Conference given on December 24, 1920.

The Christmas Festival gives something to Christianity that makes the thoughts of all circles of Christian people direct rights towards the deepest questions presented by the evolution of humanity on earth. Contemplate the evolution of history from any point of view you want, take into account historical events to understand human evolution, to penetrate the meaning of human evolution on earth, and throughout history you will not find such a thought widely understandable or have enough power to lift the soul towards this mystery of human evolution as the thought of the Mystery of Golgotha, as the thought that is contained in the Christmas Festival.

When we look back to the beginning of human evolution on earth, and follow it through the thousands of years that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, we find that, although the achievements of the peoples in all the various nations were so extraordinary, without In reality, however, all these achievements were only a kind of preparation: they were a preparatory step towards what took place for the good of humanity in the Mystery of Golgotha . In addition, we see that we can only understand what has happened since the Mystery of Golgotha ​​when we remember that the Christ who went through the Mystery of Golgotha has played an active role in the evolution of humanity since then.

Many things of human evolution may seem at first sight incomprehensible, and yet, if we investigate them without narrow superstition, for example the kind of superstition that believes that unknown gods should come to help human beings without their active participation, and that such help should come just when human beings consider it necessary, if we put aside such points of view, we find that even the most painful events in the course of world history can show us the transcendence and meaning that evolution of the earth he has acquired through the fact that Christ passed through the Mystery of Golgotha . It is appropriate for us to study this Mystery of Golgotha - and the mystery of

Christmas falls within the scope of that - from a point of view that can reveal, as we said, the meaning of everything about earthly humanity. We know how intimate is the connection between what takes place in the moral-spiritual sphere of human evolution and what takes place in nature. And with a certain understanding of this link between nature and the moral order of the world we can also approach another relationship with which we have been concerned for many years, that is, the relationship of Jesus Christ with that being whose external reflection appears in the sun . The followers and representatives of the Christic impulse were not always as hostile towards the recognition of this connection between the mystery of the sun and the mystery of Christ as are now so often the decadent present representatives of Christianity. Dionisio el Aeropagita, whom we have often mentioned, calls the sun the monument of God, and in Augustine we continually find similar allusions. Even in Scholasticism we find references to the fact that externally visible stars and their movements are the images of the divine-spiritual existence of the world.

However, we must understand the mystery of

Christmas in a much broader context, if we want to understand what should concern us above all in view of the important tasks of the current era. I would like to remind you of something that I have repeatedly presented in various ways over the course of many years. I have told you: we looked back at the first post-Atlantean era, which was full of acts and experiences of the ancient Indian people; We look back at the ancient Persian era of post-Atlantean humanity, Egypt-Chaldea and Greco-Latin. We then arrive at the fifth time of post-Atlantean humanity, our own time. Our time will be followed by the sixth and seventh. And I have turned your attention to the fact that the Greco-Latin era, the fourth time of post-Atlantean humanity, is, as we said, in the middle, and that there are certain connections (you can read about this in my booklet The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity) between the third and fifth times, that is, between the Egypt-Chaldean era and ours, there is also a certain connection between the ancient Persian and the sixth epoch, and between the ancient Indian era and the seventh time of the post-Atlantean humanity Specific elements are repeated in a certain way in each of these times of life.

Once it was pointed out that the great Kepler, the successor of Copernicus, had the feeling that his solar and planetary system was repeating, of course in a manner appropriate to the fifth. Post-Atlantean era, what had been the image of the world behind the mysteries of the Egyptian priests. Kepler himself expressed this in a very radical way when he said that he had borrowed the ships of the ancient Egyptian masters of wisdom to bring them into the new era.

Today, however, we will consider something that remained, in a sense, at the center of the vision found in the cult rituals performed by priests in the Egyptian mystery religion; We will consider the mystery of Isis . To evoke in our minds the spiritual connection between the mystery of Isis and that which also lives in Christianity, we only need to look with the eyes of the soul the famous painting of Rafael de

the Madonna Sistina. The Virgin has taken the baby Jesus, and behind her are the clouds, representing a multitude of children. We can imagine the Virgin receiving the baby Jesus descending through the clouds, through a condensation, as we said, of the fine substance of the clouds. Created from an entirely Christian spirit, this painting is, after all, nothing more than a kind of repetition of what the Egyptian mysteries revered when they represented Isis holding the child Horus in her arms. The reason for that early painting is in complete harmony with that of Rafael's painting. Of course, this fact should not tempt us to a superficial interpretation, common among many people from the 18th and 19th centuries to the present day, that is, to see the story of Jesus Christ and everything that belongs to it as a mere metamorphosis, a transformation, of the ancient pagan mysteries. From my book Christianity as Mystical Fact, you already know how to understand these things. However, in the sense explained in that book we are allowed to highlight a spiritual congruence between what appears in Christianity and the ancient pagan mysteries.

The main content of the mystery of Isis is the death of Osiris and the search for Isis from the corpse of Osiris. We know that Osiris, the representative of the being of the sun, the representative of the spiritual sun, is killed by Typhon, who, expressed in Egyptian terms, is none other than Ahriman. Ahriman kills Osiris, throws him into the Nile, and the Nile takes the body. Isis, Osiris' wife, goes looking for him and finds him in Asia. He brings it back to Egypt, where Ahriman, the enemy, cuts his body into fourteen parts. Isis buries these fourteen parts in various places, so that they belong to the earth forever and ever.

We can see in this story how Egyptian wisdom conceived the connection between the powers of heaven and the powers of the earth in a deeply meaningful way. On the one hand, Osiris is the representative of the powers of the sun. After having passed through death he is, in several places and simultaneously, the force that matures everything that grows from the earth. The ancient Egyptian sage imagines in a completely spiritual way how the powers that shine from the sun, enter the earth and then become part of it, and how, as powers of the sun buried in the earth, then deliver to the human being That grows from the earth. The Egyptian myth is based on the story of Osiris - how he was murdered, how his wife had to go out on his quest, how he first brought him to Egypt and how he became active then in another way, that is, from within the earth.

One of the Egyptian pyramids represents the entire event in a particularly significant way.

The Egyptians not only recorded what they knew as the solution to the great secrets of the universe in their own peculiar writing, they also expressed it in their architectural constructions. They built one of these pyramids with such mathematical precision that the sun's shadow disappeared at the base of the pyramid in the spring equinox and only reappeared in the autumn equinox. The Egyptians wanted to express in this pyramid that the forces of the sun's rays buried from spring to autumn in the earth, where the forces of the earth develop, so that the earth can produce the fruits that humanity needs.

This, then, is the idea that we find present in the minds and hearts of the ancient Egyptians. On the one hand, they look at the sun, they look at the sublime being of the sun and they adore it. At the same time, however, they relate how this being of the sun was lost in Osiris, and was searched by Isis, and how he was found again in such a way that he is then able to continue working in a different way.

Many things that appeared in Egyptian wisdom must be repeated in a different way during our fifth post-Atlantean era. Humanity must gradually come to understand from a scientific-spiritual point of view the mysteries of the Egyptian priests in a manner appropriate to our own time, in a Christian sense. For the Egyptians, Osiris was a kind of representative of the Christ who had not yet arrived on earth. In their own way they looked at Osiris as the being of the sun, but imagined that this being of the sun had been lost in one sense, and had to be found again. We cannot imagine that the being of our sun, the Christ, who has passed through the Mystery of Golgotha could be lost to humanity, since he came down from spiritual heights, joined with the man Jesus of Nazareth, and since then remains in the land. It is present, it exists, as the Christmas carol proclaims each new year "The Savior is Born." In this way he expresses the eternal, non-transitory nature of this event. Jesus was not only born once in Bethlehem, but is continually being born, in other words, he remains with the life of the earth. What Christ is, and what it means to us, cannot be lost.

But the legend of Isis must be shown to be fulfilled in another way in our time. We cannot lose Christ and what he, in a form superior to Osiris, gives us; but we can lose, and we have lost, what is represented for our Christian understanding by remaining beside Osiris - Isis - the mother of the savior, divine wisdom, Sophia. If the legend of Isis is to be renewed, then it must not simply follow the ancient form, Osiris, killed by Typhon-Ahriman and carried along the waters of the Nile, must be found again by Isis so that his body, torn apart by Typhon- Ahriman, may it be sunk in the earth.

In a sense, we must find the legend again, the content of the mystery of Isis, but we must create it from our imagination, appropriate to our own times. An understanding of the eternal cosmic truths must arise again, and it will do so when we learn to think and compose imaginatively, as the Egyptians did. But we must find the correct Isis legend.

The Egyptians were impregnated with Luciferic powers, as were all human beings who lived before the Mystery of Golgotha . If the Luciferic powers are within the human being and stimulate the internal life, moving and interwoven with it, the result will then be that the Ahrimanic powers will appear as an active force outside the human being. In this way the Egyptians, who were impregnated by Lucifer, correctly see an image of the world in which Ahriman-Typhon is active.

Now, we must realize that modern humanity is permeated by Ahriman. Ahriman moves and grows within human beings, just as Lucifer moved and grew in the Egyptian world. However, when Ahriman works through Lucifer, then human beings see his image of the world in a Luciferic way. How does the human being see this image of the world? This Luciferic image of the world has been created, it is here. It has become increasingly popular in modern times and has taken over all the circles of people who want to be considered progressive and enlightened.

If we want to understand the mystery of

Christmas, we must keep in mind that Lucifer is the eager power to retain the image of the world from an earlier time. Lucifer is the power that tries to bring to the conception of the modern world that which existed in earlier stages of human development. He wants to give permanence to what existed in previous periods. Everything that was moral in earlier stages also exists today of course. (The importance of morality always resides in the present, where, as seeds for the future, it provides the basis for the creation of worlds to come). But Lucifer strives to separate morality as such, all moral forces, from our image of the world. He allows only the laws of natural necessity to appear in our image of the external world. Thus the impoverished human being of modern times is presented with a wisdom of the world in which the stars move according to pure mechanical necessity, in which the stars are empty Those of morality, so that the moral meaning of the world order cannot be found in its movements. This, my dear friends, is a purely Luciferic world image.

Just as the Egyptians looked at the world and saw Ahriman-Typhon as the one who took Osiris from them, so too, we should look at our Luciferic image of the world, the image of the mathematical world. Tico-mechanics of modern astronomy and other branches of natural science, and realize that the Luciferic element dominates in this image of the world, just like the Typhon-Ahrimanic dominican element in the image of the Egyptian world. Just as the ancient Egyptians saw their image of the outside world under a Typhon-Ahrimanic light, in the same way modern human beings, because they are Ahrimanic, they see it with Luciferic characteristics. Lucifer is present, he is working there. Just as the Egyptians imagined Ahriman-Typhon working in the wind and weather, in winter storms, also human beings, if they really want to understand the world, must imagine that Lucifer appears to them in the brightness of the sun and in the light of the stars, in the movements of the planets and the moon. The image of the world of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler is a Luciferic construction. Precisely because it arose from and corresponds to our Ahrimanic forces of knowledge, its content please distinguish here between method and content is Luciferic.

When the Mystery of Golgotha ​​took place,

the Divine Sophia, the wisdom that allows us to see the world with understanding, worked in a double way. Divine wisdom, heavenly wisdom worked in revelation to the poor shepherds in the fields, and in revelation to them because of our new knowledge. We do not lack Christ, but the knowledge of Christ, the Sophia of Christ, the Isis of Christ, we lack.

This is what we should record in our souls as content of the mystery of

Christmas. We must realize that since the nineteenth century even theology has come to see Christ simply as the man of Nazareth. That means that theology is completely impregnated by Lucifer. He no longer sees within the spiritual background of existence. The external natural science is Luciferic; Theology is Luciferic. Of course if we are talking about the internal aspect of the human being as you can see from my previous words we could also say that in this theology the human being is Ahrimanic. So in the same way we must say of the Egyptians that they were Luciferic, just as we say of them that their perception of the external world was Ahrimanic. Modern human beings must understand the mystery of Christmas in a new way. They must understand that they must seek Isis first of all, so that Christ can appear to them. The cause of our misfortunes and the problems of modern civilization is not that we have lost Christ, who remains before us with much greater glory than Osiris did in the eyes of the Egyptians. It is not that we have lost him and need to leave in his search, armed with the strength of Isis. No, what we have lost is the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the understanding of his being. This is what we must find again with the power of Jesus Christ that is in us.

This is how we should look at the content of the Christmas festival. For many modern people

Christmas is nothing more than a party to give and receive gifts, something they celebrate every year by habit. Like so many other things in modern life, the Christmas Festival has become empty words. And it is fair because so many things have become nothing more than words, that modern life is so full of calamities and chaos.

This is truly the deepest reason for chaos in our modern life. If in this our community, we could acquire the right feelings for everything that has become mere phrases in the current era, and if these feelings could make us able to find the necessary impulses for the renovations that are so necessary, then this community, which the anthroposophical community calls itself, would be worthy of its existence. This community should understand the terrible importance for our time that such things as the Christmas festival are transferred as a mere phrase. We should be able to understand that in the future this should not be allowed, and that these things should be given new content. Old habits must be left behind and new understandings must take their place. If we cannot find the inner courage necessary to do this, then we participate in the lie that keeps the annual Christmas festival simply as a phrase, celebrating it without our souls feeling the true meaning of the event. Are we really elevated to the highest concerns of humanity when we give and receive gifts every year by habit in this festival of Christ? Do we rise to the greatest concerns of humanity when we hear the words - which have also become a phrase - spoken by the representatives of the various religious communities? We should forbid ourselves from continuing this emptiness in our celebration of

Christmas. We should make the internal decision to give such a holiday a content that allows the most worthy, high feelings to pass through our souls. A festival celebration like that would elevate humanity to the understanding of the meaning of its existence.

Ask yourself if the feelings in your hearts and souls when you are in front of the Christmas tree and open the gifts that are given by habit, and the Christmas cards containing the usual phrases - ask yourself if the feelings that live in You can elevate humanity to an understanding of the meaning of its evolution on earth! All the problems and misfortunes of our age are due to this - we cannot find the courage to rise above the hollow phrases of our age. But it must happen, a new content must become content, which can give us completely new feelings that stimulate us powerfully, just as those people who were true Christians were encouraged in the first centuries of Christianity, and who felt the Mystery of Golgotha ​​and the appearance of Christ as the highest that humanity can experience on earth. Our souls must acquire something of that spirit again.

Oh, the soul will achieve completely new feelings if it feels committed to experiencing the new legend of Isis in modern humanity. Lucifer kills Isis and then puts his body in the infinity of space, which has become the tomb of Isis, a mathematical abstraction. Then comes the search for Isis, and its discovery, made possible thanks to the inner strength of spiritual knowledge. Instead of skies that have died, this knowledge places what the stars and planets reveal through an inner life, so that they appear then as monuments to the spiritual powers that interweave the space. We are able to look at the manger today in the right way only if we experience in a unique way what is interwoven with spiritual power throughout the space, and then look at that being who came into the world through the child. We know that we carry this being within us, but we must also understand him. Just as the Egyptians looked from Osiris to Isis, so we must learn to look again at the new Isis, the sacred Sophia. Christ will appear again in his spiritual form during the course of the twentieth century, not through the arrival of external events only, but because human beings find the power represented by the sacred Sophia. The modern era has had the tendency to lose this power of Isis, this power of Mary. He has been killed for everything that came up with the modern consciousness of humanity. And the confessions have partly exterminated this vision of Mary.

This is the mystery of modern humanity: fundamentally speaking, Maria-Isis has been murdered, and must be sought, just as Osiris was sought by Isis in Asia. But it must be sought in the infinite spaces of the universe with the power that Christ can awake in us if we devote ourselves to him in the right way.

Imagine this correctly, let's immerse ourselves in this new legend of Isis that must be experienced, and let our souls be filled with it. Then we will experience in a true sense what humanity in many of its representatives believes, that this new legend fills the holy Christmas Eve, to take us to Christmas Day, the day of Christ. This anthroposophical community could become a community of human beings united in love because they feel the need, common to all of them, to seek. Let's be aware of this more than an intimate task! Let us go in spirit to the manger and take to the Child our sacrifice and our gift, which resides in the knowledge that something completely new must fill our souls, so that we can fulfill the tasks that can lead humanity out of the barbarism towards a truly new civilization.

To achieve this, of course, it is absolutely necessary that in our circles we are prepared to help each other with love, so that a new community of souls arises in which all forms of envy and the like disappear, and in which we do not simply look at each other, but instead face together the great goal we have in common. The mystery brought to the world by the child of

Christmas also contains this that we can face a common goal without discord because the common goal means union in harmony. The Christmas light should really shine like a light of peace, like a light that brings outer peace, only because it first brings inner peace to the hearts of human beings. We should learn to tell ourselves: If we can work together with love in great tasks, then, and only then, do we understand Christmas. If we cannot achieve this, we do not understand Christmas.

Remember that when we sow discord, this discord hinders us in the understanding of the one who appeared among human beings on the first Christmas of the earth. We cannot pour this mystery of

Christmas in our souls, as something that unites our hearts in love and harmony? If we do not understand correctly what spiritual science is, then we will not be able to do this. Nothing will come from this community if we simply provide ideas and impulses that we have collected from all corners of the world, where clich s and routine dominate. Let us remember that our community is facing a difficult year, that all our forces must be reunited, and we will celebrate Christmas with this spirit. Oh, I would like to find words that could speak deeply to the heart of each one of you tonight. Then each of you would feel that my words contain a congratulation that is at the same time a supplication to ignite the spiritual science within your hearts, so that it can become a power that can help the humanity that is living under such terrible oppression. .

Starting with such points of view, I have gathered the thoughts I wanted to tell you. Be sure that they were intended as a warm Christmas greeting to each of you, as something that can take you to the new year in the best possible way. With this spirit, accept my words today as they were intended, as an affectionate Christmas greeting.