The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. Rosicrucian Christianity I

[ 1 ] It fills me with deep satisfaction to be here for the first time in this newly founded branch, which bears the noble name “Christian Rosenkreutz,” allowing me to speak in greater detail about Christian Rosenkreutz for the first time. What is the mystery of Christian Rosenkreutz? Everything about this figure cannot be said in a single evening, so today we will speak about Christian Rosenkreutz himself, and tomorrow evening about his work.

[ 2 ] To speak of Christian Rosenkreutz requires a deep trust in the mysteries of spiritual life—a trust not only in the person himself, but in the great mysteries of spiritual life. However, founding a new branch also always requires a belief in spiritual life.

[ 3 ] Christian Rosenkreutz is an individual who exerts an influence both when incarnated and when not embodied in a physical body; he acts not only as a physical being and through physical forces, but above all spiritually through higher powers.

[ 4 ] As we know, human beings do not live solely for themselves, but in connection with the broader development of humanity. When an ordinary person passes through death, their etheric body dissolves into the cosmos. But a part of the dissolving etheric body always remains, and so we are constantly surrounded by remnants of the etheric bodies of the deceased, for our benefit or to our detriment. They affect us for good or for evil, depending on whether we ourselves are good or evil. In this sense, the etheric bodies of great individuals exert a comprehensive influence upon us. Thus, a great power emanates from the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz that can affect our soul and our spirit. It is our task to become acquainted with these forces. And as Rosicrucians, we appeal to these forces.

[ 5 ] In the strictest sense, the Rosicrucian movement began in the thirteenth century. At that time, these forces were exceptionally strong, and since then there has been a Christian Rosenkreutz current that has continued to exert its influence in spiritual life ever since. There is a law that, roughly every hundred years, this spiritual current must find particularly effective expression. This is now evident in the Theosophical Movement. In his last exoteric writings, Christian Rosenkreutz himself alluded to this.

[ 6 ] In 1785, the collected esoteric revelations of the Rosicrucians were expressed in the work *The Secret Figures of the Rosicrucians* by Hinricus Madathanus Theosophus. In a certain limited sense, this publication contains references to what had been at work over the preceding hundred years as the Rosicrucian movement and what only then found expression in the works that were collected and summarized by Hinricus Madathanus Theosophus. Another hundred years later, we see the influence of the Rosicrucian movement expressed in the works of H. P. Blavatsky, particularly in the book *Isis Unveiled*. Much of the content of those figures is written down there in words. A sum of Western occult wisdom, which is far from exhausted, is contained therein, even if the composition is sometimes quite convoluted. It is interesting to compare Hinricus Madathanus Theosophus’s “The Secret Figures of the Rosicrucians” with the works of H. P. Blavatsky. We must focus primarily on the first half of the publication, which is written in the spirit of the “Figures.” In the second part, Blavatsky departs somewhat from the Rosicrucian current. In her later works, H. P. Blavatsky moved away from this Rosicrucian spiritual current, and we must be able to distinguish between her early and later publications, even though some of H. P. Blavatsky’s uncritical spirit has already found its way into the former. That this is said is only to the benefit of H. P. Blavatsky, who is now no longer in the physical body.

[ 7 ] When we consider the nature of human consciousness in the thirteenth century, we see that primitive clairvoyance had gradually disappeared. We know that all people once possessed an elementary form of clairvoyance. By the middle of the thirteenth century, this ability had reached a low point. In the middle of the thirteenth century, clairvoyance had suddenly vanished. A spiritual darkness descended upon all people. Even the most enlightened minds, the most highly developed personalities, and even the initiates no longer had access to the spiritual worlds at that time and had to rely solely on what remained in their memory when they spoke of the spiritual worlds. Knowledge of the spiritual worlds was now limited to what was passed down through tradition or from those initiates who could awaken their memories of what they had experienced in the past. But for a brief time, even these spirits were unable to look directly into the spiritual world.

[ 8 ] This brief period of darkness was necessary at that time to prepare the way for what characterizes our present age: today’s intellectual, rational culture. That is the essential feature of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch in which we now live. In the Greco-Latin cultural epoch, today’s rational culture did not exist in this way. Instead of rational thinking, direct perception was the dominant force. Human beings, so to speak, grew up in direct harmony with what they saw and heard; indeed, they also grew up in harmony with what they thought. Back then, people did not speculate as much as they do today and must do today, for the latter is the task of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. After this period, human clairvoyance will slowly begin again, and the clairvoyance of the future can then develop.

[ 9 ] The Rosicrucian movement traces its origins to the thirteenth century. At that time, in the thirteenth century, individuals of exceptional suitability had to be selected for initiation. The initiation itself could only take place after that brief period of darkness had passed.

[ 10 ] In a place in Europe that cannot yet be named—though this too will be possible in the not-too-distant future—a highly spiritual lodge was formed, a council of twelve men who had absorbed within themselves the entire sum of the spiritual wisdom of ancient times and of their own era. The point is that in that darkened age there lived twelve people, twelve outstanding spirits, who united to promote the progress of humanity. None of them could look directly into the spiritual world, but they were able to awaken within themselves the memory of what they had experienced through earlier initiation. And human karma had arranged it so that in seven of these twelve people was embodied what remained to humanity of the remnants of the ancient Atlantean epoch. In my *Secret Science*, it is already stated that in the seven ancient holy Rishis, the teachers of the early Indian cultural era, was carried over what had remained from the Atlantean epoch. The seven men who had reincarnated in the thirteenth century, who were part of the College of the Twelve, were precisely those who could look back upon the seven currents of humanity’s ancient Atlantean epoch of development and upon what lived on as these seven currents. Of these seven individuals, each could make only one current fruitful for both that time and the present day. To these seven were added four others who could not look back on long-past primeval times like the first seven sages, but these four personalities could look back on what humanity had acquired of occult wisdom in the four post-Atlantean cultural periods. Of these four, the first could look back to the primordial Indian era, the second to the primordial Persian cultural era, the third to the Egyptian-Chaldean-Assyrian-Babylonian cultural era, and the fourth to the Greek-Latin culture. These four united with the seven to form the college of wise men in the thirteenth century. A twelfth, finally, had, so to speak, the fewest memories, but he was the most intellectual of them, the one who was particularly charged with cultivating the external sciences. These twelve individualities did not merely live within the experiences of Western occultism; these twelve different currents of wisdom worked together to form a complete picture. We find a very special way of pointing this out in Goethe’s poem “The Mysteries.”

[ 11 ] We are therefore speaking of twelve outstanding individuals. The origins of a new culture can be traced back to the mid-thirteenth century. At that time, intellectual life had reached a certain low point. Even the most highly developed individuals were denied access to the spiritual worlds. It was then that this highly spiritual council convened. In a place in Europe that cannot yet be named, these twelve men gathered; they represented the sum total of all spiritual knowledge of their time and embodied the twelve spiritual currents.

[ 12 ] Within this Council of the Twelve, some possessed only clairvoyance of memory and intellectual wisdom. The seven successors of the seven Rishis recalled their ancient wisdom, while the other five represented the wisdom of the five post-Atlantean cultures. Thus, the Twelve represented the entirety of Atlantean and post-Atlantean wisdom. The Twelfth was a person who possessed the highest degree of intellectual wisdom of his time. He possessed, intellectually, the entirety of the knowledge of his time, while the others—who were also denied direct spiritual vision at that time—gained their knowledge by immersing themselves in the memories of their earlier incarnations.

[ 13 ] The foundation of a new culture, however, was only possible because a Thirteenth stepped into the midst of the Twelve. This Thirteenth did not become a scholar in the sense of that time. He was an individual who had been incarnated at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. In subsequent incarnations, through a humble disposition and a fervent, God-devoted life, he had prepared himself for his mission. He was a great soul, a devout, deeply mystical person who was born with these qualities and had not merely acquired them. If you imagine a young person, very devout, constantly praying fervently to his God, you can picture the individuality of this Thirteenth. This Thirteenth grew up entirely under the care and education of the Twelve, and he received from each of them as much wisdom as each could give him. This Thirteenth was raised with the utmost care, and all arrangements were made so that no one other than these Twelve could exert any influence on him. He was separated from the rest of the world. He was a very frail child in that incarnation of the thirteenth century; therefore, the upbringing the Twelve bestowed upon him had an effect even on his physical body. The Twelve, however, each of whom was so imbued and filled with his spiritual task and deeply imbued with Christianity, were aware that the outward Christianity of the Church was only a distorted image of true Christianity. They were filled with the greatness of Christianity, but outwardly were regarded as its enemies. Each one worked his way into only one aspect of Christianity. Their aim was to unite the various religions into one great unity. They were convinced that all spiritual life was contained within their twelve streams, and each one influenced the disciple to the best of his ability. Their goal was to achieve a synthesis of all religions, but they were aware that this goal could not be attained through any theory, but rather through the influence of spiritual life. And for this, a corresponding education of the Thirteenth was necessary.

[ 14 ] As the spiritual powers of this Thirteenth grew infinitely, his physical powers declined completely. It reached the point where almost all connection with external life ceased, and all interest in the physical world vanished. He lived solely for spiritual development, for which he received inspiration from the Twelve. Within him was a reflection of the wisdom of the Twelve. It reached the point where the Thirteenth refused all food and wasted away. Then an event occurred that could happen only once in history. It was one of those events that can occur when the macrocosmic forces—for the sake of the fruits such an event is meant to bear—work together. After a few days, the body of this Thirteenth became completely transparent, and he lay as if dead for days on end. The Twelve now gathered around him at specific intervals. All knowledge and all wisdom flowed from their mouths in these moments. In short formulas, which were like devotional prayers, they allowed their wisdom to flow to the Thirteenth, while the Thirteenth lay there as if dead. One can best imagine the Twelve standing in a circle around the Thirteenth. This state ended with the soul of this Thirteenth awakening as a new soul. He had experienced a great transformation of his soul. There was something within it like a completely new birth of the twelve wisdoms, so that even the twelve sages could learn something entirely new from the young man. But his body, too, was thereby enlivened in such a way that this enlivening of the completely transparent body cannot be compared to anything. The young man could now speak of entirely new experiences. The Twelve could see that he had gone through the Damascus experience: it was a repetition of Paul’s vision before Damascus. Over the course of a few weeks, the Thirteenth now imparted all the wisdom he had received from the Twelve, but in a new form. This new form was as if given by Christ himself. What he revealed to them there, the Twelve called true Christianity, the synthesis of all religions, and they distinguished between this true Christianity and the Christianity of the epoch in which they lived. This Thirteenth died relatively young, and the Twelve then devoted themselves to the task of recording in imaginations—for only in this way could it be done—what the Thirteenth had revealed to them. Thus arose the symbolic figures and images contained in the collection of Hinriceus Madathanus Theosophus, and the communications of H. P. Blavatsky in the work *Isis Unveiled*. The occult process must be understood in such a way that the fruit of the Thirteenth’s initiation has been preserved as the remnant of his etheric body within the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth. This remnant influenced the Twelve, inspiring them as well as their subsequent disciples, so that the Rosicrucian occult movement could emerge from them. But this etheric body continued to exert its influence, and it then permeated the etheric body of the Thirteenth as he reincarnated.

[ 15 ] As early as the fourteenth century, the individuality of the Thirteenth was reincarnated, around the middle of the fourteenth century. In this incarnation, this individuality lived for more than a hundred years. He was raised in a similar manner among the circle of disciples and followers of the Twelve, but not as unworldly as in his previous incarnation. When he was twenty-eight years old, he developed a peculiar ideal. He had to travel and leave Europe. First he went to Damascus, and there the event that Paul had experienced there was repeated for him once more. This experience can be described as the fruit of a seed from the previous incarnation. All the powers of the wondrous etheric body of the Thirteenth’s individuality had remained intact, and nothing passed into the general world ether after death. This was a lasting etheric body that has remained intact in the etheric spheres ever since. This same subtle etheric body once again illuminated and radiated from the spiritual world into the new incarnation, the individuality of the fourteenth century. Hence he was driven to experience the event at Damascus once more. This is the individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz. He was the Thirteenth in the circle of the Twelve. From this incarnation onward, he was called by that name. Esoterically, in the occult sense, he was Christian Rosenkreutz as early as the thirteenth century; exoterically, he was not called that until the fourteenth century. And the disciples of this Thirteenth are the successors of the other Twelve in the thirteenth century. These are the Rosicrucians.

[ 16 ] At that time, Christian Rosenkreutz traveled throughout the entire known world. After having been imbued with the entire wisdom of the Twelve, enriched by the great Being of Christ, it became easy for him to absorb the entire wisdom of that time within himself over the course of seven years. When he then returned to Europe after seven years, he took the most advanced disciples and successors of the Twelve as his own students and then began the actual work of the Rosicrucians.

[ 17 ] A completely new way of viewing the world became possible thanks to the emanations of the wonderful etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz. The work carried out by the Rosicrucians up to the present day consists of both external and internal work. The purpose of the external work was to fathom what lies behind the Maya of matter. The aim was to investigate the Maya of matter. Just as the human being has an etheric body, so too does the entire macrocosm have an etheric macrocosm, an etheric body, as its foundation. There is a certain boundary between the coarser and the finer substance. Let us turn our gaze to the boundary between physical and etheric substance. Nothing in the world is similar to what lies between the physical and the etheric substance. It is neither gold nor silver, nor lead, nor copper. There we have something that cannot be compared to any other physical substance, but rather it is the essence of everything. We have here a substance that is contained in all other physical substances, so that the other physical substances can be regarded as modifications of this one substance. To perceive this substance clairvoyantly was the aspiration of the Rosicrucians. They saw the preparation, the development of such perception, in an enhanced effectiveness of the moral powers of the soul, which then made this substance visible. In the moral powers of the soul they saw the power for this vision. This substance has truly been seen and discovered by the Rosicrucians. They found that this substance lives in a certain form in the world, in the macrocosm as well as in the human being. Out in the world, outside the human being, they revered it as the great garment, as the robe of the macrocosm. In human beings, they saw it arise when a harmonious interaction between thinking and willing is present. They saw the forces of willing not only in human beings but also in the macrocosm, for example in thunder and lightning. In the same way, they also saw the forces of thinking, on the one hand, in human beings and then out in the world, in the rainbow, in the dawn. The Rosicrucians sought the power to achieve such harmony between will and thought within their own souls in the emanations of this etheric body of the Thirteenth, Christian Rosenkreutz.

[ 18 ] It was decreed that all the discoveries they made must remain a secret among the Rosicrucians for a hundred years, and that only then, after a hundred years, might these Rosicrucian revelations be brought to the world. Only after a hundred years of work on the subject was it permitted to speak of it in an appropriate manner. Thus, from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century, preparations were made for what was expressed in 1785 in the work *The Secret Figures of the Rosicrucians*.

[ 19 ] It is also of great importance to know that in every century, Rosicrucian inspiration is imparted in such a way that the bearer of the inspiration was never identified publicly. Only the highest initiates knew this. Today, for example, one can speak publicly only of events that took place a hundred years ago, for that is the time that must have elapsed before they may be discussed publicly. The temptation is too great for people to respond to such a personally claimed authority—which is the worst thing there is—with fanatical veneration of a saint. It is simply too obvious. However, this discretion is not only a necessity against the external temptations of ambition and pride—which one might perhaps still be able to resist—but above all against the occult astral attacks that would be constantly directed at such an individual. Therefore, the condition that one may speak of such a fact only a hundred years after it has occurred is a necessary one.

[ 20 ] As a result of the Rosicrucian work, the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz grew stronger and more powerful from century to century. He worked not only through Christian Rosenkreutz, but also through all those who became his disciples. Since the fourteenth century, Christian Rosenkreutz has incarnated time and again. Everything that is proclaimed as Theosophy is strengthened by the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz, and those who proclaim Theosophy allow themselves to be overshadowed by this etheric body, which can work through them both when Christian Rosenkreutz is incarnated and when he is not.

[ 21 ] The Count of Saint Germain was the exoteric reincarnation of Christian Rosenkreutz in the eighteenth century. However, this name has also been attributed to other individuals, so not everything said here and there in the outer world about the Count of Saint Germain can necessarily be applied to the real Christian Rosenkreutz. Today, Christian Rosenkreutz has reincarnated. The inspiration for H.P. Blavatsky’s work *Isis Unveiled* emanated from the radiations of his etheric body. It was also the influence of Christian Rosenkreutz that invisibly affected Lessing and inspired him to write “The Education of the Human Race” (1780). As a result of the rising tide of materialism, it became increasingly difficult to inspire in the spirit of Rosicrucianism. In the nineteenth century, the flood of materialism reached its peak. Thus, much could only be conveyed in very fragmented rays. In 1851, Widenmann solved the problem of the soul’s immortality in the sense of reincarnation. His work won an award. As early as around 1850, Droßbach wrote from a psychological standpoint in the sense of reincarnation.

[ 22 ] Thus, even in the nineteenth century, the emanations of Christian Rosenkreutz’s etheric body continued to have an effect. And a renewal of theosophical life could take place because the Minor Kali Yuga had ended in 1899. That is why access to the spiritual world is easier today, and spiritual influence is possible to a much greater extent. Devotion to the now-empowered etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz will be able to bring people new clairvoyance and will bring forth high spiritual powers. But this will only be possible for those who correctly follow the training of Christian Rosenkreutz. Until now, esoteric Rosicrucian preparation was necessary for this. The twentieth century, however, has the mission of allowing this etheric body to become so powerful that it will also have an exoteric effect. Those who are seized by it will be able to experience the event that Paul experienced before Damascus. Until now, this etheric body has only worked within the Rosicrucian School; in the twentieth century, there will be more and more people who can experience this effect and thereby be allowed to experience the appearance of the Christ in the etheric body. It is the work of the Rosicrucians that makes it possible to have the etheric appearance of the Christ. The number of those who will be able to behold it will grow ever larger and larger. We must trace this reappearance back to the great event of the work of the Twelve and the Thirteenth in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

[ 23 ] If you can become an instrument of Christian Rosenkreutz, then you can be assured that even your smallest spiritual effort will endure for eternity.

[ 24 ] Tomorrow we will discuss the work of Christian Rosenkreutz. An indefinable impulse toward spiritual science is sweeping through humanity today. And we can be certain that wherever Rosenkreutz students strive forward earnestly and conscientiously, values for eternity are being created. Every little spiritual effort brings us higher. It is necessary to show understanding and reverence for this sacred cause.