Table of Contents
Rudolf Steiner Press Audio reads a lecture in which Steiner lines the sun logos up with ten avatars. Zodiac pictures and the earliest backboned animals are memories, for him, of a slow split between spirit and matter. A chronicle he quotes has the first change draw spirit out of an egg shaped astral sheath. Later steps stiffen that sheath into emblems from Indian lists, a fish, a turtle, a boar, a lionlike human, and a dwarf. Each is a metamorphosis of God, not a fossil date. The same ladder then turns toward teachers. A legendary king softens a hard law. Krishna makes love into blessedness. Buddha is wisdom inside a mortal body. The tenth figure is the one ancient India was said to await. For the Rosicrucians of the lecture, that figure is Christ, who takes a body already carrying karma, dies in public rather than in a closed symbol, and leaves no writings. Mahatmas pass on only part of a core he says sits under many religions. The order is his spiritual sequence.
Key points
- The lecture pairs the sun logos with zodiac pictures and with early stages of backboned animals.
- Each avatar is a further withdrawal of spirit and a hardening of matter, told through a quoted chronicle.
- Animal emblems in the sequence include a fish, a turtle, a boar, a lionlike human, and a dwarf.
- Later avatars are human teachers, among them a legendary Indian king, Krishna, and Buddha.
- The coming figure, for the Rosicrucians in this reading, is Christ in a body already marked by karma.
- His public death is set apart from a merely symbolic rite, and he is said to leave no writings.
- Mahatmas are described as passing on only part of a wisdom shared under many religions.
Topics on this site
Short quotes
entire unified matter of which they consist at the first avatar the spirit was separated from the egg-shaped astral
Rudolf Steiner Press, Steiner lecture on the sun logos
The first avatar, in the lecture, is the moment spirit pulls out of a soft astral shell. Watch at 3:01
Without Limits because the Warner is missing and so too is leadership fifth Avatar this is the physical human being
Rudolf Steiner Press, Steiner lecture on the sun logos
By the fifth avatar he presents a physical human, with the warning presence and any leader gone. Watch at 7:17
Christ did not leave behind any writings as did other great teachers of humanity
Rudolf Steiner Press, Steiner lecture on the sun logos
Unlike other famous teachers in his comparison, Christ leaves no book behind. Watch at 14:00
Video by Rudolf Steiner Press Audio. Watch on YouTube.