Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

The Temple Legend I
GA 93

11 November 1904, Berlin

6. Manicheism

We have been asked to say something about Freemasonry. This cannot be understood, however, until we have examined the original spiritual currents related to Freemasonry, which can be seen as its sources. An even more important spiritual current than Rosicrucianism was Manicheism. So first we need to speak about this much more important movement and then, at a later time, we can shed a light on Freemasonry.

What I have to say on this subject is connected with various things which influence the spiritual life of today and will influence it in time to come. And to illustrate how one who is actively engaged in this field constantly comes across something—if only obliquely—I would point out, by way of introduction, that on many occasions I have described the problem of Faust1 See: Goethe's Standard of the Soul, Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1925; Goethe's Secret Revelation and the Riddle of Faust, Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1933; The Problem of Faust, (R. 55)—especially lecture of 3rd November 1917. as of particular importance for modern spiritual life. And that is why the modern spiritual movement is brought into connection with the problem of Faust in the first number of Luzifer.2 The first number of Rudolf Steiner's Luzifer, a periodical concerned with soul life, spiritual development and theosophy, with its opening article on Luzifer, appeared in June 1903. The allusion I made to the problem of Faust in my essay in Luzifer is not without a certain reason.

In order to bring the things with which we are concerned into connection with one another, we must start from a spiritual tendency which first manifested in about the third century A.D. It is that spiritual movement whose great opponent was St. Augustine,3 The famous Church Father (354–430 A.D.) was, according to his own confession, a disciple of Manicheism for nearly nine years until his ‘conversion.’ See lecture of 26.12.1914, in Festivals of the Seasons. although before he went over to the side of the Catholic Church he was himself an adherent of this faith. We have to speak about Manicheism, which was founded by a person who called himself Mani4 Originally Mani is said to have been called ‘Corbicius.’ ‘Mani’ was the name which he gave himself and, according to Schmitt (see note concerning the text), this has the significance: ‘an Aeon of the Mandeans: Mana raba, which is as much as to say: the promised Comforter, the Paraclete.’ The date of Mani's life is usually considered to be 215/16–276/7 A.D. and lived about the time of the third century A.D. This movement spread from a part of the world which was then ruled by the kings of the Near East; that is to say, from a region of Western Asia Minor. This Mani was the founder of a spiritual movement which although at first only a small sect, became a mighty spiritual current. The Albigenses, Waldenses and Cathars5 According to Charles William Heckethorn (see note to lecture 3 of 30th September 1904): ‘The sect of the Albigenses, the offspring of Manicheism, fructified in its turn the germs of the Templars and Rosicrucians, and of all those associations that continued the struggle and fought against ecclesiastical and civil oppression.’ The relationship between Manicheism and Freemasonry is expressed thus by Heckethorn: ‘Masons in this degree call themselves the “children of the widow”, the sun on descending into his tomb leaving nature—of which Masons consider themselves the pupils—a widow; but the appellation may also have its origin in the Manichean sect, whose followers were known as the “sons of the widow”.’

According to Joseph Schauberg in his book (Vergleichendes Handbuch der Symbolik der Freimaurerei mit besonderer Rucksicht auf die Mythologien und Mysterien des Altertums) on the symbolism of Freemasonry, a copy of which was in Rudolf Steiner's library: ‘... nearly all Freemasonry symbols show that the Masons of old believed in and dedicated their service to a worship of the light after the manner of the Oriental sects of the Parsecs, Sabaeans, perhaps also of the Manicheans.’
of the Middle Ages are the continuation of this current, to which also belong the Knights Templar, of whom we shall speak separately,6 There is no evidence to show when this could have taken place in this context. See also sixth lecture (25th September 1916) in Inner Impulses working in the Evolution of Mankind, (R. 45), and lecture of 2nd October 1916 (Z 425). and also—by a remarkable chain of circumstances—the Freemasons. Freemasonry really belongs to this stream, though it is connected with others, for instance with Rosicrucianism.7 The origin of Freemasonry and its connection with Rosicrucianism is a much debated and unsolved theme, even in the literature of Freemasonry itself, whereas it has hardly even been touched on in serious historical studies. A first attempt in this direction, if exclusively from a rational and a spiritual point of view, is the work of Frances A. Yates: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment.

What outer history has to say about Mani is very simple.8 At this point the contents of Rudolf Steiner's lecture seem to have been very inadequately reported. He based what he had to say on a legend which he later repeated in a lecture for members (according to notes lacking date or indication of locality). In the aforementioned notes the literal transcript is as follows: ‘Mani, or Manes, the founder of Manicheism appeared in the third century A.D. in Babylon. An unusual legend has the following to say about him: Skythianos and Terebinthus, or Buddha, were his predecessors. The latter was the pupil of the former. After the violent death of Skythianos, Terebinthus fled with the books to Babylon. He also suffered misfortune; the only one to accept his teachings was an elderly widow. She inherited his books and left them, at her death, to her foster child, a twelve year old boy whom she had adopted out of slavery when he was seven years old. The latter, who might also be called a “Son of the Widow”, came to public notice at the age of 24 as Manes, the founder of Manicheism.’

This legend is dealt with at length and with full references as to source in the work of D. Schwolsohn: Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, Petersburg and Leipzig, 1856. (The detailed source references are not quoted in what follows):

‘Now that it has been established that Manicheism has been derived from Mandaism, we shall attempt to throw light on the account given of Mani by another of the Church Fathers. According to Epiphanius, Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus, Socrates and the author of the Acta Disputationis S. Archelai (Acta Archelai) with whom Theodoretus Suidas and Cedrenus in part agree, Mani was not the real founder of Manicheism but had as his predecessor a certain Scythianus and the latter's pupil, Terebinthus, who afterwards called himself Buddha. It goes on to say that anyone who wished to make a denial of the heresy of Manicheism, must at the same time abjure Zarades (Zoroaster), Buddha and Scythianus. According to the Acta Archelai, the last-named was a Scyth from Scythia—which accounts for his name, which was not really Scythianus—and he appeared at the time of the Apostles, when he started to spread his doctrine of the two principles. He is said to have been a Saracen by birth and married a woman from upper Thebes, for whose sake he settled in Egypt, where he became acquainted with the wisdom of the Egyptians. Epiphanius, Socrates and Cyrillus, Hierosolymitanus give similar accounts, only the first of these says that he was a Saracen by birth, was educated in Arabia and journeyed to India and Egypt, and the last mentioned says emphatically that his teachings had nothing in common with either Judaism or Christianity. He, or his pupil Terebinthus, was the author of four books, which the latter, after his emigration to Babylon, left to a widow when he died. Mani, the slave of this widow, inherited these writings from her and proclaimed their doctrines as his own. Theodoretus, Suidas and Cedrenus have the same to say of Terebinthus and Mani, only they identify the latter with Scythianus; Theodoritus even goes so far as to say that the reason why Mani was called Scythianus was that he was a slave, and Suidas and Cedrenus say that by birth he was a Brahmin. Bauer maintains that these two predecessors of Mani, Scythianus and Terebinthus-Buddha could not possibly be held to be historical personages: “Alone the obvious anachronism that Scythianus is reckoned as belonging to the time of the Apostles, and then to make his successor, Mani, appear soon after, is enough to make us suspicious of the historical truth of the whole story”. This, however, is quite a wrong supposition. The time of the Apostles lasted until Trajan, who died in 117, for, according to Eusebius, John the Evangelist only died during Trajan's reign. When it is said that Scythianus appeared during the time of the Apostles, it is only the last years of the said Apostle which are meant. As proof of this a point made by Suidas will serve, to the effect that the Emperor Nerva (who reigned from 97 A.D. for 1 year and 4 months) recalled the Evangelist, John, from Patmos, where he had been in exile, to Ephesus; at that time, adds Suidas, the dogma of the Manicheans became known through the public proclamation of Mani's heresy. The latter statement, however, is almost certainly founded on mistaken identity: for, in another place, Suidas himself says that Manes lived at the time of the Emperor Aurelian (reigned from 271–275). Without doubt, Suidas gleaned from his source that Scythianus proclaimed his dualistic doctrine at the time of Nerva and as he, as mentioned above, confused Manes with Scythianus, he substituted the former for the latter. According to that Scythianus started proclaiming his doctrine at the time of Nerva, that is to say, in 97 A.D. His pupil, Terebinthus-Buddha, may therefore have lived until 170 or 180 A.D., or even longer. Mani appears to have been born about 190 A.D. En-Nadim informs us (on the authority of Mohammed ben Is'haq Sahrmani, who is otherwise unknown) that Mani came before Schabur Ardsir (Sapores I) in the second year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Gallus (Trebonianus), who commenced his rulership November 251 A.D. As en-Nadim further adds, this took place on April lst, according to the Manicheans; that is to say, on April lst 253 A.D. But as Mani, according to en-Nadim, had been wandering the land and gathering pupil@ for forty years before he came before Schabur and was already twenty-four years old before he started to preach his doctrines, it follows from this that he must have been born around the year 190 A.D. According to the reports of the above mentioned Church Fathers, Mani did not come into direct personal contact with Terebinthus, but arrived as a seven year old boy at the house of the widow, in whose possession were the writings of the already deceased Terebinthus. The chronology therefore fits in very well and Scythianus and Terebinthus-Buddha can very well both be historical personages; only Bauer makes the conjecture, for reasons which have much in their favour, that Scythianus and Terebinthus-Buddha are identical, which could be so, as Mani, as stated above, never came into personal contact with either of them. But the questions remain: who was Scythianus and whence did he obtain his dualistic teaching? The Acta Archelai states specifically that he was a Scyth from Scythia and yet he is generally called a Saracen. We explain this contradiction in the following way: he was born in a northeastern province of Parthia, which in later times went under the general name of Scythia. Afterwards he wandered to the Near East, namely southern Mesopotamia and north-eastern Arabia (whence the name “Saracen”) and, at the time of Nerva, he was proclaiming his dualistic teaching and became the precursor of Mani. Bauer expressed himself likewise. El'hasai'h, or Elchasai', or Elkasai' (founder of the sect of the Ssabiers or Sabians, mentioned in the Koran—otherwise Mandaeans) also came from northeastern Parthia and proclaimed his dualistic doctrine in the same region and at the same time as Scythianus and was also, in certain respects, a precursor of Mani, as has been shown above. Does it not appear to be a reasonable conjecture to suppose that Scythianus, who was named after his birth place, is identical to the El'hasai'h of en-Nadim, the Elchasai' of the Pseudo-Origines and the Elkasai' of Epiphanius and Theodoretus?

After what has been said there can be no further doubt about the influence of Parsism on Mendaeism, a fact which was already suspected by Lorsbach. Bauer would see indications of the spread of Buddhism—with its consequent influence on Manicheism—in the accounts of Scythianus and Terebinthus-Buddha, whom he identifies, but to whom he attaches no historical reality. This he would see substantiated in many ways, one of which is the abjuration formula of the Manicheans who, on conversion to the Church, were required to denounce Buddha among others. An influence of Buddhism in the Near East at such an early date is certainly a possibility; for enNedim states specifically that Buddhism had penetrated into Transoxiana even before Mani's time. Weber also finds it “highly probable that Buddhist missionaries, urged on by their fresh religious zeal, had spread over the further parts of western Iran” at the time of which he was speaking (the time of the Greek rulership of India). Weber adds, however, that data on the subject are wanting. In another place he remarks: “the important influence which Buddhism had on the teaching of Mani is easily explained by the flowering of the same under the Yueitchi-Princes of Indo-Scythia, whose rulership spread temporarily over a large part of the eastern provinces of Iran”. We are also of the opinion that the account which Mas'udi gives of the journeys of Budasp (Buddha) to Seg'estan, Zabulistan and Kerman point to an early spread of Buddhism in Persia. If, then, according to this, Scythianus, who in our opinion is a well-authenticated historical personality, was the disseminator of Buddhist doctrines, so, according to the above arguments, we would have to look for Buddhist elements and Buddhist influences among the Mendaeans. Perhaps the many assertions of Mohammedan writers to the effect that Budasp (Buddha) was the founder of the cult of the Ssabiers arose out of an actual historical influence of Buddhism on the Mendaeans, who were originally called Ssabiers by the Mohammedans. The genetic origin of both Buddhism and Mendaeism is still insufficiently known for us to be able to form conclusive views about the influence of the former on the latter. We will therefore content ourselves with gentle hints and indications to future investigators, which may perhaps help towards clearing up the problem.’

Even though the latest research no longer pays heed to this legend, because it ascribes a different origin to Mani, it is not thereby invalidated as a description of Mani's ‘spiritual’ origin. Compare note 13: ‘why it was that Mani called himself the “Son of the Widow”’—and Rudolf Steiner's ninth lecture of the cycle given in Munich in 1909: The East in the Light of the West, Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., and Anthroposophic Press

It is said that there once lived a merchant in the Near East who was very learned. He compiled four important works: first, Mysteria, secondly, Capitola, thirdly, Evangelium, and lastly Thesaurus. It is further related that at his death he left these writings to his widow who was a Persian. This widow, on her part, left them to a slave whose freedom she had bought and whom she had liberated. That was the said Mani, who then drew his wisdom out of these writings, though he was also initiated into the Mithraic mysteries.9 According to Franz Cument: The Mithras Mysteries, Manicheism was the inheritor of the Mithras Mysteries and the continuator of their mission. Mani is called the ‘Son of the Widow’, and his followers are called the ‘Sons of the Widow.’ However, Mani described himself as the ‘Paraclete’.10Compare once more with lecture 9 of The East in the Light of the West, quoted above. the Holy Spirit promised to mankind by Christ. We should understand by this that he saw himself as one incarnation of the Holy Spirit; he did not mean that he was the only one. He explained that the Holy Spirit reincarnated, and that he was one such reincarnation.

The teaching which he proclaimed was opposed in the most vigorous fashion by Augustine after he had gone over to the Catholic Church. Augustine opposed his Catholic views to the Manichean teaching which he saw represented in a personality whom he called Faustus.11In his writing: Contra Faustum. Regarding Faustus, compare Bruckner: Faustus von Mileve, Basle, 1901, where Faustus is described as an important representative of Manicheism in Roman cultural circles. Faustus is, in Augustine's conception, the opponent of Christianity. Here lies the origin of Goethe's Faust, and of his conception of evil. The name ‘Faust’ goes back to this old Augustinian teaching.

One usually hears it said about Manichean teaching that it is distinguished from western Christianity by its different interpretation of evil. Whereas Catholic Christianity regards evil as an aberration from its divine origin, the defection of originally good spirits from God, Manicheism teaches that evil is just as eternal as good; that there is no resurrection of the body, and that evil, as such, will continue for ever. Evil, therefore, has no beginning, but springs from the same source as good and has no end.

If you come to know Manicheism in this form it will seem radically unchristian and quite incomprehensible.

Now we should like to study the matter thoroughly according to the traditions which are supposed to have originated from Mani himself, and so see what it is all about. An external clue is given us in the Manichean legend; just such a legend as the Temple Legend, which I recounted to you recently. All such spiritual currents connected with initiation are expressed exoterically in legends, but the legend of Manicheism is a great cosmic legend,12The legend is given as follows by Eugen Heinrich Schmitt (see notes referring to text above referring to Schmitt).

‘“While the Powers of Darkness were chasing and devouring one another in a wild rage they arrived one day at the borders of their territory. Here they glimpsed a few beams of the Kingdom of Light and were so struck by the 'splendid sight that they decided to relinquish their quarrels among themselves and took counsel together as to how they could gain mastery over the Good which they had just seen for the first time and of which they formerly had no notion. Their desire thereafter was so great that all of them, as many as there were, armed themselves for battle.” This is the description of events given by Titus of Bostra. In a similar way Alexander of Lycopolis presents it to us: “In the Hyle (Matter) desire arose to climb to the upper regions; there was espied the Divine Ray of Light which engendered so much amazement that a decision was immediately formed to get the same into its power.” Of the measures taken by the threatened Kingdom of Light we are informed by the Acts of Archelaus (Acta disputationis cum Maneta, Chap. 7): “As the Father of Light became aware that the Darkness was about to attack his holy Domain, he allowed a force to emanate from him which is called the Mother of Life, this, in its turn, produced from itself Archetypal Man who, arrayed with the five pure Elements; Light, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, descended to the earth like an armed warrior to do battle against Darkness.” Manes himself gives the name of the Universal or World-Soul to this force which emanates from God. We can recognise here the same force which is called the Heavenly Mother or Holy Spirit by Bardesanes and other Gnostics (According to Titus of Bostra 1. 29. Compare Bauer: Manicheism).

‘When Hyle made its attack, God held counsel to decide on a punishment, says Alexander of Lycopolis. But, as he had no means of punishment—there being no Evil in the House of God—he sent forth a force, a Soul-Force, against Matter, so that Matter was penetrated through and through and death consumed it with the force of this separation, with the force of this inner division and confusion which resulted from being mixed together in this way. It reminds us of the saying of Christ: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.” (Luke 11. 17). The latter interpretation contains the deeper esoteric meaning of the above battle. Not force against force, not evil against evil can be the recompense of the gentle light of heaven of which the moral was proclaimed by Christ. His victory must be achieved in quite a different way: in the form of a quiet disintegration in which the Forces of Light act as a kind of ferment to leaven the dough of matter; thus the Gospel describes the battle of the Light in such a wonderfully meaningful fashion. The pictures which Mani gives describe exactly the same event as the Gospel, but in more detail and with a depth which corresponds to the more mature historical setting.

‘Therefore it is exactly the same thought which is expressed in the further unfolding of this Manichean hero-tale. In the struggle against the opposing forces of Hyle the heavenly hero is not able to prevail, although, like Proteus of the Greek saga, he constantly disguises himself and takes on the shape of the various elements. The Demons overcome him and gain possession of his armour; yes, they appropriate many pieces of his radiant, sun-like nature to themselves and he would have been entirely at their mercy had he not called out to the Father, the Primeval Source of Light! The latter sent him the help of the Spirit of Life (pneuma zoon), who stretched forth the succour of his right hand and drew him up again out of darkness into the Heights of Light. “That is why”, adds the Acta Archelaus Chapter 7, “when Manicheans meet one another they give each other the right hand, as a token that they have been rescued out of darkness; for, in darkness, says Mani, live all heresies.” This point is of particular interest, because it quite openly states the object of this allusion, “heresy”, which in this case refers to the Ecclesiastical, Satanic doctrine, which has known how to appropriate the Garment of Light, the outward form of Christianity, to itself to deceive and captivate the nobler souls. These are the plundered sun-like parts of Archetypal Man, which have come under the dominion of depravity-seeking mankind; a depravity which took on the appearance of sanctity through this act of plunder. It is, however, only one aspect of the meaning of this myth, which embraces both evolution and history. The noblest parts of Archetypal Man, his Sons, as it were, were fixed in the heavens as Sun and Moon by the Spirit of Life. These are the symbols of the all-illuminating Light and Life of Christ and the Paraclete, whereas the other stars, as scattered, expired light, are fixed in the heavens as the Demons of the Night. This Spirit of Life makes his appearance as the tamer of material existence, as the Spirit who brings measure and sets a limit to matter. He was therefore given the name “Architect of the Universe” by the Manicheans and essentially he plays the part of Horos, or Horothathos, the boundary-marker of Valentius. That part of divine Life and Light, however, which is held captive in the nature forms of the plants, animals and Man, is given the name: suffering Jesus: the Man of Sorrows: Jesus Patibilis. In the sense of Manicheism, however, Jesus only represents this divine figure when he surmounts the restricted sufferings within the narrow limits of the body, when it was nailed to the Cross on the hill near Jerusalem. He becomes the Saviour of the World only when he identifies his Divine Life with that of all the suffering beings of a world yearning for his redeeming, light-shedding thoughts. And nothing is more characteristic of the crudity of the basic views of the Constantinian Church than that its chief exponent, the great Augustine, was morally unable to find anything in these thoughts but a calumny and defilement and humiliation which would have been sufficient to make the Manicheans blush. On the other hand, we have seen with what delicacy Mani discharged himself of his task of rendering tangible a struggle between the forces of the Divine and the forces of Matter, of Evil, of Violence and the Demonic, and how beautifully he is able to honour the holy majesty of powerless mildness and to bring forth the dawning of a more noble culture of which the rough Roman mind of an Augustine had no inkling.’
a super-sensible legend.

It tells us that at one time the spirits of darkness wanted to take the kingdom of light by storm. They actually reached the borders of the kingdom of light and hoped to conquer it. But they failed to achieve anything. Now they were to be punished—and that is a very significant feature which I beg you to take account of—they were to be punished by the kingdom of light. But in this realm there was nothing which was in any way evil, there was only good. Thus the demons of darkness could only have been punished with something good. So what happened? The following: The spirits of light took a part of their own kingdom and mixed it with the materialised kingdom of darkness. Because there was now a part of the kingdom of light mingled with the kingdom of darkness, a leaven had been introduced into the kingdom of darkness, a ferment which produced a chaotic whirling dance, whereby it received a new element into itself; i.e. death. Therefore, it continually consumes itself and thus carries within itself the germ of its own destruction. It is further related that just because of this, the race of mankind was brought into existence. Primeval man represents just what was sent down from the kingdom of light to mix with the kingdom of darkness and to conquer, through death, what should not have been there; to conquer it within his own being.

The profound thought which lies in this is that the kingdom of darkness has to be overcome by the kingdom of light, not by means of punishment, but through mildness; not by resisting evil, but by uniting with it in order to redeem evil as such. Because a part of the light enters into evil, the evil itself is overcome.

Underlying that is the interpretation of evil which I have often explained as that of theosophy. What is evil? Nothing but an ill-timed good. To cite an example which has often been quoted by me, let us assume that we have to do with a virtuoso pianist and an excellent piano technician, both perfect in their sphere. First of all the technician has to build the piano and then hand it over to the pianist. If the latter is a good player he will use it appropriately and both are equally good. But should the technician go into the concert hall instead of the pianist and start hammering away he would then be in the wrong place. Something good would have become something bad. So we see that evil is nothing else than a misplaced good.

When what is especially good at one time or another strives to be preserved, to become rigid and thus curb the progress of further development, then, without doubt, it becomes evil, because it opposes the good. Let us suppose that the leading powers of the lunar epoch, though perfect in their way and in their activity, were to continue to intermingle with evolution though they ought to have ceased their activity, then they would represent something evil in earth evolution. Thus evil is nothing else than the divine, for, at that other time, what is evil when it comes at the wrong season, was then an expression of what is perfect, what is divine.

We must interpret the Manichean views in this profound sense, that good and evil are fundamentally the same in their origin and in their ending. If you interpret it in this way you will understand what Mani really intended to bring about. But, on the other hand, we still have to explain why it was that Mani called himself the ‘Son of the Widow’13The Manicheist scholar, Hans Heinrich Schaeder, writes in his study of Origin and Development of the Manichean System, from his collection of lectures, 1924–1925, from the Warburg Library: ‘We do not know what “Son of the Widow” means.’ Rudolf Steiner, by contrast, explains the meaning still more profoundly than in the lecture under consideration as being a ‘Mystery’ title. (The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972). and why his followers were called the ‘Sons of the Widow’.

When we turn back to the most ancient times, before our present Root Race, the mode in which mankind acquired knowledge was different. You will perceive from my description of Atlantis—and also, when the next issue of Luzifer appears, you will see from my description of Lemuria14His description in the periodical Luzifer. Contained in: Cosmic Memory, Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1971.—that at that time, and to a certain extent up to the present day, all knowledge was influenced by what is above mankind. I have often mentioned that that Manu15See note 2 to lecture 4 of 7th October 1904. who will appear during the next Root Race will for the first time be a real brother to his fellow men, whereas all earlier Manus were superhuman, divine beings of a kind. Only now is man becoming ripe enough to have one of his brother men as his Manu, who has passed through all stages with him since the middle of Lemuria. What is really taking place then, during the evolution of the fifth Root Race? This, that the revelation from above, the guidance of the soul from above, is gradually being withdrawn, so that man is left to go his own way and become his own leader.

The soul was always known as the ‘mother’ in all esoteric (mystical) teachings; the instructor was the ‘father’. Father and mother, Osiris and Isis, those are the two forces present in the soul: the instructor, representing the divine which flows directly into man, Osiris, he that is the father; the soul itself, Isis, the one who conceives, receives the divine, the spiritual into itself, she is the mother. During the fifth Root Race, the father withdraws. The soul is widowed. Humanity is thrown back onto itself. It must find the light of truth within its own soul in order to act as its own guide. Everything of a soul nature has always been expressed in terms of the feminine. Therefore the feminine element—which exists only in a germinal state today and will later be fully developed—this self-directing feminine principle which is no longer confronted by the divine fructifier, is called by Mani the ‘Widow’. And therefore he calls himself ‘Son of the Widow’.

Mani is the one who prepares that stage in man's soul development when he will seek for his own soul-spirit light. Everything which comes from Mani is an appeal to man's own spirit light of soul, and at the same time is a definite rebellion against anything which does not come out of man's own soul,out of man's own observation of his soul. Beautiful words have been handed down from Mani16Rudolf Steiner here gives a free rendering of a quotation from Eugen Heinrich Schmitt: Die Gnosis, already mentioned at the beginning of these notes. Schmitt's text is as follows: ‘It would therefore be a notable test of the fact that Manicheism, as understood by initiates and as inner secret doctrine, is not just a re-telling of Persian fables, but a genuine Gnostic teaching based on spirit-vision, if we could only prove in a single case that the Manicheans sought the source of their knowledge and warranty for their truth, not in outward belief in authority (Mani said this or that), but directly through inner soul-vision. And this evidence is actually forthcoming. Mani himself introduces his foundation letter (epistola fundamenti) with the following words:

‘“These are the words of healing and the eternal fountain of life. He who hears them and believes in them first of all and keeps their message will nevermore be prey to death but will enjoy a truly immortal and splendid life. For truly he is blessed who, through this divine doctrine, partakes of the knowledge (Gnosis) which sets him free to pass over into eternal life. The peace of the Invisible God and a knowledge of Truth will be with their brothers and loved ones who believe in the laws of heaven even as they put them into practice in their daily lives. And they will behold you sitting on the right hand of the Light and will take away from you all malevolent attacks and all snares of this world; the gentleness of the Holy Spirit will in truth open your inner sense, so that you shall behold your own soul with your very eyes”. The last words of this sentence, “Pietas vero Spiritus Sancti intima vestri pectoris adaperiat, ut ipsis oculis videatis vestras animas”, appear in the Latin of Augustine (De actis cum Felixe L. 1 C. 14 Migne Aug. Opp. omnia Tomas V-III).’
and have been the leading theme of his followers at all later times. We hear the words: You must lay aside everything which you have acquired as outer revelation by means of the senses. You must lay aside all things which come to you via outer authority; then you must become ripe to gaze into your own soul.

St. Augustine, on the other hand—in a conversation which made him into an opponent of the Manichean Faust—voiced the opinion: ‘I would not accept the teachings of Christ if they were not founded on the authority of the Church’.17(Contra epist. Manich 5). The Manichean Faust said,18(In Augustine's work: Contra Faustum, VI, 8). After Augustine (basing his statement on John XX, 29) calls those blessed who have not seen and yet have believed, Faustus makes the reply: ‘If you imagine that we are called upon to believe without reason or reckoning, then you may well be happier without reasoning, but I prefer to get my blessedness through insight.’ Quoted from Eugen Heinrich Schmitt: Die Gnosis—Grundlagen der Weltanschauung einer edleren Kultur, and marked in Rudolf Steiner's copy. however: ‘You should not accept any teaching on authority; we only wish to accept a doctrine in freedom.’ That illustrates the rebellious self-sufficiency of the spirit light which comes to expression so beautifully in the Faust saga.19Compare Herman Grimm: ‘Die Entstchung des Volksbuches von Dr. Faustus,’ in Fifteen Essays, third edition, Berlin, 1882.

We meet this confrontation also in later sagas in the Middle Ages: on the one hand the Faust saga, on the other, the Luther saga.20It is a well-known legend that Luther, while staying in hiding at the Wartburg in Thuringia under the protection of Frederick the Wise (1521–22), threw an ink-bottle at the Devil. Luther carries on the principle of authority.21Martin Luther, 1483–1546. The great inaugurator of the German Reformation was an Augustinian monk prior to leaving the monastic life. See Rudolf Steiner's two lectures: ‘Luther’ and ‘Luther the Janus-head,’ in The Karma of Materialism, C 47. Faust, on the other hand, rebels, he puts his faith in the inner spirit light. We have the saga of Luther; he throws the inkwell at the devil's head. What appears to him to be evil he thrusts aside. And on the other hand we have Faust's pact with the devil. A spark from the kingdom of light is sent into the kingdom of darkness, so that when the darkness is penetrated, it redeems itself, evil is overcome by gentleness. If you think of it in this fashion you will see that this Manicheism fits in very well with the interpretation which we have given of evil.

How do we imagine the interworking of good and evil? We have to explain it as the harmonisation of life with form.22Rudolf Steiner had spoken on several occasions about the concepts, life and form, at the time he gave this lecture. See lecture of 3rd November 1904: ‘Theosophy and Tolstoy’ copy Z 332. Also twenty-seventh lecture in Foundations of Esotericism, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983. How does life change over into form? Through coming up against resistance, through not manifesting all at once in one particular shape. Take note, for instance, how life in a plant—let us say a lily—speeds on from form to form. The life in the lily has fashioned, has elaborated, the form of the lily.

When this form has been created, life overcomes it and passes over into the seed to be reborn as the same life in a fresh form. And so life strides onward from form to form. Life itself is formless and could never perceptibly manifest its vital forces. The life of the lily, for instance, exists in the first lily and progresses to the second, third, fourth and so on. Everywhere there is the same life which appears in a limited form, spreading and interweaving. The fact that it appears in a limited form is a restriction imposed upon this universal flowing life. There would be no form if life were not restricted, if it were not arrested in its flowing force which radiates in all directions. It is just what remains behind, which, from a higher stage, appears like a fetter; it is just out of this that form evolves in the great cosmos.

What comprises life is always set in the framework of a form which was life in an earlier time. Example: the Catholic Church. The life which existed in the Catholic Church from St. Augustine until the fifteenth century was the Christian life. The life therein is Christianity. Ever and again this pulsating life emerges anew (the mystics). Where does the form come from? It is no less than the life of the old Roman Empire. What was still alive in the old Roman Empire has frozen into form. What was at first a Republic, then an Empire, what lived in outward appearance as the Roman State, surrendered its life, frozen into form, to the later Christianity; even its capital city, Rome, was previously the capital city of the Roman Empire, and the Roman provincial officers have their continuation in the presbyters and bishops. What was previously life later becomes form for a higher stage of life.

Is it not the same with human beings? What is human life? The fructification from above (Manas fructification), implanted into man in mid-Lemurian times, has today become his inner life. The form is what is carried over, as seed, from the lunar epoch. At that time, in the lunar period, the life of man consisted of the development of the astral body; now this has become the sheath, the form. Always the life of a former epoch becomes the form of a later epoch. In the harmonisation of form and life that other problem is expressed too: the problem of good and evil, through the fact that the good of a former epoch is joined to the good of a later epoch, which is fundamentally nothing but a harmonisation of progress with the things which hinder progress. That is what, at the same time, makes material existence possible, makes it possible for things to appear in outward form. It is our human existence on the solid mineral plane: soul life and what remains of the life of an earlier epoch hardened into a restrictive form. That, too, is the teaching of Manicheism regarding evil.

If we now pose the question from this point of view: What are Mani's intentions, what is the meaning of his statement that he is the Paraclete, the Spirit, the Son of the Widow? It means no less than that he intends to prepare for the time in which the men of the sixth Root Race will be guided out of their own being, by their own soul's light, to overcome outward forms and convert them to spirit.

Mani's intention is to create a spiritual current which goes beyond the Rosicrucian current,23In a note of 1907 Rudolf Steiner writes that, within the Rosicrucian current, the initiation of Manes was looked upon as one of the Higher Degrees which consisted of understanding the true function of Evil. which leads further than Rosicrucianism. This current of Mani's will flow over to the sixth Root Race and has been in preparation since the founding of Christianity. It is just at the time of the sixth Root Race that Christianity will be expressed in its most complete form. Its time will truly have come. The inner Christian life, as such, overcomes every form, it is propagated by external Christianity and lives in all forms of the various confessions. Whoever seeks Christian life will always find it. It creates forms and destroys forms in various religious systems. It does not depend upon a search for conformity in the outward forms in which it is expressed, but it depends upon experiencing the inner life stream which is always current under the surface. What is still waiting to be made is a form for the life of the sixth Root Race. That must be created beforehand, it has to be there so that Christian life can be poured into it. This form has to be prepared by human beings who create an Organisation, a form, so that the true Christian life of the sixth Root Race can find its place therein. And this external form of society must derive from the intention which Mani has fostered, from the small group whom Mani has prepared. That must be the outer form of Organisation, the congregation in which the spark of Christianity will first be truly kindled.

From this you will be able to conclude that Manicheism will endeavour, first and foremost, to preserve purity in outer life; for its aim is to produce human beings who will provide an adequate vessel in the future. That is why such great stress was laid on absolute purity of mind and of life. The Cathars were a sect which rose like a meteor in the twelfth century. They called themselves Cathars because ‘cathar’ means ‘pure one’. They strove for purity in their way of life and in their moral attitude. They had to seek catharsis (purification) both inwardly and outwardly in order to form a community which would provide a pure vessel. That is what Manicheism was striving for. It was less a question in Manicheism of the cultivation of the inner life—for life will flow onwards through other channels—but rather the cultivation of the external form of life.

Now let us look at what is to come about during the sixth Root Race. Good and evil will then contrast very differently from the way that they do today. What will be evident to all mankind in the fifth Round24See diagram in connection with lecture 10 of 23rd December 1904. Compare also: The Apocalypse of St. John, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1977.—that the outer physiognomy which each one acquires will directly mirror what Karma has made out of him—that will express itself spiritually in the sixth Root Race like a prelude to this event. Among those on whom Karma has bestowed an excess of evil, it will become particularly evident on a spiritual level. On the one hand there will be human beings possessing mighty inner forces of good, who will be gifted with great love and goodness; but, on the other hand, the opposite will also be seen. Evil will be present as a disposition without any disguise in a great many people, no longer cloaked or hidden from view. The evil ones will extol evil as something of particular worth. A glimmering of this delight in evil and the demonic pertaining to the sixth Root Race is already in evidence in certain men of genius. Nietzsche's ‘blonde beast’,25‘blonde beast’ in his Zur Genealogie der Moral, which was widely praised. However, Rudolf Steiner said in his lecture of 6th October 1917, Elemental Spirits of Birth and Death,’ copy Z 400: ‘people understood very little about it ... It was the Devil himself who inspired people with the wish, as Nietzsche devotees, to become “blonde beasts” themselves ... but even though people never became “blonde beasts” in Nietzsche's sense—something took place in this century as a result of this socially disturbing impulse of the nineteenth century.’ for example, is a portent of this.

The unalloyed evil must be cast out of the stream of world evolution like dross. It will be relegated to the eighth sphere.26This difficult occult concept had already been explained by Rudolf Steiner, shortly before this time, as for instance on 31st October 1904, in the following way: ‘In the first half of the fourth Round mankind developed the capacity for adapting his senses to the mineral kingdom for the first time. In the second half of the fourth Round he redeemed the mineral kingdom. But a part of this remained behind and was excluded, because it was no longer of any use to mankind. That constitutes the eighth sphere, which is no longer of use to the development of man, but can be used by higher beings.’ (From previously unpublished notes). In the year 1915, Rudolf Steiner again went very thoroughly into the concept of the eighth sphere. See: The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century, especially fourth and fifth lectures, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973. Today we stand immediately at the threshold of a time when good must consciously come to terms with evil.

The sixth Root Race will have the task of drawing evil back into the continuing stream of evolution through kindness. Then a spiritual current will have been born which does not oppose evil, even though it manifests in the world in its demonic form. The consciousness will have been established in the successors to the ‘Sons of the Widow’ that evil must be included again in evolution and be overcome, not by strife, but only through charitableness. It is the task of the Manichean spiritual stream forcefully to prepare for this. This spiritual stream will not die out, it will make its appearance in many forms. It appears in forms which many can call to mind but which need not be mentioned today. If it were to function merely in the cultivation of an inner mood of soul, this current would not achieve what it should do. It must express itself in the founding of communities which, above all, will look upon peace, love and passive resistance to evil as their standard of behaviour and will seek to spread this view. For they must create a receptacle, a form, for the life which will continue to exist even without their presence.

Now you can understand how it is that Augustine, the leading spirit of the Catholic Church, who developed the form of the Church very precisely in his City of God, who worked out the form for contemporary life, was of necessity the most violent opponent of that kind of form which is preparing for the future. Two polar opposites confront one another, Faust and Augustine: Augustine, who based his work on the Church, on the form belonging to his day, and Faust, who strives to prepare in man a sense for the form of the future.

That is the contrast which developed in the third and fourth centuries A.D. It is still present and finds expression in the struggle of the Catholic Church against the Knights Templars, the Rosicrucians, Albigenses, Cathars and so on. All of them are eliminated from the physical plane, but their inner spirit continues to be active. This contrast manifests again later in modified but still violent form in two currents born out of Western culture, that of Jesuitism (pertaining to Augustine) and that of Freemasonry27Rudolf Steiner spoke in much more detail on this subject, which is here only briefly mentioned, in his lecture given in Dornach on 3rd July 1920 (as yet untranslated); but he also spoke about Jesuitism on 20th May, 3rd and 6th June: ‘Roman Catholicism.’ Copy Z 65. (Manicheism). Those who lead the battle on the one side are all conscious of what they are doing—they are the Catholics and Jesuits of the higher degrees. Of those, however, who are on the other side, who lead the battle in the spirit of Mani, only very few are conscious; only those at the head of the movement are conscious of it.

Thus Jesuitism (belonging to Augustine) and Freemasonry (Manicheism) confront one another in later centuries. They are the offspring of ancient spiritual currents. That is why you have in both these currents a continuation of the same ceremonies connected with initiation that you find in the old currents. The initiation into Jesuitism has the four degrees: Coadjutores temporales, Scholares, Coadjutores spirituales, Professi. The degrees of initiation in the true occult Freemasonry are similar. The two run parallel to one another but they point in quite different directions.28In the shorthand version of Franz Seiler a few sentences occur at the end. It is not quite clear if this is the answer to a question: ‘Christ appears in person during the sixth Root Race (Great Epoch)—the Thousand-Years Reign, originally it was Aeon, in Latin saeculum saeculorum. In the sixth Root Race, therefore, both the Bad and the Good will have evolved ... [Gap] ... The Keely Motor came too early, no doubt. An individual will possess so much power during the seventh Root Race, that he will be able to kill thousands and thousands at a stroke.’ Compare this with note 29 to lecture 20, the last lecture in this volume.

6. Der Manichäismus

Wir haben ja wunschgemäß etwas über Freimaurerei zu sprechen. Diese kann man aber nicht verstehen, bevor nicht die ursprünglichen Geistesströmungen betrachtet werden, die mit der Freimaurerei in der Weise in Zusammenhang stehen, daß die Freimaurerei sozusagen aus ihnen hervorgegangen ist. Eine noch wichtigere Geistesströmung als die der Rosenkreuzer war die des Manichäismus. Wir müssen also eigentlich zuerst über diese viel wichtigere Bewegung sprechen und können dann später einmal auch auf die Freimaurerei ein Licht werfen.

Was ich dazu zu sagen habe, hängt zusammen mit verschiedenen Dingen, die in das gegenwärtige und zukünftige Geistesleben hineinspielen. Und um Ihnen zu zeigen, daß man, wenn man in diesen Gebieten tätig ist, immerfort auf etwas Bezug nehmen muß, wenn auch versteckt, so möchte ich nur einleitend darauf hinweisen, daß ich bei wiederholter Gelegenheit das Faust-Problem als ein besonders wichtiges für das neue Geistesleben bezeichnet habe. Und darum ist auch im ersten Heft des «Luzifer» die moderne Geistesbewegung mit dem Faust-Problem in Zusammenhang gebracht. So wie ich es in meinem «Luzifer»-Aufsatz gebracht habe, ist nicht ohne eine gewisse Begründung auf das Faust-Problem angespielt.

Um die Dinge, um die es sich dabei handelt, in Zusammenhang zu bringen, müssen wir also zunächst ausgehen von einer Geistesrichtung, die uns geschichtlich zuerst entgegentritt etwa im 3. Jahrhundert. Es ist dies jene Geistesrichtung, die ihren großen Bekämpfer im heiligen Augustinus gefunden hat, trotzdem er, bevor er zur katholischen Kirche übergetreten ist, Anhänger dieser Richtung war. Wir müssen sprechen über den Manichäismus, der durch eine Persönlichkeit begründet wurde, die sich selbst als Mani bezeichnete und etwa im 3. Jahrhundert nach Christi Geburt lebte. Ausgegangen ist die Bewegung von einer Gegend, die damals beherrscht wurde von den Königen Vorderasiens; sie ist also von den Gegenden des westlichen Kleinasien ausgegangen. Dieser Mani begründete eine Geistesströmung, die ja zuerst eine kleine Sekte umfaßte, die aber zu einer mächtigen Geistesströmung wurde. Die mittelalterlichen Albigenser, Waldenser und Katharer sind die Fortsetzung dieser Geistesströmung, zu der auch der ja noch für sich zu besprechende Templerorden und ebenso - durch eine merkwürdige Verkettung der Verhältnisse — das Freimaurertum gehören. Hier hinein gehört das Freimaurertum eigentlich, obgleich es sich mit anderen Strömungen, zum Beispiel dem Rosenkreuzertum verbunden hat.

Die äußere Geschichte, die uns von Mani erzählt wird, ist höchst einfach.1Siehe unter Hinweise.

Es wird gesagt, daß in den Gegenden Vorderasiens ein Kaufmann lebte, der außerordentlich gelehrt war. Er verfaßte vier bedeutsame Schriften: erstens die Mysteria, zweitens die Epistola, drittens das Evangelium, viertens den Thesaurus. Ferner wird erzählt, daß er bei seinem Tod diese Schriften hinterlassen habe seiner Witwe, die eine Perserin war. Diese Witwe wiederum hinterließ sie einem Sklaven, den sie losgekauft und freigelassen habe. Der sei der besagte Mani gewesen, der dann aus diesen Schriften seine Weisheit gezogen habe, aber außerdem in die Mysterien des Mithrasdienstes eingeweiht gewesen war. Er hat dann diese Bewegung des Manichäismus ins Leben gerufen. Man nennt den Mani auch den «Sohn der Witwe» und seine Anhänger die «Söhne der Witwe». Er selbst aber, Mani, bezeichnete sich als «Paraklet», als den von Christus der Menschheit versprochenen Heiligen Geist. Nun ist das so aufzufassen, daß er sich bezeichnete als eine Inkarnation jenes Heiligen Geistes; nicht etwa meinte er, daß er der alleinige Heilige Geist sei. Er stellte sich vor, daß dieser Heilige Geist in Wiederverkörperungen erscheint und bezeichnete sich als eine solche Wiederverkörperung des Geistes.

Die Lehre, die er verkündigte, wurde von Augustinus, als dieser zur katholischen Kirche übergetreten war, in der lebhaftesten Weise bekämpft. Augustinus stellte seine katholische Anschauung der manichäischen Lehre gegenüber, die er durch eine Persönlichkeit vertreten läßt, die er Faustus nennt. Faustus ist im Sinne des Augustinus der Kämpfer gegen das Christentum. Hier liegt der Ursprung des goetheschen Faust mit seiner Anschauung des Bösen. Der Name «Faust» geht zurück bis auf diese alte augustinische Lehre.

Man erfährt von der manichäischen Lehre gewöhnlich, daß sie sich vom abendländischen Christentum unterscheide durch ihre andere Auffassung des Bösen. Während das katholische Christentum der Ansicht sei, daß-das Böse beruhe auf einem Abfall vom göttlichen Ursprung, auf einem Abfall ursprünglich guter Geister von Gott, so lehre der Manichäismus, daß das Böse ebenso ewig sei wie das Gute; daß es keine Auferstehung des Leibes gebe und daß das Böse als solches kein Ende nähme. Es habe also keinen Anfang, sondern sei gleichen Ursprungs mit dem Guten, und habe auch kein Ende.

Wenn Sie in dieser Weise den Manichäismus kennenlernen, so erscheint er allerdings wie etwas radikal Unchristliches und wie etwas ganz Unverständliches.

Nun wollen wir der Sache auf den Grund gehen nach den Traditionen, die von dem Mani selbst herrühren sollen und prüfen, um was es sich da eigentlich handelt. Einen äußeren Anhaltspunkt zu dieser Prüfung gibt uns die Legende des Manichäismus, eine ebensolche Legende, wie ich Ihnen neulich als Tempellegende erzählt habe. Alle solche Geistesströmungen, die mit Einweihungen zusammenhängen, drücken sich exoterisch aus in Legenden. Nur ist die Legende des Manichäismus eine große kosmische Legende, eine Legende von übersinnlicher Art.

Da wird erzählt, daß einstmals die Geister der Finsternis anstürmen wollten gegen das Lichtreich. Sie kamen in der Tat bis an die Grenze des Lichtreiches und wollten das Lichtreich erobern. Sie vermochten aber nichts gegen das Lichtreich. Nun sollten sie - und hier liegt ein besonders tiefer Zug, den ich zu beachten bitte -, nun sollten sie bestraft werden von dem Lichtreich. Aber in dem Lichtreich gab es nichts irgendwie Böses, sondern nur Gutes. Also hätten die Dämonen der Finsternis nur mit etwas Gutem bestraft werden können. Was geschah also? Es geschah folgendes. Die Geister des Lichtreiches nahmen einen Teil ihres eigenen Reiches und mischten diesen in das materielle Reich der Finsternis hinein. Dadurch, daß nun ein Teil des Lichtreiches vermischt wurde mit dem Reich der Finsternis, dadurch sei in diesem Reich der Finsternis gleichsam ein Sauerteig, ein Gärungsstoff entstanden, der das Reich der Finsternis in einen chaotischen Wirbeltanz versetzte, wodurch es ein neues Element bekommen hat, nämlich den Tod. So daß es sich fortwährend selbst aufzehrt und so den Keim zu seiner eigenen Vernichtung in sich trägt. Weiter wird erzählt, daß dadurch, daß dies geschehen ist, gerade das Menschengeschlecht entstanden sei. Der Urmensch sei eben gerade das, was vom Lichtreich her gesendet worden sei, um sich mit dem Reich der Finsternis zu vermischen und das, was im Reich der Finsternis nicht sein soll, zu überwinden durch den Tod; es in sich selbst zu überwinden.

Der tiefe Gedanke, der darin liegt, ist der, daß von seiten des Lichtreiches das Reich der Finsternis überwunden werden soll nicht durch Strafe, sondern durch Milde; nicht durch Widerstreben dem Bösen, sondern durch Vermischung mit dem Bösen, um das Böse als solches zu erlösen. Dadurch, daß ein Teil des Lichtes hineingeht in das Böse, wird das Böse selbst überwunden.

Dem liegt die Auffassung vom Bösen zugrunde, die ich oftmals als die theosophische auseinandergesetzt habe. Was ist das Böse? Es ist nichts anderes als ein unzeitgemäßes Gutes. Um ein Beispiel anzuführen, das von mir schon öfters angeführt wurde: Nehmen wir an, daß wir es mit einem ausgezeichneten Klavierspieler und einem ausgezeichneten Klaviertechniker zu tun haben, die beide vollkommen sind in ihrer Art. Zuerst muß der Techniker das Instrument bauen und es dann abgeben an den Spieler. Wenn dieser ein guter Spieler ist, wird er es in entsprechender Weise benützen und so sind beide gleichsam das Gute. Wenn aber nun der Techniker anstelle des Spielers in den Konzertsaal gehen und da herumhämmern wollte, dann wäre er am unrechten Ort. Das Gute würde so zum Bösen. So sehen wir, daß das Böse nichts anderes ist als das Gute am unrechten Ort.

Wenn das, was in irgendeiner Zeit außerordentlich gut ist, sich weiter erhalten, starr werden wollte und nun das schon Fortgeschrittene beeinträchtigen würde in seinem Gange, so wird es jetzt zweifellos ein Böses, weil es dem Guten widerstreben würde. Nehmen wir an, die leitenden Kräfte der Mondenepoche, der lunarischen Epoche, wenn sie dort vollkommen waren in ihrer Art und ihre Tätigkeit hätten abschließen müssen, würden sich noch länger in die Entwickelung mischen. Dann müßten sie in der irdischen Entwickelung das Böse darstellen. So ist das Böse nichts anderes als das Göttliche, denn in der anderen Zeit war das, was zur Unzeit das Böse ist, der Ausdruck des Vollkommenen, des Göttlichen.

In diesem tiefen Sinne haben wir die manichäische Anschauung aufzufassen, daß das Gute und Böse im Grunde genommen von derselben Art, im Grunde genommen gleich in ihrem Anfang und gleich in ihrem Ende sind. Wenn Sie diese Anschauung so auffassen, werden Sie verstehen, was eigentlich der Mani anregen wollte. Auf der andeten Seite müssen wir aber zunächst erklären, warum sich Mani selbst den «Sohn der Witwe» nannte und warum sich seine Anhänger «Söhne der Witwe» nannten.

Wenn wir zurückgehen in die ältesten Zeiten, die vor unserer jetzigen Wurzelrasse liegen, da war die Art und Weise, wie Menschen erkannten, Wissen erwarben, eine andere. Sie werden aus meiner Schilderung der atlantischen Zeit, und jetzt, wo das nächste «Luzifer»Heft erscheint, auch aus der Schilderung der lemurischen Zeit ersehen, daß damals alles Wissen - zum Teil bis in unsere Zeit hinein — beeinflußt ist von demjenigen, was über der Menschheit steht. Ich habe öfters schon erwähnt, daß erst der Manu, der erscheinen wird in der nächsten Wurzelrasse, ein wirklicher Menschenbruder sein wird, während die früheren Manus übermenschlich, eine Art göttliche Wesen waren. Erst jetzt reift die Menschheit heran, um einen eigenen Menschenbruder als Manu zu haben, der von der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit an alle Stadien mit durchgemacht hat. Was geschieht also eigentlich während der Entwickelung der fünften Wurzelrasse? Es geschieht das, daß diese Offenbarung, die Offenbarung von oben, die Leitung der Seele von oben sich allmählich zurückzieht und die Menschheit den eigenen Wegen überläßt, so daß sie ihr eigener Leiter wird.

Die Seele wurde nun in aller Esoterik (Mystik) die «Mutter» genannt; der Unterweiser der «Vater». Vater und Mutter, Osiris und Isis, das sind die zwei in der Seele vorhandenen Mächte: der Unterweiser, derjenige, der das unmittelbar einfließende Göttliche darstellt, Osiris, ist der Vater; die Seele selbst, Isis, konzipiert, empfängt das Göttlich-Geistige, sie ist die Mutter. Während der fünften Wurzelrasse zieht sich nun der Vater zurück. Die Seele ist verwitwet, soll verwitwet sein. Die Menschheit ist auf sich selbst angewiesen. Sie muß in der eigenen Seele das Licht der Wahrheit suchen, um sich selbst zu lenken. Alles Seelische wurde von jeher mit weiblichen Sinnbildern zum Ausdruck gebracht. Deshalb wird dieses Seelische — welches heute im Keim vorhanden ist und später vollständig entwikkelt sein wird -, dieses sich selbst lenkende Seelische, das den göttlichen Befruchter nicht mehr vor sich hat, das wird von dem Mari als «Witwe» bezeichnet. Und deshalb bezeichnete er sich selbst als den «Sohn der Witwe».

Mani ist es, der diejenige Stufe der menschlichen Seelenentwickelung vorbereitet, die das eigene seelische Geisteslicht sucht. Alles, was von ihm herrührt, war ein Berufen auf das eigene Geisteslicht der Seele und das war zugleich ein entschiedenes Aufbäumen gegen alles, was nicht aus der Seele, aus der eigenen Beobachtung der Seele kommen wollte. Schöne Worte rühren von dem Mani her und sind das Leitmotiv seiner Anhänger zu allen Zeiten gewesen. Wir hören: Ihr müßt abstreifen alles dasjenige, was äußere Offenbarung ist, die ihr auf sinnlichem Wege erhaltet! Ihr müßt abstreifen alles, was äußere Autorität euch überliefert; dann müßt ihr reif werden, die eigene Seele anzuschauen!

Augustinus dagegen vertritt das Prinzip - in einem Gespräch, in dem er sich zum Gegner jenes Manichäers Faustus macht -: Ich würde die Lehre Christi nicht annehmen, wenn sie nicht auf die Autorität der Kirche begründet wäre. - Der Manichäer Faustus sagt aber: Ihr sollt auf Autorität hin keine Lehre annehmen; wir wollen eine Lehre nur annehmen in Freiheit. - Das ist das Aufbäumen des auf sich selbst bauenden Geisteslichtes, das dann auch in der Faust-Sage in so schöner Weise zum Ausdruck gebracht wurde.

Wir haben diesen Gegensatz auch in späteren Sagen im Mittelalter einander gegenübergestellt. Auf der einen Seite die Faust-, auf der anderen Seite die Luther-Sage. Luther ist der Fortsetzer des autoritativen Prinzips, Faust dagegen ist der, der sich aufbäumt, der sich auf das innere Geisteslicht stützt. Wir haben die Luther-Sage: er wirft dem Teufel das Tintenfaß an den Kopf. Was sich ihm als Böses vorstellt, wird beiseitegestellt. Und auf der anderen Seite haben wir das Bündnis des Faust mit dem Bösen. Es wird von dem Lichtreich der Funke nach dem Reich der Finsternis gesandt, um eindringend in die Finsternis, die Finsternis durch sich selbst zu erlösen, durch Milde das Böse zu überwinden. Wenn Sie es in der Weise fassen, so werden Sie auch sehen, daß dieser Manichäismus sehr wohl zurechtkommt mit der Auffassung, die wir ausgesprochen haben, von dem Bösen.

Wie müssen wir uns das Zusammenwirken des Guten und des Bösen vorstellen? Wir müssen es uns aus dem Zusammenklingen von Leben und Form erklären. Wodurch wird das Leben zur Form? Dadurch, daß es einen Widerstand findet; daß es sich nicht auf einmal — in einer Gestalt - zum Ausdruck bringt. Beachten Sie einmal, wie das Leben in einer Pflanze, sagen wir der Lilie, von Form zu Form eilt. Das Leben der Lilie hat eine Lilienform aufgebaut, ausgestaltet.

Wenn diese Form ausgestaltet ist, überwindet das Leben die Form, geht in den Keim über, um später als dasselbe Leben in einer neuen Form wiedergeboren zu werden. Und so schreitet das Leben von Form zu Form. Das Leben selbst ist gestaltlos und würde sich nicht in sich selbst wahrnehmbar ausleben können. Das Leben der Lilie zum Beispiel ist in der ersten Lilie, schreitet weiter zur zweiten, dritten, vierten, fünften. Überall ist dasselbe Leben, das in einer begrenzten Form erscheint, webend ausgebreitet. Daß es in begrenzter Form erscheint, das ist eine Hemmung dieses allgemein flutenden Lebens. Es würde keine Form geben, wenn das Leben nicht gehemmt, wenn es nicht aufgehalten würde in seiner nach allen Seiten hin strömenden Kraft. Gerade von dem, was zurückgeblieben ist, was ihm auf höherer Stufe stehend wie eine Fessel erscheint, gerade aus dem erwächst im großen Kosmos die Form.

Immer wird das, was das Leben ist, umfaßt als Form von dem, was als Leben in einer früheren Zeit vorhanden war. Beispiel: die katholische Kirche. Das Leben, das in der katholischen Kirche lebt von Augustinus bis ins 15. Jahrhundert, ist christliches Leben. Das Leben darinnen ist Christentum. Immer wieder kommt dieses pulsierende Leben heraus (Mystiker). Die Form, woher ist die Form? Die ist nichts anderes als das Leben des alten römischen Reiches. Das, was in diesem alten römischen Reich noch Leben war, ist erstarrt zur Form. Was da zuerst Republik, dann Kaiserreich war, was da gelebt hat in seinen äußeren Erscheinungen als römischer Staat, das hat sein zur Form erstarrtes Leben abgegeben an das spätere Christentum bis hin zur Hauptstadt, so wie eben früher Rom die Hauptstadt des römischen Weltreiches war. Sogar die römischen Provinzialbeamten sind durch die Presbyter und Bischöfe fortgesetzt worden. Was früher Leben war, wird später Form für eine höhere Stufe des Lebens.

Ist es nicht mit dem Menschen geradeso? Was ist das Menschenleben? Die manasische Befruchtung ist heute des Menschen inneres Leben, das in der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit gepflanzt wurde. Die Form ist das, was samenartig herübergekommen ist aus der lunarischen Epoche. Damals, in der Mondenzeit, war kamische Entwickelung das Leben des Menschen; jetzt ist sie die Hülle, die Form. Immer ist das Leben einer vorhergehenden Epoche die Form einer späteren Epoche. In dem Zusammenklingen von Form und Leben ist zugleich das andere Problem gegeben: das des Guten und Bösen; dadurch, daß das Gute einer früheren Zeit vereint ist mit dem Guten einer neuen Zeit. Und das ist im Grunde genommen nichts anderes als eben das Zusammenklingen des Fortschreitens mit seiner eigenen Hemmung. Das ist zugleich die Möglichkeit des materiellen Erscheinens, die Möglichkeit, zum offenbaren Dasein zu kommen. Das ist unser Menschendasein innerhalb der mineralisch-festen Erde: Innenleben und das zurückgebliebene Leben der früheren Zeit zur hemmenden Form verhärtet. Das ist auch die Lehre des Manichäismus über das Böse.

Wenn wir uns von diesem Gesichtspunkt aus weiter fragen: Was will nun der Mani und was bedeutet sein Ausspruch, der Paraklet, der Geist zu sein, der Sohn der Witwe? Nichts anderes bedeutet das, als daß er vorbereiten will diejenige Zeit, in welcher in der sechsten Wurzelrasse die Menschheit durch sich selbst, durch das eigene Seelenlicht geführt werden wird und überwinden wird die äußeren Formen, sie umwandeln wird zu Geist.

Eine über das Rosenkreuzertum hinübergreifende Strömung des Geistes will Mani schaffen, eine Strömung, die weitergeht als die Strömung der Rosenkreuzer. Diese Strömung des Mani strebt hinüber bis zur sechsten Wurzelrasse, die seit der Begründung des Christentums vorbereitet wird. Gerade in der sechsten Wurzelrasse wird das Christentum erst in seiner vollen Gestalt zum Ausdruck kommen. Dann erst wird es wirklich da sein. Das innere christliche Leben als solches überwindet jegliche Form, es pflanzt sich durch das äußere Christentum fort und lebt in allen Formen der verschiedenen Bekenntnisse. Wer christliches Leben sucht, wird es immer finden. Es schafft Formen und zerbricht Formen in den verschiedenen Religionssystemen. Nicht darauf kommt es an, die Gleichheit überall zu suchen in den äußeren Ausdrucksformen, sondern den inneren Lebensstrom zu empfinden, der überall unter der Oberfläche da ist. Was aber noch geschaffen werden muß, das ist eine Form für das Leben der sechsten Wurzelrasse. Die muß früher geschaffen werden, denn sie muß da sein, damit sich das christliche Leben hineingießen kann. Diese Form muß vorbereitet werden durch Menschen, die eine solche Organisation, eine solche Form schaffen werden, damit das wahre christliche Leben der sechsten Wurzelrasse darin Platz greifen kann. Und diese äußere Gesellschaftsform muß entspringen aus der Mani-Intention, aus dem Häuflein, das der Mani vorbereitet. Das muß die äußere Organisationsform sein, die Gemeinde, in der zuerst der christliche Funke wird so recht Platz greifen können.

Daraus werden Sie entnehmen können, daß dieser Manichäismus zunächst bestrebt sein wird, vor allen Dingen das äußere Leben rein zu gestalten; denn es soll Menschen herbeiführen, die ein geeignetes Gefäß in der Zukunft abgeben werden. Daher wurde auf unbedingte teine Gesinnung und auf Reinheit ein so großes Gewicht gelegt. Die Katharer waren eine Sekte, die wie meteorartig auftrat im 12. Jahrhundert. Sie nannten sich so, weil Katharer die «Reinen» heißt. Es waren Menschen, die hinsichtlich ihrer Lebensweise und ihres moralischen Verhaltens rein sein sollten. Sie mußten die Katharsis innerlich und äußerlich suchen, um eine reine Gemeinde zu bilden, die ein reines Gefäß sein soll. Das ist es, was der Manichäismus anstrebt. Weniger handelt es sich um die Pflege des innerlichen Lebens — das Leben wird auch in anderer Weise fortfließen -, sondern mehr um die Pflege der äußeren Lebensform.

Nun werfen wir einen Blick auf das, was sein wird in der sechsten Wurzelrasse. Da werden das Gute und das Böse einen weitaus anderen Gegensatz noch bilden als heute. Was in der fünften Runde für die ganze Menschheit eintreten wird, daß die äußere Physiognomie, die sich jeder schafft, ein unmittelbarer Ausdruck dessen sein wird, was Karma bis dahin aus dem Menschen geschaffen hat, das wird, wie ein Vorklang zu diesem Zustand, in der sechsten Wurzelrasse innerhalb des Geistigen eintreten. Bei denjenigen, bei denen das Karma einen Überschuß an Bösem ergibt, wird innerhalb des Geistigen das Böse ganz besonders hervortreten. Auf der einen Seite werden dann Menschen da sein von einer gewaltigen inneren Güte, von Genialität an Liebe und Güte; aber auf der anderen Seite wird auch das Gegenteil da sein. Das Böse wird als Gesinnung ohne Deckmantel bei einer großen Anzahl von Menschen vorhanden sein, nicht mehr bemäntelt, nicht mehr verborgen. Die Bösen werden sich des Bösen rühmen als etwas besonders Wertvollem. Es dämmert schon bei manchen genialen Menschen etwas auf von einer gewissen Wollust an diesem Bösen, diesem Dämonischen der sechsten Wurzelrasse. Nietzsches «blonde Bestie» ist zum Beispiel so ein Vorspuk davon.

Dieses rein Böse muß herausgeworfen werden aus dem Strom der Weltentwickelung wie eine Schlacke. Es wird herausgestoßen werden in die achte Sphäre. Wir stehen heute unmittelbar vor einer Zeit, wo eine bewußte Auseinandersetzung mit dem Bösen durch die Guten stattfinden wird.

Die sechste Wurzelrasse wird die Aufgabe haben, das Böse durch Milde so weit als möglich wieder einzubeziehen in den fortlaufenden Strom der Entwickelung. Es wird dann eine Geistesströmung entstanden sein, welche dem Bösen nicht widerstrebt, trotzdem es in seiner dämonischsten Gestalt in der Welt auftreten wird. Verfestigt wird sich haben in denen, die die Nachfolger der Söhne der Witwe sein werden, das Bewußtsein, daß das Böse wieder einbezogen werden muß in die Entwickelung, daß es aber nicht durch Kampf, sondern nur durch Milde zu überwinden ist. Dieses kräftig vorzubereiten, das ist die Aufgabe der manichäischen Geistesströmung. Sie wird nicht absterben, diese Geistesströmung, sie wird in mannigfaltigen Formen auftreten. Sie tritt in Gestalten auf, die sich manche denken können, die aber heute nicht ausgesprochen zu werden brauchen. Würde sie sich lediglich auf die Pflege der inneren Gesinnung beziehen, so würde diese Strömung nicht das erreichen, was sie soll. Sie muß sich ausdrücken in der Begründung von Gemeinden, die vor allen Dingen den Frieden, die Liebe, das Nichtwiderstreben dem Bösen [durch Kampf] als das Maßgebende ansehen und zu verbreiten suchen. Denn sie müssen ein Gefäß, eine Form schaffen für das Leben, das sich auch ohne sie fortpflanzt.

Nun werden Sie begreifen, warum Augustinus, der bedeutendste Geist der katholischen Kirche, der in seinem «Gottesstaat» geradezu die Form der Kirche ausbildete, die Form für die Gegenwart geschaffen hat, warum er notwendigerweise der heftigste Gegner der Form sein mußte, die die Zukunft vorbereitet. Da stehen sich zwei Pole gegenüber: Faustus und Augustinus. Augustinus, der auf die Kirche baut, auf die gegenwärtige Form; Faustus, der aus dem Menschen heraus den Sinn für die Form der Zukunft vorbereiten will.

Das ist der Gegensatz, der sich entwickelt im 3. und 4. Jahrhundert nach Christus. Er bleibt vorhanden und findet seinen Ausdruck in dem Kampf der katholischen Kirche gegen die Tempelritter, Rosenkreuzer, Albigenser, Katharer und so weiter. Sie alle werden ausgerottet vom äußeren physischen Plan, aber ihr Innenleben wirkt weiter. Später kommt der Gegensatz in abgeschwächter, aber immer noch heftiger Form wieder zum Ausdruck in zwei Strömungen, herausgeboren aus einer abendländischen Kultur selbst, als Jesuitismus (Augustinismus) und Freimaurerei (Manichäismus). Die auf der einen Seite den Kampf führen, sind sich dessen alle bewußt, die Katholiken und Jesuiten der höheren Grade; die aber auf der anderen Seite, die im Geiste des Mani den Kampf führen, bei denen sind sich die wenigsten dessen bewußt, nur die Spitze der Bewegung ist sich dessen bewußt.

So stehen sich in den späteren Jahrhunderten gegenüber Jesuitismus (Augustinismus) und Freimaurerei (Manichäismus). Das sind die Kinder der alten Geistesströmungen. Daher haben Sie sowohl im Jesuitismus wie im Freimaurertum eine Fortsetzung derselben Zeremonien bei den Einweihungen wie in den alten Strömungen. Die Einweihung der Kirche im Jesuitismus hat die vier Grade: coadjutores temporales, scholares, coadjutores spirituales, professi. Die Grade der Einweihung in der eigentlichen okkulten Freimaurerei sind ähnlich. Sie laufen einander parallel, verfolgen aber ganz verschiedene Richtungen.2Siehe unter Hinweise.

6. Manichaeism

As requested, we will now discuss Freemasonry. However, it is impossible to understand Freemasonry without first considering the original spiritual currents that are connected with it in such a way that Freemasonry emerged from them, so to speak. An even more important spiritual current than that of the Rosicrucians was that of Manichaeism. We must therefore first discuss this much more important movement and then later shed some light on Freemasonry.

What I have to say about this is connected with various things that play a role in the present and future spiritual life. And to show you that when one is active in these areas, one must constantly refer to something, even if it is hidden, I would like to point out at the outset that I have repeatedly described the Faust problem as particularly important for the new spiritual life. And that is why the modern spiritual movement is also linked to the Faust problem in the first issue of “Luzifer.” As I pointed out in my essay in “Luzifer,” the allusion to the Faust problem is not without a certain justification.

In order to put the things in question into context, we must first start from a spiritual direction that first appeared in history in the 3rd century. This is the spiritual direction that found its great opponent in St. Augustine, even though he was a follower of this direction before he converted to Catholicism. We must speak of Manichaeism, which was founded by a personality who called himself Mani and lived around the 3rd century AD. The movement originated in a region that was then ruled by the kings of the Near East; it thus originated in the regions of western Asia Minor. This Mani founded a spiritual movement that initially comprised a small sect but grew into a powerful spiritual current. The medieval Albigensians, Waldensians, and Cathars are the continuation of this spiritual movement, which also includes the Templar Order, which will be discussed separately, and, through a strange chain of circumstances, Freemasonry. Freemasonry actually belongs here, although it has become associated with other currents, such as Rosicrucianism.

The external history that is told to us about Mani is extremely simple.1See under Notes.

It is said that in the regions of the Near East there lived a merchant who was extraordinarily learned. He wrote four important works: first, the Mysteria; second, the Epistola; third, the Gospel; and fourth, the Thesaurus. It is also said that upon his death he left these writings to his widow, who was a Persian woman. This widow, in turn, left them to a slave whom she had bought and freed. This slave was the aforementioned Mani, who drew his wisdom from these writings, but was also initiated into the mysteries of the Mithraic cult. He then founded the Manichaean movement. Mani is also called the “son of the widow” and his followers are called the “sons of the widow.” Mani himself, however, referred to himself as the “Paraklet,” the Holy Spirit promised by Christ to humanity. Now, this is to be understood in the sense that he described himself as an incarnation of that Holy Spirit; he did not mean that he was the only Holy Spirit. He imagined that this Holy Spirit appeared in reincarnations and described himself as one such reincarnation of the Spirit.

The doctrine he preached was vigorously opposed by Augustine after he had converted to Catholicism. Augustine contrasted his Catholic view with the Manichean doctrine, which he represented through a character he called Faustus. Faustus is, in Augustine's view, the fighter against Christianity. Here lies the origin of Goethe's Faust with his view of evil. The name “Faust” goes back to this ancient Augustinian doctrine.

One usually learns that Manichaean doctrine differs from Western Christianity in its different view of evil. While Catholic Christianity believes that evil is based on a departure from the divine origin, on a departure of originally good spirits from God, Manichaeism teaches that evil is as eternal as good, that there is no resurrection of the body, and that evil as such has no end. It therefore has no beginning, but is of the same origin as good, and also has no end.

When you learn about Manichaeism in this way, it certainly appears to be something radically unchristian and completely incomprehensible.

Now let us get to the bottom of the matter according to the traditions that are said to originate from Mani himself and examine what this is actually about. The legend of Manichaeism, a legend similar to the one I recently told you as a temple legend, gives us an external point of reference for this examination. All such spiritual currents that are connected with initiations express themselves exoterically in legends. Only the legend of Manichaeism is a great cosmic legend, a legend of a supersensible nature.

It is said that once upon a time the spirits of darkness wanted to attack the kingdom of light. They actually reached the border of the kingdom of light and wanted to conquer it. But they were powerless against the kingdom of light. Now they were to be punished by the kingdom of light – and here is a particularly profound point that I would like you to note. But in the realm of light there was nothing evil, only good. So the demons of darkness could only be punished with something good. What happened then? The following happened. The spirits of the realm of light took a part of their own realm and mixed it into the material realm of darkness. As a result of part of the realm of light being mixed with the realm of darkness, a leaven, a fermenting agent, arose in the realm of darkness, which threw the realm of darkness into a chaotic whirlwind, giving it a new element, namely death. So that it continually consumes itself and thus carries within itself the seed of its own destruction. It is further said that it was precisely because this happened that the human race came into being. The first human being was precisely that which was sent from the realm of light to mix with the realm of darkness and to overcome through death that which should not be in the realm of darkness; to overcome it within itself.

The profound thought behind this is that the realm of darkness is to be overcome by the realm of light, not through punishment, but through mercy; not through resistance to evil, but through mixing with evil in order to redeem evil as such. By allowing a part of the light to enter into evil, evil itself is overcome.

This is based on the concept of evil that I have often discussed as theosophical. What is evil? It is nothing other than good that is out of time. To give an example that I have often used: Let us suppose that we have an excellent piano player and an excellent piano technician, both of whom are perfect in their own way. First, the technician must build the instrument and then hand it over to the player. If the player is good, he will use it appropriately, and thus both are, as it were, good. But if the technician were to go to the concert hall instead of the player and start hammering away, he would be in the wrong place. The good would thus become evil. We see, then, that evil is nothing other than good in the wrong place.

If something that is extraordinarily good at a certain time wants to continue to exist, become rigid, and now impede the progress of what is already advanced, it will undoubtedly become evil because it would be contrary to the good. Let us assume that the guiding forces of the lunar epoch, if they had been perfect in their nature and had had to complete their activity, would have continued to interfere in development for even longer. Then they would have to represent evil in earthly development. Thus, evil is nothing other than the divine, for in the other time, what is evil at the wrong time was the expression of the perfect, the divine.

In this profound sense, we must understand the Manichean view that good and evil are basically of the same kind, basically the same in their beginning and the same in their end. If you understand this view, you will understand what Mani actually wanted to inspire. On the other hand, however, we must first explain why Mani called himself the “son of the widow” and why his followers called themselves “sons of the widow.”

If we go back to the most ancient times, which lie before our present root race, the way in which people recognized and acquired knowledge was different. From my description of the Atlantean era, and now, with the publication of the next “Lucifer” magazine, also from the description of the Lemurian era, you will see that at that time all knowledge—in part even into our time—was influenced by that which stands above humanity. I have often mentioned that only the Manu who will appear in the next root race will be a true brother to humanity, whereas the earlier Manus were superhuman, a kind of divine being. Only now is humanity maturing to the point where it can have its own brother as Manu, who has gone through all the stages since the middle of the Lemurian epoch. So what actually happens during the development of the fifth root race? What happens is that this revelation, the revelation from above, the guidance of the soul from above, gradually withdraws and leaves humanity to its own devices, so that it becomes its own guide.

In all esotericism (mysticism), the soul was called the “mother”; the instructor was called the “father.” Father and mother, Osiris and Isis, these are the two powers present in the soul: the teacher, the one who represents the directly inflowing divine, Osiris, is the father; the soul itself, Isis, conceives, receives the divine-spiritual, she is the mother. During the fifth root race, the father withdraws. The soul is widowed, should be widowed. Humanity is dependent on itself. It must seek the light of truth in its own soul in order to guide itself. Everything spiritual has always been expressed with female symbols. Therefore, this spiritual element — which is present today in embryo and will later be fully developed — this self-guiding spiritual element, which no longer has the divine fertiliser before it, is referred to by Mari as the “widow”. And that is why he referred to himself as the “son of the widow”.

It is Mani who prepares the stage for the development of the human soul that seeks its own spiritual light. Everything that came from him was a call to the soul's own spiritual light, and at the same time it was a decisive rebellion against everything that did not come from the soul, from the soul's own observation. Beautiful words come from Mani and have been the leitmotif of his followers throughout the ages. We hear: You must cast off everything that is external revelation, which you receive through the senses! You must cast off everything that external authority has handed down to you; then you must become mature enough to look at your own soul!

Augustine, on the other hand, represents the principle – in a conversation in which he opposes the Manichean Faustus –: I would not accept the teaching of Christ if it were not based on the authority of the Church. – But the Manichean Faustus says: You should not accept any teaching on the basis of authority; we only want to accept a teaching in freedom. This is the rebellion of the self-reliant spirit, which was then expressed so beautifully in the Faust legend.

We also see this contrast in later legends of the Middle Ages. On the one hand, there is the Faust legend, and on the other, the Luther legend. Luther is the continuer of the authoritarian principle, while Faust is the one who rebels, who relies on the inner light of the spirit. We have the Luther legend: he throws the inkwell at the devil's head. What appears to him as evil is set aside. And on the other side, we have Faust's alliance with evil. The spark is sent from the realm of light to the realm of darkness in order to penetrate the darkness, to redeem the darkness through itself, to overcome evil through gentleness. If you understand it in this way, you will also see that this Manichaeism is very much in line with the view of evil that we have expressed.

How should we imagine the interaction of good and evil? We must explain it to ourselves from the harmony of life and form. How does life become form? By encountering resistance; by not expressing itself all at once—in a single form. Consider how life in a plant, say a lily, rushes from form to form. The life of the lily has built up and developed a lily form.

When this form is complete, life overcomes the form, passes into the seed, and is later reborn as the same life in a new form. And so life progresses from form to form. Life itself is formless and would not be able to live out its existence in a way that is perceptible in itself. The life of the lily, for example, is in the first lily, progresses to the second, third, fourth, fifth. Everywhere is the same life, appearing in a limited form, spreading out like a web. The fact that it appears in a limited form is an inhibition of this universally flowing life. There would be no form if life were not inhibited, if it were not held back in its power flowing in all directions. It is precisely from what has been left behind, what appears to be a fetter at a higher level, that form arises in the great cosmos.

What life is is always encompassed as form by what existed as life in an earlier time. Example: the Catholic Church. The life that lived in the Catholic Church from Augustine to the 15th century is Christian life. The life within it is Christianity. Again and again this pulsating life emerges (mystics). The form, where does the form come from? It is nothing other than the life of the old Roman Empire. What was still life in this old Roman Empire has solidified into form. What was first a republic, then an empire, what lived there in its outward appearances as the Roman state, that has passed on its life, frozen into form, to later Christianity, right up to the capital, just as Rome was once the capital of the Roman Empire. Even the Roman provincial officials have been continued by the presbyters and bishops. What was once life later becomes the form for a higher stage of life.

Is it not the same with human beings? What is human life? The manasic fertilization is today the inner life of human beings, which was planted in the middle of the Lemurian epoch. The form is what has come over like a seed from the lunar epoch. At that time, in the lunar epoch, kamic development was the life of human beings; now it is the shell, the form. The life of a previous epoch is always the form of a later epoch. The harmony between form and life also presents another problem: that of good and evil, in that the good of an earlier time is united with the good of a new time. And this is basically nothing other than the harmony between progress and its own hindrance. This is at the same time the possibility of material appearance, the possibility of coming into manifest existence. This is our human existence within the mineral-solid earth: inner life and the life left behind from earlier times, hardened into an inhibiting form. This is also the teaching of Manichaeism about evil.

If we continue to ask ourselves from this point of view: What does Mani want, and what does his statement mean, that he is the Paraclete, the Spirit, the son of the widow? It means nothing other than that he wants to prepare the time in which, in the sixth root race, humanity will be guided by itself, by its own soul light, and will overcome the outer forms, transforming them into spirit.

Mani wants to create a current of spirit that transcends Rosicrucianism, a current that goes further than the current of the Rosicrucians. This current of Mani strives toward the sixth root race, which has been prepared since the founding of Christianity. It is precisely in the sixth root race that Christianity will find expression in its full form. Only then will it truly be there. The inner Christian life as such overcomes all forms, propagates itself through outer Christianity, and lives in all forms of the various confessions. Those who seek Christian life will always find it. It creates forms and breaks forms in the various religious systems. It is not important to seek equality everywhere in the outer forms of expression, but to feel the inner stream of life that is everywhere beneath the surface. But what still needs to be created is a form for the life of the sixth root race. This must be created earlier, because it must be there so that Christian life can pour into it. This form must be prepared by people who will create such an organization, such a form, so that the true Christian life of the sixth root race can take root in it. And this outer social form must spring from the Mani intention, from the small group that Mani is preparing. This must be the outer organizational form, the community in which the Christian spark will first be able to take root.

From this you will be able to see that this Manichaeism will initially strive above all to purify external life, for it is intended to bring forth people who will provide suitable vessels in the future. That is why such great importance was attached to unconditional purity of mind and purity itself. The Cathars were a sect that appeared like a meteor in the 12th century. They called themselves Cathars because Cathars means “the pure ones.” They were people who were supposed to be pure in their way of life and moral behavior. They had to seek catharsis internally and externally in order to form a pure community that would be a pure vessel. This is what Manichaeism strives for. It is less about cultivating the inner life—life will continue in other ways—and more about cultivating the outer form of life.

Now let us take a look at what will be in the sixth root race. There, good and evil will form a far more distinct contrast than they do today. What will come about for the whole of humanity in the fifth round, namely that the outer physiognomy that each person creates for themselves will be a direct expression of what karma has created in them up to that point, will enter into the spiritual realm in the sixth root race as a precursor to this state. In those whose karma results in an excess of evil, evil will emerge particularly strongly within the spiritual realm. On the one hand, there will be people of tremendous inner goodness, of genius in love and kindness; but on the other hand, the opposite will also be present. Evil will be present as an unmasked attitude in a large number of people, no longer veiled, no longer hidden. The evil will boast of evil as something particularly valuable. In some brilliant people, there is already a glimmer of a certain lust for this evil, this demonic aspect of the sixth root race. Nietzsche's “blond beast” is, for example, a precursor of this.

This pure evil must be cast out of the stream of world development like dross. It will be cast out into the eighth sphere. We are now standing on the threshold of a time when the good will consciously confront evil.

The sixth root race will have the task of reintegrating evil as far as possible into the ongoing stream of development through gentleness. A spiritual current will then have arisen which does not resist evil, even though it will appear in its most demonic form in the world. Those who are the successors of the sons of the widow will have a firm conviction that evil must be reintegrated into evolution, but that it can only be overcome through gentleness, not through struggle. It is the task of the Manichean spiritual current to prepare this vigorously. This spiritual current will not die out; it will appear in many forms. It will appear in forms that some can imagine, but which need not be expressed today. If it were to relate solely to the cultivation of inner attitudes, this current would not achieve what it is intended to achieve. It must express itself in the establishment of communities that above all regard peace, love, and non-resistance to evil [through struggle] as the decisive factors and seek to spread them. For they must create a vessel, a form for life that will continue even without them.

Now you will understand why Augustine, the most important mind of the Catholic Church, who in his “City of God” virtually shaped the form of the Church, created the form for the present, why he necessarily had to be the fiercest opponent of the form that prepares the future. Two poles stand opposite each other: Faustus and Augustine. Augustine, who builds on the Church, on the present form; Faustus, who wants to prepare the sense of the form of the future from within human beings.

This is the contrast that developed in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. It remains present and finds expression in the struggle of the Catholic Church against the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, the Albigensians, the Cathars, and so on. They are all exterminated on the outer physical plane, but their inner life continues to have an effect. Later, the opposition reappears in a weakened but still intense form in two currents born out of Western culture itself, as Jesuitism (Augustinianism) and Freemasonry (Manichaeism). Those who fight on one side are all aware of this, the Catholics and Jesuits of the higher degrees; but those on the other side, who fight in the spirit of Mani, are only very few who are aware of this, only the leaders of the movement are aware of it.

Thus, in later centuries, Jesuitism (Augustinianism) and Freemasonry (Manichaeism) stand opposed to each other. These are the children of the old spiritual currents. Therefore, both Jesuitism and Freemasonry continue the same ceremonies of initiation as in the old currents. The initiation into the Church in Jesuitism has four degrees: coadjutores temporales, scholares, coadjutores spirituales, professi. The degrees of initiation into actual occult Freemasonry are similar. They run parallel to each other but follow completely different directions.2See under Notes.