3. Esoteric Christianity: The Virgin Sophia The Virgin Sophia is the Goddess in her profoundest, most esoteric Christian form. Around her in this extraordinary lecture, which must rank as a central statement of Rudolf Steiner's message to humanity, all the themes we have been considering come together, and more: the inner process of renewal through Mystery-initiation, here described in exact detail and as intimately connected with the workings of nature and the renewal of the earth itself; the birth of the creative power, the higher or Christ-self in humanity through the Virgin Sophia and the Holy Spirit; the spiritual-scientific approach which Steiner developed in his anthroposophy and its mission to help us perceive the living or 'etheric' Christ in the modern world. Anthropo-Sophia, 'human wisdom' will be the true child of the new Christ-awareness. Of this the environmentalism and ecological awareness of the present are a first stage, the beginning of the new Mysteries of the feminine ideal in spirituality which Rudolf Steiner foresaw.In initiation,
the important thing is to influence the astral body indirectly through daytime consciousness in such a way that it can take on a new plastic form when it is wholly free during the night. When the human being, as an astral being, has given himself a plastic form in this manner, the astral body has become a new member of the human organism. He is then wholly permeated by manas or spirit-self. [18]
When the astral body is thus divided, that part which has in this way been plastically formed is brought over into the etheric body. And just as you press the seal on to the sealing-wax and the name on the seal appears not only on the seal but on the wax as well, so too must
the astral body dip down into the etheric body and impress upon it whatever it may now possess. The inner process, the reworking of the astral body, is the same in all methods of initiation. The individual methods differ only in the method of transmission into the etheric body. We shall speak later of these differences and show how the three methods of initiation, which have proved to be the most profound evolutionary impulses in the course of the modern age, differ from each other and what significance initiation, in general, has for human evolution. Then these parts of the Gospel of St John upon which we have not yet been able to touch will also become clear.
The refashioning of the astral body indirectly through meditation and concentration is called by an ancient name katharsis, or purification. Katharsis or purification has as its purpose the discarding from the astral body of all that hinders it from becoming harmoniously and regularly organized, thus enabling it to acquire higher organs. It is endowed with the germ of these higher organs; all that is required is to bring out the forces which are present in it. As we said, the most varied methods can be employed for bringing about such katharsis.
A person can go very far in this matter of katharsis if, for example, he has worked through and inwardly experienced all that is in
my book The Philosophy of Freedom [19] and feels that this book was for him a stimulation and that now he has reached the point where
he can actually reproduce the thoughts himself just as they are presented there. If a person holds the same relationship to this book that a virtuoso, in playing a selection on the piano, holds to the composer of the piece, that is, he reproduces the whole thing within himself -- naturally according to his ability to do so -- then through the strictly built-up sequence of this book katharsis will be developed to a high degree. For the important point in such things as this book is that the thoughts are all placed in such a way that they become active. In many other books of the present, what has been said earlier in the book could just as well be said later just by changing the approach a little. In The Philosophy of Freedom this is not possible. Page 150 can no more be placed 50 pages earlier in the subject matter than the hind legs of a dog can be exchanged with the forelegs, for
the book is a logically arranged structure and the development of the thoughts in it has an effect similar to an inner schooling. Hence there are various methods of bringing about katharsis.
If a person has not been successful in doing this after having gone through this book, he should not think that what has been said is untrue but rather that he has not studied it properly or with sufficient energy or thoroughness.Something else must now be considered, and that is that
when katharsis has taken place, when the astral organs have been formed in the astral body, it must all be imprinted upon the etheric body. In the pre-Christian initiation, it was done in the following manner. After the pupil had undergone the appropriate preparatory training, which often lasted for years, he was told: the time has now come when the astral body has developed far enough to have astral organs of perception; these can now become aware of their counterpart in the etheric body.
Then the pupil was subjected to a procedure which today -- at least for our cultural epoch -- is neither necessary nor in all seriousness feasible.
He was put into a lethargic state for three and a half days and was treated during this time in such a way that not only the astral body left the physical and etheric bodies -- a thing that occurs every night in sleep -- but to a certain degree the etheric body also was lifted out; but care was taken that the physical body remained intact and that the pupil did not die in the meantime. The etheric body was then liberated from the forces of the physical body which act upon it. It had become elastic and plastic and when the sensory organs that had been formed in the astral body sank down into it, the etheric body received an imprint from the whole astral body.
When the pupil was returned to a normal condition by the hierophant, when the astral body and ego were again united with the physical and etheric bodies -- a procedure which the hierophant well understood -- then not only did he experience katharsis, but also what is called 'illumination' or photismos. The pupil then perceived not just all those things that were physically perceptible in the world around him, but he could employ his spiritual organs of perception to see and perceive the spiritual element. Initiation consisted essentially of these two processes, purification or purging, and illumination.
Then the course of human evolution entered a phase in which it gradually became impossible to draw the etheric body out of the physical body without a very great disturbance in all its functions, because the whole tendency of post-Atlantean evolution was to cause the etheric body to be attached closer and closer to the physical body. It was consequently necessary to undertake other methods of initiation which proceeded in such a manner that the astral body, having become sufficiently developed through katharsis and able to return again to the physical and etheric bodies by itself, was able to imprint its organs on the etheric body without the separation of the physical and ether bodies and in spite of the hindrance of the physical body.
What had to happen was that stronger forces had to become active in meditation and concentration in order that the astral body could contain the strong impulse for overcoming the power of resistance of the physical body. In the first place, there was the actual specifically Christian initiation in which it was
necessary for the pupil to undergo the procedure which has been described as the seven steps. When he had undergone these feelings and experiences, his astral body had been so intensely affected that it formed its organs of perception plastically -- something that might take years, but would happen sooner or later -- and then impressed them upon the etheric body,
thus turning the pupil into one of the illuminati. This kind of specifically Christian initiation could only be described fully if I were able to give daily lectures about its particular aspects for about a fortnight instead of only for a few days. But that is not the important thing. You were given certain details about the Christian initiation. We only need to understand its principles.
The seven stages of Christian initiation are the washing of the feet, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, the mystical death on the cross, the burial, and the ascension.
-- The Christian Mystery: Lectures, by Rudolf Steiner
By continually meditating upon passages of the Gospel of St John, the Christian pupil is actually able to achieve initiation without the three and a half day period of lethargic sleep. If each day he allows the first verses of the Gospel of St John, from 'In the beginning was the Word' to the passage 'full of devotion and truth', to work upon him, they become an exceedingly significant meditation. They have a force within them, for this Gospel is not there simply to be read and understood in its entirety with the intellect, but it must be inwardly fully experienced and felt. It is a force which assists initiation and works for it.
Then the 'washing of the feet', the 'scourging' and other inner processes will be experienced as astral visions, wholly corresponding to the description in the Gospel itself, beginning with the thirteenth chapter.
The Rosicrucian initiation, although resting upon a Christian foundation, works more with other
symbolic ideas which produce katharsis, chiefly with imaginative pictures. That is another modification which had to be used, because humankind had progressed a step further in its evolution and the methods of initiation must conform to what has gradually evolved. We must understand that when a person has attained initiation, he is fundamentally quite different from the person he was before. While formerly he was only associated with the things of the physical world, he now acquires the possibility of association with the events and beings of the spiritual world as well. This presupposes that the human being acquires knowledge in a much more real sense than in that abstract, dry, prosaic sense in which we usually speak of knowledge. For a person who acquires spiritual knowledge finds the process to be something quite different. It is a complete realization of that beautiful expression,
'know yourself'.
But the most dangerous thing in the realm of knowledge is to understand these words wrongly, something which happens all too frequently today.
Many people construe these words to mean that they should no longer look at the physical world, but should gaze into their own inner being and seek there for everything spiritual. This is a very mistaken understanding of the saying, for that is not at all what it means. We must clearly understand that true higher knowledge is also an evolution from one perspective which the human being had attained to another which he had not previously reached.
If a person practises self-knowledge only by brooding upon himself, he sees only what he already possesses. He thereby acquires nothing new, but only knowledge of his own lower self in the present meaning of the word. This inner nature is only one part of what is necessary for knowledge. The other part that is necessary must be added. Without the two parts, there is no real knowledge.
By means of his inner nature, he can develop organs through which he can gain knowledge. But just as the eye, as an external sense organ, would not perceive the sun by gazing into itself, but only by looking outwards at the sun, so must the inner organs of perception gaze outwards, in other words, gaze into the external spiritual world in order actually to perceive something. The term 'knowledge' had a much deeper, more real meaning in those ages when spiritual things were better understood than at present. Read in the Bible the words' Abraham knew his wife' or this or that patriarch 'knew his wife'. One does not need to seek very far in order to understand that
this expression referred to fertilization. When we consider the words 'know yourself', they do not mean in the Greek that you stare into your own inner being, but that you fertilize yourself with what streams into you from the spiritual world. 'Know yourself' means: fertilize yourself with the content of the spiritual world!Two things are needed for this, namely, that
the human being prepare himself through katharsis and illumination, and then that he open his inner being freely to the spiritual world. In this connection
we may compare his inner nature to the female aspect, the outer spiritual element to the male. The inner being must be made capable of receiving the higher self. When this has happened, the higher human self streams into the human being from the spiritual world.
We may ask where this higher human self is located. Is it within the person of the human being? No, it is not there. On Saturn, Sun and Moon the higher self was diffused over the entire cosmos. [20] At that time the cosmic ego was spread out over all humankind, but now human beings have to permit it to work upon them. They must permit this ego to work on their previously prepared inner natures. This means that the human inner nature, in other words the astral body, has to be cleansed, purified and ennobled, and subjected to katharsis. Then a person may expect that the external spirit will stream into him for his illumination. That will occur when the human being has been so well prepared that he has subjected his astral body to katharsis, thereby developing his inner organs of perception. The astral body, in any case, has progressed so far that now when it dips down into the etheric and physical bodies illumination or photismos results.
What actually occurs is that
the astral body imprints its organs upon the etheric body, making it possible for the human being to perceive a spiritual world about him, making it possible for his inner being, the astral body, to receive what the etheric body is able to offer to it, what the etheric body draws out of the entire cosmos, out of the cosmic ego.This cleansed, purified astral body, which bears within it at the moment of illumination none of the impure impressions of the physical world, but only the organs of perception of the spiritual world, is called the 'pure, chaste, wise Virgin Sophia' in esoteric Christianity. By means of all that he receives during katharsis, the pupil cleanses and purifies his astral body so that it is transformed into the Virgin Sophia.
And when the Virgin Sophia encounters the cosmic ego, the universal ego that brings about illumination, the pupil is surrounded by light, spiritual light. This second power that approaches the Virgin Sophia is called -- even today still -- the 'Holy Spirit' in esoteric Christianity. Therefore according to esoteric Christianity, it is correct to say that through his processes of initiation the Christian esotericist attains the purification and cleansing of his astral body; he makes his astral body into the Virgin Sophia and is illuminated from above -- if you wish, you may call it overshadowed -- by the Holy Spirit, by the cosmic, universal ego. And a person thus illuminated, who according to esoteric Christianity has received the Holy Spirit into himself, speaks in a different manner from that moment on. How does he speak? When he speaks about Saturn, Sun and Moon, about the different elements of the human being, about the processes of cosmic evolution, he is not expressing his own opinion. His views do not at all come into consideration.
When such a person speaks about Saturn, it is Saturn itself that is speaking through him. When he speaks about the Sun, the spiritual being of the Sun speaks through him.
He is the instrument. His personal ego has been eclipsed, which means that at such moments it has become impersonal and it is the cosmic universal ego that is using his ego as its instrument through which to speak. Therefore, in true esoteric teaching which proceeds from esoteric Christianity, one should not speak of views or opinions, for in the highest sense of the word this is incorrect; there are no such things. According to esoteric Christianity, whoever speaks with the right attitude of mind with regard to the world will tell himself, for instance: 'If I tell people that there were two horses outside, the important thing is not that one of them pleases me less than the other and that I think one is a worthless horse. The important point is that I describe the horses to the others and give the facts. Similarly, what has been observed in the spiritual worlds must be described irrespective of all personal opinions.
In every system of teaching based on spiritual science, only the facts must be related and this must have nothing to do with the opinions of the person who relates them.'Thus we have become familiar with two concepts and their spiritual significance. We have learned to know the nature of the Virgin Sophia, which is the purified astral body, and the nature of the Holy Spirit, the cosmic universal ego, which is received by the Virgin Sophia and which can then speak out of this purified astral body. There is something else to be attained, a still higher stage, which is the ability to help someone else, the ability to give another person the impulse to accomplish both of these steps.
Human beings in our period of evolution can receive the Virgin Sophia (the purified astral body) and the Holy Spirit (illumination) in the manner described, but only Jesus Christ could give to the earth what was necessary in order for that to happen. He implanted in the spiritual part of the earth those forces which make it possible for that to happen at all which has been described in the Christian initiation. You may ask how this came about.
Two things are necessary for an understanding of this. First we must make ourselves acquainted with something purely historical, that is, with the manner in which names were given, which was quite different in the age in which the Gospels were written to the way in which it is done today.
Those who interpret the Gospels today do not understand the principle of giving names at the time the Gospels were written at all, and therefore they do not say what they should. It is, in fact, exceedingly difficult to describe the principle of giving names at that time, yet we can make it comprehensible, even though we only indicate it in rough outlines.
Let us suppose when we meet someone that instead of holding to the name which does not fit him at all, and which has been given to him in the abstract way customary today, we were to pay attention to and notice his most distinguishing characteristics, were to notice the most prominent attribute of his character and were in a position to discern clairvoyantly the deeper foundations of his being; and that then we were to give him his name in accordance with those most important qualities which we believe should be attributed to him. Were we to follow such a method of giving names, we should be doing something, at a lower, more elementary stage, similar to what was done at the time by those who gave names in the manner of the writer of the Gospel of St John. In order to make very clear his manner of giving names, let us consider the following.
The author of the St John's Gospel regarded the physical, historical mother of Jesus in her most prominent characteristics and asked himself: 'Where shall I find a name for her which will express most perfectly her real being?' Then, because through her earlier incarnations she had reached those spiritual heights upon which she stood; and because
she appeared in her external personality to be a counterpart, a revelation of what was called in esoteric Christianity the Virgin Sophia, he called the mother of Jesus the 'Virgin Sophia'; and this is what she was always called in the esoteric places where esoteric Christianity was taught. Exoterically he leaves her entirely unnamed in contrast to those others who chose for her the secular name Mary.
He could not use the secular name; he had to express in the name the profound, world historic evolution. He does this by indicating that she cannot be called Mary and, what is more, he places by her side her sister Mary, wife of Cleophas, and calls her simply the 'mother of Jesus'. He shows thereby that he does not wish to mention her name, that it cannot be publicly revealed.
In esoteric circles, she is always called the Virgin Sophia. It was she who represented the Virgin Sophia as an external historical personality.
If we now wish to penetrate further into the nature of Christianity and its founder, we must consider yet another mystery. We should understand clearly how to make a distinction between the personality who, in esoteric Christianity, was called Jesus of Nazareth and him who was called Jesus Christ, the Christ dwelling within Jesus of Nazareth.
Now what does this mean? It means that in the historical personality of Jesus of Nazareth we are dealing with a highly developed human being who had passed through many incarnations and after a cycle of high development was again reincarnated -- a person who, because of this, was attracted to a mother so pure that the writer of the Gospel could call her the 'Virgin Sophia'. Thus we are dealing with a highly developed human being, Jesus of Nazareth, who had progressed far in his evolution in his previous incarnations and in this incarnation had entered upon a highly spiritual stage.
The other evangelists were not illuminated to such a high degree as the writer of this Gospel. It was more the actual world of the senses that was revealed to them, a world in which they saw their master and Messiah moving about as Jesus of Nazareth. The mysterious spiritual relationships, at least those at heights into which the writer of the Gospel of St John could peer, were concealed from them.
For this reason they laid special emphasis upon the fact that in Jesus of Nazareth lived the Father, who had always existed in Judaism and was transmitted down through the generations as the God of the Jews. And they expressed this when they said: 'If we trace back the ancestry of Jesus of Nazareth through generation after generation, we are able to prove that the same blood flows in him that has flowed down through these generations.' The evangelists give the genealogical tables and use them to show the different stages of evolution at which they stand. For Matthew, the important thing is to show that in Jesus of Nazareth we have a person in whom Father Abraham is living. The blood of Father Abraham has flowed down through the generations as far as Jesus. He thus traces the genealogical tables back to Abraham. He has a more materialistic point of view than Luke.
The important thing for Luke was not only to show that the God who lived in Abraham was present in Jesus, but that the ancestry, the line of descent, can be traced back still further, even to Adam and that Adam was a son of the Godhead itself, which means that he belonged to the time when humanity had just made the transition from a spiritual to a physical state. Both Matthew and Luke wished to show that the earthly Jesus of Nazareth had his being only in what can be traced back to the divine Father-power.
This was not a matter of importance
for the writer of the Gospel of St John who could gaze into the spiritual world. The important thing for him was not the words 'I and Father Abraham are one', but that at every moment of time there exists in the human being an eternal element which was present in him before Father Abraham. This is what he wished to show. In the beginning was the Word which is called the 'I AM'. Before all external things and beings, he was. He was in the beginning. For those who wished rather to describe Jesus of Nazareth, and were only able to describe him, it was a question of showing how from the beginning the blood flowed down through the generations. It was important to them to show that the same blood flowing down through the generations flowed also in Joseph, the father of Jesus.
If we could speak quite esoterically, it would naturally be necessary to speak of the idea of the so-called 'virgin birth', but this can be discussed only in the most intimate circles. It belongs to the deepest mysteries that exist and the misunderstanding connected with this idea arises because people do not know what is meant by the 'virgin birth'. They think that it means there was no fatherhood. But it is not that; a much more profound, a more mysterious something lies at the back of it which is quite compatible with what the other disciples wish to show, that is, that Joseph is the father of Jesus. If they were to deny this, then all the trouble they take to show this to be a fact would be meaningless. They wish to show that the ancient God exists in Jesus of Nazareth. Luke especially wished to make this very clear, therefore he traces the whole ancestry back to Adam and then to God. How could he have come to this conclusion, if he really wished only to say: 'I am showing you that this genealogical tree exists, but Joseph, as a matter of fact, had nothing to do with it.' It would be very strange if people were to take the trouble to represent Joseph as a very important personality and then were to push him aside out of the whole affair.
In the event in Palestine, we are dealing not only with this highly developed personality, Jesus of Nazareth, who had passed through many incarnations and had developed himself so highly that he needed such an extraordinary mother as the Virgin Sophia, but we are also dealing with a second mystery.
When Jesus of Nazareth was 30 years of age, he had advanced to such a stage through what he had experienced in his present incarnation that he could perform an action which it is possible for a person to perform in exceptional cases. We know that the human being consists of physical, etheric and astral bodies and an ego. This fourfold human being is the human being as he lives here among us. If a person stands at a certain high stage of evolution, it is possible for him at a particular moment to draw out his ego from the three bodies and abandon them, leaving them intact and entirely uninjured. This ego then goes into the spiritual worlds and the three bodies remain behind. We meet this process at times in cosmic evolution. At some especially exalted, enraptured moment, the ego of a person departs and enters into the spirit world -- under certain conditions this can be extended over a long period -- and because the three bodies are so highly developed by the ego that lived in them, they are fit instruments for a still higher being who now takes possession of them.
In the thirtieth year of Jesus of Nazareth, that being whom we have called Christ took possession of his physical, etheric and astral bodies. This Christ being could not incarnate in an ordinary child's body, but only in one which had first been prepared by a highly developed ego, for this Christ being had never before been incarnated in a physical body. Therefore from the thirtieth year on, we are dealing with Christ in Jesus of Nazareth.What in reality took place?
The fact is that the body of Jesus of Nazareth, which he had left behind, was so mature, so perfect, that the sun Logos, the being of the six Elohim who are the spiritual being of the sun, was able to penetrate into it. It could incarnate for three years in this body, could become flesh. The sun Logos who can shine into human beings through illumination, the sun Logos himself, the Holy Spirit, entered. The universal ego, the cosmic ego, entered and from then on for three years the sun Logos spoke through the body of Jesus.The Christ speaks through the body of Jesus during these three years.
This event is indicated in the Gospel of St John and also in the other Gospels as the descent of the dove, of the Holy Spirit, upon Jesus of Nazareth. In esoteric Christianity it is said that at that moment the ego of Jesus of Nazareth left his body, and that from then on the Christ is in him, speaking through him in order to teach and work. This is the first event that happens, according to the Gospel of St John. We now have the Christ within the astral, etheric and physical bodies of Jesus of Nazareth. There he worked as has been described until the Mystery of Golgotha occurred.
What occurred on Golgotha? Let us consider that important moment when the blood flowed from the wounds of the crucified Saviour. In order that you may understand me better, I shall compare what occurred with something else.
Let us suppose we have a vessel filled with water. Salt is dissolved in the water and the water becomes quite transparent. Because we have warmed the water, we have made a salt solution. Now let us cool the water. The salt precipitates and we see how the salt condenses below and forms a deposit at the bottom of the vessel. That is the process for someone who sees only with physical eyes. But for a person who can see with spiritual eyes, something else is happening. While the salt is condensing below, the spirit of the salt streams up through the water, filling it. The salt can only become condensed when the spirit of the salt has departed from it and become diffused into the water. Those who understand these things know that wherever condensation takes place, a spiritualization also always occurs. What thus condenses below has its counterpart above in the spiritual element, just as in the case of the salt, when it condenses and is precipitated below, its spirit streams upwards and dissipates. Therefore, it was not only a physical process that took place
when the blood flowed from the wounds of the Saviour, but it was actually accompanied by a spiritual process; that is, the Holy Spirit, which was received at the baptism, united itself with the earth -- Christ himself flowed into the very being of the earth. From now on, the earth was changed, and this is the reason for saying to you in previous lectures that if a person had viewed the earth from a distant star, he would have observed that its whole appearance was altered with the Mystery of Golgotha. The sun Logos became a part of the earth, formed an alliance with it and became the spirit of the earth. This he achieved by entering into the body of Jesus of Nazareth in his thirtieth year, and by remaining active there for three years, after which he continued to remain on the earth.
Now the important thing is that this event must produce an effect upon the true Christian; that it must give something by which he may gradually develop the beginnings of a purified astral body in the Christian sense. There had to be something there for the Christian whereby he could make his astral body gradually more and more like a Virgin Sophia, and through it receive into himself the Holy Spirit which was able to spread out over the entire earth, but which could not be received by anyone whose astral body did not resemble the Virgin Sophia. There had to be something which possessed the power to transform the human astral body into a Virgin Sophia. What is this power? It consists of Jesus Christ entrusting to the disciple whom he loved -- in other words to the writer of the Gospel of St John -- the mission of describing truly and faithfully through his own illumination the events in Palestine in order that human beings might be affected by them.
If human beings permit what is written in the Gospel of St John to have a sufficient effect on them, their astral body will become a Virgin Sophia and it will become receptive to the Holy Spirit. Gradually, through the strength of the impulse which comes from this Gospel, the astral body will become capable of feeling the true spirit and later of perceiving it. This mission was given to the writer of the Gospel by Jesus Christ. You need only to read the Gospel.
The mother of Jesus -- the Virgin Sophia in the esoteric meaning of Christianity -- stands at the foot of the cross and from the cross Christ says to the disciple whom he loved: 'Henceforth, this is your mother' and from this hour the disciple took her unto himself. This means: 'That force which was in my astral body and made it capable of becoming bearer of the Holy Spirit I now give over to you; you shall write down what this astral body has been capable of acquiring through its development.'
'And the disciple took her unto himself' means that he wrote the Gospel of St John. And this Gospel of St John is the Gospel in which the writer has concealed powers that develop the Virgin Sophia. At the cross the mission was entrusted to him of receiving that force as his mother and of being the true, genuine interpreter of the Messiah.
This really means that if you live wholly in accordance with the Gospel of St John and understand it spiritually, it has the force to lead you to Christian katharsis, it has the power to give you the Virgin Sophia. Then the Holy Spirit, united with the earth, will grant you illumination or photismos according to the Christian meaning. And what the closest disciples experienced there in Palestine was so powerful that from that time on they possessed at least the capacity of perception in the spiritual world. The closest disciples had received this capacity into themselves. Perceiving in the spirit in the Christian sense means that the person transforms his astral body to such a degree through the power of the event in Palestine that what he sees need not be before him externally and accessible to the physical senses. He possesses something by means of which he can perceive in the spirit.
There were such close pupils. The woman who anointed the feet of Jesus Christ in Bethany had received through the event in Palestine the powerful force needed for spiritual perception, and she is, for example, one of those who first understood that what had lived in Jesus was present after his death, that is, had been resurrected. She possessed this faculty. We might ask how she developed this capacity. It came through the development of her inner sense organs. Are we told this in the Gospel? We are indeed; we are told that
Mary Magdalene was led to the grave, that the body had disappeared and that she saw there two spiritual forms. These two spiritual forms are always to be seen when a corpse is present for a certain time after death. On the one side the astral body is seen and, on the other, what gradually separates from it as etheric body, then passing over into the cosmic ether. Quite separate from the physical body there are two spiritual forms present which belong to the spiritual world.Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without the sepulchre weeping; and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre and seeth two angels in white sitting.
She saw this because she had become clairvoyant through the force and power of the event in Palestine. And she saw something else: she saw the risen Christ. Was it necessary for her to be clairvoyant to be able to see Christ? If you have seen a person in physical form a few days ago, do you not think you would recognize him again if he appeared before you?
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing it to be the gardener ...
And in order that it might be told to us as precisely as possible, it was not only said once, but again at the next appearance of the risen Christ, when Jesus appeared at the Sea of Gennesareth.
But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
The esoteric pupils find him there. Those who had received the full force of the event in Palestine could grasp the situation and see that it was the risen Jesus who could be perceived spiritually. Although the disciples and Mary Magdalene saw him, there were some among them who were less able to develop clairvoyant power. One of these was
Thomas. It is said that he was not present the first time the disciples saw the Lord, and he declared he would have to lay his hands in his wounds, he would have to touch physically the body of the risen Christ. What happened? The effort was then made to assist him to develop spiritual perception. And how was this done? Let us take the words of the Gospel itself:
And after a week his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus the doors being shut, and stood in their midst, and said, peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy fingers and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And thou shalt behold something if thou dost not rely upon the outer appearance, but art impregnated with inner power.
This inner power which should proceed from the event in Palestine is called 'faith'. It is no ordinary force but an inner clairvoyant power. 'Permeate thyself with inner power, then thou needest no longer hold as real that only which thou seest externally; for blessed are they who are able to know what they do not see outwardly!'
Thus we see that we are dealing with the full reality and truth of the Resurrection and that only those are fully able to understand it who have first developed the inner power to perceive in the spirit world. This will make the last chapter of the Gospel of St John comprehensible to you, in which again and again it is pointed out that the closest followers of Jesus Christ have reached the stage of the Virgin Sophia, because the event of Golgotha had been consummated in their presence. But when they had to stand firm for the first time, had actually to behold a spiritual event, they were still blinded and had first to find their way. They did not know that he was the same one who had earlier been among them. Here is something which we must understand with the most subtle concepts; for the grossly materialistic person would say: 'Then the resurrection is undermined!' The miracle of the resurrection is to be taken quite literally, for he said: 'Lo, I remain with you always, even unto the end of the age, unto the end of the cosmic age.'
He is there and will come again, although not in a form of flesh, but in a form in which those who have been sufficiently developed through the power of the Gospel of St John can actually perceive him; and possessing the power to perceive him, they will no longer be unbelieving. The mission of the movement connected with the
science of the spirit is to prepare those who have the will to allow themselves to be prepared for the return of Christ upon earth. [21] This is the cosmic and historical significance of
spiritual science, to prepare mankind and to keep its eyes open for the time when the Christ will appear again actively among human beings in the sixth cultural epoch, in order that the thing may be accomplished for a great part of humanity which was indicated to us in the marriage at Cana. Therefore the world view obtained from the
science of the spirit appears like the execution of the testament of Christianity. In order to be lead to real Christianity, human beings in the future will have to receive that spiritual teaching which
spiritual science is able to give. Many people may still say today that
spiritual science is something that really contradicts true Christianity. But those are the little popes who form opinions about things of which they know nothing and who turn them into a dogma: 'What I do not know does not exist.' This intolerance will become greater and greater in the future and Christianity will experience the greatest danger precisely from those people who at present believe they can be called good Christians.
The Christianity of
spiritual science will experience serious attacks from the Christians in name, for all concepts must change if a true spiritual understanding of Christianity is to arise. Above all, the soul must become more and more conversant with and understanding of the legacy of the writer of the Gospel of St John, the great school of the Virgin Sophia, the Gospel of John itself. Only
spiritual science can lead us deeper into this Gospel.
In these lectures, only examples could be given showing how
spiritual science can introduce us to the Gospel of St John, for it is impossible to explain the whole of it. We read in the Gospel itself:
And there are also many other things which Jesus did; and I suppose that were they all written down one after the other, the world could not contain all the books that would have to be written.
Just as the Gospel itself cannot go into all the details of the event in Palestine, so too is it impossible for even the longest course of lectures to present the full spiritual content of the Gospel. Therefore we must be satisfied with those indications which could be given at this time; we must content ourselves with the thought that through just such indications in the course of human evolution the true testament of Christianity becomes executed. Let us allow all this to have such an effect upon us that we may possess the power to adhere to the foundation which we recognize in the Gospel of St John, when others come to us and say: 'You are giving us too complicated concepts, too many concepts which we must first make our own in order to comprehend this Gospel; the Gospel is for the simple and naive, and one dare not approach them with many concepts and thoughts.' Many people say this today. They perhaps refer to another saying:
'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' It is easy to quote such a saying as long as one does not understand it, for it really says: 'Blessed are the beggars in spirit, for they shall reach the kingdom of heaven within themselves.' This means that those who are like beggars of the spirit, who desire to receive more and more of the spirit, will find in themselves the kingdom of heaven!At the present time, the idea is all too prevalent that everything religious is identical with all that is primitive and simple.
People say: 'We acknowledge that science possesses many and complicated ideas, but we do not grant the same to faith and religion.' Faith and religion -- so many 'Christians' say -- must be simple and naive! They demand this. And many rely upon a conception which is little quoted perhaps, but which in the present is haunting the minds of people and which Voltaire, one of the great teachers of materialism, expressed in the words: 'Whoever wishes to be a prophet must find believers, for what he asserts must be believed and only what is simple, what is always repeated in its simplicity, that alone finds believers.' This is often so with the prophets, both true and false. They take the trouble to say something and to repeat it again and again and the people learn to believe it, because it is constantly repeated. The representative of spiritual science does not want to be such a prophet. He does not wish to be a prophet at all. It may often be said: 'Yes, you do not just repeat, but you are always elucidating things from other angles, you are always discussing them in other ways.' But when they tell him that, he is not guilty of any fault. A prophet wants people to believe in him. Spiritual science has no desire to lead to belief, but to knowledge. Therefore let us take Voltaire's statement in another way. He says: 'What is simple is believed and is the concern of the prophet.' Spiritual science says: What is complex is known. Let us try to understand more and more that spiritual science is something that is complex -- not a creed, but a path to knowledge, and consequently it bears within it the complex. Therefore let us not shrink from collecting a great deal in order that we may understand one of the most important Christian documents, the Gospel of St John. We have attempted to assemble the most varied material which places us in the position of being able to understand more and more the profound truths of this Gospel; able to understand how the physical mother of Jesus was an external manifestation, an external image of the Virgin Sophia; to understand what spiritual importance the Virgin Sophia had for the pupil of the Mysteries whom the Christ loved.