The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Twelfth Lecture

[ 1 ] From yesterday's remarks on developing a human community spirit, you will have seen how important it is to overcome consideration for one's own ego when it comes to penetrating deeper into the spiritual world. For the beginner who aspires to occult development, the first basic condition is that he must rid himself of all forms of egoism. For example, he must not say: What good does it do me if others tell me about occult things and I cannot see them myself? That is a lack of trust. It is necessary to have trust in those who have already attained a certain degree of development. People interact with each other, and when one has achieved more, he has not achieved it for himself, but for everyone else, and they are called upon to listen to him. This increases their own powers, and precisely because they have faith, these listeners gradually become knowledgeable themselves. One must not try to take the second step before the first.

[ 2 ] There are three occult paths of development: the Oriental, the Christian-Gnostic, and the Christian-Rosicrucian or simply Rosicrucian path. They differ primarily in relation to the devotion of the student to the teacher. What actually happens to a person who develops occult abilities? What are the conditions for occult development?

[ 3 ] To describe this, let us consider the life of an ordinary person today. The life of such a person is such that from morning to night they go about their work and daily experiences, using their intellect and their outer senses. They live and work in a state that we call the waking state. But this is only one state; another is that which lies between waking and sleeping. In this state, the person is aware that images pass through their soul, dream images. These images do not relate directly to the external world, to ordinary reality, but indirectly. We can call this state the dream state. It is very interesting to study how this state progresses. Many people will think that dreams are completely meaningless. This is not the case. Even for people today, dreams have a certain meaning, just not the same meaning that experiences have in the waking state. When we are awake, our imagination always corresponds to certain things and experiences; in dreams, it is different. For example, you may be asleep and dream that you hear the sound of horses' hooves on the street; you wake up and realize that you heard the ticking of a clock that was lying next to you. The dream is symbolic, a symbol, expressing the ticking of the clock symbolically through the sound of horses' hooves. One can dream entire stories. A student, for example, dreams of a duel with all the preceding details, from the challenge to a duel to the crack of the shot that wakes him up. Then he sees that he has knocked over the chair that was standing next to his bed. Another example: a farmer's wife dreams of going to church. She enters the church, the priest speaks sublime words, his arms move; suddenly his arms turn into wings, and then the clergyman suddenly begins to crow like a rooster. She wakes up, and outside the rooster is crowing.

[ 4 ] This shows that dreams have completely different temporal relationships than daytime consciousness, because in the dreams cited, the actual cause occurred last in time. This is because, compared to physical reality, such a dream flashes through the soul in an instant and awakens a whole series of images in the blink of an eye; the person themselves transplants time into the dream. One must imagine this in the following way: by remembering all the details, the person waking up internally extends time itself, so that it seems to them as if the events had taken place in the corresponding length of time. A small event thus often becomes a long dramatic process in a dream. Here we can gain an insight into how time appears in the astral realm.

[ 5 ] Inner states can also be symbolically represented in dreams, for example, a headache: a person dreams that they are in a damp basement full of cobwebs. Heart palpitations and internal heat are perceived as a glowing furnace. People who have a special inner sensitivity can experience other things. For example, they see themselves in an unfortunate situation in their dream. The dream then acts as a prophet; it is a symbol that they have an illness that will manifest itself in a few days. Some people even dream of the remedy for such an illness. In short, a completely different kind of perception is present in these dream states.

[ 6 ] The third state of human beings is the dreamless state of sleep, where nothing rises in the soul, where the person sleeps unconscious. When, through inner development, the person begins to perceive the higher worlds, this first announces itself in their dream state, namely in that their dreams become more regular and more meaningful than before. Above all, human beings gain insights through their dreams; they only need to pay close attention to them. Later, they notice that their dreams become more frequent, until they feel they have been dreaming all night long. They may also observe that their dreams are connected with things that do not exist in the outside world, things that cannot be experienced physically. They notice that in their dreams they no longer see mere things that either affect them externally or symbolize states as described above, but rather, as mentioned, they experience images of things that do not exist in sensory reality, and they then realize that their dreams are telling them something meaningful. For example, it may begin in the following way: he dreams that a friend is in danger of fire, and he sees him moving into the danger. The next day he learns that this friend fell ill during the night. He did not see that his friend had fallen ill, but he saw a symbol of it. In this way, influences from the higher worlds can also affect dreams, so that one experiences something that does not exist in the physical world; impressions from the higher worlds are transferred into the dream. This is a very important transition to higher occult development.

[ 7 ] Now someone may object: That's all just a dream, how can you believe it? — That is not correct. Let us take the following example: Edison once dreamed how to make an incandescent light bulb; he then remembered this dream and actually made an incandescent light bulb according to the dream, and now someone came and said: The incandescent light bulb is nothing, it's just a dream! The point is whether the dream has meaning for life, not that it was dreamed. In many cases, such dream states are not noticed at all because people are not attentive enough. That is not good. We should turn our attention to such subtle things; that is what brings progress.

[ 8 ] Later, a state arises in which the nature of reality is revealed to the student in dreams, and he can then test the dreams against reality. When he has reached the point where he has the whole world of images before him not only in sleep but also during the day, he can use his intellect to analyze whether what he sees is true. One must not, therefore, regard and use the dream images as a basis for wisdom, but must wait until they intrude into the waking world. If one consciously controls them, then soon the state will come when the student not only sees what is physically present, but can also really observe what is the aura, the soul, what is astral in a human being. One then learns to understand what the forms and colors in the astral body mean, which passions, for example, are expressed in them. One gradually learns to spell out the soul world, so to speak. But one must always be aware that everything is symbolic.

[ 9 ] One might object: if one sees only symbols, then an event can be symbolized in all kinds of symbols, and it is impossible to be sure that a particular image refers to something specific. However, at a certain level, a thing always presents itself under the same image, just as an object always expresses itself through the same idea. For example, passion is always expressed through flashy reddish colors. One only has to learn to relate the images to the right thing. One recognizes the state of the soul from the image.

[ 10 ] Now you understand why all religious books almost always speak in images. For example, wisdom is called light. The reason for this is that to the occultist, the wisdom of human beings and other beings always appears as astral light. Passions appear as fire. Religious documents communicate things that take place not only on the physical plane, but also on higher planes. These documents all originate from clairvoyants and refer to higher worlds; therefore, they must speak to us in images. Everything that has been told from the Akashic Records has therefore also been depicted in such images.

[ 11 ] The next state that the student experiences is what is called continuity of consciousness. When the ordinary person is completely removed from the sensory world in sleep, he is unconscious. This is no longer the case for a student who has reached the aforementioned stage. Day and night, the student lives in full, clear consciousness, even when the physical body is at rest. After some time, the entry into a new, specific state is heralded by the addition of sounds and words to the images of daily consciousness. The images speak and tell him something; they speak a language he understands. They say what they are; then there is no longer any possibility of deception. This is the devachanic sound and speech, the music of the spheres. Each thing then speaks its own name and its relationship to other things. This is added to astral vision, and this is the clairvoyant's entry into Devachan. Once a person has attained this devachanic state, the lotus flowers, the chakrams or wheels, begin to turn from left to right like the hands of a clock at certain points in the astral body. They are the sense organs of the astral body, but their perception is active. The eye, for example, is at rest; it allows light to enter and then perceives it. In contrast, the lotus flowers only perceive when they move, when they encompass an object. The turning of the lotus flowers excites vibrations in the astral matter, and thus perception arises on the astral plane.

[ 12 ] What are the forces that form the lotus flowers? Where do these forces come from? We know that during sleep, the exhausted forces of the physical and etheric bodies are replaced by the astral body; through its regularity, it can compensate for irregularities in the physical and etheric bodies during sleep. But it is these forces, which are used to overcome fatigue, that form the lotus flowers. A person who begins their occult development thus actually withdraws forces from their physical and etheric bodies. If these forces were to be permanently withdrawn from the physical body, the person would become ill, and even complete exhaustion would ensue. If they do not want to harm themselves physically and morally, they must replace these forces with something else.

[ 13 ] One must be mindful of a general world rule: Rhythm replaces force! This is an important occult principle. Today, people live in a highly irregular manner, especially in their thinking and actions. A person who simply allowed the distracting outside world to influence them and went along with it would not be able to escape this danger, into which their physical body is plunged by occult development due to the withdrawal of strength. Therefore, people must work to bring rhythm into their lives. Of course, they cannot arrange for one day to be the same as the next. But there is one thing they can do: they can carry out certain activities on a regular basis, and this is what those undergoing occult development must do. For example, they should perform meditation and concentration exercises every morning at a time they have set for themselves. Rhythm also enters their lives through an evening review of the day. If other regularities can be introduced, so much the better, because then everything proceeds, so to speak, in accordance with the laws of the world. The entire world system proceeds rhythmically. Everything in nature is rhythm: the course of the sun, the passage of the seasons, of day and night, and so on. Plants grow rhythmically. However, the higher we climb, the less pronounced the rhythm becomes, but even in animals a certain rhythm can still be perceived. Animals, for example, still mate at regular times. Only humans enter into an unrhythmic, chaotic life: nature has dismissed them.

[ 14 ] Humans must now consciously restructure this chaotic life into a rhythmic one, and to achieve this, they are given certain tools with which they can bring harmony and rhythm into their physical and etheric bodies. Gradually, these are set into regular vibrations so that they correct themselves even when the astral body emerges. Even if they were driven out of rhythm during the day, they automatically return to the correct movement in the calm of the night.

[ 15 ] These means consist of the following six exercises, which must be performed in addition to meditation:

[ 16 ] Thought control. This consists of not allowing all kinds of things to flit through the soul, at least for short periods of the day, but instead allowing calm to enter the flow of thoughts. One thinks of a specific concept, places this concept at the center of one's thought life, and then logically arranges all thoughts in such a way that they are based on this concept. Even if this only happens for a minute, it is already of great importance for the rhythm of the physical and etheric bodies.

[ 17 ] Initiative in action, that is, one must force oneself to perform actions, even if insignificant, that arise from one's own initiative, to perform self-imposed duties. Most of the causes of action lie in family circumstances, upbringing, profession, and so on. Just consider how little actually arises from one's own initiative! So now one must spend a short time on allowing actions to arise from one's own initiative. These need not be important things at all; quite insignificant actions serve the same purpose.

[ 18 ] Serenity. The third thing we are concerned with can be called serenity. Here we learn to regulate the state of fluctuating between “ecstatic joy” and “deep sorrow.” Those who do not want to do this because they believe that it will cause them to lose their originality in action or their artistic sensibility cannot undergo occult development. Serenity means being master of the highest pleasure and the deepest pain. Yes, one only becomes truly receptive to the joys and sufferings of the world when one no longer loses oneself in pain and pleasure, when one no longer becomes absorbed in them egoistically. The greatest artists have achieved the most precisely through this serenity, because it has opened their souls to subtle and inwardly important things.

[ 19 ] Impartiality. The fourth is what can be described as impartiality. This is the quality that sees the good in all things. It focuses on the positive in everything. The best example of this is a Persian legend associated with Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ once saw a dead dog lying by the roadside. Jesus stopped and looked at the animal, but those around him turned away in disgust at the sight. Then Christ Jesus said, “Oh, what beautiful teeth this animal has!” He did not see the bad, the ugly, but found something beautiful even in this disgusting carcass: the white teeth. When we are in this frame of mind, we look for the positive qualities, the good, in all things, and we can find it everywhere. This has a very powerful effect on the physical and etheric bodies.

[ 20 ] Faith. The next thing is faith. In the occult sense, faith expresses something different from what is commonly understood by the word. When you are developing occult abilities, you should never allow your past to determine your judgment of the future. In occult development, you may have to disregard everything you have experienced so far in order to be able to face each new experience with a spirit of faith. The occultist must do this consciously. For example, if someone comes and says, “The church tower is leaning, it has tilted 45 degrees,” everyone would say, “That can't be.” But the occultist must leave himself a back door open. Yes, he must go so far as to be able to believe everything that happens in the world that he encounters, otherwise he will block his path to new experiences. One must free oneself for new experiences; this puts the physical and etheric bodies in a mood that can be compared to the voluptuous mood of an animal that wants to hatch another.

[ 21 ] Inner balance. And then the next quality is inner balance. It develops gradually and quite naturally through the other five qualities. Man must be mindful of these six qualities. He must take his life into his own hands and progress slowly in the sense of the saying: constant dripping wears away the stone.

[ 22 ] If a person acquires higher powers through some magical tricks without taking this into account, they will find themselves in a bad situation. In the present life, the spiritual and the physical are mixed together like blue and yellow liquids in a glass. With occult development, something begins that resembles the process when a chemist separates these two liquids. Similarly, the spiritual and the physical are separated. However, in doing so, the person loses the benefits of this mixture. Because the soul is contained within the physical body, the average person is not subject to passions that are too grotesque. However, this separation can now lead to the physical body being left to its own devices with its characteristics, and this can lead to all kinds of excesses. Thus, if a person who is engaged in occult development does not take care to cultivate moral qualities, bad qualities may actually come to the fore that would not otherwise have manifested themselves. They suddenly become deceitful, quick-tempered, vengeful; all kinds of characteristics that were previously mitigated become blatantly apparent. Yes, this can happen if someone without moral development becomes too preoccupied with the wisdom teachings of theosophy.

[ 23 ] We have seen that human beings first pass through the stage of seeing and only then reach the stage of spiritual hearing. While on the stage of seeing, one must of course first learn how the images relate to the objects. One would be thrust into the stormy sea of astral experiences if one simply surrendered to it. That is why one needs a guide who, upon entering, tells one how things are connected and how to find one's way around. This is the basis for the necessity of relying strictly on the guru. In this regard, three different developments can be distinguished:

[ 24 ] The Oriental development, also known as yoga development, is one in which an individual, an initiated person living on the physical plane, is the guide, the guru, of another, who relies completely and in every detail on the guru. This is best achieved by completely switching off one's own self for the duration of the development and surrendering it to the guru. The guru must even give advice on the initiative of action. The Indian nature is suited to such a complete surrender of the self; European culture does not allow such devotion at all.

[ 25 ] Christian development replaces the individual guru with the one great leader of humanity, Christ Jesus himself. The feeling of belonging to this Christ Jesus, of being one with him, can replace devotion to an individual guru. But one must first be led to him by an earthly teacher. Here, too, one is in a certain sense dependent on the teacher, the guru on the physical plane.

[ 26 ] One is most independent in Rosicrucian training. The guru is no longer the leader, but the advisor. He is the one who gives instructions on what to do inwardly. At the same time, he also ensures that occult training is accompanied by decisive training of the mind, without which such occult training cannot be undergone. This is because thinking has a quality that other things do not have. For example, when we are on the physical plane, we perceive with our physical senses what is on the physical plane, and nothing else. On the astral plane, astral perceptions apply, and devachanic hearing applies only in Devachan; in short, each plane has its own perceptions. But one thing runs through all worlds, and that is logical thinking. Logic is the same on all three planes. Thus, on the physical plane, one can learn something that is also valid for the higher planes, and this method observes Rosicrucian development by training thinking on the physical plane, preferably with the means of the physical plane. Intense thinking is already developed through the study of theosophical truths or through direct thinking exercises. If one wants to train the intellect even more, one can study books such as “The Philosophy of Freedom” and “Truth and Science,” which are deliberately written in such a way that a mind trained by them can move with absolute certainty on the highest planes. Even someone who studies these writings and knows nothing about theosophy could orient themselves in the higher worlds through them. But as I said, the theosophical teachings also work in the same way. This is the system of Rosicrucian training. In one's own sharp thinking, one has the truest inner guide. Then the guru is only the friend of the student, who gives advice, because the best guru is educated within oneself in one's own reason. Of course, one also needs the guru here, because he must give advice on how to achieve free development.

[ 27 ] Among the European population, the Christian path is the most suitable for those who have developed their feelings more. Those who have more or less broken away from the church, who are more grounded in science and have come to doubt because of science, are best suited to the Rosicrucian path.

Questions and Answers

Question about the work of the ego

[ 28 ] There is work to be done on the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. Every human being works on the astral body; all moral education is work on the astral body. Even when a person begins their initiation, their occult training, they still have much work to do on their astral body. What begins with initiation is more intensive work on the etheric body through the cultivation of aesthetic enjoyment and religion. The initiate consciously works on the etheric body.

[ 29 ] Astral consciousness is four-dimensional in a certain sense. To give an approximate idea of this, let us say the following: What is dead tends to remain in its three dimensions. What is alive continually goes beyond the three dimensions. What is growing has the fourth dimension within its three dimensions through its movement. If something moves in a circle and the circle is assumed to become larger and larger, one finally arrives at a straight line. However, with this straight line, we would no longer return to our starting point because our space is three-dimensional. In astral space, one does return because astral space is closed on all sides. There is no possibility of going into infinity there. Physical space is open to the fourth dimension. Height and width are two dimensions, the third dimension is lifting out and bringing in the fourth. A different geometry prevails in astral space.

Why are theosophists still so imperfect?

[ 30 ] One should not let personal feelings influence one's judgment, but rather make an objective assessment of things.

About the state in Devachan.

[ 31 ] Pain and sorrow are outside in Devachan. One does not feel one's own pain there. You see the pain there. You see it as thunder, as lightning, as color. That is bliss. These are images of what is happening to others down here. The state of peace in Devachan depends on the life of the person here between birth and death. Harmony here brings peace there. Man is constantly in the three worlds. “Rest in peace!” is not entirely accurate.

Is there any value in having memorial services read?

[ 32 ] Good thoughts are like balm for the dead. One should send them unselfish love, not mourn that one no longer has the dead oneself; that disturbs the dead and is like a lead weight for them. The love that remains, that does not demand to have the dead still here, benefits the dead and increases their bliss.

Remorse?

[ 33 ] Remorse has no value. One must make amends; that shortens the Kamaloka.

About communion with loved ones in Kamaloka.

[ 34 ] This communion is more definite, clearer in Devachan, because consciousness in Kamaloka is clouded by the removal of personal guilt.

Lotus flowers?

[ 35 ] The lotus flowers are inner movements, they are inside the human being.

What is it like when you disagree with your parents?

[ 36 ] Disagreeing with your parents is usually karmic destiny.

What does the astral body look like?

[ 37 ] When the astral body is together with its physical body, it has roughly the shape of an egg. After death, it is a wonderfully luminous, mobile structure. Depending on its characteristics, it has different colors, luminous colors. — These three luminous points are initially points far apart from each other, which are connected and have an open connection at the bottom. The three points represent centers of power; they draw closer and closer together and then look like a small triangle. 1. Heart, 2. Liver, 3. Brain. These three points are involved in reincarnation. In Devachan, they are luminous centers of power emanating from the three points. In the astral world, these three points form a triangle, in Devachan a hexagon. In Devachan, it is this shape, two triangles pushed into each other. They are bells.

Question not noted.

[ 38 ] Atoms are a speculation. That is why we avoid talking about atoms, because it is only an assumption. One should not think anything that is not fact; one should only look and observe. (The question was about the “permanent atom” that was being discussed in theosophical circles at the time.)

Can one see into the future?

[ 39 ] It is possible to see into the future, but the occultist denies himself this ability because only the highly initiated can bear to know the future. The initiate's vision does not determine what the other person does; he does so in the future entirely of his own free will.

About family relationships.

[ 40 ] In families with strong family traditions, there is a very specific law by which family karma is lived out. The ancestor preserves the family until he can build a new body for himself in the next incarnation. The blood preserves continuity; the blood preserves family ties.

About art.

[ 41 ] Art is the revelation of secret laws of nature. Goethe says: “Beauty is a manifestation of secret laws of nature that would have remained hidden from us forever without its appearance.” Nature can only carry out its intentions to a certain extent; humans can express them, but artists must leave out blood and life.

What happens to human work?

[ 42 ] What humans have once imprinted on the physical world remains in the idea. What they have implanted in matter remains. What humans have once formed will later grow on earth. The clouds will later be paintings, and a structure like Cologne Cathedral will later grow.

About group souls.

[ 43 ] Much later, group souls will absorb the same experiences that humans have today. They will later build their own bodies. They will become individual beings and will then have individual souls. Animals will never become humans, but group souls will become humans; albeit humans who are very different from us. One can go through the stages of humanity in many different ways: on the Saturn stage, the Sun stage, the Moon stage, the Earth stage, and so on.

What is your view on the Lord's Prayer?

[ 44 ] The original Christian prayer is: Lord, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but yours be done. One should not pray selfishly. Prayer should be an elevation into the spiritual world, a source of strength and fortification.

About marriage.

[ 45 ] Marriage is a dualism. Everything in the world today is wrongly attributed to sexuality. A great world contrast plays into the realm of marriage: the man has a female etheric body and the woman a male etheric body. The spirit, the soul in the man is more feminine, and vice versa. Our soul strives for the highest. The man will therefore compare this highest with the feminine, because his soul is feminine. The exterior, the body, becomes only the outer symbol, is only a parable. “Everything transitory is only a parable.” “The eternally feminine draws us upward.”

About the ego body.

[ 46 ] The ego body appears to the clairvoyant as a blue hollow sphere between the eyes, behind the forehead. When a person begins to work on it, rays emanate from this point.

About the nature of comets.

[ 47 ] The comet is an accumulation of kama, desire matter, without the corresponding spirit matter. The comet only reaches the astral body. The comet's visibility is caused by the strong friction of the etheric matter through which the astral body has passed.

About seeing the aura.

[ 48 ] Perceiving the aura is only a matter of seeing.

How did gold come into being?

[ 49 ] First you have the etheric mass.

Fire	Fire ether
Air	Light ether
Water	Chemical ether
Earth	Life ether

[ 50 ] No life can arise without the life ether that fills the body. Every ether can cool down and thereby become solid. Gold used to flow in crevices, and even earlier it was gaseous, it was fire ether, light ether. The rays that come to us today in the sun used to be ether matter. All gold was then sun ether, light ether. Gold is condensed solar ether, condensed sunlight; silver is condensed moonlight.

What beings inhabit the moon?

[ 51 ] The moon is populated by beings who have remained at an earlier stage of development, who have been left behind: Luciferic beings. On the old moon there were beings who had fallen so far into evil that they could no longer participate in evolution. They anchored themselves on the moon. These evil beings are particularly evident during the waning moon. During the waxing moon they are less harmful. Horrible beings inhabit the moon, but also beneficial beings, beings that influence growth and birth.

About the Book of Revelation.

[ 52 ] This book with the seven seals in the Revelation of John is first written by man himself. He evolves and involutes it. The first thing written in it is what the seven sub-races are. Each sub-race has written a page in it and sealed it, and in the next sub-race it is unsealed.

On the difference between burning and burying.

[ 53 ] The difference mainly applies to the etheric body. For the physical body, burning promotes regular dissolution into the world space. “Decomposing” means returning to one's essence.

On charity.

[ 54 ] Charity is quite natural; I must do it myself.

On the life of Jesus.

[ 55 ] The life of Jesus is both symbol and fact. Only spiritual science can provide proof of the life of Jesus. There is no historical evidence because Christ, as a high initiate, was not known to those who wrote the history of that time.

On the inner word.

[ 56 ] The inner word develops after a person has already learned to see astral. Then they enter the devachanic state, where they hear the secrets of the world resounding within themselves, and they hear the name that every thing has. Later, the initiate is also told his own name, and meditating on this name is particularly effective. This is the inner word. It awakens him, and this inner word is then the sure guide for his later development.