Transfiguration

"With the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor the Logos [in Christ-Jesus] entered into the divine condition, bringing Jesus as God-Man in the state in order endure the Crucifixion and be able, as God and Man, to resurrect Himself. " (Daskalos)

The scene of the Transfiguration took place on Mount Tabor, where the divine nature of Christ was revealed to apostles Peter, James, and John (Zebedee). Christ-Jesus was illumined from within, his body was transformed by heavenly radiance, and Moses and Elijah appeared on either side of Him. For the apostles this brought an enlightenment and initiatory revelations; not so for Christ-Jesus himself for whom this was a natural event, as he had nothing to learn any more in his divine nature.

Interpretation of the true meaning of what is described here: Going up the mountain is to be read to go up from the physical to a higher plane, in this case the spirit world where there is no time or space. That is why Moses and Elijah appear immediately. Peter, James and John were transported into the state of clairvoyant vision. They were to be initiated into what these three souls that appeared to them had to discuss together; one soul who belonged to the people of the Old Testament (Elijah), one who carried within himself much of what we know about the Moses soul, while the third, as cosmic deity, is uniting Himself with the Earth.

With the Transfiguration, the most significant part of the life of Christ-Jesus begins. He does not die physically at the moment the cosmic light transfigures him, and at which moment he is a Buddha. He enters upon a stage which finds expression in a higher degree of initiation. He suffers and dies. The physical part of him disappears. But the spiritual, the cosmic light does not vanish. His resurrection follows. He reveals himself to his community as Christ.

This also makes for a key difference with the life of Buddha who does not know the sacrificial death of suffering and dying but gets illumined at the end of his life, at death.

Aspects

• "three chosen disciples were transported to the level of spiritual vision higher than that of astral vision, they rose into the spirit world. Christ led the three disciples to surroundings where He could guide them beyond the astral plane into the spirit world, where they could behold the spiritual archetypes, of Christ Jesus himself of two beings who were connected with him: Elijah and Moses. (1910-09-10-GA123)
• meaning of the expression “to ascend the mountain”
  • not only symbolic but used because the conditions obtaining on the mountain favor the possibility of developing new spiritual faculties. The conditions on the mountain facilitate clairvoyant consciousness to be more attuned to receiving inspirations from the spirit world. (1912-09-22-GA139)
• I am the Way, the Truth and the Life
  • Christ-Jesus stated these words (John, 14:6) express the essence of Christianity and represent fundamental Christian mystical truth
  • Elijah, Moses and Christ-Jesus appearing, is a representation of this truth at a higher level. In spiritual language Elijah or Elias means the same as 'El' or 'the goal, the way', Moses is the spiritual scientific word for truth. (1906-03-05-GA094)
• appearance in three gospels, not in John's gospel; "for the author of John's Gospel the Transfiguration and Crucification were one act." (1908-06-28-GA244 Q&A 168.15)
• comparison between lives of Buddha and Christ-Jesus (1902-GA008, 1904-10-17-GA092)
• feast of transfiguration is celebrated by various Christian communities in honor of the transfiguration of Jesus on the 6th of August.

Lecture coverage and references

Overview coverage

• Gospel of Luke - Ch 9
  • 1909-09-26-GA114
• Gospel of Matthew
  • 1910-09-10-GA123 is the key lecture
• Gospel of Mark
  • 1912-09-22-GA139

Reference extracts

1902-GA008 Ch 6

[Parallels and differences between lives of Buddha and Christ-Jesus]

This description of parallelism might be extended to many other points: the results would be the same. The life of Buddha ended sublimely. During a journey he felt ill. He came to the river Hiranja, near Kuschinagara. There he lay down on a carpet spread for him by his favorite disciple, Ananda. His body began to shine from within. He died transfigured, a body of light, saying, “Nothing endures.” The death of Buddha corresponds with the transfiguration of Jesus: “And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening.” At this point Buddha's earthly life ends, but the most important part of the life of Jesus begins here: Passion, Death and Resurrection. The difference between Buddha and Christ lies in what necessitated the continuation of the life of Christ Jesus beyond that of Buddha. Buddha and Christ are not understood by simply throwing them together. (This will become evident in the subsequent chapters of this book.) Other accounts of the death of Buddha need not be considered here, although they also reveal profound aspects of the subject.

The conformity in the lives of these two redeemers leads to an unequivocal conclusion. What this conclusion must be, the narratives themselves indicate. When the priest sages hear about the manner of the birth they know what is involved. They know that they are dealing with a divine man. They know beforehand what conditions will exist for the personality who is appearing. Therefore his career can only correspond with what they know about the career of a divine man. Such a career appears in their Mystery wisdom, marked out for all eternity. It can be only as it must be. Such a career appears as an eternal law of nature. Just as a chemical substance can behave only in a quite definite way, so a Buddha or a Christ can live only in a quite definite way. His career cannot be described as one would write his incidental biography; rather, it is described by giving the typical features contained for all time in the wisdom of the Mysteries. The legend of Buddha is no more a biography in the ordinary sense, than the Gospels are intended to be an ordinary biography of the Christ Jesus. Neither describes an incidental career; both describe a career marked out for a world-redeemer. The patterns for both must be sought in the traditions of the Mysteries, not in outward physical history. To those who have perceived their divine nature, Buddha and Jesus are initiates in the most eminent sense. (Jesus is an initiate because the Christ Being incarnates in him.) Thus everything transitory is removed from their lives. What is known about initiates can be applied to them. The incidental events of their lives are no longer described. It is said of them, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1,14)

The life of Jesus, however, contains more than the life of Buddha. Buddha's life ends with the transfiguration. The most significant part of the life of Jesus begins after the transfiguration.

• In the language of the initiates, Buddha reaches the point where divine light begins to shine in man. He stands before the death of the physical. He becomes the cosmic light.
• Jesus goes further. He does not die physically at the moment the cosmic light transfigures him. At that moment he is a Buddha. But at the same moment he enters upon a stage which finds expression in a higher degree of initiation. He suffers and dies. The physical part of him disappears. But the spiritual, the cosmic light does not vanish. His resurrection follows. He reveals himself to his community as Christ.

So:

• At the moment of his transfiguration, Buddha dissolves into the hallowed life of the universal Spirit.
• Christ Jesus awakens this universal Spirit once more to present existence in a human form.

Such an event had formerly taken place in a pictorial sense at the higher stages of initiation. Those initiated according to the Osiris myth attained to such a resurrection in their consciousness as a pictorial experience. In the life of Jesus this “great” initiation was added to the Buddha initiation, not as a pictorial experience, but as reality. Buddha demonstrated by his life that man is the Logos and that he returns to this Logos, to the light, when his physical part dies. In Jesus the Logos itself became a person. In him the Word became flesh.

1904-10-17-GA092

quote A

In the narrative of the life of Jesus and of the life of Buddha there is great similarity. This similarity in the Annunciation, in the years of teaching, and so forth, has often been stressed. The mystic understands the reason for this similarity because he knows that such a life repeats itself in certain epochs of human evolution. But in the Christ life there is something else something essentially different from the Buddha-life, and the first Christian Initiates understood this.

If you follow the life of Jesus, you come to the event described as the Transfiguration.

Jesus went with His disciples Peter, John and James to the mountain and was transfigured; He was illumined from within, and Moses and Elias appeared on either side of Him. The disciples then received significant revelations.

This is an indication of a moment of supreme importance. Moses and Elias appear on either side of Christ Jesus. Time is transcended, the Past has become Present.

So it is in the spirit world. In the physical world we have space and time. In the astral world we have only time. In the spirit world, however, there is no time, no space. Moses and Elias, long since passed away, are immediately present.

This means, therefore, that at the Transfiguration the three disciples, Peter, James and John were transported into the state of spirit world vision.

Following the Transfiguration we first come to what is significant. It is the actual sacrificial death, the suffering, the dying, which do not occur in the life of Buddha. Buddha went out with his disciple Ananda and became Illumined. When the scene is described in the life of Buddha it is given a different form, adapted to the understanding of the people. The Transfiguration, however, comes at the end of Buddha's life, whereas the really significant epoch in the life of Jesus begins with this event.

Therewith is indicated Christ's teaching concerning all the old religious systems of the previous sub-races of the fifth root race. Christ wished to say, “We understand the prophecies, the previous proclamations in the old religious systems of what the Gospel now proclaims, we recognise that in the ancient Mysteries the word of truth was taught and revealed.” But one thing has become reality through Christianity. And that is expressed by the words: Blessed are they who do not see and yet believe. This epitomizes the great, world-historic significance of Christianity in its Gospel. What was formerly attained through Initiation by a few chosen ones in the seclusion of the Mystery-Temples, attained through vision of the great cosmic truths within the hidden crypts of the Mystery-Centers, could now be attained by those who had not actual vision but who were able to believe with inner freedom of soul. Therefore, what formerly took place in concealment, in the seclusion of the Mysteries, the supreme Mystery wherein man himself goes through the gate of death in order to rise again in a higher life, this deepest of all Mystery-secrets which a non-initiate cannot understand in its true significance, this was enacted on the great stage of outer world-existence. What came to pass in Palestine, came to pass as actual, historic fact, following in every detail the sacred acts which had formerly taken place in Mystery-rites. The rites of sacrifice and the sacrificial death were constantly repeated, in the Mysteries. But the old Mystery-teachings had to be presented to the world, in a more popular form. Therewith a further step was achieved through Christianity, a step forward, in the understanding of an early Christian Initiate, a step which leads man beyond the stage to which the old religions could have led him.

quote B

Who were the old religious teachers? They were teachers of mankind. What they taught, that was the important thing. It was the actual teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Hermes, Pythagoras, Lao-tze, it was the words themselves that were all important. These teachers stood as it were on high mountain and from there proclaimed the Most Holy Word.

But something else was possible. The WORD Itself descended and took on human form. Henceforward it was not a question of what was proclaimed, but what was lived, lived in the very deepest sense. The goal was fulfilled. In ancient times the path for our fifth root race was outlined. The teachings and commandments, the truths given by the old founders of religions, Lao-tze, Confucius, Moses, Buddha, were given for this purpose.

But the WORD itself came down in fleshly form and lived among us. The Threefold utterance became reality: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Christian initiate indicated what I have said in words of great profundity. All the founders of ancient religions were regarded as embodied angels, messengers of the Godhead. “angel” means 'the messenger of the Godhead'. But now there came One before whom the angels veiled their countenances in veneration and laid themselves at the feet of the Mystical Lamb, at the feet of the God made Flesh. The Mystery is that the Lamb Who became flesh denoted a deeper descent into humanity, a life among men. The earlier teachers had proclaimed the Word from the mountain top. But Christ came down into the valley, lived as Man among men.

He did not command what is to be done; he did not merely proclaim truths but in his very life he made manifest the Word.

For the Christians, this was what distinguished his religion from the other religions. This was what brought him to the core and center of what the Christian Initiate proclaims as the Apocalypse, or the secret revelation. We will speak next time of why the Word made Flesh was also called the Lamb.

1905-03-17-GA0

Christ went with Peter, James, and John up the mountain — that is, into the sanctum — where he led them into devachanic beholding. There they saw Moses and Elijah next to Jesus. El, or Elijah, signifies the way, while Moses signifies truth — moral truth - and Jesus is the life. Jesus said to his disciples, "Elijah has come again." John the Baptist was this Elijah. Then he also said to them, "But do not tell this to anyone till I have come again." They were not to speak of reincarnation until reappeared in a new cosmic cycle. For two thousand years, the world was to learn the value of the personal element. What moves from one incarnation to the next is a finer human matter — "water," or spirit. This is what is referred to when it is said that the spirit of God "moved upon the face of the waters" (human beings).

1906-03-05-GA094

We find the transfiguration scene in all the evangelists except St. John. This is significant. Let us clarify the meaning of this scene.

What takes place?

Jesus goes with three disciples Peter, James and John — up a mountain: this means into the inner sanctuary where one is initiated into higher worlds and where one also speaks in occult language. Then it is said: the master took his disciples up into a mountain — it means that he went to that place where he expounded the parable to them. The disciples were carried up into a higher state of consciousness. They saw then that which is not transitory but eternal:

Moses and Elias appear and Jesus himself with them.

What does this mean?

In occult science the word Elias means the same as El — the goal, the way. Moses is the spiritual scientific word for truth. By the fact that Elias, Moses and Jesus appear you have the fundamental Christian truth: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus himself says — this is a fundamental Christian mystical truth — “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John, 14:6)

1908-06-28-GA244 Q&A 168.15

Why does John not report on the Transfiguration of Christ-Jesus?

John fully consciously does not report what is reported in the other gospels as the Transfiguration. The authors of the other gospels were not initiated highly enough to realize that Christianity is to truly a mystical fact. That is why I gave this title to my book, and not 'The mysticism of Christianity', but 'Christianity as a mystical fact'. When one realizes this, it becomes clear that the author of John's Gospel had this deep mystical understanding of Christianity.

Now for the old mysteries, the transfiguration was more or less the closure of the earlier stages of initiation. [...] what lie beyond was only known by the highest adepts.

For the author of John's Gospel who knew about these things, and hence for him the Transfiguration and Crucification were one. They were one act. Why they were one act can be found in my book 'Christianity as a mystical fact'.

1909-09-26-GA114

coverage of Gospel of Luke

Immediately after these words in the Gospel comes the scene of the Transfiguration, when three disciples — Peter, James and John — are led up into the spiritual world. The figures of Moses and Elijah appear before them in that world and, simultaneously, Christ Jesus in Glory. (Luke 9, 28–36.) The disciples gaze for a brief moment into the spiritual world — a testimony that insight into that world is possible without the faculties designated by the sign of Solomon and the sign of Jonah. But it is evident that they are still novices, for they fall asleep immediately after being torn out of their physical and etheric bodies by the stupendous power of what was happening. Christ finds them asleep. This account was meant to indicate the third way of entering the spiritual world, apart from the ways denoted by the signs of Solomon and of Jonah. Anyone capable in those days of interpreting the signs of the times would have known that the I itself must develop, that it must now be directly inspired, that the divine powers must work directly into the I. It was also to be made evident that the men of that time, even the very best among them, were not capable of taking the Christ-principle into themselves. The event of the Transfiguration was to be a beginning but it was also to be shown that the disciples were not able, at the time, to receive the Christ-principle in the fullest sense. Hence their powers fail them immediately afterwards, when they want to apply the Christ-power to heal one who is possessed by an evil spirit but are unable to do so. Christ indicates that they are still only at the beginning, by saying: I shall have to stay a long time with you before your forces are able also to stream into other men. (See Luke 9, 41.) Thereupon He heals the one whom the disciples could not heal. But then He says, again hinting at the mystery behind these happenings, that the time has come when “the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men”. This means: the time has come when the Ego, which is to be developed by men themselves in the course of their Earth-mission, is gradually to stream into them, to be given over to them. This I is to be recognized in its highest form in Christ. “Let these sayings sink down into your ears; for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying; it was hid from them, that they perceived it not.” (Luke 9, 44–45.)

1910-09-10-GA123

First the important context is given

And now we will go into the question of how the disciples could be led into the higher worlds. To understand what I am now going to say needs not only attentive listening but also a certain goodwill, fortified by the spiritual-scientific knowledge you have already acquired. I want to convey as clearly as possible the real meaning of the happenings described in the next chapters of the Gospel of St. Matthew.

... [read full lecture for more extensive coverage]

But the disciples themselves lived in two states of consciousness, for they were not yet men who had reached the highest stage of development; it was through Christ that the attainment of a higher stage was made possible for them. The two states of their consciousness may be compared with those of waking life and sleep. The magical power of Christ was able to work upon the disciples in both states of consciousness, not only by day, when He was actually near them, but also during sleep when they had left their physical and etheric bodies. Whereas in the ordinary way man's being expands into the worlds of stars unknowingly, Christ's power was now with the disciples and they actually beheld these worlds; they knew too: Christ's power gives us nourishment from the worlds of stars.

But these two states of consciousness in which the disciples lived had still another effect. In every human being — in a disciple of Christ Jesus too — we must pay attention both to what he is as a man in the immediate present and to the potentialities within him for future incarnations. In each and all of you lie the rudiments of what will present itself to the world in a quite different form when it appears again in a new incarnation during a future epoch of civilization. And if through these potential faculties that are already within you, you were to become clairvoyant, vision of the immediate future would arise as a first manifestation of super-sensible sight. Among the first clairvoyant experiences — provided they were genuine and pure — would be those concerning happenings of the immediate future. — This was the case in the disciples. In their normal waking consciousness Christ's power streamed into them and they could say: In our waking hours Christ's power takes effect in us in a way befitting our normal day-conscious-ness.

But what happened to them while they were sleeping? Because they were disciples of Jesus and the Christ-power had worked upon them, they always became clairvoyant at certain times during sleep. They did not, however, see what was taking place in the present but what would come to pass in the future. They plunged as it were into the ocean of astral vision and foresaw what was to happen to man in future time.

and later follows the crucial paragraph (SWCC)

Christ Jesus was to initiate in a particular way those of His disciples who were specially fit for it, so that they would be able not only to see the spiritual worlds with imaginative vision, as it were in astral pictures, but actually to hear what was taking place in those realms: this indicates ascent into the spirit world.

Hence, having been transported into the higher worlds, these disciples would now be able to find in those worlds the personality known to them on the physical plane as Christ Jesus. They were to become clairvoyant in regions higher than the astral plane. This was not possible for all the disciples; it was possible only for those who were the most receptive to the power that could stream from Christ: these disciples were Peter, James and John. The Gospel of St. Matthew therefore relates how Christ led the three disciples to surroundings where He could guide them beyond the astral plane into the spirit world, where they could behold the spiritual archetypes, first that of Christ Jesus himself and — in order that they might be aware of the conditions under which he was working — also of two beings who were connected with him: Elias and Moses. Elias was the ancient prophet who, reincarnated as John the-Baptist, was also the forerunner of Christ Jesus. The scene takes place after the beheading of John, when he was already in the spiritual worlds. The disciples also beheld Moses, another spiritual forerunner of Christ.

Such an experience was only possible when the three chosen disciples were transported to the level of spiritual vision higher than that of astral vision. And the fact that they rose into the spirit world is clearly indicated in St. Matthew's Gospel, for it is said that they not only beheld Christ filled with the power of the Sun but extra words are added: ‘And his face did shine as the Sun.’ It is also said that the three figures — Christ, Elias, Moses — were talking together. An ascent has therefore taken place into the realm of the spirit world; the disciples hear the three talking together. (Matt. XVII, 1-13.)

Everything, therefore, is faithfully described and tallies with the characteristics of the spiritual world revealed to spiritual-scientific investigation. There is never any contradiction between the findings of this investigation and true accounts of the deeds of Christ. It was he himself who led the disciples into the astral world and then into the realm of spirit world.

1911-03-04-GAXXX

lecture in Hannover with the title: '‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life' .. worth to be read in full (link).

Next day Steiner was also in Hannover (re GA266). steinerdatenbank.de maps this lecture to GA054 but this volume contains lectures from 1905-6.

Human beings are distinguishable from the higher animals in that the latter find their equilibrium from the outset. The animal, as climbing, jumping, running animal, acquires the equilibrium its life demands. Man, however, has to learn to find his poise as an upright being. This, too, is work of the “I.” The “I” brings about our state of poise, of equilibrium, whereas the animal acquires its equilibrium through implanted instincts. In man, the “I” creates the equilibrium and points the way to be taken in life. The “I” points the way to Man and also gives him his ideas, his thoughts, his knowledge. The animal has instincts; man acquires wisdom and attains to truth through knowledge.

Thus we can say:

• through the work of the “I,” Man receives, in early childhood, those forces which give him Life.
• Through the “I,” Man acquires knowledge, which leads him to Truth.
• Through the “I,” Man raises himself into the upright posture and finds the Way.

That is what is proceeding unconsciously, while the human body is developing in early childhood.

The same thing, raised to a higher level and striven for in a spiritual way, happens to Man when he permeates his being with the power of Christ. When this Christ Power has become reality in the soul, when the Christ has become a living experience in the soul, when the soul has thereby found the direction of its path, when it knows the Truth of the higher worlds, then this “I” in Man can affirm: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life — while realising that it is not his personal, earthly “I” which speaks, but the Christ in him.

The Christ in Man is the child-“I,” working in later life as a spiritual power. Therefore the words: “Except ye become as little children ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” contain the exhortations: Become like little children, become strong, stand upright, learn to find your Way through the Christ within you, become seekers after the Truth and then, in full consciousness, you will also find in yourselves the Life-kindling forces which streamed into your organism in childhood unconsciously. Think of this child-“I” spiritualised and enhanced — that is what must work in us through all following incarnations. We must live with this spiritualised child-“I” as we now live with our earthly “I.” It is with the Christ-“I” that we shall then be living. In order that this should be possible, the events in Palestine took place.

Thus we see how through what once took place, when the highest human Ideal was given an actual basis in life, the way was laid down for man for all subsequent evolution. The Mystery of Golgotha stands at the pivotal point of all existence, and must be regarded as the one and only true guide for all following incarnations. This is the Truth that must become the deepest of all human experiences.

1911-06-GA15

It is just as if the Christ had said; ‘I will be such an ideal for you human beings that, when it is raised to a spiritual level, you will be shown that which is fulfilled in each human body.’

In his early childhood man learns from the spirit how to walk; he is shown by the spirit his way through earthly life. From the spirit he learns to speak, to form truth; in other words, be develops the essence of truth out of sound during the first three years of his life. And the life too, which Man lives on Earth as an I-being, obtains its vital organ through what is formed in the first three years of childhood.

Thus Man

• learns to walk, to find ‘the way’;
• he learns to present ‘truth’ through his physical organism;
• and he learns to bring ‘life’ from the spirit into expression in his body.

No more significant interpretation seems possible of the words

‘Except ye become as little children ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.’

And momentous is that saying in which the I-being of the Christ comes into expression thus, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’

Just as, unknown to a child, the higher spirit-forces are fashioning its organism to become the bodily expression of the way, the truth, and the life, so the spirit of Man, through being interpenetrated with the Christ, gradually becomes the conscious vehicle of the way, the truth, and the life. He is thereby making himself, in the course of his earthly development, into that force which bears sway within him as a child, when he is not consciously its vehicle.

This saying about the way, the truth, and the life, is capable of opening the doors of eternity. It sounds to Man out of the depths of his soul, if his self-knowledge is true and real.

Such reflections as these open up, in a double sense, the vision of the spiritual guidance of the individual and of collective humanity. As human beings we are able, through self-knowledge, to find the Christ within us as the guide Whom, since His life on earth, we can always reach, because He is always in Man. Furthermore, if we apply to the historical records what we have apprehended without them, we discover their real nature. They express something which is revealed of itself in the depths of the soul. They are therefore to be accounted as guiding humanity in the same direction as the soul itself is proceeding.

If we thus understand the suggestion of eternity in the words, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life,’ we cannot feel ourselves justified in asking, ‘Why does a person who has passed through many incarnations always re-enter life as a child?’ For it becomes evident that this apparent imperfection is an ever-recurring reminder of the Highest that is in Man. And we cannot be reminded often enough — at any rate each time we enter earthly life is not too often to remind us — of the vast importance of Man's connection with that being who underlies all earthly existence, untouched by its imperfections.

1912-06-10-GA137

We can speak of the Christ, right from the very beginning, as of an “initiate” — that is, one who has direct and immediate connection with the super-sensible world. I have done this in my book Christianity as Mystical Fact and continually in lectures. But one cannot in the case of the Christ speak of His “initiation,” one cannot speak in His case of progress through initiations. We can say that He is an “initiated” one, but we can say nothing at all about how He became “initiated.” That is a profound distinction.

Compare all that is told of the life of the “initiated” with the account you have in the Gospels. Perhaps you will observe — I have shown it in my book Christianity as Mystical Fact — that the writers of the Gospels needed only to take the ancient ritual in accordance with which initiation was carried out, in order to describe the life of Christ. In relating the ritual they were relating the events of the life of Christ Jesus. But they could never say that He actually underwent what they were describing.

Take such a scene — pregnant with deep meaning — as the Transfiguration, or the Prayer on the Mount of Olives. These are events which if you had set out to relate them of some other initiated person you would have had to describe in quite a different way. You could not merely say that he went up to the Mount of Olives and that there drops of sweat fell from him like blood; in the case of another initiated person you would have to tell what he experienced there, how he was changed on the Mount of Olives. Christ was not changed. The meeting with his God on the Mount of Olives was not of such a character that we can feel he has anything to learn there. Similarly, what he passed through at the Transfiguration was not for Himself an enlightenment. For the others, for his companions, it was an enlightenment, but not for him. For him it was perfectly natural and comprehensible; he could not learn anything new from it.

1912-09-22-GA139

synopsis

• Occult significance of mountain, lake and plain. Transfiguration on mountain.
• Moses as bearer of initiation streams of other peoples. Hebrew people as gift of God to mankind. Sacrifice of Isaac. Phinehas, grandson of Aaron and his “zeal” for God. His later incarnation as Elijah-Naboth.
• Moses, Elijah, and Christ as cosmic deity, at Transfiguration.
• Presence of Peter, James and John at Transfiguration; their inability to understand it.
• Judas Iscariot and the woman with alabaster flask of ointment.
• Meaning of the “curse” of the fig tree, “no longer the time of figs.” Bodhi tree of Buddha and the tree of the Cross.

quote

In the Gospel of St. Mark directly after the great world-historical monologue which I have described there follows, as you know, the scene known as the Transfiguration or Transformation.

[Up the mountain]

I have often pointed out before that for the three disciples who had been taken to the “mountain” on which the Transfiguration took place, this was a kind of higher initiation. At this moment they were to be initiated, as it were, more profoundly into the secrets that were to be entrusted to them, one by one, to enable them to become leaders and guides of mankind. From what we have said before on several occasions we know that this scene contains a series of secrets. Both in the Gospels and other occult writings whenever the “mountain” is spoken of, then we have to do with something occult. In an occult connection it always means when the mountain is spoken of that those who are led to the mountain are led into certain secrets of existence. In the case of the Mark Gospel we feel this especially strongly for a reason that will become apparent if the Gospel is read rightly. But it must be read rightly.

Take, for example, the third chapter of Mark from the 7th to the 23rd or 24th verse. Actually we need not go further than the 22nd verse, but it is necessary to read it with perceptive understanding. Then something will be noticed. It has often been stressed that the expressions “accompany to the mountain” and “leading to the mountain” have an occult meaning. But in this particular chapter we find a threefold activity, and not only an “accompanying to the mountain.” If we examine carefully the three passages indicated by Mark, we notice first in verse 7, “And Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake,” etc. Then, in the 13th verse it is said, “And he went up to the mountain and called to him those who were acceptable to him.” Then in verses 20 and 21 we read, “And then he went to his home. And the crowd gathered again so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his family heard of it they went out to seize him, for they said ‘he is out of his mind.’ ”

Thus we are referred to three separate localities, the lake, the mountain and the house. Just as in an occult sense the mountain signifies that something important takes place, so is this also true in the other two cases. In occult writings if such expressions as “being led to the mountain,” or “being led to a house,” occur, this invariably means that they have an occult significance. When this is the meaning intended in the Gospels some specific circumstance is connected with it. You should remember that it is not only in the Mark Gospel but also in the others that a special revelation or special manifestation is connected especially with the “lake,” as when the disciples cross the lake and Christ appears to them. They at first take Him for a ghost, but then become aware that it is He in reality that is approaching them (Mark 6:45-52). And elsewhere you can also find a similar mention in the Gospels of some event that takes place because of the lake, or by the lake. On the mountain he first appoints the Twelve, that is, he confers their occult mission on them. That was an act of occult education. It is again on the mountain that the occult Transfiguration takes place. When he was “at his home,” he is declared by his family to be “out of his mind.” This was the third thing, and all three are of the greatest and most comprehensive significance.

If we wish to understand what “by the lake” means in this connection we must call to mind something that we have often explained. We have pictured to you how the so-called Atlantean age preceded our post-Atlantean earth period, and that in that age the air was still permeated by dense masses of mist. In the same way that in the Atlantean age human beings possessed the ancient clairvoyance, their way of perceiving and their soul life were quite different because they lived in quite different physical conditions. This was linked to the fact that the physical body was entirely different, since it was embedded in the masses of mist. From this epoch something like an ancient heritage has remained with mankind. If someone in the post-Atlantean age is initiated by some means into occult matters, or comes near to them as was the case with Jesus' disciples, he becomes much more sensitive, more intensely sensitive to his environment and to the natural world around him. As man is today, we might say that, with his robust relationship with the natural world, it is more or less immaterial whether he crosses the sea or stays by the lake, or whether he climbs a mountain — we shall soon see what that means — or whether he is in his own home. How his eyes see and his mind functions do not depend very much on where he happens to be. But when a man acquires a subtler vision and ascends into spiritual cosmic conditions, then it becomes evident how crudely organized his ordinary being is.

If a man, in the time when the old clairvoyance was active, crossed the sea where circumstances were quite different, even if he lived by the coast, his clairvoyant consciousness would be quite differently attuned than if he were on the plain. The greatest exertion, one might say, is necessary to bring forth any clairvoyant forces at all. The lake allows them to be brought forth more easily, but only those forces which are related to something entirely specific, not to everything. For there is again a difference whether clairvoyant consciousness is active on the plain, or whether it is active on the mountaintop. On the heights the sensitive clairvoyant consciousness is again attuned to things quite different from those on the plain. And the results of clairvoyant consciousness are again different if one is by the lake from what they are on the mountain. In each case the distinction must be made.

Of course it is also possible to arouse clairvoyance in a town, but this needs exceptional forces, whereas what we are talking about at present is valid especially for clairvoyance that comes more or less of its own accord. By the lake, by the water, and in masses of mist, the clairvoyant consciousness is especially disposed to perceive imaginations, all kinds of things through imagination, and to make use of what has already been acquired. On the mountain, in the rarified air where the proportion of nitrogen and oxygen is differently distributed, clairvoyant consciousness is more attuned to receiving inspirations, allowing something new to arise through clairvoyance. Hence the expression “to ascend the mountain” is not meant only symbolically but is used because the conditions obtaining on the mountain favor the possibility of developing new occult powers in oneself. Likewise the expression “to go to the lake” is not meant symbolically, but was chosen because coming in contact with the lake favors imaginative vision and the use of occult powers.

If one is at home, in one's own house, whether one is alone or with relatives, it is most difficult to make use of occult forces. For while it is comparatively easy for a person who has lived for a long time by a lake to believe — as long as conditions are favorable — that he experiences imaginations through the veil of his corporeality, and easier still for a person who lives in the mountains to believe that he is ascending higher, in the case of a person who is at home, one can feel only that he is outside his body, “out of his mind.” This is not to say that he could not develop occult powers, but only that this does not seem to be in harmony with his surroundings. It is less natural than it would be if he were by a lake, or on the mountain.

For this reason it has an immensely deep meaning that the Gospel is entirely in accord with what we have just described, and that this is drawn from the occult understanding of the conditions of nature. The Gospel brings this out clearly and it is factually correct in an occult sense. Hence we shall always see the following. When it is said that something took place by the lake, when being by the lake is referred to, definite forces are being applied and healing powers or powers of vision are unfolded. Thus Christ Jesus appears to His disciples by the lake in imagination only since He Himself is involved in the entire episode because of His capacity to exteriorize Himself. Although they do not have Him there in the physical body, the disciples see Him. In such an experience separation in space has no importance. He was together “with them” by the lake. For the same reason when reference is made to the soul forces of the apostles, the “mountain” is spoken of, as it was when the Twelve were appointed and their souls were enjoined to take into themselves the group soul of Elijah. And when the Christ wished to appear in the whole grandeur of His world-historical and cosmic manifestation, again the mountain is spoken of. The Transfiguration therefore takes place on the mountain.

[Transfiguration]

It is indeed from this point of view that we must picture the scene of the Transfiguration. The three disciples Peter, James, and John prove themselves to be capable of being initiated into the deeper secrets of the Mystery of Golgotha. To the clairvoyant eyes of these three which were now opened there appeared, transfigured, that is in their spiritual nature, Elijah on the one side and Moses on the other, with Christ Jesus Himself in the middle. And it is imaginatively indicated in the Gospel that Christ was now in the form in which in His spiritual nature He could be recognized. This is shown with sufficient clarity in the Mark Gospel:

And He was transfigured before them.

And His garments became gleaming bright, brighter than any fuller on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they conversed with Jesus. (Mark 9:2-4.)

After the great monologue of God comes a conversation among these three. What a wonderful dramatic crescendo! Everywhere the Gospels are full of such artistic sequences. Indeed they are wonderfully composed. After hearing the monologue of God we now have a conversation among these three, and what a conversation! First we see Elijah and Moses, one on each side of Christ Jesus.

What is the significance of Elijah and Moses?

The figure of Moses has long been familiar to you; even from the occult standpoint it has often been illuminated. We know that world-historical wisdom chose to bridge the span between primeval ages and the Mystery of Golgotha indirectly through Moses. We know from our studies on the Luke Gospel that in the Jesus boy of whom Matthew especially speaks the reincarnated Zarathustra is to be seen. We know also that this Zarathustra through all that belonged to him and was in him made preparations for his later appearance on earth. I have often mentioned how through special occult processes Zarathustra gave away his etheric body, which then passed over into Moses so that Zarathustra's etheric body was active in him. Thus when Elijah and Moses are pictured next to Christ Jesus we have, so to speak, in Moses those forces destined to lead over from primitive forms of culture to what mankind was later to be given in Christ Jesus and the Mystery of Golgotha.

But from another point of view we also have a transitional figure in Moses. We know that he not only had within him the etheric body of Zarathustra, which enabled him to bear within himself the wisdom of Zarathustra which could then become active in him, but we know also that Moses was in a certain way initiated into the secrets of other peoples. In the meeting with the Midianite priest Jethro we have to see a special scene of initiation, as we have discussed before. This is to be found in the Old Testament (Exodus 2:16-21). Here it is clearly pointed out how Moses visits this lonely priest and not only learns from him the secrets of the initiation of Judaism but also those of other peoples. He bears all these within his inner being which has already experienced the special strengthening that came from the etheric body of Zarathustra. So there entered into the Jewish people through Moses the secrets of initiation of the whole surrounding world, thus enabling him to prepare, on a lower stage, as it were, what was to come about through Christ Jesus. This then was one of the streams that was to lead to the Mystery of Golgotha.

The other stream, as I have also indicated before, derived from what by this time was living in a natural way in the Jewish people, as a people. Moses was the individuality who as far as was possible in his time allowed the other stream that was in the world to pour into that stream that flowed through the generations from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But at the same time we should always keep in mind what was especially connected with the nature of the Hebrew people. Why had this people been chosen? Their task was to prepare for that era that we tried to call before our souls when, for example, we referred to Hellenism, and then when yesterday we spoke of Empedocles. We were referring in this way to that time when the ancient clairvoyant capacities were disappearing from men, when they lost their ability to see into the spiritual world, when the power of judgment took its place; and judgment is the special characteristic of the ego, when the I emerges as an independent entity.

It was for the purpose of bringing to the I all that could be given to the natural being of Man through the organization of the blood that the Hebrew people were chosen. Absolutely everything that can be fully experienced through the physical organization of the human being had to be experienced fully by this people. Man's intellectuality is certainly bound to his physical organization; and from the physical organization of the ancient Hebrew people was to be taken that which truly could nourish those human capacities that are dependent on the intellect. By contrast other peoples had to allow what comes from without, from initiation, to shine into their earthly organization, whereas what was able to rise up in man's own being through the blood relationship was to rise up through this relationship in the ancient Hebrew people. For this reason it was insisted on that this blood connection be a continuous one, and that every Hebrew carried within himself those capacities that have been flowing through the blood since the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The I, bound to the blood, had to be conveyed to the physical organization through the blood of the ancient Hebrew people, and this could come about only through the medium of heredity.

I have already pointed out that the Old Testament story of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham and the manner in which it was prevented indicates how this people was specially chosen by the Godhead to be a gift to humanity, so that the outer physical vessel for egohood could be given to mankind. That this physical vessel, the ancient Jewish people, was a gift of God to humanity is indicated by Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. If he had sacrificed Isaac, Abraham would at the same time have sacrificed that physical organization that was to give mankind the physical basis for the intellect, and thus for egohood. In receiving back his son Abraham received back the whole God-given organization. This is the great significance of the restoration of Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19).

At the same time it is also indicated that on the one side there is the spiritual stream pictured for us in the Transfiguration scene in the person of Moses, and this is now to flow onward precisely through the instrument of the Jewish people as far as the deed of the Mystery of Golgotha.

What then is pictured for us in the person of Elijah?

Through him the totality of the divine revelation living in the Jewish people unites with what happens through the Mystery of Golgotha. In the book of Numbers it is shown in the 25th chapter how Israel is led astray into idolatry, but is rescued through the agency of one man. Through the decisiveness of one man the Israelites, the ancient Hebrew people, were not totally given over to idolatry at that time. Who is this man? It is he of whom we are told in the book of Numbers that he had the strength to come before the ancient Hebrew people who were in danger of lapsing into the idolatry of the surrounding peoples, and to intercede with the God who had been revealed through Moses. This was truly a strong soul. This intercession with God is usually translated into the German language as “eifern,” and in English as “be zealous.” This zeal is not to be thought of in any bad sense; it simply means to intercede strongly. Thus we read in Numbers 25:10-12:

And the Lord spoke with Moses and said: “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away my anger from the children of Israel through his zeal concerning me. So in my zeal I have not destroyed the children of Israel. Therefore say: See, I give him my covenant of peace.”

Yahweh said this to Moses. And in this particular passage we must also see something that according to ancient Hebrew esoteric teaching is exceptionally significant. This is confirmed by occult research. We know that those representing the high priesthood of ancient Israel are direct descendants of Aaron, and that in them the essence of what was given to mankind by the Jewish people lives on. At that moment of world history, according to Hebrew esoteric teaching and confirmed by more recent occult research, the significant truth was indicated that Yahweh imparts the knowledge to Moses that in Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the grandson of Aaron, he was bestowing on the Hebrew people a very special priest who represents him and is closely connected with him. And the esoteric teaching and occult research reveal that the same soul lives in the body of Phinehas that was later present in Elijah. Thus we have a continuous line of descent which in several points we have already described. In Aaron's grandson we have one soul that is of concern to us, the soul that lives in Phinehas. The same soul appears again in Elijah-Naboth and then in John the Baptist, and we know how it continues throughout the evolution of mankind. So there is pictured for us this soul on the one side of the Christ, and on the other the soul of Moses himself.

[Transfiguration]

So in the Transfiguration, in the Transformation on the mountain, we have before us a streaming together of the entire spirituality of Earth evolution, the essence of which flowed through the Jewish blood into the Levitical line. Thus the soul of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron stands before us; Moses stands before us; and there stands before us also He who fulfilled the Mystery of Golgotha.

And the three disciples who were to be initiated, Peter, James and John, were to perceive in imaginative knowledge how these forces, these spiritual streams, flowed together. When yesterday I tried to picture for you how something like a call sounds over from Greece to Palestine and the call that answered it, this was something more than a mere pictorial description of the facts. It was indeed a preparation for that great world-historical discourse that now actually took place. The disciples Peter, James, and John were to be initiated into what these three souls had to discuss together; one soul who belonged to the people of the Old Testament, one who carried within himself much of what we know about the Moses soul, while the third, as cosmic deity, is uniting Himself with the earth. This the disciples were to see.

We know that it could not immediately enter into their hearts, nor could they understand immediately what was revealed to them. But this is customary with much that is experienced in the realm of the occult. It is experienced imaginatively. One does not understand it, and often learns to understand it only in the following incarnation. But then our understanding is better able to adapt itself to what had previously been seen.

We can feel how on the mountain there were the three cosmic powers, while down below were the three who were to be initiated into these great cosmic secrets. And from all these things the feeling can arise in our souls that the Gospel, if we understand it correctly, and especially if we allow the dramatic intensification and the artistic composition which is itself an expression everywhere of cosmic facts, does truly point to the great revolution that really happened at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha.

When the Gospel is explained through occult research it speaks a very clear language indeed. In the future it will become important that people should recognize ever more clearly what is the issue at stake, and what is particularly significant in one or the other passage in the Gospel; and only then will we be able to grasp the point that is of special importance in a particular parable, or in one story or another. It is strange how ordinary theologians or philosophers when they try to explain the most important things in the Gospels actually always take their point of departure as if they were not putting the horse before the cart in the usual way but the other way round — or, as we say in common parlance, they “put the cart before the horse.” This indeed happens with so many interpreters and commentators; they miss the main point.

Beinsa Douno

quote from lecture extract of 'Christ, Manifestation of Love'

Did people know Christ when he appeared two thousand years ago? Do they know him today?

When truth comes into the world, it is not clothed in royal garments, but rather in modest apparel. Thus Christ appeared two thousand years ago in a simple form, in which men could not recognize him. But such are the laws of this world. In this modest apparel, seemingly a man like all other men, even his disciples did not know Him completely.

Only three of them at the transfiguration saw Christ’s 'face', His inner self. In this inner light they saw Him and recognized Him as he was among the angels.

Daskalos (in MoS)

The purpose of the Transfiguration was certainly not for the sake of demonstrating his power in creating phenomena. He wished to enter into His Divine condition. The pan-universal Logos wanted to initiate himself into the Divine state. The Transfiguration at Mount Tabor was the initiation of Jesus as God-Man in order to endure the Crucifixion and be able, as God and Man, to resurrect Himself. After the Resurrection, when Jesus was completely attuned with his divine state, he materialized in front of his students in the image of Jesus the Man, within a body that still bore the scars on his hands from the nails, saying to them, "All authority has been accorded me in Heaven and on Earth."

Related pages

• Three years of Christ Jesus
• Christ Module 2 - Nature of the Christ being

References and further reading

• Konrad Oberhuber: 'Raphaels 'Transfiguration: Stil und Bedeutung' (1982)
• D.J. van Bemmelen: 'Rafaels Transfiguratie' (article in 'Mededelingen van de Antroposofische Vereniging in Nederland, nr 35/9, pages 183-189)