The Temple Legend I
GA 93
23 December 1904, Berlin
10. Evolution and Involution as they are Interpreted by Occult Societies
In my former series of lectures I have been speaking about occult schools and secret societies, and I think it right today to bring this whole course of lectures to a close before we pass on to a different subject next time. A week from now I shall speak about the meaning of the days connected in the Church Calendar with the Christmas Festival—most especially about Epiphany, which follows on the less important New Year Festival.1 The German text, as handed down, reads: an Weihnachten, vor allen Dingen an das minder bedeutende Fest Neujahr anschliessen, das Fest der Epiphanie,’ which could be rendered as follows: ‘... about Christmas, most especially about the less important New Year's Festival the Festival of Epiphany.’ One must assume that the shorthand copy of Seiler intended the following: ‘... das minder bedeutende Fest Neujahr anschliessende Fest der Epiphanie's, which would give the rendering as in the text of the lecture above. The said lecture was held on 30th December 1904 and its subject was the “Three Kings” Festival.’ The lecture today, therefore, will be more in the nature of a conclusion.
The question might be asked: What is the deeper meaning of such secret societies, and what is their whole purpose in world evolution? To such a question, my answer would be that they have a real connection with the way in which beings in this world evolve and make progress. If you wish to develop yourself, you know that different kinds of exercises are necessary towards this end and that they are available. You have heard of Hatha Yoga, Rajah Yoga and other exercises of different kinds by means of which societies and brotherhoods connected with occult science have initiated their members.
Somebody might say: All this, surely, could be attained without these secret societies. But I can tell you—and in the course of the lecture you will realise it—that the world cannot do without such societies. To put it bluntly, it is quite unjustifiable to speak in public in the style of the Manifesto of the Freemasons which I read to you a fortnight ago.2 In the lecture given on 9th December 1904 (lecture 8 in this volume). Regarding the style of speaking appropriate to lecturing in public, see The Course of My Life,Chapter 32.
One cannot attain to what is usually known as immortality unless one is to some extent familiar with the occult sciences. The fruits of occult science do, of course, find their way out into the world along many different channels. A great deal of occult knowledge exists in the various religions, and all those who participate deeply and sincerely in the life of a religious community have some share in this knowledge and are preparing themselves for the attainment of immortality in the real sense. But it is still something different, to subsist on the knowledge of this immortality and the feeling of belonging in the spiritual world in concrete experience and with full awareness.
All of you have lived many times; but not all of you are conscious that you have lived through these many lives. However, you will gradually attain this consciousness, and without it, man's life is lived through with incomplete consciousness. It has never been the aim of occult science to inculcate into man a dim feeling of survival, but to impart a clear, fully conscious knowledge of onflowing life in the spiritual world. And there is a certain great law which governs the progressive development of consciousness in all future stages of life. Namely, it is what man works at to help others attain such consciousness which contributes the most to its development. It is an apparently paradoxical proposition: Everything a being works at without aiming at developing its own consciousness, helps to maintain that being's consciousness.
Take as an example the building of a house. An architect builds a house; he does not build this house for himself, but undertakes the task of building it for reasons which have nothing at all to do with him himself. You know well that this is very seldom the case. There are many people who, to all appearances, are not working for themselves; and yet, in reality, they are.
A lawyer, for example, is to all intents and purposes working for his clients. Part of his work may well be selfless, but the real question is one of earning his living. Whatever men do in business merely for the sake of their own livelihood, to the extent that their business only serves that end, just so much is lost in the way of spiritual gain. On the other hand, everything that is introduced into the work for an objective end, everything that is connected with the interests of another, helps to conserve our consciousness for future evolution. So that is quite clear.
Now, think of the Freemasons. In the original arrangement, they gave this injunction to their members: Build such buildings as make no contribution at all to, or have nothing to do with, your own subsistence. All that has survived of the good old Freemasonry, are certain charitable institutions. And although the lodges have lost their living roots in the ancient wisdom and occult knowledge once in their possession, these charitable institutions are evidence of a humanitarianism which, while it is empty [of real substance] still persists and is cultivated as a tradition. Selfless activity is something that belongs to Freemasonry. Freemasonry did originally urge its members to work in the service of humanity, to build into the objective world.
We are living now in the epoch of evolution that may be called the mineral epoch; and our task is to permeate this mineral world through and through with our own spirit. Grasp exactly what this means. You are building a house. You fetch the stones from some quarry. You hew them into the shapes needed for the house, and so on. What are you joining this raw material, obtained from the mineral kingdom, with? You are joining raw material with human spirit. When you make a machine, you have introduced your spirit into that machine. The actual machine does, of course, perish and become dust; it will be broken up. Not a trace of it will survive. But what it has done does not vanish without a trace, but passes into the very atoms. Every atom bears a trace of your spirit and will carry this trace with it. It is not a matter of indifference whether or not an atom has at some time been in a machine. The atom itself has undergone change as a result of having once been in a machine, and this change that you have wrought in the atom will never again be lost to it. Moreover, through your having changed the atom, through your having united your spirit with the mineral world, a permanent stamp has been made upon the general consciousness [of mankind]. Just so much will be taken from us into the other world.
It is a fact that all occult science consists of knowing how a man can act selflessly in order to attain the greatest enhancement of his own consciousness. Consider how certain men who have known this very clearly, have been so selfless that they took steps to prevent their names from going down to posterity. An example of this is the Theologia Deutsch.3 Written about 1380. First published by Luther (fragmentary edition) Wittenberg, 1516. Complete edition 1518. First German translation by Johannes Arndt, 1597. Translation into modern German by Franz Pfeiffer, Giitersloh, 1875. Nobody knows who wrote it. Outwardly, there is only ‘The man from Frankfurt’. He therefore took care that his name could not even be guessed. He worked in such a way that he merely added something to the objective world without asking for honour or for the preservation of his name. By way of comparison, let it be mentioned that the Masters, as a rule, are not personages known to history;4 See note 21 to the lecture given on 23rd May 1904. (Lecture 1 in this volume). they sometimes incarnate [embody] themselves, when it is necessary, in historical personalities, but this is in a certain respect a sacrifice. The level of their consciousness is no longer compatible with any work for themselves—and preservation of a name does after all involve work for oneself.
It is difficult to understand this rule. However, you will now grasp that the Freemasons aim in this, as far as possible, to do their work in the world in such a way that it is concealed in the cathedrals, in social institutions and organisations, in charitable foundations. For selfless deeds are the real foundations of immortality: this is the reflex of selfless deeds in the outer world. They need not be of great account. If someone gives a coin to someone in a selfless way, then that is an action that is to be understood in that way; but only to the extent that it was selfless does it come into immortality. And very few [deeds] are selfless. A good deed may be very egotistical when, for instance, it creates a feeling of comfort. Good deeds spring extremely often from selfish motives. If a poor man living among us has no roast meat at Christmas, and I feel the need to give him some in order that I may feel justified in [eating] my own roast meat, that, after all, is egoistic.
In the Middle Ages no one could say who had built many of the cathedrals or painted many of the pictures. It is only in our epoch that people have begun to attach such value to an individual human name. In earlier epochs, more spiritual than our own, the individual name had less importance. Spirituality in those days was directed at reality; whereas our epoch adheres to the delusion that what is merely transient should be preserved.
I have said this only in order to indicate to you the principle on which these secret societies depended. It mattered to them to efface themselves altogether as personalities, and to allow what they did to live only in its effects. And this brings us to the heart of the secrets. The fact that some particular thing is kept secret is of less importance than keeping one's own share in the work secret. Everyone who keeps his own part secret thereby secures immortality for himself. The rule is therefore clear and unambiguous: As much as you yourself put into the world, that much consciousness the world will give you back. That is connected with the greatest universal laws.
You all have a soul and you all have a spirit. This soul and spirit are called upon to reach one day the highest stages of perfection. But you were already there before your first physical incarnation. You were first physically incarnated in the preceding races after the time of the Hyperborean and Polarian epochs.5 The word nach (‘after’) is missing from the German edition, but to leave it out would be to negate the sense given in lecture I of this series: ‘Whitsuntide,’ given on the 23rd o May 1904, which reads: ‘It is a wrong conception when theosophists believe that reincarnations had no beginning and will have no ending. Reincarnation started in the Lemurian Age and will cease again at the beginning of the sixth Root Race or Age.‘ (See diagram opposite). The German would then read: ‘In physischer Inkarnation waren Sie in den vorhergehenden Rassen erst zur Zeit nach der hyperboraischen und polarischen Rasse vorhanden.’ Before that you were purely beings of soul. But as beings of soul you were a part of the world soul, and as spirit you were part of the general world spirit. The world soul and the world spirit were spread around you as Nature is spread around you today. Just as the mineral world, the plant world and the animal world are around you today, so were the worlds of soul and spirit spread around you then. And what was once outside you is now your soul; you have made inward what to begin with was outside. What today is your inward part was once spread about outside. This has now become your soul. The spirit, too, was once spread around you. And what is now spread around you will become your inner life. You will take into yourself what is now the mineral kingdom, and it will become your inner part. The plant kingdom will become your inner part. What surrounds you in Nature will become your inner being.
You will understand now how this is connected with the first example given: you build a church for others, not for yourself. You can take into [yourself] a world full of majesty, beauty and splendour if you make the world majestic, beautiful and splendid. To do something for the higher self is not selfish because it is not done only for the self. This higher self will be united with all other higher selves, so that it is [done] for all at the same time.
It is this that the Freemasons knew. The Freemason knew, when he helped [by] building with the spiritualisation of the mineral world, that this would one day become the content of his soul—and to build means nothing else than to spiritualise the mineral world. That is the significant thing: God once gave us the Nature that surrounds us, as mineral, plant and animal nature. We take these in [to ourselves]. It is not due to us that it is there; all we can do is to appropriate it for ourselves. But what we ourselves create in the world—that is what will, through ourselves, constitute our future being.
The mineral world, as such, we perceive; what we make out of it we will, in the future, be. What we make of the plant world, of the animal world and of the world of men, that too we will be, in the future. If you found a charitable institution or have contributed something to it, what you have contributed, you will be. If a man does nothing which he can draw back in this way into his soul from outside, he will remain empty. It must be possible for man to spiritualise as much as he can of the three kingdoms of nature—four, for mankind also belongs thereto. To bring spirit into the whole external world—that has been the task of the secret societies of every age.
You understand that that must be so. Take a child who is just learning to read and write. To begin with, all the equipment is around him. Today, the child begins to learn to read. Nothing is in him yet, but the teacher, the primers and so forth are there. So it continues until what was outside the child has been instilled into him. And the child acquires the capacity to read. And so it is with Nature, too. In times to come we shall have within us what is now spread around us. We are souls, we spring from the world soul, and we drew it in, when it was spread around us. The spirit was likewise drawn in, and Nature, too, will be drawn in by us, in order to stay within us as an active ability.
That is the great thought at the basis of these secret societies, that all progress is the result of involution and evolution. Involution is the drawing in, evolution is the giving out. All situations in the universe alternate between these two processes. When you see, hear, smell or taste Nature, you breathe it in. What you see does not pass away without leaving a trace on you. The eye itself perishes, the object perishes, but [the fact] that you have seen something remains. You will understand now that at certain times it can be necessary that an understanding of these things be available. We are going forward to an age when, as I recently indicated, understanding will reach right into the atom. It will be realised—by the popular mind too that the atom is nothing else than congealed electricity. Thought itself is composed of the same substance.
Before the end of our present cultural epoch one will in fact have come so far that people will be able to penetrate into the atom itself. When one is able to grasp the materiality between the thought and the atom, then one will soon be able to understand the penetration of the atom. And then nothing will be inaccessible to certain methods of working. A man standing here, let us say, will be able, by pressing a button concealed in his pocket, to [explode] some object at a great distance, let us say in Hamburg, just as wireless telegraphy is possible, by setting up a wave movement and causing it to take a particular form at some other place. This will be within man's power when the occult truth, that thought and atom consist of the same substance, is applied to practical life.
It is impossible to conceive what might happen in such circumstances if mankind has not by then reached selflessness. Only through the attainment of selflessness will it be possible to preserve mankind from the brink of destruction. The downfall of post-Atlantean culture will be caused by the lack of morality. The Lemurian race was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; ours will be destroyed by the War of All against All, [by?] evil, through the struggle of men with one another. Humanity will destroy itself in mutual strife. And the despairing thing—more desperately tragic than other catastrophes—will be that the blame will lie with human beings themselves.
A tiny handful of men will save themselves and pass over into the sixth epoch. This tiny handful will have developed complete selflessness. The others will make use of every [imaginable] skill and subtlety in the penetration and conquest of the physical forces of Nature, but without attaining the essential degree of selflessness . They will start the War of All against All, and that will be the cause of the destruction of our civilisation.
In the seventh post-Atlantean cultural epoch, to be precise, this War of All against All will break out, in the most terrible way. Great and mighty forces will ensue from discoveries that will turn the entire globe into a kind of self-functioning electrical apparatus. The tiny handful will be protected in a way that cannot be discussed.
Now you will be able to picture more clearly than was possible when I spoke of these things last time, why the Good [and Proper] Form must be sought and in what sense Freemasonry became aware that it must build a building [dedicated to] selfless [ends]. It is easier to survive and pass over into the future, to the tiny handful of new humanity, with the good old forms, than in chaos.
It is easy to jeer at empty forms, but they have however a deep significance. They are adapted to the structure of our [period of] evolution. After all, they are connected with necessary stages in human nature and the development of the human soul. Just think of it: we are living in the fifth period of the fifth great post-Atlantean epoch;6 See diagram at the bottom of the page. we have still to live through two more periods of this great epoch. Then the seven periods of the sixth great epoch will follow and then the seven periods of the seventh great epoch. This makes sixteen stages of evolution in the future. Humanity has still to pass through these sixteen stages. A man who can experience something of the conditions [of existence] that are possible there, is to a certain degree initiated. There is a certain correspondence between the degrees of initiation and the secrets of the epochs still to come.
In the ‘form-state’ of our planet there are seven great epochs and each of these epochs has seven sub-periods (cultural epochs)—forty-nine conditions, therefore, in all. In the next ‘form-state’ of our planet there are again forty-nine conditions. Thus there are definite stages for the investigation of the secrets of future phases of evolution. The higher degrees of Freemasonry had no other aim or purpose, originally, than to be an expression of each one of the future stages of the evolution of humanity. Thus in Freemasonry we actually have something which has been very good, namely, that a man who had attained a certain degree knew how he must work his way into the future, so that he could be a kind of pioneer. He knew, too, that one who had reached a higher degree could accomplish more. This arrangement according to degrees can very well be made, for it corresponds with the facts.
If, therefore, it were again possible to pour a new content, together with a new knowledge, into these forms, much good would accrue. Freemasonry would then be imbued with real spirit once again. But content and form belong to the Whole. The state of affairs today is, as I have said: the degrees are there, but nobody has really worked through them. In spite of this, however, they are not there for nothing. They will be brought to life again in the future.
The fifth cultural epoch is a purely intellectual one, an epoch of egoism. We are now at the high point of egoism. The intellect is egoistical in the highest degree, and it is the hallmark of our time. And so we must make our way upwards through intellect to spirituality, which was once there ...[Gap]
The secret of secrets is this, therefore: the human being must learn how to keep silence about the paths along which his ego unfolds, and to regard his deeds, not his ego, as the criterion. The real heart of the secret lies in his deeds and the overcoming of the ego through action. The ego must remain concealed within the deed. Elimination of the interests of the ego from the on-streaming flow of karma—this belongs to the first degree. Whatever karma the ego incurs is thereby wiped out from karma. Nation, race, sex, position, religion—all these work upon human egoism. Only when mankind has overcome all these things will it be freed from egoism.
You can identify, in the astral body, a particular colour for every nation, every race, every epoch. You will always find a base-colour there, that the person has as a member of one of these classifications or categories. This [specific colour] must be eliminated. The Theosophical Society works to level out the colours of the astral bodies of its adherents. They must be of like colour, like in respect of the base-colour. This base colour gives rise to a certain substance ... [Gap] ... [called kundalini, which holds together, within the human being, the forces which lead eventually to the spirit.]7 called Kundalini, which holds together, within the human being, the forces which lead eventually to the spirit.] The latter part of this sentence (within square brackets) was a correction made for the earlier edition of this lecture, published on 23rd November 1947, in the members' newsletter of the German Anthroposophical Society, No. 47.
Bringing this levelling-out about will actually entail bloody war, and through such things as economic strife among nations, wars of exploitation, financial and industrial enterprises, conquests, etc., and through the adoption of certain measures, it will be more and more possible to set masses of people in motion and simply to compel them. The individual will acquire more and more power over certain masses of people. For the drift of this development is not that we will become democratic, but that we will become brutally oligarchic, in that the individual will gain more and more power. If the ennobling of morals is not achieved, then the most brutal forces will lead. This will happen, just as catastrophe by water happened to the Atlanteans.
10. Der Den Geheimgesellschaften Zugrunde Liegende Gedanke Von Evolution Und Involution
Ich habe bisher in einer Reihe von Vorträgen über Geheimschulen, geheime Verbindungen gesprochen, und es scheint mir jetzt doch das Richtige zu sein, wenn ich diesen ganzen Zyklus von Vorträgen über geheimwissenschaftliche Vereinigungen abschließe, bevor wir das nächste Mal zu etwas anderem übergehen. In acht Tagen werde ich sprechen über die Bedeutung derjenigen Festtage, die sich im Kirchenjahr an Weihnachten anschließen; vor allen Dingen über das minder bedeutende Fest Neujahr und das bedeutsame Fest der Epiphanie [werde ich sprechen], also über die Feste, welche sich an das Weihnachtsfest anschließen. Heute will ich also einen mehr abschlieBenden Vortrag halten.
Sie könnten die Frage stellen: Worin besteht die tiefere Bedeutung solcher geheimwissenschaftlicher Vereinigungen und deren ganzer Zweck in bezug auf die Weltentwickelung? Wenn ich darauf antworten soll, so wäre es das, daß sie zusammenhängen mit der ganzen Art und Weise, wie die Wesen überhaupt sich entwickeln, wie die Wesen in der Welt einen Fortschritt machen. Wenn Sie sich entwickeln wollen, so wissen Sie, daß dazu verschiedene Übungen nötig und vorhanden sind. Sie haben gehört von Hathajoga, von Rajajoga und anderen Übungen; Sie haben gehört von verschiedenen geheimwissenschaftlichen Verbindungen, die auf die verschiedenste Weise ihre Leute eingeweiht haben und so weiter.
Dies alles, so könnte jemand sagen, wäre doch auch zu erreichen ohne solche geheime Verbindungen. Nun aber kann ich Ihnen darauf erwidern - und Sie werden im Laufe der Stunde einsehen, daß das so ist —, daß es ohne solche Verbindungen in der Welt nicht abgehen kann. Aber es ist unmöglich - um es geradeheraus zu sagen - in dem Stile, wie zum Beispiel das Manifest der Freimaurer gehalten ist, das ich Ihnen vor vierzehn Tagen vorgelesen habe, in der Öffentlichkeit zu sprechen.
Man kann zu dem, was man gewöhnlich unter Unsterblichkeit versteht, nicht gelangen, ohne Anteil zu nehmen an den Geheimwissenschaften. Allerdings, die Ergebnisse der Geheimwissenschaften dringen in der verschiedensten Weise in die Welt hinaus. In den Religionen ist ein großer Teil des Geheimwissens vorhanden, und alle diejenigen, welche in einer Religionsgemeinschaft mit innerer Anteilnahme leben, nehmen auch teil an diesem Wissen und bereiten sich vor, der vollen Unsterblichkeit teilhaftig zu werden. Aber es ist noch etwas anderes, sich im konkreten Erleben mit vollem Bewußtsein das Wissen dieser Unsterblichkeit und das Gefühl der Zusammengehörigkeit mit der geistigen Welt zu erhalten.
Sie alle haben schon sehr oft gelebt; aber nicht alle haben ein Bewußtsein davon, daß sie so und so oft gelebt haben. Dieses Bewußtsein werden Sie sich nach und nach erringen, und es hängt davon ab, ob man sein Leben mit vollem Bewußtsein führt. Nicht das war der Sinn des Geheimwissens, den Menschen ein dumpfes Fortleben, sondern ein volles, klares, von Bewußtsein erfülltes Fortleben im Geist als Erkenntnis zu vermitteln. Und da gibt es ein großes Gesetz, nämlich ein Gesetz, das besagt, wovon das Fortschreiten des Bewußtseins in allen künftigen Lebensstadien abhängt. Es trägt nämlich alles dasjenige zur Entwickelung des Bewußtseins bei, was der Mensch nicht für sich selbst allein zur Erlangung dieses Bewußtseins leistet. Es ist dies scheinbar ein paradoxer Satz: Alles dasjenige trägt zur Erhaltung [Entwickelung ?] des Bewußtseins eines Wesens bei, was dieses Wesen leistet, ohne daß das Wesen es abgesehen hat auf die Entwickelung des eigenen Bewußtseins.
Denken Sie sich zum Beispiel einmal, ein Baumeister baut ein Haus. Er baut dieses Haus nicht für sich, sondern er stellt sich die Aufgabe, dieses Haus zu bauen aus einem Grunde, der gar nichts mit ihm selbst zu tun hat. Daß das in den seltensten Fällen der Fall ist, wissen Sie. Scheinbar arbeiten sehr viele Menschen nicht für sich; aber in Wirklichkeit arbeiten sie doch für sich.
Nehmen Sie einen Rechtsanwalt. Scheinbar arbeitet er für seine Klienten. Ein Teil seiner Arbeit wird selbstlos sein können; aber der eigentliche Grundnerv der Sache liegt in der Erlangung des Lebensunterhaltes. Soviel nämlich bei seiner ganzen Geschäftsführung lediglich bestimmt ist für seinen eigenen Lebensunterhalt, so viel wie ein Geschäft nur das Mittel ist zu dem Zwecke, das Leben zu erhalten, so viel geht unweigerlich als geistiger Gewinn verloren. Dagegen trägt alles dasjenige, was hineingebaut wird in die Objektivität, was verknüpft wird mit einem anderen, dazu bei, unser Bewußtsein in der künftigen Entwickelung zu erhalten. So ist das wohl klar.
Nehmen Sie nun die Freimaurer. In der ursprünglichen Anlage haben sie gerade den Leuten das eingeschärft: Baut solche Gebäude, die gar nichts beitragen, gar nichts zu tun haben mit dem eigenen Unterhalt. - Dasjenige, was bis zuletzt noch geblieben ist von der alten guten Freimaurerei, das sind gewisse Wohltätigkeitsanstalten. Es zeigt sich auch jetzt - nachdem das geheime Wissen, das lebendige Verwurzeltsein in der uralten Weisheit, den Logen abhanden gekommen ist - an den noch erhaltenen Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen eine wenn auch leere, so doch durch die Tradition noch vorhandene und weitergepflegte Humanität. Das ist aber etwas, was zur Freimaurerei gehört hat: selbstlos tätig sein! Was die Freimaurerei ursprünglich getan hat, war, daß sie ihre Mitglieder angehalten hat, zu arbeiten im Dienste der Menschheit, hineinzubauen in die objektive Welt.
Wir leben jetzt in derjenigen Runde, die wir die mineralische nennen können. Und unsere Aufgabe darin ist, diese ganze mineralische Welt durch und durch mit unserem eigenen Geist zu durchsetzen. Fassen Sie das einmal genauer. Sie bauen ein Haus. Sie nehmen die Bausteine von irgendeinem Steinbruch. Sie hauen sie so zu, daß sie in das Haus hineinpassen und so weiter. Was verbinden Sie mit dem rohen Stoff, den Sie aus dem Mineralreich herausnehmen? Sie verbinden den rohen Stoff mit dem menschlichen Geist. Wenn Sie eine Maschine bauen, so haben Sie Ihren Geist in,die Maschine hineingelegt. Die einzelne Maschine geht zwar zugrunde, sie wird zu Staub, sie wird einmal zermalmt sein. Keine Spur wird mehr davon vorhanden sein. Aber das, was sie geleistet hat, geht nicht spurlos vorüber, sondern geht bis in die Atome hinein. Jedes Atom trägt eine Spur Ihres Geistes und wird diese Spur forttragen. Es ist nicht gleichgültig, ob ein Atom einmal in einer Maschine darinnen gewesen ist oder nicht. Dadurch, daß ein Atom in der Maschine darinnen gewesen ist, ist das Atom verändert worden. Und diese Veränderung, die Sie dem Atom dadurch beigebracht haben, geht ihm nie wieder verloren. Das andere ist, daß Sie dadurch, daß Sie das Atom verändert haben, Ihren Geist mit der mineralischen Welt verbunden haben, daß Sie dadurch dem allgemeinen Bewußtsein einen bleibenden Stempel aufgedrückt haben. Geradesoviel wird von uns mit hineingenommen in die andere Welt.
Es ist also so, daß alle Geheimwissenschaft aus der Erkenntnis besteht, wie man außer sich selbst selbstlos handeln muß, um in sich selbst die größte Erhöhung seines Bewußtseins zu haben. Bedenken Sie, daß diejenigen, welche das sehr klar wußten, so weit selbstlos waren, daß sie dafür gesorgt haben, daß ihr Name nicht auf die Nachwelt gekommen ist. Ein Beispiel dafür ist die «Theologia deutsch». Niemand weiß, wer sie geschrieben hat. Außen steht nur darauf: «Der Frankfurter.» Der sorgte also dafür, daß auch nicht einmal sein Name erraten werden konnte. Er hat so gearbeitet, daß er lediglich in die objektive Welt etwas hineingefügt hat, ohne selbst auf Ehre oder auf die Erhaltung des Namens irgendwelchen Anspruch zu erheben. Um dies mit etwas anderem zu vergleichen, sei erwähnt: Die Meister sind in der Regel nicht gerade historische Persönlichkeiten, sie inkarnieren [inkorporisieren] sich manchmal, wenn es notwendig ist, in historische Persönlichkeiten; aber es ist bis zu einem gewissen Grade ein Opfer. Der Grad ihres Bewußtseins ist nicht mehr vereinbar mit einem Wirken für sich selbst. Und ein Wirken für sich selbst ist schon die Erhaltung des bloßen Namens.
Diese Regel ist eine schwierig einzusehende. Aber Sie werden es nun begreifen, daß die Freimaurer darauf hinzielen, möglichst viel in der Welt so zu tun, daß ihre Taten eingegraben sind in den großen Domen, in gesellschaftlichen Einrichtungen und Organisationen, oder daß ihre Taten da sind in Wohltätigkeitsanstalten. Denn die selbstlosen Taten sind die eigentlichen Begründer der Unsterblichkeit: Diese ist der Reflex der selbstlosen Taten in der Außenwelt. Es brauchen keine sehr großen Taten zu sein. Wenn jemand in selbstloser Weise jemandem einen Pfennig schenkt, so ist das eine Tat, die in derselben Weise aufzufassen ist. Aber es kommt nur soviel in die Unsterblichkeit hinüber, als Selbstlosigkeit dabei ist. Und die wenigsten sind selbstlos. Wenn es einem zum Beispiel ein Wohlgefühl verschafft, so kann das Wohltun sehr egoistisch sein. Das Wohltun entspringt häufig den selbstischen Interessen. Wenn ein Armer, der unter uns wohnt, keinen Braten zur Weihnachtszeit hat, und ich fühle das Bedürfnis, ihm auch etwas zu geben, damit ich mich bei meinem Braten gerechtfertigt fühle, so ist das eben egoistisch.
Im Mittelalter konnte man von vielen Domen und Bildern nicht sagen, dieser oder jener hat sie gebaut oder gemalt. Erst in unserer Unterrasse fängt man an, einen so großen Wert mit einem einzelnen menschlichen Namen zu verbinden. Die früheren Zeiten haben einen geringeren Wert auf die einzelnen menschlichen Namen gelegt. Die Zeiten waren noch spiritueller. Und die Spiritualität ist auf die Wirklichkeit gerichtet, während unsere Zeit auf den Schein gerichtet ist, das unmittelbar Zeitliche erhalten wissen will.
Damit wollte ich Ihnen nur zeigen, worauf es solchen Geheimgesellschaften ankam. Es kam ihnen darauf an, sich selbst, soweit sie Persönlichkeiten waren, vollständig auszuschalten, und das, was sie taten, in der Wirkung ausleben zu lassen. Und nun werden Sie auch den Kernpunkt des Geheimnisses erkennen. Es handelt sich viel weniger darum, daß irgend etwas geheimgehalten wird; es handelt sich darum, seinen Anteil geheimzuhalten. Dadurch, daß jemand seinen Anteil geheimhält, sichert er sich die Unsterblichkeit. Die Regel heißt also klar und deutlich: So viel du selbst in die Welt hineinlegst, so viel gibt dir die Welt an Bewußtsein wieder zurück. — Das hängt mit den allergrößten Weltgesetzen zusammen.
Sie alle haben eine Seele und Sie alle haben einen Geist. Diese Seele und dieser Geist sind einmal zu den höchsten Vollendungsstufen berufen. Aber Sie waren auch schon da, bevor Ihr physischer Körper da war; ja, Sie waren da, bevor Sie in der ersten physischen Inkarnation vorhanden waren. In physischer Inkarnation waren Sie in den vorhergehenden Rassen erst zur Zeit der hyperboräischen und polarischen Rasse vorhanden. Vorher aber waren Sie rein seelische Wesen. Und als seelische Wesen waren Sie ein Teil der Weltenseele, und als Geist waren Sie ein Teil des allgemeinen Weltengeistes. Der Weltengeist und die Weltenseele waren um Sie ausgebreitet, so wie jetzt die Natur. So wie jetzt die Mineralwelt, die Pflanzenwelt, die Tierwelt um Sie herum sind, so war um Sie herum die Seelenwelt und die Geisteswelt ausgebreitet. Und was dazumal draußen war, das ist jetzt Ihre Seele: Sie haben das, was zuerst äußerlich war, verinnerlicht. Was heute Ihr Inneres ist, das war einmal draußen ausgebreitet. Das ist aber jetzt Ihre innere Seele geworden. Und einmal war auch der Geist so ausgebreitet. Und das, was jetzt um Sie herum ausgebreitet ist, das wird Ihr inneres Leben werden. Das, was heute Mineralreich ist, das saugen Sie auf, und es wird Ihr Inneres werden. Das Pflanzenreich wird Ihr Inneres werden; das saugen Sie auf. Sie erscheinen mit dem, was in der Natur Sie umgibt, als mit Ihrem Inneren,
Nun werden Sie begreifen, wie das mit dem ersten Beispiel zusammenhängt: Sie bauen die Kirche für andere, nicht für sich selbst. Sie können eine große, schöne und herrliche Welt aufsaugen, wenn Sie sie groß, schön und herrlich machen. Etwas für das höhere Selbst zu tun, ist nicht selbstisch, weil man es nicht bloß für sich tut. Dieses höhere Selbst wird ja vereinigt sein mit allen übrigen höheren Selbsten, so daß es gleichzeitig für alle ist.
Das ist es, was die Freimaurer wußten. Der Freimaurer wußte, wenn er mitbaute an der Vergeistigung der mineralischen Welt - und «bauen» heißt nichts anderes als die mineralische Welt vergeistigen -, daß dies einstmals der Inhalt seiner Seele sein wird. Das ist das Bedeutsame: Gott hat uns einstmals die Natur gemacht, die uns umgibt als mineralische, pflanzliche und tierische Natur. Diese werden wir aufnehmen. Wir können nichts dafür, daß sie da ist, wir können sie uns nur aneignen. Aber was wir selbst in der Welt verfertigen, das ist das, was durch uns selbst unser künftiges Sein darstellen wird.
Die mineralische Welt als solche nehmen wir wahr; was wir aus ihr machen, das werden wir künftig sein. Was wir aus der Pflanzenwelt machen, das werden wir künftig ebenfalls sein. Ebenso ist es mit der Tierwelt und ebenso mit der Menschenwelt. Gründen Sie eine Wohltätigkeitsanstalt oder tragen Sie etwas dazu bei, so werden Sie das, was Sie dazu beitragen, sein. Tut der Mensch nichts, was er auf diese Weise in seine Seele von außen wieder einsaugen könnte, so bleibt sie leer. Daher muß in der Menschheit die Möglichkeit da sein, daß so viel wie nur möglich die drei Reiche oder die vier Reiche der Natur — denn der Mensch gehört auch dazu — durchgeistigt werden. Das ist die Aufgabe der Geheimgesellschaften aller Zeiten gewesen: Geist in alle Außenwelt zu bringen.
Sie begreifen, daß das so sein muß. Nehmen Sie ein Kind, das beginnt lesen und schreiben zu lernen. Die Gerätschaften sind zunächst um das Kind ausgebreitet. Heute beginnt das Kind lesen zu lernen. In ihm ist noch nichts da, doch der Lehrer, die Fibel und alles sonstige ist da. Nun geht das so fort, bis das, was außen war, in das Kind hineinkommt. Und das Kind bekommt die Fähigkeit, zu lesen. So ist es auch mit der Natur. Wir werden das, was in der Natur um uns herum ausgebreitet ist, später in uns haben. Wir sind Seelen, stammen von der Weltenseele und haben sie, als sie um uns herum ausgebreitet war, eingesogen. Der Geist ist auch so eingesogen worden, und die Natur wird von uns ebenso eingesaugt werden, um als wirkende Fähigkeit in uns zu bleiben.
Das ist der große Gedanke, der den Geheimgesellschaften zugrunde liegt, daß alles Fortschreiten auf Involution und Evolution beruht. Involution ist das Einsaugen, Evolution ist das Ausgeben. Zwischen diesen beiden wechseln alle Weltenzustände. Jetzt atmen Sie die Natur ein, indem Sie sie sehen, hören, riechen, schmecken. Was Sie sehen, geht nicht spurlos an Ihnen vorüber. Das Auge geht zugrunde, der Gegenstand geht zugrunde; aber das, was Sie gesehen haben, bleibt. Jetzt werden Sie verstehen, daß in gewissen Zeiten es notwendig sein kann, daß ein Verständnis für solche Dinge vorhanden ist. Wir gehen einer Zeit entgegen, in der, wie ich neulich schon andeutete, das Verständnis bis ins Atom hinein kommen wird. Man wird begreifen - auch in der populären Meinung -, daß das Atom nichts anderes ist als geronnene Elektrizität. Der Gedanke selbst ist aus derselben Substanz.
Man wird in der Tat so weit kommen, noch ehe die fünfte Untertasse zu Ende geht, daß man imstande sein wird, bis ins Atom hineinzuwirken. Wenn man nur erst die Stofflichkeit zwischen dem Gedanken und dem Atom begreifen kann, so wird man auch bald das Hineinwirken ins Atom verstehen. Und nichts wird mehr für gewisse Wirkungsarten verschlossen sein: Ich werde hier stehen und unbemerkt auf einen Knopf, den ich in der Tasche trage, drücken können, um einen Gegenstand in weiter Ferne, sagen wir in Hamburg, in die Luft zu sprengen, so wie Sie jetzt schon drahtlos telegraphieren können, indem Sie hier eine Wellenbewegung hervorbringen und sie an einer anderen bestimmten Stelle in bestimmter Weise zum Ausdruck bringen können. Das wird in dem Momente eintreten können, wo die okkulte Wahrheit, daß Gedanke und Atom aus derselben Substanz bestehen, im praktischen Leben durchgeführt sein wird.
Es ist unmöglich, sich auszudenken, was in einem solchen Falle geschehen würde, wenn die Menschheit dann nicht bis zur Selbstlosigkeit gelangt wäre. Nur durch das Erringen der Selbstlosigkeit wird es möglich sein, die Menschheit vom Rande des Verderbens zurückzuhalten. Der Untergang unserer gegenwärtigen Wurzelrasse wird herbeigeführt werden durch den Mangel an Moralität. Die lemutische Rasse ist durch Feuer zugrunde gegangen, die atlantische durch Wasser; unsere wird zugrunde gehen durch den Krieg aller gegen alle, das Böse, durch den Kampf der Menschen untereinander. Die Menschen werden sich selbst im gegenseitigen Kampf vernichten. Und es wird das Trostlose sein - trostloser als andere Untergangsarten -, daß die Menschen selbst die Schuld daran tragen werden.
Ein kleines Häuflein wird sich hinüberretten in die sechste Wurzelrasse. Dieses kleine Häuflein wird zur vollständigen Selbstlosigkeit sich entwickelt haben. Die anderen werden alles Raffinement in der Durcharbeitung und Dienstbarmachung der physischen Naturkräfte anwenden, aber ohne den nötigen Grad der Selbstlosigkeit erlangt zu haben. Sie werden den Kampf aller gegen alle inaugurieren, und das bildet den Grund des Untergangs unserer Wurzelrasse.
Namentlich in der siebenten Unterrasse wird dieser Kampf aller gegen alle sich in der furchtbarsten Weise austoben. Starke, gewaltige Kräfte werden ausgehen von Entdeckungen, die den ganzen Erdball zu einer Art selbstfunktionierendem elektrischem Apparat umgestalten werden. Auf eine Weise, über die nicht gesprochen werden kann, wird das kleine Häuflein geschützt werden.
Jetzt werden Sie sich noch klarer vorstellen können, als wie es nach dem, was ich das letzte Mal darüber habe aussprechen können, der Fall war, warum gesucht wird die gute Form und wieso das Freimaurertum zu dem Bewußtsein kommt, einen Bau aufführen zu müssen, der der Selbstlosigkeit entspricht. Leichter kann man sich mit guten alten Formen in die Zukunft hinüberretten, hinüberretten zu dem kleinen Häuflein der neuen Menschheit, als aus dem Chaos heraus.
Man kann heute leicht spotten über die leeren Formen, aber sie haben doch eine große Bedeutung. Sie sind angepaßt der Struktur unserer Entwickelung. Zuletzt haben wir es dabei doch zu tun mit notwendigen Stufen in der menschlichen Natur und der seelischen Fortentwickelung. Bedenken Sie: Wir sind in der fünften Unterrasse der fünften Wurzelrasse; noch zwei Unterrassen der fünften Wurzelrasse haben wir durchzumachen. Dann kommen sieben Unterrassen der sechsten Wurzelrasse und sieben Unterrassen der siebenten Wurzelrasse, die wir noch durchzumachen haben. Das gibt zusammen sechzehn Stufen künftiger Entwickelung. Diese sechzehn Stufen haben die Menschen noch zu durchlaufen. Derjenige, der noch etwas erfährt über die Zustände, die da möglich sind, ist in gewissem Grade eingeweiht. Die Grade entsprechen in gewisser Weise den Geheimnissen zukünftiger Rassen.
Auf unserem Globus haben Sie sieben Wurzelrassen, und jede Wurzelrasse hat sieben Unterrassen. Das macht also zusammen neunundvierzig Zustände. Auf dem nächsten Globus haben Sie wieder neunundvierzig Zustände. So bekommen Sie für die Erforschung der Geheimnisse der nächsten Entwickelungsphasen bestimmte Stufen. Nichts anderes sollten die Hochgrade der Freimaurerei ursprünglich sein als ein Ausdruck für je eine künftige Entwickelungsstufe der Menschheit. Damit ist tatsächlich etwas gegeben in der Freimaurerei, was sehr schön gewesen ist, nämlich, daß derjenige, der einen Grad erreicht hatte, wußte, wie er sich hineinzustellen hat in die Zukunft, so daß er eine Art Pionier sein konnte. Er wußte auch, daß der, welcher höhere Grade hatte, mehr wirken kann. Man kann also diese Einteilung nach Graden sehr gut machen, denn sie entspricht den Tatsachen.
Wenn also in diese Formen wieder ein neuer Inhalt mit einem neuen Wissen hineingegossen werden könnte, so wäre das sehr gut. Dann würde die Freimaurerei auch wieder durchdrungen werden von wirklichem Geist. Zum Ganzen gehört aber Inhalt und Form. Heute liegt die Sache aber so, wie ich gesagt habe: Die Grade sind da, aber niemand hat die Grade wirklich erlangt. Trotzdem ist es nicht unnötig, daß sie da sind. Sie werden künftig wieder belebt werden.
Die fünfte Unterrasse ist eine reine Verstandesrasse, eine Rasse des Egoismus. Wir sind jetzt auf dem Höhepunkt des Egoismus. Der Verstand ist das Egoistischste, und der Verstand ist das Grundmerkmal unserer Unterrasse. Wir müssen also durch den Verstand emporsteigen zur Spiritualität, die früher dagewesen ist ... [Lücke].
Das Geheimnis des Geheimnisses also ist, daß der Mensch sein Ego geheimzuhalten versteht, daß er nicht sein Ego, sondern seine Taten als das Maßgebende betrachtet. Sein Tun und die Überwindung des Ego durch die Tat, das ist das eigentliche Geheimnis des Geheimnisses. Das Ego soll geheimbleiben in der Tat. Das gehört zum ersten Grad: die Ausmerzung des Ego aus dem fortlaufenden Karma. Dasjenige, was vom Karma auf das Ego zurückfällt, wird dadurch vom Karma ausgelöscht. Nation, Rasse, Geschlecht, Stand, Religionsbekenntnis, alle diese Dinge sind etwas, was arbeitet an dem menschlichen Egoismus. Erst wenn der Mensch alle diese Dinge überwunden hat, wird er egoismusfrei werden können.
In dem Astralkörper können Sie eine ganz bestimmte Farbe nachweisen für jede Nation, für jede Rasse, für jedes Zeitalter. Überall finden Sie da eine Grundfarbe, die der Mensch als Angehöriger dieser Einteilung, dieser Differenzierungen hat. Diese gilt es erst abzustreifen. Die Theosophische Gesellschaft arbeitet an dem Ausgleich der Farben der Astralleiber ihrer Mitglieder. Sie sollen gleichfarbig werden, gleichfarbig in bezug auf diese Grundfarbe. Diese Grundfarbe bildet ein bestimmter Stoff ... [Lücke].
Um diesen Ausgleich herzustellen, dazu werden tatsächlich blutige Kriege gehören, dann solche, die sich als volkswirtschaftliche Kriege abspielen, als Ausbeutungskriege, als Geld- und Industrieunternehmungen, als Überwältigungen, wobei man immer mehr und mehr imstande sein wird, tatsächlich durch bestimmte Vorrichtungen Menschenmassen in Bewegung zu setzen, sie einfach zu zwingen. Der Einzelne wird mehr und mehr Macht bekommen über bestimmte Menschenmassen. Denn der Gang der Entwickelung ist nicht der, daß wir demokratischer werden, sondern daß wir brutal aristokratisch werden, indem der Einzelne immer mehr Macht gewinnen wird. Wenn da nicht die Veredlung der Sitten stattfindet, so muß das zu den brutalsten Dingen führen. Das wird auch kommen, so wie die Wasserkatastrophe für die Atlantier gekommen ist.
10. The Idea of Evolution and Involution Underlying Secret Societies
I have spoken in a series of lectures about secret schools and secret societies, and it now seems appropriate to conclude this cycle of lectures on secret scientific associations before moving on to something else. In eight days, I will speak about the significance of the holidays that follow Christmas in the church year; above all, I will speak about the less significant holiday of New Year's Day and the significant holiday of Epiphany, that is, the holidays that follow Christmas. Today, I would like to give a more concluding lecture.
You might ask: What is the deeper meaning of such secret scientific societies and their whole purpose in relation to world development? If I were to answer that, it would be that they are connected with the whole way in which beings develop in general, how beings make progress in the world. If you want to develop yourselves, you know that various exercises are necessary and available for this purpose. You have heard of Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, and other exercises; you have heard of various secret scientific societies that have initiated their members in various ways, and so on.
One might say that all this could also be achieved without such secret societies. But I can reply to that – and you will see in the course of this lecture that this is so – that without such societies, it cannot work in the world. But it is impossible — to put it bluntly — to speak in public in the style of, for example, the Masonic Manifesto that I read to you two weeks ago.
One cannot attain what is commonly understood as immortality without participating in the secret sciences. However, the results of the secret sciences penetrate the world in various ways. A large part of secret knowledge is present in religions, and all those who live in a religious community with inner participation also share in this knowledge and prepare themselves to participate in full immortality. But it is something else to maintain the knowledge of this immortality and the feeling of belonging to the spiritual world with full consciousness in concrete experience.
You have all lived many times before, but not all of you are aware that you have lived so many times. You will gradually gain this awareness, and it depends on whether you live your life with full consciousness. That was not the purpose of the secret knowledge, to give people a dull continuation of life, but to impart a full, clear, conscious continuation of life in the spirit as knowledge. And there is a great law, namely a law that states what the progress of consciousness in all future stages of life depends on. For everything that contributes to the development of consciousness is that which man does not achieve for himself alone in order to attain this consciousness. This is apparently a paradoxical statement: everything that a being accomplishes without intending to develop its own consciousness contributes to the preservation [development?] of that being's consciousness.
Consider, for example, a builder constructing a house. He does not build this house for himself, but sets himself the task of building this house for a reason that has nothing to do with himself. You know that this is rarely the case. Apparently, many people do not work for themselves, but in reality they do.
Take a lawyer, for example. He appears to work for his clients. Part of his work may be selfless, but the real motive behind it is to earn a living. For the extent to which his entire business is solely determined by his own livelihood, to the extent that a business is merely a means to the end of sustaining life, that much is inevitably lost as spiritual gain. On the other hand, everything that is built into objectivity, everything that is linked to something else, contributes to preserving our consciousness in future development. That is clear.
Take the Freemasons, for example. In their original form, they impressed upon people: Build buildings that contribute nothing, that have nothing to do with your own livelihood. What remains of the old, good Freemasonry are certain charitable institutions. Even now, after the secret knowledge and the living roots in ancient wisdom have been lost to the lodges, the remaining welfare institutions show a humanity that, although empty, still exists and is maintained through tradition. But that is something that belonged to Freemasonry: selfless activity! What Freemasonry originally did was to encourage its members to work in the service of humanity, to build into the objective world.
We now live in what we might call the mineral cycle. And our task in it is to permeate this entire mineral world through and through with our own spirit. Let's look at this more closely. You build a house. You take the building blocks from some quarry. You cut them so that they fit into the house, and so on. What do you connect with the raw material you take from the mineral kingdom? You connect the raw material with the human spirit. When you build a machine, you put your spirit into the machine. The individual machine may perish, it may turn to dust, it may one day be crushed. No trace of it will remain. But what it has accomplished does not pass without a trace, but goes right down to the atoms. Every atom bears a trace of your mind and will carry this trace away with it. It is not irrelevant whether an atom has once been in a machine or not. By being inside the machine, the atom has been changed. And this change, which you have imparted to the atom, will never be lost. The other thing is that by changing the atom, you have connected your spirit with the mineral world, that you have left a lasting mark on the general consciousness. This is exactly what we take with us into the other world.
It is therefore the case that all secret science consists of the knowledge of how one must act selflessly outside of oneself in order to achieve the greatest elevation of consciousness within oneself. Consider that those who knew this very clearly were so selfless that they ensured that their names would not be passed on to posterity. An example of this is the “Theologia germanica.” No one knows who wrote it. On the outside it simply says: “Der Frankfurter” (The Frankfurt Man). He therefore ensured that not even his name could be guessed. He worked in such a way that he merely added something to the objective world without claiming any honor or preservation of his name. To compare this with something else, it should be mentioned that masters are not usually historical figures; they sometimes incarnate themselves in historical figures when necessary, but this is to a certain extent a sacrifice. The degree of their consciousness is no longer compatible with working for themselves. And working for oneself is already the preservation of one's mere name.
This rule is difficult to understand. But you will now understand that Freemasons aim to do as much as possible in the world in such a way that their deeds are engraved in the great cathedrals, in social institutions and organizations, or that their deeds are present in charitable institutions. For selfless deeds are the true founders of immortality: this is the reflection of selfless deeds in the outside world. They need not be very great deeds. If someone selflessly gives someone else a penny, that is a deed that should be understood in the same way. But only as much passes into immortality as there is selflessness in it. And very few people are selfless. If, for example, it gives you a good feeling, then doing good can be very selfish. Doing good often springs from selfish interests. If a poor man who lives among us has no roast for Christmas, and I feel the need to give him something so that I can feel justified in eating my roast, then that is selfish.
In the Middle Ages, it was impossible to say who had built or painted many cathedrals and paintings. It is only in our sub-race that we have begun to attach such great value to a single human name. In earlier times, less importance was attached to individual human names. Those times were more spiritual. And spirituality is directed toward reality, while our time is directed toward appearances, which wants to preserve the immediate temporal.
I just wanted to show you what was important to such secret societies. It was important to them to completely eliminate themselves, insofar as they were personalities, and to let what they did live on in its effects. And now you will also recognize the crux of the secret. It is much less a matter of keeping something secret; it is a matter of keeping one's share secret. By keeping one's part secret, one secures one's immortality. The rule is therefore clear and unambiguous: as much as you put into the world, the world will give back to you in consciousness. This is connected with the greatest laws of the universe.
You all have a soul and you all have a spirit. This soul and this spirit are destined to reach the highest stages of perfection. But you were already there before your physical body was there; indeed, you were there before you existed in your first physical incarnation. In physical incarnation, you only existed in the previous races at the time of the Hyperborean and Polar races. Before that, however, you were purely soul beings. And as soul beings, you were part of the world soul, and as spirits, you were part of the universal world spirit. The world spirit and the world soul were spread out around you, just as nature is now. Just as the mineral world, the plant world, and the animal world are now around you, so the soul world and the spirit world were spread out around you. And what was outside at that time is now your soul: you have internalized what was first external. What is inside you today was once spread out outside. But that has now become your inner soul. And once upon a time, the spirit was also spread out like this. And what is now spread out around you will become your inner life. What is now the mineral kingdom, you absorb, and it will become your inner being. The plant kingdom will become your inner being; you absorb it. You appear with what surrounds you in nature as with your inner being.
Now you will understand how this relates to the first example: you build the church for others, not for yourself. You can absorb a large, beautiful, and glorious world if you make it large, beautiful, and glorious. Doing something for the higher self is not selfish because you are not doing it just for yourself. This higher self will be united with all other higher selves, so that it is for everyone at the same time.
This is what the Freemasons knew. The Freemason knew that when he helped to build the spiritualization of the mineral world—and “building” means nothing other than spiritualizing the mineral world—that this would one day be the content of his soul. That is what is significant: God once created nature for us, which surrounds us as mineral, plant, and animal nature. We will take this in. We cannot help that it is there; we can only make it our own. But what we ourselves create in the world is what will constitute our future being through ourselves.
We perceive the mineral world as such; what we make of it will be what we become in the future. What we make of the plant world will also be what we become in the future. The same is true of the animal world and of the human world. If you establish a charitable institution or contribute to one, you will become what you contribute. If human beings do nothing that they can absorb into their souls from outside in this way, their souls remain empty. Therefore, it must be possible for humanity to spiritualize as much as possible the three or four kingdoms of nature, for human beings are also part of nature. This has been the task of secret societies throughout the ages: to bring spirit into the entire external world.
You understand that this must be so. Take a child who is beginning to learn to read and write. At first, the tools are spread out around the child. Today, the child begins to learn to read. There is nothing yet within the child, but the teacher, the primer, and everything else is there. This continues until what was outside enters the child. And the child acquires the ability to read. It is the same with nature. What is spread out around us in nature will later be within us. We are souls, we originate from the world soul and absorbed it when it was spread out around us. The spirit was also absorbed in this way, and nature will be absorbed by us in the same way in order to remain within us as an active ability.
This is the great idea underlying secret societies, that all progress is based on involution and evolution. Involution is absorption, evolution is expenditure. All states of the world alternate between these two. Now you breathe in nature by seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting it. What you see does not pass you by without a trace. The eye perishes, the object perishes; but what you have seen remains. Now you will understand that at certain times it may be necessary to have an understanding of such things. We are moving toward a time when, as I recently indicated, understanding will penetrate into the atom itself. People will understand—even in popular opinion—that the atom is nothing more than coagulated electricity. The thought itself is made of the same substance.
In fact, before the fifth saucer comes to an end, we will have progressed so far that we will be able to influence the atom. Once we can understand the materiality between the thought and the atom, we will soon understand how to influence the atom. And nothing will be closed to certain kinds of action: I will be able to stand here and, unnoticed, press a button in my pocket to blow up an object far away, say in Hamburg, just as you can now send a telegraph without wires by producing a wave movement here and expressing it in a certain way at another specific point. This will be possible at the moment when the occult truth that thought and atoms consist of the same substance is realized in practical life.
It is impossible to imagine what would happen in such a case if humanity had not then attained selflessness. Only by achieving selflessness will it be possible to hold humanity back from the brink of destruction. The downfall of our present root race will be brought about by a lack of morality. The Lemutian race was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; ours will be destroyed by war of all against all, by evil, by the struggle of men against each other. Men will destroy themselves in mutual combat. And it will be desolate—more desolate than other kinds of destruction—because men themselves will be to blame.
A small group will survive into the sixth root race. This small group will have developed complete selflessness. The others will apply all their ingenuity to working out and harnessing the physical forces of nature, but without having attained the necessary degree of selflessness. They will inaugurate the struggle of all against all, and this will be the cause of the downfall of our root race.
In the seventh sub-race in particular, this struggle of all against all will rage in the most terrible manner. Strong, powerful forces will emanate from discoveries that will transform the entire globe into a kind of self-functioning electrical apparatus. In a way that cannot be spoken of, the small group will be protected.
Now you will be able to imagine even more clearly than was the case after what I was able to say about this last time why the good form is being sought and why Freemasonry is coming to the realization that it must erect a structure that corresponds to selflessness. It is easier to carry ourselves into the future with good old forms, to carry ourselves over to the small group of the new humanity, than to carry ourselves out of chaos.
Today it is easy to mock empty forms, but they have great significance. They are adapted to the structure of our development. Ultimately, we are dealing with necessary stages in human nature and spiritual evolution. Consider this: we are in the fifth sub-race of the fifth root race; we still have two sub-races of the fifth root race to go through. Then come seven sub-races of the sixth root race and seven sub-races of the seventh root race, which we still have to go through. That makes a total of sixteen stages of future development. Human beings still have to go through these sixteen stages. Anyone who learns something about the states that are possible there is, to a certain degree, initiated. The degrees correspond in a certain way to the secrets of future races.
On our globe, you have seven root races, and each root race has seven sub-races. That makes a total of forty-nine states. On the next globe, you have another forty-nine states. This gives you certain stages for exploring the secrets of the next phases of development. The high degrees of Freemasonry were originally intended to be nothing more than an expression of each future stage of human development. This means that there is indeed something in Freemasonry that has been very beautiful, namely that those who had attained a degree knew how to position themselves in the future so that they could be pioneers of sorts. They also knew that those who had attained higher degrees could have a greater impact. This division into degrees is therefore very useful, because it corresponds to reality.
So if new content with new knowledge could be poured into these forms, that would be very good. Then Freemasonry would once again be imbued with real spirit. But content and form belong together. Today, however, the situation is as I have described: the degrees are there, but no one has really attained them. Nevertheless, it is not unnecessary that they exist. They will be revived in the future.
The fifth subrace is a purely intellectual race, a race of egoism. We are now at the height of egoism. The intellect is the most egoistic thing, and the intellect is the basic characteristic of our subrace. We must therefore rise through the intellect to the spirituality that existed in the past ... [gap].
The secret of the secret is that human beings know how to keep their ego secret, that they do not regard their ego but their deeds as the decisive factor. Their actions and the overcoming of the ego through action are the real secret of the secret. The ego should remain secret in action. This belongs to the first degree: the eradication of the ego from ongoing karma. That which falls back on the ego from karma is thereby eradicated from karma. Nation, race, gender, class, religious affiliation—all these things are something that works on human egoism. Only when human beings have overcome all these things will they be able to become free of egoism.
In the astral body, you can detect a very specific color for every nation, for every race, for every age. Everywhere you find a basic color that humans have as members of this classification, these differentiations. These must first be stripped away. The Theosophical Society works to balance the colors of the astral bodies of its members. They should become the same color, the same color in relation to this basic color. This basic color forms a certain substance ... [gap].
In order to achieve this balance, bloody wars will indeed be necessary, followed by wars that take the form of economic wars, wars of exploitation, monetary and industrial ventures, and acts of domination, whereby it will become increasingly possible to set masses of people in motion and simply force them to act through certain mechanisms. The individual will gain more and more power over certain masses of people. For the course of development is not that we become more democratic, but that we become brutally aristocratic, with the individual gaining more and more power. If there is no refinement of morals, this must lead to the most brutal things. This will also come, just as the water catastrophe came for the Atlanteans.