8. Between Death and a New Birth

Into what does man enter after death? He plunges into the spiritual substance that is present without earthly participation. Since the Mystery of Golgatha man must always penetrate into the Christ-substance of the earth that has come about through the deed on Golgatha. We have learned to know the Christ as the Sun Spirit. The ego has emancipated itself from the light of the sun. Then the mighty Sun Spirit descended to the earth, and thereby does the ego of man penetrate into the substance of the Sun Spirit. Man experiences this plunging into the Christ-substance when he has gone through the gate of death. Because of this he is able to develop consciousness after death. In nature this stage will be accomplished when the earth has reached the Vulcan condition. As the sun shines from above downward on the earth, it conjures forth the carpet of vegetation. Now assume the sun were to shine on the earth with strength to bring forth the plants, but the earth was unable to bring them forth and instead reflected the sunlight back. Then the sunlight would not be lost but would shine out into cosmic space and bring forth a supersensible vegetation. This does in fact occur, not physically but spiritually. Because the Christ united himself with the earth, every individual who has united himself with the Christ is able to experience after death the repercussions of what he has grasped consciously on earth. Thus we can understand that on earth man must acquire the capacity to develop consciousness after death. He must carry over from his physical body the forces that develop consciousness.