Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension

This module focuses on two aspects:

Cosmic dimension - for humanity

• a statement by Rudolf Steiner that, at the moment the blood dripped from the cross and reaches the Earth at Golgotha, the astral atmosphere of the Earth changed. And that beings in the cosmos, if they would have watched from space, would have seen the atmosphere of the earth changing at the moment initiated by the Mystery of Golgotha.
• Furthermore, that only the Mystery of Golgotha gives the Earth its cosmic meaning. (quote 1916-01-09-GA165 below).
• Last, this module also explores the meaning of the term 'Mystical Lamb'.

This module is called the 'cosmic dimension' because the above statements are mind-boggling when one projects an image of the cross at Golgotha in purely human and mundane terms. These statement force one to switch gears, and to consider Christ-Jesus not as a Man but as a divine being, in order to realize a cosmic event happened at the Mystery of Golgotha.

Cosmic fractal perspective - logoic principle

For humanity, as a spiritual hierarchy in development in the current solar system evolution, the Mystery of Golgotha is the central event that gives meaning to the whole developmental journey of this spiritual hierarchy. It presents a pivotal milestone and a start of a new creation. This is the perspective which is most essential for humanity, and the one mostly explained by Rudolf Steiner.

However, the Cosmic fractal is much more encompassing and complex: a myriad of evolutionary threads are happening 'all at the same time' (relative as that statement is). Man can use the power of intellectual thinking to conceptually reason and take in scope the fact that there many hierarchies that are all in development alongside of eachother, in a closely intertwined fashion, and therefore multiple evolutions are all happening 'concurrently' through the cosmic fractal dynamic - with a 'mechanism' or 'guiding and steering principles' one can approach with the combination of the three dimensions of evolution, the spiritual hierarchies, and the logoic principle.

In this second section, an attempt is made to convey insights into this perspective.

.

The meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha and Christ Impulse was unveiled by Rudolf Steiner's explanatory lecturing for our age, as elaborated in the Study Modules. This module is the final of the first seven that carries over in the next seven that continue on other as well as more advanced aspects.

Aspects

• "wherever condensation takes place, a spiritualization also always occurs. What thus condenses below has its counterpart above in the spiritual .. Therefore, it was not only a physical process that took place when the blood flowed from the wounds of the Saviour, but it was actually accompanied by a spiritual process .. the Earth was changed, and this is the reason for saying .. that if a person had viewed the Earth from a distant star, he would have observed that its whole appearance was altered with the Mystery of Golgotha. The Sun Logos became part of the Earth, formed an alliance with it and became the Spirit of the Earth." (1908-05-31-GA103)

1. For humanity

Christ as enabler - infusion of life forces

• change in the Earth atmosphere - the radiating effect .. the Earth becomes a Sun - principle of reversal (underlying schema FMC00.187)
• a condensed and clear description of the essence of what happened 'when the blood dripped' is explained in a Questions & Answers session after a lecture on spiritual economy (1909-02-03-GA109), see 1909-02-03-GA244 - Q&A 179.1 below. This explanation explains also the Eucharist and symbolism of bread and wine: the Christ is literally into the forces of the Earth's mineral and plant kingdom, that feed Man. There is a component of life ether and chemical ether there now, which Man takes into himself, see also Ganganda Greida.

For humanity: from receiving to giving

• a new center gets created (see Schema FMC00.188 below, also 1915-06-15-GA159 on Communicating over spiritual science)
  • link with the importance of ideals and shared ideals by a group (as the seed process for the creation of new future group souls)

2. Cosmic fractal perspective - logoic principle

• relevant schemas to consider: Schema FMC00.564 and Schema FMC00.077A on Creation of solar system show that there is a sequence of planetary stages of evolution, beyond the seven of our solar system. Then Schema FMC00.413 on Old Saturn, with focus on the red line. Also relevant but only in second instance.: Schema FMC00.482 on Man's higher triad

Other

• Mystical Lamb

Inspirational quotes

1916-01-09-GA165

.. when spirits from other planets look down upon Earth and ask what the meaning of this earthly evolution is, they will understand it when they learn about the Mystery of Golgotha. Everything that happens in the course of earthly evolution has its meaning only through the Mystery of Golgotha. The Mystery of Golgotha radiates out into the cosmos and imparts to everything else that radiates out from the Earth its central meaning.

1917-10-06-GA177

Humanity should seek to bring Christ's words to realization: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." [Matthew 18:20]

GA026 - LT

The life of all this earthly realm becomes clear and transparent when we feel at its foundation the germ of a new universe. Every single plant and stone appears in a new light to the soul of Man, when he becomes aware that each of these creations is contributing by its life or by its form to this great fact: that the Earth in its unity is an embryo — the seed of a macrocosm newly rising into life.

2 Cor. 5:17

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Study work and process

As with every module, the intention is for the student to develop an imaginative picture, not just grasp the topic with an intellectual understanding.

In the below, several building blocks for the study process are described, with pointers to suggested study materials.

Key lectures:

• 1904-11-09-GA089 (see Schema FMC00.187 and Schema FMC00.188)
• 1904-11-10-GA089
• 1905-08-12-GA091

Cosmic dimension - for humanity

1. To approach this requires us to look in the evolutionary development of spiritual beings. For this we need to use our solar system as only reference.
   • study: The key lecture here is the amazing 1905-08-12-GA091 (DE book only), which sets a reference frame for our thinking and reasoning. See Twelve Conditions of Consciousness
2. The second step is to realize what is happening when high spiritual beings sacrifice themselves, in fact there is a emanation of streaming out of their own substance.
   • study: See also Schema FMC00.048 on Twelve conditions of consciousness. The proposed best entry here is a contemplative study of the five lectures of GA132, especially the first two on sacrifice on Old Saturn and Old Sun.
3. From there we can look at the development of our solar system and see that there is a link between this sacrificing and the budhi plane, and can compare that with what happens during a pralaya 'state-transition'.
   • study: This is the idea of Schema FMC00.077 (and variants) on Creation of solar system. This was developed by the author (DL). Only later, it was found that the key was already discerned also by Iwer Thor Lorenzen, as it appears in an unpublished manuscript.
4. With that basis one is prepared to study, enabled to 'see' how a new centre gets created, and this maps to the statement that a new beginning was made with the Mystery of Golgotha, also known as 'the Earth becomes a sun'. Note this statement is meant in a spiritual reality sense .. what is meant with the Earth here is the Christ spirit and humanity, not the physical planet.
   • The key lecture here is the amazing 1904-11-09-GA089 (EN book), followed by the second part of the 1904-11-10-GA089. However what is laid out there is so deep that the whole of GA089 needs to be read, as elements that touch on these two lectures appear in small but useful details throughout, once one has studied these two lectures deep enough. See schema FMC00.187 below.
     • Note regarding terminology, see 1912-09-17-GA139: "The term in Oriental literature for what we call ‘etheric body’ is ‘Linga Sharira’. Thus it is an extract of Linga Sharira that Man takes with him from incarnation to incarnation."
   • Furthermore, one can look into two examples of what is explained: the first is Goethe's quote regarding the eye (The eye is formed by the light for the light), the second is Steiner's explanation about the need for working in groups, and the effect of group processes (also as used by secret societies). This second point is covered on the page: Communicating over spiritual science#Working in Groups
5. The dimension missing in the above, rather technical considerations, is: where do freedom, moral ideals and love come in? This is a very deep and broad topic on its own. This module requires only the additional angle from building an understanding of how the spiritual contains the basis for the moral. As a first entry into this study, 1920-12-18-GA202 is proposed.
6. It will be useful for perspective to look at the beginning of our solar system and compare how there also a new center was created and a new start was made with Old Saturn.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.187 is essential and comes from the key lecture put forth for the study of this topic.

The following sequence 'rolls off' the above schema and develops it in a few steps.

FMC00.187A is to sketch the base concepts and how they relate:

FMC00.187B illustrates the key relation between giver and receiver:

FMC00.187C further details how this happens:

and FMC00.187D focuses on the shining of budhi outwards:

Schema FMC00.187E illustrates with the original notes that were checked, for reference

Schema FMC00.188 depicts how 'another center is created' by people who share moral ideals. This is how brotherhood lodges develop into creative energies called dhyanic spirits, like a group soul made up from a collection of cells.

This is a more 'technical' spiritual scientific explanation of how human beings that come together in the spirit of higher moral ideals, create something at a higher level that surpasses their Individualities and has a cosmic impact as it starts shining back from the center that gets thus created (see lecture and also Schema FMC00.266 below).

See more on key extracts: Moral ideals#1908-06-07-GA098 and Planetary spirit#1904-10-31-GA089.

This can also be related on Impulses from waves of reincarnating souls. An illustration of such can be seen in the German idealism, see for example the illustration with the network of some important souls (that carried this idealism) in Schema FMC00.497 on Karmic relationships (see also Schema FMC00243 on Goethe).

This is also important for group work in communities, see Communicating over spiritual science.

Schema FMC00.188A shows, for reference, the base materials for Schema FMC00.188 that were checked (as direct from the source as possible). Below are some excerpts from various notes by people who attended the lecture. The Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA) is based on these notes, but often makes certain choices of interpretation and arbitration.

Schema FMC00.266 shows (see 1920-12-18-GA202 below and on Threefold Sun) how the spiritual Sun [1] works on Earth and Man [2], but that Man radiates this morality out into the cosmos [3], and after a certain distance is reflected: "the physical sun is only the seemingly physical appearance of a spiritual mirroring" [4].

Schema FMC00.191: depicts several BBD drawings of the monstrance or sanctissimum (or 'sanctum sanctorum') as symbol of the transubstantiation: the shining, like a small Sun, in the sanctissimum wherein the host is carried on a crescent cup.

The monstrance represents the Sun and the Moon, and the symbol shows the sun (the Christ, the spirit) gains victory over the moon (the physical, as the influences that gave human beings their physical form come from the moon) through the Mystery of Golgotha.

What is currently merely an empty symbol, was once a reality in the (semi-)ancient mysteries. The priest initiate experienced how preserved fermenting substances in sacred crystalline vessels became transformed in such a way that he saw a small sun or a small natural monstrance in the crystalline vessel, as the substances spread sunshine around them. The priest saw how the substances and forces shone in the sacred crystalline vessels, and knew how the transubstantiation occurred. (1924-09-05-GA346 - see Greek mysteries#1924-09-05-GA346).

Today the sanctissimum in the Mass shows the rays of the Sun, but the connection of the Christ with the Sun and the reality behind the symbol have been totally lost. (1924-07-11-GA237)

Compare with the symbol of new moon at Easter and Schema FMC00.116 on Holy Grail : the spiritual sun Christ (host) shines in the 'crescent cup'. The GA343A lecture uses this description of sunlight and moonlight (see also 1908-05-20-GA103).

Also (not as a symbol but conceptually): on Schema FMC00.468 on Christ Module 5 - Initiation and spiritualization .. the physical holder or cup is Man's lower bodily structure, and the Christ Impulse fructifies this and so through "not me, but the Christ in me" .. Mankind and future Earth become a Sun. More on this 'starting to shine' on Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension

Schema FMC00.165 illustrates visions from the Cross at Golgotha, the place where the cosmic center was created on a mundane planet of ignorant human beings.

Only initiates knew and realized what was happening at Golgotha: "when the MoG was being enacted in Palestine, in that very moment it was known and beheld clairvoyantly in the Mysteries of Hibernia" (1923-12-29-GA233) and "on the island of Hibernia, humanity actually experienced the MoG spiritually (1923-12-09-GA232) - see Hibernian Mysteries.

Note: Emmerick and Neumann received their visions as part of their process of living with the stigmata.

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage

1904-10-31-GA089

see also Schema FMC00.188 and Planetary spirit#1904-10-31-GA089

The human being is most separate and by himself, something which happened above all in the middle of the Lemurian race for the human being. A housing was created for the spirit. Then the spirit united with the human being. And with the spirit then working to emerge again, human beings began to integrate into that world again, doing so through community. First they had to establish a separate identity; then they developed communities in the spirit, brotherhood. What had been sympathy and antipathy at the kama level now becomes power of attraction by choice. A deliberately chosen brotherliness develops.

Someone belonging to a lodge of brothers no longer knows the separation which others know; he does not separate from his group but integrates into it in full awareness.

The conscious awareness of an adept rests in his brotherhood or group.

Spirits who have reached a certain level with this are called dhyanic spirits, the great creative energies. Brotherhood lodges develop into dhyanic spirits. Dhyanic spirits are like collections of cells. The brotherhood lodge of the adepts will be seen as a dhyanic spirit.

Evolution again brings enrichment here. An important point lies in the middle of the fourth round: Human spirits begin to come together in a brotherhood, to develop a dhyanic spirit

.

The fact that the astral aspect of the Earth changed when the blood dripped from the wounds at Golgotha, appears in:

1906-08-31-GA091

describes how when Man transforms warmth into love, the human astral body begins to transform and light and love gets united with wisdom (Lucifer), after which physical and etheric body can be interchanged. This not only is relevant for the 'redeeming Lucifer' question, but also for the 'resurrection body' (see Cleansed phantom)

1907-12-01-GA098

astral body Earth changed when blood streamed -> astral aura began to radiate

1908-05-31-GA103

also on Mary#1908-05-31-GA103

[condensation and spiritualization]

Let us suppose we have here a vessel filled with water. In the water, salt is dissolved and the water becomes quite transparent. Because we have warmed the water, we have made a salt solution. Now let us cool the water. The salt precipitates and we see how the salt condenses below and forms a deposit at the bottom of the vessel. That is the process for one who sees only with physical eyes.

But for a person who can see with spiritual eyes, something else is happening. While the salt is condensing below, the spirit of the salt streams up through the water, filling it. The salt can only become condensed when the spirit of the salt has departed from it and become diffused into the water.

Those who understand these things know that wherever condensation takes place, a spiritualization also always occurs. What thus condenses below has its counterpart above in the spiritual, just as in the case of the salt, when it condenses and is precipitated below, its spirit streams upward and disseminates.

Therefore, it was not only a physical process that took place when the blood flowed from the wounds of the Saviour, but it was actually accompanied by a spiritual process; that is, the Holy Spirit which was received at the Baptism united Itself with the Earth; that the Christ Himself flowed into the very being of the Earth.

From now on, the Earth was changed, and this is the reason for saying to you, in earlier lectures, that if a person had viewed the Earth from a distant star, he would have observed that its whole appearance was altered with the Mystery of Golgotha.

The Sun Logos became a part of the Earth, formed an alliance with it and became the Spirit of the Earth.

This he achieved by entering into the body of Jesus of Nazareth in his thirtieth year, and by remaining active there for three years, after which he continued to remain on the Earth. Now, the important thing is, that this event must produce an effect upon the true Christian; that it must give something by which he may gradually develop the beginnings of a purified astral body in the Christian sense.

There had to be something there for the Christian whereby he could make his astral body gradually more and more like a Virgin Sophia [consciousness soul], and through it, receive into himself the Holy Spirit which was able to spread out over the entire Earth, but which could not be received by anyone whose astral body did not resemble the Virgin Sophia.

1908-09-12-GA106

Through the fact that the Christ-being took possession of the three bodies in which the ego-being of Jesus formerly abode, a Being was bound up with the earth that had earlier had its dwelling-place on the sun.

It had formerly been bound up with the Earth until the moment when the sun departed from the Earth. At that time the Christ also departed, and from then on he could exercise his power upon the earth only from outside, in the moment of the baptism, the high Christ-spirit again united himself in the full sense with the Earth. Formerly he worked from outside, overshadowing the prophets and working in the mysteries. Now he was actually incarnated in a physical human body on the Earth.

If a being had been able to look down for thousands of years from a remote point in the universe, such a being as could see not only the physical Earth but also its spiritual streams, its astral and etheric bodies, it would have seen significant events

• in the moment of the baptism by John,
• and in the moment when the blood flowed from Christ's wounds on Golgotha.

The Earth's astral body was profoundly changed thereby. At this moment it took up something different; it took on different colors. A new force was implanted in the Earth.

What earlier had worked from without, again became united with the Earth, and thereby the attractive power between sun and earth will grow so strong that sun and Earth will again unite, and Man will unite with the sun-spirits. It was the Christ who gave the possibility that the Earth can again unite with the sun and be in the bosom of the Godhead.

1909-02-03-GA244 - Q&A 179.1

SWCC, shortened and slighly rephrased version below

for the full text of Steiner's answer in literal translation, see Baptism#1909-02-03-GA244 - Q.26A 179.1

In the Baptism by John .. the full power of the Christ I goes in right down to the bone system. Hence all the Christ can and will do, will depend on that he can arbitrarily control his own mass of the bone ash and cartilage, just like all the physical. He can randomly perform what dissolves the physical body. It is said "Not a bone of Him shall be broken.” .. because with Christ that would interfere with what is due, the dissolution of his physical body. In the Christ being we have a being, that can do with this physical body whatever he wants, upto the smallest particle and into the finest bone mass, because the Christ being has full mastery over all that is physical.

Christ shares this body with the full Earth. What is left, is the [primeval] spiritual image of the physical body, called the phantom, whose powers operate in the physical body.

The ash stays behind. Also the bone system dissolves. What we can do with these forces, Christ can do with his own physical body: he gave this to the Earth. As outer-tellurgic spirit, he was in the Earth's aura before.

From the moment the blood flows, the astral body goes into the Earth. Since that time, the Earth has become the body of Christ.

In John 13:18 and Psalm 14:9 we find "who eats my blood, [threads or] tramples me with his feet"

This spirit works further in Man. That, what Man takes from the Earth, is like an extract from the Earth substance.

That what flows through plants as juices, is his blood.

1909-07-06-GA112

and second alternate translation

a new center, a new start was created

radiates back and streams into space - force will form spiritual sphere surrounding earth, composed of those etheric bodies endowed with light, in process of becoming a Sun. 

quote A - first translation

And now the Christ-light being always present, to some extent, in the etheric bodies of men ever since that time, what is the consequence of this? What takes place after death in that part of the etheric body which has absorbed into itself the Christ-light? What is it that has gradually made its way into the human etheric body in consequence of the Christ-impulse?

Since that time it has become possible for something new to show itself in the etheric bodies of men, as an effect of the Christ-light; something which exhales life and is immortal, and can never fall a prey to death. But if it does not fall a prey to death (while man still continues being a victim of the illusion of death), it will be saved from death and will not participate therein.

Since that time, therefore, there has been something in the etheric body of Man which does not share in his death and is not subject to the earthly forces of dissolution. And that something, which does not die with the rest and which man gradually wins for himself through the influence of the Christ-impulse, now radiates back and streams into the world of space. In proportion to its strength or weakness in Man, it gathers a force which streams out into space.

This force will form a sphere surrounding the Earth, a sphere in process of becoming a Sun. A kind of spiritual sphere is developing round the Earth, composed of those etheric bodies endowed with light.

As the Christ-light streams from the Earth, there is in like manner a kind of reflection of the Christ-light in the circumference of the Earth. The Christ-light which is here reflected and which appeared in consequence of Christ's life on Earth; this, it is, which Christ called the ‘Holy Ghost’.

True as it is that the change of the Earth into a sun began with the event of Golgotha, it is equally true that the Earth thenceforward began to be creative and to form a spiritual ring round itself which, in time to come, will become a kind of planet surrounding it.

Thus, since the event of Golgotha, a momentous process has been taking place in the universe. At the moment when the Cross was raised on Golgotha and the blood ran from the wounds of Christ Jesus, a new cosmic centre was created. We were there as human beings, whether in a physical body or out of it, between birth and death. Thus do new worlds arise. But one thing we must understand, that while we behold the dying Christ, we stand in the presence of the birth of a new Sun.

quote A - second translation

And here we must ask, what takes place, now that there is always something of the Christ light in human etheric bodies?

What occurs in that part of the etheric body in which the Christ light has been received? . . .

It is the possibility that was given at that time, as an effect of the Christ light, for something new to appear, something living and breathing and immortal, something that can never perish in death. Ever since that time, then, the human etheric body has held something that is not subject to death, to the death forces of the Earth. And this something which does not die with the rest, and which men gradually achieve through the influence of the Christ impulse, now streams back again out into cosmic space; and in proportion to its intensity in man it generates a certain force that flows out into cosmic space.

And this force will in turn create a sphere around our Earth that is in the process of becoming a sun: a sort of spiritual sphere is forming around the Earth, composed of the etheric bodies that have come alive. The Christ light radiates from the Earth, and there is also a kind of reflection of it that encircles the Earth.

What is here reflected as the Christ light, appearing as a consequence of the Christ event, this is what Christ called the Holy Spirit.

Just as the event of Golgotha provided the first impetus for the Earth to become a sun, so it is true that beginning with this event the Earth began to be creative, surrounding itself with a spiritual ring which, in turn, will in the future develop into a sort of planet circling the Earth.

The chemical and life ethers

1910-09-12-GA123

discusses how with the departure of the Sun in the Hyperborean epoch, the spiritual part and higher ethers left also. The Life Ether was called Honover in Persian times, in the Gospel of John it's called the Logos (as the 'meaning-filled tone belonging to the Being of the Sun')

We have therefore on the earth — warmth, air or gaseous substance, water or fluid substance, and solids or earthly substance. Opposed to these as finer conditions we have light-ether, tone-ether, and life-ether, this last being the finest etheric condition known to us..

Now with the departure of the Sun from the Earth, not only the material part of the Sun left but the spiritual part left also. It was only later, and by degrees, that this returned to the earth, and it did not return entirely.

That which as organizing quality lay here at the foundation of a new kind of fellowship is contained in the Life-ether, which organizes life, and which streamed into the earth in the Deed of Christ.

1913-11-16-GA148

we read Death: Earth getting darker, like a solar eclipse but can also be clouds, lasted hours; Laying in the tomb: earthquake with whirlpool, afterwards there only like the clothes

Dann kann man wahrnehmen, wie beim Sterben am Kreuze der Christus-Impuls, durch diese Finsternis hindurchgehend, sich mit der Erdenaura verbindet. Die Verbindung des kosmischen Christus-Impulses mit der Erdenaura schaut man bei dieser Verfinsterung vor seinem Tode. Dann hat man jenen großen, gewaltigen Eindruck, wie diese Wesenheit, die im Leibe des Jesus gelebt hat, jetzt sich ausgießt über die geistig-seelische Erdenaura, so daß die Seelen der Menschen nun fortan wie in sie eingezogen sind.

So im Geiste zu schauen das Kreuz auf Golgatha, und den Christus durch die verfinsterte Erde sich ausgießen sehen über das Erdenleben, ist ein ungeheuer überwältigender Eindruck; denn man sieht im Bilde das wirklich sich vollziehen, was für die Entwickelung der Erdenmenschheit sich vollziehen mußte.

1916-01-09-GA165

contains the following sentence, here parsed:

the sun-being Christ

• entered into the earth sphere and united with the whole etheric body of the earth
• he then entered into the Earth aura and now continues to work there

More on the higher ethers in Christ Module 11 - a new physics

A new center gets created

After study of 1904-11-09-GA089 that explains about the creation of a new center, see Schema FMC00.188, one can expand to study certain lectures use that term 'new center' and better understand what is really meant with that language.

1906-09-13-GA091

An example is the wonderful lecture 1906-09-13-GA091 with the title 'Das Weltenzentrum, Christus, Das Ich'. This is an example of a lecture (only published in 2018) that really belongs in volume GA097 on the Christ Mystery (GA097 already contains the lectures of of 2 and 15 september). Just a few phrases as example. With the new center reference is also made to the seed at the nirvana plane in the pralaya after the Earth's planetary stage.

.. he was flowing his life into the world, streaming into each person and giving him his power, to experience his true I and find the center to live in his I. ..

.. the more people unite with the power of the Christ, the more they will be free and divine .. the life impulse they have to get there, in the center of the world. The human I is the key to the center of this world. It is the spark or flame that connects Man with this central force of the world.

.. and when the whole of humanity has become an expression of the Christ, then that will represent the transition to a new step in world development. Then all powers that were in the world have been put out and used, and now these life forces can be involved in something new in the center of the world and a plan for a new cosmos. This new cosmos will stream out of this center in a new evolutionary stage, just like our current evolution has streamed out of a world center. The end of our Earth development is only the end of the outbreathing of God. Everything will be breathed in again in the center of the divine God, to find a new existence with the next outbreathing.

1919-02-11-GA193

quote A

shows how one can contemplate Schema FMC00.188 at very different levels of intensity of resonance

Anyone who reads a book is drawn out of the egoistic circle of his individual life, for it is not he alone who absorbs the author's thoughts; even when he is only half-way through a book he is already sharing these thoughts with a great company of other readers. And so, through this kinship of soul-experience, a certain human community is formed.

This is an important characteristic of spiritual life: it has its springs in freedom, in the individual initiative of the single human being, and yet it draws men together, and forms communities out of what they have in common.

Here, for anyone who seeks deeper understanding, is a fact to be kept in mind—a fact which brings every kind of human fellowship into relation with the central event of earth-evolution—the Mystery of Golgotha. For since the Mystery of Golgotha everything concerned with human fellowship belongs in a sense to the Christ Impulse.

That is the essential thing - the Christ Impulse belongs not to single men but to the fellowship of men.

quote B

.

shows then where it starts for humanity as a whole, in how we face any other human being in the way of Christianity

... instead of taking an interest merely in my own way of thinking, and in what I consider right, I must develop a selfless interest in every opinion I encounter, however strongly I may hold it to be mistaken. The more a man prides himself on his own dogmatic opinions and is interested only in them, the further he removes himself, at this moment of world-evolution, from the Christ.

The more he develops a social interest in the opinions of other men, even though he considers them erroneous—the more light he receives into his own thinking from the opinions of others—the more he does to fulfill in his inmost soul a saying of Christ, which today must be interpreted in the sense of the new Christ-language.

Christ said: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

The Christ never ceases to reveal Himself anew to men—even unto the end of earthly time.

And thus He speaks today to those willing to listen: “In whatever the least of your brethren thinks, you must recognise that I am thinking in him; and that I enter into your feeling, whenever you bring another’s thought into relation with your own, and whenever you feel a fraternal interest for what is passing in another’s soul. Whatever opinion, whatever outlook on life, you discover in the least of your brethren, therein you are seeking Myself.”

1920-12-18-GA202

see quote A on: Moral ideals#1920-12-18-GA202 about 'radiance shining forth from Men'

The impact on the kingdom of the dead

1909-03-26-GA111

(freely translated)

if there would have been a clairvoyant person as the blood an from the five wounds of the body of Christ-Jesus at the Mystery of Golgotha, he would have seen how Christ surged into the kingdom of the dead like a light arrow and transformed it from a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light

Discussion

Note 1 - A new center gets created

See Schema FMC00.188.

The idea of 'a new center gets created' links to common ideals shared in groups, see the future groupings of souls in 1908-06-01-GA102 on Group souls of humanity. The seeds for this are the moral ideals as related to selflessness and love.

The Karmic relationships page tries to illustrates how this relates to Impulses from waves of reincarnating souls underlying History (see Schema FMC00.059), with examples of the Renaissance and German idealism. However this is just as much the case for impulses such as the materialistic cultural revolution in the age of internet computing, as has arisen in the last 50 years 1970-2020 (see eg Mineral plant like spiders#Discussion). And Rudolf Steiner also describes this in the context of conscious developments by secret brotherhoods (references to follow).

This is also important for group work in communities, see Communicating over spiritual science.

As metaphoric illustrations, one can think of resonance of beams in

• a concentrated solar power plant that consist of say 700 .. 7000 .. 70.000 or 170.000 heliostats (movable mirrors) that are organized to align and converge the reflected sun energy
• arrays of radio telescopes (see very large array)
• multiple or segmented mirror telescopes using 10-100 aligned small mirrors

In the metaphor, light beams are converged to enhance the energy. Similarly, the human soul and mind is used when stribing for moral ideals, thereby creating something in a vantage point in the spirit world.

Note 2 - Thought form or concept of 'etheric ring'

see also: Christ in the etheric

This note is added for the sake of completeness of reference only.

Authors such as Prokofieff and Ben Aharon have started using the term 'etheric ring', a term or concept never coined and re-used by Rudolf Steiner so explicitly (though he did use the word once in a description, see below).

1909-07-06-GA112

And here we must ask, what takes place, now that there is always something of the Christ light in human etheric bodies? What occurs in that part of the etheric body in which the Christ light has been received? ...

It is the possibility that was given at that time, as an effect of the Christ light, for something new to appear, something living and breathing and immortal, something that can never perish in death. Ever since that time, then, the human etheric body has held something that is not subject to death, to the death forces of the Earth. And this something which does not die with the rest, and which men gradually achieve through the influence of the Christ impulse, now streams back again out into cosmic space; and in proportion to its intensity in man it generates a certain force that flows out into cosmic space.

And this force will in turn create a sphere around our Earth that is in the process of becoming a sun: a sort of spiritual sphere is forming around the Earth, composed of the etheric bodies that have come alive. The Christ light radiates from the Earth, and there is also a kind of reflection of it that encircles the Earth.

What is here reflected as the Christ light, appearing as a consequence of the Christ event, this is what Christ called the Holy Spirit.

Just as the event of Golgotha provided the first impetus for the Earth to become a sun, so it is true that beginning with this event the Earth began to be creative, surrounding itself with a spiritual ring which, in turn, will in the future develop into a sort of planet circling the Earth.

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From our research, we traced the use of the term back to the books of Sergei O. Prokofieff, who used 'etheric ring' starting with footnotes in books.

• The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation (1991)
• Eternal Individuality: Towards a Karmic Biography of Novalis (1992)
• The Spiritual Origins of Eastern Europe (2016)

This was picked up by Jesaiah Ben-Aharon, see ao:

• The New Experience of the Supersensible (2007)
• Cognitive Yoga (Making Yourself a New Etheric Body and Individuality) (2016)
• paper 'Conscious Creation of the Etheric Ring around the Earth through Cognitive Etheric Breathing since the End of the 20^th Century'.

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On a personal note:

We do not believe there is a great value in elaborating and marketing this concept, because it ought to fit into a broad and deeper understanding of the whole: the etheric spheres around the Earth (Schema FMC00.003 and Schema FMC00.003A on that page), the spectrum of elements and ethers and related formative forces, Man's transformation and spiritualization in general (see eg Etherization of blood to name just one), how all this relates to Man coming from and going back to a being of water and air (1908-05-25-GA103), and is part of a broader evolutionary pattern or picture (see upper right part of Schema FMC00.570, a Schema that can be approached through what is described with the notes to Schema FMC00.570A).

The intention of this study module (and site) is to focus on enabling the genuine student of spiritual science to build one's own deeper imagination and insight based on the key materials put forth on this topic page, in a context of knowledge and understanding of all the above. Spiritual beings grow along the ladder of Conditions of Consciousness (1905-08-12-GA091 and Schema FMC00.048) and at various stages attain higher properties, ever closer of the divine, from receiving to giving, and ultimately sacrificing their own substance.

Hence the coining and marketing of such concept as an etheric ring, putting a spotlight on it as if it is now all at once of key importance, appears as a distraction because it wants to home in on something people can imagine in a physical material way as a ring around the Earth, and this is a kind of materialistic imprisoning that leads people further from the spiritual than bringing them closer.

One might trust or be convinced that the elaboration on this concept is probably only coming from enthusiasm about this great and exciting theme and without any conscious side intentions, but it showcases responsibility and the importance of a deeper spiritual understanding, and the dangers of intellectualisation of spiritual science (a.i. stitching thought forms, words and concepts as empty husks) which is a side-tracking of good human soul energy that leads nowhere.

There are other examples of such distractions, eg sensational subjects around stigmata, polarization and polemics, etc. The term distraction is used here because in today's world huge amounts of human energy get side-tracked and wasted, whereas just imagine if all this human energy of mind and soul would be directed from spiritual science study to practice and initiation exercises, taking action in the world and active deeds along the pathway of one's personal transformation, and contributing in society towards a better world.

Related pages

• Christ base modules 1 to 7
• Group souls of humanity
• Unification
• Threefold Sun
• IAO
• The eye is formed by the light for the light
• Planetary spirit

Further reading

Christ as spirit of the Earth

• Alfons Rosenberg: 'Der Christ und die Erde' (1953)
• Geert Suwelack (1920-2003): ‘The New Dialogue with the Spirit of the Earth’ (EN 1985, first published in DE 1979)
• Erdmut-M. Hoerner: 'Christus und die Erde' (1985)
• Gerhard Wehr: 'Der Christus ist der Geist der Erde: Christusimpuls und Menschenbild in der Anthroposophie und Waldorfpädagogik' (1989)
• Friedrich Benesch: 'Zur Äthergeographie der Erde : Christus in den Sphären von Erde und Mensch' (2000)