Star Events in the Time of Christ It is extremely difficult to find out from the few remaining historical sources the accurate dates of the life of Christ. The traditional date of the birth of Jesus is 25 December 1 BC. However, modern historical research is doubtful of the authenticity of this date. Today many believe that Jesus was born in the year 4 BC or even earlier, but this assumption is built entirely upon a chronological hypothesis. Everything depends upon the year of the foundation of Rome, because this is the starting point of Roman chronology according to which the simultaneous historical events recorded in the Gospels are dated. Usually the year of the foundation of Rome is given as 753 BC, but other convincing sources suggest the year 747 BC; therefore, it is very difficult to find out the real time by mere historical research. The year of the crucifixion also cannot easily be ascertained and opinion differs considerably, but one old tradition speaks of 3 April 33 AD, and Rudolf Steiner has confirmed that this is the historical date. Another problem is the time that elapsed between the Baptism in the Jordan, which marks the beginning of Christ's activity in Palestine, and the death on Golgotha. According to the Gospels the Baptism took place when Jesus was thirty years old, and it happened on the day of Epiphany; the day of “Appearance”, which is one of the oldest Christian festivals. From the results of past research, which as far as possible will be given in the course of these letters, it can be assumed that the Baptism took place on 6 January 31 AD. If we accept the traditional date of the birth of Jesus as the Christmas of 1 BC, then Jesus was actually thirty years old at Christmas of 30 AD, and the Baptism would have taken place a few days later, on Epiphany, 31 AD. Then the time from the Baptism till the death on Golgotha comprises only two and a quarter years, which from several points of view is quite probable. All this may at first sound very doubtful, but we will see in the course of our descriptions that the events in the starry world confirm many of the chronological assumptions upon which this work seems to be built. Ages before Christ's birth, this event was predicted by the initiates of the old Star wisdom in ancient Persia. Today we can look back and find with a newly created Star wisdom the facts about the Life of Christ, and we can also create an understanding for the records in the Gospels. At first we will not go into details about the birth of Jesus, but we shall do so later if it is possible. This may seem strange, as it is customary in describing the life of a personality to start with the nativity; however, in this case it is quite different. We have to make a distinction between Jesus and Christ. Jesus was a human being who was born into a physical body, but in Christ we are concerned with a Spirit who was far above a human being and who could truly say of Itself that It was the Son of the Heavenly Father. Jesus was a man, and he was the bearer of a physical body. Of him we can calculate a nativity or a horoscope. But Christ is the God who entered the body of Jesus at the moment of the Baptism in the Jordan and dwelt in this body for about three years, and a God has no horoscope. A God cannot be bound to one fixed hour. The Gods rule the life and the rhythms of the stars, and we shall see how majestically the whole universe was present in Christ and the deeds of Christ. Therefore, we cannot look upon a star event in the past, for instance the nativity of Jesus, unless we have read the simultaneous happenings in the sky in order to find the spiritual meaning of Christ's words and deeds. Hence, we will start with a description of the position of the planets at the time that we consider to have been the time of the Baptism, 6 January 31 AD, and then we shall follow the gestures and movements of the planets during the following years. On Epiphany in 31 AD, we find the planets in the following positions: Saturn was in the constellation of Twins, and at this time of the year it was making a loop there. Jupiter stood in Ram. Mars had just entered the constellation of Ram. The Sun was in Goat. Mercury had also entered Goat. Venus stood in Waterman. The Moon was in the constellations of Scales and Scorpion. This is not a very spectacular aspect in the sense of traditional astrology, yet we will see that we can get much further with the help of the knowledge that we have acquired in studying the world's evolution in connection with the Zodiac and the planets. On 6 January 31 AD, which we take as the date of the Baptism in the Jordan, the Sun stood in Goat. From there it moved through Waterman and Fishes and entered Ram about the time of the Passover festival in 31 AD. This must have been the time of which we read in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd chapters of St. John. This includes the testimony of St. John the Baptist, the selection of the first five disciples, the wedding of Cana, Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem, and Jesus talking with Nicodemus. Following this, Christ went to Galilee and, we can now imagine, did all the deeds and spoke the words of which we read in the other three Gospels up to the time of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. This miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand must have happened in the time of the Passover festival of 32 AD, according to the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 6. After this, another eventful year elapsed until the Passover of 33 AD, which was preceded by the crucifixion. Thus we have three Passover festivals in the life of Christ and, of course, three times the Sun moves into the constellation of Ram. These three events mark three decisive stepping stones toward the revelation of Christ in the body of Jesus. Since olden times, the Sun has been regarded as a balancing power in our solar universe that creates a balance between the so-called superior planets of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, and the inferior planets Venus and Mercury. If we look upon the Sun in connection with the life of Christ, we will find that Christ brought down or represented this balancing power in the deeds and works on Earth in full harmony with the movement of the Sun. Therefore, this balancing activity revealed itself always in different spheres of life according to the position of the Sun in the Zodiac. At the Passover in 31 AD, the Sun was in Ram. Therefore, we should be able to find the revelation of the balancing power of Christ within a sphere corresponding spiritually to this event in the sky. Truly we can find it. In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John, we hear St. John the Baptist saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. This happened immediately before the Passover, corresponding to the Christian Easter festival when the Sun was in Ram. Then St. John the Baptist clairvoyantly beheld the revelation of the spiritual Being that penetrated Jesus as He walked along the shore of the river Jordan. He saw behind Jesus the spiritual Being, the “Lamb of God”, Who has been known to occultists since olden days. The “Lamb” is the spiritual reality hidden behind the visible constellation of the Ram that was present in Jesus as the Sun was in Ram. Who is the Lamb of God? If we perceive a person with our senses we see only the earthly physical body, but we know that this is not the whole person. We know that within this form other forces — we might call them “bodies” — are active although they are invisible to the senses. The clairvoyant can behold them with supersensible organs. The physical body is penetrated by life-actions. Each human being has individual life forces that build up the body according to its innate destiny. Thus each of us has an individual “life organism” or “ether body” as we call it in occultism. The human organism is also penetrated by individualized consciousness forces. The seer beholds these forces as the “astral body”. Furthermore, human beings are penetrated by forces that make it possible for each of us to realize ourselves as individual beings who are separated from the others. This is the ego or “I”. But a human being is not only an accumulation of those supersensible forces within. There is a purpose. The realization of the ego makes it possible for us to evolve our “members”, the astral body, the ether body, and the physical body through life on Earth and from incarnation to incarnation. The transformed “substances” of the lower members then constitute different realities, apart from the existence of the lower members, and these can be clairvoyantly beheld as supersensible “bodies”. Thus the human being has a transmuted astral body (the “Spirit-Self” or “Manas” in the occult language), a transmuted ether body (“Life-Spirit” or “Buddhi”), and a transmuted physical body (“Spirit-Man”, or “Atman”). Thus the human being is composed of seven “members”: the physical body, the ether body, the astral body, the “I”, the transmuted astral, ether, and physical bodies. However, it is not only the human being who is composed of a sevenfoldness of members, all beings, also the hierarchical beings, have seven higher members. The Christ Being is a sevenfold entity, only the“higher members” are far more exalted than those of humanity. Christ's highest principle has been called, since ancient times, the “Lamb of God”, and it is this that St. John the Baptist beheld while Christ walked along the river Jordan. Its cosmic expression is the constellation of Ram. The “Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world.” What is the sin of the world? It is the great cosmic Fall that we described in letters 11 and 12, in connection with the developments of the period of Ancient Moon evolution. A reflection of this Fall took place within the Earth evolution in the loss of the Paradise that is described in the Old Testament. This is the “sin of the world” that “the Lamb of God taketh away”. Thus we have now to behold the mighty revelation of Christ on Earth, as the representation of the forces of the Sun while dwelling in the body of Jesus. The Sun has a balancing power in the universe. Christ has brought this balancing power down to the suffering Earth. The balancing power is “the taking away of the sin of the world”. At the moment when St. John the Baptist had his vision, the Sun was in Ram. On Earth the balancing power of the universe was revealed as the “Lamb of God”. We can now take the image of the “sin of the world”, of the great Fall, as we have described it in connection with Mars in the 12 constellations of the Zodiac (letter 12), and look at it from the point of view of the Sun. Mars in the 12 constellations represents the image of the Fall and the cosmic hope for its redemption. If we look at the Sun in the 12 constellations, we find the redeeming and balancing power of Christ in all spheres of life. The Sun in Ram — or the revelation of the “Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world” — is the mighty overture of the harmonizing “Sun activity” of Christ in those events in Palestine at the beginning of our era. The prophecy of the Lamb of God who, through Its own sacrifice, would come and save the world from sin, was alive in the Hebrew people since the early days of their constitution. It lived in the yearly ritual of the Passover Lamb. Besides this there was another ritual that was performed by the priests in the temple at Jerusalem. Every year a ram was symbolically laden with the sin of the people and then cast into the rocky abyss of a deep valley. But when the time had come, St. John the Baptist was the first who clairvoyantly beheld, in the One who stood on the shore of the river Jordan, the Lamb of God who had now really come into the world in order to save it from sin. This was no longer a symbol, it was now a reality, and he baptized people in the water so that they might also behold the decisive event that he had seen. This happened during the time of the Passover in 31 AD, when the Sun was in the constellation of Ram or “Lamb”. We must now imagine that as the Sun moved through the following constellations of the Zodiac, the revelation of Christ in the various realms of human and earthly existence took place. The Christ Being came from the Sun and had been the Leader of the hierarchical Beings who dwelled on that celestial body. There the Christ had also worked through the Sun as the Leader of the Spirits of Wisdom — the “Lamb of God” — and it was the shining cosmic Wisdom of this hierarchy that finally appeared as the visible Sun light. Thus the Christ Being was perceived by the seers since olden times. Zarathustra, the great initiator of the Old Persian culture, beheld this Being beyond the visible Sun and called It “Ahura Mazdao”, the Great Sun Aura. Those old initiates beheld the One through whose presence the Sun person on Earth could perceive the light of the Sun. They experienced the spiritual manifestation of this presence in twelve grand imaginations just as the visible Sun moved through the twelve constellations of the Zodiac. Thus when they looked up to the Sun, they knew that behind the Sun-light the Great Sun Spirit was working Who, in the garment of the visible Sun rays, sent gifts down to the Earth. They also saw this Being descend step by step to the Earth and, when the time came, enter the sphere of the Earth and imprint the twelvefold spiritual light of Its Being into the Earth. Since that time the Sun in the sky only carried on as “work” what once before had been direct activity of the “Light of the World”. During those two or three years, the spiritual Sun activity was imprinted into the Earth, and we will see how this incarnation of the Spirit of the Sun took place in twelve emanations according to the path of the Sun through the twelve constellations. As the Sun moved twice through the Zodiac in the time from Easter 31 AD until Easter 33 AD, the Spirit of the Sun breathed Life into the Earth. Thus there is a great difference between the activity of the Sun before the events in Palestine and afterward. After the Death on Golgotha, the Earth was endowed with the twelve rays of the Sun Spirit in order to prepare it for its task in a far distant future when it should become a new Sun in the universe. Therefore, we could speak in the last letter of the importance of the “open space” of the nativity. Before Golgotha this would not have been possible. At that time, it was still the Sun that was directly active. It is also the reason why we can still experience the twelve fold emanation of the Sun Spirit, in the three years before Golgotha, in the mirror of the movement of the visible Sun through the Zodiac. We must only be aware of the fact that Christ was not bound to a “nativity” — to a fixed-star event — as the Spirit of the Sun was present in every immediate station of its consecutive path. If we look now into the Sun and try to read in it, as in a mirror, what happened in Palestine at the beginning of our era, we should also recognize the fact that we experience through the Sun only one part or aspect of the whole background of events, because the Zodiac reflects itself also in the five planets besides the Sun and Moon. However, it is especially the Sun that is able to accumulate in its own activity that of the other celestial bodies of our solar universe. In the events connected with the Sun we can always find the echo, as it were, of the influence of the other planets. As we have pointed out in the 13th letter, the Sun is connected with the activity of the Spirits of Form; it is the presence of the Sun in the universe that makes events and objects on Earth “real”. As the light of the visible Sun makes the objects in nature existent in space for our eyes — during the hours of darkness only “artificial” light makes them visible — thus the spiritual activity of the Sun creates physical “reality” (see letter 13.). The Sun activity, though indirectly through the polaric influence of the Earth in the universe, brings about “empiric realism”. We have already spoken about the position of the Sun in Ram or “Lamb”. Furthermore, it is the revelation of Christ as the Light that dwells in the heights where thought originates, not only that which we call thought as it appears in us but also the Thought that lives in the Gods. We can now imagine or read, so to speak, in the mirror which the Sun presents in Ram, that this time around Passover 31 AD was a period in Christ's revelation to enter into the mystery of cosmic and human thought and where the true nature of thought was made manifest; Thought as the primeval creative power in the whole evolution. In the time of Christ, humanity entered slowly but surely into a trend of evolution whereupon it finally lost the experience of Thought or the Idea as a creative spiritual entity. We can see the turning point already in the change from the Platonic to the Aristotelian thinking. Humanity would have lost its own future if, against this development, the spiritual world had not set a counteraction. Christ is the Guardian against this decline, and we can find in the Gospels certain passages that reveal a little of the deed of Christ as the Savior of the cognition of the Thought or the Idea as a living, world-creative entity. Just as one who sits in a dark room that is now and then penetrated by a ray of light from behind a curtain, we behold this revelation. First, it appears in the so-called “testimony” of St. John in the introductory words of his Gospel where he says, “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by God, and without God was not anything made that was made.” This is the glory of the Thought or the Idea of the Gods that created everything which had become flesh, so that to those “who received Christ, were given the power to become the Sons of God.” Further, we can find a glimpse of this revelation of Christ as the Logos, or Word, of the World in the conversation at night with Nicodemus that is recorded in St. John, chapter III. Nicodemus was one of the few who were initiated into the esoteric teaching of his people. He grasped this teaching with the capacity of philosophical thinking, yet his thoughts had no power; the experience of their spiritual reality had vanished from him. He realized this loss in the loneliness of the night. Suddenly Christ stood before him, and in his soul the reality awoke of the “Son of God” who can live in every human being as the “Son of Humanity”. He realized the creative power of thinking if Christ, the Logos of the World, lives in it. Through Christ, thought comes to life within the soul of humanity. Humanity developed thinking during the age in which Christ lived, and through it had the possibility to unite with the Son of Humanity or fall into the danger of using this power only to reflect earthly realities. Thinking was in danger of dying in the soul of humanity, but through the soul experience of Christ, the Logos of the World, it could and can become the creative foundation of a new spiritual universe. Thus a person can be reborn within the realm of a higher world and take part in the life of eternity. Nicodemus realized that the Logos, who created the world in the beginning, could become awakened in every human heart as the power of ever-creating divine thought. Next the Sun entered the constellation of Bull. While the Sun was in this position, the descent of the Sun-Spirit from the revelation as the Logos of the universe to the manifestation as the healing Logos or Word took place. In the beginning the Logos/Word created all existing beings. The healing Word continues to keep them in existence and heals all that comes to grief in the later stages of evolution. At the moment when the Sun was in the constellation of Bull, the Sun-Spirit entered the earthly realm and imprinted Its power upon our planet. We can find the shadows of this mighty revelation in the records of the Gospels. For instance, in the Gospel of St. Mark, chapter 1:32-35, we read that multitudes of sick people were brought to Christ who healed them all. Moreover, we are told that they were brought in the evening when the Sun set. We have the clear indication in this that cosmic constellations, including the relationship between Sun and Earth, worked through Christ and were present in Christ while performing the healing acts. Christ gathered the cosmic forces of the Sun in the morning. It says in verse 35 of the same chapter: “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, Christ went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” In the evening, Christ spent that which had been gathered from the spiritual Sun in the morning as healing forces. The harmonized employment of morning and evening forces of the whole universe is the source of this healing faculty. They were imprinted upon the Earth in those events and have been present ever since, if we are willing to open our hearts to them. Furthermore, the Gospel of St. Matthew IV:23, indicates quite clearly that the revelation of the Word and the healing deed was one action: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” It was really the spiritual power of Bull, concentrated in the Sun that was then imprinted upon the Earth and since then is ever-present in it. After that the Sun entered the constellation of the Twins. We can experience in this cosmic event the reflection of deeds through which Christ was revealed as the Guardian of the mysteries of the “I” that have worked in evolution since the beginning of the world and which were then ripe to be imprinted upon earthly existence. The counsel of the Gods decided in the beginning of the world that what had hitherto been one united whole, was to be divided into many single beings. Thus the multitude of single beings then became the vehicles of personality within the evolution of humanity. In the course of time, the danger arose that the single earthly personality might lose itself in loneliness and separation from its origin and from other beings. This danger was especially acute in the time of Christ. When the Sun was in Twins, Christ endowed the Earth in such a way that human beings could again bring their existence into harmony with their fellow human beings and with their spiritual origin. Also established on Earth during this time was the mystery of the re-union of the human race, which was scattered and differentiated throughout the various races, peoples, and numberless individuals, in Christ as the spiritual representative of humanity. Again we can find the reflection of these events in the Gospels; for instance, in the selection and the ordaining of the twelve apostles. With this act Christ manifested on Earth and visible to all humanity, the new order in which humanity can again experience the oneness and wholeness of the human race and even of all created beings. The order of the apostles was formed according to the fundamental laws of the universe. Just as the twelve constellations of the Zodiac are the fundamental images of the differentiations of all existence and yet are one, and just as the Sun passes through the twelve signs in the course of time, so the twelve apostles stood around the One in their center and were one body as Christ dwelled in them. That the single human being can unite with its fellow human beings and its spiritual origin when it orders its life according to the great laws and images of the spiritual universe is a fact that was always known in the old mysteries and in the sanctuaries of the temples. But it was known only to a very small select part of humanity, those who were initiated in the old mystery places. Now, it was the deed of Christ, the revelation as the spiritual Leader of the hierarchy of the Exusiai, that these mysteries of the “ I” were manifested within the visible so that all humanity could perceive them. From now on it was possible for all humanity, and not only for a few selected ones, to form the life of the human community so that harmony and peace could dwell within it. That which was given through the ordaining of the twelve apostles enshrines everything that humanity needs for the solution of the complexities of the social and economic life of the human race, and it would be of great benefit for all human community life if each of us could bring to life within our own soul these events during the time of Christ. Thus the new and true essentials of human brotherhood were imprinted upon the Earth, and since that time they are alive in humanity. In pre-Christian times humanity lived according to the laws of blood relationships, according to races, peoples, and families. When Christ united with Earth existence as the Guardian of the mysteries of the “I”, this came to an end. Christ even strongly rejected the old bonds that guarded the social life of humanity. We read in St. Mark III: 13-35, that with the ordaining of the Twelve, Christ then stood up against the narrow outlook of these friends and against the blasphemies and abuses of the scribes who wanted to keep the knowledge of the cosmic order of human brotherhood from the multitude. But finally we read that Christ even rejected the mother Mary and the brethren who had come there. Christ pointed to those who were sitting around and said: “Whosoever shall do the Will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.” Christ declined to have any connection with the old order of the human race, and since that day when the Sun was in Twins, this deed is inscribed into the Earth and works in human beings, so that they will reject the bonds of race, people, and even family in order to realize the cosmic brotherhood of humanity. If modern people would recognize this, they could understand and even avoid in future the social catastrophes that have come over humanity in our Age. After these events the Sun entered the constellation of Crab. Shortly before this the Sun had been in conjunction with Saturn. We can imagine that this must have been full of decisive events with regard to the revelation of Christ, for Saturn suggests that deeds of the utmost importance for the destiny of the world were accomplished. For instance, in the Egyptian Age, people did not perceive the image of a crab when they looked up to the constellation to which we give this name today, but they saw there the image of the scarabaeus. This was also the sign of the resurrected Sun, and the dead were furnished with little images of the scarab in order to give them the power to ascend as a “new born Sun” to the spiritual world. Another image of Crab is also the symbol that we use today for this constellation, two spirals, one coming from outside toward a center and the other starting from the center and extending toward the periphery: ?. We could call the two tendencies, which are expressed in this symbol, involution, and evolution. The whole past creation of the universe that we have spoken of so much in these letters is represented by the incoming spiral, whereas the outgoing spiral represents that which transforms the past and moves toward the future of our universe. In between these two principles is a deep abyss. When the Sun in the sky had entered Crab, Christ on Earth was revealed as the great cosmic master of the spiritual forces that express themselves in this constellation. Christ then really built the bridge over which humanity can cross the abyss from involution to evolution. It was even established as a physical reality in the body of human beings. If we look at humanity then, we can find that the purest expression, of what we have here called involution, is to be found in the head. The human head, even in its outer forms, is a complete image of the sphere of the surrounding universe. But as the process of creation, or involution, in the universe has come to an end, so also the human head cannot evolve further. It can only realize and manifest the fall into the abyss, meaning, death. When Christ appeared, humanity was in the position of standing at the verge of this abyss and not being able to build the bridge into the future. Christ built the bridge by going through Death and Resurrection. These events are very strongly connected with Crab. We shall have to speak about this later. The image of the creation of the universe is gathered together in the human head. This head would have to die just as a seed might die that could not germinate and develop into a healthy plant. The human head is like a seed in which the past is accumulated. There must become manifest the forces of a spiritual Sun in order to awake the innate forces in this seed and to lift it out of its prison. As the plant grows upward from the seed toward the light of the Sun, human beings must grow from their head into their body, into the realms of their feeling life and willing life. They must grow toward the spiritual Sun that since the Death on Golgotha is the globe of the Earth on which they tread. In the time of Christ, and especially within the Hebrew people, the formation of the head as the intellectual accumulation of the universal past had reached its highest perfection. However, this head had lost the power more and more to grow down into the limbs in order to manifest the human being in the sphere of will. Without a new impulse, the human race would have moved toward a condition in which the body would have shrunk, and where the human being would have lost more and more the ability to unfold its whole being. The human head would have become an organ of permanent decay, spreading death around itself. But Christ, who brought the impulse of Love and united with the Earth, transformed it into the germ of a new Sun and saved humanity from the death in the head. This Christ did by incorporating the universal forces of the Crab into the Earth and thus built the bridge from involution to evolution. We find these mysteries in the most beautiful way revealed through the parables in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark. There we can find the images of plant life, the seed that contains the Word of Creation called forth by the Sun but endangered by the evil forces. When it has grown into a fully developed plant and the ears are full of corn, the reaper comes and cuts the plant with his sickle. These are gigantic imaginations of the task of the human beings in future evolution. Out of the seeds of the head, in which is imprisoned the Word of Creation, must grow the plants of one's deeds, of an individual's service toward the Earth. When the reaper comes with his sickle, which is the moment of death, the fruits of this service are taken away, because they are the food of the whole universe that would perish without the results of human Earth experience ripened in the realm of willing. The parables are only the external manifestation of deeds that were performed by Christ in this stage of revelation. This is clearly expressed in the fourth chapter of St. Luke. Through these Deeds, Christ saved humanity and the Earth from death by taking up the seat in the human head. This is the Christian revelation of the hidden forces of Crab through the emanation of the Sun. After the spiritual power of the Sun, combined with the essence of Crab, had been inscribed into the Earth by Christ, events turned more toward an inner evolution. It seems as though the Christ Impulse now really descended into the depths of the human will organism — into that realm which develops toward the globe of the Earth from the human head and contrary to the growth of the plant from its root toward the Sun. Sometimes it is even difficult to find any confirmation in the Gospels of the events that can be read in the stars as the picture of very important esoteric occurrences. As Christ now prepared the will of humanity to become the vehicle of evolution toward the future of the universe, there was at once a confrontation with the adverse powers dwelling in the depths of the human will organization. Meanwhile the Sun had entered the constellation of Lion. In olden times, Lion was experienced as a constellation representing kingly dignity. The blood in the human body goes to the periphery and comes back to the heart, thus being the vehicle of the life of the personality. Similar to this, one could also experience the essence of Lion in the universe. As Lion represented the gateway to the forces of the “I”, it was also an image of those destructive forces that grew up in the universe in the course of the development of the ego. This was the ferocious Lion. After Christ had established, in the parables (St. Mark IV) and in the esoteric teaching, the bridge leading across the abyss that separated involution and evolution, those roaring Lion forces, slumbering in the depths of the human will and in the blood, answered back from the abyss and the ravines of the world. These forces could be overcome for all those who became united with Christ through the might of the “I of the World” within Christ. We find this described in the beautiful imagination given at the end of chapter IV of St. Mark. After the esoteric teaching about the implantation of the Sun-Crab forces into the Earth, Christ and the apostles really crossed the abyss. It is described as the crossing of the Sea of Galilee. Christ was asleep in the boat and the twelve apostles did not realize that they could cross the abyss only with the help of the “I AM”. Then the adverse powers of the abyss arose and the storm and the waves were beating the little boat so that the apostles felt in great danger. Then they awoke the power of Christ within their souls and with this help the storm and the waves were calmed. After the crossing of the abyss of the Sea, they were at once confronted with the Lion forces in the depths of the human will. Humanity in those days had accumulated the wisdom of the past creation as intelligence in the head, but it had not yet conquered the will that is the seed of the future. Therefore, this realm was inhabited by ferocious and destructive demons. They are described by the picture of the man with an “unclean spirit” whom they met in the land of the Gadarenes (St. Mark V). Even the “unclean spirit” in this man recognized Christ as the Son of God, which indicates that the forces of this Lion realm are destructive only because they are not mastered by the “I AM of the World” and put into their proper place of cosmic activity. They themselves felt imprisoned in that man and finally wanted to be freed. The fact that this Legion of unclean spirits found an abode in the herd of swine, which was drowned in the abyss of the sea, shows that these forces in the depths of our heart and blood must finally serve the purposes of future cosmic evolution. This is why they appear to be allowed by Christ to commit this last act of destruction, which veils in mystery language a deep cosmic secret. Now that the destructive Lion forces in the depths of the heart were mastered, Christ could imprint the true Sun-Lion impulses of the universe into the Earth. Until now, following the events described in the Gospels, we might have perceived the constellation of Lion as the head of a lion turned toward us and looking straight into our eyes. After Christ had returned with the apostles from the land of the Gadarenes, the image of the lion's head would appear to be changed into the image of a portal. It was still closed, because human beings ought not to enter these depths unaware. They should enter them only with greatest caution and with the help of the “I AM”, or else they might be destroyed by the demons. This portal had become the threshold to the spiritual world. It is the threshold leading through the human will toward the Earth and its substances, in which Christ had united through the mystery of Golgotha. Since that time, no human being can enter the spiritual world but through this portal of the Earth that had become the cosmic dwelling place of Christ. We can see this portal thrown wide open for one moment in those days when the Sun was in Lion. Through the Gate we can see Christ working and healing in the spiritual background of the Earth. At this moment, we can see Christ's manifestation in that which is humanity's expression of its relationship with the Earth, in the mysteries of the blood. Therefore, we can read in the Gospel of St. Mark V: 21 onward, the story of the daughter of Jairus and of the suffering woman. We are allowed to look for one moment into the depths of the blood mysteries that are brought into balance by Christ after purifying this Lion realm of humanity from the unclean spirits. Furthermore, we can see that the light that shines through the darkness of this realm is of cosmic origin. The daughter of Jairus was twelve years old and the woman had been ill for twelve years. This reveals that those mysteries of the blood bear the imprint of the great universe, whose signature is the number 12. And it reveals that the act of the healing of Jairus’ daughter was accomplished in the presence of seven: three of the apostles (St. Luke VIII: 5), the father and mother of the child, the child, and Christ. This was also a reference to the foundations of the great universe. Here we can look into a world that bears the imprint of the great universe though it, which leads to the fact that in those depths of human nature, a new universe announces itself which is the fruit of the old cosmos and is destined to replace and to redeem the dying cosmos in a far future. The movement of the Sun through Lion was accompanied by deeds of Christ similar to those we described above: the healing deed in the land of the Gadarenes and also the healing of the suffering woman and of the daughter of Jairus. Then the Sun entered the constellation of Virgin. This was toward the end of August 31 AD. The events in connection with the position of the Sun in Lion we described as “threshold” experiences. Christ revealed by parables and by healing deeds, as formerly the Spirit of the Sun, that now it was to unite with the Earth for the purpose of transmuting the Earth into the new Sun of a new universe. As hitherto, the spiritual forces of the Sun had been shining upon human heads and forming human bodies, these spiritual forces were in future to shine from the Earth into cosmic space and into human willing. When the Sun was in Lion this gateway into the depths of the spiritual future of the Earth planet was opened. The human will, slumbering deeply in the limbs, is the gateway to the secrets of the Earth. Now, after the Sun had entered Virgin, even more was revealed of this Earth secret. The dangers of the threshold that arise from the human blood were healed by Christ while impregnating the Earth with the cosmic Lion forces. Now we are allowed to pass the threshold and to witness the events preparing a new universe. We enter, as it were, a huge hall of universal measures but in the realm of the soul world. It appears like a laboratory in which exalted Beings transmute the substances of this universe. By complicated and sublime acts and rituals that appear like deeds of analysis and synthesis, they bring about new positions and aspects in the destiny of the world and especially in the destiny of each human being who has ever gone through the Earth experience. It can also appear like a kind of parliament where hosts of spiritual Beings confer about the future of the universe and effect, through wise decisions, complete changes of the outer universe through the mysteries of human destinies. The execution of these decisions may sometimes even appear very tragic and disastrous for human understanding; moreover, the decisions and the corresponding actions of this spiritual assembly may often seem to lead finally to the total dissolution and disappearance of parts of the existing physical universe. Yet, it is all in righteous connection and in consequence of the mighty universal transformation that will take place toward the future, as Christ has united with the Earth in order to make it the new Sun of a new universe. This realm of the Soul Cosmos might even be compared with the digestion of food by human beings, which results in total dissolution and destruction of the physical substances. By this process, the inherent ethereal qualities of the substances are freed. Thus we can imagine how Christ was revealed to the disciples as the One who hitherto had been the Guide of those Sun-Virgin forces, and that Christ was now going to constitute this mastership over the forces of Karma within the realm of the Earth. Moreover, Christ may have initiated those who were the disciples at this moment into the new alchemy of human and world destiny that, for the sake of the future, had to establish etherization of physical existence, even by means that appear from a human point of view as catastrophic. But Christ may also have initiated them into the secrets of the necessity of humanity's taking part in these tasks of cosmic alchemy. As the Sun radiates in a twelvefold manner from the twelve constellations of the Zodiac into cosmic space, the new Sun, which was to come into existence within the Earth, began to radiate a twelvefoldness into the soul world. This is indicated in chapter VI of St. Mark, from verse seven onward. The twelve apostles were sent forth and... ”they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.” Thus the archetypal Christian community of the Twelve had become the rays of the new-born Sun in the Earth. One such act of cosmic transubstantiation of the great tableau of Earth destiny is revealed in the Gospels. In all the Gospels, except the Gospel of St. John, we find the story of the beheading of St. John the Baptist immediately after the passage about the sending out of the apostles by Christ. It is related in a peculiar way. King Herod, who was actively involved in the beheading of St. John, heard of the deeds of Christ's apostles and said, “It is John, whom I beheaded; he is risen from the dead.” He realized that through the evil deed of beheading the Baptist, he had ultimately worked for the purposes of the spiritual powers of destiny. The spirit of St. John worked and revealed itself through the twelve apostles. He was the guiding spirit of their community and made their deeds appear like the healing rays from a central Sun in their midst, although they were dispersed in all directions. From the earthly point of view, the deed of Herod and his associates had been a dark and evil act that was meant to become a paralyzing blow to the progressive spiritual forces in the world. But in the Lodge of those Virgin Beings, whom Christ incorporated into the realm of the Earth, it had been transmuted into spiritually healing and feeding forces. The Christian Calendar dedicates 29 August to the memory of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. If this date is historical, then the beheading must have taken place in 31 AD. The Sun had just entered the constellation of Virgin, which we have mentioned. From the whole aspect of the starry sky at this moment, we gather that the beheading really took place during this time, although some historians regard it as doubtful. After this event, which illustrates what we said about the Sun in Virgin in connection with the Christ events, we hear of the sending out of the 12 apostles. Soon after they had come back, the Feeding of the Five Thousand took place, and this must have occurred shortly before Passover 32 AD, according to St. John VI. We do not hear very much about the time between September 31 AD and March 32 AD when the Sun passed through the constellations of Virgin, Scales, Scorpion, Archer, Goat, Waterman, and Fishes. The question arises whether the records of the Gospels about the year 32-33 AD, when the Sun again passed through these constellations, can reveal anything about the imprint of these Sun qualities into the Earth by Christ. Again we find that only a few events can really be timed according to the indications of the Gospels. They are: the events at Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles in October 32 AD (St. John VII and VIII), the Feast of Dedication (St. John X), and the Raising of Lazarus (St. John XI), which took place a few weeks before Passover 33 AD. Why is it that we have so little indication in the Gospels about the times when the Sun passed through these constellations that form the lower part of the Zodiac and which also belong to that part of the year when the Sun reaches its lowest position? A deep riddle is connected with this fact, and we can understand it, to a certain extent, if we consider the opposition between the “bright” constellations of the Zodiac (Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, and Scales) and the “dark” part (Scorpion, Archer, Goat, Waterman, and Fishes). The dark part is a picture of humanity with regard to the higher members of its being. Unfortunately, we do not have enough room here to develop the details from a recapitulation of the origin of these higher members in the process of the world evolution as we have described it in previous letters. We can find that Fishes is an image of the physical body of humanity, Waterman corresponds to the life body, and Goat to the soul body, whereas Archer is the perfect image of the ego. Then, in the constellations of Scorpion, Scales, and Virgin, we find the images of the highest members of humanity: the Spirit Self, the Life Spirit, and Spirit-Man. We perceive in these constellations humanity's total being, which grows from Fishes through the dark part of the Zodiac toward the bright part beginning already in Scales. This opens the gateway toward a most illuminating imagination. We perceive in the lower part of the Zodiac the picture of humanity like a crescent-shaped vessel. (See figure 1 below.) Into this vessel enters the Sun of Christ who manifests cosmically through the constellations from Ram to Scales as a sevenfold Being. We have already described in previous letters how Christ manifests as the Lamb of God, or the cosmic Guide of the Spirits of Wisdom when the Sun was in Ram. This was the manifestation of the highest member of Christ, and as we followed the Sun through the other constellations, we perceived in it the manifestation of Christ through the other higher members of this exalted Being. Christ then entered the human being through his highest members, through Spirit Man and Life Spirit, which are represented by the two “overlapping” constellations of Virgin and Scales. If the upward reaching Zodiac of humanity unites with the descending Zodiac of Christ, then we perceive the sign of the circle, the sign of the new ascending spiritual Sun. It is also the sign of the Holy Grail, the Host in the vessel of the Moon. Now we can comprehend certain facts in the life of Christ during those times when the Sun moved through the dark part of the Zodiac. The sending out of the apostles, which occurred when the Sun was in the constellations from Virgin to Fishes (31–32 AD), is really the picture of the preparation of humanity (represented by the Twelve) for the reception of Christ into the whole being of humanity. We can understand that this great preparation was achieved with the help of the spirit of St. John the Baptist, the “forerunner” of Christ. We can then also understand that Christ manifested as the new Judge in the higher being of humanity itself during the Feast of Tabernacles (St. John VIII). The Sun was then in Scales, and from the description we gather that Christ did not really act as a judge but instituted judgment onto the higher being of humanity (St. John VIII: 9-10). It is a grand imagination about which we could say much more if we had the necessary space. Furthermore, at the Feast of Dedication when the Sun had entered Goat, we hear Christ calling forth the divine nature in humanity's ego and soul body, which are represented by Archer and Goat (St. John X: 33-38). We might say that Christ then entered these realms of humanity's higher being. Finally, we see the Raising of Lazarus taking place (St. John XI) when the Sun had entered the constellation of Fishes. Unfortunately, we must limit our comments on this event to the mere fact that Christ at this moment entered the physical body of humanity as Lazarus stepped out of the grave. This is the spiritual power of the Sun in Fishes. These articles about the star events in the time of Christ have to be brought to a close, as the letters will not be continued. Only a fraction of the grand picture of Christ's life as it reveals itself in the mirror of the stars could here be elaborated. The script of the other planets, besides the Sun, is still untouched. However, it is to be hoped that the future will provide an opportunity of bringing these secrets of the starry world in a more adequate and comprehensive form to the knowledge of those who wish to have it.