Table of Contents
Rudolf Steiner’s lecture, read by Rudolf Steiner Press Audio, sets moon religion beside sun religion around Golgotha. Hebrew tradition, in his account, named an inner divine element Yahweh and tied it to the moon, while Mesopotamian neighbors watched spirits in the other stars. He prefers ten lunar months because an embryo is formed by lunar force, not by earth matter alone, and that cult explains life by the conditions of birth. Jesus inherits this setting, meets eastern star wisdom, and teaches an inner will plus a solar influence after birth. Baptism in the Jordan is, for Steiner, the last reception of that sun nature, after which Christ stands in for the sun itself. Rome reduces the mystery to an outer story in Palestine and ties belief to state power. Henry II and an early crusading hope fail to keep a cosmic church separate from that power. Truth that makes one free has, he says, stayed unknown. The lecture is his, not a judgment on living peoples.
Key points
- Steiner’s lecture treats Hebrew religion as moon linked and Mesopotamian religion as awareness of spirits in the other stars.
- He grounds the moon claim in pregnancy, counted as ten lunar months and shaped by lunar forces.
- Jesus is said to add an inner will and a sun influence, received at the Jordan and then unavailable to other bodies.
- Christianity, in this account, brings that solar being to earth, while Rome keeps only the outer Palestine story.
- Henry II and an early crusade hope are cast as failed attempts to separate a cosmic church from state power.
- He ends by tying true history, and a freedom born of truth, to that solar impulse rather than to star maps alone.
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Short quotes
people believed for instance that there were spiritual entities on Saturn and that these had a certain influence on human beings
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on moon and sun religions
Star religion, in this lecture, treated planets as homes of spirits. Watch at 4:04
he may be said to have been twice born
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on moon and sun religions
A solar touch, he says, made that figure born a second time. Watch at 13:55
Jesus of Nazareth was the last human being to receive the Sun influence at a time when others could no longer do so
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on moon and sun religions
He places the final solar gift on Jesus of Nazareth. Watch at 19:23
you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on moon and sun religions
The freedom line, he holds, is the saying history failed to absorb. Watch at 30:00
Video by Rudolf Steiner Press Audio. Watch on YouTube.