[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
animals, plants, and minerals in connection with man, when he recognized the healing
forces. The Egyptian priests were men to whom the physicians of today could not hold a
candle. The men of today cannot penetrate into these heights of the spiritual world. Only
through the science of the spirit can an idea be formed of what the ancient Chaldean-
Egyptian initiates saw. For example, what we are offered today by way of interpretation
of the inscriptions, in which deep mysteries are contained, is only a caricature of the
ancient significance. Thus we find that in ancient times man had little power over the
tools and equipment for labor on the physical plane, but he had enormous forces in
relation to the spiritual world.
Man is descending ever more deeply into matter, and more and more he devotes his
spiritual powers to conquering the physical plane. Can we not say that the human spirit is
becoming the slave of the physical plane? In a certain way man descends even below the
physical plane. Man has devoted enormous spiritual force to inventing the steamship, the
railway, and the telephone, but what does he use these for? What a mass of spirit is thus
diverted from life for the higher worlds. The spiritual scientist understands this and does
not criticize in our time, because he knows that it was necessary to conquer the physical
plane. Yet it is true that the spirit has plunged down into the physical world. Is it
important for the spirit that, instead of grinding our own corn in a quern, we should be
able to call Hamburg by long-distance telephone and order what we want to be sent from
America by steamer? Great spiritual force has been applied to building up such
connections with America and many other foreign lands, but we may ask whether the aim
of all this is not the satisfaction of the material life, of our bodily needs. Since everything
in the world is limited, there is not much spiritual force left over whereby man may
ascend to the spiritual world after he has devoted so much to the material. The spirit has
become the slave of matter. The Greek incorporated the spirit in his works of art, but
today the spirit has descended very far. We have proof of this in the many technical and
mechanical arrangements of our industry, which serve only material needs. Now let us
ask whether this process is completed and whether man has descended too far.
This would have been the case were it not for the occurrence that we discussed in the
preceding lectures. At the low point of human evolution something was infused into
mankind, through the Christ-impulse, that gave the stimulus to a new ascent. The entry of
the Christ-impulse into human evolution forms the other side of culture thereafter. It
showed the way to the overcoming of matter. It brought the force through which death
can be overcome. Thereby it offered to humanity the possibility of again raising itself
above the level of the physical plane. This mightiest impulse had to be given, this
impulse which became so efficacious that matter could be overcome in the magnificent
83
way that is described in the Gospel of John, in the Baptism in Jordan and the Mystery of
Golgotha.
Christ Jesus, who was foretold by the prophets, gave the most powerful impulse of all
human evolution. Man had to separate himself from the spiritual worlds in order to attach
himself to them again with the Christ-being. But we cannot yet understand this if we do
not penetrate still more deeply into the connections of human evolution as a whole.
We must point out that what we call the advent of the Christ on earth is an event that
could occur only at the low point, when man had sunk so far. The Greco-Latin period
stands in the middle of the seven post-Atlantean epochs. No other period would have
been the right one. When man became a personality, God also had to become a
personality in order to save him, to give him the possibility of rising again. We have seen
that in his Roman citizenship the Roman first became conscious of his personality.
Earlier, man still lived in the heights of the spiritual world; now he had descended
entirely to the physical plane, and now he had to be led upward again through God
himself. We must go more deeply into the third, the fifth, and the intermediate period.
We shall not study Egyptian mythology in an academic way, but we must pick out the
characteristic points in order to get deeper into the feeling-life of the ancient Egyptians. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl ocenkijessi.opx.pl
animals, plants, and minerals in connection with man, when he recognized the healing
forces. The Egyptian priests were men to whom the physicians of today could not hold a
candle. The men of today cannot penetrate into these heights of the spiritual world. Only
through the science of the spirit can an idea be formed of what the ancient Chaldean-
Egyptian initiates saw. For example, what we are offered today by way of interpretation
of the inscriptions, in which deep mysteries are contained, is only a caricature of the
ancient significance. Thus we find that in ancient times man had little power over the
tools and equipment for labor on the physical plane, but he had enormous forces in
relation to the spiritual world.
Man is descending ever more deeply into matter, and more and more he devotes his
spiritual powers to conquering the physical plane. Can we not say that the human spirit is
becoming the slave of the physical plane? In a certain way man descends even below the
physical plane. Man has devoted enormous spiritual force to inventing the steamship, the
railway, and the telephone, but what does he use these for? What a mass of spirit is thus
diverted from life for the higher worlds. The spiritual scientist understands this and does
not criticize in our time, because he knows that it was necessary to conquer the physical
plane. Yet it is true that the spirit has plunged down into the physical world. Is it
important for the spirit that, instead of grinding our own corn in a quern, we should be
able to call Hamburg by long-distance telephone and order what we want to be sent from
America by steamer? Great spiritual force has been applied to building up such
connections with America and many other foreign lands, but we may ask whether the aim
of all this is not the satisfaction of the material life, of our bodily needs. Since everything
in the world is limited, there is not much spiritual force left over whereby man may
ascend to the spiritual world after he has devoted so much to the material. The spirit has
become the slave of matter. The Greek incorporated the spirit in his works of art, but
today the spirit has descended very far. We have proof of this in the many technical and
mechanical arrangements of our industry, which serve only material needs. Now let us
ask whether this process is completed and whether man has descended too far.
This would have been the case were it not for the occurrence that we discussed in the
preceding lectures. At the low point of human evolution something was infused into
mankind, through the Christ-impulse, that gave the stimulus to a new ascent. The entry of
the Christ-impulse into human evolution forms the other side of culture thereafter. It
showed the way to the overcoming of matter. It brought the force through which death
can be overcome. Thereby it offered to humanity the possibility of again raising itself
above the level of the physical plane. This mightiest impulse had to be given, this
impulse which became so efficacious that matter could be overcome in the magnificent
83
way that is described in the Gospel of John, in the Baptism in Jordan and the Mystery of
Golgotha.
Christ Jesus, who was foretold by the prophets, gave the most powerful impulse of all
human evolution. Man had to separate himself from the spiritual worlds in order to attach
himself to them again with the Christ-being. But we cannot yet understand this if we do
not penetrate still more deeply into the connections of human evolution as a whole.
We must point out that what we call the advent of the Christ on earth is an event that
could occur only at the low point, when man had sunk so far. The Greco-Latin period
stands in the middle of the seven post-Atlantean epochs. No other period would have
been the right one. When man became a personality, God also had to become a
personality in order to save him, to give him the possibility of rising again. We have seen
that in his Roman citizenship the Roman first became conscious of his personality.
Earlier, man still lived in the heights of the spiritual world; now he had descended
entirely to the physical plane, and now he had to be led upward again through God
himself. We must go more deeply into the third, the fifth, and the intermediate period.
We shall not study Egyptian mythology in an academic way, but we must pick out the
characteristic points in order to get deeper into the feeling-life of the ancient Egyptians. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]