1. KNOWLEDGE AS GUILT AND ATONEMENT - The Christianization of All Human Knowledge

Note by the Translator

Following the recent online presentation of the essays “Christ as Judge – Man as the Religion of the Gods” and “The Mystery of Golgotha – ‘The Philosophy of Freedom’ as a Key to its Revelation” by the great Christian hermetist Valentin Tomberg (1900-1973), here now appears his three-part essay “Knowledge as Mysterium – The Christianization of All Human Knowledge”, all translated from his collection of early essays and other writings published in 2020 by Achamoth Verlag (Tomberg Books) entitled Towards the 6th Cultural Age (German: "Aufbruch zur VI. Kulturpoche") as study material for an international conference with the title "The New Christianity - Emergence into the 6th Cultural Age" on May 27, 28 and 29, 2022 at the Elisabeth Vreede House in The Hague.

Inspired by the truly remarkable contents of these profound essays, which the author writes in this most recent essay “can be experienced as an inner Testament revolution on the field of human knowledge", it has now been decided to organize this meeting as a contribution to the celebration of the Centenary of the Christmas Conference Foundation in 2023 under the very sub-heading of the title of this ground-breaking essay bundle. For the New Christianity inaugurated at the Christmas Conference can be seen – as Herbert Witzenmann has shown in his majestic 13-part introduction to the book Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity by Rudolf Steiner (partly translated) - as the contemporary metamorphosis of the events of the early Christian faith congregation into a modern knowledge society. The Anthroposophical Society, reconstituted at the Christmas Conference, according to Rudolf Steiner, was furthermore intended as the organizational form for the heavenly inspired anthroposophical movement in which the many anthroposophical souls present at the Michael cult in the spiritual world were destined to bring this new Christianity down to earth, according to my research, as a vehicle for the emergence into the 6th cultural age. 

However, this social corporeality has since its conception almost a century ago been seriously weakened and until now nothing has been done to revive it. All this and more may be gleaned from my video request to the General Assembly of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum, Dornach on March 27, 2021, with links to sources and references in earlier motions to the General Assembly in Dornach and articles since 2018 from the work of Rudolf Steiner, Valentin Tomberg, Herbert Witzenmann and Reto Andrea Savoldelli.

The meeting in the Hague will include an exhibition of the paintings by the Dutch artist Jan de Kok for the 12 meditations of the months of the year and the title page of the book "The Virtues – Seasons of the Soul" by Herbert Witzenmann, for this handbook for the new nobility of the spirit contains a new perception of the classic chivalric virtues of courage, righteousness and loyalty as well as of the traditional vows of the monks: obedience, chastity and poverty that may serve as a guide to the inner constitution of a modern knight of the Word (m/f). For its outer constitution, it is only logical that such an Order would want to align itself with the Christmas Conference impulse and thus with the letter and spirit of its original 15 statutes, since these formerly called principles, as Herbert Witzenmann has shown in his Social-Aesthetic Studies "Charter of Humanity – The Principles of the General Anthroposophical Society as a Basis of Life and Path of Training" and "To Create or to Administrate – Rudolf Steiner’s Social Organics / A New Principle of Civilization"  are the archetypal basis of modern social design. But exactly how is still an open question. 

The semi-public event will take place in three languages, namely Dutch, English and German, possibly with simultaneous translation depending on the budget. Friends and colleagues wanting to contribute by giving a lecture or seminar on why and how the New Knowledge Christianity can be fathomed, furthered and protected are cordially invited to submit an abstract on what they want to bring in. Why the New Christianity needs protection from its greatest opponent “The New Arabism”, i.e. the materialistic natural science originally developed by the Arabs in the early Middle Ages that has since then grown into the greatest, destructive anti-human power on earth (Herbert Witzenmann in his essay "Monetary Order as a Matter of Consciousness") can be gathered by reading the three karma lectures by Rudolf Steiner on July 18, 19 and 20, 1924 in Arnhem. An online presentation may also be possible. Depending on the response, the meeting could be prolonged to May 29 and continued in the fall. More information and study material will follow, including the already announced translation of the 13-part introduction by Herbert Witzenmann on Rudolf Steiner’s book Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity, which can be read in Dutch here. A complete translation of Knowledge as a Mysterium by Graham Rickett from Tomberg Books has in the mean time appeared. 

(Update: This conference has in the meantime been held for a select audience with a contribution by yours truly "Presenting Rudolf Steiner's Memoranda - Powers to the People" and one by Patrick Steensma, "Assessment of the Antroposophical Society and Its Viability" For my latest view on the sad state of the Society, see my lecture "The Entombment of the Anthroposophical Society and Its Possible Resurrection") 

Robert J. Kelder,

Willehalm Institute, Amsterdam, 

Last updated October 5, 2023

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1. KNOWLEDGE AS GUILT AND ATONEMENT - The Christianization of All Human Knowledge

There is a philosophical axiom that one ought to pay the greatest attention to, because its application to the field of epistemology, the theory of knowledge, can give us a deep insight into the mysteries of the world. This philosophical axiom expresses the relation of truth to freedom and freedom to truth and can be formulated as follows: Freedom is only to be comprehended in truth, truth is only to be established in freedom.

A entity that does not recognize its freedom in truth can never be certain that its freedom is not based on self-delusion. For truth and freedom are two sides of a self-motivated existence that according to its content is true and according to its conduct is free. If Man thus wants to seek the truth, he must seek it in freedom and if he wants on the other hand to be free, he must seek his freedom in truth.

The question is: How ought human knowledge to be organized in order to comply to this self-evident demand? What type of structure must knowledge have in order that Man can possess the truth in freedom and freedom in the truth?

For a mindset that avoids compromises there are in principle only three types of human knowledge possible: Firstly, a type of knowledge is conceivable in which the truth is given a priori. Now the question is whether with such an original knowledge of the truth human knowledge would be possible. It is not difficult to realize that there could in this case be no freedom. For freedom is after all only possible when a knowledge initiative is present. And the latter can only be taken when one does not yet know the truth. With an entity that knows the truth a priori, there can arise no need to seek this truth. From this it is obvious that with such type of knowledge freedom is completely excluded.

The second type of knowledge would be such by which the truth is not at all given to the knowledge seeker. Can one in this case speak of freedom? Man could now indeed develop the greatest cognitional initiative, however, but this initiative would be just a matter of self-delusion, for Man could in this case never recognize his freedom in truth, since after all the truth would remain transcendent to his knowledge.

The third type of knowledge that enables us to attain true freedom, as well as free truth, has been presented to the world in "The Philosophy of Freedom," [also translated as "The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity"] by Rudolf Steiner. According to the only right view of Rudolf Steiner, the truth is from the beginning indeed immanent in human cognitive activity, yet this immanent truth is with respect for human consciousness blotted out. Cognitive activity consists in bringing this deleted content of the truth through human thinking again into the light of day. It is easy to see what is new in this third view, namely that truth in freedom and freedom in truth can be comprehended. For through the fact that the truth is blotted out at the beginning of knowledge, the initiative to gain knowledge is secured, through the fact however that the truth nevertheless remains immanent to the cognitive human being, the possibility is given to him to finish his knowledge initiative in truth.

If one studies modern European worldviews carefully, one will become aware of three different types of worldviews, three ways of thinking that correspond to the above-mentioned types of knowledge, namely the East-European, the West-European and the Central-European schools of thought. The East-European and the West-European schools of thought contradict each other.[1]

The Central-European mindset, which blossomed from German idealism into the form of anthroposophy, appears as a mediator between the other two. When studying the East-European resp. the Russian school of thought one gets the impression that there is no real Russian thinker, with the exception of the unreal thinkers, the Marxists, that has not dealt with the ultimate questions of existence. One discovers that real Russian philosophy is always quite apocalyptically and eschatologically disposed.

In return, this real Russian philosophy has actually no epistemological starting point and thus no beginning. It approaches the truth according to the first type of knowledge as if the truth would have been given a priori. One can certainly not maintain that Russian philosophy completely ignores any West-European methodology whatsoever. It too makes use of the systematic West-European way of thinking, but only with the sole intent to justify its own irrational attitude.

No matter how different the Russian philosophical systems may be, they all possess a common attribute: they all lack a conscious individual I-principle at the beginning of their path of knowledge. And it is only thanks to this evaporated I-consciousness that the Russian thinkers can retain their vital feeling for the divine universe. Half-consciously these thinkers sense that the individual I-principle must blot out the divine beingness from the human worldview. And in order to let the divine beingness prevail in the human worldview, these Russian thinkers want to eliminate the individual I-principle from their worldview. Not Man but God is to be at the base of their worldview. And that is exactly what the methodological awkwardness of the Russian philosophy consists of, namely that it believes to already possess the end goal of knowledge at its beginning. East-European resp. Russian philosophy can therefore be designated as a philosophy of an end without a beginning.

The opposite features are shown by West-European philosophy. This West-European philosophy acts as if the second type of knowledge would be the right one. For the latter, the truth is not given to the knowledge-seeker, it is transcendent. For that reason, this West-European philosophy takes its starting point from the famous Cartesian saying, “Cogito, ergo sum”. Born from doubt, it completes every next step carefully and thoughtfully, systematically and methodologically. But since the object of knowledge appears to be unattainable, it condemns itself to only ever begin, without any hope whatsoever to ever reach the final goal of knowledge, the truth. And more and more new methods are created by it, more and more new systems constructed, but the use of these methods in these systems leads often to an end in itself, whereby the actual task of philosophy, to gain knowledge of the truth is al but forgotten. One can therefore with reason term this philosophy a philosophy of endless beginnings.

Let us now ask how these two ways of thinking are related to Central-European philosophy. It is easy to see that this relation must be partly consenting and partly adverse. To wit, anthroposophy consents to both, in so far the West-European mindset has a beginning and the East-European mindset has an end. At the same time, anthroposophy has to reject both of them, in so far as the West-European mindset has no end and de East-European mindset has no beginning. Anthroposophy relates in this way to both schools of thought because it is itself based on true freedom and free truth.

True freedom and free truth are however only possible when Man at the beginning of his path of knowledge affirms himself as a doubter but at the end of his path of knowledge posits God as the consummation and ultimate goal.

In order to become free, Man must first give himself a beginning. And since God gives all entities – and thus also Man – the beginning in truth, Man must, in order to give himself a beginning, blot out the divine truth, to forget it. Since he cannot affirm his independence in the knowledge of the truth, he must do so in ignorance, in doubt.

Thus we see with respect to the starting point of knowledge that anthroposophy is related to the West-European mindset. However, the West-European mindset lacks a sense that the East-European mindset eminently possesses, namely the sense for metaphysical guilt, for guilt towards the deleted truth. The West-European mindset has absolutely no feeling for the fact that in our doubt lies buried a God killed by us. And thus for that reason, the West-European mindset views divine truth as something absolutely transcendent and there arises in it thus no striving to atone the amassed guilt for the truth. However, this feeling of metaphysical guilt for the truth is the best proof that a God killed by us rests in our thinking. And at the same time, this feeling of metaphysical guilt creates an impulse in us to atone this guilt for the truth and to resurrect God through a self-sacrificing self-abandonment.

In the service of this impulse, we must at the end of our worldview be willing to posit God and no longer Man, for only when we posit God as an ideal and an ultimate goal of the whole path of knowledge, only then can our freedom in truth be consummated. Whereas thus Man and not God is to stand at the beginning of our knowledge, at the end of it is to stand God and no longer Man.

And in this striving toward self-abandonment, anthroposophy is related again to the East-European philosophy and no longer to West-European philosophy. The essential difference between both consists in the fact that the Russian mindset already at the beginning of knowledge seeks to practice this self-abandonment, whereas anthroposophy only places it as the ultimate goal of knowledge. In this way, the whole process of knowledge receives in anthroposophy a religious-moral meaning and becomes a mysterium of guilt and atonement.

Understood in this sense, anthroposophy places itself in the middle between both opposites and enables their higher synthesis in an all-human total worldview, by giving the East-European philosophy a beginning and the West-European philosophy an end. In so far that the religious-moral sense of anthroposophy remains immanent in its thinking, anthroposophy can be understood by the West-European mindset, in so far thinking that in anthroposophy receives a religious-moral sense, the religious disposed East-European mindset can no longer have a reason to reject this anthroposophical thinking. But with that said, the significance of this religious-moral view of this process of knowledge is not limited A further immersion into the mysteries of this cognitive process gives us a possibility to Christianize the whole field of human knowledge.

If we want namely to study the thus designated process of knowledge more closely, three questions arise in us that are all related to the nature of this cognitive process. And just these three questions will be able to give us the key to the profound Christian mysterium of self-knowledge.

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[1] Since this essay was written almost a century ago, the philosophical landscape in Europe has obviously changed considerably. The question to what extent this perception of its three ways of thinking is therefore still basically accurate, which it may very well be, goes beyond the present knowledge of the translator. For the view by Valentin Tomberg on the various philosophical perceptions of freedom in the Orient, in Christianity and in America, see chapter II in his book The Foundation Stone Meditation by Rudolf Steiner.

2. THE MYSTERIUM OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE - An Inner Testament Revolution of Human Knowledge

The first question that arises in us upon reflecting on the process of knowledge has a causal character and can be formulated in the following way: 

        What are the causes leading to a blotting out of the total world of ideas in our                          worldview?

The second question has a phenomenological meaning, it concerns a question of self-reflection and can be formulated thus: 

        Under what circumstances do we become conscious of the religious-moral meaning of         our knowledge?

The third question is addressed to a future, just as the first one to a past and the second one to a present. It has a teleological meaning and can be formulated thus:
        What means must we apply in order that the ideational content in us may be raised                 again?

The first of these three questions concerns the problem of our metaphysical guilt. By posing this question, we actually do not seek anything other than to recognize the cases of the guilt amassed by us, those causes that impel us to forget the spiritual universe in us. For the ignorance is with respect to this notion of knowledge a greater riddle than to be conscious of it. And not must we ask ourselves how we come to the point of knowing something, but first the question must concern us how we come to the point of not knowing something. In our self-knowledge we can experience that the outlines that we come upon at the beginning of knowledge originate from our conjointness with an earthly, bodily organism. It is the earthly body that blots out the universe in us and that separates us from our true being. This true being must due to this conjointness with the earthly body to begin with experience itself as an ignoramus, a doubter.

As a consequence the whole world as well is experienced by this true being in us as a problem, as a riddle and this being itself experiences this doubt as an impulse compelling it to solve this riddle of the world. This riddle arises due to our conjointness with the earthly body and is to be solved from a special point of view. And it is only due to this conjointness with the body that the true being in us attains a stage of free self-affirmation in ignorance.

Now one could ask how does this conjointness with an earthly body come about? By what means does our true spiritual being feel prompted to connect itself with the earthly corporeality and to consider the world from its viewpoint?

If we want to observe ourselves with this question in mind, we will become aware in ourselves of yet another, a third being that is neither a spiritual nor a bodily being, but an intermediary between both of them. It is namely the psychic principle in us that shows a special interest for the perceptual world imparted by the body. And it is this psychic principle in us as well that chains the higher principe, the spirit in us, to the perceptual world by impelling the spirit to wake up in this perceptual world and to become conscious of it. But we can also ask further, we can also ask why this psychic principle is prompted to develop an interest for the perceptual world. In order to correctly answer this question, we must proceed from another question. We must ask ourselves what our worldview would look like, if we were not induced to consider the world from the standpoint of our corporeality.

Yes, then we would indeed be entities whose knowledge would be organized according to the first type of knowledge. The truth would then be given without our own doing. It is, however, in the world the case that such an organism cannot simply be eliminated, when other forces emerge. No, they remain also in existence, even though their original direction is changed by the emergence of a new force.

Such is also the case with the original knowledge of the truth. Through the appearance of that force that connects us with our corporeality the original knowledge is not eliminated but indeed transformed: From a conscious vision of the truth, it becomes an unconscious willing to seek that same truth. The truth continues to remain immanent in the same human spirit, yet not in the form of a vision, but in the form of a cognitive impulse. This transformation of the original knowledge in a striving for knowledge can be graphically represented when one partitions the force active in knowledge today in two other forces, in a horizontally active force of the original knowledge and a vertical force active from above to below, the power of self-affirmation that seeks to satisfy itself through the earthly body. Were thus only the horizontally active force to be effective, Man would admittedly be a knower, although not an independent striving being; were on the other hand only the vertical force directed from above to below to be active, Man would have to fall into the abyss of complete unconsciousness. But since all two forces are at work, the development proceeds in the direction of their results: The descent in the ruin of ignorance is kept at bay by the horizontally active force and takes place gradually, in stages, whereby the stages correspond to the three elemental forces inherent in human nature. In this triple-staged self-affirmation the body provides the place whereupon Man can make firstly his willing, secondly his feeling and thirdly his thinking independent.

And each of these transitional stages to independence corresponds to the deletion of a certain part of the universe immanent in Man. By affirming his will through the body, Man kills in himself the cosmic will, by affirming his feeling, he kills the cosmic life, by affirming his thinking as his property, he kills the cosmic thought in himself. Thus the earthly body of Man becomes the place where the divine Logos must thrice suffer death, thus becoming the grave of God. There we have a causal chain that leads to the blotting out of the original ideational content of the original universal knowledge. A power of self-affirmation forces our soul and the spirit connected with her to submerge into the body, to blot out through its forces the entire world of ideas and to develop in ignorance the knowledge initiative.

If one now wants to live in the characterized epistemological circumstances, wants to imagine them as living soul forces, then out of them blossom like flowers from Aaron’s rod powerful symbols in which we recognize the figures from the Bible.

Just as during a restoration of old images of saints the original features become visible from the dust of by-gone ages, powerful world historical Biblical figures behind the abstract connections of our knowledge activity are also becoming visible.

Thus we recognize in our spiritual being that was a bearer of the original knowledge – that however had blotted it out in itself by identifying itself with the body – the Biblical Adam principle in so far that it is the Biblical Adam, who from the beginning bears the spiritual universe within himself, but had to forfeit it through the Fall.

The second principle in us, the principle of the soul, which is inwardly connected with the spirit, with Adam and that shares his destiny, can be experienced by us as the Eve principle, in so far as it is our soul that awakens the sleeping Adam, so that he may also taste of the Tree of Knowledge.

The third principle, namely that of the power of self-affirmation, which is active vertically, can be experienced by us as the power of the snake, of Lucifer. For it is Lucifer, who changes the original knowledge organism of Man by making the soul and the spirit independent. In this way, our knowledge reveals itself, when we do research into the causes of our ignorance, as a repetition of the Fall of Man.

At every moment of our conscious life the Tempter calls on our soul, Eve, to taste from the fruits of knowledge. At every moment the tempted soul, Eve, wakes the sleeping spirit, Adam in us up and hands him the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge so that he may taste of it. And Adam, the spirit in us, follows the voice of his temptress, the soul, Eve, and both are banished from the paradise of the original wisdom and must cloak themselves in the leather clothes of the earthly corporeality.

In a similar fashion, one can also immerse oneself in the second question by trying to become aware of the circumstances under which we may discover the religious-moral meaning of knowledge.

This became possible for us by directing our attention during the cognitive activity to ourselves as knowers and immersing ourselves as it were in the disposition caused in us by the cognitive process. Engrossed in self-reflection we must hear our own voice, the voice of the personal longing for the truth, the voice of guilt and atonement in our depths.

For this purpose, the world had to become a wasteland for us, a desert of loneliness. And only in this wasteland can we become aware of our cognitive impulse, which is normally active unconsciously.

This process of becoming self-conscious of the cognitive impulse is at the same time a consciousness of guilt against the past and a striving for a change of heart in the future. In the present, however, this cognitive impulse experiences itself as the voice of conscience, the voice of one crying in solitude that speaks to us about the mysterium of guilt and atonement. Thus what is the cognitive impulse? It is the voice of one crying in solitude that has become conscious of itself, the John the Baptist principle in our knowledge! It is also incumbent upon us, by hearkening to this voice of the inner John the Baptist, to change our ways and to expect from the future what through our guilt has been lost in the past. Thus we experience in this process of becoming self-conscious of the usually unconsciously active knowledge impulse as it were an inner testament revolution in the field of self-knowledge.

And now we also want to address our third question. When we now want to ask ourselves the question what means must be applied in order to awaken the truth, we will then see that these means are diametrically opposed to the causes. When namely the deletion of the truth in our nature was caused by the power of our Luciferic self-affirmation, the awakening of that same truth can only be attained when these causes are removed by an opposing power.

Instead of self-affirmation, Man is to practice self-sacrifice, if he is willing to awaken the deleted truth. Just as at the beginning of his path of self-knowledge he was allowed to say to himself, “Not the Logos, but I in me”, in the future, at the end of his path of self-knowledge he is to say to himself, “Not I, but the Logos in me”. And just as self-affirmation takes place gradually and in stages, self-sacrifice is likewise to take place gradually and in stages. As we have already mentioned, the gaining of Man’s independence shows three stages: Firstly Man conquers the independence of his willing, the ability to act willfully, secondly Man conquers the ability to feel independently, which is expressed in the ability to speak and thirdly Man also makes his thought life independent and becomes in this way the creator of this thought world. The same three stages must be stridden through by us on the path of self-sacrifice in an reverse order, namely: the stage relinquishing our personal thinking, the stage of relinquishing our personal feeling and the stage of relinquishing our personal willing.[1] The nature of these three stages can be expressed in three sayings:

        May not my thoughts shine through me, but the thinking of the Logos.
        May not my feelings warm me up, but the life of the Logos.
        May not my will empower me, but the will of the Logos.

Only when all three supplications are fulfilled, can the Logos arise in us. The first supplication refers to our soul, Eve, who by taking possession of the selfless thinking of the Logos, tempts Adam, the spirit in us and draws him from the higher regions downwards with her into corporeality. But now the soul, Eve, must change her ways; instead of tempting Adam, the spirit, she is to give back his innocence to him. She is, as it were, to receive and give birth to him from above and bring him up in innocence. And that is precisely what the nature of occult schooling consists of, namely that the soul change her ways, becoming unselfish and altruistic in the pursuit of knowledge and giving birth to the higher principle. And this newborn higher principle must become a unified whole with the earthly I-ness and to universalize its personal guilt through its personal innocence, so that also the second supplication may be fulfilled. “May not my feeling warm me up, but the life of the Logos.”

These are the means by which a resurrection of the truth in Man is to be attained. And these means can be exemplified in living symbols, just as we have already done with respect to the causes of our guilt. Yet this time, we must not take the symbols from the Old but from the New Testament. Let us to begin with ask how we must name the soul inclined to self-sacrifice, a soul facing heaven and that does not receive from below, like Eve, but from above; a soul willing to conceive and give birth spiritually, just as she earlier as Eve gave birth and suffered from the pains of childbirth. Truly, such a soul that receives spiritually is no longer Eve but the bearer of the divine truth, Sophia.

And who is this innocent spirit that is to be born from the virginal soul, Sophia and to be brought up in innocence? It will be right when we designate it as the principle of the New Adam, as the principle of the Nathan Jesus. And exactly in the way that the Nathan Jesus behaves towards the Salomon Jesus, does the newborn spirituality of the New Adam behave toward the purified personal will of the earthly I-ness. The innocent part of our spiritual nature born from Sophia must voluntarily unite itself with the guilt-ridden I-ness transfigured through the suffering of the earthly experience. The high principle of the Nathan Jesus must supplement in us the highest results of the earthly knowledge that can be designated as the principle of the Salomon Jesus. And this Nathan Jesus principle born from the purified soul, Sophia and ridden with the innocence of the knowledge must through the self-reflection of the spiritual baptism be dedicated to a resurrectionary mission. Only then can the third supplication be fulfilled as well. And only then does the Logos reveal Himself in Man not only as Knowledge of the Truth (Sophia) and not only as Life of the Truth (Nathan Jesus) but as the Truth Itself in Its Own essence. Only then does the Logos reveal Himself as Christ, as the One Who resurrected the annihilated phantom, as the One resurrected in the phantom.

Thus utters the Logos in this stage of self-knowledge in Man His eternal Name and in this way does the encounter with Christ take place.

However, this encounter with Christ can only then take place when our spirit, purified through the sufferings of knowledge, offers its supreme sacrifice and like the spirit of Zarathustra before the baptism dies in Christo, fulfilling the words, “Not I but Christ in me”.

In this way, we convince ourselves, by enlivening our abstract notion in the field of human epistemology that the whole history of the world is repeated in microcosm. In the self-knowledge of every human being the Old Adam and Eve, Lucifer, John the Baptist, Sophia, the Nathan and the Salomon Jesus and finally the Risen One can be beheld. And because that is so, it must also be understandable why we can so wholly intuitively comprehend the profound mysteries of the historic process and can even independently substantiate them. But now the soul, Eve, must change her ways; instead of tempting Adam, the spirit, she is to give back his innocence to him. She is, as it were, to receive and give birth to him from above and bring him up in innocence. And that is precisely what the nature of occult schooling consists of, namely that the soul change her ways, becoming unselfish and altruistic in the pursuit of knowledge and giving birth to the higher principle. And this newborn higher principle must become a unified whole with the earthly I-ness and to universalize its personal guilt through its personal innocence, so that also the second supplication may be fulfilled. “May not my feeling warm me up, but the life of the Logos.”

These are the means by which a resurrection of the truth in Man is to be attained. And these means can be exemplified in living symbols, just as we have already done with respect to the causes of our guilt. Yet this time, we must not take the symbols from the Old but from the New Testament. Let us to begin with ask how we must name the soul inclined to self-sacrifice, a soul facing heaven and that does not receive from below, like Eve, but from above; a soul willing to conceive and give birth spiritually, just as she earlier as Eve gave birth and suffered from the earthly pains of childbirth. Truly, such a soul that receives spiritually is no longer Eve but the bearer of the divine truth, Sophia.

And who is this innocent spirit that is to be born from the virginal soul, Sophia and to be brought up in innocence? It will be right when we designate it as the principle of the New Adam, as the principle of the Nathan Jesus. And exactly in the way that the Nathan Jesus behaves towards the Solomon Jesus, does the newborn spirituality of the New Adam behave toward the purified personal will of the earthly I-ness. The innocent part of our spiritual nature born from Sophia must voluntarily unite itself with the guilt-ridden I-ness transfigured through the suffering of the earthly experience. The high principle of the Nathan Jesus must supplement in us the highest results of the earthly knowledge that can be designated as the principle of the Solomon Jesus. And this Nathan Jesus principle born from the purified soul, Sophia and ridden with the innocence of the knowledge must through the self-reflection of the spiritual baptism be dedicated to a resurrectionary mission. Only then can the third supplication be fulfilled as well. And only then does the Logos reveal Himself in Man not only as Knowledge of the Truth (Sophia) and not only as the Life of the Truth (Nathan Jesus), but as the Truth Itself in Its Own essence. Only then does the Logos reveal Himself as Christ, as the One Who resurrected the annihilated phantom, as the One resurrected in the phantom.

Thus utters the Logos in this stage of self-knowledge in Man His eternal Name and in this way does the encounter with Christ take place.

However, this encounter with Christ can only then take place when our spirit, purified through the sufferings of knowledge, offers its supreme sacrifice and like the spirit of Zarathustra before the baptism dies in Christo, fulfilling the words, “Not I but Christ in me”.

In this way, we convince ourselves, by enlivening our abstract notion in the field of human epistemology that the whole history of the world is repeated in microcosm. In the self-knowledge of every human being the Old Adam and Eve, Lucifer, John the Baptist, Sophia, the Nathan and the Salomon Jesus and finally the Risen One can be beheld. And because that is so, it must also be understandable why we can so wholly intuitively comprehend the profound mysteries of the historic process and can even independently substantiate them.

Here only one example shall be given that can, however, show us in which way we can through our self-knowledge fathom the mysteries of world history. Above, it was mentioned that also in the realm of human knowledge both Jesus principles must play a part, the principle of the Nathan and the principle of the Solomon Jesus. In self-knowledge, this union of the two Jesus principles is explainable, in the sense that they are both two halves of one and the same being, namely of the human spirit. And the sense of this union is that the innocent Jesus principle gives the Solomon Jesus principle its universality and at the same time takes the earthly destiny of this Solomon principle upon itself.

If what takes place in world history, can now be found in microcosm in self-knowledge, then we must assume that the same reasons are at the bottom of the union of the two evangelical Jesus children. Upon immersing ourselves in this question, we light upon a mystery that also relates to the Solomon Jesus child. We know that the Salomon Jesus was destined to become the earthly bearer of the Christ being. To this end, however, he had to appear as a representative of the whole human race. But this was only possible on the condition that he took the whole karma of mankind upon himself. He had to feel guilty for this karma of mankind. Now we know however that the Nathan Jesus did not possess any karma at all. That is why he could as such bear no responsibility for the karma of the human race. And precisely for that reason he had to connect himself with the I of Zarathustra, to take the Zarathustra individuality upon himself, for by connecting himself with the Zarathustra individuality, he burdened himself with the whole guilt of mankind. And here the great Zarathustra mystery is revealed to us. The absorption of the Zarathustra individuality by the Nathan Jesus could never make the latter responsible for the karma of mankind, if Zarathustra were not the founder of the karma of mankind. But who is the founder of the karma of mankind? It is Adam.

And the individuality of Zarathustra is no one else than that of the first and greatest man of the human race, the founder of the karma of mankind, Adam.

Now it will also appear understandable how and why the union of the two Jesus children came about. Never could they have formed a union, if they were not from the beginning two halves of one and the same being, namely of the homogeneous Adam being.

From this example, we see how in a miraculous way self-knowledge illuminates world history for us. All mysteries are inscribed in our own knowledge potential. In us too the mystery of the Fall of Man takes place at every moment; in us too the mystery of the New Testament can take place at every moment.

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[1] See also Valentin Tomberg’s “Anthroposophical Meditations on the New Testament” in Christ and Sophia where the threefold sacrifice in connection with the Lord’s Prayer is explained.

3. CHRIST IN WORLD HISTORY - His Threefold Death and Threefold Resurrection

 An immersion into the religious-moral meaning of self-knowledge leads us to the point that we must say to ourselves: We are guilty of the threefold killing of the truth in our worldview and we must atone this guilt again through a likewise threefold self-sacrifice. And just as it happens in our self-knowledge, so it also happens in world history in so far as it is self-knowledge of the whole human race. In the same way that world history is implanted in the self-knowledge of Man, all stages of the self-knowledge of Man are contained in the history of mankind.

Therein as well do we find a threefold gaining of independence attributable to Lucifer that gradually leads into the Ahrimanic abyss. Therein as well does the self-reflection impulse of the Baptist keep watch in the deadly inferno of an ahrimanic desert that suffers in view of a past from a guilty conscience and in view of a future affirms a will to resurrect, a threefold path to resurrection.

And just as we could not reach the goal of self-knowledge, if in the darkness of ignorance we would not become aware of our own ideals, the whole of mankind could not fulfill its mission, if it would not amidst the Ahrimanic ignorance become aware of its great ideal, the all-human Christ. For the great ideal of an all-human self-knowledge is nobody else than Christ, in the same way that He is also the highest ideal of a personal self-knowledge.

And in the same way that we until now asked what Christ means for world history, we can also ask what world history means for Christ. Upon following the history of the fifth epoch with this question in mind, one becomes aware that this history until the point in time of the earthly revelation of Christ is a history of the slow death of Christ. This slow death of Christ in world history, in the worldview of mankind shows namely also three stages that correspond to the three stages of the all-human gaining of independence.

In order to more deeply comprehend this death of the great ideal of mankind in the self-knowledge of mankind, one must clarify what our willing, our feeling and our thinking actually are. Then we will have to say to ourselves that the divine will, which is killed in the worldview of mankind, is in essence a wisdom of the stars. The wisdom of the first hierarchy, which reveals itself through the stellar script, prevails in this willing. And if we therefore would be able to perceive the cosmic will of the Logos killed by us, the whole wisdom of the stars would then become accessible to us. It was this majestic wisdom of the stars that in the first post-Atlantean, in the ancient Indian culture of the Rishis was to blossom. Therefore it can in view of this majestic Indian culture be said that it was Christ, Who at that time revealed Himself through these Chandeliers of the first hierarchy. But since the fifth post-Atlantean epoch is a sort world-conceptional repetition of the history of the whole of mankind, and since in the ancient Indian culture the Luciferic temptation had to be repeated, the ancient Indians were as a result of this temptation unfortunately unable to behold Christ. As a result of the life of the will having gained independence, the cosmic life had to conceal itself from the gaze of the ancient Indians. Thus Christ, before He died on earth, had to first die on the stars. That was His first superterrestial death.

And in the way that the wisdom of the stars of the first hierarchy prevails behind the human will, the wisdom of the sun of the second hierarchy prevails behind human feeling. This wisdom of the sun was revealed by the ancient Persian culture of Zarathustra. At that time Christ could be experienced on the sun. On the sun, in the multitudes of the second hierarchy, Ahura Mazdao-Christ revealed Himself to the ancient Persian initiate. However , light-filled Iran was overcome by dark Turan. Ahriman gained a victory over Ahura Mazdao-Christ. Thus Christ had to also die on the sun. And this was His second superterrestial death.

An in the way that the wisdom of the stars of the first hierarchy hides behind the human will and behind human feeling the wisdom of the sun, the wisdom of the planets through which the third hierarchy is revealed hides behind human thinking. This wisdom of the planet of the third hierarchy was recognized by the leading nations of the third post-Atlantean culture, namely by the Babylonians and the Egyptians. The astrology created by these peoples was a revelation of the mysteries of the third hierarchy through which Christ at that time was active. And one can therefore say that at that time Christ lived on the planets.

The falling silent of this revelation of the planets is described in a scene of the fourth mystery play by Rudolf Steiner. The young Egyptian who is to be initiated into the wisdom of the planets cannot bring himself to behold the Logos on the planets, instead he beholds in supersensible images his own earthly body. In this way the wisdom of the stars too became inaccessible. Christ had to suffer death also on the planets, in the way that He in India on the stars and in Persia on the sun had to suffer that fate. And this was His third superterrestial death.

The totally Godforsaken, dead worldview of mankind became now the only place where God could still be beheld and heard and where one could still become aware what mankind through gaining her independence has done to God.

Thus God had to suffer death for the fourth time and this time on earth in order to reveal to mankind its true relation to the Logos being.

Through His earthly death, Christ marks an end to the path of the all-human guilt against the divine truth. It is shocking to recognize how just through this earthly death Christ contradicts Lucifer and Ahriman. For Lucifer as well as Ahriman deemed it impossible that the divine truth could reveal itself on earth. That world namely in which mankind after the threefold death of Christ dwelled was already no longer a real world, but an out and out illusionary worldview. How could Christ now appear in this illusionary worldview, He who can after all only reveal Himself in truth?

Were the sun to descent into the darkness, the darkness would either disappear as such or the sun would have to become extinct itself – thus both opposing powers could say to themselves:

“If the sun would now become extinct, then that would mean that the darkness is mightier than the light,” Ahriman reckoned. “Would on the other the darkness yield to the light, then that would mean that the light is nevertheless unable, in the darkness where mankind dwells, to be present,” reckons Lucifer.

And both opposing powers concluded from that that Christ could not appear in mankind. And notwithstanding did Christ enter into the illusionary worldview where He, according to the conviction of his opponents, is not able to be, and yet He appears in this worldview in such a form that repudiates the designated contradiction.

For He enters into the earthly, illusionary worldview in a form that is a true expression for His absence in this world. He is not in this illusionary world and yet He is in it. He is silent and yet He speaks through His silence to all. For ultimately Christ did only enter into this dead world when He died on the cross of Golgotha. And just through this death did the true relation of the truth to this dead world obvious. The Logos can in this world of death only hang dead on the cross. In a world of death, the truth can only be beheld in the form of death.

That is why the image of the Logos crucified in the world of death is an image that speaks most powerfully to human conscience. However, this image of the Crucified One is followed by another, even more powerful image, that of the Risen One. And in the way that in the image of the Crucified One is expressed what mankind has done to God in its self-knowledge, so in the second image, in the image of the Risen One, is expressed what mankind is to do to Christ in the future. Christ is in the New Testament to resurrect in mankind in the same way that He in the Old Testament has died in mankind.

Truly, the resurrection of Christ in Palestine is the deepest and highest mysterium in world history. This mysterium is so profound that, in order to fathom it, mankind will have to tread a long, long path of New Testament-like self-conquest. Mankind must itself resurrect in order to comprehend the resurrection of Christ, for only through a resurrection of the truth in mankind can the truth of the resurrection through mankind be experienced. The knowledge of the truth of the resurrection is, after all, at the same time also a resurrection of the same truth, so that it is only in an act of the resurrection of the truth that the content of this truth – the mystery of the resurrection – can be fathomed. For the resurrection is nothing else than the complete self-knowledge of the human race and as such the result of a reality-to-be. It is something without precedent, a new creation, an energetic connection of mankind with its high ideal, with its I, with Christ.

And in order to attain this union with the great ideal of mankind, mankind must tread the threefold path of self-sacrifice. For the resurrection of Christ in mankind must also have three stages, the order of which are to be opposed to the three stages of His superterrestial death.

Thus Christ is to resurrect in the fifth post-Atlantean culture in the wisdom of the third hierarchy, which we may already expect today as His etheric revelation. The time is already approaching when Christ will resurrect on the planet earth.

In the sixth cultural epoch, when the wisdom of the sun of the second hierarchy, the wisdom of Zarathustra will reappear, Christ will resurrect on the sun. And finally, the seventh cultural epoch may experience His resurrection also in the first hierarchy, on the stars.

In this way, everything that in the time before Christ has died, will in the time after Christ be able to be resurrected again and the cosmic death of Christ will be followed by His cosmic resurrection. And all that is only a content of the all-human self-knowledge, the key of which we can find in our own self-knowledge. For truly, the self-knowledge of Man and of the whole of mankind is an abyssal Christian mysterium at the bottom of which is the axiom:

        “Only in truth is freedom to be comprehended,
        only in freedom is truth to be established.”