The Work of Secret Societies in the World
The Atom as Coagulated Electricity
GA 93
23 December 1904, Berlin
Translator Unknown
In a series of lectures I have been speaking about occult schools and their ramifications and I think it right today to bring this whole course of lectures to a close before we pass on to a different subject next time. A week from now I shall speak about the meaning of the days connected in the Church Calendar with the Christmas Festival—the less important New Year's Festival and the extremely important Feast of the Epiphany. The lecture today, therefore, will be more in the nature of a conclusion.
The question might be asked: What is the deeper significance of secret societies and of their aims in world-evolution? To such a question my answer would be that they have a real connection with the way in which beings in the world evolve and make progress.
As you know, different kinds of exercises are necessary for self-development, and such exercises are actually available. You have heard of Hatha-Yoga, Rajah-Yoga, and other exercises of different kinds, by means of which societies and brotherhoods connected with occult science have initiated their members. Somebody may say: All this, surely, could be attained without these secret societies. But I can tell you—and in the course of the lecture you will realise it—that the world cannot do without such societies. To put it bluntly, it is quite unjustifiable to speak in public in the style of the manifesto of the Freemasons which I read to you a fortnight ago. That is only one example. Men cannot reach what is usually known as immortality unless they are to some extent familiar with the occult sciences. The fruits of occult science do, of course, find their way out into the world along many channels. A great deal of occult knowledge exists in the various religions and all those who participate deeply and sincerely in the life of a religious community have some share in this knowledge and are preparing themselves for the attainment of immortality in the real sense. But to reach the knowledge of immortality in full consciousness, as a concretely real experience, to have the feeling that one belongs in very truth to the spiritual world—that is a very different matter. All of you have lived many times; but not all of you are conscious that you have lived through these many lives. This consciousness, however, will gradually arise and without it man's life is lived out with incomplete consciousness. It has never been the aim of occult science to inculcate into men a dim feeling of survival but to impart a clear, fully conscious knowledge of on-flowing life in the spiritual world.
There is a certain law which governs the progressive development of consciousness in all future stages of life. It is this: Nothing that a human being does not himself accomplish for the attainment of this consciousness, contributes towards its development. There is a maxim—on the face of it rather perplexing—that whatever is achieved in the way of development of consciousness in the world does something to further the evolution of the consciousness of every single being, even if such a being has not actually worked at the development of his own consciousness.
And now try to think of an example of really objective human action.—An architect builds a house; he does not build this house for himself, but undertakes the task of building it for reasons which he believes to be entirely impersonal. You know well that the reasons are very seldom impersonal. There are many people who, to all appearances, are not working for themselves; and yet in reality are. A lawyer, for example, is to all intents and purposes working for his clients. Part of his work may well be selfless, but the real question is one of earning his living. Whatever men do in business merely for the sake of their own livelihood, to the extent that their business only serves that end, just so much is lost in the way of spiritual gain. On the other hand, everything that is performed without regard to self, that is connected with the interests of another, helps to intensify and to strengthen our consciousness in the future struggles for existence.—I hope that this is clear.
And now think of the Freemasons. When they were true to their original, fundamental principles, they gave this injunction to their members: The buildings you erect are to contribute nothing at all to your own means of subsistence. What has still survived of the good old Freemasonry takes the form nowadays of charitable institutions and foundations. And although the Lodges have lost their living roots in the ancient wisdom, and the occult knowledge once in their possession, these charitable institutions are evidences of a humanitarianism which, while it is empty of real substance, still persists and is cultivated as tradition. Selfless activity is, in very truth, something that has belonged to Freemasonry. Freemasonry did indeed urge its members to work in the service of humanity, to work in the world objectively and selflessly.
We are living now in the epoch of evolution that may be called the mineral epoch; and our task is to permeate this mineral world through and through with the spirit within us. Think of what this means.—You are building a house. You fetch the stones from a quarry and hew them into the shapes required by the building, and so on. What are you inculcating into this raw material obtained from the mineral kingdom? You are inculcating human spirit into the raw material. If you construct a machine, you have laid the spirit that is part of you, into that machine; the actual machine does, of course, perish and become dust; not a trace of it will survive. But what you have done, what you have achieved, passes into the very atoms and does not vanish without a trace. Every atom bears a trace of your spirit and will carry this trace with it. Whether an atom has at some time been in a machine, or has not been in a machine, is not a matter of indifference. The atom itself has undergone change as a result of having once been in a machine, and this change that you have wrought in the atom will never again be lost to it. Moreover, through your having changed the atom, through the fact that you have united the spirit in you with the mineral world, a permanent stamp has been made upon the general consciousness of mankind; just so much consciousness goes with you into the other world. Occult science well knows in what way the human being can perform selfless actions and how greatly his consciousness will be enhanced by them. Certain men, who have been deeply imbued with this knowledge, have been so selfless that they have taken steps to prevent even their names from going down to posterity! An example of this is the work entitled Theologica Deutsch. Nobody knows who wrote it. On the outside there are only the words: The man from Frankfurt. He, therefore, was one who took care that his very name should be unknown. He worked in such a way that he merely added something to the objective world without asking for honour or for the preservation of his name. And here let it be said that the Masters, as a rule, are not personages known in history; they sometimes are embodied in historical personalities—when it is necessary; but in a certain respect this is a sacrifice on their part. The level of their consciousness is incompatible with work for themselves, and preservation of a name does, after all, involve this. It is difficult thoroughly to understand this rule but it will now be clear to you why the aim of the Freemasons is to work in the world in such a way that their deeds are hidden in social organizations or charitable institutions. For selfless deeds are the real foundations of immortality. In the outer world we see the reflex of such deeds. They need not necessarily be of great account. If someone gives a coin to a poor man, this may be an unselfish deed; but only to the extent that it was absolutely selfless does it find its way to the sphere of immortality—and very few deeds are selfless to this degree. An act of charity may be extremely egoistical when, for instance, it gives rise to a comforting feeling. Charity very often springs from selfish motives. If a poor man living among us has no meat at Christmas and we feel bound to give him some in order that we may feel justified in eating our own Christmas dinner—that, after all, is egoism. In the Middle Ages it would have been impossible to say who had built many of the cathedrals or painted many of the pictures. It is only in our epoch of civilisation that people have begun to attach such value to the human name; in earlier epochs, more spiritual than our own, the individual name was of less importance. Spirituality in those days was directed to reality; whereas our epoch adheres to the delusion of thinking that what is a mere concern of the moment should be preserved.
I have said this in order to indicate the principle by which these secret societies were guided. The members of such societies were at pains to efface themselves altogether as personalities, and to allow what they did to produce its own effects. And this brings us to the heart of the matter. The fact that some particular thing is kept secret is of far less importance than that everyone should keep secret his own share in the work; thereby he secures for himself immortality. The rule is therefore clear and unambiguous: As much as you yourself lay into the world, that much consciousness the world will give back to you. The measure of what you yourself place into the world is the measure of the consciousness that the world will give back to you. This is connected with great and mighty laws of world-existence. Each one of you has a soul, each one of you has a spirit. This soul and [this] spirit are called upon to climb one day to the highest stages of perfection. But the soul and the spirit were already there before your physical body existed; they were present before your first physical incarnation. You existed in physical incarnation in the early Lemurian, Hyperborean and Polarian epochs. Before then, however, you were only beings of soul. But as beings of soul you were part of the world soul; as beings of pure spirit you were part of the universal world spirit. The world spirit and the world soul spread out around you then as nature spreads out around you today. Just as the mineral world, the plant world and the animal world are around you now, so were the worlds of soul and of spirit once around you. And what was then outside you, is now your soul; you have taken into yourselves, made inward, what to begin with was outside and around you. What is now your innermost being was once part of an external world. This has become your soul. The spirit, too, once spread out around you. And what is now around you will become your inner life. You will take into yourselves what is now the mineral kingdom and it will become part of your inner being; similarly the plant kingdom. What surrounds you in nature will become your inner being.
You will understand now how this is connected with the first example given. You build a church for others, not for yourself. You can in very truth take into yourselves a world of majesty, beauty and splendour if you experience this world as such. To do something for the higher self does not partake of egoism because it is not done only for the self; the higher self will be united with all the others, so that what is done for the higher self is at the same time done for all.—This is the truth that was known to the Freemasons. When the Freemason was working with his fellow-builders, he knew: In future times the mineral world will be spiritualized; to build means nothing else than to spiritualize the mineral world. He knew that the edifice would one day become the content of his soul.
God once gave us the nature that surrounds us in the kingdoms of the minerals, plants and animals. We take nature into ourselves. That nature exists is none of our doing; all we can do is to make nature part of our own being. But what we ourselves prepare and make ready in the world—that is what will constitute our future existence.
We actually see the mineral world, as such; what we do with the mineral world, that we shall ourselves become in future times. What we do with the plant world, with the animal world and with men, that too, we shall surely become. If you found a charitable institution or have contributed something to its foundation, what you have contributed will become an integral part of you. If a man does nothing with what he can in this way [to] draw into his soul from outside, then his soul remains empty. It must therefore be possible for mankind to spiritualise—as far as this can be achieved—the four kingdoms of nature, of which man is one. To bring spirit into the whole external world—that has been the task of the secret societies of every age.
It will not be difficult for you to understand the following—Think of a child who is learning to read and write. To begin with, all the accessories are around him; the teacher is there, the books are there, and so forth, but nothing is yet within the child. Work continues until what was once outside the child has been instilled into him and he is able to read. And so too is it with nature. In times to come we shall have within us what is now spread out around us. As souls we spring from the world soul and when this world soul was around us we drew it into ourselves. So too the spirit; and so too it will be with nature. We take nature into ourselves from outside and nature will be within us as a power. That is the great thought at the basis of these secret societies.
All progress is the result of involution and evolution. Involution is the in-taking, evolution the yield, the out-giving. All states and conditions of world-existence alternate between these two processes. When you see, hear, smell or taste, you breathe nature into yourselves. The act of sight does not pass away without leaving a trace behind. The eye itself perishes, the object seen—that too perishes; but what you have experienced in the act of sight, remains. It will not be difficult for you to realise that in certain epochs it is necessary to make such things understood. We are going forward to an age when, as I indicated recently, men will understand what the atom is, in reality. It will be realised—by the public mind too—that the atom is nothing but coagulated electricity.—The thought itself is composed of the same substance. Before the end of the fifth epoch of culture, science will have reached the stage where man will be able to penetrate into the atom itself. When the similarity of substance between the thought and the atom is once comprehended, the way to get hold of the forces contained in the atom will soon be discovered and then nothing will be inaccessible to certain methods of working.—A man standing here, let us say, will be able by pressing a button concealed in his pocket, to explode some object at a great distance—say in Hamburg! Just as by setting up a wave-movement here and causing it to take a particular form at some other place, wireless telegraphy is possible, so what I have just indicated will be within man's power when the occult truth that thought and atom consist of the same substance is put into practical application.
It is impossible to conceive what might happen in such circumstances if mankind has not, by then, reached selflessness. The attainment of selflessness alone will enable humanity to be kept from the brink of destruction. The downfall of our present epoch will be caused by lack of morality. The Lemurian epoch was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; our epoch and its civilisation will be destroyed by the War of All against All, by evil. Human beings will destroy each other in mutual strife. And the terrible thing—more desperately tragic than other catastrophes—will be that the blame will lie with human beings themselves.
A tiny handful of men will make good and thus insure their survival in the sixth epoch of civilisation. This tiny handful will have attained selflessness. The others will develop every imaginable skill and subtlety in the manipulation and use of the physical forces of nature, but without the essential degree of selflessness.
In the seventh epoch of civilisation, this War of All against All will break out in the most terrible form. Great and mighty forces will be let loose by the discoveries, turning the whole earth-globe into a kind of [self-functioning] live electric mass. In a way that cannot be discussed, the tiny handful will be protected and preserved.
And now you will be able to picture, more clearly than was possible when I spoke of the things before, why the “good and proper form” as it has been called, must be sought, and in what sense Freemasonry was aware of its duty to build an edifice dedicated to selfless ends. It is easier to become one of the tiny handful of men who ensure for themselves a place in the life of the future by using the good old forms than by having to struggle out of chaos. People nowadays may be inclined to jeer at “empty forms,” as they say ... but those forms have nevertheless a deep meaning and purpose; they are in line with the structure of our period of evolution, and when all is said and done they are connected with necessary stages in the development of human nature and of the human soul. Just think of it. We are living in the fifth period of the fifth great epoch; we have still to live through two more periods of this great epoch. Then will follow the seven periods of the sixth great epoch and then the seven periods of the seventh great epoch. This makes sixteen stages of evolution in the future. Humanity has still to climb these sixteen stages. A man who can experience something of the conditions of existence there possible, is to a certain degree initiated. There is a correspondence between the degrees of initiation and the secret of the epochs still to come. In the life of our planet there are seven great epochs, and each of these seven has seven sub-periods—forty-nine conditions, therefore, in all.
Thus there are definite stages for the investigation of the secrets of future phases of evolution. The high Degrees of Freemasonry originally had no other aim or purpose than to be an expression, each one of them, of a future stage of the evolution of humanity. Thus we have in Freemasonry something that has been both good and beautiful. A man who attained one Degree knew how he must work his way into the future; he could be a kind of pioneer. He knew too that one who reaches a higher Degree can accomplish greater things. This arrangement according to Degrees can well be made, for it corresponds with the facts. If, therefore, it were possible to inculcate a new content together with a new knowledge into these forms, much good would accrue, for Freemasonry would then be imbued with real spirit once again. Content and form, however belong to the whole. The state of affairs today is that the Degrees are there but nobody has worked through them in the real sense! In spite of this, however, they are not there without a purpose.
The fifth epoch of culture is a purely intellectual age, an age of egoism. The intellect is egoistical in the highest degree and it is the hallmark of our time. And so we must make our way upwards through intellect to spirituality before we can picture the spirituality that was once actively at work.
The essential secret, therefore, is this: The human being must know how to keep silence about the paths along which his “ I ” unfolds, and to regard his deeds, not his personal “ I ” as the criterion. The real heart of the secret lies in his deeds and in the overcoming of the “ I ” through deed. The “ I ” must remain concealed, within the deed! Elimination of the interests of the personal “ I ” from the on-streaming flow of human karma—this belongs to the First Degree. Whatever individual karma the “ I ” incurs in the process, is thereby wiped out. Nation, race, sex, position, religion ... all these work upon human egoism. Only when man has overcome them will he be free of egoism. The astral body of every nation, every race, every epoch, has a definite colour ... You will always find a colour which is fundamental in the astral body of a human being who is [a] member of one of these classifications. This specific colour must be eliminated. Anthroposophical spiritual science works to level out the colours of the astral bodies of its adherents. They must be of like colour—alike, that is to say, in respect of the basic colour. This basic colour gives rise to a certain substance called Kundalini which holds together, within the human being, the forces which lead eventually to the spirit. This leveling-out process will bring war and bloodshed in its train—war in the shape of economic strife among nations, pressure for expansion, suppression in every form, strife in the sphere of investment and profit, industrial undertakings, and so forth. And by adopting certain measures it will increasingly be possible to handle vast masses of people by sheer force; the individual will acquire greater and greater power over certain masses of the people. For the course of evolution is leading, not towards greater democracy, but towards oligarchy of the brutal kind, in that the power of the single individual will immeasurably increase. If morals are not ennobled, this will lead to brutality in every possible form. This state of things will come, just as the great water-catastrophe came to the Atlanteans.
10. Der Den Geheimgesellschaften Zugrunde Liegende Gedanke Von Evolution Und Involution
Ich habe bisher in einer Reihe von Vorträgen über Geheimschulen, geheime Verbindungen gesprochen, und es scheint mir jetzt doch das Richtige zu sein, wenn ich diesen ganzen Zyklus von Vorträgen über geheimwissenschaftliche Vereinigungen abschließe, bevor wir das nächste Mal zu etwas anderem übergehen. In acht Tagen werde ich sprechen über die Bedeutung derjenigen Festtage, die sich im Kirchenjahr an Weihnachten anschließen; vor allen Dingen über das minder bedeutende Fest Neujahr und das bedeutsame Fest der Epiphanie [werde ich sprechen], also über die Feste, welche sich an das Weihnachtsfest anschließen. Heute will ich also einen mehr abschlieBenden Vortrag halten.
Sie könnten die Frage stellen: Worin besteht die tiefere Bedeutung solcher geheimwissenschaftlicher Vereinigungen und deren ganzer Zweck in bezug auf die Weltentwickelung? Wenn ich darauf antworten soll, so wäre es das, daß sie zusammenhängen mit der ganzen Art und Weise, wie die Wesen überhaupt sich entwickeln, wie die Wesen in der Welt einen Fortschritt machen. Wenn Sie sich entwickeln wollen, so wissen Sie, daß dazu verschiedene Übungen nötig und vorhanden sind. Sie haben gehört von Hathajoga, von Rajajoga und anderen Übungen; Sie haben gehört von verschiedenen geheimwissenschaftlichen Verbindungen, die auf die verschiedenste Weise ihre Leute eingeweiht haben und so weiter.
Dies alles, so könnte jemand sagen, wäre doch auch zu erreichen ohne solche geheime Verbindungen. Nun aber kann ich Ihnen darauf erwidern - und Sie werden im Laufe der Stunde einsehen, daß das so ist —, daß es ohne solche Verbindungen in der Welt nicht abgehen kann. Aber es ist unmöglich - um es geradeheraus zu sagen - in dem Stile, wie zum Beispiel das Manifest der Freimaurer gehalten ist, das ich Ihnen vor vierzehn Tagen vorgelesen habe, in der Öffentlichkeit zu sprechen.
Man kann zu dem, was man gewöhnlich unter Unsterblichkeit versteht, nicht gelangen, ohne Anteil zu nehmen an den Geheimwissenschaften. Allerdings, die Ergebnisse der Geheimwissenschaften dringen in der verschiedensten Weise in die Welt hinaus. In den Religionen ist ein großer Teil des Geheimwissens vorhanden, und alle diejenigen, welche in einer Religionsgemeinschaft mit innerer Anteilnahme leben, nehmen auch teil an diesem Wissen und bereiten sich vor, der vollen Unsterblichkeit teilhaftig zu werden. Aber es ist noch etwas anderes, sich im konkreten Erleben mit vollem Bewußtsein das Wissen dieser Unsterblichkeit und das Gefühl der Zusammengehörigkeit mit der geistigen Welt zu erhalten.
Sie alle haben schon sehr oft gelebt; aber nicht alle haben ein Bewußtsein davon, daß sie so und so oft gelebt haben. Dieses Bewußtsein werden Sie sich nach und nach erringen, und es hängt davon ab, ob man sein Leben mit vollem Bewußtsein führt. Nicht das war der Sinn des Geheimwissens, den Menschen ein dumpfes Fortleben, sondern ein volles, klares, von Bewußtsein erfülltes Fortleben im Geist als Erkenntnis zu vermitteln. Und da gibt es ein großes Gesetz, nämlich ein Gesetz, das besagt, wovon das Fortschreiten des Bewußtseins in allen künftigen Lebensstadien abhängt. Es trägt nämlich alles dasjenige zur Entwickelung des Bewußtseins bei, was der Mensch nicht für sich selbst allein zur Erlangung dieses Bewußtseins leistet. Es ist dies scheinbar ein paradoxer Satz: Alles dasjenige trägt zur Erhaltung [Entwickelung ?] des Bewußtseins eines Wesens bei, was dieses Wesen leistet, ohne daß das Wesen es abgesehen hat auf die Entwickelung des eigenen Bewußtseins.
Denken Sie sich zum Beispiel einmal, ein Baumeister baut ein Haus. Er baut dieses Haus nicht für sich, sondern er stellt sich die Aufgabe, dieses Haus zu bauen aus einem Grunde, der gar nichts mit ihm selbst zu tun hat. Daß das in den seltensten Fällen der Fall ist, wissen Sie. Scheinbar arbeiten sehr viele Menschen nicht für sich; aber in Wirklichkeit arbeiten sie doch für sich.
Nehmen Sie einen Rechtsanwalt. Scheinbar arbeitet er für seine Klienten. Ein Teil seiner Arbeit wird selbstlos sein können; aber der eigentliche Grundnerv der Sache liegt in der Erlangung des Lebensunterhaltes. Soviel nämlich bei seiner ganzen Geschäftsführung lediglich bestimmt ist für seinen eigenen Lebensunterhalt, so viel wie ein Geschäft nur das Mittel ist zu dem Zwecke, das Leben zu erhalten, so viel geht unweigerlich als geistiger Gewinn verloren. Dagegen trägt alles dasjenige, was hineingebaut wird in die Objektivität, was verknüpft wird mit einem anderen, dazu bei, unser Bewußtsein in der künftigen Entwickelung zu erhalten. So ist das wohl klar.
Nehmen Sie nun die Freimaurer. In der ursprünglichen Anlage haben sie gerade den Leuten das eingeschärft: Baut solche Gebäude, die gar nichts beitragen, gar nichts zu tun haben mit dem eigenen Unterhalt. - Dasjenige, was bis zuletzt noch geblieben ist von der alten guten Freimaurerei, das sind gewisse Wohltätigkeitsanstalten. Es zeigt sich auch jetzt - nachdem das geheime Wissen, das lebendige Verwurzeltsein in der uralten Weisheit, den Logen abhanden gekommen ist - an den noch erhaltenen Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen eine wenn auch leere, so doch durch die Tradition noch vorhandene und weitergepflegte Humanität. Das ist aber etwas, was zur Freimaurerei gehört hat: selbstlos tätig sein! Was die Freimaurerei ursprünglich getan hat, war, daß sie ihre Mitglieder angehalten hat, zu arbeiten im Dienste der Menschheit, hineinzubauen in die objektive Welt.
Wir leben jetzt in derjenigen Runde, die wir die mineralische nennen können. Und unsere Aufgabe darin ist, diese ganze mineralische Welt durch und durch mit unserem eigenen Geist zu durchsetzen. Fassen Sie das einmal genauer. Sie bauen ein Haus. Sie nehmen die Bausteine von irgendeinem Steinbruch. Sie hauen sie so zu, daß sie in das Haus hineinpassen und so weiter. Was verbinden Sie mit dem rohen Stoff, den Sie aus dem Mineralreich herausnehmen? Sie verbinden den rohen Stoff mit dem menschlichen Geist. Wenn Sie eine Maschine bauen, so haben Sie Ihren Geist in,die Maschine hineingelegt. Die einzelne Maschine geht zwar zugrunde, sie wird zu Staub, sie wird einmal zermalmt sein. Keine Spur wird mehr davon vorhanden sein. Aber das, was sie geleistet hat, geht nicht spurlos vorüber, sondern geht bis in die Atome hinein. Jedes Atom trägt eine Spur Ihres Geistes und wird diese Spur forttragen. Es ist nicht gleichgültig, ob ein Atom einmal in einer Maschine darinnen gewesen ist oder nicht. Dadurch, daß ein Atom in der Maschine darinnen gewesen ist, ist das Atom verändert worden. Und diese Veränderung, die Sie dem Atom dadurch beigebracht haben, geht ihm nie wieder verloren. Das andere ist, daß Sie dadurch, daß Sie das Atom verändert haben, Ihren Geist mit der mineralischen Welt verbunden haben, daß Sie dadurch dem allgemeinen Bewußtsein einen bleibenden Stempel aufgedrückt haben. Geradesoviel wird von uns mit hineingenommen in die andere Welt.
Es ist also so, daß alle Geheimwissenschaft aus der Erkenntnis besteht, wie man außer sich selbst selbstlos handeln muß, um in sich selbst die größte Erhöhung seines Bewußtseins zu haben. Bedenken Sie, daß diejenigen, welche das sehr klar wußten, so weit selbstlos waren, daß sie dafür gesorgt haben, daß ihr Name nicht auf die Nachwelt gekommen ist. Ein Beispiel dafür ist die «Theologia deutsch». Niemand weiß, wer sie geschrieben hat. Außen steht nur darauf: «Der Frankfurter.» Der sorgte also dafür, daß auch nicht einmal sein Name erraten werden konnte. Er hat so gearbeitet, daß er lediglich in die objektive Welt etwas hineingefügt hat, ohne selbst auf Ehre oder auf die Erhaltung des Namens irgendwelchen Anspruch zu erheben. Um dies mit etwas anderem zu vergleichen, sei erwähnt: Die Meister sind in der Regel nicht gerade historische Persönlichkeiten, sie inkarnieren [inkorporisieren] sich manchmal, wenn es notwendig ist, in historische Persönlichkeiten; aber es ist bis zu einem gewissen Grade ein Opfer. Der Grad ihres Bewußtseins ist nicht mehr vereinbar mit einem Wirken für sich selbst. Und ein Wirken für sich selbst ist schon die Erhaltung des bloßen Namens.
Diese Regel ist eine schwierig einzusehende. Aber Sie werden es nun begreifen, daß die Freimaurer darauf hinzielen, möglichst viel in der Welt so zu tun, daß ihre Taten eingegraben sind in den großen Domen, in gesellschaftlichen Einrichtungen und Organisationen, oder daß ihre Taten da sind in Wohltätigkeitsanstalten. Denn die selbstlosen Taten sind die eigentlichen Begründer der Unsterblichkeit: Diese ist der Reflex der selbstlosen Taten in der Außenwelt. Es brauchen keine sehr großen Taten zu sein. Wenn jemand in selbstloser Weise jemandem einen Pfennig schenkt, so ist das eine Tat, die in derselben Weise aufzufassen ist. Aber es kommt nur soviel in die Unsterblichkeit hinüber, als Selbstlosigkeit dabei ist. Und die wenigsten sind selbstlos. Wenn es einem zum Beispiel ein Wohlgefühl verschafft, so kann das Wohltun sehr egoistisch sein. Das Wohltun entspringt häufig den selbstischen Interessen. Wenn ein Armer, der unter uns wohnt, keinen Braten zur Weihnachtszeit hat, und ich fühle das Bedürfnis, ihm auch etwas zu geben, damit ich mich bei meinem Braten gerechtfertigt fühle, so ist das eben egoistisch.
Im Mittelalter konnte man von vielen Domen und Bildern nicht sagen, dieser oder jener hat sie gebaut oder gemalt. Erst in unserer Unterrasse fängt man an, einen so großen Wert mit einem einzelnen menschlichen Namen zu verbinden. Die früheren Zeiten haben einen geringeren Wert auf die einzelnen menschlichen Namen gelegt. Die Zeiten waren noch spiritueller. Und die Spiritualität ist auf die Wirklichkeit gerichtet, während unsere Zeit auf den Schein gerichtet ist, das unmittelbar Zeitliche erhalten wissen will.
Damit wollte ich Ihnen nur zeigen, worauf es solchen Geheimgesellschaften ankam. Es kam ihnen darauf an, sich selbst, soweit sie Persönlichkeiten waren, vollständig auszuschalten, und das, was sie taten, in der Wirkung ausleben zu lassen. Und nun werden Sie auch den Kernpunkt des Geheimnisses erkennen. Es handelt sich viel weniger darum, daß irgend etwas geheimgehalten wird; es handelt sich darum, seinen Anteil geheimzuhalten. Dadurch, daß jemand seinen Anteil geheimhält, sichert er sich die Unsterblichkeit. Die Regel heißt also klar und deutlich: So viel du selbst in die Welt hineinlegst, so viel gibt dir die Welt an Bewußtsein wieder zurück. — Das hängt mit den allergrößten Weltgesetzen zusammen.
Sie alle haben eine Seele und Sie alle haben einen Geist. Diese Seele und dieser Geist sind einmal zu den höchsten Vollendungsstufen berufen. Aber Sie waren auch schon da, bevor Ihr physischer Körper da war; ja, Sie waren da, bevor Sie in der ersten physischen Inkarnation vorhanden waren. In physischer Inkarnation waren Sie in den vorhergehenden Rassen erst zur Zeit der hyperboräischen und polarischen Rasse vorhanden. Vorher aber waren Sie rein seelische Wesen. Und als seelische Wesen waren Sie ein Teil der Weltenseele, und als Geist waren Sie ein Teil des allgemeinen Weltengeistes. Der Weltengeist und die Weltenseele waren um Sie ausgebreitet, so wie jetzt die Natur. So wie jetzt die Mineralwelt, die Pflanzenwelt, die Tierwelt um Sie herum sind, so war um Sie herum die Seelenwelt und die Geisteswelt ausgebreitet. Und was dazumal draußen war, das ist jetzt Ihre Seele: Sie haben das, was zuerst äußerlich war, verinnerlicht. Was heute Ihr Inneres ist, das war einmal draußen ausgebreitet. Das ist aber jetzt Ihre innere Seele geworden. Und einmal war auch der Geist so ausgebreitet. Und das, was jetzt um Sie herum ausgebreitet ist, das wird Ihr inneres Leben werden. Das, was heute Mineralreich ist, das saugen Sie auf, und es wird Ihr Inneres werden. Das Pflanzenreich wird Ihr Inneres werden; das saugen Sie auf. Sie erscheinen mit dem, was in der Natur Sie umgibt, als mit Ihrem Inneren,
Nun werden Sie begreifen, wie das mit dem ersten Beispiel zusammenhängt: Sie bauen die Kirche für andere, nicht für sich selbst. Sie können eine große, schöne und herrliche Welt aufsaugen, wenn Sie sie groß, schön und herrlich machen. Etwas für das höhere Selbst zu tun, ist nicht selbstisch, weil man es nicht bloß für sich tut. Dieses höhere Selbst wird ja vereinigt sein mit allen übrigen höheren Selbsten, so daß es gleichzeitig für alle ist.
Das ist es, was die Freimaurer wußten. Der Freimaurer wußte, wenn er mitbaute an der Vergeistigung der mineralischen Welt - und «bauen» heißt nichts anderes als die mineralische Welt vergeistigen -, daß dies einstmals der Inhalt seiner Seele sein wird. Das ist das Bedeutsame: Gott hat uns einstmals die Natur gemacht, die uns umgibt als mineralische, pflanzliche und tierische Natur. Diese werden wir aufnehmen. Wir können nichts dafür, daß sie da ist, wir können sie uns nur aneignen. Aber was wir selbst in der Welt verfertigen, das ist das, was durch uns selbst unser künftiges Sein darstellen wird.
Die mineralische Welt als solche nehmen wir wahr; was wir aus ihr machen, das werden wir künftig sein. Was wir aus der Pflanzenwelt machen, das werden wir künftig ebenfalls sein. Ebenso ist es mit der Tierwelt und ebenso mit der Menschenwelt. Gründen Sie eine Wohltätigkeitsanstalt oder tragen Sie etwas dazu bei, so werden Sie das, was Sie dazu beitragen, sein. Tut der Mensch nichts, was er auf diese Weise in seine Seele von außen wieder einsaugen könnte, so bleibt sie leer. Daher muß in der Menschheit die Möglichkeit da sein, daß so viel wie nur möglich die drei Reiche oder die vier Reiche der Natur — denn der Mensch gehört auch dazu — durchgeistigt werden. Das ist die Aufgabe der Geheimgesellschaften aller Zeiten gewesen: Geist in alle Außenwelt zu bringen.
Sie begreifen, daß das so sein muß. Nehmen Sie ein Kind, das beginnt lesen und schreiben zu lernen. Die Gerätschaften sind zunächst um das Kind ausgebreitet. Heute beginnt das Kind lesen zu lernen. In ihm ist noch nichts da, doch der Lehrer, die Fibel und alles sonstige ist da. Nun geht das so fort, bis das, was außen war, in das Kind hineinkommt. Und das Kind bekommt die Fähigkeit, zu lesen. So ist es auch mit der Natur. Wir werden das, was in der Natur um uns herum ausgebreitet ist, später in uns haben. Wir sind Seelen, stammen von der Weltenseele und haben sie, als sie um uns herum ausgebreitet war, eingesogen. Der Geist ist auch so eingesogen worden, und die Natur wird von uns ebenso eingesaugt werden, um als wirkende Fähigkeit in uns zu bleiben.
Das ist der große Gedanke, der den Geheimgesellschaften zugrunde liegt, daß alles Fortschreiten auf Involution und Evolution beruht. Involution ist das Einsaugen, Evolution ist das Ausgeben. Zwischen diesen beiden wechseln alle Weltenzustände. Jetzt atmen Sie die Natur ein, indem Sie sie sehen, hören, riechen, schmecken. Was Sie sehen, geht nicht spurlos an Ihnen vorüber. Das Auge geht zugrunde, der Gegenstand geht zugrunde; aber das, was Sie gesehen haben, bleibt. Jetzt werden Sie verstehen, daß in gewissen Zeiten es notwendig sein kann, daß ein Verständnis für solche Dinge vorhanden ist. Wir gehen einer Zeit entgegen, in der, wie ich neulich schon andeutete, das Verständnis bis ins Atom hinein kommen wird. Man wird begreifen - auch in der populären Meinung -, daß das Atom nichts anderes ist als geronnene Elektrizität. Der Gedanke selbst ist aus derselben Substanz.
Man wird in der Tat so weit kommen, noch ehe die fünfte Untertasse zu Ende geht, daß man imstande sein wird, bis ins Atom hineinzuwirken. Wenn man nur erst die Stofflichkeit zwischen dem Gedanken und dem Atom begreifen kann, so wird man auch bald das Hineinwirken ins Atom verstehen. Und nichts wird mehr für gewisse Wirkungsarten verschlossen sein: Ich werde hier stehen und unbemerkt auf einen Knopf, den ich in der Tasche trage, drücken können, um einen Gegenstand in weiter Ferne, sagen wir in Hamburg, in die Luft zu sprengen, so wie Sie jetzt schon drahtlos telegraphieren können, indem Sie hier eine Wellenbewegung hervorbringen und sie an einer anderen bestimmten Stelle in bestimmter Weise zum Ausdruck bringen können. Das wird in dem Momente eintreten können, wo die okkulte Wahrheit, daß Gedanke und Atom aus derselben Substanz bestehen, im praktischen Leben durchgeführt sein wird.
Es ist unmöglich, sich auszudenken, was in einem solchen Falle geschehen würde, wenn die Menschheit dann nicht bis zur Selbstlosigkeit gelangt wäre. Nur durch das Erringen der Selbstlosigkeit wird es möglich sein, die Menschheit vom Rande des Verderbens zurückzuhalten. Der Untergang unserer gegenwärtigen Wurzelrasse wird herbeigeführt werden durch den Mangel an Moralität. Die lemutische Rasse ist durch Feuer zugrunde gegangen, die atlantische durch Wasser; unsere wird zugrunde gehen durch den Krieg aller gegen alle, das Böse, durch den Kampf der Menschen untereinander. Die Menschen werden sich selbst im gegenseitigen Kampf vernichten. Und es wird das Trostlose sein - trostloser als andere Untergangsarten -, daß die Menschen selbst die Schuld daran tragen werden.
Ein kleines Häuflein wird sich hinüberretten in die sechste Wurzelrasse. Dieses kleine Häuflein wird zur vollständigen Selbstlosigkeit sich entwickelt haben. Die anderen werden alles Raffinement in der Durcharbeitung und Dienstbarmachung der physischen Naturkräfte anwenden, aber ohne den nötigen Grad der Selbstlosigkeit erlangt zu haben. Sie werden den Kampf aller gegen alle inaugurieren, und das bildet den Grund des Untergangs unserer Wurzelrasse.
Namentlich in der siebenten Unterrasse wird dieser Kampf aller gegen alle sich in der furchtbarsten Weise austoben. Starke, gewaltige Kräfte werden ausgehen von Entdeckungen, die den ganzen Erdball zu einer Art selbstfunktionierendem elektrischem Apparat umgestalten werden. Auf eine Weise, über die nicht gesprochen werden kann, wird das kleine Häuflein geschützt werden.
Jetzt werden Sie sich noch klarer vorstellen können, als wie es nach dem, was ich das letzte Mal darüber habe aussprechen können, der Fall war, warum gesucht wird die gute Form und wieso das Freimaurertum zu dem Bewußtsein kommt, einen Bau aufführen zu müssen, der der Selbstlosigkeit entspricht. Leichter kann man sich mit guten alten Formen in die Zukunft hinüberretten, hinüberretten zu dem kleinen Häuflein der neuen Menschheit, als aus dem Chaos heraus.
Man kann heute leicht spotten über die leeren Formen, aber sie haben doch eine große Bedeutung. Sie sind angepaßt der Struktur unserer Entwickelung. Zuletzt haben wir es dabei doch zu tun mit notwendigen Stufen in der menschlichen Natur und der seelischen Fortentwickelung. Bedenken Sie: Wir sind in der fünften Unterrasse der fünften Wurzelrasse; noch zwei Unterrassen der fünften Wurzelrasse haben wir durchzumachen. Dann kommen sieben Unterrassen der sechsten Wurzelrasse und sieben Unterrassen der siebenten Wurzelrasse, die wir noch durchzumachen haben. Das gibt zusammen sechzehn Stufen künftiger Entwickelung. Diese sechzehn Stufen haben die Menschen noch zu durchlaufen. Derjenige, der noch etwas erfährt über die Zustände, die da möglich sind, ist in gewissem Grade eingeweiht. Die Grade entsprechen in gewisser Weise den Geheimnissen zukünftiger Rassen.
Auf unserem Globus haben Sie sieben Wurzelrassen, und jede Wurzelrasse hat sieben Unterrassen. Das macht also zusammen neunundvierzig Zustände. Auf dem nächsten Globus haben Sie wieder neunundvierzig Zustände. So bekommen Sie für die Erforschung der Geheimnisse der nächsten Entwickelungsphasen bestimmte Stufen. Nichts anderes sollten die Hochgrade der Freimaurerei ursprünglich sein als ein Ausdruck für je eine künftige Entwickelungsstufe der Menschheit. Damit ist tatsächlich etwas gegeben in der Freimaurerei, was sehr schön gewesen ist, nämlich, daß derjenige, der einen Grad erreicht hatte, wußte, wie er sich hineinzustellen hat in die Zukunft, so daß er eine Art Pionier sein konnte. Er wußte auch, daß der, welcher höhere Grade hatte, mehr wirken kann. Man kann also diese Einteilung nach Graden sehr gut machen, denn sie entspricht den Tatsachen.
Wenn also in diese Formen wieder ein neuer Inhalt mit einem neuen Wissen hineingegossen werden könnte, so wäre das sehr gut. Dann würde die Freimaurerei auch wieder durchdrungen werden von wirklichem Geist. Zum Ganzen gehört aber Inhalt und Form. Heute liegt die Sache aber so, wie ich gesagt habe: Die Grade sind da, aber niemand hat die Grade wirklich erlangt. Trotzdem ist es nicht unnötig, daß sie da sind. Sie werden künftig wieder belebt werden.
Die fünfte Unterrasse ist eine reine Verstandesrasse, eine Rasse des Egoismus. Wir sind jetzt auf dem Höhepunkt des Egoismus. Der Verstand ist das Egoistischste, und der Verstand ist das Grundmerkmal unserer Unterrasse. Wir müssen also durch den Verstand emporsteigen zur Spiritualität, die früher dagewesen ist ... [Lücke].
Das Geheimnis des Geheimnisses also ist, daß der Mensch sein Ego geheimzuhalten versteht, daß er nicht sein Ego, sondern seine Taten als das Maßgebende betrachtet. Sein Tun und die Überwindung des Ego durch die Tat, das ist das eigentliche Geheimnis des Geheimnisses. Das Ego soll geheimbleiben in der Tat. Das gehört zum ersten Grad: die Ausmerzung des Ego aus dem fortlaufenden Karma. Dasjenige, was vom Karma auf das Ego zurückfällt, wird dadurch vom Karma ausgelöscht. Nation, Rasse, Geschlecht, Stand, Religionsbekenntnis, alle diese Dinge sind etwas, was arbeitet an dem menschlichen Egoismus. Erst wenn der Mensch alle diese Dinge überwunden hat, wird er egoismusfrei werden können.
In dem Astralkörper können Sie eine ganz bestimmte Farbe nachweisen für jede Nation, für jede Rasse, für jedes Zeitalter. Überall finden Sie da eine Grundfarbe, die der Mensch als Angehöriger dieser Einteilung, dieser Differenzierungen hat. Diese gilt es erst abzustreifen. Die Theosophische Gesellschaft arbeitet an dem Ausgleich der Farben der Astralleiber ihrer Mitglieder. Sie sollen gleichfarbig werden, gleichfarbig in bezug auf diese Grundfarbe. Diese Grundfarbe bildet ein bestimmter Stoff ... [Lücke].
Um diesen Ausgleich herzustellen, dazu werden tatsächlich blutige Kriege gehören, dann solche, die sich als volkswirtschaftliche Kriege abspielen, als Ausbeutungskriege, als Geld- und Industrieunternehmungen, als Überwältigungen, wobei man immer mehr und mehr imstande sein wird, tatsächlich durch bestimmte Vorrichtungen Menschenmassen in Bewegung zu setzen, sie einfach zu zwingen. Der Einzelne wird mehr und mehr Macht bekommen über bestimmte Menschenmassen. Denn der Gang der Entwickelung ist nicht der, daß wir demokratischer werden, sondern daß wir brutal aristokratisch werden, indem der Einzelne immer mehr Macht gewinnen wird. Wenn da nicht die Veredlung der Sitten stattfindet, so muß das zu den brutalsten Dingen führen. Das wird auch kommen, so wie die Wasserkatastrophe für die Atlantier gekommen ist.
10. The Idea of Evolution and Involution Underlying Secret Societies
I have spoken in a series of lectures about secret schools and secret societies, and it now seems appropriate to conclude this cycle of lectures on secret scientific associations before moving on to something else. In eight days, I will speak about the significance of the holidays that follow Christmas in the church year; above all, I will speak about the less significant holiday of New Year's Day and the significant holiday of Epiphany, that is, the holidays that follow Christmas. Today, I would like to give a more concluding lecture.
You might ask: What is the deeper meaning of such secret scientific societies and their whole purpose in relation to world development? If I were to answer that, it would be that they are connected with the whole way in which beings develop in general, how beings make progress in the world. If you want to develop yourselves, you know that various exercises are necessary and available for this purpose. You have heard of Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, and other exercises; you have heard of various secret scientific societies that have initiated their members in various ways, and so on.
One might say that all this could also be achieved without such secret societies. But I can reply to that – and you will see in the course of this lecture that this is so – that without such societies, it cannot work in the world. But it is impossible — to put it bluntly — to speak in public in the style of, for example, the Masonic Manifesto that I read to you two weeks ago.
One cannot attain what is commonly understood as immortality without participating in the secret sciences. However, the results of the secret sciences penetrate the world in various ways. A large part of secret knowledge is present in religions, and all those who live in a religious community with inner participation also share in this knowledge and prepare themselves to participate in full immortality. But it is something else to maintain the knowledge of this immortality and the feeling of belonging to the spiritual world with full consciousness in concrete experience.
You have all lived many times before, but not all of you are aware that you have lived so many times. You will gradually gain this awareness, and it depends on whether you live your life with full consciousness. That was not the purpose of the secret knowledge, to give people a dull continuation of life, but to impart a full, clear, conscious continuation of life in the spirit as knowledge. And there is a great law, namely a law that states what the progress of consciousness in all future stages of life depends on. For everything that contributes to the development of consciousness is that which man does not achieve for himself alone in order to attain this consciousness. This is apparently a paradoxical statement: everything that a being accomplishes without intending to develop its own consciousness contributes to the preservation [development?] of that being's consciousness.
Consider, for example, a builder constructing a house. He does not build this house for himself, but sets himself the task of building this house for a reason that has nothing to do with himself. You know that this is rarely the case. Apparently, many people do not work for themselves, but in reality they do.
Take a lawyer, for example. He appears to work for his clients. Part of his work may be selfless, but the real motive behind it is to earn a living. For the extent to which his entire business is solely determined by his own livelihood, to the extent that a business is merely a means to the end of sustaining life, that much is inevitably lost as spiritual gain. On the other hand, everything that is built into objectivity, everything that is linked to something else, contributes to preserving our consciousness in future development. That is clear.
Take the Freemasons, for example. In their original form, they impressed upon people: Build buildings that contribute nothing, that have nothing to do with your own livelihood. What remains of the old, good Freemasonry are certain charitable institutions. Even now, after the secret knowledge and the living roots in ancient wisdom have been lost to the lodges, the remaining welfare institutions show a humanity that, although empty, still exists and is maintained through tradition. But that is something that belonged to Freemasonry: selfless activity! What Freemasonry originally did was to encourage its members to work in the service of humanity, to build into the objective world.
We now live in what we might call the mineral cycle. And our task in it is to permeate this entire mineral world through and through with our own spirit. Let's look at this more closely. You build a house. You take the building blocks from some quarry. You cut them so that they fit into the house, and so on. What do you connect with the raw material you take from the mineral kingdom? You connect the raw material with the human spirit. When you build a machine, you put your spirit into the machine. The individual machine may perish, it may turn to dust, it may one day be crushed. No trace of it will remain. But what it has accomplished does not pass without a trace, but goes right down to the atoms. Every atom bears a trace of your mind and will carry this trace away with it. It is not irrelevant whether an atom has once been in a machine or not. By being inside the machine, the atom has been changed. And this change, which you have imparted to the atom, will never be lost. The other thing is that by changing the atom, you have connected your spirit with the mineral world, that you have left a lasting mark on the general consciousness. This is exactly what we take with us into the other world.
It is therefore the case that all secret science consists of the knowledge of how one must act selflessly outside of oneself in order to achieve the greatest elevation of consciousness within oneself. Consider that those who knew this very clearly were so selfless that they ensured that their names would not be passed on to posterity. An example of this is the “Theologia germanica.” No one knows who wrote it. On the outside it simply says: “Der Frankfurter” (The Frankfurt Man). He therefore ensured that not even his name could be guessed. He worked in such a way that he merely added something to the objective world without claiming any honor or preservation of his name. To compare this with something else, it should be mentioned that masters are not usually historical figures; they sometimes incarnate themselves in historical figures when necessary, but this is to a certain extent a sacrifice. The degree of their consciousness is no longer compatible with working for themselves. And working for oneself is already the preservation of one's mere name.
This rule is difficult to understand. But you will now understand that Freemasons aim to do as much as possible in the world in such a way that their deeds are engraved in the great cathedrals, in social institutions and organizations, or that their deeds are present in charitable institutions. For selfless deeds are the true founders of immortality: this is the reflection of selfless deeds in the outside world. They need not be very great deeds. If someone selflessly gives someone else a penny, that is a deed that should be understood in the same way. But only as much passes into immortality as there is selflessness in it. And very few people are selfless. If, for example, it gives you a good feeling, then doing good can be very selfish. Doing good often springs from selfish interests. If a poor man who lives among us has no roast for Christmas, and I feel the need to give him something so that I can feel justified in eating my roast, then that is selfish.
In the Middle Ages, it was impossible to say who had built or painted many cathedrals and paintings. It is only in our sub-race that we have begun to attach such great value to a single human name. In earlier times, less importance was attached to individual human names. Those times were more spiritual. And spirituality is directed toward reality, while our time is directed toward appearances, which wants to preserve the immediate temporal.
I just wanted to show you what was important to such secret societies. It was important to them to completely eliminate themselves, insofar as they were personalities, and to let what they did live on in its effects. And now you will also recognize the crux of the secret. It is much less a matter of keeping something secret; it is a matter of keeping one's share secret. By keeping one's part secret, one secures one's immortality. The rule is therefore clear and unambiguous: as much as you put into the world, the world will give back to you in consciousness. This is connected with the greatest laws of the universe.
You all have a soul and you all have a spirit. This soul and this spirit are destined to reach the highest stages of perfection. But you were already there before your physical body was there; indeed, you were there before you existed in your first physical incarnation. In physical incarnation, you only existed in the previous races at the time of the Hyperborean and Polar races. Before that, however, you were purely soul beings. And as soul beings, you were part of the world soul, and as spirits, you were part of the universal world spirit. The world spirit and the world soul were spread out around you, just as nature is now. Just as the mineral world, the plant world, and the animal world are now around you, so the soul world and the spirit world were spread out around you. And what was outside at that time is now your soul: you have internalized what was first external. What is inside you today was once spread out outside. But that has now become your inner soul. And once upon a time, the spirit was also spread out like this. And what is now spread out around you will become your inner life. What is now the mineral kingdom, you absorb, and it will become your inner being. The plant kingdom will become your inner being; you absorb it. You appear with what surrounds you in nature as with your inner being.
Now you will understand how this relates to the first example: you build the church for others, not for yourself. You can absorb a large, beautiful, and glorious world if you make it large, beautiful, and glorious. Doing something for the higher self is not selfish because you are not doing it just for yourself. This higher self will be united with all other higher selves, so that it is for everyone at the same time.
This is what the Freemasons knew. The Freemason knew that when he helped to build the spiritualization of the mineral world—and “building” means nothing other than spiritualizing the mineral world—that this would one day be the content of his soul. That is what is significant: God once created nature for us, which surrounds us as mineral, plant, and animal nature. We will take this in. We cannot help that it is there; we can only make it our own. But what we ourselves create in the world is what will constitute our future being through ourselves.
We perceive the mineral world as such; what we make of it will be what we become in the future. What we make of the plant world will also be what we become in the future. The same is true of the animal world and of the human world. If you establish a charitable institution or contribute to one, you will become what you contribute. If human beings do nothing that they can absorb into their souls from outside in this way, their souls remain empty. Therefore, it must be possible for humanity to spiritualize as much as possible the three or four kingdoms of nature, for human beings are also part of nature. This has been the task of secret societies throughout the ages: to bring spirit into the entire external world.
You understand that this must be so. Take a child who is beginning to learn to read and write. At first, the tools are spread out around the child. Today, the child begins to learn to read. There is nothing yet within the child, but the teacher, the primer, and everything else is there. This continues until what was outside enters the child. And the child acquires the ability to read. It is the same with nature. What is spread out around us in nature will later be within us. We are souls, we originate from the world soul and absorbed it when it was spread out around us. The spirit was also absorbed in this way, and nature will be absorbed by us in the same way in order to remain within us as an active ability.
This is the great idea underlying secret societies, that all progress is based on involution and evolution. Involution is absorption, evolution is expenditure. All states of the world alternate between these two. Now you breathe in nature by seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting it. What you see does not pass you by without a trace. The eye perishes, the object perishes; but what you have seen remains. Now you will understand that at certain times it may be necessary to have an understanding of such things. We are moving toward a time when, as I recently indicated, understanding will penetrate into the atom itself. People will understand—even in popular opinion—that the atom is nothing more than coagulated electricity. The thought itself is made of the same substance.
In fact, before the fifth saucer comes to an end, we will have progressed so far that we will be able to influence the atom. Once we can understand the materiality between the thought and the atom, we will soon understand how to influence the atom. And nothing will be closed to certain kinds of action: I will be able to stand here and, unnoticed, press a button in my pocket to blow up an object far away, say in Hamburg, just as you can now send a telegraph without wires by producing a wave movement here and expressing it in a certain way at another specific point. This will be possible at the moment when the occult truth that thought and atoms consist of the same substance is realized in practical life.
It is impossible to imagine what would happen in such a case if humanity had not then attained selflessness. Only by achieving selflessness will it be possible to hold humanity back from the brink of destruction. The downfall of our present root race will be brought about by a lack of morality. The Lemutian race was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; ours will be destroyed by war of all against all, by evil, by the struggle of men against each other. Men will destroy themselves in mutual combat. And it will be desolate—more desolate than other kinds of destruction—because men themselves will be to blame.
A small group will survive into the sixth root race. This small group will have developed complete selflessness. The others will apply all their ingenuity to working out and harnessing the physical forces of nature, but without having attained the necessary degree of selflessness. They will inaugurate the struggle of all against all, and this will be the cause of the downfall of our root race.
In the seventh sub-race in particular, this struggle of all against all will rage in the most terrible manner. Strong, powerful forces will emanate from discoveries that will transform the entire globe into a kind of self-functioning electrical apparatus. In a way that cannot be spoken of, the small group will be protected.
Now you will be able to imagine even more clearly than was the case after what I was able to say about this last time why the good form is being sought and why Freemasonry is coming to the realization that it must erect a structure that corresponds to selflessness. It is easier to carry ourselves into the future with good old forms, to carry ourselves over to the small group of the new humanity, than to carry ourselves out of chaos.
Today it is easy to mock empty forms, but they have great significance. They are adapted to the structure of our development. Ultimately, we are dealing with necessary stages in human nature and spiritual evolution. Consider this: we are in the fifth sub-race of the fifth root race; we still have two sub-races of the fifth root race to go through. Then come seven sub-races of the sixth root race and seven sub-races of the seventh root race, which we still have to go through. That makes a total of sixteen stages of future development. Human beings still have to go through these sixteen stages. Anyone who learns something about the states that are possible there is, to a certain degree, initiated. The degrees correspond in a certain way to the secrets of future races.
On our globe, you have seven root races, and each root race has seven sub-races. That makes a total of forty-nine states. On the next globe, you have another forty-nine states. This gives you certain stages for exploring the secrets of the next phases of development. The high degrees of Freemasonry were originally intended to be nothing more than an expression of each future stage of human development. This means that there is indeed something in Freemasonry that has been very beautiful, namely that those who had attained a degree knew how to position themselves in the future so that they could be pioneers of sorts. They also knew that those who had attained higher degrees could have a greater impact. This division into degrees is therefore very useful, because it corresponds to reality.
So if new content with new knowledge could be poured into these forms, that would be very good. Then Freemasonry would once again be imbued with real spirit. But content and form belong together. Today, however, the situation is as I have described: the degrees are there, but no one has really attained them. Nevertheless, it is not unnecessary that they exist. They will be revived in the future.
The fifth subrace is a purely intellectual race, a race of egoism. We are now at the height of egoism. The intellect is the most egoistic thing, and the intellect is the basic characteristic of our subrace. We must therefore rise through the intellect to the spirituality that existed in the past ... [gap].
The secret of the secret is that human beings know how to keep their ego secret, that they do not regard their ego but their deeds as the decisive factor. Their actions and the overcoming of the ego through action are the real secret of the secret. The ego should remain secret in action. This belongs to the first degree: the eradication of the ego from ongoing karma. That which falls back on the ego from karma is thereby eradicated from karma. Nation, race, gender, class, religious affiliation—all these things are something that works on human egoism. Only when human beings have overcome all these things will they be able to become free of egoism.
In the astral body, you can detect a very specific color for every nation, for every race, for every age. Everywhere you find a basic color that humans have as members of this classification, these differentiations. These must first be stripped away. The Theosophical Society works to balance the colors of the astral bodies of its members. They should become the same color, the same color in relation to this basic color. This basic color forms a certain substance ... [gap].
In order to achieve this balance, bloody wars will indeed be necessary, followed by wars that take the form of economic wars, wars of exploitation, monetary and industrial ventures, and acts of domination, whereby it will become increasingly possible to set masses of people in motion and simply force them to act through certain mechanisms. The individual will gain more and more power over certain masses of people. For the course of development is not that we become more democratic, but that we become brutally aristocratic, with the individual gaining more and more power. If there is no refinement of morals, this must lead to the most brutal things. This will also come, just as the water catastrophe came for the Atlanteans.