Three pre-MoG interventions of Christ

The spiritual being of the Christ is guiding the development of the 'I' in the Earth stage of evolution.

The Human 'I' is the pivot of Man's bodily principles to enable Man's transformation and spiritualization in the second half of the solar system evolution. In the future planetary stages (see Overview of solar system evolution) Man will develop as a spiritual being of the Tenth hierarchy on the basis of conscious developmentof Man's higher triad.

Before the Mystery of Golgotha in the fifth and current Postatlantean epoch, there were three previous interventions of the Christ to balance the development of the Human I during the Lemurian epoch and Atlantean epoch. These corrected the infusion of the Spirits of Form taking hold of Man's lower bodily principles, so they would not overshoot and get into unbalance due to Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences.

On each occasion, see Schema FMC00.246 below, the Christ used an archangelic being as an intermediate vessel, radiating into the Earth's aura through ensouling in that being. This being carried the material of the pure human soul, unaffected by the Luciferic infection, and would later incarnate as the Nathan Jesus child, see The two Jesus children (Schema FMC00.043).

An example of the disorders as a result of the unbalanced soul forces in the development of the I appeared with the Sibyls in a period of about two millenia from about 8th BC downto the about the 15th century. This effect was countered by the Mystery of Golgotha so that men will receive objective revelations from the spiritual world, clothed in images by the soul. An early example was the Maid of Orleans, but this type of clairvoyance will appear naturally for humanity in the next sixth cultural age.

Aspects

Sibyls

the Sibyls and Sibylline revelations or prophecies between 8th century BC down to the middle ages, are an example of the disorders in the development of the human 'I'. If the MoG would not have taken place, Man would have been driven violently and chaotically in all directions in their thinking, feeling and willing (main 1913-12-29-GA149 and 1914-02-10-GA148, 1914-06-01-GA152)
- Sibyls were women whose life of soul lacked order and harmony, who allowed the revelations they received to work chaotically in their thinking, feeling and willing. Great and sublime truths were often contained in these Sibylline revelations, but wisdom was confused and chaotic, fraught with all kinds of extravagance.
- the Sibyls appeared around 8th century BC first from Ionia, the birthplace of Greek philosophy and ordered soul life and clear thought), and spread through Greece to Italy and influenced also the Roman writers and philosophers
- the goal of the ancient prophets was to counter and clear themselves from the sibylline influences of the elements or the elemental influences of the Earth on the soul.
- Michelangelo painted the Sibyls to show what had threatened mankind, expressing different degrees of derangement of the I's given over to elemental beings. See Sistine Chapel and contrast between Sybils and Prophets (1913-12-29-GA149)
- the sibylline forces were transformed by the Christ Impulse, and an example of such 'modern sibyl' is given with the Maid of Orleans, see The Christ Impulse from the 1st to the 20th century

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.246 shows an overview of the sacrifices of Christ, guiding the balanced development of the Human 'I' (compare with Schema FMC00.046 on that page).

It is due to first intervention, and the fact that senses are sensless in perception, that Man can perceive and experience the world and the magnificence of nature and the kingdoms.

Schema FMC00.372 is an illustration of how the published and publically available and circulated texts of Rudolf Steiner's lectures can deviate from what was said originally. On the left, original typoscripts as photographed in the Rudolf Steiner Archive. In the middle the 1992 edition in German. On the right a booklet on the Christ and the archangel Michael, where this statement is foundational for the claims and storyline in the book.

See note [1] - 'The 1914-02-10-GA148 quote' in the Discussion area below for more info.

Lecture coverage and references

coverage

This topic was covered by Rudolf Steiner in lectures between Dec-1913 and Jun-1914:

in GA149: 1913-12-30-GA149 (and 1913-12-31-GA149)
in GA152: 1914-03-05-GA152, 1914-03-07-GA152, 1914-03-30-GA152, .. then: 1914-05-27-GA152, 1914-06-01-GA152
1914-02-10-GA148 is a key lecture

Lecture extracts

1913-12-29-GA149

is a/the main lecture on the Sibyls. Quote A

Now, fundamentally speaking, it is certainly not easy to unravel the riddle I have been speaking of, and I avow that in the course of time I have tried to come near it through the most varied ways of spiritual research. Obviously there is not time to speak of these ways now. But there is one way among the many that I should like to mention. It is the way that leads round at the beginning of our era through a very remarkable manifestation of spiritual life, the life of the Sibyls.
These Sibyls were indeed a remarkable phenomenon, with a prophetic character entirely their own. External scholarship cannot say from which language the word ‘Sibyl’ comes. As soon as we start looking at the fairly detailed knowledge about the Sibyls that external documents provide, we come upon something quite extraordinary, at the very beginning of the Sibylline age. From about the eighth century B.C. onwards we encounter the first abode of the Sibyls, in Ionian Erithrea; from there the first Sibyls sent out into the world their manifold prophecies. And these prophecies, even in the form handed down by external tradition, show that they arose from strange subconscious regions of human nature and soul-life. As though out of chaotic psychic depths the Sibyls utter all kinds of prophecies about the future development of this or that people, telling mainly of awful things to come, but sometimes also of good things. Far removed from anything like orderly thought, the utterances of the Sibyls pour out in such a way that — if they are studied with the means of Spiritual Science — it seems as one listens that every Sibyl is a spiritual fanatic who wants to force upon people what she has to say. She does not wait to be questioned, in the manner of the Greek Pythian oracle; she steps forth, the people assemble, and her utterances about men and peoples and Earth-cycles seem to ring out with overbearing force.
It is remarkable .. that the Sibyls should appear first in Ionia, for Ionia was at the same time the birthplace of Greek philosophy: the wisdom which from Thales and Aristotle on into the Roman epoch is so preeminently an expression of a well ordered soul life, entirely opposed to anything chaotic. It draws forth from the soul-life all that can be expressed in clear, lucid, light-filled concepts. From Ionia sprang the philosophy of clarity and light, which with Plato — one might say — became the philosophy of the heavenly. And like its shadow appear the Sibyls, with their psychic products emanating from the chaos of the soul, often shedding a true illumination on the future, but also often announcing things which their followers had to falsify in order to make it seem that the prophecy had been fulfilled.
And then we see further how the Sibyls, always accompanying the fourth cultural age like a shadow of its wisdom, spread through Greece, through Italy. We hear tell of the most varied kinds of Sibyls, and we see Sibyllism spreading on through Italy, until we come to the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Then we see how Sibyllism gains influence over the Roman poets; how it even plays into the poems of Virgil; how it is just the intellectuals who try to shape their lives by appealing to the sayings of the Sibyls. How much importance was attached to these sayings is shown by the so-called Sibylline Books, which were turned to for guidance. And again in the external world we see how in connection with the Sibylline sayings great intelligence is chaotically mixed up with arrant humbug. And then we see Sibyllism even gaining a foothold in Christianity. We hear its voice in Thomas of Celano's hymn:*
Dies irae, Dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla.

Day of Wrath, O Day which leads this World-Age into destruction, according to the witness of David and of the Sibyl.

And so, right into the time of the development of Christianity, many minds were aware of the Sibyls and their prophecies, especially those that bore on doom and destruction and the coming of a new world-order. Hence one can say that through many, many centuries — indeed all through the fourth cultural age and with an influence extending, if only sparsely, into the fifth age — the Sibyls are encountered in the history of mankind. Only someone dominated by present day rationalistic ideas can overlook the far-reaching influence of Sibyllism on the world in which Christianity grew up. As I have often said, the history we are given to read is in many respects a fable convenue, especially where anything of a spiritual nature is concerned. Until quite recent centuries the ideas of all classes of people were influenced much more widely than is generally believed by what came from the Sibyls. Sibyllism is a remarkable, enigmatic phenomenon, occurring as it did in the fourth cultural age.
What really went on in the souls of the Sibyls must be of interest to us, for through spiritual research we must unearth such things from beneath the layer of materialistic culture which covers them nowadays. In this condition they are useless; they must be brought to light and renewed by the resources of spiritual research which are available in our epoch. But attention must also be drawn to the fact that in comparatively recent times the nature of Sibyllism was not forgotten to the extent it is today.
[Michelangelo]
We have indeed an important work of art which points to the traditions concerning the significance of Sibyllism. Perhaps we do not always look at this work with an awareness of its significance in this respect, but the significance exists and should give occasion for reflection. I mean the great paintings in the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo depicted not only the development of Earth and Humanity, but also the Prophets and the Sibyls. And in looking at these paintings we ought to notice the way in which Michelangelo portrays the Sibyls, and particularly how he contrasts them with the Prophets. In this contrast, if we look at it impartially, we find something which through Spiritual Science we can recognise as having to do with various hidden aspects of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, during which the Mystery of Golgotha was fulfilled.

In this wonderful work of art we see first the portrayal of the Prophets — Zechariah, Joel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah, Jonah. And ranged with them are the Sibyls — the Persian, Delphic, Erythrean, Libyan and Cumaean Sibyls. Almost all the Prophets, we find, have to a greater or lesser degree something of the character which strikes us immediately in Jeremiah and comes out with particular significance in Zechariah; they are deeply reflective men, for the most part absorbed in books or something similar, quietly taking into well-ordered minds whatever it is they are studying. In the countenances of these Prophets we encounter the calmness of their souls. Daniel looks like a slight exception, but only an apparent one. He stands before a book which is supported on the back of a boy; he has in his hand something to write with, in order to write down in another book what he is reading. Here there is a slight effect of transition from reading the world-secrets to writing them down; while the other Prophets remain in meditation, calm and relaxed in soul, entirely devoted to the world-secrets. In gazing at them we see — and this must be kept firmly in mind — that they are all absorbed in super-earthly things; their souls are at rest in the spiritual and they are seeking to fathom the emergence of humanity, from out of the spiritual. We see that in their thinking they are far removed from their immediate surroundings, far above human passion and fanaticism, untouched by the ecstasy that may spring from these emotions; they are not only beyond human ken, but beyond anything a human being can experience in himself in so far as he is a man on Earth. That is the greatness of this portrayal of the Prophets by Michelangelo.

Then we turn our gaze to his depiction of the Sibyls. Here we have first the Persian Sibyl, close to the Prophet Jeremiah, contrasting remarkably with his meditative demeanour. She raises her hand as though wishing to force on humanity what she has experienced; as though in the style of a bad speaker she wants to add all possible emphasis to her words; as though impelled by the passion of a fanatic to impose with imperious gesture her message on all mankind. Then we turn to the Erythrean Sibyl; we see how she is connected with everything that can accrue to man from the elemental secrets of the Earth. Above her head is a lamp; a naked boy is lighting the lamp with a torch. How could the intention of the painting be more clearly expressed? Here is human passion kindling out of the unconscious soul-forces the message that is to be instilled with all the power of prophecy into mankind. The Prophets are devoted in their souls to the primal eternity of the spirit; the Sibyls are carried away by the earthly, in so far as the earthly reveals the psychic-spiritual. The Delphic Sibyl shows this particularly clearly; we see how her hair is even blown to one side by a gust of wind, and the same wind catches her blue veil, so that she has the air element to thank for what she imparts. In this gust of wind we see pictured what the Earth wished to reveal through the lips of this Sibyl, with forcibly persuasive power. Then the Cumaean Sibyl! She speaks with half-open mouth, as though muttering; as though stammering out a prophecy from the unconscious, the unknown. The Libyan Sibyl, the hasty one, looks as though she is turning round to grasp something from which secrets can be read — something like that! In these Sibyls everything is devoted, so to speak, to the immediate element of Earth.

Much was entrusted to images of this kind in the days when, as we can readily understand, things could be much more effectively expressed in paintings and other forms of art than they would be in our time, when concepts and ideas are more to the purpose.
What then is the special character of these Sibyls? What are they? What does their prophesying signify? We must penetrate deeply into the mysteries of human evolution if we want to fathom what went on in the souls of these Sibyls.
...
Let us take a hypothesis which in our present context is perhaps permissible:
What would have happened if neither the Christ nor Greek philosophy had come into the world?
Humanity would then have had to get along with what it had received as inheritance from the past, and in the fourth cultural age this had reached the stage of Sibyllism. Imagine this developing on its own lines in the West, without the Christ Impulse and without philosophy, and without the science that followed philosophy — then you will have a picture of the spiritual chaos that would have overtaken the West, arising inevitably from all that had been active in the souls of the Sibyls.
But forces have after effects. If with the resources of Spiritual Science one examines this elemental strength, through which the spiritual powers connected with wind and water and fire find expression in the immediate circumference of the Earth, and if one studies how these powers would have found an abode in human souls — especially if one tests the strength with which the spirits of wind and fire, water and earth, would have taken possession of the souls of men — then one can see how harmony and order had faded out of the old way of knowing the world, prevalent during the first three cultural ages, and how the forces only would have remained in human souls.
Human souls would have lost the capacity for relating themselves truly to the great phenomena of the Cosmos, but they would have assuredly had a relation with the spirits of wind and water, fire and earth, and particularly with the whole tribe of spectres and demons which would have got loose from their cosmic connections. Men would have fallen quite under the sway of the elemental spirits; their teachers would have been of the Sibylline kind, and the force would have been so strong that it would have persisted right up to the present, and indeed up to the very end of Earth days.
And if we ask why this has not happened, and who has brought it about that the force so apparent in the Sibyls has gradually declined, then we must answer: the Christ, who through the Mystery of Golgotha infused the Earth's aura with His Being; thus He destroyed the Sibylline force in the souls of men and has driven it away.

quote B

What were these prophets really striving for?
Let us try to look into the prophetic souls of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hezekiah, Daniel, Joel, Jonah and Zechariah. If we do this quite impartially, without any preconceptions, we find that they were endeavouring, fundamentally, to bring a particular soul-force into the forefront of the soul and to drive another soul-force down, as it were, into the depths.
.. these Sibyls .. live in the midst of the forces which play into their souls from the elemental surroundings of the Earth. These Sibylline forces, which so to speak draw into their souls the spirit of the elements and bring it to expression — these are the forces that the old Jewish Prophets wanted to repress. If you read impartially the whole history of the Jewish Prophets, you will find that the prophet sets himself, and that is the aim of his training, to suppress in himself the Sibylline urge and to prevent it from ever breaking out.
Apollo changed the Sibylline impulse of the Pythia by sinking himself into it and speaking through her. The Prophets wanted to suppress everything Pythian in their souls and to cultivate solely that which works in the clear force of the I; the I which is bound up with the Earth and belongs to it; the I which is the spiritual counterpart of the geological element. How the Eternal reveals itself in the I through calm repose, when the Sibylline elements are silent, when all inner turmoil ceases, when only calm prevails and gazes into the grounds of the Eternal — that is what the Jewish Prophets wished to manifest, so that their proclamations could spring from a temper of soul which corresponds in the highest degree with Geology.

1913-12-30-GA149

[One]
The Being of whom we have said that he had not chosen the path down from the planets to the Earth, but had remained behind, the Being who later appeared as the Nathan Jesus-child and who had dwelt from primal ages in the spiritual worlds — this Being resolved (if we may use this expression, for of course all these expressions are taken from human speech and cannot fully convey what one wants to say) while still in the world of the higher Hierarchies to go through a development which would enable him to be permeated for a time by the Christ Being. Thus we have to do not with a Man but with a superhuman Being who (if we may speak in this way) lived in the spiritual world and as it were heard the distress of the human sense system crying out to the spiritual world for help, and in response to this cry made himself fitted to be permeated by the Christ.
So it was that in the spiritual worlds the Being who later became the Nathan Jesus-child was permeated by the Christ Being, and then brought about a change in the cosmic forces which were streaming in to build up the human senses. These senses were changed in such a way that instead of being mere organs of sympathy and antipathy, they became organs that human beings could use, and so could look with wisdom at all the nuances of sense-perception. Very differently would the cosmic forces have flowed into mankind if this event, far back in the Lemurian Age, had not taken place in the spiritual worlds. This Being who appeared as the Nathan Jesus-child was then still living (if I may use the phrase) in the Sun-sphere, and because he listened to the human cry of distress, he experienced something which made it possible for him to be permeated by the very Spirit of the Sun, so that the activity of the Sun was modified in such a way that the human sense organs, which derive essentially from solar activity, did not become organs of mere sympathy and antipathy.
Here we touch upon a significant cosmic secret, and one which will enable us to understand much that happened later on. A certain order and harmony, imbued with wisdom, could now flow into the realm of the human senses, and evolution could go on normally for a while. The worst activity of Lucifer and Ahriman had been turned away from the human senses by a deed in the higher worlds.
[Two]
Later on came a time, in the Atlantean Age, when it once more became apparent that the human bodily constitution could not be a suitable instrument for the further course of evolution. The human vital organs, and their underlying forces in the etheric body, which for a time had developed in a suitably useful way, had fallen into disorder. For the cosmic forces which had worked on them from the surroundings of the Earth, and whose task it was to bring order into these organs — the organs of breathing, blood circulation and so on — these forces would have developed under the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman in such a way that the vital organs would have ceased to be usable by human beings on Earth. They would have acquired a quite peculiar character. The forces which provide for these vital organs do not flow in directly from the Sun, but from the seven planets, as they used to be called. The planetary forces worked from the cosmos into man. And it was necessary that these forces, also, should be modified. If they had remained under the sway of Lucifer and Ahriman, the vital organs would have become merely organs of greed or organs of loathing. For example, a man would not have been able to restrain himself from hurling himself greedily upon a given dish, while a terrible loathing would have driven him from another. These are things which unveil themselves as world secrets, as cosmic secrets, when we try to penetrate into them clairvoyantly.
So again something had to happen in the spiritual worlds in order that this destructive activity should not enter into human life. And this same Being, who later appeared as the Nathan Jesus-child and who (as we have explained) dwelt in earlier times on the Sun and was there permeated by the Christ Being, the sublime Sun-Spirit — this Being went from planet to planet, touched in his innermost nature by the fact that human evolution could go no further, as things were. And this experience affected him so strongly, while he was assuming a form of body on the different planets, that at a certain time during the Atlantean evolution the Spirit of Christ permeated him again. And through what was now brought about by the permeation of this Being by the Christ Spirit, it became possible for moderation to be implanted in the vital organs of man. In the same way that wisdom had been given to the sense-organs, so moderation was now bestowed on the vital organs. Thus it came about that when a Man breathed in a particular place, he was not impelled to suck in the air greedily, or to recoil with loathing from the air in another place. That was the deed accomplished in the spiritual worlds through a further permeation of the Nathan Jesus-child by the Christ Being, the high Sun-Spirit.
[Three]
Then in the further course of human evolution a third thing happened. A third confusion would have arisen if the souls had been obliged to continue using the bodies then available for them on Earth. We can put it in the following way.
At this time the physical nature of Man was in order. Through the two Christ deeds in the super-sensible world, the human sense organs were in a condition serviceable for man on Earth, and so were the vital organs. But it was not so with the soul-organs, thinking, feeling and willing. If nothing further had happened, these soul-organs would have become disordered. I mean that willing would have been continually disturbed by thinking, feeling would have interfered with willing, and so on. Men would have been condemned as it were to a perpetually chaotic use of these soul-organs. They would have been maddened by an excess of will, or confused by repressed feeling, or there would have been people plagued with fleeting ideas through a hypertrophy of thinking, and so forth. This was the third great danger to which humanity was exposed on Earth.
Now these three soul-powers, thinking, feeling and willing, are coordinated from the surroundings of the Earth, for the Earth itself is essentially the scene of action for the I. The working together of thinking, feeling and willing has to be kept in order; not, however, from all the planets, but only from Sun, Moon and Earth, so that through the inter-working of Sun, Moon and Earth, if this is harmonious, man is made fit for the harmonious cooperation of his three soul-powers.
Help for these soul-forces had to be provided from the spiritual world. And now the soul of that Being who later became the Nathan Jesus-child assumed a cosmic form such that his life was in a sense neither on the Moon nor on the Sun, but as though it encircled the Earth and felt a dependence on the influences of Sun, Moon and Earth at the same time. The Earth influences came to him from below; the Sun and Moon influences from above. Clairvoyant observation really sees this Being, in the spring time of his evolution — if I may use that phrase — in the same sphere as that in which the Moon goes round the Earth. Hence I cannot say exactly that the Moon influence came to him from above, but rather that it came to him from the place where he was, this pre-earthly Jesus-Being. Again there rose to him a cry of distress, a cry that told of what human thinking, feeling and willing were on the way to becoming; and he sought to experience completely in his own inner being this tragedy of human evolution. Thereby he called to himself the high Sun-spirit, who now for the third time descended upon him, permeating him. So in the cosmic height, beyond the Earth, there was a third permeation of this Nathan Jesus-child by the high Sun Spirit whom we call the Christ.
Now I would wish to depict for you this third ensouling rather differently from the way in which I described the other two. That which took place through these successive stages of spiritual evolution — or heavenly evolution, I would say — was reflected in the various world outlooks of the post-Atlantean peoples. For it had effects which worked on into later times; the Sun's activity continued to be influenced by the fact that in ancient Lemurian times the Being who afterwards became the Nathan Jesus-child had been permeated by the Christ Being. And the essential thing about the initiation of Zarathustra was that he perceived the activity of the Sun impregnated with this influence. In this way his teaching arose; his initiation had revealed to him — had projected into his soul — what had happened in primeval times.
The third post-Atlantean epoch, which we call the Egyptian-Chaldean epoch, came about partly through the reflection in human souls, as a continuing human experience, of the activities that had originated from the permeation by the Sun-Spirit of the Nathan Jesus-Being while that Being was journeying round the planets. From this arose that science of planetary activities which comes before us in Chaldean astrology; people today have a very meagre conception of what it really was. Among the Egyptian-Chaldean peoples of the epoch there developed also that star worship which is indeed known exoterically; it arose because the moderating of planetary influence was still making itself felt at that later time.
Later still, in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, we can see in Hellenism a reflection of planetary spirits who had as it were come into existence because the Being who had been permeated by the Christ journeyed from planet to planet and on each planet became one or other of these spirits. On Jupiter he became the one whom the Greeks later called Zeus; on Mars, the one later called Ares; on Mercury, the one later called Hermes. In the Greek planetary gods there was this later reflection of what Christ Jesus in the super-sensible worlds had made of the planetary beings who were imbued with the Luciferic and Ahrimanic principles. When a Greek looked up to his heaven of the gods, he came into touch with the adumbrations, the reflections, of the activity of Christ Jesus on the individual planets, together with much else that I have described.
To this was added as a third event the reflection or adumbration of that which the Jesus-Being, in the later post-Atlantean times, had experienced as a celestial Being in relation to Sun, Moon and Earth. If we are to characterise this we can say: The Christ “ensouled” himself in an angelic Being. We say of Christ that he embodied himself in Jesus of Nazareth, but we are speaking now of an event that took place in spiritual worlds: the Christ “ensouled” himself in an angelic Being. And the effect was that human thinking, feeling and willing took an orderly course. This was an important event, coming early in the evolution of humanity: the development of the human soul-powers was brought into good order. The two earlier Christ events had brought order rather into the bodily constitution of Man on Earth: what then had had to happen in the celestial worlds for this third event to come about?
It will be easier to recognise this third event if we look for the reflection of it in Greek mythology. For just as the planetary spirits projected themselves into the figures of Zeus, Ares, Hermes, Venus or Aphrodite, Kronos and so on, so was this third cosmic event reflected not only in Greek mythology but in the mythologies of the most diverse peoples. We can understand how it was reflected if we allow ourselves to compare the reflected images with their sources; if, that is, we compare what happened in Greece with what first happened in the Cosmos.
What was it that happened up there in the Cosmos? The need was to drive out something which would have raged chaotically in human souls; this had to be overcome. The angelic Being who was permeated with the Christ had to accomplish the deed of vanquishing and driving out from the human soul that which had to be driven out if thinking, feeling and willing were to be harmonised. And so there arises the picture — let us bring it vividly before our souls — of an angelic Being, dwelling still in the spiritual worlds, who later became the Nathan Jesus-child: he appears to us ensouled by the Christ and thereby rendered capable of special deeds — able to drive out from thinking, feeling and willing the element which would have raged within them as a dragon and brought them into chaos.
A reminiscence of this is preserved in all the pictures of St. George vanquishing the Dragon which are found in the records of human culture. St. George and the Dragon reflect that celestial event when the Christ ensouled the Jesus-Being and enabled him to drive the Dragon out of the soul-nature of man. This was a significant deed, made possible only with the help of Christ in the Being of Jesus, at that time an angelic Being. For this angelic Being had actually to connect himself with the Dragon-nature; to take on as it were the form of the Dragon in order to hold off the Dragon from the soul of man. He had to work from within the Dragon, so that the Dragon was ennobled and brought out of chaos into a kind of harmony. The training, the taming of the Dragon — that is the further task of this Being. And so it came about that the Dragon indeed remained active, but because there was poured into him the influence and power of the Being I have described, he became the bearer of many revelations which proved their worth to human civilisations throughout the course of post-Atlantean evolution. Instead of the chaos of the Dragon manifesting in maddened or bewildered men, the primal wisdom of the post-Atlantean time came forth. Christ Jesus used the Dragon's blood, as it were, so that with His help it could transfuse human blood and thereby make human beings the vehicles of divine wisdom. A significant reflection of this is apparent — even quite exoterically — in Greek mythology from the ninth century B.C. onwards.
It is remarkable how for the Greek mind one particular divine figure emerged from the others. The Greeks, we know, reverenced a variety of gods. These gods were the reflections or projections of the Beings who originated from the journey round the planets of the Being, permeated by the Christ, who later became the Nathan Jesus-child. The Greeks saw them in such a way that when they looked out into cosmic spaces, when they looked up through the light-aether, they rightly ascribed to the planet Jupiter — in an inward spiritual, not an external, sense — the origin of the Being they spoke of as Zeus. So they spoke of Pallas Athene, of Artemis, of the various planetary gods who were the reflections of what we have spoken about. But from these pictures of the various figures of the gods there emerged one figure — the figure of Apollo. The figure of Apollo emerged in a distinctive way: what did these Greeks see in him?
We come to know Apollo if we look at Parnassus and the Castalian spring. To the west of it there was a cleft in the earth, and over this the Greeks built a temple — why? Vapours used to rise up out of the cleft, and when the air-currents were right the vapours crept up the Mountainside like the coils of a snake, like a dragon. And the Greeks imagined Apollo as shooting his arrows at the dragon, as it rose from the cleft in the form of turbulent vapours. Here, in the Greek Apollo, we see an earthly reflection of St. George, shooting his arrows at the dragon. And when Apollo had overcome the dragon, the Python, a temple was built, and instead of the dragon we see how the vapours entered into the soul of the Pythia, and how the Greeks imagined that Apollo lived in these swirling dragon-vapours and prophesied to them through the oracle, through the lips of the Pythia. And the Greeks, that self-conscious people, rose through the stages for which their souls had been prepared; they accepted what Apollo had to say to them through the Pythia, who was imbued with the dragon-vapours. It meant that Apollo lived in the dragon's blood and filled men with wisdom from the Castalian spring. And the place became a meeting-place for the most sacred plays and festivals.
Why was Apollo able to do this — who was he? It was only from spring to autumn that he caused wisdom to flow up from the dragon's blood. Towards autumn he went away to his ancient home in the north, in the Hyperborean land. Farewell festivals were held at the time of his departure, and his return was welcomed in the spring. A deep wisdom resides in this idea of Apollo going north. The physical sun withdraws towards the south; in a spiritual sense it is always the opposite. The story shows that Apollo has to do with the sun. Apollo is the angelic Being of whom we have spoken; he was a reflection, projected into the Greek mind, of the angelic Being who had in fact worked at the end of the Atlantean time and who had been permeated by the Christ. This reflection was the Apollo who spoke wisdom to the Greeks through the mouth of the Pythia. And what was the content for the Greeks of this Apollo wisdom? We might say it was everything that led them, on the most important occasions, to take this or that decision. Again and again people went to Apollo at difficult moments in their lives, with their souls well prepared, and received prophetic guidance from the Pythia, who was stimulated by the vapours in which Apollo lived. And Asklepios, the Healer, is for the Greeks the son of Apollo, the healing god. The weakened form of the Angel in whom Christ once dwelt is a healer on Earth, or for the Earth. For Apollo was never physically embodied, but he worked through the Earth-elements.
And the god of the Muses, above all the god of song and the art of music, is Apollo. Why is this? Because through the power of song and string-music he brings thinking, feeling and willing into harmony. We have only to keep firmly in mind that in Apollo there was a projection of what had happened at the end of the Atlantean time. Something had then worked from spiritual heights into the human soul, and a weak echo of it could be heard in the musical art cultivated by the Greeks under the protection of Apollo. They knew it as an earthly reflection of the ancient art which the Angel-Being, permeated by the Christ, had cultivated in the heavenly heights in order to bring thinking, feeling and willing into harmony. They did not say so openly; only in the Mysteries was the meaning of it understood.
In the Apollonian Mysteries it was said: A high Divine Being once sank Himself into a Being of the Hierarchy of Angels and thereby brought harmony into thinking, feeling and willing. The art of music was a reflection of that happening, especially the Apollonian art which flowed from the sound of strings. The music which demands less of the elements than wind instruments do; which depends in the main only on the skill of human hands; in short, the music that sounds from the strings of Apollo — to this music the Greeks ascribed the musical effects which bring harmony into the soul. And persons who have no inclination for Apollo's music, or do not value it highly enough, were said by the Greeks to carry a bodily mark of their obtuseness in this respect; a sign that they had stayed behind, atavistically, at an earlier stage.
It is remarkable that when a certain man — King Midas — was born with exceptionally long ears, the Greeks said he had come into the world with ass's ears because in his life before birth he had not rightly devoted himself to the influence of the Being whom the Christ had enfilled. Therefore, said the Greeks, he had asses ears, and that was why he preferred wind instruments to string instruments. And when once a child was born who so to speak had no skin — he is known in mythology as the Flayed Marsyas — the Greeks said it was because before his birth he had not paid heed to all that flowed from the angelic Being. For that is how it looks to occult observation: Marsyas was not flayed in his lifetime, but before his birth, and it was then that his misdeed occurred.
Many towns founded by the Greeks as colonies were named Apollonia, because the sites for them had been chosen after consulting the Pythia. The Greeks cherished their freedom and so were not politically united, but they had an ideal unity through the god Apollo, for whom a kind of confederation was founded later on.
We see how the Greeks revered in the god they called, Apollo the Being of whom we have spoken; and we might say that in the Being who truly corresponded to Apollo at the end of the Atlantean time, the Christ was ensouled. Who then was Apollo — not the reflection revered by the Greeks, but Apollo himself? A celestial Being who from the higher worlds poured out healing forces for the soul, paralysing the Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers. These forces brought about in the human body a harmonious co-operation of brain, breath and lungs with the larynx and the heart, and it was this that came to expression in song. For the right co-operation of brain and breathing with the speech organ and the heart is the bodily expression of harmony in thinking, feeling and willing. The Healer, the celestial Healer, is Apollo. We have seen this Being pass through three stages of evolution, and then the Healer, whom Apollo reflected, was born on Earth and men called him Jesus, which in our language means “He who heals through God”. He is the Nathan Jesus-child, the one who heals through God, Jehoschua-Jesus.
Now, at this fourth stage, this Being made himself ripe to be enfilled with the Christ Being, with the ‘I’. This came to pass through the Mystery of Golgotha. For if this Mystery had not been enacted — if the Being whom we have followed through cosmic ages had not given embodiment to the Christ — then in the course of later time human souls would not have found bodies in which the Ego-force could come to necessary expression on Earth. The I had been brought to its highest stage in Zarathustra. The souls who had taken part in the evolution of the I would never have found earthly bodies suitable for its further development if the Mystery of Golgotha had not come to pass.
We have now seen the four stages of harmonisation: the harmonising of sense perception, of the life-organs, of thinking, feeling and willing, and the harmonisation in the I, this last through the Mystery of Golgotha. You have the connections between the Being who was born as the Nathan Jesus-child and the Christ Being, and the way in which this was prepared. It is now possible, through that which it is permissible to reveal in true Anthroposophy, to understand this kind of growing together, belonging together, of the Christ Being and the human nature of Jesus. This is possible for us. And a healthy development of spiritual life in the future will depend on this — on it becoming possible for more and more people to grasp that which could not be grasped by the thoughts and ideas of the epoch in which the Mystery of Golgotha was fulfilled

1913-12-31-GA149

What were these prophets really striving for? Let us try to look into the prophetic souls of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hezekiah, Daniel, Joel, Jonah and Zechariah. If we do this quite impartially, without any preconceptions, we find that they were endeavouring, fundamentally, to bring a particular soul-force into the forefront of the soul and to drive another soul-force down, as it were, into the depths. I have already asked you to notice how, in the paintings by Michelangelo which I described, the prophets are always depicted sitting there as if wrapped in deep thought, inwardly at rest, so that one sees how in the devotion of their souls they are connected through sub-earthly depths with the Eternal. In contrast with them Michelangelo places the Sibyls, who are open to the elemental powers of the Earth. Thus the hair of one Sibyl is blown about by the wind; even her blue mantle billows in the wind, and under the influence of the wind she utters her prophecies. We see another Sibyl seized by inner fire; in the typically assertive gesture of her hand we see the fire, the earthly element. We could look again at these Sibyls one by one and we should find that they live in the midst of the forces which play into their souls from the elemental surroundings of the Earth. These Sibylline forces, which so to speak draw into their souls the spirit of the elements and bring it to expression — these are the forces that the old Jewish Prophets wanted to repress. If you read impartially the whole history of the Jewish Prophets, you will find that the prophet sets himself — and that is the aim of his training — to suppress in himself the Sibylline urge and to prevent it from ever breaking out.
Apollo changed the Sibylline impulse of the Pythia by sinking himself into it and speaking through her. The Prophets wanted to suppress everything Pythian in their souls and to cultivate solely that which works in the clear force of the Ego; the Ego which is bound up with the Earth and belongs to it; the Ego which is the spiritual counterpart of the geological element. How the Eternal reveals itself in the Ego through calm repose, when the Sibylline elements are silent, when all inner turmoil ceases, when only calm prevails and gazes into the grounds of the Eternal — that is what the Jewish Prophets wished to manifest, so that their proclamations could spring from a temper of soul which corresponds in the highest degree with Geology.
Thus the stirring message that sounds forth to us from the Prophets is like an out flowing of the geological element, and even when things turn out quite differently from what has been prophesied, this very fact shows us how closely bound are the Prophets to the element of Geology. A future kingdom which will redeem the existing kingdom while remaining in all appearance an earthly kingdom, a heaven on Earth — that is first of all what the Prophets announce, so closely are they united with Geology.
This geological element in the Prophets flowed on even into the early days of Christianity, since people expected not only the return of the Messiah, but that he would come down from the clouds and found his kingdom on Earth. The distinctive inner character of Jewish culture will be understood only if it is taken in this sense as Geology. This was what the Prophets longed for and inculcated in their pupils — to suppress the Sibylline element, together with everything that leads the soul into unconscious depths, and to make manifest that which lives in the Ego.

1914-02-10-GA148

quote A (see Discussion note [1] below and Schema FMC00.246 above)

We are all familiar with imagery often used for the portrayal of supersensible beings; the Archangel Michael, or St. George overcoming the Dragon, vanquishing death. This is a pictorial presentation of the third Christ Event: St. George or the Archangel Michael is inspired by the Christ Being; and the ‘Conquest of the Dragon’ indicates the overcoming of those elements in the desire-nature of Man which would bring confusion and disorder into thinking, feeling and willing.

quote B

[the Sibyls]
The time for the birth of the I was the fourth Postatlantean cultural age, but if nothing had intervened, irregularity would have set in. This is indicated by something that made its first appearance in the fourth cultural age, namely Greek Philosophy. Greek philosophy is a significant sign of the birth of the I, but side by side with Greek philosophy we find the Sibylline soothsayers. Unlike the Pythia under the influence of Apollo, the Sibyls were women whose life of soul lacked order and harmony, who allowed the revelations they received to work chaotically in their thinking, feeling and willing. Great and sublime truths were often contained in these Sibylline revelations which began to play a part from about the eighth century B.C. and continued right on into the Middle Ages.
But the wisdom was confused and chaotic, fraught with all kinds of extravagance. Sibylline ‘wisdom’ is a striking example of the birth of I-consciousness. Just as would have happened to the twelve senses in the Lemurian epoch, the seven life-organs in the earthly Atlantean epoch and the three soul-faculties at the end of the Atlantean epoch had it not been for the first three Christ Events.
In the fourth cultural age, disorder would have crept into the development of I-consciousness if the Mystery of Golgotha had not taken place.
...
[Third pre-MoG sacrifice: Apollo]
In earlier lectures we have heard how in its world of Gods and Spirit-Beings, Greek culture preserved the shadow-images of the Divine Spiritual Beings who in the Atlantean epoch had been present, in all their reality, in the sphere immediately above the world of men. The Greeks had preserved definite consciousness of the third Christ Event, the Event that is portrayed elsewhere as St. George or the Archangel Michael overthrowing the Dragon. In their Apollo the Greeks portrayed the Christ Being permeating the soul of the later Jesus boy. And we may say with truth that in ancient Greece, St. George and the Dragon are real beings, cosmic beings. The Greeks had their Castalian fountain on Parnassos; vapours arose from a gorge in the earth and these vapours, winding around the mountain like snakes, were a picture of those wild tumultuous passions of men which cast thinking, feeling and willing into confusion and disorder. At the place — it was the abode of Python — where these curling, snake-like vapours issued from the gorge, the Greeks erected the sanctuary of the Pythian Oracle. Sitting there on her tripod above the gorge, she was transported by the rising vapours into a state of visionary consciousness and her utterances were conceived to by the words of Apollo himself. Those who sought advice addressed themselves to the Pythian Oracle and received it from Apollo through her mouth.
In Greece, therefore, Apollo was a real and living Being. We know now that he was the Being who was ensouled by the Christ and later on became the Nathan Jesus boy. This being was known to the Greeks as “Apollo.”
He eliminates the effects of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences from what rises out of the earth into the soul of the Pythian Oracle. And because the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences no longer creep into her soul with the vapours which had been purified by Apollo, the forces issuing from her no longer bring thinking, feeling and willing into confusion but into order and harmony on the Earth.
And so we perceive in the figure of Apollo the idea that the God whom we in later time call Christ sent His influence into the thinking, feeling and willing of men. — He was the God Who sacrificed Himself at that time by uniting with the soul of the later Nathan Jesus, in order that harmony and order might prevail in the thinking, feeling and willing of the human soul, instead of the confusion wrought by the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman.

1914-03-07-GA152

is titled 'The pre-earthly deeds of Christ'

In a certain sense as preparation this Mystery, as I have already pointed out, had already been accomplished three times before for the salvation of mankind: once in the old Lemurian epoch, then in the Atlantean, and once again at the end of Atlantean times. That is, three times and then a fourth time in the post-Atlantean epoch at the beginning of our own era. That which we know as the Mystery of Golgotha, however, was the only one enacted on the physical plane. The other events, which were preparatory, took place wholly in the spiritual world; but the forces which were thus developed flowed down into the earthly souls and bodies for the salvation of mankind. In all three of these preparatory events that same Being was present who was born later as the Nathan-Jesus and who was permeated by the Christ-Being. This is the essential fact in the Mystery of Golgotha that the Jesus-Being who grew up as the Nathan boy was permeated by the Christ-Being. He who was later the Nathan-Jesus had been present in the three earlier events, but not incarnated as physical man; he lived in the spiritual worlds as a spiritual Being of the nature of the Archangels; and in the spiritual worlds, in the preparatory stages of the Mystery of Golgotha, in the Lemurian age and twice in Atlantis, he was permeated by the Christ-Being. It may be said, therefore, that there were three Archangel-lives in the spiritual world, and that the Being who lived those lives was the same as he who was later incarnated as man and is described in the Gospel of St. Luke as the Jesus-child. Three times had this Angelic being, who later sacrificed himself as Man, offered himself for permeation by the Christ-Impulse. As in Christ Jesus we have a Man permeated with the Christ-Impulse, so it may be said that three times previously we have an Angel permeated with that Impulse. And as that which was accomplished by the Mystery of Golgotha streamed forth into the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth, so did that which was brought about by the first three events pour into the Earth from out the Cosmos. Looking at the course of our human evolution we note that the Mystery of Golgotha stands in its very center. Everything that went before was in preparation for and pointed to this Event, which was the center-point of human development, and everything that has since happened is a gradual advance in the streaming of the forces of the Mystery into the hearts and souls of men.

1914-06-01-GA152

Then came the fourth step in the Mystery of Golgotha, and this averted another danger, that of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences upon the human I. In the Lemurian age the sense organs would have become disordered through Lucifer; in the first Atlantean period the vital organs were threatened with disorder and disharmony, and in the late Atlantean era the soul organs, the organs that underlie thinking, feeling and willing. In the Postatlantean period the human I itself was endangered.
Because the I at this time was to take its place as a living factor in human evolution, an effort was made to establish harmony between this I and the powers of the cosmos lest it become their plaything. This might have happened. The I might have so developed that it could not keep a hold upon itself, and had it been delivered to these forces, everything that came from the soul would have been overpowered by all sorts of elemental forces that arise from wind, air or water. They would have driven the human being violently in all directions.
Michelangelo painted it. In the Sibyls he showed what had threatened mankind. With wonderful skill he made them express the human types of those who felt the coming derangement of the ego, so that although all possible wisdom might come forth, human beings could neither manage nor direct it. Look at the way in which Michelangelo has painted the different degrees of derangement in I's given over to elemental beings.
Upon the other side, however, he gives us something else. In the same space he has painted the musing figures of prophecy whose aspect shows the illumination of what preserves the integrity of the I toward the cosmos. It touches us deeply when we see in the prophets the urgency, the pressure toward the I and, on the other side, human beings suffering disorder through the I itself. Then, standing in this space, is the Christ, incarnate in a human body, Who had to bring into order and harmony the I that was to come into the world.

Discussion

Note 1 - The 1914-02-10-GA148 quote A

Summary

1/ What is the relationship between

the being the greeks called Apollo as a reminiscence of the third pre-MoG intervention of Christ ensouling an archangelic being (referred to as Saint George or archangel Michael)
the later Nathan Jesus child.

There definitely is a relationship, see Schema FMC00.377A. However can we just say it is one and the same? Things are not that simple, as an archangelic being does not incarnate but works through the lower (astral and etheric) bodies of a human. This is described by Rudolf Steiner in the context of the guidance of mankind in the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs, see Three classes of Buddhas (and eg also Wotan Impulse for illustration).

.

2/ This note looks into one specific statement in the above mentioned lecture, and shows how editing through the various versions of the GA has led to different interpretations. In summary: Else Nassenstein wrote a whole booklet (see Further reading section below) on the premise that the archangel ensouled by Christ in the three pre-MoG interventions was the archangel Michael and that this was the same being as would later be born as the Nathan Jesus boy. This premise is based on one sentence in the above mentioned lecture, amazing enough to be worth further research. It turns out Nassenstein found and used a correct statement in the official GA volume of GA148, but the original typoscripts of the lecture notes show another text! Hence this is an example of how mysterious new meaning was added and slipped into the 'official' GA.

Note: Nassenstein's publication dates from 1989, so before the 1992 edition shown here. Therefore the editing change took place in a previous edition. Not all previous versions are available for checking, and the copy of the 1992 edition most commonly circulated.

Coverage

See Schema FMC00.372 above for the relevant illustration with extracts.

1914-02-10-GA148 qua A in English:

We are all familiar with imagery often used for the portrayal of supersensible beings; the Archangel Michael, or St. George overcoming the Dragon, vanquishing death. This is a pictorial presentation of the third Christ Event: St. George or the archangel Michael is inspired by the Christ Being; and the ‘Conquest of the Dragon’ indicates the overcoming of those elements in the desire-nature of Man which would bring confusion and disorder into thinking, feeling and willing.

In german

Diese drei Ereignisse, die ich jetzt angeführt habe, haben alle aus den geistigen Welten in den Menschen hineingewirkt; sie haben sich nicht vollzogen auf dem physischen Plan. Aber insbesondere von dem dritten Ereignis ist in den mythischen Vorstellungen ein gutes Andenken geblieben. Und wie in vielen Fällen uns die geistige Erkenntnis dahin führt, solche Zeichen, die in Sagen und Mythen sich erhalten haben, in der rechten Weise zu verstehen, sie sozusagen in der richtigen Weise zu vertiefen, so kann es auch mit diesem Zeichen sein.
Wir alle kennen es ja, dieses Zeichen, welches ein übersinnliches Wesen darstellt — sei es der Erzengel Michael, sei es der heilige Georg — tottretend, überwindend den Drachen. Das ist die bildliche Darstellung des dritten Christus-Ereignisses: der Erzengel Michael oder Sankt Georg, der spätere nathanische Jesusknabe, durchseelt von der Christus-Wesenheit.
Daher gibt es die erzengelhafte Gestalt in den geistigen Welten. Und die Überwindung des Drachens bedeutet die Unterdrückung desjenigen im menschlichen Denken, Fühlen und Wollen — also in der Leidenschaftsnatur des Menschen — , welches Denken, Fühlen und Wollen durcheinanderwerfen würde, in Unordnung bringen würde. Man kann es tief empfinden, wie in solchen gewaltigen Bildern, die gleichsam aufgerichtet sind, damit das, was nicht mit dem Verstande erfaßt, begriffen werden kann, wenigstens für das symbolische Anschauen und für das Gefühl vor die Menschenseele hingestellt werden, wie darin tiefe, tiefe Zusammenhänge sich aussprechen.

Else Nassenstein writes in 'Die Michael-Christus-Wesenheit. Jesus von Nazareth und die Auferstehung Christi im Leibe' (1989) that the archangel Michael is the same spiritual entity as the later Nathan Jesus boy, penetrated ('durchseelt') by the Christ being. This statement becomes key in her booklet on the link between Michael and Christ.

However, the statement is so remarkable, and only one such statement could be found in Rudolf Steiner's GA, that it is worth of closer inspection.

The statement (in German) can indeed be found back in the official 1992 edition of GA148. This is the fifth edition, the first one dating from 1963.

Researching the typoscripts from the archive however points to a remarkable example of editing, see Schema FMC00.372.

Note that later in the lecture is indeed described that

In their Apollo the Greeks portrayed the Christ Being permeating the soul of the later Jesus boy. .. We know now that he was the being who was ensouled by the Christ and later on became the Nathan Jesus boy. This being was known to the Greeks as Apollo. ..

However things may be more complex, as 1909-08-28-GA113 states, see last paragraph: for full extract, see: Archangel Michael#1909-08-28-GA113

We may now ask: What is the relation of Apollo to the Christ?
When a Greek uttered the name of Apollo, he referred to the spiritual realm behind the sun. But men's conception of a being or of a fact differs according to their capacities. The Man who has cultivated a rich inner life within his soul is capable of seeing in a truer form things which a less developed person also sees, so when the Greek uttered the name of Apollo he was indeed referring to the being which later was revealed as the Christ, but he could only conceive of it in a kind of veiled form, as Apollo. Apollo is in a certain sense a garment of the Christ, resembling in its form the being within it.
[editor: in DE: 'Es ist wie ein Kleid des Christus, das in seinen Formen ähnlich ist dem Wesen, das darinnen steckt, wenn wir Apollo und Christus sagen.]
Veil after veil had to fall from that figure conceived of by the soul as Apollo before the Christ could become visible and intelligible to the intuition of men. Apollo is an intimation of the Christ, but not the Christ Himself.
Now what is the most essentially characteristic quality of the Christ so far as our cycle of evolution is concerned?
To consider all those divine spiritual beings to which men of ancient times looked up to as the upper gods behind the tapestry of the sense world, as the rulers and lords of the spheres and functions of the universe, is to realise that their characteristic quality is that they do not descend so far as the physical plane; they only become visible to the consciousness of the seer, which transcends the physical plane and is able to see on the etheric plane. There Zeus, Apollo, Mars, Wotan, Odin, Thor, who are all real beings, became visible.
It was characteristic of these spiritual beings not to descend so far as the physical plane, but at the most to manifest temporarily in some kind of physical embodiment, a fact which is cleverly indicated in the myths when mention is made of momentary appearances of Zeus or other gods in human or some other form, when they descended to the world of men in order to carry out some purpose.
It is not permissible to speak of a permanent physical incarnation of these spiritual beings behind the sense world. We may say that Apollo is a figure incapable of descending into physical incarnation.

For this descent requires a higher power than Apollo possessed, namely, the Christ power.

This could mean that the descent of the archangelic being was facilitated by the Christ, just as the Christ previously 'ensouled' that same being in the three pre-MoG interventions. The last paragraph appears to say that it is the Christ power who pushed that archangelic being down into incarnation.

See Schema FMC00.471 on Christ Module 2 - Nature of the Christ being to contemplate this. the 'power field' of the Christ is visualized with Schema FMC00.429 on the same page. Whereas the lowest element of the archangelic being is the astral body, it can be imagined that it is the power of the Christ being that push towards incarnating.

Compare also with Three classes of Buddhas (eg Schema FMC00.313).

More generally, see also: Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA) and for example:

Irene Diet: 'Ist die «Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe» das Werk Rudolf Steiners? Eine historische Studie' (2013)

[editor note: more, see RSL011]

Related pages

References and further reading

Sibyls

Alfons Rosenberg (1902-1985): 'Sibylle und Prophetin' (1960)
Wolfgang Greiner: 'Gralsgeheimnisse : Aegyptische Sternenweisheit, Der Jungling zu Sais ; Die Wunde des Amfortas ; Vom Wesen der Sybillen' (1983)