WHEN MEN TURNED MORE and more to perishable earthly things, when they fettered themselves to them and thereby neglected their spirit, their spiritual capacity to comprehend diminished. The forming of right concepts became increasingly difficult, as they could no longer be grasped spiritually.

The fettering to what is earthly was done by the intellect, which arises from the earthly, because it is formed from the thoughts of the perishable brain. It gradually pushed itself into the foreground, suppressed the spirit, and eventually took over the forming of concepts in place of the spirit. They became distorted concepts that no longer fitted the word-designation concerned. The word in fact continued to exist but the idea which should have been awakened through the word and from which the spirit then formed the concept, was wrong.

For the intellectual power of imagination ends where the origin of the intellect is – in the World of Gross Matter, to which also belongs that which is earthly. This limit is given by Nature. Man cannot set or extend it himself. Any strengthening and refining of the intellect, however great and noteworthy, must halt at this gross-material-earthly boundary, which can only be crossed by the spiritual intuitive perception.

The effect of this was particularly damaging concerning those concepts that are of the greatest importance to spiritual development.

Let us first take as an example the word cross. The right picture for this word is the rectangular Cross with arms of equal length. It is the sign of Divine Truth. This Cross is an ancient symbol that was known on earth before Christ, and which can still be seen today in many churches, ancient relics, and indigenous artifacts.

It is the selfsame Cross that appeared to Constantine I on the night before the decisive battle at Saxa Rubra (312). At the same time he intuitively perceived the words: “In this sign you will be victorious!” This was a challenge to establish under this heavenly sign an empire that would serve the Truth as Christ had brought It to men. But they did not understand the sign and founded an empire, which prepared the way not for the Heavenly Power, but for earthly power and glory.

A painting in an old manuscript of the 11th century shows how Constantine, under the sign of the equal-armed Cross, leads his troops into the battle of Saxa Rubra at the Mulvian Bridge near Rome.

This Cross must not be confused with the form of the Golgotha cross of suffering.

Jesus, Who came from out of the Truth, knew the Cross of Truth, and therefore He exhorted men to take up the Cross, that is, to live every day according to the Truth, and to look for It in the Laws of the Creator, to which the Laws of Nature also belong (Luke 9, 23; Mark 10, 21).

We must try to become familiar with the Laws and Commandments coming from the Truth, thus from God, and to find and follow His Will in them.