The Christian Mystery
GA 97
7 March 1907, Düsseldorf
XII. Adept Schools of the Distant Past
The spiritual science movement has not developed in our time as the wilful action of an individual or of someone or other. It has to do with the whole of human evolution and as such must be considered to be one of the most important cultural impulses. To gain insight into this mission of the spiritual science movement we need to enter into the past and future life of humanity. Individuals have gone through a process of evolution from the time when they first came down out of the keeping of the godhead and became individual souls, and humanity as a whole has also gone through a process of evolution.
Just consider the differences, the changes and development to be seen in the earth's surface through the millennia—how thoroughly everything has changed. ‘Humanity’, as we are wont to call it, is only the outcome of the ‘fifth root race’, as it is called. A different, earlier humanity preceding it was the fourth root race whose continent, Atlantis, lay somewhere between present-day Europe and America. Our forebears on Atlantis looked very different. They also had a completely different civilization. The ancient Atlanteans did not have a fully developed rational mind and way of thinking but were instead provided with subtle, somnambulant clairvoyant powers. Logic, rational thinking capable of making connections, science and art as we know them today did not exist in ancient Atlantis, for human beings then had a very different way of forming ideas, thinking and feeling. They would not have been able to make connections, calculate, count or read the way we do today. But somnambulant clairvoyant powers of the spirit lived in them. They were able to understand the language of nature, what God said to them in the lapping of the waves, what the woods were murmuring, and what the subtle scents of flowers brought to expression. They understood this language of nature and were in harmony with all nature. No legislation, no jurisdiction then served to make neighbour communicate with neighbour. No, the Atlanteans would go outside and listen to the sounds of the trees and the wind and they would tell them what they should do.
The memory of ancient Atlantis or Niflheim [home of mists] has survived most beautifully in folk legends such as the Nibelungenlied105Middle High German epic poem from the early 13th century, based on the legends of Siegfried and the Burgundian kings. which have never been works of fiction produced at random. The word Nibel or Nifl indicates that the Rhine and all the rivers in the area are waters remaining from the masses of mists in ancient Atlantis. The wisdom that has survived from Atlantis is referred to as the treasure that lies hidden in the waters. We must also look for the nursery of the ancient adepts in that continent. Individuals went there who had the abilities needed to become pupils of the great minds we now call the ‘masters of wisdom and of the harmony of inner feelings’.106Rudolf Steiner was referring to highly evolved individuals who are of the greatest possible importance to humanity. 'These sublime entities have already followed the path which the rest of humanity still has before it. They now work as the great 'teachers of wisdom and of the harmony of man's inner feelings/ (From a letter to a member, Berlin 2 January 1905). See also Rudolf Steiner/Marie von Sivers Correspondence and Documents 1901–1925 (GA 262). Tr. C. von Arnim. London and New York: AP & RSP 1988.
The location of the adept school, which had its flowering during the fourth sub-race on ancient Atlantis, must be sought in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Pupils were taught in a very different way there than they are today. It was then possible to have a tremendous influence go from one human being to the other with the power that still lay in words at that time. Today, a little bit of feeling for the inner, spiritual, occult power of words still survives among the people. You simply cannot compare the power words have today with the power they had at that time. It was something quite tremendous. The word in itself would awaken powers in the pupil's soul. A mantra such as we have it today does not have anything like the power which words had at that time, when they were not so full of thoughts. Powers of soul would arise in the pupil under the influence of those words. We might call it human initiation through the language of nature, with tremendous power. A definite language was then also spoken by burning substances such as incense.
The connection between the teacher's and the pupil's soul was much more direct in that place. Any written signs existing at the adept school of ancient Atlantis imitated natural processes. They were drawn in the air with the hand, and had an effect, also a lasting effect, on the mind and spirit of the people at that time. They would awaken powers in the soul.
Every race thus has its mission in human evolution. The mission of our own, the fifth main or root race, is to bring the manas element into the four elements of human nature, that is to awaken insight and understanding by means of concepts and ideas. Every race has its mission. The mission of the Atlantean race was to develop the I. Our own, the fifth root race of the post- Atlantean period, has to develop manas, the spirit self.
The achievements of Atlantis did not perish with it. The most important elements of everything that existed in the adepts' nursery was kept by a small core group of people when they left. This small group, guided by Manu, went into the area where the Gobi desert is today. There they recreated the earlier civilization and teaching, but now more for the thinking mind. The earlier powers of spirit were transformed into thoughts and signs. From there, from this centre, the different lines of civilization then went out like radii, like rays. First of all the wonderful, most ancient pre-Vedic civilization, where the wisdom that came streaming in was for the first time transformed into thoughts.
The second civilization to arise from the ancient adept school was the most ancient Persian civilization. The third was the Chaldean and Babylonian civilization with its wonderful star wisdom, the magnificent knowledge its priests had. The fourth civilization to come into flower was the Graeco-Latin with its personal colouring, and finally our own developed as the fifth. We are moving towards the sixth and seventh. I have thus identified our mission in human evolution. It is to transform into thoughts, to bring right down to the physical plane, the cosmic wisdom which has existed as such until now.
When an ancient Atlantean listened for the note that lay between the sounds he could hear around him, he would hear the name of something he had perceived to be the divine: Tao. In the Egyptian mysteries this note was transformed into thoughts, writings, signs—the Tao sign, the Tao books. Everything that exists as knowledge, writings, thought only came into the world in post-Atlantean times. It could not have been written down before, for it would have been beyond human understanding. We are now in the middle of manas development. Our race works to take cultivation of the intellect, and at the same time also of egotism, to its extremes. We may certainly say, even if it does sound grotesque: ‘There has never been so much power of understanding and so little inner vision in the world as there is now.’ Thought is furthest away from the inner essence of things, far removed from inner spiritual vision.
When a priest on Atlantis wrote signs in the air, the effect of this would above all be an inner experience in the pupil's soul. In the fourth, the GraecoLatin period, the personal aspect was more to the fore. The Greeks developed personal art. In Rome, the personal element came into government affairs and so on. In our time we live with egotism, a dry personal element, a dry intellect. It is, however, our mission to grasp the occult in the purest thought element. Grasping the spiritual in this, the finest distillate of the brain, is the true mission of our age. To make this thought so powerful that it will have something of an occult power—that is the task we have been given so that we may do what is needed for the future.
Massive fires destroyed ancient Lemuria, massive floods ancient Atlantis. Our own civilization will also perish, and this will be through the war of all against all—this lies before us. Our fifth root race will perish because of egotism taken to its extreme. But a small group of people will out of the power of thought develop the power of buddhi, life spirit, and take it on into the new civilization. Everything that is productive in the human being will grow and grow until his individual nature has risen far enough to reach the summit of freedom. Every individual will have to find a kind of guiding spirit in his inmost soul in our time, buddhi, the power of the life spirit. If we were to go into the future being able to take in civilization impulses only the way it has been done in earlier times, we would move towards humanity shattering into fragments.
What is it that we have in our present age? Each wants to be his own master. Egotism, selfishness is going to extremes. A time is coming when no authority will be accepted other than authority people are able to accept of their own free will, so that its power will base on freely given trust. The mysteries based on the power of the spirit are called ‘mysteries of the spirit’. The future mysteries built on a basis of trust, on the power of trust, are called ‘mysteries of the father’. We bring our civilization to its conclusion with them. This new impulse, the power of trust, must come, otherwise we shall shatter into fragments and shall have a general ego-based and egotistical civilization.
In the times of the mystery of the spirit, based on a power, authority and might of the spirit that did have its justification, individual great sages had wisdom in their possession. They could only initiate people who had gone through severe trials. We are now moving towards a future that will hold the mysteries of the father and have to make every effort to see that every individual is wise. Will this help against egotism and being shattered? Yes! For human beings can only be united if they gain the greatest wisdom, a wisdom in which there are no personal vagaries, opinions or standpoints but one common view. If people were to continue in the way of being different, having points of view, and so on, they would again and again go their separate ways. The most sublime wisdom, however, always creates the same view for all people. True wisdom is one wisdom that brings all people together again in the greatest possible freedom, with no coercion or authority. As the members of the great white brotherhood107In one set of lecture notes it says ‘of the white lodge’. are always in harmony among themselves and with humanity, so will all human beings be united in this wisdom at a future time. This wisdom alone will create the true idea of brotherhood. The mission of the science of the spirit therefore need be no more than to guide humanity towards this idea, now in the unfolding of the spirit self, later of the life spirit. The great goal of the spiritual science movement is to make it possible for human beings to be free and truly wise. Its mission is to let this truth and wisdom flow into human beings.
In the modern movement for a science of the spirit, one began with the most elementary teaching. Much that is important has been unveiled in the years since the movement started, and even more important things will be gradually unveiled. The work of the movement is therefore to let the wisdom of the great white brotherhood that had its origin in Atlantis flow out gradually. Such work has always been preceded by a long period of preparation. The great and unique event of the coming of Christ Jesus was thus prepared for by all the work of the founders of religions—Zarathustra, Hermes, Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras. All their teaching had the same goal—to let wisdom come to human beings, though always in the form most appropriate for the people concerned. And it is not what the Christ said that was really new. The really new thing that came with the coming and teaching of Christ Jesus was that Christ Jesus had the power to bring to life everything which until then had only been teaching.
Through Christianity, humanity has gained the power that all may be united in acknowledging the authority of Christ Jesus and yet be utterly individual, and that human beings can unite and be brothers in their faith in Christ Jesus, his coming, his divinity. Between the mysteries of the spirit and those of the father we thus have the mysteries of the son, with the school of St Paul its planting site, the school put in the care of Dionysius the Areopagite. The school had its flowering under him, for Dionysius taught those mysteries in a very special way, whilst Paul spread the teaching exoterically.
Let us now provide an explanation from another direction, so that we may understand what it means to say: the mysteries of the father are coming. The teachers of the ancient Atlantean adept school were not human beings but spirits higher than man. They had completed their development on earlier planets. And these teachers, coming from ancient planetary evolutions, taught the mysteries of the spirit to a small select band. In the mysteries of the son, Christ Jesus himself would appear as the teacher on special occasions. He, too, was a teacher who was not human but a god. It will not be until we have the mysteries of the father that the teachers will be humans. Individuals who have developed faster than the rest of humanity will be the true masters of wisdom and of harmony. They will be called the fathers. In the mysteries of the father, therefore, the guidance of humanity will be no longer in the hands of spirits who have come down from other worlds, but in the hands of human beings themselves. This is the important point.
To prepare people to be a core group for this goal, to prepare them for a common wisdom, for authority based on trust, and to develop understanding, initially for a small core group of people—that is the mission of the science of the spirit. The evolution of material civilization reached its high point in the 19th century. This was the time when the science of the spirit first came into the world. A counter impulse to materialism, going in the opposite direction, toward the spirit, was created by this means and therefore existed. The science of the spirit is nothing new, nor the spiritual scientific movement—it merely continues what was there before. Materialism, egotism cause humanity to shatter into fragments, with individuals seeing only their own interests. Wisdom must bring human beings together again who have been separated by this. In utter freedom, with no coercion, people are brought together in wisdom. That is the mission of the spiritual scientific movement in our time. We must clearly understand that we need to gain wisdom in very real terms. We all know the story of the stove whose mission it is to get the room warm. We may present this to the stove in the most moving words, asking it to get the room warm, but it will not do so. It is only if we turn it on that it can fulfil its mission. And so there is little point in just talking about brotherhood and love of one another. Insight alone will take us closer to our goal. For every individual and for humanity as a whole, the road to wisdom, to brotherhood, can only be found through insight.
We have now considered this road, going through three kinds of mysteries. Science of the spirit must make it possible for a small core group of people to understand what has been said, so that understanding may come alive in the masses in the sixth race. This is the mission which the science of the spirit must accomplish. A small part of the fifth root race will anticipate evolution; it will spiritualize manas and unfold the spirit self. The greater part, however, will reach the summit of selfishness. The core group which develops the spirit self will be the seed for the sixth root race, and the ones who are most advanced among them, the masters who have come from the ranks of humanity, as we call them, will then guide the human race. This is the goal of the movement for spiritual insight.
Die Adeptenschule der Vergangenheit die Mysterien des Geistes, des Sohnes und Des Vaters
Die geisteswissenschaftliche Bewegung ist nicht etwas, was durch den Willkürakt eines einzelnen, dieses oder jenes Menschen, dieser oder jener Gesellschaft in unsere Zeit gekommen ist. Sie hängt mit der ganzen Entwickelung der Menschheit zusammen und ist als solche als einer der wichtigsten Kulturimpulse anzusehen. Wollen wir uns in diese Mission der geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung hineinfinden, so müssen wir uns in Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Menschheit hineinversetzen. Wie die einzelnen Menschen von da ab, wo sie zum ersten Male als Individualseelen aus dem Schoße der Gottheit herabgestiegen sind, eine Entwickelung durchgemacht haben, so hat auch die ganze Menschheit eine Entwickelung durchgemacht. Machen Sie sich einmal klar, welche Unterschiede, welche Veränderungen und welche Entwickelung auf der Erdoberfläche im Laufe der Jahrtausende zu bemerken sind - wie gründlich sich da alles verändert hat! Was wir gewohnt sind, «Menschheit» zu nennen, ist erst ein Ergebnis der sogenannten fünften Wurzelrasse. Dieser ging eine andere Menschheit voran, die vierte Wurzelrasse, deren Kontinent, die Atlantis, wir etwa zwischen dem heutigen Europa und Amerika zu suchen hätten. Diese Atlantis sah unsere Vorfahren in einer ganz andern Gestalt. Dort herrschte eine ganz andere Kultur. Nicht verstandes- und gedankenausgebildet war der alte Atlantier, aber dafür mit feinen somnambul-hellseherischen Kräften ausgestattet. Logik, kombinierender Verstand, Wissenschaft, Kunst wie jetzt, gab es nicht im alten Atlantien, denn das Vorstellen, Denken und Fühlen der Menschen war dort ganz anders. So kombinieren, rechnen, zählen, lesen hätte der Mensch damals nicht gekonnt wie heute. Aber gewisse somnambulisch-hellseherische geistige Kräfte lebten in ihm. Er konnte die Sprache der Natur verstehen, was Gott zu ihm sagte im Plätschern der Wellen, was der Donner rollt, was der Wald rauscht, was die feinen Gerüche der Blumen ausdrücken. Er verstand diese Sprache der Natur und war im Einklang mit der ganzen Natur. Nicht Gesetz, nicht Juristerei gab es damals, um den Nachbarn mit dem Nachbarn zu verständigen. Nein, da ging der Atlantier hinaus und horchte auf die Laute der Bäume, des Windes, und die sagten ihm, was er zu tun hatte.
Schön hat sich in der Volkssage, die nie etwas Zufälliges, Ausgedachtes ist, das Andenken an die alte Atlantis, das Nibelheim, erhalten, zum Beispiel in dem Nibelungenlied. In dem Wort «Nibel» oder «Nifel» wird angedeutet, daß der Rhein und alle diese Flüsse zurückgebliebene Wasser aus den Nebelmassen der alten Atlantis sind. Und die Weisheit, die von ihr zurückgeblieben ist, wird angedeutet als der Schatz, der in ihnen verborgen liegt. In diesem Kontinent zwischen Amerika und Europa haben wir auch die Pflanzschule der alten Adepten zu suchen, wo diejenigen sich aufhielten, welche geeignet waren, Schüler der großen Individualitäten zu werden, die wir die Meister der Weisheit und des Zusammenklanges der Empfindungen nennen.
Die Stelle, wo sich diese Adeptenschule befand, deren Blütezeit in die vierte Unterrasse der alten Atlantis fallt, ware in der Mitte des Atlantischen Ozeans zu suchen. Dort wurde der Schüler ganz anders gelehrt als heute. Ganz anders, gewaltig konnte da von Mensch zu Mensch durch die Kraft, die damals noch in den Worten lag, gewirkt werden. Was heute noch im Volke lebt, das ist ein feines Gefühl für die innere geistige, okkulte Kraft der Worte. Die jetzige Kraft der Worte können Sie absolut nicht vergleichen mit der damaligen. Das war etwas ganz Gewaltiges: das Wort schon erweckte Kräfte in der Seele des Schülers. Ein Mantram von heute hat lange nicht mehr die Kraft von damals, wo die Worte nicht so durchsetzt von Gedanken waren. Wenn diese Worte wirkten, gingen die Seelenkräfte des Schülers auf. Eine menschliche Initiation durch die Sprache der Natur von gewaltiger Wirkung konnte man das nennen. Eine deutliche Sprache wurde auch noch dort gesprochen durch das Abräuchern von Substanzen, das Verbrennen von Stoffen wie Weihrauch und so weiter.
Es bestand dort ein viel unmittelbarerer Zusammenhang zwischen der Seele des Lehrers und derjenigen des Schülers. Und was als Schriftzeichen in der Adeptenschule der alten Atlantis existierte, das waren Nachbildungen von Naturvorgängen, die mit der Hand in die Luft gezeichnet wurden und die wirkten, auch nachwirkten auf den Geist der damaligen Bevölkerung. Sie weckten in der Seele Kräfte.
So hat jede Rasse ihre Aufgabe in der Menschheitsentwickelung. Die Aufgabe der unsrigen, der fünften Haupt- oder Wurzelrasse besteht darin, zu den vier Gliedern der menschlichen Wesenheit das hinzuzubringen, was man das Manasische nennt, das heißt, durch Begriffe und Ideen das Verständnis zu wecken. Jede Rasse hat ihre Aufgabe: diejenige der atlantischen war die Ausbildung des Ich. Unsere, die fünfte Wurzelrasse, die nachatlantische Zeit, hat das Manas, das Geistselbst auszubilden.
Mit dem Untergang der Atlantis gingen aber deren Errungenschaften nicht unter, sondern es wurde von alldem, was in der atlantischen Pflanzschule der Adepten vorhanden war, das Wesentlichste von einem kleinen Kern von Menschen mitgenommen. Diese kleine Masse zog unter der Führung des Manu in die Gegend der heutigen Wüste Gobi. Und diese kleine Schar bereitete nun Nachbildungen der früheren Kultur und Lehre vor, aber mehr im Verstandeshaften. Es waren die in Gedanken und Zeichen umgesetzten früheren geistigen Kräfte. Von dort, von diesem Zentrum zogen dann, wie Radien, wie Strahlungen, die verschiedenen Kulturströmungen aus. Zunächst die wunderbare uralte vorvedische Kultur, die zum ersten Male die einströmende Weisheit in Gedanken umgesetzt hat.
Die zweite der von der alten Adeptenschule ausgehenden Kulturen war die uralte persische Kultur. Die dritte war die chaldäischbabylonische mit ihrer wundervollen Sternenweisheit, ihrem großartigen Priesterwissen. Als vierte erblühte die griechisch-lateinische Kultur mit ihrer persönlichen Färbung, und endlich als fünfte die unsrige. Der sechsten und siebenten leben wir entgegen. Damit habe ich Ihnen unsere Aufgabe in der Menschheitsentwickelung gekennzeichnet: in Gedanken umzusetzen, herunterzubringen bis auf den physischen Plan dasjenige, was bis jetzt an kosmischer Weisheit da war.
Wenn der alte Atlantier unter den ihm erklingenden Tönen hinhorchte auf den Zwischenton, dann hörte er den Namen dessen, was er als das Göttliche erkannt hatte: Tao. - In den ägyptischen Mysterien haben Sie diesen Ton umgesetzt in Gedanken, in Schrift, in Zeichen - in dem Tao-Zeichen, den Tao-Büchern. Alles, was Wissen, Schrift, Gedanke ist, kam erst in der nachatlantischen Zeit in die Welt. Früher hätte man das nie aufgeschrieben. Das Verständnis dafür wäre nicht dagewesen. Nun stehen wir in der Mitte der manasischen Entwickelung darinnen. Die Verstandeskultur, zugleich aber auch den Egoismus auf das Alleräußerste zu bringen, das besorgt unsere Rasse. Man kann wohl sagen, wenn es auch grotesk klingt: Es gab niemals so viel Verstandeskraft in der Welt und so wenig inneres Schauvermögen wie in der Gegenwart. Der Gedanke ist am weitesten entfernt von dem, was die innere Wesenheit der Dinge ist, weit weg vom inneren, spirituellen Schauen.
Wenn der atlantische Priester ein Zeichen in die Luft schrieb, so war die Wirkung in der Hauptsache das innere Seelenerlebnis des Schülers. In der vierten, der griechisch-lateinischen Epoche tritt das Persönliche mehr in den Vordergrund. In Griechenland entwickelt sich die persönliche Kunst. In Rom finden wir das Persönliche in der staatlichen Regulierung und so weiter. In unserer Zeit erleben wir den Egoismus, das trocken Persönliche, das trocken Verstandesmäßige. Aber unsere Aufgabe besteht heute darin, das Okkulte im Manas, im reinsten Element des Gedankens zu erfassen. Das Erfassen des Spirituellen in diesem feinsten Destillat des Gehirns ist die eigentliche Mission unserer Zeit. Diesen Gedanken so kraftvoll zu machen, daß er etwas von okkulter Kraft hat, das ist die uns gestellte Aufgabe, um unseren Platz für die Zukunft ausfüllen zu können.
Durch mächtige Feuermassen ist das alte Lemurien, durch mächtige Wasserfluten das alte Atlantien zerstört worden. Auch unsere Kultur wird untergehen, und zwar durch den Krieg aller gegen alle: das steht uns bevor. So wird unsere fünfte Wurzelrasse zugrunde gehen durch den aufs Höchste gesteigerten Egoismus. Zugleich wird sich aber eine kleine Gruppe von Menschen bilden, die von der Kraft des Gedankens aus die Kraft der Buddhi, des Lebensgeistes entwickelt, um sie dann mit hinüberzunehmen in die neue Kultur. Alles Produktive im strebenden Menschen wird immer größer und größer werden, bis seine Persönlichkeit so hoch gekommen ist, daß sie den Gipfel der Freiheit erreicht hat. In unserer Zeit wird jede einzelne Individualität in sich finden müssen eine Art von führendem Geist im Inneren der Seele, die Buddhi, die Kraft des Lebensgeistes. Würden wir der Zukunft so entgegengehen, daß wir die Kulturimpulse nur so aufnehmen könnten wie in früheren Zeiten, so würden wir einer Zersplitterung der Menschheit entgegengehen.
Was haben wir nun in der Gegenwart? Ein jeder will sein eigener Herr sein: der Egoismus, die Selbstsucht, ist auf die Spitze getrieben. Es kommt die Zeit, da überhaupt keine andere Autorität anerkannt werden wird als diejenige, welche die Menschen freiwillig anerkennen, deren Macht auf dem freien Vertrauen basiert. Jene Mysterien, die auf der Macht des Geistes aufgebaut waren, nennt man die Mysterien des Geistes. Diejenigen, die in der Zukunft aufgebaut sein werden auf der Grundlage des Vertrauens, auf der Macht des Vertrauens, nennt man die Mysterien des Vaters. Mit denen schließen wir unsere Kultur ab. Dieser neue Impuls der Macht des Vertrauens muß kommen, sonst gehen wir einer Zersplitterung entgegen, einem allgemeinen Ich- und Egoismuskultus.
In den Zeiten der Mysterien des Geistes, die auf der allerdings berechtigten Macht, Autorität und Gewalt des Geistes gebaut waren, gab es einzelne große Weise. Sie waren im Besitz der Weisheit, und nur wer die harten Proben durchmachte, konnte durch sie eingeweiht werden. Nun gehen wir in der Zukunft den Mysterien des Vaters entgegen und müssen immer mehr darauf hinarbeiten, daß jeder einzelne weise wird. Wird dies gegen den Egoismus und die Zersplitterung helfen? — Ja! Denn nur, wenn die Menschen höchste Weisheit bekommen, in der sie nicht variieren können, in der es keine eigene Meinung, keinen Standpunkt der Persönlichkeit gibt, sondern nur eine Ansicht, können sie einig werden. Blieben die Menschen so, wie sie sonst verschieden sind, Standpunkte haben und so weiter, so würden sie sich immer wieder trennen. Die höchste Weisheit erzeugt aber stets bei allen Menschen die gleiche Ansicht. Die wirkliche Weisheit ist eine einzige, welche die Menschen wieder zusammenbringt bei größtmöglichster Freiheit, ohne jegliche Zwangsautorität. Wie die Mitglieder der großen weißen Bruderschaft immer in Harmonie miteinander und mit der Menschheit sind, so werden einst durch diese Weisheit die Menschen alle eins werden. Nur diese Weisheit wird die wahre Bruderschaftsidee begründen. Die Geisteswissenschaft braucht daher sich keine andere Aufgabe zu stellen, als nur die Menschen dieser Idee zuzuführen, jetzt durch die Entfaltung des Geistselbstes und später des Lebensgeistes. Das Freiwerden des Menschen, das wahre Weisewerden möglich zu machen, das ist das große Ziel der geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung; diese Wahrheit und Weisheit einströmen zu lassen in die Menschen, das ist ihre Mission.
Man hat in der modernen Bewegung für Geisteswissenschaft mit der elementarsten Lehre angefangen. Es ist dabei viel Wichtiges enthüllt worden in den Jahren, die seit dem Beginn dieser Bewegung verflossen sind, und noch Wichtigeres wird immer mehr zur Enthüllung kommen. Die Arbeit der geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung ist also ein allmähliches Ausströmenlassen der Weisheit der großen weißen Bruderschaft, die in der Atlantis ihren Ursprung hat. Vorbereitet wurde solche Arbeit immer durch lange Zeiträume. So haben wir als Vorbereitung für das eine große Ereignis der einzigartigen Erscheinung des Christus Jesus das ganze Wirken der großen Religionsstifter. Die Geisteswissenschaft will die Testamentsvollstreckerin des Christentums sein. Und das wird sie sein. Werden einst die Vater-Mysterien erfüllt sein, das heißt wird die Buddhi-Entwickelung in jedem einzelnen Menschen vollendet sein, dann wird jeder seine tiefste Wesenheit Atma, den Geistesmenschen, in sich selbst finden. Vorbereitet wurde also die Erscheinung des Christus Jesus durch die Reihe der Religionsstifter, durch Zarathustra, Hermes, Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras. Alle ihre Lehren verfolgen das gleiche Ziel: die Weisheit in die Menschheit einfließen zu lassen, nur immer in der für das betreffende Volk gerade geeignetsten Form. So ist denn, was Christus gesagt hat, nicht das eigentlich Neue. Das Neue an der Erscheinung und Lehre des Christus Jesus ist, daß in dem Christus Jesus die Kraft war, all das zum Leben zu bringen, was vorher nur Lehre war.
Durch das Christentum ist der Menschheit die Kraft entstanden, daß bei größtmöglicher Individualisierung in der freiwilligen Änerkennung der Autorität des Christus Jesus alles sich einigen, und daß durch den Glauben an ihn, sein Erscheinen, seine Göttlichkeit, die Menschen sich zu einem Bruderbunde zusammenschließen können. So stehen zwischen den Mysterien des Geistes und denjenigen des Vaters die Mysterien des Sohnes, deren Pflanzstätte die Schule des heiligen Paulus war, zu deren Leitung er den Dionysius Areopagita bestimmt hatte. Unter ihm hatte diese Schule ihre Blütezeit, denn Dionysius hat diese Mysterien in einer ganz besonderen Weise gelehrt, während Paulus die Lehre exoterisch ausbreitete.
Nun wollen wir noch von einer andern Seite eine Erklärung suchen, um zu verstehen, was es heißt: es kommen die Mysterien des Vaters. Die Lehrer der alten atlantischen Adeptenschule waren noch keine Menschen, sondern höhere Wesen als die Menschen. Sie hatten auf früheren Planeten ihre Entwickelung vollendet. Und sie, die von alten planetarischen Entwickelungen her da waren, lehrten einer auserlesenen kleinen Schar die Mysterien des Geistes. In den Mysterien des Sohnes trat bei besonderen Anlässen der Christus selbst in Person als Lehrer auf: also auch ein Lehrer, der nicht Mensch, sondern Gott war. Erst die, welche Lehrer werden in den Mysterien des Vaters, werden Menschen sein. Solche Menschen, die sich schneller als die übrige Menschheit entwickelt haben, werden dann die wahren Meister der Weisheit und des Zusammenklanges sein. Sie nennt man die Väter. Die Führung der Menschheit geht also bei den Vater-Mysterien über von Wesenheiten, die aus andern Welten herabgestiegen sind, in die Hände der Menschen selbst. Das ist das Bedeutsame.
Die Menschen dazu vorzubereiten, einen Kern für dieses Ziel zu bilden, sie vorzubereiten für eine gemeinsame Weisheit, für eine Autorität, die nur auf Vertrauen gebaut ist, und das Verständnis dafür zunächst in einem kleinen Menschheitskern zu entwickeln: das ist die Aufgabe der Geisteswissenschaft. Die Entwickelung der materiellen Kultur hatte im 19. Jahrhundert ihren Höhepunkt erreicht. Daher kam in dieser Zeit der Einschlag der Geisteswissenschaft in die Welt. Mit ihr wurde geschaffen - und war da — der Gegenimpuls für den Materialismus, die Gegenrichtung nach der Spiritualität hin. Geisteswissenschaft ist nichts Neues, die geisteswissenschaftliche Bewegung ebensowenig, sie ist nur die Fortsetzung dessen, was da war. Der Materialismus, der Egoismus bringen die Zersplitterung der Menschheit, der einzelne übersieht nur seine Interessen. Die Weisheit muß die dadurch getrennten Menschen wieder zusammenbringen. In vollster Freiheit, durch keinerlei Zwang, werden die Menschen in der Weisheit zusammengeführt . Das ist die Aufgabe der geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung in unserer Zeit. Klar müssen wir uns dabei sein, daß wir uns im Konkreten die Weisheit anzueignen haben. Wir kennen alle das Beispiel des Ofens, dessen Aufgabe darin besteht, das Zimmer warm zu machen. Stellen wir dem Ofen seine Aufgabe in noch so beweglichen Worten vor und bitten wir ihn, das Zimmer warm zu machen, so wird er das nicht tun. Erst wenn wir ihn heizen, kann er seine Aufgabe erfüllen. So hat alle Rederei von Bruderschaft und Nächstenliebe kaum einen Wert. Nur die Erkenntnis rückt an das Ziel heran. Für jeden einzelnen und für das allgemeine Menschentum ist der Weg zur Weisheit, zur Bruderschaft nur zu erreichen durch Erkenntnis.
Wir haben nun diesen Weg durch drei Mysterienarten hindurch verfolgt. Geisteswissenschaft muß es dazu bringen, daß ein kleiner Menschheitskern Verständnis für das Gesagte hat, um in der sechsten Rasse das Verständnis dafür in der Masse zu wecken. Es ist dies die Aufgabe, welche die Geisteswissenschaft zu erfüllen hat. Ein kleiner Teil der fünften Wurzelrasse wird die Entwickelung vorausnehmen, er wird Manas spiritualisieren, das Geistselbst entfalten. Der große Teil aber wird den Gipfel der Selbstsucht erreichen. Jener Menschheitskern nun, der das Geistselbst entwickelt, wird der Same der sechsten Wurzelrasse sein, und die Vorgeschrittensten dieses Kernes, die aus der Menschheit hervorgegangenen Meister, wie wir sie nennen, werden dann die Menschheit führen. Nach diesem Ziel hin strebt die Bewegung für Geist-Erkenntnis.
The Adept School of the Past: The Mysteries of the Spirit, the Son, and the Father
The spiritual science movement is not something that has come into our time through the arbitrary act of one individual, this or that person, this or that society. It is connected with the entire development of humanity and, as such, can be regarded as one of the most important cultural impulses. If we want to find our way into this mission of the spiritual science movement, we must put ourselves in the place of humanity's past and future. Just as individual human beings have undergone a process of development since they first descended from the bosom of the Godhead as individual souls, so too has humanity as a whole undergone a process of development. Consider for a moment the differences, the changes, and the developments that can be observed on the surface of the Earth over the course of millennia — how thoroughly everything has changed! What we are accustomed to calling “humanity” is only a result of the so-called fifth root race. This was preceded by another humanity, the fourth root race, whose continent, Atlantis, we would have to look for somewhere between today's Europe and America. This Atlantis saw our ancestors in a completely different form. A completely different culture prevailed there. The ancient Atlanteans were not educated in intellect and thought, but were equipped with subtle somnambulistic and clairvoyant powers. Logic, combinatorial intellect, science, and art as we know them today did not exist in ancient Atlantis, because people's imaginations, thoughts, and feelings were completely different there. People at that time would not have been able to combine, calculate, count, or read as we do today. But certain somnambulistic-clairvoyant spiritual powers lived within them. They could understand the language of nature, what God said to them in the lapping of the waves, what the thunder rolled, what the forest rustled, what the delicate scents of the flowers expressed. They understood this language of nature and were in harmony with all of nature. There were no laws or legal systems at that time to communicate between neighbors. No, the Atlantean went out and listened to the sounds of the trees and the wind, and they told him what he had to do.
The memory of ancient Atlantis, Nibelheim, has been beautifully preserved in folk legends, which are never random or invented, for example in the Song of the Nibelungs. The word “Nibel” or “Nifel” suggests that the Rhine and all these rivers are remnants of the waters from the foggy masses of ancient Atlantis. And the wisdom that remains from it is hinted at as the treasure hidden within them. In this continent between America and Europe, we must also seek the plant school of the ancient adepts, where those who were suitable to become disciples of the great individualities, whom we call the Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings, resided.
The location of this school of adepts, whose heyday fell in the fourth subrace of ancient Atlantis, can be found in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There, the disciples were taught in a very different way than today. It was very different; it was possible to exert a powerful influence from person to person through the power that still lay in words at that time. What still lives on in the people today is a subtle feeling for the inner spiritual, occult power of words. The power of words today cannot be compared at all with that of the past. It was something very powerful: the word itself awakened powers in the soul of the student. A mantra today no longer has the power it had back then, when words were not so imbued with thoughts. When these words took effect, the soul forces of the student blossomed. One could call it a human initiation through the language of nature with a powerful effect. A clear language was also spoken there through the burning of substances such as incense and so on.
There was a much more direct connection between the soul of the teacher and that of the student. And what existed as written characters in the adept school of ancient Atlantis were reproductions of natural processes that were drawn by hand in the air and had an effect, even a lasting effect, on the minds of the population at that time. They awakened powers in the soul.
Thus, each race has its task in the development of humanity. The task of ours, the fifth main or root race, is to add to the four limbs of the human being what is called the Manasic, that is, to awaken understanding through concepts and ideas. Each race has its task: that of the Atlantean race was the development of the ego. Ours, the fifth root race, the post-Atlantean period, has to develop the Manas, the spirit self.
With the demise of Atlantis, however, its achievements did not perish, but the most essential of all that was present in the Atlantean plant school of the adepts was taken away by a small core of people. Under the leadership of Manu, this small group moved to the area of today's Gobi Desert. And this small band now prepared replicas of the earlier culture and teachings, but more in the intellectual realm. These were the earlier spiritual forces translated into thoughts and symbols. From there, from this center, the various cultural currents spread out like rays, like radiations. First, the wonderful ancient pre-Vedic culture, which for the first time translated the inflowing wisdom into thought.
The second of the cultures emanating from the ancient school of adepts was the ancient Persian culture. The third was the Chaldean-Babylonian culture with its wonderful star wisdom and its magnificent priestly knowledge. The fourth to blossom was the Greek-Latin culture with its personal coloring, and finally, the fifth was our own. We are now moving toward the sixth and seventh. With this, I have outlined our task in human development: to translate into thought, to bring down to the physical plane that which has been cosmic wisdom until now.
When the ancient Atlantean listened to the intermediate tone among the tones that resounded to him, he heard the name of what he had recognized as the divine: Tao. In the Egyptian mysteries, you translated this tone into thought, into writing, into symbols—into the Tao symbol, the Tao books. Everything that is knowledge, writing, thought, only came into the world in the post-Atlantean period. In earlier times, this would never have been written down. The understanding for it would not have been there. Now we stand in the middle of the Manasic development. Our race is concerned with bringing intellectual culture, but also egoism, to the utmost. It is fair to say, even if it sounds grotesque: There has never been so much intellectual power in the world and so little inner vision as there is today. Thought is furthest removed from the inner essence of things, far removed from inner, spiritual vision.
When the Atlantean priest wrote a sign in the air, the effect was mainly the inner soul experience of the student. In the fourth, the Greco-Latin epoch, the personal comes more to the fore. In Greece, personal art develops. In Rome, we find the personal in state regulation and so on. In our time, we experience egoism, the dry personal, the dry intellectual. But our task today is to grasp the occult in Manas, in the purest element of thought. Grasping the spiritual in this finest distillate of the brain is the real mission of our time. To make this thought so powerful that it has something of occult power is the task set before us in order to be able to fill our place for the future.
The ancient Lemuria was destroyed by powerful masses of fire, and the ancient Atlantis by powerful floods of water. Our culture will also perish, and that is through war of all against all: that is what lies ahead of us. Thus our fifth root race will perish through egoism raised to the highest degree. At the same time, however, a small group of people will form who, through the power of thought, will develop the power of Buddhi, the spirit of life, in order to carry it over into the new culture. Everything productive in the striving human being will become greater and greater until his personality has risen so high that it has reached the summit of freedom. In our time, each individual will have to find within themselves a kind of guiding spirit within the soul, the Buddhi, the power of the spirit of life. If we were to approach the future in such a way that we could only absorb cultural impulses as in former times, we would be heading for a fragmentation of humanity.
What do we have now in the present? Everyone wants to be their own master: egoism, selfishness, has been taken to extremes. The time is coming when no authority will be recognized other than that which people voluntarily acknowledge, whose power is based on free trust. Those mysteries that were built on the power of the spirit are called the mysteries of the spirit. Those that will be built in the future on the basis of trust, on the power of trust, are called the mysteries of the Father. With these we conclude our culture. This new impulse of the power of trust must come, otherwise we are heading for fragmentation, a general cult of the ego and selfishness.
In the times of the mysteries of the spirit, which were based on the justified power, authority, and force of the spirit, there were individual great sages. They possessed wisdom, and only those who underwent the harsh trials could be initiated by them. Now, in the future, we are moving toward the mysteries of the Father and must work more and more toward everyone becoming wise. Will this help against egoism and fragmentation? Yes! For only when people attain the highest wisdom, in which they cannot vary, in which there is no personal opinion, no personal point of view, but only one view, can they become united. If people remained as they are otherwise, with their different points of view and so on, they would always separate again. But the highest wisdom always produces the same view in all people. True wisdom is one, which brings people together again with the greatest possible freedom, without any coercive authority. Just as the members of the great white brotherhood are always in harmony with each other and with humanity, so will all people one day become one through this wisdom. Only this wisdom will establish the true idea of brotherhood. Spiritual science therefore needs set itself no other task than to lead people to this idea, now through the unfolding of the spirit itself and later through the spirit of life. To enable people to become free, to become truly wise, that is the great goal of the spiritual scientific movement; to allow this truth and wisdom to flow into people, that is its mission.
The modern movement for spiritual science began with the most elementary teachings. Much that is important has been revealed in the years since the beginning of this movement, and even more important things will continue to be revealed. The work of the spiritual science movement is thus a gradual outpouring of the wisdom of the great white brotherhood, which has its origin in Atlantis. Such work has always been prepared over long periods of time. Thus, we have the entire work of the great founders of religion as preparation for the one great event of the unique appearance of Christ Jesus. Spiritual science wants to be the executor of Christianity. And it will be so. Once the Father Mysteries are fulfilled, that is, once the development of Buddhi is complete in each individual human being, then everyone will find their deepest essence, Atma, the spiritual human being, within themselves. The appearance of Christ Jesus was thus prepared by the series of religious founders, by Zarathustra, Hermes, Moses, Orpheus, and Pythagoras. All their teachings pursue the same goal: to infuse wisdom into humanity, but always in the form most suitable for the people concerned. So what Christ said is not really new. What is new about the appearance and teaching of Christ Jesus is that in Christ Jesus there was the power to bring to life what was previously only teaching.
Through Christianity, humanity has gained the power to unite in the greatest possible individualization in the voluntary recognition of the authority of Christ Jesus, and through faith in him, his appearance, his divinity, people can unite in a brotherhood. Thus, between the mysteries of the Spirit and those of the Father stand the mysteries of the Son, whose seedbed was the school of St. Paul, whom he had appointed Dionysius Areopagita to lead. Under him, this school flourished, for Dionysius taught these mysteries in a very special way, while Paul spread the teaching exoterically.
Now let us seek an explanation from another angle in order to understand what it means when it says: the mysteries of the Father are coming. The teachers of the ancient Atlantean school of adepts were not yet human beings, but higher beings than humans. They had completed their development on earlier planets. And they, who had come from ancient planetary developments, taught the mysteries of the Spirit to a select little group. In the mysteries of the Son, Christ himself appeared in person as a teacher on special occasions: thus also a teacher who was not human, but God. Only those who become teachers in the mysteries of the Father will be human beings. Such people, who have developed more quickly than the rest of humanity, will then be the true masters of wisdom and harmony. They are called the Fathers. In the Father Mysteries, the leadership of humanity thus passes from beings who have descended from other worlds into the hands of human beings themselves. That is what is significant.
To prepare human beings to form a nucleus for this goal, to prepare them for a common wisdom, for an authority based solely on trust, and to develop an understanding of this, initially in a small nucleus of humanity: that is the task of spiritual science. The development of material culture reached its peak in the 19th century. That is why spiritual science made its impact on the world at that time. With it, the counter-impulse to materialism was created – and was there – the counter-direction towards spirituality. Spiritual science is nothing new, nor is the spiritual science movement; it is only the continuation of what was already there. Materialism and egoism lead to the fragmentation of humanity, with individuals overlooking their own interests. Wisdom must bring people who have been separated by this process back together again. In complete freedom, without any coercion, people are brought together in wisdom. That is the task of the spiritual science movement in our time. We must be clear that we have to acquire wisdom in concrete terms. We are all familiar with the example of the stove, whose task is to heat the room. If we describe the stove's task in the most eloquent words and ask it to heat the room, it will not do so. Only when we light it can it fulfill its task. Thus, all talk of brotherhood and charity is of little value. Only knowledge brings us closer to the goal. For each individual and for humanity in general, the path to wisdom and brotherhood can only be achieved through knowledge.
We have now followed this path through three types of mysteries. Spiritual science must ensure that a small core of humanity understands what has been said in order to awaken understanding for it in the masses in the sixth race. This is the task that spiritual science must fulfill. A small part of the fifth root race will take the lead in development, spiritualizing manas and unfolding the spirit self. The greater part, however, will reach the peak of selfishness. That core of humanity which develops the spirit self will be the seed of the sixth root race, and the most advanced members of this core, the masters who have emerged from humanity, as we call them, will then lead humanity. The movement for spiritual knowledge strives toward this goal.