Threefold Sun

Contemporary science regards Sun as a star in the center of our solar system, a physical body and sort of a huge nuclear plant where nuclear fission of matter takes place.

Ancient cultures, more correctly, saw the Sun as a divine being with three aspects: a source of light, life force, and love (1921-11-06-GA208) hence the threefold Sun.

The three aspects in more depth:

[1] for contemporary mineral science, the physical Sun is a gaseous body in the element air, that gives light and energy, warmth .. that Man experiences with current physical senses and waking consciousness.
[2] the spiritual Sun as the source of the higher ethers, invisible to Man, the life force contained in the sunlight that gives life to all living things; and this is also the 'I'-engendering Sun, the origin of the I thanks the Spirits of Form who have their 'dwelling' on this spiritual Sun
[3] the sun is also a mighly spiritual being, the source of the spiritual essence of the cosmos: universal goodness or spiritual love. This third, still-more-spiritual Sun is the Christ principle, as the mediator of the highest spiritual forces, which unites the outer Sun forces with the inner Sun forces in Man since the Mystery of Golgotha (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." With I.C.M. is meant exactly that Man unites with this Christ force, which is a latent buddhi spark in Man since the MoG.

This knowledge of the threefold sun is closely related to spiritual science and the wisdom knowledge in the ancient Mysteries (also symbolized with the so-called 'Palladium'), that disappeared around the fourth century as the Roman empire and church institutionalized Christianity as an exoteric religion, and fiercely eradicated all ancient Mystery knowledge.

Aspects

Relating to the teachings of the various cultural ages, the three aspects of the Sun are also (1921-11-06-GA211):
- [3] the aspect of the Sun according to Zarathustra: the Zarathustra Sun is the teaching of the spiritual Sun, the Sun as a mighty spiritual being
- [2] the aspect of the Sun that is associated with Osiris - the source of life (in contemporary spiritual scientific language: the higher ethers)
- [1] the aspect of the Sun as seen and understood by Pythagoras and Anaxagoras. What can be called the 'elemental Sun' is what the Greek initiates called Zeus: the Sun-flooded ether environment of the Earth, the working of the Sun in the ether that fills all the space around the Earth and permeates also Man himself.
  - This physical sun is a gaseous body in the element air, which corresponds to the body of Christ who detached himself into a body in element air during the Old Sun stage. (1911-08-26-GA129)

historical perspective

in the third Egypto-Chaldean cultural age
- pharaoh Akhenaten (or Echnaton or Akhenaton or Ankh-en-Aton) was noted for abandoning Egypt's traditional polytheism and introducing monotheistic worship of the Sun God or Aten. See oa Great Hymn to Aten - see Daskalos#Note 2 - Monotheism at the time of pharaoh Ankh-en-Aton
- in ancient Egypt one differentiated between Khepri, Ra, and Atum as different aspects of the sun god
  - Khepri, often depicted as a scarab beetle, represent the rising sun and new beginnings, renewal and rebirth.
  - Ra, often depicted as a falcon head and sun disk, was the sun god at midday, at its peak, associated with power, the creator of the world
  - Atum,was linked to the setting sun and the end of the day and old age,as well as the concept of of returning to the primordial waters, of pre-existence and post-existence.
in the fourth Greco-Latin cultural age
- Roman emperor Constantine the Great (272- 337), emperor from AD 306 to 337, converted to Christianity in 312 and edict of Milan in 313 removed the prosecution of the Christians. The later emperor Theodosius would declaring Christianity the official state religion with the edict of Thessalonica in 380. See below from Discussion Note 2: "the knowledge of the mystery of the sun was taken away from it by the very emperor who had established Christianity outwardly in its forms. In the outward, worldly fortification of Christianity by Constantine, Christianity lost the wisdom of the world" and "Constantine, by giving the Romans outward Christianity, took away their wisdom, their light, and sent Christianity into darkness"
- Roman emperor Julian the Apostate (331-363) was murdered because he wanted to re-institute the mystery of the spiritual sun and the sun's threefolded nature (1921-11-06-GA211). He declared that the Sun has three aspects: [1] the aspect of the Earthly ether; [2] the aspect of the light of heaven that is behind the Earthly ether (the chemical, the warmth of fire, and the life forces); [3] the aspect of pure spiritual Being.
- see also topic page: 325 and Transition between 4th and 14th century

symbols

The Palladium is an important symbol for the Threefold Sun and related center of primordial wisdom. Legend states that it originates in the secret Mysteries of Troy. It first saw the light when it was transported from Troy to Rome. Later, it was transferred from Rome to Constantinople on the orders of Constantine, as part of a plan hoping to save the Roman empire from decline (1917-04-17-GA175). The legend states that it will see the light of day a third time when it is transported from Constantinople to a Slavic city.
- see coverage in Discussion Note 2 below.
the triple crown worn by the Popes of Rome is a remnant outer symbol of the threefold Sun without its inner meaning (1922-04-24-GA211), see also papal tiara, the three-tiered form is also called the triregnum, triple tiara, or triple crown.

Inspirational quotes

From the 'Great Hymn to the Sun God Aten', probably around 14th century BC

O sole god, like whom there is no other
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire
..

You are in my heart

1903-12-21-GA088 From a winter solstice ceremony as held in the ancient Egyptian temples

"Horus, you who are the sun in the kingdom of the spirit and you who send us the light of wisdom just as the sun bestows upon us the light of the world, lead us so that in the end we will no longer be what we are today." ...
"Horus, you sun in the kingdom of spirit, you who bestow upon us love, just as the sun is the bestower of warming forces, which draw forth the forces of the plants and fruits, so that we can become what we are not yet." ...

"Horus, you sun in the kingdom of the spirit, bestow upon us your strength, just as the sun bestows upon the physical world its strength, with which it dissipates the darkest clouds and spreads light everywhere."

1923-07-27-GA228

In the Sun realm is the power which imbues warmth in the element of necessity in destiny,
which transmutes destiny into freedom in its flame,
and if freedom is misused, which condenses it once more into its own active substance.
The Sun is, as it were, the flame in which freedom becomes a luminous reality in the World-All, and at the same time the Sun is the substance, as condensed ashes, in which misused freedom is molded into destiny, until destiny itself can become luminous and pass over into the flame of freedom.

Illustrations

Threefold Sun

Schema FMC00.267 provides a summary table regarding the threefold Sun, taken from Elisabeth Vreede's letter from Dec. 1927

Schema FMC00.139 is an illustration of the threefold Sun by Johanna von Keyserlingk (1879-1966).

She was clairvoyant, some of her esoteric conversations with Rudolf Steiner are published in 'Birth of a new agriculture' (1999).

Palladium

Schema FMC00.684: shows various ancient illustrations of the ancient Greek deity Pallas Athena, and (middle) 'possibly' the Palladium (in Latin) or Palladion (in Greek), a.o. on vases and coins. Note the remarkable consistency over the centuries from the 4th century BC to 2nd century CE.

These are most probably illustrations of symbolic statues of Pallas Athena, and with these it is not implied that these images depict what is described by Rudolf Steiner as the Palladium, as (1) the Palladium has a clear symbolic and esoteric meaning beyond the purely physical material object (2) the Palladium was always said to be held in secrecy, hidden in a temple, or buried. However, Pallas-Athena was an important deity in ancient cultures, so logically there were exoteric symbols to refer to it.

See coverage on: Threefold Sun#Note 2 - The Palladium as a symbol of the secret of the sun

Various

Schema FMC00.266 shows how the spiritual Sun [1] works on Earth and Man [2]; also, that Man radiates this morality out into the cosmos [3], and after a certain distance this is reflected: "the physical sun is only the seemingly physical appearance of a spiritual mirroring" [4].

For this radiating out [3], see also Seeds for future worlds and Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension

Illustrations from the lecture 1920-12-18-GA202

Lecture coverage and references

1903-12-21-GA088

sketches an image of the winter solstice ceremony in an Egyptian temple, where three priests brought out a picture of Horus

"Horus, you who are the sun in the kingdom of the spirit and you who send us the light of wisdom
just as the sun bestows upon us the light of the world, lead us so that in the end we will no longer be what we are today."
...
"Horus, you sun in the kingdom of spirit, you who bestow upon us love,
just as the sun is the bestower of warming forces, which draw forth the forces of the plants and fruits, so that we can become what we are not yet."
...
"Horus, you sun in the kingdom of the spirit, bestow upon us your strength,

just as the sun bestows upon the physical world its strength, with which it dissipates the darkest clouds and spreads light everywhere."

for full extract, see: Egypto-Chaldean cultural age#1903-12-21-GA088

1911-08-26-GA129

see quote on Sun

1913-05-18-GA266/3

extracts from records A, B .. are from the book version

for online version quote see also Symbol of rose cross#1913-05-18-GA266/3

from record A (SWCC)

First of all, there are two Suns: the physical Sun that enlivens the physical Earth through its rays of light and warmth, and the spiritual Sun that gives us the 'I'. From the spiritual Sun forces, human beings receive the 'I'-force - the consciousness of self that unites with the Moon forces, and so on - in order to bring about the whole being of the human being.
Then we must grasp a third Sun, namely the mediator of the highest spiritual forces, which unites the outer Sun forces with the inner Sun forces, and which sends its forces of grace onto the Earth, and has ever since the Mystery of Golgotha took place. This spiritual Sun is the Christ principle: it is what human beings can experience within themselves when they truly comprehend the statement of Paul: "Not I, but Christ in me." (Galatians 2:20).
This third Sun was always revealed to the candidate for initiation in the centers of Christian initiation. It was a great tragedy that Julian the Apostate (331-363), who knew about this third Sun, could not inwardly experience it completely.

from record B

.. the "I" takes hold of and grasps itself in our memory. High beings have given us the 'I' and memory. The 'I' grasping itself in the memory is like a letter that esotericists must learn, and which the gods have written in cosmic space.
The high beings who bring the 'I' have their dwelling on the Sun; they give us what goes from incarnation to incarnation. We received our physical bodies from forces that work down through the generations, and these forces work upon us from a circle inscribed by the Moon orbit. What goes thus from generation to generation is like a second letter. We can draw this schematically. We will draw the 'I', which becomes conscious in the memory as a point. Around this we draw a circle as the orbit of the Moon.
...
From the Sun, we receive the forces that strengthen our 'I'. We should not just passively observe the Sun, but allow the thought to arise: Oh, you magnificent cosmic body! Through you—through your Sun forces of grace—I received my 'I' and all the forces that are connected with it. In all-filled reverence, I thank you! We can draw the Sun forces as a second circle.
...
Between the collaboration of Mars and Venus is the Sun circle of the third Sun. All the Mysteries have talked about this third Sun.

The first [Sun] is the creative physical one that sends us its warming rays.

The second stands behind the physical Sun and is the spiritual Sun which bestows the I upon us.

The third Sun is the high bearer of the Christ principle: the Christ who grants us, with his Sun forces of grace, the higher 'I'. Since the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, a connection goes from this third Sun to the Earth. It is the Sun of which Paul spoke: "Not I, but Christ in me." It is the Christ, whom every human being can receive since [the Mystery of Golgotha]. This third Sun became manifest to the candidate during the Christian initiation. The tragic fate of Julian the Apostate is that he knew of the third Sun and could not identify it with Christ.

from record C

Let us consider such an esoteric script sign. We must first of all regard the human being as a conscious I, established in a 'self'. All human beings possess the ability to remember back to a certain point. This occurs because they are conscious of their 'I'.
...
We strengthen 'I'-consciousness when we bring interest to all things that confront us in the outer world. ... We may not become indifferent toward the things and facts around us; we should take everything in. ... We should look at and pay attention to everything—which includes what we don't like or find interesting. Through this the I-consciousness is increasingly strengthened.
Let us imagine that this 'I' established itself as this point in cosmic space: In order for such an 'I' to experience itself and become active in the physical body, forces must be involved. These forces can be imagined as the circle around the point O.
...
And when love intensifies more and more in the human soul, this love becomes warmth that flows down to us from Saturn. Between Mars and Venus is the Sun, yet not just one Sun but a threefold Sun: a physical Sun; a spiritual Sun behind the physical; and a still more spiritual Sun that we call the Christ.

1913-06-01-GA266/3

As esotericists, when we see the sunlight we no longer see just the physical Sun. We know that without the sunlight, we could not feel ourselves as an I: the sunlight also contains the force which brings about the I. .. and behind the physical Sun, and the 'I'-engendering Sun, there is yet a third Sun. This is the Christ-force with which we unite ourselves: I.C.M.

1913-12-31-GA149

.. .. the Greeks reverenced Apollo, the reflection of the Nathan Jesus-child as he had been at the end of the Atlantean time. It was out of the Hyperborean land, from the North, that Apollo came to the Oracle at Delphi. Through the Pythia, in summer, he spoke the most important things that the Greeks wished to hear. In the autumn he returned to his Hyperborean land. We connected this journey of Apollo with the journeys of the sun; but it is the spiritual sun that speaks through Apollo, and the spiritual sun goes away to the north, while the physical sun goes to the south. The myths are seen to be endlessly full of wisdom if they are considered in the light of true occultism. But in revering Apollo the Greeks did not look on the sun as his visible sign in the heavens; Apollo was not a sun god in this sense. For a god symbolised by the external sun the Greeks had Helios; it was he who regulated the course of the sun in the sky.
Even if we take only the physical sun into account, we find that its influence on earth-life is not confined to the direct effects of its rays. The sun works in the first place through air and water and water-vapour, and so through the vapours which (as we have seen) rise from the site of the Castalian spring and coil round the neighbouring hillsides like a dragon — the dragon killed by the Greek St. George. The sun works in all the elements, and after it has worked into them, inoculated them, its activity plays out from them on to human beings, through the servants whom we call elemental spirits. In the elements the Sun-Spirit is actively alive, and this is the activity the Greeks saw in their Apollo.
Thus for the Greeks Apollo was a sun god, but not the Helios who drove the chariot of the sun across the heavens and to some extent regulated the times of the day. In Apollo the Greeks saw the sun's activity in the atmosphere, and this activity they addressed as Apollo when they addressed it spiritually.

1917-04-17-GA175

is on the Palladium

[Constantine's interventions hoping to save the Roman empire from decline]
You will now understand more clearly why the Senators and the Roman Emperors were alarmed, for they naturally associated the decline that was prophesied with the external empire which they saw slowly crumble under the impact of Christianity.
And the emperor Constantine shared this view. Although not himself initiated, he was aware that a primordial wisdom had once existed in ancient times when man possessed atavistic clairvoyance. This wisdom had been transmitted to later ages, had been preserved by the priesthood, but had gradually become corrupted. In Rome too, Constantine said to himself: our social order embodies something that is associated with the institutions of this primordial wisdom, but we have simply buried it beneath the social order of a materialistic and secular empire. This was expressed in a pregnant symbol that is an “Imagination”, and not only an “Imagination”, but also an historical cult act, for these “Imaginations” often took the form of cult acts.
People knew that in earlier times wisdom was not an arbitrary invention of Man but was a revelation from the spiritual worlds. They knew that in primordial times priests had preserved this wisdom, not in Rome, of course, but across the sea in Ilion, in Troy where they originally dwelt. And this is expressed in the legend of the palladium, the so-called image of Pallas Athene which fell from Heaven in Troy, was preserved in a sanctuary, was then transferred to Rome and buried under a porphyry pillar. In all that was connected with this symbolical cult act people felt that they were able to trace back their civilization to the ancient wisdom which they had received from the spiritual world, but that they could not reach the heights which this wisdom had known in ancient Troy.
Such were the feelings Constantine harboured; and he also felt that even if he were to be initiated into the later Mysteries, they would be of little help to him; they would not lead him to the palladium, to the ancient primordial wisdom. He therefore decided to challenge the cosmic powers after his own fashion in order to save the Roman empire from destruction. He realized that this must be achieved in accordance with certain cosmic impulses and that it would have to take place in accordance with certain cult acts which were publicly enacted for all the world to see.
He decided therefore to transfer the capital from Rome to the site of ancient Troy, to have the palladium dug up and taken back to Troy. The plan miscarried.
Instead of establishing a new Rome on the site of Troy, he decided to found a new city, Constantinople, transfer the power to her and thus save declining Rome for future ages. By these means Constantine hoped to stem the tide of world evolution. He was prepared for Rome to become the habitat of foxes and wolves as the Sibylline oracle had foretold, but at the same time he wished to transfer the hidden impulses of Rome to a new site and so restore them to their original source.
[Founding of Constantinople]
Constantine therefore embarked upon the ambitious plan to found Constantinople, and the work was completed in A.D. 326. He intended that the foundation of the city should coincide with this turning-point in world history. He therefore chose to lay the foundation stone at the moment when the Sun stood in the sign of the Archer and the Crab ruled the hour. He followed closely the indications of the cosmic signs.
He wished to make Constantinople famous and to transfer to her the enduring impulse of eternal Rome. He therefore had the porphyry pillar (which was later destroyed by storms) transported to Constantinople. He ordered the palladium to be dug up and to be placed beneath the pillar. He also treasured among his possessions some relics of the Cross and a few nails that had originally secured the Cross. The relics of the Cross were made into a kind of frame to hold a much prized statue of Apollo and the nails into a nimbus with which he was crowned. This statue was set up on the porphyry pillar and an inscription was engraved on it which read somewhat as follows: That which sheds its beneficent influence here shall, like the Sun, endure for all time and proclaim the fame of its founder Constantine to all eternity! These things must of course be taken more or less imaginatively, but with this qualification, that they refer at all times to actual historical events.
This whole story has passed over into legend and, transmuted, lives on in the following legend:

the palladium which is a symbol for a particular centre of primordial wisdom had been deposited originally in the secret Mystery Centres of the priest-initiates of Troy.

It came to light for the first time when it was transported by circuitous routes from Troy to Rome.

It saw the light of day a second time when it was transferred from Rome to Constantinople on the orders of Constantine.

And those who believe the legend say that it will see the light of day a third time when it is transported from Constantinople to a Slavonic city. This legend is still vitally alive and survives in many things and under manifold forms. Today many things which appear in their purely physical aspects conceal a deeper layer of meaning.
Constantine therefore actively strove to prevent the downfall of the Roman empire in spite of his firm belief in the prophecy of the Sibylline oracle. He wanted to save Rome from herself.

1918-08-24-GA183

threefold sun mystery of ancient times, eg in Greece

spiritual essence is the universal goodness of the world and cosmos, love
soul aspect (Helios)
physical: light and energy

1920-12-18-GA202

spiritual and physical sun

Then a time arrived when the heavenly bodies were seen as purely physical entities orbiting or standing still in accordance with mathematical laws, attracting and repulsing each other and so on. Yet a knowledge—more instinctive in ancient times—of how things really are was retained through all eras. We are now in a period when instinctive knowledge is not sufficient, and full awareness is required to grasp things that were once known instinctively.
And if we ask how those who had full vision of the universe, that is, physical, soul and spiritual vision, pictured the sun, we can roughly state that they conceived it as a spirit being [1]. Initiates conceived this spirit being as the source of all morality. And when I said in The Philosophy of Freedom that moral intuitions are drawn from this source, they are drawn in fact from within the earth and shimmer forth from human beings—from what can live in us as moral inspiration [2].
How greatly is our sense of responsibility enhanced if we know that without people on the earth, who can kindle authentic morality or glowing spiritual ideals in their soul, the human race would not aid our world's further evolution. Rather than working towards a new creation,they would help the world to die away.
This power of radiance present upon earth [3] works out into the universe, so that what lives as morality in us shines out - invisibly initially for ordinary human perception.
If a sad age dawned across the globe when millions and millions of people passed their days devoid of spirituality - in which I included morality, which is indeed part of it - the earth would however still shine out in solar, spiritual radiance if only a dozen people still possessed lucid moral and spiritual enthusiasm.
What shines out in this way only does so for a certain distance, where it is then reflected back upon itself, thus mirroring what shines out from the human being.
Initiates of all ages have seen this mirroring as the sun. You see, there is nothing physical there: whereas mainstream astronomy speaks of a glowing ball of gas, in fact the sun is only the seemingly physical appearance of a spiritual mirroring [4].
You can therefore see how far removed the Copernican world-view was from initiation mysteries, how far removed from them even was ancient astrology. Huge power was possessed by those who considered such truths dangerous for the common populace to know about, not wishing them to be publicized.
We can get a sense of this in the fate of an idealist such as Julian who was given the epithet of 'Apostate'. He wanted to make these secrets more widely known, and was then killed by subversive means.
There are certainly reasons why some secret societies refuse to share universal truths with the world, since this allows them to wield power. If, in emperor Julian's time, certain secret societies had him killed, it is scarcely surprising if the guardians of particular secrets—who keep these secrets to themselves and wish to safeguard them from public knowledge in order to enlarge their power—hate it when even the least of such secrets are disclosed. And here we find part of the deeper reason why such dire hatred raises its head against what the science of the spirit feels its duty to teach humanity in our modern era. But we live now in a period when either earthly civilization will go under, or when, alternatively, humanity is given access to certain secrets. These things have hitherto been safeguarded as secrets, to which humanity once had access through instinctive clairvoyance. But they must now be reacquired through fully conscious vision not only of the physical world but also of the spirit within it.
What did Julian the Apostate really want?
He sought to awaken people to the fact that they had become increasingly accustomed to seeing the sun as only a physical entity, but that a spiritual sun exists of which the physical sun is only a reflection. In his own way he wanted to impart the secret of Christ to the world.
But there are powers that seek to conceal the connection between Christ, the spiritual sun, and the physical sun. And this is why certain figures in positions of power become most furious of all when anyone discloses the secret of Christ in relation to the secret of the sun. This leads to all kinds of slander. But the science of the spirit is an important matter in our present age, and only if we understand this, will we give it the full and serious attention it deserves.

1921-10-29-GA208

The other planets do not appear as light sources but as images. This is why it is said in popular astronomy that their light is borrowed light, for they reflect the light of the sun. Just consider the difference between the sun, which lets its own essential nature emerge with the light, and the other heavenly bodies, the planets, which merely present an image of their outer nature, or of whatever they have on the surface, making this visible by reflecting the light of the sun. It is a major difference. And being the source of light, the sun is also the source of life.
It is also the source of something else. At all times, even when people had only instinctive knowledge, it was said that the sun was threefold, the source of light, life and love. This trinity is to be found in the sun.
Sun is:

source of light

source of life

source of love

1921-11-06-GA208

is called 'The Sun mystery in the course of human history'

quote A

This experience of the sun sank more and more deeply into man's being and gradually vanished into the ocean-depths of the soul. And it is in the ocean-depths of the soul that man bears the sun-nature today. It is beyond his reach, because the Guardian of the Threshold stands before it; it lies in the depths of being as a mystery of which the ancient teachings said: Let it not be uttered — for sinful is the mouth that speaks of it and sinful the ear that hears of it.
In the fourth century A.D. there were schools which taught that the sun-mystery must remain untold, that a civilization knowing nothing of the sun-mystery must now arise. Behind everything that takes place in the external world lie forces and powers which give guidance from the universe. One of the instruments of these guiding powers was the Roman Emperor Constantine. It was under him that Christianity assumed the form which denies the sun.
Living in that same century was one whose ardor for what he had learnt in the Mysteries as the last remnants of the ancient, instinctive wisdom, caused him to attach little importance to the development of contemporary civilization. This was Julian the Apostate. He fell by the hand of a murderer because he was intent upon passing on this ancient tradition of the threefold Mystery of the Sun. And the world would have none of it.
Today, of course, it must be realized that the old instinctive wisdom must become conscious wisdom, that what has sunk into the subconsciousness, into purely organic activity and even into sub-organic activity, must once again be lifted into the light of consciousness. We must re-discover the Sun-Mystery.
But just as when the Sun-Mystery had been lost, bitter enemies rose up against the one who wished this mystery to be proclaimed to the world, and brought about his death, so again enemies are working against the new Sun-Mysteries which must be brought to the world by spiritual science. We are living now at the other pole of historical evolution. In the fourth century A.D. there was sunset; now there must be sunrise.
...
Physically it appears as though the sun gives the planets light, but in reality it is the planets that radiate light to the sun and the sun is the reflector. As such it was recognized by the wise men of ancient Persia with their instinctive wisdom, and in this sense the sun was regarded as the earthly source of Light — not indeed as the source itself, but as the reflector of the Light. Then, among the Egyptians and Chaldeans, the sun became the reflector of Life and among the Greeks, the reflector of Love.
This was the conception that Julian the Apostate wanted to preserve — and he was done away with. In order to reach freedom it was indeed necessary that men should hold for a time to the superstition of the sun as a globe of gas in space, giving out light — a superstition enunciated as a categorical truth in every book of physics today. But our task must be to penetrate to the reality.
In truth, Julian the Apostate and Constantine stand before us as two symbols ... Julian the Apostate was bent upon preserving those ancient memorials of the world which could, in a certain way, have made it possible for the true Sun-Mystery to find its way to men. Indeed during the first centuries of Christendom, Christ was still a Sun-Figure — an Apollo.

quote B - including Palladium

[Threefold Sun Mystery]
We are no longer aware of the fact that on awakening we bring light into our eyes. Light is a shadowy element outside us. This meant that the Greeks were no longer able to perceive the sun as the true source of life but as something which penetrated them inwardly. To them, the element in which the sun lives inwardly in human beings was the element of Eros, love. Eros, the sun-element in man, was the true inner experience of the Greeks. Thus the sun was seen as the source of divine love.
Then, from about the 4th century onwards came the age when the sun was experienced as no more than a physical body, a sphere of vapour, out there in space. The sun had, in fact, become obscured for humanity.
Persians truly felt the sun to be the reflector of the light which billowed and lived in space with tremendous vigour.
The Egyptians and Chaldeans saw it as life billowing and pulsing through the universe.
The Greeks experienced it as something which instilled love into organic nature, as Eros guiding them through the waves of the emotions.
Entering more and more into the human being, experience of the sun vanished into the deep down depths of soul. Today we carry the sun element down in those depths. We are not meant to reach it, because the Guardian of the Threshold stands before it, and because it is in the depths of which it was said in the ancient mysteries that no utterance should be given, for sinful were the lips which uttered it, and sinful the ear which heard it.

Schools existed in the 4th century who essentially taught, to allow Christianity to spread: The Sun Mystery must not be revealed; a civilization has to come where the Sun Mystery is not known. Behind everything which happens in the physical world are the inner powers which, I'd say, are teaching out of the universe. The Roman emperor Constantine (306-337) was one of the instruments of those powers. Under him, Christianity took the form in which the sun is denied.

Another emperor, Julian the Apostate, took less account of developments in his day but let himself be guided by his enthusiasm for the last remnants of the old instinctive wisdom learned from his mystery teachers. He was murdered because he sought to restore the old tradition of the threefold Sun Mystery. The world did not want to take that road.

Today we have to realize that the old, instinctive wisdom needs to be revived in conscious wisdom. Wisdom which has gone down to subconscious levels, into mere organic, and even sub-organic, activity needs to be brought back to consciousness. The Sun Mystery must be found again.
When the Sun Mystery was in the process of being lost, Julian, who still wanted the world to be aware of it, made the most terrible enemies who finally killed him. Today we have enemies who are against the new Sun Mystery which anthroposophy must give to the world. Historical evolution now follows the opposite trend. The 4th century brought the decline; today we need the rise.
In this respect Constantine and Julian are symbols of historical evolution. Julian may be said to have stood on the shattered ruins of the past, wanting to rebuild the forms of the old wisdom out of those ruins. The old forms had been destroyed by Christianity, which initially, under Constantine, had taken materialistic form. Countless works of art, works of ancient wisdom and written works were destroyed, anything that might give people even a hint of the old Sun Mystery.
[Current view of the Sun]
It is true that in order to achieve freedom, humanity had to come to believe that a sphere of gases moved through the universe out there, though physicists who would be able to go there would be really surprised, for instead of a sphere of gases they would find an empty space, indeed less than space. They would discover that the sun out there is not a sphere of luminous gases (which is a nonsense) but in the first place just a reflector, unable to radiate light and at most merely reflecting it. In the spirit, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus and the moon radiate light. Physically the sun appears to be shining on them, but in reality they radiate light towards the sun, which acts as a reflector. This is the physical reality.
The ancient Persians were still able to perceive the sun as the source of light for the Earth, but not an actual source but a reflector. Later it became the reflector of life and the reflector of love.
Julian the Apostate wanted people to understand this and was got rid off because of this. To achieve freedom, humanity had to go through superstitious belief in a sphere of gases radiating light—something we see represented as the absolute truth in modern physics textbooks. Now we must penetrate to the truth of the matter again.
In this respect, therefore, Constantine and Julian are very much like two symbols. Julian wanted to preserve the old traditions so that the true Sun Mystery might still reach people. During the early centuries, the Christ was still an Apollo or Sun figure.
[Palladium]
The Sun Mystery was seen as the most precious jewel humanity possessed. It was symbolized in the Palladium, which was said to have been kept in Troy, where the mystery priests used it to reveal the true nature of the sun to people in ritual, sacramental form.
It was then taken to Rome, and part of the secret knowledge held by Roman initiates was that the Palladium was in safe keeping in Rome. Essentially the initiate priests of ancient Rome, and also the early emperors of Rome, above all Augustus, based their actions on the knowledge that the greatest jewel the world possessed, or at least its physical symbol, was in Rome. The Palladium had been placed beneath the foundations of the most highly esteemed temple in Rome, a fact only known to those who knew the deepest secrets of Roman life. Through the spirit, it had, however, also become known to those whose role it was to bring Christianity to the world. The early Christians went to Rome because of this. So there was a definite spiritual element.
When Christianity was secularized under Constantine, the Palladium was removed from Rome. Constantine founded Constantinople and had the Palladium put in the ground under the column he erected to himself. The further development of Roman Christianity was that the Sun mystery was taken away by the very emperor who established the rigid forms, rigid mechanisms, of Christianity in Rome. With this, Christendom has lost the wisdom of the world, the outward sign of this being the transfer of the Palladium from Rome to Constantinople.
In some parts of the Slavonic world—people always put their own interpretation on this—it was believed until the beginning of the 20th century that in the not too far distant future the Palladium would be taken from Constantinople to another city, in their belief a Slav city.
[Move to the East, mention China and Washington]
Whichever way this may be, the Palladium—you may take the whole as an outer symbol, but it is the inner aspect which matters—is waiting to go forth from Constantinople, which is casting darkness on it, to a place where it will be totally obscured. The Palladium is thus taken to the East, where the old wisdom lives in decadence and growing obscurity.
Just as the Sun is a reflector of light given to it from the universe, everything depends on it in the further evolution of the world that the Palladium be illumined by a wisdom arising from the treasury of insight gained in the West. The Palladium, heirloom of the past taken from Troy to Rome and then to Constantinople, and to be taken even further into the darkness of the East, the Palladium, jewel of the Sun, must wait until in the West grows in mind and spirit and is able to release it from the dark, obscured treasury of insight limited to the natural world. Our mission for the future is thus linked to the most sacred tradition of European development.
To this day, then, legends are still alive for those initiated into these mysteries, some of them very plain, simple people who walk about on this earth. Legends are still alive of the Trojan Palladium being taken to Rome, of the Palladium jewel of wisdom, being taken to Constantinople when Roman Christianity became worldly and superficial, and that it shall be taken to the East one day when all the old wisdom will have been stripped away in the East, having fallen into utter decadence, and legends that speak of the need to bring new light from the West to this Sun jewel.
The Sun has vanished into the depths of human nature. We have to find it again by developing the science of the spirit. Humanity must find this Sun again, or the Palladium will vanish into the obscurity of the East. Today it is sinful to utter words that are wrong: "Ex oriente lux". The light can no longer come from the East, which has fallen into decadence. Yet the East, which will have the Sun jewel, however obscured, is waiting for the light of the West.
Today, people walk in the darkness, arrange to meet in the dark, their eyes turned to—Washington. Salvation, however, will only come from Washingtons able to speak out of the mood of the spiritual world in such a way that they not only open economic gates for China, looking for the darkness which surrounds the Palladium. Salvation will only come when conferences held in the West decide to take light to the East, letting the Palladium shine out again.
Like a fluorescent body, the Palladium in itself is dark; it shines out when light streams into it. The same holds true for the wisdom of the East. Dark in itself, it will be illumined and fluoresce when the wisdom of the West, the light of the spirit from the West, enters into it.
The people of the West are as yet unable to see this. The legend of the Palladium needs to be placed in the bright light of consciousness.
We must feel the right kind of compassion for Julian the Apostate who wanted to close his eyes to the age when the light of freedom would be able to germinate in the darkness, who wanted to preserve the instinctive wisdom of old and therefore had to perish. We have to realize that Constantine took the light of wisdom from the Romans by giving them a worldly Christianity, sending Christianity into the darkness. We have to realize that the light which will let the Palladium shine out again must be sought in modern science. Only then will an important step in world history come to fulfilment. Only then will the Palladium, which became Western the moment the Greeks burned down Troy and which still holds the light that shone from Troy, become Western and Eastern. It is now in the dark and must be brought out of the dark. Light must be brought to the Palladium.
We can win enthusiasm from historical evolution if our hearts are in the right place. If they are, in the sense of what I have been presenting today, we shall also be able to find the right response to the impulses which are the true impulses of the science of the spirit.

1922-04-24-GA211

In GA211 is the lecture: 'Die dreifache Sonne und der auferstandene Christus.'

the threefold sun (oa eating bread as a symbol of the spiritual forces of the sun in earthly food, read: the higher ethers, life power)

quote A

When came a time when man was no longer able to penetrate so deeply into the Mysteries of the worlds,—the time that I have named, in my Occult Science, after the civilisations of Chaldea and Egypt. Man still looked up to the Sun, but he no longer saw it as radiant, as sending forth rays; he saw it only as shining, as illuminating the Earth with its light. Men spoke in those times of Ra, whose representative on Earth was Osiris; Ra signified for them the Sun that moved round the Earth, giving light. Some of the secrets had been lost; the initiate was no longer able to see with full inner clarity the radiant cosmic God, as had the initiates of an older time. He could only see how the primal astral forces come from the Sun. Zarathustra saw in the Sun a Being, he was still able to see in the Sun a Being. The initiates of Egypt and of Chaldea saw in the Sun the forces that come to, the Earth,—forces of light, forces of movement. What they saw was deeds,—something inferior of Being; spiritual deeds, it is true, but not a spiritual Being. And the Egyptian initiates spoke of One who represents on Earth the forces of the Sun that man carries within him; and they called him Osiris.
When we come to the age of Greece, we find that by the eighth, seventh, fifth century before the Mystery of Golgotha, man had lost all power of looking into the Mysteries of the Sun, he could see only the effect of the Sun's influence in the environment or the Earth. Man beheld the working of the Sun in the ether that fills all the space around the Earth. And this ether, that spreads out around the Earth and permeates also man himself, the Greek initiates — not the people generally, but the initiates — called Zeus.
There have been then these three stages in the cultural evolution of mankind. First there was the stage when the initiates beheld in the Sun a Divine-Spiritual Being; then came a second stage, when the initiates beheld the Sun's forces that are working there; and finally a third stage, when the initiates beheld only the influence of the Sun Being in the Earth's ether. Now, there was in a later time a man who came as near to the teachings of initiation as it was possible to come in the time in which he lived, and who was acquainted with the teaching of these three aspects of the Sun — the aspect of the Sun according to Zarathustra, the aspect of the Sun that is associated with Osiris, and the aspect of the Sun as seen and understood by Pythagoras and Anaxagoras. I refer to Julian the Apostate. Julian the Apostate was not able himself to behold the Sun in all three aspects, but he knew of the teaching; he knew it as a tradition that had come down in the Mystery Schools. And so impressed was Julian the Apostate by this teaching of the three aspects of the Sun that to him that which Christianity brought seemed small in comparison. ...
.. A study of history can, however, bring to light something else in this connection, that is of very great significance. A good deal of this threefold teaching of Zarathustra, Osiris, and Anaxagoras —

the teaching of the spiritual Sun; of

the elemental Sun; and of

Zeus, the Sun-flooded ether environment of the Earth — found its way into the external exoteric culture of Greece

...
I have to call these things to mind; the consideration of the subject we have in hand made it necessary to begin by referring to them — taking our thoughts back, even if only for a brief while, to the far-off time when the spiritual teachers of man could still turn their gaze to the starry heavens and behold up there the threefold Sun. The only remnant of this knowledge that has been left for later generations is the symbol of it in the triple crown worn by the Popes of Rome. The outer symbol remains; the inner reality is lost. But through the new initiation of modern times, a way has, opened once again for man to look back into those earlier epochs of his evolution. This new initiation of which our anthroposophical teaching has to tell enables us to look back and behold how, it was for Man, when he looked up from Earth to the Sun and listened to hear what the Sun should teach him of the mysteries of human evolution.

quote B - full extract on Individuality of Julian the Apostate#1922-04-24-GA211

Julian the Apostate declared that the Sun has three aspects:
first, the aspect of the Earthly ether;

secondly, the aspect of the light of heaven that is behind the Earthly ether, which is the aspect also of the chemical, the warmth of fire, and the life forces;

and lastly, the aspect of pure spiritual Being.
For this he was put out of the way. And indeed it must be admitted that the moment had not yet come when mankind in general was ripe to receive such weighty and solemn truths.

1923-07-27-GA228

Johanna von Keyserlingk

talks about a conversations with Rudolf Steiner:

We know that at the moment when Christ's blood flowed down onto the earth at Golgotha a new sun-globe was born in the Earth's interior.
My search had always been directed to the study of the earth's depths, for I had seen a golden kernel light up within the Earth - named by Ptolemy the primeval sun. These golden depths I could only connect with that land which Rudolf Steiner said had been hidden from the sight of man, and that Christ would open the gates in order to lead those who seek for it to the submerged fairy-tale land of Shamb-halla, of which the Indians dream.
I asked him what substance kept the primeval fire alight, for where there is fire there must first be substance, and so the primeval fire is not the beginning which produces original life out of itself.
Rudolf Steiner replied: `No, it is different—it is not so in this case. On earth there has to be material for fire to bum. But the primeval fire burns spontaneously, it is its own substance and being! Substance only came later and was added to the Fire.'
I: 'Then is the primeval sun of Ptolemy, which he perceived in the center of the Earth as the creative ground of the world, the golden fairyland Shambhalla?'
Rudolf Steiner: 'Yes—and midnight conceals it.'
...
I: 'And is the interior of the earth made out of that gold which comes from the hollow cavity in the sun and which is destined to return there?'
Rudolf Steiner: 'Yes, the interior of the Earth is of gold.'

Philolaus' central fire

Philolaus (470-385 BC), a Pythagorean philosopher and regarded by some as his successor, did away with the ideas of fixed direction in space, and developed one of the first non-geocentric views of the universe. His new way of thinking quite literally revolved around a hypothetical astronomical object he called the Central Fire.

In Philolaus's system a sphere of the fixed stars, the five planets, the Sun, Moon and Earth, all moved round his Central Fire.

According to Aristotle writing in Metaphysics, Philolaus added a tenth unseen body, he called Counter-Earth, as without it there would be only nine revolving bodies, and the Pythagorean number theory required a tenth.

Nearly two-thousand years later Nicolaus Copernicus would mention in 'De revolutionibus' that Philolaus already knew about the Earth's revolution around a central fire.

5th century AD - Joannes Stobaeus on Philolaus

Joannes Stobaeus (5th century AD) gives the following account

Philolaus says that there is fire in the middle at the center [...] and again more fire at the highest point and surrounding everything. By nature the middle is first, and around it dance ten divine bodies—the sky, the planets, then the sun, next the moon, next the earth, next the counter-Earth, and after all of them the fire of the hearth which holds position at the center. The highest part of the surrounding, where the elements are found in their purity, he calls Olympus; the regions beneath the orbit of Olympus, where are the five planets with the sun and the moon, he calls the world; the part under them, being beneath the moon and around the earth, in which are found generation and change, he calls the sky.

2008 - Carl Huffman on Philolaus Carl Huffman writes in 'Philolaus and the central fire' (2008):

Philolaus' decision to posit an unobserved and unobservable central fire in the middle of the cosmos is one of the most puzzling moments in early Greek cosmology. The consequences of this were, eventually, epoch making. ... .. Note Aristotle does not assign the central-fire cosmology to Philolaus by name but rather to the Pythagoreans as a group. His pupil Theophrastus however later did assign this cosmology to Philolous and no one else.

Discussion

Note 1 - The Mystery of Golgotha and Christ as the center of a new cosmos of love

Various worldviews put the center of the cosmos in different places (re Pythagoras, Ptolemaeus and Copernicus).

The threefold sun demands to contemplate all three Suns, see the drawing of Schema FMC00.139.

Which Sun to regard as 'the' center, then? the physical or spiritual Sun at the center?

However, the future of the cosmos has the Earth at the center of a new start and a new beginning from the Mystery of Golgotha onwards.

See Christ Modules 7, 11 and 12 (links below under 'Related pages'), whereby Module 7 discusses this 'new beginning'.

On Schema FMC00.139:

the 'central fire' could be regarded as the center of creation, non-physically: the three Logoi and higher planes. It means it is not to be 'located' physically. This is why the drawing by Johanna von Keyselinck shows this central fire' outside the fixed stars and chrystal heaven.
- Note: in this context, some have looked at the largest black hole in the center of our galaxy, wondering about it's positioning/role/meaning and possible relation to the 'the seat of Brahma'. See: Black holes#Note 1 - Supermassive black holes.

At the level of our solar system, we can visualize an ellipsoid with two focal points: the visual Sun is in one, its spiritual counterpart in the other.

the golden sun at the center of the Earth, we can here [interpretation] map to the warmth kernel in the Earth's inner layers

Note 2 - The Palladium as a symbol of the secret of the sun

Introduction

Rudolf Steiner calls the Palladium "a symbol of the secret of the sun, felt to be the greatest spiritual treasure of humanity" in what he calls an important prophetic legend.

In this legend, the Palladium is said to be a statue of Pallas Athene which "fell from heaven in Troy".

It is an important symbol of ancient spiritual wisdom, but also of the split that occurred in the 4th century between the worldly Christianity (instilled starting with emperor Constantine), and the ancient spiritual wisdom knowledge that was thereby lost, symbolized by the Palladium (and also historically in the figure of Julian the Apostate who tried to retain this knowledge but was killed).

For context, see higher on this page under 'Aspects', and also Mystery School tradition#Note 1 - Regarding the timing of the "college for destruction of initiation and spirit"

Aspects

extra historical information and sources on: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_(classical_antiquity), from this and various other sources:
- In Greek and Roman mythology, the Palladium (in Latin) or Palladion was a cult image of great antiquity on which the safety of Troy and later Rome was said to depend, the wooden statue of Pallas Athena ... was stolen from the citadel of Troy by Odysseus and ... taken to the future site of Rome by Aeneas. The Roman story is related in Virgil's Aeneid and other works. Rome possessed an object regarded as the actual Palladium for several centuries; it was in the care of the Vestal Virgins for nearly all this time.
- The Trojan Palladium was said to be a wooden image of Pallas (whom the Greeks identified with Athena and the Romans with Minerva) and to have fallen from heaven in answer to the prayer of Ilus, the founder of Troy.
- an object regarded as the Palladium was kept in the Temple of Vesta in Rome for several centuries and regarded as one of the sacred tokens of the Roman rule and empire.
- in 241 BC, during or after the First Punic War, the temple of Vesta is said to have been destroyed or badly damaged by fire. Lucius Caecilius Metellus (then pontifex maximus) entered the burning Temple of Vesta (against all traditions) to rescue the Palladium, and as a consequence of this action was blinded by the flames / smoke / heat. This story appears in (at least) three sources: Pliny the Elder (Natural History), Ovid (Fasti, Book VI, lines ~437-454), and Valerius Maximus (Facta et Dicta Memorabilia)
historical background
- Emperor Constantine, although not himself initiated, was aware that a primordial wisdom had once existed in ancient times when Man possessed atavistic clairvoyance, wisdom that had been transmitted to later ages and preserved by the priesthood, but had gradually become corrupted. Constantine felt that Roman social order embodied something associated with the institutions of this primordial wisdom, but had been buried beneath the social order of a materialistic and secular empire. This was expressed in a pregnant symbol that is not just an Imagination but also an historical cult act. People knew that in earlier times wisdom was not an invention of Man but a revelation from the spiritual worlds, and that priests had preserved this wisdom in Ilion, Troy. This is expressed in the legend of the palladium, the so-called image of Pallas Athene which fell from Heaven in Troy, was preserved in a sanctuary, was then transferred to Rome and buried under a porphyry pillar. (1917-04-17-GA175)
origin prophetic legend: "there is a legend which has later assumed strange forms, but is in reality very, very ancient. .. it goes back to very ancient times" (1924-03-23-GA235)
"like a fluorescent body, the palladium is dark in itself; when light flows through it, it glows. So it will be with the wisdom of the East: dark in itself, it will glow, it will fluoresce when it is permeated by the wisdom of the West, by the spiritual light of the West." (1921-11-06-GA208)
"the Palladium was regarded as a holy treasure upon which the fortunes of civilisation depended" (1924-04-09-GA240)

historical locations

Part 1 - origin in Troy (current Turkey, said to be the site of Hisarlik)
- "the legend of the Palladium, the so-called image of Athena; the Palladium that had fallen from heaven in Troy and was kept in a sanctuary"
- "the palladium had been buried in Troy and was an object of veneration there" ... "the mystery priests in Troy are said to have seen in this palladium that which they revealed to the people in a sacramental, cultural, cult-like manner, so to speak, as the nature of the sun"
- notes
  - this legend even played a role in the will of Peter the Great (that this palladium would be brought by people from the East to the capital of the East, that one day the power of the Slavic culture would also be based on the magical power of this palladium
Part 2 - in Rome
- it was taken across Africa to Rome where it remained for long ages (1924-06-11-GA239)
- "had come over with Aeneas and was regarded by Rome as the talisman upon which her fortunes depended" (1924-08-24-GA240)
- "was buried under a porphyry column" ... "located under the foundation wall of the most revered Roman temple, known only to those who were privy to the greatest secrets of Roman existence"

Part 3 - move to Constantinople (current Istanbul, Turkey)
- Constantine carried out his plan in 326 to move the Palladium to Constantinople
  - he had the porphyry column transported to Constantinople (later destroyed by storms), and under the column he had the Palladium sunk into the ground ... he laid the foundation stone when the sun was in Sagittarius and Cancer ruled the hour of the day
  - the task of bringing the column [that was put above the palladium, a column that had originally been brought from Egypt to Rome] to Constantinople was one of enormous difficulty, entailing the construction of a special road ... its weight was so enormous that every road to Constantinople subsided and became dangerous (1924-06-11-GA239)
- historical significance
  - "the knowledge of the mystery of the sun was taken away from it by the very emperor who had established Christianity outwardly in its forms. In the outward, worldly fortification of Christianity by Constantine, Christianity lost the wisdom of the world"
  - "Constantine, by giving the Romans outward Christianity, took away their wisdom, their light, and sent Christianity into darkness"
Part 4 - its future move to the Slavic region - the necessity that this jewel of the sun may receive a new light
- the belief prevailed that the Palladium of Constantinople would in the not too distant future be transferred to another city in the Slavic world
  - the future transfer to the north east will be when the East will be completely stripped of its ancient wisdom and have completely passed into decadence
- the Palladium waits for the light of the West .
  - the palladium must wait until it is spiritually redeemed in the West from the dark gloomy treasure of mere knowledge of nature
  - we must find the sun again through spiritual scientific development ... the light that will make the Palladium shine again must be sought in modern knowledge of nature

research

Rudolf Steiner mentions that Lord Byron (KRI14, and Steiner's geometry teacher KRI13) in an earlier incarnation in the 10th or 11th century searched for the Palladium: "these two individuals who were at that time incarnated in what is today called Russia, undertook together the journey to Constantinople in search of the Palladium" but failed to find it (1924-08-24-GA240)
Johanna von Keyserlingk: around Christmas 1925, while nursed for severe pneumonia in Arlesheim, Mieta Waller asked her if she could use her clairvoyance to help find the Palladium in Constantinople. This question was the start of a long search: she made a trip to Constantinople, and did not find the Palladium but documented her (sometimes remarkable) experiences in a diary with notes that were published in 1990 by her son, see 'Further reading' section below.

Pallas Athena

in ancient Greece, Pallas-Athena was one of the important deities, she was the deity of heavenly wisdom (in contrast to knowledge) (1901-12-28-GA087) ... she "reflects the wisdom out of herself, allows the wisdom to reveal itself to the human being out of herself" (1917-12-24-GA180)
Pallas Athena was like a saving, unified consciousness of all humanity, felt with our higher spirit, with our heart (1906-03-01-GA054)
visual
- see Schema FMC00.684
- Rudolf Steiner mentions there are many depictions and statues of Pallas Athena, and describes that she wore a helment and that "even in a bad statue, there are eyes at the top of the helmet (1924-02-13-GA352)

Reference quotes

1917-04-17-GA175

provides background positioning, the synopsis reads:

Events of today a continuation of events in the early years of Christianity. The Roman emperors, initiated by Imperial decree, gained limited knowledge of cosmic events. They had a presentiment that the advent of Christ was a turning-point in human evolution. The policy of Tiberius to merge pagan Mystery teachings with the Mystery cult of the Roman Empire, failed; also the policy of Hadrian.
Quotation from Philo - the need “to give heed to the ancestry of the soul and to ignore temporal things”. Barrès quoted again.
Christian teaching conflicted with the fundamental principles of the Roman empire. Licinius’ decision to challenge Christianity. Organized a public festival at Heliopolis to ridicule baptism. Result - the actor, Gelasinus, becomes a convinced Christian.
The Sibylline Oracles predict the downfall of Rome. Nero sets fire to Rome. Constantine the Great, aware of the prophecy of the Sibylline Oracle, wished to combine his brand of Christianity with the ancient Mysteries and thus deny Christianity to the public. The mission of Christianity was to unveil the Mysteries. Survival of the spirit of Rome in jurisprudence, etc; Constantine knew of the existence of a primordial wisdom which had been preserved in Troy by initiate-priests. His decision to transfer the capital to Byzantium. Constantinople founded A.D. 326. Pallas Athene as the symbol of ancient wisdom. The legend of the Palladium. The spiritual impulses in Constantine and early Christianity have influenced the cultural development of the West.

quote

Certain people maintain that we are haunted today and will always be haunted by the ghost of the old Roman empire. And this is accepted as a truism by the educated, even today, and is unlikely to change. The Christians wished to draw attention to this. But at the same time they contended that Christianity will always contain an element that is antagonistic to the Roman empire, for the spiritual impulse in Christianity will always be at odds with the materialism of Rome. And this contention of the Christians was prophetic.
You will now understand more clearly why the Senators and the Roman Emperors were alarmed, for they naturally associated the decline that was prophesied with the external empire which they saw slowly crumble under the impact of Christianity. And the emperor Constantine shared this view. Although not himself initiated, he was aware that a primordial wisdom had once existed in ancient times when man possessed atavistic clairvoyance. This wisdom had been transmitted to later ages, had been preserved by the priesthood, but had gradually become corrupted. In Rome too, Constantine said to himself: our social order embodies something that is associated with the institutions of this primordial wisdom, but we have simply buried it beneath the social order of a materialistic and secular empire. This was expressed in a pregnant symbol that is an “Imagination”, and not only an “Imagination”, but also an historical cult act, for these “Imaginations” often took the form of cult acts. People knew that in earlier times wisdom was not an arbitrary invention of man but was a revelation from the spiritual worlds. They knew that in primordial times priests had preserved this wisdom, not in Rome, of course, but across the sea in Ilion, in Troy where they originally dwelt. And this is expressed in the legend of the palladium, the so-called image of Pallas Athene which fell from Heaven in Troy, was preserved in a sanctuary, was then transferred to Rome and buried under a porphyry pillar. In all that was connected with this symbolical cult act people felt that they were able to trace back their civilization to the ancient wisdom which they had received from the spiritual world, but that they could not reach the heights which this wisdom had known in ancient Troy.
Such were the feelings Constantine harboured; and he also felt that even if he were to be initiated into the later Mysteries, they would be of little help to him; they would not lead him to the palladium, to the ancient primordial wisdom. He therefore decided to challenge the cosmic powers after his own fashion in order to save the Roman empire from destruction. He realized that this must be achieved in accordance with certain cosmic impulses and that it would have to take place in accordance with certain cult acts which were publicly enacted for all the world to see. He decided therefore to transfer the capital from Rome to the site of ancient Troy, to have the palladium dug up and taken back to Troy. The plan miscarried. Instead of establishing a new Rome on the site of Troy, he decided to found a new city, Constantinople, transfer the power to her and thus save declining Rome for future ages. By these means Constantine hoped to stem the tide of world evolution. He was prepared for Rome to become the habitat of foxes and wolves as the Sibylline oracle had foretold, but at the same time he wished to transfer the hidden impulses of Rome to a new site and so restore them to their original source. Constantine therefore embarked upon the ambitious plan to found Constantinople, and the work was completed in A.D. 326. He intended that the foundation of the city should coincide with this turning-point in world history. He therefore chose to lay the foundation stone at the moment when the Sun stood in the sign of the Archer and the Crab ruled the hour. He followed closely the indications of the cosmic signs. He wished to make Constantinople famous and to transfer to her the enduring impulse of eternal Rome. He therefore had the porphyry pillar (which was later destroyed by storms) transported to Constantinople. He ordered the palladium to be dug up and to be placed beneath the pillar. He also treasured among his possessions some relics of the Cross and a few nails that had originally secured the Cross. The relics of the Cross were made into a kind of frame to hold a much prized statue of Apollo and the nails into a nimbus with which he was crowned. This statue was set up on the porphyry pillar and an inscription was engraved on it which read somewhat as follows: That which sheds its beneficent influence here shall, like the Sun, endure for all time and proclaim the fame of its founder Constantine to all eternity! These things must of course be taken more or less imaginatively, but with this qualification, that they refer at all times to actual historical events.
This whole story has passed over into legend and, transmuted, lives on in the following legend: the palladium which is a symbol for a particular centre of primordial wisdom had been deposited originally in the secret Mystery Centres of the priest-initiates of Troy. It came to light for the first time when it was transported by circuitous routes from Troy to Rome. It saw the light of day a second time when it was transferred from Rome to Constantinople on the orders of Constantine. And those who believe the legend say that it will see the light of day a third time when it is transported from Constantinople to a Slavonic city. This legend is still vitally alive and survives in many things and under manifold forms. Today many things which appear in their purely physical aspects conceal a deeper layer of meaning.
Constantine therefore actively strove to prevent the downfall of the Roman empire in spite of his firm belief in the prophecy of the Sibylline oracle. He wanted to save Rome from herself.
In what I have told you I want you to recognize that in the historical personality of Constantine psychic impulses were at work which had significant and far-reaching effects. And bear in mind also what the earlier Christians and their leaders maintained: “The Roman empire will endure and the Christ Impulse we have received will also be realized and will ever be present amongst us.” Here we see two parallel phenomena of importance which have a significant bearing upon the different currents which have influenced the cultural development of the West. In particular you will be able to form an idea of the attitude towards the Roman empire in the early Christian centuries and in the age of Constantine, and of the sharply conflicting opinions on the way in which the future was envisaged. And you will perhaps find criteria which will enable you to see many of the later events in their true light. And we can only see many of these later events in proper perspective if we answer the following question: How far does the later development of Christianity up to now accord with its original intention and what must be done to bring it into closer rapport with that intention?
It remains for me to speak of a still more important moment in evolution in connection with the expansion of Christianity, the moment when an initiated Emperor called Julian the Apostate came face to face with this emergent Christianity. From the results of our historical enquiry we shall then be in a position to discuss in this context the further question: How can we prepare our souls to draw near to the Christ whose presence will be experienced in the etheric world in the present century? What steps must we take, especially in our present age, to draw near to Him?

computer translation from DE (so not rsarchive)

And now you understand better why the Roman senators and Caesars were afraid; for they had to relate the downfall to the external empire in their own way, and they saw it crumbling piece by piece under the influence of Christianity. And a man like Emperor Constantine was under this impression. Without being initiated, Emperor Constantine knew the following: there was a primordial wisdom of humanity. This primordial wisdom was once there, it was there in ancient times when people had atavistic clairvoyance; it had then been transferred to later times, had been preserved by the priests, had gradually been corrupted, but it was there, this primordial wisdom. We Romans, too, Constantine said to himself, actually have something in our social order that is connected with the institutions of this primordial wisdom, only we have buried it under the social order built on the outer sensory realm. This was expressed in a significant symbol, which is an imagination, but not only an imagination, but also a world-historical cult act, as these imaginations were very often expressed in cult acts; this was expressed in the saying: Wisdom was not conceived by humans in the past, but was revealed from the spiritual world. Thus, they also had our very first ancestral priests, though not in Rome, but over in Ilion, in Troy, where our ancestral priests were.
And this is expressed in the legend of the Palladium, the so-called image of Athena; the Palladium that had fallen from heaven in Troy, which was kept in a sanctuary, which then came to Rome and was buried under a porphyry column.
The porphyry column rose above it. Feeling what was connected with this imaginative cult act, one felt: We also trace our culture back to the ancient primordial wisdom that came down from the spiritual worlds, but we cannot approach the form that this primordial wisdom had in ancient Troy.
Constantine felt this. Therefore, he also felt that the later mysteries, even if he had been initiated into them, would not help him much; they would not lead him to the palladium, to the ancient primordial wisdom. And so Constantine decided, in his own way, to take up the fight with the world powers, so to speak; to do something in his own way to save, as it were, the principle of the Roman Empire. Of course, he was not so foolish as to believe that this would not have to happen in the sense of the current of certain world impulses. He knew that it would have to happen again in the sense of certain cultic acts that are placed before the whole world development.
So he first decided to move Rome back to Troy, to have the buried palladium excavated and brought back to Troy. The plan was thwarted.
From the plan to establish a new Rome in Troy arose another plan to found Constantinople and transfer to it the power to save the declining Rome for the future. He believed that this was the way to resist the turning point in world history. He wanted, in the spirit of the Sibylline Oracle, to let the foxes and wolves dwell in Rome, but to transplant the mysterious impulses of Rome to another place, to bring them back to their origin, so to speak. And so the great plan to found Constantinople arose in him. This was carried out in 326.
That he thought of this foundation in connection with the great events of the world transformation can be seen from the fact that, when he laid the foundation stone, so to speak, he chose the moment when the sun was in Sagittarius and Cancer ruled the hour of the day. So he probably followed the cosmic signs.
And then he wanted to make something very significant out of this Constantinople. He wanted to transfer the eternal impulse of eternal Rome to Constantinople. That is why he had the porphyry column transported to Constantinople, which was only later destroyed by storms. And he had the palladium dug up and placed under this porphyry column.
He had remnants of the cross from Golgotha, including remnants of the nails with which it was studded. He used the remnants of the cross to make a kind of frame for a particularly valuable statue of Apollo, and the nails of the cross to place a halo on Apollo's head. This was placed on the porphyry column, which was later destroyed. And there was an inscription that read something like this: That which works here shall work eternally like the sun, and shall carry the power of its founder Constantine into eternity!
All these things are, of course, to be taken more or less imaginatively; but with the proviso that they are to be taken imaginatively, they do indeed signify strictly historical events.
...
And the legend — I only want to say the legend — has taken hold of this whole story. The whole story lives on in metamorphosed form in the legend, which says something like this: The Palladium, which is of course a symbol of a very specific place of ancient wisdom, was once kept in the mysterious places of the Trojan initiated priests, who had hidden it.
Then it came to the sun for the first time, having been brought over from Troy to Rome by various detours; it came to the sun a second time when it was brought from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine.
And those who accept the legend add: it will come to the sun a third time when it is carried over from Constantinople to a Slavic city.
This legend lives deeply and impulsively in many things, lives in the most manifold ways. In our time, many things come to light in their, I would say, purely physical aspects, but behind these physical aspects, many things are hidden.

1921-05-23-GA325

But let us first see, and then return to it, how these different views appeared, some of which had come down to us from ancient, unintellectual times, or had developed under the influence of the Hebrew element. Let us see how they appeared in the following centuries. One would like to say that what had happened in the development of mankind seems obvious – if I use the term symbolically – when one looks at the 4th century AD and, for example, at an event such as the founding of Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine, who, after all, elevated Christianity to the status of the official religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine founds Constantinople. We are thus in the 4th century AD. And one can say that the way this Constantine behaved when founding Constantinople would never have been the way any personality in ancient times would have behaved when founding any city. In those older times, everything had emerged from a more instinctive source. There is no doubt that everything that has come down to us about Constantine shows that he had the idea that the old opinions were true, which pointed to the fall of Rome. He therefore did not want to keep Rome as the capital. It must be emphasized that when people thought of the fall of Rome, they naturally thought primarily of the fall of the Roman Empire. That Rome could no longer remain the center of the world in the same way as it had been in the past was something that was intensively alive as an opinion at the time. But Constantine did not want the empire to perish with it. Now there was an old view that in the development of humanity, one lives in a kind of cycle. Therefore, already in older times, still in the times of pagan Rome, the thought arose to rebuild the city of T'roJa, from which, as legend also testifies, the founding of Rome is derived. One wanted to return to the origin again. Constantine did not go as far as Asia Minor, but he did move towards the East, and founded Constantinople, as we know from tradition, entirely based on the idea that world development must move back towards its origin. And he was, so to speak, intent on bringing as much as possible into this Constantinople that he believed was still viable. In the 4th century AD, Christianity was more viable than today's society often assumes. One only needs to think of such representations as, for example, Tertullianus gives, who, one would like to say, in a kind of petition, turns to the Roman emperor, one may tolerate the Christians, because what would help it if one did not tolerate them; half of the inhabitants of all cities are Christians, and they are therefore intolerant. We also know from pagan Roman writers that Christianity spread rapidly at that time. We know that basically the judgment weighed on many souls, that Christianity could not be stopped after all. In the time of Diocletian, the Romans sighed that one could kill a few hundred people, a few thousand people, but one could not kill half the population of the empire. This may be a somewhat exaggerated way of putting it, but it is based on the fact that Christianity spread relatively quickly in the first few centuries. Constantine saw through the sustaining power of Christianity, and that is why he wanted to combine what came from ancient times with what was now new. One might say that never before has anything in world history been as symptomatically significant as the foundation stone laying celebration that Constantine celebrated when founding Constantinople, where he had the porphyry column, to which the luck of Rome seemed tied, brought over to Constantinople with great difficulty. When they wanted to bring the porphyry column into the new city, they had to transport it over a swampy area and first had to lay iron rails for it, which is where the expression “The Iron Gate” comes from, which has been preserved to this day in the name “The Gate”. He had this porphyry column erected, but placed a statue of Apollo from Ilion on top of it. He had pieces of wood from the cross of Christ hidden in this statue of Apollo, which his mother Helena had brought from Jerusalem, and he surrounded the statue of Apollo with a kind of sunburst; in it were thorns from the crown of thorns, which he had also brought from Palestine.
You can see that what emerged from ancient times was supposed to converge with what was there as a new, fruitful element. But Constantine apparently did not believe that what was to be continued could be continued in Rome. The Palladium, which was said to have been brought from Troy to Rome, was also transferred to Constantinople and hidden in a place unknown to the outside world. But the legend remained: This Palladium was said to have been transferred twice, once from Asia to Rome, and the second time from Rome to Constantinople. The third time it would be transferred from Constantinople to the capital of the Slavs, and when this happened, a new period of world development would begin. This belief inspired many people in the European East. This view also still lived in those who were complicit in the planning of the last outbreak of war in 1914. The saga of the three relocations of the palladium is symptomatic. But in this saga there is an awareness of the progress of human development.
When we look at all this, does it not give us the impression of an awareness, of a rationality that must seem deeply significant when we consider that ancient mythological motifs and ancient pictorial motifs are combined by Constantine in a purely rational way, one might say with tremendous logic, and that this logic is to become the world-dominating logic? If we look at the particular state of mind of this Constantine, we can see how, at this time, rationality is already at a high level, but at the same time it is still so interwoven with the objective external world. I would say that there is still much of the Greek way of using reason in this. The Greeks perceived the intellect, the Nus, at the same time as the external world, as one perceives colors. They had also effectively imagined the Nus, the intellect, in history. Konstantin believes that he can only make his subjective intellect effective if he completely encloses it in objective processes: the transfer of the porphyry column, the transfer of the wood of the cross and the crown of thorns. Konstantin weaves history into his images through reason. Reason still lives in the external; it only feels real when it lives in the external. We see such a legend as that of the Palladium, I would like to say, transferred into the greatest sobriety.

1921-11-06-GA208

In this respect, therefore, Constantine and Julian are very much like two symbols. Julian wanted to preserve the old traditions so that the true Sun Mystery might still reach people. During the early centuries, the Christ was still an Apollo or Sun figure.
The Sun Mystery was seen as the most precious jewel humanity possessed. It was symbolized in the Palladium,³⁷ which was said to have been kept in Troy, where the mystery priests used it to reveal the true nature of the sun to people in ritual, sacramental form. It was then taken to Rome, and part of the secret knowledge held by Roman initiates was that the Palladium was in safe keeping in Rome. Essentially the initiate priests of ancient Rome, and also the early emperors of Rome, above all Augustus,³⁸ based their actions on the knowledge that the greatest jewel the world possessed, or at least its physical symbol, was in Rome. The Palladium had been placed beneath the foundations of the most highly esteemed temple in Rome, a fact only known to those who knew the deepest secrets of Roman life. Through the spirit, it had, however, also become known to those whose role it was to bring Christianity to the world. The early Christians went to Rome because of this. So there was a definite spiritual element.
When Christianity was secularized under Constantine, the Palladium was removed from Rome. Constantine founded Constantinople and had the Palladium put in the ground under the column he erected to himself. The further development of Roman Christianity was that the Sun mystery was taken away by the very emperor who established the rigid forms, rigid mechanisms, of Christianity in Rome. With this, Christendom has lost the wisdom of the world, the outward sign of this being the transfer of the Palladium from Rome to Constantinople.
In some parts of the Slavonic world—people always put their own interpretation on this—it was believed until the beginning of the 20th century that in the not too far distant future the Palladium would be taken from Constantinople to another city, in their belief a Slav city.
Whichever way this may be, the Palladium—you may take the whole as an outer symbol, but it is the inner aspect which matters—is waiting to go forth from Constantinople, which is casting darkness on it, to a place where it will be totally obscured. The Palladium is thus taken to the East, where the old wisdom lives in decadence and growing obscurity. Just as the Sun is a reflector of light given to it from the universe, everything depends on it in the further evolution of the world that the Palladium be illumined by a wisdom arising from the treasury of insight gained in the West. The Palladium, heirloom of the past taken from Troy to Rome and then to Constantinople, and to be taken even further into the darkness of the East, the Palladium, jewel of the Sun, must wait until in the West grows in mind and spirit and is able to release it from the dark, obscured treasury of insight limited to the natural world. Our mission for the future is thus linked to the most sacred tradition of European development.
To this day, then, legends are still alive for those initiated into these mysteries, some of them very plain, simple people who walk about on this earth. Legends are still alive of the Trojan Palladium being taken to Rome, of the Palladium jewel of wisdom, being taken to Constantinople when Roman Christianity became worldly and superficial, and that it shall be taken to the East one day when all the old wisdom will have been stripped away in the East, having fallen into utter decadence, and legends that speak of the need to bring new light from the West to this Sun jewel.
The Sun has vanished into the depths of human nature. We have to find it again by developing the science of the spirit. Humanity must find this Sun again, or the Palladium will vanish into the obscurity of the East. Today it is sinful to utter words that are wrong: “Ex oriente lux”. The light can no longer come from the East, which has fallen into decadence. Yet the East, which will have the Sun jewel, however obscured, is waiting for the light of the West. Today, people walk in the darkness, arrange to meet in the dark, their eyes turned to—Washington.³⁹ Salvation, however, will only come from Washingtons able to speak out of the mood of the spiritual world in such a way that they not only open economic gates for China, looking for the darkness which surrounds the Palladium. Salvation will only come when conferences held in the West decide to take light to the East, letting the Palladium shine out again. Like a fluorescent body, the Palladium in itself is dark; it shines out when light streams into it. The same holds true for the wisdom of the East. Dark in itself, it will be illumined and fluoresce when the wisdom of the West, the light of the spirit from the West, enters into it.
The people of the West are as yet unable to see this. The legend of the Palladium needs to be placed in the bright light of consciousness. We must feel the right kind of compassion for Julian the Apostate who wanted to close his eyes to the age when the light of freedom would be able to germinate in the darkness, who wanted to preserve the instinctive wisdom of old and therefore had to perish. We have to realize that Constantine took the light of wisdom from the Romans by giving them a worldly Christianity, sending Christianity into the darkness. We have to realize that the light which will let the Palladium shine out again must be sought in modern science. Only then will an important step in world history come to fulfilment. Only then will the Palladium, which became Western the moment the Greeks burned down Troy and which still holds the light that shone from Troy, become Western and Eastern. It is now in the dark and must be brought out of the dark. Light must be brought to the Palladium.

computer translation from DE (so not rsarchive)

This secret of the sun was felt to be the greatest spiritual treasure of humanity. And it was symbolized by what was called the Palladium.
It is said to have once been in Troy, and the mystery priests in Troy are said to have seen in this palladium that which they revealed to the people in a sacramental, cultural, cult-like manner, so to speak, as the nature of the sun.
Then it was brought to Rome, and it was a secret of the initiates in Rome that Rome preserved the palladium. Rome preserved the palladium. And basically, the initiated priests of the Romans and even the first Roman emperors, namely Augustus, worked and acted in the world out of the consciousness that Rome represented the greatest treasure in the world, at least symbolically, —symbolically, in that the Palladium was located under the foundation wall of the most revered Roman temple, known only to those who were privy to the greatest secrets of Roman existence.
But in a spiritual sense, it had become known to those who were to bring Christianity to the world. And from the knowledge that Rome preserved the Palladium treasure, the first Christians made their way to Rome. There was definitely something spiritual in it.“
...
”But when Christianity became secularized under Constantine, the Palladium was taken away from Rome. Constantine founded Constantinople, and under the column he had erected there, he had the Palladium sunk into the ground.
And Roman Christianity developed further in such a way that the knowledge of the mystery of the sun was taken away from it by the very emperor who had established Christianity outwardly in its forms, in its rigid mechanism in Rome. In the outward, worldly fortification of Christianity by Constantine, Christianity lost the wisdom of the world, which is also outwardly expressed in the transfer of the Palladium to Constantinople.
Particularly in certain parts of the Slavic world—people interpret all this in their own way—the belief prevailed until the beginning of the 20th century that the Palladium of Constantinople would in the not too distant future be transferred to another city, and, as was believed in the Slavic world, to a Slavic city.
...
In any case, the palladium is waiting – take the process symbolically, externally, but the more important thing is the inner aspect – for the locality to emerge from Constantinople, which is already having a darkening effect on this palladium, or for the palladium to migrate to the locality that would completely darken this palladium.
Yes, the palladium will be brought to the East, where the decadence of ancient wisdom lives, but is also facing eclipse.
And everything in the further development of the world depends on the palladium treasure being illuminated by a wisdom found in the treasure trove of Western knowledge, just as the sun is a reflector of the light given to it from the universe.
The palladium, the ancient heirloom that was brought from Troy to Rome, from Rome to Constantinople, and is to be brought even further into the darkness of the East, the palladium, the sun jewel, must wait until it is spiritually redeemed in the West from the dark, gloomy treasure of mere knowledge of nature. Thus, what stands as a task for the future is actually connected with the most sacred traditions of European development.
...
Thus, legends that are still alive today, which can be found among those who are initiated into such things — and these are sometimes quite simple, unassuming people who go about the world — such legends as this one about the transfer of the Trojan palladium to Rome, of the transfer of the Palladium, the jewel of wisdom, when Roman Christianity became outwardly secularized, to Constantinople, and of the future transfer to the East, when the East will be completely stripped of its ancient wisdom, will have completely passed into decadence, and of the necessity that this jewel of the sun from the West may receive a new light.
...
The sun has disappeared into the depths of humanity. We must find the sun again through spiritual scientific development. Humanity must find this sun again, otherwise the palladium will disappear into the darkness of the East. Today it is a sin to say something that is incorrect, it is a sin to say the words: Ex oriente lux. The light can no longer come from the East. The East is in decline.
But it waits—for it will have the treasure, the treasure of the sun, even if in darkness—it waits for the light of the West. Today, people still wander deep in darkness, arrange meetings in darkness, look to Washington. But only those in Washington who speak from the tone of the spiritual world in such a way that they do not merely seek free economic gates for China, not merely the darkness that surrounds the palladium, will bring salvation. Only those conferences held in the West in such a way that light is carried from there so that the palladium shines again will bring salvation. For like a fluorescent body, the palladium is dark in itself; when light flows through it, it glows. So it will be with the wisdom of the East: dark in itself, it will glow, it will fluoresce when it is permeated by the wisdom of the West, by the spiritual light of the West.
...
Today, however, this is not yet recognized in the West. Only when the legend of Palladium is brought into the bright light of consciousness, only when people once again feel true compassion for someone like Julian the Apostate, who wanted to overlook the age in which the light of freedom could germinate in darkness, who wanted to preserve the old instinctive wisdom and therefore had to perish, only when people realize that Constantine, by giving the Romans outward Christianity, took away their wisdom, their light, and sent Christianity into darkness; only when people realize that the light that will make the Palladium shine again must be sought in modern knowledge of nature; only then will an important piece of world history be fulfilled. Only then will that which became Western at the moment when the Greeks burned Troy, the Palladium, in which the light that blazed from Troy is still present today, become Western-Eastern again.

1924-03-23-GA235

Now, in vision, this personality is found directly by the side of Byron, and one is led back to early times in Eastern Europe, one or two hundred years before the Crusades.
I once told you how, when the Roman Emperor Constantine founded Constantinople, he had the Palladium—which had been taken originally to Rome from Troy—removed from Rome to Constantinople. The transference was carried out with tremendous pomp and ceremony. For the Palladium was regarded as a particularly sacred object, which bestowed power upon whoever had it. It was firmly believed in Rome that as long as the Palladium lay beneath a pillar in the city, the power of Rome resided in it, and that this power had been brought across to Rome from the once mighty city of Troy, devastated by the Greeks. And so Constantine, whose destiny it was to transplant the power of Rome to Constantinople, caused the Palladium to be taken across to Constantinople with great pomp and ceremony, though to begin with, quite secretly. He caused it to be buried, a wall built about it, and set up an ancient pillar that came from Egypt, over the spot where the Palladium lay. On the top of the pillar he placed an ancient statue of Apollo, so arranged as to look like himself. Then he had nails brought from the Cross of Christ. And out of these he made a sort of halo for the statue, which was, as I have said, an ancient statue of Apollo and at the same time was supposed to represent himself. And so there the Palladium lay, in Constantinople.
Now there is a legend which has later assumed strange forms, but is in reality very, very ancient. Later, in connection with the Testament of Peter the Great, it was revived and transformed, but it goes back to very ancient times.
The legend tells how at some time in the future the Palladium would leave Constantinople and come further up towards the North-East. Hence the idea in the Russia of a later time that the Palladium must be brought from the city of Constantinople into Russia, in order that all that is connected with the Palladium, and had been corrupted under the rule of the Turks, might have its place in the rule of Eastern Europe.
Now these two personalities in olden times—it was one or two hundred years before the Crusades but I have not been able to fix the exact year—resolved to go out from what is now Russia to Constantinople in order, by some means or other, to capture the Palladium and bring it into the East of Europe. They did not succeed. Such a project could never have succeeded, for the Palladium was well guarded. There was no possibility of getting hold of it, and those who knew how it was guarded were not to be won over.
ut an overwhelming pain took possession of these two men. And the pain that entered into them like a piercing ray, paralysing them both in the head, manifested in Lord Byron in his being somewhat like Achilles who was vulnerable in the heel, for Byron had a defect in his foot. On the other hand he was a genius in his head, which was a compensation for the paralysis he had suffered in that earlier earth-life. The other man also, on account of the paralysed head, had a defective foot, a clubfoot.

1924-04-05-GA239

In the earlier incarnation, a man whose thoughts are fleeting and cursory walked with short, rapid steps, as though tapping over the ground, whereas the gait of a man who thinks cautiously and with deliberation was firm and steady in the earlier life. It is just these apparently minor characteristics that lead further when one is looking for the deeper, spiritual connections and not those of an external, abstract kind. And so when time and time again I called up the picture of this greatly loved teacher, I was guided to his earlier incarnation. With this picture another associated itself—also of a man with a club foot: Lord Byron. The two men were there before me in this inner picture. And the karma of my teacher, as well as the peculiarity of which I have told you, led me to the discovery that in the 10th or 11th century, both these souls had lived in their earlier incarnations far over in the East of Europe where they came one day under the influence of a legend, a prophecy. This legend was to the effect that the Palladium, which in a certain magical way helped to sustain the power of Rome, had been brought to that city from ancient Troy, and hidden. When the Emperor Constantine conceived the wish to carry Roman culture to Constantinople he caused the Palladium to be transported with the greatest pomp and pageantry to Constantinople and hidden under a pillar, the details of which gave expression to his overweening pride. For he ordered an ancient statue of Apollo to be set at the top of this pillar, but altered in such a way as to be a portrait of himself. He caused wood to be brought from the Cross on which Christ had been crucified and shaped into a kind of crown which was then placed on the head of this statue. It was the occasion for indulging in veritable orgies of pride! The legend went on to prophesy that the Palladium would be transferred from Constantinople to the North and that the power embodied in it would be vested eventually in a Slavonic Empire. This prophecy came to the knowledge of the two men of whom I have been speaking and they resolved to go to Constantinople and to carry off the Palladium to Russia. They did not succeed. But in one of them especially—in Byron—the urge remained, and was then transformed in the later life into the impulse to espouse the cause of freedom in Greece. This impulse led Byron, in the 19th century, to the very region, broadly speaking, where he had searched for the Palladium in an earlier incarnation.

1924-04-09-GA240

My teacher's club-foot became for me the starting-point of occult investigation. And what transpired? The vision that was focused upon this defect led me to another personality who also had a club-foot namely, Lord Byron. I now knew: this has to do with reincarnations connected in some way with each other. And it turned out that in a previous incarnation there was something in the souls of both these men that had led them to common action, although in their last incarnation, as far as their earthly activity was concerned, they were not actually, but almost, contemporaries. I stress the point here that I am not dealing with incarnations as women because in past epochs life in a man's body was more important. Incarnations as women are only now beginning to be of importance, although in the future it will be of very special interest to take account of them. In considering many historical personalities, however, one often omits intervening incarnations as women.You must not conclude from this that there have been no such incarnations, but I am speaking now of aspects which lead back first and foremost to previous incarnations as men.
And so through these two personalities whose connection with each other I had perceived, I was led back to a time—it was either in the tenth or eleventh century A.D. but I have not been able to determine this exactly—when they had lived in the East of Europe, in regions that are now part of modern Russia. They were comrades. At that time the legend of the Palladium and its changing whereabouts in the world had already reached the ears of a few. You know, perhaps, that the Palladium was regarded as a holy treasure upon which the fortunes of civilisation depended. According to the legend, this Palladium was first in Troy, then in Rome and was then transferred with pomp and splendour to Constantinople by Constantine the Great, who caused a pillar to be erected over it for his own glorification. At the top of this pillar was a statue of Apollo. In a chaplet were pieces of wood which Constantine had caused to be brought from the Cross of Christ. Everything was done with an eye to his own glorification.
The legend related that the Palladium would at some time be carried northwards, whither the civilisation centred in Constantinople would then be transplanted. This legend came to the ears of the two comrades of whom I am speaking and they were seized with enthusiasm to obtain possession of the Palladium in Constantinople. They did not succeed but they embarked on many adventurous undertakings with the aim of removing this holy treasure to the North. Especially in the case of the one who was subsequently reincarnated in the West as Byron, we see how his enthusiasm for the cause of freedom was a karmic continuation of the search for the Palladium in the earlier life. And the same spiritual configuration was to be seen in the intimate impression made by my geometry teacher upon those who knew him: here was a sense of freedom in the domain of science.

1924-06-11-GA239

Neither the earlier life of Byron nor that of my teacher resembled their lives in the nineteenth century. But the two had been associated in destiny of a very intimate kind. During their lives in Eastern Europe they came to know of the significant legend concerning the palladium—the treasure endowed with magical power upon which the might of Troy depended. The palladium had been buried in Troy and was an object of veneration there. Then it was taken across Africa to Rome where it remained for long ages. When he founded Constantinople, the Emperor Constantine caused this palladium—upon which the power, first of Troy and then of Rome was said to depend—to be removed at the cost of great hardships and with tremendous pomp, to Constantinople, where it was sunk in the ground, in order that the power of Constantinople should replace that of Rome. It is said—and with considerable truth—that the Emperor's arrogance had caused him to transfer the palladium from Rome to Constantinople where he erected a massive column over the spot at which it had been sunk and had a statue of Apollo placed upon this column. The task of bringing the column to Constantinople was one of enormous difficulty, entailing the construction of a special road. The column had originally been brought from Egypt to Rome and its weight was so enormous that every road to Constantinople subsided and became dangerous. The column was erected and the palladium safely protected. The Emperor ordered the statue of Apollo to be set in place but let it be known that this statue was a representation of himself. Then, having caused wood and nails from the Cross of Christ to be brought from the East, he had the wood inserted into the statue and the nails moulded into rays around the head of Apollo. Constantine pictured himself standing there aloft, surrounded by rays of glory fashioned from the wood and the nails of the Cross of Christ. Later on, another legend came to be associated with the palladium, a legend which still played a part in the Testament of Peter the Great, to the effect that the palladium would be carried off by men of the East to their capital, that in time to come the power of the Slavs would be founded on its magical power; through the palladium, so it was said, power would pass to the Slavs just as it had passed to Troy, to Rome, to Constantinople. Such things contain deep truths, even though they are presented in the form of legend. But this much is certain: anyone who understands the history of the palladium will understand very much of the course taken by European history. This legend came to the knowledge of the two men of whom I have spoken—Byron and his contemporary in the early Middle Ages—and they resolved to seize the palladium and take it to the North, to Russia. They did not succeed; the project failed, as indeed it was bound to do. But something of it remained in the two men; in karmic connections, something remained in them in a strange and remarkable way. At a later time, Byron sought for the palladium in a different fashion; he allied himself with the movement for liberty in Greece—it was the search for a spiritual palladium. This was the urge that had remained in him from the time of which I spoke. And it was clear to anyone who observed my teacher closely, that in spite of his relatively unimportant position, in whatever situation he might be, he evinced an inflexible sense for freedom which was deeply connected in his inmost being with the bodily defect—just as in the case of the one who was his earlier contemporary.

1924-08-24-GA240

Now Lord Byron too had a club foot. This is an external physical characteristic, but what is external and bodily in one life is, in another, a quality of soul-and-spirit; and this characteristic led me to recognise that the two personalities who were not now contemporaries (for my Geometry teacher lived later than Byron) had, in an earlier earth-life, been together. In the modern age they had lived as poet and geometrician, each a genius in his own line, the one becoming widely famous, the other making only upon a few individuals an intimate impression which influenced the shaping of their destinies.
In an earlier life, however, in medieval times, they had been side by side; together they had listened to the legend of the Palladium, the holy treasure that had once been in Troy, had then come over with Aeneas and was regarded by Rome as the talisman upon which her fortunes depended. The Emperor Constantine afterwards took it across to Constantinople and the success and happiness of Constantinople in its history depended on this Palladium. The legend, looking prophetically into the future, went on to say that whoever acquires the Palladium, his shall be the rulership of the world.
This is not the time for me to enlarge upon the merits and content of the legend. I will only say that these two individuals who were at that time incarnated in what is to-day called Russia, undertook together, with warm enthusiasm, the journey to Constantinople in search of the Palladium. They were not able to obtain possession of it but they kept the enthusiasm alive in their hearts.
And now we can actually see how Lord Byron resolved to go in search of the Palladium in another guise when he took part in the Greek struggle for freedom. If you study carefully the life of Lord Byron, you will find that a great deal in this gifted poet is due to the fact that in an earlier earth-life he had been spurred on by enthusiasm for such an enterprise.

TB715

computer translation from DE, pp. 65/66 and 195/196 - same contents as the 1924 lectures mentioned above

A person who thinks hastily had such a gait in a previous incarnation, with quick little steps that just scurry across the ground. A person who thinks deliberately had a firm gait. And it is precisely such seemingly minor details of life that lead one deeper when one seeks the deeper spiritual, and not the external, abstract connections. And so, as I repeatedly brought the image of my beloved teacher before my soul, I was led to his previous incarnation. And then another image joined his, also of a person with a clubfoot: Lord Byron. Now these two people stood before me. And my teacher's karma had led me, as well as the peculiarity I have described to you, to discover how, in the tenth or eleventh century, these two souls had lived in a previous incarnation far to the east of Europe, where one day they were influenced by a significant saga, a legend, a prophecy, the legend that says that the Palladium, which with a certain magic actually held the Roman power, was brought over from ancient Troy to Rome and hidden in Rome. And when Emperor Constantine wanted to transplant Roman culture to Constantinople, he had the Palladium brought over from Rome to Constantinople with extraordinary pomp and had it hidden under a column, a column which he had designed in such a way that it expressed his enormous pride. He had an old statue of Apollo placed on top, but he had it altered to represent himself. He had wood brought from the cross on which Christ was crucified and had a kind of wreath woven from this wood around the head of the statue. He celebrated orgies of arrogance in the process!
...
But then the prophetic legend arose that one day the Palladium would be carried further north from Constantinople, and that one day the power attached to the Palladium would be embodied in a Slavic empire. These two people I spoke of heard this prophecy and set themselves the goal of traveling to Constantinople and bringing the palladium to Russia. They did not succeed. But the urge remained, especially in one of them, Byron. This was transformed into the impulse to stand up for the freedom of Greece, which then led Byron in the nineteenth century to almost the same place where he had sought the physical palladium in a previous earthly life.
...
Byron's previous life was not similar to the life of Byron in the nineteenth century; my teacher's previous life is not similar to his life in the nineteenth century, but both have a very intimate simultaneous destiny.
When they were inhabitants of Eastern Europe, they learned of that significant legend that once the treasure of the palladium, which was buried and revered in Troy as imbued with the magical power of Troy, was then brought across Africa to Rome, remained in Rome for a long time, and then, when Emperor Constantine founded Constantinople, he, at great sacrifice and with enormous expense, brought the Palladium, on which the power of Troy and then Rome was said to depend, to Constantinople and then had it sunk in Constantinople in order to replace the power of Rome with the power of Constantinople. It is said, and it is even true to a large extent, that the arrogance of Emperor Constantine had the Palladium brought from Rome to Constantinople, that he erected a mighty, heavy column on the square where he had the Palladium sunk, and that he then took a kind of statue of Apollo and had it placed on top of the column. Well, it was very difficult to bring the column to Constantinople to the place where it was brought, because an iron railway had to be built for this purpose. The column, which had once been brought from Egypt to Rome, was so heavy that every road on which it was transported sank and became dangerous. Then the column was erected, and the palladium was safely stored in its base. Above it, at the top of the column, he had the statue of Apollo erected, but spread the word that the statue represented him, Emperor Constantine. Then he had wood brought from the Cross of Christ in the East, which he hid in the bronze statue, and nails from the Cross of Christ, which he had shaped into rays; with these he had the head of Apollo surrounded. So that, in his view, Constantine stood up there, shining in rays taken from the nails of the Cross of Christ itself.
But a legend attached itself to this palladium in later times, and this legend even played a role in the will of Peter the Great: that this palladium would be brought by people from the East to the capital of the East, and that one day the Slavic power of the East would also be based on the magical power of this palladium, if it were to be sunk further east or north of Constantinople, and that through this the power would pass to the Slavs, just as the power of Troy, the power of Rome, and the power of Constantinople were once linked to this palladium. There are deep truths hidden in such things, even if they appear legendary.
But ultimately, those who can understand the history of the palladium can understand a great deal about the course of European history. And these two people I have spoken of, Byron and his comrade in the early Middle Ages, heard of this legend and decided to retrieve the Palladium and bring it to the north, to Russia. They did not succeed; they failed, as was to be expected. But something of it remained with them. In karmic contexts, something remains with people in the strangest way. Byron later sought the palladium in a different way; he joined the Greek freedom movement; he wanted to retrieve a spiritual palladium. And that was the urge that remained with him from the time I described. And my teacher showed everyone who could observe him closely that, wherever he stood, even though he was a relatively insignificant person, he had an irrepressible sense of freedom that was deeply connected within him to his physical defect, just like his comrade.

Pallas Athena

1901-12-28-GA087

Pallas-Athena comes to his aid in this work. We have already seen what she is. She has great significance in the Odysseus saga. She is the deity of wisdom, of heavenly wisdom. Now, after the purification, Pallas-Athena stands at his side. Pallas-Athena is - in contrast to knowledge - the right wisdom.

1906-03-01-GA054

She set the Titans on the child, who tore him apart and scattered the pieces all over the world. Only the heart was saved by Pallas Athena, who brought it to Zeus, who formed Dionysus anew from it. It becomes clear to us that this god was already there before, and it also becomes clear to us that this deity has a special relationship with the world.
...
This was symbolized in a magnificent way in the fragmented god Dionysus, who had been torn to pieces by the Titans. Human wisdom was symbolized by Pallas Athena. She was like a saving, unified consciousness of all humanity, felt with our higher spirit, with our heart.

1917-12-24-GA180

Prudence the virgin Pallas Athena, the guardian of human wisdom before the mystery of Golgotha. There is a deep meaning in the poetic invention of this figure of the virgin Pallas Athena.
...
The wisdom that is meant when its representative is depicted comes from Maja: Pallas Athena.
Pallas Athena is also a Maja, a Maria; but Pallas Athena is the Maja who still reflects the wisdom out of herself, who allows the wisdom to reveal itself to the human being out of herself.
...
Therefore, the ancient wisdom, as represented by Pallas Athena, was well suited to dissect and comprehend the mineral world up to the plant world, but not yet suited to grasp the human being himself, to comprehend the human being himself in his personality.

1924-02-13-GA352

The Greeks, for example, saw how the etheric head of the human being is much larger than the physical head, how it protrudes, and so they endowed Pallas Athena, this goddess, with a kind of helmet. But you can see for yourself if you take this Pallas Athena and examine the helmet she is wearing, the helmet has something like eyes at the top. You can see that everywhere; just look at Pallas Athena, even in a bad statue, there are eyes at the top of the helmet. This proves to you that it was meant to be part of the body. That is something else you can see; they put it on Athena. And the type of clothing that people made in those areas where they had a sense of the supersensible human being was adapted to how they imagined this astral body of the human being.

Related pages

References and further reading

anthrowiki page for the threefold sun
Elisabeth Vreede: Astronomy and Spiritual Science
Joachim Schultz: Rhythmen der Sterne
- Die drei Sonnen und die Zeitgleichung (p 55-61 in 1977 edition)

Palladium

Johanna von Keyserlingk (editor: Adalbert von Keyserlingk) : 'Die Reise nach Byzanz - Das Palladium des Sieges' (1990, 2002)
Georg Goelzer: 'Palladion, Gral und Grundstein : Der Kampf um das kosmische Menschentum' (1989)
internet:
- www.numisforums.com/topic/6939-the-palladium-myth-and-beliefs/

Various other (unqualified)

Peryt Shou: The Mystery of the Central Sun (2010, original 'Das Mysterium der Zentralsonne' (1912))