The Rudolf Steiner Archive

21. Who are the Rosicrucians?

[ 1 ] For those who study theosophical literature, the name Rosicrucian has a vague, unclear ring to it, as if there were some mystery behind it. Many see it as a term for people who were involved in possible and impossible magic in the 18th century. In works by personalities who want to research the Rosicrucians scientifically and historically, one senses a benevolent shrug of the shoulders when it says, for example: Once upon a time, there was a kind of brotherhood that had high ideals and ideas of moral progress. — Perhaps their symbolic formulas are still mentioned in these works. In any case, scholarly works repeatedly emphasize that the Rosicrucians had degenerated. If the Rosicrucians had ever been what is said there, Rosicrucianism would be the most perverse thing imaginable. In truth, they are something that belongs to the most valuable aspects of humanity. Outwardly, one could not fathom it. The secrets were never passed on in books. If anything became known, it was only through betrayal or the like, and this could then easily be regarded as folly or superstition. Such a view has nothing to do with what Rosicrucianism was. However, something of what Rosicrucianism encompasses can be found in a book that appeared in 1616. The author was Johann Valentin Andreae. It was titled “The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz” and describes the development of a person who became a Rosicrucian. Later, Andreae published a book about which it was not known whether it was serious or a joke or a retraction.

[ 2 ] In our present consideration, we will reveal what may already be made public today about what Rosicrucianism really is. Initiation has existed at all times. People are at different stages of development. There are highly evolved people who are initiated into the deepest secrets of the world, who know something about how the worlds are formed, how the earth came into being, and how human beings reach ever higher stages of development. When it is said that the initiate is knowledgeable, this is often taken too lightly. To know what the real secret of humanity is, to know what the future of humanity is, is the greatest thing a human being can learn. Yes, there is knowledge that has a downright deadly effect on the unprepared human being. If it were communicated today without further ado, it would be the end of humanity. Humanity would be divided, the greater part would be destroyed, and it would have a favorable effect on the smaller part. The secret can never be elicited from the initiate in an unwarranted manner, not even through torture or martyrdom. If you were to demand it from an initiate, he would never reveal the ultimate secret of the world to an uninitiated person. The mere thought of having to reveal the secret would drive him mad or kill him. In a picture, I present to you the perspective of the entire development connected with this secret: an avenue that becomes narrower and narrower, seemingly, although the great secret will one day be revealed to all people.

[ 3 ] Rosicrucianism is a way of being initiated. It was founded by Christian Rosenkreutz. There are different paths of initiation. One was taught by the ancient Rishis, the Indians; this is the Eastern path of yoga. Then there was the Christian Gnostic path, and the third is the Rosicrucian path. All three paths lead to the summit of initiation. However, it is not usually taken into account how fundamentally different the spiritual and physical dispositions of Indians and Europeans are. It would be impossible for the European body to follow the Indian path. Furthermore, the influence of external conditions in their great diversity is not taken into account. You can see that in India, for example, certain diseases such as cholera and smallpox take a completely different course in hot countries than in cold ones. The environment is completely different and has a corresponding effect on all the sheaths of the human being. It was therefore a strange opinion that yoga training was feasible for Europeans. That was a mistake. However, it was not known that since the 14th century, the Rosicrucians had been following a path of development.

[ 4 ] The Rosicrucian path is by no means unchristian. For many people who are fervent and firmly rooted in Christianity, the Christian-Gnostic path is the right one, and they reach the highest peaks on it. But the number of such natures is decreasing. Rosicrucianism holds the deepest secrets of Christianity, but it also provides the opportunity to dispel all the doubts that people are now faced with as a result of popular or less popular views. Today, no one is protected from the bitterest doubts that assail them everywhere. Christian education would not enable them to deal with these doubts in the right way, nor would it teach them how to protect and defend themselves. You must not take this in an external way. If, for example, someone were to say, “I don't read Haeckel, I shut myself off in my Christian worldview,” nothing would be achieved by this. We live in a world in which human beings are completely filled with civilization. When we use railroads and newly developed sources of light, we are making use of the laws of nature. No matter how much human beings may shut themselves off, in every locomotive and every artificial flame, these thoughts that live in the spiritual realm communicate themselves to them. If someone were to stick only to reading the Bible, at night their astral body, their soul body, would be surrounded by all kinds of destructive soul feelings. You don't know why you are becoming nervous. The one who knows the unconsciously inflowing thoughts knows. It is not a question of materialistic science as such, but of the whole spiritual atmosphere in which we live. In the 12th century, religious fervor still prevailed, and the church was the spiritual and outward center of life. People who had worked hard took refuge in the house of spiritual powers and found peace there. Today, things are different. Rosicrucian training takes these facts into account; it reckons with everything that comes up for modern people.

[ 5 ] What, then, is Rosicrucian training? Here you will learn about high ideals. Anyone who wants to undergo this training must turn to someone who possesses the relevant knowledge. Even in the first steps he takes, the student sees what is important. What Rosicrucian training brings about is a complete transformation of the human being. Only by acquiring the abilities of the higher world can a person become a citizen of that world.

[ 6 ] Seven components, or tasks, belong to Rosicrucian secret training. First: correct study; second: acquisition of imagination; third: learning occult writing; fourth: finding the philosopher's stone; fifth: knowledge of the human being itself, the world in miniature, the microcosm; sixth: knowledge of the macrocosm; seventh: knowledge of what godliness is. There are often deviations in the order, so that a teacher, depending on the individuality of the student, may choose, for example, what is in fifth place as fourth.

[ 7 ] You may ask: Is there still a genuine Rosicrucianism today? Yes, there is, and it will only attain its most important significance in the future. These Rosicrucian brothers also have certain distinguishing marks. Not many of them can appear in public; some of them work completely in silence. Those who seek them will find them, and those who do not find them can assume that the time is not yet right for them. But the encounter will inevitably happen. It often looks like a real coincidence. For example, you may have to wait three hours in a waiting room because of a snowed-in railway line. A stranger approaches you, seemingly by chance. You have found your teacher in him. This is just one example I am giving you here.

[ 8 ] First: proper study. What does that mean? You will be led into worlds that the ordinary person cannot conceive of. It is necessary to find your way around them. A fantasist who does not have a firm grasp of his thinking is not suited for this. The most reliable thinking is a prerequisite. Man must look around, he must strive to see with healthy eyes, but he must also be able to shut off his senses. This is something that not everyone appreciates, not even the greatest philosophers. Eduard von Hartmann, for example, has repeatedly stated that in every thought there is always something left over from the senses, be it an impression of sound or color. It is incredibly immodest to claim that thinking that contains nothing perceptible to the senses is not possible. What leads to such thinking free of sensuality is now offered in spiritual scientific literature and lectures.

[ 9 ] Those who prove themselves suitable are led deeper into this knowledge. But the elementary part of this knowledge is accessible to a large part of humanity. The study that is brought to people today, which leads away from the sensory world, consists of training the thoughts. These then have nothing to do with what surrounds us in sensuality. Those who want to delve even deeper must guide their minds toward intensified thought training. I attempted to provide guidance for such non-sensual thinking in the two writings: “The Philosophy of Freedom” and “Truth and Science.” It is like this: anyone who begins to delve into these books will notice how one thought follows another in a certain necessary sequence of thoughts. All those who strive to rise higher will thus obtain the means for proper spiritual growth.

[ 10 ] Second: acquisition of imagination. Here, imagination differs from ordinary thinking. Think of Goethe's words: “Everything transitory is only a parable.” When you see a person with a smiling or sorrowful face, you will not say that a wrinkle is forming on the face or that a tear is rolling down the cheek, but you will say to yourself that this is the expression of a cheerful soul and that of a sad soul. The exterior reveals the interior to you; it is a symbol, a parable for the experience of the soul. Everyone will admit this when it comes to humans. Everyone knows the difference between a human head and its image. The geologist describes the earth to you without being concerned with anything other than its purely physical structure. People do not know that the Earth is the body of a being, and that certain plants are the expression of the cheerful and sad Earth spirit. Goethe knew this, he knew how to see the Earth as a body and knew what permeates it. He has the Earth spirit say in “Faust”:

In floods of life, in storms of action
I surge up and down,
Weaving back and forth!
Birth and grave,
An eternal sea,
A changing weave,
A glowing life,
Thus I create on the whirring loom of time
And work the living garment of the deity.

[ 11 ] Everything on earth is a parable for what goes on inside the earth. People wander around on the earth's body. From my body — so the earth can say — grows that which gives man his bread. — In that passage from the Gospel of John: " He who eats my bread tramples me underfoot," one of the deepest mysteries of the worldview is expressed.

[ 12 ] Imagination is acquired by seeing a parable in everything. To do this, however, one must first have learned logical thinking. But in Rosicrucian training, no one will choose a different parable. Everyone senses a parable of the Eternal in everything. I must here put into words what is hidden behind a parable that was first taught in medieval temples and then in Rosicrucian schools. The teacher said to the student: Look at the plant, how it drives its roots into the ground and how it turns the calyx, the seat of the fertilizing organs, toward the sunlight. The calyx is kissed by the sunbeam in chastity, and through this a new being is created. The sunbeam is also called the holy lance of love. Even Darwin says: The root of the plant can be compared to the head. — Man is an inverted plant. His reproductive organs are bashfully turned toward the center of the earth. The animal stands between man and plant. The three kingdoms of nature are symbolically represented by a cross.

[ 13 ] Plato says: The world soul is crucified on the cross of the world body.

[ 14 ] Now the Rosicrucian teacher challenges the student: Compare the carnal matter with the chaste plant matter — but a time will come when man will be purified of his desires and passions, and he will mature to a level where he will shine toward the spiritual sun, as chaste and desireless as the chaste plant. Through this ideal, he will purify his flesh so that fertilization takes place chastely and purely. This ideal represents the medieval training in the Holy Grail. A sacred symbol is the chalice for what human sensuality must become when it becomes like the plant chalice. Then it will be kissed by the white dove — the chalice is depicted with the dove above it. To spiritualize the world in this way, to see the human environment in such images, lifts one up to the contemplation of astral images. Mind and feeling form the imagination.

[ 15 ] Third: learning occult writing. Occult writing consists of reproducing the inner currents of nature. One such sign is the vortex sign. If you could see the Orion Nebula in its entirety, you would perceive it as two intertwined sixes. Here you see a world passing away and a world emerging in the nebula. It is like this everywhere. When a plant produces a new fruit, nothing from the old plant is transferred to the new one. Nothing but the forces cause a new plant to form. There, too, you would only see the vortex curling in and out. Similarly, you could see how an old culture curls in on itself and a new one winds its way out. This spiritual process can help us to understand such a character.

[ 16 ] Eight hundred years before the birth of Christ, the sun entered the sign of Aries or the Lamb. Every spring it moves a little further. Now the vernal equinox is in the constellation of Pisces. In earlier times, people believed that Aries brought them all salvation, the new power in spring. They even associated the savior with it. In the early days of Christianity, their symbol was the cross with the lamb. Before the sun was in the constellation of Aries in the spring, it was in the constellation of Taurus. At that time, the Egyptians worshipped Apis, and the Persians worshipped Mithras. After the Flood, the sun was in the constellation of Cancer. Cancer has been given this occult sign:

[ 17 ] And so there are many such lines, but also colors. And we learn such signs that lead us into the forces and powers of nature. The training of the will is learned in occult writing.

[ 18 ] Fourth: The discovery of the philosopher's stone. In the 18th century, this was understood to be a secret. Someone had also published something about it at that time. It is something that everyone knows. The philosopher's stone is also the most precious thing that humans can achieve, what humans can make of their organism in order to attain higher development.

[ 19 ] Here I would like to mention a parable from Vedanta philosophy: Once, people wanted to test whether humans could live without eyes. After a year, the person in question said: Yes, I have lived, but as a blind man. Then he tried to live without ears, and after a year he reported: Yes, I have lived without ears, but as a deaf man. His voice was taken away, and he lived as a mute. Now his breath was to be taken away, and that was not possible: without breath he could not live. Breathing brings us the air of life. “And God breathed into the man the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” With every breath we take, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. In plants, the cycle is reversed. Plants build their bodies from carbon. That is why, even after thousands of years, we still find plants fossilized in coal. Humans have carbon within them; they breathe in oxygen and produce carbon dioxide, which is expelled. Animals do the same. The Rosicrucian school teaches a special form of the breathing process, through which humans learn the process that plants carry out within themselves. Then humans will be able to transform the carbon within themselves: they will themselves transform the blue blood flowing back into red blood. They will absorb the nature of plants into themselves and will one day do what plants do today. The Rosicrucians say: Today your body is built up of flesh, but one day you will build it up yourself through your breath. The nature of plants will appear in you, but you will not sleep like them; you will be clairvoyant.

[ 20 ] Human beings are moving toward this ideal of building their bodies from carbon—ordinary coal, which is the philosopher's stone. It will not be black coal, but transparent, water-clear carbon, when the human body has become star-like. These are not just chemical processes, but high ideals. The Rosicrucians are gradually achieving this, and later all of humanity will ascend to it.

[ 21 ] Fifth: Recognition of the human being as a microcosm. The world is spread out throughout the rest of nature, and the human being is the extract of it. Everything in the world is spread out as a letter, and man is the word from it. At the beginning of the 19th century, Oken and Schelling brought forth very correct basic ideas about this. They sought to clarify the essence that corresponds to an organ. Oken proceeded somewhat grotesquely when he explained: The tongue is an octopus. Goethe says: The eye is formed by light for light. We only recognize the true nature of light when we find in humans what corresponds to light.

[ 22 ] The teacher gives the student a guiding principle to concentrate on one point, the organ behind the bridge of the nose, and he learns about the nature of human dream consciousness in addition to today's clear consciousness. And the human being gets to know the whole world when he immerses himself in the spleen, liver, and more. Once he has expanded his consciousness through this inner contemplation—dangerous is brooding—he will grow together with the whole world.

[ 23 ] Sixth: Knowledge of the macrocosm. Those who have recognized the preceding will also recognize the Creator behind all creatures.

[ 24 ] Seventh: Knowledge of divinity. On the seventh level, humans reach a point which evokes a feeling of oneness from the depths of the human soul and, which they are only entitled to at this level, a feeling of bliss. Only through knowledge of the macrocosm does he learn to empathize with this feeling of oneness. A clear empathy with all individual things is: godliness. There he learns what lies behind nature as soul. Someone once said to me: I never thought that the stone also felt something when it was tapped. The spirit of the mineral kingdom feels the tapping of the stone as the highest pleasure, as a blissful feeling. When it seems to us that the marble quarry must feel torment, for the spirit of the stone it is the highest bliss. Now you might say: Why are these details not communicated? Someone once said that this could be extremely useful for humanity. I replied: People would want to take selfish advantage of it, and this secret can only be placed in the most selfless service of humanity.

[ 25 ] The Rosicrucians knew this secret, and those who now walk the world and serve human progress share what serves progress, they who know how the “Chymical Wedding” can take place.