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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture III 20 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

The civilization of which we are now speaking was directly under the influence of the Atlantean flood, or the great glacial epoch, as it is called in modern science.
They investigated the courses of the stars, they understood the laws of the position and the orbits of the stars and the influence of their aspects upon what took place below on the earth.
In the future it will rise to a transcendent glory, because only then will humanity understand the Gospels. When these are fully understood it will be seen what an enormous amount of spiritual life they contain.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture IV 21 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

In this universal destructive element there will be everywhere individuals who lift themselves above the rest of warring humanity, individuals who have understood the spiritual life and who will form the foundation for a new and different world in the sixth epoch.
Now that most advanced part of the Atlantean population was under the guidance of a great leader of humanity and eventually settled down as a very small tribe of chosen individuals in Central Asia.
And now what they have become can no longer be symbolized by the horse. A new symbol must appear for those who have understood to follow the call of him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. They now appear under the symbol of those who are clothed in white garments, who have put on the robes of the immortal, eternal, spiritual life.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture V 22 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

Thus upon the Moon too we have seven grades of beings who had passed through their human stage when the Moon had finished its evolution. Now in order to understand the ancient Moon fully, we must mention something of importance which took place in the course of the old Moon evolution.
They could look down upon the evolving human being and say, “He is now becoming something which we have already been, something which we can understand; although we passed through the stage under different circumstances.” For this reason they could guide and regulate his evolution from the spiritual world. Let us enumerate how many of these beings there are who are able to look back at the human stage, who are able to under-stand evolving man. Seven from the Saturn evolution, plus seven from the Sun, plus seven from the Moon stage, plus three from the Earth; twenty-four beings in all.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture VI 23 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

There came a period in the earth's evolution when not only the substance, but all beings, underwent a coarsening. For example, the beings who later became man, who at that time were very soft and delicate, underwent a coarsening through taking on horrible instincts.
So also the letter is the body of the spirit, and we must first have and understand it, then we may say that we can find the spirit in it. The letter, the understood letter, must then die so that the spirit may be resurrected from it.
And man walks upon the earth-body, he treads this body underfoot. All can be understood literally if only we are able first of all to comprehend the text in the right way.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture VII 24 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

Humanity will ascend to the point where the understanding dawns of what this event signified, so that for a large part of humanity this Christ impulse becomes the innermost impulse of their being, from which they work in life.
This saying, “Christus verus Luciferus,” was later no longer understood. He alone who rightly understands it learns to know the first teachings of Christianity. We have therefore to comprehend this impulse in this way; we have to see how humanity was prepared for the standpoint it had to attain.
But if you understand such a book as Tolstoi's Concerning Life, you will often find condensed into ten lines what, in these Western European libraries, it takes thirty volumes to say.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture VIII 25 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

Everything which causes a man to strive to lose his “I” and dissolve it into a universal consciousness, is the result of weakness. He alone understands the “I” who knows that after he has gained it in the course of cosmic evolution it cannot be lost; and above all man must strive for the strength (if he understands the mission of the world) to make this “I” more and more inward, more and more divine.
Although at the present day this principle of Manes has had to step very much into the background because there is little understanding for spiritual work, this wonderful and lofty Manichaean principle will win more and more pupils the nearer we approach the understanding of spiritual life.
We must take it up thoroughly, not merely with the understanding; we must take it into our innermost being, just as one takes nourishment into the physical body.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture IX 26 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

We shall now occupy ourselves with what can develop out of man. We shall best understand this if we have the patience again to consider what man has become and what possibilities of development lie within him for the future.
All these ancient names point to important secrets. But when we are aware of this we shall understand that before the visible man appeared on the earth, the latter already contained within it all the forces of this visible man.
We see foreshadowed how men bring with them the fruits of their earth existence. And now we must clearly under-stand that all that was there before reappears in this spiritual condition on the earth, in a higher state of evolution.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture X 27 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

What can man comprehend to-day? That is the point. He can to-day understand only the mineral kingdom. As soon as the comes to the vegetable kingdom he no longer understands it, the mineral kingdom he can understand.
Man will then have risen into the plant kingdom when he understands the plant nature as he now understands the mineral. He will have risen to the animal kingdom when he understands feelings in such a way that he can make a sensitive being through his own spirit-power, just as he now makes as external object.
It is no longer there, man has assumed human shape. We must now understand an important event which then took place when man assumed human form, for without this under-standing one cannot comprehend the Apocalypse of John; it was an event of the greatest importance.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture XI 29 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

This does not exactly agree with the statement that we are actually in the middle.” Underlying this there is a remarkable fact, you may understand it by a comparison. If you comprehend this clearly, you will see that it is an important fact.
For wisdom is contained in it. “Let him who hath understanding consider the number 666.” And now we will read it. We read it in this way, from right to left.
Although to-day you may have to make efforts to understand this passage, you must not forget that it is necessary to make efforts to understand the deepest mysteries.
104. The Apocalypse of St. John: Lecture XII 30 Jun 1908, Nuremberg
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

Christ becomes the Earth-spirit more and more, and the true Christian understands the words, “He who eats my bread treads me underfoot”; he considers the body of the earth as the body of Christ.
The death of an ordinary condemned person! It was only possible to understand what took place on Golgotha where the contents of the Mysteries were known. The Initiators could say, You can understand the one whom we have shown you during the three and a half days, whom the prophets announced to you, if you use the means which the Mysteries can give you.
He is to remain until Christ comes; so that those who have a more illuminated consciousness will be able to understand him. He is the great teacher of the true Event of Golgotha. He has given to man the means by which he can really understand the Event of Golgotha.

Results 821 through 830 of 6552

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