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Review of Lecture 9
Rudolf Steiner's Lecture cycle
Subject:The Gospel of St. John
Hamburg, 1908
 
The Prophetical Documents
and
The Origin of Christianity
 
 
As we read each of these twelve lectures together on these twelve Holy Nights of Christmas I am going to very briefly review the 9th. lecture of this cycle and proceed to discuss  the ideas, thoughts and questions that were raised within me as I read this lecture and the preceding lectures by Rudolf Steiner.
 
Steiner postulates that , ". . . The birth of Christianity appears as something positively necessary in the whole spiritual course of human events." The advent of Christ could not take place before the time that it did nor after . After the Great Deluge humanity came into the period of the Indian culture. This was a time when humans saw the earth as Maya and as an illusion in comparison to the reality of the spiritual worlds. It was a time of "memory of" and "longing for" the spiritual worlds only.
 
In the second post-deluge culture known as the Persian culture, ". . . we saw mankind taking the first step toward growing out of the ancient Indian principle and conquering physical reality. Still nowhere was there any fondness for sinking into the physical reality, also there existed nowhere anything like a study of the physical world."
 
"Humanity then passed over into that period of civilization which found its historical expression in the Babylonian-Assyrian-Chaldaic-Egyptian culture and we have seen how it happened that the starry heavens were no longer Maya to these people of the third epoch, but something whose written characters could be read. In all that still seemed a Maya to the Indians in the course and splendor of the stars, the Persian saw an expression of the resolutions and purposes of divine spiritual beings. They gradually accustomed themselves to the idea that outer reality is not illusion but a revelation, a manifestation of divine-spiritual beings. Then in the Egyptian civilization, men began to apply what they read in the stars to the divisions of the earth."
 
"Thus gradually a later humanity permeated this material world - looked upon at first as only Maya -with the spirit, and this spirit also gradually emerged within the inner soul life of the human being."
 
"The human being gradually reached the point of permeating matter with his spirit and this increased as time went on. The fourth epoch (Greek/Roman) was that in which he thoroughly incorporated into matter what he comprehended with his spirit."
 
". . . in the fourth epoch the human being had reached the point where he  objectified his own spirituality, his own ego (I AM) and had placed it out in the world. We perceive how gradually he permeated matter with his own spirit, with his ego-spirit."
 
Humanity had now reached the point where it could now accept the Christ (the Divine, Cosmic EGO-I AM) in a human form. Humanity could now accept the reality that spirit can permeate matter and that a God of the highest order could become 'flesh' which is what the Gnostics could never accept. We see that the incarnation of Christ could not come prior to this time nor after but rather, "Christianity could arise only at a time when men were not so deeply immersed in matter that they were likely to overestimate its (matter's) worth; when they were not yet plunged so deeply into matter as is the case in our age, but were still able to spiritualize it and to penetrate it."
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That's a very brief synopsis of this lecture most of which are quotes from Steiner.For those who wish to continue with this discussion there are other issues (questions) that I wish to address which have come up while reading these lectures. For instance, the Deluge story of the Bible and other sagas throughout various cultures that speak of a deluge calamity. Certainly Steiner speaks of it as the time of the sinking of the Atlantean continent which now forms the bed of the Atlantic ocean. It was a calamity which was brought about primarily by the practice of Black Magic as Steiner expresses it. There are others of course who have their own specific views about the time that can also be referred to as the ending of the last Ice Age. Those views often entail the theories of a 'pole shift' such as Charles Hapgood's 'earth crust displacement' theory and Immanuel Velikovsky's 'dark neutron star' theory'. Most geophysicists reject both of these theories and others like them by simply saying that it is geophysically impossible for the earth to 'flip-over' on its axis. Many who hold to the 'pole-shift' theory say that approximately 12,000 years ago (as Steiner also holds that the sinking of the Atlantean continent was 12,000 years ago) around the time of the ending of the Ice Age the North Magnetic pole was located at what is now the southern portion of the Hudson Bay. This could explain why the North American continent was covered by ice glaciers and Siberia had a very mild climate at that time. Much of North America would have been within or near the Arctic Circle centered in the southern portion of the Hudson Bay. If there had been a pole shift and the north magnetic pole shifted from Hudson Bay to where it is today the consequences had to have been disastrous. We know that the earth flattens somewhat at the poles and bulges at the equator.When these areas were suddenly no longer poles and the equator they had to have gone through dramatic changes as well as the areas that became the new poles and equator. One would think that these areas were areas of great earthquakes with deep fissures that spewed out both lava and water which had poured into the opened fissures from the seas and oceans and back out again and then over the earth itself. A pole shift also must have created large coastal and possibly continental flooding. When Steiner began discussing the post- Deluge cultures in this lecture, these questions (of a pole shift) came to my mind.
 
Another issue that is of interest is the mentioning of  Moses' experience of the 'I AM'. Drawing from Steiner and other writers of anthroposophical literature there is a question as to the actual experience of Moses on Mt. Sinai. I believe that we can speak of the Mt. Sinai experience in a very esoteric manner without losing the historical aspect of what is more commonly accepted. Did Moses actually climb a mountain? Possibly! However, this expression is often veiled language for a very deep meditative state in which the individual in question is experiencing an altered and elevated state of consciousness. Moses reaches his inner 'I Am'; that is, he experiences his own 'burning bush' which again is esoteric language for one's own 'I Am'. At the same time he also experiences the outer Cosmic EGO-I AM which lives in all there is and which is the seed force of our own EGO-I AM. In Steiner's 'The Calendar of the Soul' in the verse of the 11th. week he says, ". . . the human 'I' can lose itself and find itself within the Cosmic 'I'" The lower astral 'I' (personality) is what one loses but deep within, one finds one's true 'I' and with that experience one then also finds and experiences the Cosmic 'I' of the Christ.  What does Moses receive in the Commandments? One Commandment he receives says, "You shall not take the 'NAME' of the Lord, your God, in vain." What is the true 'NAME' of Christ? It is 'I AM'. We receive the Christ Impulse in us over time through many incarnations. We receive it into our own Ego-I AM where it flowers and increases over many lifetimes. It is not to be taken in 'vain' but It (the EGO-I AM Impulse of Christ) is to be taken into our own EGO-I AM in 'Full Freedom' and in 'Full Consciousness'; "For out of the Pleroma (Fullness), we have received grace upon grace."  This is a major advancement in the evolution of human consciousness. Moses comes down from the mountain and sees the people idolizing the golden calf or what could be understood as the lower astral self. The people themselves are a picture of all the lower, instinctive impulses that still fill the astral soul and which obscure the higher 'I AM' self to which Moses is a testament. Though the tablets are an external form of law, in time with the internalization of the Christ I AM into our own I AM and soul we will eventually internalize the Law within ourselves which eventually purges the lower astral self of its lower impulses. This is symbolically portrayed in Exodus by Moses throwing the tablets down at the base of the mountain and having the Levites slay those who would not stand with Moses  and later fusing the golden calf in fire and  turning it into powder,"which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink." The Law then becomes internalized as there will then come a time when Thou will no longer kill and Thou will no longer steal and Thou will no longer take the 'NAME' of the Lord, your God, in vain.
 
In the Bible another significant mention is made of a 'bush' which again can be read symbolically as one's own Ego. In the account of Abraham who is told by God to slay his own son we also have the ram caught in the bush. Here Abraham ascends a hill and answers to God with the expression, "Here I AM". What we see is the beginning of the dissolution of a blood-related group consciousness that was so prominent in the times of the Old Testament. How often does Steiner mention this that in the Old Testament we often are confronted with the old blood-ties of consciousness and in the New Testament we see the full emergence of the individuated I-consciousness. An angel comes to Abraham and again he answers, "Here I AM". The angel tells Abraham not to slay his son. The old blood-tie group consciousness had not yet run its full course in human evolution. However, the 'sacrificial ram' (the future advent of Christ) in the 'bush' (the human EGO-I AM) portends to the future when Christ will descend to earth to give to us HIS 'Pleroma' (fullness of Grace; that is, His Self as a source of spiritual Life from which we can draw while here on earth).
 
Steiner often makes mention of the fact that the author of the Gospel of St. John is referred to as "the Disciple whom the Lord loved." We know from Steiner that this Disciple is the Christ-initiated Lazarus who's name is now John. He is the author of this Gospel, as the term ". . . the Disciple whom the Lord loved" is 'mystery' language for expressing the fact that Lazarus/John is Christ's most spiritually advanced pupil in esotericism and who was initiated by Christ Himself. However, as Steiner makes it clear, John is never referred to in the Gospel by his name but is only referred to as ". . .the Disciple whom the Lord loved" in order to present to us that here lies a mystery of a very high order. The old order of initiation was enacted upon Lazarus 'in public' with the 'raising from the dead' which now sealed the fate of Christ as the Pharisees were keepers of the old, exclusive and secretive order of initiation. Christ now brought a new form of initiation to the earth. One that can be exercised in full consciousness and is fully connected with the Being of Christ Himself. The spiritual worlds can be ascertained in full consciousness by developing one's own soul and spiritual capacities. Christ brings to the earth the impulses to do this on our own.
 
Steiner raises another often overlooked fact in the Gospel of St. John. This is the fact that the "Mother of Jesus" is never named in the Gospel but is only referred to as the "Mother of Jesus". At the Marriage at Cana it reads : ". . .and the Mother of Jesus was there ;" also it reads "His Mother says to the servants."   When we get to the crucifixion in the Gospel, here it reads :
 
John 19:25
"There stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother, and His Mother's
sister Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." 
 
Steiner points out that it is not customary for siblings to have similar names today and it was not the custom in those days either. The 'mystery' here is that the "Mother of Jesus" by the Cross is not the actual Mother of Jesus but rather she is the step-mother of Jesus. The 'Mary' of the Luke Gospel is the actual Mother of Jesus of Nazareth who passed away shortly after the 12 year old Jesus was found after '3 days' (another expression of a very significant initiation) in the Temple. Later this Jesus became the step-son of Mary of the Matthew Gospel whom Joseph of the Luke Gospel had married as the Joseph of the Matthew Gospel had already passed away. My understanding then is that Mary and Joseph of the Matthew Gospel were not originally named Mary and Joseph. They were given these names to portray the 'mystery' roles that both were to enact in giving birth to the being of Zarathustra whose name means 'radiant star'. The name of Zarathustra gives rise to the 'star' that guided the three wise men (who were past initiates of Zarathustra in past lives). As Steiner has so often spoken before, names in the past were not given so arbitrarily as they are today. Names were specifically given in the 'mysteries' to denote the role one is given in life and often to convey the level and kind of initiation that one has attained. We see it so often in the Bible that names are radically changed when an individual has a very profound spiritual experience, such as : Abram becomes Abraham , Jacob becomes Israel , Saul becomes Paul and Lazarus becomes John. So here in the Gospel of John the writer wishes to point to a deep 'mystery' which in time will be revealed and understood by many  in that there were actually two Jesus childs. While in the Temple at the age of twelve one disincarnated from the body of the Jesus of the Luke Gospel and that the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel (Zarathustra) then incarnated into this body after he had disincarnated from his own body which then died soon after.
 
In this 9th. lecture Steiner asks a very profound question : "Who was the father" (of Jesus) ? He applies this question specifically to not only the Gospel of John but especially to the Gospel of Luke. Why? Steiner refers to the Annunciation when ". . .it was proclaimed : "
 
Luke 1:35
 
"The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee; therefore also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God"
 
Quoting Steiner from this lecture he says, "Even in the Gospel of St. Luke it is pointed out that the father of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. This must be taken literally . . ." However, Steiner in his own lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke makes it clear that Jesus was conceived normally and that it was not a 'miraculous conception'. He says that Joseph was the father of Jesus. There seems to be a contradiction until we look at two small but very important passages in the Gospel of Luke. These passages refer to the 'voice' of Mary. In the early chapters of the Luke Gospel (chapters 1&2) so much emphasis is placed upon some form of vocal expression. The voice is a prominent component of these early chapters. When we look at Mary, however , there are two passages that are very significant. They are :
 
Luke 1:41-42
"And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe in her womb leapt.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice . . ."
 
 
Luke 1:44
"For behold the moment that the 'sound' of thy greeting came to my ears,
the babe in my womb leapt for joy."
 
We know from Anthroposophy that the human voice in the future will be an organ for bringing new life into being. That the Power of the Holy Spirit, that is the Spirit-Self (Manas) aspect of the transfigured astral body (soul), has given to Mary the beginning stages of a capacity to bring life into being through the power of her 'spiritualized' voice. While in the womb of Mary,the body of Jesus was being worked upon in a very special way by the life giving forces of her voice which in turn would give this body much of what was necessary to be the eventual vehicle for the incarnation of the Logos; the Christ.
 
In Steiner's lecture cycle 'Occult Signs and Symbols' he states :
 
"At present the larynx is at the beginning of its development, but in times to come it will be transformed into a spiritualized organ of reproduction."
 
"As men in the future will be able to call people into being through their speaking, so it was that the forerunner of mankind, the gods, were gifted with an organ with which they expressed all things that are around us today."
 
However, when humans achieve this ability the planet "will consist of fiery matter" and humans will call forth humans of fiery form. The voice of Mary acting upon the body of Jesus was the prefiguration of this future capacity of our future selves. The same voice that gives us the ability to  address oneself as  "I AM" will in the future create life itself as the Logos (WORD) creates life now.
 
Returning to Luke 1:35 which in part reads,". . . that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God ." The phrase 'Son of God' or more specifically the term 'Son' is often a reference to any EGO-I AM. If we look at Mary as a figure that is a personification or archetypal image of the human soul we have the image of the human soul giving birth to the 'Son of God' within the soul. That is, the soul gives birth to the EGO-I AM. The EGO-I AM then is born to which it gradually develops over time in a sequence of physical earthly incarnations. It is the EGO-I AM to which Luke is more specifically referring when he gives us the genealogy of Jesus in his Gospel. It is purposely placed immediately after the Baptism in the Jordan when the Christ at that point in time (which is the "turning point of time" as Steiner refers to it) had incarnated into the body of Jesus of Nazareth. It is Christ that brings our EGO-I AM along in its on-going development and it is here that Luke wishes to show that when Christ entered a human form and soul He brought with Him the ' First Principle' from which every human EGO-I AM can draw its life and begin its ascension. In the Luke Gospel we are given a genealogy that ascends all the way back to ADAM, then to God. What we are given here is the distinction between the genealogy of Luke and that of Matthew. In the Luke Gospel the physical genealogy and blood-line is not so much the issue as the body of Jesus in the Luke Gospel is  more of a  creation of the forces of Mary's spiritualized 'voice' once the physical conception has been consummated. In the Matthew Gospel, however, we have the word 'begot' throughout the entire genealogy. This is a much stronger form of description of physically passing on the blood-line than what the Luke Gospel uses. Here in the Matthew Gospel we see that the actual physicality of a descending genealogy is emphasized in passing on the blood-line. The blood-line is in a descending order which is significant because it also alludes to us that here we see the eventual path of the EGO-I AM descending deeply into matter. It is also a genealogy that places much importance on past human 'history' and it is the genealogy of Zarathustra (radiant star).  In Luke we are given a genealogy that looks to the 'future' though it returns us to ADAM. It returns us to ADAM because the further back we go in human history the more spiritualized was human consciousness. However, what was missing was the capacity to stand within the spiritual realms with one's own individuated consciousness. Our consciousness then was really nothing more than the consciousness of higher spiritual beings permeating our own souls. We had no true individuated consciousness. Only by gradually descending further into matter (The Fall) did we then develop an individuated consciousness because we moved further and further from the spiritual realms as we moved deeper within matter and consequently deeper within our own selves. We were then ready to slowly receive and develop our own EGO-I AM. The ascending genealogy of the Luke Gospel therefore uses the term 'son' all throughout until it returns to God. Again, Luke places it after the Baptism in the Jordan (the point in time when Christ finally appears on earth as He incarnates into the human body of the Luke Jesus) because with Christ now here on earth the human EGO-I AM over future eons ascends back to God; that is, it ascends and the earth spiritually transfigures  back to the spiritual worlds. With this ascending genealogy Luke therefore shows us that as our consciousness ascends back to its former spiritually endowed capacity (the ADAM consciousness which reaches up to God and the spiritual worlds) we will 'also' have with it an individuated, awakened, Christ-filled, ascended EGO-I AM consciousness which is to be attained in full freedom.
 
One final point of interest is a statement that Steiner once made in reference to the Crucifixion. He said:
 
"The Cross on Calvary is the seed of a new cosmos."
 
This cosmos is to be a cosmos of LOVE. As the Moon Period (the earth's and this solar system's previous incarnation) was the cosmos of Wisdom in that wisdom was worked into that cosmic body  throughout its entire Moon Period, Love is now being worked into the earth and this solar system. Human EGO-I AMs are the seed forces for this cosmic body of Love. It is only in complete freedom and in full-consciousness that Love can be expressed and given. When this 'Earth Period' planetary condition is completed and we move into the next which is called the 'Jupiter Period' planetary condition in Christian Esotericism ". . .all things will breathe out Love." All things will be permeated with Love. The conditions of life in the Jupiter planetary condition will be quite different than what they are now. However, in all of our incarnations we have been developing into independent beings and that over time we will take in more of the Christ Impulse into our EGO-I AMs. There it is nurtured and flowers into the Pleroma (Fullness) of the Grace of Christ. In time we seed the earth with the living impulses of Love that fill our thoughts, feelings and actions. The soul and spirit essence of Love from human beings is taken up into the Christ-imbued, etheric-astral sheath that now envelopes the earth where the Etheric Christ now lives. This sunlike etheric-astral sheath which we help to create is the beginning stage of development of the future Jupiter planetary condition.
 
The eventual condition of the present earth is that it will eventually (along with all of the other planets) reunite with the sun. Christ brought to the earth the forces of the six Elohim Who reside within the spiritual sphere of the sun. With these sunlike forces brought by Christ that are now within the sphere of the  earth there is a 'force of attraction' that now impels the one to unite with the other. The sun and the earth are now impelled to unite with one another because they both contain within themselves 'like forces'. On a microcosmic level the same can be said about the relationship of humanity to Christ. Christ is the Divine and Cosmic EGO-I AM. Within us resides our own EGO-I AM. Here again a 'force of attraction' is at work. Our EGO-I AM is drawn to the EGO-I AM of the Christ. Our EGO-I AM becomes increasingly more like the EGO-I AM of Christ. In like manner on a macrocosmic level our earth becomes increasingly like a sun until it finally unites with the sun and becomes the 'seed force' for a new sun.
 
According to Steiner, Christ is a Being that comes from spiritual realms beyond the constellations. He is a Being that stands above all of the Divine Hierarchies which include humanity up to the Seraphim. What we see in the way of outer planetary and solar bodies (the planets and the stars) are actually the outer physical vestments behind which much deeper spiritual dimensional realities exist. As our own physical bodies are actually the outer physical vestments of our souls and spirits so are the planets and stars outer physical vestments for the spiritual beings who reside behind them in spiritual dimensions. Our physical sun is the physical vestment for the six Elohim and other beings that reside within its spiritual sphere. The planets are the physical bodies of other hierarchical beings and the same can be said for the constellations. Christ's spiritual dimensional reality resides beyond the constellations. When Christ came to earth and began the process of creating a new cosmic body of Love, He began the process of uniting the entire solar system into one body which will eventually form a new 'sun'. The earth is now the seed for that new sun. What may be taking place here is that not only are we becoming a seed force of a new sun but we may be actually becoming a seed force for an entirely new Galaxy; a cosmic Galaxy of Love; a cosmic Galaxy in which ". . .all things will breathe out Love."
 
On a web site by Nick Thomas he displays a picture of the position of our sun in relation to other stars within a radius of 38 light years. The picture shows the distribution of all the stars around our sun and in relation to each other within the 38 light year radius. The results are very dramatic. We see that all of the other stars are clustered very closely to each other but that the space around our own star, the sun, is significantly hollowed out and that our sun clearly stands alone among the other stars. One has to see this picture in order to appreciate its full impact. The web address is :

http://www.anth.org/nct/sunpos.htm




What we see in this picture is possibly the gestation and incubation of a newly forming Galaxy within the Milky Way Galaxy which is its Mother Galaxy. In time this new Galaxy will separate from the Milky Way and form its own galactic sphere. The new sun that we are now creating will be the new spiritual center of this future new Galaxy. The spiritualized earth will be the seed force within this new sun and new Galaxy.  Repeating what Steiner once said that the Cross of the Crucifixion, that is, the forces that were present on Calvary, is the seed force of a new cosmos.
 
When Christ spoke the words, "IT IS FINISHED" while upon the Cross, what He spoke of cosmically was that 'The Fall' of humanity into matter and all of the forces that brought humanity deeply into this condition were now 'FINISHED' and ended. Christ Himself has now died upon the Cross of 'matter' and has united His Being with the earth itself. A new Impulse of spiritual Life was brought into the sphere of the earth that would now bring the reversal of direction into the course of human and earthly evolution. The two earthquakes that took place during the death of Christ on the Cross and at the Resurrection were like 'signs' from the earth itself. The forces of the Fall were brought to a halt by Christ at this time which then literally shook the earth at its foundations. The new forces of the Resurrection and eventual Ascension of the earth and humanity back into the spiritual spheres which were begun by Christ on Easter Sunday morning also shook the earth at its foundations. As a result, a reversal in the direction of human and earthly evolution had now begun.
 
We know from Anthroposophy that in the blood are the spiritual forces of the EGO-I AM. We also know that the forces of the blood at the time of death will etherize into the etheric realms. When Christ died on the Cross and spilled His blood, these EGO-I AM forces of Christ were lifted into the etheric-life realm of the earth where they have remained. Normally for a human being these blood forces etherize and return to the cosmic etheric forces of the sun, but with Christ His etherized blood has remained here on earth and has permeated the etheric-astral sheath of the earth. Since the Mystery of Golgotha we now have an etheric-astral sphere around the planet of the earth that is the early spiritual essence of a new earth, a new sun and eventually a new Galaxy.
 
In the Bible we are told that Christ descends into Hell after the Crucifixion. We know from Anthroposophy that this is primarily a reference to the realm of the dead where  at that time in human history the dead retained very little and sometimes no consciousness in their afterlife. This sleep-like consciousness of the dead in their afterlife is alluded to so often in the Bible. Here Christ brings with Him to this realm a source of Light and Life to which the dead in their afterlife are able to respond depending on the Christ (LOGOS) Impulse that one has taken up in one's earthly life in full consciousness and in full freedom. The dead are then able to ascend into the higher spheres in their afterlife with the ability to retain a greater level of awakened consciousness throughout. Paul speaks in 1Corinthians 15:50-55 that the dead shall rise first then we who are the living shall meet Him in the air. This literally is true in the sense that the post-life pattern of ascending into the higher spheres for any one individual (microcosmically) is exactly the same pattern (macrocosmically) which will take place over eons of time for the whole of humanity and the earth itself.  It is the ascension of the earth and humanity into the higher spiritual spheres along with the eventual ascension of the human Christ-filled consciousness. Retaining consciousness after death is a priority in anyone's spiritual evolution. This is where we gather the harvest of our earthly life and it is here where we plant new seeds for our next life. A significant point in our afterlife is immediately after our death where we spend time reviewing our past life. This again is referred to by Paul in Hebrews 9:27 when he says ". . .it is appointed unto men to die once and after this comes the judgment." Our physical death, the death of the physical body, is the 'first' death after which we pass through a period of a life review where all that we had done in our lives is brought back to us in reverse and we experience the impact of all that we had done to others from their perspective. The verse which reads, ". . .it is appointed unto men to die once. . ." tells us in a more veiled language that a second type of death is not meant to be for humans and that is the death (loss) of consciousness in one's afterlife. This is what Christ came to overcome for our afterlives when He descended into the realm of the dead after the Crucifixion.
 
Another issue of importance is the question of the wording that Christ Jesus uses to describe His own Death and Resurrection. In John 2:19 He says, ". . .Destroy this Temple and in 'three days' I will raise it up." When Christ speaks of the destruction of the Temple which He will raise in 'three days' it is clear that he is speaking in 'mystery' language. We know from the Resurrection accounts given in the Bible that three days had not passed between the time of His Death to the time of His Resurrection. The  Gospel writers never say that three days had passed. They all use the expression ". . .on the morning of the first day of the week." Only Christ refers to it as "three days." All initiations in the old 'mystery' oracles which brings the celebrant to a higher stage of development are referred to as the 'three days of death'. It was because the celebrant was in a near-death condition for approximately three days. This would allow the celebrant to ascend into the spiritual worlds to which he would be initiated into the wisdom and truths of the spiritual worlds. Other references in the Bible would be the raising of Lazarus "from the dead" after three days and Jonah in the belly of the whale for three days which should not be interpreted as it is done so often but rather it is a clear reference to the ancient art of 'mystery' initiation.
 
The initiation and the raising from the dead to which Christ referred was an initiation of His Own Self. However this initiation was an initiation of the Highest Cosmic Order. It was an initiation of a Being that stands above all other beings in the Cosmic Order. Here again this initiation became the seed force to which Christ rises ever higher as the future central Being (the First Principle) of a new Galaxy and the new spiritual dimensional realities that would be the  Life and Light behind this new Galaxy. This is the beginning of the creation of the new Galaxy; a Galaxy ". . . from which all things will breathe out LOVE."
 
John 15:12
 
"This is My commandment, that you Love one another as I have Loved you."
 
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