Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension

This module focuses on:

a statement by Rudolf Steiner that, at the moment the blood dripped from the cross and reaches the earth at Golgotha, the astral atmosphere of the Earth changed. And that beings in the cosmos, if they would have watched from space, would have seen the atmosphere of the earth changing at the moment initiated by the Mystery of Golgotha.
Furthermore, that only the Mystery of Golgotha gives the Earth its cosmic meaning. (quote 1916-01-09-GA165 below).
Last, this module also explores the meaning of the term 'Mystical Lamb'.

This is why this module is called the 'cosmic dimension'. The above statements are mind-boggling when one projects an image of the cross at Golgotha in purely human terms. These statement forces one to switch gears, and to consider Christ-Jesus not as a man but as a divine being, to realize a cosmic event happened at the Mystery of Golgotha.

The meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha and Christ Impulse was unveiled by Rudolf Steiner's explanatory lecturing for our age, as elaborated in the Study Modules. This module is the final of the first seven that carries over in the next seven that continue on other as well as more advanced aspects.

Aspects

a more condensed and clear description of the essence of what happened 'when the blood dripped' is explained in a Questions & Answers session after a lecture on spiritual economy (1909-02-03-GA109), see 1909-02-03-GA244 - Q&A 179.1 below. This explanation explains also the Eucharist and symbolism of bread and wine: the Christ is literally into the forces of the Earth's mineral and plant kingdom, that feed Man. There is component of life ether and chemical ether now there, which Man takes into himself, see also Ganganda Greida.
change in the Earth atmosphere - the radiating effect .. the Earth becomes a Sun (underlying schema FMC00.187)
a new center gets created (see Schema FMC00.188 below, also 1915-06-15-GA159 on Communicating over spiritual science)
- link with the importance of ideals and shared ideals by a group (as the seed process for the creation of new future group souls)
Mystical Lamb

Inspirational quotes

1916-01-09-GA165

.. when spirits from other planets look down upon Earth and ask what the meaning of this earthly evolution is, they will understand it when they learn about the Mystery of Golgotha. Everything that happens in the course of earthly evolution has its meaning only through the Mystery of Golgotha. The Mystery of Golgotha radiates out into the cosmos and imparts to everything else that radiates out from the Earth its central meaning.

1917-10-06-GA177

Humanity should seek to bring Christ's words to realization: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." [Matthew 18:20]

GA026 - LT

The life of all this earthly realm becomes clear and transparent when we feel at its foundation the germ of a new universe. Every single plant and stone appears in a new light to the soul of Man, when he becomes aware that each of these creations is contributing by its life or by its form to this great fact: that the Earth in its unity is an embryo — the seed of a macrocosm newly rising into life.

The module study work and process

As with every module, the intention is for the student to develop an imaginative picture, not just grasp the topic with an intellectual understanding.

To approach this requires us to look in the evolutionary development of spiritual beings. For this we need to use our solar system as only reference.
1. The key lecture here is the amazing 1905-08-12-GA091 (DE book only), which really sets a reference frame for our thinking and reasoning.
The second step is to realize what is happening when high spiritual beings sacrifice themselves, in fact there is a emanation of streaming out of their own substance.
1. The proposed best entry here is a contemplative study of the five lectures of GA132, but especially the first two on sacrifice on Old Saturn and Old Sun.
From there we can look at the development of our solar system and see that there is a link between this sacrificing and the budhi plane, and can compare that with what happens during a pralaya 'state-transition'.
With that basis we will be able to see how a new centre gets created, and this maps to the statement that a new beginning was made with the Mystery of Golgotha, also known as 'the earth becomes a sun'. (what is meant with the earth here is the Christ spirit and humanity, not the physical planet).
1. The key lecture here is the amazing 1904-11-09-GA089 (EN book), followed by the second part of the 1904-11-10-GA089. However what is laid out here is so deep that the whole of GA089 needs to be read as elements that touch on these two lectures appear in small but useful details throughout, once one has studied these two lectures deep enough. See schema FMC00.187 below.
2. We can look into two examples of what is explained: the first is Goethe's quote regarding the eye, the second is Steiner's explanation about the need for working in groups, and the effect of group processes (also as used by secret societies)
The dimension missing in the above, rather technical considerations, is: where does freedom, morality and love come in. This is a very deep and broad topic on its own. This module requires only the additional angle from building an understanding of how the spiritual contains the basis for the moral.
1. As one key into this study, 1920-12-18-GA202 is proposed.
It will be useful for perspective to look at the beginning of our solar system and compare how there also a new center was created and a new start was made with Old Saturn.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.165 illustrates visions from the place where the cosmic center was created on a mundane planet of ignorant human beings.

Only initiates knew and realized what was happening at Golgotha, eg "when MoG was being enacted in Palestine, in that very moment it was known and beheld clairvoyantly in the Mysteries of Hibernia" (1923-12-29-GA233) and "on the island of Hibernia, humanity actually experienced the MoG spiritually (1923-12-09-GA232) - see Hibernian Mysteries.

Note: Emmerick and Neumann received their visions as part of their process of living with the stigmata.

Schema FMC00.187 is essential and comes from the key lecture put forth for the study of this topic.

The following sequence 'rolls off' the above schema and develops it in a few steps.

FMC00.187A is to sketch the base concepts and how they relate:

FMC00.187B illustrates the key relation between giver and receiver:

FMC00.187C further details how this happens:

and FMC00.187D focuses on the shining of budhi outwards:

Schema FMC00.187E illustrates with the original notes that were checked, for reference

Schema FMC00.188 depicts how 'another center is created' by people who share ideals. This is a more 'technical' spiritual scientific explanation of how human beings that come together in the spirit of higher ideals, create something at a higher level that surpasses their Individualities and has a cosmic impact as it starts shining back from the center that gets thus created (see lecture and also Schema FMC00.266 below).

An illustration of such can be seen in the German idealism, see for example the illustration with the network of some important souls (that carried this idealism) in Schema FMC00243 on Goethe. However this is also important for group work in communities, see Communicating over spiritual science.

and again Schema FMC00.188A shows the base materials checked, for reference.

Schema FMC00.266 shows (see 1920-12-18-GA202 below and on Threefold Sun) how the spiritual Sun [1] works on Earth and Man [2], but that Man radiates this morality out into the cosmos [3], and after a certain distance is reflected: "the physical sun is only the seemingly physical appearance of a spiritual mirroring" [4].

Schema FMC00.191 depicts three BBD drawings of the symbol of the transubstantiation: the shining, like a small Sun, in the sanctissimum wherein the host is carried on a crescent cup.

What is currently merely a(n empty) symbol, was once a reality in the (semi-)ancient mysteries. The priest initiate experienced how preserved fermenting substances in sacred crystalline vessels became transformed in such a way that he saw a small sun or a small natural monstrance in the crystalline vessel, as the substances spread sunshine around them. The priest saw how the substances and forces shone in the sacred crystalline vessels, and knew how the transubstantiation occurred. (1924-09-05-GA346). See description on Greek mysteries#1924-09-05-GA346.

Today every sanctissimum or monstrance in the Mass shows the rays of the Sun, but the connection of the Christ with the Sun and the reality behind the symbol have been totally lost. (1924-07-11-GA237)

Compare with:

Schema FMC00.116 on Holy Grail: the spiritual sun Christ (host) shines in the 'crescent cup' .. compare with the middle drawing below. The GA343A lecture uses this description of sunlight and moonlight (re also 1908-05-20-GA103)
Schema FMC00.468 on Christ Module 5 - Initiation and spiritualization .. see how the physical holder or cup is Man's lower bodily structure, and the Christ Impulse fructifies this so through "not me, but the Christ in me" .. Mankind and future Earth become a Sun. For more on the latter, see this Christ Module 7.

Schema FMC00.400 is built up from the overview of solar system evolution Schema FMC00.077 with the seven planetary stages, and applies the principle of cosmic breathing of Schema FMC00.240A underneath, with the maha-pralaya in between such cycles of seven planetary stages.

See more on: Cosmic breath of Brahma and relate this to Schema FMC00.329 on IAO

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage

The fact that the astral aspect of the Earth changed when the blood dripped from the wounds at Golgotha, appears in:

1905-08-15-GA091

1907-11-22-GA100

1907-12-01-GA098

astral body Earth changed when blood streamed -> astral aura began to radiate

1908-06-23-GA104

1908-09-12-GA106

Through the fact that the Christ-being took possession of the three bodies in which the ego-being of Jesus formerly abode, a Being was bound up with the earth that had earlier had its dwelling-place on the sun.
It had formerly been bound up with the Earth until the moment when the sun departed from the Earth. At that time the Christ also departed, and from then on he could exercise his power upon the earth only from outside, in the moment of the baptism, the high Christ-spirit again united himself in the full sense with the Earth. Formerly he worked from outside, overshadowing the prophets and working in the mysteries. Now he was actually incarnated in a physical human body on the Earth.
If a being had been able to look down for thousands of years from a remote point in the universe, such a being as could see not only the physical Earth but also its spiritual streams, its astral and etheric bodies, it would have seen significant events

in the moment of the baptism by John,

and in the moment when the blood flowed from Christ's wounds on Golgotha.

The Earth's astral body was profoundly changed thereby. At this moment it took up something different; it took on different colors. A new force was implanted in the Earth.
What earlier had worked from without, again became united with the Earth, and thereby the attractive power between sun and earth will grow so strong that sun and Earth will again unite, and Man will unite with the sun-spirits. It was the Christ who gave the possibility that the Earth can again unite with the sun and be in the bosom of the Godhead.

1909-02-03-GA244 - Q&A 179.1

SWCC, shortened and slighly rephrased version below

for the full text of Steiner's answer in literal translation, see Baptism#1909-02-03-GA244 - Q.26A 179.1

In the Baptism by John .. the full power of the Christ I goes in right down to the bone system. Hence all the Christ can and will do, will depend on that he can arbitrarily control his own mass of the bone ash and cartilage, just like all the physical. He can randomly perform what dissolves the physical body. It is said "Not a bone of Him shall be broken.” .. because with Christ that would interfere with what is due, the dissolution of his physical body. In the Christ being we have a being, that can do with this physical body whatever he wants, upto the smallest particle and into the finest bone mass, because the Christ being has full mastery over all that is physical.
Christ shares this body with the full Earth. What is left, is the [primeval] spiritual image of the physical body, called the phantom, whose powers operate in the physical body.
The ash stays behind. Also the bone system dissolves. What we can do with these forces, Christ can do with his own physical body: he gave this to the Earth. As outer-tellurgic spirit, he was in the Earth's aura before.
From the moment the blood flows, the astral body goes into the Earth. Since that time, the Earth has become the body of Christ.
In John 13:18 and Psalm 14:9 we find "who eats my blood, [threads or] tramples me with his feet"
This spirit works further in Man. That, what Man takes from the Earth, is like an extract from the Earth substance.

That what flows through plants as juices, is his blood.

1909-03-31-GA111

1909-07-06-GA112

and second alternate translation

a new center, a new start was created

radiates back and streams into space - force will form spiritual sphere surrounding earth, composed of those etheric bodies endowed with light, in process of becoming a Sun.

In 1906-08-31-GA091 describes how when Man transforms warmth into love his astral body begins to transform and light and love gets united with wisdom (Lucifer), after which physical and etheric body can be interchanged. This not only is relevant for the 'redeeming Lucifer' question, but also for the (resurrection body'.

The chemical and life ethers

1910-09-12-GA123

discusses how with the departure of the Sun in the Hyperborean epoch, the spiritual part and higher ethers left also. The Life Ether was called Honover in Persian times, in the Gospel of John it's called the Logos (as the 'meaning-filled tone belonging to the Being of the Sun')

We have therefore on the earth — warmth, air or gaseous substance, water or fluid substance, and solids or earthly substance. Opposed to these as finer conditions we have light-ether, tone-ether, and life-ether, this last being the finest etheric condition known to us..
Now with the departure of the Sun from the Earth, not only the material part of the Sun left but the spiritual part left also. It was only later, and by degrees, that this returned to the earth, and it did not return entirely.
That which as organizing quality lay here at the foundation of a new kind of fellowship is contained in the Life-ether, which organizes life, and which streamed into the earth in the Deed of Christ.

1913-11-16-GA148

we read Death: Earth getting darker, like a solar eclipse but can also be clouds, lasted hours; Laying in the tomb: earthquake with whirlpool, afterwards there only like the clothes

Dann kann man wahrnehmen, wie beim Sterben am Kreuze der Christus-Impuls, durch diese Finsternis hindurchgehend, sich mit der Erdenaura verbindet. Die Verbindung des kosmischen Christus-Impulses mit der Erdenaura schaut man bei dieser Verfinsterung vor seinem Tode. Dann hat man jenen großen, gewaltigen Eindruck, wie diese Wesenheit, die im Leibe des Jesus gelebt hat, jetzt sich ausgießt über die geistig-seelische Erdenaura, so daß die Seelen der Menschen nun fortan wie in sie eingezogen sind.
So im Geiste zu schauen das Kreuz auf Golgatha, und den Christus durch die verfinsterte Erde sich ausgießen sehen über das Erdenleben, ist ein ungeheuer überwältigender Eindruck; denn man sieht im Bilde das wirklich sich vollziehen, was für die Entwickelung der Erdenmenschheit sich vollziehen mußte.

1916-01-09-GA165

contains the following sentence, here parsed:

the sun-being Christ
entered into the earth sphere and united with the whole etheric body of the earth

he then entered into the earth aura and now continues to work there

More on the higher ethers in Christ Module 11 - a new physics

A new center gets created

After study of 1904-11-09-GA089 that explains about the creation of a new center, Schema FMC00.188. Certain lectures use that term and language.

1906-09-13-GA091

An example is the wonderful lecture 1906-09-13-GA091 with the title 'Das Weltenzentrum, Christus, Das Ich'. This is an example of a lecture (only published in 2018) that really belongs in volume GA097 on the Christ Mystery (GA097 already contains the lectures of of 2 and 15 september). Just a few phrases as example. With the new center reference is also made to the seed at the nirvana plane in the pralaya after the Earth's planetary stage.

.. he was flowing his life into the world, streaming into each person and giving him his power, to experience his true I and find the center to live in his I. ..
.. the more people unite with the power of the Christ, the more they will be free and divine .. the life impulse they have to get there, in the center of the world. The human I is the key to the center of this world. It is the spark or flame that connects Man with this central force of the world.
.. and when the whole of humanity has become an expression of the Christ, then that will represent the transition to a new step in world development. Then all powers that were in the world have been put out and used, and now these life forces can be involved in something new in the center of the world and a plan for a new cosmos. This new cosmos will stream out of this center in a new evolutionary stage, just like our current evolution has streamed out of a world center. The end of our Earth development is only the end of the outbreathing of God. Everything will be breathed in again in the center of the divine God, to find a new existence with the next outbreathing.

1920-12-18-GA202

see quote A on: Moral ideals#1920-12-18-GA202 about 'radiance shining forth from Men'

The impact on the kingdom of the dead

1909-03-26-GA111

(freely translated)

if there would have been a clairvoyant person as the blood an from the five wounds of the body of Christ-Jesus at the Mystery of Golgotha, he would have seen how Christ surged into the kingdom of the dead like a light arrow and transformed it from a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light

Discussion

1 - The idea of 'a new center gets created' links to common ideals shared in groups, see the future groupings of souls in 1908-06-01-GA102 on Group souls of humanity

Rudolf Steiner also describes this in the context of conscious developments by secret brotherhoods (references to follow).

2 - Regarding terminology, see 1912-09-17-GA139

"The term in Oriental literature for what we call ‘etheric body’ is ‘Linga Sharira’. Thus it is an extract of Linga Sharira that Man takes with him from incarnation to incarnation."

Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension

Contents

Aspects

Inspirational quotes

The module study work and process

Illustrations

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage

1908-09-12-GA106

1909-02-03-GA244 - Q&A 179.1

1909-07-06-GA112

The chemical and life ethers

1910-09-12-GA123

1913-11-16-GA148

1916-01-09-GA165

A new center gets created

1906-09-13-GA091

1920-12-18-GA202

The impact on the kingdom of the dead

1909-03-26-GA111

Discussion

Related pages

Further reading

Christ as spirit of the Earth