THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA

[Dover]

THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA ..............................................

How shall we come once more to the Supersensible — to the Spiritual that transcends the world of sense?...
When the modern initiate enters into the Sciences of our time (which are the glory and triumph of the age, and in the study of which so many people, possessed even of a certain higher consciousness, feel the greatest satisfaction) he finds himself in a tragic situation. For when he unites his soul with that form of Science which is valued above all by the world to-day, the initiate feels it as a slow process of Death. A sphere of existence higher than all earthly things has risen up before his soul. And yet, the more he imbues himself with that which all the world to-day calls Science, the more he feels his soul to die within him. For the modern initiate, the Sciences are indeed the grave of the soul. While he acquires knowledge about the world in the manner of modern Science, he feels himself bound up, even in life, with Death. Again and again he feels this Death deeply and intensely. Then he may well seek the reason why, whenever he acquires knowledge in the modern sense, he dies. Why is it, he asks himself, that he has a feeling comparable even to the presence of a corpse — the odour of decay — just when he rises to the highest points of modern scientific knowledge, the greatness of which he is truly able to appreciate, though to him it is the premonition of Death.


A lecture delivered in Manchester College Chapel, Oxford, on August 27th. 1922. Authorized translation from the German of Notes unrevised by the lecturer.


By RUDOLF STEINER


Golgotha, E. Jerusalem

MANKIND is reaching out to apprehend the Mystery of Golgotha once more with all the forces of the human soul; to understand it not only from the limited standpoint of present-day civilisation, but so as to unite with it all the forces of man's being. But this will only be possible if we are ready to approach the Mystery of Golgotha once more in the light of spiritual knowledge. Intellectualistic knowledge can never do justice to the full World-impulse of Christianity. For such knowledge only takes hold of the thinking life of man. So long as we have a Science whose only appeal is to our life of Thought, we must derive the sources of our Will (and these for Christianity are the most important) from our instinctive life, and cannot realise their true origin in spiritual Worlds.

Thus it will be indispensable to turn attention in our time once more to this the greatest question of mankind, inasmuch as the essence and meaning of the whole evolution of the Earth lies in the Mystery of Golgotha. I would fain express it in a parable, however strangely seeming. Imagine some Being descending from another planet to the Earth. Unable to become an earthly man, the Being would in all likelihood find the things on Earth quite unintelligible. Yet it is my deepest conviction, arising from a knowledge of the evolution of the Earth, that such a Being — even if he came from distant planets. Mars or Jupiter — would be deeply moved by Leonardo da Vinci's picture of the Last Supper. For in this picture he would discover that a far deeper meaning lies hidden in the Earth, — in earthly evolution. Beginning from this deeper meaning which belongs to the Mystery of Golgotha, the Being from a distant world could then begin to understand all other things on Earth.

We men of to-day little know how far we have gone in intellectual abstraction. We can no longer feel our way into the souls of those who lived a little while before the Mystery of Golgotha. They were very different from the souls of men to-day. We are apt to imagine the past history of mankind far too similar to the events and movements of our day. In reality the souls of men have undergone a tremendous evolution. In the times before the Mystery of Golgotha all human beings — even those who were primitive, more or less uncultured in their souls, — perceived in themselves something of the essence of the soul, which might be thus described: They had a memory of the time the human soul lives through, before he descends into an earthly body. As we in ordinary life remember our experiences since the age of three or four or five, so had the human soul in ancient time a memory of pre-existence in the world of soul and spirit. In a deeper psychological sense, man was as if transparent to himself. He knew with certainty: I am a soul, and I was a soul before I descended to the Earth. Notably in still more ancient times, he even knew of certain details of the life of soul and spirit which had preceded his descent to Earth. He experienced himself in cosmic pictures. Looking up to the stars, he saw them not in the mere abstract constellations which we see to-day. He saw them in dreamlike Imaginations. In a dreamlike way he saw the whole Universe filled with spiritual pictures or Imaginations, and as he saw it thus he could exclaim: “This is the last reflected glory of the spiritual World from which I am come down. Descending as a soul from yonder spiritual World, I entered the dwelling of a human body.” Never did the man of ancient time unite himself so closely with his human body as to lose this awareness of the real life of soul.

What was the real experience of the man of ancient time in this respect? It was such that he might have said: “I, before I descended to the Earth, was in a world where the Sun is no mere heavenly body spreading light around, but a dwelling-place of higher Hierarchies, of spiritual Beings. I lived in a world where the Sun not only pours forth light, but sends out radiant Wisdom into a space not physical but spiritual. I lived in that world where the stars are essences of Being — Beings who make felt their active will. From yonder world I descended.”

Now in this feeling two experiences were joined together for the man of ancient time: the experience of Nature, and the experience of Sin.

The old experience of Sin: the modern man has it no longer. Sin, for the man of modern time, lives in a world of abstract being. It is a mere transgression, a moral concept which he cannot really connect with the necessities or laws of Nature. For the ancients the duality was non-existent, of natural law upon the one hand, and moral on the other. All moral necessities were at the same time natural, likewise all natural were moral. In those ancient times a man might say, “I had to descend out of the divinely spiritual World. Yet by my very entry into a human body — compared to the World from which I am descended — I am sick and ill.” Sickness and Sin: for the man of olden time these two ideas were interwoven. Here upon Earth man felt that he must find within himself the power to overcome his sickness. Increasingly the consciousness grew on the souls of olden time: We need an Education which is Healing. True Education is Medicine, is Therapy. Thus there appear upon the scene shortly before the Mystery of Golgotha such figures as the Therapeutæ, as the healers. Indeed in ancient Greece all spiritual life was somehow related to the healing of humanity. They felt that man had been more healthy in the beginning of Earth-evolution, and that he had evolved by degrees farther and farther from the Divine-spiritual Beings. “The sickness of humanity” was a widespread conception, forgotten as it is by modern History, in that ancient world in which the Mystery of Golgotha was placed.

It was by turning their gaze into the past that the men of those ancient times felt the reality of spiritual things. “I must look back beyond my birth, far into the past, if I would see the Spiritual. There is the Spirit; out of that Spirit I am born; that Spirit must I find again. But I have departed far from Him.”

Thus did man feel the Spirit from whom he had departed, as the Spirit of the Father God. The highest Initiate in the Mysteries was he who evolved in his heart and soul the forces whereby he could make manifest the Father in his own external human being. When the pupils crossed the threshold of the Mysteries and came into those sacred places which were institutions of Art and Science and of the sacred religious Rites at the same time, and when at length they stood before the highest Initiate, they saw in him the representative of the Father God. The “Fathers” were higher Initiates than the “Sun-Heroes.”

Thus, before the Mystery of Golgotha the Father Principle held sway. Yet it was felt how man had. departed ever more and more from the Father, to whom as we look up we say. Ex Deo nascimur. Mankind stood in need of healing, and the seers and initiates lived in expectation of the Healer, the Hælend the healing Saviour. To us the conception of Christ as the Healer is no longer living. But we must find our way to it again, for only when we can feel His presence once more as the Cosmic Physician, shall we also realise His true place in the Universe.

Such was the deep-seated feeling in human souls before the Mystery of Golgotha, of their connection with the spiritual world of the Father. A strange saying coming down to us from ancient Greece — “Better to be a beggar upon Earth than a king in the realm of shades” — bears witness, how deeply humanity had learned to feel the estrangement of their being from the world of Spirit. Yet at the same time their souls were filled with a deep longing for that World.

But we must realise that if a man had gone on evolving with the old consciousness of the Father God alone and unimpaired, he could never have attained the full self-consciousness of the “ I ” and inner spiritual Freedom. Before he could attain true spiritual Freedom, something had to take place in man, which, in relation to his primæval state, appeared as sickness. All humanity was suffering as it were the sickness of Lazarus. But the sickness was not unto Death; it was unto liberation and redemption, unto a new knowledge of the Eternal within man.

..cont'd

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/MysGol_index.html



Golgotha by Munch

[aquart]

1. Humans are so scary.

Does any other species sacrifice one of its own for "religious"? Does any other species have religion? Is that the distinction between humans and animals we keep looking for?

Our "sin" is in being alive and human. To survive we kill plants and animals. It is only fair to offer the best of ourselves to receive the best of the earth. How rude it would be not to.

[theredpen]

4. You're a little off base here

Jesus was not sacrificed for religion. Jesus was executed by the state. The sacrifice was that He faced this death rather than to cow to pressure not to stop preaching His message.

You also say, "Our 'sin' is in being alive and human." I hope this is not your assessment of Christianity, because that certainly isn't a tenet of the faith.

On a more positive not, I have to totally agree with this: "It is only fair to offer the best of ourselves to receive the best of the earth. How rude it would be not to."

I would hope that would be an ethic that all beliefs (and those with no belief) could share.

[Deep13]

10. That being alive = sin most certainly is the central premise of Christianity.

To wit: we are born as sinners. Everything we do is sinful, especially when we fail to live up to the frankly impossible standards of conduct and thought laid out in the NT. Because of this we are doomed to suffer an eternity even after we die. Even the bully god of the OT stopped tormenting Job when he was dead!

The solution? The blood sacrifice of god's son, who is also god, to allow himself to forgive our sins, even those that have not yet been committed. Why god cannot simply forgive those sins as an act of will is not explained. So, to get in on all this forgiveness, all one has to do is believe the second sentence of this paragraph. Any failure to believe this unlikely story is the fault of the individual and not the fault of the implausibility of the story.

Look, I know you believe all this deeply and it is important to you, so excuse me if I sound flippant. I don't intend to sound insulting, but the nature of the subject makes that impossible to avoid while still having a serious discussion. I used to believe all this myself. Still, I am sure you must agree that if you were not taught to believe this from birth and instead grew up either in another religion or none at all, you would have to conclude that his whole thing is bat-shit insane. The whole thing reminds me of a snake-oil salesman who first "creates a need" by convincing everyone that they are sick and then offers to sell the only cure. If someone tried to pull that on you, you would warn that person not to let the door hit him on the way out.

My 8-yr.-old niece is not being taught anything religious. She hears about it from her friends of course. Well, my sister explained what Easter was because the niece asked. Remember how "good" Friday is when Jesus died? Easter is when he came back to life (which makes one wonder just how much of a sacrifice it really was). Well, the niece thought that was about the funniest think she ever heard. The only funnier story was the explanation behind baptism. Apparently babies are born evil and getting wet helps them not be evil. That's why, isn't it. I mean, granted, it is also an initiation ritual, but mostly it is for saving ones soul from, among others, original sin.

[rug]

2. I'll be damned. A post on theology in the theology forum.

[xchrom]

3. Mystery and Spirituality

are two elements that legalists and literalists snuff out in faith.

christianity has need to morph -- to change - - and instead has had to contend with itself.

wwII was our New Golgotha -- some are changing in it's shadow -- too many are not.
they will or they won't survive the attrition that years will cause.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Mystery is the base of Eastern Orthodoxy.

One of the reasons we switched over to it. Yes, we have our legalists and literalists, but they're usually blown off by everyone else (aka, smile and nod and walk away). :)

[cliss]

5. Thank you Dover.

As always, your articles and links are the very best.

Question about Golgotha.
Are there any descriptions of this place?
Does anyone know, was the sky brown at the time?
I realize there is a very slim chance of any type of "eye witness" accounts, but maybe there is a description.

[Dover]

6. Some have suggested that an eclipse occurred that day due to Biblical passages

describing the sky as darkening for a few hours. Don't know about the color. Apparently the earth shook as well, indicating perhaps an earthquake.

You'll have to do some research, unless someone else can help.
What's the question behind your question, Cliss? Just curious.


Here's an interpetation of the Biblical account of that day:

The mother of Jesus and her sister, along with Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene were standing by the cross.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother:

Woman, look, your son!

And he said to the disciple:

Behold, here is your mother!

From that hour on, the disciple took Mary into his (her?) own home.

Now it was about the sixth hour when darkness came over the whole land, and it lasted until the ninth hour.

About the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying:

Eli, Eli, lam sabachthani?

Which translated means:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And some who stood by, when they heard it said:

He is calling for Elijah.

After this, Jesus, knew that all things were finished and that the scriptures had been accomplished. He said:

I thirst.

There was a vessel full of vinegar, and one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a hyssop reed and brought it to Jesus' mouth.

The rest of those standing around the cross said,:

Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.

And when Jesus had received the vinegar, he cried again with a loud voice and said:

It is finished. Into your hands I commend my spirit.

And having said these words, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

And immediately the veil of the temple was torn into two pieces, in the middle from top to bottom.

And the earth shook and the rocks cracked in pieces, and the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had died were raised, and they came out of the tombs and walked into Jerusalem and appeared to many.

When the centurion, who stood watching Jesus saw him give up his spirit, and felt and saw the earthquake, and everything else that was happening, he was fearful. He glorified God, saying:

Certainly this was a righteous man. This was the Son of God.

And the crowd that came together to view the sight of Jesus dead on the cross, went home beating their breasts in sorrow.

[cliss]

7. Dover, thanks for the background info.

I'm a little hesitant to share this in an open forum, but here goes ~

A few years ago, I was taken back in time to this event. It was in a trance-like state. Have no idea why or what the reason was. I certainly didn't seek it out.
I saw the event that you've described above.
As I looked out and surveyed the scene, I noticed the sky was brown. It almost looked like it was sunset, maybe around 6:00 p.m.
There was a definite brown cast to everything. I could also see foothills in the background, and it seemed there were shadows.

There were people present at the scene. But not as many as people might think. I only saw about 10 people. I was struck by how dirty they looked. Of course, it could have been in the brownish cast that they looked dirty.

I remember looking at one woman in particular.

Otherwise, there really wasn't much going on in the scene. Just a few scattered people standing around. No great sorrow, nothing remarkable going on.
Just - strange. I have no comment other than I don't know why I saw it.
I mentioned this to a friend, and she said the Jesus was crucified around 9:00 a.m. so there was something strange about the darkness of the scene.
Later, she did some research and she found out that historical reports tell of an eclipse.
She was shocked because there is no way I could have known that.

Strange.

[Dover]

9. That's really something Cliss! Thank you for bravely sharing that.

What was this journey about? What did you learn or bring back from the experience that was not there before? BTW - if you are uncomfortable with sharing that here (understandably) feel free to either PM me or post it in the Astrology forum (same article posted there).

An eclipse experience casts a 'strange' light upon the earth, often accompanied by a similarly 'strange' feeling or mood shift. Perhaps the awe we feel is part of our ongoing and collective memory that Steiner alludes to, in reverence for the power of the Divine that it and all of nature and the universe represent. Those 'feelings' remind us of our connection to that Divine source. I've had dreams of experiencing eclipses directly (looking directly upon them), which left me with an indescribable feeling of peace and wholeness as the two celestial bodies became one.

[cliss]

11. Dover,

I'll reply but I think I'll go back to the Astrology Forum. I feel more comfortable there.

I'm in my own fish tank back there.:smoke:

[Dover]

8. The soul's longing

The OP article talks about the innate longing on the soul level for a re-connection to the Divine.
That longing that nags at us and remains unsatisfied with any measure of worldly success. That longing that requires completion and wholeness.
My own experience with this inner longing has led me on a great journey in this life. While I've always trusted and generally defer to it's influence, following this path is a little like being blindfolded and when I come nearer to 'the way', there seems to be great encouragement and wonderful synchronisities, telling me I'm getting warmer as I come closer to the light...or the same inner guidance that tells me I'm getting 'colder' if I stray too far. Perhaps, as Steiner suggests, we have needed to stray (or leave home) in order to more fully develop our autonomy, our "I" consciousness and to develop our inner guidance and connection from this new place.


This reminded me of an article I posted in the Astrology/Spirituality forum some time ago that I thought would be appropriate to post here:

As Far As Longing Will Reach

What is this longing that drives men and women crazy,
deprives them of sleep, of rest and peace—this longing
that keeps surfacing throughout history in the literature
of people as far apart as ancient Greece, Anatolia, Iran, and
remote places hardly any of us even know? Echoes reach
our ears of those who have been laughed at, persecuted,
even killed because they dared to live their longing in public;
but we often choose to make ourselves deaf. It can be
so much easier, so much more convenient, to pretend they
never existed; that their longing can never be ours; that
their timeless teachings are too old and out of fashion
for us now.

And yet, like a heartache that stubbornly persists in spite
of all our best efforts to ignore it, this longing follows us
too. It drives us from one place to another, from one desire
to a different one and then another one, as we go on
searching to fulfill ourselves and finally silence the inner
voice that never seems satisfied with anything. But whatever
we do, and however hard each of us tries, we still sense that
something is missing.

Already two and a half thousand years ago a Greek man
from southern Italy called Parmenides spoke about this
longing in a poem he left behind about the journey he
made deep into the underworld to meet the queen of the dead,
Persephone, and be taught by her the secrets of
reality. The beginning of his poem starts like this:


The mares that carry me as far as
longing can reach
rode on, once they had come and
fetched me
onto the legendary road
of the divinity
that carries the man who
knows
through the vast and
dark unknown...

And the clue to the whole poem lies already in the first line. The one
crucial factor in this strange affair that for Parmenides influences
everything—that determines just how far on this journey toward
reality he can actually go—is longing. The Greek word he uses is
thumos, and thumos means the energy of life itself. It’s the raw presence
in us that senses and feels, the massed power of our emotional being.
Above all it’s the energy of passion, appetite, yearning, longing.
Since the time of Parmenides we have learned so well to hedge our thumos in,
to dominate our longing, punish and control it. But for Parmenides himself
the longing is what comes first, right at the beginning.
And there is a profound significance in this, because what he is saying is
that—left to itself—longing makes it possible for us to go all the way to where
we really need to go.

There is no reasoning with passion and longing, although we like to deceive ourselves
by believing there is. All we ever do is reason with ourselves about the form our
longing will take. We reason that if we find a better job we will be content,
but we never are. We reason that if we go somewhere special we will be happy; but when
we get there we start wanting to go somewhere else. We reason that if we were to sleep
with the lover of our dreams we would be fulfilled. And yet even if we were to manage
that, it would still not be enough.

What we sometimes refer to, so misleadingly, as “human nature” is simply
the state of being pulled by the nose in a hundred different directions and ending
up going nowhere very fast. But although there is no reasoning with our passion,
it has a tremendous intelligence of its own. The only trouble is that we keep interfering;
keep breaking it up into tiny pieces, scattering it everywhere.
Our minds always trick us into focusing on the little things we think we want—rather than
on the energy of wanting itself.

If we can bear to face our longing instead of finding endless ways to keep satisfying it
and trying to escape it, it begins to show us a glimpse of what lies behind the scenes
of this world we think we live in. It opens up a devastating perspective where everything
is turned on its head: where fulfillment becomes a limitation, accomplishment turns into a
trap. And it does this with an intensity that scrambles our thoughts and forces us straight
into the present.

Longing is the movement and the calling of our deepest nature. It’s the cry of
the wolf, the power of the lion, the flutteringof all the birds inside us. And if we
can find the courage to face it, it will take us back to where we belong. But just like
animals, this longing is dangerous as well as beautiful. Longing is the powerhouse
of our being, and on this path of return it breaks everything except what is unbreakable.
It shatters all the man-made structures that we try to build up around it and place in its way.
It washes away the future and past and leaves us with nothing but eternity. For longing is the creator of time, and time can never contain it....>

http://peterkingsley.org/pkoffice/images/KingsleysLonging.pdf