World Mysteries and Theosophy

GA 54 — 1 February 1906, Berlin

The Wisdom Teachings of Christianity

When people look around them, the world initially presents itself in a confusing diversity, both in terms of external nature and human life itself. They may well look up at the starry sky and try to fathom the meaning of the magnificent but initially enigmatic diversity of the stars in the shining heavens. Sensible people will also try to recognize the meaning in everything, from the movement of the stars to the other life and activity of the elements during the day. When we then look down at our earth, when we try to understand our mountains with their colorful diversity of rocks, forests, and vegetation, when we try to comprehend the things that surround us in plants, animals, and beings like ourselves, and when we try to see reason and meaning in the phenomena that come to us more or less obscurely from the events of nature, in short, when we try to see reason and meaning in everything, reason and meaning in everything, then we probably feel at first a kind of powerlessness in the face of all the confusion that confronts us. But the most confusing thing for us is what we encounter in the actual life of human beings, in the historical development of human beings over thousands of years. Science, religion, and other human endeavors, feelings, intellect, and reason have always attempted to bring meaning and coherence to the colorful diversity of the stars and to the life and activity of the beings on our earth. Who could deny that the human spirit has come a long way in this regard and that it may hope to go further and further? But whether there is also a lawful meaning, a kind of spiritual connection in what we call human development in history, seems quite questionable to some when they consider the course of fate with all the misery that, on the one hand, undeservedly befalls individuals, tribes, and peoples, with all the happiness that seemingly undeservedly befalls individuals or even many, with all the succession of historical experiences of individual peoples, races, and nations. When we look into all this, it sometimes seems to us to be pure chaos. Many people believe that it is futile to search for meaning, for a connection, and that it is futile to try to understand it all.

Great, far-sighted minds have never doubted that the human spirit can find meaning and understanding, lawful necessity, even in this sequence of historical events. I need only point out that our great German poet and thinker, Lessing, in the testament of his life, in his last work, portrayed this development of humanity as an education of the human race. He depicted antiquity as the childhood of humanity, with the Old Testament as the first elementary book, and the following ages as a kind of adolescence, from which we have the opportunity to look into the future, which should bring us something mature and manly. I would like to remind you that another great German thinker, whom few people know today, not even those who would be called upon to study him, the great German philosopher Hegel, called history an education of man in the consciousness of freedom, an awakening to the consciousness of freedom. We could multiply these two examples by a hundred, and we would see everywhere that people who look with a genius eye at this hustle and bustle, this confusing, seemingly chaotic hustle and bustle, have never doubted that there is also a legal necessity, above all a higher order than out there in nature, in the world of stars, plants, animals, and physical beings in general.

When we look at the development of humanity, we encounter something that is no longer felt with the vitality with which it should be felt: a duality, a radical division. This seems to be something quite trivial, but it only appears trivial because people have become so accustomed to it. Namely, we reckon with the long period before and the long period after the birth of Christ. Today, this is no longer perceived as something significant because humanity has become so accustomed to it. But is it not something highly significant that our entire history has been divided into two parts after this single event? That something must have had such a powerful effect that it was recognized by such a large part of humanity, as is indeed the case? That this could happen shows us that deep within the human breast there is something hidden, an awareness of the unique, tremendous significance of the deed of Christ Jesus. But who could deny that today this significance has become something questionable for many, so that today few of those who consider themselves to be among the most enlightened can truly account for why this is so, from what infinite depth humanity has actually come to this division of history?

This is the question that should occupy us today: the wisdom teaching of Christianity from the standpoint of a deepened spiritual worldview. The theosophical movement, which has been spreading more and more in the educated world for thirty years, attempts, among other things, to deepen the wisdom teaching of Christianity. Those who have already studied anthroposophically oriented Spiritual Science know that the second principle of the spiritual science movement is to seek the core of wisdom in all major cultural religions. It is precisely in relation to the anthroposophical view of Christianity that the greatest possible misunderstandings prevail, and among those who are called upon to teach and explain Christianity, there are very few who show real understanding for anthroposophical endeavors. Again and again it is said: Yes, anthroposophy wants to transplant some kind of Eastern teachings, a new Buddhism, into Europe. That would be the most unanthroposophical thing imaginable. If we are serious about the principle of seeking the core of wisdom in all religions, then we must be aware that we must seek this core of wisdom above all in Christianity, in the religion through which the whole culture of Europe was created and from which the finest currents of the West sprang. Anyone who does not understand Christianity today would not understand themselves, and if Christianity is to achieve something truly great for Europe in the future, then it must be deepened. If Spiritual Science is to play a part in this great achievement, then it has the task of penetrating into the depths of Christianity and seeking out those sources that can still bubble up into the future, that are capable of awakening cultural hopes for the future.

Some time ago, when I spoke in a city in southern Germany about the wisdom teachings of Christianity, which is our topic today, various Protestant pastors and Catholic priests were also present. After the lecture, the Catholic priests said to me: What you have told us is the most exquisite Christianity, but only for the select few who want Christianity in such a profound way. We, however, proclaim Christianity in a form that everyone can understand, that is accessible to all. I replied, "If you were right, you could be sure that it would never have occurred to me to speak about the core wisdom of Christianity, as I would consider it the most superfluous thing in the world. For if you were right, could there be anyone who felt compelled to stray from the way you teach? Then the number of those who no longer find satisfaction in the way you teach could not increase with each passing day. Certainly, there are many for whom you can speak today. But the fact that it is possible that numerous people no longer find satisfaction in you is proven by the fact that there are people who must be addressed in a different way. It does not matter that we imagine we can find the way to everyone. We can easily do that and think that we are presenting things in such a way that we can find the way to everyone. But it does not matter what opinions we have about what we consider to be the right way. It is not our imaginations that matter, but the facts. If you observe this and do not speak what you present as your subjective confession, then you will see that there are many to whom you no longer speak. And to them, it is necessary to speak in a new form. These are the ones to whom the Spiritual Science practitioner speaks.

But spiritual science will not speak only to these people. It will also speak to those who still adhere to old Christian traditions in full Christian piety, and for them, too, it will be a deepening, a spiritualization of the true teachings of Christianity. The spiritual scientific truth: Nothing is higher than truth — is often misunderstood by people like the pastor I mentioned. People believe that it is enough to simply have faith that something is true. No, it is not enough that we have subjective conviction and imagine that we are on the right path. This is precisely what the spiritual-scientific world movement seeks to overcome. Truth does not lie in our opinion, but in the facts. Observation of the facts must take precedence over what we believe. That is the meaning of the saying. What we believe is our personal affair. What speaks to us through the world of facts is transpersonal. We must submit to this, we must pursue it.

It is indeed true that the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth divided human development into two parts, and therefore we must look a little deeper into this course of human development. Anyone who delves even a little into a spiritual exploration of existence will soon recognize how hollow and superficial all materialistic worldviews are, how everything material is only the expression of the spiritual behind it, how the spiritual is the origin and source of all external sensory existence. Human beings as sensory beings, as they have developed since the times recorded in history and human thought, human beings themselves, as they live on earth, are only the expression of a supernatural human being that is spiritual. Today is not the time to elaborate on these great ideas in a complete, scientific manner. This has often been done here in these lectures. Today I can only hint at it figuratively, and Christian and pre-Christian thinkers have always hinted at it figuratively in such a way that the supersensible human being, not yet touched by matter, descended and incarnated itself in sensuality. In what Jewish esoteric teaching calls Adam Kadmon, we see the human being who has entered this sensual world from other spiritual worlds. This entry is described as a “fall.” But this should not be misunderstood. Great Christian writers have understood this as a fall, and the deed of Christ Jesus was understood as a lifting up from this fall to a new spiritual height. We will see how the Pauline statement that Christ Jesus is the reverse of Adam has a deep spiritual meaning. If we understand human beings as having, so to speak — I ask you not to weigh the word “so to speak” too heavily, because it is only meant to be an indication of the true relationship — as having, so to speak, descended from spiritual heights and become embodied in the sensory world, then we will also understand what the task of human beings was in the early stages of their historical development.

What did human beings have to do on this earthly stage in the early stages of historical and prehistoric development? In this first period, their sensory limbs were tools that they had to learn to use. The highly spiritual human being was now embodied in the sensory world. In the first epoch of existence, which I would like to call the instinctive epoch of human development, he learned to use his own tools. That was the first task of the first quarter of human development — we do not want to go back to the very ancient times. Human beings gradually learned to use their hands and other limbs, and they learned to fit into the world and nature surrounding them. They did not need reason for this; it was instinctive empathy and immersion in existence. When humanity learned to control itself and acquired the use of its limbs as tools, it lived in tribal history. The people were the ones within whom humans lived. It was a natural connection that was given by blood relationship. Something like an animal instinct held humanity together. Only the great teachers were outside of instinctive life. Humans learned to use their limbs in different ways, depending on the nature of the countries, regions, and times in which the peoples lived. This development produced a great diversity in human structure. What was given to human beings took shape in the greatest variety. We can go back anywhere on our globe: we find this instinctive epoch of development in all peoples.

Then we find a second epoch. Here, human beings learn something more, something that the Bible and other worldviews encompass with a specific word, a word that is extremely important to understand correctly. We understand this word correctly when we realize what the first period of human development had to produce. In the most diverse ways, instinct taught humans to use their limbs, in one region in one way, in another in another. One people developed in the hot zone with lush vegetation, where food could be obtained without difficulty, while another developed in a cold, inhospitable region, where they had to work hard to obtain their food and create the conditions for their existence, and thus had to develop their limbs with great effort. The fact that humans had so little understanding led them to confront each other, as a result of their different instinctive development. Something new came about through the law created by the intellect. The instincts of peoples are different, but the intellect is the same, and the moment the unified intellect was applied to human coexistence, what is also called the law in the Bible came into the world. First, humans learned to control their entire bodies as their tools. Then came the lawful period, when man sought to bring harmony and order into his community, when he sought to balance instincts in mutual action, when he wanted to establish a relationship on this earth as dictated by reason. Reason was introduced through the way in which people lived together. This is how humanity developed in the first two quarters of its existence. But humanity was not without guidance, not without leadership. Instinct developed into ever greater clarity until the law took on the form of the most widely disseminated intellect.

Where did all this come from? Humanity would never have come this far without such brothers who were far, far ahead of their fellow human beings in their development. At all times, always and everywhere, there have been people who developed more quickly through the stages of existence in order to be leaders, to guide the rest of humanity. Such personalities, such individuals, are called by spiritual research the guardians of wisdom, the guardians of human progress. Such guardians of human progress have always existed. They still exist today. These great individuals, these personalities who have now reached a stage of existence that the majority of humanity will only reach in the distant, distant future, were also present in pre-Christian times, in the first two quarters of human development. They guided the world, they were the guardians of humanity and brought order and coherence to humanity. Where did those leaders of the human race get their knowledge, their wisdom? And what did this wisdom consist of? — They guided the visible through the invisible, the sensual through the supersensible. They guided material connections through that which slumbers invisibly in the material world. Does it slumber invisibly in the material world? A simple reflection can convince you of this. Look up at the cloud. It appears light and dark to you. It heralds a thunderstorm. And while you are still looking up, lightning flashes through the cloud and thunder rolls. Where was the lightning, where was the thunder? They lay dormant, they slept as hidden material forces. Just as lightning and thunder lay dormant, so many hidden forces still lie dormant in the visible as invisible, in the sensual as supernatural. Just as our entire external culture has basically come to where it is by man learning to awaken the forces and abilities that simply slumber in matter, so the great spiritual culture comes from the fact that the guardians of humanity are able to awaken the supersensible forces slumbering in the sensory, the super-earthly abilities slumbering in the earthly, and are able to rule the lower through the higher. Just as the builder uses the gravitational forces of the earth to place the beam on the column, that is, uses a force slumbering in matter to erect our buildings through the various combinations of columns and beams, and just as the electrician controls our motors and other electrical appliances with invisible electrical power, so the guardians of wisdom and human progress control the earthly forces through that which is not sensually present in the world. The visible is not controlled by the visible, but by the invisible. It is not those who will rise above the visible through the invisible who are unworldly, but those who remain attached to the visible. The true realist is the one who rules the world through what lies dormant within him, so that he can shape and build reality and put it at the service of human progress. Just as the builder and the electrician use the forces lying dormant in matter to build houses and create mechanical culture, so the great guardians of wisdom and human progress use the forces lying within humanity to lead people themselves to their goals, to structure and give meaning to that which swirls chaotically in the outside world. Never before has the development from the instinctive, then lawful period up to our own been so sensual. But the wise guardians of humanity first had to learn this, first had to experience it; they had to be completely imbued with it, not out of blind faith, not out of vague convictions, but out of spiritual experience. They had to be clear that there is a supersensible world, a supersensible world within and outside of human beings, that what takes place between birth and death is only one side of our existence, and that there is a core of being that extends beyond birth and death, that there is something in human beings that is more comprehensive than anything sensory, that is the creator of form and the sustainer of all that is sensory, and this not from a supposition, but from direct supersensible, eternal intuition.

The guardians of humanity had to act out of this insight, then out of the knowledge that death can be conquered, that a consciousness can be attained, that there is something that makes death appear as an event like other events in life. Only from such an experience does the power arise in human beings to master the sensual from the supersensible, the visible from the invisible. If I were to sum up in a few words the great secret of those we call the great guardians of humanity, I would say that these guardians of wisdom and human progress knew that there is something in human beings that conquers death. They had to look behind the scenes of existence, behind the regions of existence that human beings enter when they pass through the gate of death. What lies beyond the sensory world had to be accessible to them through experience. And they learned about what lies beyond the sensory world in the so-called temples of initiation, in the temples of initiation of the ancient Egyptian priests and secret teachers, in the schools of the Eleusinian and other Greek temples of initiation. Those who were ready to acquire these convictions were initiated into these mysteries. In just a few words — everything else will come out in the next lectures — I can hint at what was handed down to people in these initiation temples, in these high schools of spiritual life.

There, human beings first passed through death and experienced within this life the ascent that takes place for human beings when they pass through the gate of death. When human beings pass through the gate that leads to the other world in natural death, they enter another land, the land on the other side of existence. One can also enter it during this life, one can enter it through a different state of consciousness, through the awakening of abilities that lie dormant in the human breast, which enable us not only to experience the unconscious state during sleep in the spiritual environment, but also to enter the world beyond through our spiritual qualities, to be citizens of the spiritual world. This was called death, resurrection, and ascension. The great initiates experienced this. If I may express it this way, they experienced death while still alive; for three and a half days they were, so to speak, dead; they stepped out of their physical bodies and experienced the realities of a higher world, a spiritual world, the world to which human beings belong in their deeper nature. This happens to that part of the human being that enters into supersensible existence. Once the person had passed through this higher world, they were called back to their earthly existence by those who were already initiates. They then became a new person, a person who was called a resurrected being. As a symbol of this, they were given a new name that had a deeper meaning. Someone who had come to see in the mysteries and in the temples of initiation spoke a new language, and in his words resounded the sounds of the spiritual world he had experienced during his initiation. He was a messenger from higher worlds; his words had wings through his experiences in the spiritual world itself; he spoke a different language. He was one of those who were said to speak the language of the gods, to speak the wisdom that the gods know. This is basically theosophy, divine wisdom. Such a person was called, when the word is translated into English, blessed. The words have a deep meaning when understood in the right sense; they did not come about by chance. Someone who had taken part in the spiritual world because he had seen it was said to be blessed. Those who know something of that great bliss, of those wonderful experiences of another world, tell of it, even when they write profane writings about it. The most important aspects of these things have never been written down and can never be written down. But those who have told and written about them do so in tones that sound very different from those who tell of a sensual existence. Those who knew something of the initiation speak of a renewal of the whole human being. And one of them said: Only those who have become partakers of the mysteries of their eternal core have become human beings in the true sense of the word, while the others must still wait until this grace is also bestowed upon them. Plato, the unique Greek philosopher, says: Those who have learned nothing of the sacred in initiation walk in the mud. We could cite many more voices from antiquity and pre-Christian times in which the sanctity, power, and greatness of initiation are emphasized in such a way that it resonates in our souls. Only a few select individuals were able to participate in the higher spiritual life in this way, directly through vision. The masses had no other share than that in the proclamations of such seers, such initiates.

Then Christianity appeared, and through Christianity all these conditions changed. Therein lies the whole depth of the transformation that Christianity has brought about in humanity. It is expressed in a powerful word, which is: “Blessed are those who believe, even though they do not see.” The mystery of Christianity lies in this word, and we can only understand it if we take it as literally as possible. What does it mean? We know that those who had undergone initiation in a temple of initiation knew that they had conquered death, that they had participated in the burial and had become blessed through their vision. Now a great individuality came who, on the outer plane of history, before the eyes of all, as far as these eyes wanted to see or could take in through faith, through union with the unique personality, this great event, which had so often taken place for the initiates in the deep darkness of the mystery temples, once took place outwardly on the historical plane. That was the event that took place in Palestine in the year 33. What had until then been received and guarded more or less symbolically in the depths of the temples had now become historical truth, historical reality on the great stage of life. This must be understood, for it is important. I deliberately chose not to title my little book on Christianity “The Mysticism of Christianity,” but rather “Christianity as a Mystical Fact.” I did not want to portray the mysticism of Christianity, but rather Christianity itself should be understood as a mystical fact. It should be understood that what took place in Palestine is at the same time a fact of deep symbolism and at the same time something that is actual reality, actual truth. Let us be clear on this point, for it is one of the most important points in the understanding of Christianity. When one speaks of the events of death, resurrection, burial, and ascension as historical events that took place in Palestine in the year 33, and says that these events had also taken place many times before in the mystery temples, then one does not consider this to be something real, then one does not believe in the actual Christ. And others who believe in Christ again think that we are dealing with a deep symbolism in the death, burial, and resurrection. It is difficult to understand that something can be both fact and symbol at the same time. Those who interpret history in a “real” way and view it indifferently will never grasp that a fact also has a deep symbolic meaning; that there are high and low mountains in history, high mountains that transcend the great, which are both facts and symbols. That is what matters. Now we have presented an event to everyone that proclaims to all people that death can be conquered and that there is a life in the spirit that transcends all death, for the One had conquered death. He had lived out before everyone's eyes what the initiates had experienced in the mysteries. Now it was no longer necessary to enter into the mystery in order to see; now one could believe and feel connected to the one who had lived out in the physical world the great event of the victory of life over death. Now one could believe, even if one did not see. Those who strive to understand the religious books literally understand them correctly. For seeing literally means seeing into the mysteries, and believing is believing in the fact of the victory of life over death, which Christ has shown us. So we can say that the greatest wisdom teaching of Christianity is that the wisdom teachings of the various religions have become a reality in Christianity.

What were the wisdom teachings of the various religions? By truly immersing yourself in spiritual scientific teachings, you can convince yourself that the religions agree with each other in terms of their teachings. Take the teachings of Hermes, Pythagoras, Zarathustra, or other founders of religions: in what they taught and said, a deep core of wisdom can be found that is consistent. All the teachers who proclaimed the great wisdom teachings could say: I am the way and the truth. For truth flowed from their mouths; the truth they had experienced in the mystery temples, they had become messengers of divine truth. With Christ Jesus it was different. He could say more about himself. He became what is expressed in the great and beautiful saying: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” What the other founders of religions said while their lives were hidden from the eyes of humanity in the twilight of mystery, he taught before the eyes of all. The life through which the experience was gained within the mystery was invisible. It became visible through the events in Palestine. Thus, Christianity stands above the ancient pre-Christian religions. The wisdom gained through the hidden life of the initiate has come out into the open, and in modern times we have in Christianity the truth that has itself become a person, that has itself become life, that has itself become existence. That is why, in many cases, it is not important in the ancient religions to tell how the founders of the religions lived. We do not hear stories about how the Egyptian Hermes, the Indian rishis, Zarathustra, or Buddha lived. When we receive the teachings and lift up our hearts and minds in them, blessings flow from them to us. But if we want to understand Christianity, we must consider that Christ not only spoke in this way, but also walked this path. That is why no book by him has survived, only books about him. The good news, the Gospels, are not the wisdom of Jesus. They are the stories of the life of Jesus. Others have spoken about him and of him. If the disciples of Buddha and Hermes spoke, they would say: We have heard this, these are his holy words, we want to repeat them to you. But when the disciples of Jesus went out into the world, they emphasized that he was there, that they were connected to him, that they were his companions. They sought to uphold the tradition, to pass it on from generation to generation: We ourselves heard the word with him on the holy mountain, we laid our hands on his wounds. — It was the element of truth in their life together that was to convey the vitality to posterity. This is something different from what existed before in the various other religions. This is something completely new.

If we want to gauge the full significance of this completely new thing, we must realize the difference between the first quarter of human development and what is happening now. What is happening now? What is Christianity actually preparing humanity for? Why did someone have to experience the great event in such a way that people could look to him, look up to him as proof of the victory of life over death? Such a person was needed because a new epoch in human history is now beginning, because for centuries, even millennia, the intellect, the power of the mind, has been used for something else. Approximately with the spread of Christianity begins what we can call the triumph of humanity over our material world. First, Christianity had to prepare the ground for this. In the middle of the Middle Ages, the material victory of humanity begins, and the laws with which people justify it become more and more perfect. Man made himself lord of nature by perfecting his mechanisms, establishing a vast, global system of transport and trade. The human intellect became the victor over our earth. None of this existed in pre-Christian times. Try to imagine how our science began in the era when Christianity was emerging. As you know, Thales was the first philosopher. Christianity then prepared the ground for using human power to conquer external nature. In order for humanity not to be completely cut off from spiritual life, it was necessary for the conviction of a spiritual life to come from a completely different source. The capable personality now had to be used to conquer the globe in a material sense. Therefore, science had to separate itself from feeling and faith. It was characteristic of those who were initiated into the mysteries that science and faith, feeling and faith, were one. For those who step out of the material world, there is no separation between faith and knowledge, between truth and feeling. The forms in which the stars were arranged were, for the Chaldean initiates, the writings of the deity itself. This had to change in the new era. At first, man looked up at the starry sky, and one of the divine feelings, science, encompassed the heavens and earthly existence in all its manifestations. The world could no longer follow the same path in its knowledge with faith and wisdom. Because the two had to separate, an event had to occur that secured faith, that established such a firm feeling, such a firm sense in humanity that material science could be established alongside it and that faith could live on through material time. Thus we have firmly established faith and science side by side, science which does not have faith but looks to the personality, to Christ. A truly personal relationship with the unique is established alongside material striving. And so what was established in Palestine in the year 33 was the bulwark for the preservation of the eternal, of the consciousness of the spiritual during humanity's development toward materiality. Those who could believe in the One had to be blessed, while they had to use their vision to achieve material life. Thus, in its second epoch, antiquity was the prophetic foreshadowing of Christ Jesus. It is not without reason that what is taught in the Old Testament is interpreted as the prophetic prediction, the prophetic reference to Christ Jesus. Every initiation was such a prediction. What the initiate experienced, he experienced first spiritually, then symbolically, then it was there in the world. Then it was fulfillment, fulfillment of the old: it was the New Testament. This word also reveals its full meaning to us when we grasp it in its depth. This is how you have described the three epochs of human development that run parallel to each other: faith, knowledge, and wisdom.

Times had been different — let us go back to the times that history does not really tell us about — I have often spoken of this — when the poor Egyptian slaves hauled the large, mighty boulders and worked themselves to death on gigantic stone giants. The modern worker cannot imagine what that work meant. Bliss and contentment were the feelings that filled the soul of the miserable slave. For this slave knew one thing. He knew that this life he lived in such hard labor was one of many. The initiate had often told him this in order to make humanity aware that man incarnates many times and that he has prepared for himself what he experiences, and that he will be rewarded in future lives for what he does now. Thus, the mystery of human destiny was indeed solved for him. Within the bloodily laboring slave people there was bliss and religious feeling. The slave said to himself: He who commands me today was once like me, and if I carry out all this now, I will one day be like him. — To achieve this would not have been possible for the wise men who later conquered the material world, the wise men who dealt with purely material science, however powerful the teachings of Galileo and Copernicus, the teachings of modern research into sensory material existence, may be. Certainly, nothing should be said against these teachings, and no one can appreciate the greatness and power of these teachings better than I, but it is true and must also be said that those fiery words, that spirit that opens souls, that gives people hope for eternity, that gives people the certainty of spiritual life, could not be found by materialistic researchers. But this certainty came from a personal connection with the unique Christ. Gradually, external science has also deepened again. Science has gradually become wisdom again, and as a result, this external science has claimed the right to act as the founder of a new religion. For what are the Enlightenment thinkers, the freethinkers? What do they want? They are actually religious by nature. They want to establish a religion; they want to conjure up such a religion from modern science itself. Basically, Moleschott, Haeckel, and so on, with their books, which have established a kind of materialistic gospel for so many, are nothing more than materialistic founders of religions. Because the worldly-sensual has gained such tremendous power and authority that man wants to attain the highest through science and its wisdom, scientists, even those who only feel the power of science and have something of the greatness and power of science to communicate, have turned away from Christ Jesus. Thus we have the separation of science. But Jesus spoke a word, a word that we cannot grasp deeply enough, and that is: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” We do not need to borrow his wisdom merely from traditions and books, but when we rise into the higher worlds, we will once again have within ourselves the great experience that can only be experienced in the higher worlds beyond the gate of death. Then he speaks to us again, then he proves to us that he is here today, that we can hear him directly in the present. Therefore, we need such a deepening of humanity again that human beings have the Christ experience within themselves, that human beings can again experience something similar within themselves to what the initiates experienced in the ancient mysteries. At least a reflection of the great, significant experience of the mystery temples should gradually be handed down to those who turn to anthroposophy, an entry into the spiritual realm, the other side of life, already here during this life, so that they can experience what Goethe so grandly and significantly expressed in the poem that begins: “Tell it to no one, only to the wise, because the crowd will immediately mock it,” and which concludes: “And as long as you do not have this: Die and become, you are only a dull guest on the dark earth.”

Today we are concerned with this dying and becoming. There is a means of spiritual development through which we can awaken the inner divine core of our being, through which we can grow out into the spiritual world. Then our eyes are opened to the spiritual world, our ears become alert within us, so that we hear higher speech. We will be able to become citizens of a higher world; we will find that Christ is with us until the end of the world. Then we will also be able to hear again the language that spoke to the disciples on the mountain. This is hinted at in the deepest mystery of Christianity itself.

Let us conclude by considering this great mystery. Christ also had initiated disciples, and he too led them away from the crowd. When he wanted to explain what he had said to the crowd in parables, he led his three initiated disciples, Peter, James, and John, up Mount Tabor. There they saw the Transfiguration. Those who understand the Transfiguration will recognize in it the deepest mystery of Christianity. The disciples are transported away from sensual existence. What do they see before their eyes? Elijah and Moses. Elijah is the word for path or goal, Moses is simply the secret scientific word for truth, and Jesus is life. By appearing to them in temporality, by appearing before their eyes, before their spiritual eyes, those who have long since died, it means that they had ascended into the spiritual world. Peter says, it is beautiful here, let us build huts here. You can read the expression “build huts” everywhere where a disciple ascends the second stage of the chela path. It is said of him that he builds huts in the world beyond. Those who recognize the so-called key words will recognize the great truths in religious documents everywhere. The great words “I am the way, the truth, and the life” come to you there. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus forbade them to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They asked each other, “What is this, the rising from the dead?” And they asked Jesus, “But the scribes say that Elijah must come first.” He replied, “Elijah shall indeed come first and set everything right again.” The disciples, in their most intimate sanctuary, speak here of reincarnation as something that is self-evident among them. The Lord himself spoke of it as something self-evident, saying: Elijah has come again, John the Baptist is Elijah, but tell no one until I come again. — This is the testament on the mountain. “Mountain” is the key word for initiation. Wherever initiation is involved, the expression “on the mountain” is used. What does “Tell no one until I come again” mean? It means until I speak to you again, until you yourselves are back in such a form that humanity can once more perceive the word of truth. Christ Jesus was on earth as a representative. By looking at his death, humanity was to feel the victory of life over death. The belief through which even the Egyptian slave knew of the beyond was to be replaced by the belief that the eternal is in the core of the being that passes through the physical. Now they had to begin their triumphal march through the world. Materially, nothing remains for us of what is wisdom, direct knowledge of the beyond. Now, during the following two thousand years, nothing should be proclaimed to humanity about reincarnation. Jesus established this as his testament. Only when human beings have passed through the third epoch of development will they have achieved this material victory over the globe; they will have applied their intellect and understanding to external culture. Only then can a new epoch begin, only then can wisdom once again comprehend that which has been uniquely lived out. Then Christ will appear again on earth so that he can be grasped directly. Then human beings will no longer need life on Tabor, then they will experience initiation within themselves, find the God-man within themselves. Then they will look up again to the divine life that was the common property of humanity in pre-Christian times. This new epoch has been ushered in by the anthroposophical teaching. What Christ left behind on Mount Tabor is felt by those who strive for Spiritual Science as their mission, as their vocation. Christian mystics of the Middle Ages already hinted at this. Angelus Silesius, the great Silesian initiate, expresses it clearly: “If Christ is born a thousand times in Bethlehem and not in you, you will remain lost forever.” Like the blind man awakening to the light, those who enter the new state can experience the apparition as on Tabor. That is the future.

Thus, in the third epoch of humanity, we had a Christianity of faith, and in the fourth epoch we will have a Christianity of wisdom. What did humanity accomplish in the third epoch? The instinctive period is the period of pre-Christian times. We have had the period of external material culture, and we are now entering the fourth period of human development. Humanity has spanned the globe with industry and trade; industry and trade operate without distinction of nation or race. Machines produce the same products in Japan, Brazil, and Europe. The same railways cross the globe in all areas without distinction of race, nation, or class. The differences in humanity have fallen away in our cultural body. A check issued here in Berlin can be cashed in Tokyo. Everything in our culture has developed in such a way that we can establish as a principle of the third period what no human being could have established as a principle when this culture was to be initiated, at the starting point of our culture: We want to establish a culture that spans the globe, without distinction of race, gender, profession, or creed. This is the material culture that has spanned the globe under this motto. This culture must be given a soul. And to introduce this cultural soul into it is the task of the fourth epoch of humanity, the task of anthroposophy and our way of life. We have a material culture, and we need a spiritual culture with the same characteristics. People are strong where they have established moral connections. The Japanese merchant understands the merchants of all other countries. People must be able to understand each other again, right down to their souls. This will also happen when these achievements are made fruitful for the science of humanity. The body of culture has three epochs. It needs a cultural soul. The fourth epoch must bring a cultural spirit. This is the great fundamental idea, the great goal that the great cultural movement must have if it wants to be something other than a mere game for those who have nothing else to do but ponder mystical thoughts. If the Theosophical Society survives, it will achieve this. Therefore, it must understand Christianity in its depth, it must understand its deepest wisdom teachings, and it must also have the strength not to practice these wisdom teachings in the old traditional form, to live in the old, but to transform them so that they will continue to be useful in all times, so that Christianity is not a thing of the past, but has the living power to continue to work further and further into the future. Thus, anthroposophy, Christianity understood anthroposophically, is not a doctrine, not a dogma, not sectarianism, but something else; it is life, it is something that points to the future, it is something that makes the heart beat faster in the best sense of the word, it is something that lifts the soul to the greatest tasks of the present, because the greatest tasks alone can correspond to the blessed hope for the future. Then we will have understood Christianity when it gives us life for the future. Then we will understand the high spirits correctly when they become our teachers for the future. We will be their true disciples when we do not want to propagate in an authoritative way what they themselves have said, but when their words and deeds have become the energy for the new things we create. This is the great mystery, the great law and necessity that we have in the progress of human development, which should fulfill us, which should constitute our life in the highest sense of the word. This is the true education of humanity, that from a real knowledge of the great deeds of our ancestors we receive the power to create in the future and the hope of a beneficial effect in the future.