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Esoteric Development
GA 53

16 March 1905, Berlin

Translator Unknown, revised

VII. The Great Initiates

It may well be said that the anthroposophical conception of the world is distinguished from any other we may meet because it can satisfy to such a great extent the desire for knowledge. In the present time we so often hear that it is impossible to gain knowledge of certain things—that our capacity for knowledge has limits and cannot rise above a certain height. On becoming acquainted with modern philosophical research we constantly hear of such limits to knowledge, especially among those schools of philosophy which owe their origin to Kant. The understanding of anthroposophists and of those who practice mysticism is distinguished from all such doctrines through never setting limits to man's capacity for knowledge, but rather looking upon it as capable of being both widened and uplifted. Is it not, to a certain extent, the greatest arrogance for anyone to regard his own capacity for knowledge, from the point at which it stands, as something decisive, and then to say that with our capacities we cannot go beyond definite limits of knowledge? The anthroposophist says: “I stand today at a certain point in human knowledge, from which I am able to know certain things and not others. But it is possible to cultivate the human capacity for knowledge, to heighten it.” What is called a school of initiation has as its essential aim to raise to a higher stage this human capacity for knowledge. So it is quite correct if one from a lower stage of knowledge says that there are limits to his knowledge and that certain things cannot be known. One can, however, raise oneself above this stage of knowledge and press on to a higher stage, so that it becomes possible to know what at a lower stage was impossible. This is the essence of initiation, and this deepening or heightening of knowledge is the task of the initiation schools. This means raising man to a stage of knowledge to which nature has not brought him, but which he must acquire for himself through long years of patient exercise.

In all ages there have been these initiation schools. Among all peoples, those having a higher kind of knowledge have arisen from these initiation schools. And the essential nature of such schools—and of the great Initiates themselves, who have soared above the lower stages of the human capacity for knowledge and, through their inspirations, have been acquainted with the highest knowledge accessible to us in this world—finds expression in Initiates giving to the various peoples on earth their various religions and world-conceptions.

Today we wish with a few strokes to illuminate the essential being of these great Initiates. As in every science, in every spiritual process one must first learn the method through which one penetrates to knowledge. This is also the case in the initiation schools. And here too it is a matter of our being led through certain methods to the higher stages of knowledge, about which we have spoken precisely. I shall now briefly refer to the stages that here concern us. Certain stages of knowledge can only be attained in the intimate schools of initiation where there are teachers who have themselves in their own experience gone through each school, have devoted themselves to every exercise, and have really pondered every single step, every single stage. And one must entrust oneself only to such teachers in the initiation schools.

In these schools there is, it is true, no hint of authority, nothing that smacks of dogmatism; the governing principle is entirely that of counsel, the imparting of advice. Whoever has gone through a certain stage of learning, and has himself acquired experiences of the higher, super-sensible life, knows the inner way that leads to this higher knowledge. And it is only one such as this who is qualified to say what one must do. What is necessary is simply that there be trust between pupil and teacher in this sphere. Whoever lacks this trust can learn nothing; but whoever has it will very soon perceive that nothing is recommended by any occult, mystic, or mystery teacher other than what the teacher has himself gone through. What concerns us here is that, of the whole being of man as he stands before us today, it is essentially only the outward visible part already within human nature that is today complete. This must be made clear to anyone aspiring to become a student of the mysteries—that man as he stands before us today is by no means a completed being, but is in the process of developing so that in the future he will reach many higher stages.

That which today has attained to an image of God, that which has arrived at the highest stage in man, is the human physical body, that which we can see with our eyes and perceive in any way with our senses. That is not, however, the only thing that man has. He has still higher members of his nature. To begin with, he further possesses a member that we call his etheric body. This etheric body can be seen by anyone who has cultivated his soul organs. Through this etheric body man is not simply a creation in which work chemical and physical forces, but a living creation, a creation that lives and is endowed with capacities for growth, life, and propagation. One can see this etheric body, which represents a kind of archetype of man, if, with the methods of the art of clairvoyance—which will be characterized still further—one suggests away the ordinary physical body. You know how, by the ordinary methods of hypnotism and suggestion, the point can be reached when, if you say to anyone that there is no lamp here, he actually sees no lamp. So you can also, if you develop in yourself sufficiently strong willpower—a willpower that shuts out, entirely shuts out, all observation of the physical body—so you can, in spite of seeing into space, completely suggest away physical space. Then you see space not empty but filled by a kind of archetype. This archetype has practically the same form as the physical body. It is, however, not of the same nature through and through, but is fully organized. It is not only interlaced with fine veins and streams but it also has organs. This creation, this etheric body, produces man's essential life. Its color can only be compared with the color of the young peach blossom. It is no color that is contained in the sun spectrum; but it is something between a violet and a reddish tinge. This is then the second body.

The third body is the aura, which I have often described—that cloud-like formation of which I spoke last time when describing man's origin, in which man is as if in an egg-shaped cloud. In this is expressed all that lives in man as lust, passion, and feeling. Joyful self-sacrificing feelings express themselves in this aura in luminous streams of color. Feelings of hate, physical feelings, express themselves in dark color tones. Sharp, logical thoughts express themselves in sharply outlined forms. Illogical, confused thoughts come to expression in figures with blurred outline. Thus, we have in this aura an image of what is living in man's soul as feeling, passion, and impulse.

As man has now been described, so he was set down on the earth—from the hand of nature, so to speak—at the point of time that lies approximately at the beginning of the Atlantean race. Last time I described what is to be understood by “the Atlantean race.” At the moment when the fertilization by the eternal spirit had already taken place, man confronts us with the three members—body, soul, and spirit. Today this threefold nature of man has taken a somewhat different form, as since that time, since nature has released him, since he has become a being with self-consciousness, man has worked on his own being. This work on himself means the refining of his aura; it also means sending light into the aura out of this self-consciousness. A man who stands at a very low stage of development and has never worked on himself—let us say a savage—has the aura which nature has provided him. But all those within our civilization, our cultural world, have auras on which they themselves have helped to work, for in so far as man is a self-conscious being he works upon himself and this work comes into expression first through changing his aura. All that man has learned through nature, all that he has absorbed since he was able to speak and think self-consciously, is a recent acquisition in his aura brought about by his own activity.

If you put yourself back into the Lemurian age, in which man had already had warm blood flowing in his veins for some time, and in which, in the middle of this Lemurian age, his fertilization with the spirit had taken place, man then was not yet a being capable of clear thinking. All this occurred at the beginning of evolution when the spirit had just taken possession of the corporeality. At that time the aura was still completely a consequence of forces of nature. One could then perceive—as one still can with men at a very low stage of development—how at a certain place in the interior of the head (that is to say, a place that we have to seek in the interior of the head) there exists a smaller aura of a bluish color. This smaller aura is the outer auric expression of the self-consciousness. And the more a man has developed this self-consciousness through his thought and through his work, the more this smaller aura spreads itself over the other, so that often in a short time both become totally different. A man who lives in outer culture, a refined man of culture, works on his aura in the particular way that this culture impels him. Our ordinary knowledge, which they offer in our schools, our experiences that life brings us, are absorbed by us and they are perpetually transforming our aura. But this transformation must be continuous if a man wishes to enter into practical mysticism. Then he must make a special effort to work upon himself. For then he must not incorporate into his aura only what culture offers him, but must exercise an influence upon it in a definite, orderly manner. And this happens through so-called meditation. This meditation, this inner immersion, is the first stage which a student of initiation must undergo.

Now in what does this meditation take an interest? Just try to bring to mind and reflect upon the thoughts that you shelter from morning to night, and upon how these thoughts are influenced by the time and the place in which you live. See whether you can hinder your thoughts, and ask yourself whether you would have them if you did not happen by chance to be living in Berlin at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, men did not think in the same way as men do today. If you consider how the world has changed in the course of the last century, and what kind of changes time has brought about, you will see that what passes through your soul from morning to night is dependent upon time and space. It is different when we give ourselves up to thoughts that have an eternal worth. Actually it is only certain abstract, scientific thoughts to which men have given themselves up, the highest thoughts of mathematics and geometry, that have an eternal worth. Twice two is four holds good at all times and in all places. It is the same with the geometrical truths that we accept. But leaving aside a certain fundamental stock of such truths, we may say that the average man has very few thoughts that are not dependent on time and space. What is thus dependent unites us with the world, and only exerts a trifling influence upon that essence which is in itself enduring.

Meditation means nothing other than surrendering oneself to thoughts which have eternal worth, in order to raise oneself up in a conscious way to what lies above both space and time. Such thoughts are contained in the great religious writings: the Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Gospel of John from the thirteenth chapter to the end, and the “Imitation of Christ,” by Thomas a Kempis. He who sinks himself with patience and perseverance so that he lives in such writings; he who deepens himself anew every day—perhaps working for weeks on one single sentence, thinking it through, feeling it through—will gain unlimited benefit. Just as each day one learns more nearly to know and love a child with all its individual characteristics, so one can daily draw into one's soul an eternal truth of the kind that flows from the great Initiates, or from inspired men. This has the effect of filling us with new life. Very significant also are the sayings in the “Light on the Path” that have been written down by Mabel Collins, under the instruction of higher powers. Actually in the first four sentences there is something that, when applied with patience in the appropriate way, is capable of so seizing upon man's aura that this aura is completely shot through with new light. One can see this light in the human aura shining and glistening. Bluish shades arise in the place of the reddish or of the reddishbrown shimmering shades of color, and, in the place of yellow, clear reddish ones arise, and so on. The whole coloring of the aura transforms itself under the influence of such eternal thoughts. The student cannot yet perceive this in the beginning, but he gradually begins to notice the deep influence that emanates from the greatly transformed aura.

If a man, in addition to these meditations, consciously and in a most scrupulous way practices certain virtues, certain achievements of the soul, then, within this aura, his sense-organs of the soul develop. We must have these if we want to see into the soul-world, just as we must have physical sense-organs to be able to see into the material world. As the outer senses were planted into the body by nature, so must man, in a regular way, implant the higher sense-organs of the soul into his aura. Meditation leads man to become ripe from within outwards, forming, developing, and interweaving the available capacities of the soul's senses.

But if we wish to cultivate these sense organs we must turn our attention to quite definite accomplishments of the soul. You see, man has a series of such organs in his organization. We call these sense organs the so-called Lotus flowers because the astral image, which man begins to evolve in his aura when he is developing himself in the way described, takes on a form that may be compared with that of a Lotus flower. It goes without saying that this is only a comparison, just as one can speak of the wings of the lung, which also bear only a resemblance to wings. The two-petalled Lotus flower is found in the middle of the head above the root of the nose, between the eyes. Near the larynx is the sixteen-petalled Lotus flower, while in the region of the heart there is the twelve-petalled one, and in the region of the pit of the stomach the one with ten petals. Still farther down are found the six-petalled and four-petalled Lotus flowers. Today I want to talk only about the Lotus flowers that have sixteen petals and twelve petals.

In Buddha's teachings you are given an account of the so-called eightfold path. Now ask yourselves once why Buddha offered precisely this eightfold path as particularly important in the attainment of the higher stages of man's development. This eightfold path is: right resolve, right thinking, right speech, right action, right living, right striving, right memory, right self-immersion, or meditation. A great Initiate such as Buddha does not speak out of a vaguely felt ideal, but out of knowledge of human nature. He knows what influence the practice of such exercises of the soul will have on the future development of the body. If we look at the sixteen-petalled Lotus flower in the average man of today we actually see very little. If I can so express it, it is in the process of flaring up again. In the far-distant past this Lotus flower was once present; it has gone backward in its development. Today it is appearing again, partly through man's cultural activity. In the future, however, this sixteen-petalled Lotus flower will come again to full development. It will glisten vividly with its sixteen spokes or petals, each petal appearing in a different shade of color; and finally, it will move from left to right. What everyone in the future will possess and experience is today being cultivated by those who seek in a conscious way their development in the school of initiation, in order to become leaders of mankind. Now eight of these sixteen petals have already been formed in the far-distant past; today eight have still to be developed, if the mystery pupil wishes to have the use of these sense-organs. These will be developed if man treads the eightfold path in a conscious way, observantly and clearly, if he consciously practices these eight soul activities given by Buddha, and if he arranges his whole life of soul so that he takes himself in hand, practicing these eight virtues as vigorously as he can only do when sustained by his meditation work, thus bringing the sixteen-petalled Lotus flower not only into bloom but also into movement, into actual perception.

I will now speak of the twelve-petalled Lotus flower in the region of the heart. Six petals of this flower were already developed in the far-distant past, and six must be developed by all men in the future, by present-day Initiates and their pupils. In all anthroposophical handbooks you can find reference to certain virtues in the forefront of those that should be acquired by anyone aspiring to the stage of Chela, or pupil. These six virtues which you find mentioned in every anthroposophical handbook concerned with man's development are: control of thought, control of action, tolerance, steadfastness, impartiality, and equilibrium, or what Angelus Silesius calls composure. These six virtues, which one must practice consciously and attentively in conjunction with meditation, bring to unfolding the six further petals of the twelve-petalled Lotus flower. And these are not gathered blindly in the anthroposophical textbooks, nor are they stamped by haphazard or individual inner feeling, but they are spoken out of the great Initiates' deepest knowledge. Initiates know that whoever really wishes to evolve to the higher super-sensible stages of development must bring about the unfolding of the twelve-petalled Lotus flower. And to this end he must today develop, through these six virtues, the six petals that were undeveloped in the past. Thus you see how the great Initiates essentially gave their directions for life out of their own deeper knowledge of the human being. I could extend these remarks to still other organs of knowledge and observation, but I only wish to give you a brief sketch of the process of initiation, and for that these indications should suffice.

When the pupil has progressed so far that he begins to form the astral sense-organs, when he has progressed so far that he is capable of perceiving not only the physical impressions in his surroundings but also what belongs to the soul—in other words, to see what is in the aura of man himself as well as what is in the aura of animals and plants—he then begins a completely new stage of instruction. No one can see in his environment that which has to do with his soul before his Lotus flowers revolve, just as one without eyes can see no color and no light. But when the barrier is pierced, when the pupil has gone beyond the preliminary stages of knowledge so that he has insight into the soul-world, then true “pupil-ship” first begins for him. This leads through four stages of knowledge. Now what happens in this moment, when man has passed beyond the first steps and has become a Chela? We have seen how all that we have just described related to the astral body. This is organized throughout by the human body. Whoever has undergone such a development has a totally different aura. When man out of his self-consciousness has illuminated his astral body, when he himself has become the luminous organization of his astral body, then we say that this pupil has illuminated his astral body with Manas. Manas is nothing other than an astral body dominated by self-consciousness. Manas and astral body are one and the same, but at different stages of development.

One must understand this if, in the practice of mysticism, one wishes to apply in a practical way what is given in anthroposophical handbooks as the seven principles. Everyone acquainted with the mystic path of development, everyone who knows something about initiation, will say that these have a theoretical value for study but for the practicing mystic they have value only if the relation existing between the lower and the higher principles is known. No practicing mystic recognizes more than four members: the physical body, in which work chemical and physical laws, the etheric body, the astral body, and finally the self- or Ego-consciousness, called at the present stage of development Kama-Manas, the self-conscious thinking principle. Manas is nothing other than that which has been worked into the body by the self-consciousness. The etheric body in its present form is deprived of any influence of the self-consciousness. We can indirectly influence our growth and nourishment, but not in the same way as we cause our wishes, our thoughts and ideas to proceed from self-consciousness. We cannot ourselves influence our nourishment, digestion, and growth. In men, these are without connection to the self-consciousness. The etheric body has to be brought under the influence of the astral body, the so-called aura. The self-consciousness of the astral body has to penetrate the etheric body—to be able to work out of itself upon the etheric body—as man, in the way already shown, works upon his astral body, his aura. Then, when man through meditation, through inner immersion, and through practicing activities of the soul, which I have described, has come so far that the astral body has organized itself, then the work extends to the etheric body, and the etheric body receives the inner word. Then man not only hears what lives in the world around him, but there resounds in him his etheric body, the inner meaning of things.

I have often said here before that the essentially spiritual in things is a resounding. I have drawn your attention to how the practicing mystic, when speaking in a correct sense, talks of a sound in the spiritual world in the same way as of a light in the astral world, or world of desire. Not for nothing does Goethe say, when guiding his Faust to heaven: “Die Sonne tönt nach alten Weise im Bruderspharen Wettgesang ...” (“The sun resounds in ancient fashion, contending with his brother spheres”). Nor are the words of Ariel empty when Faust is being escorted by the spirits into the spiritual world: “Tönend wird für Geistesohren schon der neue Tag geboren” (“Hear the new day being born, Spirit ears can hear its ringing”).

This inner sounding which, of course, is not at all a sound perceptible to the outer physical ear, this inner word through which things can express their own nature, is an experience that man has when he becomes able to influence his etheric body from his astral body. Then he has become a Chela, a real student of the great Initiates. Then he can be led further upon this path. A man who has thus ascended this step is called a homeless man, because fundamentally he has found the connection with a new world, because it rings to him out of the spiritual world, and because he thereby no longer has his home, so to speak, in this physical world. One must not misunderstand this. The Chela who has reached this stage is just as good a citizen and family man, just as good a friend, as he was before he had reached the stage of Chela. He need not be torn away from anything. What he has experienced is an evolution of the soul, thus acquiring a new home in a world lying behind this physical one.

What then has happened? The spiritual world sounds within man, and through this sounding of the spiritual world man overcomes an illusion, the illusion which takes in all men before they begin this stage of development. This is the illusion of the personal self. Man believes himself to be a personality separate from the rest of the world. Mere reflection could teach him that even physically he himself is not an independent being. Bear in mind that if the temperature in this room were 200 degrees higher than it now is, none of us would be able to survive as we now survive. As soon as the outer situation changes, the conditions for our physical existence are no longer there. We are simply a continuation of the external world, and are as separate beings absolutely inconceivable. This is still more the case in the world of the soul and of the spirit. Thus we see that man conceived of as a self is only an illusion—that he is a member of the universal divine spirituality. Here man overcomes the personal self. Here arises what in the mystic chorus of Faust Goethe has expressed in the words: “Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis.” (“All that is transitory is but a likeness.”) What we see is only a picture of an eternal being. We ourselves are only a picture of an eternal being. When we have surrendered our separate being—for we live a separate life through our etheric body—then we have overcome our outer, separate life, we have become part of universal life.

There arises in man something which we have called Buddhi. Buddhi is now practically reached as a stage in the development of the etheric body, that etheric body which no longer occasions a separate existence but enters into universal life. The man who has attained this has arrived at the second state of Chela-ship. Then all doubts and reservations fall away from his soul; he can no longer be superstitious any more than he can be a doubter. Then he has no more need to secure the truth in order to compare his ideas with the outer environment; then he lives in tone, in the word of things; then what it is sounds and resounds out of its being. And there is no more superstition, no more doubt. This is called the surrendering of the keys of knowledge to the Chela. When he has reached this stage, within it there sounds a word from the spiritual world. Then his own words no longer proclaim an echo of what is in this world, but his words are an echo of what stems from another world, which works into this world, but which cannot be perceived with our outer senses. These words are messengers of the Godhead.

When this stage is passed beyond, a new one comes. This is entered by man gaining influence over what is done directly by his physical body. Before this, his influence only extended to his etheric body, but now it extends to his physical body. His actions must set the physical body in motion. What man does is incorporated into what we call his karma. Man, however, does not work on this consciously; he does not know how each of his deeds causes a consequence. It is only now that he begins in a conscious way so to fulfill his actions in the physical world that he consciously works on his karma. Thus, through his physical actions, he wins influence over his karma. And now there is not only a sounding from the objects in his environment, but he has come far enough to be able to utter the name of all things. Man lives in our present stage of culture in such a way that he is only able to utter one single name. That is the name he gives himself: “I.” That is the only name man can really give to himself. (Whoever immerses himself in deeper knowledge can arrive at depths of which psychology does not dream.) It is the only instance in which you yourself can give the name in question. No one else can say “I” to you, only you yourself. To everyone else you must say “you,” and they in return must say the same. There is something in everyone to which only they themselves can apply the name “I.” On this account the Jewish mystery teachings speak also of an inexpressible name of God. That is something which is immediately a proclamation of God in man. It was forbidden to utter this name unworthily, sacrilegiously; hence the sacred awe, the significance and reality when the Jewish mystery teachers uttered this name. “I” is the one word that says something to you that can never approach you from the outer world. So now, as the average man alone names his “I,” so the Chela in the third stage gives to all things in the world names which he has received out of intuition. That means he has passed into the world “I.” He speaks out of the world “I” itself. He may call everything by its most profound name, whereas the man today standing at the average stage can only say “I” to himself. When the Chela has arrived at this stage, he is called a Swan. The Chela who has been able to raise himself to the point of naming all things is called Swan because he is the messenger of all things.

What lies beyond these three stages cannot be expressed in ordinary language. It demands knowledge of a special script only taught in mystery schools. The next stage is the stage of what is veiled. And beyond this lie the stages which belong to the great Initiates, those Initiates who at all times have given the great impulses to our culture. They were Chelas to begin with. To begin with they acquired the keys of knowledge. Next they were led further to the regions where were disclosed to them the universal and the names of things. Then they raised themselves to the stage of the universal, where they could have the deep experiences through which they were qualified to found the great religions of the world.

But it was not only the great religions that came forth from the great Initiates; it was every mighty impulse, all that is important in the world. Let us take just two examples that show the kind of influence that has been exercised on the world by the great Initiates who have gone through the schooling. Let us go back to everyday life at the time when the pupils of the initiation schools were guided under the leadership of Hermes. This guidance was in the end an ordinary, so-called esoteric, scientific instruction. I can sketch for you in only a few strokes what such instruction contained. It was shown how the Cosmic Spirit descended into the physical world, incarnated himself here, and how he began afresh a material existence, how he then reached the highest stage of man and celebrated his resurrection. Paracelsus in particular has expressed this very beautifully in the following words: “The individual beings we meet in the outer world are the single letters, and the word that is formed from them is MAN.” Outwardly we have all contributed human virtues or failings to this creation. Man, however, is the fusion of all this. It was taught as esoteric instruction in the Egyptian mystery schools, in all detail and with great richness of spirit, how there lives in man, as microcosm, the fusion of the rest of the macrocosm.

After this instruction came the Hermetic instruction. What I have said one can grasp with the senses and the understanding. But what is offered in the Hermetic instruction can only be grasped if one has attained the first stage of Chelaship. Then one can learn that special script which is neither arbitrary nor a matter of chance, but which gives us the great laws of the spiritual world. This script is not, like ours, an external picture arbitrarily fixed in single letters and parts; it is born out of the spiritual law of nature itself, because the man who becomes versed in this script is in possession of this natural law. All his conception of soul and astral space itself thus becomes regulated by law. What he conceives is conceived in the sense of the great signs of this script. He is capable of this when he has renounced his self. He unites himself with primal everlasting law. Now he has his Hermetic instruction behind him. Henceforward he himself can be admitted to the first stage of a still deeper initiation. Now, as the next stage, he should experience something in the astral world, the essential soul world, that has a significance reaching beyond the cosmic cycles. After he has acquired the capacity for the astral senses to be fully effective, so that they work right down into the etheric body, then for three days he is ushered into a deep mystery of the astral world. In that astral world he then experiences what last time I described to you as the primal origin of the Earth and man. He has before him and he experiences this descent of the spirit, this separation of Sun, Moon, and Earth, and the coming forth of man—this whole series of phenomena. And at the same time they form themselves into a picture before him. And then he emerges. After he has this great experience in the mystery school behind him, he goes among the people and relates what he has experienced in the soul and astral world. And what he relates runs approximately like this:

“There was once a divine couple who were united with the earth, Osiris and Isis. This divine pair were regents of everything that happens on earth. But Osiris was pursued by Typhon and cut into pieces, and Isis had to search for the corpse. She did not bring it home, but graves of Osiris were distributed among the various parts of the earth. So he was brought completely down into the earth and buried there. But a ray from the spiritual world fell upon Isis, fertilizing her through immaculate conception with the new Horns.”

This picture is nothing other than a mighty representation of what we have come to know as the exit of Sun and Moon, as the separation of Sun and Moon and as the dawning of mankind. Isis is the image of the Moon; Horns stands for earthly mankind, the earth itself. Before man was endowed with warm blood, before he was clothed with his physical body, he felt in mighty pictures what proceeded in the soul world. In the beginning of the Lemurian, of the Atlantean and the Arian evolutions, man was always prepared by the great Initiates to receive the mighty truths contained in such pictures. For this reason, the truths were not simply represented but were given in the pictures of Osiris and Isis. All the great religions we meet in antiquity are from what the great Initiates experienced in astral space. And the great Initiates emerged from these experiences and spoke to each particular people in the way they could understand, that is to say in pictures of what the Initiates themselves had experienced in the mystery schools. This was so in ancient times. Only through being in such a school of initiation could one rise to higher astral experience.

All this was changed with the coming of Christianity. It cut into evolution with great significance. And since the appearance of Christ it has been possible for man to be initiated as an initiate of nature, just as one speaks of a poet of nature. There have been Christian mystics who by grace have received initiation. The first who was called to carry Christianity into all the world under the influence of the words: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” was Paul. The appearance on the road to Damascus was an initiation outside the mysteries. I cannot go into further detail here.

It was the great Initiates who gave the impulse to all great movements and founding's of culture. From medieval times there comes a beautiful myth that may be said to show us this in a time when one did not yet demand materialistic foundations. The myth arose in Bavaria and has, therefore, assumed the garb of Catholicism. What then happened we will make clear as follows. There arose at that time in Europe the so-called civic culture—modern citizenship. The onward development of man, the progress of each soul to a higher stage, was understood by the mystic as the advancing of the soul, of the womanly element in man. The mystic sees in the soul something womanly that was fertilized by the lower sense impressions of nature and by the eternal truths. In every historical process the mystic sees such a process of fertilization. For those who see more deeply into man's path of development, for those who see the spiritual forces behind physical appearances, the great and deep impulses for the progress of mankind are given by the great Initiates. Thus the man with a medieval world outlook ascribed to the great Initiates the raising up of the soul to higher stages during the new period of culture that was brought about by means of cities. This city-development was attained by souls making a sudden move forward in history. And it was an Initiate who brought about this move. All mighty impulses were ascribed to the great lodge of Initiates surrounding the Holy Grail. From there came the great Initiates who are not visible to ordinary men. And the Initiate who at that time provided the civic culture with its impulse was called, in the Middle Ages, Lohengrin. It is he who was the missionary of the Holy Grail, of the great lodge; and Elsa of Brabant stands for the soul of the city, the womanly element that was to be fructified through the great Initiate. The mediator is the swan. Lohengrin was brought by the swan into this physical world. The Initiate must not be asked his name. He belongs to a higher world. The Chela, the Swan, has been the mediator of this influence.

I have merely been able to indicate how this great event has again been symbolized for the people in a myth. It is in this way that the great Initiates have worked and have put into their teachings what they have to make known. And in this way worked all those who have founded man's early culture—Hermes in Egypt, Krishna in India, Zarathustra in Persia, Moses among the Jewish people. Orpheus continued the work—then Pythagoras, and finally the Initiate of all Initiates, Jesus, who bore within Him the Christ.

Here only the greatest of Initiates are mentioned. We have tried in these descriptions to characterize their connection with the world. What has been described here will still remain remote to many people's thoughts. But those who have become aware of something of the higher worlds in their own souls have always raised their eyes not only to the spiritual world but also to the leaders of mankind. It was only from this standpoint that they have been able to speak in as inspired a way as Goethe. But you find among others, too, something of the divine spark leading towards the point to which spiritual science should again bring us. You find it in the case of a German, a young, intelligent German poet and thinker, whose life has all the appearance of a blessed memory of some former existence as a great Initiate. Those who read Novalis will notice something of the breath that guides us into the higher world. There is something in him that also contains the magic word, though not expressed as explicitly as usual. Thus he has written the beautiful words about the relation of our planet to mankind that convey as much to the lowly and undeveloped as they do to the Initiate:

“Mankind is the sense of our earth-planet, mankind is the nerve that binds the earth-planet with the higher worlds; mankind is the eye through which this earth-planet lifts its gaze to the heavenly Kingdoms of the Cosmos.”

Die Grossen Eingeweihten

Die theosophische Weltanschauung unterscheidet sich von, man darf wohl sagen, allen übrigen Weltanschauungen, denen wir in der Gegenwart begegnen können, dadurch, daß sie der Erkenntnis auch in hohem Maße Befriedigung gewährt. Wir haben ja so oft in der Gegenwart gehört: Gewisse Dinge sind für uns unerkennbar, unser Erkenntnisvermögen hat Grenzen und kann sich nicht über eine gewisse Höhe hinaus erheben. Wenn wir die philosophischen Untersuchungen der Gegenwart an uns herantreten lassen, dann wird uns — insbesondere bei denjenigen philosophischen Schulen, welche auf den Kantianismus zurückgehen — immer von solchen Erkenntnisgrenzen gesprochen. Die Auffassung des Theosophen und des praktischen Mystikers unterscheidet sich von allen solchen Auseinandersetzungen ihrer Art nach dadurch, daß sie niemals dem menschlichen Erkenntnisvermögen Grenzen setzt, sondern es so betrachtet, daß es selbst einer Erweiterung, einer Erhöhung fähig ist. Ist es da nicht in gewissem Grade eine Unbescheidenheit höchster Art, wenn jemand sein besonderes Erkenntnisvermögen, den Standpunkt des Erkennens, auf dem er gerade steht, in gewisser Beziehung als etwas Ausschlaggebendes betrachtet und nun sagt, daß wir mit diesem unserem Erkenntnisvermögen nicht über eine gewisse Grenze hinausgehen können? Der Theosoph sagt: Ich stehe heute auf einem gewissen Standpunkt menschlichen Erkennens. Von diesem Standpunkt aus kann ich dieses oder jenes erkennen, dieses oder jenes nicht erkennen. — Aber es ist möglich, das menschliche Erkenntnisvermögen selbst auszubilden, dieses Erkenntnisvermögen selbst zu erhöhen. Dasjenige, was man Einweihungsschulen nennt, ist im wesentlichen dazu bestimmt, dieses menschliche Erkenntnisvermögen selbst auf eine höhere Stufe zu erheben, so daß es gewiß richtig ist, wenn man von einer niederen Stufe der Erkenntnis aus sagt, es gibt Grenzen des Erkennens, man kann dieses oder jenes nicht erkennen. Aber man kann sich ja auch erheben über eine solche Stufe der Erkenntnis, man kann zu höheren Stufen vordringen, und dann kann man erkennen, was man auf untergeordneten Stufen nicht hat erkennen können. Dieses ist das Wesen der Einweihung, und diese Vertiefung oder Erhöhung der Erkenntnis ist die Aufgabe der Einweihungsschulen. Es gilt, den Menschen zu Erkenntnisstufen zu erheben, auf denen er nicht von Natur aus stehen kann, die er sich erst durch langjährige geduldige Übungen erwerben muß.

Zu allen Zeiten hat es solche Einweihungsschulen gegeben. Bei allen Völkern sind Erkennende höherer Art aus solchen Einweihungsschulen hervorgegangen. Und das Wesen solcher Einweihungsschulen und der großen Eingeweihten selbst, die hinausgewachsen sind über die niederen Stufen des menschlichen Erkenntnisvermögens und durch ihre Inspirationen mit den höchsten Erkenntnissen, die uns auf diesem Erdball zugänglich sind, bekannt wurden, drückt sich darin aus, daß diese Eingeweihten den verschiedenen Völkern der Erde die verschiedenen Religionen und Weltanschauungen geschenkt haben.

Das Wesen dieser großen Eingeweihten oder Initiierten wollen wir heute einmal mit einigen Strichen beleuchten. Wie man in jeder Wissenschaft, in jeder geistigen Verfahrensart erst die Methoden kennenlernen muß, durch die man zu den Erkenntnissen dringt, so ist es auch in den Einweihungsschulen. Auch da handelt es sich darum, daß wir durch gewisse Methoden zu den höheren Erkenntnisstufen, von denen wir eben gesprochen haben, hinaufgeführt werden. Ich werde nun in Kürze die Stufen, um die es sich handelt, anführen. Gewisse Stufen der Erkenntnis sind nur in den intimen Einweihungsschulen zu erlangen, nur da, wo Lehrer sind, die in eigener Erfahrung selbst jene Schule durchgemacht haben, selbst jenen Übungen obgelegen haben, die jede einzelne Stufe, jeden einzelnen Schritt wirklich erwägen können. Und nur solchen Lehrern muß man sich in diesen Einweihungsschulen anvertrauen.

Allerdings, es gibt in diesen Einweihungsschulen nichts von Autorität, nichts von dem Prinzip des Dogmatismus, sondern es herrscht darin lediglich das Prinzip des Ratens, des Erteilens von Ratschlägen. Wer einen gewissen Stufengang des Lernens durchgemacht hat und dadurch sich die Erfahrungen des höheren, des übersinnlichen Lebens selbst erworben hat, der weiß, welches die intimen Wege sind, die zu diesem höheren Erkennen führen. Nur ein solcher ist befähigt zu sagen, was man zu tun hat. Was notwendig ist auf diesem Gebiete zwischen Schüler und Lehrer, das ist lediglich Vertrauen. Wer dieses Vertrauen nicht hat, kann auch nichts lernen. Wer aber das Vertrauen hat, wird sehr bald sehen, daß von seiten irgendeines okkulten, mystischen oder Geheimlehrers nichts anderes anempfohlen wird, als was dieser Lehrer selbst durchgemacht hat. Es handelt sich dabei darum, daß von der gesamten Wesenheit des Menschen, so wie der Mensch heute vor uns steht, eigentlich nur der äußerlich sichtbare Teil heute schon innerhalb der menschlichen Natur abgeschlossen ist. Dieses muß sich jeder, der Geheimschulung anstreben will, klarmachen, daß der Mensch heute so, wie er vor uns steht, kein abgeschlossenes Wesen ist, sondern daß er in der Entwickelung begriffen ist, daß er in der Zukunft viel höhere Stufen erreichen wird.

Das, was heute die Ebenbildlichkeit Gottes bereits erlangt hat, das, was heute vom Menschen auf der höchsten Stufe angekommen ist, das ist des Menschen sinnlicher Körper, das was wir an ihm mit Augen sehen, überhaupt mit unseren Sinnen wahrnehmen können. Das ist aber nicht das einzige, was der Mensch hat. Der Mensch hat noch höhere Glieder seiner Natur. Zunächst besitzt er noch ein Glied, das wir den Ätherkörper nennen. Diesen Ätherkörper kann der, welcher die seelischen Organe bei sich ausgebildet hat, sehen. Durch diesen Ätherkörper ist der Mensch nicht bloß ein Gebilde, in dem chemische und physische Kräfte wirken, sondern ein lebendiges Gebilde, ein Gebilde, welches lebt, mit Wachstum, Leben und Fortpflanzungsvermögen versehen ist. Diesen Ätherkörper, der eine Art von Urbild des Menschen darstellt, kann man sehen, wenn man mit den Methoden der Hellseherkunst, die im weiteren noch charakterisiert werden wird, sich den gewöhnlichen physischen Körper absuggeriert. Sie wissen, man kann durch die gewöhnliche Methode der Hypnose und Suggestion erreichen, daß, wenn Sie zu jemand sagen, es ist keine Lampe hier, er tatsächlich auch keine Lampe hier sieht. So können Sie, wenn Sie genügend starke Willenskraft in sich entwickeln, jene Willenskraft, welche die Aufmerksamkeit ablenkt, aber gründlich ablenkt von dem physischen Körper, trotzdem Sie hineinsehen in den Raum, sich selbst den physischen Raum völlig absuggerieren. Dann sehen Sie den Raum nicht leer, sondern ausgefüllt mit einer Art von Urbild. Ungefähr dieselbe Gestalt hat dieses Urbild wie der physische Körper. Es ist aber nicht durch und durch gleichartig, sondern durch und durch organisiert. Es ist nicht nur mit feinen Äderchen und Strömungen durchzogen, sondern es hat auch Organe. Dieses Gebilde, dieser Ätherkörper bewirkt das eigentliche Leben des Menschen. Seine Farbe kann nur verglichen werden mit der Farbe der jungen Pfirsichblüte. Es ist keine Farbe, die in dem Sonnenspektrum enthalten ist; sie ist etwa zwischen violett und rötlich. Das ist also der zweite Körper.

Der dritte Körper ist die Aura, die ich schon öfter beschrieben habe, jenes wolkenartige Gebilde, wovon ich das letzte Mal, da, wo ich den Ursprung des Menschen schilderte, gesprochen habe, in dem der Mensch wie in einer eiförmigen Wolke ist. Es drückt sich darin alles aus, was im Menschen lebt als Begierde, Leidenschaft und Gefühl. Freudige, hingebende Gefühle drücken sich in hellen Farbenströmungen in dieser Aura aus. Haßgefühle, sinnliche Gefühle drücken sich in dunkleren Farbentönen aus. Scharfe, logische Gedanken drücken sich in scharfumrissenen Figuren aus. Unlogische, verworrene Gedanken kommen in Figuren mit unklaren Umrissen zum Ausdruck. So haben wir in dieser Aura ein Abbild dessen, was in der Seele des Menschen an Gefühlen, Leidenschaften und Trieben lebt.

So wie jetzt der Mensch beschrieben worden ist, so ist er — sozusagen von der Hand der Natur — in dem Zeitpunkte auf die Erde hingesetzt worden, der ungefähr im Beginne des atlantischen Zeitraumes liegt. Ich habe das letzte Mal beschrieben, was man unter dem atlantischen Zeitraum zu verstehen hat. In dem Zeitpunkte, wo die Befruchtung mit dem urewigen Geist bereits stattgefunden hatte, da tritt uns der Mensch mit den drei Gliedern: Leib, Seele und Geist entgegen. Heute ist im Grunde genommen dieses Dreifache der menschlichen Wesenheit schon etwas verändert dadurch, daß der Mensch seit jener Zeit, seit die Natur ihn entlassen hat, seitdem er ein selbstbewußtes Wesen geworden ist, an sich gearbeitet hat. Dieses Arbeiten an sich heißt, seine Aura veredeln, heißt, aus dem Selbstbewußtsein heraus in diese Aura Licht hineinsenden. Der Mensch, der auf sehr tiefer Stufe steht, nicht an sich gearbeitet hat, sagen wir ein Wilder, der hat eine Aura, wie sie ihm von der Natur anerschaffen ist. Alle diejenigen aber, welche innerhalb unserer zivilisierten, unserer gebildeten Welt stehen, haben Auren, an denen sie schon selbst mitgearbeitet haben, denn insofern der Mensch ein selbstbewußtes Wesen ist, arbeitet er an sich, und diese Arbeit kommt zunächst dadurch in ihm zum Ausdruck, daß sie seine Aura verändert. Alles was der Mensch durch die Natur gelernt hat, was er aufgenommen hat, seitdem er sprechen und selbstbewußt denken kann, alles das ist ein neuer, durch ihn selbst bewirkter Einschlag in seiner Aura.

Wenn Sie sich in die Zeit des lemurischen Zeitraumes zurückversetzen, wo der Mensch bereits seit langer Zeit warmes Blut in seinen Adern fließen hatte, wo seine Befruchtung mit dem Geist in der Mitte dieses lemurischen Zeitraumes stattgefunden hatte, da war der Mensch noch nicht ein des hellen Gedankens fähiges Wesen. Das alles stand eben im Beginn der Entwickelung. Eben hatte der Geist Besitz ergriffen von der Körperlichkeit. Die Aura war damals noch ganz ein Ergebnis der Naturkräfte. Da konnte man bemerken - und man kann es noch heute bei sehr tiefstehenden Menschen —, wie an einer gewissen Stelle im Inneren des Kopfes, das heißt an einer Stelle, die wir im Inneren des Kopfes zu suchen haben, eine kleinere Aura in bläulicher Farbe entsteht. Diese kleinere Aura ist der äußere aurische Ausdruck des Selbstbewußtseins. Und je mehr der Mensch dieses Selbstbewußtsein durch sein Denken und durch seine Arbeit entwickelt hat, desto mehr breitet sich diese kleinere Aura über die andere aus, so daß sie oft beide in kurzer Zeit ganz anders werden. Der Mensch, der in der äußeren Kultur lebt, der ein gebildeter Kulturmensch ist, arbeitet an seiner Aura so, wie die Kultur ihn eben antreibt. Unsere gewöhnliche Erkenntnis, wie sie unsere Schule bietet, unsere Erfahrungen, die uns das Leben bringt, nehmen wir in uns auf, und sie verändern fortwährend unsere Aura. Aber diese Veränderung muß fortgesetzt werden, wenn der Mensch in die praktische Mystik eintreten will. Da muß er ganz besonders an sich arbeiten. Da muß er nicht nur das, was die Kultur ihm bietet, seiner Aura einverleiben, sondern da muß er in bestimmter, regelrechter Weise auf seine Aura einen Einfluß ausüben. Und das geschieht durch die sogenannte Meditation. Diese Meditation oder die innere Versenkung ist die erste Stufe, die der Schüler eines Eingeweihten durchzumachen hat.

Was hat diese Meditation für einen Sinn? Versuchen Sie einmal, sich die Gedanken, die Sie vom Morgen bis zum Abend hegen, vorzuhalten und nachzudenken darüber, wie diese Gedanken beeinflußt sind von dem Ort und der Zeit, in denen Sie leben. Versuchen Sie, ob Sie Ihre Gedanken verhindern können, und fragen Sie sich, ob Sie sie haben würden, wenn Sie nicht zufällig in Berlin und im Anfange des 20. Jahrhunderts leben würden. Am Ende des 18. und am Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts haben die Menschen nicht in derselben Weise gedacht wie die Menschen von heute. Wenn Sie sich denken, wie die Welt im Laufe des letzten Jahrhunderts verändert worden ist und was die Zeit für Veränderungen bewirkt hat, dann werden Sie sehen, daß das, was Ihre Seele vom Morgen bis zum Abend durchzieht, abhängt von Raum und Zeit. Anders ist es, wenn wir uns Gedanken hingeben, welche einen Ewigkeitswert haben. Eigentlich sind es nur gewisse abstrakte, wissenschaftliche Gedanken, höchste Gedanken der Mathematik und der Geometrie, denen sich der Mensch hingibt, und welche Ewigkeitswert haben. Zweimal zwei ist vier: das muß zu allen Zeiten und an allen Orten gelten. Ebenso verhält es sich mit den geometrischen Wahrheiten, die wir aufnehmen. Aber wenn wir von dem gewissen Grundstock solcher Wahrheiten absehen, dann können wir sagen, daß der Durchschnittsmensch sehr wenig denkt, was von Raum und Zeit unabhängig ist. Was davon abhängig ist, das verbindet uns mit der Welt und übt nur einen geringen Einfluß auf jene Wesenheit, welche selbst ein Bleibendes ist.

Meditation heißt nichts anderes, als sich hingeben an Gedanken, welche einen Ewigkeitswert haben, um in bewußter Weise sich zu erziehen zu dem, was über Raum und Zeit hinaus liegt. Solche Gedanken enthalten die großen Religionsschriften: Der Vedanta, die Bhagavad Gita, das Johannes-Evangelium vom dreizehnten Kapitel ab bis zum Schluß, auch die «Nachfolge Christi» von Thomas von Kempen. Wer sich mit Geduld und Ausdauer versenkt, so, daß er in solchen Schriften lebt, wer jeden Tag aufs neue sich vertieft und vielleicht an einem einzigen Satz durch Wochen hindurch arbeitet, ihn durchdenkt und durchfühlt, der wird unendlichen Nutzen haben. So wie man ein Kind mit allen seinen Eigentümlichkeiten jeden Tag selbst näher kennen und lieben lernt, so läßt man sich jeden Tag einen solchen Ewigkeitssatz, der von den großen Eingeweihten oder von inspirierten Menschen herrührt, durch die Seele ziehen. Dies bewirkt dann, daß wir mit neuem Leben erfüllt werden. Sehr bedeutungsvoll sind auch die Sprüche in «Licht auf den Weg», nach höheren Weisungen niedergeschrieben von Mabel Collins. Schon die vier ersten Sätze sind so etwas, das, wenn es in entsprechender Weise geduldig angewendet wird, geeignet ist, in des Menschen Aura so einzugreifen, daß diese Aura ganz mit einem neuen Licht durchleuchtet wird. Man kann dieses Licht in des Menschen Aura aufglänzen und aufleuchten sehen. An die Stelle der rötlichen oder rötlichbräunlich schimmernden Farbennuancen treten bläuliche, an die Stelle von gelben treten hellrötliche und so weiter. Die ganzen Farben der Aura verändern sich unter dem Einfluß solcher Ewigkeitsgedanken. Der Schüler kann dies im Anfange noch nicht wahrnehmen, aber er beginnt allmählich den tiefen Einfluß zu verspüren, der von dieser sehr veränderten Aura ausgeht.

Wenn der Mensch dann neben diesen Meditationen noch in sorgfältigster Weise bewußt gewisse Tugenden ausübt, gewisse Verrichtungen der Seele ausübt, dann entwickeln sich innerhalb dieser Aura seine seelischen Sinnesorgane. Diese müssen wir haben, wenn wir in die Seelenwelt hineinsehen wollen, ebenso wie wir physische Sinnesorgane haben müssen, um in die Körperwelt hineinsehen zu können. Wie die äußeren Sinne von der Natur dem Körper eingepflanzt worden sind, so muß der Mensch in gesetzmäßiger Weise seiner Aura höhere seelische Sinnesorgane einpflanzen. Die Meditation bewirkt, daß der Mensch reif wird, von innen heraus auf diese in der Anlage vorhandenen seelischen Sinne gestaltend, entwickelnd einzuwirken.

Aber wir müssen die Aufmerksamkeit auf ganz bestimmte seelische Verrichtungen lenken, wenn wir diese Sinnesorgane ausbilden wollen. Sehen Sie, der Mensch hat eine Reihe von solchen Sinnesorganen in der Anlage. Wir nennen diese Sinnesorgane die sogenannten Lotusblumen, deshalb, weil das astrale Gebilde, welches der Mensch in seiner Aura zu entwickeln beginnt, wenn er sich in dieser geschilderten Weise ausbildet, vergleichsweise die Gestalt von Lotusblumen annimmt. Selbstverständlich ist dies nur vergleichsweise, ebenso wie man von Lungenflügeln spricht, die ja auch nur eine Ähnlichkeit mit Flügeln haben. Die zweiblättrige Lotusblume befindet sich in der Mitte des Hauptes über der Nasenwurzel zwischen den Augen. In der Nähe des Kehlkopfes ist dann die sechzehnblättrige Lotusblume, in der Nähe des Herzens die zwölfblättrige, in der Nähe der Magengrube die zehnblättrige. Weiter unten noch befinden sich die sechsblättrige und die vierblättrige Lotusblume. Ich möchte heute nur von der sechzehnblättrigen und der zwölfblättrigen Lotusblume sprechen.

In der Lehre des Buddha finden Sie den sogenannten achtgliedrigen Pfad angegeben. Nun fragen Sie sich einmal, warum gibt Buddha gerade diesen achtgliedrigen Pfad als besonders wichtig an zur Erreichung der höheren Entwickelungsstufen des Menschen? Dieser achtgliedrige Pfad ist: Rechtes Entschließen, rechtes Denken, rechtes Reden, rechtes Handeln, rechtes Leben, rechtes Streben, rechtes Gedenken, rechtes Sich-Versenken. — Solch ein großer Eingeweihter wie Buddha spricht nicht aus einem unbestimmt gefühlten Ideale heraus, er spricht aus der Erkenntnis der menschlichen Natur, er weiß, welchen Einfluß auf diejenigen Körper, welche sich erst in der Zukunft entwickeln müssen, das Ausüben solcher seelischen Betätigungen hat. Wenn wir die sechzehnblättrige Lotusblume an einem heutigen Durchschnittsmenschen betrachten, so sehen wir eigentlich sehr wenig. Sie ist eben, wenn ich so sagen darf, wiederum im Aufleuchten. In Zeiten urferner Vergangenheit war diese Lotusblume schon einmal vorhanden. Sie ist in ihrer Entwickelung zurückgegangen. Heute erscheint sie wieder etwas durch die Kulturarbeit des Menschen. In der Zukunft aber wird diese sechzehnblättrige Lotusblume wieder zur vollen Entwickelung kommen. Sie wird in ihren sechzehn Speichen oder Blättern hell aufglänzen, jedes Blatt wird in einem anderen Farbenton erscheinen, und endlich wird sie sich von links nach rechts bewegen. Was jeder Mensch einmal in der Zukunft erleben und besitzen wird, das bildet derjenige, der in der Einweihungsschule seine Ausbildung sucht, in bewußter Weise heute schon aus, damit er ein Führer der Menschheit werden kann. Nun sind acht von diesen sechzehn Blättern in urferner Vergangenheit bereits ausgebildet worden. Acht müssen heute noch ausgebildet werden, wenn der Geheimschüler zum Gebrauch dieser Sinnesorgane kommen will. Diese bilden sich aus, wenn der Mensch in bewußter Weise aufmerksam und klar den achtgliedrigen Pfad geht, wenn er diese von Buddha angegebenen acht Seelenbetätigungen in bewußter Weise ausübt, wenn er sein ganzes Seelenleben so einrichtet, daß er diese acht Tugenden, sozusagen indem er sich selbst in die Hand nimmt, so stark übt, als er sie nur üben kann, daß er seine Meditationsarbeit unterstützt und die sechzehnblättrige Lotusblume nicht nur zur Reife, sondern auch zur Bewegung, zur wirklichen Wahrnehmung bringt.

Ich will nun noch von der zwölfblättrigen Lotusblume in der Nähe des Herzens sprechen. Von ihr waren sechs Blätter in urferner Vergangenheit bereits entwickelt, sechs müssen in Zukunft bei allen Menschen, bei Eingeweihten und ihren Schülern heute schon, entwickelt werden. In allen theosophischen Handbüchern können Sie gewisse Tugenden angeführt finden, welche im Vorhofe der sich aneignen soll, der zur Stufe des eigentlichen Chela oder Schülers hinansteigen soll. Diese sechs Tugenden, die Sie in jedem theosophischen Handbuche, wo von der Entwickelung des Menschen die Rede ist, angeführt finden, sind: Kontrolle der Gedanken, Kontrolle der Handlungen, Duldsamkeit, Standhaftigkeit, Unbefangenheit und Gleichgewicht oder das, was Angelus Silesius Gelassenheit nennt. Diese sechs Tugenden, die man bewußt und aufmerksam üben und zur Meditation hinzufügen muß, bringen die sechs weiteren Blätter der zwölfblättrigen Lotusblume zur Entfaltung. Dieses ist in den theosophischen Lehrbüchern nicht blind aufgelesen, nicht zufällig oder aus eigenem innerem Gefühl heraus geprägt, sondern aus der tiefsten Erkenntnis der großen Eingeweihten heraus gesprochen. Die Eingeweihten wissen, daß derjenige, der sich wirklich zu höheren übersinnlichen Entwickelungsstufen entwickeln will, die zwölfblättrige Lotusblume zur Entfaltung bringen muß. Dazu muß er die sechs Blätter, die in der Vergangenheit nicht entwickelt waren, heute schon durch diese sechs Tugenden entwickeln. So sehen Sie, wie aus einer tieferen Erkenntnis des menschlichen Wesens heraus die großen Eingeweihten eigentlich ihre Anweisungen für das Leben gaben. Ich könnte diese Betrachtung noch auf andere Erkenntnis- und Beobachtungsorgane ausdehnen, allein ich will Ihnen nur eine Skizze des Einweihungsvorganges geben, wozu diese Andeutungen genügen dürften.

Wenn der Schüler dann so weit gekommen ist, daß er diese astralischen Sinnesorgane anfängt auszubilden, wenn er so weit gekommen ist, daß er dadurch imstande ist, nicht nur die sinnlichen Eindrücke in seiner Umgebung zu sehen, sondern auch das, was seelisch ist, also das, was im Menschen selbst, was im Tier und was in der Pflanze Aura ist, dann beginnt eine ganz neue Stufe der Unterweisung. Niemand kann, bevor seine Lotusblumen sich drehen, irgend etwas Seelisches in seiner Umgebung sehen, ebenso wie der, welcher keine Augen hat, keine Farben und kein Licht sehen kann. Wenn nun die Wand durchbrochen ist, wenn er auf der Vorstufe der Erkenntnis so weit vorangeschritten ist, daß er einen Einblick in diese seelische Welt hat, dann erst beginnt für ihn die eigentliche Schülerschaft. Diese führt durch vier Stufen der Erkenntnis hindurch. Was geschieht nun in diesem Augenblick, wo der Mensch, nachdem er die Vorstufen durchschritten hat, Chela geworden ist? Wir haben gesehen, daß, was wir jetzt beschrieben haben, sich alles auf den Astralkörper bezieht. Dieser wird vom menschlichen Körper aus durchorganisiert. Eine ganz andere Aura hat der Mensch, der durch eine solche Entwickelung hindurchgeschritten ist. Wenn dann der Mensch vom Selbstbewußtsein aus seinen Astralkörper durchleuchtet hat, wenn er selbst die lichtvolle Organisation seines Astralkörpers geworden ist, dann sagen wir, dieser Schüler hat seinen Astralkörper mit Manas durchleuchtet. Nichts anderes ist Manas als ein Astralkörper, welcher vom Selbstbewußtsein aus beherrscht ist. Manas und Astralkörper sind ein und dasselbe, aber auf verschiedener Entwickelungsstufe.

Man muß dies einsehen, wenn man das, was in den theosophischen Handbüchern als die sieben Prinzipien angegeben ist, in praktischer Weise für die praktische Mystik verwenden will. Jeder, der den mystischen Entwickelungsgang kennt, jeder, der etwas von Einweihung weiß, der wird sagen, sie haben einen theoretischen Wert für das Studium, aber für den praktischen Mystiker nur dann, wenn man die Beziehungen weiß, die bestehen zwischen den unteren und oberen Prinzipien. Kein praktischer Mystiker kennt mehr als vier Glieder: den physischen Leib, in dem die chemischen und physischen Gesetze wirken, dann den Ätherkörper, dann den Astralkörper und endlich das Selbstbewußtsein, das wir in der gegenwärtigen Entwickelung Kamamanas nennen, das selbstbewußt denkende Prinzip. Manas ist nichts anderes als das, was das Selbstbewußtsein in den Körper hineinarbeitet. Der Ätherkörper, wie er jetzt ist, ist jedem Einfluß des Selbstbewußtseins entzogen. Wachstum und Ernährung können wir mittelbar beeinflussen, aber nicht so, wie wir unsere Wünsche, unsere Gedanken und Vorstellungen vom Selbstbewußtsein ausgehen lassen. So können wir unsere Ernährungs-, Verdauungs- und Wachstumsverhältnisse nicht selbst beeinflussen. Diese sind beim Menschen ohne irgendwelchen Zusammenhang mit dem Selbstbewußtsein. Dieser Ätherkörper muß unter den Einfluß des Astralkörpers, der sogenannten Aura, gebracht werden. Das Selbstbewußtsein des Astralkörpers muß den Atherkörper ebenso durchdringen, ebenso von sich aus bearbeiten können, wie auf die beschriebene Art der Mensch seine Aura, seinen Astralkörper bearbeitet. Dann, wenn der Mensch durch Meditation, durch innere Versenkung und durch Ausübung der Seelentätigkeiten, die ich beschrieben habe, so weit ist, daß der Astralkörper von sich aus organisiert ist, dann geht die Arbeit über auf den Ätherkörper, dann bekommt der Ätherkörper das innere Wort, dann hört der Mensch nicht nur dasjenige, was in der Umwelt lebt, dann erklingt ihm in seinem Ätherkörper der innere Sinn der Dinge.

Schon öfters habe ich hier gesagt, daß das eigentlich Geistige in den Dingen ein Tönendes ist. Ich habe darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß der praktische Mystiker, wenn er in dem richtigen Sinne spricht, von einem Tönen in der geistigen Welt spricht, wie er von einem Leuchten in der astralen oder Wunschwelt spricht. Nicht umsonst sagt Goethe, als er seinen Faust nach dem Himmel führt: «Die Sonne tönt nach alter Weise in Brudersphären Wettgesang, und ihre vorgeschriebne Reise vollendet sie mit Donnergang.» Und nicht umsonst sagt Ariel, als Faust durch die Geister in die geistige Welt geleitet wird: «Tönend wird für Geistesohren schon der neue Tag geboren.»

Dieses innere Tönen, das natürlich kein für das äußere sinnliche Ohr wahrnehmbares Tönen ist, dieses innere Wort der Dinge, wodurch sie ihre eigene Natur aussprechen, das ist das Erlebnis, das der Mensch hat, wenn er von seinem Astralkörper aus seinen Ätherkörper zu beeinflussen vermag. Dann ist er zum Chela geworden, zum wirklichen Schüler eines großen Eingeweihten. Dann kann er weitergeführt werden auf diesem Pfade. Einen solchen Menschen, der diese Stufe erstiegen hat, nennt man einen heimatlosen Menschen, aus dem Grunde, weil er den Zusammenhang gefunden hat, mit einer neuen Welt, weil es ihm aus der geistigen Welt herüberklingt und weil er dadurch sozusagen in dieser sinnlichen Welt nicht mehr seine Heimat hat. Man muß das nicht mißverstehen. Der Chela, der diese Stufe erlangt hat, ist ein ebenso guter Bürger und Familienvater, ein ebenso guter Freund, wie er es sonst wäre, wenn er nicht zur Chelaschaft gekommen wäre. Aus nichts braucht er herausgerissen zu werden. Was er da erlebt, das ist ein Entwickelungsgang der Seele. Da erlangt er eine neue Heimat in einer Welt, die hinter dieser sinnlichen liegt.

Was ist denn da geschehen? Es tönt die geistige Welt in den Menschen herein, und indem die geistige Welt in den Menschen hereintönt, überwindet er eine Illusion, die Illusion überhaupt, in der im Grunde genommen alle Menschen vor dieser Stufe der Entwickelung befangen sind. Das ist die Illusion des persönlichen Selbst. Der Mensch glaubt, er sei eine Persönlichkeit, abgesondert von der übrigen Welt. Schon ein bloßes Nachdenken könnte ihn lehren, daß er selbst im Physischen keine selbständige Wesenheit ist. Bedenken Sie, wenn in diesem Raume die Temperatur um zweihundert Grad höher wäre als jetzt, wir würden hier alle nicht bestehen können, wie wir jetzt bestehen. Sobald sich die Verhältnisse draußen ändern, sind die Bedingungen zu unserem physischen Dasein nicht mehr da. Wir sind nur die Fortsetzung der Außenwelt und schlechterdings undenkbar als Sonderwesen. Das ist noch mehr der Fall in der seelischen und in der geistigen Welt. Wir sehen, daß der Mensch, als Selbst aufgefaßt, nur eine Illusion ist, daß er ein Glied der allgemeinen göttlichen Geistigkeit ist. Hier überwindet der Mensch das persönliche Selbst. Es tritt das auf, was Goethe im Chorus mysticus mit den Worten ausgesprochen hat: «Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis.» Was wir sehen, ist nur ein Bild einer ewigen Wesenheit. Wir selbst sind nur ein Bild einer ewigen Wesenheit. Wenn wir unser Sonderwesen aufgeben, dann haben wir das äußere Leben — und wir leben ja durch den Ätherkörper ein gesondertes Leben —, dann haben wir das äußere, gesonderte Leben überwunden, wir sind ein Teil des All-Lebens geworden.

Im Menschen tritt jetzt etwas auf, was wir die Buddhi genannt haben. Praktisch ist jetzt die Buddhi erreicht, als eine Entwickelungsstufe des Ätherkörpers, jenes Ätherkörpers, der nicht mehr ein Sonderdasein bewirkt, sondern eintritt in das All-Leben. Der Mensch, der dieses erreicht hat, ist auf der zweiten Stufe der Chelaschaft angelangt. Dann fallen von seiner Seele alle Skrupel und Zweifel ab, dann kann er nicht mehr ein abergläubischer Mensch sein, ebensowenig wie er ein zweifelnder Mensch sein kann. Dann braucht er sich nicht mehr die Wahrheit dadurch zu verschaffen, daß er seine Vorstellungen mit der äußeren Umwelt vergleicht, dann lebt er im Ton, im Wort der Dinge, dann tönt und klingt es aus dem Wesen heraus, was es ist. Da gibt es keinen Aberglauben, keinen Zweifel mehr. Das nennt man die Auslieferung des Schlüssels des Wissens an den Chela. Wenn er diese Stufe erlangt hat, dann tönt ein Wort von der geistigen Welt in diese hinein. Dann verkündigt sein Wort nicht mehr die Wiedergabe dessen, was in dieser Welt ist, sondern es ist sein Wort die Wiedergabe dessen, was aus einer anderen Welt stammt, die hereinwirkt in diese, die aber nicht mit unseren äußeren Sinnen angeschaut werden kann. Boten der Gottheit sind diese Worte.

Wenn diese Stufe überschritten ist, kommt eine neue. Es tritt dies ein, daß der Mensch Einfluß gewinnt auf das, was sein physischer Körper unmittelbar tut. Vorher hatte er nur auf den Ätherkörper Einfluß, jetzt aber auf den physischen Körper. Seine Handlungen müssen den physischen Körper in Bewegung versetzen. Was der Mensch tut, wird eingegliedert in das, was wir sein Karma nennen. Aber der Mensch arbeitet nicht bewußt daran; er weiß nicht, wie er durch seine Tat eine Wirkung nach sich zieht. Erst jetzt fängt der Mensch an, in bewußter Weise in der physischen Welt die Handlungen so zu vollführen, daß er bewußt an seinem Karma arbeitet. Da gewinnt er Einfluß auf das Karma durch das physische Handeln. Da tönt es nicht nur von den Dingen der Umwelt, sondern da ist er so weit, daß er die Namen aller Dinge auszusprechen in der Lage ist. So wie der Mensch in unserer Kulturstufe lebt, ist er nur in der Lage, einen einzigen Namen auszusprechen. Und das ist der Name, den er sich selbst gibt: Ich. Das ist der einzige Name, den der Mensch sich selbst geben kann. Wer sich tiefer darein versenkt, der kann zu tiefen Erkenntnissen kommen, von denen die Schulpsychologie nichts träumt. Ein Einziges ist es, zu dem nur Sie selbst den betreffenden Namen geben können. Kein anderer kann zu Ihnen Ich sagen, nur Sie selbst. Zu jedem anderen müssen Sie du sagen und jeder andere muß zu Ihnen du sagen. Es ist in jedem etwas, zu dem jeder nur selbst den Namen Ich sagen kann. Deshalb spricht die jüdische Geheimlehre auch vom unaussprechlichen Namen Gottes. Das ist etwas, was unmittelbar eine Ankündigung des Gottes in ihm ist. Verboten war es, diesen Namen unwürdig und unheilig auszusprechen. Daher die heilige Scheu, die Wichtigkeit und Wesentlichkeit, wenn der jüdische Geheimlehrer diesen Namen aussprach. Ich ist das einzige Wort, das Ihnen etwas sagt, was Ihnen niemals in der Außenwelt entgegentreten kann. So nun, wie der Durchschnittsmensch seinem Ich allein den Namen gibt, so gibt der Chela im dritten Grade allen Dingen der Welt Namen, die er aus der Intuition heraus hat. Das heißt, er ist aufgegangen in das Welten-Ich. Er spricht aus diesem Welten-Ich selbst heraus. Er darf den tiefinnersten Namen eines jeglichen Dinges zu diesem Dinge sagen, während der auf der Durchschnittsstufe stehende heutige Mensch nur Ich zu sich sagen kann. Wenn der Chela diese Stufe erlangt hat, dann nennt man ihn einen Schwan. Der Chela, der sich bis zu dem Namen aller Dinge erheben kann, wird Schwan genannt, weil er der Verkündiger aller Dinge ist.

Was über den dritten Grad hinausliegt, ist nicht mit gewöhnlichen Worten auszusprechen. Das erfordert die Kenntnis einer besonderen Schrift, die nur in den Geheimschulen gelehrt wird. Der folgende Grad ist der Grad des Verhüllten. Darüber hinaus liegen die Grade, welche die großen Eingeweihten haben, jene Eingeweihten, welche unserer Kultur zu allen Zeiten die großen Impulse gegeben haben. Chelas waren sie zuerst. Zuerst haben sie den Schlüssel des Wissens erlangt. Dann wurden sie hingeführt zu den Regionen, wo ihnen das Allgemeine und die Namen der Dinge erschlossen wurden. Dann erhoben sie sich zur Stufe des All. Dann konnten sie die tiefen Erlebnisse haben, durch welche sie geeignet waren, die großen Religionen der Welt zu stiften.

Aber nicht nur die großen Religionen, sondern überhaupt jeder große Impuls, alles, was wichtig ist in der Welt, ist von den großen Eingeweihten ausgegangen. Nur zwei Beispiele seien angeführt dafür, welcher Art der Einfluß der großen Eingeweihten, die die Schulung durchgemacht haben, auf die Welt ist.

Versetzen wir uns zurück in die Alltäglichkeit jener Zeit, wo unter der Führung des Hermes die Schüler der Einweihungsschulen angeleitet worden sind. Diese Anleitung war zunächst ein gewöhnlicher, sogenannter esoterischer, wissenschaftlicher Unterricht. Nur mit ein paar Strichen kann ich Ihnen hinzeichnen, was ein solcher Unterricht enthielt. Es wurde da gezeigt, wie der Weltengeist heruntersteigt in die Körperwelt, sich verkörpert, und wie er in der Materie auflebt, wie er im Menschen dann seine höchste Stufe erreicht und seine Auferstehung feiert. Das hat besonders Paracelsus noch so schön ausgedrückt, indem er sagte: Was wir draußen treffen, diese einzelnen Wesen, sind die Buchstaben, und das Wort, das aus ihnen zusammengefügt ist, das ist der Mensch. - Wir haben alle menschlichen Tugenden oder Schwächen auf die Geschöpfe draußen abgeladen. Der Mensch aber ist der Zusammenfluß von alledem. Wie in dem Menschen ein Zusammenfluß des übrigen Makrokosmos als Mikrokosmos auflebt, das wurde in den Einzelheiten und mit ungeheurem Geistesreichtum als esoterischer Unterricht in den ägyptischen Einweihungsschulen gelehrt.

Nach diesem Unterricht kam der hermetische Unterricht. Was ich gesagt habe, das kann man mit den Sinnen und mit dem Verstande begreifen. Was aber im hermetischen Unterricht geboten wurde, das kann man nur begreifen, wenn man den ersten Grad der Chelaschaft erreicht hat. Dann lernt man jene besondere Schrift kennen, welche nicht eine zufällige und willkürliche ist, sondern welche die großen Gesetze der geistigen Welt widergibt. Diese Schrift ist nicht wie die unsrige ein äußerliches Abbild, das willkürlich in einzelnen Buchstaben und Gliedern festgesetzt ist, sondern sie ist herausgeboren aus dem geistigen Naturgesetze selbst, weil der Mensch, der dieser Schrift kundig ist, im Besitze dieser Naturgesetze ist. So wird all sein Vorstellen im Seelen- und Astralraum selbst ein Gesetzmäßiges. Was er vorstellt, stellt er im Sinne dieser großen Schriftzeichen vor. Das kann er, wenn er sein Selbst aufgibt. Er fügt sich den urewigen Gesetzen. Jetzt hat er seinen hermetischen Unterricht hinter sich. Nunmehr wird er selbst zur ersten Stufe einer tieferen Initiation zugelassen. Jetzt soll er als nächste Stufe etwas in der Astralwelt, in der eigentlichen Seelenwelt erleben, was eine Bedeutung hat, die über die Weltenzyklen hinüberreicht. Nachdem er die Fähigkeit erlangt hat, daß die astralen Sinne voll wirken, so daß sie herunterwirken bis in den Ätherkörper, dann wird er drei Tage eingeführt in ein tiefes Geheimnis der astralen Welt. Dann erlebt er in der astralen Welt das, was ich Ihnen das letzte Mal als den Ursprung der Erde und des Menschen beschrieben habe. Dieses Heraussteigen des Geistes, dieses Auseinandertreten von Sonne und Mond und Erde und das Hervorgehen des Menschen, diese ganze Reihe von Erscheinungen, die erlebt er, die hat er vor sich. Und zu gleicher Zeit hat er sie so vor sich, daß sie ein Bild werden. Und dann tritt er heraus. Nachdem er dieses große Erlebnis in der Einweihungsschule hinter sich hat, tritt er unter das Volk und erzählt, was er in dieser seelischen und astralischen Welt erlebt hat. Und diese Erzählung lautet ungefähr so:

Einst war ein Götterpaar mit der Erde vereinigt, Osiris und Isis. Dieses Götterpaar sind die Regenten alles dessen, was auf der Erde geschieht. Aber Osiris wurde von dem Typhon verfolgt und zerstückelt, und die Isis mußte seinen Leichnam suchen. Sie brachte ihn nicht nach Hause, sondern es wurden an den verschiedenen Orten der Erde die Osirisgräber angelegt. Da ist er also ganz heruntergestiegen und in der Erde begraben. Da aber fiel auf Isis ein Strahl der geistigen Welt, der sie befruchtete zu dem neuen Horus durch unbefleckte Empfängnis.

Dieses Bild war nichts anderes als eine große Darstellung dessen, was wir soeben kennengelernt haben als das Hervortreten von Sonne und Mond, als das Auseinandergehen von Sonne und Mond und als das Aufgehen des Menschen. Isis ist das Sinnbild vom Mond, Horus bedeutet die Erdenmenschheit, die Erde selbst. Als die Menschheit noch nicht mit warmem Blute begabt war, als sie noch nicht umkleidet war mit dem physischen Körper, da hat die Menschheit in großen Bildern das empfunden, was in der seelischen Welt vorgeht. Vorbereitet war sie dazu, je im Beginne der lemurischen, der atlantischen und der arischen Entwickelung von den großen Eingeweihten, die großen Wahrheiten in solchen Bildern zu empfangen. Daher wurden diese Wahrheiten nicht einfach so hingestellt, sondern in dem Bilde von Osiris und Isis gegeben. Alle die großen Religionen, die wir im Altertum antreffen, sind von den großen Eingeweihten erlebt worden in dem seelischen Raum. Und heraus traten diese großen Eingeweihten und sprachen zu einem jeglichen Volk in der Art, wie es das Volk verstehen konnte, nämlich in Bildern, von dem, was sie selbst in den Einweihungsschulen erlebt haben. Das war im Altertum so. Nur dadurch, daß man in einer solchen Einweihungsschule war, konnte man zu dem höheren astralen Erlebnis hinaufsteigen.

Mit dem Heraufkommen des Christentums ist das anders geworden. Es stellt einen bedeutsamen Einschnitt dar in der Entwickelung. Seit dem Erscheinen Christi war es möglich, daß man eingeweiht werden konnte als Natureingeweihter, wie man auch vom Naturdichter spricht. Es gibt christliche Mystiker, welche aus Gnade die Einweihung erhalten hatten. Der erste, welcher dazu berufen war, das Christentum herauszutragen in alle Welt unter der Einwirkung des Spruches: «Selig sind, die da glauben, auch wenn sie nicht sehen», das war Paulus. Die Erscheinung auf dem Wege nach Damaskus war eine Einweihung außerhalb der Mysterien. Auf weitere Einzelheiten kann ich hier nicht eingehen.

In allen großen Bewegungen und Kulturbegründungen gaben die großen Eingeweihten die Impulse. Aus dem Mittelalter ist uns ein schöner Mythus erhalten, der das zeigen sollte in einer Zeit, als man noch nicht materialistische Gründe verlangte. Das Epos ist in Bayern entstanden und hat daher das Kleid des Katholizismus angenommen. Was damals geschehen ist, wollen wir uns auf folgende Weise klarmachen. In Europa entstand damals die sogenannte Städtekultur, das moderne Bürgertum. Die Fortentwickelung der Menschheit, jeder Seele Vorschreiten zu einer nächsten Stufe hat der Mystiker aufgefaßt als das Aufrücken der Seele, des Weiblichen im Menschen. Der Mystiker sieht in der Seele etwas Weibliches, das von den niederen Sinneseindrücken der Natur und von den ewigen Wahrheiten befruchtet wird. In jedem geschichtlichen Prozeß sieht der Mystiker einen solchen Befruchtungsprozeß. Die großen Impulse für den Fortschritt der Menschheit werden für denjenigen, welcher tiefer hineinschaut in den Entwickelungsgang der Menschheit, der die geistigen Kräfte sieht, die hinter den physischen Erscheinungen stehen, diese tiefen Impulse werden von den großen Eingeweihten gegeben. So hat auch der mittelalterliche Weltanschauungsmensch den großen Eingeweihten zugeschrieben jenen Aufstieg der Seele zu höheren Stufen während des neuen Kulturabschnittes, der durch die Städte bewirkt worden ist. Diese Städteentwickelung wurde dadurch erreicht, daß die Seele einen Ruck vorwärts machte in der Geschichte. Ein Eingeweihter war es, welcher diesen Ruck bewirkte. Alle großen Impulse schrieb man der großen Loge der Eingeweihten, die den Heiligen Gral umgaben, zu. Von dort kamen die großen Eingeweihten, die für den äußeren Menschen nicht sichtbar sind. Und denjenigen, der dazumal die Städtekultur mit einem Impulse versehen hat, nannte man damals im Mittelalter Lohengrin. Das ist der Sendling des Heiligen Grals, der großen Loge. Und die Städteseele, das Weibliche, welches befruchtet werden soll durch die großen Eingeweihten, das ist angedeutet durch Elsa von Brabant. Derjenige, der vermitteln soll, ist der Schwan. Lohengrin wird durch den Schwan herübergebracht in diese physische Welt. Der Eingeweihte darf nicht um seinen Namen gefragt werden. Er gehört einer höheren Welt an. Der Chela, der Schwan, hat diesen Einfluß vermittelt.

Nur andeuten habe ich können, daß der große Einschlag wieder symbolisiert wurde für das Volk in einem Mythos. So haben die großen Eingeweihten gewirkt und in ihre Lehren das, was sie zu verkündigen haben, hineingelegt. So wirkten auch die, welche die elementare Kultur der Menschheit begründet haben: Hermes in Ägypten, Krishna in Indien, Zarathustra in Persien, Moses im jüdischen Volk. Dann wirkten wieder Orpheus, Pythagoras und endlich derjenige, der der Eingeweihte der Eingeweihten ist, Jesus, der den Christus in sich getragen hat.

Damit sind nur die Großen der Eingeweihten bezeichnet. Wie deren Zusammenhang mit der Welt ist, das haben wir in diesen Ausführungen zu charakterisieren versucht. Was damit geschildert worden ist, wird vielen Menschen noch fernliegen. Aber diejenigen, welche selbst in ihrer Seele etwas verspürt haben von den höheren Welten, haben immer hinaufgeschaut, nicht nur zu den geistigen Welten, sondern auch zu den Menschheitsführern. Nur unter diesem Gesichtspunkte waren sie imstande, so begeistert zu sprechen wie Goethe. Aber Sie finden auch bei anderen noch etwas von einem heiligen Funken, der hinleitet zu diesem Punkte, den uns die Geisteswissenschaft wiederbringen soll. Bei einem Deutschen werden Sie es finden, bei einem jungen verständigen deutschen Dichter und Denker, dessen Leben sich ausnimmt wie eine selige Erinnerung eines früheren Lebens eines großen Eingeweihten. Wer Novalis liest, wird etwas verspüren von dem Hauch, der in diese höhere Welt hineinführt. Es ist nicht so ausgesprochen wie gewöhnlich, aber es ist etwas in ihm, was auch die Zauberworte haben. Dashalb hat er das schöne Wort des Verhältnisses unseres Planeten zur Menschheit geschrieben, das für den Niederen, Unentwickelten, wie auch für den Eingeweihten gilt:

Die Menschheit ist der Sinn unseres Erdenplaneten, die Menschheit ist der Nerv, welcher diesen Erdenplaneten mit den oberen Welten verbindet, die Menschheit ist das Auge, wodurch dieser Erdenplanet den Blick hinaufrichtet in die Himmelreiche des Weltalls.

Fragenbeantwortung

Frage: Warum hat Christus keine Schriften hinterlassen?

Dr. Steiner: Das ist gerade der Grundunterschied zwischen ihm und den früheren Religionsstiftern. Christus sagt: «Ich bin der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben.» Die anderen Religionsstifter waren Weg und Wahrheit. Sie haben verkündigt das, was getan und geglaubt werden soll, wie das Moses zum Beispiel getan hat. Wenn wir die alten Religionsbekenntnisse studieren, dann werden wir in dem Inhalt keinen Unterschied finden zwischen dem Christentum als Lehre und den anderen großen Religionen. Wer das ägyptische Religionssystem in seiner Tiefe kennt, der findet alles, was im Christentum enthalten ist, auch da. Und so ist es mit allen Religionen. Dennoch ist das Christentum etwas völlig Neues, nicht als Lehre, sondern als Tatsache. Daher habe ich mein Buch genannt: «Das Christentum als mystische Tatsache.» Die Erscheinung Christi bedeutet etwas, was mit «selig» bezeichnet wird, von Seele durchdrungen. Jetzt sollen alle selig werden, welche im Glauben zusammenhängen mit dem Stifter. Christus steigt herab in das Tal und wird Mensch unter Menschen. Er lehrt nichts Neues, aber er lebt im unmittelbaren Dasein, in eigenster Persönlichkeit dasjenige, was die anderen gelehrt haben. Was die anderen gelehrt haben, war der Logos, die göttliche Wahrheit. Wenn Sie Buddha studieren, die erhabenen Lehren des Hermes durchdringen oder die Lehren der Veden, so haben Sie äußere Aussprüche des göttlichen Schöpferwortes. Der Logos ist da Lehre geworden.

The Great Initiates

The theosophical worldview differs from, one might say, all other worldviews that we encounter today in that it also provides a high degree of satisfaction in terms of knowledge. We have heard so often in the present day that certain things are unknowable to us, that our cognitive abilities have limits and cannot rise above a certain level. When we consider contemporary philosophical investigations, we always hear talk of such limits to knowledge, especially in those philosophical schools that go back to Kantianism. The view of the theosophist and the practical mystic differs from all such debates in that it never sets limits on human cognitive abilities, but rather considers them to be capable of expansion and elevation. Is it not, to a certain extent, a form of immodesty of the highest order when someone considers their particular cognitive abilities, the point of view from which they currently perceive things, to be decisive in a certain sense, and then says that we cannot go beyond a certain limit with these cognitive abilities? The theosophist says: Today I stand at a certain point of human cognition. From this point of view, I can recognize this or that, but not this or that. — But it is possible to develop human cognitive ability itself, to elevate this cognitive ability itself. What are called schools of initiation are essentially intended to raise this human faculty of cognition to a higher level, so that it is certainly correct to say, from a lower level of cognition, that there are limits to cognition, that one cannot recognize this or that. But one can also rise above such a level of cognition; one can advance to higher levels, and then one can recognize what one could not recognize at lower levels. This is the essence of initiation, and this deepening or raising of cognition is the task of the schools of initiation. The aim is to raise people to levels of knowledge that they cannot attain naturally, but which they must acquire through many years of patient practice.

Such initiation schools have existed at all times. In all peoples, higher types of knowledge have emerged from such initiation schools. And the essence of such initiation schools and of the great initiates themselves, who have grown beyond the lower levels of human knowledge and, through their inspirations, have become known for the highest knowledge accessible to us on this globe, is expressed in the fact that these initiates have given the various peoples of the earth their different religions and worldviews.

Today we want to shed some light on the nature of these great initiates or initiates. Just as in every science, in every spiritual method, one must first learn the methods by which one gains knowledge, so it is in the initiation schools. There, too, it is a matter of being led up to the higher levels of knowledge of which we have just spoken by means of certain methods. I will now briefly outline the levels in question. Certain levels of knowledge can only be attained in the innermost schools of initiation, only where there are teachers who have themselves gone through that school, who have themselves undergone those exercises, who can truly consider each individual level, each individual step. And only such teachers should be trusted in these initiation schools.

However, there is nothing of authority in these initiation schools, nothing of the principle of dogmatism, but only the principle of advising, of giving advice. Those who have gone through a certain stage of learning and thereby acquired the experiences of higher, supersensible life for themselves know what the intimate paths are that lead to this higher knowledge. Only such a person is qualified to say what needs to be done. What is necessary in this area between student and teacher is simply trust. Those who do not have this trust cannot learn anything. But those who do have this trust will very soon see that no occult, mystical, or secret teacher recommends anything other than what this teacher himself has gone through. The point is that of the entire being of the human being as he stands before us today, only the outwardly visible part is already complete within human nature. Anyone who wants to pursue secret training must realize that human beings today, as they stand before us, are not complete beings, but are in the process of development and will reach much higher stages in the future.

What has already attained the likeness of God today, what has reached the highest stage in human beings today, is the human sensory body, what we can see with our eyes and perceive with our senses. But that is not the only thing human beings have. Human beings have even higher members of their nature. First of all, they possess another member, which we call the etheric body. Those who have developed their soul organs can see this etheric body. Through this etheric body, human beings are not merely structures in which chemical and physical forces are at work, but living structures, structures that live, endowed with growth, life, and the ability to reproduce. This etheric body, which represents a kind of archetype of the human being, can be seen when one uses the methods of clairvoyance, which will be characterized further on, to remove the ordinary physical body. You know that through the ordinary methods of hypnosis and suggestion, if you tell someone that there is no lamp here, they will actually see no lamp here. So if you develop sufficient willpower within yourself, the kind of willpower that distracts your attention, but thoroughly distracts it from the physical body, even though you are looking into the room, you can completely suggest the physical space away from yourself. Then you do not see the room as empty, but filled with a kind of archetype. This archetype has approximately the same shape as the physical body. However, it is not completely uniform, but thoroughly organized. It is not only permeated with fine veins and currents, but also has organs. This structure, this etheric body, causes the actual life of the human being. Its color can only be compared to the color of young peach blossoms. It is not a color that is contained in the solar spectrum; it is somewhere between violet and reddish. So this is the second body.

The third body is the aura, which I have described many times before, that cloud-like structure which I spoke of last time when I described the origin of the human being, in which the human being is like an egg-shaped cloud. Everything that lives in the human being as desire, passion, and feeling is expressed in it. Joyful, devoted feelings are expressed in bright streams of color in this aura. Feelings of hatred and sensual feelings are expressed in darker shades of color. Sharp, logical thoughts are expressed in sharply defined figures. Illogical, confused thoughts are expressed in figures with unclear outlines. Thus, in this aura we have a reflection of what lives in the human soul in terms of feelings, passions, and drives.

Just as human beings have now been described, they were placed on Earth — by the hand of nature, so to speak — at a time that lies approximately at the beginning of the Atlantean period. Last time, I described what is meant by the Atlantean period. At the point in time when fertilization with the eternal spirit had already taken place, human beings appeared before us with three members: body, soul, and spirit. Today, this threefold nature of the human being has already changed somewhat, because since that time, since nature released human beings, since they became self-conscious beings, they have worked on themselves. This work on oneself means refining one's aura, sending light into this aura out of self-awareness. The human being who stands at a very low level, who has not worked on himself, let us say a savage, has an aura as it was created for him by nature. But all those who live within our civilized, educated world have auras that they themselves have worked on, for insofar as man is a self-conscious being, he works on himself, and this work is first expressed in him by changing his aura. Everything that man has learned through nature, everything he has absorbed since he has been able to speak and think self-consciously, all of this is a new impact on his aura, brought about by himself.

If you think back to the Lemurian period, when humans had already had warm blood flowing in their veins for a long time, when their fertilization with the spirit had taken place in the middle of this Lemurian period, humans were not yet beings capable of bright thought. All this was just at the beginning of development. The spirit had just taken possession of the physical body. At that time, the aura was still entirely a result of natural forces. One could notice — and one can still notice this today in very low-level human beings — how a smaller aura of a bluish color arises at a certain point inside the head, that is, at a point that we must seek inside the head. This smaller aura is the outer auric expression of self-consciousness. And the more a person has developed this self-awareness through their thinking and work, the more this smaller aura spreads over the other, so that both often become completely different in a short time. People who live in external culture, who are educated, cultured individuals, work on their aura in the way that culture drives them. We absorb our ordinary knowledge, as provided by our schools, and our experiences in life, and they continually change our aura. But this change must be continued if a person wants to enter into practical mysticism. There they must work on themselves in a very special way. They must not only incorporate what culture offers them into their aura, but they must also exert a definite, regular influence on their aura. And this is done through what is called meditation. This meditation or inner contemplation is the first stage that the student of an initiate must go through.

What is the purpose of this meditation? Try to hold the thoughts you have from morning to night in your mind and think about how these thoughts are influenced by the place and time in which you live. Try to see if you can prevent your thoughts and ask yourself if you would have them if you did not happen to live in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, people did not think in the same way as people do today. If you think about how the world has changed over the last century and what time has brought about in terms of change, you will see that what fills your soul from morning to night depends on space and time. It is different when we indulge in thoughts that have eternal value. Actually, it is only certain abstract, scientific thoughts, the highest thoughts of mathematics and geometry, to which man devotes himself and which have eternal value. Two times two is four: that must be true at all times and in all places. The same is true of the geometric truths we absorb. But if we disregard the certain foundation of such truths, then we can say that the average person thinks very little that is independent of space and time. That which is dependent on them connects us to the world and has only a minor influence on that entity which is itself permanent.

Meditation means nothing other than surrendering to thoughts that have eternal value in order to consciously educate oneself to what lies beyond space and time. Such thoughts are contained in the great religious scriptures: the Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Gospel of John from the thirteenth chapter to the end, and also The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. Those who immerse themselves with patience and perseverance, so that they live in such writings, those who delve deeper every day and perhaps work on a single sentence for weeks, thinking it through and feeling it through, will reap infinite benefits. Just as one gets to know and love a child with all its peculiarities more closely every day, so one allows such a timeless sentence, originating from the great initiates or inspired people, to permeate one's soul every day. This then causes us to be filled with new life. The sayings in “Light on the Path,” written down by Mabel Collins according to higher instructions, are also very meaningful. Even the first four sentences are something that, when applied patiently in the appropriate manner, is capable of intervening in the human aura in such a way that this aura is completely illuminated with a new light. One can see this light shining and glowing in the human aura. The reddish or reddish-brownish shimmering color nuances are replaced by bluish ones, the yellow ones by light reddish ones, and so on. The entire colors of the aura change under the influence of such thoughts of eternity. The student cannot perceive this at first, but gradually begins to feel the profound influence emanating from this greatly changed aura.

If, in addition to these meditations, the human being consciously exercises certain virtues in the most careful manner, performs certain tasks of the soul, then his soul senses develop within this aura. We must have these if we want to see into the soul world, just as we must have physical senses to see into the physical world. Just as the outer senses have been implanted in the body by nature, so must human beings implant higher soul sense organs in their aura in a lawful manner. Meditation causes human beings to mature, to shape and develop these soul senses that are present in their predisposition from within.

But we must direct our attention to very specific spiritual activities if we want to develop these sensory organs. You see, human beings have a number of such sensory organs in their aura. We call these sensory organs the so-called lotus flowers because the astral structure that human beings begin to develop in their aura when they train themselves in the manner described above takes on the shape of lotus flowers. Of course, this is only a comparison, just as we speak of lungs, which only resemble wings. The two-petaled lotus flower is located in the center of the head above the bridge of the nose between the eyes. Near the larynx is the sixteen-petaled lotus flower, near the heart is the twelve-petaled lotus flower, and near the pit of the stomach is the ten-petaled lotus flower. Further down are the six-petaled and four-petaled lotus flowers. Today I would like to talk only about the sixteen-petaled and twelve-petaled lotus flowers.

In the teachings of Buddha, you will find the so-called eightfold path. Now ask yourself, why does Buddha specify this eightfold path as particularly important for reaching the higher stages of human development? This eightfold path is: right intention, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. Such a great initiate as Buddha does not speak from a vaguely felt ideal; he speaks from his knowledge of human nature. He knows what influence the practice of such spiritual activities has on those bodies that must still develop in the future. When we look at the sixteen-petaled lotus flower in today's average human being, we actually see very little. It is, if I may say so, in the process of blossoming again. In times long past, this lotus flower already existed. It has regressed in its development. Today it is reappearing somewhat through the cultural work of human beings. In the future, however, this sixteen-petaled lotus flower will come to full development again. It will shine brightly in its sixteen spokes or petals, each petal will appear in a different shade of color, and finally it will move from left to right. What every human being will experience and possess in the future is already being consciously developed today by those who seek training in the school of initiation, so that they may become leaders of humanity. Eight of these sixteen petals have already been developed in the distant past. Eight still need to be developed today if the student of occultism wants to be able to use these sense organs. These develop when the human being consciously and clearly follows the eightfold path, when he consciously practices these eight soul activities indicated by Buddha, when he arranges his entire soul life in such a way that he exercises these eight virtues as strongly as he can, so to speak, by taking himself in hand, as strongly as he can, supporting his meditation work and bringing the sixteen-petaled lotus flower not only to maturity but also to movement, to real perception.

I will now speak of the twelve-petaled lotus flower near the heart. Six of its petals were already developed in the distant past, and six must be developed in the future in all people, in initiates and their disciples today. In all theosophical manuals, you can find certain virtues listed which are to be acquired by those who wish to ascend to the level of the actual chela or disciple. These six virtues, which you will find listed in every theosophical handbook that discusses human development, are: control of thoughts, control of actions, tolerance, steadfastness, impartiality, and balance, or what Angelus Silesius calls serenity. These six virtues, which must be practiced consciously and attentively and added to meditation, bring forth the six additional petals of the twelve-petaled lotus flower. This is not blindly gleaned from theosophical textbooks, nor is it coincidental or based on one's own inner feelings, but rather spoken from the deepest knowledge of the great initiates. The initiates know that those who truly want to develop to higher supersensible stages of development must unfold the twelve-petaled lotus flower. To do this, they must develop the six petals that were not developed in the past through these six virtues today. So you see how, out of a deeper knowledge of the human being, the great initiates actually gave their instructions for life. I could extend this consideration to other organs of knowledge and observation, but I only want to give you a sketch of the initiation process, for which these hints should suffice.

When the student has progressed to the point where he begins to develop these astral sense organs, when he has progressed to the point where he is able to see not only the sensory impressions in his environment, but also what is spiritual, that is, what is in the aura of human beings, animals, and plants, then a whole new stage of instruction begins. No one can see anything spiritual in their surroundings before their lotus flowers turn, just as someone who has no eyes cannot see colors or light. When the wall is broken through, when he has progressed so far on the preliminary stage of knowledge that he has insight into this spiritual world, only then does his actual discipleship begin. This leads through four stages of knowledge. What happens at this moment when the human being, having passed through the preliminary stages, has become a chela? We have seen that what we have just described all relates to the astral body. This is thoroughly organized from the human body. A person who has gone through such a development has a completely different aura. When a person has illuminated their astral body from self-consciousness, when they themselves have become the luminous organization of their astral body, then we say that this disciple has illuminated their astral body with manas. Manas is nothing other than an astral body that is controlled by self-consciousness. Manas and the astral body are one and the same, but at different stages of development.

One must understand this if one wants to use what is described in theosophical manuals as the seven principles in a practical way for practical mysticism. Anyone who is familiar with the mystical path of development, anyone who knows something about initiation, will say that they have theoretical value for study, but for the practical mystic only if one knows the relationships that exist between the lower and higher principles. No practical mystic knows more than four members: the physical body, in which the chemical and physical laws operate, then the etheric body, then the astral body, and finally the self-consciousness, which we call Kamamana in the present development, the self-conscious thinking principle. Manas is nothing other than what self-consciousness works into the body. The etheric body, as it is now, is removed from any influence of self-consciousness. We can indirectly influence growth and nutrition, but not in the way we let our desires, thoughts, and mental images emanate from self-consciousness. Thus, we cannot influence our nutrition, digestion, and growth conditions ourselves. In humans, these are completely unrelated to self-consciousness. This etheric body must be brought under the influence of the astral body, the so-called aura. The self-consciousness of the astral body must be able to penetrate the etheric body and work on it of its own accord, just as humans work on their aura, their astral body, in the manner described. Then, when the human being, through meditation, through inner contemplation, and through the practice of the soul activities I have described, has reached the point where the astral body is organized of its own accord, then the work passes on to the etheric body, then the etheric body receives the inner word, then the human being hears not only what lives in the environment, but the inner meaning of things resounds in his etheric body.

I have often said here that what is truly spiritual in things is something that sounds. I have pointed out that the practical mystic, when he speaks in the right sense, speaks of a sound in the spiritual world, just as he speaks of a light in the astral or desire world. It is not for nothing that Goethe says, when he leads his Faust to heaven: “The sun sounds its ancient song in brotherly spheres, and completes its prescribed journey with a thunderous roar.” And it is not for nothing that Ariel says, when Faust is led into the spiritual world by the spirits: “The new day is already being born, sounding to spiritual ears.”

This inner sound, which is of course not perceptible to the outer sensory ear, this inner word of things, through which they express their own nature, is the experience that a person has when they are able to influence their etheric body from their astral body. Then they have become a chela, a true disciple of a great initiate. Then he can be led further along this path. Such a person who has ascended to this level is called a homeless person, because he has found a connection with a new world, because it sounds to him from the spiritual world, and because he no longer has his home in this sensory world, so to speak. This should not be misunderstood. The chela who has reached this stage is just as good a citizen and family man, just as good a friend, as he would have been if he had not become a chela. He does not need to be torn away from anything. What he experiences there is a process of development of the soul. There he finds a new home in a world that lies beyond this sensual world.

What has happened there? The spiritual world resounds within the human being, and as the spiritual world resounds within the human being, he overcomes an illusion, the illusion itself, in which, basically, all human beings are caught before this stage of development. This is the illusion of the personal self. The human being believes that he is a personality, separate from the rest of the world. Mere reflection could teach him that he is not an independent entity, even in the physical sense. Consider that if the temperature in this room were two hundred degrees higher than it is now, none of us would be able to exist here as we do now. As soon as conditions outside change, the conditions for our physical existence are no longer there. We are only the continuation of the outside world and simply unthinkable as separate beings. This is even more the case in the soul and spiritual world. We see that man, understood as a self, is only an illusion, that he is a member of the general divine spirituality. Here, man overcomes the personal self. What Goethe expressed in the Chorus mysticus with the words: “All that is transitory is only a parable.” What we see is only an image of an eternal being. We ourselves are only an image of an eternal being. When we give up our separate being, then we have outer life — and we do indeed live a separate life through the etheric body — then we have overcome outer, separate life, we have become part of all life.

Something now arises in the human being that we have called the Buddhi. In practical terms, the Buddhi is now attained as a stage of development of the etheric body, that etheric body which no longer causes a separate existence but enters into universal life. The human being who has attained this has reached the second stage of chelaship. Then all scruples and doubts fall away from his soul, then he can no longer be a superstitious person, just as he can no longer be a doubting person. Then he no longer needs to obtain the truth by comparing his mental images with the external environment; then he lives in the tone, in the word of things; then what it is sounds and resonates from the essence. There is no more superstition, no more doubt. This is called the handing over of the key of knowledge to the chela. When he has reached this stage, a word from the spiritual world sounds into it. Then his word no longer proclaims the reproduction of what is in this world, but his word is the reproduction of what comes from another world, which has an effect on this one, but which cannot be seen with our outer senses. These words are messengers of the deity.

Once this stage has been passed, a new one begins. What happens is that the human being gains influence over what his physical body does directly. Previously, he only had influence over the etheric body, but now he has influence over the physical body. His actions must set the physical body in motion. What the human being does is incorporated into what we call his karma. But the human being does not work consciously on this; he does not know how his actions bring about an effect. Only now does the human being begin to consciously perform actions in the physical world in such a way that he consciously works on his karma. In this way, he gains influence over karma through physical action. Not only do the things of the environment resound, but he is now able to pronounce the names of all things. As humans live at our stage of culture, they are only able to pronounce a single name. And that is the name they give themselves: I. That is the only name humans can give themselves. Those who delve deeper into this can arrive at profound insights that school psychology cannot even dream of. There is only one thing to which you yourself can give the relevant name. No one else can say “I” to you, only you yourself. You must say ‘you’ to everyone else, and everyone else must say “you” to you. There is something in everyone that only they themselves can call “I.” That is why Jewish esoteric teachings also speak of the unpronounceable name of God. This is something that is directly an announcement of the God within. It was forbidden to pronounce this name unworthily and unholy. Hence the sacred awe, the importance and significance when the Jewish esoteric teacher pronounced this name. I is the only word that tells you something that can never be encountered in the outside world. Just as the average person gives the name to his I alone, so the chela in the third degree gives names to all things in the world that he has from intuition. That means he has merged into the world I. He speaks from this world I itself. He may say the deepest name of any thing to that thing, while the average person today can only say “I” to himself. When the chela has reached this stage, he is called a swan. The chela who can rise to the name of all things is called a swan because he is the proclaimer of all things.

What lies beyond the third degree cannot be expressed in ordinary words. This requires knowledge of a special script that is only taught in secret schools. The following degree is the degree of the veiled. Beyond that lie the degrees attained by the great initiates, those initiates who have given our culture its great impulses throughout the ages. They were chelas first. First they attained the key of knowledge. Then they were led to the regions where the universal and the names of things were revealed to them. Then they rose to the level of the All. Then they were able to have the profound experiences that made them capable of founding the great religions of the world.

But not only the great religions, but every great impulse, everything that is important in the world, has come from the great initiates. Let us cite just two examples of the kind of influence the great initiates who have undergone training have had on the world.

Let us transport ourselves back to the everyday life of that time, when the students of the initiation schools were instructed under the guidance of Hermes. This instruction was initially a normal, so-called esoteric, scientific teaching. I can sketch for you in just a few strokes what such teaching entailed. It showed how the world spirit descends into the physical world, incarnates itself, and how it comes to life in matter, how it then reaches its highest stage in human beings and celebrates its resurrection. Paracelsus expressed this particularly beautifully when he said: What we encounter outside, these individual beings, are the letters, and the word that is formed from them is the human being. We have unloaded all human virtues or weaknesses onto the creatures outside. But human beings are the confluence of all this. How the rest of the macrocosm comes to life in human beings as a microcosm was taught in detail and with tremendous intellectual richness as esoteric teaching in the Egyptian initiation schools.

These teachings were followed by the Hermetic teachings. What I have said can be understood with the senses and the intellect. But what was offered in the Hermetic teachings can only be understood once one has reached the first degree of chelaship. Then one learns about that special script, which is not random and arbitrary, but reflects the great laws of the spiritual world. This script is not like ours, an external image arbitrarily fixed in individual letters and characters, but is born out of the spiritual laws of nature themselves, because the person who is knowledgeable in this script is in possession of these laws of nature. Thus, all his mental images in the soul and astral realms themselves become lawful. What he imagines, he imagines in the sense of these great characters. He can do this when he surrenders his self. He submits to the eternal laws. Now he has completed his hermetic instruction. Now he himself is admitted to the first stage of a deeper initiation. Now, as the next stage, he is to experience something in the astral world, in the actual soul world, which has a significance that extends beyond the world cycles. After he has attained the ability to fully activate the astral senses, so that they work down into the etheric body, he is then introduced for three days into a deep mystery of the astral world. Then, in the astral world, he experiences what I described to you last time as the origin of the earth and of human beings. This emergence of the spirit, this separation of the sun, moon, and earth, and the emergence of human beings—he experiences this whole series of phenomena, which he has before him. And at the same time, he has them before him in such a way that they become an image. And then he steps out. After he has had this great experience in the initiation school, he goes among the people and tells them what he has experienced in this soul and astral world. And this story goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a divine couple united with the earth, Osiris and Isis. This divine couple are the rulers of everything that happens on earth. But Osiris was pursued and dismembered by Typhon, and Isis had to search for his body. She did not bring him home, but instead Osiris' tombs were built in various places around the earth. So he descended completely and was buried in the earth. But then a ray from the spiritual world fell upon Isis, fertilizing her with the new Horus through immaculate conception.

This image was nothing other than a grand representation of what we have just learned as the emergence of the sun and moon, the separation of the sun and moon, and the rising of humankind. Isis is the symbol of the moon, Horus represents humanity on Earth, the Earth itself. When humanity was not yet endowed with warm blood, when it was not yet clothed in the physical body, humanity perceived in great images what was happening in the soul world. At the beginning of the Lemurian, Atlantean, and Aryan developments, it was prepared to receive the great truths in such images from the great initiates. Therefore, these truths were not simply presented, but given in the image of Osiris and Isis. All the great religions that we encounter in antiquity were experienced by the great initiates in the soul realm. And these great initiates came forth and spoke to each people in a way that the people could understand, namely in images of what they themselves had experienced in the initiation schools. That was the case in ancient times. Only by being in such an initiation school could one ascend to the higher astral experience.

With the advent of Christianity, this changed. It represents a significant turning point in development. Since the appearance of Christ, it has been possible to be initiated as a nature initiate, as one also speaks of nature poets. There are Christian mystics who have received initiation through grace. The first person called upon to spread Christianity throughout the world under the influence of the saying, “Blessed are those who believe, even though they do not see,” was Paul. The apparition on the road to Damascus was an initiation outside the mysteries. I cannot go into further details here.

In all great movements and cultural foundations, the great initiates provided the impetus. A beautiful myth has been preserved from the Middle Ages, which was intended to show this at a time when materialistic reasons were not yet demanded. The epic originated in Bavaria and therefore took on the guise of Catholicism. Let us clarify what happened at that time in the following way. At that time, the so-called urban culture, the modern bourgeoisie, emerged in Europe. The mystic understood the further development of humanity, the progress of each soul to the next stage, as the advancement of the soul, the feminine in human beings. The mystic sees in the soul something feminine that is fertilized by the lower sensory impressions of nature and by eternal truths. The mystic sees such a fertilization process in every historical process. The great impulses for the progress of humanity are given by the great initiates to those who look more deeply into the course of human development, who see the spiritual forces behind physical phenomena. Thus, the medieval worldview also attributed to the great initiates the ascent of the soul to higher levels during the new cultural period brought about by the cities. This urban development was achieved by the soul making a leap forward in history. It was an initiate who brought about this leap. All great impulses were attributed to the great lodge of initiates surrounding the Holy Grail. From there came the great initiates, who are invisible to the outer human being. And the one who gave the city culture an impulse at that time was called Lohengrin in the Middle Ages. He is the messenger of the Holy Grail, the great lodge. And the soul of the city, the feminine, which is to be fertilized by the great initiates, is symbolized by Elsa of Brabant. The one who is to mediate is the swan. Lohengrin is brought into this physical world by the swan. The initiate must not be asked his name. He belongs to a higher world. The chela, the swan, has mediated this influence.

I have only been able to hint that the great impact was symbolized again for the people in a myth. This is how the great initiates worked and incorporated what they had to proclaim into their teachings. This is also how those who founded the elementary culture of humanity worked: Hermes in Egypt, Krishna in India, Zarathustra in Persia, Moses among the Jewish people. Then Orpheus, Pythagoras, and finally the one who is the initiate of initiates, Jesus, who carried the Christ within himself, worked again.

This refers only to the great initiates. We have attempted to characterize their connection to the world in these remarks. What has been described here will still be foreign to many people. But those who have themselves felt something of the higher worlds in their souls have always looked up, not only to the spiritual worlds, but also to the leaders of humanity. Only from this perspective were they able to speak as enthusiastically as Goethe. But you will also find in others something of a sacred spark that leads to this point, which spiritual science is supposed to bring back to us. You will find it in a German, in a young, intelligent German poet and thinker whose life stands out like a blissful memory of a previous life of a great initiate. Anyone who reads Novalis will sense something of the breath that leads into this higher world. It is not as pronounced as usual, but there is something in him that also has the magic words. That is why he wrote the beautiful words about the relationship of our planet to humanity, which applies to the lower, undeveloped, as well as to the initiated:

Humanity is the meaning of our planet Earth, humanity is the nerve that connects this planet Earth with the higher worlds, humanity is the eye through which this planet Earth looks up into the heavenly realms of the universe.

Question and Answer

Question: Why did Christ leave no writings behind?

Dr. Steiner: That is precisely the fundamental difference between him and the earlier founders of religions. Christ says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The other founders of religions were the way and the truth. They proclaimed what should be done and believed, as Moses did, for example. If we study the ancient religious creeds, we will find no difference in content between Christianity as a doctrine and the other great religions. Anyone who knows the Egyptian religious system in depth will find everything that is contained in Christianity there as well. And so it is with all religions. Nevertheless, Christianity is something completely new, not as a doctrine, but as a fact. That is why I have called my book: “Christianity as a Mystical Fact.” The appearance of Christ signifies something that is described as “blessed,” imbued with soul. Now all who are connected in faith with the founder shall be blessed. Christ descends into the valley and becomes human among humans. He teaches nothing new, but he lives in immediate existence, in his own personality, what the others have taught. What the others taught was the Logos, the divine truth. When you study Buddha, penetrate the sublime teachings of Hermes, or study the teachings of the Vedas, you have external expressions of the divine creative word. The Logos has become teaching.