Table of Contents

1. The Holy Nights: An Introduction
2. Background of Events
3. The Birth of Jesus as Related in the Gospel of Luke
4. The Birth of Jesus as Related in the Gospel of Matthew
5. Two Become One: In the Temple
6. What Happened at the River Jordan? (Epiphany)

7. Twelve Holy Nights

   1. Holy Night 1
   2. Holy Night 2
   3. Holy Night 3
   4. Holy Night 4
   5. Holy Night 5
   6. Holy Night 6
   7. Holy Night 7
   8. Holy Night 8
   9. Holy Night 9
   10. Holy Night 10
   11. Holy Night 11
   12. Holy Night 12
8. Epiphany
9. The Two Jesus Children

1
The Holy Nights: An Introduction

In Anthroposophy, the nights between the nativity and the epiphany, December 24th to January 6th, are thought to be the time when the veils are the most thin between the spirit realm and the human realm. These nights are the best time of year to set intentions, to plant seeds, and to go inward in prayer and meditation. Each of the Holy Nights represents a month of the following year. When close attention is paid during these days, sometimes people get a brief glimpse into their upcoming year.

"In the darkness of Winter's night, when the great breath of the Earth Mother finds its greatest point of inhalation, human beings are afforded the grace to touch into both magic and miracle. In the pause between her mighty in-breath and out-breath there is a still-point of rest. This still-point has long been known as the Holy Nights. In these blessed Nights, the angels circle the globe as if in a great cosmic dance. They long to speak to listening human hearts. Throughout the ages the 'listening ones' on earth have heard the angelic choir; they have received messages of Peace and Love. What is received during these sacred days and nights, resounds a thousand-fold in the year that follows. In this year before us, a great light is striving to find willing human hearts. May we each be the 'listening ones' during these Holy Nights. May we work with angels."

~ Claudia McLaren Lainson

On December 24 the 12 Holy Nights begin. The Twelve Days of Christmas start on December 25, the birth of Jesus, and end on January 6, Epiphany.

The 12 Holy Nights are symbols for the 12 forces of the soul that live in us. And so this indication is valid forever, not only for the 12 Holy Nights.

On or about January 1^st at noon we have the Sun as close as possible to the Earth* and that is why there are just five and half days before and five days and a half later, which is the time of the 12 Holy Nights. These nights, the darkest of the year, are closest to the Sun's Spirit, and this means that the Spiritual Sun shining from inside the Earth makes it translucent and illuminates everything from the inside, not as it is afterwards when the Sun illuminates the Earth from above, from the outside.

You have to enter these 12 Holy Nights wide awake and very conscious. It is important that on the first night (December 24), we only stay awake until one or two in the morning. On the other nights, if possible, try to go to bed regularly at the same time; it is of principal importance to live in a regular rhythm at this time, if this is not possible in the active life, one has to try to do so internally. Those who cannot be silent in the external life should seek constantly to be inwardly aware of the sanctity of the time. It is important to perform daily duties without losing sight of this realization, of the sacredness of the time, allowing nothing unhealthy, no ugly movement to enter the soul, remaining always attentive and severe on oneself in this regard. During the experience of Christmas, with its 12 Holy Nights, we sow the seed for the next 12 months. Therefore, these 12 days are important, if for example we make mistakes on the first day, we lay a seed, which, in the first month, will germinate negatively in the blood.

*Perihelion: This was the date of the perihelion at the time when Rudolf Steiner gave this meditation to Herbert Hahn. The earth's orbit around the sun is not a circle. The earth's orbit around the sun is slightly elliptical. Therefore, the distance between the earth and the sun varies throughout the year. Furthermore, this elliptical orbit is also moving.

At its nearest point on the ellipse that is the earth's orbit around the sun, the earth is 91,398,199 miles from the sun. This point in the earth's orbit is known as perihelion, and it occurs [on January 4 in 2022 and 2023, January 3 in 2024 and again on January 4 in 2025].

The earth is farthest away from the sun [on July 4, 2020], when it is 94,507,635 miles from the sun. This point in the earth's orbit is called aphelion.

2
Background of Events

What is shared here below is the story behind what we celebrate both on Christmas Day and on Epiphany. I felt it important to review the spiritual realities behind these two celebrations each year as the season of the Holy Nights approaches. These are excerpts taken from Rudolf Steiner's The Gospel of Luke. I have tried to include here only what is pertinent for a general understanding of the events. For a deeper elucidation, please refer to the source in its entirety, as there are portions shared here that might relate to deeper truths and may not be fully understood outside the full text. (~Anthony)

I shall have to say things to-day that are not found in the Gospels; but you will understand the Bible all the better if you learn from investigations of the Akashic Chronicle something about the consequences and effects of facts indicated in the Gospels. It must never be forgotten that the words at the end of the Gospel of St. John hold good for all the Gospels – that the world itself could not contain the books that would have to be written if all the facts were presented. The revelations vouchsafed to humanity through Christianity are not of a kind that could have been written down and presented to the world once and for ever as a complete record. Christ's words are true: 'I am with you always, until the end of the world!' He is there not as a dead but as a living Being, and what He has to reveal can always be perceived by those whose spiritual eyes are opened. Christianity is a living stream and its revelations will endure as long as human beings are able to receive them. Thus certain facts will be presented to-day, the consequences of which are indicated in the Gospels, though not the facts themselves. Nevertheless you can put them to the test and you will find them substantiated.

...

In the ancient Hebrew people there was a line of generations descending from David. We learn from the Bible that David had two sons, Solomon and Nathan. Thus two lines of descent, the 'Solomon line' and the 'Nathan line' stemmed from David. Leaving aside the intermediate members, we can say: At the beginning of our era, descendants both of the Solomon line and of the Nathan line of the House of David were living in Palestine. In Nazareth there lived a man named 'Joseph', a descendant of the Nathan line; he had a wife, 'Mary'. And in Bethlehem there lived a descendant of the Solomon line, also named 'Joseph'. It is not in the least surprising that there were two men of David's lineage named Joseph and that each was married to a Mary as the Bible says. Thus at the beginning of our era there were two couples in Palestine, both bearing the names of 'Joseph' and 'Mary'. The Bethlehem couple traced back its origin to the 'Solomon' or kingly line of the House of David, and the other (the Nazareth couple) to the 'Nathan' or priestly line. To this latter couple (of the Nathan line) was born the child described to you yesterday and to-day. This child provided an astral sheath that could eventually be absorbed into the Nirmanakaya of Buddha. At the time when the child was due to be born, this couple of the Nathan lineage journeyed from Nazareth to Bethlehem as St. Luke relates – 'to be taxed'. The genealogical table is given in his Gospel.

The Gospel of Luke, Lecture 4

3
The Birth of Jesus as Related in the Gospel of Luke

Who was the child (Jesus of the Nathan priestly line) born to Joseph and Mary as described in the Gospel of St. Luke?

To answer this question we must go back to the time before the Luciferic influence had penetrated into the astral body of man. This influence approached humanity at the time when the ancestral human couple were living on the Earth. This ancestral couple had been strong enough to master human substance and to incarnate, but had not been strong enough to resist the Luciferic influence. The effects of the influence extended into the astral bodies of this couple too, with the consequence that it was impossible to allow all the forces that were in 'Adam and Eve' to be transmitted to their descendants. The physical body had necessarily to be transmitted through the generations, but the leadership of humanity held back a portion of the etheric body. This was expressed by saying: 'Men have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil' – that is to say, they have partaken of the Luciferic influence; but it was also said: 'The possibility of eating also of the Tree of Life must now be taken from them.' This means that certain of the forces of the etheric body were kept back and did not pass on to the descendants. Thus after the Fall, certain forces were no longer in 'Adam', and the still guiltless part of his being was nurtured and fostered in the great Mother-Lodge of humanity. This was, so to speak, the Adam-soul as yet untouched by human guilt, not yet entangled in what had actually caused the 'Fall' of man. These pristine forces of the Adam-Individuality were preserved; they were there and were then led as a provisional 'Ego' to the child born to Joseph and Mary. Thus in his early years this Jesus-child bore within him the power of the original progenitor of earthly humanity.

This soul had remained young in the truest sense. It had not been led through incarnations but had been kept at a very early stage – like the child in our hypothetical educational experiment. Who, then, was the Being in the child born to Joseph and Mary of the Nathan line? The progenitor of humanity, the 'old Adam' as a 'new Adam!' This secret was known to St. Paul and lies behind his words. And St. Luke, the writer of the Gospel – who was a pupil of St. Paul – knew it too. For this reason he speaks of it in a special way. He knew that a very definite process was necessary in order that this spiritual substance might be led down to humanity; he knew that a blood-relationship reaching back to 'Adam' was necessary. Hence for Joseph he shows a lineage reaching back to Adam who issued directly from the spiritual world and in the words of the Gospel was a 'son of God'. The sequence of generations is traced back to God himself.

...

We may therefore ask: What is actually described to us in the Gospel of St. Luke when it speaks of Jesus of Nazareth?

In the first place it describes a human being whose physical body, in respect of blood-kinship, is to be traced back to Adam – to the times when, in the period of devastation on the Earth, humanity was saved through an ancestral pair. It further describes the incarnation of a soul who had waited the longest before incarnating. In the Nathan Jesus-child there was present the Adam-soul as it was before the Fall – the soul which had waited longest. We may therefore say, fantastic as it will seem to modern humanity, that the Individuality who had been led into the Jesus-child by the great Mother-Lodge had not only descended from the physically oldest generations of mankind but was also, in a sense, the incarnation of the very first member of humanity.

The Gospel of Luke, Lecture 4

4
The Birth of Jesus as Related in the Gospel of Matthew

Who then was the child (Jesus of the Solomon line) born in Bethlehem as related in the Gospel of St. Matthew?

The other couple did not originally reside in Nazareth but in Bethlehem; this is related by the writer of the Gospel of St. Matthew. This couple of the Solomon line also had a child named 'Jesus'. In the body of this child too a great Individuality was living, but the child had a different task to fulfil. The wisdom of the world is indeed profound! It was not the function of this child to impart fresh forces of youth to the astral sheath; his mission was to bring to humanity that which only a mature soul can bring. Under the guidance of all the Powers concerned, this child was able to be the reincarnation of the Individuality who had once taught the mysteries of Ahura Mazdao to men in ancient Persia; who had once given up his astral body to Hermes and his etheric body to Moses, and who had appeared again as Zarathas or Nazarathos, the great teacher of Pythagoras in ancient Chaldea. This Individuality was none other than Zarathustra. The Ego of Zarathustra was reincarnated in the child of whom the Gospel of St. Matthew relates that he was born of a couple named Joseph and Mary who descended from the kingly or Solomon line of the House of David and resided, originally, in Bethlehem.

Thus we find one part of the truth presented in the Gospel of St. Matthew and the other part in that of St. Luke. Both accounts must be taken literally, for truth is complex. We know now who was born from the priestly line of the House of David. But we know too that from the kingly line there was born the Individuality who had once worked in ancient Persia as Zarathustra and had inaugurated the 'kingly' or 'magic' science of the ancient Persian kingdom. Thus the two Individualities lived side by side: the young Adam-Individuality in the child of the priestly line of the House of David (the Nathan Jesus), and the Zarathustra-Individuality in the child of the kingly line (the Solomon Jesus).

The Gospel of Luke, Lecture 4

5
Two Become One: In the Temple

Note: See chapter 9 below for more on the two Jesus children.

The Gospels become especially profound when they are indicating essential facts. The quality in the human being that is connected more with will and power, with the 'kingly' nature (speaking in the technical sense), is known by those cognisant of the mysteries of existence to be transmitted by the paternal element in heredity. On the other hand, the inner nature that is connected with wisdom and inner mobility of spirit, is transmitted by the maternal element.

You can find this truth substantiated again and again in the world. Stature, the outer form, whatever expresses itself directly in the outer structure, and in 'life's serious conduct' – this is connected with the character of the Ego and is inherited from the paternal element. For this reason the Solomon Jesus had to inherit power from the father, because it was his mission to transmit to the world the divine forces radiating through the world in Space. This is expressed by the writer of the Gospel of St. Matthew in the most wonderful way. The incarnation of an Individuality was announced from the spiritual world as an event of great significance and it was announced, not to Mary, but to Joseph, the father. Truths of immense profundity lie behind all this; such things must never be regarded as fortuitous. Inner traits and qualities such as are inherited from the mother, were transmitted to the Jesus of the Nathan line. Hence the birth of the Jesus of the Gospel of St. Luke was announced to the mother. Such is the profundity of the facts narrated in the scriptures! – But let us continue.

The other facts described are also full of significance. A forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth was to arise in John the Baptist (see The being of Elijah). To say more about the Individuality of the Baptist will only be possible as time goes on. But to begin with we will consider the picture presented to us – John as the herald of the Being who was to come in Jesus. John proclaimed this by gathering together and summarizing with infinite power everything contained in the old Law. What the Baptist wished to bring home to men was that there must be observance of what was written in the old Law but had grown old in civilization and had been forgotten; it was mature, but was no longer heeded. Therefore what John required above all was the power possessed by a soul born as a mature – even overmature – soul into the world. He was born of old parents; from the very beginning his astral body was pure and cleansed of all the forces which degrade man, because the aged parents were unaffected by passion and desire. There again, profound wisdom is expressed in the Gospel of St. Luke. For such an Individuality, too, provision is made in the Mother-Lodge of humanity. Where the great Manu (a great spiritual individuality who led the migrations out of Atlantis before it fell) guides and directs the processes of evolution in the spiritual realm, from thence the streams are sent whithersoever they are needed. An Ego such as that of John the Baptist was born into a body under the immediate guidance and direction of the great Mother-Lodge of humanity in the central sanctuary of earthly spiritual life. The John-Ego descended from the same holy region (Stätte) as that from which the soul-being of the Jesus-child of the Gospel of St. Luke descended, save that upon Jesus there were chiefly bestowed qualities not yet permeated by an Ego in which egoistic traits had developed: that is to say, a young soul was guided to the place where the reborn Adam was to incarnate.

It will seem strange to you that a soul without a really developed Ego could be guided from the great Mother-Lodge to a certain place. But the same Ego that was withheld from the Jesus of the Gospel of St. Luke was bestowed upon the body of John the Baptist; thus the soul-being in Jesus of the Gospel of St. Luke and the Ego-being in John the Baptist were inwardly related from the beginning. Now when the human embryo develops in the body of the mother, the Ego unites with the other members of the human organism in the third week, but does not come into operation until the last months before birth and then only gradually. Not until then does the Ego become active as an inner force; in a normal case, when an Ego quickens an embryo, we have to do with an Ego that has come from earlier incarnations. In the case of John, however, the Ego in question was inwardly related to the soul-being of the Nathan Jesus. Hence according to the Gospel of St. Luke, the mother of Jesus went to the mother of John the Baptist when the latter was in the sixth month of her pregnancy, and the embryo that in other cases is quickened by its own Ego was here quickened through the medium of the other embryo. The child in the body of Elisabeth begins to move when the mother bearing the Nathan Jesus-child approaches; and it is the Ego through which the child in the other mother (Elisabeth) is quickened (Luke 1:39-44). Such was the deep connection between the Being who was to bring about the fusion of the two spiritual streams and the other who was to announce His coming!

Events of great sublimity take place at the beginning of our era. When, as so often happens, people say that truth should be simple, this is due to indolence and a dislike of having to wrestle with many concepts; but the greatest truths can be apprehended only when the spiritual faculties are exerted to their utmost capacity. If considerable efforts are needed to describe a machine, it is surely unreasonable to demand that the greatest truths should also be the simplest! Truth is inevitably complicated, and the most strenuous efforts must be made if it is desired to acquire some understanding of the truths relating to the Events of Palestine. Nobody should lend himself to the objection that the facts are unduly complicated; they are complicated because here we have to do with the greatest of all happenings in the evolution of the Earth.

The Jesus-child who bore within him the Individuality of Zarathustra unfolded with extraordinary rapidity powers that will inevitably be present when such a mighty Ego is working in a body. The nature of the Individuality in the body of the Nathan Jesus was altogether different, the most important factor there being the Nirmanakaya of Buddha overshadowing this child. Hence when the parents had returned from Bethlehem, the child is said to have been full of wisdom – that is, in his etheric body; he was "filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him." (Luke 2:40) But he grew up in such a way that the ordinary human qualities connected with understanding and knowledge of the external world developed in him exceedingly slowly. A superficial observer would have called this child comparatively backward – if account had been taken only of his intellectual capacities. But instead there developed in him the power streaming from the overshadowing Nirmanakaya of Buddha. He unfolded a depth of inwardness comparable with nothing of the kind in the world, a power of feeling that had an extraordinary effect upon everyone around him. Thus in the Nathan Jesus we see a Being with infinite depths of feeling, and in the Solomon Jesus an Individuality of exceptional maturity, having profound understanding of the world.

Words of great significance had been spoken to the mother of the Nathan Jesus, the child of deep feeling. When Simeon stood before the newborn child and beheld above him the radiance of the Being he had been unable to see in India as the Buddha (Simeon was the reincarnated Buddha), he foretold the momentous events that were now to take place; but he spoke also of the 'sword that would pierce the mother's heart'. These words too refer to something we shall endeavour to understand.

The parents were in friendly relationship and the children grew up as near neighbours until they were about twelve years old. When the Nathan Jesus reached this age his parents went to Jerusalem 'after the custom', to take part in the Feast of the Passover, and the child went with them, as was usual. We now find in the Gospel of St. Luke the mysterious narrative of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. As the parents were returning from the Feast they suddenly missed the boy; failing to find him among the company of travellers they turned back again and found him in the temple conversing with the learned doctors, all of whom were astonished at his wisdom.

What had happened? We will enquire of the imperishable Akashic Chronicle.

The facts of existence are by no means simple. What had happened on this occasion may also happen in a different way elsewhere in the world. At a certain stage of development some individuality may need conditions differing from those that were present at the beginning of his life. Hence it repeatedly happens that someone lives to a certain age and then suddenly falls into a state of deathlike unconsciousness. A transformation takes place: his own Ego leaves him and another Ego passes into his bodily constitution. Such a change occurs in other cases too; it is a phenomenon known to every occultist. In the case of the twelve-year-old Jesus, the following happened. The Zarathustra-Ego which had lived hitherto in the body of the Jesus belonging to the kingly or Solomon line of the House of David in order to reach the highest level of his epoch, left that body and passed into the body of the Nathan Jesus who then appeared as one transformed. His parents did not recognize him; nor did they understand his words, for now the Zarathustra-Ego was speaking out of the Nathan Jesus. This was the time when the Nirmanakaya of Buddha united with the cast-off astral sheath and when the Zarathustra-Ego passed into him. This child, now so changed that his parents did not know what to make of him, was taken home with them.

Not long afterwards the mother of the Nathan Jesus died, so that the child into whom the Zarathustra-Ego had now passed was orphaned on the mother's side. As we shall see, the fact that the mother died and the child was left an orphan is especially significant. Nor could the child of the Solomon line continue to live under ordinary conditions when the Zarathustra-Ego had gone out of him. Joseph of the Solomon line had already died, and the mother of the child who had once been the Solomon Jesus, together with her children James, Joseph, Simon, Judas and the two daughters, were taken into the house of the Nathan Joseph; so that Zarathustra (now in the body of the Nathan Jesus-child) was again living in the family (with the exception of the father) in which he had incarnated. In this way the two families were combined into one, and the mother of the brothers and sisters – as we may call them, for in respect of the Ego they were brothers and sisters – lived in the house of Joseph of the Nathan line with the Jesus whose native town – in the bodily sense – was Nazareth.

Here we see the actual fusion of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. For the body now harbouring the mature Ego-soul of Zarathustra had been able to assimilate everything that resulted from the union of the Nirmanakaya of Buddha with the discarded astral sheath. Thus the Individuality now growing up as 'Jesus of Nazareth' bore within him the Ego of Zarathustra irradiated and pervaded by the spiritual power of the rejuvenated Nirmanakaya of Buddha. In this sense Buddhism and Zoroastrianism united in the soul of Jesus of Nazareth.

When Joseph of the Nathan line also died, comparatively soon, the Zarathustra-child was in very fact an orphan and felt himself as such; he was not the being he appeared to be according to his bodily descent; in respect of the spirit he was the reborn Zarathustra; in respect of bodily descent the father was Joseph of the Nathan line and the external world could have no other view. St. Luke relates it and we must take his words exactly:

'Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, this day have I begotten Thee. And Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age ...'

and now it is not said simply that he was a 'son' of Joseph, but: 'being as was supposed the son of Joseph' (Luke 3:21-23) – for the Ego had originally incarnated in the Solomon Jesus and was therefore not connected fundamentally with the Nathan Joseph.

'Jesus of Nazareth' was now a Being, whose inmost nature comprised all the blessings of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. A momentous destiny awaited him – a destiny altogether different from that of any others baptized by John in the Jordan. And we shall see that later on, when the Baptism took place, the Christ was received into the inmost nature of this Being. Then, too, the immortal part of the original mother of the Nathan Jesus descended from the spiritual world and transformed the mother who had been taken into the house of the Nathan Joseph, making her again virginal. Thus the soul of the mother whom the Nathan Jesus had lost was restored to him at the time of the Baptism in the Jordan. The mother who had remained to him harboured within her the soul of his original mother, called in the Bible the 'Blessed Mary'.

The Gospel of Luke, Lecture 5

6
What Happened at the River Jordan? (Epiphany)

Note: See the chapter on Epiphany for an extensive overview.

The Being who subsequently passed into the body of the Nathan Jesus was the bearer of a message to the whole of mankind. It was a message intended to lead men out of the narrow ties of blood-relationship prevailing hitherto. It was not to set aside the tie between father and son, brother and sister, but to add to the love inherent in blood-relationship the 'universal' love that flows from soul to soul and transcends all ties of blood. This deepened love that has nothing to do with kinship of blood was to be brought by the Being who manifested Himself later on in the body of the Nathan Jesus. For this purpose it was necessary that the Individuality who had dwelt since his twelfth year in the body of the Nathan Jesus should himself experience on Earth what it means to feel no ties, no relationship with others through the blood. Then only could this Being experience in all its purity the link between man and man. He had first to feel himself free from all ties of blood – free even from the possibility of such ties. The Individuality in the Nathan Jesus was to stand before the world not only as a 'homeless' man (like the Buddha who left his home for unknown domains) but as one liberated from all family connections and from everything associated with the tie of blood. He had to experience all the pain that can be felt when a man must bid farewell to everything that is near him, and stand alone; he had to speak from the experience of utter loneliness and the abandonment of all family ties. Who was this Being?

We know that he was the Being who until about his twelfth year had lived in the body of the Solomon Jesus, his father and mother having descended from the Solomon line. His father had died early, so the boy was orphaned on the father's side. Besides himself there were brothers and sisters in this family, and he lived with them as long as he (Zarathustra) was in the body of the Solomon Jesus. In his twelfth year he left this family, gave up mother, brothers and sisters, and passed into the body of the Nathan Jesus. Then the mother of the Nathan Jesus died and, later on, the father too. Thus when the Zarathustra-Individuality went out to work in the world he had parted from everything connected with ties of blood. Not only was he completely orphaned, not only had he given up brothers and sisters, but as Zarathustra he had to forgo ever founding a family and having descendants. For he had abandoned not only his father and mother, his brothers and sisters, but even his own body, and had passed into another body – that of the Nathan Jesus. This Being could then prepare the way for One still more sublime, who later on, in the body of the Nathan Jesus, entered upon His great mission – the proclamation of Universal Love. And when the mother and brothers came and the people said to Him: 'Thy mother and thy brethren are without and seek for thee', then, from the depths of His soul and without danger of being misunderstood or of wronging filial love, He could utter the words: 'That they are not!' ... for Zarathustra had relinquished even the body that was connected with this family. Then, pointing to those who were with Him in free community of soul, He could say: "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." (Mark 3:35)

The words of the scriptures are to be taken literally! In order that One Being might proclaim universal love He had actually to be incarnated in a form wherein He could experience the abandonment of everything that could be founded upon ties of blood.

Our feelings go out to this Being as if He were humanly near us – a Being who, having descended from sublime heights of spirit underwent human experiences and human suffering. The more spiritual our conception of Him, the truer it will be, and the more fervently will our hearts and souls acclaim Him!

The Gospel of Luke, Lecture 6

Christ Jesus

In the foregoing lectures we have tried to gain some idea of the most important figures in the Gospel of St. Luke. Although far-reaching conceptions of the facts underlying this Gospel have been acquired, it still remains for us to follow the further development of the central Being of our Earth – Christ Jesus Himself.

To begin with it will be necessary to recall that Christ Jesus, as He is afterwards described in the Gospel of St. Luke, was born – or rather His physical body was born – as the Nathan Jesus of the House of David. At about his twelfth year there passed into the body of this child the Ego once incarnated in the Being who had been the inaugurator of the ancient Persian civilization. Thus from the twelfth year onwards, the Ego of Zarathustra was living in the body of the Nathan Jesus, and we must now follow the development of this Being more closely...

...

It must be borne in mind that up to the twelfth year the physical body was that of the Nathan Jesus, but that after the twelfth year the Ego of Zarathustra was living in that body. What does this mean? It means that from the twelfth year onwards, this mature Ego was working upon the sentient (astral) body, the sentient soul and the mind-soul of the Nathan Jesus, elaborating these members in a way possible only to an Ego of great maturity – an Ego that had undergone the destinies of the Zarathustra-Individuality through many incarnations. We therefore meet with the wonderful fact that the Ego of Zarathustra passed into the body of the Nathan Jesus in the twelfth year of life and elaborated the faculties of the soul to the highest degree of excellence. Thus there developed a sentient body able to gaze into the Cosmos and experience something of the spiritual nature of Ahura Mazdao; there developed a sentient soul able to harbour the knowledge and wisdom based on the teaching concerning Ahura Mazdao; and there developed a mind-soul able to apprehend, to formulate in intelligible concepts and words, that which men had hitherto been able to acquire only through spiritual currents flowing into them from outside.

The Nathan Jesus, having within him the Zarathustra-Ego, lived on until his thirtieth year was approaching. The event that had occurred when he was twelve, when his inmost nature was filled with a new Egohood, now took place again – but this time on an infinitely more sublime, more universal scale. Towards the thirtieth year the Zarathustra-Ego had accomplished its work in the soul of the Nathan Jesus; the faculties of this soul had been developed to the highest possible degree and the mission of the Zarathustra-Ego was thus fulfilled. Having instilled into the soul all the faculties he had acquired through his own previous incarnations, Zarathustra could declare: 'My task is now accomplished!' – and a moment came when his Ego left the body of the Nathan Jesus.

The Zarathustra-Ego had lived in the body of the Solomon Jesus until the twelfth year. No further development in earthly existence would thereafter have been possible for this boy. Because the Zarathustra-Ego had gone out of him, his development came to a standstill at the point reached at that time, although exceptional maturity had been attained owing to the presence of such a highly advanced Ego. Anyone observing the Solomon Jesus-child would have found him prematurely advanced to a conspicuous degree; but from the moment the Zarathustra-Ego left him he came to a standstill and could make no further progress. And when – comparatively soon – the mother of the Nathan Jesus died and the spiritual part of her being was translated into the spiritual world, she took with her what was of eternal value and formative power in the Solomon Jesus child. This child also died – at about the same time as the mother of the Nathan Jesus.

It was an etheric sheath of utmost value which then left the body of the Solomon Jesus. As we know, the development of the etheric body takes place mainly between the seventh year of life and puberty. This was an etheric body that had been worked upon and elaborated by the forces of the Zarathustra-Ego. In normal human existence, when the etheric body leaves the physical body at death, everything that is of no eternal use is discarded and the human being takes with him a kind of extract of the etheric body. In the case of the child of the Solomon line the etheric body was of eternal use in the fullest possible sense and the whole life-body of this child was taken by the mother of the Nathan Jesus with her into the spiritual world.

Now the etheric body forms and shapes the physical body of man and it is not difficult to realize that there was a very deep connection between this etheric body of the Solomon Jesus which had been translated into the spiritual world, and the Zarathustra-Ego; for this Ego and etheric body had been united until the twelfth year of earthly life. And when the Zarathustra-Ego left the body of Jesus of Nazareth, the power of attraction between this Ego and the original etheric body in the Solomon Jesus asserted itself. The maturity of the Zarathustra-Ego was such that a further passage through Devachan was unnecessary and after a comparatively short time this Ego was able, in conjunction with his former etheric body, to build up a new physical body. This resulted in the birth of the Being who thereafter appeared again and again, always with relatively short intervals between physical death and rebirth; whenever this Being left the physical body at death, he soon appeared again on the Earth in a new incarnation. Having sought and found the etheric body he had once relinquished in the circumstances indicated, this Being went on his way through history as the 'Master Jesus', becoming, as you can well imagine, the great helper of those who have endeavoured to understand the Event of Palestine. Thus it was the Zarathustra-Ego, Zarathustra himself, who having found his etheric body again began to move through the evolution of mankind as the Master Jesus, incarnating again and again to give guidance and direction to the spiritual stream of Christianity. He is the Inspirer of those who strive to understand Christianity in its living growth and development; within the esoteric schools he inspired those whose perpetual duty it was to cultivate the teachings of Christianity. He stands behind the great spiritual figures of Christianity, ever teaching what the great Event of Palestine signifies.

Having indwelt the body of the Nathan Jesus from the twelfth to the thirtieth year, the Zarathustra-Ego was hence-forth outside that body and another Being descended into it. This happened, as all the Gospels relate, at the Baptism by John in the Jordan, when an Ego of untold sublimity entered into the Nathan Jesus in place of the Zarathustra-Ego. In the lectures on the Gospel of St. John, (See The Gospel of St. John as it Related to the Gospel of St. Luke) attention was drawn to the fact that 'baptism' in those olden days was something very different from the mere symbol which it became later on. It was also enacted differently by John the Baptist. The body of one who was baptized was completely submerged in the water. You know from preparatory lectures that a definite experience may be connected with such a happening. Even in everyday existence it may happen that when a man is in danger of drowning, or sustains a violent shock, a tableau of his life hitherto appears before him. This is because something that otherwise takes place only after death, occurs momentarily: the etheric body is lifted out of the physical body and is freed from its power. This happened to most of those who were baptized by John, and in a very special way to the Nathan Jesus. His etheric body was drawn out – and during that moment the sublime Being we call the Christ descended into his body.

Thus from the time of the Baptism, the Nathan Jesus was filled with the Christ Being as is indicated in the words contained in the earlier Gospel records: 'This is my well-beloved Son; this day have I begotten Him!' – meaning: the Son of Heaven, the Christ, is now begotten – begotten of the all-pervading Godhead and received into the body and whole constitution of the Nathan Jesus who had been prepared to receive the seed from heavenly heights. 'This is my well-beloved Son; this day have I begotten Him!' – These were the words contained in the earlier manuscripts and this is how they ought still to stand in the Gospels (Luke 3:22).

The Gospel of Luke, Lecture 7

Summary

7
The Twelve Holy Nights

The source for the following, sans the "supplemental contemplations," is from the document Twelve-Holy-Nights-Indications-by-Steiner-to-Herbert-Hahn.pdf.

Holy Night 1: December 24-25 (Capricorn)

(The seed for January of the following year is sown.)

"This Holy Night is the night the Christ is born in the soul and the soul asks: "Can my soul become liberated, saved, redeemed with all my weaknesses and flaws and passions?"

The stable of Bethlehem in poverty and humility in which would be born the Light of the World. The voice of silence enters the soul and teaches one to affirm with joy the good that is found in ourselves and in others.

The Mystery: The soul seeks the mystery in a dark and trackless forest.

The Divine Spirit is born in Matter; the Alpha and Omega touches and creates life."

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

First Contemplation

"In the humble stable of our soul a child is born who will change the world. Why would our soul be such a place? The stable was the only place available for the very pregnant Mary. This was the resting place for the animals that, on the one hand, are part of nature that provides our sustenance, but on the other hand represent our astral nature that does what it wants unless it is trained. Pause and focus with reverence on your soul. Consider the gifts of feeling, thinking, and will that are at our disposal. See them lying in your soul for you to open and use as you so desire. Feel a deep thankfulness for this. What would life be if we could not feel the beauty in this world, and the beauty of the souls around us? What would life be if we could not connect ideas together to make sense of our lives? What would life be if we could not direct our behavior appropriately? At this time we can also pour out our hearts to those who cannot use these gifts fully. The intensity of our compassion fills the universe with Christmas lights."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 2: December 25-26 (Aquarius)

(The seed for February of the following year is sown.)

Night of John. The Eagle of the soul climbs high with its wings and looking back from a great height, observes its own life. And now the man recognizes the Laws of Karma.

The Mystery: Choosing the narrow and difficult path or the path that is wide and easy.

For those who are born of flesh it is hard to find the path of the spirit.

Bhagavad Gita: A selfish life, or a life devoted to humanity?

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Second Contemplation

"Christmas is a spiritually elevating time, which can sometimes clash with the materialistic ideas of the modern world. We must strike the delicate balance between experiencing our spiritual self and our earthly self. We are inclined to clothe our spiritual self in our earthly understanding thereby masking its beauty and purity. Our task is to integrate the two by always acknowledging that our spiritual self underpins our earthly self.

When we look at our lives through the eyes of our spiritual self, we see that we attract all our difficulties for the express purpose of making us stronger and more objective. For it is only with objectivity that we can even see our spiritual self, our I Am. Christ came to earth to give us personal use of our I Am: that is the real Christmas gift. Do we reject it? Yes, we do. Each time we blame others for what they do to us, we reject this gift. We only ever accept this gift when we acknowledge that whatever happens to us we have attracted so that we can experience this gift more fully. If we can become the interested observer of all that takes place in our lives, we stand with Christ and share His work."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 3: December 26-27 (Pisces)

(The seed for March of the following year is sown.)

Now follow the Three Nights of the White Lily. The soul recognizes that it cannot stay above, but must come down again, because in it, it possesses too much earthly weight.

The conscious mind begins to purify the earthly body and assumes that each food is as a viaticum (provision for a journey). "I am the bread" (words of Christ Jesus). We come from the bread, we live in the path of development of the bread, and return to the bread.

The Mystery: Never forget the accomplishment of the distant objectives of leaving the earthly realm.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Third Contemplation

"When we have spiritual insight, we see that we are really part of the All. Then we are tempted to see ourselves as part of the All regardless of what we do. This choice means that we stand still on our journey and have some kind of faith that we will get there one day. However, we need also to use this spiritual insight to see the baggage that we carry; not to do so is a misuse of this spiritual ability. We don't want to look at the baggage because we think that if we look at it we won't have the strength to sift through it.

So what is the baggage? Our grudges, our lack of forgiveness, our fear, our lack of love, our opinions, our one sidedness, our jealousy, undervaluing ourselves, overvaluing ourselves, the list goes on. This baggage belongs to our lower self, our lower ego which found the strength to develop itself in all these things. Now that we have come within reach of our higher self, our I Am, which is the bread of life, we no longer have use for these things. In fact, now we need the exact opposite of these things. Leaving aside our opinions gives us the freedom to see much, much more. Loving others as they are is so much easier than deciding who to love and who not to love. While we may not experience instant gratification from forgiving others: when we forgive we change the world."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 4: December 27-28 (Aries)

(The seed for April of the following year is sown.)

Consciously purify the astral body (soul). The antipathies and sympathies are transformed into love, complete love, always through love. Love silences the passions and desires. The strength of Christ enlightens and fortifies us in our battles with Lucifer and Ahriman for our metamorphosis.

The Mystery: Personal work is to be placed in the service of all for the good of all. The Archangel Uriel places us before a mirror in which we see ourselves as we are.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Fourth Contemplation

"Even though we have three soul forces, Sentient/Feeling Soul, Mind/Thinking Soul, and Consciousness/Willing Soul, our overall soul mood is centered in our feeling activities. Our basic experience of feeling in our soul is drawn to what we like and what we dislike, sympathy and antipathy, or love and hate.

If we think about our own disposition, we can understand ourselves quite clearly if we observe what we accept and what we reject, what we are drawn to and what repels us. Some say that this is influenced by our upbringing, but essentially it can be directly linked to our karma and our experiences from past lives.

So we are attracted to everything that pleases us and we ignore everything else. This means that a large part of this world passes us by unnoticed, as if it didn't exist. This has a damaging effect on us and prevents us from engaging with our Higher Self and awaking the presence of Christ within us."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 5: December 28-29 (Taurus)

(The seed for May of the following year is sown.)

Consciously purify the body of thought, discipline thinking, concentrating on the positive, transforming the black doves of thought into white doves, because our thinking can be likened to a pigeon when it has no discipline. We have to learn to close the loft when negative or strange thoughts approach.

The Mystery: The Temple is purified by Christ.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Fifth Contemplation

"When we think we combine concepts developed in the past to make sense of the present. We do not do this in our brain. Our brain is like a mirror so that we can see the thoughts that are formed by our soul; so it is our soul that sends our thoughts to our body. This is why we can't think when we are asleep, our soul/astral being has withdrawn; but our brain is still there in the bed and scientists have all sorts of notions about why it doesn't work at night, except the right one!

So how much control do we have over these thoughts? 100%! All we need is to sharpen our concentration. If we are able to concentrate on our thinking, it and we will be transformed. We will experience thinking like a breath of inspiration, it will be freed from its predictable and tedious ways, and we will feel liberated. We will have direct control to warm up our thoughts with feeling, and bring our thinking to life with our will. This will give us a direct experience of our I Am, which isn't always easy to detect."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 6: December 29-30 (Gemini)

(The seed for June of the following year is sown.)

Now follow the Three Nights of the Sword.

Peter's night. Night of the consecration of the sword. Each of us has forged his or her own sword of discernment. Each of us must unite our spiritual will with the eternal, the immortal with the imperishable, and in this way, we shall recognize the truth.

The Mystery: Bring together the Son of God with the Son of Man. Unity.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Sixth Contemplation

We find the earthly will in our digestive system and other bodily movements; we can't be conscious of it nor interfere with it, it has a job to do. It is the spiritual will that we can wield like a sword. The sword is directed by our moral impulses, making us an integral part of the cause and effect that creates this world. We have accepted a great responsibility by taking control of our own will. We were given this responsibility when Christ entered into the earth to give us personal possession of our I Am.

So what is morality? It is greatly misrepresented and has little to do with what we do, but rather how we do it. Our activity can only be moral when our happiness is not acquired at the expense of others. So if we are happy to have a new gift, which was made in a factory where the workers are badly treated, or we are happy to buy the cheapest food produced by animals that are badly treated and so on, we are caught up in a web of immorality. Acts of morality arise when our deeds originate from our interest in other people. So morality arises out of love, the purest, highest love and respect for others."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 7: December 30-31 (Cancer)

(The seed for July of the following year is sown.)

The serpent in the hilt of the sword. Wisdom. Occupy yourselves with elevated lectures. It is the night of the great commandment.

The Mystery of Work: Who rules your soul? Who is the master of our soul? Who is the author of our actions? We are free and we must strengthen the good will in us.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Seventh Contemplation

"As we become more aware of our three soul forces, our feeling or sentience, our thoughts or intellect, and our will or conscious awareness, we see many repetitive patterns. We realize that we are inclined to have certain feelings, think certain thoughts, and behave in a certain way. Everyone who knows us can tell us about this. Profilers study it and can predict how we respond to particular situations. This is our personality and our character. These personal inclinations have developed lifetime after lifetime. The strength of our character and the disposition of our personality can be directly related to the influence of our I Am in our soul.

[Regarding our most worthwhile activities:] It is our I Am that thinks in our soul, it is our I Am that arouses certain feelings in our soul, and it is our I Am that motivates us to behave in particular ways. If we allow this to happen unconsciously then we are no more than a puppet [of beings and forces outside of us]. We have no freedom and no understanding of the events in our life. What is more, under some circumstances, we can react unfavorably.

Every single thing that happens to us is caused by something we ourselves did in a past life. Now we meet the effect of what we caused. This could appear to be quite destructive; however, it is quite the opposite. Everything we have done was for the express purpose of becoming aware of our I Am. Our path is one of pain and sorrow as played out in the life of Jesus, "the Christed One." We follow in His footsteps for He is that great I Am who walked this earth in completeness. He shows us the way. It is our choice how we meet the consequences of our own actions; we can suffer in pain or we can experience the joy that comes with being aware that we are fulfilling our purpose."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 8: December 31 – January 1 (Leo)

(The seed for August of the following year is sown.)

The cross on the sword pommel: the sacrifice. Girded with the sword of the power of Christ, the tongue speaks the truth, without being able to wound. It is the night of re-setting.

The Mystery: A Knight with the Spear of the Will and the Sword of Knowledge has a dog beside him, as a symbol of obedience. Behind him are death and the devil. At a certain level of knowledge, a mistake or a wrong move can quickly lead to perdition. Victory is achieved by the fullness of divinity, with a consciousness of responsibility, and an unfailing loyalty to the tasks ahead in life.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Eighth Contemplation

"In the eighth Holy Night, we stand on the precipice between two rounds of time [with the transition into a New Year]. There has to be a crucifixion. All that has served our growth during the past year must now be crucified, it must die. Imagine the consequences if Jesus had not been crucified?

All our precious thoughts, feelings, and actions that have brought us this far can be put to rest. As we step over the threshold into the New Year, we can raise them to a new level. When we sacrifice all that is precious in our soul, that served us throughout the year, we can put it to service for others. The depth of feeling that we experienced for spiritual truth can become compassion for the misfortune of others. Not just, "I'm sorry," but a real experience of the crushing sorrow that is felt by them.

The new thoughts that we were able to think in our soul because we understood some spiritual truth now paves the way for living Inspiration in our spirit. Even though that spiritual truth was like gold for us we must loosen our grip on it. We can never possess spiritual truth; it belongs to the universe. If we let it go, it will come back to us when we need it. If we hang onto it, we may not be able to find it when we need it.

The new actions that we were proud to put in place during the year must also be crucified. To hang onto them proudly is egotistical. Through our will we reveal who we really are; we allow others to know us and we can know them. To try to know others without revealing anything of ourselves is destructive for all concerned.

As we take this next step, we are reassured by the presence of Christ Jesus who took it before us."

~ Herbert Hahn

See Holy Night 8: New Year's Eve

Holy Night 9: January 1-2 (Virgo)

(The seed for September of the following year is sown.)

Now follow the Three Nights of the Crown.

Detachment: Detach the intellect from its earthly and practical cares. This is the Triple Holy Night. It is when the lower self surrenders in a desire to serve and be integrated.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Ninth Contemplation

"Our personal resurrection is accompanied by a new level of objectivity. We won't take things as personally as we did before. This doesn't mean that we will meet every event in our lives with equanimity, but we will find a greater level of detachment than we have in the past.

Whenever we can be detached we know that we are responding to life through our I Am. Otherwise, we respond with our lower self, which behaves like a child in some situations. It wants its own way, which is usually the way of least resistance. Yet, if we do resist responding as we usually do to something that annoys us, we feel liberated. Try it. The next time someone annoys you, take a breath, create a space, and say to yourself: "If this was happening to someone else would I be annoyed?"

In this way, we activate our will to control our lower emotional responses. We let the words or actions of the other person wash over us and flow away into oblivion. When we do this, whatever they did loses its intensity and everyone benefits.

Furthermore, if we remember that we attract whatever happens to us then we could quickly recognize these little tests and see them as a way of strengthening our New Year resolves."

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 10: January 2-3 (Libra)

(The seed for October of the following year is sown.)

It is the night that comes from the service, the greatest sacrifice. Obey-Play.

We learn to hear the inner voice and the signs of the divine. Something mysterious cries in us through various incarnations, its clarity is enhanced by the sacrifice and the decision.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Tenth Contemplation

"Do we hear our I Am calling to us? Do we strive to experience this I Am in our being, in our soul? Do we try to remember the agreement that we made with it before we incarnated? If we do, we will be undisturbed by success and failure, good and evil, joy and suffering, for we will see that these are important experiences necessary for our development.

Our I Am directs us to resolve our karma, to create harmony with all the people in our lives. Of course, we would rather keep away from some people in our lives; thinking that then our lives will be more enjoyable. We do not remove our difficulties in this way; they will be re-presented to us through other people. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that it is easier to hate those who make our lives difficult than to love them. Hate is considered to be a strong word, but we must admit that the polar opposite of love is hate. It is better to face the truth of this word than to gloss over it and give it a nicer name.

If we know anything at all about our I Am we realize that we are challenged to serve every single person in our life, not one single person is in our life by accident. The way we serve all those who are gathered around us is to love them, truly love them. Every human being is sacred, every human being has the potential to become a god. Do we want to be in the company of something that is sacred? Something that is becoming a god?"

~ Herbert Hahn

Holy Night 11: January 3-4 (Scorpio)

(The seed for November of the following year is sown.)

It is the eleventh night. It is the struggle with the Guardian of the Threshold.

We must build within us the Mystery of the Grail Castle. We must profess loyalty to the Almighty in Scorpio.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

Eleventh Contemplation

"Humanity lives on the threshold of the spiritual world. Some say that we have passed over it unconsciously. This means that we wield spiritual power without knowing it. Therefore, there is an urgent call for human beings to become consciously aware that they are spiritual beings. We can only do this if we realize that our spiritual I-Being is animating us, using us just as we use any instrument in this physical world. Just as we pick up a spoon and place food in our mouth, our I Am is placing us in situations with other people that will be food for its development.

When we get this, when we actually think the thoughts associated with this, in the moments in our life when our karma is being played out, we have an I Am experience. We are in touch with who we really are and we observe what is before us with interest, just as we would observe our dinner plate with interest. We can see all that we like, and all that we dislike without bias.

This is when, through our own striving, we receive into ourselves the power of the blood of Christ, the Holy Grail. Our blood is the vehicle of our I Am, and when we purify our blood of its lower desires and instincts, we make it a fitting substance for our own I Am, then our blood becomes purer still so that it can become the blood of Christ. Are we up to the task?"

~ Herbert Hahn

Supplemental Contemplation by Kristina Kaine

We have work to do. This is our great challenge; what is the work, and how do we do it? Put simply, the work is to experience the presence of Christ within us as we have been considering through these Holy Nights. Rudolf Steiner gives many insights into how this might be achieved.

"The Christ Impulse, however, is an impulse of freedom; its true activity does not reveal itself when it takes place outside the human soul. The true working of the Christ Impulse does not appear until it takes place within the individual human soul itself."

15th May, 1910

Much of what he hear about Christ in the world today is the antithesis of this. We must know that our relationship with Christ is developed by our own inner activity. In another lecture Rudolf Steiner expresses this clearly.

"We fail to understand Christ if we do not recognize him as the cosmic power that completely unites with us when through questions and inner activity we work our way through to him."

17th April, 1921

Is part of our work to know that we are capable of experiencing this mighty being within us? Then we are "Confessing ourselves more and more in faithfulness to the highest!" Then we are open to the continual inflowing of the Christ Impulse. We can imagine it as the breath of Christ, we breathe it in and we breathe it out. If we can create imaginations like this and keep them front of mind this mighty being is enlivened within us and around us.

St John recorded the following words spoken by Jesus to his disciples.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

John 14:12-14

Holy Night 12: January 4-5 (Sagittarius)

(The seed for December of the following year is sown.)

On the twelfth night place the crown at the foot of the Divine. Because although we have won the crown, the struggle has been gained with help and grace; for grace comes from that source or fount in man that human power cannot reach. Now we manage to make a beginning and an end of time without space, and space out of time. Everything is eternal and holy now. We must use the forces of perseverance if we are to achieve the goals or aims of the hunter [the Archer], if we are to receive the good of the spiritual realm.

What we have known and received in the Twelve Holy Nights, we should take into life and thus spiritualize matter and soul. The Twelve Holy Nights are important to the life and fate of the entire year. They may plant a seed of good will.

It is especially important as we embark on New Year's Eve [Feast Day of St. Silvester*]. On this night, we released the spirit of the people; for now, what we think will be taken by the higher hierarchies and carried as the force of accomplishment.

~ From indications given by Rudolf Steiner to Herbert Hahn

*St. Sylvester I (died Dec. 31st, 335 A.D.)

Twelfth Contemplation

"Now we take our final Holy Night step. These 12 steps, which we have taken each day, can become the theme for each month of the year ahead until we reach the renewal of our being at the following Christmas.

We have contemplated our inner being, and hopefully have become more conscious of all the different activities that take place moment by moment within us. We have become more aware of the way our feelings rise up and can sweep us away if we do not intervene. Some of our thoughts that flit through our mind might have shocked us; they were always there, we just didn't notice them. Our impulses to act may also have become more conscious, giving us the opportunity to assess our motives. At the very least, if we have become more aware of these three soul activities then we have experienced the highest in our being, our I Am.

Our I Am gives us poise and purpose and it changes the way we see our relationship to the world and to all the people that we encounter.

When we have those I Am experiences, we start to see Christ within every human being. The Cosmic Christ entered into this earth through the vehicle of Jesus and this Spirit dwells in us. It dwells in us primarily through every breath we take and through the food we eat; food that is grown in the earth that is now the body of Christ. As we accept the reality of this, we begin to experience His etheric presence in the life force of this earth and in our own etheric body. Now we begin to treat every person as if they were Christ. We arrest every negative thought before it forms, because we see that we would be thinking that thought about Christ. We are careful about all our feelings and motives because of our respect for Christ in the other person. In this way, we transform ourselves and we raise the other person up as well. As St. Paul said: "…the glory of this mystery…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians, 1:27). If we did nothing else but contemplate this mystery each day through the year ahead, we will change the world."

~ Herbert Hahn

Supplemental Contemplation by Kristina Kaine

During these Holy Nights we have focused on the transformation that can take place within us as we apply spiritual principles to our earthly life. We have also considered the contribution we can personally make to human evolution when we begin to work more consciously with our body and soul to enable our spirit to express itself in the world.

Essentially it is about becoming aware that we are beings of soul and spirit expressing ourselves on the earth from time to time when we incarnate. In this way we connect with our eternal being. If we do this with some success we become much more pragmatic about life. Unless we understand that we reincarnate we will never understand our lives. Everything that happens in our lives stems from past lives; how we respond to events in our life creates our future lives.

It is so easy to say that we understand this and accept the principle of reincarnation, it is quite another thing to express that in all aspects of our life; in every thought, feeling and intention. If we can accomplish a level of awareness we will be able to experience what is spiritual in our physical life. It does take courage but we can be assured that if we have the right intention we will be supported by the spiritual worlds and all its beings. We will especially be supported by Christ whose incarnation has given us the ability to become fully conscious.

Continuing Rudolf Steiner's words quoted yesterday:

"A twofold soul condition must therefore be developed if we wish to enter the super-sensible world: on the one hand we should rise to the state of being existing in the spiritual world, and on the other hand we should be able to blot it out; that is to say, when we return to the physical world we must push into the background everything that constitutes our field of vision in the super-sensible world. For if we mix up these two worlds we become dreamers, false mystics, and so forth and can never become spiritual investigators.

Strength of soul should enable us to keep these worlds apart, but at the same time we should be able to connect physical things with super-sensible things, because the foundation of the physical world lies in the super-sensible world. This characterizes a spiritual investigator."

March 9, 1913

8
Epiphany

Source of the following: https://anthroposophy.eu/Epiphany on Free Man Creator

Epiphany is celebrated on 6th of January as the date of Christ's descent into the body of Jesus of Nazareth during the Baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan river.

It is also the Festival of the Three Kings, which in a Christian form of the ancient Festival of (the re-finding of) Osiris which was celebrated in ancient Egypt but also among the Assyrians, the Armenians and the Phoenicians. It is a Festival connected with a kind of universal baptism, a rebirth from out of water.

Epiphany concludes the special yearly period of the Thirteen holy nights that take place between Christmas and Epiphany. (see above - the link here takes you to the subject matter on Free Man Creator)

Aspects

• the three Magi are guided by a star to the place where the Jesus child was born to bring their offerings. These three kings represent the Lemurian, Atlantean and current fifth Postatlantean or Aryan epochs
  • Caspar (portrayed as an African Moor) represents the Lemurian epoch and root race, and brings Myrrh as the symbol of the sacrifice and death of the earthly lower life in order that the Higher may come to life. Myrrh represents the virtue of self-consummation and self-development, or the preservation of the eternal in the self. Or put differently: the gift of the victory of life over death, in the power and development of the eternal in the self.
  • Balthasar (portrayed as an Indian/Asiatic) represents the fourth Atlantean epoch and root race, he brings frankincense, the universal symbol for an offering that has something to do with Intuition. The Atlanteans were more directly united with the Godhead through a hypnotic suggestive influence. Frankincense represents the virtue of self-surrender in pious devotion (or piety of the innermost self).
  • Melchior (portrayed as white European) brings gold, the symbol of wisdom and intelligence which comes to expression in the Fifth epoch. It represents the virtue of self knowledge.
• In the first three centuries the day of supreme commemoration for those who understood something of the deep wisdom relating to the Mystery of Golgotha, was the 6th of January, as the descent of Christ. This was the case upto 353 AD, the festival of Jesus' birth was celebrated for the first time in Rome in the year A.D. 354.
• Rudolf Steiner also mentions 6th of January as the date of birth of the Solomon Jesus child - see a.o. 1915-12-27-GA165 (there are other references, to be added) and Schema FMC00.043 on The two Jesus children. (an overview is provided in the next chapter)
• in art:
  • The 'Adoration of the Magi' or 'The Epiphany' is a triptych oil painting on wood panel by Hieronymus Bosch (see below)
• other: in the English language (based on the term in Greek and Latin), 'epiphany' also means a moment of sudden great revelation or realization.

Lecture coverage and references

1904-12-30-GA90A

You will remember that I have spoken of the meaning of the Christmas Festival in its connection with the evolution of races, or, better said, the epochs of civilisation, and indeed the significance of the Festival lies in this very connection both in respect of the past and of the future.

I want to speak today about a Festival to which in modern times less importance is attached than to the Christmas Festival itself, namely, the Festival of the Three Kings, of the Magi who came from the East to greet the newly born Jesus. This Festival of the Epiphany (celebrated on the 6th of January) will assume greater and greater significance when its symbolism is understood.

It will be obvious to you that very profound symbolism is contained in the Festival of the Three Magi from the East. Until the 15th century, this symbolism was kept very secret and no definite indications were available. But since that century some light has been thrown on the Festival of the Magi by exoteric presentations. One of the Three Kings, Caspar is portrayed as a Moor, an inhabitant of Africa; one as a white man, a European: Melchior; and one, Balthasar as an Asiatic; the colour of his skin is that of an inhabitant of India.

They bring Myrrh, Gold and Frankincense as offerings to the Child Jesus in Bethlehem.These three offerings are full of meaning and in keeping with the whole symbolism of the Festival celebrated on the 6th of January. Exoterically, the date itself throws some light; esoterically, the Festival is pregnant with meaning.

The 6th of January is the same date as that on which, in ancient Egypt, the Festival of Osiris was celebrated, the Festival of the re-finding of Osiris. As you know, Osiris was overcome by his enemy Typhon: Isis seeks and eventually finds him. This re-finding of Osiris, the Son of God, is represented in the Festival of the 6th of January. The Festival of the Three Kings is the same Festival, but in its Christian form. This Festival was also celebrated among the Assyrians, the Armenians and the Phoenicians. Everywhere it is a Festival connected with a kind of universal baptism — a rebirth from out of the water. This in itself points to the connection with the re-finding of Osiris.

What does the disappearance of Osiris signify?

It signifies the transition from the epoch before the middle of the Lemurian race to the epoch after the middle of that race. Before the middle of the Lemurian race, no human being was endowed with Manas. It was not until the middle of the race that Manas came down as a fertile seed into men. Manas (Spirit-Self) was now disseminated among men and in each single individual a grave was created for Manas — for the dismembered Osiris. The Divine Manas was disseminated and thereafter dwelt in men. In the Egyptian Mystery-language, the bodies of men were called the 'graves of Osiris' Manas was fettered until it was freed by the new revelation of Love.

What is the new revelation, the new manifestation of Love?

The descent of manas somewhere around the middle of the Lemurian epoch, was accompanied by the penetration into mankind of the principle of desire, or passion. Before that time there had been no desire-principle in the real sense. The animals of the preceding epochs were cold-blooded; even man himself at that time, had no warm blood. In the Old Moon stage and, correspondingly, in the third Earth-round, men may be likened to fishes, in the sense that their own warmth and the warmth of their environment were equal in degree. Of this epoch the Bible says: 'The Spirit of God brooded over the waters.' The principle of Love was not within the beings, but outside, manifesting as earthly Kama (that is to say, earthly passion or desire). Kama is egotistic love. The first bringer of Love free of all egoism is Christ Who appeared in the body of Jesus of Nazareth.

Who are the Magi?

They represent the Initiates of the three preceding races or epochs of culture, the Initiates of mankind up to the time of the coming of Christ, the Bringer of the Love that is free of egoism — the resurrected Osiris. The Initiates — and so too the Three Magi — were endowed with Manas. They bring gold, frankincense and myrrh as their offerings.

And why are their skins of three colours: white, yellow and black? One is European — his skin is white; one is Indian — his skin is yellow; one is African — his skin is black. This indicates the connection with the so-called Root Races. The remaining survivors of the Lemurian race are black; those of the Atlantean race are yellow; and the representatives of the Fifth Root Race, the Post-Atlantean or Aryan race, are white.

Thus the Three Kings or Magi are representatives of the Lemurians, the Atlanteans and the Aryans. They bring the three offerings.

• The European (Melchior) brings gold, the symbol of wisdom, of intelligence which comes to expression paramountly in the Fifth Root Race.
• The offering of the Initiate representing the Fourth Root Race (Balthasar) is frankincense, connected with what was intrinsically characteristic of the Atlanteans. They were united more directly with the Godhead, a union which took effect as a suggestive influence, a kind of universal hypnosis. This union with the Godhead is betokened by the offering. Feeling must be sublimated in order that God may fertilise it. This is expressed symbolically by the frankincense, which is the universal symbol for an offering that has something to do with Intuition.
• In the language of esotericism, myrrh is the symbol of dying, of death. What is the meaning of dying and of resurrection, as exemplified in the resurrected Osiris? I refer you here to words of Goethe: “So long as thou hast it not, this dying and becoming, thou'rt but a dull guest on the dark earth.” Jacob Boehme expresses the same thought in the words: “He who dies not ere he dies, perishes when he dies.” Myrrh is the symbol of the dying of the lower life and the resurrection of the higher life. It is offered by the Initiate representing the Third Root Race (Lemurian). A deep meaning lies in this. Jesus of Nazareth is a very highly developed individuality. In the thirtieth year of his life he gives up his own life to the descending Christ, the descending Logos. All this the Magi foresaw. The great sacrifice made by Jesus of Nazareth is that he gave up his ' I ' to make way for the Second Logos. There is a definite reason for this sacrifice. Not until the Sixth epoch will it become possible, and then only gradually, for the human body to receive into itself the Christ Principle from childhood onwards. Only then, in the Sixth epoch, will mankind have reached such maturity that the body will not need years of preparation but will be able from the beginning, to receive the Christ Principle. In the fourth cultural age of the Fifth epoch it was necessary for a body to be prepared for thirty years. (In the Northern regions we find something similar, in that the personality of Sig was so prepared that he could place his body at the disposal of a higher Being, and, in fact, did so). In the Sixth epoch it will be possible for a man to place his body at the disposal of a sublime Being, as did Jesus of Nazareth when Christianity was founded. At the time of the founding of Christianity it was still necessary for an advanced individuality to sacrifice his own ' I ' and send it into the astral realm, in order that the Logos might dwell in the body. This is an act upon which light is shed by the last words on the Cross. What other meaning could these words contain: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” These words give expression to the mystical fact then consummated. At the moment of Christ's death, the Divine Being had departed from the body, and it is the body of Jesus of Nazareth that utters these words — a body so highly developed that it could voice the reality. And so these words give expression to an event of untold significance. All this is represented by the myrrh. Myrrh is the symbol of sacrifice, of death, the sacrifice of the earthly in order that the Higher may come to life.

In the middle of the Lemurian epoch, Osiris came to his grave; manas drew into human beings. Men were educated under the guidance of the initiates until the principle of Love (budhi) could shine forth in Christ Jesus. Budhi is the heavenly Love. The lower, sexual principle is ennobled through the Christ Love. Kama is purified in the fire of the Divine Love.

• Melchior is the representative of the principle of wisdom, of intelligence — the task of the Fifth epoch. This is symbolised by his offering: gold.
• The principle of sacramental offering is represented by the frankincense. This offering symbolises the principle that was dominant in the Fourth Atlantean root race.
• The task of Christianity is fulfilled in the Sixth epoch, when material existence will be fraught with sacramentalism and sacramental deeds. Sacraments have very largely lost their meaning today; the feeling of their significance has disappeared. But this feeling will be kindled to life again when the higher man is born. It is this that is symbolised by the frankincense.

In the Lemurian epoch, Osiris meets his death, in the Sixth epoch, Osiris is resurrected.

Thus the offerings made by the Three Kings indicate the connection of the Festival with the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Root Races.

By what are the Three Holy Kings guided, and whither are they led?

They are guided by a star to a grotto, a cave in Bethlehem. This is something that can be understood only by one who has knowledge of the so-called lower, or astral mysteries. To be led by a star means nothing else than to see the soul itself as a star. But when is the soul seen as a star? When a Man can behold the soul as a radiant aura. But what kind of aura is so radiant that it can be a guide? There is the aura that glimmers with only a feeble light; such an aura cannot guide. There is a higher aura, that of the intelligence, which has, it is true, a flowing, up-surging light, but is not yet able to guide. But the bright aura, aglow with budhi, is in very truth a star, is a radiant guide. In Christ, the star of budhi lights up — the star which accompanies the evolution of mankind. The light that shines before the Magi is the soul of Christ Himself. The Second Logos Himself shines before the Magi and over the cave in Bethlehem.

The grotto or cave is the body wherein dwells the soul. The seer beholds the body from within. In astral vision, everything is reversed — for example, 365 instead of 563. The human body is seen as a cave, a hollow. In the body of Jesus shines the Christ Star, the soul of Christ. This must be conceived as a reality, taking place in the astral world. It is an enactment of the Lesser Mysteries. There, in very truth, the Christ Soul shines as an auric Star, and it is by this Star that the Initiates of the three Root Races are led to Jesus in Bethlehem.

The Festival of the Three Kings is celebrated every year on the 6th of January, and its significance will steadily increase. Men will understand more and more what a Magi is, and what the great Magi, the Masters, are. And then understanding of Christianity will lead to understanding of spiritual science.

1907-12-25-GA098

If you were in the Cathedral last night you could have seen written there in illuminated lettering: C. M. B. .. these letters represent the names of the so-called Three Holy Kings, according to the tradition of the Christian Church: Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar.

These names awaken quite special memories for Cologne.

• An old legend tells us that some time after they had become bishops and died their bones had been brought here.
• Another legend relates that a Danish king had once come to Cologne, bringing with him three crowns for the Three Holy Kings. After he had returned home he had a dream; in his dream the three kings appeared to him and offered him three chalices: the first chalice contained gold, the second frankincense, and the third one myrrh. When the Danish king awoke the three kings had vanished, but the chalices remained; they stood before him; the three gifts which he had retained from his dream.

In this legend there is profound meaning. We are to understand that the king in his dream attained a certain insight into the spiritual world by which he learnt the symbolic meaning of these three kings, these three wise men of the East who brought offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh at the birth of Christ Jesus. And from this realisation he retained a lasting possession: those three human virtues which are symbolised in the gold, the frankincense and the myrrh:

• self-knowledge in the gold;
• self-piety, that is the piety of the innermost self — which we can call self-surrender — in the frankincense;
• and in the myrrh self-consummation and self-development, or the preservation of the eternal in the self.

It was possible for the king to receive these three virtues as gifts from another world because he had endeavoured to penetrate with his whole soul into the profound symbol lying concealed in the three kings who brought their offerings to Christ Jesus.

There are many features in this legend which lead us a long way towards understanding the Christ-principle, and what it is to bring about in the world. Among its profound features are the Adoration and the Presentation by the three Magi, the three Oriental Kings, and only with the deepest understanding may we approach this fundamental symbolism of the Christian tradition.

Later the idea was formed that the first king was the representative of the Asiatic races; the second, the representative of the European peoples; and the third, the representative of the African races. Wherever people wanted to understand Christianity as the religion of earthly harmony they saw in the three kings and their homage a union of the different lines of thought and religious movements in the world into the One principle, the Christian principle. When this legend received this form those who had penetrated into the principles of esoteric Christianity saw in Christianity not only a force which had affected the course of human development, but they saw in the Being embodied in Jesus of Nazareth a cosmic world-force — a force far transcending the merely human that prevails in this present age. They saw in the Christ-principle a force that indeed represents for mankind a human ideal lying in a far distant future, an ideal which can only be approached by our understanding the whole world more and more in the spirit.

...

We see that all forms of life which desire to unfold their external physical power look up to the sun when the sun rises in the sky in Spring and strive to receive the external physical power of the sun. But when, on a summer noon, the sun's physical power pours most lavishly on to the earth, its spiritual power is weakest. In the winter midnight, however, when the sun rays the least physical power down to the earth, man can see the sun's spirit through the earth, which has become transparent for him. The esoteric Christian felt that through absorption in Christian Esotericism he approached more and more that power of inward vision through which he could imbue his feeling, thinking and his will-impulses in gazing into this spiritual sun.

Then the Mystery-novice was led to a vision of the greatest importance: As long as the earth is opaque the separate parts appear inhabited by people of different confessions, but the unifying bond is not there. Human races are as scattered as the climates. Human opinions are scattered all over the earth and there is no connecting link. But in the degree in which men begin to look through the earth into the sun by their inner power of vision, in the degree in which the “star” appears to them through the earth, their confessions will flow together to one great united Brotherhood.

And those who guided the great separated human masses in the truth of the higher planes, towards their initiation into the higher worlds, were known as “Magi.” They were three in number, as in the various parts of the earth various powers express themselves. Humanity had, therefore, to be led in different ways. But as a unifying power there appears the star, rising beyond the earth. It leads the scattered individuals together, and then they bring offerings to the physical embodiment of the solar star, appearing as the star of peace. Thus was the religion of peace, of harmony, of universal peace, of human brotherhood, connected cosmically and humanly with the ancient Magi, who laid the best gifts that they had in store for humanity before the cradle of the Son of Man incarnate.

The legend has retained this beautifully, for it says: The Danish king attained an understanding of the Wise Men, of the three Kings, and because he had attained it they bestowed on him their three gifts:

• first the gift of wisdom, in self-knowledge;
• secondly, the gift of pious devotion, in self-surrender;
• and, thirdly, the gift of the victory of life over death, in the power and development of the eternal in the self.

1911-12-26-GA127

For centuries and centuries men could not bring themselves to believe that the symbol presented to the world in the Christmas Festival ever had a beginning. They felt in it the hallmark of eternity. Christian ritual has for this reason clothed the intimation of eternity in what takes place symbolically on Christmas Night, in the words: 'To us Christ is born anew!' It is as though every year the soul is called upon to feel anew a reality of which it is thought that it could happen once and once only. The eternity of this symbolic happening is brought home to us with infinite power if we have the true conception of the symbol itself. Yet as late as 353 A.D., 353 years after Christ Jesus had appeared on earth, the birth of Jesus was not celebrated, even in Rome.

The Festival of Jesus' birth was celebrated for the first time in Rome in the year A.D. 354. Before then this Festival was not celebrated between the 24th and 25th December; the day of supreme commemoration for those who understood something of the deep wisdom relating to the Mystery of Golgotha, was the 6th of January. The Epiphany was celebrated as a kind of Birth-Festival of the Christ during the first three centuries of our era. It was the Festival which was meant to revive in human souls the remembrance of the descent of the Christ Spirit into the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism by John in the Jordan. Until the year A.D. 353 the happening which men conceived to have taken place at the Baptism was commemorated on the 6th of January as the Festival of Christ's birth. For during the first centuries of Christendom an inkling still survived of the mystery that is of all mysteries the most difficult for mankind to grasp, namely, the descent of the Christ Being into the body of Jesus of Nazareth.

What were the feelings of men who had some inkling of the secrets of Christianity during those early centuries? They said to themselves: The Christ Spirit weaves through the world that is revealed through the senses and through the human spirit. In the far distant past this Christ Spirit revealed Himself to Moses. The secret of the human ' I ' resounded to Moses as it resounds to us from the symbol on the Christmas Tree from the sounds I A O — the Alpha and the Omega, preceded by the I. This was what resounded in the soul of Moses when the Christ Spirit appeared to him in the burning bush. And this same Christ Spirit led Moses to the place where He was to recognise Him in His true being. This is described in the Old Testament where it is said that the Lord led Moses to Mount Nebo 'over against Jericho' and showed him what must still come to pass before the Christ Spirit could incarnate in the body of a man. To Moses on Mount Nebo, this Spirit said: But thou to whom I revealed myself in advance, mayest not bear what thou hast in thy soul into the evolution of thy people; for they have first to prepare what is to come to pass when the time is fulfilled.

And when, through many centuries, the evolutionary preparation had been completed, the same Spirit by Whom Moses had been held back, did indeed reveal Himself — by becoming Flesh, by taking on a human body, the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Therewith mankind as a whole was led from the stage of Initiation signified by the word 'Jericho' to that indicated by the crossing of the Jordan.

The hearts and minds of those who in the early centuries of our era understood the true import of Christianity turned to the Baptism in the Jordan of Jesus of Nazareth into whom Christ descended, Christ the Sun-Earth-Spirit. It was this — the birth of Christ — that was celebrated as a Mystery in the early Christian centuries. The insight for which we prepare ourselves to-day through Anthroposophy, through the wisdom belonging to the fifth Post-Atlantean epoch of civilisation, flashed up in the form of vision from the vestiges of ancient clairvoyance still surviving during the age when the Mystery of Golgotha took place; it flashed up in the Gnostics, those remarkable, enlightened men who lived at the turning-point of the old and the new eras, whose conception of the Christ Mystery differed in respect of form but not in respect of content, from our own. What the Gnostics were able to teach trickled through into the world and although what had actually come to pass in the event indicated symbolically by the Baptism in the Jordan was not widely understood, there was nevertheless an inkling that the Sun Spirit had been born at that time as the Spirit of the Earth, that a cosmic Power had dwelt in the body of a man of earth. And so in the early centuries of Christendom the festival of the birth of Christ in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, the festival of Christ's Epiphany, was celebrated on the 6th of January.

But insight, even dim, uncertain insight into this deep Mystery faded away more and more as time went by. The age came when men could no longer comprehend that the Being called Christ had been present in a physical human body for three years only. More and more it will be realised that what was accomplished for the whole of earth-evolution during those three years in the physical body of a man is one of the very deepest and most difficult Mysteries to understand.

9
The Two Jesus Children

The incarnation of Christ into a human being requires special preparations for the human body. The human being Jesus that became the receptacle for the Christ being was not an ordinary human at all; in fact each of the bodily structural elements of Jesus at the Baptism was prepared in special ways (see schema FMC00.043 below).

The pathway of preparation upto the Baptism is grouped under the topic of the two Jesus children, because of the two different Jesus children that were born and became one or 'merged structurally' in the temple story at age 12. Each of the two children had a different preparatory path with a different geneology, as per gospels of Luke and Matthew. Many artworks (e.g. Italian painters in the middle ages) and sources (e.g. the scrolls of the dead sea) mention these two children, see references below for books who have grouped these sources.

The reason why this complex preparatory path was necessary (1909-09-20-GA114) is because Christ needed not just to join his spirit with the Earth, but become Man in each of Man's bodily principles downto the mineral physical body (see schema FMC00.080). This happened at age 30 for specific reasons; several aspects are to be considered together:

• the normal development of a human being and its bodily principles upto that age, and
• the requirements for a high divine being to merge into a human being
• the principles of spiritual economy, the possibilities that exist to re-use pure and advanced bodily components

Schema FMC00.080 below gives an overview of the structure of Christ-Jesus:

• The Nathan Jesus had a pure ether body (not infected by Luciferian influences since the Fall), and an astral body infused by Buddha.
• The Solomon Jesus had the advanced I-consciousness of Zarathustra that moved into the body of the Nathan Jesus at age 12, necessary for the development upto age 30 (as laid out in Rudolf Steiner's lectures on the Fifth Gospel).

Schema FMC00.097

• Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks shown in FMC00.097 is the original and first Paris version. The story goes the church didn't accept it and Da Vinci changed one of the children to show John Baptist, this is the London version.
• Raphael's showing of John Baptist together with the two Jesus children may have deeper meaning, given the mystery of John the Baptist and Lazarus-John (see below).
• Regarding the painting on the right. The artworks are not limited to the most famous one gathered in the books below. Surprisingly the Cathedral of Santa Maria Duomo di Cortona contains the theme of two Jesus children appearing in at least three places in this old church (download PDF)

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