also a _cosmic_ Being. In a certain sense man is, taken as a whole, a
cosmic being. He lives a twofold life--one in a physical body from birth
to death, another in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth.
When he is incarnated in a physical body, he is living in dependence on
the earth, because the physical body is restricted by the forces and
conditions of existence belonging to the earth. A man, however, does not
only take the substances and forces of the earth into himself, but is
joined to the whole of the earth’s organism. When he has passed through
the gate of death, he does not any longer belong to the forces of the
earth; but it would be incorrect to imagine that he then belongs to no
forces at all, for he is then connected with the forces of the solar
system and the more distant star-systems. In this way, between death
and a new birth, he lives in the domain of the cosmic, just as in the
period between birth and death he lived in the domain of the earthly.
From death to a new birth he belongs to the cosmos, as on the earth he
belongs to the elements--Air, Water, and Earth. Accordingly, while he
is passing through a life between death and a new birth, he comes into
the region of cosmic influences, for the planets send forth not merely
the physical forces of what astronomy teaches, such as gravitation and
others, but also spiritual forces, and with these spiritual powers of the
cosmos man is connected--each person in a special manner according to
his own individuality. If he is born in Europe, he lives in a different
relation to warmth conditions, etc., than if he had been born, let us
say, in Australia. Similarly, during his life between death and a new
birth, one person may stand more closely related to the spiritual powers
of Mars, another to those of Jupiter, others again to those of the whole
planetary system in general, and so on. It is also these forces which
bring man back again to the earth. Thus before he is born he is living in
connection with the collective whole of stellar space.
According to the way in which a man stands individually related to the
cosmic system, so are the forces directed which lead him to this or that
set of parents and to this or that locality. The impetus, the inclination
to incarnate here or there, in this or that family, in this or that
people, at this or that time, depends on how the person was organically
connected with the cosmic before birth. In former times, in that
territory where the German tongue was spoken, a specially apt expression
was used whereby to indicate a person’s entrance into the world through
birth. When a person was born, people said that in such and such a place
he had “become young” (jung-geworden). Therein lies an unconscious
reference to the fact that man in the time between death and a new birth
continues at first to be subject to the powers which had made him old in
a previous incarnation, but that before birth there come in their place
such forces as again make him “young.” Thus Goethe in “Faust” still uses
the expression “to become young in Nebelland”--Nebelland being the old
name for mediæval Germany.
The truth underlying the casting of a horoscope is that those who know
these things can read the forces which determine a person’s physical
existence. A certain horoscope is allotted to a person because, within
it, those forces find expression which have led him into being. If,
for example, in the horoscope, Mars stands over Aries (the Ram) that
signifies that certain of the Aries forces are not allowed to pass
through Mars--and are weakened. Thus is a man put into his place within
physical existence, and it is in accordance with his horoscope that he
guides himself before entering upon earthly existence. This subject,
which in our times seems so much a thing of chance should not be
touched upon without our attention being called to the fact that nearly
everything practiced in this connection to-day is simply dilettantism--a
pure superstition--and that for the external world the true science of
these matters has been for the most part completely lost. Consequently,
the principal things which have been said here are not to be judged
according to that which nowadays frequently leads a questionable
existence under the name of Astrology.
Now it is the active forces of the stellar world that impel man into
physical incarnation; and when clairvoyant consciousness observes a
person, it can perceive in his organization how this has resulted from
the co-operation of cosmic forces. We may now attempt to illustrate this
hypothetically, but in a form corresponding entirely with clairvoyant
observations: If a person’s physical brain were extracted and its
construction clairvoyantly examined, so that it might be seen how certain
parts are situated in certain places, and send out appendages, it would
be found that the brain of each individual is different. No two people
have brains alike. Then let us imagine further that this brain could be
photographed in its complete structure so that one would have a kind
of half-sphere in which every detail was visible, then this would make
a different picture in the case of each person. And if one were to
photograph a person’s brain at the moment of birth and then photograph
also the heavens lying exactly over the person’s birthplace, then this
latter picture would be of exactly the same appearance as that of the
human brain.
As certain centres were arranged in the latter, so would the stars be
in the photograph of the heavens. Man has within himself a picture of
the heavens, and every man has a different one, according to whether he
was born in this place or that, and at this or that time. This is one
indication that man is born from out of the whole cosmos.
When we keep this clearly in view we can rise to the idea of how the
macrocosm manifests itself in each separate individual, and then,
starting from this point, we can attain a conception of how it showed
itself in the Christ. But if we were to imagine the Christ _after_ the
Baptism of John as though the macrocosm had then been living in Him in
the same way as in other people, we should be mistaken.
Let us first consider Jesus of Nazareth: His conditions of existence
were quite exceptional. At the beginning of our era _two_ boys were born
and named Jesus. The one came through the Nathan line of the house of
David, and the other through the Solomon line of the same house. These
two children were not born quite at the same time, but nearly so. In
the Jesus descended from Solomon, Who is described in the Gospel of St.
Matthew, there was incarnated the same individuality who had formerly
lived on the earth as Zarathustra, so that in this Child Jesus there
appears the reincarnated Zarathustra or Zoroaster. The individuality
of Zarathustra grew up in this Child until, as St. Matthew says, His
twelfth year. In that year, Zarathustra left the body of this Child and
passed over into that of the other Child Jesus Whom the Gospel of St.
Luke describes. In consequence of this the latter child became suddenly
quite different. The parents were astonished when they found Him in
Jerusalem in the temple after the spirit of Zarathustra had entered into
Him. This is intimated when it is said that the Child after having been
lost and found again in the temple, so spake that his parents did not
recognize Him. They only knew Him--the Child descended from Nathan as
He had been before up to this time. But when He began to reason with
the doctors in the temple, it was possible for Him to speak as He did
because the spirit of Zarathustra had come into Him. Until the thirtieth
year did the spirit of Zarathustra live in the Jesus who was descended
from the Nathan line of the house of David. In this body He ripened to a
still higher perfection. The remark must here be added that as regards
this personality in which the spirit of Zarathustra _now_ lived, an
extraordinary feature was, that from the spiritual worlds the Buddha
rayed forth his impulses into its astral body.
The oriental tradition is correct which says that the Buddha was born as
a “Bodhisatva,” and only during his time on earth, in his twenty-ninth
year, rose to the dignity of a Buddha. When the Gautama Buddha was a
little child, the Indian sage Asita came weeping into the royal palace
of his father, Suddhodana. He wept because, as a seer, he knew that
this King’s son would become the Buddha, and because as an old man, he
felt that he would no longer be living to see that event take place.
Now this sage was born again in the time of Jesus of Nazareth. It is he
who is brought before us in the Gospel of St. Luke as the priest of the
temple who saw the revelation of the Buddha in the Child Jesus descended
from Nathan. And seeing this he was able to say: “Lord, now lettest Thou
Thy servant depart in peace for I have seen my Master.” What he had not
been able to see previously in India, he saw through the astral body of
the Boy Jesus, Who comes before us in St. Luke’s Gospel, the Bodhisatva
become a Buddha.
All this was necessary in order that that body might be produced which
received the baptism of St. John in the Jordan. At that moment the
individuality of Zarathustra left the threefold body, the physical,
the etheric and the astral body of that Jesus Who had grown up in so
complicated a manner, in order that the spirit of Zarathustra might be
able to dwell in Him. Through two possibilities of development which
were given in the two Jesus-Children, the reincarnated Zarathustra had
to pass, and thus there stood before the Baptist the body of Jesus
of Nazareth and in it from that time onwards there acted the cosmic
individuality of the Christ. Now, as we have shown, in the case of any
other human being, the cosmic spiritual laws work upon him only in so far
that they give him a start in earth-life. Afterwards there appear in
opposition to these laws, others which arise out of the conditions of the
earth-evolution. In the case of the Christ Jesus, after the baptism of
John the cosmic-spiritual forces alone remained effective without being
influenced in any way through the laws of the earth evolution.
Thus in Palestine during the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked on
earth as Christ-Jesus,--during the three last years of his life, from
his thirtieth to his thirty-third year, the entire Being of the cosmic
Christ was acting uninterruptedly upon Him, and was working into Him.
The Christ stood always under the influence of the entire cosmos--He
made no step without this working of the cosmic forces into and in
Him. That which here took place in Jesus of Nazareth was a continual
realization of the horoscope, for at every moment there occurred that
which otherwise happens only at a person’s birth. This could be so only
because the whole body of Jesus descended from Nathan had remained open
to the influence of the sum total of the forces of the cosmic spiritual
hierarchies which direct our earth. If thus the whole spirit of the
cosmos worked into the Christ Jesus, who was it that went, for example,
to Capernaum or anywhere else? He who went about as a being upon the
earth appeared quite like any other man. The forces active within Him,
however, were the cosmic forces, coming from the sun and stars; and these
directed His body. And it was always in accordance with the collective
Being of the whole Universe with whom the earth is in harmony, that all
which the Christ Jesus did took place. It is because of this that in
the case of the acts of the Christ Jesus there is so often some slight
hint given in the Gospels, about the relative grouping of the stars at
the time. We read in St. John’s Gospel how the Christ finds His first
disciples. There we are told: “It was about the tenth hour,” because in
this fact the spirit of the whole cosmos found expression in conformity
with the appointed moment of time. Such intimations are less clear in
the other Gospel passages, but he who can truly read the Gospel finds
them everywhere. From this point of view also the miracles are to be
judged. Let us take one passage,--The one that runs thus: “When the sun
was set, they brought the sick unto Him, and He healed them.” What does
that mean? The evangelist is drawing attention to the fact that this
healing was connected with the whole position of the constellations, and
that at the time in question, the constellations throughout the heavens
stood in such a way as could only have happened when the sun had set.
The meaning of that, at the time, the requisite healing forces could make
themselves felt after sun-set, and the Christ Jesus is represented as the
intermediary Who brought the sick into connection with the forces of the
cosmos which, just at that time could work curatively. These forces were
the same as those which worked as Christ in Jesus. It was through the
presence of Christ that the healing took place, because in consequence
of the same, the sick person was exposed to the healing forces of the
Cosmos which could only work as they did when they were in the right
relationship to time and space. Thus these forces worked on the sick
person through their representative the Christ. But it was only just
during the time of Christ on earth that they could so work. It was only
then that such a connection existed between the cosmic constellations and
the powers of the human organism, that for certain illnesses, healing
could intervene when through the instrumentality of the Christ Jesus, the
cosmic grouping of the same forces was able to work on men. A repetition
of this relationship in the evolution of the cosmos and the earth is
as little possible as is a second incarnation of the Christ in a human
body. Regarded in this way, the life of the Christ Jesus appears as the
earthly expression of a definite connection between the cosmos and the
forces of man. The tarrying of a sick person by the side of Christ means
that through the proximity of Christ, this sick person found himself in
such a relation with the macrocosm that the latter could work upon him
curatively.
* * * * *
Therewith the points of view have been specified which enable us to
discern how the guidance of humanity has come under the influence of
the Christ. The other forces, however, which had remained behind in the
Egypto-Chaldæic times worked further side by side with those that are
permeated by the Christ. This is evident even in the attitude frequently
adopted to-day towards the Gospels. Literary works appear in which great
pains are taken to show that the Gospels can be understood through an
astrological interpretation. The greatest opponents of the Gospels
employ this astrological interpretation in such a manner that, the way,
for example, taken by the Archangel Gabriel from Elizabeth to Mary is
supposed to signify nothing more than the progress of the sun from the
constellation of Virgo to another. This, in a certain sense, is correct,
except that these thoughts were poured in this manner into our age by the
beings who had remained behind during the Egypto-Chaldæic Period. Under
such an influence people are induced to a make-belief that the Gospels
present only allegories in the place of definite cosmic relations. The
truth really is, that in the Christ the whole cosmos finds expression
and therefore one can express the life of the Christ by connecting its
separate events with the cosmic relations which work into Earth existence
unceasingly _through the Christ_. A right understanding of this matter
will thus lead to a full recognition of the Christ, as having lived on
earth, whereas the above mentioned error, if it were true, would mean
that the Christ life in the Gospels is expressed by cosmic constellation
and shows that it was only a matter of constellations being treated
allegorically, and that there was no real earthly Christ at all.
If a comparison were to be used, we might think of each human being as
represented by a spherical mirror--which, if it were set up, would give
pictures of all its surroundings. Let us suppose we were to trace with a
pencil the outline of all that is shown from the surroundings. We could
then take the mirror and carry the picture about with us wherever we
went. Let this be a symbol for the fact that when a person is born, he
brings with him a copy of the cosmos in himself, and afterwards carries
about with him all through his life the effect of this one picture. The
mirror might, however, be left untouched by the pencil, so that wherever
the person carried it, it would depict the immediate surroundings. It
then would always be giving a picture of the collective environment. This
would be a symbol of the Christ from the baptism by St. John up to the
mystery of Golgotha. That which, in the case of any other person, passes
into his earthly existence at birth only flowed into the Christ-Jesus
at every moment. And when the mystery of Golgotha was consummated,
that which had been radiating from out the cosmos passed over into the
spiritual substance of the earth, and has from that time forward been
united with the spirit of the earth.
When St. Paul became clairvoyant before Damascus, he could recognize
that That which had formerly been in the cosmos has passed over into the
spirit of the earth. Of this every one can be convinced who can bring his
soul into such a condition that he can have the same experience as had
St. Paul. It is in the twentieth century that those people will first
appear who will have St. Paul’s experience of the Christ event in a
spiritual way.
Whereas up to our times this event would be experienced only by such
persons as had gained clairvoyant powers by means of an esoteric
training, hereafter to look upon the Christ in the spiritual sphere
surrounding the earth will be possible for the advanced powers of the
soul in the course of the natural evolution of humanity. This--as a
repeated experience of the event before Damascus--will be possible for
some people from a certain point of time in the twentieth century. The
number of such people will afterwards increase, until in the distant
future, it will be a natural faculty of the human soul.
* * * * *
With the entrance of Christ into the evolution of the earth an entirely
new impulse or direction was given to evolution. External facts of
history also express this. In the early times of post-Atlantean evolution
men knew very well that above them there was not merely a physical Mars,
but that what they saw as Mars, Jupiter or Saturn was the expression
for a spiritual being. In later times this perception was completely
forgotten. The heavenly bodies became, according to human ideas, mere
bodies to be estimated according to their physical condition. And in
the Middle Ages people saw in connection with the stars only what the
eyes can see--the sphere of Venus, the sphere of the Sun, the sphere
of Mars, etc., up to the sphere of the fixed stars; and then came the
eighth sphere like a solid blue wall behind. Then Copernicus appeared
and broke down the idea that only that which is perceptible to the senses
can be authoritative. The modern physical scientists may indeed say:
“It is madness to declare that the world is Maya, or illusion, and that
you must look into a spiritual world in order to see the truth, for in
spite of all you say true science is that which relies on the senses and
notifies what these senses tell.” But when did astronomers rely only on
the senses? Surely at the very time when that astronomical science was
dominant which is attacked by the science of to-day! It was at that time
when Copernicus began to think out what exists in the cosmic space beyond
the evidence of the senses, that our modern astronomy as a science began.
And so it is in every domain of science. Everywhere that science, in the
most modern sense of the word, has arisen, it has done so in opposition
to what had been apparent to the senses. When Copernicus declared “what
you see is Maya--or deception, rely on what you cannot see,” then the
science came into being which is recognized as such to-day. It might thus
be said to the representative of modern science “your science itself only
became ‘science’ when it was no longer willing to depend upon the senses
only.”
Giordano Bruno came as philosophical interpreter of the teachings of
Copernicus. He led the gaze of man out into cosmic space, and announced
that what people had called the limitations of space, what they had
placed there as the eighth sphere limiting everything in space--was
in reality _no_ limitation; it was Maya, or illusion; for an infinite
number of worlds had been poured forth into cosmic space. That which was
formerly considered to be the boundary of space was shown to be only the
boundary of the sense-world of man, and if we direct our gaze _beyond_
the sense-world, we shall no longer see the world only as known to the
senses, but we shall also recognize Infinity.
From this it is apparent how the course of human evolution has been
such that man started from an originally spiritual view of the cosmos
and in the course of time lost it. In its place there came a mere
sense-perception of the world. Then there came into evolution the Christ
Impulse. Through this, mankind was led to stamp the spiritual view once
more upon the materialistic. At that moment when Giordano Bruno burst the
fetters of the sense illusion, the Christ evolution was so far advanced,
that the soul power, which had been kindled by the Christ Impulse, could
then be active within him. Therewith an indication is given of the whole
significance of how the life of Christ penetrates all human evolution, an
evolution only at the beginning of which humanity stands to-day.
To what then does spiritual science now aspire? It completes the work
begun for external science by Giordano Bruno and others in that it says:
that which external science is able to perceive is Maya, or illusion.
Just as formerly one looked to the “eighth sphere” and thought that space
was thereby bounded, so contemporary human thought believes that man is
shut in or enclosed between birth and death. Spiritual science, however,
expands man’s vision by directing his attention out and beyond the limits
of birth and death.
There is a continuous chain in human evolution which such ideas as
these make us recognize. And in the true sense of the words, that
which resulted in the conquest of sense illusion through Copernicus
and Giordano Bruno, already proceeded from the inspiration due to
that spiritual current which is now working in the modern spiritual
science of theosophy. What one might call the newer esotericism worked
in a mysterious manner on Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler and others. Those
therefore who now stand, base their thought on foundations laid by
Giordano Bruno and Copernicus and do not wish to accept theosophy, are
unfaithful to their own traditions in desiring to hold fast by sense
illusion. But spiritual science demonstrates that, as Giordano Bruno
forced a way through the blue firmament of heaven, even so does this
science break down the barriers of birth and death for man by showing how
he originates from out of the macrocosm, lives in a physical existence,
passes through death, and re-enters macrocosmic life. And what we see
in a limited degree in each individual meets us unrestrictedly and in a
larger sense in the representative of the spirit of the cosmos--in the
Christ-Jesus. Once and once only could that impulse be given which the
Christ gave. Once only could the whole cosmos be thus reflected, for the
conjunction of the stars which then took place can never be repeated.
In order to give an impulse to the earth, this conjunction was obliged
to work through a human body. As it is true that this same grouping
cannot occur a second time, so it is equally true that the Christ was
only once incarnated. Only if one did not know that the Christ is the
representative of the whole universe and only if it were impossible to
win one’s way to this Christ-Idea, the elements for which are given
through spiritual science--only then would it be possible to maintain
that Christ could appear more than once upon the earth.