The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Path of Knowledge and Its Stages

The Rosicrucian Path of Spiritual Development

[ 1 ] Today, we will present a picture of the path of knowledge and show what the fruits of this path are. You are familiar with some of the main points that come into consideration here. But even for those who have already heard relevant lectures on the path of knowledge or have read “Lucifer,” namely the thirty-second issue, something new will be offered when we discuss the path of knowledge in a way that can only happen in the intimate circle of students of spiritual science. The main focus will be on discussing this path of knowledge as it is outlined by the Rosicrucian Western spiritual movement, which has been spiritually guiding and directing European culture since the 14th century through unknown channels.

[ 2 ] The Rosicrucian movement operated entirely in secret until the last third of the 19th century. What Rosicrucianism really was could not be read in any book, nor could it be spoken of publicly. Only in the last thirty years or so have some of the Rosicrucian teachings been made known to the outside world through the Theosophical movement, after previously having been taught only in strictly closed societies. The most elementary teachings are contained in what is now called “theosophy” — but only the most elementary ones. Only gradually is it possible to allow people to look more deeply into the wisdom that has been cultivated in those Rosicrucian schools in Europe since the end of the 14th century.

[ 3 ] First of all, let us make it clear that there is not just one kind of path to knowledge, but three kinds. However, this should not be understood as meaning that there are three truths. There is only one truth, just as everyone standing on the summit of a mountain has the same view. But there are different ways to reach the summit of the mountain. During the ascent, you have a different view from every point. Only when you are at the top – and you can climb the summit from different sides – do you have a clear, unobstructed view according to your own perspective. The same is true of the three paths to knowledge. One is the Eastern path of yoga, the second is the Christian Gnostic path, and the third is the Christian Rosicrucian path. These three paths lead to the one truth.

[ 4 ] There are three different paths because human natures are different on our earth. One must distinguish between three types of human nature. Just as it would not be right for someone to choose a footpath far away from the mountain summit instead of the one closest to it, it would also not be good for a person to take a spiritual path other than the one appropriate for them. Today, even within the theosophical movement, which has yet to develop beyond its initial stage, there are many rather confused ideas about this. Many people think that there is only one path to knowledge, and believe that this is the path of yoga. However, the Eastern path of yoga is neither the only path to knowledge, nor is it the most suitable for people living within the European cultural sphere. Those who view the matter only from the outside can hardly understand what is at stake here, because human nature does not appear to be so different among the various races. But when one considers the great diversity of human types with occult powers, one comes to the conclusion that something that may be good for Orientals, and perhaps also for a few individuals in our culture, is by no means right for everyone. There are also people, but only a few within European circumstances, who can follow the Oriental path of yoga. For the vast majority of Europeans, however, it is impracticable. It brings with it illusions and also spiritual destruction. Even if they do not appear so different on the outside, even in the eyes of today's scientists, Eastern and Western natures are totally different. An Eastern brain, an Eastern imagination, and an Eastern heart function quite differently from the organs of a Westerner. What can be expected of a person who has grown up in Eastern conditions can never, ever be expected of a Westerner. Only those who believe that climate, religion, and social life have no influence on the human mind could think that it does not matter under what external conditions someone undergoes occult training. But if one knows what a profound spiritual influence all these external circumstances have on human nature, one understands that the path of yoga is suitable only for a few Europeans, and really only for those who thoroughly and radically break away from European conditions, but that it is impossible for people who remain within European culture.

[ 5 ] People who are still sincere and honest Christians at heart, who are still imbued with certain fundamental principles of Christianity, may choose the Christian-Gnostic path, which is not very different from the Kabbalistic path. For Europeans, however, the Rosicrucian path is generally the only correct path. Today we will discuss this European Rosicrucian path, namely the various tasks that this path prescribes for people, and also the rewards that await people who follow this path of knowledge. No one should believe that this is only a path for scientifically educated people or even for scholars. The simplest person can follow it. But if you follow this path, you will very soon be able to counter every objection of European science against occultism. This was one of the main tasks of the Rosicrucian masters: to equip those who follow the path of knowledge so that they can defend occult knowledge and also carry out this path in the world. The simple person who has only a few popular ideas from modern science or even nothing at all, but who has an honest desire for truth within them, will be able to follow the Rosicrucian path just as well as the most educated and learned.

[ 6 ] There are major differences between the three paths to knowledge. The first concerns the relationship of the student to the occult teacher, who gradually becomes the guru or mediates the relationship to the guru. The peculiarity of the Eastern path of yoga is that this relationship is the strictest conceivable. The guru is the unconditional authority for the student. If this were not the case, this training could not be successful. Oriental yoga training is not possible without strict submission to the authority of the guru. The Christian Gnostic and Kabbalistic paths presuppose a somewhat looser relationship with the guru on the physical plane. The guru leads the student to Christ Jesus; he is the mediator. And on the Rosicrucian path, the guru increasingly becomes a friend whose authority is based on inner consent. No relationship other than a strictly personal relationship of trust is possible here. If even the slightest mistrust arose between student and teacher, the bond that must exist between them would be broken and the forces that operate between teacher and student would no longer be effective. The student will sometimes have false ideas about the role of his teacher. It will seem easy to him as if he absolutely must speak to the teacher here and there, as if he must often be physically together with him. Although it is sometimes urgently necessary for the teacher to approach the student physically, this is not as often the case as the student may believe. At first, the student cannot correctly assess the effect that the teacher has on him. The teacher has means at his disposal that are only gradually revealed to the student. Many words that the student believes to have been spoken by chance are of great significance. They continue to work unconsciously in the student's soul like a guiding force that directs and guides him. If the teacher exercises the occult influences correctly, then the real bond between him and the student is also there. Added to this are the effects based on loving participation in the distance, which are always available to the teacher and which only reveal themselves more and more to the student later on, when he finds his way into the higher worlds. But absolute trust is absolutely necessary, otherwise it is better to sever the bond between teacher and student.

[ 7 ] Now the rules that play a certain role in Rosicrucian training should be briefly mentioned. Things do not have to occur exactly as they are listed here. Depending on the individuality, profession, and age of the student, the teacher will have to take this or that from the various areas and arrange it in this or that way. Only an overview is given here for information purposes.

[ 8 ] What is highly necessary in Rosicrucian training is usually not given sufficient attention in all occult training. It is clear and logical thinking — or at least the striving for it. First of all, all confused or prejudiced thinking must be eradicated. Human beings must accustom themselves to thinking about the connections in the world from a broad, selfless perspective. The best way to do this, if one wants to follow this Rosicrucian path as a simple human being, is to study the elementary teachings of spiritual science. It is not a valid objection to say: What good does it do me to study the teachings about the higher worlds, about the human races and cultures, about karma and reincarnation, since I cannot see and perceive all this myself? — This is not a valid objection, because it is precisely the study of these truths that purifies the mind and disciplines it in such a way that the individual becomes ready for the other measures that lead to the occult path. In ordinary life, people usually think in a very disorderly way. The guidelines and stages of human development and planetary evolution, the great perspectives opened up by those who know, bring order to thinking. All this is part of Rosicrucian training. This is called the study. Therefore, the teacher will leave it up to the student to think about the elementary teachings on reincarnation and karma, on the three worlds, the Akashic Records, the evolution of the Earth, and the human races. The scope of elementary spiritual science, as it is taught today, is the best preparation for the simple person.

[ 9 ] However, for those who wish to delve deeper into their thinking in order to engage more intensively with the actual framework of the human soul, we recommend studying books that have been written specifically to bring thinking into disciplined channels. The books that have been written for this purpose — even if they do not contain the word “theosophy” — are my two books Truth and Science and The Philosophy of Freedom. Such books are written to serve a purpose. Those who wish to approach further study on the basis of vigorous training in logical thinking would do well to subject their minds to the “spiritual and mental gymnastics” that these books require. This will give them the foundation on which Rosicrucian study is built.

[ 10 ] When one observes the physical plane, one perceives certain sensory impressions: colors and light, warmth and cold, smell and taste, pressure and touch sensations, and auditory impressions. One connects all of this with the activity of the mind and intellect. The intellect and thought still belong to the physical plane. You can perceive all of this on the physical plane. Perceptions on the astral plane are different; they look completely different. And perceptions on the devachanic plane are different again, not to mention in the even higher spiritual realms. However, people who have not yet gained insight into the higher worlds can form a pictorial idea of them. The method of representation familiar to me also attempts to give an impression of these worlds through images. Those who then ascend to the higher realms see for themselves how they affect them. On each plane, human beings have new experiences. But there is one thing that remains the same throughout all worlds, right up to Devachan, that does not change: that is logically trained thinking. Only on the Buddhi plane does thinking no longer have the same validity as on the physical plane. A different kind of thinking must take its place. But for the three worlds below the Buddhi plane, for the physical, astral, and Devachanic planes, the same thinking applies everywhere. So those who train themselves properly in thinking through study in the physical world will have a good guide in this thinking in the higher worlds and will not stumble as easily as those who want to ascend into the spiritual realms with confused thinking. Therefore, Rosicrucian training teaches people to move freely in the higher worlds by encouraging them to discipline their thinking. Those who ascend to these worlds learn ways of perception that do not exist on the physical plane, but they will be able to master them with their thinking.

[ 11 ] The second thing the student learns on the Rosicrucian path of knowledge is imagination. This is prepared by the student gradually learning to penetrate into such pictorial representations which, in the sense of Goethe's words, “Everything transitory is only a parable,” represent the higher worlds. As human beings usually go through the physical world, they perceive things as they appear to their senses, but not what lies behind them. They are drawn down into the physical world as if by a lead weight. Human beings only become free from this physical world when they learn to take the things around them as symbols. Therefore, they must seek to gain a moral relationship with them. The teacher will also give them some guidance on how to view external appearances as symbols of the spiritual, but the student can also do a lot themselves. For example, they can look at a colchicum and a violet. When I see the colchicum as a symbol of a melancholic disposition, I have not only perceived it as it appears to me externally, but as a symbol of a characteristic. In the violet, on the other hand, one may see the symbol of a quiet, pious disposition. In this way, you go from object to object, from plant to plant, from animal to animal, and regard them as symbols of the spiritual. In this way, you make your imagination fluid and detach it from the sharp contours of sensory perception. One comes to see each animal species as a symbol of a characteristic. One takes one animal as a symbol of strength, another as a symbol of cunning. We must pursue such things not fleetingly, but seriously and at every turn.

[ 12 ] Basically, all human language speaks in symbols. Language is nothing more than speaking in symbols. Every word is a symbol. Even science, which believes it can describe every object objectively, must make use of language, and its words have a symbolic effect. When you speak of lungs, you know that they are not wings, but you still refer to them as such. For those who want to remain on the physical plane, it is good not to lose themselves too much in this symbolism, but the advanced student will not lose himself in it either. When one investigates, one senses the depth that originally lies in human language. Profound natures such as Paracelsus and Jakob Böhme owe their development to the fact that they did not shy away from studying the imaginative meaning of language in conversation with farmers and vagabonds. There, the words nature, spirit, and soul had a completely different effect. They had a stronger effect. When a farmer's wife plucked a feather from a goose out in the countryside, she called the inside the soul of the feather. The student must find such symbols in language himself. In this way, he detaches himself from the physical world and learns to rise to the level of imagination. It has a powerful effect when the world becomes a parable for human beings in this way. If the student practices this long enough, they will notice corresponding effects. When looking at a flower, for example, something will gradually detach itself from the flower. The color, which at first only adhered to the surface of the flower, rises like a small flame and floats freely in space. This is how imaginative knowledge develops. It is then as if the surface of all things detaches itself. The whole room is filled with the color, which floats around the room like a flame. In this way, the whole world of light seems to withdraw from physical reality. When such a color image withdraws and floats freely in space, it soon begins to adhere to something. It is drawn to something; it does not remain anywhere at random; it grasps a being that now appears itself as a spiritual being in the color. What the student has drawn out of the things of the physical world as color envelops the spiritual beings of the astral space.

[ 13 ] This is the point where the advice of the occult teacher must intervene, because otherwise the student can easily lose his footing. This could happen for two reasons. One is as follows: every student must go through a certain experience. The images that emerge from physical things — not only colors, but also smells and sounds — appear in strange, ugly, perhaps even beautiful forms, animal faces, plant shapes, and even ugly human faces. This first experience is a reflection of one's own soul. One's own passions and drives, the evil that still dwells in the soul, appear before the advanced student as if in a mirror in the astral space. Here he needs the advice of the occult teacher, who tells him that this is not something objective, but a reflection of his own inner being.

[ 14 ] You will understand that he is dependent on this advice from the teacher when you hear more about the way such images appear. It has often been emphasized that everything is reversed in the astral space, that everything appears in mirror images. The student can therefore easily be misled by illusions, especially when they are reflections of his own being. The mirror image of a passion does not only appear as an animal coming towards him — that would be the least of it — but there is more to be reckoned with here. Let us suppose that a person has a hidden, rather evil passion. As a reflection, such an impulse or desire very often appears in an enticing form, while good qualities sometimes do not appear enticing at all. Here again is something that the legend has wonderfully portrayed. You will find an image of this in the myth of Hercules. When Hercules sets out on his journey, the evil and good qualities stand before him. Vice dresses itself in the seductive form of beauty, but virtue in the garb of modesty.

[ 15 ] There is something else to consider. Even if the student is already able to see things objectively, there is still the possibility that his inner arbitrariness will manifest itself as a force that directs and guides appearances. He must come to see and understand this, for desire has a strong influence on the astral plane. Everything that acts as a directing force here in the physical world is not present when one enters the imaginative world. If you imagine on the physical plane that you have done something that you have not actually done, you will soon be convinced that this is not the case when you are confronted with the facts on the physical plane. But this is not the case in the astral realm. There, your own desires deceive you with images, and you must have guidance from someone knowledgeable on how to piece together these imaginative images in order to recognize their true meaning.

[ 16 ] The third part of Rosicrucian training is learning occult writing. What is this occult writing? There are certain images, symbols, which are created by simple lines or joined together by colors. Such symbols represent a very specific occult sign language. To give an example, consider the following. There is a process in the higher world that also has an effect on the physical world: the spinning of the vortex. You can observe the spinning of the vortex when you look at a nebula, for example, the Orion Nebula. There you see a spiral. But that is on the physical plane. You can also observe this on all planes. It appears as if one vortex swings into another. The (a) is a figure that occurs on the astral plane in all kinds of formations. If you understand this figure, you will also understand how one human race transforms into another. When the first sub-race of our present main race came into being, the sun was in the sign of Cancer. At that time, one race intertwined with another; that is why Cancer has the occult symbol (b). All the signs of the zodiac are occult symbols. One only has to learn and understand their meaning.

[ 17 ] The pentagram (c) is also such a sign. The student learns to associate special sensations and feelings with this sign. They are the counter-image of astral processes. This sign language, which is learned as occult writing, is nothing other than the reproduction of the laws of higher worlds. Thus, the pentagram is a sign that expresses many different things. Just as the letter B is used in a wide variety of words, the signs of occult writing can also have manifold meanings. The pentagram, the hexagram, the angle, and other figures can be combined to form an occult script, which in turn is a guide to the higher worlds. The pentagram is the symbol of the five-part human being, the symbol of secrecy, but also the symbol that underlies the generic soul of the rose. If you connect the petals of the rose in the picture, you get the pentagram. Just as the B in the words band and Beben each means something different, so too do the symbols in occult writing have different meanings. One learns to arrange them in the right way. These are the signposts to the astral plane. Just as an illiterate person relates to a reader on the physical plane, so does someone who only sees the images as such relate to someone who has learned occult writing. On the physical plane, the characters are often arbitrary, but originally they were images of the astral sign language. Take an ancient astral symbol, the caduceus with the snake. In our writing, this has become the letter E.

[ 18 ] Or take the letter W, which denotes the wave motion of water. It is the soul symbol of the human being and at the same time the symbol for the word. The letter M is nothing other than a representation of the upper lip. In the course of development, all this has become more arbitrary. In the occult realm, on the other hand, necessity prevails. There, one can live these things.

[ 19 ] The fourth is the so-called rhythm of life. People know very little about such a rhythm in their everyday lives. They live selfishly. At most, the school timetable still provides a certain rhythm of life for children, because the daily school routine repeats itself from week to week. But who does that in everyday life? Nevertheless, one can only ascend to a higher level of development by introducing rhythm and repetition into one's life. Rhythm reigns throughout nature. In the course of the planets around the sun, in the annual appearance and withering of plants, even in the animal kingdom and in the sexual life of animals, everything is regulated rhythmically. Only human beings are allowed to live without rhythm so that they can act freely. But they must bring rhythm back into the chaos of their own free will. A good rhythm consists of performing occult activities at specific times each day. That is why students must perform their meditation and concentration exercises at the same time each day, just as the sun sends its powers down to the earth at the same time each spring. This is one way of bringing rhythm into life. Another is what occurs when, following the instructions of the occult teacher, the breathing process is brought into rhythm. Inhaling, holding the breath, and exhaling must be brought into a rhythm for a short time each day, determined by the experience of the occult teachers. In this way, a new rhythm is put in place of the old one by the human being. Such a rhythmicization of life is one of the prerequisites for ascending to the higher worlds. But no one can do this without the guidance of a teacher. It should only be noted here what this is basically about.

[ 20 ] The fifth is what is called learning the correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm. It consists of the teacher instructing the student to concentrate their thoughts on certain parts of the body. Those who have heard the lecture on the relationship of the senses to the higher worlds will remember that the whole world is involved in the creation of the physical body. The eye is created by light, by the spirits who work in the light. Every point of the physical body is connected to a certain force in the cosmos. Let us consider the point at the root of the nose. There was a time when the etheric head protruded far beyond the physical body. Even in the Atlantean era, there was a point on the forehead where the etheric head protruded beyond the physical head, as is still the case today with horses and other animals. In horses, the etheric head still protrudes far beyond the physical head. In modern humans, the point mentioned is aligned in the etheric head and the physical head, and this gives them the ability to develop those parts of the physical brain that enable them to say “I” to themselves. The organ that enables humans to say “I” to themselves is connected with a very specific process during the Atlantean development of the Earth. Now the occult teacher instructs his pupil: Direct your thoughts and concentrate them on this point! Then he gives him a mantra. This awakens a power in this part of the head that corresponds to a certain process in the macrocosm. In this way, a correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm is brought about. Through appropriate concentration on the eye, knowledge of the sun is also attained. In this way, one finds the entire organization of the macrocosm spiritually in one's own organs.

[ 21 ] Once the student has practiced this long enough, they may proceed to immerse themselves in the things they have found. For example, they can search the Akashic Records for the moment in the Atlantean epoch when the point on the bridge of the nose on which they have concentrated came into being. Or they can find the sun by concentrating on the eye. This sixth stage, immersion in the macrocosm, is called contemplation. This gives the student knowledge of the world, thereby expanding their self-knowledge beyond their personality. This is different from the popular chatter about self-knowledge. You do not find the self by looking inside yourself, but by looking outside yourself. It is the same self that created the eye that brought forth the sun. If you want to find the part of the self that corresponds to the eye, you must look for it in the sun. You must learn to perceive what is outside of you as your self. Looking only within yourself leads to hardening within yourself, to a higher egoism. When people say, “I just need to let my self speak,” they have no idea of the danger that lies therein. Self-knowledge may only be practiced if the student of the white path combines it with self-renunciation. When he learns to say to every thing, “That is me,” then he is ready for self-knowledge, as Goethe expresses in the words of Faust:

"You lead the line of the living
past me and teach me to know my brothers
In the silent bush, in air and water."

[ 22 ] The parts of our self are everywhere outside. This is also depicted in the myth of Dionysus, for example. That is why Rosicrucian training places so much emphasis on an objective and calm observation of the outer world: if you want to know yourself, then look at yourself in the mirror of the outer world and beings! What is in your soul will speak to you much more clearly from the eyes of your fellow human beings than if you harden yourself and sink into your own soul! — This is an important and essential truth that no one who wants to walk the white path should ignore. There are many people today who have transformed their ordinary egoism into a sophisticated egoism. They call it theosophical development when they elevate their ordinary, everyday self as high as possible. They want to bring out the personal. Real occult knowledge, on the other hand, shows people how their inner being opens up when they learn to recognize their higher self in the world.

[ 23 ] When a person has developed this attitude in contemplation, when their self flows out over all things, when they feel the flower growing toward them as they feel their own finger moving toward themselves, when they know that the whole earth and the whole world is their body, then they learn to recognize their higher self. Then they speak to the flower as to a limb of their own body: You belong to me, you are a part of my self. Gradually, he feels what is called the seventh degree of Rosicrucian training: godliness. It arises as the necessary emotional element that leads man up into the higher worlds, where he is not only allowed to think about the higher worlds, but learns to feel in these worlds. Then the fruits will appear to him if he is so eager to learn under the continuous guidance of his teacher, and he need not fear that his occult path could lead into an abyss. All things that are described as dangers of occult development are out of the question if it is guided in the right direction. If this happens, the occult seeker becomes a real helper to humanity.

[ 24 ] During imagination, it is possible for a person to spend a certain part of the night in a conscious state. Their physical body sleeps as usual, but part of their sleep state is enlivened by meaningful, content-rich dreams. These are the first signs of his entry into the higher worlds. Gradually, he carries his experiences over into his ordinary consciousness. He then sees the astral beings in his entire environment, even here in the hall between the chairs or outside in the woods and fields.

[ 25 ] Human beings reach three stages during imaginative cognition. At the first stage, they recognize the beings behind physical sensory impressions. Behind the red or blue color there is a being, behind every rose; behind every animal there is the species or group soul. They become clairvoyant. If they wait a while longer and calmly practice their imagination, immersing themselves in occult writings, they will also become clear-hearing. The third stage is that they learn about all the things found in the astral world that pull people down and lead them to evil, things that are actually meant to lift them up. They learn about Kamaloka.

[ 26 ] Through what constitutes the fourth, fifth, and sixth parts of Rosicrucian training—the rhythm of life, the relationship of the microcosm to the macrocosm, and the contemplation of the macrocosm—human beings reach three further stages. On the first stage, he comes to recognize the conditions of life between death and a new birth. This comes to him in Devachan. The next is the possibility of seeing how forms transform into one another, the transmutation, the metamorphosis of forms. For example, man did not always have his present lungs: he has only had them since the Lemurian period. In the preceding Hyperborean epoch, they had yet another form, and before that they had a different form because they were in the astral state, and another before that because they were in Devachan. It is also said that at this stage, human beings learn about the relationships between the different globes, that is, they experience how one globe or form state transitions into another. Finally, before passing into even higher worlds, he beholds the metamorphosis of the states of life. He recognizes how the various beings pass through the different realms or rounds, how one realm passes into another. Then he must ascend to even higher stages, which, however, cannot be discussed today.

[ 27 ] What has been explained here will give you enough material to work with for the time being. These things really need to be worked out. This is the first step toward rising to higher levels. Therefore, it is good to have the path laid out in an orderly manner. It may be that one can travel on the physical plane without having a map. On the astral plane, however, it is necessary to have such a map. Consider these messages as a kind of map, and they will be useful to you, not only in this life, but also when you pass through the gate to the higher worlds. Those who take in these things through spiritual science will find this map useful after death. The occultist knows how miserable people often feel when they arrive on the other side and have no idea where they actually live and what it is they are experiencing there. Those who have gone through the spiritual scientific teachings are familiar with these things and know how to characterize them themselves. If people did not shy away from entering the path of knowledge, it would be of great benefit to them in the other world.