Up to this point the human being dwelled in full communion with, and awareness and understanding of, the beings of the Hierarchies, angels all the way up to the Seraphim, and acted in accordance with the wishes of these higher beings. These portrayed to human consciousness the Face of God. But in this state the human being had no “knowledge” of its own, no possibility of independence. This could only be brought about by experiences, i.e., from eating the fruit of the tree of good and evil. A hierarchical being called Lucifer (meaning “light-bearer”; see fn 3) had remained behind during the Old Moon Condition of Consciousness, the stage when the human astral body was being formed (I-14). The account of how Lucifer, contrary to the will of the Elohim (Exusiai, or Spirits of Form), brought about the infection of the human astral body is given in Gen 3, which describes what is called the Fall.

The descent of the human being into materiality thus commenced, the closing off from it of consciousness of the spiritual world and its beings. But this loss of consciousness occurred only gradually over long eons of time during which the human Ego entered the “Three Bodies” through the “Blood,” and the etheric and astral bodies slowly shrank into the developing frame of the mineral-physical body.

The separation of the sexes and descent into materiality occurred generally in the transition from Lemuria to Atlantis (see I-2). The Mysteries began to develop on Atlantis. Through them the guiding spiritual powers were able to communicate reality to humanity and thus to guide it in its development along proper channels. At first there was more direct involvement of spiritual beings with humans in this divine endeavor. Something of this interplay is revealed in Gen 6,1-4, “when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men.” The purest and most sensitive human beings, in the sense of spiritual awareness, received revelations directly from spiritual beings and communicated these revelations to others for their direction. An instinctive recognition of this leadership existed at first. The leaders became heads of the various Mysteries and, as priests or hierophants, were able to initiate others into their secrets. All ancient peoples looked to these leaders and initiates for guidance.

But as the descent into materiality progressed, evil increased (Gen 6,5). Eventually the Atlantean Evolutionary Epoch was brought to an end, and its fruits were carried over by the highest initiate to emerge therefrom, Manu, whom we may take to be the one called Noah in the Biblical account (Gen 6-10).

Humanity continued to be guided during the prehistoric post-Atlantean Cultural Eras (Ancient Indian and Ancient Persian) by those initiated into the Mysteries. But the mineralization of the human descent was continuing. The almost perfect memory, and extensive spiritual clairvoyance, of the ancient human being gave way to an increasing intellect, and with the fading memory and clairvoyance came the need for “Writing.” And as the etheric body gradually encased itself within the mineral-physical confines, especially in the head region, not only did initiation become more difficult and dangerous but the insights available even to the leadership of the Mysteries faded (see “Fading Splendor”). More and more the Mysteries became decadent. “Darkness” was settling upon humanity. Even during the period between incarnations, the human soul was shut off from experiencing the spiritual beings, the Face of God. Sheol was experienced.

The encroaching decadence of ancient Mystery centers, such as Ephesus, with its temple of Artemis, is seen in Paul’s encounters (Acts 19,21- 41). The greatness of the ancient Artemis is recognized, it even being said that Paul and his companions were not “blasphemers of [the] goddess” (vs 37). What is indicated is that the ancient goddess is no longer recog-nized because of the decadence of the temple practices.

So distant was humanity from understanding the Mysteries at the time of Christ that when he and the beings of the spiritual world enacted the substance of those Mysteries for all humanity to see upon the world stage, the event was not understood. We shall see that the New Testament fully discloses this. But what has not been seen until now (with Steiner’s revelations) is that the event is still not understood by Christendom. The main channel of its doctrines, as they emerged from those with archetypal understanding, is true, but while they are piously mouthed, they remain “mysterious,” and this lack of understanding will progressively enucleate the power of the Gospel message.

The pervasive Biblical references to the ancient Mysteries are not detected. Rather, they are complacently deemed to refer only to what can be garnered from a simple reading of one or more of the available modern translations. The “occult” is deemed, in many if not the full spectrum of religious persuasions, to refer only to what is sinister and evil as if a “work of the devil,” only to what Steiner calls “black magic” as distinguished from “white.” But the Bible shows itself, as we shall see, to be an “occult” book from beginning to end, and it also shows that those who “find” (and sufficiently pursue) its deeper meanings are initiates into the “Mystery of Golgotha,” to use Steiner’s phrase.

It seems especially significant that the reason the “strait (hard) and narrow way” of Mt 7,14 is trodden only by “few” is that it is not “found.” The significance of this hit me upon reading a particular translation, prompting me to investigate whether this was consistently the meaning from one translation to another. It was so in thirteen of the fourteen translations in my personal library.⁴ This seems a powerful indication that part of the very difficulty of “the Way” is in “finding” it. Something is “found” only after it has been “lost” or “hidden,” so it is fair to say that the “way” referred to in this passage is an “occult” (“hidden”) one.