The Gospel of St.

John

By Rudolf Steiner

Notes from three lectures given in Berlin on the 19th and 26th
of February and the 5th of March, 1906 GA 94

Authorized translation from shorthand reports unrevised by

the lecturer, by permission of the Rudolf Steiner
Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.

The original German texts of these lectures can be found in

the Collected Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works, No. 94 in the
Bibliographical Survey, 1961.
 CONTENTS

Cover Sheet
Introductory Note
I First Lecture Berlin 19th February, 1906
II Second Lecture Berlin 26th February, 1906
III Third Lecture Berlin 5th March, 1906
Notes
 Introductory Note

On the 12th and 13th of February, 1906, Rudolf Steiner gave

two lectures in Cologne on “The Gospel of St. John as a
Document Describing Initiation”, which are published in
Volume 97 of the complete edition of the works of Rudolf
Steiner in the original German under the title of “Das
Christliche Mysterium”. A few days later in Berlin he also
spoke about the John Gospel. It was originally intended to
print these lectures in Volume 96 entitled “Ursprungs-impulse
der Geisteswissenschaft”. For technical reasons they were held
back for Volume 94 which is still in preparation and which
will contain the eight lectures on the John Gospel given in
Munich. Unfortunately the notes of these Berlin lectures are
very scanty. Since they contain essential material concerning
Christology, they should undoubtedly have a place in the
complete edition. In view of the fact that the publication of
Volume 94 will probably not appear in the immediate future,
these three lectures are meanwhile printed in this form.
 First Lecture
Berlin, 19th February, 1906

Today and next time I am going to speak about the Gospel of

St. John. I would mention that what I have to say will only
really be comprehensible to those who are already somewhat
familiar with spiritual science. It would, however, take us too
far out of our way if we went into everything unfamiliar to
non-theosophists. You are probably aware that latterly New
Testament textual criticism has discredited the John Gospel
as an historical source. It is said in theological circles — at
least in advanced circles — that the first three gospels, the
synoptic gospels, are the only documents relevant to the life of
the founder of Christianity. They are called synoptic because
they can be taken together to form a general picture of the life
of Christ Jesus. On the other hand modern theologians try to
interpret the John Gospel as a sort of poetic work, a
confession of faith, the writings of a person portraying his
feelings, his intimate religious life as it was born in him
through the impact of Christianity. Thus the John Gospel
could be considered as a devotional work, a deeply felt
confession of faith, not as anything that could be taken as
Christian historical facts.
But for everyone who immerses himself in the writings of the
New Testament, one fact is indisputable: an immediate life
flows from the John Gospel, and there is a conviction, a
source of truth of a different nature to that proceeding from
other religious writings. There is a certainty, which needs no
outer confirmation. There is a feeling that comes over one
when one meets the John Gospel if one is sensitive to inner
soul life and spiritual devotion. Only with the help of spiritual
science can one understand why this is so. Many a time have I
told you how spiritual science helps towards a more intimate
connection with religious documents.
You all know that when one first meets the scriptures one
adopts the attitude of a simple person and takes the facts as
they are described, without criticism; one takes the bread of
religious life from these sources and is satisfied with it.
Many people of our day who had this naive outlook and then
became “clever”, became “enlightened”, noticed the
contradictions in the gospels. Then they rejected the gospels
and lost faith. They said: We cannot reconcile remaining
faithful to these writings and seeking wisdom in them with
our conscience and our sense of truth. This is the stage of the
“clever” ones, the second stage.
Then there is the third way that people approach religious
documents. They begin to explain them symbolically. They
begin to see symbols and allegories in them. This is the way of
freethinkers, especially in recent times.
Bruno Wille, the editor of the paper “Der Freidenker” (The
Free Thinker), has now chosen this way. He has taken to
explaining symbolically the Christ myth and the Bible in
general. The really necessary way of development that man
needs, an inner turning point, cannot follow from this. Those
who are less ingenious will explain the scriptures less
ingeniously. Others who are more ingenious will be better.
Much will be read into it that springs from human ingenuity.
The third way is thus a half believing, but arbitrary, attitude.
Then there is quite a different standpoint. One learns that
there are realities pertaining to higher worlds, that besides our
world of the senses, there are soul-spiritual things, and that
religious revelations are not concerned with the sense world
but present facts of a higher world. Those who have gotten to
know the realities of the astral world which lies behind our
sense world, and of the devachanic (or mental world) which
lies even deeper, will come to a new and higher understanding
of religious sources. It is impossible to understand the John
Gospel without rising to such higher worlds. The John Gospel
is not a poetic work, nor a writing arising from mere religious
fervour, but sets forth revelations from higher worlds that the
writer of the gospel has received. It is something like this — I
will briefly describe it. The supporting evidence I will not deal
with today; perhaps I can go into it next time. The writer of
the John Gospel learned, through experience in higher worlds,
what took place at “the beginning of our era“ that related to
the life of the founder of Christianity, and his acts.
Let me give you an example of the difference between just
knowing, and truly comprehending. We have recently
mentioned here that someone can be next to us, we can see
what he looks like, but we need not necessarily really know
him for what he is. I have told the story of the singer who, at
an evening party sat between Mendelsohn and someone else
she did not know. She got on very well with Mendelsohn, but
towards the other guest, though he was very courteous, she
felt an aversion. Afterwards she asked, “Who was that bore on
my left?” The answer was, “It was the famous philosopher
Hegel”. If the lady had been told previously that the great
philosopher Hegel would be present at a party, that alone
would probably have been enough for her to have accepted the
invitation. But because he sat beside her unknown, he was a
bore. This is the difference between seeing and
understanding, between just knowing and comprehending.
He who was the founder of Christianity could not readily be
recognised if one only possessed the ordinary intellect
employed in the sense world. It needed that which the
Christian mystics so often expressed in profound and
beautiful language. This was what Angelus Silesius meant
when he said:
If Christ were born in Bethlehem a thousand times
And not in thee thyself; then art thou lost eternally.
There is an inner experience of Christ — there is the
possibility to realize inwardly what took place outwardly as
events in Palestine between the years 1 and 33 A.D. He who
came into this world from higher worlds must be understood
from a higher world. And he who portrayed Him most deeply
had to raise himself to the two higher worlds we have
mentioned, the astral and the devachanic, or mental worlds.
This elevation of John, if we so name him, was the elevation
into these two higher worlds. His Gospel reveals this to us.
The first twelve chapters contain John's experiences in the
astral world. From chapter thirteen onwards it is his
experiences in the devachanic, or mental world. He who wrote
it down says of Christ (the words are not to be taken literally):
Here on this earth He lived, here has He worked with divine
powers, with occult powers. He has healed the sick, he has
gone through everything from death to resurrection. It is
impossible to understand these things with the ordinary
intellect. Here on earth there is no science or learning by
which one could really understand what occurred. But there is
the possibility of rising to the higher worlds. There one can
find the wisdom to understand Him who walked here on earth
among us. Thus did the writer of the John Gospel rise to the
two higher worlds and become initiated. It was an initiation,
and the writer describes his initiation into the astral world and
the devachanic, or mental world.
In olden times, in regions where man's body was still suited to
these things, such an initiation took place as follows. The
person had to go through a sort of sleep-state. What now takes
several years in a modern European initiation — because the
modern European can no longer go through the process I will
describe — what today is achieved through long exercises of
meditation and concentration, was achieved in a short time by
some individuals, after the appropriate exercises of
meditation and concentration. I particularly emphasise that
anyone who really wishes to receive initiation must, in some
form or other, face the two important experiences about to be
described — though in a somewhat different way. He must go
through a sort of sleep condition. To understand the nature of
sleep, let us remind ourselves what takes place when one
sleeps. One's higher bodies are then separated from one's
lower bodies. Man consists of a physical body, which one can
see with one's eyes. The second member is the etheric body
which surrounds the physical body and which is much finer
than the physical body. Currents and organs of wonderful
variety and splendour are active in it. The etheric body
contains the same organs as the physical body. It has a brain,
heart, eyes etc. They represent the forces which formed the
corresponding organs. It is as if one cooled water in a vessel
until it becomes ice. In this way you should picture the arising
of the physical organs through the densifying of the etheric
organs. The etheric body extends only a little beyond the
physical body.
The third member is the astral body. It is the bearer of desires,
wishes, passions, etc. It permeates the physical body in the
form of a cloud. There are colours — violent passions appear
as lightning flashes. The peculiarities of temperament glide
through the body in glowing points of varying intensity.
The whole inner man is expressed in a luminous form. This is
the real ego of man, the bearer of the higher centre of his
being. In normal sleep the physical and etheric bodies are
lying in bed. They are closely united. The astral body and all
the rest is separated. As long as one does not do anything
particular one is unconscious when the astral body is outside
the physical body. One is as unconscious as one would be in
the physical world without eyes or ears. One could live as long
as one liked in the physical world; if one had no eyes there
would be no colours, if one had no ears there would be no
sound. So it is when the astral body is outside the physical
body. It is spread out in the soul world, but one does not see
this world or become aware of it because one has no astral
sense organs. They must gradually be formed. If a person does
not practice exercises he remains unconscious in higher
worlds. But if he does practice then he can attain
consciousness in these higher worlds. When his astral body
acquires organs he begins to see the astral world around him.
Those of you who have often attended these lectures will know
that there are seven such organs. They are called wheels,
chakrams or lotus flowers. The two-petalled lotus flower lies
between the eyes — between the eye-brows, the sixteen-
petalled lies in the region of the larynx, the twelve-petalled
lies in the heart region. If these organs are gradually
developed one becomes clairvoyant in the astral world.
This astral vision is something quite different from physical
sight. You can get some idea of astral vision if you think of the
flow of dream life. In dreams we have symbolic pictures —
true symbols. One sees symbols. One loses consciousness of
what takes place here in the physical world, but one can
experience in symbolic pictures such events as the life of
Christ Jesus as John describes it from his own experience in
the astral world. Descriptions of this nature form the content
of the first twelve chapters of the John Gospel. Don't
misunderstand me. I know many will say: If all this is astral
experience, then it is nothing real and what is told us of the
founder of Christianity is not authentic. But this is not the
case. It would be as if one denied that a man of flesh and
blood could be a genius, because one cannot see genius.
Although one learns the truth of Christ Jesus only on the
astral plane, it is still a fact that he lived his life on the physical
plane. We are dealing with symbols on the astral plane and
outer reality on the physical plane. Nothing is taken away
from the facts when we understand them more deeply in the
sense of the John Gospel.
Initiation in the astral world is preceded by, and depends on
what is called meditation. This means that the soul sinks into
itself — I have often described it here. To reach a meditative
experience one must make oneself blind and deaf to all sense
impressions. Nothing must be able to disturb one. Cannons
can go off without one being aware of it in one's inner life. One
does not achieve this at once, but through constant practice
one can attain this capacity. One must empty oneself also of
all past experiences. Memory must be wiped out. The soul
must be concerned only with itself and then out of its inner
being there arise the eternal truths which are able — not only
to awaken our understanding — but to release capacities
which lie slumbering under a spell in our souls. These great
eternal verities will rise up in man according to the maturity
he has attained through his karma — the one, as Subba Row
says, in seven incarnations, another in seventy years, another
in seven years, others in seven months, seven days or seven
hours.
John sets forth the means whereby his soul was led to
perception on the astral plane. The formula he used for
meditation stands at the beginning of his gospel. “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the
Word was a God. The same was in the beginning with God. All
things were made by Him, and without this Word was not
anything made that was made. In it was life, and the life was
the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and
the darkness comprehended it not.”
In these five sentences lie the eternal verities which loosed the
spell in John's soul and brought forth the great visions. This is
the form of the meditation. Those for whom the John Gospel
is written should not read it like any other book. The first five
sentences must be taken as a formula of meditation. Then one
follows John on his way, and attempts to experience oneself
what he experienced. This is the way to do it; so it is meant.
John says: Do what I have done. Let the great formula, “In the
beginning was the Word” work in your souls and you will
verify what is said in my first twelve chapters.
This alone can really help towards understanding the John
Gospel. Thus is it intended and thus should it be used. I have
often spoken of what the “Word” signifies. “In the beginning”
is not a good translation. It should really read: Out of the
primal forces emerged the Word. That is what it means: The
Word came forth, came forth out of the primal forces. Thus
“in the beginning” means: coming forth out of the primal
forces.
When man is in this sleep condition he is no longer in the
sense world. He moves into a soul world and in this soul world
experiences what the sense world really is. The truth of the
sense world is revealed. He starts out from these words
derived from the sense world leading back to the primal
forces, and rises up to the words of truth. Every truth has
seven meanings. For the mystic, immersed in contemplation it
has however this meaning: The knowledge, the Word which
emerges, is not something that merely applies to yesterday
and today, but this Word is eternal. This Word leads to God
because it was ever with God, because it is the very essence
that God has planted into all things.
There is however, still another way of understanding this, and
one acquires it if one returns day after day to the momentous
words: “In the beginning was the Word”. When one begins to
understand, not with the intellect, but with the heart, so that
the heart becomes one with these words, then the power
begins to work, and there begins the state of mind of which
John speaks. He says it with great clarity: “All things were
made by Him and without the Word was not anything made
that was made”.
What do we find in this Word? We find life. What do we
perceive through this life — through this light? We must take
these religious texts quite literally if we want to attain higher
knowledge. Where does this light shine? In the darkness of
night. It comes to those who sleep. It comes to everyone who
sleeps. But the darkness comprehended it not — until the
ability develops to perceive it on the astral plane. Thus is the
fifth verse to be understood literally. The astral light shines
into the darkness of night but man does not normally see it, he
must first learn to see.
As all this became reality for the writer of the John Gospel, the
light dawned and he saw who He was, He whose disciple and
apostle he was. Here on earth he had seen Him. Now he had
found Him again on the astral plane, and he knew that He
who had walked the earth in the flesh only differed in one
respect from what lived in his own deepest inner self. In every
single man there lives a divine man. In the distant future this
divine man will arise resurrected in every man. As man stands
before us today he is, in his outward appearance, to a greater
or lesser extent, an expression of the inner divine man, and
this inner divine man works constantly on the outer man.
Last Thursday [Public Lecture, Berlin, 15 Feb, 1906.
“Reincarnation and Karma”] I already pointed out how one
can illustrate this by a simple comparison. Look at a child.
One could be tempted to say that these innocent features
came from the father or mother, an uncle or an ancestor.
However, everything within the child expresses itself in the
features, in the gestures of the hands and in all its movements.
What slumbers in the child strives to come to expression.
Finally the individual emerges and the physiognomy becomes
an expression of the individual soul, while previously it
showed more of a family type. In primitive man the individual
soul is usually still slumbering and has but a meagre
existence. In the course of many incarnations and efforts the
individual emerges, the soul aquires more power over the
physical body, and the physiognomy takes on the imprint, or
the expression of the inner man. An immature person
expresses little of the power of the soul. Gradually man
matures, and full maturity is reached when the inner word has
become flesh completely — when the outer has become an
exact imprint of the inner, so that the spirit shines through the
flesh. This however, John only understood once his higher self
had appeared clearly before his astral eyes. It stood in front of
his astral eyes and he knew: This is I. Today have I
experienced it on the astral plane. However it will gradually
descend as it did in Him, who I followed. This is the deep
relationship between Christ Jesus and the divine man that
exists in every man. This is the deep inner experience of John.
The inner soul lives unconscious in man and he only becomes
aware of it through the processes we have described.
What does it mean to say: something becomes conscious. Can
we become conscious of something which lives within us? As
long as it only lives within us we are not aware of it. Man is
not aware of what he carries within him, what is subjective. I
will use a crude comparison to make clear what I mean. You
all have a physical brain but you cannot see it. It would have
to be taken out, and then you could see it. For the same
reason, though there is a certain difference, you cannot see
your higher self. It is the “I” within you. But it must come out
if you are to see it, and this can only happen on the astral
plane. When it is outside and confronts you, then spiritually, it
is as if you had a physical brain on a platter and made it the
object of your sense perception.
The writer of the John Gospel describes this process. His own
higher ego appears before Him — his own higher ego, which in
its fullness represents the Christ. When you know this you will
be able to understand certain hints and truths in the John
Gospel. You will be able to understand certain things quite
well with the help of what I said up to now. In occult language
one describes what this ego inhabits — the physical body,
which it has built for itself to dwell in — as the temple. Thus
one says: The soul dwells in the temple.
It is not altogether a painless procedure when for the first
time the soul must leave the temple of the body so that it
becomes visible outside of it. This leaving of the body is not
without pain. All that forms this higher connection with the
physical body are bands that are not so easy to loosen.
Imagine that you are bound with fetters and you break loose.
You would experience pain through this tearing apart. It is
like a process of tearing apart when the astral body leaves the
physical body when it leaves it, perceptibly. Leaving the body
in sleep is different, one is not aware of it. If one leaves it
consciously then one experiences pain.
When man begins to develop astral consciousness, things on
the astral plane appear to him as in a mirror. The number 165
should not be read as 165 but as 561 — as reflected writing.
Everything appears reversed on the astral plane. Even time is
reversed. When you follow someone on the astral plane you
start, to begin with, from where he is. Then you go back to his
birth. You can follow him on the physical plane forwards; on
the astral plane backwards. Leaving the physical body is like
this: It is as though we were leaving the temple of the physical
body and were laid hold of from all sides. This is the
occurrence which John wants to describe. He left his body in
order to experience the Christ, his own higher divine self,
confronting him. People around him have their astral bodies
bound strongly to their physical bodies as if with fetters. Had
John remained like them he would have continued to be
fettered to his physical body. Now let us read how this
occurrence is described pictorially and symbolically in the
John Gospel, chapter 8, verses 58 and 59: “Jesus said unto
them, verily, verily I say unto you: Before Abraham was, I am.
Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself,
and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them”,
through the hindrances. With this ends the eighth chapter.
This is the passing out of the astral body from the physical
body. The final act, leading to the leaving of the physical body
and to higher vision, usually lasts three days. When these
three days are up, one attains a consciousness on the astral
plane comparable to that previously experienced on the
physical plane. Then one is united with the higher world.
In occult language this union with the higher world is called
the marriage of the soul with the powers of the higher world.
When one has left the physical body, this appears to one as a
mother would appear to a new-born child, were the child able
to be conscious at birth. Thus the physical body confronts one,
and the astral body can very well say to the physical body:
This is my mother. When one has celebrated this marriage one
can say this. One can look back on the former union. This can
happen after three days. This is the occult procedure on the
astral plane. In chapter 2, verse 1, it is stated: “And the third
day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of
Jesus was there”. This is the pictorial expression for what I
have just said. It happened on the third day.
When a person enters the astral world, he finds himself in a
region from which he can rise a step further into a still higher
world — the mental, or devachanic world. This entry into the
devachanic world can only be gained at the expense of the
complete extinction, the death of the lower nature. He must
go through the three days of death and then be awakened.
Once he has attained vision of the astral plane and the
pictures of the astral plane have confronted him, he is mature
and ready to receive knowledge on the mental or devachanic
plane. It is possible then to describe the awakening on the
devachanic plane. To find oneself on the higher plane with
conscious clarity of thought, this is the awakening of Lazarus.
John describes the awakening of Lazarus. Previously he has
shown that through this chain of events one can enter the
higher worlds. In chapter 10, verse 9, it is said: “I am the door:
by me if any man enter in he shall be saved and shall go in and
out and find pasture”. This is the awakening of what was
wrapped in sleep and is now awakened on the devachanic
plane. John goes through it. John is Lazarus, and John means
nothing more nor less than what is described in his first
twelve chapters. He describes as an astral experience that he
was awakened on the astral plane. Then followed the initiation
for the devachanic plane. Three days he lay in the grave, and
then he received the awakening. The raising of Lazarus is the
awakening of John who wrote the gospel.
Read everything up to the chapter on the raising of Lazarus
and you will find no mention of John anywhere. Consider
Lazarus and John. It is said of John (John, ch. 13, v. 23):
“Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples,
whom Jesus loved.” Regarding Lazarus, you find the same
words — that He loved him. It is the same person. He is not
mentioned previous to the awakening. He appears for the first
time after he is “raised from the dead”. These are the enigmas
hidden in the John Gospel. The disciple whom the Lord loved
is he whom the Lord himself has initiated. The writer of the
John Gospel was he whom the
Lord loved. How was he able to say this? Because he had been
initiated, first on the astral plane and then on the devachanic
plane. If one is able in this way to find the deeper meaning of
the John Gospel, then will one be able to understand it in its
true profundity, and then it becomes one of the greatest texts
ever written. It is the description of the initiation into the
depths of the inner life of the soul. It has been written so that
everyone who reads it can follow the same path. And this one
can do. Sentence for sentence, word for word, one can find
within oneself, by rising to the higher plane, what is described
in the John Gospel. It is not a biography of Christ Jesus but a
biography of the developing human soul. And what is
described is eternal and can take place in the heart of every
human being. This text is an example and a model. Hence it
has this living and awakening power which not only makes
people into Christians but enables them to awaken to a higher
reality. The John Gospel is not a profession of faith, but a text
which really gives strength, and a self-supporting,
independent higher life. This springs forth from the John
Gospel, and he who does not merely want to understand it,
but to live it, has truly comprehended it.
With these few words I could only touch on the contents. Next
time we will go into certain details. Then you will see how
every single sentence confirms what we have said today in
general terms. Step by step you will then see that the John
Gospel is not addressed merely to the human intellect, but to
man's entire soul forces, and that real soul experience springs
from it.
 Second Lecture
26 February, 1906

Last time I spoke about the first twelve chapters of the Gospel
of St. John. We saw that the Lazarus miracle represents the
initiation of a man into the spiritual world. Every sentence of
the John Gospel directs one to the higher world. When we
make it alive in us, we come to know the Christian initiation.
Those who know other forms of occult training and are aware
that there are other paths of initiation, also know that he who
seeks the path today will be led along different ways. These
are known to most of you. Those who have already some
contact with spiritual life know that there is an esoteric side to
our spiritual scientific strivings. The Christian initiation has
similarities with other ways of initiation, but today this path
can no longer be followed. He who would tread it must be led
by the hand of an experienced teacher, but in view of our
modern normal mode of life, it is questionable whether this
path is still open. Let us again call to mind the Lazarus miracle
in connection with the Christian initiation.
We will start from the normal state of sleep. What happens
when a person sleeps? In man we have the physical body,
etheric body, astral body and ego. What happens occultly,
when a person sleeps? The physical and etheric bodies remain
in bed. The astral body, together with the ego, rises out and
floats over them in the form of a ring, in the case of an
undeveloped personality, and later, in the form of the physical
body. The astral body is not inactive. It has something to do.
When the person is awake, the astral body penetrates and
interweaves the physical body. When it is outside, it works on
the physical body, protecting and caring for it. The relation of
the astral body to the physical body, is like that of a workman
to his machine, but with the difference that in this case the
workman is in the machine, he ensouls the various parts, and
makes them move. This resemblance of worker to machine
applies even better when the person lies asleep. The astral
body then works from outside. What does it do? It makes good
the damage suffered by the physical body during the day. So
one can see the disadvantages for people who sleep badly.
Beings belonging to the third elemental kingdom have an
influence on the astral body. Beings belonging to the second
elemental kingdom get at the etheric body and those
belonging to the first elemental kingdom get access to the
physical body to destroy it. Only when the astral body works
on the physical body during sleep are these destructive
processes made good.
Just to know this does not have any influence. When however,
a person begins to work on his spiritual development, he must
also create the necessary conditions for the astral body to
work upon the physical. Meditation influences the work of the
astral body upon the physical and etheric bodies during the
night. Only beneficent beings must be allowed access to the
human being . . . He who seeks initiation must achieve the
utmost calm. This includes the avoidance of all stimulants,
especially alcohol. Other requirements for any higher striving
are control of thought, a morally blameless life, the effort not
to be swayed to and fro by every feeling, be it pain or joy, but
to maintain balance in the soul. This makes it possible for
good beings to be active when the astral body works on the
physical and etheric bodies during sleep.
In the initiation described in the John Gospel, the astral body,
together with the etheric body, leaves the physical body. This
latter remains as though dead. This is what is meant when it is
said that Lazarus lay three days in the grave. The Lazarus
miracle is thus the scene of an initiation. The astral and
etheric bodies need to be led back into the physical body. This
the master brings to pass. The disciple is now an ‘arisen one’
who can remember the experiences in the higher worlds. This
is possible for everyone. However what, in the old days, was a
process lasting three and a half days takes place in a different
manner today. The experience is the same, but it is achieved
by different methods.
The pupil of the Christian initiation has to undergo seven
trials. They were not only physical but spiritual experiences.
Those who had undergone them knew that real experiences
are possible outside of the body. At the first stage the pupil
experiences how man has become what he is. This was
achieved through a train of thought as follows: The plant must
have a mineral soil. Minerals are of lower rank than plants.
But the plant must bow down and say, “To thee oh stone,
though thou art lower than me, I owe my existence, my life”.
The animal is of higher rank than the plant. It breathes oxygen
and exhales carbon dioxide. The plant exhales the oxygen. The
animal must say to the plant, “To thee oh plant, I humbly bow,
for without thee I could not live.” The same relation exists
between the higher ranking human being and the lower
kingdoms. He too must say to them, “If you were not there, I
should not be.” One must completely fill oneself with this
feeling and bow oneself in all humility. Out of deeply felt
experience of gratitude, one must be able to bow down before
what is lower than oneself. This is the washing of feet, the first
stage of a Christian initiation. Christ bows down before the
disciples and washes their feet. What is here experienced,
represents a symbol of the higher world. He who is able to live
spiritually in the higher world, who has achieved this deep
feeling that Lazarus had, he experiences the washing of feet in
the higher world. He who experiences humiliation in the
physical world, goes through the washing of feet in a higher
world. This is the sign that he has reached the first stage on
the way to initiation. In his body, this is expressed by the
feeling that all his muscles are newly strengthened. When the
muscles become steeled after the feeling of humiliation, this
signifies the first stage of initiation.
The second stage of the Christian initiation is the scourging
and smiting. One must learn to bear calmly what formerly
hurt one — to take upon oneself the suffering of the world.
This too finds expression in the higher world. The strength
acquired by the soul is symbolised as scourging and real
blows. Then one day one feels a sort of prickling or stinging all
over the body — a sign that one has stood the test. This is a
real experience that a person goes through when he follows
this path. The great mystics experienced it. Such a person has
reached the second stage.
The third stage is the crowning with thorns. At this stage one
does not only bear pain but also contempt from one's fellow
men. One has to win the fortitude to bear the feeling of
obliteration, when there is no one there to give one courage
and strength except oneself — when one is considered entirely
worthless, and yet one remains inwardly upright. Thus must it
be experienced. This is felt in the spiritual world as the
crowning with thorns. One sees oneself with the crown of
thorns. Pains in the head will be felt in the physical body.
Changes take place in the brain, something that later also
becomes noticable in the waking state.
The fourth stage is the crucifixion. Through this a person
learns to feel his own body as a foreign object, something like
a piece of wood. He no longer connects his ego with his body.
In the spiritual world he sees himself with the cross on his
back. With this the fourth stage is reached. Physically the
stigmata appear. In the case of certain saints this is no myth.
It indicates that they have reached the fourth stage. Such
saints are bearers of the cross.
If a person has got as far as this he comes to the fifth stage.
This is the mystical death. The whole world appears as if
covered with a veil. Everything around has lost its old value.
While a person feels himself thus lost in darkness, suddenly
the veil is rent and he begins to see the ultimate spiritual and
original aim. He gazes into a quite new, world. At the same
time he learns to recognise what lies at the bottom of the
human soul. He becomes a second person by the side of
himself and looks down on his lower self, which is separated
from him. His body is the mother that he sees standing below
him and the transformed lower self is the disciple who bears
witness that Christ lives. Now the higher self can say to the
lower self, “Behold thy mother!” (John, ch. 19, v 27)
When a person has gone through this fifth station he can
progress to the sixth stage, the burial and resurrection.
Everything pertaining to this planet becomes the body of the
Christian mystic. He feels as though the whole earth was part
of him. He has ceased to be a separate being. He is one with
the whole life of the earth. Through burial he is inwardly
bound with it. The grave becomes the source of his experience
— man and animal, plant and rock around him become
transparent. He has lost his own separate life, the higher life
of the whole Earth . . .
The seventh stage is known as the ascension into heaven. It
signifies that he is completely taken up into the spiritual
world.
The John Gospel is a description of this Christian path of
initiation. He who takes it as an account of an external
happening does not understand it. It can only be
comprehended if one has lived through it inwardly. This is
what Angelus Silesius means, when he says:
When thou dost rise above thyself and let God hold his sway:
Then present in thy spirit is the ascension, for ever and for
aye.
*[Angelus Silesius, “The Cherubinic Wanderer”]
As no creature can see the sunlight unless its eyes are opened
so no one can understand the mystery of Golgotha, if they
have not inwardly experienced it. Once one has come to such
an inner experience, one can appreciate why the reckoning of
time is divided into before and after Christ.
Christianity attains its real meaning when it is followed as an
inner path. The John gospel is a document which can be lived
sentence by sentence. If one has lived it, one knows that
external criticism does not apply. All criticism vanishes, and
every doubt disappears, if one knows that what is written is to
be lived through and through. Every line can be lived
inwardly. The Christian spirit has to be experienced in the
depth of the soul. He who saw for himself how everything took
place knows that he speaks the truth and says so. For he is the
risen Lazarus.
 Third Lecture
5th March, 1906

What we have said so far about the Gospel of St. John has
taken us deeply into the essence of Christianity, and has
shown us what profound mystical power lies hidden within
this Christian document. We have seen that it should not be
read like a report of outer events, or an historical account, but
a script engraved by life, so that every sentence re-lived,
transforms something in us.
We have followed the seven stages of spiritual ascent in the
life of St. John. Today we will add something which goes even
deeper. A few examples will show that I have not forced an
arbitrary meaning on the gospel, but that by means of occult
teaching we are able to understand many things that
otherwise would remain dark and unintelligible. First I will
remind you of the seven stages of initiation which existed at
the time of the birth of Christianity.
In the last lecture we came to know the Christian initiation,
but it was not Christianity that first made initiation possible.
At all times, ever since there were men as we know them on
earth, it was possible to become an initiate — to ascend to
higher stages of human existence. Through Christianity all
these things became more inward. Since Christianity has
provided us with such documents as the John Gospel — which
only needs to be allowed to work and live in us — one can
achieve much, and rise to spiritual heights. There were no
such documents in pre-Christian times available. One had to
be introduced into hidden mystery temples, or centres, and
according to the various peoples, the lower stages of initiation
differed. In the higher stages national peculiarities were of no
account, and they were the same for all peoples even in much
older times.
I would like to describe the seven stages of initiation as they
were practised in the Persian Mithras cult. It was a form of
initiation that was cultivated in the whole of Asia Minor, in
Greece and Rome, and even as far as the Danube basin it was
practised far into the Christian era. For a long time it was
possible to go through these stages even in the hidden cultic
centres and temples in Egypt which were often built into the
solid rock. They were only accessible to those who came to
know them as morally advanced pupils and initiates after
strict tests. The first grade was the “Raven”. As a raven the
neophyte carried the knowledge acquired in the outer sense
world into spiritual life. The idea of the raven has lingered in
myths and sagas. There are the Ravens of Wotan, the ravens
of Elijah, and in the German Barbarossa saga ravens are the
intermediaries between the emperor under a spell in the
mountain and the outer world. In the Mithraic mysteries
“Raven” signified a grade of initiation.
The second grade was that of the “Occult One”. This was the
name for someone who had already received some important
occult secrets.
The third grade was that of the “Fighter”. These were initiates
who felt their higher self to the extent that they understood
sayings such as one finds in the second part of “Light on the
Path”. *[“Stand aside in the coming battle, and though thou
fightest, be not thou the warrior.” Light on the Path, Mabel
Collins, Theosophical University Press. Pasadena, California,
1971.] Only an initiate of the third grade can understand such
sayings. This does not mean that the ordinary person cannot
reach a certain comprehension. Everyone has a higher self,
and if one is able to abnegate one's lower self and make it a
servant of the higher self then one can say in a certain sense:
“Though thou fightest thou art not the fighter”. But it is not
until one has reached a particular stage of initiation that one
really knows what this sentence signifies. What one formerly
considered as higher interests become mere subsidiary
interests, mere servants of the fighter.
The fourth grade was achieved when complete inner harmony
and calm, equilibrium and strength are gained. This grade was
called that of the “Lion”. Such an initiate had so developed the
occult life in himself that he could represent the occult not
only with words but with deeds.
Meanwhile the consciousness of a person who has passed
through these four stages of initiation extended further and
further. He identified himself with ever larger groupings of
people. All these names have a hidden meaning. For instance,
the expression, “The Occult One”. What is a human being as
we see him in front of us? He is what is in him. As a Raven an
initiate of the first grade — he tries to overcome what is only
in him. Then his interests become wider. What people around
him are, what they feel and what they will, becomes his own
feeling and his own will. The terms were coined in times when
there were still communities which were kindred enlarged
families. How did one regard such a family? One said they
were members of a soul-family tracing right back to a
common ancestral pair — members of a hidden ego.
An initiate of the second grade, an “Occult One”, had so
ennobled his ego that it became the ego of his community; he
made their interests his own. The occult entity of a human
community was able to live in him. When the ego of such a
human community became the ego of an individual initiate
then this community became his dwelling place. The “Fighter”
fought for the larger community. In ancient Palestine one
designated as a “Lion”, he who had raised himself up to
encompass the consciousness, the ego, of a whole tribe. The
“lion” of the tribe of Judah is the term applied to someone
who had reached such a stage of initiation that he bore within
himself the ego of the whole tribe.
The initiate of the fifth grade had so overcome his personality
that he could take up the folk-soul. The folk-spirit lived in
him. In Persia such an initiate was called a “Persian”. In
Greece one would have called him a “Grecian”, if it had been
the custom. What does this grade signify? For him everything
individual has vanished and his consciousness has become
one with the whole. This constitutes a higher state of
consciousness.
Today it is different. Because of the splitting up of all
communal groups we meet with quite different stages of
initiation. But at the time of the birth of Christianity it still had
a meaning when one spoke of souls initiated to the fifth grade.
You can verify this in the John Gospel. Take the first chapter,
verse 45:
“Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him: We have found
him of whom Moses in the law and the Prophets did write,
Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto
him: Can there any good thing out of Nazareth? Philip saith
unto him: Come and see Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him
and saith of him: Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is
no guile!”
Nathanael is here acknowledged as an initiate of the fifth
grade. This means that he had learned to know what for us
men is the essence of life, the Tree of Life. Earlier in life one
tastes of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One partakes of
the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge the moment one is able to
say “I” to oneself. When the higher, the spiritual, in man
awakens it can happen that God has to protect man. Jehovah
was concerned lest man, after having eaten of the Tree of
Knowledge, should also eat of the Tree of Life before he was
ready for it. The initiate of the fifth grade learns what relieves
this concern and what raises one beyond all death and all that
is transitory. This is the spiritual element.
How can the spiritual element become established in man?
For someone who has penetrated more deeply into Theosophy
it is something which flows through the whole world. For him
whose vision is able to penetrate into higher worlds, all that is,
to begin with, a stage of inner development even on higher
planes, is expressed at first on the astral plane as a picture.
When a person has reached the fifth grade of initiation he
always sees a picture on the astral plane, which formerly he
had not seen — the picture of a tree, a finely branched, white
tree. This picture on the astral plane, which is to be taken as a
symbol of the fifth grade of initiation, is called the Tree of Life.
He who had reached this point is said to have sat under the
Tree of Life. Thus Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree and
Nathanael under the Fig Tree. These are terms for the picture
on the astral plane. What is seen are reflections of inner —
even bodily inner things. The Bodhi Tree is but the astral
mirror image of the human nervous system. He who through
initiation is able to direct his gaze inward, sees his inner life,
even his bodily inner life, projected, reflected into the outer
astral world. So you see what is intended in this chapter of the
John Gospel.
Nathanael is addressed as one who knows. It is implied: We
understand each other. “Jesus said unto him, ‘Before that,
Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw
thee.’”
This means, we are brothers of the fifth grade of initiation. It
is a recognition between initiates. “Nathanael answered and
saith unto him, ‘Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the
King of Israel.’” You see the recognition is complete. Jesus
answered him, and said that it will become apparent that he is
more than an initiate of the fifth grade. He said, “Because I
said unto thee I saw thee under the fig tree, thou believest;
thou shalt see greater things than these.”
I would also like to draw your attention to the conversation
with Nicodemus, which you will find in the third chapter.
There we have the significant words, “Verily, verily I say unto
thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” What does it mean to
be born anew and to see the Kingdom of God? It means to
have awakened the higher self, to be born so that the eternal
core of one's being is awakened. What does it mean to enter
the kingdom of heaven? It means to see not only the reflection
of Devachan here on earth as we see it through our physical
eyes, but to see this realm directly itself. He alone can do this
who has not only been born for this physical world, but is born
a second time.
Take what I have used as a comparison, but one which is more
than a comparison. Take it literally. To be born means to
proceed from an embryo to a stage at which one perceives the
outer world with the senses. If one does not pass through an
embryonic stage one can never be ready to be born. Those
who know this stage also know that ordinary life is an
embryonic stage for the higher life. This leads us deep into the
meaning of ordinary life. It could be quite easy for someone
who directs his gaze towards the spiritual world to become
convinced that there is such a world and that man is a citizen
of it. He could then proceed to disregard the physical world
and to believe that one cannot depart from it quickly enough,
and that one should mortify the flesh, the sooner to reach the
spiritual world. This shows ignorance. It is as senseless as if
one would not allow the human embryo to mature but would
bring it into the world at two months, and expect it to live
there. Likewise for the higher world, one has to develop to
become mature. Such is he who has developed his higher self.
The physical world is the school. He who has developed his
ego here is ready to enter the kingdom of heaven, which
means to be born again. Man has to go through birth and
death ever and again, until he has gained his full maturity in
order to enter the spiritual world itself, so that he no longer
needs physical organs. Thus we have to realise that everything
we do by means of our eyes, ears and other senses is work
done for the higher life.
Certainly, we have, frequently said that man must develop
higher senses, that he must develop the chakrams or holy
wheels, which enable him to enter the spiritual world and see
it. But how does he come to obtain these holy wheels?
Through his work on the physical plane. Here is the place of
preparation. Our work here prepares the organs for a higher
world. As the human being is prepared in the mother's body,
so in the body of the great world mother — where we are while
leading our physical life — is prepared what is necessary to
make it possible for us to see and act in higher worlds. One is
perfectly justified to speak of a higher world and to value it
higher than our lower world, but we should only use these
terms in a technical sense. All worlds are, basically, equally
valid expressions of the highest principle, in different forms.
We should not despise any world. In this way we learn to
relate ourselves rightly towards both the lower and the higher
worlds. This is the requirement for entering into the third
chapter of the John Gospel.
It must be understood that Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of a
genuine rebirth, and that, above all, he wishes to remind him
that looked at in this way, the ordinary, everyday life must be
reborn as a higher life and recognised as such. He who reads
this chapter really carefully will see that this is what is meant.
Many circles lay it against Theosophy that it teaches
reincarnation — the gradual maturing of humanity through
rebirth and repeated earth lives. It is said that Christianity
knows nothing of this teaching of reincarnation. But actually
in the John Gospel there is a clear indication that when he
spoke intimately with his disciples, Jesus taught
reincarnation. For instance, one can only make sense of the
ninth chapter (the healing on the Sabbath of the man born
blind) if one bases it on the idea of reincarnation. One must
remember that he spoke in the language current at that time.
In Greece it was then usual to speak of the power that
permeates man's innermost being and leads it forward. For
the Greeks and all other peoples of that time, the power that
made man into man and caused him to develop was God. An
outer God, a God in the next world, was unknown in those
days. Therefore one called what lived in man, the God in man.
Thus if one spoke of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob, it was the higher self that was meant.
One can only understand the Old Testament if one appreciates
this conception of God. Jesus too speaks of the God living in
man when talking intimately to his disciples: “His disciples
asked him, saying, ‘Master, who did sin, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither
hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of
God should be made manifest in him.’”
These three sentences speak clearly enough. Neither had he
sinned in his physical body, nor had his parents; therefore the
Jewish law that God will visit the sins of the fathers upon the
children unto so and so many generations does not hold good.
But the works of God in man shall be made manifest, i.e. the
self in man that passes through all his incarnations. These
words which Jesus spoke to his disciples could not be clearer.
You know the orthodox explanation. Think, if someone meant
what is supposed to be said here: The glory of God should be
made manifest in a blind person. This presumes that it was
arranged that someone should be blind so that Jesus could
heal him and the glory of God be made manifest. Can this be
reconciled with true Christianity? No. Christianity would be
morally degraded. Interpreted theosophically, this image
carries a truly beautiful and noble meaning.
It was always so when Jesus spoke intimately with his
disciples. That it was so, is especially revealed in the scene
known as the transfiguration. It is, however, not in the John
Gospel. We find it in the seventeenth chapter of St. Matthew
and in the ninth chapter of St. Mark. In St. John it is not to be
found. The only reference that could have any relation to it is
the passage in the twelfth chapter, verse 28: “‘Father glorify
thy name.’ Then came there a voice from heaven saying, ‘I
have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’” And further in
verse 31: “‘Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth will draw all men unto me.’ Thus he said, signifying
what death he should die. The people answered him, ‘We have
heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever, and how
sayest thou: the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son
of Man?’ Then Jesus said unto them, ‘Yet a little while is the
light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness
come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not
whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that
ye may be the children of light.’”
We find the transfiguration scene in all the evangelists except
St. John. This is significant. Let us clarify the meaning of this
scene. What takes place? Jesus goes with three disciples Peter,
James and John — up a mountain: this means into the inner
sanctuary where one is initiated into higher worlds and where
one also speaks in occult language. Then it is said: the master
took his disciples up into a mountain — it means that he went
to that place where he expounded the parable to them. The
disciples were carried up into a higher state of consciousness.
They saw then that which is not transitory but eternal. Moses
and Elias appear and Jesus himself with them. What does this
mean? In occult science the word Elias means the same as El
— the goal, the way. Moses is the spiritual scientific word for
truth. By the fact that Elias, Moses and Jesus appear you have
the fundamental Christian truth: I am the Way, the Truth and
the Life. Jesus himself says — this is a fundamental Christian
mystical truth — “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
(John, ch. 14, v. 6)
The important thing is that here the eternal is shown as
against the temporal, and the disciples see into a world which
lies beyond this world. Afterwards they said to the master, “All
this should only have come to pass once Elias has come
again.” Thus they spoke to him as though reincarnation was
taken as a matter of course, as also in many other passages in
the gospels. John asked, “Art thou Elias come again?” Then
answered the master, “Elias is indeed come again — John the
Baptist is Elias. But the people did not recognise him. Say it
unto no man until I come again.” Here we have the general,
religious, profound truth of reincarnation uttered in the
intimate conversation between the master and his disciples.
At the same time it is set down as a testament: “Say it unto no
man until I come again.” This coming again refers to a much
later time, the time when all men will recognise Christ
through their higher comprehension. When this comes about
then will He reappear to them.
Thus time is being prepared through the theosophical world
conception. Christ will reappear in the world. The doctrine of
reincarnation and karma as a generally accepted idea was to
be laid aside until this time. At that time people should know
nothing of reincarnation and karma, so that they were obliged
to take the life between birth and death as something of
particular value and importance. Humanity had to pass
through all stages of life experience. Up to the time of Christ,
reincarnation was generally accepted. Life between birth and
death was only a passing episode. But then man had to learn
to take life on earth as something important. An extreme form
of this teaching was the dogma of eternal punishment and
eternal reward. This is an extreme form. What mattered was
that each human individuality, each “God-man”, should pass
through one incarnation in which he knew nothing of
reincarnation and karma and in which he appreciated the vital
importance of life between birth and death.
If you read theosophical books you will find that the time
between the two incarnations is fifteen to eighteen hundred
years. This is about the same length of time as between the
birth of Christ, and the present day. Those living then, appear
again today. Because of this they are able again to accept the
new teaching. Therefore, the theosophical outlook was really
prepared on Mount Tabor by Christ Jesus. If we look at world
history in broad lines, we should not think that we are dealing
either with truth or with error which we can censure. It is not
a question of absolute truth or error, but of what is right for
man at any given time. If I sat here with a group of boys no
more than ten years old, and set about teaching them higher
mathematics, I would be teaching them truth and yet it would
be folly. I must give a person what he needs, at any given stage
of his development. It is not right for us today to say in
retrospect, that the Christian teaching contained errors. No.
In order to master the physical plane, one had to take this one
life seriously. Certainly, the priestly sages of Chaldea taught
great spiritual truths. They brought down a vast knowledge of
the spiritual world, but they used the most primitive tools, and
did not know how to use the forces of nature in everyday life.
The physical plane had first to be mastered. To do this, man's
whole life of feeling must be directed towards it. Christianity
had to prepare mankind to master the physical world. This
was decreed, it is the testament from Mount Tabor. What lies
behind this declaration is something wonderful.
If one penetrates deeper, one will find more and more. If we
want to understand religious documents which came down to
us from times which had true knowledge of spiritual life and
not a materialistic way of thinking, we must realise that the
mode of thought was so different, that if one spoke of man,
one spoke in a completely different way.
Now I must tell you something which though easy to
understand intellectually, is difficult for the man of today to
grasp with his whole soul. The time when the gospels were
written was the dawn of Christianity. One used names then in
a way which I will now explain. One did not look to the outer
physical man, but one saw something higher, the spiritual,
shining through it. A name was not used as it is today, it had a
significance. Suppose someone was called James (Jacobus).
James really means water. Water is the spiritual scientific
term for the soul element. If I call somebody James, I say that
his soul shines through his body. With this, I signify that he
belongs to the watery element. If I give the name James to an
initiate, he is to me the symbol for water (Hebrew — Jam).
James is nothing but the technical name for an initiate who
especially governs the force of water in its occult sense.
Thus were the three disciples who were taken up to Mount
Tabor called by their initiate names: James means water,
Peter stands for earth, or rock (Hebrew — Jabascha), John
signifies air (Ruach). Thus, John means he who has attained
the higher self. This leads us deep into the secret doctrines.
Transport yourself back into the time when man only
possessed the lower principles — the third Root Race, the
Lemurian epoch. Mankind did not then breath air, he
breathed through gills. Lungs and breathing through lungs
developed later. This process coincided with the impregnation
by the higher self. Air is, according to the hermetic principle,
the lower which represents the higher — the higher self. If I
call somebody John (Johannes), then he is one who has
awakened his higher self, who governs the occult forces of air.
Jesus is the one who governs the occult forces of fire (Nur).
Thus you have in these four names, the representatives of
earth, water, air and fire. They are the names of the four who
ascended Mount Tabor.
Jam — James
Nur Ruach
Jesus Johannes
Jabascha — Petrus
Think of these four together on the Mount of Transfiguration.
There you have at the same time, the initiates who govern the
four elements: fire, water, air and earth. What happened? It
was made manifest spiritually that through the appearance of
Jesus, the whole power of the elements was renewed in such a
way that the life pulsing through the elements passed through
a new, important phase of its development. This is the
transfiguration seen occultly. If somebody goes through the
transfiguration in this manner, if he has within himself the
stages of water, earth and air, and even rises to the forces of
fire, then he is a reawakened one, someone who has gone
through the crucifixion. Thus, in the case of the other
evangelists, this scene is but a preparation for the deeper
initiation scene of the crucifixion itself. In the John Gospel,
everything is already prepared. The preparatory scene does
not appear, only the death on the Mount of Golgotha. Jam,
Nur, Ruach, Jabascha — INRI — this is the meaning of the
words on the cross.
One can go deeper and deeper into the religious texts and
never finish learning. Sometimes when one hears an
explanation like this it sounds forced. But every step that leads
you deeper will furnish evidence that it is not forced.
Superficial explanations seek to avoid the “depths” purposely.
But there are depths in these writings. Those who know
something can always say to themselves: probably there is
much more in it, I have still much to learn. This is the attitude
of reverence that we can bring to religious texts.
This reverence is of the utmost importance, for it will become
strength in us drawn from the depths. There is one important
sentence that I can only touch on. In chapter 19, verse 33,we
find: “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead
already they brake not his legs . . . ” and in verse 36, “For these
things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone
of him shall not be broken.” You know that this reminds one
of a passage in one of the books of Moses (Exodus 12.46).
Rightly understood, it has a deep meaning. It is deeply
symbolical, but I can only touch on it.
If you look around the world you will have to admit that man
as he is now incarnated in the flesh has no power over life, nor
over what stands, above life. He is only master of the lifeless
inorganic forces. Man cannot oblige a plant to grow, or to
grow faster. He would have to acquire occult power, to do so.
Far less is he able to master what is higher than life forces.
What he is able to control is the lifeless outer world. There, he
exerts his mastery in everyday work over the materials with
which nature provides him. He creates works of art, pictures
of the Almighty, but he cannot breathe life into them. He can
only copy life. He cannot awaken an intimation of life in the
lifeless, even in the most sublime Christian works of art. This
is so because man has enfolded his astral and etheric forces in
the solid, dense physical body. Thus he came to have this
relation to the outer world — to be master only of the lifeless.
The higher forces which are not tied to the physical must be
awakened, and then man will again be able to master life. As it
is, he can only control physical forces, and not life itself.
This is connected with the fact that the human body which
was once soft and pliable has now become more and more
solid. If you go back in evolution you will see that man has
changed very much. In Lemurian times he had no skeleton.
This was formed later. The bones were the last things to
appear in the human organism. He will have them until he has
spiritualised himself again, until he has awakened again his
inner forces and learned the lesson which he can only learn in
this dense body with its hard skeleton. Christ Jesus is that
spirit whose cosmic mission it was to be incarnated in just
such a body in order to show man the way out of this world
into a higher world. He is the leader and guide into the higher
world. That which has to find its way into the higher world is
symbolised by the solid human skeleton. As long as man had
not reached the stage of having a hard skeleton, he did not
need a Messiah. But for this present epoch he needs the
Messiah, the Redeemer.
Thus it is evident that the forces in Jesus which are connected
with the higher world do not concern present day humanity.
We can express it by calling the skeleton the exterior; water,
the etheric body; blood, the astral body; and then the spirit.
*[First Epistle of John, ch. 5, v. 8, (literally) “And there are
three that bear witness: the spirit and the water and the
blood.”] Therefore blood and water can flow from the body of
Christ. These are of no import for the present cycle of human
development. On the other hand, that which supports the
whole, which leads man upwards to the throne of the Eternal,
what he needs in order to learn the lesson, that must be kept
uninjured. This is the skeleton, the symbol for the lifeless in
nature. Through this skeleton, Christ is connected with the
present cycle of man's development. This is what must be kept
intact until such time as man shall have reached higher stages.
We can follow this back to the corresponding passages in the
Books of Moses. But this can be done some other time.
Today I wanted to add something which will have shown you
that the John Gospel is inexhaustible, and how full it is of
strength and life. As we take it in and absorb it, it gives us
strength and life. This is why this gospel is the leading
scripture for those who wish to penetrate deeper and deeper
into theosophical Christianity. If theosophy is to work for
Christianity it is from this, above all, that it must start. But
clearly, if I were to explain the John Gospel in its entirety to
you, I should have to take the whole winter. I should have to
take it sentence by sentence and then you would see how deep
are the words ascribed to John, i.e. to him whose very name
indicates that he is a herald of the higher self. He is the
representative of air, and master of the higher forces, who,
from the perception of the higher self, wrote his Gospel
according to St. John.
It would be futile and in vain, to attempt to fathom, or criticise
this gospel with the powers of the ordinary intellect. In our
time the intellect has achieved great things, but the John
Gospel is not written for the intellect. Only he who has
overcome the intellect and is able to lead it to the heights of
spirit power as John did, can understand his gospel.
Theosophy would be quite wrong to undertake an intellectual
critique of this John Gospel. Instead, it should immerse itself
in it, in order to understand it. Then we should see that a new
spirit of Christianity — not only the spirit of the past, but a
future Christianity, can proceed from the John Gospel. We
will become aware of the deep truth of one of the most
beautiful and profound sayings of Christ. Out of his mouth we
are told that Christianity is not something that has merely
lived in the past, but that the same power still lives today.
True it is what Christ said: I am with you always, even unto
the end of time.
Notes

1 Bruno Wille, 1860 — 1928, founded the Giordano Bruno

Bund in 1900. see Rudolf Steiner, The Course of My Life,
Rudolf Steiner Publications, New York, 1977
2 Subba Row, 186S — 1890. His contributions to the
periodical “Theosophist” were published under the title,
“Esoteric Writing”, 2nd Edition Madras 1931.
3 Elemental Beings. See “The Influence of Spiritual
Beings in Man” Lectures 1, 10 and 12(6 Jan, 1 May, 11 June,
1908) Anthroposophic Press, New York, 1961. “The
Apocalypse”, lectures 2, 3, and 10 (19,20,28 June 1908)
Anthroposophical Publ. Co, London, 1958 “Spiritual
Heirarchies and their Reflection in the Physical World”.
lectures 2 and 3 (12,13 April, 1909) Anthroposophic Press,
New York, 1977. “Chance, Necessity and Providence”, lecture 5
(30 August, 1915), Anthroposophic News Sheet, 1939, No.s 5-
8.