Lectures to the First Class
Volume III
GA 270
9 September 1924, Dornach
Lecture XXI (Recapitulation of Lesson II)
Despite the fact that a number of new members of this Esoteric School are present today who have not attended the previous classes, it will not be possible to repeat the introductory words. Therefore, I must insist that if the new members receive the verses from other members in the manner I will describe later, at the end of the lesson, then those who give the verses to the new members are duty bound to inform them of the conditions for membership in the School. So now we must immediately continue where we left off the last time.
First, however, let our souls again hear the words which resound from all thebeings and events of the world to unbiased hearts and minds [Gemüte]. Everything in the following words was said to human beings in the past, is said to then in the present, and will be said to them in the future:
O man, know thyself!
So resounds the Cosmic-Word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it firm in spirit.
Who speaks with such cosmic might?
Who speaks with such depth of heart?
Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through weaving waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?
It's you yourself who,
In feeling space, in experiencing time,
Create the Word, feeling foreign
In the soulless void of space
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destructive flow.
We have seen how the person who follows these words coming to him from all the things of the world and from all the events of the world, feels the desire to leave the majestic, illustrious sensory world and enter into the world beyond the yawning abyss of being, which at first confronts the human soul as black, night-cloaked darkness. But the hope exists that in order to truly solve the riddle of humanity, what shines and is radiant in earthly life must become dark in order for the light which is in that other world, in which one's own self finds its being, comes from what appears at first as black, night-cloaked cosmic darkness.
And we have seen as we approached the path leading there in thought and feeling, the figure of the Guardian of the Threshold luminously emerged as though from a spiritual cloud-like form. We heard him speaking: for everything spoken here resounds from spiritual worlds on behalf of Michael, the leader of humanity's spiritual path in our times. For this School is the true Michael School. And he also spoke about human self-knowledge. But then he used words which at first are dismaying for the soul.
The Guardian calls us to stand close to him. He looks at us with earnest countenance. And he shows us how our willing, our feeling, our thinking appear before the countenance of the gods as imaginations. There this willing, this feeling, this thinking is not yet human; it is still animal-like. There the self-knowledge is dismaying, even shattering.
But we must pass through knowledge of that self, which is the result of the errors embedded in us by our times, our cosmic time, in order to press forward to true self-knowledge.
This erroneous self-knowledge, the knowledge of the self which we carry within us from the spirit of our times, is shown to us by the Guardian by letting the first of the beasts, which represents willing, to arise from the yawning abyss of being. Then, raising his hand and pointing to the yawning abyss of being, he lets the second beast arise, representing feeling. Again pointing to the yawning abyss of being, he lets the third beast emerge, which represents thinking.
They arise one after the other thus:
The first beast—the true spiritual form of our willing, created by the fear of knowledge, which can only be overcome by having the courage for spiritual knowledge.
And then the second beast—born from the hate of spiritual knowledge, which at the present time is in the subconscious of the Gemüt [soul, heart or mind] of all people, which can only be overcome by the right enthusiasm for knowledge, for the right heartfelt blaze of knowledge; whereas today nonchalance and tepidity in respect of knowledge, yes, hate of knowledge due to nonchalance and tepidity is in the hearts.
And then the third beast—created in its ghostly nature by doubt about the spiritual world that today gnaws at the souls' roots, and which can only be overcome if knowledge awakens in itself the strength to create in one's own soul [Gemüt] the things of the spiritual world beyond.
And the Guardian at the yawning abyss speaks the following words after we have come quite close:
Yet you must beware of the abyss;
Otherwise its beasts will devour
You, if you pass by me in haste.
Your cosmic age has placed them there
In you as enemies of knowledge.
Behold the first beast, the crooked back,
bony head, the scrawny body,
All its skin is a dull blue;
Your fear of creative spiritual being
Begot the monster in your willing;
Your fearless knowledge alone overcomes it.
Behold the second beast, it bares its teeth,
Mockingly it lies with warped countenance,
Yellow with gray spots is its body;
Your hate of spiritual revelation
Begot this weakling in your feeling;
Your burning thirst for knowledge must subdue him.
Behold the third beast, with cloven muzzle,
Its eye is glassy, posture slouching,
Dirty-red its form appears to you;
Your doubts in the power of spiritual light
Begot this ghost within your thinking;
To creative knowledge must it yield.
Only when you have overcome all three
Will wings sprout from your soul
To carry you over the abyss
Which sunders you from the knowledge fields
To which your heart desires to reach
By consecrating itself to strive for healing.
[The mantra, with underlining's, is written on the blackboard.]
The Guardian speaks at the abyss:
Yet you must beware of the abyss;
Otherwise its beasts will devour
You, if you pass by me in haste.
Your cosmic age has placed them there
In you as enemies of knowledge.
Behold the first beast, the crooked back,
bony head, the scrawny body,
All its skin is dullish blue;
Your fear of creative spiritual being
Begot the monster in your willing;
Your fearless knowledge alone overcomes it.
Behold the second beast, it bares its teeth,
mockingly it lies with a warped countenance,
Yellow with gray spots is its body;
Your hate of spiritual revelation
Begot this weakling in your feeling;
Your burning thirst for knowledge must subdue him.
Behold the third beast, with cloven muzzle,
Its eye is glassy, posture slouching,
Dirty-red its form appears to you;
Your doubts in the power of spiritual light
Begot this ghost within your thinking;
To creative knowledge must it yield.
Only when you have overcome all three
Will wings sprout from your soul
To carry you over the abyss
Which sunders you from the knowledge fields
To which your heart desires to reach
by consecrating itself to strive for healing.
When the Guardian shows us this - the shattering picture of our own being which at first confronts us as the answer to the call “Oh man, know thyself!”—, once the Guardian has shown us this picture, he approaches us in order to give us a further clarification that can begin to support us again: a clarification about the third beast, which is interwoven with our thinking; about the second beast, which is interwoven with our feeling; about the first beast, which is interwoven with our willing. And he gives us a certain teaching in what he then says. He draws our attention to how we should feel about our earthly thinking.
My dear sisters and brothers, one feels, even exoterically, that this thinking by which we acquire the things and events of the world is something abstract, something shadowy, something unreal. What is then this thinking?
We must place what this thinking really is before our souls in pictures. We imagine ourselves in front of a corpse which has recently been abandoned by a human soul and spirit. We observe this corpse. As it is now, it can never have come into being in the world. It can be nothing of itself. It can only be the remains of a living human being, who was once within it, who must have first transfigured it. The corpse lies in the coffin. Let us keep this picture in mind.
Our psychic-spiritual life, which is our own true humanity, was living before it descended from the divine-spiritual world by means of conception and birth into a physical human earthly body. There above in the divine-spiritual world it was no shadowy, abstract thought, but a psychic-spiritual living, interweaving, creating, acting being. It was alive there. Then it descended into a human body; but it died by descending. And the thinking that we have between birth and death is the corpse of the living thinking we had before descending into earthly being.
Only, my dear sisters and brothers, when we feel our thinking this way, do we feel it esoterically in the right way and struggle upward to overcome the ghostly form of the third beast, do we ascend more and more to the purely angelic form of true thinking, the dead afterimage of which lives and pulses and interweaves and acts in our physical earthly body.
As long as we consider thinking as something living, we are not experiencing the truth; only when we consider our body as the coffin of dead thinking, and we feel it deeply, are we experiencing the truth. This is what the Guardian of the Threshold at the yawning abyss of being tells us, whose words we will then hear, words which can serve us as a mantric verse. He says it to us with special intimacy.
And when we turn from thinking and observe our feeling, then we must see and feel how normal feeling, which we believe is alive in us between birth and death, is only half alive, how it continually consumes and kills something in us, how in fact it makes us spiritually hollow. Thinking is dead, and feeling is half alive, it is basically only an image-form in us. And only when we feel that this earthly feeling is a weak, half-living reflection of the solar power that emits cosmic feeling throughout the entire cosmos as general universal love, then only do we feel correctly about feeling. This the Guardian of the Threshold tells us privately, in intimacy.
And only when we feel that our will, although it lives in us, is continually tempted and attacked by spiritual opposing powers, so that its strength does not serve the divine above, but the physical below; only when we feel these opposing powers, who wish to divert us in our will from our actual divine task and completely enmesh us in earthly existence, then we will feel how these opposing powers, by usurping our will, want to bring the future of the earth under their power. If they were able to do it, if we were not alert enough to dedicate our will to the Divine, and not to the Ahrimanic earthly powers, then the earth would become problematic for the gods to whom it has belonged from the its very beginning.
The Guardian tells us this as a clarification of the three beasts:
The third beast's glassy-eyed gaze,
It is the evil counter-image
Of thinking, that denies itself
In you and chooses death,
Forsaking the spirit-forces
Which before its earthly life
Was alive in fields of spirit.
The second beast's mocking countenance,
It is the evil counter-force of feeling,
Which hollows out your own soul
And creates an empty life in it
Instead of spirit-content which,
Before earthly existence was the soul's,
Enlightened by the sun's spirit power.
The first beast's bony spirit:
It is the evil creating power
Of will, which from your own body
Estranges your strength of soul
And devotes it to the opposing powers,
Who would steal in future time
Cosmic being from godly being.
[The mantra is written in the blackboard, with underlining.]
The Guardian speaks:
The third beast's glassy-eyed gaze,
It is the evil counter-image
—it is only an “image”—
Of thinking, that denies itself
In you and chooses death,
Forsaking the spirit-forces
Which before its earthly life
Was alive in fields of spirit.
The second beast's mocking countenance,
It is the evil counter-force of feeling,
—first is “image”, the second “force”—
Which hollows out your own soul
And creates an empty life in it
Instead of spirit-content which,
Before earthly existence was the soul's,
Enlightened by the sun's spirit power.
The first beast's bony spirit:
—the escalation: “image”, “force”, “power”—
It is the evil creating power
Of will, which from your own body
Estranges your strength of soul
And devotes it to the opposing powers,
Who would steal in future time
Cosmic being from godly being.
And the Guardian at the abyss of being leads us ever closer to true self-knowledge, which can only be ours if light arises beyond in the black, night-cloaked darkness. Therefore in the most varied ways he shows us what he first showed us in the forms of the beasts, what he then showed us in the form as it pertains to this mantric verse, and what he now once again describes, in order that we come ever and ever closer to self-knowledge, for us to have wings to cross the abyss of being, for with human feet, with heavy human feet, that is, with the outer illusions, with maya-reality, we cannot cross.
After having given us this mantric verse in confidence, the Guardian now indicates to us how we should further feel about thinking, how we should not feel it as a being; for then we are still weaving illusions if in this thinking that we have as human beings on the earth we see anything else but seeming. Selfhood being, that is, our true, real being, hides itself in thinking, doesn't live in thinking—the Guardian says. One can do nothing else but submerge into the seeming of thinking ever more, until one reaches, by submerging deeply, ever further, into the immeasurable cosmic ether, in which one at first dissolves with the soul.
If our selfhood at least feels wavering in the world's seeming, then we should revere the leading beings of the higher hierarchies who guide us. Here we feel that we need these leading beings of the higher hierarchies.
Then the Guardian exhorts us to turn from thinking to feeling, to perceive the streaming feeling in us. Thinking is still naught but seeming. But what we feel stands at least halfway close to our being. We come deeper into our own being when we feel than when we think; but we are not yet there. We are in half of our own being when we are feeling; for feeling has something unclear in it, and it is also never firm: seeming and being are intermixed in feeling. The selfhood which we seek—selfhood in the good sense of the word is—tends towards seeming. We should now submerge into seeming, into a being that is only apparent, into a seeming that energizes itself to half a being; there cosmic forces hold us, which are not mere seeming, but halfway to being: cosmic soul forces. There we should ponder in this interweaving of our own being in weaving cosmic ether; there we should ponder the living power of our own soul, which we cannot ponder by thinking because thinking is seeming.
Then we should submerge in the will, which we feel to be the being hidden in us. We cannot grasp it. But the will acts as thrust and force: being. This will climbs up from all the seeming and creates our own being, our own true being. We should turn our lives towards it. It is filled with the power of the cosmic spirit. Our own being should grasp the cosmic creative power, which fills all space, all times, all spiritual domains, and submerge in the will.
At the edge of the abyss the Guardian speaks:
See in yourself the weaving thoughts:
Cosmic seeming confronts you,
Selfhood as such hides from you;
Plunge down beneath the seeming:
Etheric essence flows in you;
Selfhood being should revere the
Guiding nature of your spirit.
Perceive within the flow of feeling:
Where seeming and being within you merge,
Your selfhood tends towards the seeming;
So plunge down in seeming being:
And in you are the cosmic-psychic forces;
The selfhood, it should then ponder
Your own soul's powers of life.
Let act in you the thrust of will:
Which climbs up from all the seeming
With your own self creating;
Turn your life in full toward it:
Filled it is with cosmic force of spirit;
Your own self should truly grasp
Creative cosmic power in the spirit-I.
I will write this mantra on the blackboard next time, and explain it with its characteristics.
But now let us turn again to all that has spoken to the human being in the past, to what speaks in the present, to what will be spoken in the future, what will be required of him as the most holy on his life's path: self-knowledge.
O man, know thyself!
So resounds the Cosmic-Word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it firm in spirit.
Who speaks with such cosmic might?
Who speaks with such depth of heart?
Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through weaving waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?
It's you yourself who,
In feeling space, in experiencing time,
Create the Word, feeling foreign
In the soulless void of space
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destructive flow.
The next esoteric lesson of this First Class will be next Thursday at eight o'clock.
I must also say that the verses, which are given as mantric meditation verses from the Guardian of the Threshold on behalf of Michael, are only for members of this School. Those who for any reason could not acquire them personally, may receive them from another member of the school who has them. However, permission must be requested in each case from either Dr. Wegman or from me. This is not merely an administrative measure, but means that everything in our anthroposophical movement must be based on reality from now on. And this statement begins with the permission as a real fact, not as a mere administrative measure. The verses may not be sent by mail. Only the person who is to give the verses to another may request permission from Dr. Wegman or from me. Not the one who is to receive them, but the one who gives. One asks someone who can give them, and that one then asks.
If anyone has written down something other than the verses themselves, then I ask them to only keep it for eight days and then burn it, in order that the content of the School, which only has meaning when the Michael stream flows through it, not get outside and thereby become ineffective. It is a fundamental occult axiom, which must be observed.
And we are in an earnest occult School, in the real School of Michaeli, and thus give what flows through this school in the Michaeli Sign: [drawn on the blackboard]
[in red]
and give it in the sense of the Rose Cross, with the symbol of the Rose Cross:
Ex deo nascimur[the lower seal is drawn on the blackboard]
In Christo Morimur [the middle seal is drawn on the blackboard]
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus [the upper seal is drawn on the blackboard]
And while making this seal and sign we think of Christian Rosenkreuz:
[beside the lower seal is written:]
I revere the Father
[beside the middle seal is written:]
I love the Son
[beside the upper seal is written:]
I unite with the spirit
Per signum Michaeli:
[the michael sign—above red—is made]
[as each of the seal gestures is made, the following is spoken:]
Ex deo nascimur
In Christo morimur
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus
Zweite Wiederholungsstunde
Meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder! Es ist nicht möglich, auch heute - trotzdem eine Anzahl neuer Mitglieder dieser esoterischen Schule hier sind, neuer Mitglieder, die noch nicht hier waren - wiederum die einleitenden Worte zu sprechen. Daher werde ich fordern müssen, dass, wenn die neu in die Schule aufgenommenen Mitglieder von anderen Mitgliedern - in der Art, wie ich es später sagen werde, am Schlusse der Stunde - die Sprüche mitgeteilt bekommen, ihnen auch pflichtgemäß von denjenigen, die ihnen die Sprüche mitteilen, die Bedingungen für die Mitgliedschaft der Schule gesagt werden. Und es wird notwendig sein, dass jetzt sogleich fortgefahren wird in demjenigen, mit dem das letzte Mal aufgehört worden ist.
Vorerst aber lassen wir wiederum vor unsere Seele treten diejenigen Worte, die dem unbefangenen Gemüte aus allen Wesen der Welt, aus allen Vorgängen der Welt entgegentönen. Alles sagt den Menschen dieses, was in den folgenden Worten liegt; alles hat in der Vergangenheit den Menschen dieses gesagt, alles sagt ihnen in der Gegenwart dieses, alles wird ihnen sagen in der Zukunft dieses:
O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!
So tönt das Weltenwort.
Du hörst es seelenkräftig,
Du fühlst es geistgewaltig.Wer spricht so weltenmächtig?
Wer spricht so herzinniglich?Wirkt es durch des Raumes Weitenstrahlung
In deines Sinnes Seinserleben?
Tönt es durch der Zeiten Wellenweben
In deines Lebens Werdestrom?Bist du es selbst, der sich
Im Raumesfühlen, im Zeiterleben
Das Wort erschafft, dich fremd
Erfühlend in Raumes Seelenleere,
Weil du des Denkens Kraft
Verlierst im Zeitvernichtungsstrome.
Wir haben gesehen, wie derjenige, der befolgt dieses aus allen Dingen der Welt und aus allen Vorgängen der Welt ihm entgegentönende Wort, die Sehnsucht fühlt, hinauszukommen aus der majestätischen, glänzenden Sinneswelt in diejenige Welt, die jenseits eines gähnenden Abgrundes ist, des gähnenden Abgrundes des Seins, und die zunächst entgegenstarrt der menschlichen Seele wie schwarze, nachtbedeckte Finsternis. Aber die Hoffnung ersteht, dass für die Lösung des Menschenrätsels, für die wahre Lösung des Menschenrätsels dasjenige, was für das äußere Leben in Licht erstrahlt, in Glanz erglimmt, dunkel werden muss, damit das Licht, das in jener Welt ist, in der das eigene Selbst sein Wesen findet, aus der zunächst als schwarze, nachtbedeckte Finsternis erscheinenden Weltenwesenheit kommt.
Und wir haben, indem wir uns genähert haben im Gedanken, in der Empfindung auf dem Wege, der dahin geleitet, sich erhellen gesehen wie aus geistigem Wolkendasein die Gestalt des Hüters der Schwelle. Wir haben ihn sprechen gehört, - denn alles, was hier gesprochen wird, tönt aus Geisteswelten, tönt im Auftrage Michaelis, des Leiters der geistigen Strömung der Menschheit in der Gegenwart; denn diese Schule ist die wahre Michael-Schule. Und er hat gesprochen auch von der Selbsterkenntnis des Menschen, der Hüter. Er hat aber dann Worte gesprochen, die zunächst niederschmetternd für die Seele sind.
Hingerufen hat er uns, der Hüter, sodass wir ihm ganz nahe stehen. Mit ernstem Antlitz schaut er uns entgegen. Und er zeigt uns, wie unser Wollen, unser Fühlen, unser Denken vor dem Antlitze der Götter erscheint in Imaginationen. Da ist es noch nicht menschlich, dieses Wollen, dieses Fühlen, dieses Denken, da ist es noch tierisch. Da ist die Selbsterkenntnis noch bestürzend, niederschmetternd.
Aber durchgehen müssen wir durch die Erkenntnis jenes Selbstes, das uns unsere Zeit, unsere Weltenzeit aus ihrer Irrtumsbildung heraus gibt, damit wir zu der wahren Selbsterkenntnis vordringen können.
Diese Irrtums-Selbsterkenntnis, die Erkenntnis jenes Selbstes, das wir aus dem Geiste unserer Zeit heraus in uns tragen, sie weist uns der Hüter vor, indem er aufsteigen lässt aus dem gähnenden Abgrund des Seins das erste der Tiere, das das Wollen darstellt; wiederum die Hand erhebend, hinweisend auf den gähnenden Abgrund des Seins, heraufsteigen lässt das zweite der Tiere, das das Fühlen darstellt; wiederum die Hand hinweisend auf den gähnenden Abgrund des Seins, das dritte Tier aufsteigen lässt, das das Denken darstellt.
So steigen sie hintereinander herauf:
Das erste der Tiere - die wahre Geistgestalt zunächst unseres Wollens, erzeugt aus der Furcht vor der Erkenntnis -, das nur durch den Mut zur spirituellen Erkenntnis überwunden werden kann.
Und so das zweite Tier - geboren aus dem Hass auf Erkenntnis, der in den Untergründen des Gemütes aus unserer Zeit heraus in allen Menschen ist -, das nur überwunden werden kann durch die richtige Begeisterung für die Erkenntnis, durch das rechte gemütvolle Erkenntnisfeuer; während heute Lässigkeit und Lauheit in Bezug auf die Erkenntnis, ja, Hass in Bezug auf die Erkenntnis wegen der Lässigkeit und Lauheit in den Gemütern ist.
Und so das dritte Tier - in seiner gespenstigen Eigenart von dem Zweifel an der geistigen Welt, der heute an den Wurzeln der Seelen nagt, heraus erzeugt -, das nur besiegt werden kann dann, wenn die Erkenntnis die Kraft in sich erweckt, die Dinge, die draußen sind in der geistigen Welt, in sich im eigenen Gemüte zu schaffen.
Und so spricht der Hüter am gähnenden Abgrund des Seins, nachdem wir ganz nahe herangetreten sind:
Doch du musst den Abgrund achten;
Sonst verschlingen seine Tiere
Dich, wenn du an mir vorübereilt'st;
Sie hat deine Weltenzeit in dir
Als Erkenntnisfeinde hingestellt.
Schau das erste Tier, den Rücken krumm,
Knochenhaft das Haupt, von dürrem Leib,
Ganz von stumpfem Blau ist seine Haut;
Deine Furcht vor Geistes-Schöpfer-Sein
Schuf das Ungetüm in deinem Willen;
Dein Erkenntnismut nur überwindet es.Schau das zweite Tier, es zeigt die Zähne
Im verzerrten Angesicht, es lügt im Spotten,
Gelb mit grauem Einschlag ist sein Leib;
Dein Hass auf Geistes-Offenbarung
Schuf den Schwächling dir im Fühlen;
Dein Erkenntnisfeuer muss ihn zähmen.Schau das dritte Tier, mit gespaltnem Maul,
Glasig ist sein Auge, schlaff die Haltung,
Schmutzigrot erscheint dir die Gestalt;
Dein Zweifel an Geistes-Licht-Gewalt
Schuf dir dies Gespenst in deinem Denken;
Dem Erkenntnisschaffen muss es weichen.Erst wenn die drei von dir besiegt,
Werden Flügel deiner Seele wachsen,
Um den Abgrund zu übersetzen,
Der dich trennet vom Erkenntnisfelde,
Dem sich deine Herzenssehnsucht
Heilerstrebend weihen möchte.
[Das Mantram wird nun, zugleich mit den entsprechenden Unterstreichungen, an die Tafel geschrieben; siche Seite 844]
Der Hüter spricht ganz am Abgrund:
Doch du musst den Abgrund achten;
Sonst verschlingen seine Tiere
Dich, wenn du an mir vorübereilt'st;
Sie hat deine Weltenzeit in dir
Als Erkenntnisfeinde hingestellt.
Schau das erste Tier, den Rücken krumm,
Knochenhaft das Haupt, von dürrem Leib,
Ganz von stumpfem Blau ist seine Haut;
Deine Furcht vor Geistes-Schöpfer-Sein
Schuf das Ungetüm in deinem Willen;
Dein Erkenntnismut nur überwindet es.Schau das zweite Tier, es zeigt die Zähne
Im verzerrten Angesicht, es lügt im Spotten,
Gelb mit grauem Einschlag ist sein Leib;
Dein Hass auf Geistes-Offenbarung
Schuf den Schwächling dir im Fühlen;
Dein Erkenntnisfeuer muss ihn zähmen.Schau das dritte Tier, mit gespaltnem Maul,
Glasig ist sein Auge, schlaff die Haltung,
Schmutzigrot erscheint dir die Gestalt;
Dein Zweifel an Geistes-Licht-Gewalt
Schuf dir dies Gespenst in deinem Denken;
Dem Erkenntnisschaffen muss es weichen.Erst wenn die drei von dir besiegt,
Werden Flügel deiner Seele wachsen,
Um den Abgrund zu übersetzen,
Der dich trennet vom Erkenntnisfelde,
Dem sich deine Herzenssehnsucht
Heilerstrebend weihen möchte.
Wenn der Hüter uns dies gezeigt, das niederschmetternde Bild, das uns als unser eigenes Wesen wie die Antwort auf die Aufforderung «O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!» zunächst entgegentritt, wenn der Hüter uns dieses Bild gezeigt hat, dann nähert er sich uns, um uns eine weitere Aufklärung zu geben, die nun beginnen kann, uns aufzurichten: eine Aufklärung über das dritte Tier, das verwoben ist mit unserem Denken, das zweite Tier, das verwoben ist mit unserem Fühlen, das erste Tier, das verwoben ist mit unserem Wollen. Und er gibt uns eine gewisse Lehre in dem, was er uns zunächst sagt. Er macht uns aufmerksam darauf, wie wir in rechter Weise unser menschliches Erdendenken empfinden sollen.
Meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, man fühlt ja schon ganz exoterisch, dass dieses Denken, durch das wir uns die Dinge und Vorgänge der Welt aneignen, etwas Abstraktes, etwas Schattenhaftes, etwas Unwirkliches ist. Was ist es denn eigentlich, dieses Denken?
Im Bilde müssen wir uns vor die Seele stellen, was dieses Denken eigentlich ist. Wir stellen uns hin vor einen Leichnam, vor einen Leichnam, der eben vor kurzer Zeit verlassen worden ist von der Seele und dem Geiste eines Menschen. Wir beschauen uns diesen Leichnam. Er kann so, wie er ist, niemals in der Welt entstehen. Er kann für sich nichts sein; er kann nur etwas sein als Übriggebliebenes von dem lebendigen Menschen. Der muss in ihm gewesen sein; der muss ihn erst sich selber umgestaltet haben. Der Tod liegt vor uns, das Leben ist gewichen, der Leichnam liegt im Sarge. Halten wir das Bild fest.
Unser seelisch-geistiges Leben, das unsere wahre menschliche Eigenwesenheit ist, es war, bevor es durch Empfängnis und Geburt herabgestiegen ist aus der göttlich-geistigen Welt in einen physischen Menschen-Erdenleib, lebendig. Da war es oben in der geistigen Welt kein schattenhaftes, abstraktes Denken, sondern seelisch-geistige Wesenheit, lebend, webend, schaffend, wirkend, wellend, wesend. Da war es lebendig. Dann ist es heruntergestiegen in einen Menschenleib; aber es ist gestorben, indem es heruntergestiegen ist. Der Menschenleib ist sein Sarg. Und dasjenige Denken, das wir haben zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, ist der Leichnam des lebendigen Denkens, das wir hatten, bevor wir ins irdische Sein heruntergestiegen sind.
Nur dann, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, wenn wir so empfinden gegenüber dem Denken, empfinden wir richtig esoterisch und ringen uns allmählich hinauf, zu überwinden die gespenstige Gestalt des dritten Tieres, kommen immer mehr und mehr hinauf zur reinen Engelsgestalt des wahren Denkens, dessen totes Nachbild in unserem physischen Erdenleib west und webt und wirkt und wellt.
Solange wir das Denken als etwas Lebendiges anschauen, stehen wir nicht in der Wahrheit; erst wenn wir unseren Leib als den Sarg des toten Denkens betrachten und das ganz fühlen, dann stehen wir in der Wahrheit. So sagt uns mit seinen Worten, die wir dann hören werden und die uns als mantrischer Spruch dienen können, der Hüter der Schwelle am gähnenden Abgrund des Seins. Er sagt es uns in besonderer Intimität.
Und wenn wir vom Denken weggehen, zu unserem Fühlen schauen, dann müssen wir schen und fühlen, fühlen gegenüber dem Fühlen, wie das gewöhnliche Fühlen, das wir zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode in uns lebend glauben, nur ein halb Lebendes ist, wie es fortwährend verzehrend an uns arbeitet, dieses Fühlen, wie es uns fortwährend etwas ertötet, wie es uns eigentlich aushöhlt vom Geiste. Das Denken ist tot, und das Fühlen ist halb lebendig, ist im Grunde genommen nur von Bildgestalt in uns. Und erst wenn wir dem Fühlen gegenüber so fühlen, dass dieses menschliche Erdenfühlen ein schwacher, halb-lebender Abglanz ist aus Sonnenmacht, die als allgemeine Weltenliebe das kosmische Fühlen durch den ganzen Kosmos strahlt, dann fühlen wir dem Fühlen gegenüber richtig. So sagt uns wiederum vertraulich, in Intimität der Hüter der Schwelle.
Und erst, wenn wir dem Wollen gegenüber so fühlen, dass es zwar in uns lebt, fortwährend aber von geistigen Gegenmächten versucht und angefeindet wird, damit seine Kraft nicht diene dem Göttlichen oben, sondern dem Physischen unten, erst wenn wir fühlen diese Gegenmächte, die fortwährend in unserem Wollen uns ablenken möchten von unserer eigentlichen göttlichen Aufgabe und uns ganz verstricken ins Erdendasein, dann fühlen wir, wie diese Gegenmächte, indem sie sich unser Wollen aneignen, die Zukunft der Erde in ihre Gewalt bekommen wollen. Könnten sie es, wären wir nicht wachsam, sodass wir unser Wollen weihen dem Göttlichen, nicht den ahrimanischen Erdenmächten, so würde die Erde streitig gemacht sein den Göttern, denen sie eigentlich vom Urbeginn des Erdenseins zugehört. Das sagt uns der Hüter wie eine Erklärung der drei Tiere:
Des dritten Tieres glasig Auge,
Des zweiten Tieres Spottgesicht,
Es ist das böse Gegenbild
Des Denkens, das in dir sich selbst
Verleugnet und den Tod sich wählet,
Absagend Geistgewalten, die es
Vor seinem Erdenleben geistig
In Geistesfeldern lebend hielten.
Es ist die böse Gegenkraft
Des Fühlens, das die eigne Seele
Aushöhlet und Lebensleerheit
In ihr erschafft statt Geistgehalt,
Der vor dem Erdensein erleuchtend
Aus Geistessonnenmacht ihr ward. Des ersten Tieres Knochengeist,
Er ist die böse Schöpfermacht
Des Wollens, die den eignen Leib
Entfremdet deiner Seelenkraft
Und ihn den Gegenmächten weiht,
Die Weltensein dem Göttersein
In Zukunftzeiten rauben wollen.
[Nun wird das Mantram, zugleich mit den entsprechenden Unterstreichungen, an die Tafel geschrieben; siehe Seite 845:]
Der Hüter spricht:
Des dritten Tieres glasig Auge,
Es ist das böse Gegenbild
- es ist nur ein «Bild» —
Des Denkens, das in dir sich selbst
Verleugnet und den Tod sich wählet,
Absagend Geistgewalten, die es
Vor seinem Erdenleben geistig
In Geistesfeldern lebend hielten.
Des zweiten Tieres Spottgesicht,
Es ist die böse Gegenkraft
— das erste ist «Bild», das zweite «Kraft» —
Des Fühlens, das die eigne Seele
Aushöhlet und Lebensleerheit
In ihr erschafft statt Geistgehalt,
Der vor dem Erdensein erleuchtend
Aus Geistessonnenmacht ihr ward.Des ersten Tieres Knochengeist,
Er ist die böse Schöpfermacht
— die Steigerung: «Bild», «Kraft», «Macht» —
Des Wollens, die den eignen Leib
Entfremdet deiner Seelenkraft
Und ihn den Gegenmächten weiht,
Die Weltensein dem Göttersein
In Zukunftzeiten rauben wollen.
Und immer mehr führt uns der Hüter am gähnenden Abgrund des Seins näher der wahren Selbsterkenntnis, die uns nur werden kann, wenn Licht ersteht drüben in der schwarzen, nachtbedeckten Finsternis. Darum zeigt er uns in den verschiedensten Weisen dasjenige, was er uns zunächst in der Gestalt der Tiere gezeigt hat, was er uns dann zeigt in der Gestalt, wie es diesen mantrischen Sprüchen entspricht, und was er uns jetzt noch einmal beschreibt, damit wir immer näher und näher kommen der Selbsterkenntnis, um zu Flügeln zu kommen, um den Abgrund des Seins zu übersetzen, den wir mit Menschenfüßen, mit den schweren Menschenfüßen, das heißt mit der äußeren illusionären, mit der Maja-Wirklichkeit nicht übersetzen können.
Und so macht uns der Hüter nun - nachdem er uns vertraulich diese mantrischen Sprüche gegeben hat -, so macht uns der Hüter nun aufmerksam, wie wir empfinden sollen weiter über unser Denken, wie wir es fühlen sollen - unser Denken - nicht als ein Sein; denn da weben wir nur weiter als Illusion, wenn wir in diesem Denken, das wir als Menschen auf der Erde haben, etwas anderes als Schein sehen. Selbstheitsein, das heißt, das wahre, wirkliche Sein von uns, das verbirgt sich im Denken, lebt nicht im Denken, so sagt der Hüter. Man kann nichts anderes tun als untertauchen in den Schein des Denkens, immer weiter, dann gelangt man, indem man tief untertaucht in das scheinende Denken, in den unermesslichen Weltenäther, in dem man sich mit der Seele zunächst auflöst.
Da sollen wir, wenn unsere Selbstheit sich da wenigstens im Scheine wankend in der Welt fühlt, da sollen wir verehren die führenden Wesen der höheren Hierarchien, die uns leiten. Da fühlen wir, dass wir diese führenden Wesen der höheren Hierarchien brauchen.
Dann ermahnt uns der Hüter, dass wir uns vom Denken zum Fühlen wenden, das strömende Fühlen in uns empfinden sollen. Das Denken ist noch ganz Schein. Was wir aber fühlen, das steht unserem Sein wenigstens halb nahe. Wir kommen tiefer in unser eigenes Sein hinein, wenn wir fühlen als wenn wir denken; aber wir sind noch nicht drinnen. Wir sind in der Hälfte unseres Eigenwesens, wenn wir fühlen; denn das Fühlen hat etwas Unklares, aber auch nie Feste. Da mischen sich Schein und Sein im Fühlen. Die Selbstheit, die wir suchen - hier im guten Sinne gemeinte Selbstheit -, sie neigt dem Scheine sich. Wir sollen jetzt untertauchen in scheinendes Sein, in ein Sein, das nur scheint, in einen Schein, der sich energisiert zum Sein halb; da werden uns fassen Weltenkräfte, die jetzt nicht so sind bloß Schein, sondern halbes Sein: Weltenseelenkräfte. Da sollen wir bedenken in diesem Weben unseres eigenen webenden Wesens im webenden Weltenäther, da sollen wir bedenken die Lebensmächte der eigenen Seele, die wir nicht im Denken bedenken können, weil das Denken Schein ist.
Dann sollen wir untertauchen in den Willen, den wir fühlen wie Sein, verborgenes Sein in uns. Wir können es nicht ergreifen. Aber der Wille wirkt wie Stoß und Kraft: Sein. Dieser Wille steigt herauf aus allem Scheineswesen und schafft unser Eigensein, unser wirkliches Eigensein, hier im guten Sinne gemeint das Eigensein. Dem sollen wir unser Leben zuwenden. Der ist von Weltengeistesmacht erfüllt. Unser Eigensein, es soll die weltschöpferische Macht, die alle Räumsg, alle Zeiten, alle Geistesgebiete erfüllt, ergreifen und untertauchen in das Wollen.
Ganz am Abgrund des Seins spricht der Hüter:
Sieh in dir Gedankenweben:
Weltenschein erlebest du,
Selbstheitsein verbirgt sich dir;
Tauche unter in den Schein:
Ätherwesen weht in dir;
Selbstheitsein, es soll verehren
Deines Geistes Führerwesen.Vernimm in dir Gefühle-Strömen:
Es mengen Schein und Sein sich dir,
Die Selbstheit neigt dem Scheine sich;
So tauche unter in scheinendes Sein:
Und Welten-Seelenkräfte sind in dir;
Die Selbstheit, sie soll bedenken
Der eignen Seele Lebensmächte.Lass walten in dir den Willens-Stoß:
Der steigt aus allem Scheineswesen
Mit Eigensein erschaffend auf;
Ihm wende zu all dein Leben:
Der ist erfüllt von Welten-Geistesmacht;
Dein Eigensein, es soll ergreifen
Weltschöpfermacht im Geistes-Ich.
Diesen mantrischen Spruch werde ich das nächste Mal an die Tafel schreiben und ihn mit all seinen Eigenheiten erklären.
Jetzt aber wenden wir uns noch einmal zurück zu alle dem, was in der Vergangenheit gesprochen hat zu dem Menschen, was in der Gegenwart spricht, was in der Zukunft sprechen wird, ihn auffordernd zu dem, was ihm auf seinem Lebenswege das Heiligste sein muss: die Selbsterkenntnis.
O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!
So tönt das Weltenwort.
Du hörst es seelenkräftig,
Du fühlst es geistgewaltig.Wer spricht so weltenmächtig?
Wer spricht so herzinniglich?Wirkt es durch des Raumes Weitenstrahlung
In deines Sinnes Seinserleben?
Tönt es durch der Zeiten Wellenweben
In deines Lebens Werdestrom?Bist du es selbst, der sich
Im Raumesfühlen, im Zeiterleben
Das Wort erschafft, dich fremd
Erfühlend in Raumes Seelenleere,
Weil du des Denkens Kraft
Verlierst im Zeitvernichtungsstrome.
Die nächste esoterische Stunde dieser ersten Klasse soll dann am Donnerstag um acht Uhr stattfinden.
Ich habe noch zu sagen, dass die Sprüche, die als mantrische Meditationssprüche von dem Hüter der Schwelle im Auftrage Michaeli gegeben werden, nur für diejenigen sind, die Mitglieder dieser Schule sind. Diejenigen, die sie aus irgendeinem Grunde persönlich nicht haben können, können sie mitgeteilt bekommen von jemandem anderen, der Mitglied der Schule ist und sie hat. Jedoch muss in jedem einzelnen Falle angefragt werden, ob so etwas erlaubt ist. Und zwar muss angefragt werden entweder bei Frau Doktor Wegman oder mir. Das ist nicht bloß eine Verwaltungsmaßregel, sondern es muss alles in unserer anthroposophischen Bewegung nunmehr aus Realitäten bestehen. Und diese Mitteilung beginnt eben bei der Erlaubnis als einer realen Tatsache, nicht als einer bloßen Verwaltungsmaßregel. Brieflich dürfen die Sprüche nicht versendet werden. Fragen kann nur derjenige Frau Doktor Wegman oder mich, der die Sprüche jemandem anderen gibt. Es möge also nicht der fragen, der sie empfängt, sondern derjenige, der sie gibt. Man bittet jemanden, der sie geben kann und der frägt dann.
Wenn irgendjemand etwas anderes mitgeschrieben hat während der Stunde als die Sprüche selbst, dann bitte ich ihn, dies nur acht Tage zu behalten und nach acht Tagen zu verbrennen, damit der Inhalt der Schule, der nur einen Sinn hat, wenn die Michael-Strömung durch die Schule geht, damit der Inhalt dieser Schule nicht nach außen kommt und dadurch unwirksam wird. Denn nicht um irgendein obskures Geheimhalten handelt es sich, sondern dass der Inhalt der Schule nicht unwirksam werde. Es ist ein okkulter Grundsatz, der beachtet werden muss.
Und wir leben in einer ernsten okkulten Schule, in der wirklichen Schule Michaelis, geben dasjenige, was durch diese Schule fließt, in dem Zeichen Michaelis: [Das Michael-Zeichen wird an die Tafel gezeichnet; siehe Seite 844] geben es im Sinne des Rosenkreuzes, mit dem Symbolum des Rosenkreuzes:
Ex deo nascimur
[die untere Siegelgeste wird an die Tafel gezeichnet]
In Christo morimur
[die mittlere Siegelgeste wird an die Tafel gezeichnet]
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus
[die obere Siegelgeste wird an die Tafel gezeichnet]
und denken bei diesem Siegel und Zeichen Christiani Rosenkreutz:
[Neben die untere Siegelgeste wird geschrieben]
Ich bewundere den Vater
[Neben die mittlere Siegelgeste wird geschrieben]
Ich liebe den Sohn
[Neben die obere Siegelgeste wird geschrieben]
Ich verbinde mich dem Geiste
Per signum Michaeli:
[Es wird das Michael-Zeichen gemacht.]
[Es werden die drei Siegelgesten gemacht und dazu gesprochen]
Ex deo nascimur In Christo morimur Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
Second Repetition Lesson
My dear sisters and brothers! It is not possible, even today—despite the fact that there are a number of new members of this esoteric school here, new members who have not been here before—to repeat the introductory words. Therefore, I will have to request that when the newly admitted members of the school are told the sayings by other members—in the manner I will describe later at the end of the lesson — are told the sayings, they are also duly informed of the conditions for membership of the school by those who tell them the sayings. And it will be necessary to continue immediately with what was left off last time.
But for now, let us once again allow those words that resonate with the unbiased mind from all beings in the world, from all events in the world, to enter our souls. Everything tells people what is contained in the following words; everything has told people this in the past, everything tells them this in the present, and everything will tell them this in the future:
O man, know thyself!
Thus resounds the word of the world.
Thou hearest it soul-powerful,
Thou feelest it spirit-mighty.Who speaks so world-powerful?
Who speaks so heartfelt?Does it work through the vast radiation of space
In the experience of your mind?
Does it sound through the waves of time
In the stream of your life?Is it you yourself who,
In the feeling of space, in the experience of time,
Creates the word, feeling yourself alien
Feeling yourself in space's soul emptiness,
Because you lose the power of thought
In the stream of time destruction.
We have seen how those who follow this word, which echoes to them from all things in the world and from all events in the world, feel the longing to escape from the majestic, glittering world of the senses into the world that lies beyond a yawning abyss, the yawning abyss of being, which at first stares back at the human soul like black, night-covered darkness. But the hope arises that for the solution of the human riddle, for the true solution of the human riddle, that which shines in light and glows in splendor in outer life must become dark, so that the light that is in that world, in which one's own self finds its essence, may come from the world entity that at first appears as black, night-covered darkness.
And as we approached in thought and feeling on the path that leads there, we saw the figure of the Guardian of the Threshold emerge as if from a spiritual cloud. We have heard him speak, for everything that is spoken here resounds from spiritual worlds, resounds on behalf of Michael, the leader of the spiritual stream of humanity in the present, for this school is the true Michael School. And he has also spoken of the self-knowledge of human beings, the Guardian. But then he has spoken words that are at first devastating for the soul.
He, the guardian, has called us so that we stand very close to him. He looks at us with a serious face. And he shows us how our will, our feelings, our thoughts appear in imaginations before the face of the gods. There, these desires, these feelings, these thoughts are not yet human; there, they are still animalistic. There, self-knowledge is still disturbing, devastating.
But we must go through the recognition of that self which our time, our world time, gives us out of its formation of error, so that we can advance to true self-knowledge.
This erroneous self-knowledge, the knowledge of that self which we carry within us from the spirit of our time, is revealed to us by the guardian, who raises up from the yawning abyss of being the first of the animals, which represents the will; raising his hand again, pointing to the yawning abyss of being, he brings forth the second of the animals, which represents feeling; again pointing his hand to the yawning abyss of being, he brings forth the third animal, which represents thinking.
Thus they ascend one after the other:
The first of the animals—the true spirit form of our will, born of the fear of knowledge—which can only be overcome by the courage to seek spiritual knowledge.
And so the second beast—born of the hatred of knowledge that is in the depths of the mind of our time in all human beings—which can only be overcome by the right enthusiasm for knowledge, by the right fire of knowledge in the mind; whereas today there is indifference and lukewarmness toward knowledge, indeed hatred of knowledge because of the indifference and lukewarmness in the minds.
And so the third beast—born of the doubt about the spiritual world that gnaws at the roots of souls today—can only be defeated when knowledge awakens the power within itself to create within its own mind the things that are outside in the spiritual world.
And so the guardian speaks at the yawning abyss of being, after we have come very close:
But you must respect the abyss;
Otherwise its beasts will devour you
If you rush past me;
It has portrayed your worldly time within you
As enemies of knowledge.Behold the first beast, its back bent,
Its head bony, its body emaciated,
Its skin entirely dull blue;
Your fear of being a creator of minds
Created the monster in your will;
Only your courage of knowledge can overcome it.Look at the second beast, it shows its teeth
In its distorted face, it lies in mockery,
Its body is yellow with a gray tinge;
Your hatred of spiritual revelation
Created the weakling in your feelings;
Your fire of knowledge must tame it.Look at the third beast, with its split mouth,
Only when you have defeated the three,
Its eyes are glassy, its posture limp,
Its form appears dirty red to you;
Your doubt in the power of spiritual light
Created this specter in your thinking;
It must give way to the creation of knowledge.
Will wings grow on your soul,
To cross the abyss,
Which separates you from the field of knowledge,
To which your heart's longing
Wishes to consecrate itself, seeking healing.
[The mantra is now written on the board, together with the corresponding underlines; see page 844]
The guardian speaks at the very edge of the abyss:
But you must respect the abyss;
Otherwise its beasts will devour you
If you rush past me;
It has placed your worldly time within you
As enemies of knowledge.
Behold the first beast, its back bent,
Its head bony, its body emaciated,
Its skin entirely dull blue;
Your fear of being a creator of minds
Created the monster in your will;
Only your courage of knowledge can overcome it.Look at the second beast, it shows its teeth
In its distorted face, it lies in mockery,
Its body is yellow with a gray tinge;
Your hatred of spiritual revelation
Created the weakling in your feelings;
Your fire of knowledge must tame it.Look at the third beast, with its split mouth,
Its eyes are glassy, its posture limp,
Its form appears dirty red to you;
Your doubt in the power of spiritual light
Created this specter in your thinking;
It must give way to the creation of knowledge.Only when you have defeated the three,
Will wings grow on your soul,
To cross the abyss,
That separates you from the field of knowledge,
To which your heart's longing
Wishes to consecrate itself, seeking healing.
When the guardian has shown us this, the devastating image that confronts us as our own being, like the answer to the call “O man, know thyself!” when the guardian has shown us this image, he approaches us to give us further enlightenment, which can now begin to lift us up: enlightenment about the third animal, which is interwoven with our thinking, the second animal, which is interwoven with our feeling, the first animal, which is interwoven with our will. And he gives us a certain teaching in what he first tells us. He draws our attention to how we should rightly perceive our human earthly thinking.
My dear sisters and brothers, one already feels quite exoterically that this thinking, through which we appropriate the things and processes of the world, is something abstract, something shadowy, something unreal. What is this thinking, actually?
We must visualize what this thinking actually is. We stand before a corpse, a corpse that has just recently been abandoned by the soul and spirit of a human being. We look at this corpse. It can never come into being in the world as it is. It can be nothing on its own; it can only be something that remains of the living human being. That human being must have been in it; that human being must first have transformed it. Death lies before us, life has departed, the corpse lies in the coffin. Let us hold on to this image.
Our soul-spiritual life, which is our true human essence, was alive before it descended from the divine-spiritual world into a physical human body through conception and birth. Up there in the spiritual world, it was not a shadowy, abstract thought, but a soul-spiritual being, living, weaving, creating, working, undulating, being. There it was alive. Then it descended into a human body; but it died when it descended. The human body is its coffin. And the thinking we have between birth and death is the corpse of the living thinking we had before we descended into earthly existence.
Only then, my dear sisters and brothers, when we feel this way about thinking, do we feel truly esoterically and gradually struggle upward to overcome the ghostly figure of the third beast, coming more and more toward the pure angelic form of true thinking, whose dead image in our physical earthly body weaves and works and ripples.
As long as we regard thinking as something alive, we do not stand in the truth; only when we regard our body as the coffin of dead thinking and feel this completely, then do we stand in the truth. This is what the guardian of the threshold at the yawning abyss of being tells us in his words, which we will then hear and which can serve us as a mantric saying. He tells us this with particular intimacy.
And when we turn away from thinking and look at our feeling, then we must see and feel, feel in relation to feeling, how the ordinary feeling that we believe to be alive in us between birth and death is only half alive, how it continually consumes us, this feeling, how it continually kills something in us, how it actually hollows us out of our spirit. Thinking is dead, and feeling is half-alive, is basically only an image within us. And only when we feel towards feeling that this human earthly feeling is a weak, half-alive reflection of the power of the sun, which as universal love radiates cosmic feeling throughout the entire cosmos, do we feel correctly towards feeling. This is what the Guardian of the Threshold tells us confidentially, in intimacy.
And only when we feel towards the will that it lives within us, but is constantly tempted and opposed by spiritual counterforces, so that its power does not serve the divine above, but the physical below, only when we feel these opposing forces, which continually seek to distract us in our will from our actual divine task and entangle us completely in earthly existence, only then do we feel how these opposing forces, by appropriating our will, seek to gain control over the future of the earth. If they could, and if we were not vigilant, consecrating our will to the divine and not to the Ahrimanic earthly powers, the earth would be contested by the gods to whom it actually belongs from the very beginning of earthly existence. This is what the guardian tells us as an explanation of the three animals:
The glassy eye of the third beast,
The second beast's mocking face,
It is the evil counter-image
Of thinking that denies itself within you
And chooses death,
Rejecting the spiritual powers that
Kept it spiritually alive
In spiritual fields before its earthly life.
It is the evil counterforce
Of feeling, which hollows out the soul
And creates emptiness of life
In it instead of spiritual content,
Which, before earthly existence, enlightened
You from the power of the sun of the spirit. The bone spirit of the first beast,
It is the evil creative power
Of the will, which alienates your own body
From the power of your soul
And consecrates it to the opposing forces,
Which want to rob worldly existence of its divine nature
In times to come.
[Now the mantra, together with the corresponding underlinings, is written on the board; see page 845:]
The Guardian speaks:
The glassy eye of the third animal,
It is the evil counter-image
- it is only an “image” —
Of the thinking that denies itself within you
And chooses death,
Rejecting the spiritual powers that
Kept it spiritually alive
In spiritual fields before its earthly life.
The mocking face of the second beast,
It is the evil counterforce.
— the first is “image,” the second “force” —
Of feeling that hollows out its own soul
And emptiness of life
Instead of spiritual content,
Which before earthly existence enlightened
You from the power of the spiritual sun.The bone spirit of the first beast,
It is the evil creative power
— the intensification:
“Image,” “Power,” “Might” —
Of the will that alienates your own body
From the power of your soul
And consecrates it to the opposing powers
That want to rob the world of its divine nature
In times to come.
And more and more, the guardian leads us closer to the yawning abyss of being, closer to true self-knowledge, which can only come to us when light arises over there in the black, night-covered darkness. That is why he shows us in various ways what he first showed us in the form of animals, which he then shows us in the form that corresponds to these mantric sayings, and which he now describes to us once again, so that we come closer and closer to self-knowledge, in order to gain wings, to cross the abyss of being, which we cannot cross with human feet, with heavy human feet, that is, with the outer illusory, with the Maya reality.
And so, after he has given us these mantric sayings in confidence, the guardian now makes us aware of how we should continue to feel about our thinking, how we should feel it—our thinking—not as a being; because we only continue to weave illusion if we see something other than appearance in this thinking that we have as humans on earth. Selfhood, that is, our true, real being, is hidden in thinking, does not live in thinking, says the Guardian. One can do nothing else but submerge oneself in the appearance of thinking, further and further, then, by submerging oneself deeply in the apparent thinking, one reaches the immeasurable world ether, in which one first dissolves with the soul.
There, when our selfhood feels at least in appearance to be wavering in the world, there we should worship the leading beings of the higher hierarchies who guide us. There we feel that we need these leading beings of the higher hierarchies.
Then the guardian admonishes us to turn from thinking to feeling, to feel the flowing feeling within us. Thinking is still completely illusory. But what we feel is at least halfway close to our being. We come deeper into our own being when we feel than when we think; but we are not yet inside. We are halfway into our own being when we feel; for feeling has something unclear about it, but also nothing fixed. Appearance and being are mixed together in feeling. The selfhood we seek — selfhood in the good sense of the word — tends toward illusion. We should now immerse ourselves in illusory being, in a being that only seems to be, in an illusion that energizes itself to be half; there we will be grasped by world forces that are now not merely appearance, but half-being: world soul forces. There we should consider, in this weaving of our own weaving being in the weaving world ether, we should consider the life forces of our own soul, which we cannot consider in thought, because thought is appearance.
Then we should immerse ourselves in the will that we feel as being, hidden being within us. We cannot grasp it. But the will acts like a thrust and a force: being. This will rises up from all illusory being and creates our own being, our real own being, meant here in the good sense of the word. We should turn our lives toward this. It is filled with the power of the world spirit. Our own being should grasp the world-creating power that fills all space, all time, all realms of the spirit, and immerse itself in the will.
At the very abyss of being, the guardian speaks:
See within yourself the web of thoughts:
You experience the appearance of the world,
Your true self is hidden from you;
Immerse yourself in the appearance:
Ethereal beings blow within you;
Your true self should revere
The guiding being of your spirit.Hear within yourself the streams of feeling:
Appearance and being mingle within you,
Selfhood inclines toward appearance;
So dive beneath into shining being:
And world-soul forces are within you;
Selfhood, it shall consider
The life forces of its own soul.Let the impulse of will reign within you:
It rises from all illusory being
Creating with its own being;
Turn all your life toward it:
It is filled with the power of the world spirit;
Your own being should grasp
The power of the world creator in the spiritual I.
Next time, I will write this mantric saying on the board and explain all its peculiarities.
But now let us turn once more to all that has spoken to man in the past, that speaks to him in the present, and that will speak to him in the future, calling him to what must be most sacred to him on his path through life: self-knowledge.
O man, know thyself!
So sounds the word of the world.
You hear it with the power of your soul,
You feel it with the power of your spirit.Who speaks so powerfully?
Who speaks so heartfelt?Does it work through the vast radiance of space
Into the experience of being in your mind?
Does it sound through the waves of time
Into the stream of becoming in your life?Is it you yourself who,
In the feeling of space, in the experience of time
Creates the word, feeling yourself foreign
In the emptiness of space's soul,
Because you lose the power of thought
In the stream of time's destruction.
The next esoteric lesson of this first class will then take place on Thursday at eight o'clock.
I have yet to say that the sayings given as mantric meditation sayings by the Guardian of the Threshold on behalf of Michael are only for those who are members of this school. Those who for some reason cannot have them personally can have them communicated to them by someone else who is a member of the school and has them. However, in each individual case, permission must be sought as to whether this is allowed. The request must be made either to Dr. Wegman or to me. This is not merely an administrative measure, but rather everything in our anthroposophical movement must now consist of realities. And this communication begins with permission as a real fact, not as a mere administrative measure. The verses may not be sent by letter. Only those who give the verses to someone else may ask Dr. Wegman or me. So it is not the recipient who asks, but the person who gives them. One asks someone who can give them, and that person then asks.
If anyone has written down anything other than the sayings themselves during the lesson, I ask them to keep it for only eight days and then burn it, so that the content of the school, which only has meaning when the Michael current flows through the school, does not become known to the outside world and thus become ineffective. For this is not a matter of some obscure secrecy, but rather that the content of the school should not become ineffective. It is an occult principle that must be observed.
And we live in a serious occult school, in the real school of Michael, giving what flows through this school in the sign of Michael: [The Michael sign is drawn on the blackboard; see page 844] giving it in the spirit of the Rosicrucians, with the symbol of the Rosicrucians:
Ex deo nascimur
[the lower sealing gesture is drawn on the blackboard]
In Christo morimur
[the middle sealing gesture is drawn on the blackboard]
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus
[the upper seal gesture is drawn on the board]
and think of this seal and sign Christiani Rosenkreutz:
[written next to the lower seal gesture]
I admire the Father
[Written next to the middle sealing gesture]
I love the Son
[Written next to the upper seal gesture]
I connect myself to the Spirit
Per signum Michaeli:
[The Michael sign is made.]
[The three sealing gestures are made and spoken]
Ex deo nascimur
In Christo morimur
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.