Preliminary stages to the Mystery of Golgotha

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Approaching the Mystery of Golgotha (Lit.:GA 152), we find three preliminary stages of the Mystery of Golgotha that the Christ went through before descending to earthly existence with the baptism in the Jordan. Man had been driven into the Fall of Man by a spiritual being that far surpassed man, by Lucifer, and only a superhuman deed could make up for its consequences. Therefore, the Christ decided to leave his solar home and connect with the earth through a human being. But this had to be prepared step by step.

Christ and the Nathanian Jesus Boy

Not the whole human being had suffered the fall into the depths of the earth, but a part of the divine human being, the sister soul of Adam, had been retained in the spiritual worlds and lived here as an archangel-like or angel-like spiritual being, which, however, kept close contact with earthly humanity, with which it had been connected since the time of the Old Saturn. It was only much later that this being was to incarnate on earth for the very first time as the Nathanian Jesus boy.

„This being, which worked in the Nathanian Jesus boy, had for the first time entered into a physical embodiment in the Jesus of Bethlehem. Before that it had taken part in the development of humanity from the spiritual world, but had never lived in a physical human body. It had lived through the times when the human shells were created, through the Saturnian period when the germ of the physical body was formed, through the solar and lunar periods when the etheric and astral bodies were formed, and through the smaller stages which repeated the great periods of time. But when the human I, in Lemurian times, descended into the three sheaths, this being, as it were, remained in the spiritual worlds as a part of the divine human being and did not take part in the development of the I in the three sheaths and its temptation by the Luciferic-Ahrimanic influence. This part of the divine human being, this spiritual being, which had held itself back in the spiritual worlds, descended for the first time into a physical body as the Nathanian Jesus boy, in order to be illuminated by the Christ. The baptism of John represents the penetration of Jesus by the Christ-Spirit.

But this was not the first time that he allowed himself to be penetrated by the Christ. While he lived as a spiritual being in the spiritual worlds, he had already been able to let himself be penetrated repeatedly by the Spirit of the Sun. Preparatory to the Christ-event in the physical body, similar things had previously taken place in spiritual worlds and had had an effect on human development.“ (Lit.:GA 152, p. 93f)

„That is the essential thing about the Mystery of Golgotha, that this Jesus Being, which grew up as the Nathanian boy, was permeated by the Christ Being. But this later Nathanian Jesus being was also present in the three earlier events, only it was not incarnated as a physical human being. It lived as a spiritual, archangel-like entity in the spiritual worlds. And in the spiritual worlds, as in preliminary stages of the Mystery of Golgotha during the Lemurian time and twice during the Atlantean time, it has been permeated by the Christ Being.“ (Lit.:GA 152, p. 102)

„This I thus had very special peculiarities; it had the peculiarity that it was untouched by anything that a human I had ever been able to learn on earth. It was also untouched by all Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences; it was something that we can imagine as an empty sphere in comparison with the other I's of human beings, actually only as something that was still completely virginal in relation to all earthly experiences, a nothing, a negative in relation to all earthly experiences. Therefore, it looked as if that Nathanian Jesus boy, whom the Gospel of Luke describes, had no human I at all, as if he consisted only of physical body, etheric body and astral body. And it is quite sufficient to say first of all: such a developed I as had developed through the Atlantean and post-Atlantean times is not at all present in the Jesus boy of Luke. We speak in the right sense of the word when we say that in the case of the boy of Matthew we have to do with a fully developed human being; in the case of the Nathanian Jesus boy of Luke's Gospel we have to do with a physical body, etheric body and astral body which are so arranged that they harmoniously represent the human being as he came over as the result of the development of Saturn, Sun and Moon. Therefore, as the Akasha Chronicle teaches, this Jesus boy was not gifted for everything that human culture had developed; he could not absorb it because he had never been there.“ (Lit.:GA 131, p. 179f)

The first Christ sacrifice

In the meantime, the 12 cosmic forces that regulate the sensory activity were threatened by the Luciferic influence to become more and more disordered. Monstrous desires joined the sensual activity, of which the 12 senses of the physical body are the tools, which threatened to awaken to ever greater intensity. The red colour, for example, would have been felt as an oppressive stabbing pain, the blue colour as a painful being sucked out. Then the call of tormented humanity penetrated to that spiritual being and drove it towards the Sun-Spirit, so that it was allowed to let itself be penetrated by the Christ. The human form straightened up and was thereby lifted out of the horizontal plane in which the astral desiring forces work. Thus the strength of the sensual activity was softened and harmonised. This happened in the Lemurian period.

„Let us remember what is shown in "Occult Science", how from Lemurian times onwards, with the exception of the one main pair of humanity, the souls gradually descend from the other planets and embody themselves in human bodies through the Atlantean period. So we have to think of the development of the earth in such a way that the souls move in from the cosmic surroundings of the earth and begin their renewed earthly development at different points in time, so to speak. We know that before the Lemurian period the souls had, so to speak, withdrawn to the planets. But we also know that this earthly development of the earth, into which the human souls had to enter, was exposed to the temptations of Lucifer and later of Ahriman. Thus the human souls were induced to enter into bodies within which they were exposed to the temptations of these two spiritual beings in the course of their earthly evolution. If nothing more than this had happened, that the human souls had come down again from their planetary existence into earth evolution and had then been exposed to the Luciferic-Ahrimanic influences, then something would have happened to these human beings on earth, as they pass through their incarnations, which I have not yet indicated in the "Occult Science". However, not everything can be said publicly at the present time. For at first, as these men came down from the planets and had to enter physical bodies, they would have been exposed to a certain danger to the development of the senses.“ (Lit.:GA 149, p. 46f)

„Let us look back to the Lemurian time, when man united with his shells, and see how the human being would have been formed at that time, if only the forces from the cosmos had acted upon man, with which he was in connection at that time. At that time there was a threat that the twelve cosmic forces which had an effect on man would become disordered through demonic beings. As a result, man would have had to develop in a completely different way than he has become today. The senses of man, which developed at that time, would have become over-sensitive under the influence of the forces that wanted to get into disorder. Today man is able to receive the sensation of light, all perception, with serenity. Under the effect of the luciferic-ahrimanic influence, the sensual life would have had to release the strongest desires and impulses. If, for example, man had seen a red colour - and the rays of the sun should have had this effect above all - the desiring soul would have had to flee in burning pain, and on perceiving blue it would have had to overcome itself in torment, consuming itself. The soul would have had to suffer terribly at every sensation, chased by animal lust and desire to searing pain and agony.

Then the cry of pain of tormented humanity went up to that spiritual being. It drove it towards the Sun-Spirit, so that it was allowed to let itself be penetrated by the Christ. This softened the inner strength of the senses, and the being repelled the strongest temptation of Lucifer and Ahriman. By softening the too strong effect of the forces on the senses, it transformed the life of perception into a moderate passive one.“ (Lit.:GA 152, p. 94)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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