The Foundations of Esotericism
GA 93a
Introductory Remarks by the Editor
In his autobiography ‘The Course of My Life,’ Rudolf Steiner describes how at the turn of the century he was requested to hold theosophical lectures for what at that time was a very small theosophical circle in Berlin. He said he was willing to do so, but emphasised that he would only be able to speak about what lived within him as Spiritual Science. His first course of lectures given during the winter of 1900/01 was published at the request of the circle, compressed into book form, under the title ‘Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age’. Because the results of his own spiritual knowledge contained within it were accepted in the General Theosophical Society, there was ‘no longer any reason to refrain from bringing this spiritual knowledge in my own way before the theosophical public, which was at that time the only one which entered eagerly into these spiritual matters. I was not bound by any sectarian dogmatism; I remained someone who spoke out freely what he believed himself able to speak out entirely in accordance with what he himself experienced as the world of spirit.’
During the next winter—1901/02—there followed a second series of lectures which was published in the summer of 1902 in book-form as ‘Christianity as Mystical Fact’. Immediately afterwards the German Section of the Theosophical Society was founded with Rudolf Steiner as General Secretary. Here ‘I was able to unfold my anthroposophical activity before an ever-increasing public. Nobody remained in any doubt about the fact that in the Theosophical Society I would only bring forward the results of what I beheld in my own spiritual research.’
This was the beginning of an ever-increasingly intensive activity in the sphere of spiritual-scientific lectures. In June 1903 appeared the first number of ‘Lucifer’ (later ‘Lucifer-Gnosis’), ‘Magazine for Soul-life and Spiritual-culture Theosophy’. In the Spring of 1904 appeared the fundamental work ‘Theosophy—An introduction to Supersensible World-Knowledge and Human Destiny’. There immediately followed in ‘Lucifer’ the description of the path of schooling in the articles, ‘How to attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds’ and the presentation of a spiritual-scientific cosmology in the articles, ‘From the Akasha Chronicle’. (In English—Cosmic Memory.)
Thus the German Section of the Theosophical Society was gradually built up by Rudolf Steiner and his closest coworker Marie von Sivers, later Marie Steiner, into a far-reaching, Central European, spiritual-scientific movement. From the beginning it was this anthroposophical teaching represented by Rudolf Steiner which later, owing to internal difficulties, took on independent existence as the Anthroposophical Society.
At the time when Rudolf Steiner gave the lecture-course entitled ‘Foundations of Esotericism’ now for the first time appearing in book-form, the work was still in the initial stage of its development. Rudolf Steiner therefore always still made use of the expressions ‘theosophy’ and ‘theosophical’ and for the description of planetary evolution, of the members of man's being and so on, the Indian terminology usual in theosophical literature, to which at that time his audiences were accustomed. He makes special mention of the value of this terminology in the 15th lecture of this course. In his articles at that time and in his book, Theosophy he nevertheless makes use of expressions about which in 1903 he said in the magazine Lucifer, that ‘for certain reasons he borrowed these expressions from an occult language which, in its terminology, deviates slightly from that in the published theosophical writings, but with which in essence it is naturally in complete agreement.’ Later he replaced these theosophical expressions ever more and note by those adapted to our European culture. The explanations necessary for this course are to be found at the end of the volume.
In the lectures the frequently recurring use of names taken from the writings of H.P. Blavatsky is to be explained by the fact that the audiences at this time were intensively occupied with the teachings of the founder of the Theosophical Society and, because of the difficulty of understanding their meaning, they often brought their questions to Rudolf Steiner. So again and again he explained Blavatsky's indications from her principal work ‘The Secret Doctrine’, in particular those in the third volume dealing with esotericism.
The entire course was in fact private verbal instruction, thus not intended for the general circle of members, but only for a few active members who were personally invited to take part. It was intended to provide a certain basis for their own group work. For this reason there is no complete shorthand report, but only notes which certain of his hearers made for their personal use. These notes have a strongly aphoristic character which should be borne in mind if, owing to their shortened and condensed content, or also as a result of gaps in the text, they are not always entirely comprehensible. If today these notes appear in the Complete Edition it is because on the whole they are certainly reliable, and also because they provide us with valuable aspects of human and cosmic considerations, which are not to be found in this form in Rudolf Steiner's later lectures. For the clarification and further understanding of many points, particularly those of a cosmological character, one should refer to the words written at about the same time, i.e. ‘Cosmic Memory’ and ‘Theosophy’.
Hella Wiesberger
Vorbemerkung Des Herausgebers
Rudolf Steiner schildert in seiner Autobiographie «Mein Lebensgang», wie er um die Jahrhundertwende aufgefordert wurde, vor einem damals sehr kleinen theosophischen Kreis in Berlin theosophische Vorträge zu halten. Er erklärte sich dazu bereit, betonte aber, nur über dasjenige sprechen zu können, was in ihm selbst als Geisteswissenschaft lebt. Seine erste Vortragsreihe vom Winter 1900/01 erschien auf Wunsch des Kreises zusammengefaßt als Buch «Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens und ihr Verhältnis zu modernen Weltanschauungen». Da die darin enthaltenen Ergebnisse seiner eigenen Geist-Erkenntnis auch in der allgemeinen Theosophischen Gesellschaft akzeptiert wurden, gab es «keinen Grund mehr, vor dem theosophischen Publikum, das damals das einzige war, das restlos auf Geist-Erkenntnis einging, nicht in meiner Art diese GeistErkenntnis vorzubringen. Ich verschrieb mich keiner Sektendogmatik; ich blieb ein Mensch, der aussprach, was er glaubte aussprechen zu können ganz nach dem, was er selbst als Geistwelt erlebte.»
Im nächsten Winter - 1901/02 - erfolgte eine zweite Vortragsreihe, die zu der im Sommer 1902 erschienenen Schrift «Das Christentum als mystische Tatsache» zusammengefaßt wurde. Unmittelbar darauf wurde mit Rudolf Steiner als Generalsekretär die Deutsche Sektion der Theosophischen Gesellschaft gegründet. Hier «konnte ich nun vor einer sich immer vergrößernden Zuhörerschaft meine anthroposophische Tätigkeit entfalten. Niemand blieb im Unklaren darüber, daß ich in der Theosophischen Gesellschaft nur die Ergebnisse meines eigenen forschenden Schauens vorbringen werde.»
Das war der Beginn einer immer intensiver werdenden geisteswissenschaftlichen Vortragstätigkeit. Im Juni 1903 erschien die erste Nummer des von ihm begründeten und herausgegebenen «Luzifer» (später «LuciferGnosis»), «Zeitschrift für Seelenleben und Geisteskultur - Theosophie» und im Frühjahr 1904 das grundlegende Werk «Theosophie - Einführung in übersinnliche Welterkenntnis und Menschenbestimmung». Gleichzeitig erfolgte im «Luzifer» die Darstellung des Schulungsweges mit den Aufsätzen «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» und die Darstellung einer geisteswissenschaftlichen Kosmologie mit den Aufsätzen «Aus der Akasha-Chronik».
So wurde die Deutsche Sektion der Theosophischen Gesellschaft von Rudolf Steiner und seiner engsten Mitarbeiterin Marie von Sivers, spätere Marie Steiner, nach und nach zu einer weitreichenden mitteleuropäischen geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung aufgebaut. Sie war von Anfang an die von Rudolf Steiner vertretene anthroposophische Abteilung, die sich später auf Grund interner Schwierigkeiten zur Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft verselbständigte.
Zu der Zeit, da Rudolf Steiner den hier erstmals in Buchform erscheinenden Lehrgang über «Grundelemente der Esoterik» gab, befand sie sich noch im Anfangsstadium ihrer Entwickelung. Daher gebraucht Rudolf Steiner auch noch durchgehend die Ausdrücke «Theosophie» und «theosophisch» und für die Bezeichnung der planetarischen Entwickelung, der Wesensglieder des Menschen und so weiter noch die in der theosophischen Literatur übliche theosophisch-indische Terminologie, an welche die Zuhörer damals gewöhnt waren. Über den Wert dieser Terminologie spricht er sich besonders im 15. Vortrag dieses Kurses aus. In seinen damaligen Aufsätzen und seinem Werk «Theosophie» verwendete er jedoch schon Ausdrücke, von denen er 1903 in der Zeitschrift «Luzifer» sagte, daß er sie «aus gewissen Gründen einer okkulten Sprache entlehne, die in den Bezeichnungen von der in den verbreiteten theosophischen Schriften etwas abweiche, in der Sache aber natürlich mit ihnen völlig übereinstimme». Später ersetzte er auch in seinen Vorträgen die indisch-theosophischen Ausdrücke immer mehr durch solche, die unserer europäischen Kultur angemessen sind. Die für diesen Kursus notwendigen Worterklärungen durch die heute geläufigen Ausdrücke finden sich am Schlusse des Bandes.
Die in den Vorträgen außerdem häufig auftretenden Bezugnahmen auf die Schriften von H. P. Blavatsky sind daraus zu erklären, daß sich die damaligen Zuhörer intensiv mit diesem Lehrgut der Gründerin der Theosophischen Gesellschaft beschäftigten und sich auf Grund der schwerverständlichen Darstellungen oft mit Fragen an Rudolf Steiner wandten. So erläutert er immer wieder Angaben Blavatskys aus deren Hauptwerk «Die Geheimlehre», vor allem dem dritten Band, den Abhandlungen über «Esoterik».
Der ganze Kursus war eigentlich eine interne mündliche Unterweisung, also weder öffentlich noch für den allgemeinen Mitgliederkreis bestimmt, sondern nur für wenige aktive Mitglieder, die persönlich hierzu eingeladen waren. Sie sollten dadurch eine gewisse Grundlage für ihre eigene Zweigarbeit erhalten. Aus diesem Grunde gibt es auch keine vollständige stenographische Nachschrift, sondern nur Notizen, die sich einige Zuhörer für ihren persönlichen Gebrauch gemacht haben. Diese Hörernotizen haben einen stark aphoristischen Charakter, der zu berücksichtigen ist, wenn manche Gedankengänge infolge der gekürzten Zusammenziehung oder auch infolge von Lücken nicht immer ganz klar zu erfassen sind. Wenn heute diese Notizen trotzdem in die Gesamtausgabe eingereiht erscheinen, so deshalb, weil sie im ganzen gesehen sicher zuverlässig sind, und auch, weil durch sie wertvolle Aspekte geisteswissenschaftlicher Menschen- und Weltbetrachtung festgehalten wurden, die sich in dieser Form in den späteren Vorträgen Rudolf Steiners nicht mehr finden. Zur Verdeutlichung und Ergänzung mancher Punkte, insbesondere kosmologischer Natur, sollte man die ungefähr gleichzeitig geschriebenen Werke «Aus der AkashaChronik» und «Theosophie» heranziehen.
H.W.
Preliminary Remarks by the Editor
In his autobiography The Course of My Life, Rudolf Steiner describes how, at the turn of the century, he was asked to give theosophical lectures to a then very small theosophical circle in Berlin. He agreed to do so, but emphasized that he could only speak about what lived within him as spiritual science. At the request of the circle, his first series of lectures from the winter of 1900/01 was published in summary form as the book Mysticism in the Dawn of Modern Spiritual Life and Its Relationship to Modern Worldviews. Since the results of his own spiritual knowledge contained therein were also accepted by the general Theosophical Society, there was "no longer any reason not to present this spiritual knowledge in my own way to the theosophical audience, which at that time was the only one that was completely receptive to spiritual knowledge. I did not subscribe to any sectarian dogma; I remained a person who expressed what he believed he could express, entirely in accordance with what he himself experienced as the spiritual world.”
The following winter – 1901/02 – saw a second series of lectures, which were summarized in the publication Christianity as a Mystical Fact, which appeared in the summer of 1902. Immediately afterwards, the German Section of the Theosophical Society was founded with Rudolf Steiner as its General Secretary. Here, “I was now able to develop my anthroposophical work before an ever-growing audience. No one was left in any doubt that I would only present the results of my own research and observations in the Theosophical Society.”
This was the beginning of an increasingly intensive series of lectures on spiritual science. In June 1903, the first issue of Luzifer (later LuciferGnosis), Journal for Spiritual Life and Spiritual Culture – Theosophy, and in the spring of 1904, his fundamental work Theosophy – An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and Human Destiny. At the same time, Lucifer presented the path of training with the essays How Does One Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds? and the presentation of a spiritual scientific cosmology with the essays From the Akashic Records.
Thus, the German Section of the Theosophical Society was gradually built up by Rudolf Steiner and his closest collaborator, Marie von Sivers, later Marie Steiner, into a far-reaching Central European spiritual scientific movement. From the outset, it was the anthroposophical section represented by Rudolf Steiner, which later became independent as the Anthroposophical Society due to internal difficulties.
At the time when Rudolf Steiner gave the course on Fundamental Elements of Esotericism, which is now being published in book form for the first time, it was still in the early stages of its development. For this reason, Rudolf Steiner continues to use the terms “theosophy” and “theosophical” throughout, and to describe planetary development, the constitutional elements of the human being, and so on, he still uses the theosophical-Indian terminology customary in theosophical literature, to which his listeners at that time were accustomed. He speaks about the value of this terminology in particular in the 15th lecture of this course. However, in his essays at that time and in his work Theosophy, he already used terms which, as he said in 1903 in the magazine Luzifer, he “borrowed for certain reasons from an occult language, which differs somewhat in its terminology from that used in the widely read theosophical writings, but which of course agrees with them completely in substance.” Later, he increasingly replaced the Indian-theosophical expressions in his lectures with ones that are appropriate to our European culture. The explanations of words necessary for this course, using expressions that are common today, can be found at the end of the volume.
The frequent references to the writings of H. P. Blavatsky in the lectures can be explained by the fact that the audience at that time was intensively engaged with the teachings of the founder of the Theosophical Society and often turned to Rudolf Steiner with questions because of the difficult-to-understand presentations. He therefore repeatedly explains Blavatsky's statements from her main work, The Secret Doctrine, especially the third volume, which deals with esotericism.
The entire course was actually an internal oral instruction, i.e., it was neither public nor intended for the general membership, but only for a few active members who were personally invited to attend. The aim was to provide them with a certain foundation for their own branch work. For this reason, there is no complete stenographic transcript, but only notes that some listeners made for their personal use. These listener notes have a strongly aphoristic character, which must be taken into account when some trains of thought are not always entirely clear due to abridged summaries or gaps. Nevertheless, these notes are included in the complete edition today because, taken as a whole, they are certainly reliable and because they record valuable aspects of a spiritual scientific view of humanity and the world that are no longer found in this form in Rudolf Steiner's later lectures. For clarification and supplementation of some points, especially those of a cosmological nature, one should consult the works From the Akashic Records and Theosophy, which were written at about the same time.
H.W.