Christ Module 12 - the cosmic 'I'

This module studies the nature of what is meant with the fact that Christ developed a 'cosmic I'.

Christ developed to a macroscopic I between Old Sun and Earth. With the MoG, there was a fructification of the Earth and humanity.

Aspects

see Q00.010 - IAO and the Human and Cosmic I
In the Threefold Sun, the third Sun is the Christ principle, the spiritual essence of the cosmos: universal goodness or spiritual love. It is the mediator of the highest spiritual forces, which unites the outer Sun forces with the inner Sun forces since the MoG. It is what human beings can experience within themselves as their higher spiritual Self when they truly comprehend the statement of Paul: "Not I, but Christ in me."

Notes (temporary)

Effect of fructification (see Schema FMC00.468 and 1910-09-11-GA123), and link to Man's transformation and spiritualization
During the Earth planetary stage, the Spirits of Form worked on the Earth and humanity and developed the Human 'I' between the Lemurian and current Postatlantean epochs, see Development of the I. See also Schema FMC00.197 and the 'Discussion area' on Man's higher triad

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.568: illustrates the great cosmic principle also described by IAO or the ouroboros (Schema FMC00.328), the principle of 'the highest divinity who wants to know itself' as the ultimate underlying principle of creation, the cosmos, or the cosmic fractal. Or put differently with the concept of Mahat: the whole gives its essence to each of its parts.

At the core and heart is the ultimate property of the highest divinity, acting out of selfless devotion to the world out of love as an act of freedom (1903-11-16-GA090A).

What this means is further covered in spiritual science by the study of evolution, and a pathway of development for spiritual beings reaching I-consciousness and evolving along a ladder of twelve conditions of consciousness, as depicted on Schema FMC00.329.

$illustrates the great cosmic principle also described by IAO or the ouroboros (Schema FMC00.328), the principle of 'the highest divinity who wants to know itself' as the ultimate underlying principle of creation, the cosmos, or the cosmic fractal. Or put differently with the concept of Mahat: the whole gives its essence to each of its parts. At the core and heart is the ultimate property of the highest divinity, acting out of selfless devotion to the world out of love as an act of freedom (1903-11-16-GA090A). What this means is further covered in spiritual science by the study of evolution, and a pathway of development for spiritual beings reaching I-consciousness and evolving along a ladder of twelve conditions of consciousness, as depicted on Schema FMC00.329.$

Schema FMC00.428A adds the explanation from Rudolf Steiner's narrative in the sources listed, against the background of Schema FMC00.428.

It shows how "the Christ Impulse triggered a reversal of the influences of the two crossing streams", and gave Man independence in love and allowed for a spiritualization of love, as love without true freedom is not love.

Note: all texts originate from the GA244 sources listed, but were aggregated into a single schema explanation.

Schema FMC00.128 with on the left the blackboard illustration to "not I but the Christ in me" - see also the third Sun in Threefold Sun

Schema FMC00.468 provides the key statement and illustration of the fructification of Man by the Christ Impulse, and specifically how the evolved consciousness soul is the gateway for this spiritual fructification by Man's higher triad (consisting of spirit-self or manas, life-spirit or budhi, and spirit-man or atma) through the Christ Impulse as the budhi life-giving influence driving this. See also variant Schema FMC00.468A on Christ Module 5 - Initiation and spiritualization.

Lecture coverage and references

1906-09-13-GA091

has as title 'The world center, Christ, the 'I'

see an extract quote here: Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension#1906-09-13-GA091

.

and a scanned PDF version of this lecture for study here: 1906-09-13-GA091 PDF in German

1908-05-20-GA103

.. you should believe in a spiritual Father-substance in which the I is rooted, and which is more spiritual than the substance which as a group-soul binds the Jewish people together. You should believe in what reposes within me and within every human being, in what is not only one with Abraham, but one with the very divine foundation of the world. Therefore Christ-Jesus, according to the Gospel of St. John, emphasizes the words: “Before Father Abraham was, was the I AM!” My primal I mounts not only to the Father-Principle that reaches back to Abraham, but my I is one with all that pulses through the entire cosmos, and to this my spiritual nature soars aloft. I and the Father are one!
These are important words which one should experience; then will one feel the forward bound made by mankind, a bound which advanced human evolution further in consequence of that impulse given by the advent of the Christ. The Christ was the mighty quickener of the “I AM.”
Now, let us try to hear a little of what His most intimate initiates said, how they expressed what had been revealed to them. They said: Heretofore, no individual physical human being has ever existed to whom this name of “I AM” could be applied; He was the first to bring to the world the “I AM” in its full significance. Therefore, they named Christ-Jesus the “I AM.” That was the name in which the closest initiates felt themselves united, the name which they understood, the name “I AM.” We must in this way delve deeply into the most significant chapters of the Gospel of St. John. If we take that chapter where we find the words: “I am the Light of the world,” we must interpret them literally, quite literally.

1910-09-11-GA123

talks about the fructification of the flower by the Christ Impulse

In the course of his development man evolves the consciousness-soul so that in it the spirit-self may appear.
When he has evolved the consciousness soul, the upper triad (spirit-self, life-spirit, and spirit-man) come to meet him, so that the opening flower of his being can receive into it this upper triad from above. This may be illustrated graphically to resemble the unfolding of a plant.
When a man has made himself receptive by developing his consciousness soul, the higher triad (spirit-self or Manas, life-spirit or Budhi, and spirit-man or Atma) draws near; this may be likened to a spiritual fructification coming towards him from on high.
While with the other principles of his being he grows upwards from below, unfolding the blossom of the ‘Son of Man,’ there must come to meet him from on high, so that he may gain his 'I'-consciousness, that which brings with it spirit-self, life-spirit, and spirit-man.
Who is the representative of the gift which comes down to man from above and is indicative of the nature of humanity in the far future? Who is this? The first gift that comes to man is the ‘spirit-self.’ Of whom is he the representative who receives this gift coming from on high? It is the Son of God, He Who lives, the life-spirit, the Son of the Living God!
So in the scene to which we have just referred Christ Jesus asked the question, ‘What is to come to men through My impulse?’ The answer is, ‘The life-giving Spirit-Principle from on high!’

1912-01-25-GA061

contains the following link to the true I and higher Self (see also Man's higher triad), and these sentences really contain the essence

Until that time, the innermost kernel of being, although indeed present in man, had not entered directly into human consciousness. This was what actually happened in the event described as the Mystery of Golgotha. Then began the age when men could know: In this I there is revealed, in man himself, what he possesses in common with the whole Cosmos. ...
.. The quest for the God and the primordial Divine Being, not in the ‘soul-sheaths’ but in the true I — this was what Christianity, the Christ Impulse, brought into human evolution. ...

.. The entrance of Divine consciousness that speaks through the I — that is the essence of the Christ Impulse

See also Schema FMC00.197 and the Discussion area on Man's higher triad.

1912-01-09-GA130

is titled 'Cosmic Ego and Human Ego - The Nature of Christ the Resurrected'

the following excerpt describes the nature of Christ as a macroscopic being (SWCC)

.. and now we will .. consider the nature of Christ. The Christ is quite radically different from other beings who share in the Earth evolution. He is a Being of quite another order; He is a Being who remained behind, not only during the Old Moon stage as the Luciferic spirits did, but who, foreseeing the Old Moon evolution, actually remained behind still earlier, namely, during the Old Sun stage; and it was from a certain assured wisdom far above the human that He remained behind during the Old Sun stage.
We cannot regard this Being as microcosmic in the sense which applies to the other beings we have been considering; for we have to regard as microcosmic beings those who were connected with this Earth evolution from its beginning. The Christ was not directly connected with the Earth evolution, but with the Old Sun evolution. He was a macrocosmic Being from the beginning of the Earth evolution on, a Being who was exposed to entirely different conditions of evolution from those of the microcosmic beings. And His evolutionary conditions were of a special sort; they were such that this macrocosmic Christ Being evolved the macrocosmic ego outside earthly conditions. For this Christ evolution it was normal to bring to ego-perfection, outside the earth, an ego of a macrocosmic sort, and then to descend to earth. And so for the evolution of the Christ Being it was normal, when He descended from the macrocosm to our earth, to bring into it the great impulse of the macrocosmic ego, in order that the microcosmic ego, the human ego, might take up this impulse, and be able to go forward in its evolution. It was normal for the Christ to have the macrocosmic ego-impulse — not the microcosmic ego-impulse — just as much evolved as man upon the earth had developed the microcosmic. Thus the Christ Being is a Being Who in a certain sense is like the human being, only that man is microcosmic and has brought his four principles to expression microcosmically, and hence has his ego also microcosmically as earth-ego — but the Christ as Cosmic Ego. His evolution was such that He was great and significant because of the perfect development of this ego, which He brought down to earth. And He had not the fifth macrocosmic principle, and not the sixth, for He will evolve these on Jupiter and on Venus, in order that He may give them to man.
The Christ, then, is a four-membered Being, including His macrocosmic ego, just as man himself is microcosmically a four-membered being. And as man during the earth time has as his mission the development of his ego, in order to be able to receive, so the Christ had to develop His Ego, in order to be able to give. When He descended to earth His whole being was employed in bringing His fourth principle to expression in the most perfect possible form. Now each macrocosmic principle has an inner relationship to the corresponding microcosmic principle; the fourth macrocosmic principle in the Christ corresponds to the fourth microcosmic principle in man, and the fifth in the Christ will correspond to the Spirit-Self in man.
Thus the Christ entered upon His earthly course in that He brought down to man out of the macrocosm what man was to evolve microcosmically — only the Christ brought it as a macrocosmic principle. He entered the earth evolution in such a way that during its course He would not have a fifth, sixth and seventh principle as His personal possession, just as man in his way does not possess them.
The Christ is a Being Who had evolved macrocosmically up to the fourth principle, and the evolution of His fourth principle during the earth course consists in His bestowing upon man everything which will enable him to evolve his ego.
If we take a complete survey, we have at the beginning of Earth evolution three classes of beings:

human beings who were to bring their fourth principle to full development on earth;

a class of Luciferic beings who were to evolve their sixth principle;

and a class of Luciferic beings who were to develop their seventh principle — beings who, because they were ready to develop their sixth and seventh principles, stood higher than man, — in fact, ranged far above man in this respect.

But they also ranged above Christ in this regard; for the Christ was to bring His fourth principle to expression on the earth, in devotion to humanity. It will not be the Christ, let us say, that will quicken man in the future to bring to expression something other than the true ego, the innermost human being — to reach ever higher and higher stages. It will be the Luciferic spirits who will lead man out beyond himself in a certain sense.
[Positioning the cosmic fourth principle vs the higher principles]
Anyone who looks at the matter superficially can say: “Of course then the Christ stands lower than, for example, the Luciferic spirits.” ... because the Christ came to earth with something which is fully related to man's fourth principle. For that reason He is not at all fitted to lead man above himself, but only more deeply into his own soul being; He is fitted to lead the individual soul-being of man more and more to itself. The Luciferic beings have evolved the fourth, fifth and sixth principles, and hence in a certain way stand higher than the Christ. Practically, that will work out in the future so that through the admission of the Christ principle into human nature, this human nature will become more and more deepened, will take up more and more light and love into its own being; so that the human being will have to feel Light and Love as belonging to his very self.
The immeasurable deepening of the human soul — that will be the gift of the Christ Impulse, which will work on and on forever. And when the Christ shall come, as that coming has been represented in many lectures, then He will work only upon the deepening of human souls. The other spirits who have higher principles than the Christ, though only microcosmic principles, will in a certain sense lead man out beyond himself. The Christ will deepen the inner life of man, but also make him humble; the Luciferic spirits will lead man out beyond himself, and make him wise, clever, talented, but also in a certain sense haughty; will teach him that he might become something superhuman even during the Earth evolution. Everything, therefore, which in the future shall lead man to rise above himself, as it were, which will make him proud of his own human nature even here upon earth — that will be a Luciferic impulse; but what makes a man more deeply sincere, what brings his inner life to such depths as can come only through the complete development of the fourth principle — that comes from the Christ.
People who look at the matter superficially will say that Christ really stands lower than the Luciferic beings, for He has developed only the fourth principle, and the others, higher principles. Only the difference is that these other beings bring the higher principles as something parasitic, grafted upon human nature; but the Christ brings the fourth principle in such a way that it penetrates human nature, takes root within it, and fills it with power. As the fleshly body of Jesus of Nazareth was once permeated and empowered by the fourth macrocosmic principle, so will the bodies of those who take the Christ into themselves be permeated by the fourth macrocosmic principle. Just as the fourth macrocosmic principle is the gift of Christ, so will the sixth and the seventh principles be the gifts of the Luciferic spirits. So that in the future — and such time is now being prepared for — we may experience that people lacking in understanding will say: If we examine the Gospels, or otherwise allow to work upon us what Christ gave to humanity, we see that in regard to His teaching He does not at all rank as high as perhaps do other spiritual beings who are connected with humanity ... They are higher than man in a certain way. They cannot penetrate the entire man, but they take root in his intellect, they make him a genius! And one who observes only outwardly says that these beings stand higher than the Christ ... And the time will come when the most powerful, the most significant of these Luciferic spirits, who will wish to lead the people out beyond themselves, so to speak, will be extolled, and looked upon as a great human leader; and it will be said that what the Christ was able to furnish was really only a bridge. Now already there are people who say: What do the teachings of the Gospels amount to! We have outgrown them. — As has been said, men will point to a lofty, versatile spirit, a spirit of genius, who will take possession of a human fleshly nature, which he will permeate with his genius. It will be said that he surpasses even the Christ! For the Christ was one who gave opportunity to develop the fourth principle; but this one gives opportunity during the Earth evolution to attain to the seventh principle.
Thus will the Christ Spirit and the spirit of this being face one another — the Christ Spirit, from whom humanity may hope to receive the mighty macrocosmic impulse of its fourth principle, and the Luciferic Spirit, who will wish in a certain way to lead humanity beyond this.
If people would agree that we must acquire from the Luciferic spirits only that to which we can look up in the same way that we look down to our lower nature ... then they would be doing right. But if people should come to say: You see the Christ gives only the fourth principle, while these spirits give the sixth and seventh ... people who think thus concerning Christ will worship and extol ... the Antichrist.
Thus will the position of the Antichrist towards the Christ make itself felt in the future. And with the outer intellect, with the outer wisdom, one will not be able to challenge such things; for it will be possible to produce much which from the point of view of the intellect and talent will be more clever in the Antichrist than that which will more and more flow into the soul from the Christ, as the highest human principle. Because Christ brings to man the fourth macrocosmic principle — since it is macrocosmic, it is infinitely more important than all microcosmic principles; it is stronger than they, even though it is related to the human ego, stronger than all others which can be gained during Earth evolution — still, because it is only the fourth principle, it will be thought of as lower than the fifth, sixth and seventh, which come from the Luciferic spirits; and especially lower than that which comes from Antichrist.

1922-NB212-GA046

(p. 911), this notebook entry, concise as ever, is published as 'About the I in the cosmic world order'

It concludes with:

The I is totally withdrawn from the earthly, as it is fully part of and included within the spiritual world order:
I <- archangel <- SoF <- Cherubim

astral body <- angelic (primordial forces) <- SoM <- Seraphim Thrones

freely translated

So [editor: working of H3 in waking consciousness, and maintenance of the lower bodies during sleep by H2]
In waking an archangelic being appears as I, and an angelic being as astral body.

In sleeping a SoM as etheric body, and a SoW as physical body.

About the relationships [editor: with H1]

in waking: Seraphim Thrones

in sleeping: Cherubim

The archangel strives to fashion the I, so it inserts the moral impulses into the bodily structures. The I itself stands on the stage of Old Saturn:

awake it is moved to be on the Old Sun stage,

asleep to the Future Venus stage

The astral body stands on the Old Sun stage, and

awake it is moved to the Old Moon stage

asleep to the Future Jupiter stage

The physical body is on the Earth stage, but it is so that the growing Moon [hafte] and the killing Sun[hafte] strive for a balance: Moon in the lower Man, Sun in the higher Man.
Karma or fate arises through the insertion of moral judgements into waking lower Man .. and that goes in the next earthly life into 'Walking' [editor: forces are meant]
The spiritualization in general goes into the Speaking, that depends whether Man finds himself into the spiritual worlds asleep [or not]. Speaking works in the second period of life.
Moral world order: H3
Cosmic-moral world order: H2
Human Cosmic world order: H1

Discussion

Note 1 - Quote 1912-01-25-GA061

We can imagine the 'hollow spaces' (see above schema FMC00.128 right) that are now filled with the radiance of buddhi and the chemical and life ethers. Consider the following two schemas:

Schema FMC00.046 on Development of the I for the work of the Spirits of Form (SoF)
Schema FMC00.164 on Man's higher triad for the divine core of the human I - the life spirit and spirit self components that originate in the budhi and nirvana planes.

.. and consider the three phrases again, stating the essence what actually happened in the Mystery of Golgotha.

.. until that time, the innermost kernel of being (although present in man), had not entered directly into human consciousness.
.. Christ Impulse brought into human evolution the quest for the God and primordial Divine Being, not in the ‘soul-sheaths’ but in the true I
.. the entrance of Divine consciousness that speaks through the I

This leads into thinking that the work of the SoF did not suffice, that this was a penetration of the sheaths with some form of consciousness, but the connection with Man's higher triad and true divine I was not made.

From here, connect this with the three previous planetary stages, and how:

on Old Saturn - in the seventh ... the Thrones weave a predisposition for the spirit Man principle, even if Man cannot use it in his state of dull consciousness
on Old Sun - in the sixth course .. the Cherubim put to germinal predisposition the substance for the Life Spirit principle, and Man takes over from the angels to work it - hardly progressing because his state of dull consciousness
on Old Moon - in the fifth course .. the Seraphim peremeate the Spirit Self principle, Man can be engaged in the dullness of his consciousness. In the sixth and seventh courses this combined with the Life Spirit and Spirit Man principles that had evolved from the two previous planetary stages where a 'first and second pass' was laid .. resulting in the monad or higher triad

This shows that an ever-higher spiritual hierarchy is needed for the lower principle. In the next fourth planetary stage Earth, this higher triad now has to connect and integrate with the I substance woven by the sacrifice and work of the Spirits of Form. The latter is what Schema FMC00.046 depicts. It is human consciousness of the lower bodily principles. However, it is not yet the connection with the higher principles of Man's higher triad.

And, on the side, these developments (by the SoF) take place on Earth where the higher chemical and life ethers have left, where only the warmth and light ethers are within reach.

In the view sketched above, the 'moment supreme' (as is said in french) of the fructification of Mankind is when the connection is made of this higher triad with the developed human I.

Note: compare and contemplate also with Schema FMC00.185 on Epochs in Earth physical round. This sketches already the manas link in the Lemurian intervention of the Spirits of Form - referring to the sentient soul (see Schema FMC00.046)

Related pages

References and further reading

Hans Büchenbacher: Der Christus-impuls und das Ich (1935)
Iwer Thor Lorenzen: 'The 'I'-Principle in Man, Earth and Cosmos' (translated by the FMC initiative)