# Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge II

## GA 90b — 26 June 1905, Berlin

### XII. About the Gospel of John

Since today is the last time that we will see each other before the holidays, I would like to briefly discuss an object that is truly suitable to provide people with nourishment for the holiday season. What we want to take a look at today is the spirit of the Gospel of John. This gospel is regarded by learned theologians today as the one that is of least importance for the religious education of man.

The first three gospels are called the three synoptic gospels and it is thought that these three evangelists report, to a certain extent, what happened in Palestine between the years 3 and 33. On the other hand, today's theologians are of the opinion that the Gospel of John is a kind of fiction and does not actually present facts. They dismiss it and consider it to be a kind of fervent confession of its author, but they do not want to act on it.

We will now try to penetrate a little into the meaning and power of this Gospel of John. For those for whom it is the main thing to penetrate into the spirit of Christianity and into the tasks of our immediate future, for them the Gospel of John is the most important, and it is only due to a misunderstanding of our time that the Gospel of John is neglected today. The mystics knew that the Gospel of John is a book of life. I have mentioned something similar before. Anyone who reads the Gospel of John from the thirteenth chapter onwards is not just reading a book, not just absorbing the knowledge of certain facts; each sentence is a source of occult powers. And when we read this Gospel from there on, we generate spiritual forces in ourselves, we become different people. It is not important that we know the sentences by heart, but that we experience their meaning, that we become one with it. The occultist says: Each sentence from the thirteenth chapter onwards is written for you in such a way that it initially means an inner human experience. Something happens in us when we become completely absorbed in it and let the magic of the words take effect on us. Things light up in us that we did not know before, and through this we understand our task for the near future.

Even in our last hours, I said that we are facing a significant task, that we can only rise to our task if we grasp it in the spiritual, if we have absorbed the spirit of our time within us at all, and this spirit is the spirit of true, genuine Christianity.

What has civilization been striving towards in the last few decades? Towards external possessions, towards such an organization of the external, material world that this external world is as comfortable as possible, that it satisfies the external, sensual needs as much as possible. Even the greatest spiritual progress has only served to make the life of the senses more comfortable. Likewise, all our inventions, all our advances in technology, the efforts of our greatest thinkers, and so on, have only provided us with means to satisfy the needs of our senses. The animal goes out to pasture and feeds itself, and man has used his reason in recent centuries to ultimately satisfy the same needs. Let us immerse ourselves in this: what mental power is needed to invent the railroad, the telephone, the steam engine, and so on; and we use them to satisfy our nutritional needs. [We speak on the telephone, we take the train to the farthest reaches of the earth. And for what? Why do we use the telephone and why do we take the train? We telephone in order to get some grain, we travel by train to get things that serve purely sensual needs.] Ultimately, we use the means of our culture so that people can satisfy their purely sensual and material needs. It is as if the animal kingdom in us wants to satisfy its sensual needs in the most sophisticated way.

In the distant past, it was different. Then, primitive people provided the necessities of their material existence in the simplest way possible, while, in contrast, the spiritual needs of the human being were in the foreground. All this has become more sophisticated today as far as the material life is concerned. Man has woven himself into a web of intellect and reason in order to satisfy only the external life. But in those days, when we turn our gaze back, a high spiritual movement was at the center of life. People were simple, but a high spiritual culture presents itself to us. Within those masses of people, there were places where highly developed spiritual beings took possession of high spiritual powers, with which they brought about a spiritual culture. A stream of spiritual life emanated from these mystery centers. [In simple fables and fairy tales, the mystery priests told the masses about their wisdom.] The old Druid priest told fairy tales that may seem very elementary to us, but that arose from the deepest spiritual insight. [But they are not, as our fantastic scholars believe, created by the childlike spirit of popular fantasy, but they have emerged from deep spiritual insight.] The goblins, undines, nixies, which are now thought to be superstition and fantasy, originated from the living interaction with the highest spiritual beings that inhabited other planes. Because we are surrounded by spiritual worlds. The astral world is everywhere, it is just as [animated and just as] colorful and resounding as our [physical] world, [no, it is even much more resounding and much more colorful].

All this appears to the advanced human being [to whom the chakras are open; he sees a new world, somewhat like someone who was previously blind or deaf and then, through some circumstance, became seeing or hearing]. In particular, he gets to know a whole range of new beings that cannot become visible on the physical plane because they cannot come to this material, but because they have their corporeality in the astral material. The legends and fairy tales originate from the interaction with these higher entities. The spiritual powers worked wonders in our present sense at that time. The primitive conditions that naturalists tell us about are not correct. These people satisfied their material needs in the simplest way, but in contrast to that, they participated in the spiritual life of those higher personalities.

[Their state and gender associations were imbued with the spiritual power of the spiritual beings.] An anthill [or a beehive] is much more sensibly arranged than many a present-day state. But where is the leader for a present-day state in this sense? Behind all those states in the past, however, was the intelligentsia, and those individualities of which we are speaking here ruled over everything around them with their spiritual insights. The outer life was simple and primitive, but behind it stood a spiritual life. Thus the world is the symbolic imprint of a higher spiritual life.

Even today, those who are in possession of higher spiritual powers live, who can see into the higher worlds, who can counsel with beings of higher worlds. But it has become their destiny that they had to step back for a while, that they had to stay in the background.

Over the last few millennia, the wave of materialism has risen ever higher and the wave of spirituality has descended ever lower. So today they live in obscurity, these masters [of wisdom and] of the harmony of sensations, and so only those who have undergone special training to open up access to them know about them.

For two millennia, humanity has been guided by a different force; but this force has only developed the first chapter here on earth today: that is Christianity.

Christianity has the task of consciously guiding the human being who is to enter the material plane. We still have to draw comparisons from the animal kingdom if we want to know how our ancestors were guided by spiritual beings. Let us use an image again that can make the whole process clear. An army of slaves worked on the Egyptian pyramids, and in a way that people today cannot even imagine. But each one had a consciousness: “This life is one of our many - but I will live many on this earth; and just as he who commands today, where I am a slave, so I will also command one day.” - So life was bearable for them. They knew that if they suffered now, they had laid the foundation for it in previous lives. They knew that they are visitors here on Earth. This constituted a completely different cultural awareness.

But it could not remain that way, because human beings have a completely different task. We are not meant to be mere visitors; we are meant to transform the Earth in such a way that all material things become more and more spiritual; we are meant to work the spirit into the Earth. Everything we do for the earth, we have done for God, no matter what we accomplish, we are all links in a great chain. We are the messengers of the deity, and the earth must one day become a golden age, a paradise; people must transform the earth as free creative beings.

To achieve this, man on earth had to be prepared by first looking up at the sky. But then there had to come a time when man realized the importance of the material – realized that every move is important. Everything that seems to be vain will one day become important on other levels.

Christianity was to become an education: first, to distract the view from the spiritual. Such importance was to be attached to things on earth that the man of two millennia should not think at all of the spiritual. So there was an age in which the spiritual receded. People had forgotten the connection with the spiritual, but for that they should also remain aware of it. [That is why Christ Jesus appeared, so that they could endure living on earth for two millennia.] That is why the Christ came to Earth; that is why he gave his disciples the order not to say anything about reincarnation in the scene of the transfiguration. The Christ said: Elijah has come back, and people have not recognized him. Then he explained the doctrine of reincarnation to them; but they should not say anything about it until he had reappeared.

[The doctrine of reincarnation is a truly Christian doctrine. He chose Peter, James and John to witness the transfiguration. The time differences disappear, Moses and Elijah become visible. From the disciples' question: What do the scribes say, Elijah must come back first? - it is clear that they knew about the doctrine of reincarnation. Jesus said: Elias has already come, but they have not recognized him.

He explained re-embodiment to them, but he said: Tell no one about this until I have reappeared. The reappearance refers to our own age.

For two millennia, people have become more and more immersed in the material world - the Christ was their leader. But now humanity is called upon to experience the Christ within themselves again. The occultist knows the truth:

> I am with you always, even to the end of time.

This always refers to the end of a current era and the dawn of a new one. [Christ was elevated into the so-called common astral body of humanity. The time will come when he will be here again; the time will come when everyone, albeit in a different way, will know that the Christ will reappear in the etheric plane.

The time will come when everyone will know in a completely different light what the Christ actually is. The Christ will reappear on earth in glory, and then the second chapter of Christianity will begin. The “new gospel” will then begin - the “new gospel is the Gospel of John. A correct understanding of the old gospel is the Gospel of John.

Through materialistic science, the matter of the “simple man from Nazareth” arose. Theologians set out to interpret the events in Palestine in a purely materialistic way from their liberal point of view. Materialism was a necessary phenomenon; but it is misunderstood in many ways, and theology has also been seized by this misunderstanding. [Harnack's school also emphasizes that what matters is the historical. It is pure materialism. We do not fight it because we know that it is necessary. The materialistic lack of understanding has also seized the theologians. And this materialistic lack of understanding is now taught at the universities and in the schools. They mock themselves and do not know and do not realize it.]

A new understanding of Christianity will awaken, and man must consciously approach it - a culture full of light, in which violence will not threaten, in which the spirit of the initiated will flood over souls and bring a different age.

We are being led towards this age not only spiritually and psychically; we cannot remain in lethargy; the last moment is upon us. World history is connected with the spiritual world.

Today there is a disease that is the disease of all diseases – we call it 'nervousness'. People in the past did not suffer from this condition. If we cannot convey to the young consciousness of our age how great the materialistic danger is, then we should at least convey to people the fact that they are nervous. Only a century ago, only those who could use their muscles could be called 'nervous'. Now a new thing has emerged: a sensitivity that goes as far as the external senses – up to now materialism has driven us. Material things in the external world have their counterpart in nervousness, and as the striving in the material world becomes more widespread, people will ruin their nerves to the same extent.

The Baron Rothschild, who has now died in Vienna, was a signature for this example. He left twenty million for a foundation for the benefit of people with nervous disorders. He gathered this fortune as a sick man throughout his life. He entered life with ruined nerves, and that is how he left it. It cannot be separated: the chasing and rushing and mere thinking of the material with the collapse of the nervous system. The twenty million are supposed to be for the care of nervous people – a signature for the ruination of the nervous system. – The occultist knows that deep relationship between the spiritual and the outer physical life – but today's man does not yet know that.

Especially in the material life, today's doctors live. But we know that the truth will come to light. If we do not want the materialistic attitude to ruin people physically as well, we must take hold of the spiritual life again. All those who do not see this say: Behind us the deluge! It will take its revenge that many today no longer want to know anything about penetrating into the depths of the mystical writings of Christianity. Another dawn will have shone in our time when the Christian churches have a better understanding of what Christianity is. With powerful hieroglyphs, our age is also written into the Bible: Who betrays Christ Jesus? The one who has the thirty pieces of silver, who represents material possessions. At the beginning of the Christian era, the divine spirit descended. The Christian spirit descended to sanctify the earthly valley as well, and anyone who does not consider that he is called upon to usher in a different era violates his deepest responsibility. Man had to lend a hand to two thousand years of education. Judas of Kariot had to make the sacrifice. He had to deliver the Christ to the material forces of life. Because humanity followed the thirty pieces of silver, the Christ disappeared into the astral plane. Through the betrayal of Judas, you are characterized by what the task of Christianity has been during the two thousand years. But another task lies ahead for Christianity today. We have only to knock again at the gates from which the words resound, which were spoken to the apostles at that time:

> [I tell you, Elijah has already come.) [Matt. 17,12]

Today's Christianity is called “Theosophy” and it is a false Christianity that denies Theosophy. Has any of today's theologians thought about the Bible passage John 13, verse 16?

> The servant is not greater than his master, nor the apostle greater than he who sent him.

One would like to understand why people do not reflect on such an important matter when it would be the other way around: the Lord is not greater than his servant and he who sent him, not greater than the apostle.

It follows the washing of the feet. You know this significant scene. At first, Peter refuses, but then asks that the Master also wash his whole body. Then the Master points out that there is one who is not pure, who will betray him.

[If you do not let yourself be washed, you have no part in me.] [John 13:8]

... Those who are pure only need to have their feet washed. You are pure, but not all.) [John 13:10]

The entire mystery of the present human condition is hidden in this chapter. Fundamentally, the education of the last two millennia should be a washing of feet. While on the one hand Judas stands with knowledge [with the thirty pieces of silver], Christ washes the feet of the others.

Let us consider our physical body and our astral body. The physical body is within this physical world. The same physical and chemical forces that work outside [in stones and machines] also work within our physical body. Our astral body is determined by our drives and passions.

What did Christ want to achieve by washing feet? I have often said that the physical body of modern man is the most perfect and significant, and that his other bodies must first reach that level.

Take, for example, a piece of the thigh bone. No technician could put such a piece together better. Our physical body is constructed in a wise and perfect way, an imprint of the highest wisdom. If the physical body were only on earth, the physical world would be more perfect. There are no low activities in our physical body. That is what the astral body first works down there. Nothing is sinful that the physical body does, only the astral body is sinful. The astral body works as the enemy of our physical body, and sin and wrong are thereby brought about in the physical body.

The astral body had to adapt to the physical. It had to descend during the last two millennia – the Christ had to descend, he had to be betrayed. He had to find those things by which he can best serve the physical body. The passions had to pour over the physical life. Judas with the purse had to move in to bring about harmony with the physical world. [Gap in the transcript]

[We will only be done with these matters when we have reached the spiritual life again.] The astral body did not connect with the material world with impunity – it was submerged in it. Just as we humans live in the physical body with the astral body, so do higher beings live in our astral body with their higher spirit-body; and they can abuse their astral body just as we do with the physical. These are the diaboloi, the demons. Judas was seized by the demons. [Satan entered into him, it says.] This corresponds to a real fact. Judas did lead the astral body down [but not without the presence of that power which abuses the astral body]. But now we must free ourselves from Judas.

Our physical body is a seal imprint of perfection and wisdom; therefore the occultist will say: the perfect gods have created the physical body in perfection and the astral body must first grow into this perfection; it must become divine itself. The astral must purify itself, just as the physical has purified itself by descending into the physical world, which is represented by the earth. And when we descend to earth, we must cleanse our feet; and when the astral body descends to earth, its feet must be particularly clean. It must be able to descend into the material world, to take part in everything, but remain pure.

If those who now live in their astral body and want to ennoble it want to fulfill their task, then they must take this wise man as their model. In our time, the astral body is the servant of the physical body; for in the physical body lives the God. And it would be bad for man if he were to place his physical body below the astral body. “Lord” is what works in our physical body, and the 'servant' is the astral body. He Himself, the God, has perfected the physical body; He has sent forth the astral body and placed it forever under the influence of spiritual forces that are to perfect it and make it ever more perfect. This makes us servants, and it would be arrogance on our part if we were to place ourselves higher than the higher forces at work in nature. We should be edified by the divine nature [and be edified by the sun's rays, by the orbits of the planets, and so on] and not place ourselves above it, otherwise we violate this commandment [which is expressed in the words: The servant - the astral man - is not greater than the one who created the physical body].

Today, from the theosophical point of view, we understand such a profound passage when it says: “The apostle is not greater than his master.” Such words have a similar effect to how the devas used to work. And they worked like our ancestors,

the voice of the masters in the folk tales and folk legends – there is the Lord within. Our material wisdom has become bungled and servile; here we are told that the servant should not rise above the Lord.

In the margin, it may be added here: one cannot make a more humble confession than Schelling and Hegel. [Hegel, Fichte, Saint-Martin, Baader - they all say]: There will come a time when all that is material science, [that is, knowledge of the external world of the senses] will be seen as child's play - and we will stand there again like children and prostrate ourselves before the old legends and seek the ancient wisdom therein.

[This time has come. We seek this wisdom in every religious confession.] We know that we are Christians; and let us not misunderstand our task of working spiritually now; the better Christians and the better theosophists we become. There is no better guide for this than the Gospel of John. If we live with the Gospel of John, then we live into a new future of Christianity; then we also follow the sentence that the servant should not place himself above the master. But if you come with material, chaotic wisdom and criticism, and want to master it, then it is a crime and presumption – before man has recognized the book. To recognize and be silent and to surrender in humility to that which is rooted in these writings, to do nothing but fulfill this task of the time, the masters have taught us the harmony of the ancient truths again. They themselves have worked on building our world. Thus speaks he who, from the theosophical standpoint, has looked into the hustle and bustle of the world, not as one speaking from theory but from the knowledge drawn from the sources themselves.

He who has sat at the Steps of Wisdom – before our older, more perfect brothers – who has kissed their feet and heard their voice, draws his words from the future itself, which apocalyptically shines before him; he can speak again as it was once permitted to speak prophetically, and he will have the strength to speak of what will come once.

This power is given to us by the great masters, who are the seal-keepers, and in whose service we place ourselves. Because we believe we can discern the pulse of the future, and because we know what speaks to us from the sounds of the future, that is why we are Theosophists, because we cannot help it. And when we let the breath of the spirit flow through our souls, then we are true theosophists. This spirit is a spirit of worship and humility. Christ was born of the spirit; and when the spirit carries us again, then we will become true Christians once more.

Let us work together, wherever we may be, like brothers; each one is not too weak to do so; each one can do it: to work in the spirit of the light that comes to us from our greatest Master, Christ-Jesus. So we will meet again in the fall and try to penetrate further into the halls of spiritual life.