ighty traditions of Ancient Wisdom then existed, especially those of the
Christ-event, which by the power of their content gave men confident
knowledge of the higher worlds.

But there were still certain human beings existing who had evolved the
higher powers of cognition in addition to the faculties of reason and
feeling. It devolved upon them to learn the facts of the higher worlds,
and especially of the Mystery of the Christ-event, by direct supersensible
perception. From these individuals there always flowed into the souls of
other men as much as was intelligible and good for them.

The first spreading of Christianity was to take place just at a time when
the capacities for supersensible cognition were undeveloped in a great
part of humanity. And this is why tradition at that time possessed such
mighty power. The strongest possible force was necessary to lead mankind
to a faith in a supersensible world which they themselves could not
perceive. How Christianity worked during that period has been shown in
previous pages. There were always those, however, who were able to rise
into higher worlds through imagination, inspiration, and intuition. These
men were the post-Christian successors of the old Initiates, the teachers
and members of the Mysteries. Their task was to recognize again, through
their own faculties, what man had been able to perceive through ancient
clairvoyance, and through the methods of ascent into higher worlds taught
in the old Initiations; and in addition to this, to acquire the knowledge
of the real nature of the Christ-event.

Thus there arose, among these "New Initiates," a knowledge embracing
everything contained in the old form of Initiation; but the central point
of this teaching was the higher knowledge concerning the Mysteries of the
coming of the Christ. Such teaching could only filter through into the
general life of the world in scanty measure while the human souls of the
fourth period were further developing the faculties of intellect and
feeling; therefore, while this lasted, the doctrine was in truth secret.
Then began the dawn of the new period designated as the fifth. Its
essential characteristic lay in the progress made in the evolution of the
intellectual faculties, which were then developed to a very high degree,
and will unfold still further in the future. This process has been slowly
going on from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, becoming ever more
rapid from the sixteent