The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. The Great Initiates

[ 1 ] The theosophical worldview differs from—one might well say—all other worldviews we encounter today in that it also provides a high degree of satisfaction to the intellect. We have heard so often in our time: Certain things are unknowable to us; our cognitive faculties have limits and cannot rise above a certain level. When we consider the philosophical inquiries of our time—especially those of the philosophical schools that trace their origins to Kantianism—we are constantly confronted with talk of such limits to knowledge. The view of the theosophist and the practical mystic differs from all such debates in nature in that it never sets limits on human cognitive capacity, but rather regards it as capable of expansion and elevation. Is it not, to a certain degree, a form of immodesty of the highest order when someone regards their particular cognitive capacity—the standpoint of cognition on which they currently stand—as decisive in a certain sense, and then asserts that we cannot go beyond a certain limit with this capacity of ours? The theosophist says: I stand today at a certain point of view of human cognition. From this point of view, I can perceive this or that, or fail to perceive this or that. — But it is possible to develop human cognitive capacity itself, to elevate this cognitive capacity itself. What are called schools of initiation are essentially intended to raise this human capacity for knowledge itself to a higher level, so that it is certainly true when one says, from a lower level of knowledge, that there are limits to knowledge, that one cannot perceive this or that. But one can also rise above such a level of knowledge; one can advance to higher levels, and then one can perceive what one could not perceive at lower levels. This is the essence of initiation, and this deepening or elevation of knowledge is the task of the schools of initiation. The aim is to raise the human being to levels of knowledge that he cannot naturally attain, but must first acquire through many years of patient practice.

[ 2 ] Such schools of initiation have existed throughout history. Among all peoples, those with higher insight have emerged from such schools of initiation. And the essence of such schools of initiation and of the great Initiates themselves—who have risen above the lower stages of human cognitive power 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 bestowed the various religions and worldviews upon the different peoples of the Earth.

[ 3 ] Today we will briefly shed some light on the nature of these great initiates. Just as in every science and every spiritual practice one must first learn the methods by which one arrives at knowledge, so it is in the schools of initiation. Here, too, the point is that we are guided through certain methods to the higher levels of knowledge of which we have just spoken. I will now briefly outline the stages in question. Certain levels of knowledge can only be attained in the inner schools of initiation, only where there are teachers who have themselves undergone that school through their own experience, who have themselves undergone those exercises, and who can truly weigh every single level, every single step. And one must entrust oneself to such teachers alone in these schools of initiation.

[ 4 ] However, there is nothing of authority in these schools of initiation, nothing of the principle of dogmatism; rather, the principle that prevails there is simply that of counsel, of giving advice. Anyone who has gone through a certain stage of learning and thereby acquired the experiences of the higher, the supersensible life for themselves knows what the inner paths are that lead to this higher knowledge. Only such a person is qualified to say what one must do. What is necessary in this realm between student and teacher is simply trust. Anyone who lacks 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 that teacher has personally experienced. The point is that, of the entire being of the human being—as the human being stands before us today—only the outwardly visible part is actually complete within human nature at present. Everyone who aspires to secret training must realize that the human being, as he stands before us today, is not a complete being, but is in the process of development and will attain much higher stages in the future.

[ 5 ] That which has already attained the likeness of God today, that which has reached the highest level in human beings today, is the human physical body—that which we can see with our eyes and perceive with our senses in general. But this is not the only thing that human beings possess. Human beings have even higher aspects of their nature. First of all, they possess another aspect that we call the etheric body. This etheric body can be seen by those who have developed the spiritual organs within themselves. Through this etheric body, the human being is not merely a form in which chemical and physical forces are at work, but a living form, a form that lives and is endowed with growth, life, and the capacity for reproduction. 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 further characterized later—to suggest away the ordinary physical body. You know that through the ordinary method of hypnosis and suggestion, if you tell someone, “There is no lamp here,” they actually see no lamp here. Thus, if you develop sufficient willpower within yourself—that willpower which diverts attention, and diverts it thoroughly, from the physical body—you can, even while looking into the room, 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 roughly the same form as the physical body. However, it is not homogeneous throughout, but thoroughly organized. It is not only permeated with fine veins and currents, but it also has organs. This structure, this etheric body, constitutes the actual life of the human being. Its color can only be compared to the color of a young peach blossom. It is not a color found in the solar spectrum; it lies somewhere between violet and reddish. This, then, is the second body.

[ 6 ] The third body is the aura, which I have described on several occasions—that cloud-like formation 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 within the human being—desire, passion, and emotion—is expressed within it. Joyful, devoted feelings are expressed in bright streams of color within 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.

[ 7 ] Just as human beings have now been described, so were they—as it were, by the hand of Nature—placed upon the Earth at a time that lies roughly at the beginning of the Atlantean epoch. I described last time what is meant by the Atlantean epoch. At the point in time when the fertilization with the primal spirit had already taken place, we encounter the human being with the three members: body, soul, and spirit. Today, this threefold nature of the human being has, in essence, already undergone some change due to the fact that the human being has been working on himself since that time, since nature released him, since he became a self-conscious being. This work on oneself means refining one’s aura; it means sending light into this aura from a place of self-consciousness. A human being who stands at a very low level, who has not worked on themselves—let us say a savage—has an aura as nature created it. But all those who live within our civilized, our educated world have auras at which they have already worked themselves, for insofar as a human being is a self-conscious being, he works on himself, and this work is first expressed within him by the fact that it changes his aura. Everything a person has learned from nature, everything they have absorbed since they could speak and think self-consciously—all of this is a new imprint on their aura, brought about by themselves.

[ 8 ] If you imagine yourself back to the time of the Lemurian period, when human beings had already had warm blood flowing through their veins for a long time, and when their spiritualization had taken place in the middle of that Lemurian period, human beings were not yet beings capable of clear thought. All of this was just at the beginning of development. The spirit had just taken possession of the physical body. The aura at that time was still entirely a product of natural forces. One could observe—and one can still observe this today in people of very low spiritual development—how, at a certain point inside the head, that is, at a point we must seek within the head, a smaller aura of a bluish color arises. This smaller aura is the outer auric expression of self-consciousness. And the more a person has developed this self-consciousness through their thinking and their work, the more this smaller aura spreads over the other, so that often both become quite different in a short time. The person who lives in the outer culture, who is an educated, cultured individual, works on their aura in the way that culture drives them. We take in our ordinary knowledge, as offered by our schooling, and the experiences that life brings us, and they continually transform our aura. But this transformation must be sustained if a person wishes to enter into practical mysticism. There he must work on himself in a very special way. There he must not only incorporate into his aura what culture offers him, but he must also exert an influence on his aura in a specific, systematic manner. And this is achieved through what is called meditation. This meditation, or inner contemplation, is the first stage that the disciple of an initiate must undergo.

[ 9 ] What is the point of this meditation? Try to take stock of the thoughts you entertain from morning to night and reflect on how these thoughts are influenced by the place and time in which you live. Try to see if you can stop your thoughts, and ask yourself if you would have them if you didn’t happen to be living in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, people did not think in the same way as people do today. If you consider how the world has changed over the course of the last century and what changes time has wrought, then you will see that what fills your soul from morning to night depends on space and time. It is different when we devote ourselves to thoughts that have eternal value. In fact, it is only certain abstract, scientific thoughts—the highest thoughts of mathematics and geometry—to which human beings devote themselves, and which have eternal value. Two times two is four: this must hold true at all times and in all places. The same applies to the geometric truths we grasp. But if we disregard the specific 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 exerts only a slight influence on that essence which is itself enduring.

[ 10 ] Meditation means nothing other than surrendering oneself to thoughts that have eternal value, in order to consciously educate oneself toward that which lies beyond space and time. Such thoughts are found in the great religious scriptures: the Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, the Gospel of John from chapter thirteen to the end, and also *The Imitation of Christ* by Thomas à Kempis. Whoever immerses themselves with patience and perseverance, so that they live within such writings; whoever delves deeper anew each day and perhaps works on a single sentence for weeks on end, thinking it through and feeling it deeply—such a person will derive infinite benefit. Just as one comes to know and love a child with all its peculiarities more deeply each day, so one allows such a sentence of eternity—originating from the great initiates or from inspired individuals—to pass through one’s soul each 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 significant. Even the first four sentences are such that, if applied patiently in the appropriate manner, they are capable of penetrating the human aura in such a way that this aura is completely illuminated by a new light. One can see this light shining and glowing in a person’s 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 color spectrum of the aura changes under the influence of such thoughts of eternity. At first, the student cannot yet perceive this, but he gradually begins to feel the profound influence emanating from this greatly transformed aura.

[ 11 ] If, in addition to these meditations, a person consciously practices certain virtues with the utmost care—certain spiritual exercises—then their spiritual sense organs develop within this aura. We must possess these if we wish to look into the world of the soul, just as we must possess physical sense organs to be able to look into the physical world. Just as the outer senses have been implanted in the body by nature, so must a person, in accordance with the laws of nature, implant higher spiritual sense organs into their aura. Meditation causes the human being to mature, to act upon these soul senses—which are present in potential—from within, shaping and developing them.

[ 12 ] But we must direct our attention to very specific mental processes if we wish to develop these sense organs. You see, human beings have a series of such sense organs in their constitution. We call these sensory organs the so-called lotus flowers, because the astral formation that a person begins to develop in their aura when they train themselves in the manner described takes on the shape of lotus flowers, so to speak. Of course, this is only a comparison, just as we speak of lung lobes, which also bear only a resemblance to 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 the twelve-petaled, and near the pit of the stomach the ten-petaled. Further down are the six-petaled and four-petaled lotus flowers. Today I would like to speak only of the sixteen-petaled and twelve-petaled lotus flowers.

[ 13 ] In the Buddha’s teachings, you will find what is known as the Eightfold Path. Now ask yourself: why does the Buddha specifically identify this Eightfold Path as particularly important for attaining the higher stages of human development? This Eightfold Path consists of: Right Intention, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. — A great initiate such as the Buddha does not speak from some vaguely felt ideal; he speaks from an understanding of human nature; he knows what influence the practice of such spiritual activities has on those bodies that are yet to develop in the future. When we look at the sixteen-petaled lotus flower in the average person of today, we actually see very little. It is, if I may say so, just beginning to bloom again. In times of the distant past, this lotus flower already existed once. It has regressed in its development. Today it is reappearing somewhat through the cultural work of humanity. In the future, however, this sixteen-petaled lotus flower will once again reach full development. It will shine brightly in its sixteen spokes or petals; each petal will appear in a different hue, and finally it will move from left to right. What every human being will one day experience and possess in the future is already being consciously developed today by those who seek their training in the school of initiation, so that they may become leaders of humanity. Now, eight of these sixteen petals have already been developed in the distant past. Eight still need to be developed today if the secret student wishes to make use of these sense organs. These develop when the human being consciously, attentively, and clearly walks the eightfold path, when he consciously practices these eight soul activities indicated by the Buddha, when he organizes his entire soul life in such a way that he exercises these eight virtues—so to speak, by taking himself in hand— practices them as intensely as he possibly can, so that he supports his meditative work and brings the sixteen-petaled lotus flower not only to maturity but also to movement, to actual perception.

[ 14 ] I would now like to speak about the twelve-petaled lotus flower near the heart. Six of its petals had already unfolded in the distant past; six more must unfold in the future for all human beings—and for initiates and their disciples, even today. In all theosophical handbooks, you will find certain virtues listed that must be acquired by those who are to ascend to the stage 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, cause the six further petals of the twelve-petaled lotus flower to unfold. This is not blindly gleaned from theosophical textbooks, nor is it coined by chance or out of one’s own inner feeling, but is spoken from the deepest insight of the great Initiates. The Initiates know that whoever truly wishes to develop to higher super-sensory stages of development must bring the twelve-petaled lotus flower to bloom. To do so, they must develop today, through these six virtues, the six petals that were not developed in the past. Thus you see how, out of a deeper understanding of the human being, the great Initiates actually gave their instructions for life. I could extend this discussion to other organs of perception and observation, but I wish only to give you a sketch of the initiation process, for which these hints should suffice.

[ 15 ] When the student has progressed to the point where he begins to develop these astral sense organs, when he has reached the stage where he is thereby able to perceive not only the sensory impressions in his surroundings but also what is spiritual—that is, what constitutes the aura in 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 have turned, just as one who has no eyes cannot see colors or light. Once the wall has been broken through, once they have advanced so far on the preliminary stage of knowledge that they have gained insight into this spiritual world, only then does their actual apprenticeship 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 everything we have now described relates to the astral body. This is organized from within the human body. A person who has passed through such a development possesses a completely different aura. When the person has then illuminated their astral body from the perspective of 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 governed by self-consciousness. Manas and the astral body are one and the same, but at different stages of development.

[ 16 ] One must understand this if one wishes to apply what is described in theosophical handbooks as the seven principles in a practical way to practical mysticism. Anyone familiar with the course of mystical development, anyone who knows anything about initiation, will say that they have theoretical value for study, but for the practical mystic only if one understands the relationships that exist between the lower and higher principles. No practical mystic recognizes 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 stage of development—the self-conscious, thinking principle. Manas is nothing other than that which the self-consciousness works into the body. The etheric body, as it is now, is beyond the influence of self-consciousness. We can indirectly influence growth and nutrition, but not in the same way that we project our desires, thoughts, and ideas from self-consciousness. Thus, we cannot directly influence our nutritional, digestive, and growth conditions. In humans, these are entirely independent of 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 permeate the etheric body and work upon it of its own accord, just as a person works upon their aura, their astral body, in the manner described. Then, when a person, 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 shifts to the etheric body; then the etheric body receives the inner word; then the person hears not only what lives in the environment, but the inner meaning of things resounds within their etheric body.

[ 17 ] I have often said here that the truly spiritual aspect of things is a sound. I have pointed out that the practical mystic, when speaking in the proper 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, as he leads his Faust toward heaven: “The sun resounds in the old manner with a contest of song in the spheres of brotherhood, and it completes its prescribed journey with a thunderous roar.” And it is not for nothing that Ariel says, as Faust is led into the spiritual world by the spirits: “Resounding, the new day is already born for spiritual ears.”

[ 18 ] This inner sound—which, of course, is not a sound perceptible to the outer physical ear—this inner voice of things through which they express their own nature, is the experience a person has when they are able to influence their etheric body from their astral body. Then he has become a Chela, a true disciple of a great Initiate. Then he can be guided further along this path. Such a person, who has ascended to this stage, is called a homeless person, for the reason that he has found a connection with a new world, because it resonates with him from the spiritual world, and because, so to speak, he no longer has his home in this sensory world. This must not be misunderstood. The Chela who has attained this stage is just as good a citizen and family man, just as good a friend, as he would otherwise be had he not become a Chela. He need not be torn away from anything. What he experiences there is a process of soul development. There he attains a new home in a world that lies beyond this sensory one.

[ 19 ] What, then, has happened? The spiritual world resounds within the human being, and as the spiritual world resounds within the human being, he overcomes an illusion—the very illusion in which, fundamentally speaking, all human beings are caught before reaching this stage of development. This is the illusion of the personal self. Human beings believe they are personalities, separate from the rest of the world. Even a moment’s reflection could teach them that they are not independent beings, even in the physical realm. Consider this: if the temperature in this room were two hundred degrees higher than it is now, none of us could survive here as we do now. As soon as conditions outside change, the conditions for our physical existence are no longer present. We are merely the continuation of the external world and are simply inconceivable as separate beings. This is even more the case in the soul and spiritual worlds. We see that the human being, understood as a self, is merely an illusion; that he is a member of the universal divine spirituality. Here the human being overcomes the personal self. What occurs is what Goethe expressed in the Chorus mysticus with the words: “All that is transitory is but 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 existence—and we do, after all, live a separate life through the etheric body—then we have overcome the external, separate life; we have become a part of the universal life.

[ 20 ] Something now arises within the human being that we have called the buddhi. In practical terms, the buddhi has now been attained as a stage of development of the etheric body—that etheric body which no longer creates a separate existence but enters into the universal life. The human being who has attained this has reached the second stage of discipleship. 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 ascertain the truth by comparing his ideas with the external environment; then he lives in the tone, in the word of things; then what it is resounds and rings out from the very essence of being. There is no more superstition, no more doubt. This is called the handing over of the key to knowledge to the chela. When he has attained this stage, a word from the spiritual world resounds into this one. Then his word no longer proclaims a reproduction of what is in this world, but his word is a reproduction of what originates from another world that works into this one, yet cannot be perceived by our external senses. These words are messengers of the Deity.

[ 21 ] 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 had influence only over the etheric body, but now he has influence over the physical body. His actions must set the physical body in motion. What a person does becomes part of what we call their karma. But the person does not work on this consciously; they do not know how their actions bring about a consequence. Only now does the person begin to consciously perform actions in the physical world in such a way that they are consciously working on their karma. Thus he gains influence over karma through physical action. It is no longer merely the sounds of the surrounding world that resonate; rather, he has reached the point where he is able to utter the names of all things. As human beings live at our current stage of culture, they are only capable of uttering a single name. And that is the name they give themselves: I. That is the only name a human being can give to himself. Whoever delves deeper into this can arrive at profound insights that school psychology cannot even dream of. There is one thing to which only you yourself can give the relevant name. No one else can say “I” to you; only you yourself. To everyone else you must say “you,” and everyone else must say “you” to you. There is something within everyone to which only they themselves can say the name “I.” That is why Jewish esotericism also speaks of the unpronounceable name of God. This is something that is an immediate manifestation of God within them. It was forbidden to utter this name unworthily or unholily. Hence the sacred reverence, the importance, and the significance when the Jewish esoteric teacher uttered this name. “I” is the only word that tells you something that can never be encountered in the external world. Now, just as the average person gives the name “I” only to himself, so the chela of the third degree gives names to all things in the world, names he derives from intuition. That is to say, he has merged into the World-I. He speaks from this World-I itself. He may speak the innermost name of every thing to that thing, whereas the average person of today can only say “I” to himself. When the chela has attained 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 herald of all things.

[ 22 ] What lies beyond the third degree cannot be expressed in ordinary words. It requires knowledge of a special scripture that is taught only in the secret schools. The next degree is the degree of the Veiled. Beyond that lie the degrees possessed by the great Initiates, those Initiates who have given our culture its great impulses throughout the ages. They were first chelas. First, they attained the key to knowledge. Then they were led to the regions where the General 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 through which they became qualified to found the great religions of the world.

[ 23 ] But it is not only the major religions; every great impulse, everything of significance in the world, has originated with the great Initiates. Let us cite just two examples to illustrate the nature of the influence that the great Initiates, who have undergone the training, have on the world.

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

[ 25 ] After this teaching came the Hermetic teaching. What I have said can be understood with the senses and the intellect. But what was taught in the Hermetic teachings can only be understood once one has attained the first degree of discipleship. Then one becomes acquainted with that special script, which is not random or arbitrary, but which reflects the great laws of the spiritual world. This script is not, like ours, an external representation arbitrarily fixed in individual letters and characters, but is born of the spiritual laws of nature themselves, because the person who is knowledgeable of this script is in possession of these laws of nature. Thus, all his imagination in the soul and astral realms becomes itself a matter of law. What he imagines, he imagines in accordance with these great symbols. He can do this when he surrenders his ego. He submits to the eternal laws. Now he has completed his Hermetic instruction. Henceforth, 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 world of the soul—that has a significance extending beyond the world cycles. After he has attained the ability for the astral senses to function fully, so that they extend down into the etheric body, he is then initiated for three days into a profound mystery of the astral world. Then he experiences in the astral world what I described to you last time as the origin of the Earth and of humanity. This emergence of the spirit, this separation of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, and the emergence of humanity—this entire series of phenomena—he experiences it; it is before him. And at the same time, he has it before him in such a way that it becomes a picture. And then he steps out. After he has gone through this great experience in the school of initiation, he goes out among the people and tells what he has experienced in this soul and astral world. And this account goes something like this:

[ 26 ] Once upon a time, a divine couple was united with the Earth: Osiris and Isis. This divine couple are the rulers of all 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 the tombs of Osiris were established in various places on Earth. So he descended completely and was buried in the earth. But then a ray from the spiritual world fell upon Isis, which impregnated her with the new Horus through immaculate conception.

[ 27 ] This image was nothing other than a grand depiction of what we have just come to know as the emergence of the sun and moon, as the parting of the sun and moon, and as the dawning of humanity. 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 taking place in the soul world. It was prepared for this, at the beginning of the Lemurian, Atlantean, and Aryan periods of development, by the great Initiates to receive the great truths in such images. Therefore, these truths were not simply presented as they were, but were given in the image of Osiris and Isis. All the great religions we encounter in antiquity were experienced by the great initiates in the spiritual realm. And these great initiates stepped 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 schools of initiation. That was the case in antiquity. Only by being in such a school of initiation could one ascend to the higher astral experience.

[ 28 ] With the advent of Christianity, this changed. It represents a significant turning point in human development. Since the coming of Christ, it has been possible to be initiated as a nature-initiate, as one might also speak of a nature poet. There are Christian mystics who received initiation by grace. The first to be called to carry Christianity out into the whole world under the influence of the saying, “Blessed are those who believe, even though they do not see,” was Paul. The vision on the road to Damascus was an initiation outside the mysteries. I cannot go into further details here.

[ 29 ] In all great movements and cultural foundations, the great initiates provided the impetus. A beautiful myth has been preserved from the Middle Ages that was intended to illustrate this at a time when materialistic explanations were not yet required. The epic originated in Bavaria and therefore took on the guise of Catholicism. Let us clarify what happened back then 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 progression of every soul to the next stage—as the ascent of the soul, of the feminine within the human being. The mystic sees in the soul something feminine that is fertilized by the lower sensory impressions of nature and by eternal truths. In every historical process, the mystic sees such a process of fertilization. The great impulses for the progress of humanity are, for those who look more deeply into the course of human development, who see the spiritual forces behind physical phenomena, these deep impulses are given by the great initiates. Thus, the medieval thinker also attributed to the great Initiates that ascent of the soul to higher levels during the new cultural epoch, which was brought about by the cities. This urban development was achieved because the soul took a leap forward in history. It was an Initiate who brought about this leap. All great impulses were attributed to the Great Lodge of the Initiates surrounding the Holy Grail. From there came the great Initiates, who are invisible to the outer human being. And the one who, at that time, provided the urban culture with an impulse was called Lohengrin in the Middle Ages. He is the emissary of the Holy Grail, of the Great Lodge. And the city soul, the feminine principle that is to be fertilized by the great Initiates, is symbolized by Elsa of Brabant. The one who is to act as the mediator is the swan. Lohengrin is brought into this physical world by the swan. The initiate must not be asked for his name. He belongs to a higher world. The Chela, the swan, has mediated this influence.

[ 30 ] I have been able only to hint that this great impact was once again symbolized for the people in a myth. This is how the great initiates worked, weaving what they had to proclaim into their teachings. So too did those who laid the foundations of humanity’s elemental culture: Hermes in Egypt, Krishna in India, Zarathustra in Persia, Moses among the Jewish people. Then came Orpheus, Pythagoras, and finally the one who is the Initiate of Initiates, Jesus, who bore the Christ within himself.

[ 31 ] This refers only to the great ones among the initiates. We have attempted to describe their relationship to the world in these remarks. What has been described here will still seem distant to many people. But those who have themselves sensed something of the higher worlds in their souls have always looked upward, not only toward the spiritual worlds but also toward the leaders of humanity. Only from this perspective were they able to speak with such enthusiasm as Goethe did. But you will also find in others a trace of a sacred spark that leads to this point, which spiritual science is meant to restore to us. You will find it in a German, in a young, discerning German poet and thinker, whose life appears like a blissful memory of a past life of a great initiate. Whoever 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 the magic words also possess. That is why he wrote the beautiful words describing the relationship of our planet to humanity, which apply to the lower, undeveloped person as well as to the initiate:

[ 32 ] Humanity is the purpose of our Earth; humanity is the nerve that connects this Earth to the higher worlds; humanity is the eye through which this Earth gazes upward into the heavenly realms of the universe.

Questions and Answers

Question: Why didn't Christ leave any writings behind?

[ 33 ] 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 religious founders 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 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 titled my book: “Christianity as a Mystical Fact.” The appearance of Christ signifies something described as “blessed,” permeated by the soul. Now all who are united in faith with the Founder are to become blessed. Christ descends into the valley and becomes human among humans. He teaches nothing new, but he lives in immediate existence, in his very own personality, that which the others have taught. What the others taught was the Logos, the divine truth. When you study Buddha, delve into the sublime teachings of Hermes, or the teachings of the Vedas, you have external expressions of the divine creative word. The Logos has become doctrine there.