Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge I

GA 90a — 30 December 1904, Berlin

LXXX. The Feast of the Epiphany (Three Kings)

Before I begin a new chapter, I will, as I said last time, insert something and add something to the Christmas reflection that I gave in the Monday lectures. You remember how I connected the meaning of Christmas with the whole development of our cultural epochs, and how it is precisely through this that Christmas acquires its meaning in the turn of an era, both backwards and forwards.

Today I would like to talk about a festival that seems to have less significance for newer peoples than Christmas, about the festival of the “Three Kings,” which is celebrated on January 6, about the festival of the Magi who come from the Orient and greet the newly born Jesus of Nazareth. This festival of epiphanies will become more and more important as people come to understand the true, actual symbolism of this festival as well. We are dealing here with something important. You can see this from the fact that a very developed symbolism underlies this festival of the three Magi from the Orient. This symbolism, like all mysteries, was kept very secret until the fifteenth century, and until then no special hints were given. From the fifteenth century onwards, however, some light is shed on this festival of the Magi from the Orient, in that exoteric illustrations have appeared depicting the Three Holy Kings as a Moor - an inhabitant of Africa - that is Balthasar; then a white man - a European - that is Melchior; and an Asian king who has the skin color of the inhabitants of India - that is Caspar. They bring gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ Child in Bethlehem as their offerings.

These are three very significant offerings, and that sounds together with the meaningful symbolism of this festival of January 6. Esoterically, however, the festival is a very important one. January 6 is the same date on which the so-called Osiris Festival was celebrated in ancient Egypt, the festival of the rediscovered Osiris. As is well known, Osiris is overcome by his opponent Typhon, he is sought and found by Isis. This rediscovery of Osiris, the son of God, is represented by the festival of January 6. The Feast of the Epiphany is the same festival, only it has become Christian. We also find this festival among the Assyrians, Armenians and Phoenicians. Everywhere it is a festival associated with a kind of general baptism, where rebirth takes place out of the water. This already indicates the connection with the rediscovered Osiris.

What is the missing Osiris anyway? The missing Osiris represents the transition that took place between the times before the middle of the Lemurian race and the times after the middle of the Lemurian race. Before the middle of the Lemurian race, there was no man endowed with Manas. It was only in the middle of the Lemurian period that Manas descended and fertilized man. In every single human being, a tomb is created for the Manas, which is divided into humanity, for Osiris, who is depicted as dismembered. So many graves are shown in Egypt - that is the manasic deity, which has been divided and dwells in man. “Tombs of Osiris are the human bodies in the Egyptian secret language. Manas is not liberated until the re-appearing love can liberate Manas.

What is the re-appearing love? That which came into being with the Manas fertilization in the middle of the Lemurian period - something before and something after - that was the drawing of the passion principle into humanity. Before that time, there was no actual principle of passion. The animals of the preceding times were cold-blooded. And man himself was not yet endowed with warm blood at that time. Comparatively speaking, the people on the moon were like fish, and the people of the third round were the same warmth with their surroundings.

“The Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters,” says the Bible of this time. The principle of love was not yet within the beings, but outside as manifesting earthly Kama and earthly passion. That is selfish love. The first bringer of love free of selfishness is now Christ, who was to appear in Jesus of Nazareth.

Who then are the Magi? They are the Initiates of the three preceding races, the Initiates of Humanity up to the appearance of the Christ Being, of Love free from selfishness, of the resurrected Osiris. The Initiates were beings endowed with Manas, they are Magi. They offer gold, incense, and myrrh as a sacrifice. And why do they appear in the three colors black, white, and yellow? Black as Africans, white as Europeans, yellow as Indians. This is related to the root races. Blacks are the remnants of the Lemurian race, yellows are the remnants of the Atlantean race, and whites are the representatives of the fifth root race, the Aryans. Thus, in the three kings or magi, we have the representatives of the Lemurians, the Atlanteans and the Aryans. They bring three offerings: the European brings gold, the symbol of wisdom and intelligence, which was expressed primarily in the fifth root race. The initiates of the fourth root race, the Atlanteans, have as their offering that which is most important to them. They no longer had a direct connection with the deity, but rather a kind of suggestive influence, something like a universal hypnosis. This connection with the deity is maintained by sacrifice. The feeling must rise so that God also fertilizes the feeling. This finds its symbolic expression in the incense. This is the general symbol for sacrifice, which has something to do with intuition.

In esoteric language, myrrh is the symbol of self-denial. What does self-denial mean, what does resurrection mean, as in the example of the resurrected Osiris? I would refer you to Goethe, who says:

And as long as you do not have that,
this dying and becoming,
you are only a gloomy guest
on the dark earth.

Jakob Böhme expresses the same idea with the words:

He who does not die before he dies, perishes when he dies.

Myrrh is now the symbol of the dying away of the lower life and the resurrection of the higher life. It is therefore offered by the initiate of the third root race. There is a deep significance in this. Remember who Jesus of Nazareth is. A highly developed chela is born in him. In the thirtieth year of his life, he dedicated his life to the descending Christ, the descending Logos. The Magi foresaw all this. It is a great sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth that he exchanges his ego with the ego of the Second Logos. This occurs for a very specific reason. Only when the sixth sub-race has been reached will the possibility gradually arise for the human being, the human body, to be ready from early childhood to receive something like the Christ principle. Only in the sixth root race will humanity be so fully mature that the bodies do not need to be prepared and prepared for years, but are capable of receiving the Christ principle from the very beginning. In the fourth sub-race of the fifth root race, the body still had to be prepared for thirty years. This is just as it was in the Nordic regions, where Sig's body was prepared so that Sig could and did make his body available to a higher being.

In the sixth root race, it will be possible for man to make his body available to such a high being as Jesus did when founding Christianity. When Christianity was founded, it was still necessary for a chela to sacrifice his ego, to mortify it, to send it up into the astral realm so that the Logos could dwell in the body. This is something that is also illuminated by the last moment on the cross, when you consider the last words: Who else could understand the words:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [Matthew 27:46]

You will find in this an expression of the fact that it has taken place. At the moment when Christ dies, God has left the body, and the body of Jesus of Nazareth utters those words - the body that was so highly developed that it could express this fact. Therefore, an incredibly great event is expressed in these words. And all this is expressed in the myrrh, which is the symbol of sacrifice, of self-denial, of the sacrifice of the earthly in order to bring forth the higher.

In the middle of the Lemurian period, Osiris had to find his grave, Manas had to enter into people. Under the guidance of the magicians, people had to be educated until the Budhi principle, the principle of love, shone forth in Christ Jesus. Budhi is heavenly love. The lower, sexual principle is ennobled by Christian love. Thus the Kama principle has been glorified and purified in the fire of divine love.

The fact that we are dealing with Melchior, with the principle of wisdom, the intelligence of the fifth root race, is symbolized by the gold – this expresses the sacrifice. The fact that we are dealing with a principle of cult sacrifice is expressed by the incense. This is the principle of the fourth root race, the Atlanteans. This will then be further developed until Christianity will have fulfilled its task in the sixth root race, which will again have a sacramentalism so that it will fulfill the sensual existence with cultic acts, with sacrificial acts. The sacraments have indeed lost most of their meaning today, the sense for them is no longer there. It will be there again for them through what is symbolized by the incense: the higher human being is born. In the Lemurian race, Osiris finds his death; in the seventh root race, he rises again.

So you see that the Feast of the Epiphany, through what it proclaims with its sacrifice, is the story of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth root races.

What guides the Magi and where are they led? They are led by a star and are led to a grotto in Bethlehem. This is something that only someone who is familiar with the so-called lower or astral mysteries can truly understand. To be guided by a star means nothing other than to see the soul itself as a star. But when do you see the soul as a star? You see the soul as a star when you can perceive it as a luminous aura. Then the soul is a star. What kind of aura glows in such a way that it can guide? First you have the aura that only glows, that only has a dull light. It cannot guide. Then you have the higher aura, the intelligence aura. It has a fluid light, a swelling light, but it is not yet guiding. But the bright aura, permeated by Budhi, is truly a star, something radiant and guiding. In Christ, the Budhi star, shining in racial development, rises in the progress of humanity. What shines for the Magi is none other than the soul of Christ Himself. The Second Logos Himself shines for them, and He shines above the grotto in Bethlehem.

The cave is nothing other than the dwelling of the soul: the body. The astral seer sees the body from the inside. For the astral seer, everything is reversed, and everything is seen in reverse. For example, one sees 365 instead of 563. Thus one sees the human body as a grotto, as a cave, and so the star of Christ, the soul of Christ, shines in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. This is to be imagined as a reality taking place in the astral. It is a process in the lower mysteries. There the Christ-soul actually shines as an auric star, and it leads the initiated of the three races to Jesus in Bethlehem.

This is a festival that has been celebrated every year on January 6th. It is one of those hinted at in “Light on the Path”. Each year, a number of festivals take place. This is one of them, in which the star of Bethlehem rises for the wise men. The first four sentences from “Light on the Path” are the center of the four celebrations:

Before the Masters can speak the voice, it must unlearn the wound.

This is the preparation for the fifth round. This sentence appears at the entrance to the temple. And then comes the great fact. The festival of the sixth of January will grow more and more. People will understand more and more what a magician is and what the masters are. Then, from the understanding of Christianity, we will arrive at the understanding of Theosophy. These days, on January 6, the festival of the great Magi, the masters, will also take place among the Theosophists. The New Year is the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus, because the Christ had not yet been born. The Jewish New Year is in October. But the festival of the circumcision of Jesus of Nazareth has been taken over into Christianity. The fact that Jesus was also a Jew before that is celebrated with the New Year festival in Christianity.

[Notes presumably from the answering of questions at the lecture on December 30, 1904]

On the next planet, man reaches psychic consciousness, on the following planet, super-psychic consciousness, and on the seventh planet, spiritual consciousness. The adept can artificially place himself in these states of consciousness.

The crucifixion caused pain to the Christ.

On the devachan plane, one does not feel only one's own pain and suffering, but one can perceive and feel the whole pain of humanity. All other suffering is felt, one is above one's own suffering. Of the levels of consciousness:

1. The daytime consciousness.
2. A duller, dream-filled consciousness.
3. Dreamless sleep consciousness, the sleep trance of mediums. 4. Deep trance or [induced] trance; can be achieved by mediums; chains of worlds. 5. Psychic consciousness – this is the consciousness one has when one sees life. 6. Superpsychic consciousness, in which one can make the astral body stand.

The physical body has passed through the seven stages. The astral body will pass through them in the future. Beyond spiritual consciousness stands mastery. Spiritual consciousness is equivalent to chelaship.

Esoterically, the conditions that preceded our development on earth are the old lunar and solar conditions.

What is now our inner life was once around us. The mystic has within himself what was once spread around him on the outside. The teaching that flowed out of Budhi is called esoteric Buddhism.

The consciousness that undergoes 343 stages corresponds to a Pitri development. The planetary chain

Physical states of consciousness.

Kama was first in the air, it was the passion for the good. Atavism is when one lags behind in earlier stages of development.

A distinction is made between states of consciousness, states of life and states of form.

An individuality is a being that is fertilized with manas.

States of consciousness in planetary development:

1. deep trance consciousness
2. dreamless sleep consciousness
3. psychic consciousness
4. waking state
5. archetypal state of consciousness

The states of consciousness in humans:

1. consciousness during a deep trance
2. consciousness during dreamless sleep
3. consciousness during dream-filled sleep
4. waking consciousness
5. psychic state of consciousness
6. super-psychic state of consciousness
7. spiritual state of consciousness

The beings have their form from the mineral kingdom. They are a center only in that life becomes conscious. The soul extends into the body. The lower has life only in that the higher is absorbed into it, spreads into it. Consciousness arises from the higher spreading over life and death. Consciousness means as much as Dhyanic. Substance means as much as balance. Beings of consciousness are something all-encompassing – angels of circulation – planetary Dhyanis. Our Earth also has its Dhyani.

At the end of the seventh round, the Earth will be so far advanced that plants and animals will be given to man. Consciousness and form are in balance when the form is directed by consciousness. The uncontrolled form strives up to consciousness.

Elemental spirits are beings that are more powerful in form than in consciousness and life. The opposite of this are the Dhyanis. The elemental spirits are the inhibiting forces. All parasitic beings are filled with elemental beings, for example mistletoe, then the spider, which spins its matter out of itself. Everything parasitic is an expression of the eighth sphere of the moon. - Nightmare. Sphinx.

In the Atlantean race, the Turanians became familiar with the elemental spirits.

Consciousness, life and form - every being must pass through these in many times - in seven stages each.

States of consciousness:

1. Trance consciousness is the all-consciousness, it is the dullest state of consciousness, it corresponds to the forms of crystals and stars, but not of humans.
2. Dreamless sleep is less dull, but narrower, a plant consciousness is present. It is an extraordinary sign of [...] no world systems are perceived there.
3. Dream-filled sleep – in this state, consciousness is not as comprehensive but it is already present in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms.
4. The waking state – it encompasses mineral, plant, animal and human.
5. Psychic consciousness – it is the consciousness of the astral world. Here one not only sees the sour face, but also has the sour feeling.
6. Superpsychic consciousness.
7. Spiritual consciousness – this is endowed with direct perception of the spiritual.

The seven kingdoms and what is established in them:

1. The first elemental kingdom – existence is established
2. The second elementary realm – life asserts itself
3. The third elementary realm – sensation or consciousness asserts itself outwardly
4. The mineral kingdom – being becomes objective
5. The plant kingdom – life becomes objective
6. The animal kingdom – sensation and consciousness become objective
7. The human kingdom - higher consciousness and the ego have become objective.

Form states:

1. The arupic form
2. The rupic form
3. The astral form
4. The physical form
5. The plastic form - it is not rigid, but from the inside outwards making itself valid.
6. The intellectual form
7. The archetypal form

Life, form and consciousness - the present waking state of the earth. The seven globes - the phase states. We are changing from physical-seeing beings into beings that can also see into the higher realms of being; we are entering the region of permeability. We can now see only a part of the cosmos. When someone says today that a celestial body is visible, it means that it is in the fourth state, in the state of the mineral kingdom. World year - world month - world day.

Consciousness corresponds to the sun, form to the moon, life to the earth.

There are 7 x 7 = 49 metamorphoses of life that give consciousness. These make up one world year. On the higher level, consciousness is form again.

The animals that have the skeleton on the outside belong to the lunar epoch - cancer development.