Egypt, Page 2

In his excellent single lecture entitled The Gospels (GOSP), Steiner shows how “In Christ Jesus we really have a fusion and at the same time a rebirth of all the former spiritual streams of humanity.” Recognizing many, he deals with only three, the Zarathustrian, Buddhist and Hebrew. In the part here most pertinent he deals with the Hebrew stream (the other two are visible in “The Nativity”), which was to develop logical thinking based upon observation of phenomena in the outer world. To understand this mission, and the place Egypt played in it, consider the following portions of the lecture:

. . . we must bear in mind that all clairvoyance comes about through the independent working of the etheric body, especially the etheric part of the brain. When the etheric body of the brain and the physical instrument of logical thought are strongly bound together, no clairvoyance can come about. That can only come when the etheric body keeps something back and makes it independent. When the etheric part of the brain is quite joined to the physical brain, it [the etheric body] makes use of it in the most refined way; but being thoroughly engaged in developing the physical brain it reserves nothing for the development of clairvoyance. Now it was necessary that the very quality which is connected with brain-thinking (thinking which through the brain makes logical connection between the various phenomena appearing in the world) should make its entry into humanity; for this something had to enter mankind which may be described as follows. An individual had to be selected out of mankind, in whom remained as little as possible of what was known as the old clairvoyance, but in whom, on the other hand, was developed, carved and chiselled out, to the greatest extent possible, the physical instrument of the brain. This individual was able to survey the phenomena of the outer physical world in terms of measure, number, order and harmony, and to find the unity in the external phenomena in space. Thus whereas all those who belonged to earlier civilizations gained their knowledge of the spiritual world from within, he had to direct his gaze to the phenomena around him, to combine them in a logical way, and to weigh them. He said to himself: “The phenomena outside, when viewed as one great united picture, are seen to be parts of a great harmony.” What there appears as unity, he saw as the God behind the phenomena of the physical plane. That was different from all the former conceptions of Divinity. Those who had seen God before this time, said: “Our idea of God arises within us,” but this individual turned his gaze in all directions, he put the various phenomena in their right order, studied the different kingdoms of nature, and brought them into unity; in short, he was the great organizer of the world-phenomena according to number and measure, and was chosen out of all mankind for this particular work. This person who, out of all mankind, was thus selected to be the first man to survey the outer physical world and to discover the unity in it, was Abraham. Abraham or Abram was selected by the divine spiritual powers to receive this special mission of transmitting to mankind the knowledge of the forces in external phenomena connected with number and measure. He came forth from the Chaldean civilization, which had itself acquired its astrology by means of clairvoyance. Abraham, the father of arithmetic, was the first to discover this by his method of combination, through his physical brain having at some time undergone a sort of chiselling; and because of this he was entrusted with a very special mission.

Now, we must remember that this mission was not to remain with him alone, but was to become the common possession of all mankind; but as it was bound up with the physical brain, how could it belong to all? Only through physical heredity. That is to say, from Abraham had to proceed a people who were to inherit this special capacity, for as long a time as it was their mission to carry it into humanity. A nation had to be founded, not merely a civilization in which men were taught what had been clairvoyantly received. What mankind was now to receive was to be carried down through heredity to the descendants, that it might extend into all the separate parts. What was it which was thus to live on through the human organism? It was that system which was first brought to mankind by Abraham. If we look up at the stars in their order, we can by calculation ascertain their order. The thought of those who studied the Chaldean Astrology reflected the thoughts of the Gods; but now it became a question of making the transition from that to making calculations, to a logical grasp of the phenomena of the outer world. Therefore a new capacity had to be inherited by the physical human body, a capacity which could itself through the working of man’s thought bring forth that which is manifested as the cosmic order. This was very beautifully expressed in the words of Him Who gave this mission to Abraham: “Thy descendants shall be arranged according to the same order as the stars,”⁴ which has been carelessly translated in the Bible: “Thy children shall be as the sand of the sea.”⁵ It really means that the descendants of Abraham would be so organized that they would be a reflection of the stars in the heavens.

That is expressed in the twelve sons of Jacob, who are the reflection of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Here comes the measure which is prefigured in the heavens. In the subsequent generations this was to be the image of the numbering in the heavens. As numbers are inscribed in the heavens, so in these generations that system of numbers was to be inscribed. The deep wisdom contained in these words has been wrongly translated: Thy descendants shall be as the sand of the sea.—We can thus see the purpose of the whole mission of Abraham. In other ways also does this mission express that it is intended to be an image of the secrets of the cosmos. The first question we must put to ourselves is this:—The old dim clairvoyance was to be sacrificed at that time; that which was established in mankind from the earliest ages was to be given up. Henceforth all must come from without. In the whole of this mission the inner-most feeling was that everything must now be received as a gift from without, and what was to come in as something new was to come through physical inheritance. In this way was the new mission to come to the world. Abraham himself had to receive it as a gift from God, and it came about through his first being required to sacrifice his son Isaac and then being restrained from doing so. What did he, then, actually receive from the hand of God? He received his whole mission; for if he had really sacrificed Isaac he would have sacrificed his whole mission.⁶ When Isaac was given back to him, Abraham received back his people. In Isaac he received what he himself was to give to the world, and he received it as a gift from the divine cosmic order [Heb 11,19]. All that followed after Abraham was therefore a gift from God Himself. All that still remained of the gifts of clairvoyance, the last of these gifts—which was offered up willingly as a sacrifice — is connected with the constellation of the Ram, Aries. . . . Thus we see the Ram at the sacrifice of Isaac [Gen 22,13]. That is a symbolic expression for the sacrifice of the last gift of clairvoyance, in exchange for the gift which enables man to judge the cosmic phenomena according to the laws of number and measure. [This understanding allays the moral compunction and ambivalence scholars have long felt about the revered Father Abraham’s willingness to follow the abhorrent pagan practice of infant sacrifice, let alone a loving God’s requiring it.] That is the mission of Abraham. Now, how does this mission proceed? The last gift of clairvoyance had been offered in sacrifice;⁷ it had to be driven out of this mission, and if it still reappeared through inheritance, it was not tolerated, so to say, in the direct line of succession. In Joseph we see a throw-back. He had his dreams; he had the old gift of clairvoyance, and his brothers cast him out. This shows how strictly the line was drawn in this whole mission. Joseph was cast out, and he wandered to Egypt in order to make a connection with the Egyptian civilization, the other wing of our whole cultural evolution. Joseph united in himself the general character of this mission with the remains of the old clairvoyance. In Egypt he brought about a complete transformation by correcting the decadent Egyptian civilization in accordance with his clairvoyant gift. He used his gift in the service of external organization. This is what lay behind the cultural mission of Joseph to Egypt.

And now we see the playing of a curious drama. We see how those who were the missioners of the external thinking in terms of measure and numbers no longer followed the earlier path, and how through Joseph they sought the outer connection, for they sought in Egypt the reflection of what they were unable to bring forth out of themselves. They travelled thither, — and in Egypt the descendants of Abraham found what they required. There they could obtain it, and so they went there. What was necessary for the further organizing of this mission, as it could not come from within, was given from without, by means of the Egyptian Initiation.⁸ Moses brought that from without and united the Egyptian culture with the particular mission of Abraham. And we see being propagated from one generation to another, a human grasp of the external world, founded on measure, number and weight. A new element had come in. This was propagated by means of blood-relationship and can only thus be propagated, for it is bound up with that which must come through inheritance.