The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Special Note regarding Freemasonry and ‘The Atom’

[ 1 ] In order to avoid a possible source of grave misunderstanding regarding the various statements made by Rudolf Steiner about the atom and future new forces of nature, it is necessary to point out that these varying statements must be considered in their context. It is especially necessary to differentiate between Rudolf Steiner's criticism of the atomic theory as a philosophy of life and his views about the nature of the atom from an occult point of view.

[ 2 ] His criticism of the atomic theory as a philosophy of life was first expressed in his essays: ‘Einzig mögliche Kritik der atomistischen Begriffe’ 1882, (Only possible View of the Atomistic Concepts) and ‘Die Atomistik und ihre Widerlegung’ 1890, (Atomic Theory and its Refutation) which have as their purpose to show that it is impossible to regard the atom as being the ‘basic principle of all existence.’ Just as telegraph wires and electricity are only conveyors of what is the essential, so atoms, too, are only the agents or bearers of effects produced by the spirit. This basic view runs through the whole of Rudolf Steiner's work. Even in one of his last works, in his autobiography (The Course of My Life, Chapter 32) it is stated: ‘Atoms, or atomic structure, can only be the result of spiritual action or organic action.’

[ 3 ] Something quite different is involved in the statements about the atom which he made in the present lectures. Here he was speaking from an occult point of view to a very restricted circle about the atom as nature's archetypal building material, in connection with Freemasonry. For, in the same way as nature was to have been sanctified through masonic cultic symbolism, so Rudolf Steiner wished to awaken through the Cultic-Symbolic Section of his Esoteric School, for which these lectures were a preparation, the knowledge that the ‘laboratory table should become the altar of the future’ and that the impulse of selflessness must be implanted into the social order if our utilitarian culture is not to perish through egoism. That is why he published simultaneously with that his ‘Fundamental Social Law’ which states: ‘In a community of human beings working together, the well-being of the community will be the greater, the less the individual claims for himself the proceeds of the work he has himself done; i.e., the more of these proceeds he makes over to his fellow-workers, and the more his own requirements are satisfied, not out of his own work done, but out of work done by the others.’ (Quoted from: Anthroposophy and the Social Question).

[ 4 ] The occasion, which was provided not by occult promptings but by external science, was the result of insight into the effects which the latest discoveries of physics at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth centuries could have for mankind. The perception of the fact that modern science and technology were fast approaching a stage where they could only contribute to the welfare of mankind if human souls are enriched and deepened by a theosophical view of life, prompted Rudolf Steiner to come out in support of the publication of spiritual truths. That the physics of the period was beginning to investigate the connection between the atom, electricity and etheric forces was recognised by Rudolf Steiner as a tremendously important turning point in the development of human thought because, as occultist, he knew that ‘a new point of departure will be made from the atom to the mineral-physical world.’ (See also lecture 9 of 16th December 1904 and note 22 thereto).

[ 5 ] For this reason he ascribed tremendous importance to the speech of the then Prime Minister Balfour, which pointed in this direction.

[ 6 ] With the prophecy given in the three lectures of 9th, 16th and 23rd December 1904, that man would learn to ‘think into the atom’ and would acquire the ability to make use of its inner force, was combined not only a warning of the grave dangers which would threaten him if this force were not used selflessly in the service of the whole, but also an allusion to the fact that, as something of greatest importance for the future, man will be able to build with atoms as ‘the smallest of building stones’ in the future.

[ 7 ] This latter, not further elaborated suggestion, gets a firmer outline through the notes of lecture 15 of 21st October 1905 and the supplementary notes of the lecture of 21st October 1907, according to which the occultist is capable of making the atom ‘grow.’ ^{1Many years later, in a lecture in Berlin on 22nd of June 1915 (in ‘Thoughts for the Times,’ C 39) Rudolf Steiner again came to speak of the atom in connection with the Jupiter evolution and mentioned the above lectures. A literal rendering of what he said there would be as follows: ‘I have spoken formerly about the atom as being built up out of the whole cosmos. You can find it again in those earlier lectures which were held right at the beginning of our Berlin activities.’} At the same time mention is also made of his capacity to make it ‘shrink.’ To his audience at that time these thoughts were not quite new. For in the literature of the Theosophical Society, especially that by C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant, there was a great deal concerning the power of growing and shrinking as a faculty particularly to be developed in the case of etheric clairvoyance; this was usually found in connection with a description of the clairvoyant investigation of atoms. It was just in the year 1905 that Annie Besant had spoken and written on this subject on various occasions. There was also a study done by Leadbeater and Besant in collaboration in 1895 which appeared anew at this time under the title Occult Chemistry. Rudolf Steiner rejected this manner of presentation as ‘materialistic spiritualism,’ just as he rejected the atomism of natural science as a basis for a philosophy of life, for in this theosophical literature, too, the atoms were regarded as the underlying principle of all existence, instead of recognising them as being the result and agents of definite spiritual effects.

[ 8 ] For the same reason he did not speak about a mere outward technique of etheric enlargement and diminution but about the fact that from the twentieth century onward an etheric clairvoyance would gradually develop as a new natural ability of mankind, whereby the reappearance of Christ in the etheric realms would become perceptible (see: ‘The Etherisation of the Blood’ and ‘The True Nature of the Second Coming.’) Then there will be chemists and physicists who will no longer preach the doctrine that the world consists of only material atoms, but they will teach that matter is built up ‘in the way that Christ arranged it.’ (See: The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Humanity, Chapter 3).

[ 9 ] It can be inferred from lecture 20 given on the 2nd of January 1906 (in this volume), that when it is said that man will use the atom in future times for building purposes, that is connected with gaining mastery over the etheric, over the life forces. In a slightly later lecture (Munich, 4th December 1907—published in Volume 98 of the complete edition) this fact is stated again very clearly in the following words:

[ 10 ] “... When man has developed himself so far that he has reached the first stage of clairvoyance, then the life of the plants, the laws governing life, will be just as clear to him as the laws of the mineral world are at present.”

[ 11 ] ‘When you put together a machine or build a house you are acting in accordance with the laws of the mineral world. A machine is constructed according to the laws of the mineral world, but a plant cannot be built in this fashion. If you wish to have a plant you must leave it to those beings who underlie the structure of nature. In future times man will be able to create plants in a laboratory, but only when it has become a sacrament to him, a holy office which he performs. All creation of living things will only be permitted to man when he has become so sincere and pure minded that for him the laboratory bench has become an altar. Before that time not the slightest hint will be revealed to him of how living things are composed. In other words: The ego as an organ of consciousness lives in the mineral world and will ascend to the plant kingdom, which it will learn to understand just as it now understands the mineral world. Later on it will learn to comprehend the laws of the animal kingdom and after that those of the human kingdom. All human beings will learn to comprehend the inner life of plants, of animals and of man; that is a perspective of the future. Whatever one is truly able to comprehend, one can demonstrate—for instance a watch. Present-day man will never be able to demonstrate anything taken from living nature without the help of the beings who stand behind nature—so long as it is not a sacramental operation which he is performing.’

—Hella Wiesberger