn einstmals alles auf der Erde einem äußeren Tode geweiht sein wird — wie auch alles rein Menschliche dem Tode verfallen wird —, daß dann, wie es von Christus zur Wahrheit gemacht wurde, im Leib die triumphierende Seele lebt, die sich zu einem lichten Leben aus der leiblichen Hülle erhebt, auch wenn die Erde als materieller Körper in unzählige Atome zerschellen wird. Aus dieser Finsternis, diesem Untergang der Erde wird sich die Seele der ganzen Erde erheben mit allen Menschenseelen, die in diese Erdenseele aufgenommen sein werden. Und dafür, daß nicht nur die Erdenseele dies erreicht, sondern daß auch alle Menschen auf Erden die gleiche Gewißheit haben, dafür war der Christus Jesus das Vorbild, das Ideal.
Und so ist nicht nur die physische Sonne das Abbild des Christus-Wesens, sondern gerade die wachsende geistige Sonne. Wenn alle Kräfte verwandelt sein werden, der Erdenleib durch die Liebe durchglüht sein wird, dann wird die Erde von dem Christus-Prinzip ganz durchflossen sein. Dafür ist das Weihnachtslicht das Sinnbild.
Die drei Könige sind Symbole wie ihre Gaben: das Gold Symbol der Weisheit und der königlichen Macht, Myrrhen Symbol der Besiegung des Todes, Weihrauch Symbol für die vergeistigten Ätherstoffe, in denen der Gott sich verwirklicht, der den Tod überwunden hat. Durch die drei Symbole steht Christus als König da, als der Todbesieger, als Erfüllung aller irdischen Entwickelung. Jeder in die Esoterik Eingeweihte empfindet so die Geburt des Gotteskindes, vorgeahnt in den Mysterien schon vor der Zeit Christi und erlebt auch noch nachher. Die Mysterien waren nicht kirchliche Einrichtungen und Schulen im äußerlichen Sinne, sondern Erziehungs- und zugleich Kultusstätten, wo der Mensch Weisheit lernte, Ergebung und Glauben, der zugleich Wissen und Erkennen ist. Große und kleine Mysterien gab es. Der nach mancherlei Prüfungen Zugelassene sah in den kleinen Mysterien dramatische Vorstellungen der ewigen Wahrheiten, die der höher Eingeweihte in sich selbst erlebt. Die größten Momente der Menschheitsentwickelung sind im Kleinen zu vergleichen mit den Erfahrungen, die ein Blindgeborener macht, wenn er operiert wird: es geht ihm eine ganz neue Welt auf. Die Augen des Geistes werden dem Eingeweihten geöffnet. Es tut sich ihm in Licht und Farbe eine Welt des Geistes auf, eine ganz neue, viel größere Welt als die physische, mit allen ihren Wesen und Bewohnern. Alle Dinge scheinen ihm belebt. In diesem Augenblick erleben die Eingeweihten die Geburt ihres höheren Selbst. Das nannte man das innere Christus-Fest. Was diese Auserwählten erleben konnten und was die Eingeweihten auch heute noch erleben können, war für die andern, in den kleinen Mysterien, ein Ideal, das sie alle zu erreichen hoffen durften, der eine bald, der andere später. Wer weiß, daß jeder viele Leben durchzumachen hat, der kann gewiß sein, daß auch in ihm seine Erweckung, jene Einweihung einmal Wirklichkeit werden wird; daß die Erweckung des Christus in ihm erreicht werden wird, die Weihnacht, da das Licht in seinem Inneren leuchten wird. Dann wird sich jener Spruch aus dem Johannes-Evangelium umkehren: Und das Licht wird in der Finsternis begriffen werden.
Dies wurde also in den Mysterien dargestellt. Was als das große christliche Ereignis stattfand, war eine physische Wiederholung dessen, was sich in den Mysterien für jeden Eingeweihten abgespielt hat, in den kleinen Mysterien im Bilde, in den großen Mysterien im Inneren des Menschen. In den kleinen Mysterien wurde das wichtige Erlebnis des inneren Christus in einer ganz bestimmten Zeit des Jahres dargestellt, wo die Sonne am wenigsten Licht auf die Welt sendet, in der längsten Winternacht — wie heute noch am Weihnachtsfest. Führen wir uns das Bild vor Augen, das den Sinn der inneren Menschenentwickelung in den kleinen Mysterien symbolisierte. In heiliger Weihestimmung waren die Menschen, die es sehen sollten, in der Weihnacht, in völliger Finsternis der Mitternacht versammelt. Da ertönte ein eigentümlich dumpfes, donnerndes Getöse, das sich allmählich in wundervolles rhythmisches Tönen, in harmonische Klänge verwandelte - die Sphärenmusik. Und ein schwach erhellter Körper, eine in der Finsternis matt leuchtende Kugel wurde sichtbar, welche die Erde symbolisieren sollte. Aus der schwach leuchtenden Erdscheibe erstanden allmählich ineinanderfließende, zu den Tönen gehörende regenbogenfarbige Ringe, die sich nach allen Seiten verbreiteten — die göttliche Iris. So schien in der alten Atlantis, dem Niflheim der germanischen Mythologie, den Menschen die Sonne durch den Nebel hindurch. Die Erscheinung wurde immer heller, und die sieben Farben gingen allmählich in schwaches Gold und schwaches Violett über. Und immer heller leuchtete das Gebilde, und immer mächtiger wurde das Licht, bis es sich in den hellsten Himmelskörper, die Sonne, verwandelte. In der Mitte dieser Sonne erschien - in der jeweiligen Sprache des betreffenden Volkes — der Name des Christus. Für den Menschen, der diese Feier mitgemacht hatte, galt das bedeutsame Wort: Er hat die Sonne um Mitternacht gesehen. Das heißt, ein Sinnbild des geistigen Schauens ist ihm erschienen. Der Mensch, dessen geistiges Auge geöffnet ist, erlebt, daß alle Materie durchsichtig wird, er sieht durch die Erde hindurch, er sieht in Wirklichkeit die Sonne um Mitternacht, er besiegt die Materie. In umgekehrter Farbe, in violett-rötlicher Farbe erscheint ihm um Mitternacht die Sonne. Was in dem großen Weltsinnbilde kosmisch erscheint, ist für den Christen, ins Menschliche übersetzt, die Erscheinung des Christus Jesus auf Erden. Wir werden alle die Sonne um Mitternacht sehen. Das steht auch in keinem Widerspruch zum Neuen Testament.
So ist Christus die Wesenheit, die verklären wird, was jetzt noch zusammenhängt mit dem Niederen, vergöttlichen wird, was noch zusammenhängt mit dem Weltlichen. Er ist die Sonne im geistigen Gebiet. Der christliche Esoteriker oder theosophische Christ empfindet so den Christus Jesus. Zur Zeit, wenn die Kälte und Dunkelheit auf Erden am größten sind, findet die geistige Erweckung statt, weil die Eingeweihten wissen, daß alsdann bestimmte Kräfte durch den Weltenraum ziehen und die Konstellation für die geistige Erweckung dann am günstigsten ist. Die Schüler wurden belehrt, daß sie sich nicht mit dem gewöhnlichen menschlichen Wissen begnügen sollten, sondern die ganze Menschheit, die ganze Erdengeschichte zu überblicken lernen müßten. Schauet auf die Zeit hin sagte man den Schülern -, wo die Erde noch mit Sonne und Mond vereinigt war. Die damalige Menschheit lebte im Sonnenlicht. Was später die Erde werden sollte, war mit Geisteskraft erfüllt, die gleichzeitig in jedem Wesen erglänzte. - Dann kam der Zeitpunkt, wo die Sonne sich von der Erde ablöste, wo das Licht von außen auf die Erde herabschien, wo es im Inneren des Menschen finster wurde. Dieser Zeitpunkt ist der Beginn seiner Entwickelung zu jener fernen Zukunft, wo er wieder Sonnenlicht in sich tragen wird. Dann entwickelt sich in ihm der höhere Mensch, der Sonnenmensch, der Licht in sich trägt und die Kraft des Erleuchtens besitzt.
So entstand die Erde aus dem Licht, sie geht durch die Finsternis hindurch und wird wieder zum Sonnenlicht kommen. So wie gegen den Herbst und in der Winterzeit die Kraft der Sonnenstrahlen abnimmt, so tritt das Geistige in der Zeit, in welcher der Mensch die äußeren Dinge der Erde, die Materie erkennen lernen soll, ganz zurück. Aber die geistige Kraft wächst wiederum, und zur Weihnachtszeit vollzieht sich, was bei Paulus durch das Gleichnis vom Weizenkorn ausgedrückt wird. Wenn das ausgesäte Körnlein nicht in der Erde zugrunde geht, kann keine neue Frucht entstehen. In der Weihnachtszeit vergeht das alte Leben, und in seinem Schoß entsteht das neue Leben. Die Säfte der Bäume steigen von diesem Tage an, neues Leben quillt hervor, das Licht beginnt in der bis dahin zunehmenden Finsternis wieder zu wachsen. Dies denkt sich der Christ ins Geistige übersetzt. Alles Herabziehende in der Materie muß vergehen, um dem Emporsprießenden Platz zu machen. Der Christus kam in die Welt, damit gleichsam aus der Niedrigkeit herausgeboren wird, was zum Höchsten hinaufführen soll. In dem Stall der Evangelienerzählung sehen wir eine Umwandlung, eine Variante dessen, was die uralte Weisheit Höhle nannte. In ausgehöhlten Felsen wurde das Fest gefeiert, verschieden nach den Völkern. Am nächsten Tage folgte ein zweites Fest, durch das gezeigt wurde, wie das sprossende Leben aus der Erde, aus dem Gestein hervorgeht. Auch dies war ein Sinnbild des Hervorwachsens des Geistigen aus dem absterbenden Irdischen.
Überall in den inneren Heiligtümern Ägyptens, in den eleusinischen Mysterien und im orphischen Kult in Griechenland, in Vorderasien, bei den Babyloniern und Chaldäern, im Mithrasdienst der Perser und in den Mysterien der Inder, überall wurde die Weihnacht in gleicher Weise gefeiert: Von den Teilnehmern an den kleinen Mysterien wurde das als sinnliches Schaubild gesehen, was die Eingeweihten erlebten. Was dargestellt wurde, war eine prophetische Hinweisung auf die Geburt des Christus im Menschen. Solche Eingeweihte, die es schon erreicht haben, sind, wie man sagt, auf der sechsten Stufe angelangt. Sieben solcher Stufen gab es: Auf der ersten Stufe war der Rabe, der den Verkehr zwischen dem Geistigen und der Außenwelt vermittelte. So wird in der Bibel von den Raben des Elias gesprochen, die Sage berichtet von den Raben des Wotan oder auch von den Raben Kaiser Barbarossas im Kyffhäuser.
Auf der zweiten Stufe stand der Okkulte. Dieser war schon zum Heiligtum zugelassen, er befand sich im Inneren desselben.
Der dritte Grad war der des Kämpfers oder Streiters. Wer ihn erlangt hatte, durfte für die geistigen Wahrheiten nach außen hin eintreten.
Wer den vierten Grad erreicht hatte, wurde der Löwe genannt. Sein Bewußtsein hatte sich über das seiner Individualität hinaus auf das Bewußtsein des ganzen Stammes erweitert. Man denke etwa an den Löwen vom Stamme Juda.
Der Eingeweihte des fünften Grades hatte nicht nur das Stammesbewußtsein, sondern er hatte das Bewußtsein des Volksgeistes in das seine aufgenommen. Er erhielt daher den Namen seines Volkes, bei den Persern hieß er zum Beispiel der «Perser». Den Nathanael nennt Jesus einen «rechten Israeliter»; Jesus erkennt in ihm den Eingeweihten des fünften Grades.
Die Bezeichnung dessen, der die sechste Stufe erreicht hatte, bezieht sich auf eine wichtige Eigenschaft. Wenn wir uns in der Natur umschauen, so sehen wir die Naturwesen sich hinaufentwickeln von den niedrigsten Wesen bis zum Menschen, und vom Durchschnittsmenschen hinauf bis zu dem, der in sich den Christus geboren werden laßt. Bei den niedrigen Wesen sehen wir überall Rhythmus im Leben, einen Rhythmus, der den Wesen von der Sonne auferlegt wird. Die Pflanzen blühen stets zur selben Jahreszeit, je nach ihrer Art, und öffnen ihre Blüten, jede Art zur selben Zeit des Tages. Auch die Tiere zeigen in wichtigen Lebensfunktionen ihren Jahresthythmus. Nur der Mensch verliert immer mehr diese Regelmäfßigkeit. Er wird frei von dem Zwang des ihm ursprünglich ebenfalls auferlegten Rhythmus. Wenn aber die Liebe zu allen Wesen in ihm erwacht und ihn durchflutet, dann wird ein neuer, eigener Rhythmus aus ihm heraus geboren. Dieser ist nun so regelmäßig wie der Rhythmus der Sonne, die nie um ein Kleinstes von ihrem Lauf abweicht - die Folgen davon würde man sich kaum ausmalen können. In dem Eingeweihten des sechsten Grades sah man ein Abbild des Ganges der segenspendenden Sonne im Weltenraume, das Abbild des Christus im Menschen und in der Geisteswelt. Deshalb wurde der sechste Grad der Sonnenheld genannt.
Ein Schauer ging durch die Seele des Schülers, der einen solchen Sonnenhelden erblickte. In diesem war der Christus innerlich geboren. Das stellte ein Ereignis dar, das als Geburt auf dem geistigen Plan empfunden wurde. Von den Eingeweihten der ersten Jahrhunderte wurde die Geburt des historischen Jesus in die äußerlich dunkelste Zeit des Jahres gesetzt, weil damit die geistige Sonne aufgegangen war. Darum wurde bei den ersten Christen auch die Mitternachtsmesse eingeführt, ein Kultus um die finstere mitternächtige Stunde, wo dann ein Lichtmeer auf dem Altar aufleuchtete. Der höchste Grad war der des Vaters.
Was sich so oft im einzelnen in den Mysterien, fern von allem äußeren Geschehen, vollzogen hatte, spielte sich in Christus Jesus offen in der Weltgeschichte ab. Nichts Höheres kann erlebt werden in der menschlichen Seele als das, was äußerlich in der physischen Welt in dem Besieger des Todes, dem Bringer des Unterpfandes für ein ewiges Leben der Seele, gebracht wurde. Was aus der sterbenden Welt als neue Lebensfrucht erwuchs, wurde von den Eingeweihten als die Geburt des Christus-Kindes empfunden in der geistigen Welt. Wer das Geistige nicht abgesondert denkt von der physischen Welt, fühlt einen tiefen Zusammenhang zwischen der Sonne in der Weihnacht und dem Geistesleben, das sich entwickelt aus dem Weltenleben. In der Weihnacht wird die Geburt des größten Ideals hingestellt, das es für die Welt gibt, das verwirklicht wird, wenn die Erde ihr Ziel erreicht. Was jetzt prophetisch verkündet wird, das wird dereinst zur Wirklichkeit. Wie die todbesiegende Liebe auflebt im leuchtenden Weihnachtsbaum, so wird sie in Zukunft in allen Menschen selbst aufleben. Als Perspektive steht es jetzt da.
So fühlen wir im Sinn des Weihnachtsfestes etwas, was aus weiter Ferne zu uns kommt, was aber schon in uralten Zeiten immer gefeiert wurde. Bei richtiger Erkenntnis wird das Fest wieder eine viel höhere Bedeutung für uns erlangen. Auch der Baum wird uns wichtiger werden als Sinnbild jenes Paradiesbaumes, den Sie alle aus der Genesis kennen. Das Paradies ist ja ein Bild für die höhere Menschennatur, an der nichts Böses hängt. Erkenntnis konnte nur errungen werden auf Kosten des Lebens. Wie dies angesehen wurde von denen, die da wußten, soll eine Legende erläutern: Als Seth wieder zum Paradies hingehen wollte, ließ ihn der Cherub mit dem feurigen Schwert herein. Da fand er, daß der Baum des Lebens und derjenige der Erkenntnis miteinander verschlungen waren. Auf die Weisung des Cherubs durfte er drei Samenkörner von diesem vereinigten Baume nehmen. Der Baum stellt dar, was der Mensch einst werden soll und was erst der Eingeweihte bereits erreicht hat. Als Adam gestorben war, nahm Seth die drei Samenkörner und steckte sie in Adams Mund. Daraus entsproß ein flammender Busch, worin die Worte standen: «Ejeh Asher ejeh» - «Ich bin, der da ist, war und sein wird.» Weiter erzählt die Legende, Moses habe daraus seinen Wunderstab angefertigt. Später sei vom selben Holze das Tor des salomonischen Tempels erbaut worden. Dann sei ein Stück davon in den Teich Bethesda gefallen und habe ihm Wunderkraft verliehen. Und endlich sei daraus das Kreuz Christi geformt worden. Es ist ein Bild für das absterbende, im Tode vergehende Leben, das in sich die Kraft hat, neues Leben hervorzubringen.
Ein großes Symbol steht vor uns: das Leben, das den Tod überwunden hat, das Holz aus dem Samenkorn des Paradieses. Dieses untergehende und neu entstehende Leben stellt uns das Rosenkreuz vor. Nicht ohne Grund sagte der große Goethe daher:
Und so lang du das nicht hast,
Dieses: Stirb und Werde!
Bist du nur ein trüber Gast
Auf der dunklen Erde.
Welch wunderbarer Zusammenhang zwischen dem Baum des Paradieses, dem Holz des Kreuzes und dem daraus sprießenden Leben! Die Geburt des ewigen Menschen im zeitlichen Leben zu empfinden, das soll für uns die Christus-Idee, die Weihnacht sein. Auf sich anwenden muß es der Mensch jetzt schon: «Das Licht scheint in die Finsternis», und allmählich muß die Finsternis das Licht begreifen. All die Seelen, in denen die Weihnacht den richtigen Funken erregt, werden lebendig fühlen, was die Weihnacht in ihnen geboren werden läßt, die Fähigkeit, die sich ihnen zur Kraft entwikkeln wird, die sie instandsetzen wird, so zu sehen, zu fühlen, zu wollen, daß sich der Spruch umkehrt und es heißt: Das Licht scheint in die Finsternis, und die Finsternis hat das Licht nach und nach begriffen.
The Significance of Christmas from a Spiritual Scientific Point of View
Many people today have no connection to Christmas other than lighting the Christmas tree. However, this Christmas tree is the most recent symbol of Christmas. Even in the regions where it first appeared, it has only been known for about a hundred years. It is not, as many believe, an ancient pagan tradition. As new as the Christmas tree is, the great human festival that now lies ahead of us is ancient, even primeval. As long as people on earth felt, sensed, and knew what leads beyond humanity to godhood, what elevates people above themselves, they have known this sublime Christmas celebration. In the Gospel of John there is a saying that can be taken as a leitmotif for the idea of Christmas: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Here we find the connection between two important annual festivals indicated. John himself testifies that he must decrease, while the other, Christ, grows. When the day is longest, it is St. John's Day. But behind the outer material appearance in its transience, something rises that is beautifully expressed in the Gospel of John with the words: “And the light shone in the darkness,” in the waning days of St. John. Within the darkness lives the light that is brighter and more alive than all material light phenomena—the spiritual light. And the life of the great light in the darkness is the content of the Christian Christmas festival, which was celebrated in ancient times in all religions and which prophetically pointed to the great spiritual sun hero, Christ Jesus.
Today, through the spiritual-scientific worldview, we understand the Christian Christmas festival, which for two millennia has been felt as the festival of great idealism. When, on Christmas Eve, in the darkness of midnight, the church service begins and the lights are lit, they shine out into the darkness. This means that when everything on earth is once doomed to external death — just as everything purely human will succumb to death — then, as Christ made it true, the triumphant soul will live in the body, rising to a life of light from the physical shell, even when the earth as a material body will shatter into countless atoms. From this darkness, this downfall of the earth, the soul of the whole earth will rise with all human souls that will be absorbed into this earth soul. And so that not only the earth soul achieves this, but that all people on earth have the same certainty, Christ Jesus was the model, the ideal.
And so it is not only the physical sun that is the image of the Christ being, but precisely the growing spiritual sun. When all forces have been transformed, when the Earth's body has been transfigured by love, then the Earth will be completely permeated by the Christ principle. The Christmas light is the symbol of this.
The three kings are symbols, as are their gifts: gold symbolizes wisdom and royal power, myrrh symbolizes the defeat of death, and frankincense symbolizes the spiritualized etheric substances in which God, who has overcome death, is realized. Through these three symbols, Christ stands as king, as the conqueror of death, as the fulfillment of all earthly development. Everyone initiated into esotericism feels the birth of the Child of God, foreshadowed in the mysteries even before the time of Christ and still experienced afterwards. The mysteries were not ecclesiastical institutions and schools in the external sense, but places of education and worship where people learned wisdom, devotion, and faith, which is at the same time knowledge and recognition. There were great and small mysteries. Those who were admitted after undergoing various tests saw in the lesser mysteries dramatic representations of the eternal truths that the higher initiate experiences within himself. The greatest moments in human development can be compared, in a small way, to the experiences of a person born blind when he undergoes an operation: a whole new world opens up to him. The eyes of the spirit are opened to the initiate. A world of the spirit opens up to him in light and color, a completely new world, much greater than the physical world, with all its beings and inhabitants. All things seem animated to him. At this moment, the initiates experience the birth of their higher self. This was called the inner Christ festival. What these chosen ones were able to experience, and what the initiates can still experience today, was for the others, in the lesser mysteries, an ideal that they all hoped to achieve, some sooner, some later. Those who know that everyone has many lives to go through can be sure that their awakening, that initiation, will one day become a reality for them too; that the awakening of Christ within them will be achieved, the Christmas when the light will shine within them. Then that saying from the Gospel of John will be reversed: And the light will be understood in the darkness.
This was thus represented in the mysteries. What took place as the great Christian event was a physical repetition of what happened in the mysteries for every initiate, in the small mysteries in the image, in the great mysteries within the human being. In the lesser mysteries, the important experience of the inner Christ was depicted at a very specific time of year, when the sun sends the least light to the world, on the longest night of winter — as is still the case today at Christmas. Let us picture the image that symbolized the meaning of inner human development in the lesser mysteries. In a sacred atmosphere of consecration, the people who were to see it gathered at Christmas, in the complete darkness of midnight. Then a peculiar, muffled, thunderous roar sounded, which gradually transformed into wonderful rhythmic tones, into harmonious sounds — the music of the spheres. And a faintly illuminated body, a sphere glowing dimly in the darkness, became visible, symbolizing the earth. From the faintly glowing disc of the Earth, rainbow-colored rings gradually emerged, flowing into one another and accompanying the sounds, spreading out in all directions—the divine iris. Thus, in ancient Atlantis, the Niflheim of Germanic mythology, the sun shone through the fog for the people. The apparition grew brighter and brighter, and the seven colors gradually changed to pale gold and pale violet. The formation shone ever brighter, and the light grew ever more powerful until it transformed into the brightest celestial body, the sun. In the center of this sun appeared — in the language of the people concerned — the name of Christ. For the person who had participated in this celebration, the significant words applied: he had seen the sun at midnight. That is, a symbol of spiritual vision had appeared to him. The person whose spiritual eye is open experiences that all matter becomes transparent, he sees through the earth, he actually sees the sun at midnight, he conquers matter. In reverse color, in violet-reddish color, the sun appears to them at midnight. What appears cosmically in the great world symbol is, for Christians, translated into human terms, the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth. We will all see the sun at midnight. This is also not in contradiction to the New Testament.
Thus, Christ is the being who will transfigure what is now still connected with the lower, who will deify what is still connected with the worldly. He is the sun in the spiritual realm. The Christian esotericist or theosophical Christian perceives Christ Jesus in this way. At the time when the cold and darkness on earth are at their greatest, spiritual awakening takes place, because the initiates know that certain forces then pass through space and the constellation is most favorable for spiritual awakening. The disciples were taught that they should not be content with ordinary human knowledge, but should learn to survey the whole of humanity, the whole history of the earth. Look back to the time, the disciples were told, when the earth was still united with the sun and moon. Humanity at that time lived in sunlight. What the Earth was to become later was filled with spiritual power, which shone simultaneously in every being. Then came the moment when the sun detached itself from the Earth, when light shone down on the Earth from outside, when it became dark inside human beings. This moment marks the beginning of their development toward that distant future when they will once again carry sunlight within themselves. Then the higher human being, the sun human, who carries light within himself and possesses the power of enlightenment, develops within him.
Thus, the Earth arose from the light, it passes through darkness, and will return to sunlight. Just as the power of the sun's rays diminishes in autumn and winter, so the spiritual recedes completely during the time when human beings are to learn to recognize the external things of the earth, matter. But the spiritual power grows again, and at Christmas time what Paul expresses in the parable of the grain of wheat comes to pass. If the sown grain does not perish in the earth, no new fruit can come forth. At Christmas time, the old life passes away, and new life arises in its womb. From this day on, the sap of the trees rises, new life springs forth, and the light begins to grow again in the darkness that had been increasing until then. The Christian translates this into the spiritual realm. Everything that pulls down in matter must pass away to make room for what springs up. Christ came into the world so that, as it were, what is to lead to the highest may be born out of lowliness. In the stable of the Gospel story, we see a transformation, a variation of what ancient wisdom called the cave. The festival was celebrated in hollowed-out rocks, differently according to the peoples. The next day, a second festival followed, showing how sprouting life emerges from the earth, from the rock. This, too, was a symbol of the growth of the spiritual out of the dying earthly.
Everywhere in the inner sanctuaries of Egypt, in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Orphic cult in Greece, in the Near East, among the Babylonians and Chaldeans, in the Mithras cult of the Persians and in the mysteries of the Indians, Christmas was celebrated in the same way: The participants in the lesser mysteries saw as a sensual spectacle what the initiates experienced. What was depicted was a prophetic reference to the birth of Christ in man. Such initiates who have already attained this are said to have reached the sixth stage. There were seven such levels: On the first level was the raven, which mediated communication between the spiritual and the outer world. Thus, the Bible speaks of the ravens of Elijah, and legend tells of the ravens of Wotan or the ravens of Emperor Barbarossa in Kyffhäuser.
On the second level was the occultist. He was already admitted to the sanctuary and was inside it.
The third degree was that of the fighter or warrior. Those who had attained it were allowed to stand up for spiritual truths to the outside world.
Those who had reached the fourth degree were called lions. Their consciousness had expanded beyond their individuality to the consciousness of the entire tribe. Think, for example, of the lion of the tribe of Judah.
The initiate of the fifth degree not only had tribal consciousness, but had also absorbed the consciousness of the national spirit into his own. He therefore received the name of his people; among the Persians, for example, he was called the “Persian.” Jesus calls Nathanael a “true Israelite”; Jesus recognizes him as an initiate of the fifth degree.
The designation of one who had reached the sixth stage refers to an important characteristic. When we look around us in nature, we see the beings of nature evolving from the lowest beings to human beings, and from the average human being up to the one who allows Christ to be born within himself. In the lower beings, we see rhythm everywhere in life, a rhythm imposed on them by the sun. Plants always bloom at the same time of year, depending on their species, and open their flowers at the same time of day. Animals also show their annual rhythm in important life functions. Only humans are increasingly losing this regularity. They become free from the compulsion of the rhythm that was originally imposed on them. But when love for all beings awakens in them and floods through them, a new rhythm of their own is born from within them. This is now as regular as the rhythm of the sun, which never deviates in the slightest from its course — the consequences of which would be almost impossible to imagine. In the initiate of the sixth degree, one saw an image of the course of the beneficent sun in the universe, the image of Christ in man and in the spiritual world. That is why the sixth degree was called the Sun Hero.
A shiver ran through the soul of the disciple who beheld such a Sun Hero. In him, Christ was born inwardly. This was an event that was perceived as a birth on the spiritual plane. The initiates of the first centuries placed the birth of the historical Jesus in the darkest time of the year, because with it the spiritual sun had risen. That is why the first Christians also introduced midnight mass, a cult around the dark midnight hour, when a sea of light shone on the altar. The highest degree was that of the Father.
What had so often taken place in detail in the mysteries, far removed from all external events, unfolded openly in world history in Christ Jesus. Nothing higher can be experienced in the human soul than what was brought about externally in the physical world by the conqueror of death, the bringer of the pledge of eternal life for the soul. What grew out of the dying world as a new fruit of life was perceived by the initiates as the birth of the Christ Child in the spiritual world. Those who do not think of the spiritual as separate from the physical world feel a deep connection between the sun at Christmas and the spiritual life that develops from the life of the world. Christmas represents the birth of the greatest ideal that exists for the world, which will be realized when the earth reaches its goal. What is now prophetically proclaimed will one day become reality. Just as love that conquers death comes to life in the shining Christmas tree, so it will come to life in all human beings in the future. It now stands before us as a prospect.
Thus, in the spirit of Christmas, we feel something that comes to us from far away, but which has always been celebrated since ancient times. With proper understanding, the festival will once again take on a much greater significance for us. The tree will also become more important to us as a symbol of the tree of paradise, which you all know from Genesis. Paradise is, after all, an image of the higher human nature, to which nothing evil is attached. Knowledge could only be gained at the cost of life. How this was viewed by those who knew is explained in a legend: When Seth wanted to return to paradise, the cherub with the fiery sword let him in. There he found that the tree of life and the tree of knowledge were intertwined. On the cherub's instructions, he was allowed to take three seeds from this united tree. The tree represents what man is to become and what only the initiate has already achieved. When Adam died, Seth took the three seeds and put them in Adam's mouth. From them sprouted a flaming bush, in which were written the words: “Ejeh Asher ejeh” - “I am who is, was, and will be.” The legend goes on to say that Moses made his miracle staff from it. Later, the gate of Solomon's temple was built from the same wood. Then a piece of it fell into the pool of Bethesda and gave it miraculous powers. And finally, it was used to make the cross of Christ. It is an image of dying life, passing away in death, which has the power to bring forth new life.
A great symbol stands before us: life that has overcome death, the wood from the seed of paradise. The Rosicrucians present us with this dying and newly emerging life. It was not without reason that the great Goethe said:
And as long as you do not have that,
This: Die and become!
You are only a gloomy guest
On the dark earth.
What a wonderful connection between the tree of paradise, the wood of the cross, and the life that springs from it! To feel the birth of the eternal human being in temporal life – that is what the idea of Christ, Christmas, should be for us. Human beings must already apply this to themselves: “The light shines in the darkness,” and gradually the darkness must comprehend the light. All souls in whom Christmas awakens the right spark will feel alive what Christmas brings forth in them, the ability that will develop into strength, enabling them to see, feel, and will in such a way that the saying is reversed and it is said: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has gradually understood the light.