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conviction: Thou has awakened within thyself the power that
conquers death. The Initiate experienced in a picture the
process that would operate fully in times still to come, in
accordance with the great plan of world-history. In the
Mysteries of all peoples, this sacred truth was proclaimed:
Man can be victorious over death. But it was also indicated
that what could be presented in the Mysteries in pictures only
would one day become an actual and single event in world-
history. The Mystery of Golgotha was proclaimed in advance
by the Pagan Mysteries of antiquity; it was the fulfilment of
what had everywhere been heralded in the sanctuaries and
holy places of the Mysteries.
When the candidate had been prepared in the Mysteries,
when he had performed the difficult training which brought
him to the point of Initiation, when he had made his soul so
free of the body that the soul could be united with and
perceive the spiritual worlds, when he was convinced by his
own knowledge that life is always victorious over death in
human nature  then he confronted the very deepest
experience that was associated with these ancient Mysteries.
And this deepest experience was that the obstacle presented
by the earth, the obstacle of matter, must be removed if that
which is at the same time both spiritual and material, is to
become visible  namely, the sun. It was to a mysterious
phenomenon  although it was a phenomenon well-known to
every Initiate  that the candidate was led. He beheld the sun
at the midnight hour, saw the sun through the earth, at the
other side of the earth.
Instinctive feeling of the most holy and most sacred things
have, after all, remained through the course of history. Many
of these feelings and perceptions have weakened, but to those
who are willing to look with unprejudiced eyes, the old
meaning is still discernible. And so we can read some thing
from the fact that at midnight leading from the 24th to the
25th of December, the midnight Mass is supposed to be said
in every Christian Church. We can read something from this
fact when we know that the Mass is nothing more nor less
than a synthesis of the rites and rituals of the Mysteries which
led to initiation, to the beholding of the sun at midnight. This
institution of the midnight Mass at Christmas is an echo of the
Initiation which enabled the candidate, at the midnight hour,
to see the sun at the other side of the earth and therewith to
behold the universe as a spiritual universe. And at the same
time the Cosmic Word resounded through the cosmos  the
Cosmic Word which from the courses and constellations of the
stars sounded forth the mysteries of World Being.
Blood sets human beings at variance with one another. Blood
fetters to the earthly and material that element in man which
descends from heavenly heights. In our century, especially,
men have gravely sinned against the essence of Christianity,
inasmuch as they have turned again to the principle of blood.
But they must find the way to the Being Who was Christ Jesus,
Who does not address Himself to the blood but Who poured
out his blood and gave it to the earth. Christ Jesus is the Being
Who speaks to the soul and to the spirit, Who unites and does
not separate  so that Peace may arise among men on earth
out of their understanding of the Cosmic Word.
By a new understanding of the Christmas Festival, super-
sensible knowledge can transform the material universe into
spirit before the eye of the soul, transform it in such a way that
the sun at midnight becomes visible and is known in its
spiritual nature. Such knowledge brings understanding of the
super-earthly Christ Being, the Sun Being Who was united
with the man Jesus of Nazareth. It can bring understanding,
too, of the unifying peace that should hover over the peoples
of the earth. The Divine Beings are revealed in the heights,
and through this revelation peace rings forth from the hearts
of men who are of good will.
Such is the word of Christmas. Peace on earth flows into
unison with the Divine Light that is streaming upon the earth.
We need something more than the mere remembrance of the
day of the birth of Jesus. We need to understand and realise
that a new Christmas Festival must arise, that a new Festival
of Birth must lead on from the present into the immediate
future. A new Christ Impulse must be born and a new
knowledge of the nature of Christ. We need a new
understanding of the truth that the Divine-Spiritual heavens
and the physical world of earth are linked to one another and
that the Mystery of Golgotha is the most significant token of
this union. We must understand once again why it is that at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]