WHO DOES not know these momentous words which Jesus of Nazareth uttered when He hung on the cross? They are one of the greatest prayers of intercession ever spoken. Clear and explicit! And yet, despite this, for two thousand years these words have never been understood! They were interpreted one-sidedly, and only in that way which appeared to be agreeable to men. There was not one person to raise his voice and call out their proper meaning in all clearness to mankind, and especially to Christians!

But not only that! Every soul-stirring event in the earth-life of the Son of God was put into a false light by the one-sidedness of the transmission. But these faults are not only exhibited in Christianity, they are to be found in every religion!

It is understandable if disciples place first and foremost all that is personal about their teacher and master, especially when this master was so abruptly and brutally torn from their midst and, although utterly innocent, exposed to the most terrible suffering and coarsest mockery, and finally put to the most agonising death!

Such events would be deeply engraved on the souls of those who had come to know their teacher in the most ideal way while they lived together, and would quite naturally cause them to place the personal element foremost in everything they remembered. But the sacred Mission of the Son of God lay in His Word, in bringing the Truth from Luminous Heights, in order to show mankind their way to the Light! This had been closed to them up till then, because their spiritual development had previously made it impossible for them to walk on that road!

The suffering thereby wrought upon this great Bringer of Truth by mankind stands entirely on its own!

However, what was quite understandable and natural with the disciples resulted in many great errors in the later religion! The essence of the Divine Message receded far into the background before the personal cult of the Bringer of Truth, which Christ never intended!

For this reason mistakes are now evident in the Christian religion which will lead to the danger of a breakdown unless the errors are recognised in time and, through open confession, are courageously set right.

It cannot be expected otherwise than that the smallest amount of serious progress must make all these gaps visible! But then it is decidedly better not to avoid them, but to tackle them boldly. Why should not this purification be instituted by the leadership itself, freshly and cheerfully, with a free upward gaze towards the Supreme Godhead? Great numbers of men would feel as if freed from a pressure, which they had indeed perceived but never really recognised as such, and would gratefully follow a call leading them into the light of joyful conviction!

In following the habit of those who blindly subject themselves to an unlimited control of their intellect, and who thereby severely diminish their ability to comprehend, they placed the same value on Christ’s earth life as on His Mission. His family relationships and all the earthly events received even greater attention than the main purpose of His Coming, which consisted of bringing enlightenment to the matured human spirits about all the real happenings in Creation, wherein alone they would find the Will of God, which is woven into it and thus made available to them!

It was the bringing of this Truth, up till then still unknown, which quite by itself necessitated Christ’s coming upon the earth. Nothing else! For without truly recognising the Will of God in Creation no man can find the road of ascent to the Luminous Realm, much less walk upon it!

Instead of simply accepting these facts as such, becoming absorbed in the Message and living accordingly, as the Bringer of Truth repeatedly and emphatically demanded, the founders of the Christian religions and churches created a personal cult as the principal foundation, which forced them to make the suffering of Christ mean something entirely different from what it really was!

They needed it for this cult! Finally, in the course of further development, this quite naturally produced one great error after another, which became obstacles for a great number of people, preventing them as yet from properly recognising the right way.

This wrong structure, based on lack of objectivity, alone brought about the distortion of all the happenings, it being inevitable that factual impartiality was bound to cease from the moment when the principal cult became purely personal! Thus the urge developed to anchor the Mission of the Son of God mainly in His life on earth. Indeed this became a necessity!

That this is a wrong step to take Christ Himself proved by His whole attitude. More than once He clearly and sharply rejected the personal attitude taken towards Him! In every word and every action he continually pointed to God the Father, Whose Will He fulfilled and in Whose Power He stood and acted. He explained how mankind should henceforth learn to look up to God the Father, but He never spoke of Himself in this connection.

Since His words dealing with this point were not heeded, it became inevitable in the end that Christ’s suffering on earth was supposed to be regarded as necessary and as ordained by God, and it was even declared to be part of His main task in coming to earth. According to this view He came from the Luminous Heights only in order to suffer here on earth!

As He had not burdened Himself with any guilt, there remained only one explanation: He must have taken the sins of others upon Himself in order to redeem them from those sins!

What else was there left but to continue to build in that manner on the foundation thus established?

And the exaggerated self-esteem which is not altogether unknown, and from which all mankind suffer, provided the nourishing power and fruitful soil for this. It is the result of the great Fall of Man, which was directed against the spirit, and which I have often explained in detail. In evaluating his intellect too highly man only comes to know himself and not his God, all the bridges to Whom he has thus destroyed. Only a few here and there have a very weak connection with the Spiritual Sphere which, however, allows them to perceive very little, and never really to know.

Thus the right and natural thought completely to separate the earthly sufferings of Christ, as a special happening, from the Divine Message occurred to no one! Nor did anyone recognise all the enmity, persecution and torment as the serious and grievous crimes they really were! It is a new and great wrong to gloss over them as a necessity!

Indeed His sufferings and agonising death on the cross deserve the radiant light of highest glory, because the Son of God did not shrink from an evil reception among the tyrannical and revengeful people! This was anticipated after the Fall of Man, but in spite of this He brought His so urgently needed Message of Truth to earth for the sake of the few who were good!

This deed is to be appraised all the higher, because it is actually a question of only a small proportion of mankind who thereby wish to save themselves!

But it is a new sacrilege against God when the crimes mankind committed at that time are supposed to be so mitigated through false assumptions as to make it appear that men had only been the tools of a necessary fulfilment!

These errors give rise to a feeling of uncertainty among many thinking men about the consequences of Judas Iscariot’s deed. With full justification! For if the death on the cross was necessary for mankind, then Judas and his betrayal provided the necessary means towards it, and in the spiritual sense he was not really punishable for what he did! The truth about the actual happening, however, abolishes all these disagreements, the justified appearance of which only confirms the fact that the assumptions accepted in the past must really be false! Where the right view prevails there is no room for such unexplained questions, and the quite natural happening can be considered from every point of view without meeting with any hindrance.

Man should at last have the courage to recognise the cowardice in this glossing over, which is only kept concealed by the sagacity of his earthbound intellect, the greatest enemy of everything that is able to rise above it, a fact that is always clearly visible with every base companion! Or let him consider it a veiled self-aggrandisement which springs from the same source! It is wonderful to have such an imagination as to consider oneself so precious that a Divine Being would fight for one and take upon Himself every kind of suffering only in order to be allowed to offer poor wretched man a place of honour in the Divine Realm of Bliss!

Such, plainly and bluntly expressed, is really man’s basic view, which looks no different if one removes with a firm hand all the frippery from its outer forms!

I need hardly point out that such a view can only arise through a most seriously restricted capacity to perceive all non-earthly happenings. This again is one of the grave consequences of the glorification of the earthly intellect which intercepts every free, broad outlook. The worship of this idol »intellect« has naturally grown steadily since the Fall of Man, until it has now developed into the powerful earthly Antichrist or, more explicitly, into all that is anti-spiritual. This is clearly evident today wherever one looks, and does not require a keen eye to observe it.

And since the spiritual alone can provide the bridge by which to approach and to understand all that is Divine, the granting of supreme power to the earthly intellect, to which all the sciences proudly confess today, is nothing but an open declaration of warfare against God!

Not only the sciences, but all mankind today move under this sign! Even everybody who calls himself a serious seeker carries this poison about with him!

Thus it is not unnatural that the Church must also have much of this within it. In the rendering and interpreting of all the words of the Saviour, therefore, much has crept in which has its origin only in the earthly cleverness of the intellect!

This also is the serpent of which the Bible story warns and which entices man ever again — the serpent of intellectual sagacity which alone is always confronting man with the subtle question: »Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?«

As soon as every decision is left to the serpent, i.e., to the intellect alone, it will always, as has been rightly indicated in the Bible, choose what is hostile to or what leads away from God, that which is purely earthly and much lower, to which the intellect belongs as its highest manifestation. Thus it cannot grasp what is higher!

Man has been endowed with the intellect so that in every life on earth he has a counterpoise pulling downwards to balance the upward-striving spirituality. It was given to him for the purpose of preventing him from floating in spiritual heights only, and thereby forgetting his task on earth. The intellect is also meant to facilitate his whole life on earth. But, above all, it is intended to transmit the strong upward urge for what is sublime, pure and perfect, which is an absolutely inherent quality of the spirit, to the small earthly, so that it has a visible effect in the material world! It should act as the handyman of the living spirit, as its servant, not as the one to make decisions and take the lead. It is to help create the earthly or material opportunities for the carrying out of spiritual urges. The intellect is to be the tool and the servant of the spirit.

If, however, all decisions are left to the intellect alone, as is done now, then it ceases to be a counterbalance and helper, but throws only its own weight into the scale of every decision. This can quite naturally only be followed by a sinking downward, because the intellect draws down. No other course is possible because the intellect belongs to the World of Matter and is firmly bound to it, whereas that which is spiritual comes from above. Instead of extending a helping hand to the spiritual, and becoming strong and great in so doing, the intellect, as soon as everything is left to it, rejects and repudiates the stronger hand proffered by the spiritual. It cannot do otherwise and acts in these matters only in accordance with the laws of its own nature!

It should be noted that the earthly intellect becomes an enemy of the spirit only when it is elevated above the latter, not before! For if it stands under the dominion of the spirit, as it naturally should in accordance with the Creative Will, it remains a faithful servant which can be appreciated as such. But if, contrary to the Laws of Nature, the intellect is given a position of authority, where it does not belong, the consequence is that it will suppress everything that could disturb it in order to maintain itself on the usurped throne. It automatically closes the doors which, if kept open, would throw light upon its deficiencies and narrow limitations!

This is a counterpart of the actions of those people who feel their abilities developing in well-ordered circumstances and under good leadership, and who then over-estimate them and, in throwing over the old order, through their inability to achieve what is higher plunge a nation into want and misery! Just as these can never realise their error and, both to themselves and before others, always try to blame past circumstances alone for their own incapacity, so will it be equally hard for the human intellect to recognise that it can never undertake the work of the higher-ranking spirit without causing grievous harm and finally bringing about destruction. It is always the same picture everywhere, an eternal repetition of the same happening!

Man himself should meditate deeply and calmly upon this process! Everything would then soon become clearly understandable, and must also appear very natural!

It was the same with the founders of churches and religions; this condition drew a veil over the great simplicity of Divine Truth and prevented every possibility of a right understanding.

Mankind could not burden themselves with anything more terrible than this voluntary limitation, this incapacity to perceive all that lies beyond earthly matters, i.e., by far the greater part of all happenings. However, as a consequence, this literally lies above their so narrow horizon!

Now let a man try to fight against the impenetrability of this wall! He would be very soon obliged to acknowledge the truth of the poet’s words: »The gods themselves fight in vain against stupidity!«

This stout wall can only be penetrated by each individual personally from within, for it was built up from within! But they do not wish to do so!

Therefore there is failure everywhere today! A picture of desolate confusion and much distress wherever one looks!

And on top of this pile of ruins there stands, hollow and puffed up with pride, the author of all this wild confusion ... »modern man« as he most of all likes to describe himself! The »progressive« who in reality has constantly retrogressed! The man who also calls himself a »sober materialist«, expecting to be admired for it!

To this must now be added the many schisms and the ever-increasing hatred for one another, despite the uniformity of their voluntary enslavement! The cause lies neither with employer nor employee, neither with capital nor lack of it, nor is it due to the church or the state, or to the different nations, but it is only the wrong attitude of each individual which has brought about the present state of affairs.

Even the so-called seekers for the Truth are now seldom on the right road! Nine-tenths of them turn into nothing but Pharisees who look arrogantly down upon their fellow-men and criticise them, while at the same time quarrelling among themselves! Everything is wrong! First of all there must come the inevitable fulfilment of a dreadful end before some few can awaken out of their sleep!

As yet it is still possible for everyone to turn back! But soon and at last there will come a »too late« for all time, contrary to the hopes of so many believers who favour the erroneous view that it probably needs a longer or shorter period for the necessary purification, depending on the individual himself, but that in the end his path must again lead to the Light, to eternal joy and to happiness in God’s proximity!

This thought is an agreeable consolation, but it is not correct, and it does not correspond to the Truth!

Let us once again calmly and clearly, but in broad outline, survey the great evolution of Creation and of man who belongs to it! In so doing observe closely the operation of the Primordial Law of Homogeneous Species, and all it embraces in the way of immutable and necessary consequences in every happening, as I have so often explained!

The World of Matter is like a huge cultivated field which, being the heaviest section, moves in a gigantic circular course at the lowest part of the entire Creation. There, beginning with the primordial seed, all is in constant motion perpetually developing, increasingly uniting and forming, right up to the visible globes, of which the earth is one. In the process of maturing they reach the greatest perfection and bear fruit, a condition which corresponds with our present time, only automatically to decay again in the approaching state of over-ripeness according to the Laws of Creation, and to dissolve back into primordial seed, which in turn will continually receive opportunities of entering into fresh combinations and of evolving anew.

Such is the overall picture presenting itself when quietly viewed from On High!

Matter as such is nothing but the substance used to create forms or coverings. It only comes to life when it is penetrated by the non-material animistic substantiality in the sphere above it. Through this union it is set aglow!

This amalgamation of matter with the non-material animistic substantiality provides the basis for further development. All the souls of animals are formed out of animistic substantiality.

Above the two basic divisions of matter and animistic substantiality lies as the highest division of Creation the spiritual. As my readers already know, this has its own special nature. From this spiritual substantiality issue the seed-germs which are intent on developing into self-conscious human spirits.

It is only in the field of matter that such a seed-germ of spiritual substantiality can develop into a self-conscious human spirit, much the same as a wheat seed will grow in the soil of a field into a ripe ear of corn.

Its entry into the field of material substance, however, is not possible until the latter has reached a certain stage of development, when its nature is suited to absorb the spirit, which ranks highest in the entire Creation.

That is the time in which Creation produces the most highly developed animal body, after which it is no longer possible for any further development to take place through an animal soul issuing from animistic substantiality!

A small counterpart, a repetition of this great cosmic event, is for example continually provided later on by the earthly birth of the human soul. Indeed, with man who is the crown of Creation, and thus the highest created being, the whole course of cosmic events is reflected. The human soul, too, can enter the child’s body developing in its mother's womb only when this body has reached a certain stage of maturity, not before! In fact it is only the requisite stage of development as such which opens the way for the soul to enter. This moment lies in the middle of pregnancy.

Thus in the great cycle of cosmic events the time of the highest development of the animal body also falls in the middle, i.e., midway in the cycle of all matter! Let the reader mark this closely!

When the animistic substantiality of the animal soul had at this particular point achieved the highest it could achieve in the development of the body from the World of Matter, this automatically opened the way for the entrance of the spiritual standing above it.

The spirit-germ, on the other hand, being the lowest of its spiritual species, could only enter into the highest masterpiece that animistic substantiality below it had produced, i.e., into the most highly developed animal body.

Due to its higher quality the spirit naturally takes over all direction immediately upon entering, and can henceforth lead the body it inhabits, as well as its entire earthly environment, further along the road of development, something which animistic substantiality would have been unable to accomplish! In this process the spirit itself naturally develops simultaneously.

This is a cursory sketch of the activity within Creation, the exact details of which I shall give in later lectures right down to the most minute parts.

But let us return to the first entry of the human spirit-germs into this World of Matter, i.e., let us return to the point midway in the cycle of the World of Matter! The most highly developed animals of that time, which are today erroneously described as Primeval Men, became extinct. Only those bodies among them were developed towards ennoblement into which spirit-germs had entered instead of animistic animal souls. The spirit-germs in them matured through varied experiences, raised the animal body to the human body known to us now, and separated themselves into races and nations.

The great Fall of Man lay behind them. It was the first act involving a voluntary decision after the spirit-germs had become self-conscious, and was caused by their placing the intellect above the spirit. This in turn permitted the portentous hereditary sin to grow, which very soon made the hollow fruits of the governing intellect become clearly and easily recognisable. The hereditary sin is the one-sided development of the brain through the exaggerated activity of the intellect, which as such is then perpetually inherited. I have often mentioned this fact and shall in due course speak about it in much greater detail. There will probably also be men who, when they grasp the way pointed out to them, will be able to help joyfully with the great work of enlightenment!

Without ceasing the great cosmic cycle continued on its course. But erring mankind brought standstill and confusion into the progress which was necessary. In the midst of this turmoil the Jewish people came under the well-known and oppressive scourge of the Egyptians. Their tribulation and great longing for liberation hastened the maturity of their souls. Thus they outstripped all others spiritually, because this strong emotional upheaval enabled them above all to see themselves as they really were, and also to look into the souls of their oppressors!

After they had clearly perceived that neither anything earthly nor the keenest cleverness of the intellect could help any longer, whereby they also recognised the emptiness of their own souls, their spiritual eye learned to see more keenly, and gradually there arose at last a conception of the actual Godhead truer and higher than any they had had before! And stricken with grief, their prayers rose once again with much greater fervour.

Through this the Jewish people were able to become »the chosen people«, who for a period preceded all other people spiritually, because for their time they possessed the purest conception of Divinity, a conception as high as possible considering the existing maturity of the human soul.

Maturity of the spirit, however, must not be confused with knowledge acquired by learning, but you must always bear in mind that being spiritual is the same as having deep inner feeling (gemütvoll).

The advanced spiritual maturity of the Jews at that time enabled them to receive through Moses the Will of God clearly expressed in the form of laws, which constituted the greatest treasure and the best and most powerful support for the further development.

Just as world happenings will quite naturally always concentrate only where the maturity is greatest, so it gradually came to focus at that time upon the human race of the Jews, who were increasing in spiritual maturity.

But here again world events must not be confused with earthly world history, which is far removed from actual world events, and which mostly only portrays the effects of the often wrongly applied free will of the human spirit, which in turn always casts many stones into the actual happening, thereby often producing temporary distortions and earthly confusion!

The Jewish people of that time were ahead of the others in their religious cult and therefore stood closest to Truth in their views.

The natural consequence of this was that in accordance with the Law of Reciprocal Action the annunciation of an incarnation out of the Light was also bound to come upon this road which, being the most correct, led closest to the proximity of Truth! Through their greater distance from the Truth all the other roads were closed to such a possibility, because they were lost in errors!

Again, in conformity with the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species, so absolutely necessary for any activity, it was not possible for a Bringer of Truth from the Light to come to an incarnation by any other road than that which lies closest to the Truth, and which therefore resembles His homogeneity most nearly. Only this provides the necessary hold and attracts, whereas erroneous views repel and directly close the road upon which the Light might come and enter!

The Law of Reciprocal Action and the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species must also operate in this case without fail! The Primordial Laws either open or close a road in their uniform and unswerving effects.

When in the course of time the Jews again allowed the intellect to dominate in their religion, breeding sordid place-hunting, the heavy hand of the Roman helped to keep a small group in the right recognition, so that the Word could be fulfilled!

Just as a spirit-germ in its still unfinished but yet higher spiritual nature can only enter that part of the world which is in a corresponding state of development, but never one which is unripe, nor one which is too ripe (as is the case today with our part of the world where only souls can live which have already been incarnated several times), so the process is no different with the incarnation of a Bringer of Truth from the Light. His Coming can only take place in that section of humanity which is most matured for this purpose. In the case of a Divine Messenger the conditions of all the laws had to be observed most exactly! He could only be born among those whose conceptions came closest to the Truth.

Just as a spirit-germ can enter the World of Matter only after the animistic has achieved the highest peak in its working, when standstill and thereby retrogression must occur unless the spirit-germ enters, so just before Christ’s Coming a point was reached in the World of Matter where the spiritual, through the confusion caused by hereditary sin, could not continue to develop. The free will resting in the spirit, instead of furthering all that existed, had cut off the upward development towards the Heights which is willed in Creation and, through the elevation of the intellect, had one-sidedly directed all its abilities to what is material only.

The animistic, which does not possess free will, had carried out the development of Creation exactly in conformity with Nature, that is, completely in accordance with the Divine Will of the Creator. The spiritual, however, with its gift of free will, had through the Fall of Man rendered itself incapable of playing its part, and brought only confusion and standstill into the further development of matter. The false application of the ability given to it to direct the Divine Creative Power, as a necessary step forward in the development of matter, was even bound to lead to descent instead of to the highest development! Through the Fall of Man the human spirit forcibly retarded all real further development, for mundane technical achievements are not actual progress in the sense of cosmic events willed by God. Therefore the quickest aid, intervention by the Creator Himself, was necessary!

With every further century evil would have so increased that the possibility of a way to Divine Help would gradually have become entirely out of the question, because the dominion of the intellect would in the course of time have completely cut off any understanding of all that is truly spiritual, and even more so of what is Divine! Thus there would have been no anchorage available for an incarnation from the Light!

It was out of this distress that there arose the great Divine Mystery that God in His Love made the sacrifice for Creation of sending down to earth a portion of Divinity in order to bring Light to those who had gone astray.

The animistic in the World of Matter had fulfilled its task in the development of Creation. The spiritual, however, had completely failed through mankind. But, even worse, the spiritual had used the power of decision, which was granted to it for the furthering of Creation, to achieve exactly the contrary! Thus it became hostile to Divine Volition, using for this purpose Divinity’s own power supplied to it to do God’s Will! Man may well ponder how great is his guilt in this!

The birth of Christ was a Divine Act of Love for the entire Creation, which was in danger of being undermined by the erring human spirit!

This also necessitated that the Divine part then incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth must reunite completely with the Father, as Christ Himself had repeatedly emphasised! He must again become One with Him!

It was only through Christ’s Message that the gates to Paradise were unlocked for mature human spirits. The ability to understand the way there aright did not exist until then. This Message was meant for earth-men as well as for those already departed, as is every Divine Message and every Word of Luminous Truth!

After learning about the severity of the Laws, men also heard in the Message of a Love which up till then they would not have been able to comprehend, but which they were now meant to engender within themselves. Yet this Message of Love did not overthrow the laws, but only developed them! They were meant to remain as the firm foundation which, in their effects, would produce such love!

Later on attempts were made to build upon this Word of the Son of God, but I have already pointed out in the beginning of my lecture the errors that crept into these attempts through many wrong assumptions.

Let us cast a glance at the history of Christianity! It will teach us the best lesson and at the same time throw a ray of light upon all religions. We find the same faults everywhere!

Without exception every Bringer of Truth, whether great or small, has had to suffer mockery and scorn, persecution and attack by his dear fellow-men, who in just the same way today always like to consider themselves too clever and too wise to accept the explanations of the Will of their Creator from His Messengers, especially since these Messengers never in fact issued from any of mankind’s great institutions of learning!

An explanation of the Divine Will is fundamentally nothing but the interpretation of the course of His Creation, in which men live and of which they are also a part. To know Creation, then, means everything! If a man has this knowledge it is very easy for him to make use of all it contains and offers. This ability to make use of it in turn brings him every advantage. Thus he will soon recognise and fulfil the real purpose of his existence and, furthering everything, he will rise towards the Light, a joy to himself and nothing but a blessing to his surroundings!

But men scoffed at every Messenger and thus also at the Message itself. Not once did it happen that such a Messenger was made welcome, no matter how much good He did! He always remained an annoyance, as can of course be easily explained if one considers the enmity of the intellect towards God, which in itself proves that this enmity towards God is a definite fact. Christ clearly sums up all these happenings when He speaks of the master who sent out his servants to collect what was due to him from his tenants. But instead of receiving the rent the servants were scoffed at and beaten before they were scornfully sent back empty-handed!

Once again this is glossed over by calling it a parable! In snug comfort one always seats oneself beside these facts, without ever applying them to oneself! Or one has the desire to explain that it is a distinction conferred by God upon His Messengers if they have to suffer in this manner, instead of regarding it as a crime on the part of mankind which is not willed by God!

Because the intellect needs tinsel and sham to cover its limitations, which would otherwise become plainly visible, it makes almost desperate efforts to look down with absolute contempt upon the simplicity of Truth, which it fears will become a danger! It needs jingling bells for the cap it is wearing, and many great words to keep attention centred upon itself! But its contempt for the unvarnished simplicity of Truth has long since turned to uneasiness! More and more bells are added to this gaudy fool’s cap which, through convulsive contortions and antics, are made to jingle louder and ever louder in order to maintain itself for as long as possible on the usurped throne!

But of late these antics have become a dance of despair, which will soon become the last dance of death! The exertions are increasing, they must increase, because ever more distinctly the hollowness is forced to reveal itself in spite of all this jingling! And in the greatest and most furious antic which is being prepared the gaudy cap will at last fall from the head!

Then the crown of unvarnished Truth will lift itself, radiant and steadying, up to that place which alone is its due!

And those serious seekers who have become quite confused by these grotesque and incomprehensible distortions will at last receive a firm foothold and support for their view! Without any exertion they will be able fully to comprehend the whole Truth, whereas up till now it was certain to cost great trouble to unearth even a minute particle!

Let us return to simplicity in thinking! Otherwise no one can fully grasp that which is great and can thus never attain to it! Think as simply as children! That is the true meaning of the great words: »If ye do not become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!«

The way there can never be found with the complicated present-day thinking! Even in the churches and religions it is no different as yet! If these maintain that sufferings help one to ascend and that therefore they come under the mercy of God, this contains a small grain of Truth, but badly distorted in a glossing over sort of way! For God does not will that His people should suffer! He wills only joy, love and happiness! The way within the Light cannot be otherwise! The way towards the Light has stones only if man first places them there!

The grain of Truth in the doctrine of suffering is that with this suffering a certain guilt may be redeemed. This can only happen, however, when a man consciously recognises that he deserves this suffering, as did the penitent thief on the cross.

The way all the world goes on living today is just senseless! Even those who talk about the redemption of karma in such a clever way! They err, because it is still much more difficult than these would-be sages imagine. For karma reactions do not always bring atonements. Let every man mark this well! On the contrary, they may drag him still further down!

Notwithstanding the reaction due to guilt, the ascent of every man solely depends on his inner attitude. How he sets his course inwardly, whether upwards, straight on, or downwards, thus and not otherwise will he proceed in spite of all he experiences!

Here it becomes clear that he is not, nor ever can be, the plaything of fortune, but must direct his actual course alone through the power of his free will! In this respect a man’s will always remains free up to the last moment. In this every man is truly his own free master, only he must never forget that according to his attitude the consequences lead him upwards or downwards!

If, however, he sets his course in an upwards direction with insight and a firm will, evil reactions will hit him less and less, and will finally have only a symbolical effect, because through his ascent he has already been removed from the nether regions of evil reactions, even though he may still be on this earth. It is not at all necessary that a man must suffer if he strives towards the Light!

Away, therefore, with the bandage which many placed before their eyes so that they would not tremble at the sight of the abyss that has yawned before them for a long time! Temporary relief from anxiety afforded by such a bandage is not strength-giving help, but only a loss of time through negligence which can never be retrieved!

There has never yet been a right explanation and justification for the suffering on earth. Therefore narcotics were offered in the form of palliatives, which over and over again are thoughtlessly handed out to the sufferers in more or less clever language. The great fault of one-sidedness in all religions!

And if a desperate seeker for once requires too precise an answer, then that which is not understood is simply pushed into the realm of Divine mystery. All unsolved questions have finally to end up there, as in a harbour of refuge, clearly showing thereby that they are on the wrong course!

For the end of every right course is clearly visible and does not terminate in something that is impenetrable! Wherever the »inscrutable ways of God« have to serve as an explanation, there ignorance is unmistakably in evidence!

There need not and must not be any mystery within Creation for man! For God wills that His Laws working in Creation should be quite familiar to man, so that he can adjust himself accordingly, and with their help can complete and fulfil his course through the world more easily and without ignorantly going astray!

Thus it remains one of the most fatal conceptions to consider the brutal murder of the Son of God as a necessary propitiatory sacrifice for mankind!

To think that this brutal murder of His Son would reconcile God!

Because no logical explanation can be advanced for this peculiar conception, in the ensuing confusion one again slips behind the frequently used protective screen of Divine mystery, making it something which can never become understandable to man.

Yet God is so clear in everything He does! He is lucidity itself! He created Nature out of His Will, and therefore what is natural must also be right, since the Will of God is absolutely perfect!

But the propitiatory sacrifice on the cross must be unnatural to every sane mind, because being against the innocent Son of God it is also unjust! All twisting and turning is useless! Rather should a man frankly confess that such a thing is truly beyond all comprehension! However much he likes to exercise his mind he will never come to any conclusion. The fact is that in this case he can no longer understand his God. But it is God’s Will that He should be understood! And He can be understood, since the expression of His Will clearly rests in Creation and never contradicts itself. Only men take the trouble to introduce what is incomprehensible when making religious investigations!

The structure men so laboriously erected with the fundamentally false idea of a necessary vicarious sacrifice in the death on the cross is already destroyed by the words of the Saviour Himself at the time He was nailed to the cross!

»Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!«

Would this intercession have been necessary if the death on the cross was meant to be a necessary propitiatory sacrifice? »For they know not what they do!« This is an accusation of the gravest kind! A clear indication that what they were doing was wrong, that this deed was nothing but an ordinary crime!

Would Christ have prayed in Gethsemane that this cup of suffering might pass from Him if His death on the cross was necessary as a vicarious sacrifice? Never! Christ would not have done so! It was because He knew that the tortures awaiting Him were nothing but the consequence of the free will of man that He prayed thus!

For two thousand years men have blindly passed this by, accepting with their empty minds what is absolutely impossible instead!

It is indeed distressing frequently to hear it seriously affirmed that the more favoured ones among today’s disciples of Jesus, male as well as female, are endowed with physical suffering, such as stigmata!

Such a view, of course, only originates in the false interpretation of Christ’s suffering on earth! Indeed it could not be otherwise! I still have to mention how personally serious these consequences can become!

How much thoughtlessness and what rigid servility are required so to depict the Almighty Creator that He could be thought to act in such a way! It is without doubt the most sinful debasement of the Sublime Godhead, for the conception of Whose Essential Nature the most beautiful cannot be beautiful enough and the best is still not good enough, in order to come only a little closer to reality! And to think that this great God should be capable of demanding that man whom He has created is to writhe in pain before Him when He accords him grace!

How can anyone holding such views ascend?

Men shape their God as they wish to have Him; they dictate the direction of His Volition! And woe to Him if He is not what they think He ought to be! Then He is rejected forthwith, just as they condemn and fight against all those who dare to see God as much greater and more sublime! But no greatness is to be found in the past conceptions of man! On the contrary they merely bear witness to man’s unshakable belief in his own worth. God has to beg for the favour of mankind! He Who was allowed to receive back from their bloodstained hands His Son Whom He had once sent to help them with the saving Message — scorned, mocked, scourged and tortured!

Does one still wish even today to affirm that all this was a necessary propitiatory sacrifice for God? When Christ Himself in His agony and absolute despair at their blindness cried out: »They know not what they do«?

Is there any possibility at all to lead mankind on to the right road? The most drastic happening is still too weak to accomplish this! When will man at last recognise to what depths he has actually sunk? How empty and hollow are the conceptions he has conjured up for himself!

As soon, however, as one digs a trifle deeper one comes upon selfishness in its most undisguised form neatly hidden away. Even if now people on all sides speak of seeking God in high-sounding words, this again is great hypocrisy and the usual self-complacency entirely devoid of any really serious longing for pure Truth! They only seek for self-worship — for nothing else! No man seriously strives to understand God!

With a benign smile they disregard and quickly push aside the simplicity of Truth, for they imagine themselves to be much too knowledgeable, much too high and much too important as that their God could still deal with simplicity. To uphold their honour He must be much more complicated! Otherwise it would not be worth believing in Him! In their view how can they possibly be expected to recognise something that is easily understandable to every unlearned person! Anything like that cannot be considered great! Today they dare not occupy themselves with such things, otherwise they would be liable to make great fools of themselves! Let this be for children, old women and the unlettered! Anyhow it is not for men with such well-trained intellects, with such intelligence, as are so much in evidence among the »cultured« of today! Let the ordinary man concern himself with that! Education and learnedness apply their standard of greatness only to what holds the possibility of being the most difficult to comprehend!

Ignorant indeed are those who think thus! They are not worthy to receive one further drop of water from the Hand of the Creator in the weaving of Creation!

They have so limited themselves as to preclude the possibility of recognising the radiant sublimity which lies in the simplicity of the Divine Laws. They are literally incapable of doing so or, to put it more bluntly, too stupid owing to their one-sidedly stunted brain, which from the hour of their birth right up till now they carry around with them like a trophy of the highest achievement!

It is indeed an act of mercy if the Creator will leave them to perish in the structure they have erected! For wherever one looks all is hostile towards God, distorted by the morbid ambition of every man of intellect, whose incapacity is evident everywhere!

And this has been going on with increasing intensity for thousands of years! It has inevitably carried the poison into the churches and religions, a corrosive evil which was the inevitable consequence of the Fall of Man, wherein man decided in favour of the absolute dominion of the intellect!

This wrongfully usurped authority has at all times deceived those it has enslaved in everything that concerns the Divine, even in all that is spiritual!

He who does not cast down this throne within himself and thereby become free must perish with it!

One can no longer speak of poor mankind, for they are consciously guilty, as guilty as ever a creature could be! The words: »Forgive them, for they know not what they do« are no longer appropriate for mankind of today. They had more than one opportunity to open their eyes and their ears. They act in full consciousness, and all reactions must therefore hit them with full force, unabated!

If now the ring of all the past happenings closes, then the reaping, the harvest, and the separation for this part of Creation will take place. Since the creation of the entire World of Matter this has never occurred before!

 

FOR A LONG time now attempts have been made to find the right interpretation about the gods known in past ages and their connection with the present time. Called ones and scholars alike are seeking for a solution which will bring complete clarification!

However this will only be possible if the solution provides a comprehensive and unbroken survey over all the ages, from the beginning of the human race to the present day. Otherwise it will again remain incomplete. It is of no value just to pick out the period in which the well-known cults of the Greeks, Romans and Teutons regarding gods were at their height. So long as the explanations do not also freely and quite naturally embrace all evolution and disintegration they are wrong! In spite of much cleverness the attempts so far begun have always finally resulted in failure. They could never stand their ground before the deeper intuitive perception, and without a connection with the previous and succeeding periods could only hang in the air!

Nothing else can be expected when one closely scrutinises the development of man!

The hearers and readers of my Grail Message should be able to discover for themselves how these matters actually stand! They have even been partly relegated to the realm of sagas and legends, or efforts were made to accept them only as phantasies conjured up by religious beliefs, formed and thought out through observation of Nature and in context with everyday life.

Yet it should not be hard for the thinker and investigator to find more in the old lore than mere myths! He must even clearly see the actual happening! Those who wish to do so should follow my explanation!

Here I would refer back to my lecture: »Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!« In that lecture I briefly described the history of mankind on earth from the very beginning until now. I also gave a glimpse into the future. In so doing I showed how midway in the cycle of Creation the animistic, which stands lower than the spiritual, had achieved fulfilment to the highest of its abilities in the World of Matter below it, and in the course of this fulfilment had opened the way for the entrance into matter of the higher spiritual — a process which repeats itself continually in Creation. I also explained how in the highest animal body developed by the animistic, and called Primeval Man, there was created the opportunity which only then, that is, during the climax of its development, permitted a spirit-germ to enter, which promptly took place. It is an opportunity which will always be provided anew at this point of development in Creation. Thus into the most highly developed animal of that time there entered something new, the spiritual, which had never been in it before!

It should not be hastily concluded from the foregoing that this process continuously repeats itself in the same part of the Universe as that part develops further, for this is not the case! It happens only once in each part!

In the further development the Law of the Attraction of Homogeneous Species also here effectively blocks a repetition in the same part of the Universe. In this case the attraction of the homogeneous species is equivalent to the admission of spirit-germs to the World of Matter during a certain definite period in its development. When it has reached a certain state of half-ripeness and receptivity, the spirit-germs whirling about on its border are able to rush like meteoric showers into the World of Matter. There they are absorbed and enveloped, i.e., neatly protected and retained by the elements which have become receptive for this purpose, which in this case were the most highly developed animal bodies.

It is just the same on a small scale with the chemical process of amalgamation, in which a foreign substance can only amalgamate with the absorbing substance when the latter has reached a very definite temperature, this degree of heat having in turn produced a very special and outstanding state of the absorbing substance which can only be attained at this particular temperature. The slightest divergence from this exact condition again prevents an amalgamation, the substances repelling and remaining unapproachable to each other!

In this case the homogeneity of the two species lies in a certain condition of mutual maturity, which appears to indicate a great contradiction, but the balance is maintained through the difference in elevation of the two parts to be amalgamated. The maturity of the lowest point of the spiritual is similar to the maturity of the highest point of the animistic lying below it. Only at this exact point of meeting is amalgamation possible. And since in its development the World of Matter unceasingly moves in a gigantic cycle — budding, blossoming, ripening, and decaying through over-ripeness, while the spiritual reposes above it — this process can only be sparked at a very definite point during the time the World of Matter passes by. It is a spiritual fructification of the World of Matter, which has been developed for this purpose by the working of the animistic, and longingly awaits consummation!

If a certain part of the world in its cycle passes this point, the possibility of spiritual fructification by spirit-germs ceases for this part, and the part following it moves into position. For the first part, however, a new stage commences in which maturing spirits can later find access to it, and so on. In this lecture I have no room to unfold the whole world picture, but a serious investigator may well conjecture the further development.

Due to its higher nature the spiritual, even in its then unconscious state, exercised its vital influence in a noticeable manner upon everything as soon as it entered the World of Matter — it began to dominate on its arrival in the World of Matter! How the spiritual then gradually raised the animal body to the level of the present human body my readers already comprehend!

The animal bodies of the most highly developed race of that time, into which no spirit-germs incarnated, came to a standstill in their development, however, because the animistic element within them had already attained to the highest it could attain to, and they lacked the power of the spirit to advance further. And with the standstill over-ripeness quickly set in, to be followed by retrogression and disintegration! For these races there were only two possibilities, either development into a human body through the power of the spirit, or decay and extinction. And as a result these matured animal species became completely extinct!

Let us now follow up the slow development of the at first unconscious spirit-germ to a state of consciousness as a human spirit, and let us accompany it spiritually as step by step it penetrates the coverings enveloping it and the surroundings in which it lives!

This is not so difficult because the process of development is quite plainly visible externally. One need only observe the human races still in existence on earth today!

The spirit of the most primitive people, for instance, which include the so-called savage tribes, and also the Bushmen, Hottentots, and so on, has perhaps been in the World of Matter just as long as that of other peoples, but has not kept pace in development, or after already ascending in this world or in the beyond has again retrogressed so far that it could be incarnated only in such lowly surroundings. Through their own guilt and in the natural course of events they either remain or are again on a very low step, as a result of which their outlook upon the non-gross material environment is far from being of an uplifting nature!

The spiritual urge of desiring to see more than that which is on its own step has always resided within the spirit-germ as a part of its essential nature, and therefore has a strong effect even in the lowest stages of development! This is the living motive power within the spirit, the special element which is lacking in other kinds or species in Creation. The possibility of thus wishing to see or perceive is always provided, but for one step only above the one it stands upon at the time, and no further. It is for this reason that the human souls standing on such a low step, who have so sinfully neglected their development, can similarly see or perceive only base entities through clairvoyance!

There are mediums and clairvoyant people among all races, regardless of what step they belong to.

Here I must once more mention especially that when I speak of »seeing« or »perceiving« I really only mean that which is »personally seen« by the clairvoyant, according to my explanation! But that which the »seeing ones« of all times can actually »see« is only the fourth part at the most of what they see. And this again can be but one step above their own inner maturity, and no more! There is no other possibility! But this circumstance constitutes at the same time a great natural protection for every clairvoyant, as I have repeatedly stated before.

It must not be assumed that mediums and clairvoyants are necessarily so matured and inwardly advanced as are the things which they describe as having »seen«, for the purer and more luminous heights, the happenings and the spirits are shown to them only in living pictures by spirit guides and higher entities! The clairvoyants, however, erroneously imagine that they have actually experienced all this, thus deceiving themselves about it. Great surprise is often occasioned by the baseness of the characters of so many mediums, who describe things as though they had experienced and seen them, things which do not at all seem to fit their own characters, or very little!

Therefore I speak here only of the narrow field of actual personal seeing by mediums and clairvoyants! The rest is not considered!

The mediums and clairvoyants of all times should actually only serve the purpose of helping mankind more and more upwards through their gifts, not as leaders but as instruments! Mediums could never be leaders because they are much too dependent upon vibrations and other influences. They are meant to be doors which open from time to time for the purpose of furthering development, rungs in the ladder of ascent!

If you now realise that races standing on a low level of spiritual development can only see into the same base environment, with but little scope in an upward direction, it is not hard to understand that among the lower human races we find primarily the fear and worship of demons! That is what they are able to see and perceive!

So much for a superficial consideration, but I shall go deeper with my explanation, although in so doing we branch off from the clear survey!

The spirit of the lower human races which has either never been developed or has again degenerated is naturally still spiritually blind and deaf or has again become so. Such a person cannot see with his spiritual eye, nor unfortunately has this become possible to any man even to this day!

The man still on the lower stage, however, cannot even see with his animistic eye, and just as little with his ethereal eye — he can only see with his gross material eye, which becomes ever sharper in the wilderness through the necessary personal struggle with his fellow-men, the animals and the elements, whereby he gradually learns to distinguish finer and finest gross matter!

Thus in the beginning they notice the phantoms, entities which have only been formed through men’s fear and anxiety, and which are also sustained by these emotions!

These phantoms, which have no life of their own, are completely dependent upon the intuitions of man. They are attracted or repulsed by them. Here the Law of the Power of Attraction of all Homogeneous Species takes effect. Fear always attracts these forms produced by fear and anxiety, so that it appears as if they were absolutely rushing at the frightened human beings!

Since these phantoms are connected with their authors — themselves very frightened human beings — through flexible nourishing-strands, every fearful man is therefore always indirectly connected with the mass of anxious and fearful people, thus receiving additional nourishment which increases his own fear and anxiety all the more, and which may finally even drive him to despair and insanity!

Fearlessness or courage, on the other hand, absolutely repels such phantoms in a natural manner! Therefore, as is well known, the fearless man always has the advantage!

Is it then surprising if among the lower races the so-called medicine-men and sorcerers came into being, whose caste was founded by clairvoyant persons, because the latter were able to observe how such forms, erroneously considered entities with a life of their own, are »repelled« through a little inner composure, by warding off fear through leaps and contortions, or through concentration or courage-instilling exorcisms!

If in our opinion they consequently think up ideas which appear impossible and ridiculous to us, that does not alter the fact that they are doing something which is quite right within the limits of their horizon and their power of comprehension, and that we alone are the ignorant ones who lack understanding for such things!

It happens that among the successors of these sorcerers and medicine-men there are naturally many men who have neither mediumistic nor clairvoyant abilities in any way, especially since this position brings them influence and income, at which men on the most inferior steps grab just as unscrupulously as those of the high white race. These non-clairvoyant successors then simply imitated all the actions of their predecessors without understanding what they were doing. They even added a few more follies in order to make a greater impression, because they only valued the respect of their fellow-men! Thus they became the crafty impostors who seek only their own advantage, and have not the slightest idea about the real meaning! And today the whole caste is judged and condemned on their account!

This is the real reason why we first of all find only the fear and worship of demons among the lower human races! It is what they are able to see and what they fear on account of its different nature!

Let us now proceed to somewhat higher stages of development! Here the ability to see reaches further, be it through clairvoyance or only unconsciously through perception, which is also a part of inner seeing. Through these higher developments, further enveloping layers are pushed through from the inside upwards by the encased spirits, which are awakening more and more.

These spirits already see more friendly entities or know about them by perception, and thus they will gradually lose their demon-worship. And so it goes on higher and higher, becoming more and more luminous! With normal development the spirit pushes ahead further and further!

The Greeks, the Romans and the Teutons, for instance, could see still further! Their inner seeing reached beyond the World of Matter into the Animistic Sphere lying above it. In their more advanced development they could finally even see the Lords of the Elementals and of the Elements. A few mediumistic individuals among them, by virtue of their ability, could even enjoy a closer relationship with them, because these created beings of the Conscious Animistic Sphere have a certain affinity to that animistic substantiality of which man also carries a part within himself in addition to the spiritual!

To see, to feel and to hear the elementals was the highest the peoples could achieve in their stage of development at that time. It is only natural that these peoples should then look upon the mighty Lords of the Elements, whose activity and nature were so different from their own, as the highest possible, calling them gods, and their high impregnable fastnesses, which really exist, Olympus and Valhalla!

Any outward expression of the inner seeing and hearing of men is always dependent upon their personal ability to comprehend and to express at the time. Thus it is that the Greeks, the Romans and the Teutons depicted the same Lords of the Elements and of all that is animistic in form and conception, but always in accordance with the views prevailing in their surroundings! Despite some differences in their descriptions they were the same, however!

If today, for example, five or more really good clairaudients are assembled, and all of them simultaneously hear a very definite sentence spoken in the beyond, then only the sense of what they heard will be rendered uniformly, but not the actual words. Each will report the words differently, even hear them differently, because even in the reception much that is personal makes itself felt! It is the same as with music, which is perceived quite differently by the various listeners, yet recognised as being fundamentally the same! I must only gradually reveal the details regarding the far-reaching secondary phenomena in the relation between earth-man and the Universe, as today it would divert us too far from the subject under discussion!

When in later times called peoples, that is, those who were most highly developed inwardly (intellectual development does not count in these matters), were able to burst through this boundary of the Animistic Sphere as they matured through their experiences, their seeing or perception penetrated to the threshold of the Spiritual Realm!

The natural consequence was that they had to dethrone the past gods as such and replace them with what was higher. Despite this, however, they unfortunately did not advance so far as to become able to see what is spiritual!

Thus the Spiritual Realm remained closed to them, because the normal course of development was halted at this point, restrained by the ever-increasing growth of intellectual conceit!

Only a few exceptions saved themselves from this standstill, such as Buddha and a few others who, by renouncing the world, succeeded in continuing their development in a normal manner, and in seeing spiritually to a certain degree!

This renunciation of the world, or turning away from mankind for the purpose of further spiritual development, became necessary only through the one-sided training of the intellect, which generally increased its domination more and more and is antagonistic to all that is spiritual. It was a natural form of self-protection against the increasing spiritual decline, which would not be necessary at all if the general development is normal! On the contrary, for when a man reaches a certain height in his spiritual development he must continue to strengthen himself through further activity, otherwise he will become lax, which would quickly put a stop to further advance! Standstill would then ensue, speedily followed by retrogression!

Although the further spiritual development of Buddha and others succeeded only to a certain degree, i.e., it was incomplete, still this greatly increased their remoteness from their fellow-men, so that such normally developed human beings came to be regarded as Divine Envoys, whereas what in fact happened was that only a new conception arose quite naturally through their further spiritual progress!

Those human beings who had risen above the masses (which had halted and partly retrogressed spiritually) stood only at the open door to the Spiritual World, where they could perceive certain things vaguely, but could never see clearly. Yet they distinctly sensed and intuitively perceived a powerful conscious uniform guidance coming from above, from a world into which they were never able to see!

Yielding to this intuition they now formed the idea of the one invisible God, without knowing anything further about Him!

It is therefore understandable that they regarded this God, Whom they had merely sensed, as the highest spiritual being, because the spiritual region was new to them and they were still standing only on its threshold.

Thus it was that their new idea of an invisible God was only correct as to the fact, but not as to the conception, for their conception of Him was wrong! The human spirit has never envisaged the God as He really is! Man thought of Him merely as the Highest Spiritual Being! And this gap in the further development even shows itself today in that many human beings persistently cling to the idea that they have something of the same nature as they perceive to be their God’s!

The fault lies in the standstill that occurred in spiritual development.

Had this development continued then maturing mankind, during the transition from the old gods of the Animistic Sphere, would not have thought next of this One God as an Invisible God, but would first of all have been able to perceive, standing above the Lords of the Elements called gods, the Spiritual Primordial Beings who have their seat in the Grail Castle, the highest fastness of the Spiritual World. And in the beginning they would have again considered these Primordial Beings as gods, until they had developed themselves inwardly to such an extent that they would not merely have been able to perceive the Primordial Beings, who are the true images of God, but also to hear them spiritually through mediators. From these they would have received information of the existence outside of Creation of the »One Supreme God!«

Had their intuitive perception been directed in this manner they would, through further spiritual maturing and development, have finally become capable of joyfully receiving Divine Messages out of the actual Divine Sphere from a Messenger of God, i.e., from outside of Creation, and therefore beyond their capacity to see!

That would have been the normal way!

As it was, however, their development came to a halt on the threshold of the Spiritual Sphere, and even declined quickly through the fault of man!

Thus the time came when, as an act of emergency, a strong Envoy from God had to be incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth, in order to bring to a humanity still too immature for it a Message from the Divine Sphere to help and enlighten them, so that seekers lacking the necessary maturity could for the time being at least pin their faith in it!

For this reason the Son of God, who had been sent to the aid of erring mankind, could do nothing more than demand faith and trust in His Word!

A desperate task! Christ could not even say everything He wished to say! Therefore He did not speak of many things, such as reincarnation, and so on! In these matters He was confronted with too great a spiritual immaturity. And He Himself sorrowfully said to His disciples: »I would say many things unto you, but you would not understand!«

Thus even His disciples misunderstood Him in many things! And if Christ Himself already knew while He was on earth that He was not understood by His disciples, it is obvious that later on there arose during the transmission of His Word many errors to which, unfortunately, even today man tries to cling tenaciously! Although Christ demanded only faith in His Word on account of the immaturity of that time, yet He requested from those who were of serious volition that their initial faith should also become »alive« within them!

That means that they would thereby become convinced! For he who confidently followed His Word would again progress in his spiritual development, and would thus be bound gradually to advance from faith to conviction as to the truth of what Christ had said!

Therefore the Son of Man will now demand conviction instead of faith! Also from all those who profess to carry Christ’s Message within themselves and pretend to follow it! For he who has not been able to replace his faith with the conviction of the truth of Christ’s Divine Message, which is one with and inseparable from the Grail Message, has not attained the maturity of spirit necessary to enter Paradise. Such a person will be cast out!

Even the greatest intellectual knowledge will not permit him to slip through! He must naturally remain behind and be lost for evermore!

That in their stage of development mankind in this part of the Universe still stand on the threshold of the Spiritual Realm, the greater part even far below it, is merely caused by their personal lack of volition, their intellectual conceit and their belief that they know everything better than others! As a result it is absolutely impossible for them to develop in the normal way, as has probably become clear to many persons in the meantime!

The various religious cults of mankind do not originate from phantasy, but indicate sections of life in the so-called beyond. Even the existence of the medicine-man of a Negro or Red Indian tribe is justified in view of the low stage of development of his people! That there are rogues and impostors among them does not discredit this fact as such!

Demons, wood-nymphs and sylphs, as also the so-called old gods, are today still in the same place and carry on the same activity as before! Even the high fastnesses of the great Lords of the Elements, Olympus or Valhalla, were never fairy tales, but were really seen! However, what mankind has never been able to see, having come to a standstill in their development, are the prime-spiritual Primordial images of God, who also have a lofty fastness which they call the Grail Castle, the highest castle in the Primordial Sphere, and thus in all Creation!

Standing as he did on the threshold of the Spiritual Sphere man could only receive knowledge of the existence of this Castle through inspiration, because he was not spiritually mature enough intuitively to »perceive« it!

All is life! Only men, who consider themselves advanced, have turned aside and back again towards the depths, instead of progressing!

Now it must not be thought that in a further development the conception of God as taught by Christ and in my Grail Message would change again! This will remain forever as it is, because there is nothing further!

When entering the Spiritual Realm, which mankind still fails to accomplish today, and achieving perfection therein, every human spirit can ascend to that point where in the end he gains absolute conviction of this fact in his inward experiences. Then, standing consciously in the Power of God, he could bring about those great things for which he already had been ordained from the beginning! He would then never again imagine he possessed Divinity within himself! This delusion is nothing but the stamp and the seal of his present immaturity!

Having achieved a right consciousness he would then feel true humility and a liberating desire to serve, which had always been demanded by the pure teachings of Christ!

Only when missionaries, preachers and teachers begin their activities by using as their foundation the knowledge of the natural development of all Creation, and thus the exact knowledge about the Laws of the Divine Will, without being desultory or leaving any gaps, will they really be able to achieve successes that are spiritually alive!

Unfortunately every religion is now nothing but a rigid form, only holding together its dull doctrine with a great deal of trouble! After the necessary change, however, the hitherto dull doctrine will become invigorated, burst asunder the cold, dead and rigid forms, and jubilantly and tumultuously flow forth over the entire world and among all peoples!

 

MY ASSERTION that mankind do not bear within themselves anything that is Divine continually evokes new waves of indignation which flood over the borders of one country after another. This shows how deeply conceit has taken root in the souls of men, and how much they dislike separating themselves from it, even though their intuitive perception calls out warningly now and then, giving them the opportunity to recognise that this must be true after all!

But struggling against it does not alter the fact! As soon as the human spirits have come to the conviction that they are void of anything Divine, they will recognise that they are still smaller, indeed much less, than they imagine they are!

Therefore I wish to go further than I have done as yet, and explain Creation in a little more detail in order to show on which step man belongs. Indeed it is hardly possible for him to begin his ascent without knowing exactly beforehand what he is and what he can do! Once this becomes clear to him he will also finally realise what he must do!

That, however, is greatly at variance with everything he wills today! Indeed, what a difference there is!

This no longer awakens compassion in the person who is privileged to see clearly! By »seeing« I do not mean the seeing of a clairvoyant, but that of a man who possesses true knowledge! Instead of compassion and pity today only anger is engendered, anger and contempt at the stupendous presumption shown towards God, of which hundreds of thousands of conceited ones are guilty daily and hourly! Their conceit contains no grain of knowledge to justify it! It is not worth wasting a single word upon it!

What I have to say from now onwards is meant for the few who, in pure humility, can still attain to a certain degree of recognition without first having to be so crushed as will soon happen in accordance with the Divine Laws, in order finally to force an entrance and prepare a fertile soil for His true Word!

Then all the empty and wordy effusions of earthly wiseacres will crumble away, together with the absolutely unfruitful soil of the present day!

It is indeed high time that this empty profusion of words, which acts like a poison upon all that strives upwards, should collapse in all its hollowness!

Hardly had I made my assertion that the Son of God and the Son of Man are two separate Personalities than there appeared treatises intended to clarify in confused theological-philosophical jargon that this is not so! Without going into my arguments impartially, attempts are made to maintain the old error at all costs, even at the cost of all logical objectiveness, citing for this purpose the obscure terms of the existing dogma! They stubbornly rely upon single sentences out of ancient manuscripts to the exclusion of all independent thought; thus making it a condition (which is never expressed in words) that hearers and readers must not think, much less sense intuitively! For otherwise it would be quickly recognised that nothing is explained by this multitude of words, because whichever way they are examined it remains impossible to draw the right inference! But it is still more obvious that this verbosity lacks all connection with actual events!

He who finally succeeds in opening his eyes and ears in these matters must without difficulty recognise the emptiness of such »apologia«! It is but a last convulsive clinging (one can no longer call it real adherence) to what has hitherto been their support, which will soon prove to be useless!

The only foundation for their arguments is composed of sentences, the correct transmission of which cannot be proved. On the contrary, it is impossible logically to fit them into the course of world events, thereby clearly showing that their sense has been distorted by the human brain in the course of transmission. Not one of these sentences can be assimilated with the chain of events and man’s intuitive perception without leaving a gap. Yet only where everything comes to a conclusion through the completion of its cycle, without any phantasy or expressions of blind faith, only there is every happening explained in the right manner!

But why exert oneself if man does not wish to be freed from such obstinate fatuity? Therefore let that calmly come to pass which in the circumstances must come to pass!

It is with a shudder that I turn away from all the believers and from all those who in their false humility think they know better, who do not recognise a simple truth but even smile indulgently at it and want to correct it! How quickly will just these persons become little, so very little, and lose every support, although in fact neither in their faith nor in their knowledge do they have such! They will be permitted to walk upon the road which they so persistently desire, but upon which they can no longer return to life! The right to choose has never been denied them!

Those who have followed me so far know that man originates in the highest sphere of Creation, in the Spiritual Sphere. But there are still many differences to be noted in the Realm of the Spiritual. Man on earth, who audaciously considers himself great, who often does not shrink from dragging his God down by regarding Him merely as the highest on that step to which he himself belongs, who sometimes even ventures to deny or revile Him, man in reality is not even that which many a humble soul imagines himself to be in all good faith! Man on earth is not a created being, but merely a developed being! That is a difference which man is unable to perceive, and which he will never be able to survey freely!

Beautiful and agreeable to many are the words which numerous teachers utter in their efforts to increase the number of their adherents! Yet these ignorant teachers are themselves convinced that all the errors they spread abroad are the truth, and do not realise what great harm they thereby do to mankind!

Only certainty about the answer to that great question »What am I?« can lead to ascent! If the significance of this question has not been completely recognised and the solution found beforehand ascent will become bitterly difficult! For men do not voluntarily submit themselves to that humbleness which will help them on to the right path on which they can really progress! That has been clearly proved by all the past events right up to the present time!

Even in their efforts to be humble these men either turned themselves into slaves, which is just as wrong as being presumptuous, or reached far beyond their actual goal, placing themselves upon a road the end of which they can never reach, because the nature of their spirits does not suffice for this! As they aspired to what is too exalted for them they will now fall headlong into the depths, which will destroy them!

Only the Created Ones are images of God! These are the Primordial Beings the Prime-Spiritual Beings, in that Original Creation out of which all else developed. In their hands lies the main guidance of all that is spiritual. They are the ideals, the eternal prototypes for all humanity. Earth-man, on the other hand, has only been able to develop himself as a copy out of this complete Creation, starting as a small unconscious spirit-germ and evolving into a self-conscious personality.

Only when he has reached perfection by keeping to the right path in Creation will he take on the likeness of the images of God! He himself is never an actual image of God! There is a great gulf all the way down to him from the Divine!

But even from the actual images of God the next step is far from being to God! Therefore man on earth should at last recognise all that lies between him and the Sublimity of the Godhead, which he tries so hard to usurp! Man on earth imagines that he will become Divine once he has reached perfection, or at least be a part of Divinity, while actually at his greatest height he will only be the likeness of an image of God. He is permitted to enter the forecourt in the entrance hall of a Grail Castle as the highest distinction which can be bestowed upon a human spirit!

Cast aside this presumption at last! It can only hinder you and make you miss the luminous path! Dwellers in the beyond who wish to give well-meaning advice in spiritist circles do not know about it, for they themselves lack the necessary recognition. They would rejoice if they were permitted to hear about it! Among these also the great lamentation will not fail to come, once they recognise how much time they have wasted in fruitless toying and obstinacy!

What applies to the Spiritual World also holds true for the Animistic Sphere. Here the Lords of all the Elements are the Prime-Elemental Beings. All those elementals which gain consciousness, such as the nixies, elves, gnomes, salamanders, and so on, are not Created Ones, but merely beings which have been developed out of Creation. They have developed out of the Realm of Animistic Substantiality, starting as unconscious elemental seed-germs and evolving into conscious elementals, in the course of which, as they gain consciousness, they also assume human forms. This latter always occurs simultaneously with becoming conscious. There is the same gradation here in the Animistic Sphere as exists in the Spiritual Sphere.

According to the nature of their activity the Prime-Elemental Beings in the Animistic Sphere are clothed in male and female forms, just the same as the Primordial Beings in the Spiritual Sphere. Hence the conception of gods and goddesses in the olden times, which I have already dealt with in my lecture: »The Gods, Olympus and Valhalla«!

There is one great uniform feature permeating all Creation and the World!

The reader and hearer of my lectures should always work within himself, keenly scrutinising my lectures and constructing bridges from one to the other, as well as outside to the great and small happenings in the world! Not until he does so will he be able to understand the Grail Message! He will find that it will gradually shape itself into one complete whole, leaving no gaps. Again and again in all the happenings the reader will come back to the basic features. He can explain everything and deduce everything without having to change one single sentence. He who detects gaps lacks full understanding! He who does not realise its great depth and all-embracing character is superficial, and has never tried to penetrate with real animation into the spirit of the Truth brought here!

He may join those masses who, full of self-complacency and believing they already possess the highest knowledge, follow the broad road! The belief that they possess this knowledge prevents such mistaken persons from recognising in other statements the vitality lacking in their own pseudo-knowledge. Wherever they look, whatever they hear, everywhere their self-satisfaction with what they imagine they hold firmly in their hands blocks them!

Not until they reach the boundary line, where all untruth and sham are inevitably rejected, will they recognise on revealing their hands that these contain nothing which makes it at all possible for them to continue on their present road and ultimately enter the Kingdom of the Spirit. Then, however, it will prove too late to retrace their steps and receive what they previously rejected and disregarded! There is no longer sufficient time for that! The gate to the entrance is locked! The last opportunity is missed!

Only when man actually becomes what he should be and ceases to cling to what he wishes to be can he speak of a true humanity! He must always remember that he only issued out of Creation, not directly from the Hand of the Creator!

»That is quibbling with words, for basically it is just the same, only expressed differently!« So say the boastful and lazy ones, barren products of this humanity because they will forever remain incapable of perceiving the great gulf indicated by these words. Once more they let themselves be deceived by the simplicity of the words!

He who is inwardly alert will not carelessly pass this by! He will try to perceive the immeasurable distances and sharp lines of demarcation involved!

Were I now to indicate all the divisions of Creation, many a man who to day considers he is great would prostrate himself in despair on recognising that such words contain the Truth, crushed by the realisation of his own emptiness and insignificance! The frequently used expression »earth-worm« is justified when applied to those who today still boast of their cleverness and »spiritual superiority«, but who soon, very soon, will be made the lowest in all Creation if, indeed, they are not numbered among those who are rejected!

The time has now come to comprehend the world aright! It is not wrong to separate that which is temporal from that which is spiritual, also in earthly life. These terms have probably arisen through the ability of many human beings to sense correctly, for they reflect the difference existing right through the entire Creation. We can also divide Creation into Paradise and the World, i.e., into the spiritual and the temporal. Here also the spiritual is not excluded from the temporal, but the temporal is excluded from the spiritual!

We must call the World the World of Matter, which is also penetrated by the spirit! The spiritual is the Spiritual Realm of Creation, Paradise, from which everything that is material is excluded. Thus we have Paradise and the World, the spiritual and the material, Original Creation and the development therefrom, which may also be called an automatic copy!

Creation proper merely consists of Paradise, the Spiritual Kingdom of today. Everything else is only developed, i.e., no longer really created! And what has been developed must be designated as the World! The World is transient. It develops from the emanations of Creation, imitating the latter in reflections, being driven and sustained by spiritual emanations. It comes to maturity and then disintegrates again through over-ripeness. The spiritual, however, does not age, but remains forever young or, in other words, eternally the same!

Guilt and atonement are only possible in the World! This is due to the faultiness of the subsequent development. Guilt of any kind is utterly impossible in the Realm of the Spirit!

He who has seriously read my lectures will be absolutely clear about this. He knows that any spirit which penetrates the world can never return to its source of origin as long as but a minute speck of a different species still clings to it from its wanderings! The smallest particle makes it impossible to step over the border into the Spiritual Realm! The spirit would be retained, even if it had advanced to the very threshold! Owing to its different and baser consistency this last particle does not permit the spirit to enter as long as it remains clinging thereto!

Not until the moment when this minute speck severs itself and sinks back does the spirit become completely free, thus attaining the same consistency as prevails in the lowest plane of the Spiritual Sphere, which consistency exists as the law for this lowest spiritual plane! Then the spirit not only can but must enter by crossing the threshold at which it was previously held back by the last particle!

This process can be considered and described from many angles, but it remains exactly the same, regardless of the words used to illustrate it. I can embellish it with the most fantastic stories, can use many parables to make it understood, but the fact in itself is quite plain and simple, and is produced by the effect of the three laws I have so often mentioned.

It may also rightfully be said that no sin can occur in Paradise, that it is not touched by any guilt. Consequently only that which has been created is of full value. But in that which has subsequently evolved out of it as a copy of Creation, and which has been set aside as a training ground for the development and strengthening of the human spirit, guilt can be incurred through the false volition of indolent human spirits, which must be balanced through atonement before they are able to return!

If in following a self-engendered urge spirit-germs issue from Creation, i.e., from Paradise, in order to wander through the aforementioned world, one can naturally say by way of illustration that they are like children who leave home in order to learn and finally return fully matured. This mode of expression is justified if it is regarded merely as a picture. However, everything must always remain a picture, and must not be taken personally, as is attempted everywhere!

Since the human spirit only burdens itself with guilt in the world, such a thing not being possible in the Spiritual Sphere, it is also natural that it cannot return to the Spiritual Realm until it frees itself from this burden of guilt! I could give a thousand different illustrations of this, but they would all have the same fundamental meaning, which I have so often depicted in the working of the three simple basic laws.

It sounds strange to many people when I describe the process objectively, because illustrations flatter man’s conceit and self-love! He much prefers to live in a dreamland, because everything sounds much nicer there, and he imagines himself to be much more important than he really is! In so doing he makes the mistake of refusing to examine what is objective, but instead indulges increasingly in imaginative phantasy, thus losing his way and his support! He is then horrified, perhaps even indignant, if I show him soberly and in all simplicity how Creation is and what part he actually plays in it!

For him the transition is somewhat like that of a small child which, in the loving hands of mother or grandmother, listens happily to fairy stories with sparkling eyes and cheeks flushed with enthusiasm, and then, out in the world, sees men as they really are! So altogether different from the beautiful tales, and yet, when you look more keenly and retrospectively at these fairy tales, it is basically the same! This moment is bitter but necessary, otherwise the child would be unable to make any progress and, as »a stranger in the world«, would perish under much suffering!

It is no different here! He who wishes to ascend further must at last come to understand Creation as it really is! He must stride firmly on his feet, and no longer lose himself in emotional impressions, which may be all very well for an irresponsible child, but not for a mature man whose power of volition penetrates Creation, either furthering or retarding it, and uplifting or destroying him in the process!

Young girls who read novels which misrepresent the truth and only veil the reality of life will, through the fanciful illusions thus awakened, quickly experience bitter disappointments, and even very often become broken for their entire time on earth, falling an easy prey to this unscrupulous deception which they so trustingly approached. It is no different with the development of a human spirit in Creation!

Therefore away with all illustrations! Man never learned to understand them, because he was much too lazy to apply himself seriously to the discovery of the right interpretation. It is time for the veils to fall so that man can see clearly whence he came, what duties his task bestows upon him, and also what is his destination! He needs to be shown the right path! And he will find this path clearly marked in my Grail Message, providing he wishes to see it.

The Word of the Grail Message lives! It only permits those people to find abundantly in it who really carry the honest desire in their souls! All others are automatically rejected! To those who are conceited and who only seek superficially the Message will remain a book with seven seals!

Only he who willingly opens himself will receive! If from the beginning he starts to read with a sincere and honest mind, then everything he seeks will be revealed in one glorious fulfilment! But those whose hearts are not completely pure will be repelled by this Word; it will remain closed to those of deceitful eye! They will find nothing therein!

 

WHO AMONG all mankind has already grasped the meaning of these words? In what church are they truly interpreted? In many cases they are taken as a conception of life without time. But there is nothing in Creation which is not limited in time and space. The very meaning of the word »Creation« must contradict such a conception, for what is created is a work, and every work has a limit! And whatever is limited must have boundaries! And what has boundaries can also not be timeless!

There are a number of spheres where human spirits dwell according to their spiritual maturity. These spheres vary in density as they are near to or more remote from Paradise. The further they are from Paradise the denser and thus heavier they will be.

The conception of time and space becomes narrower as density increases, as substance becomes more solid in the World of Matter, and as the distance from the Spiritual Realm increases.

The different conceptions of time and space arise from the more or less elastic ability of man’s brain to absorb experiences which, in turn, is adapted to the density of his environment, that is, to the nature of the sphere in the Cosmos in which his body happens to be at the time. Thus it is that we have to speak of different conceptions of time and space in the different spheres of the Cosmos!

There are spheres in the Cosmos situated much nearer to Paradise than the sphere to which the earth belongs. Those spheres lying nearer to it are of a different material consistency, which is lighter and less solid. Consequently they offer more extensive opportunities to experience in full consciousness. Here on earth we call it experiencing which registers in our day-consciousness.

The worlds of matter which are of a different nature belong to fine gross matter, as well as to coarse ethereal matter, and also to pure ethereal matter while we at present live in the World of absolute Gross Matter. The more rarefied matter is, the more pervious it also is. The more pervious a species of matter is, however, the more extensive become the possibilities for conscious experiencing or, let us call it, the possibilities for receiving impressions, on the part of a human spirit living in the body.

In a coarser and denser body, with its correspondingly denser brain as a transit point for external happenings, the human spirit living therein is naturally more firmly segregated or walled in than in a more pervious and less dense species of matter. Therefore in the denser medium it can only inwardly perceive or let itself be impressed by happenings on a more limited scale.

The less dense a species of matter, however, the lighter it naturally is, and the higher it must also be. It will likewise be more translucent and thus also brighter! The nearer it is situated to Paradise due to its lightness, the more luminous and sunny it will be, because it permits the radiations issuing from Paradise to pass through it.

The further a human spirit shining forth from out of its body receives the possibility of sensing real life through a lighter, less dense environment, the more it will be able to experience inwardly, so that in the time of one earth-day it can absorb far more experiences in its particular environment than can in earth-man with his denser brain in his heavier and more solid surroundings. According to the nature of the perviousness, i.e., according to the less dense and more luminous nature of its environment, a human spirit is able, through easier receptivity, to experience in the time of one earth-day as much as in the time of one earth-year, until in the Spiritual Realm itself it can experience in the time of one earth-day as much as in a thousand earth-years!

That is why it is said: »There a thousand years are as one day!« Thus it rests on the wealth of experiences, the increase of which depends on the growing maturity of the human spirit!

Man can best picture this if he thinks of his dreams! In a dream lasting a single minute of earth-time he is often able to perceive, really experience in his spirit, an entire lifetime! He lives through the happiest as well as the most painful things, he laughs and weeps and experiences his ageing, and yet he has used the time of only a single minute! In his earth-life the same experiencing would consume many decades, because the time and space of earthly experiencing have too narrow a limit, as a result of which each single stage advances more slowly.

Just as man on earth can experience as rapidly as that in his dreams only because during sleep the fettering influence of the brain has been partially removed by the spirit, so in the more luminous spheres of the Cosmos, when he is no longer so strongly fettered and later becomes a completely free spirit, he always stands in this vivid and rapid experiencing! For the actual experiencing of a thousand earth-years he needs no more time than one day!