Christ and the Spiritual World and the Search for the Holy Grail

Book excerpt: ‘There is no way of approach to the Grail through words of any kind, or through philosophical speculations. The only way is by changing all these words into feeling, by becoming able to feel in the Grail the sum of all that is holy...’ - Rudolf Steiner (from lecture 6) Reviewing human history in relation to the cosmic-earthly events of Christ’s incarnation, Rudolf Steiner explains the significance of both the Gnostic religion and the legend of the Holy Grail. He indicates how the Grail emerges in human history, and how the ‘stellar script’ relates to the secret of Parsifal. Steiner examines humanity’s existential quest in the historical patterns of human thought and spiritual development. We are shown the widespread influence of the sibyls, who with their astrological and clairvoyant prophecies were a backdrop to one of the richest cultural epochs, the Greco-Roman world. Steiner contrasts the revelations of the sibyls to those of the Hebrew prophets. This course of lectures, a complete edition from Steiner’s Collected Works, offers an illuminating insight into the development of the soul through succeeding ages.