Zarathustra and The Three Holy Kings
Rudolf Steiner has pointed out that the Mystery of Golgotha has long - actually since
the time of Adam - been systematically prepared. He especially referred to a time in which this preparation became
visible with great beauty. In his lectures "The Search for the New Isis, the Divine Sophia" he spoke
about Zarathustra and related that the latter awakened his students to the idea that the Cosmic Word would one
day become human being and that he himself would play a leading role in preparing this event. Rudolf Steiner says:
"There is an old way of presenting the firmament which was practiced by the Persian Magi. They looked up to the sky, saw that particular constellation in the zodiac named Virgo and saw spiritually into this constellation what can be noticed physically only in the constellation of Gemini. This has been preserved, this wisdom that lives in the human being in such a way that the harmony can be perceived between the constellation of Virgo and at a right angle to it, the constellation in quadrant, Gemini. It was done in such a way that the Virgin with the wreath of wheat ears, but also with the child, who was only the representative of Virgo (Twins), the representative of the two Jesus boys, was presented at the position of the constellation of Virgo. This was an astrological view especially current in the Persian age."
These words by Rudolf Steiner have until this day remained a mystery. Several students
of Rudolf Steiner have given completely different interpretations of these words, which are however, without exception,
unsatisfactory, because they would all be useless as instructions for the three Wise Men. Had the three Wise Men
followed these present-day interpretations, they would certainly not have found Jesus in Bethlehem.
Zarathustra had to instruct his students in such a way that thousands of years later, even if they were to be reincarnated
before him, they would be capable
of establishing that point in time that he, Zarathustra, their master would be born in that all-important incarnation,
in which he had the task, together with a second "individuality" or "being", "to build
the temple of God", i.e. to prepare a physical body suitable for Christ to use on earth for a period of 3
1/3 years.
Attempts have been made to interpret Rudolf Steiner's words such that Zarathustra on his way to this decisive reincarnation
would from the direction of the constellation of Gemini first of all get to the lunar sphere and then wait there
until the point in time most favorable for the descent down to earth, i.e. until he, "moving in the other
cosmic direction toward the constellation of Virgo, approaches the earth." This interpretation is certainly
very interesting, but not suitable for directing the Wise Men from the East, because these two steps by an incarnating
individuality could practically be taken once every year. The approach from the area of Virgo down to the moon
would always be possible. The last phase with - or against - the sunlight from Virgo would be possible annually
in September.
Just as unsuitable for establishing a point in time that is not to occur for thousands of years, is also the view
that the birth from Virgo has no other meaning than that at the birth around midnight the constellation of Virgo
has to be on the ascendant. This interpretation is also use less, because the desirable situation occurs annually
around Christmas with Virgo rising in the morning sky. A situation that returns every year in the same way is not
suitable for pinpointing a date that lies thousands of years ahead. (Moreover, during a Virgo birth the Sun must
be in Virgo and not in Sagittarius.)
Unsuitable as well proves to be the view that the Star of Bethlehem is not a visible celestial event at all, but
exclusively the supersensible "Star" of Zarathustra or Zoroaster. No doubt, this supersensible gold star,
which can only be perceived by supersensible vision, exists. But this supersensible star is not suitable for fixing
a point in time and space. The supersensible star must be accompanied by a physically visible stellar event, because
Matthew refers to this sign visible in the sky.
Zarathustra had to take account of the fact moreover that the human faculty of supersensible cognition would by
the time in question be so far replaced by physical, intellectual thinking that his students, if only for that
reason, would require a physically perceptible sign in order to find (detect) him. Today we know this sign. Matthew
describes it in chapter 2. Kepler calculated it astronomically in the year 1604 and treated (dealt with) it thoroughly
in his booklet "De Stella Nova" (Prague, 1606). In the last paragraph he deals with the date of birth
of Jesus Christ in connection with the great conjunction in Pisces six years before our calendar. Three years later
he once more addressed this question. In an essay "Antwort auff Roslini diskurs von heutiger zeit beschaffenheit"
(Prague, 1609), an "Answer to Roslini's discourse concerning the nature of the present time", he attacks
the belief in a comet in favor of the great conjunction as the Star of the Wise Men.
Since, as far as I can see, no-one has succeeded yet in clearly interpreting Rudolf Steiner's Zarathustra words
concerning the connection between Gemini and Virgo'", and since I have no solution to offer either without
assuming that Rudolf Steiner in the stress of his lecture confused the names of the two constellations, we want
to try for once not to use the words of Rudolf Steiner as a starting-point, but Zarathustra. We want to imagine
what Zarathustra would have to tell his students in order that in a far distant future and with another consciousness
they would be able to recognize "that the time is fulfilled (at hand)." Naturally, our train of thought
does not correspond to any historical reality. We simply want to try to understand on the basis of our present-day
consciousness, how it could have been at that time.
Chronological references are only valid for events happening in the physical world. The cosmic clock capable of
recording such points in time can only be thought of in the physical world. That is where we want to look for them.
Since the days of antiquity it is known that the precession of the spring equinox along the ecliptic in the course
of 25,920 years represents the hour-hand of this cosmic clock, and that the cosmic hours or cultural epochs refer
to the position of the spring equinox in one of the constellations of the zodiac. The age of Zarathustra was an
age of Gemini. The spring equinox was then at the beginning of the constellation of Gemini. After the Gemini culture
humanity had to still pass through the Taurus culture and then the Aries culture until, while the spring equinox
was entering the constellation of Pisces, that quarter of the cosmic year was passed that separated the age of
Gemini from the age of Aquarius.
The precession of this spring equinox through a quadrant is familiar to every average student who is familiar with
the basics of spherical geometry. During the time of Zarathustra this was different. At that time the human being
was still quite at home in the spiritual world. Geometric projections in physical space were not that equally familiar
to him. What at present is the object of our thinking in geometry, was at that time secret mystery wisdom accessible
only to an elite. Zarathustra could not, like the geometry teacher of today, appeal to the faculty of spatial imagination
of his students in intellectual terms. He was forced to make the geometrical conditions in the firmament a practical
experience for his students, so that in an age in which supersensible experience would largely be replaced by intellectual
thinking, they learned to read in the sky that point in time that mattered. Zarathustra was faced with the task
of teaching his students representations of space which were foreign to them, like someone who is forced today
to make little children familiar with similar mental pictures. It is difficult for us to really experience this
change in consciousness and to imagine that this development continues. What thousands of years ago was given only
to neophytes, is now public domain and what today is occult science will only be public knowledge in thousands
of years.
It should therefore not be too difficult to imagine the conditions which Zarathustra had to make experiential for
his students, so that their thinking, feeling and willing could absorb that which would permit them to locate him
sometime in his most significant incarnation at an as yet unknown place of birth.
Let us now immerse ourselves in thought in the age of Zarathustra: For years on end Zarathustra, the leader of
humanity of the second post-Atlantic cultural epoch, had talked to his students about cosmic and human development.
They knew now how the earth had developed until then and what the sense and meaning was of their own cultural period.
Zarathustra had also given them a preview of the age of the Taurus and Aries cultures. Above all he had taught
his students about the central event of the earth's development, because he and his students were destined to work
actively together during this event in the age of the Pisces culture. What mattered to him was not only to say
something uplifting to his students, but to train them in a very serious and solemn way for their future task and
instructing them in such a manner that they learned to glean the date from the heavens on which this central event
would begin. His students would then have to find his parents and inform them about the mission of their son. Zarathustra
knew that before this point in time he would be reincarnated repeatedly with his students and would have the possibility
of exercising with them again those things for which he now was aiming to lay the groundwork.
The possibilities for an optimal visual lesson were especially now very favorable. For months he went after the
midnight lessons with his students up to the flat temple terrace which, like the Celtic stone circles, was converted
into an observatory in which the solar rising points for the various seasons and the cardinal points were recorded.
During that autumn night, part of which we would now like to share in thoughts, Zarathustra closed his lesson in
the rocky cave deep underneath the altar of the temple, with the hymn to the supersensible Sun, which in this midnight
hour was on the night side under the earth in the sign of Sagittarius. Facing the Sun, on the opposite side of
the heavens occurred at that time the first triple conjunction in Gemini since the time that the spring equinox
had entered this constellation of the zodiac. This was followed that night by the second encounter of both planets
in the framework of the triple great conjunction. This physically visible meeting between Jupiter and Saturn should
be observed by the students, because it was an exact image of that future phase of the great conjunction in Pisces,
which was to show his students, the would-be Magi from the East, the birth of the Matthew Jesus.
The date of the reincarnation of their own teacher Zarathustra would be fulfilled when the same phase of the conjunction,
which could now be observed around the spring equinox in the constellation of Gemini, would for the first time
after the entrance of the spring equinox in the constellation of Pisces be observable in the direct proximity of
the spring equinox.
Zarathustra came down with his students from the zikkurat. On the terrace of the observatory he walked over to
the stone marking the southern comer of the open square. His students followed him until they came to the semi-circle
of the great cosmic clock on which the hours were marked. Between them and their master stood the great shadow-thrower,
in the center of that lemniscate on which the heavy pole was moved month after month. He did not have to serve
as shadow thrower today. He had to mark the center of that cosmic clock which the group of students was intending
to reproduce eurhythmically.
Zarathustra turned east-north-east, where Virgo was just rising. Spica, the wreath star was shining in red through
the misty atmosphere. Zarathustra stretched his hand in its direction and while he drew an arc with his arm over
the southern horizon, and his students moved with the movement of their master's arm through the zodiac from east
through south to west, he spoke, the words: "Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces: that is the
position on the left of the zodiac around the autumn equinox. Gemini, the constellation for our epoch, is culminating
in the south. The midnight Sun from the constellation of Sagittarius is sparkling in the direction of Gemini."
Zarathustra lifted his right arm southward, lowered his left hand to the north and spoke the words: "Sagittarius-Gemini,
this is the cosmic direction for our cultural epoch", while his students positioned themselves on the afternoon
line of the great cosmic clock and marked like an hour-hand the main cosmic direction for their own epoch of the
Gemini culture which they were destined to co-create.
The image that the heavens presented in the south was overwhelming. Zarathustra described it as follows: "In
the middle of the heavens the shining Sirius radiates Tishtria, my personal star, which in the middle of our cultural
epoch will be on the afternoon line of the spring equinox. Today it is enhanced and illuminated by Jupiter and
Saturn who in the narrowest possible gap between them are in conjunction and who like a single star fully reflect
the light of the sun back to us. The spring equinox is where the two great planets now are, that ideal point in
the heavens on which the physical and supersensible not perceptible, but only ideal imaginable intersection of
the ecliptic with the celestial equator is to be found. This spring equinox is rendered physically visible today
by wisdom radiating Jupiter and spirit recollecting Saturn who, shining together like one great star and outshining all others, dominate the heavens. A hundred years ago this spring
equinox, coming from the constellation of Cancer, entered our constellation of Gemini. At midnight today, at this
very moment, the second meeting of the triple great conjunction is taking place exactly in opposition to the Sun.
This phase of the great conjunction is the sign in the heavens which, after the Gemini, Taurus and Aries cultures
have ended, will radiate for the naked eye to show that the time has come for my rebirth in which I have to build
the temple of God. The triple conjunction on the spring equinox after entering the constellation of Pisces marks
the point in time of my rebirth. During the phase of the second of the three encounters, when the Sun shall be
in the sign of Virgo in opposition to the stellar event, I shall be reborn to assume my Christopher task to that
people that shall be chosen to build the temple of God. When this sign appears in the heavens, start your journey.
You, who shall be reborn before me, are destined to search for me and to inform my parents what mission their son
has to fulfill. Among the chosen people it will only be known that my rebirth will come 42 generations from the
beginning of the lineage. This people is to concentrate on the blood bonds, on the preparation of a suitable body
and shall therefore develop a lunar astronomy. We however are to concentrate on the descent of the spirit of the
sun and to look beyond the moon as far as the stars. Therefore we are busy developing a solar astronomy here and
intend to further cultivate this later when we shall be reborn together in the ages of Taurus and Aries. Take up
in your soul the image of this stellar event that is taking place in the constellation of Gemini, and mentally
project this image into the constellation of Pisces that is just descending in the west. Feel the interval between
Gemini and Aries in your heart. Three cultural periods separate them in which the spring equinox proceeds through
Gemini, Taurus and Aries into Pisces. When what is occurring today will occur in Pisces, then the time will be
fulfilled.
From the position of the conjunction in the constellation of Pisces you shall recognize in what country you are
to look for me. The star shall guide you. When you arrive in the capital of this country, ask where the Messiah
will be born. They shall name the place. There you shall look and find me. You shall recognize me by my aura.
On this point in time we now want to concentrate ourselves: What we are observing now in the constellation of Gemini
shall move by a quadrant until that far off date and then point to that new cosmic direction that forms a cross
with our present main cosmic direction".
Zarathustra extended his arms east and westward and while he continued speaking: "Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces",
every second student stepped out of the row that was standing in a north-south direction and walked clock-wise
around the shadow-thrower as turning point until they reached the new cosmic direction (east-west, Virgo-Pisces)
that together with the old cosmic direction (Sagittarius-Twins) formed a cross.
Then Zarathustra spoke: "Today the sun shines from the constellation of Sagittarius and illuminates the great
conjunction in Gemini. After a quarter of the cosmic year the Sun will shine from the constellation of Virgo in
the first great conjunction on the spring equinox in Pisces. The symbol for Christ is a fish. When what occurred
today in the direction Sagittarius-Sun-Earth-Saturn-Gemini reoccurs, when Virgo-Sun-Earth-Jupiter-Saturn and Pisces
are aligned, then the time shall be fulfilled.
"And now", continued Zarathustra, "we want to imagine in space, how this procession of the spring
equinox through the zodiac in 25,929 years comes about. In every cultural period the Earth is inclined towards
a certain constellation. In our age the Earth is inclined towards Virgo. The Earth axis is (with the North Pole)
inclined towards the constellation of Virgo. The intersection of the celestial equator and the ecliptic have moved
by a quadrant. The spring equinox is Gemini. In the cultural period of Taurus, 2160 years later, the earth is inclined
towards the constellation of Leo. In the following age of Aries the Earth is inclined towards the constellation
of Cancer and in the age of Aquarius, after a total of 6500 years, when the time is fulfilled, it is inclined towards
Gemini.
Try to feel this inclination of the Earth as it is today and as it will be 6480 years from now in the middle of
its development. Today: inclination towards Virgo. In the middle of the earth: inclination towards Gemini. Virgo
with the wreath star Spica and Gemini, the spring equinox constellation of our present cultural period, they are
cosmically connected with the central event of the Earth's development. Born from the womb of the Virgo (Virgins),
who are representatives of the two Jesus boys, shall be one of the twins. This one twin I will be myself. When
at one time the earth is inclined towards Virgo and this sign is in the heavens, then go on your way and look for
your master, the reborn Zarathustra.
We have observed the same event now from two different point of view. Once we did so from the viewpoint of the
spring equinox. This has to proceed from the constellation of Virgo into the constellation of Pisces. The other
time we have described the same
thing, but our field of reference was not the spring equinox, but the inclination of the earth's axis. Today: inclination
towards the constellation of Virgo; in the time of the Messiah: inclination of the earth's axis towards Gemini.
Today a real stellar event in the constellation of Gemini, in the future a great conjunction in Pisces. Twice the
same thing: Once based on the spring equinox and the conjunction = Gemini-Pisces. The other time based on the inclination
of the Earth = Virgo- Gemini."
We have tried now to form some idea of how Zarathustra could have spoken to his students. He would have summarized
everything and said: "Let us feel in our hearts how the Earth is inclined today towards Virgo from which one
day the Sun will shine when I am reborn and let us feel what has to occur in the intervening period before the
earth will be inclined towards Gemini. The constellation of Gemini must already in our time point as a celestial
sign symbolically to those two Jesus boys, who shall one day have the task of 'building the temple of God' together."
Zarathustra taught his students the divine order and the harmony of the macrocosm and its significance for the
evolution of humanity and the human being as microcosm.
We have tried to some extent to experience the instructions that Zarathustra may have given to his students for
them to sufficiently master the hitherto foreign faculty of geometrical visualization enabling them to recognize
at the right time the importance of the middle date of the earth, so as to be ready there and then to convey to
the Zarathustra Jesus those characteristics that are symbolized by gold, frankincense and myrrh.
We believe that this presentation also gives rise to the insight that Rudolf Steiner, if only in the form of hints,
described the same macrocosmic event when he said that Zarathustra had already spoken to his students about the
incarnation of Christ by emphasizing the interrelation between the two constellations of Virgo and Gemini in connection
with the two Nativities.
Even though our deliberations are not able to resolve Rudolf Steiner's words completely either - because the real
occurrence of a great conjunction in Gemini in the age of Zarathustra was noticed a quarter cosmic year later in
reality in Pisces - we have in any case made evident that Rudolf Steiner's indication referred to a physically
visible celestial event, which was noticeable in the zodiac: the Persian Magi lifted their gaze to the heavens
and noticed in the zodiac what also the Wise Men from the East saw a quarter cosmic year later during the great
conjunction in Pisces.
On another occasion Rudolf Steiner indicated with other words that Zarathustra was reincarnated in the period between
the inclination to Virgo and the inclination to Gemini of the North Pole of the earth. ^ He must have used that
incarnation to observe great conjunctions with his students and to sharpen their sight so that at the given time
they would be able to fulfill their task. Time and again there were opportunities for practicing in the intervening
period when great conjunctions took place. Such an opportunity offered itself in 2647 years BC during the time
of Gilgamesch, the Sumerian king of Uruk, but also in the sixth century BC during the time of the Babylonian captivity
of the Jews. Zarathustra was reincarnated at that time in Babylon as Zarathas, Nazarathos or Zoroaster. Pythagoras
was with Zarathustra then in order to once more
prepare himself with his master for his task as Magus from the East.
We will abstain from exactly calculating down to the year and day the great conjunctions that accompanied these
events. We would like to ask the astronomers to do this. Exact astronomical dates would be a great help in putting
the historian on the right track of such events. What matters to us in this context, however, is to take the Three
Wise Men from the East, as described by Matthew, seriously and to connect, like Kepler, the right astronomical
ideas with this Gospel Periscope.
Rudolf Steiner only gives hints as to what Zarathustra may have said in the seventh century BC to his students.
Our representation was somewhat more extensive but still remains a mere indication compared to what really transpired.
Zarathustra taught his students - in addition to the sense and meaning of the great conjunction of the cosmic clock,
whose hours were indicated by the precession of the spring - also the whole mathematical aspect for calculating
the cosmic time in advance.
The figures that we came across by the calculations of the positions of the planets, as given by Wolfram von Eschenbach
in his Parzival, were during the
age of Zarathustra part of the secret doctrine of this great leader of humanity. The Zarathustra initiates used
these figures as guide lines for their various earth lives. They made long journeys to those places where this
secret wisdom was cultivated, if they were born in a cultural period at a place on Earth where nothing was know
about this secret doctrine. Pythagoras, the Greek, traveled to the Egyptians and the Chaldeans in the sixth century
and returned to Greece with his newly acquired knowledge. Only after having founded his school there and having
established it to the extent that it also prospered without him, he set out to the underdeveloped region of the
South of Italy and founded a new a school in Krotone, from which radiated the Greek secret doctrine into the European
region. In his following incarnation we find Pythagoras - we know this thanks to Rudolf Steiner's karmic research
- again occupying a central place in the world events of the time, in the middle of the ancient world where, as
one of the Magi from the East, he had to fulfill that task for which he had already been prepared since the time
of Zarathustra. In more recent times no one has studied Pythagoras more closely than Kepler, who recognized him
as the forerunner of his own natural scientific research. Whoever knows Kepler's work not only gets the impression
that this spiritual kinship is not unfounded, but suffers from seeing that people, without objectively considering
the astronomical interpretation of the history of the Three Holy Kings, close their eyes to the connection between
the great conjunction in the year 7 BC and the reincarnation of Zarathustra.
Our "reconstruction" of the events from the time of Zarathustra was aimed at giving at least some idea
of this connection between the Zarathustrian Christ prophecy and the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and
the date of birth of the Solomon Jesus boy. I am sad to hear that it is maintained today that Kepler has it wrong
with his great conjunction in the year 7 BC, only because one would like to have it in the year zero. I am also
sad when the solution by Rudolf
Steiner of the greatest riddle of the Gospel research is nullified, simply because one is of the mere opinion that
the two Jesus boys must have been about the same age. It is quite obvious that the decision as to what is right
here ought not to be accompanied with emotions, but when one is prevented by people's emotional or religious reasons
from at least being listened to in an attempt to bring order in the records concerning the historical life of Jesus
Christ, then one may
perhaps for once be permitted to also express one's own feelings.
We now advice the following experiment. First the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are to be read with the idea that
both Nativities are not far apart, then both Gospels are read again with the idea that the birth of the Matthew
Jesus is around Michaelmas in the year 7 BC, while the birth of the Luke Jesus is around Christmas in the year
2 BC. One ought to differentiate clearly by this reading. Do not simply read "Jesus" upon coming across
a Jesus in the text and do not simply think "Maria" or "Joseph" either, but differentiate clearly
every time as to which individuality is being spoken of and at what time a scene is set.
Afterwards one evaluates which reading is more obvious.
In this way one is also prepared for studying essays on historical events. One can then recognize whether a historian
always differentiates exactly, or whether he is speaking about events relating to the Solomon or the Nathan Jesus.
One is then also protected from falsely supplementing a researcher who says the right thing. When for example a
researcher speaks clearly about the birth of the Matthew Jesus (because he mentions the Sun), but only says that
at the time of birth the Sun was shining from the constellation of Virgo, then one may not display one's "knowledge"
by rounding off one's report with "Thus on December 24/25".
If the Sun is in Virgo, it is certainly not a matter of the birth of the Luke Jesus, for Luke never mentions constellations
of the stars. When stellar constellations are mentioned, there is clearly mention of Zarathustra and the latter
does not mention December 24/25, but a time when the Sun was "in the lap of Virgo".
If a person does not want to know anything about astronomy and only thinks in general terms about "Jesus"
and "Christmas" every time a birth of Jesus is mentioned, then this person shall add his own ideas to
someone who mentions the birth without the corresponding date. The date of birth is for someone who does not differentiate
so clearly quite obviously Christmas, and
Christmas is after all known to be on December 24/25. One believes honestly to have completed the gist of it, but
a mistake has been made. One can only logically complete the picture in this case, when one has grasped that -
since Rudolf Steiner - elements from one Gospel may not be mixed with those of the other Gospel, because they narrate
two completely different Nativities.
The great turning-point in the research into the Life of Jesus came about in the year 1909 when Rudolf Steiner
made the discovery that two Jesus boys had been born in Bethlehem. Until that time the two separate individuals
had always been mixed up, because they had the common task of "preparing the body of the Lord". That
event that was for the first time freed of its contradictions by Rudolf Steiner and before that had been called
the story of the 12 year old Jesus in the Temple, occurred after the Nathan Jesus had become 12 years old (during
the Passover celebrations in the year II AD he was 12 1/3). From that point on, there was only one Jesus. Rudolf
Steiner did research into this extremely diversified event and in his lectures on the results of his research he
went as far as necessary for presenting his listeners an inkling of this event. Thereby he would accentuate different
aspects at different times. It is our task not to make this or that point of view absolute and to maintain that
the Star of the Wise Men is not the great conjunction that Kepler held it to be, because Rudolf Steiner said that
the nature of this star is supersensible. Such a judgment is not based on the whole truth. Zoroaster was physical
and supersensible and he attempted
to render the supersensible visible in the physical world.
This was just what Zarathustra had in mind during his reincarnations too: to make his students familiar with astronomy
and to teach them astrosophy. For that purpose he also used the great conjunction in the year 542 when he was active
in Babylon as Zoroaster or Nazarathos. At that time he must have once more gathered the three Wise Men-to-be around
him. Rudolf Steiner
says: "Zarathustra came again as Nazarathos and founded a school where he taught the signs that had to appear
in the sky in order for Christ
to come on the earth. This school produced the three Wise Men from the East." Thus: not only a supersensible
star, but also physically visible signs in the sky. As Wise Man-to-be from the East, Pythagoras must have learnt
in this school to
recognize the signs in the sky that would have to be known by him in his next life. He could
have attended this school for a total of 10 years, since it was not until the year 532 that he re turned to Greece.
This school continued to exist, as historic documents prove, until the turning-point of time - in which the reincarnated
Pythagoras was again a student of this school - and beyond that until the ninth century in which Flegetanis taught
the Chaldean astronomy of the
students of Zarathustra at the Baghdad Palace school, where he referred to the great conjunction from the year
848 as the coming Grail period in the West.
Through Arabel-Giburc, Wolfram's Willehalm-Kyot also became again, like Pythagoras, under the sign of this Zarathustra
star a student of this astronomical tradition of Nazarathos and at the same time its renewer.
The great conjunction in the year 542 BC was, as it were, the last opportunity, the general repetition for the
conjunction of the year 7 BC, in which the Holy Three Kings had to offer their gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Those who have followed our deliberations concerning the 854-year rhythm of the great conjunction, will expect
us. to also say something here about the great conjunction, which occurred 854 years before the birth of the Matthew
Jesus, in the year 861 BC similarly in Pisces.
At that time Elias appeared in Israel. The kingdom of the North under Ahab was about to become unfaithful to the
mission of Moses. Elias, who is mentioned by Wolfram together with Enoch, was a servant to the highest God, who
did not die like a human being, but who rose in the weather towards the heavens. He was therefore in the sense
of Wolfram a Grail knight. In
the year 861 he appeared, however, as an engaged Jahweite (Jahwe follower), because at that time the special mission
of the Israel people - to build the temple of God - was a Grail task. Through Elias the knowledge about the rhythm
of the great conjunction may have entered the Jewish secret doctrine. The 854-year rhythm is still known within
this doctrine and is brought in connection with the respective messianic expectations. The Jews did indeed expect
a Messiah again in the year that Parzival became king of the Grail.
I believe that Matthew does not tell the whole story here. The Magi would probably not have acted any differently
than you or 1. Presumably the Magi were not aiming to simply deposit gold, frankincense and myrrh and then to leave
right away. Why should they? They had quite clearly something to do with the whole event and when we know from
Rudolf Steiner's lectures
what connected these reincarnated
students of Zarathustra with the Matthew Jesus, then we can only state that Matthew does not relate at all the
things that we would expect to follow. He only indicates that the Wise Men did not return by way of Jerusalem,
but does not say which route they took and how much time elapsed before they returned home. Neither does he say
what they did in case they did not go home immediately.
We would now like to try to imagine ourselves in the position the Magi were in after their dream. In order to get
some idea how they reacted, we should get to know them better. We should know what was important to them in life
and what their goals were.
We know that they were reincarnated students of Zarathustra. As such they had not only prepared themselves for
the time now at hand in their life as Magi then, but for thousands of years in constantly new incarnations over
three cultural periods. Zarathustra, their master stood at the beginning of that incarnation in which as Christophorus
he had to build the temple of God. We now get an inkling of the impression that the reunion with their master must
have made on the Magi. There could simply be no going home for them. Their contemporary "profession"
in life had in fact just begun.
From Rudolf Steiner's lectures we know that one of the Magi was the reincarnated Pythagoras. We know who Pythagoras
was in his last incarnation when he visited his master in order to refresh his astronomical knowledge with which
he could read in the sky when the time would be at hand. In 542 BC he was initiated in the then most advanced mysteries
of space and time by his reincarnated master Zarathustra, Zoroaster, Gold Star. He now knew how to determine the
spring equinox and to recognize when the great conjunction around the spring equinox would occur after the latter
would have reached the constellation of Pisces. This point in time had now come in the year 7 BC and the fact that
the Magi had found the Jesus they looked for in Bethlehem and had recognized him as their master by his aura, proves
that in his previous earth life Pythagoras had been a good student of his master. We may assume that it was he
who now led the Magi. From him must also stem the text of the Matthew Periscope, because it contains astronomical
terms with which the Essene initiate Matthai, who is said to be the author of the Gospel of Matthew, would probably
not be familiar.
Reincarnated among the Magi with Pythagoras could also be the athlete and Olympic champion Milo, who as Pythagoras'
friend and army commander of the Krotoniers against the Sybarites, was Pythagoras' worldly protector or guard.
Zarathustra's protector, Guschtab as Rudolf Steiner calls him, could also have been there again to protect his
master, the Solomon
Jesus boy. These were men who could take decisions and do the right thing at the right moment. For that reason
they had not come to Bethlehem alone. They had taken a relatively efficient 'peace-keeping force' with them. Their
sizable caravan already caused quite a stir in Jerusalem. And they certainly did not bring this following for no
reason. The Magi had presumably planned from the beginning to take their master into their care. There were also
more elevated reasons for this. They did not have the task of merely offering their master gold, frankincense and
myrrh. These gifts were symbols for soul forces, which they had to help develop in their master. If the Magi had
the mission to develop these faculties, symbolized by gold, frankincense and myrrh, they would need to devote several
years to that. In the Jewish cultural circle in which Jesus was born, these faculties could - in the sense of the
Sun mysteries - not be acquired. The Magi had to bring the Zarathustra individuality into the proper environment.
For this educational task they would need to be with their master for a whole period of his life.
Up until his birth the Matthew Jesus was surrounded by a Jewish cultural circle, which had lead him from the blood
aspect - according to the order of Melchizedek - to a supreme point. With the incarnation of Zarathustra in Jewish
blood, the mission of the Jewish people was completed. What had to come now was different. During the period of
development until his sixth or seventh year Jesus required another, a Sun mystery background, which only the Chaldean
Magi could give him.
The threat that Herod posed to the family and the instruction to flee into Egypt facilitated releasing the Holy
Family from the lunar cultural circle.
We may therefore assume with certainty that the Magi, who were bivouacking in their camp in front of Bethlehem,
hurried to the Holy Family after their dream and that they found it ready to leave. Upon the revelation that Joseph
too had a dream and had been directed by an angel to go to Egypt, the Magi must have spontaneously made their decision
known to escort the Holy
Family to Egypt. This offer was a quite lucky in the circumstances, which they regarded as a turn of destiny and
therefore thankfully accepted.
Under these circumstances we would have to imagine the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt different from the
way we have done until now. They did not travel unprotected, but in the care of the Magi. The legends may so far
be right in saying that the family journeyed alone by day. It could not be taking into the caravan, because this
would make the connection too obvious. It most probably traveled ahead within eyesight of a bodyguard and would
be directed at night to a camp spied out by scouts from the Magi, where they would be joined later by the caravan
proper and be guarded. The first stages could be covered without danger, for Herod was still waiting for the Magi
to return. He ordered the child-murder only upon realizing that they were not coming back. In this way the family
could cross the heights to Hebron and descend to reach Beerseba without being noticed. Shortly after the family
had passed through a locality, the caravan of the Magi would turn up, an event so far from the ordinary and spectacular
that the family that had just gone by and thereby providing topics for discussion, was soon forgotten. The Magi,
without the family, would not have been suspect, if Herod's troops had found them. Herodian troops (German: Spattrupps) would not be dangerous anyway to the
Magi, because the entourage of the Magi Kings was superior in fighting power to such troops. There were no grounds
for engaging a greater Herodian army against the Magi, because they carried no children with them. We may therefore
assume that the Magi crossed the Wadi Gaza desert without any armed encounters with Herod's troops.
Apart from Herod's government edict, there was no longer any necessity for hurrying. The family could live for
an extended period in a rocky cave and look after their son, while the caravans of the Magi took care of protecting
the encampment. Now the opportunity was given to acquaint the parents of the child, who belonged to a Moon religion,
with the Zarathustrian Sun
mysteries and to take those measures which as teachers of the reborn Zarathustra they regarded as their task.
The Magi could also help the family later in Egypt. In Heliopis there was a branch of the Chaldean Zarathustra
mysteries, which was probably set up out of wise foresight just for the education of the Solomon Jesus boy.
There are no indications in the Bible contradicting the theory that the stay of the child in a region outside the
Jewish culture could have lasted six or seven years. Neither does it contradict the Bible to assume that the Magi,
again avoiding the Jewish cultural circle, accompanied Jesus to Galilee in Syrian territory to place their six
or seven year old reborn master Zarathustra in the
care of the "Nazarenes", where in the mean time also the other "twin", the Luke Jesus had arrived.
That even now the mission of the Wise Men from the East was not yet completed, is suggested by Rudolf Steiner's
words from a lecture "From Buddha to Christ" (Budapest, May 31 1909): "He is reborn as Zarathas
or Nazarathos and becomes there the teacher of Pythagoras, who is reborn as one of the three Wise Men from the
East and who then became a student of Jesus of Nazareth."
Whoever reckons with only one Jesus boy will never get to understand our
reflections. Neither will he contribute anything of real value however, because his judgment is not based on the
whole reality.
Differentiating and keeping the two different lives of Jesus apart until the year 11 AD is, since Rudolf Steiner's
vital discovery, part of the reality of the biographical Jesus Research. Whoever speaks before this date of only
one Jesus, without referring to the reality of two Jesus lives, can not claim to be describing a reality. Knowledge
of the two Jesus lives even forms the decisive criterion for evaluating an item of research. This is valid for
people investigating the physical realm as well as for those who are clairvoyant. For in the supersensible realm
mistakes are also possible, if one has not, by first developing the necessary powers of discrimination, become
a spiritual researcher. If the seer is unaware that there are two boys named Jesus, then - depending on whether
his naive spiritual gaze is focused on this or that Jesus - elements of one life are mixed with those from the
other and mental pictures are developed which are at odds with reality. The similar pictures that may be confused
can, seen by themselves, be right. It is possible, in the sense of the Gospel of Luke, to encounter Joseph and
Maria with an infant on the road between Jerusalem and Nazareth, or to meet them, in the sense of the Gospel of
Matthew, with a little older child on the road from Bethlehem to Egypt, or perhaps even in the sense of our reflections,
accompanied by the Wise Men from the East. But it would be wrong not to differentiate the families and to think
therefore that the road from Bethlehem to Egypt went via Jerusalem and Nazareth and that the Wise Men would not
already have found the Holy Family in Bethlehem, but on the road to Egypt.
In order to avoid confusion, accepted historical dates and also the Gospels, which the spiritual researcher judges
to be right, are necessary correctives for grasping the complete reality. We can just as little ignore accepted
historical dates today as the fact that until the year 11 BC we may not speak of Jesus in the singular. Neither
should we, on the other hand, after the scene of "twelve year old Jesus in the Temple" speak of two different
boys named Jesus. Only one was now alive: Jesus of Nazareth.
The power of discrimination could already be furthered in children by setting up, instead of one model of the Nativity
scene whereby shepherds and kings, stars and angels, oxen and donkeys are all in the same stable, two different
scenes underneath the Christmas tree: a Nativity scene according to Luke with a real manger in the stable with
shepherds and animals and next to it a royal manger which should however be a cradle, not in a stable, but in a
human habitat. The child adored by the Magi should not be presented as an infant in the cradle, in the arms of
Maria or lying on the ground. The child with his head no longer tucked in could be sitting in the arms or on the
lap of Maria. Thus: the Luke manger with the newly born Jesus surrounded by shepherds, oxen and donkeys and next
to it the Matthew manger with the Three Kings adoring their reborn teacher and master in the person of the somewhat
older Jesus.
What is still to be considered by these two "Christmas mangers", is that today we only celebrate the
birth in the stable at the right time and that with this Nativity we adore the Jesus whose body was nailed to the
cross 331/3 years later. This Jesus Christ corresponds more or less with our calendar, which actually would have
to begin one year earlier. In memory of the other Jesus,
whose higher entities moved into the body of the Luke Jesus in the year 11 AD, both mangers could nevertheless
be set up.
Summarizing, it may be said that the constellations of the stars as cited by Wolfram reveal a cosmic connection
between the Parzival events and the Zarathustra-Jesus. The Star of Munsalvaesche was preceded by the Star of Bethlehem,
which announced the rebirth of Zarathustra. The Nativity of Christendom is freed from its contradictions, if the
following dates are reckoned with:
One of the events, the birth of the Luke Jesus took place 331/3 years before April 3 in the
year 33, on December 24/25. This leads us to the year 2 BC. The other event, the adoration of the Magi, occurred
according to astronomical calculations on November 11/12 in the year 7 BC, when after their reverse motion and
before moving from left to right again Jupiter and Saturn were standing still at almost the same time. The Solomon
Jesus who was born in September with the Sun in Virgo was about 7 weeks old at that time.
It would be a rewarding task for young astute theologians to work at bringing out the differences between the two
Nativities and frankly compare them. It is not a question of contradictions which, for fear of diminishing faith
in the truth of the Gospels, must be kept secret, but in all honesty a question of two separate events, which further
this faith - but also the honesty of scientific convictions - if they are in the sense Rudolf Steiner's research
differentiated and if the further course of development of the two boys until the younger Jesus was about 12 years
old is regarded separately.
The connection between the Nativity of Christendom and the Grail events of the ninth century becomes evident through
the two great conjunctions of the years 7 BC and 848 AD, as soon as this conjunction in 7 BC is recognized as the
Star of Bethlehem.
The theme of the Zarathustra prophecy and the existence of the two Jesus boys can become part of the ever-changing
History of the Grail, if developing human consciousness is again capable of absorbing something new.
With his "Science of the Grail" Rudolf Steiner conclusively solved the centuries-old riddle in Gospels
Research and opened a doorway revealing new horizons to contemporary consciousness. By including karmic research
he made it possible to demonstrate spiritual historic lines of development that lead to the solution of many remaining
riddles in modem historical research. On this new basis, it has been possible not only to historically trace the
preparation of the most central event in the history of humanity, but also this event itself and its further development
through the ninth century until the present, and to practice a historical method which is also of benefit to the
art of human living.
The whole reality of history can only be recognized when, next to what is exclusively recognized as reality from
materialistic viewpoints, the spiritual driving force behind historical events is included as well. The whole reality
of something can, on the other hand, only be recognized when this spiritual agent is not only recognized as an
idea, but as the other part of a whole reality. History of the Grail without its spiritual background is not Grail
history. The spiritual background alone however is not the whole reality either, because the spiritual world does
not philosophize, it shapes new life. New world views are not only proclaimed, but also practiced by teachers of
humanity in real life.
Our reflections concerning the Christ prophecy were also prompted by yet another context. Kyot has a special affinity
with the Three Holy Kings and with the information about the positions of the planets in Parzival's time which
Wolfram gave in his Parzival,
Kyot proves that he also recognized the connection between the stellar constellations of Munsalvaesche with the
analogous constellations of the time of the Three Kings. With the aid of this Pythagoras astronomy he succeeded
in finding the Grail.
In more recent post-Wolfram times Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler proved to be experts in this astronomy and bearers
of spiritual world views. Kepler was known to have felt a definite affinity with Pythagoras. He was not only of
the opinion that he had carried the holy vessels of the Egyptians over into modern times; he also said: "And
Pythagoras shall not resurrect, unless
his soul has migrated into me." (Letter dated 08/29/1599 to Mastlin). To the objection that this was just
an inkling, he replied:
"Not every inkling is wrong, because man is made in the image of God and it is very well possible that in certain things which make up the adornment of the world, he means the same as God."
Rudolf Steiner, the clairvoyant researcher, pointed out how a researcher who only uses his thinking may understand these cheerful words by Johannes Kepler. In his Theosophy Rudolf Steiner wrote:
"There is a question which everyone who thinks must ask himself, namely, in what relation does the thought which a man has about a stone stand to the stone itself? This question rises in full clarity in the minds of those who look especially deeply into external nature. They feel the consonance of the human thought-world with the structure and order of Nature. The great astronomer, Kepler, for example, speaks in a beautiful way about this harmony: 'True it is that the divine call which bids man study astronomy is written in the world, not indeed in words and syllables, but in substance, in the very sense that human conceptions and senses are fitted to relationships of the heavenly bodies and their conditions.' Only because the things of the sensible world are nothing else than densified spiritual beings is the man who raises himself through this thought to these spirit-beings able by thinking to understand the things. Sense-objects originate in the spirit-world, they are only another form of spirit beings; and when one forms thoughts about things his inner nature is merely directed away from the sensible form and out towards the spiritual archetypes of these things."
Kepler knows the inward harmony existing between his thought-world and the planetary
world. He recognized the invisible laws on which the whole of creation is based by listening to the visible world.
In thinking he recognizes nature as spirit-cosmos. Like the astronomer he sees the cosmic clock, but not only the
clock but also the clockmaker standing behind it. The whole
of reality is only given by both sides. In his striving to penetrate into the whole reality of creation, he sees
himself in one line with Pythagoras
and he feels the urge to speak out as a premonition what for the first time Rudolf Steiner was able to research
through (by) supersensible vision: the law of karma and reincarnation.
What the spiritual researcher is capable of recognizing by his means, can be of help to the thinking knower in
two ways: as an indication of spiritual connections and as a nursery school for his own spiritual cognition.
Wolfram von Eschenbach wove such "kinship" in his own work. He describes his own relation to the Three
Holy Kings, the students of that individuality in whom the Cosmic Word incarnated. With Kyot-Willehalm a lost Christian
worldview reappears that was experienced by the witnesses as a mystical fact, but that we are able to recognize
as such since Rudolf Steiner.
A Short Methodological Excursion
The Three Holy Kings continued developing themselves. They did not remain heathen
kings. The line of development they followed thereby was indicated by Rudolf Steiner, who said that the reborn
Pythagoras already became a Christian in his incarnation as one of the Three Kings. After having discovered that
Wolfram's Willehalm-Kyot went on to continue the tradition of the Three Kings, we see it as our duty to say clearly
that we are not confusing the historical research
practiced here with Rudolf Steiner's karmic research. Rudolf Steiner performed direct research into the spiritual
world. In John the Baptist he recognized the reborn Elias. Both of them proved in history to be the prophets or
heralds of Christianity. If this research method is not accessible to someone, he must do it the other way around.
He can learn from history that Elias and John the Baptist are prophets. But it would be wrong to derive from this
fact that they are reincarnations of the same individuality. Only the spiritual researcher can decide if this is
true or false. If someone cannot reach this level of research, he should refrain from speculating. He always has
the possibility of using results from the spiritual researcher as signposts directing him through the field of
history that can be grasped by the intellect, and to include autobiographical material in his historical research
from personalities who were, according to the spiritual researcher, once initiates. In his biographies of Kepler
and Pythagoras, Ernst Bindel undertook to evaluate such autobiographical material and to render it accessible to
us for the schooling of our karmic consciousness. Much can be learned from such a comparison between personalities,
who in various cultural circles worked at certain earthly tasks and who, metamorphosed as it were, continue to
do so until today, even if the karmic connections made visible by Ernst Bindel between the personalities of old
Egypt and the German Kepler are "only" indicative of a spiritual kinship. Such lines of similar aspirations
permit us to feel our way forward from research into individual historical periods to an understanding of the overall
context, or infer eternal individualities from individual personalities and to gain some inkling of the spiritual
guidance of man and mankind.
We should prepare this methodology by beginning to consciously experience our own life by looking at it backwards
and developing thereby the faculty of grasping past events in a complete picture. Rudolf Steiner advised us to
fill the gaps in our mental pictures with our own additives, so that for the time being we come to a cohesive overall
view. Experience shows that it
would be wrong to rebel against this advice or to say, how can I make a mental picture of something I know not
for certain. For what happens is that when such imaginary supplements are not right, they immediately begin to
develop a life of their own. "Wrong" additives are disturbing and stimulate one to keep changing them
until every detail is integrated into the whole,
so that the impression of a sensible unity arises. As long as the details are not absorbed in the totality and
as long as the diversity has not been unified, the total view gives us no rest and continues to call for a change
in the details.
If we did not supplement, but leave "white spots" open as long as they cannot be "proven",
the gaps would remain. The provisionally filled in, yet wrong parts of the total picture are disturbing until we
have changed them to such an extent that they fit without opposition into the totality.
Our geographical identification of the Parzival scenes came about in this way. We began writing down our findings
only after the details allowed an overview and had been reassembled in a pedagogical manner and put into the hands
of readers and fellow thinkers. The details of this text have the same effect on those reading it now. They cause
opposition as long as they are
incapable of being integrated in the total presentation. I warmly welcome any critic whose ideas
are formed this way. Whoever has lived some time with a mental picture that he considers definitely wrong and,
after corresponding modifications of his assumptions, finally finds a mental picture that he can live with, is
invited to communicate this to me, so that I can take up this new suggestion and observe how it begins to work
in my mind.
1. K. Ferrari d'Occhieppo, Der
Stem der Weisen. Verlag Herold, Vienna- Munich 1969
2. Ernst Bindel, Pythagoras. Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart 1962, p.42. Not known at this point is if this book
is available in English. (Tr.)
3. E. Hucher, Le Grand Saint Graal. 3 Vol. Le Mans 1875,1877, 1878.
4. Wilhelm Rath, Das Buch vom Gral. Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart 1968. Translated?
6. This conjunction is, as mentioned in the translator's note, extensively dealt with in Greub's third book, where
a chapter entitled "Zarathustra and the Three Holy Kings" is devoted to it. (Tr.)
7. This not uncontroversial dating aspect is also dealt with in the chapter on "The Two Jesus Boys" in
Greub's third work. (Translator's note)
8. B. Tuckerman, Planetary Lunar and Solar Positions. Philadelphia 1962
9. See Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St Luke. Trans: D.S. Osmond, 0. Barfield (10 lectures, Basle 15-26 Sept, 1909,
GA 114), Rudolf Steiner Press, 204 p.
10. Basle is situated nearby the village of Arlesheim with its ancient Celtic holy site, the Hermitage, which,
as Werner Greub demonstrated in his first book, served as Terre de Salvaesche with at its center the Grail Castle
Mimsalvaesche. (Tr.)
11. Konradin Ferrari d'Occhieppo: Der Stern der Weisen, Herold Verlag, Vienna, 1969, p. 123
12. Emil Funk, Zeitgeheimnisse im Christus-Leben, Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, Domach 1970
13. No reference is given here
14. What the situation is now in this respect and especially in the English-speaking world where Greub was not
so at home, must still be looked into. (Tr.)
15. There are no references here as to the exact source (tr.)
16. No references here either (tr.)
17. See Chapter III, The Three Worlds: Section V, The Physical World and its Connection with the Soul-world and
Spiritland, p. 111.
(10-8-99)