The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Stages of Initiation

[ 1 ] The following messages are links in a spiritual training, the names and nature of which will become clear to anyone who applies them correctly. They refer to the three stages through which the school of spiritual life leads to a certain degree of initiation. But only so much of these arguments will be found here as can be said publicly. These are allusions drawn from a much deeper, more intimate teaching. In the secret training itself, a very specific course of teaching is followed. Certain exercises serve to bring the soul of man into conscious contact with the spiritual world. These exercises are related to what follows in the same way as the instruction given to someone in a higher, strictly regulated school is related to the instruction occasionally given to him in a preparatory school. But the serious and persevering pursuit of what is indicated here can lead to real secret training. However, impatient trial and error, without seriousness and perseverance, can lead to nothing at all. - The secret study can only be successful if what has already been said is initially adhered to and progress is made on this basis.

[ 2 ] The stages indicated by the above tradition are the following three: 1. preparation, 2. enlightenment, 3. initiation. It is not absolutely necessary that these three stages follow each other in such a way that one has gone through the first entirely before the second, and this before the third. One can already attain enlightenment, even initiation, with regard to certain things if one is still in preparation with regard to others. But you will have to spend a certain amount of time in preparation before enlightenment can even begin. And one will have to be enlightened for at least some things if the beginning of initiation is to be made. In the description, however, for the sake of simplicity, the three stages must follow one after the other.

The Preparation

[ 3 ] Preparation consists of a very specific cultivation of the emotional and mental life. Through this cultivation, the soul and spiritual body are endowed with higher sensory tools and organs of activity, just as the forces of nature have endowed the physical body with organs from indeterminate living matter.

[ 4 ] The beginning must be made by directing the soul's attention to certain processes in the world around us. Such processes are the sprouting, growing and flourishing life on the one hand, and all phenomena connected with withering, withering and dying on the other. Wherever man turns his eyes, such processes are simultaneously present. And everywhere they naturally evoke feelings and thoughts in man. But under normal circumstances man does not give himself over to these feelings and thoughts enough. He rushes far too quickly from one impression to another. The point is that he must direct his attention quite consciously to these facts. Where he perceives the blossoming and flourishing of a very particular species, he must banish everything else from his soul and leave himself for a short time to this one impression alone. He will soon convince himself that a feeling, which in such a case has previously only flitted through his soul, swells and takes on a strong and energetic form. He must then allow this emotional form to calmly resonate within him. He must become completely still within himself. He must shut himself off from the rest of the outside world and follow what his soul says about the fact of blossoming and flourishing.

[ 5 ] But you should not believe that you will get far if you dull your senses against the world. First look at things as vividly and as closely as possible. Only then surrender to the feelings that arise in the soul, to the rising thoughts. What matters is that you focus your attention on both, in complete inner balance. If one finds the necessary calm and surrenders to what arises in the soul, then one will experience the following after the appropriate time. You will see new kinds of feelings and thoughts arise within you that you did not know before. The more often one directs one's attention in such a way to something growing, blossoming and thriving and thus alternately to something withering and dying, the more vivid these feelings will become. And the clairvoyant organs are built up from the feelings and thoughts that arise in this way, just as the eyes and ears of the physical body are built up by natural forces from living matter. A very specific form of feeling is linked to growth and becoming; another very specific one to withering and dying. But only if the cultivation of these feelings is pursued in the manner described. It is possible to describe approximately correctly what these feelings are like. Anyone can get a complete idea of this for themselves by going through these inner experiences. He who has often directed his attention to the process of becoming, of flourishing, of blossoming, will feel something that is remotely similar to the sensation of a sunrise. And the process of withering and dying will give him an experience that can be compared in the same way to the slow rising of the moon in the circle of vision. These two feelings are two forces which, if properly nurtured and developed ever more vigorously, lead to the most significant spiritual effects. A new world opens up to those who repeatedly and deliberately abandon themselves to such feelings. The world of the soul, the so-called astral plan, begins to dawn before him. Growth and decay no longer remain facts for him, which give him such vague impressions as before. Rather, they form themselves into spiritual lines and figures of which he previously had no idea. And these lines and figures also have different forms for the various phenomena. A blossoming flower conjures up a very specific line in front of his soul, as does an animal that is growing or a tree that is dying. The world of the soul (the astral plan) slowly spreads out before him. There is nothing arbitrary in these lines and figures. Two secret students who are at the appropriate stage of training will always see the same lines and figures in the same process. As surely as two people with correct vision see a round table as round, and not one round and the other square, so surely the same spiritual form appears before two souls at the sight of a blossoming flower. - Just as the forms of plants and animals are described in ordinary natural history, so the connoisseur of secret science describes or draws the spiritual forms of the processes of growth and death according to genera and species.

[ 6 ] When the disciple is so far advanced that he can see such spiritual figures of phenomena which also show themselves physically to his outer eye: then he will also not be far removed from the stage of seeing things which have no physical existence, which must therefore remain completely hidden (occult) to him who has received no instruction in the Secret Doctrine.

[ 7 ] It should be emphasized that the secret researcher should not lose himself in pondering what this or that thing means. Such intellectual work will only lead him astray from the right path. He should look into the world of the senses freshly, with a healthy mind, with keen powers of observation, and then abandon himself to his feelings. He should not try to find out what things mean with speculative reason, but should let the things themselves tell him.^{1It should be noted that artistic feeling, coupled with a quiet, introverted nature, is the best precondition for the development of the spiritual faculties. This feeling penetrates through the surface of things and thus reaches their secrets.}

[ 8 ] Another important aspect is what secret science calls orientation in the higher worlds. One arrives at this when one is completely imbued with the awareness that feelings and thoughts are real facts, just like tables and chairs in the physical-sensual world. In the spiritual and mental world, feelings and thoughts interact with each other just as sensual things do in the physical world. As long as someone is not vividly imbued with this consciousness, he will not believe that a wrong thought he harbors can have as devastating an effect on other thoughts that animate the thought-space as a blindly fired shotgun pellet has on the physical objects it hits. Such a person will perhaps never allow himself to commit a physically visible act that he considers pointless. However, he will not shy away from harboring wrong thoughts or feelings. This is because they appear harmless to the rest of the world. But you can only make progress in the secret science if you pay as much attention to your thoughts and feelings as you do to your steps in the physical world. When someone sees a wall, he does not try to run straight through it; he directs his steps sideways. He orients himself according to the laws of the physical world. - Such laws also exist for the emotional and mental world. But they cannot be imposed on man from outside. They must flow from the life of his soul itself. You can achieve this by forbidding yourself to harbor wrong feelings and thoughts at all times. All arbitrary musings, all playful fantasizing, all randomly arising and falling feelings must be forbidden at this time. This will not make you emotionless. For one will soon find that one only becomes rich in feelings, creative in true imagination, when one regulates one's inner life in this way. Meaningful feelings and fruitful thoughts will take the place of petty emotional indulgence and playful thought-connections. And these feelings and thoughts lead man to orientate himself in the spiritual world. He comes into correct relationships with the things of the spiritual world. A very specific effect occurs for him. Just as he as a physical man finds his way between the physical things, so now his path leads him between growth and death, which he gets to know on the path described above. He then follows everything that grows and flourishes and, on the other hand, everything that withers and dies, as is necessary for his own and the world's flourishing.

[ 9 ] The secret disciple has to give further care to the world of sounds. A distinction must be made between the sound produced by the so-called inanimate (a falling body, a bell or a musical instrument) and that which comes from the living (an animal or a human being). Whoever hears a bell will perceive the sound and attach a pleasant feeling to it; whoever hears the cry of an animal will, in addition to this feeling, sense in the sound the revelation of an inner experience of the animal, pleasure or pain. It is with the latter type of sound that the secret disciple must begin. He should direct all his attention to the fact that the sound announces something to him that lies outside his own soul. And he should immerse himself in this strangeness. He should connect his feelings intimately with the pain or pleasure that the sound announces to him. He should set aside what for him the sound is, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, agreeable or disagreeable; only that should fill his soul which takes place in the being from which the sound comes. Whoever does such exercises systematically and with forethought will thereby acquire the ability to flow together with a being, so to speak, from which the sound emanates. A musically sensitive person will find it easier to cultivate his emotional life in this way than an unmusical person. But no one should believe that the musical sense already replaces this cultivation. As a secret student, one must learn to feel in this way towards whole nature. - And through this a new disposition sinks into the world of feeling and thought. The whole of nature begins to whisper secrets to man through its sound. What was previously incomprehensible sound to his soul becomes the meaningful language of nature. And whereas before he only heard sound, the sounding of the so-called inanimate, he now hears a new language of the soul. If he progresses in such cultivation of his feelings, he soon realizes that he can hear what he previously suspected nothing of. He begins to hear with the soul.

[ 10 ] Something else must then be added in order to reach the summit that can be achieved in this field. - What is particularly important for the training of the secret disciple is the way in which he listens to other people when they speak. He must become accustomed to doing this in such a way that his own inner being is completely silent. If someone expresses an opinion and another listens, the latter's inner being will generally agree or disagree. Many people will probably also immediately feel compelled to express their agreeing and especially their disagreeing opinion. All such agreement and all such opposition must be silenced by the secret disciple. It is not a question of his suddenly changing his way of life in such a way that he continually seeks to achieve such inner, thorough silence. He will have to begin by doing so in individual cases which he chooses deliberately. Then, very slowly and gradually, as if by itself, this completely new way of listening will creep into his habits. - In spiritual research, this is practiced systematically. Students feel obliged to practice listening to the most opposing thoughts at certain times and to completely silence all agreement and, in particular, all derogatory judgments. It is important that not only all intellectual judgments are silenced, but also all feelings of disapproval, rejection or approval. In particular, the student must always carefully observe whether such feelings are not present, if not on the surface, then at least in the most intimate depths of his soul. He must, for example, listen to the sayings of people who are far below him in some respect and suppress any feeling of superiority. - It is useful for everyone to listen to children in this way. Even the wisest person can learn an immeasurable amount from children. - In this way a person learns to listen to the words of others completely selflessly, with complete exclusion of his own person, opinion and feelings. If he practises listening uncritically in this way, even when the completely opposite opinion is put forward, when the "wrongest" thing is happening in front of him, then he gradually learns to merge completely with the being of another, to merge completely into it. He then hears through the words into the other person's soul. It is only through sustained practice of this kind that sound becomes the right means of perceiving soul and spirit. However, this requires the most rigorous self-discipline. But this leads to a high goal. If these exercises are practiced in conjunction with the others that have been mentioned with regard to sound in nature, the soul develops a new sense of hearing. It becomes capable of perceiving manifestations from the spiritual world that do not find their expression in external sounds that are perceptible to the physical ear. The perception of the "inner word" awakens. Truths are gradually revealed to the secret disciple from the spiritual world. ^{2Only those who, through selfless listening, are able to truly receive from within, silently, without the emotion of a personal opinion or feeling, can speak to the higher beings spoken of in the secret science. As long as one still hurls any opinion, any feeling towards the one to be heard, the entities of the spiritual world remain silent.} - All higher truths are reached through such "inner speaking". And what one can hear from the mouth of a true secret researcher, he has learned in this way. - This is not to say, however, that it is unnecessary to deal with secret scientific writings before one can hear "inner speaking" in such a way. On the contrary: reading such writings and listening to the teachings of secret scientists are themselves a means of gaining one's own knowledge. Every sentence of secret science that a person hears is capable of directing the mind to where it must go if the soul is to experience true progress. In addition to all that has been said, there must be a diligent study of what the secret scientists communicate to the world. Such study is part of the preparation for all secret training. And whoever wanted to apply all other means would not reach any goal if he did not absorb the teachings of the secret researchers. For because these teachings are drawn from the living "inner word", from the "living interpellation", they themselves have spiritual life. They are not just words. They are living powers. And while you are following the words of a mysterious person, while you are reading a book that comes from a real inner experience, forces are at work in your soul that make you just as bright-sighted as the forces of nature have formed your eyes and ears from living matter.

Enlightenment

[ 11 ] Enlightenment is based on very simple processes. It is also about developing certain feelings and thoughts that lie dormant in every human being and need to be awakened. Only those who patiently, rigorously and persistently go through the simple processes can lead to the perception of inner light phenomena. The first step is to observe various natural beings in a certain way, for example: a transparent, beautifully shaped stone (crystal), a plant and an animal. First try to focus all your attention on comparing the stone with the animal in the following way. The thoughts mentioned here must run through the soul accompanied by vivid feelings. And no other thought, no other feeling should interfere and disturb the intensely attentive contemplation. Say to yourself: "The stone has a shape; the animal also has a shape. The stone remains quietly in its place. The animal changes its place. It is the instinct (desire) that causes the animal to change its place. And it is also the instincts that the form of the animal serves. Its organs, its tools are formed according to these drives. The shape of the stone is not formed according to desires, but by power without desires." ^{3The fact meant here, in so far as it relates to crystal observation, has been distorted in many ways by those who have only heard of it in an extra-terrestrial (exoteric) way, giving rise to practices such as "crystal vision" and so on. Such manipulations are based on misunderstandings. They have been described in many books. But they are never the subject of true (esoteric) secret teachings.} If you immerse yourself intensively in these thoughts and look at the stone and the animal with rapt attention: then two completely different types of feelings arise in the soul. One type of feeling flows from the stone, the other from the animal into our soul. The matter will probably not succeed in the beginning: but little by little, with real patient practice, these feelings will arise. You just have to keep practicing. At first the feelings are only present for as long as the contemplation lasts; later they have a lasting effect. And then they become something that remains alive in the soul. The person then only needs to reflect: and the two feelings always arise, even without contemplation of an external object. - From these feelings and the thoughts connected with them, bright vision organs are formed. - If the plant is then added to the observation, it will be noticed that the feeling emanating from it, according to its nature and also its degree, lies in the middle between that emanating from the stone and that emanating from the animal. The organs which are formed in this way are spirit eyes. With them one gradually learns to see something like mental and spiritual colors. As long as one has only acquired what has been described as "preparation", the spiritual world with its lines and figures remains dark; through enlightenment it becomes light. - Here, too, it must be noted that the words "dark" and "light" as well as the other expressions used only approximately express what is meant. However, if one wants to use the common language, nothing else is possible. This language is only created for physical conditions. - Secret science describes what the clairvoyant organ perceives as emanating from the stone as "blue" or "blue-red". That which is perceived by the animal as "red" or "red-yellow". In fact, it is colors of a "spiritual nature" that are seen. The color emanating from the plant is "green", which gradually changes into a light ethereal pink. The plant is that natural being which in the higher worlds resembles its constitution in the physical world in a certain respect. But the same is not the case with stone and animal. - Now it must be clearly understood that the above-mentioned colors only indicate the main shades of the stone, plant and animal kingdoms. In reality, all possible intermediate shades are present. Every stone, every plant, every animal has its own particular shade of color. In addition, there are the beings of the higher worlds, which never embody themselves physically, with their often wonderful, often hideous colors. In fact, the richness of color in these higher worlds is immeasurably greater than in the physical world.

[ 12 ] Once a person has acquired the ability to see with "spiritual eyes", sooner or later he will also encounter the aforementioned higher beings, some of whom are also deeper than the human being, who never enter physical reality.

Once a person has made it as far as described here, the paths to many things are open to him. But it is not advisable for anyone to go any further without careful consideration of what has been said or otherwise communicated by the spiritual researcher. And even for what has already been said, attention to such knowledgeable guidance is the very best thing. Incidentally, if a person has the strength and perseverance within himself to go as far as the indicated elementary stages of enlightenment, he will certainly seek and find the right guidance.

[ 13 ] But caution is necessary under all circumstances, and he who does not wish to apply it should best refrain from all steps into the secret science. It is necessary that the person who becomes a student of the secret science loses nothing of his qualities as a noble, good person who is receptive to all physical realities. On the contrary, he must continually increase his moral strength, his inner sincerity and his powers of observation during his secret discipleship. To mention a single point: During the elementary enlightenment exercises, the secret disciple must ensure that he constantly increases his compassion for the human and animal world, his sense of the beauty of nature. If he does not do so, this feeling and this sense will be continually dulled by such exercises. The heart would become hard, the mind dull. And that would lead to dangerous results.

[ 14 ] How enlightenment takes shape when one ascends to man via stone, plant and animal in the sense of the above exercises, and how, after enlightenment, the union of the soul with the spiritual world occurs under all circumstances and leads to initiation: this will be discussed in the following sections, as far as it can be.

[ 15 ] In our time, many people are seeking the path to secret science. This is done in many different ways; and many dangerous, even reprehensible procedures are tried. Therefore, those who think they know something true about these things should give others the opportunity to get to know some of the secret training. Only so much has been communicated here as corresponds to such a possibility. It is necessary that some of the truth be known, lest the erroneous cause great harm. No one can be harmed by the paths outlined here if he does not force anything. Only one thing must be observed: no one may spend more time and energy on such exercises than is available to him according to his position in life, according to his duties. No one may immediately change anything in his external living conditions through the secret path. If one wants real results, then one must have patience; one must be able to stop after a few minutes of practice and calmly go about one's daily work. And no thoughts about the exercises should interfere with your daily work. Anyone who has not learned to wait in the highest and best sense is not fit to be a secret disciple and will never achieve results that are of any significant value.

Control of Thoughts and Feelings

[ 16 ] If anyone seeks the paths to the secret science in the manner described in the previous chapter, he must not fail to strengthen himself throughout the work by a continuing thought. He must always bear in mind that after some time he may have made considerable progress without it showing itself to him in the way he might have expected. Anyone who does not bear this in mind will easily lose perseverance and give up all attempts after a short time. The powers and abilities that one has to develop are initially of a very delicate nature. And their essence is something completely different from what man had previously imagined. He was only used to dealing with the physical world. The spiritual and mental world eluded his gaze and also his concepts. It is therefore not at all surprising that now, when spiritual and mental powers are developing in him, he does not immediately notice them. - Therein lies the possibility of confusion for him who, without adhering to the experiences which knowledgeable researchers have gathered, embarks on the secret path. The secret researcher knows the progress made by the pupil long before he himself becomes aware of it. He knows how the tender spiritual eyes develop before the pupil knows anything about it. And a large part of the instructions of this secret researcher consists precisely in expressing that which causes the pupil not to lose confidence, patience and perseverance before he comes to his own realization of his progress. After all, the teacher of the secret cannot give his pupil anything that does not already exist in him in a hidden way. He can only guide the development of dormant abilities. But what he shares from his experiences will be a support for those who want to make their way from darkness to light.

[ 17 ] Many leave the path to the secret science soon after they have entered it, because their progress is not immediately apparent to them. And even when the first perceptible higher experiences occur for the pupil, he often regards them as illusions because he has had completely different ideas about what he is supposed to experience. He loses courage because he either considers the first experiences to be worthless or because they seem so insignificant to him that he does not believe they could lead him to anything significant in the foreseeable future. Courage and self-confidence are two lights that must not be extinguished on the path to secret science. Those who cannot bring themselves to patiently continue an exercise that seems to have failed countless times again and again cannot get far.

[ 18 ] Much earlier than a clear perception of progress, a dark feeling arises that one is on the right path. And this feeling should be nurtured. For it can become a sure guide. Above all, one must eradicate the belief that it must be quite peculiar, mysterious practices through which one attains higher knowledge. One must realize that one must start from the feelings and thoughts with which man lives continually, and that he must only give these feelings and thoughts a different direction from the one he is accustomed to. Everyone should first say to himself: the highest secrets lie hidden in my own world of feelings and thoughts: I have just not yet realized them. After all, everything is based on the fact that man constantly carries body, soul and spirit around with him, but that he is only aware of his body in the pronounced sense, not of his soul and spirit. And the secret disciple becomes aware of his soul and spirit just as the ordinary person is aware of his body.

[ 19 ] Therefore, it is important to bring the feelings and thoughts in the right direction. Then one develops the perceptions for the invisible in ordinary life. Here is one of the ways to do this. Again, it is a simple matter, like almost everything that has been communicated so far. But it has the greatest effect if it is carried out persistently and if a person is able to devote himself to it with the necessary intimacy.

[ 20 ] Place a small seed of a plant in front of you. The important thing is to think hard about the right thoughts in front of this inconspicuous thing and to develop certain feelings through these thoughts. First, realize what you really see with your eyes. Describe to yourself the shape, color and all other characteristics of the seed. Then think about the following. This seed will grow into a multifaceted plant when it is planted in the ground. Visualize this plant. Build it up in your imagination. And then think: What I now imagine in my imagination is what the forces of earth and light will really coax out of the seed later. If I had an artificially formed thing in front of me, deceptively imitating the seed, so that my eyes could not distinguish it from a real one, no power of earth and light would draw a plant out of it. Whoever makes this thought quite clear to himself, whoever experiences it inwardly, will also be able to form the following with the correct feeling. He will say to himself: in the seed there already rests in a hidden way - as the power of the whole plant - that which will later grow out of it. This power does not reside in artificial imitation. And yet to my eyes both are the same. The real seed therefore contains something invisible that is not in the imitation. Let us now direct our feelings and thoughts to this invisible thing.^{4Those who would object that on closer microscopic examination the imitation differs from the real seed only show that they have not grasped what is important. It is not a question of what one really has before one in a sensuous way, but of developing mental and spiritual powers in it.} Imagine: this invisible thing will later turn into the visible plant that I will have before me in form and color. I dwell on the thought: the invisible will become visible. If I could not think, I would not be able to see now what will only become visible later.

[ 21 ] Let it be emphasized particularly clearly: What one thinks must also be intensely felt. One must experience in calmness, without all disturbing admixtures of other thoughts, the one indicated above. And you have to take your time so that the thought and the feeling attached to it are, as it were, engraved in your soul. - If you achieve this in the right way, then after some time - perhaps only after many attempts - you will feel a power within yourself. And this power will create a new perception. The seed will appear to be enclosed in a small cloud of light. It will be perceived in a sensual-spiritual way as a kind of flame. Towards the center of this flame one feels as one feels towards the impression of the color purple; towards the edge, as one feels towards the color bluish. - There appears that which one has not seen before and which has been created by the power of thought and feeling that one has aroused within oneself. What was invisible to the senses, the plant that will only become visible later, reveals itself in a spiritually visible way.

[ 22 ] It is understandable that some people will regard all this as illusion. Many will say: "What is the point of such visions, such phantasms?" And some will fall away and not continue on the path. But this is precisely what is important: not to confuse fantasy and spiritual reality in these difficult points of human development. And also to have the courage to press forward and not become timid and faint-hearted. On the other hand, however, it must be emphasized that the healthy sense, which distinguishes truth from deception, must be constantly cultivated. During all these exercises, man must never lose full conscious control over himself. As surely as he thinks about the things and processes of everyday life, so he must also think here. It would be bad if he were to fall into reverie. He must remain rational, not to say sober, at all times. And the greatest mistake would be made if man were to lose his balance through such exercises, if he were prevented from judging the things of everyday life as soundly and clearly as he did before. The secret disciple should therefore examine himself again and again whether he has not fallen out of his equilibrium, whether he has remained the same within the circumstances in which he lives. He must maintain a firm rest in himself, a clear sense of everything. However, it must be strictly observed that one should not indulge in just any reverie, should not abandon oneself to all kinds of exercises. The directions of thought indicated here have been tested and practiced in the secret schools since time immemorial. And only those are given here. Whoever wants to apply those of another kind, which he forms himself or of which he hears and reads here or there, must go astray and will soon find himself on the path of boundless fantasy.

[ 23 ] Another exercise to follow on from the one described is the following. Imagine a plant that is at the stage of full development. Now fill yourself with the thought that the time will come when this plant will die. There will be nothing left of what I see before me now. But this plant will then have developed seeds from itself, which will again become new plants. Again I realize that there is something hidden in what I see that I do not see. I am completely filled with the thought: this plant form with its colors will no longer be in the future. But the idea that it forms seeds teaches me that it will not disappear into nothingness. What keeps it from disappearing I can no more see with my eyes now than I could see the plant in the seed before. There is therefore something in it that I cannot see with my eyes. If I allow this thought to live in me and the corresponding feeling in me connects with it, then, after an appropriate time, a force develops again in my soul that becomes a new perception. A kind of spiritual flame grows out of the plant again. This is, of course, correspondingly larger than the one described above. The flame can be perceived as greenish-blue in its central part and yellowish-red at its outer edge.

[ 24 ] It must be expressly emphasized that what is called "colors" here is not seen as physical eyes see the colors, but that through the spiritual perception something similar is felt as when one has a physical color impression. To perceive "blue" spiritually means to feel or sense something that is similar to what one feels when the gaze of the physical eye rests on the color "blue". Anyone who really wants to gradually ascend to spiritual perceptions must take this into account. Otherwise he expects to find only a repetition of the physical in the spiritual. That would have to disconcert him most bitterly.

[ 25 ] He who has come to see such things spiritually has gained much. For things reveal themselves to him not only in their present being, but also in their coming into being and passing away. He begins to see the spirit everywhere, of which the sensual eyes can know nothing. And thus he has taken the first steps towards gradually discovering the secret of birth and death through his own contemplation. For the external senses, a being comes into being at birth; it passes away at death. But this is only because these senses do not perceive the hidden spirit of the being. For the spirit, birth and death are only a transformation, just as the sprouting of the flower from the bud is a transformation that takes place before the sensory eyes. But if you want to get to know this through your own contemplation, you must first awaken the spiritual sense for it in the manner indicated.

[ 26 ] In order to immediately remove an objection that some people who have some spiritual (psychic) experience might make, let this be said. It is not to be denied that there are shorter, simpler ways, that some people get to know the phenomena of birth and death from their own experience without first having gone through everything that is described here. There are people who have important psychic dispositions that only need a little nudge to be developed. But these are exceptions. However, the path described here is a more general and safer one. You can also acquire some knowledge of chemistry in an exceptional way, but if you want to become a chemist, you have to take the general and safe path.

[ 27 ] A serious error would arise if someone wanted to believe that, in order to reach the goal more easily, he could imagine the seed or the plant merely, merely hold it up in his imagination. Whoever does this can also reach the goal, but not as surely as in the way described. The view one arrives at will in most cases only be a dazzling work of the imagination. The transformation into spiritual perception would then have to be awaited. For what matters is that I do not create views for myself in mere arbitrariness, but that reality creates them within me. Truth must spring forth from the depths of my own soul; but my ordinary self must not itself be the magician who wants to draw out the truth, but the beings must be this magician whose spiritual truth I want to see.

[ 28 ] Once a person has found within himself the first beginnings of spiritual contemplation through such exercises, he may ascend to the contemplation of man himself. Simple phenomena of human life must be chosen first. - Before proceeding to this, however, it is necessary to work particularly seriously on the full purity of his moral character. One must remove any thought that one might use knowledge gained in this way for personal self-interest. One must agree with oneself that one will never use for evil any power over one's fellow men that one may acquire. Therefore, anyone who seeks secrets about human nature through his own contemplation must follow the golden rule of the true secret sciences. And this golden rule is: if you try to make one step forward in the knowledge of secret truths, make at the same time three steps forward in the perfection of your character for the good. - He who follows this rule can do such exercises as the one described below.

[ 29 ] Consider a person who has once been observed to desire some thing. Attention should be focused on the desire. It is best to recall the time when the desire was most vivid and when it was quite undecided whether the person would get what he wanted or not. And now give yourself completely to the idea of what you observe in your memory. Establish the greatest possible inner calm in your own soul. Try as much as possible to be blind and deaf to everything else that is going on around you. And pay particular attention to the fact that a feeling awakens in the soul through the stimulated imagination. Let this feeling rise up in you like a cloud that rises on the otherwise completely empty horizon. It is now natural that the observation is usually interrupted by the fact that the person on whom one's attention is directed has not been observed long enough in the described state of mind. You will probably make hundreds and hundreds of futile attempts. It is important not to lose patience. After many attempts, you will be able to experience a feeling in your own soul that corresponds to the state of mind of the person you are observing. But then, after some time, you will also notice that through this feeling a power arises in your own soul which becomes a spiritual perception of the state of the other person's soul. An image will appear in the field of vision that is felt as something luminous. And this spiritually luminous image is the so-called astral embodiment of the observed soul state of desire. Again, this image can be described as resembling a flame. It will be yellow-red in the center and perceived as reddish-blue or purple at the edges. It is very important that one treats such a mental image delicately. The best thing to do is not to speak of it to anyone except your teacher, if you have one. For if one tries to describe such a phenomenon with clumsy words, one usually gives oneself over to bad deceptions. One uses ordinary words, which are not intended for such things and are therefore too coarse and cumbersome for them. The consequence is then that one is seduced by one's own attempt to clothe the matter in words into mixing into the true views all kinds of imaginary illusions. Again, an important rule for the secret disciple is: Know how to keep silent about your spiritual visions. Yes, keep silent about it even to yourself. Do not try to put into words what you see in the spirit or to fathom it with the unskillful mind. Give yourself to your spiritual contemplation impartially and do not disturb it by thinking about it too much. For you must remember that at the beginning your thinking was not at all like your seeing. You have acquired this thinking in your previous life, which was limited to the physical-sensual world; and what you are acquiring now goes beyond that. So do not seek to apply the standard of the old to the new higher. Only those who already have some firmness in observing inner experiences can speak about them in order to inspire their fellow human beings through such speech.

[ 30 ] A supplementary exercise may be added to the one described. Observe in the same way how a person has been granted the satisfaction of some wish, the fulfillment of some expectation. If you use the same rules and precautions that have just been given for the other case, you will also arrive at a spiritual view. One will notice a spiritual flame formation that feels yellow in the middle and is perceived as having a greenish edge.

[ 31 ] A person can easily fall into a moral error through such observation of his fellow human beings. He can become unloving. To ensure that this is not the case, every conceivable means must be employed. If one observes in this way, then one should already be at the height where it has become a complete certainty that thoughts are real things. One must no longer allow oneself to think about one's fellow man in such a way that the thoughts would not be compatible with the highest respect for human dignity and human freedom. That a human being could only be an object of observation for us: this thought must not fill us for a moment. Hand in hand with every secret observation of human nature, self-education must go hand in hand with an unrestricted appreciation of the full self-determination of every human being and to regard that which dwells in man as something sacred and inviolable by us - also in thoughts and feelings. A feeling of holy reverence for everything human, even if it is only thought of as a memory, must fill us.

[ 32 ] For the time being, these two examples are the only way to show how to achieve enlightenment about human nature. But at least the path to follow could be shown. Whoever finds the necessary inner stillness and tranquillity that belong to such observation, his soul will undergo a great transformation as a result. This will soon go so far that the inner enrichment that his being experiences will also give him security and peace in his outer behavior. And this transformed outer behavior will again have an effect on his soul. And so he will continue to help himself. He will find ways and means to discover more and more of human nature, which is hidden from the outer senses; and he will then also become mature enough to gain an insight into the mysterious connections between human nature and everything else that exists in the universe. - And in this way man approaches more and more the time when he can accomplish the first steps of initiation. But before this can be done, one more thing is necessary. This is something that the secret disciple will perhaps realize the least at first. But later he will.

[ 33 ] What the initiate must have is a certain degree of courage and fearlessness. The secret disciple must seek out the very opportunities through which these virtues are developed. In the secret training they should be developed quite systematically. But life itself is also a good secret school in this direction; perhaps the best. The secret disciple must be able to look danger calmly in the eye and overcome difficulties without hesitation. In the face of danger, for example, he must immediately summon up the feeling: my fear is of no use at all; I must not have it at all; I must only think of what is to be done. And he must bring himself so far that on occasions when he was previously anxious, "being anxious" and "becoming discouraged" become impossible things for him, at least in his innermost feelings. Through self-education in this direction, man develops within himself certain powers which he needs if he is to be initiated into higher mysteries. Just as the physical man needs nervous power in order to use his physical senses, so the spiritual man needs that power which is only developed in courageous and fearless natures. He who penetrates to the higher mysteries sees things which remain hidden to the ordinary man by the deceptions of the senses. For, even if the physical senses do not allow us to see the higher truth, they are also man's benefactors. Through them things are concealed from him which, unprepared, would have to cause him immense consternation, the sight of which he could not endure. The secret disciple must become equal to this sight. He loses certain supports in the outer world which he owed to the very fact that he was caught up in deception. It is really and literally as if someone had been made aware of a danger in which he had been hovering for a long time, but of which he knew nothing. He was not afraid before, but now that he knows, he is overcome with fear, even though the danger has not increased as a result of his knowledge.

[ 34 ] The forces of the world are destructive and constructive: the fate of external entities is creation and decay. The knower should look into the workings of these forces, into the course of this destiny. The veil that lies before the spiritual eyes in ordinary life should be removed. But man himself is interwoven with these forces, with this fate. In his own nature are destructive and constructive forces. As unveiled as the other things appear before the seeing eye of the knower, so unveiled does the own soul show itself. The secret disciple must not lose strength in the face of such self-knowledge. And he will only lack it if he has a surplus of it. For this to be the case, he must learn to maintain inner peace and security in difficult circumstances; he must develop a strong trust in the good powers of existence. He must be prepared for the fact that some of the driving forces that have guided him up to now will no longer guide him. He will have to realize that he has done and thought many things only because he was caught up in ignorance. Such reasons as he has had up to now will cease to exist. He has done many things out of vanity; he will see how unspeakably worthless all vanity is for the knowledgeable. He has done many things out of greed; he will realize how destructive all greed is. He will have to develop completely new motivations for acting and thinking. And that includes courage and fearlessness.

[ 35 ] The most important thing is to cultivate this courage and fearlessness in the very depths of the life of thought. The secret disciple must learn not to despair in the face of failure. He must be capable of the thought: "I will forget that this thing has failed me again, and try again as if nothing had happened." So he struggles to convince himself that the sources of strength in the world from which he can draw are inexhaustible. He strives again and again for the spiritual, which will lift and carry him, however often his earthly life may have proved weak and feeble. He must be able to live towards the future and not allow himself to be disturbed in this striving by any experience of the past. - If man has the described qualities to a certain degree, then he is ripe to experience the true names of things, which are the key to higher knowledge. For initiation consists in learning to call the things of the world by the names they have in the minds of their divine authors. In these names lie the secrets of things. That is why the initiated speak a different language from the uninitiated, because the former call the names of the beings by which they themselves are made. - Insofar as we can speak of the initiation itself, this will follow in the next chapter.