The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Foreword by Marie Steiner

[ 1 ] The journal "Lucifer", published by Rudolf Steiner in the service of spiritual science, was expanded in 1904 through its merger with the journal "Gnosis", which was published in Austria. Under the double name "Lucifer-Gnosis" it then published those essays by Rudolf Steiner which later, when collected, became the book which, alongside "Theosophy" and "Secret Science", is one of the fundamental works for the introduction to anthroposophically oriented spiritual science. A continuation of those essays appeared under the title "The Stages of Higher Knowledge". It was intended to later form a second volume as a continuation of the reflections begun in "How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?". However, the overabundance of work and Rudolf Steiner's extraordinary demand for lectures gradually made it impossible to devote sufficient time to the journal, even though its circulation was steadily increasing. It had to be discontinued due to lack of time. Thus the further publication of those essays on "The Stages of Higher Knowledge" was also interrupted. We have often been asked to make them available again in a new edition. This request is hereby granted. As the text suddenly breaks off, the book cannot claim to be complete. It was therefore justified to ask whether it would not be better not to publish it. After all, many of the incomplete statements presented here have already been published in other forms and under other titles. But it remains a fact for the spiritual seeker that the conquest of spiritual reality is only possible, and not an illusion, if one repeatedly returns to the spiritual content that has once been worked through and never sufficiently processed, if the path that once pointed the way to the spiritual realm is repeatedly experienced anew. The soul life of the meditatively working person must be kept so flexible that the views that one path has given him make him all the more receptive to the distant views from other points of view.

[ 2 ] The essays published here also have a historical value. They show the starting point that Rudolf Steiner's esoteric teachings had to take; they show us how he became the pioneering leader in this field too, in which for the first time man was allowed to be handed over to freedom through him. For this, a foundation had to be laid with a world-embracing view and the greatest sense of responsibility, an attitude of mind had to be created which made it possible for man to find a firm moral hold in himself, so that in this freedom he would not fall prey to temptation and aberration. In order to accomplish such an act at the decisive turning point of historical upheavals, in the midst of hostile opposing forces, left to his own devices, the tremendous ethos was necessary, which pulsated through Rudolf Steiner's entire life's work and allowed nothing else to come into consideration for him but the good of humanity, the salvation of the West from its impending doom. To achieve this, it was necessary to build from the foundations in a way that met the demands of the time. The synthesis of all knowledge was necessary for this.

[ 3 ] If we turn to these essays, which were written at the beginning of his astonishing life's work, which came to an end on March 30, 1925 and, soon after the turn of the century, received a fateful impact through the connection with theosophical circles fed by oriental sources, we are forced to ask the question: How is it to be understood that Rudolf Steiner, who also led us to freedom in the field of esotericism, here too placed us on ourselves and only made us pledge to our own higher self what otherwise the pupil had to pledge to the teacher, that Rudolf Steiner here in these essays still speaks of the necessity of strict connection to the guide, placing the pupil as it were in dependence on the teacher?

[ 4 ] In truth, Rudolf Steiner is only describing a relationship of trust. He avoided the authoritative from the very beginning and rejected it. In ancient times, the initiating priests took full responsibility for those to be initiated into the mysteries of spiritual being and worked into them with their will. In this way, he was both protected and guided and was able to escape the dangers that would otherwise have overwhelmed him. His ego still hovered above his physical shells, his self-consciousness had not awakened. To awaken it more and more was the path of progressive mystery training. And in the Christian initiation we see the dependence on the personal teacher already lessened, though still present, by the reference to the World Teacher. It loses more and more of its personal character in Rosicrucian training and is transformed into a relationship of trust. The teacher stands by the student, shows him the path he is seeking and cannot find on his own, supports him morally, points out the dangers that threaten his character - out of vanity, out of the illusion of deceptive images, which he must learn to distinguish from true spiritual reality. Thus the teacher is a helper who would immediately withdraw at the moment when confidence would be lost. At the turning point in our destiny, the teacher working for the present time had to point to the past, present and future of human spiritual striving and, by beginning with the education of the individual, develop his work in such a way that it could stand as an act of humanity: an element of life newly acquired for posterity. Thus Rudolf Steiner created an initiatory science in which from now on every serious, morally striving human being will be able to find the ground that supports him, to grasp the elements that sharpen his powers of discernment while new worlds open up to him. He need not be uncertain, he has enough to feel his way until he finds the guide in spiritual lands.

[ 5 ] There was no such thing before Rudolf Steiner began his spiritual work. His work is - the "science" of initiation. Through it, what lay hidden in the mysteries of the ancient temples is unsealed: alongside the knowledge of the becoming of the worlds, the knowledge of the coming descent of the Christ; and what was sealed in the church: the redemptive act of the liberation of humanity through the Christ, the ego-permeation of the individual that takes place through Him in the course of time. Instead of personal guidance, it is now the task of the forces of the spirit of the age to help people find their way to the human ego, to Christ. The consciousness of the individual human being is made ready to receive the higher ego power, the self-consciousness is lifted up to the spirit self.

[ 6 ] It is the work of the future. But only by standing on the ground of the past can one fertilize the present in preparation for the future. Otherwise you create into the void. Metamorphosis here too. The future is shaped by transforming the present, which stands on the ground of the past. New things are added, just as the new spring follows the winter. Solar power fires through the earth; that which is dying, that which is being transformed into essence, is kindled into new life as grace descends from above.

[ 7 ] In the field of esotericism, too, continuous historical events develop through the law of rising development and the rising and falling wave of passing and blossoming life until the seemingly sudden moment when grace bursts in radiantly, like the miracle of the illuminating blossom in the green expanse of the plant. But without this transformation and constant increase in all areas of the expression of life, carried out by wise powers from form to form, the new values, the gifts of the spirit, the fiery tongues of the word, would not sink down to us. Without knowledge of such events, the recipients would not be in a position to assess what wants to take place among them. The new greatness could not take effect, the future could not be saved.

[ 8 ] The souls who approached Rudolf Steiner, struggling for spiritual knowledge, were the human material that Rudolf Steiner was destined to work with, brought to him by time, and from whose needs and preconditions he had to shape what could become the science of initiation on the basis of an epistemologically founded structure. The task was to tear people out of the inertia of the time towards the spirit who could be a bridge for the demands of the future.

[ 9 ] The most difficult thing was to awaken a sense of inner freedom and self-reliance in one's own responsibility. In the most scrupulous consideration of this goal, Rudolf Steiner wanted to be nothing other than an instructor and - where he was asked to do so - an advisor, an awakener of human spiritual impulses. He was able to become an exponent of spiritual facts because his thinking and seeing were imbued with life and unfolded from limb to limb with the power of a natural organism. His spiritual work stands before us: the restored unity of science, art and religion.