Greek and Germanic Mythology
in the Light of Esotericism
GA 92
14 October 1922, Berlin
II. The Argonaut Saga and the Odyssey
To-day I should like to speak about a very important myth, also Greek, one which, like all myths, can be interpreted at many different levels. We will endeavour to uncover its real kernel. But before going on I should like to preface what I have to say by a few more theoretic observations.
In the last number of Lucifer-Gnosis 1The article here mentioned, which first appeared in the periodical Lucifer-Gnosis was later published and forms chapter 1 of Atlantis and Lemuria. I stressed that the last three culture-periods of Atlantis saw the beginning of a particular influence on the human race which still endures even to-day. It has to do with the fact that men then became mature enough to work in what we call our intellect. Before that time man was more a being of memory. Up to the fourth Atlantean culture-period man's memory was especially developed. The faculty of intellectual combination, the calculating faculty, in short, all that makes up our present-day culture, began in the fifth Atlantean period with the Ur-Semites. And it was this that made the Ur-Semites capable of originating the whole of the fifth, the Aryan, root-race. The Aryan root-race had as its primary task the development of the intelligence which is active on the physical plane. When such a new phase of human evolution occurs, it becomes possible for new Beings, Beings who up to that time had led hidden lives, to gain an influence on evolution. And in fact, since the fifth culture-epoch of Atlantis, a particular host of Beings have participated in human evolution, the activity of whom had not hitherto been noticeable. You must think of these Beings as very highly evolved, far more highly evolved than man at the stage he then was. But in a certain way they had lagged in their development behind the Beings who in the middle of the Lemurian time had intervened in the affairs of the human race. It was a fresh setback which took place at that time. The Beings of whom I am now speaking belonged in their whole nature to what we call the Moon evolution. They went through their development on the Old Moon, but they were not so far advanced as the Beings who were able to intervene in the middle of the Lemurian time. They had remained behind the normal development on the Moon. They had advanced to the point of recognising that the faculties which man had now attained were analogous to their own, to the point of recognising that they could obtain control over those human faculties. Up to this time men had not been Beings of intelligence, now they acquired the intellect. And these new Beings made use of this human intellect for their own further development. Thus it came about that a phase of human evolution now set in which we call the phase of cold, objective science. Prior to this time there was no such thing, and one day there will again be no such thing. All wisdom hitherto attained in human evolution has been fundamentally associated with love. Cold, calculating science is under the influence of these backward Beings. Thus the influence of these Beings, who are still active, will come to an end only when our whole intellectual activity, everything which we are capable of knowing, is again permeated with love. When intelligence and love are once more united in the higher wisdom, the influence of those Beings, who are not visible on the physical plane, will disappear. To make clear their influence, in the first place to the pupils of the Mysteries, and then to mankind, was the task of the Greek Mysteries
About the eighth century B.C., a very important epoch sets in as regards these Beings. If you think of the culture-epochs of our fifth root-race—of the ancient Veda culture, then of the ancient Persian culture, of the Chaldean-Egyptian culture, if you think even of the time of the Druid culture, you will find that an objective, dispassionate science of knowledge did not exist. It first emerged at the dawn of the fourth culture-epoch, which one can place in about the eighth century B.C. With it there dawned an objective knowledge, completely detached from all the rest of the contents of the human mind. A Chaldean priest who cultivated astronomy still sought to fathom the purposes of the rulership of the world; and this can also be said of the Egyptian and Druid priests; they sought to acquire insight into the purposes of the world-ruler. A purely intellectual knowledge first dawned in Greece. This intellectual knowledge had been prepared step by step, and emerged, bound up with the rest of human activity, under the influence of the Beings I have mentioned; it was fully released in the fourth culture-epoch of the fifth root-race. Those who were initiated in the Mysteries of that time, confronted by the external wisdom, looked upon the ancient wisdom, which had formerly been at the disposal of mankind, as something lost, something which men must seek to regain.
Now there was a particular way of describing the point of time in which this dispassionate, dry wisdom separated itself from the all-embracing primeval wisdom. In the eighth century B.C., the passage of the sun through the sign of the Ram, which then took place, was experienced as the repetition of an earlier passage through the same sign thousands of years previously. It is well known that the sun moves forward through the whole of the zodiac, through the Ram, the Bull, the Twins, through Cancer, the Lion, the Virgin and so on, so that it has already passed through the Ram many times. The last time it had passed through the Ram, man was in possession of a knowledge united with love, and thereby of the primeval wisdom. This primeval wisdom had now been lost, and had given place to a culture of external wisdom. The priests of the Greek. Mysteries expressed this whole process in its occult significance through the profound symbol of the Argonaut saga, in which the ram is the symbol of the union of love and knowledge.
Let us first call to mind the whole of the myth. We are told that Phrixos and Helle had to suffer many things at the hand of their bad stepmother. Therefore their dead mother appeared to Phrixos and advised him to run away and to take his sister with him. She gave him a large ram with a golden fleece, upon the back of which they were to cross the sea. Helle fell off and was drowned in the Hellespont, but Phrixos reached Colchis with the ram. There he is said to have sacrificed it and to have given its fleece to King Petus, who hung it on an oak in front of a cavern. Later, the Greek hero Jason, together with the most important of the Greek initiates of the time, Orpheus, Theseus, Hercules and others, set to work to recover the fleece from the alien people of Colchis. Through winning the hand of the king's youngest daughter, Medea, he was enabled to bring it back to Greece. First he had to overcome two fire-breathing bulls. Then he had to sow a dragon's teeth. From the dragon's teeth grew armed men, who began to fight. With Medea's help he was able to bring this conflict to a successful conclusion. It was she too who enabled him to capture the fleece and to set out, together with it and her, on the homeward journey to Greece. In order to deceive her father Medea had taken her brother with her, had slain him and had thrown his dismembered body into the sea. While the lamenting father was collecting his son's limbs she was able to continue her flight with Jason into Greece.
In the eighth and ninth centuries B.C., the pupils of the Greek Mysteries were taught the occult meaning of this saga. They were taught that the Beings who made use of the dry, dispassionate human intelligence had now attained a special importance. The longing awoke in them for the ancient culture which had obtained when the sun had passed through the sign of the Ram on the occasion before the last. That the twins Phrixos and Helle were carried by the ram to Colchis means simply that an earlier race—the Persian-Iranian, with its twofold nature (it stood under the sign of the gods Ormuzd and Ahriman)—had regained the union of knowledge and love. This race had borne the fleece to hidden realms. Still earlier, in Atlantis, this fleece, this wisdom, had been the common possession of human culture; then it had been carried into distant Mystery-schools. It had to be brought back again. Thus the Argonaut saga is an expression of the founding of the Greek Mystery-schools.
Thus we are told that a primeval wisdom existed among the people of Atlantis. It was then the common possession of humanity. It had been lost and was now only to be found in the caves and crypts of the pupils of the Mysteries. But the Greeks established the Mysteries anew; by bringing the primeval wisdom back again to Greece, Theseus, Orpheus, Hercules and others became the founders of this Greek Mystery-wisdom.
A dispassionate, cold intelligence, which is objective, is introduced by Thales, Anaximenes, Socrates and other philosophers. The Mystery-wisdom is united with love. It is a wisdom which cannot be attained without purification of the passions, the forces of Kama.2Forces of Kama. The forces of the astral body. The other kind of knowledge can be obtained without purification of Kama.
Thus the very important Argonaut saga puts before us the transition from the third to the fourth culture-epoch of our present root-race. Human culture, which formerly was one stream, now separates into two—into mystery-wisdom and external knowledge. The one stream was hidden—it was the recovery of the golden fleece but it was nevertheless effective. It had an influence on Greek art and culture. Only on external knowledge was it henceforth to have no influence. This is the saga of the voyage of the Argonauts.
The Odyssey too is concerned with the transition from one race to another. The Odyssey has been given the most varied explanations To-day I only want to indicate the bare framework of the saga. In my book Christianity as Mystical Fact I tried to make use of its second stage of interpretation; to-day we will look at the third.
Odysseus, who took part in the siege of Troy, by his cunning and his cleverness, helped the Greeks to conquer Troy. He made lone voyages, voyages in which he went astray—voyages on the water, be it noted. He came to the land of the Cyclops and overcame their one-eyed leader; then he went further, to Circe, who, we are told, turned his companions into swine. Then he descended into the underworld, and made the acquaintance of the dead heroes of Troy. Then he came under the influence of the sirens, who lead men astray by their magic songs. We are further told that most of his companions succumbed to the temptation, but that Odysseus caused himself to be bound to his ship, and thus saved himself; we are told how he then came to a place between Scylla and Charybdis where his ships were in danger of being wrecked. To save himself he had to pass through a whirlpool. Then he comes to the island of Calypso, sojourns there seven years and is enabled to leave by the intervention of Zeus, who orders Calypso to let him go, and at last he reaches his home country.
He is led by the goddess Pallas Athene into his house and to his wife, who has had to withstand many dangers because of the suitors who beset her. So she unravels by night the weaving she accomplishes by day, because she has promised her hand to one of her suitors when the work is finished.
Now let us go through this outline of the Odyssey as it is known to us from Greek occult wisdom. The schools of initiation, in which was actually enacted what I have just recounted, led the pupils on to the astral and the mental planes 3Astral plane and Mental plane. These are the “soul-world” and “spirit-land” in Rudolf Steiner's Theosophy. in such a way as to enable them to survey a stretch of human evolution, to survey the period from the middle of Lemuria to the time when in Greece, in the school of initiation which had been founded by Jason together with Orpheus, Theseus, Hercules and others, man was again able to find the primeval wisdom. Thus the pupil was led on to the astral and the mental planes and was shown the events which humanity had to pass through between the middle of Lemuria and the point of time when the Trojan war took place. The Argonaut saga is a picture of the primeval wisdom. It shows us that it existed at that time side by side with external knowledge.
What was it that was shown to the pupils of the Mysteries in the Odyssey? Odysseus himself is its expression. Let us turn back for a moment to the middle of the Lemurian time. Man was then in a state of transition from the hermaphroditic to the condition of sexuality, in a state of transition from the condition of being able to see without an external physical sense-organ to that of seeing with the physical eye. Up to the middle of Lemuria every man had one eye, which was then replaced by two external physical eyes. It was into this phase of evolution that the pupil of the early Greek Mysteries was transplanted. He had to experience the transition from the first half of Lemuria into the second half of Lemuria, into the time after the middle of Lemuria up to the emergence of the second eye. The Cyclopes were the men of the early Lemurian time. Odysseus came to know these men upon the astral plane. After this time, human astral bodies were plunged into matter which was becoming denser, more solid. We then come—so were the initiates instructed—to the first periods of Atlantis. The Atlantean acquires more and more the capacity to make use of the forces of life, to apply these forces for his own ends. They were fully developed astral forces which the Atlantean possessed, and it was only on the astral plane that a Greek could be transported into them. This was the time, so often spoken of in occult writings, when the Atlantean races lapsed into the wildest arts of black magic. This epoch was brought before the pupils of the Greek Mysteries in these shifting scenes. This was the age when. human passions became so distorted under the influence of the forces of black magic that their astral bodies resembled those of the lowest animals. This was the picture which the Turanians presented when they lapsed into these wild magic arts. The astral body was so changed under the influence of these black arts that it could only be expressed symbolically as the changing of the comrades of Odysseus into swine. This was the moment of human evolution which the Greek initiates of that time experienced. Then Odysseus descended into the underworld. In the world of Greek mythology this always signified an initiation. Whenever it is said of a hero that he descended into the underworld, the narrator wants to express the fact that the hero concerned has been initiated, made acquainted with things that lie beyond death. Odysseus was an initiate and the Odyssey itself is the description of his initiation.
Now we go on to a point when, after the Atlantean flood, men became acquainted with the first operations of those Beings of whom I have spoken, acquainted with the effects of external culture, science and art, with forces which influenced intellectual life after the flood. The first periods of purely external physical culture were brought before the initiates as the temptations of purely worldly arts, worldly culture. These are the siren songs of the young fifth root-race. It was of these siren songs of the young fifth root-race that so much is said in occult writings. For on the one hand we have the great wisdom teaching of Manu 4Manu. Described in An Outline of Occult Science as “the Christ-initiate” or “the leader of the Christ-oracle”. who, in the sub-race which was the originator of the fifth root-race, draws men's attention to the fact that their intellect has to lift itself up to the divine. This found its expression in the Vedas, and in what the Persian Zarathustra left to his co-religionists. But then we have the pure culture of the intelligence, which diverts men from what was developing in them under the influence of Manu. In all occult writings you find described the events which then took place. Manu chose a small band and went with them into the Desert of Gobi or Sebamo. There it was only a handful that remained true to him, whilst the others were unfaithful and dispersed in all directions. This important event was shown to the candidates for initiation—that is to say, they were shown how the Manu had chosen some of the Ur-Semites, but that of those chosen only a small number followed him, whereas the others ran into destruction through following the siren-song of external culture.
Then a still more important moment of human evolution was represented by the passage between Scylla and Charybdis. What is it which now really begins in mankind? The essential Kama—Manas culture now first begins. It had gradually been prepared up to this point; it is only now that it really begins. Our fifth root-race possesses preeminently this Kama-Manas culture. Kama is in the astral, and even to-day is still active in the astral body. But Manas is what is active in the physical brain. The man of the fifth root-race thinks with the physical brain. It is only in a future phase of evolution that Kama, the astral body, will be so advanced that it will be able to think. To-day Manas has taken hold of the physical brain. We have to pass between the hindrances on either side—Scylla-Manas and Charybdis-Kama. The passage of Odysseus is a picture of this. There is on the one hand the astral whirlpool of the instincts, appetites and passions into which man can fall; on the other hand there is the physical intellect chained to the rock. The rock occurs also in the Prometheus saga, where we meet the rock again. The human intellect is exposed to all the dangers of the physical, of the rock. Man sails between the physical intelligence and the whirlpool of the astral life. If he has accomplished that successfully, if he has recognized the dangers of the passage, and has nevertheless kept his footing, then he comes to Calypso, to the hidden wisdom. Then he can take a look into the future of humanity, then he can undergo the testing time, which lasts seven years. That is why Odysseus remains with the nymph Calypso seven years. Every man who seeks initiation goes through a seven-year testing period, and this is represented by the sojourn with Calypso. Only then can he reach the point to which the soul aspires. Read Homer's Odyssey! He means that man is in search of his own soul. He who really wishes to understand the Odyssey cannot accept the view of a modern investigator who asserts that Polyphemus and the Cyclopes only mean that Etna had erupted and that the scene of the conflagration seemed to Odysseus like the eye of a giant.
At last Odysseus returns home as a beggar, without any external property. This means that the man who had recognized the unimportance of the external world and of worldly goods, seeks his soul's home not in Maya, but behind Maya, thus in a mystical sense he returns home as a beggar. That he is truly wise is shown by his being led into his house by Pallas Athene. In all esotericism the soul is represented as feminine, it is always the feminine nature that is chosen as the symbol for the striving of the individual soul. Goethe calls it the ‘Eternal Feminine’. In Medea in the Argonaut saga, in Penelope, we have to understand the real soul, to which Odysseus seeks the way again. The Virgin Mary too, in the Christian religion, is the striving human soul, only there the significance is infinitely deeper. Strictly speaking, Penelope is the human soul in the fifth root-race. The fifth root-race has to cultivate human intelligence. Human intelligence is utterly unfruitful when it is only turned upon itself. When it has something that one can call a content, then the intelligence can be applied to it. Intelligence is a network which is spun around things we have from some other place. When external experience teaches you something, you can weave around it with your intelligence. When the higher occult wisdom teaches you something, you can also weave around it. Men say that occult wisdom contradicts reason. Nothing contradicts reason! When something new dawns on their horizon men have always said that it is contrary to reason. But the intellect is only there for purposes of combining. Out of itself it can win nothing. This barrenness of the intellect, which is nevertheless the real soul of the fifth root-race, is expressed in the perpetual weaving and unraveling of Penelope's cloth. Odysseus is led by wisdom. The initiate must find the way to the soul of the fifth root-race, but he will only unite himself with this soul in the right way if he is guided by Pallas Athene. Pallas Athene too is a feminine deity, another soul-force, wisdom, the real guide. But man has to reach intelligence through many by-paths, in so far as they are paths of development—for there were many by-paths in the Lemurian epoch. And in this journey Pallas Athene must be his guide. This was brought before the pupils of the Mysteries in Greece and this is what Homer wanted to express in his profound saga.
What is described in the Odyssey is initiation as it was carried out in Greece at that time—an initiation which was a repetition on the astral and mental planes of experiences from Lemurian times right down to the time of the Mysteries themselves. Odysseus is the clever man, the cunning man, and Troy was overthrown through his ability. The clever, intellectual man is the man of the fifth root-race. But to be able to find his way rightly in the fifth root-race, he must again on his devious path seek his home country, his Penelope. The man who is merely cunning and clever would never find the right way. He must first come out of himself, broaden his view, by looking back on the long journey of the human race. Odysseus is the representative of the cunning Kama-Manas man, who has to wander through many byways, in order to be led back again to the soul of the fifth root-race.
Die Argonauten-Sage und die Odyssee
Durch die Betrachtung der verschiedenen Mythen möchte ich eine Grundlage schaffen für eine gewisse Art esoterischer Lehren, die ich in den nächsten Stunden behandeln werde. Heute möchte ich von einer sehr wichtigen Mythe sprechen, die wir auch in Griechenland finden und die, ebenso wie jede andere Mythe, stufenweise und mannigfaltig gedeutet werden kann. Wir wollen uns heute einmal ihren realen Kern klarlegen. Bevor ich aber dazu übergehe, möchte ich noch einiges Theoretisches vorausschicken.
Im letzten Heft von «Lucifer-Gnosis» habe ich darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß innerhalb der drei letzten atlantischen Kulturen ein bestimmter Einfluß auf unser Menschengeschlecht begonnen hat, der heute noch in einer gewissen Beziehung andauert. Dieser Einfluß hängt damit zusammen, daß damals die Menschen reif wurden, in dem zu leben, was wir unseren Intellekt, unseren Verstand nennen. Vorher war der Mensch mehr ein Gedächtniswesen. Bis zur vierten atlantischen Kultur wurde ganz besonders sein Gedächtnis ausgebildet. Der kombinierende Verstand, die rechnerische Tätigkeit, kurz dasjenige, worauf unsere ganze heutige Kultur beruht, begann mit der fünften atlantischen Kultur, mit den Ursemiten. Und deshalb wurden diese Ursemiten auch befähigt, die Stammrasse der ganzen fünften nachatlantischen Wurzelrasse zu werden. Diese Wurzelrasse hat im Laufe der Evolution vorzugsweise den Verstand, der mit dem physischen Plane beschäftigt ist, auszubilden. Wenn nun eine solche neue Entwicklungsphase in der Menschheit auftritt wie die des Verstandes, dann ist es möglich, daß neue Wesenheiten, die vorher nur im Verborgenen ihr Wesen trieben, auf die Evolution Einfluß gewinnen. Und in der Tat, seit jenem Zeitpunkt, seit der fünften atlantischen Kultur, konnte sich auf dem Gebiete der menschlichen Evolution eine gewisse Schar von Wesenheiten betätigen, deren Tätigkeit vorher nicht bemerkbar war. Diese Wesenheiten müssen Sie sich hochentwickelt vorstellen, viel höher entwickelt als der Mensch auf seiner damaligen Stufe der Evolution. Aber sie waren in gewisser Weise zurückgeblieben hinter denjenigen Wesenheiten, die in der Mitte der lemurischen Zeitepoche in das Menschengeschlecht eingegriffen haben. Es war ein neuer Nachschub, der da stattfand. Diese Wesenheiten, von denen ich jetzt spreche, gehörten ihrer ganzen Natur nach zu dem, was wir die lunarische Entwicklung nennen. In der Mondepoche hatten sie ihre Entwicklung durchgemacht, aber sie waren nicht so weit gekommen wie diejenigen, welche in der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit eingreifen konnten. Sie waren zurückgeblieben hinter der normalen Entwicklung auf dem Monde. Sie waren gerade so weit gekommen, daß sie die Fähigkeiten, die die Menschen damals erlangt hatten, als ihnen gleichartig erkannten, und das hatte zur Folge, daß sie sich ihrer bemächtigen konnten. Vorher waren die Menschen keine intelligenten Wesenheiten; jetzt bekamen sie den Intellekt. Und diese neue Fähigkeit benützten die Wesenheiten zu ihrer weiteren Entwicklung. So geschah es, daß dazumal jene Entwicklungsphase einsetzte, die wir die Vorbereitung zu der objektiven Wissenschaftlichkeit nennen. Die gab es früher nicht und wird es auch später nicht mehr geben. Alle Weisheit, die in der Menschheitsevolution errungen wurde, war im Grunde verknüpft mit dem, was wir Liebe nennen. Jene kalte, rein berechnende Wissenschaftlichkeit ist beeinflußt von diesen einen «Nachschub» darstellenden Wesenheiten.
Der Einfluß dieser Wesenheiten also, die heute noch immer in einer gewissen Weise wirksam sind, wird erst dann beendet sein, wenn auch unsere ganze intellektuelle Tätigkeit, alles, was wir wissen können, alles, was wir Verstandestätigkeit nennen, wiederum durchdrungen sein wird von Liebe. Wenn der Verstand und die Liebe sich wieder zu der höheren Weisheit vereinigt haben werden, dann wird der Einfluß dieser Wesenheiten, die auf dem physischen Plane nicht sichtbar sind, verschwinden. Den Einfluß dieser Wesenheiten den Menschen klarzumachen, klarzumachen zunächst den Mysterienschülern, das war die Aufgabe namentlich der griechischen Mysterien.
Ungefähr im 8. Jahrhundert vor Christi Geburt bricht in bezug auf diese Wesenheiten eine ganz besonders wichtige Epoche herein. Wenn Sie die Kulturen unserer fünften Wurzelrasse betrachten, jene, welche die alte Vedenkultur, dann diejenigen, welche die uralte persische, die chaldäisch-ägyptische Kultur begründet haben, so werden Sie finden, daß selbst noch in den Epochen, die die Druidenkultur hervorgebracht haben, eine objektive, nüchterne Wissenschaft eigentlich nicht vorhanden war. Diese tauchte erst auf, als die vierte Kulturepoche immer mehr und mehr heraufdämmerte. Den Beginn der vierten Kulturepoche wird man etwa im 8. Jahrhundert vor Christi Geburt verzeichnen können. Damit dämmerte eine von allem übrigen menschlichen Gemütsinhalt abgesonderte, objektive Wissenschaft herauf. Ein chaldäischer Priester, der Astronomie getrieben hat, hat noch die Absichten der Weltregierung zu ergründen versucht. Ebenso war es bei den Priestern der Ägypter und den Druidenpriestern; sie suchten Einsichten zu erhalten in die Absichten des Weltenlenkers. Eine reine Verstandeswissenschaft dämmerte erst in Griechenland herauf. Diese Verstandeswissenschaft, die sich nach und nach vorbereitet hat und durch den Einfluß der genannten Wesenheiten heraufkam, aber mit der anderen menschlichen Tätigkeit verknüpft war, wurde vollständig entfesselt in der vierten Kulturperiode der fünften Wurzelrasse. Die Eingeweihten, die unterwiesen wurden in den Mysterien der damaligen Zeit, empfanden die Urweisheit, die dem Menschengeschlecht früher zuteil geworden war, gegenüber der äußeren Weisheit als etwas Verlorenes, das erst wieder gesucht werden mußte. Es hat einen Zeitpunkt gegeben, in dem diese erstorbene Weisheit sich abgesondert hat von der umfassenden Urweisheit. Diesen Zeitpunkt, in dem diese nüchterne, trockene Weisheit sich abgesondert hat von der umfassenden Urweisheit, hat man dadurch bezeichnet, daß man sagte: Etwa im 8. Jahrhundert vor Christus ist die Sonne durch den Frühlingspunkt im Widder durchgegangen. Dieser Durchgang der Sonne durch den Widder ist die Wiederholung eines vor Jahrtausenden stattgefundenen früheren Durchgangs durch dasselbe Zeichen. Die Sonne rückt ja bekanntlich durch den ganzen Tierkreis, durch die Tierkreisbilder Widder, Stier, Zwillinge, Krebs, Löwe, Jungfrau und so weiter, so daß sie schon viele Male durch den Widder hindurchgegangen ist. Das letzte Mal war sie durch den Widder durchgegangen, als der Mensch noch die Vereinigung von Liebe und Erkenntnis und damit die Urweisheit besaß. Diese Urweisheit war nun verlorengegangen und hatte einer äußerlichen Verstandeskultur Platz gemacht. Diesen ganzen Vorgang in seiner okkulten Bedeutung drückte der griechische Mysterienpriester aus durch den ungeheuer tiefen Mythos von der Argonauten-Sage, in welcher der Widder das Sinnbild der Vereinigung von Liebe und Erkenntnis darstellt.
Halten wir uns den ganzen Mythos erst einmal vor Augen. Es wird uns erzählt, daß Phrixos und Helle viel zu leiden hatten von ihrer bösen Stiefmutter Ino. Deshalb erschien dem Phrixos seine göttliche Mutter Nephele und riet ihm, mit der Schwester zu entfliehen. Sie gab ihm auch einen großen Widder mit einem goldenen Vlies, mit dem sie über das Meer reiten sollten. Helle sei dann abgestürzt und im Meer ertrunken, das danach den Namen Hellespont erhielt; Phrixos dagegen sei mit dem Widder nach Kolchis gekommen. Dort soll er den Widder dem Zeus geopfert und das Fell dem König Aietes gegeben haben, der es an einer Eiche vor einer Höhle aufgehängt habe. Später machte sich der griechische Held Jason gemeinsam mit den bedeutendsten der damaligen griechischen Eingeweihten - Orpheus, Theseus, Herakles und anderen - auf, um das Widderfell von den barbarischen Völkern in Kolchis wieder zurückzuholen. Dadurch, daß er die jüngste Tochter des Königs Aietes, Medea, für sich gewann, wurde es ihm möglich, das Widderfell wieder nach Griechenland zurückzubringen. Er mußte zuerst zwei feuerschnaubende Stiere besiegen. Weiterhin mußte er Drachenzähne ausstreuen; aus den Drachenzähnen wuchsen geharnischte Männer hervor, welche in Streit kamen. Durch Medea wurde er befähigt, diesen Streit zu schlichten. Sie war es auch, die Jason ermöglichte, das Widderfell zu nehmen und mit ihm und ihr die Heimreise nach Griechenland anzutreten. Medea hatte, um ihren Vater zu täuschen, ihren Bruder mitgenommen, ihn getötet und zerstückelt ins Meer geworfen. Während der jammernde Vater die Glieder sammelte, konnten sie die Flucht nach Griechenland fortsetzen.
Im 8. und 9. Jahrhundert vor Christi Geburt, also am Eingang der griechischen Kulturperiode, wurde die okkulte Bedeutung dieser Sage den griechischen Geheimschülern gelehrt. Diese okkulte Bedeutung liegt in der Mitteilung, daß diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche sich der trockenen, nüchternen Intelligenz der Menschen bedienen, von diesem Zeitpunkt an eine besondere Bedeutung erlangten. Die Sehnsucht nach der Urkultur, welche einmal bestanden hatte, als die Sonne zum vorletztenmal durch den Widder gegangen war, erwachte jetzt wieder. Daß das Zwillingspaar Phrixos und Helle vom Widder nach Kolchis gebracht wurde, heißt nichts anderes, als daß eine vorhergehende Unterrasse, die persisch-iranische mit ihrer Zwillingsnatur - sie haben unter dem Zeichen des Guten und Bösen, Ormuzd und Ahriman, gestanden -, die Verbindung von Erkenntnis und Liebe wiedergewinnen will. Die vorhergehende Unterrasse hatte dieses in verborgene Gebiete getragen. Früher, in der atlantischen Zeit, war dieses Fell, diese Weisheit, Gemeingut der menschlichen Kultur gewesen, dann war es in ferne Geheimschulen getragen worden. Es muß zurückgeholt werden. So sehen wir ausgedrückt in der Argonauten-Sage die Begründung der Geheimschulen in Griechenland.
Es gab also eine Urweisheit bei der atlantischen Rasse, so wird uns erzählt. Diese Urweisheit war damals Gemeingut der Menschheit. Sie ist verlorengegangen und nur noch in den Höhlen und Krypten der Mysterienschulen zu finden. Die Griechen aber haben für ihre Eingeweihten die Mysterien neu errichtet, und Theseus, Orpheus, Herkules und andere waren die Begründer dieser Weisheitsschulen dadurch, daß sie die Urweisheit wieder zurückgeholt haben nach Griechenland. Durch Thales, Anaximenes, Sokrates und andere Philosophen ist eine nüchterne, kalte Verstandesweisheit heraufgebracht worden, die objektiv ist. Die Mysterienweisheit ist mit der Liebe verbunden. Sie ist eine Weisheit, die nicht erlangt werden kann ohne die Läuterung der Leidenschaften, der Kamakräfte. Die Verstandeswissenschaft dagegen kann ohne Läuterung von Kama erlangt werden. In der so wichtigen Argonauten-Sage ist uns also der Übergang von der dritten zur vierten Kulturperiode unserer gegenwärtigen Wurzelrasse dargestellt. Der Übergang besteht darin, daß der früher gemeinsame Strom der menschlichen Kultur sich teilte in zwei Strömungen: in Mysterienweisheit und in die äußere Verstandeswissenschaft. Der eine Strom war verborgen, aber so, daß er doch wirksam war und Einfluß bekam auf die griechische Kunst und Kultur - er ist dargestellt als das Zurückholen des Widderfelles. Nur auf die Verstandeswissenschaft sollte er fortan keinen Einfluß haben. Das ist die Sage von dem Argonautenzug.
Auch bei der Odysseus-Sage sehen wir, daß sie sich bezieht auf den Übergang von einer Rasse zur anderen. Die Odysseus-Sage hat hintereinander die mannigfaltigsten Deutungen und Auslegungen gefunden. Ich möchte heute nur das Gerüst dieser Sage angeben. In meinem Buche «Das Christentum als mystische Tatsache» habe ich die zweite Art der Ausdeutung, die allegorische, anzuwenden versucht; heute wollen wir die dritte Art der Ausdeutung, die okkulte, betrachten.
Odysseus, der unter den Kämpfern von Troja war, hat den Griechen durch Schlauheit und Klugheit dazu verholfen, Troja zu erobern. Er hat große Irrfahrten durchgemacht auf dem Wasser; das bitte ich festzuhalten. Er kam zu den Zyklopen, überwand den Hauptzyklopen mit dem einen Auge, ging dann weiter zu Circe, welche, wie uns erzählt wird, seine Gefährten in Schweine verwandelte. Dann ging er in die Unterwelt und machte da mit den im Trojanischen Krieg gefallenen Helden Bekanntschaft. Dann kam er unter die Gewalt der Sirenen, die durch ihren zauberhaften Gesang die Menschen verführen. Es wird uns weiter erzählt, wie der größte Teil der Gefährten der Verführung erliegt und wie er sich dadurch rettet, daß er sich an sein Schiff festbinden läßt. Odysseus kommt dann an einen Ort, der sich zwischen Skylla und Charybdis befindet, wo die Schiffe Gefahr laufen zu scheitern. Er muß sich durch einen Meeresstrudel hindurchretten. Er kommt dann nach Ogygia, der Insel der Nymphe Kalypso, verweilt dort sieben Jahre und wird durch Zeus, der Kalypso den Auftrag gibt, ihn freizugeben, entlassen und gelangt schließlich in seine Heimat Ithaka. Durch die Göttin Pallas Athene wird er in sein Haus und zu seinem Weib Penelope geführt, das die verschiedensten Fährnisse auszustehen hatte, weil sich viele Freier um sie bemühten. So fertigte sie bei Tag ein Gewebe an, das sie bei Nacht wieder auftrennte, weil sie den Freiern ihre Hand versprochen hatte, wenn das Gewebe fertig sei.
Nun bitte ich Sie, dieses Gerüst der Odysseus-Sage mit mir einmal in der Art durchzugehen, wie es uns bekannt ist aus der griechischen Mysterienweisheit. Die Einweihungsschulen, in denen sich tatsächlich abspielte, was hier erzählt wird, führten den Schüler auf dem Astralplan und dem Mentalplan so, daß er eine bestimmte Strecke der menschlichen Entwicklung durchlaufen konnte, und zwar die Strecke von der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit bis zu dem Zeitpunkt, wo in Griechenland der Mensch in den Einweihungsschulen, die durch Jason zusammen mit Orpheus, Theseus, Herakles und anderen begründet worden waren, wiederum die Urweisheit finden konnte. Es wurde also der Schüler auf den Astralund Mentalplan geführt, und es wurden ihm die Vorgänge gezeigt, die die Menschheit durchlaufen hatte von der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit bis zu dem Punkte, wo der Trojanische Krieg sich abspielte. Durch das Mythische im Argonautenzug wird uns ein Stück der Urweisheit dargestellt. Es zeigt sich uns, daß sie dazumal neben der Wissenschaft einherging. Was wurde den Menschen, den Einweihungsschülern, nun in der Odysseus-Sage gezeigt? Das wird uns in Odysseus repräsentativ dargestellt.
Versetzen wir uns einmal zurück in die Mitte der lemurischen Zeit. Der Mensch war da auf dem Übergang von dem hermaphroditischen Zustand in den Zustand der Geschlechtlichkeit, auf dem Übergang vom Zustande des Sehens ohne äußeres physisches Sinnesorgan zum Sehen mit dem äußeren physischen Auge. Tatsächlich hatte der Mensch bis zur Mitte der lemurischen Zeit jenes «eine Auge», das dann ersetzt wurde durch die zwei äußeren, physischen Augen. In diese Entwicklungsphase wurde der Schüler damals zurückversetzt. Er sollte den Übergang erleben von der vorlemurischen Zeit in die nachlemurische Zeit, in die Zeit nach der Mitte der lemurischen Rasse bis zum Auftauchen des äußeren Auges. Die Zyklopen waren die Menschen der vorlemurischen Zeit. Mit diesen machte Odysseus auf dem Astralplan Bekanntschaft. Nun war des Menschen Astralkörper nach dieser Zeit in die dichter und fester werdende Materie hineingesenkt worden. Das wurde den Einzuweihenden vorgestellt. Wir kommen dann heran an die ersten atlantischen Zeiten. Immer mehr und mehr gewinnt der Atlantier die Fähigkeit, die Lebenskräfte zu verwenden, sich ihrer zu seinen Verrichtungen zu bedienen. Es waren ausgebildete, hohe astrale Fähigkeiten, die die Atlantier entwickelten und zu denen sich ein Grieche nur auf dem astralischen Plane zurückversetzen konnte. Das war die Zeit, von der so viel in alten okkulten Schriften die Rede ist, wo die atlantischen Geschlechter in die wildesten Künste der schwarzen Magie verfielen. Diese Epoche wurde dem griechischen Mysterienschüler dramatisch vorgeführt in Verwandlungsbildern. Es war die Epoche, wo des Menschen Leidenschaften unter dem Einfluß der schwarzmagischen Kräfte so entstellt wurden, daß die Astralkörper den niedersten Tieren glichen. Das war auch das Bild, das sich darbot, als dann später die Turanier in diese wilden magischen Künste verfielen. Der Astralkörper wurde so verwandelt unter dem Einflusse dieser schwarzen Künste, daß es symbolisch ausgedrückt hieß: Circe verwandelte die Gefährten des Odysseus in Schweine. - Diesen Zeitpunkt der menschlichen Entwicklung machte der griechische Eingeweihte durch.
Dann stieg Odysseus in die Unterwelt hinab. Das Hinabsteigen in die Unterwelt bedeutet nun überall, wo es uns in der griechischen Sagenwelt entgegentritt, daß eine Einweihung stattfindet. Wenn von einem Helden gesagt wird, daß er in die Unterwelt hinunterstieg, will der Erzähler damit nichts anderes ausdrücken, als daß der Betreffende eingeweiht wurde, daß er bekannt wurde mit den Dingen, die jenseits des Todes liegen. Odysseus war ein Eingeweihter, und die Odysseus-Sage selbst ist die Darstellung seiner Einweihung. Wir schreiten nun weiter bis zu dem Zeitpunkte, wo nach der atlantischen Flut die Menschen bekannt wurden mit den ersten Wirkungen jener Wesenheiten, von denen ich gesprochen habe, die sich in der äußeren Kultur, in der damaligen Wissenschaft und in den damaligen Künsten offenbaren mit denjenigen Wirkungen, die auf das Intellektuelle Einfluß hatten nach der atlantischen Flut. Die ersten Anfänge rein äußerer physischer Kultur wurden dem Eingeweihten vorgeführt als die Verlockungen der rein weltlichen Künste, der rein weltlichen Kultur. Es sind die Sirenenklänge der jungen fünften Wurzelrasse. Diese Sirenenklänge der jungen fünften Wurzelrasse waren es, von denen so viel gesprochen wird in den okkulten Schriften. Denn wir haben auf der einen Seite die große Weisheitslehre des Manu, welcher die Menschen der fünften Wurzelrasse darauf aufmerksam macht, daß ihr Intellekt sich zu erheben hat zu dem Göttlichen. Das hat seinen Ausdruck gefunden in den Veden und in dem, was der persische Zarathustra als Religion begründet und seinen Religionsgenossen hinterlassen hat. Daneben haben wir die rein verstandesmäßige Kultur, die den Menschen abbringt von dem, was unter dem Einfluß des Manu sich entwickelt. Sie finden in allen okkulten Schriften die Vorgänge dargestellt, die da stattfanden. Der Manu wählte das kleine Häuflein aus und ging in die Wüste Gobi oder Schamo. Da war es nur eine kleine Schar, die ihm treu blieb, während die anderen untreu wurden und sich nach allen Seiten zerstreuten. Dieser wichtige Vorgang, daß der Manu zuerst einen Teil der Ursemiten auswählte, daß von diesen Ausgewählten aber wieder nur ein kleiner Teil ihm folgte, während der andere Teil zugrundeging, weil er den Sirenenklängen der äußeren Kultur folgte, dieser wichtige Vorgang wurde den Einzuweihenden dargestellt.
Dann wird noch ein wichtiger Punkt der Menschheitsentwicklung in der Odysseus-Sage dargestellt, der Durchgang zwischen Skylla und Charybdis. Was beginnt denn jetzt eigentlich in der Menschheit? Jetzt erst beginnt, wie wir gesehen haben, die eigentliche Kama-Manas-Kultur. Nach und nach ist sie bis hierher vorbereitet worden. Jetzt beginnt sie. Unsere fünfte Wurzelrasse hat vorzugsweise diese Kama-Manas-Kultur. Kama ist im Astralen und auch heute noch im Astralkörper tätig. Manas aber ist das, was im physischen Gehirn tätig ist. Der Mensch der fünften Wurzelrasse denkt mit seinem physischen Gehirn. Erst in einer künftigen Entwicklungsphase wird auch das Kama, der Astralkörper so weit sein, daß er zu denken vermag. Heute hat Manas erst im physischen Gehirn Platz gegriffen. Zwischen den zwei nach beiden Seiten uns schleudernden Strudeln Skylla und Charybdis müssen wir hindurch. Das wird repräsentiert durch den Durchgang des Odysseus zwischen Skylla-Manas und Charybdis-Kama. Da ist auf der einen Seite der astrale Strudel, die Triebe, Begierden und Leidenschaften, in denen der Mensch untergehen kann, und auf der anderen der an den Felsen geschmiedete physische Verstand. Der Fels ist uns ja bereits begegnet in der Prometheus-Sage. Hier tritt uns der Fels wieder entgegen. Der menschliche Verstand ist allen Gefahren der Physis, des Felsens, ausgesetzt. Zwischen den Klippen des physischen Verstandes und dem Strudel des astralen Lebens muß der Mensch hindurchsegeln. Hat er sich da durchgebracht, hat er erkannt, welche Gefahren ihm drohen und hat sich dennoch aufrecht halten können, dann kommt er zu der Insel der Kalypso, zur verborgenen Weisheit. Da kann er den Ausblick tun in die Zukunft der Menschheit, die Probezeit durchmachen, die sieben Jahre andauert. Deshalb bleibt Odysseus auch sieben Jahre bei der Kalypso. Jeder, der zur Einweihung kommen will, muß eine siebenjährige Probezeit durchmachen, und die ist angedeutet durch den Aufenthalt bei der Kalypso, wo hinter der Täuschung verborgene Weisheit lebt. Dann erst kann er dahin kommen, wo die Seele hingelangt, wenn sie dem Strudel der astralen Leidenschaften entronnen ist. Lesen Sie Homers «Odyssee»; er deutet an, daß der Mensch die eigene Seele sucht. Die Zurückkunft der eigenen Seele, das ist das Streben nach der Heimat. Wer die Odyssee wirklich verstehen will, darf nicht der Ansicht eines neueren Forschers sein, der da meint, daß mit dem Polyphem und den Zyklopen nichts anderes gemeint sei, als daß der Ätna Feuer gespieen hätte und die Brandstelle dem Odysseus erschienen wäre als das Auge des Riesen.
Odysseus kommt zuletzt als Bettler nach Hause, ohne alles äußere Gut. Damit ist angedeutet, daß der Mensch, der das Unwichtige der äußeren Welt und der weltlichen Güter durchschaut hat, nicht in der Maya, sondern hinter der Maya die Heimat der Seele sucht, daß er also im mystischen Sinn als Bettler in die Heimat kommt. Daß er in Wahrheit ein Weiser ist, das wird dadurch angedeutet, daß Pallas Athene Odysseus nach Hause geleitet. Die eigene Seele wird in aller Esoterik dargestellt durch ein weibliches Wesen; immer werden als Symbole für das Streben der eigenen Seele weibliche Wesen gewählt. Goethe nennt es das Ewig-Weibliche. Wie in der Medea in der Sage vom Argonautenzug, so haben wir hier in der Penelope die eigene Seele zu sehen, zu der Odysseus wieder den Weg sucht. In der christlichen Religion ist die Jungfrau Maria die nach Erlösung strebende menschliche Seele, nur ist die Bedeutung hier eine unendlich viel tiefere. Diese Penelope ist, um es genau zu sagen, die Seele des Menschen in der fünften Wurzelrasse. Die fünfte Wurzelrasse hat den menschlichen Verstand zu kultivieren. Er ist das Unfruchtbarste, das es an sich gibt; nur wenn er angewendet wird auf einen Inhalt, dann kann der Verstand fruchtbar werden. Der Verstand ist ein Netz, das gesponnen wird um die Dinge, die wir anderswoher haben. Wenn Sie die äußere Erfahrung etwas lehrt, können Sie es mit dem Verstande umspinnen. Wenn Sie die höhere okkulte Weisheit etwas lehrt, dann können Sie es wiederum mit dem Verstande umspinnen. Die Menschen sagen oft, die okkulten Weisheiten widersprächen dem Verstand. Nichts widerspricht dem Verstande. Die Menschen haben immer, wenn etwas Neues in ihren Horizont eingetreten ist, gesagt, es widerspreche dem Verstande. Der Verstand ist aber nur zum Kombinieren, zum Verbinden da. Aus sich selbst kann er nichts gewinnen, vom Verstande aus können Sie nichts beweisen. Dieses Unfruchtbare des Verstandes, der doch die eigentliche Seele der fünften Wurzelrasse ist, wird ausgedrückt in dem fortwährenden Spinnen und Wiederaufziehen des Gewebes der Penelope. Odysseus wird durch die Weisheit geleitet. Der Eingeweihte muß den Weg finden zu der Seele der fünften Wurzelrasse, zu dem unfruchtbaren Verstande. Aber er wird nur dann sich in der richtigen Weise mit der Seele der fünften Wurzelrasse verbinden, wenn er eben mit der Weisheit selbst erfüllt ist, wenn er von Pallas Athene geleitet wird. Pallas Athene wiederum ist eine höhere weibliche Gottheit, eine andere Kraft in der Seele; die Weisheit, die eigentliche Führerin. Der Mensch muß nach mancherlei Irrfahrten, die er durchgemacht hat, sofern sie wirklich Entwicklungsfahrten sind, zum Verstande kommen. Dabei muß Pallas Athene, die Weisheit, seine Führerin sein. Das wurde dem Mysterienschüler in Griechenland vorgeführt, und das wollte Homer in der tiefsinnigen Odysseus-Sage erzählen.
Eine Einweihung also, wie sie damals in Griechenland gepflegt wurde, ist uns in der Odysseus-Sage dargestellt, eine Einweihung, die nichts anderes war als eine im Astral-Mentalen erfolgte Wiederholung der Erlebnisse der Menschen in der lemurischen Zeit bis in die Zeit der Mysterien selbst. Odysseus ist der Schlaue, Kluge, und durch seine Fähigkeiten wurde Troja überwunden. Der kluge Verstandesmensch ist der Mensch der fünften Wurzelrasse. Aber diese seine Heimat, seine Penelope, muß er wieder auf dem Umwege suchen, um in der fünften Wurzelrasse seinen Weg richtig gehen zu können. Derjenige, welcher bloß schlau und klug ist, würde innerhalb der fünften Wurzelrasse nicht den richtigen Weg finden. Er muß erst aus sich herauskommen und seinen Blick erweitern, indem er zurückblickt auf den langen Weg der Entwicklung des Menschengeschlechts. Odysseus ist der Repräsentant des schlauen Kama-Manas-Menschen, der mancherlei Irrfahrten durchmachen muß, um in der fünften Wurzelrasse wieder zur Seele geführt zu werden.
The Legend of the Argonauts and the Odyssey
By examining various myths, I would like to lay the foundation for a certain type of esoteric teaching that I will discuss in the next few hours. Today I would like to speak about a very important myth that we also find in Greece and which, like every other myth, can be interpreted in stages and in many different ways. Today we want to clarify its real core. But before I do so, I would like to preface this with some theoretical remarks.
In the last issue of “Lucifer-Gnosis,” I pointed out that within the last three Atlantean cultures, a certain influence on our human race began that still continues today in a certain way. This influence is connected with the fact that at that time, people became ready to live in what we call our intellect, our mind. Before that, humans were more memory-based beings. Until the fourth Atlantean culture, their memory was particularly well developed. The combining mind, the ability to calculate, in short, everything on which our entire culture is based today, began with the fifth Atlantean culture, with the Proto-Semites. And that is why these Proto-Semites were also able to become the root race of the entire fifth post-Atlantean root race. In the course of evolution, this root race has to develop primarily the intellect that is concerned with the physical plane. When a new phase of development such as that of the intellect occurs in humanity, it is possible that new beings, which previously existed only in a hidden form, gain influence on evolution. And indeed, since that time, since the fifth Atlantean culture, a certain group of beings whose activity was previously unnoticeable has been able to work in the field of human evolution. You must imagine these beings as highly developed, much more highly developed than humans at their stage of evolution at that time. But in a certain sense they were lagging behind those beings who intervened in the human race in the middle of the Lemurian epoch. It was a new reinforcement that took place. These beings of whom I am now speaking belonged by their whole nature to what we call the lunar evolution. They had undergone their development during the lunar epoch, but they had not progressed as far as those who were able to intervene in the middle of the Lemurian epoch. They had lagged behind the normal development on the moon. They had just reached the point where they recognized the abilities that humans had acquired at that time as being similar to their own, and as a result, they were able to take control of them. Before that, humans were not intelligent beings; now they acquired intellect. And the beings used this new ability for their further development. Thus it came about that the phase of development began which we call the preparation for objective science. It did not exist before and will not exist again in the future. All the wisdom acquired in the evolution of humanity was fundamentally linked to what we call love. That cold, purely calculating scientific method is influenced by these beings, who represent a kind of “supply.”
The influence of these beings, which are still active in a certain way today, will only come to an end when our entire intellectual activity, everything we can know, everything we call intellectual activity, is once again permeated by love. When the intellect and love have reunited in higher wisdom, the influence of these beings, which are not visible on the physical plane, will disappear. Making the influence of these beings clear to people, first of all to mystery students, was the task of the Greek mysteries in particular.
Around the eighth century BC, a particularly important epoch dawned in relation to these beings. If you consider the cultures of our fifth root race, those that founded the ancient Vedic culture, then those that founded the ancient Persian and Chaldean-Egyptian cultures, you will find that even in the epochs that produced the Druid culture, there was actually no objective, sober science. This only emerged as the fourth cultural epoch dawned more and more. The beginning of the fourth cultural epoch can be traced back to around the 8th century BC. With it dawned an objective science separated from all other human mental content. A Chaldean priest who studied astronomy still tried to fathom the intentions of the world government. The same was true of the priests of Egypt and the Druid priests; they sought to gain insight into the intentions of the world's ruler. A pure intellectual science only dawned in Greece. This intellectual science, which had gradually prepared itself and emerged through the influence of the aforementioned beings, but was linked to other human activities, was completely unleashed in the fourth cultural period of the fifth root race. The initiates who were instructed in the mysteries of that time felt that the primordial wisdom that had been given to the human race in earlier times was something lost in relation to external wisdom, something that had to be sought again. There was a time when this lost wisdom separated itself from the comprehensive primordial wisdom. This moment, when this sober, dry wisdom separated itself from the comprehensive primordial wisdom, was described by saying that around the 8th century BC, the sun passed through the vernal equinox in Aries. This passage of the sun through Aries is the repetition of an earlier passage through the same sign that took place thousands of years ago. As is well known, the sun moves through the entire zodiac, through the zodiacal signs of Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and so on, so that it has already passed through Aries many times. The last time it passed through Aries was when human beings still possessed the union of love and knowledge and thus the primordial wisdom. This primordial wisdom had now been lost and had given way to an external culture of the intellect. The Greek mystery priest expressed this entire process in its occult meaning through the immensely profound myth of the Argonauts, in which the ram symbolizes the union of love and knowledge.
Let us first consider the entire myth. We are told that Phrixos and Helle suffered greatly at the hands of their evil stepmother Ino. Therefore, Phrixos' divine mother Nephele appeared to him and advised him to flee with his sister. She also gave him a large ram with a golden fleece, on which they were to ride across the sea. Helle then fell and drowned in the sea, which was subsequently named Hellespont; Phrixos, on the other hand, arrived in Colchis with the ram. There he sacrificed the ram to Zeus and gave the fleece to King Aietes, who hung it on an oak tree in front of a cave. Later, the Greek hero Jason, together with the most important Greek initiates of the time—Orpheus, Theseus, Heracles, and others—set out to retrieve the ram's fleece from the barbarian peoples of Colchis. By winning the hand of King Aietes' youngest daughter, Medea, he was able to bring the ram's skin back to Greece. First, he had to defeat two fire-breathing bulls. He also had to scatter dragon's teeth, from which armored men sprang forth and fought each other. Medea enabled him to settle this dispute. It was also she who enabled Jason to take the ram's fleece and set off with her and Medea on the journey home to Greece. In order to deceive her father, Medea had taken her brother with her, killed him, and thrown his dismembered body into the sea. While the grieving father gathered the limbs, they were able to continue their flight to Greece.
In the 8th and 9th centuries BC, at the dawn of the Greek cultural period, the occult meaning of this legend was taught to Greek secret disciples. This occult meaning lies in the message that those beings who make use of the dry, sober intelligence of human beings acquired a special significance from that time onwards. The longing for the original culture that had once existed when the sun passed through Aries for the penultimate time was now reawakened. The fact that the twins Phrixos and Helle were brought from the ram to Colchis means nothing other than that a previous subrace, the Persian-Iranian with its twin nature – they stood under the sign of good and evil, Ormuzd and Ahriman – wanted to regain the connection between knowledge and love. The previous subrace had carried this into hidden realms. In earlier times, in the Atlantean era, this fleece, this wisdom, had been the common property of human culture, but then it had been carried away to distant secret schools. It must be brought back. Thus, in the legend of the Argonauts, we see expressed the founding of the secret schools in Greece.
We are told that there was a primordial wisdom among the Atlantean race. This primordial wisdom was once the common property of humanity. It has been lost and can now only be found in the caves and crypts of the mystery schools. The Greeks, however, re-established the mysteries for their initiates, and Theseus, Orpheus, Hercules, and others were the founders of these schools of wisdom by bringing the primordial wisdom back to Greece. Through Thales, Anaximenes, Socrates, and other philosophers, a sober, cold intellectual wisdom was brought forth that is objective. Mystery wisdom is connected with love. It is a wisdom that cannot be attained without the purification of the passions, the Kama forces. Intellectual science, on the other hand, can be attained without purification from Kama. The important Argonaut legend thus depicts the transition from the third to the fourth cultural period of our present root race. The transition consists in the fact that the formerly common stream of human culture divided into two streams: into mystery wisdom and into external intellectual science. One stream was hidden, but in such a way that it was still effective and exerted influence on Greek art and culture—it is represented as the retrieval of the ram's skin. From then on, it was to have no influence on intellectual science. This is the legend of the Argonauts.
In the legend of Odysseus, too, we see that it refers to the transition from one race to another. The legend of Odysseus has found the most varied interpretations and explanations. Today I would like to indicate only the framework of this legend. In my book Christianity as Mystical Fact, I attempted to apply the second type of interpretation, the allegorical; today we will consider the third type of interpretation, the occult.
Odysseus, who was among the warriors of Troy, helped the Greeks conquer Troy through cunning and cleverness. He went through great wanderings on the water; please keep that in mind. He came to the Cyclops, defeated the chief Cyclops with one eye, then went on to Circe, who, as we are told, turned his companions into pigs. Then he went to the underworld and made the acquaintance of the heroes who had fallen in the Trojan War. Then he came under the power of the Sirens, who seduce men with their enchanting song. We are told how most of his companions succumbed to the seduction and how he saved himself by having himself tied to his ship. Odysseus then comes to a place between Scylla and Charybdis, where ships are in danger of being wrecked. He has to save himself by passing through a whirlpool. He then arrives at Ogygia, the island of the nymph Calypso, where he stays for seven years and is released by Zeus, who orders Calypso to set him free, and finally reaches his homeland of Ithaca. The goddess Pallas Athena leads him to his house and to his wife Penelope, who had to endure various perils because many suitors were vying for her hand. During the day, she wove a cloth, which she unraveled at night because she had promised her hand to the suitors when the cloth was finished.
Now I ask you to go through this framework of the Odyssey with me in the way we know it from Greek mystery wisdom. The initiation schools, where what is recounted here actually took place, guided the student on the astral and mental planes so that he could pass through a certain stage of human development, namely the stage from the middle of the Lemurian period to the time when, in Greece, human beings could once again find the primordial wisdom in the initiation schools founded by Jason together with Orpheus, Theseus, Heracles, and others. The student was thus led to the astral and mental planes and shown the events that humanity had undergone from the middle of the Lemurian period to the point where the Trojan War took place. The mythical elements in the Argonauts' journey reveal a piece of the original wisdom to us. We see that it existed alongside science at that time. What was shown to the people, the initiation students, in the Odyssey saga? This is represented to us in Odysseus.
Let us transport ourselves back to the middle of the Lemurian epoch. Human beings were then in transition from the hermaphroditic state to the state of sexuality, from the state of seeing without external physical sense organs to seeing with the external physical eye. In fact, until the middle of the Lemurian epoch, human beings had that “one eye,” which was then replaced by the two external physical eyes. The students were then transported back to this stage of development. They were to experience the transition from the pre-Lemurian period to the post-Lemurian period, from the middle of the Lemurian race to the emergence of the external eye. The Cyclops were the people of the pre-Lemurian period. Odysseus made their acquaintance on the astral plane. After this period, the human astral body had been sunk into increasingly dense and solid matter. This was presented to the initiates. We then come to the first Atlantean times. More and more, the Atlanteans gained the ability to use their life forces for their tasks. These were highly developed astral abilities, which the Atlanteans developed and to which a Greek could only return on the astral plane. This was the time so often mentioned in ancient occult writings, when the Atlantean races fell into the wildest arts of black magic. This epoch was dramatically presented to Greek mystery students in images of transformation. It was the epoch when human passions were so distorted under the influence of black magical forces that the astral bodies resembled the lowest animals. This was also the picture that presented itself when, later on, the Turanians fell into these wild magical arts. The astral body was so transformed under the influence of these black arts that, symbolically speaking, Circe transformed Odysseus' companions into pigs. The Greek initiate went through this stage of human development.
Then Odysseus descended into the underworld. Wherever we encounter the descent into the underworld in Greek mythology, it signifies that an initiation is taking place. When it is said of a hero that he descended into the underworld, the narrator means nothing other than that the person in question was initiated, that he became acquainted with the things that lie beyond death. Odysseus was an initiate, and the Odyssey itself is the story of his initiation. We now proceed to the point in time when, after the Atlantean flood, human beings became acquainted with the first effects of those beings of which I have spoken, who reveal themselves in the outer culture, in the science and arts of that time, with those effects that had an influence on the intellectual after the Atlantean flood. The first beginnings of purely external physical culture were presented to the initiate as the temptations of purely worldly arts, of purely worldly culture. These are the siren songs of the young fifth root race. It was these siren songs of the young fifth root race that are spoken of so much in the occult writings. For on the one hand we have the great wisdom teaching of Manu, who draws the attention of the people of the fifth root race to the fact that their intellect must rise to the divine. This found expression in the Vedas and in what the Persian Zarathustra founded as a religion and left to his fellow believers. Alongside this, we have the purely intellectual culture that leads people away from what develops under the influence of Manu. You will find the events that took place described in all occult writings. Manu chose the small group and went into the Gobi or Shamo desert. There was only a small group that remained loyal to him, while the others became unfaithful and scattered in all directions. This important process, in which Manu first selected a part of the original Semites, but only a small part of these chosen ones followed him, while the other part perished because they followed the siren songs of the outer culture, this important process was presented to those who were to be initiated.
Then another important point in the development of humanity is presented in the Odyssey, the passage between Scylla and Charybdis. What is actually beginning now in humanity? As we have seen, the actual Kama-Manas culture is only now beginning. It has been prepared little by little up to this point. Now it begins. Our fifth root race has this Kama-Manas culture as its primary culture. Kama is active in the astral and still is in the astral body today. Manas, however, is what is active in the physical brain. The human being of the fifth root race thinks with his physical brain. Only in a future phase of development will Kama, the astral body, be ready to think. Today, manas has only taken hold in the physical brain. We must pass between the two whirlpools, Scylla and Charybdis, which hurl us in opposite directions. This is represented by Odysseus' passage between Scylla-manas and Charybdis-kama. On one side is the astral whirlpool, the instincts, desires, and passions in which human beings can perish, and on the other side is the physical mind chained to the rock. We have already encountered the rock in the legend of Prometheus. Here the rock confronts us again. The human mind is exposed to all the dangers of the physical world, of the rock. Humans must navigate between the cliffs of the physical mind and the vortex of astral life. Once they have made it through, recognized the dangers that threaten them, and nevertheless managed to remain upright, they arrive at the island of Calypso, the hidden wisdom. There they can look into the future of humanity and undergo a trial period lasting seven years. That is why Odysseus stays with Calypso for seven years. Everyone who wants to be initiated must undergo a seven-year trial period, which is symbolized by the stay with Calypso, where wisdom hidden behind deception lives. Only then can he reach the place where the soul arrives when it has escaped the whirlpool of astral passions. Read Homer's “Odyssey”; it suggests that man is searching for his own soul. The return of one's own soul is the striving for home. Anyone who really wants to understand the Odyssey must not subscribe to the view of a recent scholar who believes that Polyphemus and the Cyclops are nothing more than Etna spewing fire, the site of the conflagration appearing to Odysseus as the giant's eye.
Odysseus finally returns home as a beggar, without any external possessions. This suggests that man, who has seen through the insignificance of the external world and worldly goods, seeks the home of the soul not in Maya, but behind Maya, and that he therefore returns home as a beggar in the mystical sense. That he is in truth a wise man is indicated by the fact that Pallas Athena guides Odysseus home. In all esotericism, the soul is represented by a female being; female beings are always chosen as symbols for the striving of the soul. Goethe calls it the eternal feminine. As in Medea in the legend of the Argonauts, we see here in Penelope the soul itself, to which Odysseus is seeking to return. In the Christian religion, the Virgin Mary is the human soul striving for redemption, only here the meaning is infinitely deeper. This Penelope is, to be precise, the soul of the human being in the fifth root race. The fifth root race has to cultivate the human intellect. It is the most barren thing there is; only when it is applied to content can the intellect become fruitful. The intellect is a net that is woven around the things we have from elsewhere. When external experience teaches you something, you can spin it around with your mind. When higher occult wisdom teaches you something, you can spin it around with your mind again. People often say that occult wisdom contradicts the mind. Nothing contradicts the mind. Whenever something new has entered their horizon, people have always said that it contradicts the mind. But the mind is only there to combine and connect. It cannot gain anything from itself; you cannot prove anything from the mind. This barrenness of the intellect, which is nevertheless the actual soul of the fifth root race, is expressed in the constant spinning and unraveling of Penelope's web. Odysseus is guided by wisdom. The initiate must find the way to the soul of the fifth root race, to the barren intellect. But he will only connect with the soul of the fifth root race in the right way if he is filled with wisdom itself, if he is guided by Pallas Athena. Pallas Athena, in turn, is a higher female deity, another force in the soul; wisdom, the true guide. After many wanderings, which are really journeys of development, man must come to the intellect. Pallas Athena, wisdom, must be his guide. This was demonstrated to the mystery student in Greece, and this is what Homer wanted to tell us in the profound legend of Ulysses.
An initiation as it was practiced in Greece at that time is thus presented to us in the legend of Odysseus, an initiation that was nothing other than a repetition in the astral-mental realm of the experiences of human beings in the Lemurian epoch up to the time of the mysteries themselves. Odysseus is the clever one, the wise one, and through his abilities Troy was conquered. The clever intellectual is the human being of the fifth root race. But he must search for his home, his Penelope, by a roundabout route in order to be able to follow the right path in the fifth root race. Those who are merely clever and intelligent would not find the right path within the fifth root race. He must first come out of himself and broaden his view by looking back on the long path of human development. Odysseus is the representative of the clever Kama-Manas human being, who must undergo many wanderings in order to be led back to the soul in the fifth root race.