The Damascus Event
The Initiation & Conversion of Saul to St. Paul
24 January 2026
Rudolf Steiner spoke extensively on what is commonly referred to as "the Conversion of St. Paul" at the city gate of Damascus. According to the biblical account, Saul, a brutal persecutor of Christians, was traveling to Damascus to arrest disciples of Christ and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. At that time, Damascus was a powerful center for commerce, trade and military forces. When approaching the city, Saul was blinded by a light from heaven. Unable to physically see, he both heard and saw a vision of Jesus Christ in the spiritual realms asking why he persecuted Him. The men traveling with Saul heard the voice but saw no one.
The now blind Saul was led to Damascus where he did not eat or drink for three days. On the third day, a disciple named Ananias came to Saul and lay his hands on him so that he might heal his blindness. Immediately "something like scales fell away from his eyes and he regained his sight." Thereafter, the notorious Christian persecutor, Saul, was reborn as St. Paul who became the foremost advocate of Christianity, spreading it throughout the Mediterranean. 1
Traditional Christian doctrine considers this appearance of the risen Christ to be not only the latest but also the last. The idea that this "conversion" event could be duplicated by anyone else seems to be excluded. Thus, from that perspective, one must accept the risen Christ on faith alone. On the other hand, in 1910 when Dr. Steiner began lecturing widely on the Christ, the Theosophical Society had declared Krishnamurti was the reincarnated savior. Rejecting both of these positions, Rudolf Steiner reveals that humanity has the potential to develop in such a way as to realize the Christ in the etheric realms directly as did St. Paul.2
A man who was convinced with particular intensity through such perception, was Paul—in the vision at Damascus. But this etheric sight will develop in individual human beings as a natural faculty. In days to come it will be more and more possible for men to experience what Paul experienced at Damascus. [...]
It will then no longer be necessary to amass all kinds of documentary evidence to prove the existence of Christ; there will be eye-witnesses of the presence of the Living Christ, men who will know Him in His etheric body. And from this experience they will realise that this is the same Being who at the beginning of our era fulfilled the Mystery of Golgotha, that He is indeed the Christ. Just as Paul at Damascus was convinced at the time: This is Christ! ... so there will be men whose experiences in the etheric world will convince them that in very truth Christ lives. 3
After meeting the Christ in the etheric, Paul knew that Christ Jesus was the redeemer of whom the old prophets spoke. Saul had been a strict adherent to the old law of Moses and was persecuting Christians because of his strong convictions in the law. During his so-called "conversion," Paul shifted away from his adherence to the Judaic law of old in favor of the new covenant in Jesus Christ, which became a reality for him.
The salient point is that Paul had not been convinced by what he had seen physically of the things narrated in the Gospels. Conviction that the Christ was the predicted Messiah first came to him when the light cast in advance revealed itself to him, when as though by Grace from above he became clairvoyant and, finding Christ in the sphere of the earth, was compelled to say to himself: He has been here in very truth and has risen! It was because Paul himself had beheld Christ in the spiritual sphere of the earth that he knew: Now He is here! And from that moment he was convinced regarding Christ Jesus.4
Rudolf Steiner reveals the Damascus event as a Christian initiation of St. Paul. While we may not all have such a revelatory conversion as Paul, we can come to know the Christ directly. Rather than redemption based on faith alone, we must put forth effort as human beings through the teachings of Spiritual Science to come to know higher worlds.
There are faculties which must be acquired on the earth, for we have not been placed on the physical earth for nothing. It is an error to believe that there is no purpose in living on the earth. Faculties have to be acquired there that can be acquired in no other world—they are the faculties for understanding the Christ Event and the events that will follow it.
Rudolf Steiner provided extensive instructions and exercises for spiritual development. To understand the role of the human being and why we are here, one must apply oneself to this endeavour. Unlike teachings based primarily on faith, Steiner's path for such esoteric study is a cognitive one of what he terms, Spiritual Science. It is one of gnosis—higher knowledge of spiritual matters. He posits we can learn to know how to experience the spiritual realms as a reality through our thinking, feeling and willing. The choice of whether or not to learn and practice this knowledge is ours.
[J]ust as one does not need to be a painter to feel the beauty of a picture, so too one does not need to be a spiritual scientist oneself—although one can become one up to a point—to be able to test whether what I am saying here is true. Just as one can feel the beauty of a picture without being a painter oneself, so with ordinary common sense one can perceive what the spiritual scientist says about the soul. That one can see it, I think I have established all the more firmly in recognizing how souls thirst for a profounder approach to psychology and to the great riddles of existence in relation to the soul.5
To promote wider adoption of the spiritual practices outlined by Rudolf Steiner, we have compiled a list of fundamental texts with links to those resources. These include foundational teachings, meditative verses and mantras, prayers and other exercises. Our desire is for humanity to take this information to heart during this critical time in human evolution.
NOTES
- See Acts 9:1–19 (Narrative account), 22:3–21 (Paul’s testimony in Jerusalem), 26:9–23 (Paul’s testimony before King Agrippa); see also Gal. 1:11–24 (Paul’s autobiographical account of his revelation), 1 Cor. 15:8–10 (Reference to Christ’s appearance), and Phil. 3:4–9 (Paul’s reflection on his life change).
- In a lecture given on January 10th, 1910 of which there are only fragmentary notes, Rudolf Steiner spoke openly perhaps for the first time about the appearance of Christ in the etheric world. See Notes of First Lecture on the Etheric Christ. After that day, he referred to this great event again and again. With respect to the Damascus event specifically, see True Nature of the Second Coming. See also The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric (Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Pforzheim, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich, Hanover, Hamburg, Kassel, Rome).
- See I. The Event of Christ's Appearance in the Etheric World, True Nature of the Second Coming, 25 July 1910, Carlsruhe.
- See II. The Second Coming of Christ in the Etheric World, True Nature of the Second Coming, 25 July 1910, Stuttgart.
- Rudolf Steiner, The Tension Between East and West, GA 83, Lecture 2. Anthroposophy and Psychology, 2 June 1922, Vienna.