The Baptism: Ego-Consciousness and Christ's Cosmic Redemption

From the time of physical birth until the seventh year, the human being brings forth the best qualities of the physical body; until the fourteenth year, the qualities of the etheric body; then until about the twenty-first year, those of the astral body. Only then are the best qualities of the I developed. What we have in our physical and etheric bodies - with the exception of that essence which we take with us into the devachanic world after death - is what we inherit from our ancestors. Thus the boy Solomon could only inherit what could grow in our physical and etheric bodies. Up to the age of twelve, Zarathustra's I was in those outer limbs that can be fully obtained through inheritance. From the age of twelve, the development of the astral body would have begun. However, this is not inherited, it is still attached to the individuality in the spiritual world. In order for Zarathustra's I to develop in the most perfect astral body, he had to receive the most perfect one. For this, the experiences that the Buddha had gained were necessary, who came from the spiritual culture of India, which was turned away from the earthly. But if the ego of Zarathustra had embodied itself in the Nathanian child, then it would not have received the perfect physical and etheric body that it needed, which had to absorb not only the internal but also everything external, as it could only happen in the royal, not in the priestly line.