Christ Module 2 - Nature of the Christ being

The Christ can be approached in different ways (see [1] below):

the historical Christ, as in the person of Christ Jesus that lived 2000 years ago
the mystical or inner Christ that lives in the heart of every person
the resurrection cosmic Christ that lives as the spirit of the Earth and in the astral atmosphere of the Earth

In what follows one needs to be clearly aware of the nature of the Jesus (as a human being) and the nature of the Christ as a spiritual being, in order to be able to understand the spiritual entity of Christ Jesus and what this being enacted on Earth. And secondly, to also understand how the Christ is central to the development of humanity and the solar system evolution from Old Sun to Future Venus.

With reference to Schema FMC00.050A below:

the historical Christ is mainly points 7 to 12 with focus on 11,
the cosmic Christ include all other aspects from 1 to 15,
the mystical or inner Christ - probably the most important for Man individually - is expanded in Christ study modules 15 to 21.

Aspects

the essential nature of the Christ is the principle of unconditional brotherly love and selflessness dimension of all (see also the link with the nature of 'budhi' and 'not me but the Christ in me').
names of Christ
- through the ages (Schema FMC00.090)
- the only true name of Christ is 'I am' (1909-05-27-GA266/1)
Christ as a Sun-good, see Threefold Sun

What is the nature of the Christ being that descended and merged with the body of Jesus, and is now with humanity as the spirit of the Earth?

To build a comprehensive picture, an appreciation is needed of some fifteen known aspects of the Christ being as listed below (see Schema FMC00.050A). They are put in logical sequential order and can be mapped to Christ Module 3 - Evolutionary framework. The four Gospels inform us about aspects 8 and 9, and especially aspects 11 to 13. Rudolf Steiner's commentaries on these, as well as additional lecture cycles, inform us about all the others. The Fifth Gospel adds aspect 10 specifically.

Christ as creator of the current solar system
Christ on Old Sun
Christ on Old Moon - with Lucifer on Old Moon + evolution to macroscoscopic I
Separation of the Sun
Three pre-MoG interventions of Christ (in the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs)
Descent of the Adam sister soul
Christ's descent to Earth over various cultural ages - link with Khrishna Zarathustra Buddha
Preparations in Jesus hereditary tree of descent (of Hebrew generations)
The two Jesus children - their birth and lives upto age 12 - Birth of two children and their merger at age 12
Fifth gospel coverage between ages 12 and 30
The Baptism
Three years of Christ Jesus
Mystery of Golgotha (MoG), from before until the resurrection;
After the resurrection: covering ascension, Pentecost, Christ becoming spirit of the Earth
The Christ Impulse from the 1st to the 20th century
Christ in the future cultural ages and next epochs (for the current century and Christ in the etheric, see also : Christ Module 19 - experiencing the Christ)
End of Earth and second Adam and group soul humanity
Future Jupiter
Future Venus

This module does not go into:

Christ as the Mystical Lamb (for this, see Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension)
the Logos and the Trinity, Father and Son aspects (see Christ Module 9 - Trinity and Logoi)
the Thirty three year rhythm of impulses, related to the life of Christ-Jesus

These aspects provides information, knowledge. To know the Christ however is also a deep soul feeling and realization of the essence of love, in its purest and most encompassing form. So one who lives the unconditional love towards every human being, loves his fellow human being like a parent loves his children today, this person knows the Christ better even if that person knows nothing of the above.

The above therefore is a descriptive biography with facts to satisfy intellectual curiosity but also to build a feeling connection to the Christ being.

Illustrations

Overview

Schema FMC00.050 provides an overview table on the 18 main stages through which we study the nature of The Christ, from the Old Sun to the Future Venus planetary stages.

Schema FMC00.050A shows the original draft sketch and old table to get an overview of how, to get closer to an understanding of the Christ, we need to follow all clues on the nature of that being from the Old Sun to the Future Venus planetary stages. In this scope we can easily point to more than a dozen different aspects for further study. The table has been superseded with the update of Schema FMC00.050, so the below is just retained for the graphical representation, which will be updated in a cleaned up version.

Schema FMC00.090 lists the various names of Christ across the ages:

Further imagery

Sistine Madonna (Raphael)
Madonna with two children (Raphael), see The two Jesus children

Lecture coverage and references

[1] the three ways of seeing the Christ are discussed in 1910-01-14-GA117A and 1910-01-15-GA117A.

The distinction between historical and mystical inner Christ is also presented in 1912-02-22-GA069D, 1912-11-16-GA069D, 1913-11-15-GA069D and 1914-01-10-GA069D.

Also in 1902-04-05-GA087 the difference is pointed out between exoteric and esoteric nature of christianity, and in 1910-01-15-GA117A the Gospel of John as a way from the historical to the mystical Christ.

1909-05-27-GA266/1

The only true name of Christ is 'I am'. Who does not know this or understand this and calls him otherwise, knows nothing at all about him. 'I am' is his only name.

[3] - Christ on Old Moon (incl. with Lucifer on Old Moon + evolution to macroscoscopic I)

1912-06-12-GA137

.. the Old Moon condition is no longer in existence, it has to be described by means of a consciousness that can function without an object present to hand .. from the Akashic Record. So that for the first consciousness of a higher kind we have, besides the Story of the Temptation, all the processes that can be said to have relation to the Old Moon. .. And now I want to draw your attention to something else. There is deep significance in the fact that from among the many kinds of experience man acquires through the first higher consciousness, I chose the story of the Temptation.
For when we direct the same consciousness to the Old Moon, we find there a repetition of the story of the Temptation. (I say a repetition, but naturally it took place long before!) It is really so. We learn how Christ already on the Old Moon overcame Lucifer, and in the scene that is given us in the Gospels we have to see, as it were, a recurrence of the fact that Christ attained to victory over Lucifer.

On Earth Christ repels Lucifer from the outset. This is because on Old Moon, when He was Himself less highly evolved — for Christ also undergoes evolution — He had repelled, through the uttermost devotion of His Being to Highest Powers, all the attacks of Lucifer which at that time still meant something to Him. Already on old Moon Lucifer approached Christ. On Earth he was no longer dangerous to Him: on Earth Christ repels Lucifer at once. On the Moon, however, Christ had to exert all the forces at His disposal in order to repel Lucifer. This is then the added experience that comes to us when we cast back the gaze of higher consciousness into the remote time of Moon.

1912-06-12-GA137 also contains the following statement on Christ's – upward evolution since Old Sun, now regent of whole solar system

We must let these scenes live before us, we must learn to see the divergence that came about during the old Sun time between the path of Lucifer and the path of Christ. Lucifer went downward, he had to remain behind in his evolution, and he remained behind also during the Moon time. Christ went forward. The Christ Spirit, the Sun Spirit, became a Spirit evolving ever forward until at length He was able to appear on Earth in the Form we have often described. Through His devotion to the World All, through His having received and identified Himself with the Divinely Creative, Inexpressible Word, through His having rejected every sort of pride and put always in its place devotion to the Word of the Worlds, — Christ, from being Ruler of a single planet, as He was in the ancient Sun time, became Ruler from the Sun over all the planets, the other planets being reckoned as part of the realm of the Sun. When you know this — I am speaking here more particularly to those who heard my lectures in Helsingfors [Note 1] — knowing this, you will not feel it as a contradiction that Christ is spoken of in those lectures as a Sun Spirit of a higher kind than the Spirits of the planets. For there of course we were speaking of the present day. Christ is far above the other planetary Spirits. He is the Spirit of the Sun. Here, however, where we are not merely describing how the individual planetary bodies are quickened to life by their Spirits, but where our task is above all to describe the several states of consciousness, we have to show how Christ through His own special character and nature has, during the course of the evolution that has taken place between old Sun and the present time, passed through an upward evolution, and from having been a Spirit who was of like nature with the planetary Spirits has become the Ruler or Regent of the whole solar system.

[4] - departure of the Sun

1912-06-12-GA137

Let us now fix our attention on the point of time when the Sun has just separated from the Earth.
When this separation took place, the two planets Venus and Mercury — I am giving them their astronomical names — were still within the Sun. The Earth alone separated off, Venus and Mercury remaining within the Sun. We have therefore now Sun and Earth. On Earth, evolution continues. Only a small number of human beings remain behind; others go up to the planets, to return again later on.
With the Sun went also Beings; for the world does not consist just of external matter, but of Beings. Beings went with the Sun when it separated from the Earth. And their Leader is the Christ.
For at the time in Earth evolution when the Sun separated from the Earth, what one may call the taking precedence by the Christ over Lucifer and the other planetary Spirits had already come to fulfilment.

Discussion

[1] - Christ Jesus vs Jesus Christ

Note the use of the term 'Christ Jesus' and not 'Jesus Christ'. The main player here enacting a unique fact in the history of the solar system is Christ, and he did so having become Man in the body of Jesus. It is an important distinction to show we are talking, in the first place, about a divine being here. This is not a detail but it quite fundamental.

Indeed also 1918-08-19-GA183 mentions it explicitly:

.. it is Man's task to understand how the Christ dwells in him ... For Christ has descended to mankind. Jesus is a human being in whom the Christ has dwelt. True human self-knowledge must be the bearer of the germinal impulse of Jesus, so that it is possible to move on, into the future. It is deeply significant that we speak of Christ Jesus. For Christ correctly corresponds to the human aspect; but this cosmic element has come down to the Earth and has taken up his abode in Jesus.

and this specifically in the context of Ahrimanic in both Americanism and Jesuit movement

If there is an endeavour to sever Man's connection with the spiritual world, he will also lose his connection with Christ. The possibility then arises to make use of Jesus in such as way that the Earth continues to exist only in its earthly aspect. You will therefore find in Jesuitism a continual battle against Christology and a strong emphasis on there being an army for Jesus.