April,2001
A Review of Oskar Kurten's Article
After having read Oskar Kurten's 'The Son of Man and the Cosmic Christ' I think that it has answered some questions about the 'fleeing youth' but at the same time I did have some disagreement with some points in the article. When we read in the Gospel of Mark 14 : 51 about the fleeing youth as Christ was arrested we learn from Steiner that the fleeing youth was the Christ or more specifically the Cosmic Christ. Kurten makes the distinction (inferring from Steiner) between the Cosmic Christ and the Christ Being Himself. Steiner says that the youth "is the young cosmic impulse". Kurten then cites Steiner speaking about the aura of Christ: ". . . an aura through which cosmic forces and cosmic laws descended to earth. . . Christ was surrounded by a far-reaching, mighty aura. " Kurten emphasizes that Christ was enveloped by a cosmic aura. It was the new Creative Principle that Christ brought with Him to earth. The Cosmic Life Principle that would now live within the earth and act as a force of attraction between the earth and the sun while eventually uniting them again. It is the Cosmic Life Principle that would reverse the descending forces of earth evolution ( the Fall) and begin the resurrecting and ascending path of earthly and human evolution that began on Easter morning.
As long as Christ was enveloped by the Cosmic Aura He could not be harmed. He could not be touched or seized by anyone who wished to do so. Many times there were those who wished to seize and harm Christ Jesus but could not do so. They could not do so because of this very powerful aura that surrounded the Christ. This is proven in John's Gospel immediately prior to being seized and arrested which says: "When, therefore, He said to them, 'I AM He,' they drew back and fell to the ground." Kurten citing Steiner: ". . . This aura with its powerful influence was there because He was united with the souls of those He had chosen: and it remained so long as He was united with them." This bond began to disintegrate in the Garden of Gethsemane when the 'cup of agony' that Christ experienced was the incapacity of the three chosen Apostles to pass through the passion and death of Christ in full consciousness. They would not be able to experience the full meaning of the passion and death of Christ until Pentecost. The bond between Christ and His Apostles was dissolving and it was then completely severed when Judas had betrayed Christ to His captors. No longer united with the souls of His Apostles, the Cosmic Christ Aura was now loosened from the Being of Christ. This also allowed the body of Jesus to pass into death on the Cross as this Cosmic Aura (the Cosmic Principle of Life) would have possibly made it very difficult if not impossible for the body to pass through death.
Now Christ is able to experience death which no other spiritual Being has ever done. The experience of death is a human experience which Christ can now to bring this knowledge and understanding to all of
the hierarchies so that they too will know and understand this human experience and therefore understand humans in a greater capacity. Kurten cites Steiner once more: " Out of their midst, the gods had to send a Being to the physical plane to experience something that the gods otherwise cannot experience in the spiritual worlds. The gods had to send Christ to earth. . . so He could learn the infinite agonies of men, agonies that for a god signify something totally different than for a human Being. . . A god had to suffer death on the Cross. As the only Being of the spiritual worlds, Christ was to come to know death. . .Hence, of all the celestial Beings above man, Christ is the only One to have learned about death through His own experience." Christ not only experiences physical death but He also experiences before death the death of spiritual consciousness (my thoughts here). I believe that in order to fully experience the human experience Christ had to also experience what it is like to be unable to perceive anything from the spiritual worlds. This is death also; the incapacity to perceive true life; the life of the spiritual worlds. This could explain the words: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Mark 15 : 34) Here Christ on the Cross could be speaking of the Cosmic Aura that has left Him but He could also be speaking of the spiritual worlds to which He is no longer united in consciousness. Immediately after His death on the Cross Christ may have also lost complete consciousness for a brief time as we do in sleep. Here Christ would then complete the full experience of being human; the complete subjugation of consciousness to the forces of death.
As Kurten points out from reading Steiner more closely we can say that Christ did die on the Cross in the body of Jesus and that it was the Cosmic Christ Aura that separated from the Son of Man, Jesus. In Steiner's Christologies he speaks about how the Christ (His EGO-I AM) began to move into the bones of the body of Jesus at the Baptism in the Jordan. This had never been done before by any other spiritual, celestial being. I always understood it to be that the full incarnation of Christ into the body of Jesus was not completed until the crucifixion and that it was not until this time that Christ then fully incarnated His EGO-I AM into the marrow of the bones of the body of Jesus. I always understood it to be that Christ slowly incarnated into the human form of Jesus as He moved down into the astral body, the etheric body and finally into the physical/mineral body over a three and a half year period from the Baptism to the death on the Cross. By doing so Christ then brought with Him the capacity to create the new ADAM; the far distant future and perfected human spiritualized form. He brought to the human form the archetypal spiritual human that we will become when our astral body becomes Spirit Self (Manas), our etheric body becomes Life Spirit (Budhi) and our physical body becomes Spirit Human (Atma). This is the actualization and individuation of the Holy Trinity within us. Here is an excerpt from a lecture by Steiner about the Christ's incarnation into the human bone structure:
"In the course of human evolution, the various organs have developed bit by bit, gradually working out their form. We have seen how, when the organs had reached the level of the hips, certain structures and functions appeared in man. Then, too, as the human individuality became more self-reliant, a hardening of the bony system set in. The more independent man became, the more his bony system hardened and the greater became the power of death. We must bear this in mind if we are to understand the following in the right way. Whence comes it that man must die and the body must completely disintegrate? It comes from the fact that in the human body something can be burned, even down to the bones. Fire has power over the human bone-substance. Man has no power, at least no conscious power, over his bones. This power still lies outside man's abilities. In the moment when, at the baptism in Jordan, the Christ drew into the body of Jesus of Nazareth, in that moment the bony system of this being became something entirely different from what it is in other men. This was something that had never happened before and has not happened again to this day. With the Christ-being there entered into the Jesus-being something that had power over the forces that burn up the bones. Today the building up of the bones has not yet been placed within man's discretion. But this power reached right down into the bones. The conscious power of the Christ-being extended into the bones. This is part of the meaning of the baptism by John. Therewith something was implanted in the earth that can be called the supremacy over death, for death first appeared in the world with the bones. Through the fact that power over the bones entered the human body, the victory over death also came into the world. Here a deep mystery is expressed. Something in the highest degree holy entered into the bony system of Jesus of Nazareth through the Christ. Therefore it was not to be touched. For this reason the scripture had to be fulfilled: “A bone of him shall not be broken.”† That would have allowed human power to meddle in divine forces. Here we are gazing into a deep mystery of human evolution."
All of this then begins to become a reality on Easter morning when at the empty tomb Mary Magdalene with two other women see the youth clothed in a white garment who says to them: ". . . HE HAS RISEN. . ."
Here Steiner points out that: . . ." This is the same youth! Nowhere else in the artistic composition of the Gospels do we encounter this youth who slips away the instant that human beings condemn the Son of Man, who appears again after the three days are past, and who will henceforth be active as the cosmic principle of the earth." The Cosmic Youth Forces (a new Creative Life Principle) are now present upon the earth and are now part of the earth which in time will bring the resurrection and ascension of the earth and humanity back into the spiritual worlds once more. The old forces of descending evolution into the world of matter (death) were ended when Christ, while on the Cross, spoke the words "IT IS FINISHED." The forces of the Fall have now been reversed. This reality was even felt in the earth itself as they came to a halting end and manifested as an earthquake that shook the earth on Good Friday. The new forces of resurrection and ascension also impacted the earth which manifested as an earthquake on Easter morning. The 'youth', the Cosmic Aura of Christ, and Christ Himself were now once again united.
Some of the points to which I disagree with Kurten is his premise that Christ was a threefold, composite Being. He says that Christ was a composite of three 'individual' Beings united as one: the Logos, the Lofty Sun Spirit and the Christ-archangel. I don't ever remember Steiner saying that Christ was a threefold, 'composite' Being nor do I ever remember anyone making any reference to Steiner about this very same thing. I think that Kurten may be pulling what Steiner had to say about the evolution and development of the Christ Being from various sources and seeing Him as three aspects of His past development. In the old Sun Period Christ was a planetary Being along with Lucifer. They were at that time equal to one another. This is why often one reads that Christ and Lucifer were in a sense brothers. Christ was the regent of a planetary body which is today the sun which is why He is looked upon as the Lofty Sun Spirit. Lucifer was the regent of what is now Venus. During the Sun Period this solar system was surrounded by twelve Lofty Beings who poured their knowledge into this solar system and it was taken up sacrificially and willingly by Christ whereas Lucifer refused to take it up. These Beings were present then and their past presence created what is now the elliptical constellations that we recognize today. Their WORD/WISDOM filled Christ's Being and by doing so He ascended to greater heights while Lucifer fell and continued to fall during the Moon Period also. The pouring of the WORD/WISDOM into the planetary Being that we now know as the Christ came to be known as the 'Word of the Worlds' or the LOGOS. Christ became the fullness of the 'Word of the Worlds' or the LOGOS. Here is an excerpt from a lecture by Steiner on this issue:
"When we direct our gaze now to Christ, now again to Lucifer, a new perception begins to dawn upon us. Lucifer, the ruler of Venus, appears in a form that is extraordinarily full of light, — I mean, of course, spiritual light. We have the feeling that all the glow and brilliance we can ever experience on Earth in looking upon a manifestation of light is weak and dim in comparison with the majesty of Lucifer in the old Sun time. But then we notice, when we begin to perceive his intentions — and we are able to see through these—, that Lucifer is a Spirit endowed in his very nature with infinite pride, so great a pride that it can prove a temptation to man. For, as is well-known, there are things which up to a point are not temptations for man but become so when they grow majestic in their proportions, and pride is one of them. When pride is majestically great it tempts man. Lucifer's proud greatness, Lucifer's pride in his majestic figure of light — these contain a seductive element. “Unmanifest light,” light that does not shine outwardly but has immense, strong power in itself — that Lucifer has in full measure. And how does the Christ figure look beside Lucifer? The Christ figure in the time of old Sun — the Lord and Ruler of the Sun planet — is a picture of utmost devotion, entire devotion to all that is around Him in the world. Whereas Lucifer looks like one who thinks only of himself — we are obliged to clothe it all in human words, notwithstanding the fact that these are quite inadequate — Christ appears as wholly given up, in devotion, to all that is around Him in the great wide world.
The great wide world was not then as it is now. If we were to transport ourselves in these days to the present Sun, then, looking outwards in all directions as from the centre of a circle, we should perceive in the first place the twelve Signs of the Zodiac. These were not then externally visible; but instead, twelve great Forms, twelve Beings were present who let their words ring forth from the depths of the darkness, — outer space being of course not then filled with light. What kind of words were these? They were words — the word “word” is again only a makeshift, to indicate what is here meant — they were words that told of primeval times, of times that even then were in a remote and ancient past. The twelve were twelve World-Initiators. Today we behold standing in the directions of these twelve World-Initiators the twelve Signs of the Zodiac, but from them resounds, for the soul that is open to the whole world, the original being of the Unspoken Word of Worlds, that could take form in the twelve Voices. And whilst Lucifer alone — I must now begin to speak more in pictures; human words do not in the least suffice — whilst Lucifer had the impulse to let stream out upon all things the light that was present in him and therewith come to a knowledge of all things, the Christ on the other hand, gave Himself up to the Impression of this Word of the Worlds, received It in its fulness and entirety into Himself, so that this Christ Soul was now the Being that united in Himself all the great Secrets of the World that sounded into Him through the inexpressible Word. Such is the contrast that presents itself, — the Christ Who receives the Word of the Worlds, and the proud Lucifer, the Spirit of Venus, who rejects the Word of the Worlds and wants to found and establish everything with his own light.
All subsequent evolution is a direct outcome of what Lucifer and Christ were at that time. The Christ Being, as we saw, received into Himself the great and all-embracing secrets of the Worlds. The Lucifer Being, having what I can only describe as a “proud figure of Light,” lost thereby his kingdom, lost his Venus kingdom. On other grounds, to enter into which would take us too far afield, the other Spirits of the Planets lost also their kingdoms, or rather changed their natures. But they need not concern us here. What is important for us here is the contrast between Christ and Lucifer. It came about that Lucifer lost more and more of his rulership; the kingdom of Venus gradually fell away from him. Lucifer with his light became a dethroned ruler, and the planet Venus had thenceforward to do without a proper ruler and was consequently obliged to undergo a backward evolution. The Christ, however, had during the old Sun time received the Word of the Worlds, and this Word of the Worlds has the quality of kindling itself to new light in the soul by which It is received; so that from that time forward the Word of the Worlds became in the Christ Light, and the planet of which the Christ was ruler, the Sun, became the centre of the whole planetary system, the other planets being brought into subjection to It. The same is true also of their spiritual Rulers." (1)
When I read this I could not help but think of the 13th. century initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. There we have a microcosmic reflection of this ancient macrocosmic initiation of Christ during the old Sun Period. As Christ was initiated by twelve Beings who at that time were above Christ and who poured their Wisdom into Him we also know of the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz by the seven Holy Rishis and the five Post-Atlantean Initiates who poured their wisdom into him which made the body of Christian Rosenkreutz translucent and which elevated the soul of Christian Rosenkreutz far beyond other human souls.
When Kurten sees Christ as an archangel and that 'only' the archangel of the 'three Beings' that make up the composite Being we know as Christ (as I understand Kurtan to say) incarnated into Jesus because the LOGOS and Lofty Sun Spirit Beings (as he sees it could) not do so here I think Kurten is seeing Michael (the countenance of Christ) as part of the Christ. Looking over all three of these Beings I have to say that Christ was not a threefold, composite Being as Kurten says; that is, I don't think that Christ was a composite Being consisting of three individual Beings united as one. The LOGOS were the twelve Beings that filled the Christ who was the Lofty Sun Spirit during the Saturn Period. Christ could now be called the LOGOS as He took into Himself the 'Word of the Worlds' thereby He became The LOGOS; that is, He became the fullness of the LOGOS. We need to make a distinction between these three aspects of Christ the Pleroma (Fullness) of the LOGOS Who was also a Lofty Sun Spirit during the Sun Period while Michael is the present countenance and herald of Christ. Therefore, I can't agree with Kurten that there are three Beings making up the Being of Christ. Also, Christ is not an archangel but a singular, individuated Being Who stands above all other celestial Beings whose regency (Christ along with the divine hierarchies) is this particular solar system.
Rick Distasi
1).Lecture: 12th June, 1912 | Christiania | GA0137 ]
"Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy"
LECTURE 10
Sourse: www.elib.com
