Jan 24, 2022

4. THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA AND MANKIND

 After we have now understood the meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha for heaven as well as for the Earth, we must ask ourselves the question what the meaning of this holy mystery is for that being whose destiny it is to be a link between heaven and Earth – namely Man.

It is important to proceed from the central position of Man in the universe. For Man is a being for whom the Earth longs from below and on whom heaven counts from above. Man appears as a connecting link between heaven and Earth. His mission in the universe is through a transformation of the Earth to establish heaven and through a knowledge of heaven to transform the Earth. This he is capable of, because his nature is related to both worlds. The super-conscious spirit of Man is rooted in the heavenly worlds. Through a process of self-consciousness-raising the soul is able to work in the sense of the good. The subconsciousness of Man that wants to live out through the earthly corporeality is rooted in the inside of the Earth. By following his subconsciousness, Man acts in the sense of evil.

The soul of Man is thus a stage on which the struggle between the good and the bad is acted out. At the same time, however, it is a place where God undergoes His crucifixion and is to resurrect. And the fact that this has come about, that is what Man owes to this earthly destiny. For the Mystery of Golgotha had in the course of the whole development of mankind following the Fall to be prepared according to the laws of karma. It could only occur by virtue of the fact that the positive as well as the negative karma of mankind contributed thereto. In fact, the positive karma of mankind made the conception of the Savior in the Jordan and His birth at Golgotha possible. It lies at the basis of the complete genealogy of Jesus as well as the whole path of destiny that led Jesus to the Jordan. Thanks to this positive karma of mankind, thanks to this regenerating stream of the human race, which consisted of the prophets and initiates, mankind was judged by the spiritual world to be worthy to give birth to the Savior from its bosom.

The other, the negative stream of this karma of mankind led on the contrary to the death of the Redeemer. Thus mankind was condemned to kill that Holy of Holies that it had itself given birth to.

Mannkind received the strength to give birth to Jesus from heaven. This was a result of its covenant with the spiritual world. The strength to kill Christ, mankind received from the earthly depths. And this was the consequence of its sinfulness. And at the place where these two streams crossed each other, the cross of Golgotha was erected, the cross on which the cosmic I, born trough the mediation of mankind, now, through the mediation of the same mankind, had to suffer death and could conquer death through death.[1]

This wonderful relationship of mankind with the Mystery of Golgotha prompts us to look back at this mystery as something that must appear to us as the greatest guilt and at the same time as our only rescue. We are guilty of the fact that the Godman was crucified – such we must tell us – but by His Grace we were saved. And by immersing ourselves in this unique feeling, which is at the same time a feeling of infinite guilt and a feeling of infinite gratitude, something happens in us that reveals our true relationship to the Savior: We learn to love Christ.

For while with respect to heaven Christ is the Revealer of the Father and with respect to the Earth the victor over evil, with respect to mankind He is the Benefactor of love.

By meditating on the cross, the Cross of Golgotha through an experience of co-crucifixion love is born in Man. For what happens in the process? For the soul that immerses herself in the symbol of the cross, a repetition occurs of that what happened on a large scale in Palestine. Just as at that time the Crucified One descended into the subconsciousness of the Earth and from there rose as a victor over evil, He does so now also in the subconscious soul depths of the human being beholding the Cross of Golgotha with a feeling of infinite guilt and gratitude. The Crucified One descends into the subconscious depths of such a human being and by achieving victory over the dark Ahrimanic double, He arises in the soul of the human being as love.

Whereas all other beings by the descent into the depths must lose the connection with the Father, Christ is the Only Being that also maintains this connection below, that also remains united with the Father below, through death revealing the Father. And whereas therefore with all other beings by their descent into the depths the good must be transformed into evil, by Christ occurs a transformation from evil into the good. Thus also by means of the experience of co-crucifixion the dark double of Man as the bearer of negative karma is overcome by the Christ power of the Cross and love born as the power of positive karma.



[1] See also Valentin Tomberg, “Meditations on the Tarot”, Lesson XX “Judgment”, where the crucifixion of Christ is called a magical act of homeopathy.  

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