Karma and Reincarnation, Page 17

Now a curious fact in John’s Gospel is that two principal characters are never named (see text following reference to fn 1 in “The Nativity”). One is John (the only usage being with reference to the Baptist) and the other is Jesus’ Mother. This is clearly deliberate. Its reason in the case of John will be shown in “Peter, James and John.” Its reason as to his Mother is very deep. But that it is deliberate is clear from the fact that his Mother’s sister is called “Mary the wife of Clopas” in Jn 19,25, and it was unusual then as now for two siblings to be given the same name. The point is that John is using the term “Mother of Jesus” in a far deeper sense than ordinary, in the sense of the Virgin Sophia, or divine Wisdom, which John was to take into himself from the Crucifixion on (Jn 19,26-27) and to express in the Gospel of John (see GSJ, Lect. 12, pp. 185-187). This is the same Mother to whom the higher meaning in Jn 2,1-11 is given. Since the time when Christ was to be fully revealed in his Second Coming was yet far in the distance, in the transition from the fifth to the sixth Cultural Age (the “Third Day”), he could say to his Mother something that he would never have said to his dear earthly Mother: “O woman, what have I to do with you?” (The common wording “what have you to do with me” is a perversion of the original meaning.) Since there were yet two millennia to run before the return of Christ to the etheric realm (Second Coming), during which time humanity was to concentrate on the importance of each life without knowledge of reincarnation, he instituted the celebration of Christian ceremonies with wine for the duration of that period and so long as he was only “remembered.” But it will not be a matter of “remembrance” (1 Cor 11,24-25) to those who attain to the new vision of the Second Coming, for they will experience him directly there and know him without the necessity for such “remembrance” (see 1 Cor 11,26, “until he comes”). It will be the beginning of what Jeremiah saw (Jer 31,33-34; Heb 10,16-17).

No words are superfluous in scripture when it is taken from the “Akashic” record, which confirms the usage of “Cana in Galilee.” As Steiner says, (The Gospel of St. John and its Relation to the Other Gospels[Jn-Rel], Lect. 9, p. 161), “Seek as you will, you can find in old Palestine within the radius then known no second Cana.” It was imperative that this event be in a setting in “Galilee.” Why? Because there was a mixture of “Blood” in “Galilee” and Christ was initiating the necessary spiritual change of humanity’s direction away from Blood relationships toward the brotherhood of all humanity (see “All Nations” and “Races”). The earthly Mother of Jesus still represented a Blood relationship, whereas what related to Christ’s “hour” was to transcend that relationship. Hence, he could say, “What have I to do with thee?”

The astral vision John gained by taking the “Mother of Jesus” into “his own home” (Jn 19,27) gave him the insights to write his Gospel. Thus, even though John’s Gospel says nothing of the Transfiguration or of the “Communion” sacrament, his first “Sign” gives us the deeper elements of both. We shall see in “Peter, James and John” that he does not mention them because he was not present for either of them. (There are still other deep aspects involved in the “transubstantiation” that have become difficult for humanity to comprehend and are outside our present concern.)

Much more could be said about the Cana wedding passage (and many more terms and phrases have a bearing than those yet cited), but it will have to await development in the larger work. Those who desire to look further into what Steiner said of these matters, should see, for instance, GSJ, Lects. 4 (pp. 76-77), 5 (pp. 82-90) and 10 (p. 162); Jn-Rel, Lect. 9 (pp. 161-170); The Gospel of St. John (GOSPSJ, unpub. Eng. typescript), Lects. 5 (pp. 41-42) and 8 (pp. 89-92); GSJN (pp. 4-8); FE, Lects. 8 (p. 53), 23 (pp. 186-187) and 30 (pp. 246-249) and How Can Mankind Find the Christ Again? (HCMF), Lect. 8 (pp. 162-163).