Cross at Golgotha

This topic page covers various aspects of what happened at the cross at Golgotha before and after the death of Christ-Jesus.

This is part of the Three years of Christ Jesus, and zooms in to the last week, with the passion of Christ-Jesus as described in the Gospels, the so-called stations of the cross (classical in medieval roman catholic christian art), upto the events that happened before and after that Christ-Jesus died on the cross at Golgotha.

Aspects

Passion and stations of the cross

• passion of Christ-Jesus
  • Holy week, with Palm sunday (the sunday before Easter), Good friday (the day of the crucification), Black saturday, and Easter sunday (the day of the resurrection)
• stations of the cross (14): Jesus is condemned to death (1), takes up his Cross (2), falls the first time (3), meets his Mother (4), helped by Simon of Cyrene to carry the Cross (5), face wiped by Veronica (6), falls for the second time (7), meets the women of Jerusalem (8), falls for the third time (9), stripped of his garments (10), nailed to the Cross (11), dies on the Cross (12), taken down from the Cross (13), laid in the tomb (14)

Christ-Jesus at the cross

• standing near the cross
  • all four gospels agree that several women watched Jesus's crucifixion from a distance, with three gospels explicitly naming Mary Magdalene as present. Luke 23:49 does not give any names.
    • John 19:25 lists: Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary, (her sister, wife of Clopas); and Mary Magdalene
    • Mark 15:40 lists: Mary Magdalene; Mary (mother of James); and Salome.
    • Matthew 27:55–56 lists: Mary Magdalene, Mary (mother of James and Joseph), and the unnamed mother of the sons of Zebedee (may be the same person Mark calls Salome).
• lance - "not a bone shall be broken"
• two flanker sinners besides Christ-Jesus
• last words
  • Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani - EELS
• death
  • solar eclipse (see also Eclipses, specifically Eclipses#1913-12-10-GA148)
• collecting blood in the grail cup
• purety of blood, and bees
• INRI on the cross
  • "Jam, Nur, Ruach, Jabascha - INRI - this is the meaning of the words on the cross" (1906-03-05-GA094, 1905-05-22-GA093)
  • generally this is explained as meaning 'Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum' meaning 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews'

After the cross

• from cross to grave
• earthquake (and disappearance body)
• see further on:
  • Easter and Christ Module 8 - Resurrection
  • After the resurrection

Various

• Golgotha means 'the place of the skull', it is the Aramaic cognate form of the Hebrew word for skull, gulgoleth. See three Gospels of Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.165 illustrates visions from 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, eg "when 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

Gospel of Matthew 27:33-35, 45, 50-51

quote taken from: David D. McKinney: ' The Place of the Skull: Rudolf Steiner and the First Goetheanum'

And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull ... they crucified him ... that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet ... Now from the sixth hour there was dar kness over all the land unto the ninth hour... Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the spirit. And, behold, the veil of the temple rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake...

1905-05-22-GA093

People generally understand so little of all this that even the letters on the Cross are not interpreted aright. Plato said of it that the world soul would be crucified on the world body.

The Cross symbolises the four elements. The plant, animal and human kingdoms are built out of these four elements. On the Cross stands:

• JAM= water = James;
• NOUR = fire, which refers to Jesus himself;
• RUACH = air, the symbol for John; and the fourth
• JABESCHAH = earth or rock, for Peter.

Thus there stands on the Cross what is expressed in the names of the [three] Apostles [and Jesus]. While the one name J.N.R.I. denotes Christ himself. ‘Earth’ is the place where Christianity itself must at first be brought, to that temple to which man himself has brought himself so as to be a sheath for what is higher.

1906-03-05-GA094

is the lecture where the link is explained between the transfiguration (Mount Tabor) and Golgotha, as John as the only gospel does not cover the transfiguration

Now I must tell you something which though easy to understand intellectually, is difficult for the Man of today to grasp with his whole soul. The time when the gospels were written was the dawn of Christianity. One used names then in a way which I will now explain. One did not look to the outer physical Man, but one saw something higher, the spiritual, shining through it. A name was not used as it is today, it had a significance.

Suppose someone was called James (Jacobus). James really means water. Water is the spiritual scientific term for the soul element. If I call somebody James, I say that his soul shines through his body. With this, I signify that he belongs to the watery element. If I give the name James to an initiate, he is to me the symbol for water (Hebrew — Jam). James is nothing but the technical name for an initiate who especially governs the force of water in its occult sense.

Thus were the three disciples who were taken up to Mount Tabor called by their initiate names: James means water, Peter stands for earth, or rock (Hebrew — Jabascha), John signifies air (Ruach). Thus, John means he who has attained the higher self. This leads us deep into the secret doctrines. Transport yourself back into the time when man only possessed the lower principles — the third epoch, the Lemurian epoch. Mankind did not then breath air, he breathed through gills. Lungs and breathing through lungs developed later. This process coincided with the impregnation by the higher self. Air is, according to the hermetic principle, the lower which represents the higher — the higher self. If I call somebody John (Johannes), then he is one who has awakened his higher self, who governs the occult forces of air. Jesus is the one who governs the occult forces of fire (Nur). Thus you have in these four names, the representatives of earth, water, air and fire. They are the names of the four who ascended Mount Tabor.

Jam — James

Nur     Ruach

Jesus     Johannes

Jabascha — Petrus

Think of these four together on the Mount of Transfiguration. There you have at the same time, the initiates who govern the four elements: fire, water, air and earth. What happened? It was made manifest spiritually that through the appearance of Jesus, the whole power of the elements was renewed in such a way that the life pulsing through the elements passed through a new, important phase of its development. This is the transfiguration seen occultly. If somebody goes through the transfiguration in this manner, if he has within himself the stages of water, earth and air, and even rises to the forces of fire, then he is a reawakened one, someone who has gone through the crucifixion. Thus, in the case of the other evangelists, this scene is but a preparation for the deeper initiation scene of the crucifixion itself. In the John Gospel, everything is already prepared. The preparatory scene does not appear, only the death on the Mount of Golgotha.

Jam, Nur, Ruach, Jabascha — INRI — this is the meaning of the words on the cross.

1912-01-09-GA130

You must not imagine that this body in which the Christ dwelt, say a year and a half after John's baptism in the Jordan, was like any other body, but such that an ordinary human soul would have felt it fall away immediately, because it could only be held together by the mighty macrocosmic Christ entity. It was a continuous, slow death that lasted for three years.

And this body had reached the point of disintegration when the Mystery of Golgotha occurred.

Then it was only necessary for the men we are told about to approach this body with their strange things, which are called spices, and to establish a chemical union between these special substances and the body of Jesus of Nazareth, in which the macrocosmic Christ-entity had dwelt for three years, and then to lower it into the grave. It only took a very little for this body to disintegrate into dust in the grave, and for the Christ-Spirit to clothe itself with an etheric body, one could say, which condensed into physical visibility. So that the risen Christ was clothed with an etheric body condensed to the point of physical visibility. So he walked around and appeared to those to whom he could appear. He was not visible to all, because it was actually only a condensed etheric body that the Christ wore after the resurrection.

But that which had been placed in the grave disintegrated into dust.

And according to the latest occult research, there was indeed an earthquake. It was astonishing to me, after I had found out from occult research that an earthquake had taken place, to find this alluded to in the Gospel of Matthew. The earth split open, the dust of the corpse fell into it and joined with the whole substance of the earth. The shaking caused by the earthquake shook the cloths in the way described in the Gospel of John. This is wonderfully described in the Gospel of John.

In this way we can understand the resurrection occultly and do not need to come into contradiction with the Gospels. For I have often pointed out that Mary of Magdala did not recognize Christ when he met her. Where would anyone not dare to recognize someone they had seen a few days ago, especially when it is such an important personage as the Christ Jesus was? When we are told that Mary of Magdala did not recognize him, he must have met her in a different form. She only recognizes him when she hears him speak, so to speak. Then she becomes aware.

Discussion

Note 1 - Earthquake and body of Jesus after burial

Reference extracts

1913-10-02-GA148

translation V1

And then one's clairvoyant consciousness perceives the raised cross on Golgotha on which the body of Jesus hangs between the two thieves. Then the removal from the cross and the burial appears – and I might add that the more one tries to avoid this image the stronger it appears. Now a second powerful sign appears which must be read in order to understand it as a symbol of what has happened in the evolution of humanity: One follows the image of Jesus taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb, and one is thoroughly shaken by an earthquake which went through the area.

Perhaps the relation between that solar eclipse and the earthquake will someday be better understood scientifically, for certain teachings which are prevalent today but incoherent, indicate a relation between solar eclipses and earthquakes and even firedamps in mines. That earthquake was a consequence of the solar eclipse. That earthquake shook the tomb in which Jesus' body lay – and the stone which had been placed before the tomb was ripped away and a crevice opened in the ground and the body fell onto the crevice. Further vibrations caused the ground to close over the crevice. And when the people came in the morning the tomb was empty, for the earth had received Jesus' body; the stone, however, remained apart from the tomb.

Let us follow the sequence of images! Jesus dies on the cross. Darkness suddenly covers the earth. Jesus' body is laid in the tomb. An earthquake opens the earth's crust and Jesus' body is received by the earth. The crevice caused by the quake closes. The stone is thrown aside. These are all factual events; I can do naught else but describe them as such. May those who wish to approach these things from a natural scientific viewpoint judge as they wish and use every possible argument against them. What clairvoyant observation sees is as I have described it. And if someone wishes to say that such things cannot happen, that a symbol is placed in the cosmos as a powerful sign-language to indicate that something new has occurred in human evolution; when someone wishes to say that the divine powers do not write about what happens on the earth with such sign-language as a solar eclipse and an earthquake, I can only reply: All respect to your belief that it can not be so. But it happened anyway! I can imagine that an Ernest Renan, who wrote the peculiar “Life of Jesus” would come and say: One does not believe such things, for one only believes what can be duplicated by experiment. But that argument is unfeasible, for would a Renan not believe in the ice age although it is impossible to reproduce it by experiment? It is of course impossible to reproduce the ice age, and nevertheless all scientific investigators believe in it. It is also impossible to reproduce that once-occurring cosmic sign. Nevertheless, it happened.

translation V2

And then there actually comes before the clairvoyant consciousness, the picture of the Cross raised on Golgotha, of the body of Jesus hanging upon it between the two thieves; the picture, too, of the body being taken down from the Cross and laid in the grave ... And here I will add that the more one tries to prevent it, the more forcibly does it present itself. And now comes a second mighty sign, whereby again there is written into the Cosmos something that one must read in order to discern it as a symbol of what has actually transpired in the evolution of humanity. One contemplates the picture of Jesus taken down from the Cross and laid in the grave, and then, while the gaze of the soul is thus directed, one has the experience of being shaken through and through by an earthquake which spread through that region.

One day, perhaps, people will understand—in the scientific sense too—more about the connection between that darkening of the sun and the earthquake, for certain theories which are already current in the world, but somewhat haphazardly, indicate that there is a connection between solar eclipses and earthquakes, and even fire-damp in mines. That earthquake followed upon the eclipse of the sun. It shook the grave in which the body of Jesus had been laid, and the stone covering it was wrenched away; a fissure was rent in the earth and the corpse was received into it. Another tremor caused the fissure to close again over the corpse. And when the people came in the morning the grave was empty, for the dead body of Jesus had been received into the earth. The stone, however, still lay where it had been hurled.—Once again let us follow the sequence of pictures! Jesus dies on the Cross of Golgotha. Darkness breaks in upon the earth. The corpse of Jesus is laid into the grave. A tremor shakes the land and the corpse is received into the earth. The fissure caused by the tremor closes; the stone is hurled aside. These are all actual happenings. I cannot describe them in any other way. Let those who wish to approach these things from the basis of natural science form what opinion they like, bring forward all kinds of contrary arguments: what the gaze of clairvoyance perceives is as I have described it. And if anyone were to say: it is impossible that from the Cosmos there should be set up, as it were in a mighty language of signs, a symbol of something New having entered into the evolution of mankind; if anyone were to say: the Divine Powers do not write into the earth in such signs a happening like an eclipse of the sun and an earthquake ... then I could only answer: You believe in all sincerity that such things are impossible. Nevertheless they actually happened. I can imagine someone like Ernest Renan, the author of that strange work, The Life of Jesus, saying that such things are incredible, because one only believes in what can at any time be re-confirmed by experiment. But this thought is not tenable ... for would a man like Renan not believe, let us say, in the Ice Age, although that cannot be confirmed by experiment? It is quite impossible to reconstruct the conditions prevailing in the Ice Age and yet all scientists believe in it. Equally impossible is it that this unique cosmic sign can ever appear again to men—yet for all that, the sign was there.

We can only be led to these events when, as seers, we find the way to them as I have indicated, when we sink in deepest contemplation into the soul of Peter or of one of the other Apostles who at the time of Pentecost felt themselves quickened by the all-prevailing Cosmic Love. Only when we contemplate the souls of those men and discern the nature of their experiences, is it possible in this indirect way to gaze at the Cross raised on Golgotha, to behold the darkening of the earth at that time and the subsequent earthquake. It is not denied that in the external sense this darkening and earthquake were ordinary happenings of nature, but one who having induced the requisite conditions in his soul, follows and reads these events with clairvoyant sight, will be emphatic that they were as I have described them. For in the consciousness of Peter, what I have now described was, in very truth, an experience that crystallised out of the long sleep. Among the manifold pictures crossing Peter's consciousness, those of the Cross raised on Golgotha, the darkening and the earthquake, for example, stood out in vivid relief. These experiences were for Peter the first result of the quickening by the Cosmic Love at Pentecost. And he now knew something he had not really known before: that the event of Golgotha had taken place and that the body on the Cross was the very same body with which he had often gone about together in life. Now he knew that Jesus had died on the Cross, that this dying was in reality a birth: the birth of that Spirit outpoured as the all-prevailing Cosmic Love into the souls of the Disciples assembled at Pentecost. Peter felt it as a ray of the primordial, aeonic Love ... born when Jesus died on the Cross. And this stupendous truth sank down into Peter's soul: It is only illusion that on the Cross a death took place. This death, preceded as it had been by infinite suffering, was in truth the birth of the ray now penetrating the soul. The all-prevailing Cosmic Love which had previously been present everywhere outside and around the earth, had, with the death of Jesus, been born into the earth. In the abstract, such words seem facile, but one must for a moment actually be transported into the soul of Peter to realise what he experienced then for the first time: When Jesus of Nazareth died on the Cross, at that moment there was born for the earth something that was previously to be found only in the Cosmos. The death of Jesus of Nazareth was the birth of the Cosmic Love within the sphere of the earth.

1911-10-12-GA131

Thus it followed that when Christ Jesus was crucified, when his body was nailed to the Cross—you will notice that here I use the exact words of the Gospel, for they are con-firmed by true occult research—when this body of Jesus of Nazareth was fastened to the Cross, the Phantom was perfectly intact; it existed in a spiritual bodily form, visible only to super-sensible sight, and was much more loosely connected with the body's material content of earth-elements than has ever happened with any other human being. In every other human being a connection of the Phantom with these elements has occurred, and it is this that holds them together. In the case of Christ Jesus it was quite different. The ordinary law of inertia sees to it that certain material portions of a human body hold together after death in the form man has given them, until after some time they crumble away, so that hardly anything of them is visible. So it was with the material portions of the body of Christ Jesus. When the body was taken down from the Cross, the parts were still coherent, but they had no connection with the Phantom; the Phantom was completely free of them. When the body became permeated with certain substances, which in this case worked quite differently from the way in which they affect any other body that is embalmed, it came to pass that after the burial the material parts quickly volatilised and passed over into the elements. Hence the disciples who looked into the grave found the linen cloths in which the body had been wrapped, but the Phantom, on which the evolution of the Ego depends, had risen from the grave. It is not surprising that Mary of Magdala, who had known only the earlier Phantom when it was permeated by earthly elements, did not recognise the same form in the Phantom, now freed from terrestrial gravity, when she saw it clairvoyantly. It seemed to her different.

Commentary

The physical body of Jesus in wich Christ lived for 3 years was extremely weakened at the moment of crucifixion, and at the brink of turning into dust already. The ritual embalment was to preserve the body till the grave.

Not much was necessary after that for the body to fall apart into dust due to the earthquake, it volatilized and immersed into the elements and fell like dust into the crevice.the physical body in wich Christ abode in his 3 years was at the moment of crucifixion very damaged that it was at the brink to turn into dust. The ritual embalment was to preserve the body till the grave. It is thus the "volatilized" image and the dust that fall into the crevices opened.

Music

Passions

Passions are large-scale choral works telling of the suffering and death of Christ

Johann Sebastian Bach

Though sources state that Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote five passions, the two most famous are St John Passion and St Matthew Passion are two of Bach's most famous pieces of sacred music, telling the Biblical story of Jesus' crucifixion

The double chorus St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) written in 1727 is widely regarded as one of Bach's masterpieces, hailed as the greatest setting of the Passion story in Western music. It sets to music the 26th and 27th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. It is described as 'meditative, reflective, resigned'.

The St John Passion (BWV 245) written in 1724 sets to music Chapters 18 and 19 of John’s accounts of the crucifixion. It is shorter and has simpler orchestration than the St Matthew Passion and more 'earthly, faster, realistic'.

See wikipedia: St Matthew Passion

Good Friday

• 'Good Friday music' from the third act of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal

Seven Last Words of Christ

• 'The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross' is an orchestral work composed by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) in 1786 for the Good Friday service. He adapted the music three times: in 1787 for string quartet, in 1796 as an oratorio for solo and chorus, and thirdly in solo piano version.
• James MacMillan (1959- ) wrote 'Seven Last Words from the Cross', a cantata for choir and string orchestra commissioned by BBC Television for seven nightly episodes during Holy Week in 1994.

Related pages

• Easter
• Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha
• Christ Module 2 - Nature of the Christ being
• After the resurrection