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downwards and beheld the Temple of Solomon with its
symbols. The Temple was like a star whose light enabled them
to guide the souls into bodies which would be capable of
understanding its meaning. It was the central star of the earth,
shining out with special brightness into the spiritual heights.
When Christ Jesus had come to the earth, when the Mystery
of Golgotha had taken place, the great secret that was
intended to be mirrored in every single human soul was this:
"My kingdom is not of this world!" It was then that the
external, physical Temple of Solomon lost its significance and
its destiny was tragically fulfilled. Moreover at that time there
was no living person who would have been capable of
apprehending the full compass of the Christ Being from the
reflections of the symbols in Solomon's Temple.
But the Christ Himself had now entered earth-evolution, had
become part of it. That is the all-important fact. The Gnostics
were the last survivors of the bearers of that ancient, atavistic
earth-wisdom which was comprehensive and powerful enough
to make some understanding of the Christ possible.
That, then, is one aspect of the relation of Christ to Jesus. In
those days the Christ Being could have been understood
through the Gnosis. But according to the world-plan it was not
to be although the Gnosis teemed with wisdom concerning
the Christ. And it may truly be said that the path now taken by
Christianity through the countries of the South, through
Greece, Italy, Spain and so on, led more and more to the
obliteration of insight into the essential nature of Christ. And
Rome, sinking into decline, was destined to bring about the
final extinction of understanding.
In regard to this relation of the Christ to Jesus it is strange
that on the one hand we find lighting up in the Gnosis a
sublime conception of the Christ which died away as
Christianity passed through the Roman system, while on the
other hand, when Christianity encountered the peoples from
the North, the concept of Jesus came to the fore. In the South,
the concept of Christ flickered out. The form in which the
concept of Jesus emerged was by no means very sublime, but
it gripped men's hearts and feelings in such a way that
something wonderfully absorbing stirred in their souls at the
thought of how the Child who receives the Christ is born in the
Holy Night. Just as in the South the concept of Christ was
inadequate, so in the North was man's feeling for Jesus. But
for all that it was a feeling that stirred the very depths of the
human heart. Yet in itself it is not quite comprehensible. For if
we contrast the immeasurable significance of Christ Jesus for
the evolution of humanity with all the sentimental trivialities
about the dear little Jesus contained in many poems and
hymns commonly used to move the human heart for in
their egoism men believe that these trivialities kindle
emotions capable of storming the heavens then we have a
direct impression that something is striving to make its home
but is not fully able to do so, that one element is mingling with
another in such a way that the deeper meaning, the far deeper
significance, remains in the subconsciousness.
What actually is it that remains in the subconsciousness while
the Jesus-thought, the Jesus-feeling, the Jesus-experience, is
coming to the surface? The process takes a strange and
remarkable course. The understanding for Christ sank into the
subconsciousness and there, in the subconsciousness, the
understanding for Jesus began to glow. In the
subconsciousness not in the consciousness, which was dim
the consciousness of Christ that was flickering out and the
consciousness of Jesus that was beginning to stir were
destined to meet and counter-balance each other. Why was it,
then, that the peoples who came down from Scandinavia,
from the North of present-day Russia, received Christianity
without the Christ-idea which, to begin with, was wholly
foreign to them? Why was it that they received Christianity
with the Jesus-idea? Why was Christmas the festival which
above all others spoke to the human heart, awakened in the
human heart feelings of holy bliss? Why was it? What was
present in this Europe which in truth received from the South
a completely distorted Christianity? What was it that kindled
in men's hearts the idea which then, in the Christmas Festival,
created such a deep, deep fount of experience?
Men had been prepared but had largely forgotten by what
they had been prepared. They had been prepared by the old
Northern Mysteries. But they had forgotten the import and
meaning of these ancient Mysteries. And we have to go very
far back into the past to discover from the source and content
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zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plcs-sysunia.htw.pl
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