The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Edited by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden P.T. General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Germany.

The fact that this memorandum forces me to write the following saddens me. For I would prefer to respond to the fierce attacks that its “publisher” (sic) has printed against me only with the compassion that I have for their author. There are indeed attacks – and this “memorandum” is truly proof of this – that are so absurd, that lack all documentation, that the matter itself, not just the temperament and attitude of the attacked party, can push all other feelings aside, except that of compassion. In the matter at hand, however, I am not defending my person, but a cause. And this imposes on me the obligation to suppress my personal feelings. It would truly not do them justice to let Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden speak against Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden in the way I will have to do. I would have liked to leave the following statements by this man in my archives, where a large number of them have been for several years. One only refers to such things when the attacker forces one to do so, as Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden forces me to do in this case. Forced by him, I must bring the following to the notice.

On page 7 of this memorandum – the first one to be considered for the text – Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes: “Meanwhile, a new association, ‘the Anthroposophical Society’, has emerged from the members of this earlier German Section. This was a completely natural development of the circumstances, since in the last seven years the attitude and aspirations in the section had become so completely different from the essence and program of the Theosophical Movement. This community followed different spiritual leaders than those in whose spirit the Theosophical Society was founded decades ago and is still led. The meaning and purpose of the Theosophical Society are now fundamentally in question here. However, in Germany, no one is better able to judge this and provide information than the editor of this

On pages 73 and 74 of his ‘Denkschrift’ Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden has printed the programmatic sentences of an “Undogmatic Association” that he had to found with a task that the final sentences of this program express in the following way: “Its only purpose is to ensure that the original meaning of the Theosophical Society is also expressed again in Germany within the organization as it was created by the founders of the Society.” According to the draft of the program that I have, this “Undogmatic Association” was founded in August 1912 by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden and Mr. J.H. Cordes.

The whole situation forces one to assume that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden was of the opinion in August 1912 that the German Section of the Theosophical Society, founded in October 1902, had gradually developed into a body that did not express the “original meaning of the Theosophical Society,” about which no one was better able to provide “information” than he was.

On page 8 of the “Denkschrift” published by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, we read: “The following factual material on the prehistory and the course of the present separation of the Anthroposophical Society is given here.” Here, however, the “factual material” given in the “memorandum” must be contrasted with another. It should then be left to the reader to form an opinion about this “memorandum”. He could truly, if he only reads this memorandum, form the opinion that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had to watch how the “German Section of the Theosophical Society”, founded in 1902, thoroughly misunderstood the meaning and purpose of this society, even turning it into its opposite, so that he, who is able to “judge and provide information” about this “meaning and purpose”, felt compelled to take care of this “meaning and purpose” in August 1912 by founding an “Undogmatic Association”; yes, that he even felt compelled to found a better German Section in February 1913, under the presidency of Annie Besant. purpose» by founding an «Undogmatic Association»; yes, that he even felt compelled to join President Annie Besant in February 1913 to found a better German Section, after she had excluded the German Section founded in 1902 from the Theosophical Society because of its conduct, which allegedly went against the purpose of the Theosophical Society. Anyone who formed this opinion could then ask: Why did the German section, founded in 1902, not properly integrate into the Theosophical Society and then continue to act in accordance with the “purpose and meaning” of that society? It would have been enough to ask Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden about this “meaning and purpose”, since, according to the quoted statement that he had printed in the “memorandum” that he “published”, he knew it exactly. A reader who might come across this question must undoubtedly be interested to know whether the General Secretary of the German Section had not heard anything from Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden about the “meaning and purpose” of the Society in 1902, since he had, after all, Hübbe-Schleiden, so thoroughly mismanaged this section that the man who is best qualified to judge the “meaning and purpose” of this in Germany feels compelled to return the matter, which has gone so badly astray, to the right track.

Now, I will not object if Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden boasts that he can provide better information than anyone else about the “meaning and purpose” of the Theosophical Society, that he worked with Olcott and Blavatsky and that he “introduced the entire Theosophical movement to Germany” thirty years ago. Well – one should at least believe it – if Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden is currently having this printed, then he would have to admit that anyone who, because they were led to do so by the circumstances at the time, became the General Secretary when the German section of this society was founded, would not have acted disloyally towards Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden in 1902 if they had turned to Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden for such “information”. This “someone” could have been me, for example. Suppose I had asked Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, who claimed in 1913 that no one was as capable as he was of providing information about these matters, for this information on various occasions in 1902. At any rate, I received such “information” from him on repeated occasions at the time. I will not talk about verbal information now. I will only cite those that are contained in letters that are still available.

On August 15, 1902, a passage in a letter from Dr. Hübbe-Schleidens (who “was almost the only one able to provide information about these matters”) read: “Only now do you feel the awkwardness and even hopelessness of the prospects for the use of our old Theosophical Society within the entire Theosophical movement in Germany. Almost all the human material that we have acquired as members so far is not only useless, but an almost insurmountable obstacle. The spirit of Theosophy, as understood by H.P.B. and Annie Besant, is also (here follows the name of a man who was in the camp of the opponents of the Theosophical Society founded by Olcott and Blavatsky) and his people so completely and adequately represented that we are quite superfluous as “Theosophists” alongside them. Olcott's nature and attitude is essentially that of... and... (here are two names for men who were fierce opponents of Dr. Hübbe-Schleidens); and that is why I have always voted not to found a section of our Theosophical Society alongside the Leipzig movement, but to let the old Theosophical Society here in Germany peter out, since its achievements are spiritually and organizationally incapable.

But since no one except... (here is the name of a long-time friend, Dr. Hübbe-Schleidens) and the Munich group so far shares my view, I passively let them do as they please. I myself will hardly ever publicly represent the spiritual movement I serve under the name Theosophy and Theosophical Society. For me, quite different names will arise out of the matter itself. Nevertheless, I am glad to try to serve the Theosophical Movement as it has developed, and in a general way the little pamphlet “Serve the Eternal!” does that. In the Leipzig Society there will be hundreds who will read it and like it. In our Society it will be simply thrown into the corner by... (again the names of the two opponents Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden) and their followers will simply be thrown into the corner. But new interested parties will rather turn to this school of thought if it is not tainted by the bad smell of lies and deception, dishonesty and superficiality, lack of judgment and lack of education...

On August 18, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden again writes the following “information”: “I fully agree with you that our Theosophical movement has to go far beyond H.P.B. and Annie Besant. Whether this will still be possible here in Germany under the catchwords Theosophy and Theosophical Society, I doubt very much...

On August 21, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden gave this “information”: “I can only repeat to you that I consider this section formation to be completely irrelevant. It may provide you personally with a foundation; (here Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden adds the marginal note: “Only from this point of view do I approve the founding of the Section”), but factually and intellectually it is only an obstacle for you. A movement of members, which we can use for spiritual life, is to be made first. Such members must first be found. Whether this will still be possible at all under the slogans Theosophy and Theos. Society? I do not think it is possible. But try it!...

On September 26, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote the following “information” – which “nobody could provide as well” as he could: “First of all, you (the letter writer meant me, Rudolf Steiner) must be given a free hand and the opportunity to bring together a few communities without the hopelessly compromised buzzwords, with which one might be able to found a section later.”

On September 26, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden provided the following information: “Moreover, it is my often-expressed opinion that Theosophy, as Mrs. Besant and Leadbeater understand it, is fully and adequately represented by the Hartmannians.... But that is not all, and in any case, these aspects are not even the most important. What I consider most important is the fact that the Theosophical movement, as it is currently practiced, has absolutely no right to exist in modern and future intellectual culture. Not only is there a lack of scientific justification, but what is called Theosophy today is even hostile to any scientific justification. This is the only point of view in which our... (the names of the two opponents Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden and associates with... (the names of opponents of the Theosophical Society, to which Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden belonged) and their followers. Any amount of energy that you throw into a movement that calls itself 'Theosophy or 'Theosophical Society is a shameful waste of your (actually I am meant, Rudolf Steiner) living spiritual power. You are thereby committing a sin against the Holy Spirit, because your inner consciousness tells you that what today calls itself 'Theosophy' and 'Theosophical Society' is culturally contrary and hostile. It is the opposite of the spirit that you express in your 'Christianity' (especially p. 1.)...

On September 30, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden provided the following “information” (which even “nobody” could not have provided better): “Furthermore, it seems to me from your letter that you actually have the desire or are willing to bind the Section, as it will now be formed, to your legs as a block...”

Now, I do not want to talk here about the reasons that led me to believe that the founding of the German Section was both right and necessary at the time. Perhaps I can do so on another occasion. (This can also be found in my previously given descriptions.) I will only add to the above “information” provided by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, who was better qualified to provide it than anyone else, that before the constituent general assembly of the German Section in October 1902, I gave a lecture at the Berlin Giordano Bruno League in which I explained why I believe a Theosophical movement is necessary in our time, what I found insufficient in what is called such a movement, and how I envision this movement. Whether I have ever deviated from what I then characterized as a program to this day, I believe I can expose myself to the strictest judgment of those who understand.

What did the man (Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden) write, who, as the “Denkschrift” claims, hardly needed to know, about the message I gave him about this lecture? On October 15, 1902, he wrote: “Your letter of the day before yesterday gave me great pleasure in many ways. Most of all, I am refreshed by your optimistic enthusiasm; if the success of such gatherings had no other purpose than to maintain this enthusiasm and the resulting blossoming of fresh energy, that would be enough. But the success will have a broader impact... Whether or that such successes can uplift our society and bring it better members, I doubt and I also consider quite irrelevant. I remain very decided in my advice - especially at the beginning or even in your program of the Theosophical Society to talk, and I also advise “Theosophy in a very explicit way always only in the sense of Eckhart, James. Böhme and Fichte to use.”

And regarding whether I was the appropriate person to carry out the planned work, the man who was better qualified than anyone provided the information (in the same letter dated October 15, 1902): “But you are the instrument now. (I, Rudolf Steiner, am really meant). Your person is the center. Everything must revolve around your person. It is you who now serve publicly, as H.P.B. served, as Annie Besant serves. But just as H.P.B. did not become what she was and achieved through society, so you should first gain an unshakable position in the spiritual life of our German culture. Until then, you cannot do anything for society, and society will only paralyze your progress and your wings. But you know: I wish you all blessings! ...

Thus the man who, more than anyone, did not need to know, provided information about the value of the Theosophical Society before the Section was founded. But perhaps someone might object that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden only wanted this to be understood in relation to what was then called “Theosophy” and “Theosophical Society” in Germany. Now, although this objection is already refuted by the content of the above “information”, some unambiguous “information” from Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden about the entire Theosophical Society will be given here.

On April 17, 1903, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden gives the following “information”: “There is nothing more alien and disharmonious to the mystical disposition of the German mind than the Anglo-American advertising with which our movement is conducted in the world...”

On September 26, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had already given me the “information” in a letter about his involvement in the Theosophical Society as a whole up to that time: “For me, I conclude this old period by addressing the three articles ”Unification as a Warning to the Old (English-speaking and thinking) Theosophical Society. Gesellschaft richte. Da der Verhetzungs-Geist unter diesen ebenso groß ist wie bei ... und ... (folgen wieder die Namen der beiden deutschen Gegner Dr. Hübbe-Schleidens), so ist dieser Mahnruf ganz vergeblich. Aber er muss ergehen! Die Leute sollen nicht sagen, sie seien nicht zur rechten Zeit gewarnt worden.

On page 63 of the “Denkschrift” Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes: “When Dr. Steiner was General Secretary. Dr. Steiner has proceeded thoroughly in his complaints. He has also reached very far back. How Dr. Steiner can answer to his conscience (according to the protocol on page 5) for saying that I “caused him difficulties at the beginning of the founding of the section” is incomprehensible to me. Does Dr. Steiner really believe that he could have become General Secretary without my help? Does he no longer remember that Mr. Rich. Bresch suggested the founding of the section and was to become General Secretary, that there were also two other candidates in succession, and that when this proved impossible, it was I who proposed Dr. Steiner for the post? Was he not still an opponent of the Theosophical Society in January 1902? Even in this, his pre-Theosophical period, Dr. Steiner was repeatedly my guest in Döhren near Hannover. I knew that he had a very low opinion of the Theosophical Society at the time; persuasion is not my thing.

I still remember quite well that these sentences turn things around, as they happened at the time; but this time I want to refrain from memories of oral conversations and limit myself to what can be proven in writing.

Perhaps it will be understandable to some people that in February 1913 I was able to say that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden “had already experienced difficulties at the beginning of the founding of the Section,” if they consider the above-mentioned “information.” I also leave it to others to judge whether the “very low opinion” that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had of the Theosophical Society at the time - according to the above “information” - could easily be surpassed by someone. But let me quote a few more reflections on the way Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden viewed the founding of the Section at the time, so that everyone can judge how right I was to speak of such 'difficulties'.

On September 26, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “We cannot establish a section now. I will not travel to Berlin to found a section in which somehow the spirit of... can have its say. (The names of Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's two German opponents are again given.) Hopefully Mrs. A.B. (Annie Besant is meant) does not...»

On September 30, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: «Well, that the section can be founded if we want it at all costs, that is almost self-evident. So then I resign with my opinion and, as always, I am of course happy to help. But I will not take responsibility for anything. I believe I have done my duty by advising against it.

In a letter dated September 26, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleidens adds the following opinion: “I consider it... foolishness – no, a lie – to found a German Section. With four people, as... you cannot establish a section alone, but even less so when we are confronted by a whole mass of unjudicious and hateful brawlers. Any community, whatever it may call itself, in which elements like... come into play, even if only incidentally, will always be the opposite of what I consider Theosophy.

Well, perhaps some people do find that these sentences express some of what is meant by the “difficulties that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden caused even before the constituent assembly of the German Section”. On October 20, 1902, the Section was formally founded; and the quoted sentences by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden reflect the events of September 1902.

Now, as for my opposition to Theosophy at that time! “In January 1902,” the “Denkschrift” writes, Dr. Steiner was “an opponent of the Theosophical Society”. There is one person who was very close to the circle, and Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's words in the memorandum are well-founded: “The Count and Countess of Brockdorff deserve credit for regularly hosting evenings where all spiritually-inclined groups could express themselves.” (Denkschrift p. 9. I fully subscribe to this). This personality wrote me the following on February 1, 1902, from Colombo – that is, at the time when the “Denkschrift” places my opposition: “I have just read a very appreciative article by Bertram Keightley in the January 15 issue of the Theosophical Review about your new book 'Mysticism in the Dawn of Modern Spiritual Life', etc. It is on pages 45f.... I am so pleased that the English (meaning the English Theosophists of the time) are emphasizing your book appreciatively, and especially that they are doing it in this way, they who otherwise always say, “Germany is not yet ripe” or “what good can come from Germany”. In my opinion, you have really shown the English that you are not only ready, but that you, or let's rather say, the German mystics, and you with your understanding of them, are far ahead of the English (meaning the English theosophists of the time). I myself was present at the birth of your book. At first you spoke to us as a teacher speaks to his pupils, and I felt far more sympathy and understanding in what you said than in the erudition in Adyar. The hours we spent with you in the library were of more profit to me than the artful, learned Mrs. Besants, whose skill and knowledge I admired in amazement, but my heart has only found its rightful place with you; and true knowledge, intuition, has its seat in the heart and only from there does it affect the brain. All the others want to affect heart and mind from the brain...

There are many more members of the Theosophical Society here, and indeed learned members, but I believe that the Society as such has outlived itself; the best comes from people who are not members on paper, but who, without a diploma from Adyar or London, are far closer to the truth...

Now I must also ask the reader to compare the “information” provided by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden before the section justification with the sentence that he $. 64 of the “Denkschrift”: “But did I not also work intensively for Dr. Steiner before the section was founded? Was not my ‘Diene dem Ewigen’ written in complete harmony with him?”

But I would like to add the following to this: Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden is the author of the book “Diene dem Ewigen”. I do not know what the sentence is supposed to mean: “Was not my ‘Diene dem Ewigen’ written entirely in harmony with him,” if this sentence in the “Denkschrift” follows on from the other: “But did I not also work intensively for Dr. Steiner before the Section was founded?” Let the reader judge who worked for whom at that time, since it was not I, but Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden who published the writing 'Diene dem Ewigen' (Serve the Eternal).

On August 14, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes to me: 'Today I am returning to the correction sent to you. Since I would like to make every sentence in the writing (Serve the Eternal!) easy for you to understand in terms of form and content, I am giving you here the changes to the appendix of the last paragraph of the introduction, in which I finally quote Julius Sturm as an example (because verses are better than prose at this point). I am writing this new version on the attached sheet. If you have already sent me the beginning of the correction when you receive this letter, I would ask you to send me your objections to this addition on a postcard, for example, in case you do not agree with it or with any of the details.

In the same letter, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes: “We have agreed that you will send your galley proofs to me here, not directly to the printers.”

On August 18, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes to me with reference to “Diene dem Ewigen” (Serve the Eternal): “I fully agree with everything you wrote to me on the 15th and 16th. I gratefully accept your corrections of my text and have included them almost word for word; I consider them to be very valuable.

Now all this could have remained dormant in my archive if the “Denkschrift” had not forced me to bring the matter to light. For it shows what happened at that time. Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote a paper; I read the corrections and made “improvements” - so he says - which he finds “very valuable” - so he says. Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden calls this, he says, he worked “intensively for Dr. Steiner”.

Now someone might still think that the “information” that no one could provide as well as Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden only related to external matters of the Society; but he would have had reservations about my direction regarding the “meaning and purpose” of the inner life of the Theosophical movement even then.

Again, he may provide information about this himself.

On August 18, 1902, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “We should anxiously avoid the appearance of being associated with phenomenal spiritualism. In fact, this is the case with Besant and Leadbeater, as well as with HPB and the whole TS. However, I am particularly unsympathetic to occultism and even more so to spiritualism. We should cut the ties that bind us.” (Of course, this refers to what Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden understood by occultism at the time.)

If anyone might think that I was critical of Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden because of my position on Haeckel, then he too may be heard on the matter. In the same letter of August 18, 1902, he wrote to me: “And now, above all, my warmest thanks for the dedication of your Haeckel writing! (What is meant is my writing ‘Haeckel and his opponents’)... it is very dear to me to own the writing. It must be cited at the end of note 8 of our (sic. meant is “Serve the Eternal) writing behind Prof. Dr. Raph. v. Koebers like-minded writing ‘Faeckel no materialist’. I myself have always had the greatest sympathy and admiration for Haeckel. After 100 years, no one will remember Virchow, and the same will be true of Haeckel after 1000 years, and even more so of Darwin (unless German intellectual culture were to perish completely, which is not unlikely).” This comment comes from Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden himself.

And on September 26, 1902 (24 days before the formal founding of the German Section), Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “With this - meaning my ‘Christianity as Mystical Fact’ - you - meaning me, Rudolf Steiner - have created a program with which you can pave the way for a broad, very broad future. In this direction, very broad and clear perspectives have since been opened up for me as well. ... Your 'Christianity' is the beginning of a new epoch for us. My 'Serve the Eternal' is nothing but a superfluous and almost worthless conclusion to an old period that we have overcome. It is completely unusable because it contains the keywords 'Theosophy' and 'Theosophical Society'. No serious, truly educated person today can take anything seriously that is associated with what is called in Germany today and will be called in the future."

On page 11 of the “memorandum” published by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, we read: “Dr. Steiner's followers usually object to the statements made in this ‘memorandum’: ‘But Dr. Steiner says the opposite!’ But that is precisely the point. It is not necessary here to recall the well-known after-effects of mental suggestion and to point out its authoritative power. Nor is it the question here to discuss in more detail whether only one human will is at work. No amount of factual material will help anyone who believes in human infallibility. But everyone can judge for themselves what the facts really are by honestly and thoroughly examining the information from both sides. Audiatur et altera pars!” Now, in the case of Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, it truly seems that the “other part” can be heard on its own, for one could believe that even without Dr. Steiner saying “the opposite”, any unbiased reader could form an unbiased judgment without the “known after-effects of psychic suggestion”.

Once again, I have to add a few comments here. The German Section was founded in 1902 for reasons that would take us too far afield to discuss today, despite the “information” provided by the man who “introduced the entire Theosophical movement to Germany”. However, I, who was asked to take over the General Secretariat, had to take this introduction as a given fact at the time. For it was and is my opinion that in similar cases one must always reckon with such presuppositions. Among these presuppositions was the fact that a number of persons who were then closely connected with the Theosophical movement looked upon Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden as the man he is characterized as being again on pages 7 and 8 of his “Denkschrift.” I behaved towards him in accordance with this assumption. Yes, at first I completely suppressed my own opinion of him and allowed a feeling to speak within me that one might have towards the initiator of the Theosophical movement in Germany. Even today, people who could know about it are still able to tell of how I spoke out on his behalf and to quote me as saying so. And even if there are those who might reproach me for having overestimated Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, I will not go into that further. What I can assert, however, is that I never based my actions and measures within the Theosophical movement on Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's judgment. This can be seen from the fact that I allowed myself to be made General Secretary of the section to be founded, despite Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's “information”.

But how he judged the reasons for my relationship to the Theosophical movement may be seen from his own words. On April 17, 1903, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “I only differ from you in opinion with regard to the intention and purpose of the Theosophical movement. You and all the other present-day representatives want to derive spiritual advantage and benefit from this movement for themselves and as many other individuals as possible. I consider this to be very good and very justified, but only as a secondary benefit. I consider the main task of our movement to be making our worldview a factor in the intellectual life of our European culture, so that in 3000 years, when we are involved again, we can succeed in replacing today's “Christian” worldview with ours. In place of Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's letter, in which this saying of his appears, I wrote a few words (in pencil) at the time. Today, reading these words of mine, I can see from them again how far Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden was then from understanding what I had in mind. I wrote in the margin: “This is precisely the fundamentally false premise that causes all misunderstandings. Not benefit and not advantage, but necessary fulfillment of a clearly recognized karma!!! For me, the difference was clear when I saw that my insinuations to that effect in Berlin fell on no fertile soil and were understood only by... (followed by the name of a person close to me). First of all, we should also serve those readers who, without 'the well-known after-effects of psychic suggestion', want to form an independent opinion on the question of whether Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's opinion of Dr. Steiner's leadership of the German Section of the Theosophical Society changed very soon after this man, who is in a better position than almost anyone else to judge, saw how the General Secretary perceives the movement. It could be, one might say, that the rehashing of old letters says nothing in the face of Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's thoroughly changed opinion, based on his experience with Dr. Steiner. And if one reads on page 65 of the Hübbe-Schleiden's “memoir” the following words, it could indeed seem that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had soon changed his opinion about Steiner, after he had realized the impossible attitude of the latter. These words are found on page 65 of the “Denkschrift” and read: “I resigned (namely from the board of the German Section, Dr. H.-Schl. means) because I no longer wanted to be responsible for the school of thought represented in the Section.” Someone might now believe that this “school of thought” represented in the Section refers to a deviation from the meaning and purpose of the Society, for which Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had to stand up for again through the “memorandum” he “published”, because page 12 of this “memorandum” reads: “The statutes created for the section in 1902 were fully in line with the constitution of the entire society. In the early years, the section also worked entirely in line with the program of the society.”

Now on January 1, 1906, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “On this New Year's Day, I cannot refrain from expressing to you with all my heart... our most sincere wishes for the greatest possible success of our movement during this year. This is naturally combined with the warmest wishes for you personally and for your success in leading this our movement. You know, of course, that in my opinion the success for our school of thought, which we all desire as much as you do, can only be found in a slightly different approach than the one I have been pursuing for 22 years in this endeavor, and which you have been trying for three years now.” Let others judge the way I proceed; let Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's description of his approach be compared with the statements in the “Denkschrift” without prejudice.

On February 28, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote in a letter to me: “In the interest of our Theosophical movement, everything must, of course, be done in agreement with you.” This sentence refers to a specific project, but it seems to me that it applies all the more, since there would have been nothing wrong with this particular project being handled without any “agreement” with me.

On July 4, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “Mrs. Besant has appointed me as the representative of the Order of the Star in the East for Germany, without first asking me (side note from Dr. H.-Schls: ‘When I applied for membership, it was of course understood that I was willing to help’). After considering the enormous difficulties of all kinds that this entails for me, I have accepted responsibility for this task. ... The reason why I had applied for membership of the order is that the attitude and organization expressed in its prospectus correspond exactly to my entire preliminary development... since my association with the Theosophical Society in 1884. The minimal organization avoids all the drawbacks that have always been a hindrance to me in this society; and it essentially corresponds to the establishment of my 'Theosophical Association' 1892-94 in Berlin. ... As soon as I read the first mention of the order in Vollrath's 'Theosophy', it seemed to me an imminent danger that this movement, which exists alongside the Theosophical Society, could be turned by other parties against the Theosophical Society that you so masterfully lead in Germany, against you and against the Rosicrucians. You would probably feel neither affected nor impaired by this, any more than you would by the Hartmann Society or the Tingley Society. But it seemed and seems certain to me that if I had refused the office conferred upon me, Dr. Franz Hartmann would have been put in my place. Then the witch hunt in Germany would come to a boil again; and – whatever you may think about it – this seems very undesirable to me, and I would not want to bear the responsibility for it by avoiding taking on this very difficult, embarrassing office. The 'brotherhood' of the Theosophical Society in Germany already has too bad a reputation for personal squabbling.” At a later point in this letter, it says: “This acceptance of all forms of religion, with full equality for each cultural form or race for which it was given, is the fundamental purpose of the Theosophical Society. This is what particularly appealed to me when I joined the Society 27 years ago, and it is something I find congenial. In this, there can be no difference between you and Mrs. Besant. You have often spoken of this breadth of mind, and you would not otherwise lead the Theosophical Society."

It will surely not be an invocation of the “well-known after-effect of psychic suggestion” if the date of this passage by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden is referred to again. It is July 4, 1911. Compare this with what Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden said in his lecture “The Message of Peace,” delivered in Hanover on June 19, 1912 (the lecture was published in print). In it he says: “It is not tolerant, it is un-Theosophical, to think: 'The other person may believe what he wants; I will not get involved with him in discussing the differences of opinion. He may accept my views if he wants to know the truth; but he must accept my views on trust. All his counter-arguments have no value for me; I regard them a priori as errors. I am not concerned with research; I follow only a ready-made revelation and only my present understanding of this revelation.” If someone were to say that these sentences do not apply to Dr. Steiner at all, then the thought must be considered whether a reader of the “Message of Peace” will not apply them to him, who reads on page 11 of this “Message of Peace”: “These are all appropriate, tried and tested measures; and they actually fulfill the purpose in our 'German Section', as well as in every church or sect, to protect their wisdom...” “The result is also that in Germany there are hardly any branch societies of our section left in which other widely held views can be presented that are not exactly these peculiar 'spiritual treasures'. All this, of course, contradicts the first compelling principle of the theosophical movement and the general statutes of our society."

Thus spoke Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden on June 19, 1912, not even a year after he had written to me (on July 4, 1911): “It seemed to me an impending danger... that this movement, existing alongside the Theosophical Society, could be turned by other hands against the Theosophical movement so masterfully directed by you in Germany, against you and against Rosicrucianism. And after he paid me the compliment on the same day (July 4, 1911): “You have often expressed this breadth of mind, and otherwise you would not lead the Theosophical Society,” he says - not quite a year later - the above sentences of his “Message of Peace.” —

In connection with all this, it must be discussed what Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, in a spirit of love and brotherhood, had printed on $. 72 of the “memorandum” he “published”. There we read: “Dr. Steiner continued his fierce accusations in the following sentences (protocol $. 7 and 8): Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden circulated a document as propaganda for an “Undogmatic Association”. This document is full of accusations that are plucked out of thin air. We had here not only a member of the “Star in the East” before us, but a man who fought us at every turn, who wanted nothing more than to fight us.” And further: “Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had sent around his messages attacking the German Section in the most vehement way via the ‘Undogmatic Association’”. I actually said all that. Now - does Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden dare to have the following words printed in his “Denkschrift” (memoir), following on from this? ($. 72.): “For this purpose, the prospectus of this association itself is printed here in full. Nothing else has ever been published about the association. The reader can see for himself that not a single word more is said in it than any association working in the spirit of the Theosophical Society must recognize, not a single word more.” And then Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had “the brochure” printed, which contains not a word of all that I said according to the protocol. Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden dares nothing less than to claim that I simply lied with my assertion. Because I would have done that if what Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden had printed were true. Now I want to give the reader the opportunity to “convince himself” of who has told the truth. In November 1912, a printed “appeal” signed by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden and John. H. Cordes was “sent around” about the “Undogmatic Federation”. (This is the title it explicitly bears: Undogmatic Federation.) It also bore the stamp: “Recording Secretary. Theosophical Society. Adyar. Madras.” The following sentences, among others, appear in this writing: “The Society expects from them (namely, its members) that they shall be perfectly able to justify their beliefs rationally (reasonably) and without having recourse to authoritative protection. It is the German Section alone which makes an exception... The Council of the Section corresponds therefore with the concilium of Cardinals and the Church Council of State; the lodge-president finds a parallel in the bishop or ordained priest who celebrates the confirmation; and the course of preparation is the equivalent for the instructions preceding confirmation. — This divergence of the General Section from the fundamental objects of the Society has been silently borne so far by the Presidential Leitung»... (The above should read German Section instead of General Section). In English this would read: “The Society expects of them (its members) that they will prove capable of judging their faith rationally and will claim no authoritative protection for it. In the German Section alone, an exception is made... The board of the section therefore corresponds to a council of cardinals and a church council of the state; the president of a lodge finds his parallel in a bishop or an ordained priest who solemnly performs the confirmation; and a preparatory course finds its equivalent in the instruction that precedes the confirmation. This deviation of the German section from the basic laws of the Society has so far been tacitly tolerated by the presidential leadership."

According to the method admitted or followed by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden in his ‘Denkschrift’ – on the title page it says ‘published’ – it is still necessary to say the following. If Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, in view of the fact that is being recorded here, were to say that in his opinion everything contained in the pamphlet he sent around was correct, then it must be replied that this is not the point with regard to what has been said here, but rather that it is literally true that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden sent around such a pamphlet, and that he dares to say in his “Denkschrift”: “The prospectus of this association itself is printed in full here. Nothing else has ever been published about the association.” — I would like to point out that I have expressed myself exactly and precisely, right down to the word “sent around”. I have presented a verifiably true fact; and Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden accuses me – in brotherly love – of nothing less than lying. I leave this case, without the “well-known after-effects of psychological suggestion”, to the readers' judgment.

I will, as I have done so far, despite Dr. Hübbe-Schleidens' outrageous challenge, limit myself to citing only those of his omissions that have nothing to do with any matter in which he might say that he has confided in his letters to me in the belief that letters are not used in publications. I will avoid mentioning anything that refers to the truly personal and the like, and only cite what contains Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's judgments about the meaning and purpose of society, about the spirit of the theosophical worldview and the like.

On page 32 of the “Message of Peace”, which the “Memorandum” on page 5 refers to as its continuation, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden says: “Many of us, in whose spiritual sphere to date this vision of the future - meaning the return of a world teacher - has shone like a ray of sunshine of hopeful joy, of beauty and bliss, we feel as if we have been awakened from a heavy nightmare. The old colors, which were previously the symbols of religious life, deep black and blood red, are no longer relevant to us. What elevates us to the divine are bright golden sunshine and sky blue, the color of infinity, plus the silver-white of starlight.” I do not wish to claim that with these words the Rosicrucians were meant to be the symbolum of those who were interested in what I had presented. In any case, however, this symbolum is: “the red roses on a black cross background”. On June 19, 1912, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden stated that these colors were “done away with” for him and his people. On August 9, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “Nevertheless, it seems to me that there is no essential contradiction between the aims of Rosicrucianism and those of the Theosophical Society. The latter has no objection to Rosicrucianism becoming the religion of the sixth cultural epoch. At least as far as I am concerned, my desire and will do not stand in the way of this.” I would like to explicitly note here that I always objected to hearing my research referred to as Rosicrucianism, especially in the speeches I gave in Stuttgart at the opening of the new lodge there. But I cannot expect Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden to understand what I have to say; so I must accept that he seems to regard my intentions as “only” Rosicrucian.

Regarding the scope of Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden's judgments, and thus also for the value of his “memorandum”, the following may also be significant to the reader. On July 4, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “Indeed, Mrs. Besant has a somewhat different position towards the Mystery of Golgotha than you do. This is due to the fact that in her younger years... everything connected with the Christian Church thoroughly disgusted her. But even if it may be a shortcoming on Mrs. Besant's part that she could not make the Rosicrucianism her own, she still recognizes the Christ spirit, the Logos as the great teacher (Mahaguru)... On August 9, 1911, the same Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes to me: “Mrs. Besant is indeed familiar with the Rosicrucian conception of the ‘Spirit of Christ as having been manifested in Jesus’ body. But she decisively rejects this conception; she does not recognize it.”

On July 4, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes to me: “In any case, Mrs. Besant does not understand the task of the coming adept as what the ‘Mystery of Golgotha’ is according to the Rosicrucian view. The adept should not merely lend his body to the embodiment of the “great teacher,” as Jesus did, but should work as an adept himself, full of the spirit of Mahaguru, just as every other adept does, only not secretly but openly.

In his “memoir,” Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes: “We even have your main goal - he means the Rosicrucian one - in common with you, the goal that should unite us just as actively as it actually separates us; I mean complete devotion to the Christ-Spirit, the Christ, who through Jesus once at Golgotha presented to humanity the only greatest symbol of self-sacrifice."

On August 9, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote to me: “Mrs. Besant uses the word ‹Christ› only in the sense of an Indian theology. She understands it to mean precisely the Bodhisattva of Maitreya Buddha. According to Mrs. Besant, the Christ who worked through Jesus' body was nothing other than this Bodhisattva. According to Rosicrucian terminology, one could probably say 'archangel' or even 'fire spirit' for this in German.

On page 68 of the “memorandum” “edited” by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, we read: “Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden is said to have demanded (according to the protocol on page 6, column 2, above) that Dr. Steiner avoid the word ‘Christ’ because Mrs. Besant uses this word for Bodhisattva. In addition, sentences from July 4, 1911 to Dr. Steiner are inserted into the protocol. - This letter contains nothing about a suggestion regarding the use of Dr. Steiner's brand new concept of Christ. But at the end of a letter dated August 9, 1911, I did warn against causing misunderstandings by applying the designation to new concepts that have been in use for a long time.

What is the point of the sentence in the memorandum: “This letter contains nothing about a proposal for the use of the Christ concept that Dr. Steiner has recently formulated.” Read the protocol and you will find that I only quote the words from the letter of July 4, 1911 that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden wrote in this letter: “That a 14- to 15-year-old boy can survive such a test as the Krishnamurti is now going through, is incomprehensible to me. She parades him before the world as the coming Adept. Since the cultured world does not associate this with anything at all, Besant tells her ecclesiastical listeners in abbreviated form: “The coming Christ as the type of the divine adept.” But anyone who has read the thirty past lives of Krishnamurti, which she and Leadbeater published in Theosophist, knows that she does not mean Jesus with that. Since the memorandum says, “This letter contains nothing about a proposal for the use of the term ‘Christ’”, the reader might think that I had ever claimed that this letter contained anything about it. I did not claim that. But I did say (according to the protocol on page 6): “One day, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden appeared... He also explained the following: since there was a contradiction between what Mrs. Besant teaches and what Dr. Steiner teaches, I should in future arrange my teaching in such a way that my listeners could not construct contradictions. It was even said that I should avoid the word 'Christ', because it could only lead to misunderstandings. The reason given was that Mrs. Besant needed this word for Bodhisattva because in Europe the word Bodhisattva would not be understood. Of course, these words have their basis in the letter that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden addressed to me on August 9, 1911. The “Denkschrift” “edited” by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden pretends to be quite innocent by saying: “However, at the end of a letter dated August 9, 1911, I did warn against causing misunderstandings by applying the designation for old, traditional concepts to new ones.” And in order to lend some emphasis to this “innocent” sentence in front of his readers, the author of the “Denkschrift” writes on page 70: “The letters in question will be presented to anyone who comes to me after the announcement for inspection...” Now I want to spare the readers of these “messages” the trip to Göttingen and write the passage here that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden so “innocently” characterizes as a warning “at the end”. Incidentally, I note that the words that, in my opinion, are most important, are not at the “end” of the letter, but on the first and second pages of the eight-page letter. They read: “... In doing so, you then warn against the error of another spiritual circle that now hopes for the return of Christ in the physical body of an earthly man... It is not known to me what exactly you are referring to with your warning. But your students all understand it as if it were directed against the views and intentions of Mrs. Besant and now also against the Sternbund founded by her. But since this warning of yours does not apply to Mrs. Besant and the Star Federation at all, I would like to suggest to you either to dispense with this remark or to phrase it in such a way that your students will no longer be able to understand it as directed against the Star Federation.” And in §7 of the same letter, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden writes: “The danger of misunderstanding is avoided, by the way, if only for the Rosicrucian conception of Christ another word would be retained. The choice is great. The whole of the rest of the cultural world can at most rise to the (third) unclear concept that theology connects with the word ”Christ. This does not even come close to that of the Bodhisattva or the Archangel.” Are these sentences - assuming that one wants to find any meaning in them at all - to be understood differently, as that for the so-called Rosicrucian concept of Christ, ‘another word should be retained’? It is even pointed out that ‘there is a wide selection’ here. In the same letter, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, however, also precedes this with a piece of instruction. He says: “Not so much through the different concepts as through the designation of the different concepts with the same word ‘becoming Christ’ endless confusion is conjured up. For the different concepts, this same expression is quite unnecessary for anyone who understands, since the three different concepts of the point at issue could be sufficiently described with many other words. For example, it is quite sufficient if we - Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden means the members of the Star Federation - speak only of the Bodhisattva or the Archangel of Maitreya Buddha.” In all other respects, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden may be fully conceded that he set himself the example of avoiding misunderstanding with regard to the name of the Christ. For he writes in the same letter: “But misunderstandings through the use of the same word for different concepts can and should be avoided. Since here alone the Greek word “Christ” is disputed, I will henceforth endeavor never to pronounce this ambiguous word of discord again...” How well Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden has succeeded in keeping this promise can be seen in the ‘Message of Peace’ and in the ‘Memorandum’ he ‘published’.

Now, in view of the fact that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden makes a certain - albeit absurd - comment in his “Message of Peace”, readers of these “messages” might also be interested in the fact that there is another rather curious omission in the letter dated August 9, 1911. With reference to those personalities who are interested in the spiritual scientific research I have presented, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden makes the following comment on page 41 of the “Message of Peace”: “The Catholic Church also felt that its rights had been violated when Luther came on the scene and demanded the right to independent thought, open research into the truth and freedom of thought, and only wanted to protect and defend itself against ignorance and encroachment. But the church felt that its autocratic rule over consciences and minds was being severely compromised.” On August 9, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden - as already mentioned - that it was not contrary to his wishes and will if Rosicrucianism became the religion of the next 6th cultural epoch; and he then continues in his letter of August 9, 1911: “Admittedly, it is not easy to imagine the possibility of such circumstances. But two possibilities would be conceivable. One would be that the Christian churches would be destroyed by their own disintegration and state opposition, as in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. But that is not likely; Macanlay was right in predicting that the Catholic Church, at least, would be resilient. Therefore, the other possibility could more likely come true, namely that some cardinals would later become Rosicrucians, and that one of them would then become Pope. Since he would then be an “initiate himself and have knowledge of higher worlds, the requirement of the desirable theocracy would be approximately realized for the followers of such a church. - Such an arrangement of circumstances seems to me to correspond entirely to the ideal that the Theosophical Society and the Star Federation have formed. What they want is something that goes even further; but it is very compatible with it."

In the same letter of August 9, 1911, Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden also writes something to me that is suitable to be compared with the omissions of the ‘Denkschrift’. It is the following: “Incidentally, if the disciple in whom the Maitreya Buddha is to reveal himself in the future has progressed so far, and if the white brotherhood and the occult hierarchy then see that he can still learn something from the Rosicrucians, they will certainly send him to you (I am really meant, Rudolf Steiner) to be trained. After all, Jesus is said to have learned something from the Essenes as well.

The above explanations had to be provided so that the readers of the Mitteilungen can form an unbiased opinion about the value of the “memoir” published by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden based on the factual material. There are many things that could be added to help assess this value. For example, on pages 47-50, this “memorandum” deals with why Mr. Hubo should not have allowed himself to be used to write all sorts of confidential messages about the German Section to Adyar, and why Mr. Hubo indignantly rejected such an imposition. Perhaps it is understandable that a discussion with Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden about such a matter is quite impossible when it is considered that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden — to whom Dr. Vollrath was assigned as representative of the Star of the East — made the following demand on July 4, 1911: He (Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden) writes: “Would you perhaps have the opportunity and kindness to be able to point out someone to me in Leipzig whom I can approach with the request to check Dr. Vollrath in our interest in a friendly manner and to keep me informed about him, so that I can then, if necessary, inhibit him in good time. I certainly can't mention this to our dear Mrs. Wolfram, who is very dear to me. She has already had too much trouble with Vollrath. But perhaps you can name another personality to me who is willing to make the sacrifice."

On pages 61 and 62 of the “Denkschrift” the following passage can be found: “Dr. Steiner particularly ‘complains’ that Mrs. Besant has expressed the suspicion that he was educated by Jesuits and is therefore dogmatically one-sided. Dr. Steiner and his followers (protocol pages 11 and 13) reject this with great indignation. Why this indignation?” Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden cannot find a reason for this rejection. It does not occur to him that one can reject something because it is not true.

Mrs. Besant has stated in an excellent place, not only as a supposition, but with absolute certainty: Dr. Steiner was educated by Jesuits. This assertion is an objective untruth. And when there is talk of “indignation”, it refers to the fact that the President can make such an untrue assertion at the General Assembly of the entire Theosophical Society. Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden does not feel this at all. In his memorandum he really does write the words: “Why this indignation, actually? Probably only because of the mental confusion of the Jesuit order with the accusation of Jesuitism.” It is therefore possible – really possible – that a representative of the Society, which wants to place “truth” higher than any confession, allows these words to be printed! In view of the fact that it is an objective untruth that Steiner was educated by Jesuits – in view of this fact, it is possible that Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden has printed in his “memorandum”: “And would Dr. Steiner be willing to take an oath in court that none of his teachers ever belonged to the Jesuit order?” This is actually written on page 62 of the memoir, which also refers on page 11 to the well-known “after-effects of mental suggestion”.

After this sample of the way in which the “factual material” praised on p. 3 is presented in this memorandum, I ask the reader to put aside all “known after-effects of psychological suggestions” and to answer the question for himself whether the “facts” I have presented here are sufficient to form an opinion about the value of the “memorandum” published by Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden “published” “memorandum”? - I had the duty to present “facts” first, which are less accessible to others. What the memorandum presents about the last events regarding the former German section of the “Theosophical Society” may be discussed by others. I know that I have done everything in full agreement with the leadership of this section. The leadership knows everything that is necessary to form an opinion regarding the external facts.

Elsewhere in this communication, the “suppressions and omissions” on pages 55 ff. are addressed from the other side. Now Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, who had got to know this part of the Adyar brotherhood in the Berlin branch of the Anthroposophical Society, wrote how he, without the “known after-effects of psychic suggestion”, had nevertheless acted “brotherly” in this case by making the Memorial Book the depository for this little piece of Adyar. In response to this communication, he wrote to me on June 21, 1913: “I am sincerely sorry to have unintentionally exacerbated what was said on this side. Therefore, I ask you to forgive this mistake immediately.” - Now

however, the “well-known after-effects of mental suggestion” aside, should we get sentimental? The man has made a “mistake”, he asks for “pardon”. But let us hear the further words of the man who asks for “pardon” for his “mistake”. Indeed, he has to admit that the claim of the omission is objectively untrue - and then, following the above-mentioned request for forgiveness, he continues: “Objectively, of course, only the intentionality that I suspected in the keeping of the minutes is thereby invalidated, not the reproach itself, which is at issue here and which, moreover, is of less importance than what is further stated and the other aspects in my 'Denkschrift'. So, it is possible that someone accuses another: “you did this on purpose”. It turns out that it is not true that he did this; the accuser replies: “you did not do on purpose what you did not do”.

I must confess that I really do not want to use sentimental phrases here. But I must still say that I thought long and hard about whether I should write the above. For I have compassion for the man who is the subject of this discussion. And if it were about him, I would not have written anything. But what this man has said in print, and which is contrary to the matter I have to deal with, urgently requires the above information. When things are said, as Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden said them in his “Denkschrift”, then these things, after they have been said, are no longer connected with the one who said them. They then have an independent existence. The above is written to characterize these things. I feel sorry for Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden. But however I looked at the matter, no matter how much I was overwhelmed by the feeling: to say what I have said, I am obliged.

Eight days ago, I tried to explain Goethe's world view through his “Faust”. We saw that Goethe presents the great struggle of the universe, the spiritual universe, between good and evil, as it unfolds in man and around man, in the way it is in the sense of mysticism or what we call theosophy. We have seen that where Goethe points people to worlds beyond the sensual, he does so in such a way that we can clearly see from his expressions his intimate knowledge of what we in Theosophy hold as our conviction. We have seen this in “Prologue in Heaven” and in the way he lets the Earth Spirit speak, but also in what we can see as a reference to the spiritual world and as a juxtaposition of the lower and higher self. We have taken a closer look at the address to the Earth Spirit and seen how Goethe introduces his Faust to the world, which we have called the world of higher knowledge, by showing how the human being is composed of the physical, the soul and the spiritual. We have been able to show this by the descent of Faust to the “Mothers”, by the characteristic properties of the homunculus, which cannot be made plausible in any other way, and then by the re-humanization of Helena in the “Classical Walpurgis Night”. We have seen how he ascends to knowledge, ascends to the heights of a spiritual Montserrat, to the heights of knowledge and mystical experience, concludes with the words that he has the Chorus mysticus say, and in doing so suggests the sense in which he wants Faust to be understood.

What Goethe expressed here is not a figment of his imagination, nor is it meant in a merely poetic sense, because Goethe has always seen the expression of secret natural laws in art, which he expressed at another time as follows: Art should be based on the deepest foundations of knowledge. There is no doubt that if we follow Goethe to the height of his life, if we look up and look up to the spiritual worlds, then we will be able to demonstrate a continuous increase to truly mystical heights in Goethe himself. Last time, I already pointed out that the direction of Goethe's gaze to the spiritual was not only in his nature, but was already present when he had already established a world view for himself, when he tried to make clear to himself when he entered Weimar, how things in nature are connected, when he sought a spiritual essence that underlies all nature. Last time I already spoke about the “Nature” hymn that he wrote in Weimar. In it, he addresses nature directly, but in such a way that it becomes a direct expression of a spiritual essence for him. You can see from every word in this prose hymn that he addresses nature as a being of a spiritual nature. In the book “On Natural Science” in General, he says about nature:

Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by it, unable to step out of it or to get deeper into it. Uninvited and unwarned, she takes us into the cycle of her dance and carries us away with her until we are tired and fall out of her arms [...] She has thought and is constantly pondering; but not as a human being, but as nature[...] She has no language or speech, but she creates tongues and hearts through which she feels and speaks [...] I did not speak of her. No, what is true and what is false, she has spoken it all. Everything is her fault, everything is her merit.

Thus he places himself in this nature, which he has conceived entirely spiritually, and speaks of nature as the external expression of a spiritual essence. Since Goethe addressed nature in this way, he was bound to ascend. For this is how he presents the physical incarnation: He imagines that the soul is above nature. It is true that it belongs to the great whole of the world, and he therefore also speaks of a higher nature. But by speaking of the lower nature, of the various changes, of the metamorphoses of nature, he builds the world view in the sense of the mystical. To give an example, I mention Paracelsus. Without him, Goethe is inconceivable. Through Paracelsus, Goethe is more understandable. I do not want to claim that Paracelsus' teachings can be adopted wholesale. Do not think that I want to speak in favor of those who today want to speak again as Paracelsus spoke. But we could still learn an infinite amount from such a highly chosen spirit. Goethe also learned an infinite amount from him. Just one word to show how Goethe strove in the spirit of Paracelsus: Paracelsus places himself before the true essence of man, soul and spirit, embodying himself in the archetypes of nature, in the mineral kingdom, plant kingdom, animal kingdom, where it is expressed in a one-sided way, in order to finally express itself in the most versatile way in man. In the various minerals, plants and animals, letters have been created with which the great All-Spirit has ultimately written the human being. This shows the depth of Paracelsus' insight into the human being. When Goethe sets out to study the development of the world's creatures from the imperfect to the perfect, he expresses himself in a similar way to Paracelsus. Every day, Frau von Stein received answers to questions about how his thoughts were maturing. Once, when he thought he was on the trail of a particularly important discovery, he said to her, “My spelling has helped me.” He meant that he had tried to get to know the plants and animals, which, like Paracelsus, were letters for him in solving the great mystery that man represents for man. In this way, Goethe wanted to proceed from the beginning of his study of nature, in order to seek the great spiritual connection in all beings. So, from the outset, he sought what he called the “primordial plant”, which was said to live in all plants and which, in essence, is the spirit of plant existence. Then he rose to the “primordial animal” and sought to prove the “primordial animal” in the animals. Metamorphosis of Plants and Metamorphosis of Animals – you only need to read them to have the most beautiful theosophical treatise on plants and animals you could ever find. It was precisely this attitude that led Goethe, soon after his arrival in Weimar, to an important scientific discovery. Until the time when Goethe became involved in the study of nature, the fact that humans are superior to animals had to be found in the existence of special individual organs. That humans differ in their physical constitution from the higher animals, however, was already addressed by Herder in his “History of Humanity”. Herder was Goethe's teacher to a significant extent. It was said at that time: All higher animals have the upper incisors in a special intermaxillary bone. Only humans do not have such an intermaxillary bone. Goethe said: The difference between humans and other beings is of a spiritual-mental nature. But the difference cannot be found in such a detail, which is why humans must also have an intermaxillary bone. Researchers have long resisted recognizing this discovery by Goethe. But today it is taken for granted that the discovery is based on a full fact. So even then, Goethe made this great scientific discovery out of his own convictions. In Italy, he studied the plant and animal world with the aim of finding ways and means of gaining an overview of these beings. In his Metamorphosis of Plants and Animals, he produced a masterpiece in this regard. The idea that Goethe carried out is an idea that can already be found on a large scale in Giordano Bruno. Giordano Bruno, for example, as is to be expected of anyone who truly sees into the depths of nature and the universe, is one of those who assumes that humans go through various incarnations, who assumes that humans have often been here before and will often return. The body of man, as we see it before us, shows us how soul and spirit expand in space. And when man dies, soul and spirit contract, they become, as it were, punctual, in order to expand again and then contract again. Thus existence alternates between expansion and contraction. Man ascends by becoming more and more perfect with each new expansion, only to contract again and pass through the purely spiritual realm. These thoughts were conceived by Giordano Bruno and were extended by Goethe to include plant and animal life. The whole metamorphosis shows us that the plant consists of the flower and the root in contraction and unfolding. This can also be found in Swedenborg's books, where he noted down the fundamental discoveries he made, which then bore fruit in Goethe and come to us again through him. Now some scholars from the Nordic academies have joined forces to publish Swedenborg's writings, and it remains to be seen how much science in all fields of natural science can be found in Swedenborg. Goethe studied Swedenborg, and there is an interesting doctoral dissertation from the University of Berlin by Hans Schlieper, in which the connection between the writings of Goethe and Swedenborg is demonstrated. If you want to gain insight into how Swedenborg developed these ideas, then you need only read Emerson's “The Representatives of the Human Race” and look up the article on Swedenborg. There you will find the ideas that bore such extraordinary fruit in Goethe. But you will also find that the various kingdoms of nature must ultimately find their culmination in the human being, that ultimately it must be shown how the soul emerges from the small world in order to find its unity in the larger world, in the cosmos. Schiller also expressed this in a magnificent way. In his correspondence with Goethe, Schiller writes on August 23, 1794:

For a long time now, although from a considerable distance, I have been observing the course of your mind and have noted the path you have set out on with ever-renewed admiration. You seek what is necessary in nature, but you seek it by the most difficult route, which any weaker force would do well to avoid. You take all of nature together to get light on the individual; in the totality of its manifestations, you seek the explanation for the individual. From the simple organization, you ascend, step by step, to the more complicated ones, to finally build the most complicated of all, the human being, genetically from the materials of the entire structure of nature. By recreating it, as it were, you seek to penetrate its hidden technology. A great and truly heroic idea that amply demonstrates how your mind holds the rich totality of its ideas together in a beautiful unity. You could never have hoped that your life would be enough for such a goal, but even just embarking on such a path is worth more than any other ending – and you have chosen, like Achilles in the Iliad between Pythia and immortality.

I could read on, and you would find that every single word of Schiller is aptly applied to Goethe. Goethe himself spoke beautifully about the relationship between man as a microcosm and the rest of nature, showing with tremendous power of words how not a single detail but the whole spirit of nature lives in man, how this whole spirit comes to the realization of itself. Whoever remembers the beautiful words spoken by the German mystics will know, among others, the saying: “The Godhead lives in man, and in man God has created an organ to behold Himself.” In his book on Winckelmann, Goethe says, where he speaks of antiquity:

When the healthy nature of man works as a whole, when he feels in the world as in a great, beautiful, dignified and valuable whole, when the harmonious comfort gives him a pure, free delight - then the universe, if it could feel itself, would exult as if it had reached its goal and would admire the summit of its own becoming and being.

What does Goethe say here that is different from what he presents in his “Faust” as the transition of all realms through nature? Goethe was never satisfied with the materialistic view of nature. And when Holbach had created a particularly crass expression in this regard, he opposed him as a young man. Goethe says about it, he [had] found nothing in it but a barren speculation, but not a real explanation of nature. Furthermore, matter was supposed to have existed from eternity, and from eternity it was supposed to have been in motion, and through this motion it was supposed to have produced the phenomena of existence. Thus Goethe dismissed materialism. Goethe always strove to find harmony between what he calls spiritual nature and what the incorporation of spiritual nature represents. Therefore, he was a follower of the doctrine that sees the embodiment of the spirit in our physicality, in the outer forms of nature. Goethe held this point of view throughout his life and elevated this point of view to ever clearer forms. Now, however, this point of view requires something else. It requires that we recognize that the human being is not complete. The realms of perfection must continue beyond the human being. This is the theosophical worldview. Thus, as Theosophists, we do not take the view that the human being is somehow complete. But just as there are also more imperfect beings, we also recognize that we have more perfect and more imperfect human brothers, and that there are some who have progressed far beyond the measure of other people. These are the great teachers who endeavor to lead people up to ever higher and higher worlds. This is a realm from the lowest beings to the gods. We recognize that man will one day rise to divinity, and we already recognize an order today that begins with the lower spirits and does not end until physical existence is exhausted and we look up to heights and beings that fill the gap between human beings and beings that humans only have an inkling of. In this sense, that he looked up to higher spiritual entities, Goethe spoke his poem from the first Weimar period, the well-known poem “The Divine”:

Noble be man,
Helpful and good!
For that alone
Distinguishes him
From all beings
We know.
Hail to the unknown Higher beings We intuit! Man shall be like them! His example teach us Those believe.

This is the poem in which Goethe spoke of the stages of ascent to higher beings. Those who have heard the theosophical lectures here before will know that in theosophy we recognize an unbroken succession of beings, from today's average human being to the higher beings, that we know that among us there are brothers who have reached high levels, who are our teachers, but who have withdrawn from the hustle and bustle of people because they need to have freedom. Only a number of disciples are able to see them. Those who rise to the fervor of deep truths, to a corresponding realization, which must be a free one, can hear these elevated human individualities. Goethe then speaks of these higher individualities. I only need to quote the poem “Symbolum”. In it, he speaks of the holy awe that must permeate us in the face of the truth and the spiritual world. Goethe is therefore speaking here of the voices of the spirits and the masters. This will show you the profound agreement between Goethe and what we call the theosophical world view. Now I would also like to show you that such an agreement really goes very far in Goethe. You know that in the theosophical world view we speak of the fact that human beings do not only have a physical body. This physical body is a subordinate body of the human being. Then we have the etheric double body. This can be seen by those whose psychic organs are open. It can be seen when the physical body is subtracted. Then the same space that the human being occupies is filled by the etheric body. It looks like the color of a peach blossom. Then comes the astral body, the expression of feelings, instincts, desires and passions. The Theosophical worldview calls this body “kama-rupa.” These three superimposed bodies are spoken of today. It is said that there is a parallel in our physical nature. The so-called occultist says that the physical body has an external parallel in what we call solid bodies, that what we call the etheric body has a similarity to the liquid, and that the astral body has a sensual parallel in everything that appears gaseous and airy. Everything that takes shape in the life of the senses and the life of the instincts is referred to as an image of the astral body. In mystical form, we speak of a deity that creates these formations. This is nothing other than 'Kama'. When studying cloud formations, Goethe spoke, entirely in line with this world view, of the fact that for him, too, the expression of the formation of water reveals an image of the soul, a KamaRupa:

When the deity Camarupa, high and holy,

Gathers the folds of the veil, disperses them,
Delights in the changing forms,
Now freezes, then vanishes like a dream,
we marvel and hardly believe our eyes;

With the exception of the term “Camarupa”, you can rediscover Goethe's theosophical worldview. The question now is: How is Goethe connected to what we really call the theosophical movement and how it was not created only by the Theosophical Society. The Theosophical Society merely popularizes the old theosophical teachings that have always been present. Before 1875, the principle was strictly adhered to that the theosophical teachings must be secret, that only those who profess very specific prerequisites and conditions can learn them. In my magazine Luzifer-Gnosis, you will find something discussed that can lead you to higher things. In earlier times, the theosophical teachings were only practiced in the narrowest of circles, in the so-called secret schools. Only those who had attained certain degrees could receive certain teachings. A certain degree of secrets was only imparted to a person when he had attained certain degrees. The most important society was that of the Rosicrucians, a top secret society. Whatever you find about it in books, you can call a hoax, as far as I'm concerned. What can be found in literature and what is accessible to scholarship is not Rosicrucianism. The brothers only knew each other. At the top were twelve initiates. Only the thirteenth was the leader. The outer symbol was the cross with roses. The society had, despite being a secret society, a great influence on the course of intellectual development. In the time when materialism did not yet dominate the major circles, a very great intellectual influence could still be exercised. The Rosicrucian Society is the one whose tradition and inner significance Goethe also knew. He became acquainted with it at an early stage. During the time when he was staying in Frankfurt after a very serious illness during his studies in Leipzig, he was initiated into the secrets of the Rosicrucians by a certain personage. More and more, this mysticism became absorbed in Goethe. Now he wanted to express what he had to say in this regard in a very profound poem. At the time he wrote this poem, he proved himself to be a practical mystic in that he understood life as practical mysticism. Only under certain conditions was he taught the most intimate things. Mrs. von Stein was one of his intimates. He could not imagine this connection any differently, as if he had already belonged to her in a previous life. That is the important thing. Not the dogma of reincarnation; the main thing is to understand life from this point of view. So Goethe once said, to make clear to himself his deep connection, his relationship with Mrs. von Stein: In times gone by, you were surely once my sister or my wife. That is the way he interprets reincarnation here and in other ways. Of course, Goethe regards this as his secret. He speaks of it only to his intimates. That is why you can quote some things from Goethe that seem to contradict him. You can also find this with other mystics. We know that this is the case. Now Goethe has expressed something of an ascent, of a spiritual order in the Rosicrucians in the aforementioned poem. This poem has become so dear to Mrs. von Stein that it is called “The Secrets”. It was never finished. The greatness of the poem should have been much more extensive. He might have been able to express himself if it had had as many verses as there are days in a year. But he did express the following clearly: firstly, this basic idea and, secondly, the view that a kernel of truth can be found in all religions, that all great religions contain a basic teaching, the so-called wisdom religion, and that the various wisdom religions are embodied in individual great initiates who are connected to one another in a brotherhood, that they differ according to their inclinations, the nature of the country and so on. Brahmanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, the teachings of Hermes, Judaism, Christianity; they all contain a common core of truth. They are different because those who truly grasp the human being in his spiritual essence know that it is not a matter of implementing an abstract dogma, but that one must speak to each person in his own way. You only have to possess the core of truth, then you can clothe it in the customs of every country. You will find that our theosophical teachings have rebuilt the ancient teachings of the rishis within the Hindu religion, just as they have in Europe. Even in a form that will again be able to withstand science. So we can speak to every people in their own language. But a common core of truth lives in all these languages. This was also the view of the Rosicrucians, as expressed by Goethe in the poem “The Mysteries”. You will see how much mysticism and theosophy lives in Goethe when we consider his secret revelations in the fairy tale of the green snake and the beautiful lily. But now let us look at this Rosicrucian coloring in his poem, which has remained a fragment. Goethe knows that there will not be many who will be able to understand this poem “The Mysteries”. He also knows that this poem contains so much that no one should dare to believe that they can fully understand it. But he expresses it clearly that he allows us to see into his deepest soul:

A wondrous song is prepared for you;
Listen gladly, and summon everyone!
The path is laid through mountains and valleys;
Here the view is restricted, there it is free again,
And when the path gently slips into the bushes,
do not think that it is a mistake;
We want, when we have climbed enough,
to reach our goal at the right time.

Then he shows how Brother Mark walks to a lonely monastery. In this live twelve hermits, the initiates, led by the thirteenth, whom Goethe calls Humanus, who encompasses all of them. In each of these twelve, one of the great world religions is embodied. Depending on the diversity of countries and times, the different religions are different, and in each of the initiates, each of the religions is different. In a college, however, they work for all of humanity. The leader Humanus is called that because he is such a late incarnation that the highest truth and knowledge is expressed in him in a peculiar way. Those people who are in relatively early incarnations, who have not yet undergone many embodiments, receive the lessons of life and ascend to such an extent that they carry the deepest core of truth within them as a matter of course. Then they do not need to study in the new incarnation, then they are such — through certain signs of their birth this is symbolically foretold — that they, as must be said of the great initiated of humanity, radiate the wisdom of the world. One such incarnation is Humanus. After he has spread the spirit around him in his environment, he ascends to higher spheres. Brother Markus is another such incarnation. When he appeared, Goethe said of him that he gave the impression, for higher reasons, that a higher wisdom must come into the world. Brother Markus appears to be simple. But he is a late iteration of human existence. At the same moment, as Goethe says, Brother Markus is led into the brother lodge, where the twelve are united, when Humanus is allowed to leave the twelve, where only his spirit remains in them, where the spirit ascends to the higher spheres. Brother Markus takes his place. This is the government of humanity that Goethe wanted to depict here.

He sees the emblem gloriously erected,
Which stands for the consolation and hope of the world,
To which many thousands of minds are bound,
To which many thousands of hearts have fervently prayed,
Which destroys the power of bitter death,
Which waves over so many victorious banners:
A fountain of refreshment permeates the weary limbs, He sees the cross and lowers his eyes.

From the very beginning, this poem shows us how Goethe has the spiritual guidance of humanity carried out by the twelve. Thirty years later, a number of students approached him with the request that he provide some explanations. He also tried to say something about this poem. I will only mention a few things to you. He spoke entirely in the theosophical sense:

In order to confess the further intention, indeed the plan in general and thus also the purpose of the poem, I reveal that the reader should be guided through a kind of ideal Montserrat and, after taking his way through the different regions of the mountain, rock and cliff heights, occasionally return to wide and happy plains. Each of the knightly monks would have been visited in his home and, through the climatic and national differences, it would have been learned that the most excellent men from all corners of the earth might gather here, where each of them would quietly worship God in his own way.

Now he shows us how Brother Mark is led into the forecourt. Goethe did not live to depict the actual interior. But then we are shown who Brother Humanus is:

And if you ask me what is the name of the one chosen,
Whom the eye of caution chose?
Whom I often praise, but never enough,
On whom so many incredible things happened?
Humanus is the name of the saint, the wise man,
The best man I have seen with my own eyes:
And his gender, as the princes call it,
You should also know along with his ancestors.

He also shows here how such a leader has risen to such heights. The lower self must have sacrificed itself. We will see this in the sacrifice of the serpent when we speak of the “fairytale”. But here we see how the leader of the twelve chosen ones saves his higher self, his soul. How he has gone through this dying and becoming, and has not remained a dull guest on the dark earth, but has awakened the God-man in himself. He tells us clearly and distinctly that he sees this higher self as a feminine. To save it, the lower self must be killed. In the beautiful symbolism of the poem “The Secrets”, Goethe describes the upward development of a being like the thirteenth. He expresses it like this:

As the third man, I tell more and more freely,
How a spirit of the mother promised him early on,
And how a star at his baptism celebration
shone more brilliantly in the evening sky,
and how a vulture with outstretched wings
settled in the courtyard among the doves;
not striking fiercely and, as usual, doing harm,
he seemed to gently invite them to unity.
Then he modestly kept from telling us
how, as a child, he overcame the adders
Which he found entwined around his sister's arm,
Tightly wound around the sleeping girl.
The nurse fled, leaving the infant lying;
He strangled the snake with a sure hand:
The mother came and saw with joyful trembling
Her son's deeds and her daughter's life.

The sister is the innermost part of the soul, the same as the eternal feminine that draws us in. The adder is what must be shed. He adds the following explanation to the symbolum:

When nature has elevated a person,
It is no wonder that he succeeds in many things;
We must praise the power of the Creator in him,
Who brings weak clay to such honor:
But when a man, when a man, in the hardest test of life,
Conquers himself;
Then we can show him to others with joy
And say: 'That is he, that is his own!'

When the God-man is born in the soul, then all power rushes forward into the distance:

For all power rushes forward into the distance,
To live and work here and there;
On the other hand, from every side, the stream
Of the world narrows and hinders and sweeps us along:
In this inner storm and outer strife,
The spirit hears a word that is hard to understand:
'From the power that binds all beings, Man frees himself who overcomes himself.'

Yesterday I began to speak to you of the spiritual-scientific strivings of the ninth or tenth century after Christ. We learnt how such strivings were still seriously followed as late as the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries; and I endeavoured to tell you something of the content of these strivings. Today I should like to touch more on their historical aspect. We have to remember that the Mysteries of ancient times were of such a nature and character that in the places of the Mysteries an actual meeting with the Gods was able to take place. I described in the lectures recently given at the Christmas Foundation how the human being who was an Initiate or was about to receive Initiation could verily meet with the Gods. And it was also possible, in the Mysteries, to discover places which by their very locality were expressly fitted and prepared to induce such meeting with the Gods.

The preparation of these centres and the adoption of them as the official places—if I may use so crude an expression—is at the foundation of the impulses for all the older civilisations. Gradually, however, knowledge and understanding of these places disappeared; we may even say that from the time of the fourth century it is no longer to be found in its old form. Here and there we can still find survivals, but the knowledge is no longer so strict and exact. Notwithstanding this, however, Initiation never ceased; it was only the form in which the candidates found their way that changed. I have already indicated how things were in the Middle Ages. I have told you how here and there were individuals, living simple, humble unpretentious lives, who did not gather around them a circle of official pupils in one particular place, but whose pupils were scattered in various directions in accordance with the karma of mankind or the karma of some people or nation. I have described one such instance in what I said about Johannes Tauler in my book Mysticism and Modern Thought. There is no need for me to speak about that here. I should like however to tell you of another typical example, one that had very great influence, lasting from the twelfth and thirteenth on into the fifteenth century. The spiritual streams that were working during these centuries are in large measure to be traced to the events of which I would like now to speak. Let me give you first, as it were, a sketch of the situation.

The time when these events took place is round about the year 1200 A.D. There were at that time a great number of people, especially younger people, who felt within them the urge for higher knowledge, for a union with the spiritual world—one may truthfully say, for a meeting with the Gods. And the whole situation and condition of the times was such that very often it looked as though a man who was searching and striving in this way found his teacher almost by chance. In those days one could not find a teacher by means of books, it could only come about in an entirely personal way. And often it looked from without like a chance happening, although in reality deep connections of destiny were at work in the event. And it was so in the case of the pupil of whom I am now going to tell you.

This pupil found a teacher in a place in Middle Europe through just such an apparently chance event. He met an older man of whom he at once had the feeling: He will be able to lead me farther in that search which is the deepest impulse of my soul. And now let me give you the gist of a conversation between them. I do not of course mean that only one such conversation took place between teacher and pupil, but I am compressing several into one.

The pupil speaks to the teacher and tells him of his earnest desire to be able to see into the spiritual world; but it seems to him as though the nature of man as it is in that time—it is about the twelfth century—does not allow him to penetrate to the spiritual worlds. Nevertheless, he feels that in Nature one has something that is the work, the creation of divine-spiritual Beings. When one looks at what the objects of Nature are in their deeper meaning, when one observes how the processes of Nature take their course, one cannot but recognise that behind these creations stands the working of divine-spiritual Beings. But man cannot come through to these spiritual Beings. The pupil, who was a young man somewhere between 25 and 28 or so, felt strongly and definitely that the humanity of the time, because of the kind of connection of the physical body with the soul, cannot come through, it has hindrances in itself.

The teacher began by putting him to the test. He said to him: You have your eyes, you have your ears: look with your eyes on the things of Nature, hear with your ears what goes on in Nature; the Spiritual reveals itself through colour and through tone, and as you look and listen, you cannot help feeling how it reveals itself in these.

Then the pupil replied: Yes, but when I use my eyes, when I look out into the world, with all its colour, then it is as though my eye stops the colour, as though the colour suddenly turns numb and cold when it reaches the eye. When I listen with my ear to tones, it is as though the sounds turn to stone in my ear; the frozen colours and the dead, hard sounds will not let the spirit of Nature through. And the teacher said: But there is still the Revelation of the religious life. In Religion you are taught how Gods made and fashioned the world, and how the Christ entered into the evolution of time and became Man. What Nature cannot give you, does not Revelation give?

And the pupil said: Revelation does indeed speak powerfully to my heart, but I cannot really comprehend it, I cannot connect what is out there in Nature with what Revelation says to me. It is impossible to bring them into relation with one another. And so, since I do not understand Nature, since Nature reveals nothing to me, neither do I understand the Revelation of Religion.

And the teacher made answer: I understand you well; it is even so. If you must speak thus, if it is with your heart and soul as you say, then you, as you stand in the world today, will not be able to understand either Nature or Revelation: for you live in a body that has undergone the Fall—such was the manner of speaking in those days—and this “fallen” body is not suited to the earthly environment in which you are living. The earthly environment does not afford the conditions for using your senses and your feeling and your understanding in such a way that you may behold in Nature and in Revelation a light, an enlightenment that comes from the Gods. If you are willing, I will lead you away out of the Nature of your earthly environment, which is simply unsuited to your being, I will lead you away from it and give you the opportunity to understand Revelation and Nature better. And the teacher and the pupil discussed together when this should take place.

One day, the teacher led the pupil up a high mountain, whence the surface of the Earth with its trees and flowers could no longer be seen at all—you know how this is so on high mountains—but as the pupil stood there with his teacher he could see below him as it were a sea of cloud, which completely covered the Earth with which he was familiar; up there one was far removed from the affairs of Earth—at all events, the situation suggested this. One looked out into space with its great masses of cloud, and one saw below as it were a sea, a moving, surging sea composed entirely of cloud. Morning mist, and the breath of morning in the air! Then the teacher began to speak to the pupil. He spoke of the wide spaces of the worlds, he spoke of the cosmic distances, of how, when one gazes out into these vastnesses in the night time, one sees the stars shining forth from thence. He told him many things, so that gradually the heart of the pupil, removed as it were far away from the Earth, became wholly given up to Nature and the manner of Nature's existence.

The preparation continued until the pupil came into a mood of soul which may be indicated by the following comparison. It was as though, not for a moment only, but for quite a long time, all that he had ever experienced during his earthly life in this incarnation were something he had dreamed. The scene now spread out before him, the rolling waves of cloud, the wide sea of cloud, with here and there a drift rising up like the crest of a wave; the far spaces of the worlds, broken here and there by rising shapes of cloud—and scarcely even that, for there was no more than a glimpse here and there of cloud forms at the farthest end of space—this whole scene showing so little variation, having so little content in comparison with the manifold variety of all his experiences down below on the surface of the Earth, was now for the pupil like the content of his day-waking consciousness. And everything he had ever experienced on Earth was for him no more than the memory of a dream he had dreamed. Now, now, so it seemed to him, he had woken up. And whilst he continued to grow more and more awake, behold, from a cleft in the rock which he had not hitherto noticed, came forth a boy of 10 or 11 years old. This boy made a strange impression upon him, for he at once recognised in him his own self in the 10th or 11th year of his age. What stood before him was the Spirit of his Youth.

You will easily guess, my dear friends, that to this scene is due one of the impulses that made me introduce into the Mystery Plays the figure of the Spirit of Johannes' Youth. [Footnote: The Soul's Awakening. Scene 6. Four Mystery Plays.] It is the “motif” alone you must think of, certainly not of anything like photography. The Mystery Plays are no occult romances where you have but to find the key, and all is plain!

The pupil stood before the Spirit of his boyhood, his very self. He, with his 15 or 28 years, stood face to face with the Spirit of his youth. And a conversation could take place, guided by the teacher, but in reality taking place between the pupil and his own younger self. Such a conversation has a unique character; you may see that for yourselves in the Mystery Plays, from the style that is there followed. For when a man is face to face with the Spirit of his own youth—and such a thing is always possible—then he gives something of his ripe understanding to the childlike ideas of the Spirit of his youth, and at the same time the Spirit of his youth gives something of his freshness, his childlikeness, to what the man of older years possesses. The meeting becomes fruitful in a spiritual way through the very fact of this mutual interchange. And this conversation had the result that the pupil came to understand Revelation, the Revelation that is given in religion.

The conversation turned especially on Genesis, the beginning of the Old Testament, and on the Christ becoming Man. Under the guidance of the teacher and because of the special kind of fruitfulness that worked in the conversation it ended with the pupil saying these words: “Now I understand what Spirit it is that works in the Revelation. Only when one is transplanted, as it were, far away from the earthly into the heights of the Ether, there to comprehend the Ether-heights with the help of the power of childhood—this power of childhood being projected into the later years of life—only then does one understand Revelation aright. And now I understand wherefore the Gods have given to man Revelation—for the reason that men are not able, in the state in which they are on Earth, to see through the works of Nature and discover behind them the works of the Gods. Therefore did the Gods give them the Revelation which is ordinarily quite incomprehensible in the mature years of life, but which can be understood when childhood becomes real and living in the years of maturity. Thus it is really something abnormal, to understand the Revelation.”

All this made a powerful impression on the pupil. And the impression remained; he could not forget it. The Spirit of his youth vanished. The first phase of the instruction was over. A second had now to come. And the second took its course in the following way.

Once more the teacher led the pupil forth, but this time on a different path. He did not now lead him to a mountain top, but he took him to a mountain where there was a cave, through which they passed to deep, inner clefts, going down as far as the strata of the mines. There the pupil was with the teacher in the deep places of the Earth, not now in the Ether-heights raised high above the Earth, but in the depths, far down below the surface of the Earth.

Once again it was for the consciousness of the pupil as though all that he had ever experienced on Earth went past him like dreams. For he was living down there in an environment in which his consciousness was particularly awakened to perceive his relation with the depths of the Earth. What took place for him was really none other than what lies behind such legends as are told, for example, of the Emperor Barbarossa and his life in Kyffhauser, or of Charles the Great and his life beneath a mountain near Salzburg. It was something of this nature that took place now, if only for a short time: it was a life in the depths of the Earth, far removed from the earthly life of man.

And again the teacher was able, by speaking with the pupil in a special way, to bring to his consciousness the fact—this time—of his union with the Earth-depths. And now there came forth out of a wall an old man, who was less recognisable to the pupil than the Spirit of his Youth, but of whom he nevertheless felt that after many years he would himself become that old man. He knew that there stood before him his own self in future old age. And now followed a similar conversation, this time between the pupil and his own older self—himself as an old man—once more a conversation under the guidance of the teacher.

What resulted from this second conversation was different from what came from the first; for now there began to arise within the pupil a consciousness of his own physical organisation. He felt how his blood flowed, he felt every single vein in his body; he went with it, went with the nerve fibres; he was made aware of all the single organs of his human organisation and the meaning and significance of each for the whole. And he felt too how all that is related to man out in the Cosmos works into him. He felt the inworking of the plant-world, in its blossoming, in its rooting; he felt how the mineral element in the Earth works in the human organism. Down there in the depths he felt the forces of the Earth—how they are organised and how they circulate within his being; he felt them creating there within him, undergoing change, destroying and building substances; he felt the Earth creating, and weaving and being, in man. The result of this conversation was that when the old man, who was himself, had disappeared, the pupil could say: “Now has the Earth, in which I have been incarnated, at last really spoken to me through her beings; now a moment has been mine when I have seen through the things and processes of Nature, seen through them to the work of the Gods that is behind these things and processes of Nature.”

The teacher then led the pupil out again on to the Earth, and as he took leave of him, said: Behold now! The man of today and the Earth of today are so little suited to one another that you must receive the Revelation of Religion from the Spirit of your own Youth, receiving it on the mountain high up above the Earth, and you must receive the Revelation of Nature deep below the Earth, in clefts that are far down below the surface of the Earth. And if you can succeed in illuminating what your soul has felt in the hollow clefts of the Earth, with the light your soul has brought from the mountain, then you will attain unto wisdom.

Such was the path by which a deepening of the soul was brought about in those times—it was about the year 1200 A.D.—this is how the soul became filled with wisdom. The pupil of whom I have told you was thereby brought verily to Initiation, and he now knew what power he must put forth in his soul to arouse to activity the light of the heights and the feeling of the depths. Further instruction was then given him by the teacher, showing him how self-knowledge really always consists in this:—one perceives on the one hand that which lies high above Earth-man, and on the other hand that which lies deep below Earth-man: these two must meet in man's own inner being. Then does man find within his own being the power of God the Creator.

The Initiation that I have described to you is a characteristic example of the Initiations which led afterwards to what we may designate as “mediaeval Mysticism.” It was a mysticism that sought for self-knowledge, but always in order to find in the self the way to the divine. In later times this mysticism became abstract. The concrete union with the external world, as it was given for these pupils who were carried up into the Ether-heights and down into the Earth-depths, was no longer sought for. Consequently there was not the same deep stirring of the soul, nor did the whole experience attain to such a degree of intensity. And yet there was still the search, there was still the inner impulse to seek within for the God, for God the Creator. Fundamentally speaking, all the seeking and striving of Meister Eckhart, of Johannes Tauler and of the later mystics whom I have described in my book Mysticism and Modern Thought owes its impulse to these earlier mediaeval Initiates.

Those who worked faithfully in the sense of such mediaeval forms of Initiation were however very much misunderstood, and it is by no means easy for us to find out what these pupils of the mediaeval Initiates were really like.

It is, as you know, possible to come a considerable distance along the path into the spiritual world. Those who follow thoroughly and actively what is given in my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment do find the way into the spiritual worlds. Everything that has been physically real in the past is of course only to be found now by way of the spiritual world—therefore also such scenes as I have now described, for there are no material documents that record such scenes. There are however regions of the spiritual world which are hard of access even for a very advanced stage of spiritual power. In order to research into these regions, we must have come to the point of actually having intercourse with the Beings of the spiritual world, in a quite simple, natural way, as we have with men on Earth. When we have attained so far, we shall come to perceive and understand the connection between these Initiates of whom I have told you, and their pupils, e.g., such a pupil as Raimon Lull, who lived from 1235 to 1315 and who, in what history can tell of him, seems to leave us full of doubts and questions.

What you can learn of Raimon Lull by studying historical documents is indeed very scanty. But if you are able to enter into a personal relationship with Raimon Lull—you will allow me to use the expression: perhaps, in the light of all I have been telling you lately, it will not sound so paradoxical to you after all—if you are able to do this, then he shows himself to you as someone quite different from what the historical documents make him out to be. For he shows himself to be pre-eminently a personality who, under the influence and inspiration of the very Initiate of whom I have spoken to you as the “pupil,” made the resolve to use all his power to bring about a renewal in his own time of the Mysteries of the World, of the Logos, as they had been in olden times. He set himself to renew the Mysteries of the Logos by means of that self-knowledge for which so powerful an impulse was working in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The so-called Ars Magna of Raimon Lull is to be adjudged from this point of view. He said to himself: When man speaks, then we really have in speech a microcosm. That which man utters in speech is in truth the whole man, concentrated in the organs of speech; the secret and mystery of each single word is to be sought in the whole human being, and therefore in the world, in the Cosmos.

And so the idea came to Raimon Lull that one must look for the secret of speech first in the human being, by diving down, as it were, from the speech organs into the whole organism of the human being; and then in the Cosmos, for the whole human organism is to be explained and understood out of the Cosmos. Let us suppose, for example, we want to understand the true significance of the sound A (as in “father”). The point is that the sound A, which comes about through the forming and shaping of the outgoing breath, depends on a certain inner attitude of the etheric body, which you can easily learn to know today. Eurhythmy will show it you; for this attitude of the etheric body is carried over in Eurhythmy to the physical body and becomes the Eurhythmic movement for the sound A.

All this was not by any means fully clear to Raimon Lull; with him it was more of a dim, intuitive feeling. He did however get so far as to follow the inner attitude or gesture of the human being out into the Cosmos and say, for example: If you look in the direction of the constellation of the Lion (Leo), and then look in the direction of the Balance (Libra), the connection between the two lines of vision will give you A. Or again, turn your eye in the direction of Saturn. Saturn stops your line of vision, comes in the way. And if Saturn, for example, stands in front of the Ram (Aries), you have, as it were, to go round the Ram with Saturn. And then you have from out of the Cosmos the feeling of O. [Footnote: Readers unfamiliar with the movements in Eurhythmy for the sounds of speech, are recommended to turn to the first three chapters of the book Eurhythmy as Visible Speech (15 lectures) by Rudolf Steiner]

From ideas like these, though dimly perceived, Raimon Lull went on to find certain geometrical figures, the corners and sides of which he named with the letters of the alphabet. And he was quite sure that when one experiences a feeling and impulse to draw lines in the figures—diagonals, for instance, across a pentagon, uniting the five points in different ways—then one has to see in these lines different combinations of sounds, which combinations of sounds express certain secrets of the World-All, of the Cosmos. Thus did Raimon Lull look for a kind of renaissance of the secrets of the Logos, as they were known and spoken of in the Ancient Mysteries. You will find it all quite misrepresented in the historical documents. When however one enters little by little into a personal relationship with Raimon Lull, then one comes to see how in all these efforts he was trying to solve once more the riddle of the Cosmic Word. And it is a fact that the pupils of the mediaeval Initiates continued for several centuries to spend their lives in endeavours of this kind. It was an intensive striving, first to immerse oneself in man, and then to come forth as it were, to rise out of the human being into the secrets of the Cosmos.

Thus did these wise men—for we may truly call them so—seek to unite Revelation with Nature. They believed—and much of their belief was well-founded—that in this way they could come behind the Revelation of Religion and behind the Revelation of Nature. For it was quite clear to them that man, as he is now living on the Earth, was destined and intended to become the Fourth Hierarchy, but that he has “fallen” from his true and proper nature, and become more deeply involved in physical existence than he should be, thereby at the same time losing the power adequately to develop his soul and spirit. It was from such strivings that there arose, later on, what we know as the Rosicrucian Movement.

It was at a place of instruction of the Rosicrucians, of the first, original Rosicrucians, that the scene I have depicted to you today, the scene between the teacher and the pupil, at first upon a high mountain and then down in a deep cleft of the Earth, emerged like a kind of Fata Morgana, came again as it were like a ghost, reflected within a Rosicrucian school as knowledge. And it taught the pupils to recognise how man has by inner effort and striving to attain to two things, if he would come to a true self-knowledge, if he would find again his adjustment to the Earth and be able at last to become in actual reality a member of the Fourth Hierarchy. For within the Rosicrucian School the possibility was given to recognise what it was that had taken place with the pupil when he had seen before him in bodily form the Spirit of his Youth. A loosening of the astral body had taken place; the astral body, that was stronger at that moment than it otherwise ever is in life, was loosened. And in this loosening of the astral body the pupil had come to know the meaning and significance of Revelation. And again, what took place with the pupil in the depths of the Earth was also made clear and comprehensible in the Rosicrucian School. This time the astral body was drawn right back within. It was contracted and drawn together, so that the pupil was able to perceive and apprehend the certainty of man's own inner being.

And now exercises were found within Rosicrucianism, comparatively simple exercises, consisting in symbolic figures, to which one gave oneself up in devotion and meditation. The force and power of which the soul became possessed through devotion to these figures, enabled the students on the one hand to loosen the astral body and become like the pupil on the mountain top in the Ether-heights, and on the other hand, through the compression and contraction of the astral body, to become like the pupil in the clefts of the Earth. And it was then possible, without the help, as before, of external environment, simply through performing a powerful inner exercise, to enter into the inner being of man.

I have given you here a picture of something to which I have made a slight allusion in my preface to the new edition of the book Mysticism and Modern Thought. I said there that what we find in Meister Eckhart, in Johannes Tauler, in Nicolas Cusa, in Valentine Wiegel and the rest, is a late product of a great and mighty striving of mankind, an earlier, original striving that preceded them all. And this earlier striving in the Spirit, this search for self-knowledge, in connection on the one hand with Revelation and on the other hand with the illumination of Nature—I wanted to show you today how this is one of the currents that take their course in the so-called “Dark Ages.”

The man of modern times conjures darkness into the Middle Ages out of his own imagination. In reality there were in those times many enlightened spirits, of such a kind however, that the “enlightened” spirits of today cannot understand their light and consequently remain in the dark.

It is indeed characteristic of modern times, that men take light for darkness and darkness for light. If however we can look into what lies behind the literature of those earlier times and are able to see that of which the literature gives only a dim reflection, then we may receive a powerful and lasting impression.

Something of this I wanted to show you today: tomorrow we will complete the picture.

Friends have expressed the wish that I should speak today on the subject of the lecture here a year ago,⁵⁹ when it was said that the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz took place in very special circumstances in the thirteenth century, and that since then this individuality has worked unceasingly throughout the centuries. Today we shall hear more about the character and the person of Christian Rosenkreutz as we study the great task which devolved upon him at the dawn of the intellectual age in order that provision might be made for the future of humanity.

Anyone who makes his mark in the world as a leading occultist, like Christian Rosenkreutz, has to reckon with the conditions peculiar to his epoch. The intrinsic nature of spiritual life as it is in the present age, developed for the first time when modern natural science came upon the scene with men like Copernicus,⁶⁰ Giordano Bruno,⁶¹ Galileo⁶² and others. Nowadays people are taught about Copernicus in their early schooldays, and the impressions thus received remain with them their whole life long. In earlier times the soul experienced something different. Try to picture to yourselves what a contrast there is between a man of the modern age and one who lived centuries ago. Before the days of Copernicus everyone believed that the earth remains at rest in cosmic space with the sun and the stars revolving around it. The very ground slipped from under men's feet when Copernicus came forward with the doctrine that the earth is moving with tremendous speed through the universe. We should not underestimate the effects of such a revolution in thinking, accompanied as it was by a corresponding change in the life of feeling. All the thoughts and ideas of men were suddenly different from what they had been before the days of Copernicus. And now let us ask: What has occultism to say about this revolution in thinking?

Anyone who asks from the standpoint of occultism what kind of world conception can be derived from the Copernican tenets will have to admit that although these ideas can lead to great achievements in the realm of natural science and in external life, they are incapable of promoting any understanding of the spiritual foundations of the world and the things of the world, for there has never been a worse instrument for understanding the spiritual foundations of the world than the ideas of Copernicus—never in the whole of human evolution. The reason for this is that all these Copernican concepts are inspired by Lucifer. Copernicanism is one of the last attacks, one of the last great attacks made by Lucifer upon the evolution of man. In earlier, pre-Copernican thought, the external world was indeed maya, but much traditional wisdom, much truth concerning the world and the things of the world still survived. Since Copernicus, however, man has maya around him not only in his material perceptions but his concepts and ideas are themselves maya. Men take it for granted nowadays that the sun is firmly fixed in the middle and the planets revolve around it in ellipses. In the near future, however, it will be realised that the view of the world of the stars held by Copernicus is much less correct than the earlier Ptolemaic view.⁶³ The view of the world held by the school of Copernicus and Kepler is very convenient, but as an explanation of the macrocosm it is not the truth.

And so Christian Rosenkreutz, confronted by a world conception which is itself a maya, an illusion, had to come to grips with it. Christian Rosenkreutz had to save occultism in an age when all the concepts of science were themselves maya. In the middle of the sixteenth century, Copernicus' Book of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres⁶⁴ appeared. At the end of the sixteenth century the rosicrucians were faced with the necessity of comprehending the world system by means of occultism, for with its materially-conceived globes in space the Copernican world-system was maya, even as concept. Thus towards the end of the sixteenth century one of those conferences took place of which we heard here a year ago in connection with the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz himself in the thirteenth century. This occult conference of leading individualities [See ‘East in the Light of the West’, Chapter IX, etc. Rudolf Steiner Publication Co. and Anthroposophic Press, N.Y., 1940.] united Christian Rosenkreutz with those twelve individualities of that earlier time and certain other great individualities concerned with the leadership of humanity. There were present not only personalities in incarnation on the physical plane but also some who were in the spiritual worlds; and the individuality who in the sixth century before Christ had been incarnated as Gautama Buddha also participated.

The occultists of the East rightly believe—for they know it to be the truth—that the Buddha who in his twenty-ninth year rose from the rank of Bodhisattva to that of Buddha, had incarnated then for the last time in a physical body. It is absolutely true that when the individuality of a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha he no longer appears on the earth in physical incarnation. But this does not mean that he ceases to be active in the affairs of the earth. The Buddha continues to work for the earth, although he is never again present in a physical body but sends down his influence from the spiritual world. The Gloria heard by the shepherds in the fields intimated from the spiritual world that the forces of Buddha were streaming into the astral body of the child Jesus described in the St. Luke Gospel. The words of the Gloria came from Buddha who was working in the astral body of the child Jesus. This wonderful message of peace and love is an integral part of Buddha's contribution to Christianity. But later on too, Buddha influences the deeds of men—not physically but from the spiritual world—and he has co-operated in measures that have been necessary for the sake of progress in the evolution of humanity.

In the seventh and eighth centuries, for example, there was a very important centre of initiation in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, in which the Buddha taught, in his spirit body. In such schools there are those who teach in the physical body; but it is also possible for the more advanced pupils to receive instruction from one who teaches in an ether-body only. And so the Buddha taught those pupils there who were capable of receiving higher knowledge. Among the pupils of the Buddha at that time was one who incarnated again a few centuries later. We are speaking, therefore, of a physical personality who centuries later lived again in a physical body, in Italy, and is known to us as St. Francis of Assisi. The characteristic quality of Francis of Assisi and of the life of his monks—which has so much similarity with that of the disciples of Buddha—is due to the fact that Francis of Assisi himself was a pupil of Buddha.

It is easy to perceive the contrast between the qualities characteristic of men who like Francis of Assisi were striving fervently for the spirit and those engrossed in the world of industry, technical life and the discoveries of modern civilisation. There were many people, including occultists, who suffered deeply at the thought that in the future two separate classes of human beings would inevitably arise. They foresaw the one class wholly given up to the affairs of practical life, convinced that security depends entirely upon the production of foodstuffs, the construction of machines, and so forth; whereas the other class would be composed of men like Francis of Assisi who withdraw altogether from the practical affairs of the world for the sake of spiritual life.

It was a significant moment, therefore, when Christian Rosenkreutz, in the sixteenth century, called together a large group of occultists in preparation for the aforesaid conference, and described to them the two types of human beings that would inevitably arise in the future. First he gathered a large circle of people, later on a smaller one, to present them with this weighty fact. Christian Rosenkreutz held this preparatory meeting a few years beforehand, not because he was in doubt about what would happen, but because he wanted to get the people to contemplate the perspectives of the future. In order to stimulate their thinking he spoke roughly as follows: Let us look at the future of the world. The world is moving fast in the direction of practical activities, industry, railways, and so on. Human beings will become like beasts of burden. And those who do not want this will be, like Francis of Assisi, impractical with regard to life, and they will develop an inner life only. Christian Rosenkreutz made it clear to his listeners that there was no way on earth of preventing the formation of these two classes of men. Despite all that might be done for them between birth and death, nothing could hinder mankind being divided into these two classes. As far as conditions on the earth were concerned it is impossible to find a remedy for the division into classes. Help can only come if a kind of education could be brought about that did not take place between birth and death but between death and a new birth.

Thus the rosicrucians were faced with the task of working from out of the super-sensible world to influence individual human beings. In order to understand what had to take place, we must consider from a particular aspect the life between death and a new birth.

Between birth and death we live on the earth. Between death and a new birth man has a certain connection with the other planets. In my Theosophy you will find Kamaloka described. This sojourn of man in the soul world is a time during which he becomes an inhabitant of the Moon. Then one after the other, he becomes an inhabitant of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and then an inhabitant of the further expanses of heaven or the cosmos. One is not speaking incorrectly when one says that between two incarnations on the earth lie incarnations on other planets, spiritual incarnations. Man at present is not yet sufficiently developed to remember, whilst in incarnation, his experiences between death and a new birth, but this will become possible in the future. Even though he cannot now remember what he experienced on Mars, for example, he still has Mars forces within him, although he knows nothing about them. One is justified in saying: I am not an earth inhabitant, but the forces within me include something that I acquired on Mars. Let me consider a man who lived on earth after the Copernican world outlook had become common knowledge. Whence did Copernicus, Galileo, Giordano Bruno and others acquire their abilities in this incarnation? Bear in mind that shortly before that, from 1401–1464, the individuality of Copernicus was incarnated as Nicholas of Cusa,⁶⁵ a profound mystic. Think of the completely different mood of his docta ignorantia. How did the forces that made Copernicus so very different from Nicholas of Cusa enter this individuality?

The forces that made him the astronomer he was, came to him from Mars! Similarly, Galileo also received forces from Mars that invested him with the special configuration of a modern natural scientist. Giordano Bruno too, brought his powers with him from Mars, and so it is with the whole of mankind. That people think like Copernicus or Giordano Bruno is due to the Mars forces they acquire between death and a new birth.

But the acquisition of the kind of powers which lead from one triumph to another is due to the fact that Mars had a different influence in those times from what it exercised previously. Mars used to radiate different forces. The Mars culture that human beings experience between death and a new birth went through a great crisis in the earth's fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was as decisive and catastrophic a time on Mars in the fifteenth and sixteenth century as it was on the earth at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Just as at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha the actual ego of man was born, there was born on Mars that particular tendency which, in man, comes to expression in Copernicanism. When these conditions came into force on Mars, the natural consequence would have been for Mars to continue sending down to earth human beings who only brought Copernican ideas with them, which are really only maya. What we are seeing, then, is the decline of the Mars culture. Previously, Mars had sent forth good forces. But now Mars sent forth more and more forces that would have led men deeper and deeper into maya. The achievements that were inspired by Mars at that time were ingenious and clever, but they were maya all the same.

So you see that in the fifteenth century you could have said Mars' salvation, and the earth's too, depended on the declining culture of Mars receiving a fresh impulse to raise it up again. It was somewhat similar on Mars to what it had been like on the earth before the Mystery of Golgotha, when humanity had fallen from spiritual heights into the depths of materialism, and the Christ Impulse had signified an ascent. In the fifteenth century the necessity had arisen on Mars for the Mars culture to receive an upward impulse. That was the significant question facing Christian Rosenkreutz and his pupils; how this upward impulse could be given to the Mars culture, for the salvation of the earth was also at stake. Rosicrucianism was faced with the mighty task of solving the problem of what had to happen so that, for the earth's sake, the Mars culture should be brought once more onto an ascending path. The beings on Mars were not in a position to know what would bring about their salvation, for the earth was the only place where one could know what the situation on Mars was like. On Mars itself they were unaware of the decline. Therefore it was in order to find a practical solution to this problem that the aforesaid conference met at the end of the sixteenth century. This conference was well prepared by Christian Rosenkreutz in that the closest friend and pupil of Christian Rosenkreutz was Gautama Buddha, living in a spirit body. And it was announced at this conference that the being who incarnated as Gautama Buddha, in the spiritual form he now had since becoming Buddha, would transfer the scene of his activities to Mars. The individuality of Gautama Buddha was as it were sent by Christian Rosenkreutz from the earth to Mars. So Gautama Buddha leaves the scene of his activity and goes to Mars, and in the year 1604 the individuality of Gautama Buddha accomplished for Mars a deed similar to what the Mystery of Golgotha was for the earth. Christian Rosenkreutz had known what the effect of Buddha on Mars would signify for the whole cosmos, what his teachings of Nirvana, of liberation from the earth, would signify on Mars. The teaching of Nirvana was unsuited to a form of culture directed primarily to practical life. Buddha's pupil, Francis of Assisi, was an example of the fact that this teaching produces in its adepts complete remoteness from the world and its affairs. But the content of Buddhism, which was not adapted to the practical life of man between birth and death, was of great importance for the soul between death and a new birth. Christian Rosenkreutz realised that for a certain purification needed on Mars the teachings of Buddha were pre-eminently suitable. The Christ Being, the essence of divine love, had once come down to the earth to a people in many respects alien, and in the seventeenth century Buddha, the prince of peace, went to Mars—the planet of war and conflict—to execute his mission there. The souls on Mars were warlike, torn with strife. Thus Buddha performed a deed of sacrifice similar to the deed performed in the Mystery of Golgotha by the bearer of the essence of divine love. To dwell on Mars as Buddha was a deed of sacrifice offered to the cosmos. He was as it were the lamb offered up in sacrifice on Mars, and to accept this environment of strife was for him a kind of crucifixion. Buddha performed this deed on Mars in the service of Christian Rosenkreutz. Thus do the great beings who guide the world work together not only on the earth but from one planet to another.

Since the mystery of Mars was consummated by Gautama Buddha, human beings have been able, during the period between death and a new birth, to receive from Mars different forces from those emanating during Mars' cultural decline. Not only does a man bring with him into a new birth quite different forces from Mars, but because of the influence exercised by the spiritual deed of Buddha, forces also stream from Mars into men who practise meditation as a means of reaching the spiritual world. When the modern pupil of Spiritual Science meditates in the sense indicated by Christian Rosenkreutz, forces sent to the earth by Buddha as the redeemer of Mars stream to him.

Christian Rosenkreutz is thus revealed to us as the great servant of Christ Jesus; but what Buddha, as the emissary of Christian Rosenkreutz, was destined to contribute to the work of Christ Jesus—this had also to come to the help of the work performed by Christian Rosenkreutz in the service of Christ Jesus. The soul of Gautama Buddha has not again been in physical incarnation on the earth but is utterly dedicated to the work of the Christ impulse. What was the word of peace sent forth from the Buddha to the child Jesus described in the Gospel of St. Luke? ‘Glory in the heights and on the earth—peace!’ And this word of peace, issuing mysteriously from Buddha, resounds from the planet of war and conflict to the soul of men on earth.

Because all these things had transpired it was possible to avert the division of human beings into the two distinct classes, consisting on the one hand of men of the type of Francis of Assisi, and on the other of men who live wholly as materialists. If Buddha had remained in direct and immediate connection with the earth, he would not have been able to concern himself with the ‘practical’ people, and his influence would have made the others into monks like Francis of Assisi. Through the deed of redemption performed by Gautama Buddha on Mars, it is possible for us, when we are passing through the Mars period of existence between death and a new birth, to become followers of Francis of Assisi without causing subsequent deprivation to the earth. Grotesque as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that since the seventeenth century every human being is a buddhist, a franciscan, an immediate follower of Francis of Assisi for a time, whilst he is on Mars. Francis of Assisi has subsequently only had one brief incarnation on earth as a child; and he died in childhood and has not incarnated since. From then onwards he has been connected with the work of Buddha on Mars and is one of his most eminent followers.

We have thus placed before our souls a picture of what came to pass through that great conference at the end of the sixteenth century, which resembles what happened on earth in the thirteenth century when Christian Rosenkreutz gathered his faithful around him. Nothing less was accomplished than that the possibility was given of averting from humanity the threatened separation into two classes, so that men might remain inwardly united. And those who want to develop esoterically despite their absorption in practical life can achieve their goal because the Buddha is working from the sphere of Mars and not from the sphere of the earth. Those forces which help to promote a healthy esoteric life can therefore also be attributed to the work and influence of Buddha.

In my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, I have dealt with the methods that are appropriate for meditation today. The essential point is that in rosicrucian training, development is such that the human being is not torn away from the earthly activities demanded of him by his karma. Rosicrucian esoteric development can proceed without causing the slightest disturbance in any situation or occupation in life. Because Christian Rosenkreutz was capable of transferring the work of Buddha from the earth to Mars it has become possible for Buddha also to send his influences into men from outside the earth.

Again, then, we have heard of one of the spiritual deeds of Christian Rosenkreutz; but to understand these deeds of the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries we must find our way to their esoteric meaning and significance. It would be good if it were generally realised how entirely consistent the progress of theosophy in the West has been since the founding of the Middle European section of the Theosophical Society.⁶⁶ Here in Switzerland we have given lecture cycles on the four Gospels.⁶⁷ The substance of all these Gospel cycles is potentially contained in my book Christianity as Mystical Fact, written twelve years ago. The book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment describes the Western path of development that is compatible with practical activities of every kind. Today I have indicated that a basic factor in these matters is the mission assigned to Gautama Buddha by Christian Rosenkreutz, for I have spoken of the significant influence which the transference of Buddha to Mars made possible in our solar system. And so stone after stone fits into its proper place in our Western philosophy, for it has been built up consistently and in obedience to principle, and everything that comes later harmonises with what went before. Inner consistency is essential in any world conception if it is to stand upon the ground of truth. And those who are able to draw near to Christian Rosenkreutz see with reverent wonder in what a consistent way he has carried out the great mission entrusted to him, which in our time is the rosicrucian-christian path of development. That the great teacher of Nirvana is now fulfilling a mission outside the earth, on Mars—this too is one of the wise and consistent deeds of Christian Rosenkreutz.

A Concluding Indication

In conclusion, the following brief practical indication will be added for those who aspire to become pupils of Christian Rosenkreutz.

A year ago we heard how the knowledge of having a certain relationship to Christian Rosenkreutz may come to a man involuntarily. It is also possible, however, to put a kind of question to one's own destiny: ‘Can I make myself worthy to become a pupil of Christian Rosenkreutz?’ It can come about in the following way: Try to place before your soul a picture of Christian Rosenkreutz, the great teacher of the modern age, in the midst of the twelve, sending forth Gautama Buddha into the cosmos as his emissary at the beginning of the seventeenth century, thus bringing about a consummation of what came to pass in the sixth century before Christ in the sermon of Benares.⁶⁸

If this picture, with its whole import, stands vividly before the soul, if a man feels that something streaming from this great and impressive picture wrings from his soul the words: O man, thou art not merely an earthly being; thou art in truth a cosmic being!—then he may believe with quiet confidence: ‘I can aspire to become a pupil of Christian Rosenkreutz.’ This picture of the relationship of Christian Rosenkreutz to Gautama Buddha is a potent and effective meditation.

And I wanted to awaken this aspiration in you as a result of these considerations. For our ideal should always be to take an interest in world happenings and then to find the way, by means of these studies, to carry out our own development into higher worlds.

• 59. a year ago, when it was said: see pages 36 et seq. [27 Sep 1911]
• 60. Nicholas Copernicus: 1473 – 1543.
• 61. Giordano Bruno: 1548 – 1600.
• 62. Galileo Galilei: 1564 – 1642.
• 63. earlier Ptolemaic view: Claudius Ptolemy, circa 100 to 180 AD., astronomer, mathematician and geographer in Alexandria.
• 64. Copernicus: Book of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres: De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium Libri VI, Nurnberg 1543.
• 65. before that, from 1401 – 1464, the individuality of Copernicus was incarnated as Nicholas of Cusa: the relationship of these two individualities was presented in greater detail in the lectures given in 1909, ‘Das Prinzip der spirituellen Oekonomie im Zusammenhang mit Wiederverkoerperungsfragen. Ein Aspekt der geistigen Führung der Menscheit’ (The Principle of Spiritual Economy in Relation to Questions of Reincarnation. An Aspect of the Spiritual Guidance of Mankind), GA 109/111 Dornach, 1965. Nicholas of Cusa: 1401 – 64. Wrote his work ‘De docta ignorantia Libri III’ in 1440.
• 66. since the founding of the Middle European section of the Theosophical Society: see Rudolf Steiner ‘The Anthroposophical Movement, its History and Life-Conditions in Relation to the Anthroposophical Society; an Occasion for Self-Recollection’, 8 lectures Dornach, June, 1923; London, 1933.
• 67. Here in Switzerland we have given lecture cycles on the four Gospels: ‘Das Johannes-Evangelium’ (The Gospel of St. John), 8 lectures, Basle, November 1907, in ‘Menschheitsentwicklung und Christuserkenntnis’ (Human Evolution and Knowledge of Christ) GA 100 Dornach, 1967; ‘The Gospel of St. Luke’. 10 lectures, Basle, September, 1909, Rudolf Steiner Press London, 1975; ‘The Gospel of St. Matthew’, 12 lectures, Berne, September 1910, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1965; ‘The Gospel of St. Mark’, 10 lectures, Basle, September, 1912, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1977.
• 68. sermon of Benares: Buddha's first sermon after his enlightenment: ‘The eightfold path, the cause of suffering and the alleviation of suffering.’

You will have gathered from yesterday's study how important it is to develop a feeling of fellowship, which means overcoming all regard for your own Ego if you wish to penetrate more deeply into the spiritual life. For example, anyone who aspires to occult development must among other things get rid of the following form of egoism. He must not say: “What good is it for me to hear about occult things from others when I cannot see them for myself? That implies a lack of trust. He must trust a person who has reached a certain stage of development. People work together, and if someone has achieved more than others, he will not have achieved it for himself alone but for all the others, and they are called upon to listen to him. By this means his own powers are enhanced, and his hearers, through the very fact of having first given him their trust, will gradually become able to gain knowledge for themselves. You should not want to take a second step before the first.

There are three paths of occult development: the Eastern, the Christian-Gnostic and the Christian-Rosicrucian, or simply the Rosicrucian. They are distinguished above all by the extent to which the pupil surrenders himself to his teacher. What, then, happens to a man who enters on occult development? What are the necessary preconditions for it?

Let us first consider the life of an ordinary man nowadays. From early till late he is occupied with his work and his daily experiences; he makes use of his intellect and his outer senses. He lives and works in what we call the waking state. But that is only one state; between waking and sleeping there is another. In this state he is aware of pictures, dream pictures, passing through his soul. These pictures are not directly related to the external world and ordinary reality. We may call this the dream-state, and it is interesting to study how it takes its course. Many people suppose that dreams are nonsense, but this is not so. Even with people today dreams have a meaning, but not that of experiences in waking life. When we are awake, our mental pictures always correspond to definite facts and experiences; in our dreams they do not. For instance, you may dream that you hear the clatter of horses' hooves, and when you wake up you realise that you were hearing the ticking of the clock by your bedside. Dreams are symbolic pictures. You may have a dream which tells a whole story. A student, for instance, may dream about a duel and all its preliminary details, from the request for pistols to the report of the shot which wakes him—and then he realises that he has knocked down the chair that stood by his bed. Or again, a peasant woman may dream that she is on her way to church; she enters; she hears the priest utter lofty sayings, with his arms moving; suddenly his arms turn into wings and then the priest starts to crow: she wakes up and hears the cock crowing outside!

You can see from these examples that in dreams we live in a very different sort of time from that of our waking consciousness. The actual cause of the dream I have quoted was the last event in point of time. The reason is that such a dream flashes through the soul in a moment and has its own inner time. You must picture it in this way: when you wake up and remember all the details, you extend this inner time yourself, so that the events seem to have occurred in that extended period. This will also help you to get some idea of how time appears in the astral world. A small experience thus creates a long dramatic course of events. The dream flashes through the soul in a moment and in a flash arouses a whole series of pictures. In this way you yourself transpose time into the dream.

Inner conditions may also be represented symbolically in dream: for instance, you may have a headache and dream that you are in a cellar with a lot of cobwebs. Or the beating of your heart or a feeling of being hot may be represented in a dream by a fiery stove. Some people who possess a particular inner sensitivity may have a different experience: they may dream, for instance, that they are in an unhappy situation. Here the dream is prophetic—a symbol of some latent illness which will come out in a few days' time. Many people even dream of the remedy for such an illness. In short, our manner of perception in dreams is quite different from that of ordinary life.

The third state is that of dreamless sleep, sleep without consciousness, when nothing comes before the soul. Now if you begin to be aware of higher worlds as a result of inner development, the first indication you will notice is that your dreams become more regular and meaningful. Above all, you will gain knowledge through your dreams, provided only that you pay careful attention to them. Later, you may notice that your dreams become more frequent, until you come to feel that you have been dreaming all night through. Again, you may notice that your dreams are concerned with things which do not exist at all in the outside world and which you cannot possibly experience physically. You will find that in your dreams you no longer see things which originate in the outer world or symbolic conditions such as those I described above, but, as I have just said, you will experience pictures of things which have no existence in the sense-world, and you will then notice that your dreams are saying something important. For instance, you may dream that a friend of yours is in danger from fire and you may see him getting nearer and nearer to the danger. The next day you may learn that this friend was taken ill during the night. You did not actually see him falling ill; you saw a symbolic picture of it. Thus your dreams may be influenced from higher worlds, so that you experience something which does not exist in the physical world; that is how impressions from higher worlds pass over into dreams. This is a very important bridge to higher occult development.

Someone might say that all this was only dreamt—how can any significance be read into it? But that is a wrong approach. Take the following example: it is said that Edison³⁷ once dreamt how to make an electric light bulb; he remembered the dream and made the light bulb in accordance with it. Suppose someone had then come along and said: “The lamp is no good—it was only a dream.” You can see that what matters is not the mere fact of dreaming but whether the dream has significance for life. Quite often dreams of this sort go unheeded because we fail to notice them. That is wrong; it is just these delicate points that we should attend to; then we shall make progress.

Later comes a stage when the nature of reality is disclosed to the pupil in dream, and he can then test the dream by the reality. When he has advanced so far that he has the whole picture-world present before him in daylight and not only during sleep, he is then able to analyse with his intellect whether what he sees is true. This means that it is wrong to use dream-pictures as a foundation for wisdom; the pupil must wait for them to enter into his daytime experience. If he exercises conscious control over them, a stage is soon reached when the pupil not only sees what is physically present but can truly perceive the astral element in a man, his soul and his aura. He then learns to understand what the shapes and colours in the astral body signify—what passions, for example, they express. So he learns gradually to spell out, as it were, the soul-world. But he must always realise that everything there is symbolical.

Here it might be objected that if you see symbols only, some particular event might be symbolised by all sorts of images, and you could never be sure that a given image has a consistent meaning. But when you reach a certain stage, one image always does stand for one thing, just as in the ordinary world one object is always represented by the same mental concept. For instance, you will find that a given passion is always represented for everyone by the same image. The important thing is to learn how to read the images correctly.

Now you can understand why the sacred books of all religions tend to speak almost entirely through symbolic images. Wisdom, for example, may be described as light: the reason is that to anyone who is occultly developed the wisdom of man and other beings always appears as astral light. Passions appear as fire. The ancient religious documents do not tell only of things on the physical plane, but also of events on higher planes; they owe their origin to seers and are concerned with higher worlds; hence they have to speak to us in pictures. Everything narrated from the Akashic Record³⁸ has for the same reason been presented in pictures of this kind.

The next condition experienced by the pupils is called “continuity of consciousness”. When an ordinary person is completely withdrawn from the sense-world in sleep, he is unconscious. This is no longer so with a pupil who has reached the stage just mentioned. By day and by night, with no interruption, he lives in a state of fully clear consciousness, even when his physical body is at rest.

After some time the pupil's entry into a new but quite specific state of consciousness is marked by the fact that sounds and words are added to the images. The images speak to him in an intelligible language. They tell him what they are, without any possibility of deception. These are the sounds and speech of Devachan, the Music of the Spheres. Everything speaks forth its own name and its relation to other things. This comes in addition to astral sight, and it marks the seer's entry into Devachan. Once a man has reached this Devachanic state, the lotus-flowers, the Chakrams or wheels begin to revolve at specific places in the astral body, turning like the hands of a clock from left to right. These are the sense-organs of the astral body, but their mode of perception is an active one. The eye, for example, is at rest; it allows the light to enter and only then perceives it. The lotus-flowers, on the other hand, perceive only when they are in motion and take hold of an object. The vibrations caused by the revolving lotus-flowers bring them into contact with the astral substance, and that is how perception on the astral plane occurs.

What are the forces which activate the lotus-flowers, and where do they come from? We know that during sleep the exhausted forces of the physical and etheric bodies are restored by the astral body; by its inherent regularity it can make up for irregularities in the physical and etheric bodies. It is these forces, normally used for overcoming fatigue, which animate the lotus-flowers. When a man enters on occult development, he is thus really withdrawing certain forces from his physical and etheric bodies. If these forces were to be withdrawn permanently from the physical body, the man would fall ill; he would find himself utterly exhausted. If therefore he does not want to injure himself, morally as well as physically, he must find something to replace these forces.

He must remind himself of the general rule: Rhythm restores power. Here you have an important occult principle. Most people today lead lives devoid of any regular rhythm, especially as regards their thoughts and their behaviour. Anyone who allowed the distractions of the outer world to gain a hold on him would be unable to avoid the dangers to which his physical body would be exposed in the course of his occult development by the withdrawal of these forces of renewal. Hence he has to strive to introduce a rhythmic element into his life. Of course he cannot arrange his days so that each day passes exactly like another. But he can at least pursue certain activities regularly, and indeed anyone who wants to develop on the occult path will have to do this. Thus he should, for example, do certain exercises of meditation and concentration at a chosen time every morning. He can also bring rhythm into his life if in the evening he reviews the events of the day in reverse order. If he can bring in further regularities, so much the better: in that way his life will take its course in harmony with the laws of the world. Everything in the system of nature is rhythmical—the course of the Sun, the passage of the seasons, of day and night, and so on. Plants, too, grow rhythmically. It is true that the higher we go in the kingdoms of nature, the less rhythm we find, but even in animals a certain rhythm can be observed: for instance, animals mate at regular times. Only man now leads an unrhythmical, chaotic life: nature has deserted him.

Man's task, therefore, is deliberately to infuse some rhythm into this chaotic life, and he has available certain means through which he can bring this harmony and rhythm into his physical and etheric bodies. Both these bodies will then gradually develop such rhythms that they will correct themselves when the astral body withdraws. If they are forced out of their proper rhythm during the day, they will of their own accord regain the right kind of movement when they are at rest.

The means available consist in the following exercises, which must be practised in addition to meditation:

I. Thought control. This means preventing, at least for a short time every day, all sorts of thoughts from drifting through the mind, and bringing a certain ordered tranquillity into the course of thinking. You must take a definite idea, set it in the centre of your thinking, and then logically arrange your further thoughts in such a way that they are all closely linked with the original idea. Even if you do this for only a minute, it can be of great importance for the rhythm of the physical and etheric bodies.

II. Initiative in action. You must compel yourself to some action, however trivial, which owes its origin to your own initiative, to some task you have laid on yourself. Most actions derive not from your own initiative but from your family circumstances, your education, your calling and so on. You must therefore give up a little time to performing actions which derive from yourself alone. They need not be important; quite insignificant actions fulfil the same purpose.

III. Tranquillity. Here the pupil learns to regulate his emotions so that he is not at one moment up in the skies and at the next down in the dumps.³⁹ Anyone who refuses to do this for fear of losing his originality in action or his artistic sensibility can never go through occult development. Tranquillity means that you are master of yourself in the most intense pleasure and in the deepest grief. Indeed, we become truly receptive to the joys and sorrows of the world only when we do not give ourselves over egotistically to them. The greatest artists owe their greatest achievements precisely to this tranquillity, because through it they have opened their eyes to subtle and inwardly significant impressions.

IV. Freedom from prejudice. This, the fourth characteristic, sees good in everything and looks for the positive element in all things. Relevant to this is a Persian legend⁴⁰ told of Christ Jesus. One day Christ Jesus saw a dead dog lying by the wayside; he stopped to look at the animal while those around him turned away in disgust. Then Jesus said: “What beautiful teeth the dog has!” In that hideous corpse he saw not what was ugly or evil but the beauty of the white teeth. If you can acquire this mood, you will look everywhere for the good and the positive, and you will find it everywhere. This has a powerful effect on the physical and etheric bodies.

V. Faith. Next comes faith, which in its occult sense implies something rather different from its ordinary meaning. During occult development you must never allow your judgment of the future to be influenced by the past. Under certain circumstances you must exclude all that you have experienced hitherto, so that you can meet every new experience with new faith. The occultist must do this quite consciously. For instance, if someone comes up to you and tells you that the church steeple is crooked and at an angle of 45 degrees, most people would say that is impossible. The occultist must always leave a way open to believe. He must go so far as to have faith in everything that happens in the world; otherwise he bars the way to new experiences. You must always be open to new experiences; by this means your physical and etheric bodies will be brought into a condition which may be compared with the contented mood of a broody hen.

VI. Inner Balance. This is a natural outcome of the other five qualities. The pupil must keep the six qualities in mind, take his life in hand, and be prepared to progress slowly in the sense of the proverb about drops of water wearing away a stone.

Now if anyone acquires higher powers through some artificial means without attending to all this, he will be in a bad way. In ordinary life today the spiritual and the physical are intermingled, somewhat like a blue and yellow liquid in a glass of water. Occult development sets going a process rather like the work of a chemist who separates the two liquids. Soul and body are separated in a similar way, and the benefits of the mingling are lost. An ordinary person, because the soul stays in close relation to the body, is not subjected to the more grotesque passions. But as a result of the separation I have been talking about, the physical body, with all its attributes, may be left to itself, and this can lead to all manner of excesses. Thus a man who has embarked on occult development, but has not taken care to cultivate moral qualities, may manifest certain traits which as an ordinary man he had long ago ceased to exhibit. He may suddenly become a liar, vengeful, quick to anger; all sorts of characteristics which had previously been toned down may appear in a violent form. This may happen even if someone who has neglected moral development becomes unduly absorbed in the teachings of Theosophy.

We have seen that a man must first pass through the stage of spiritual sight and only then comes to the stage of spiritual hearing. While he is still at the first stage he has of course to learn how the images are related to their objects. He would find himself plunged into the stormy sea of astral experiences if he were left to fend for himself. For this reason he needs a guide who can tell him from the start how these things are related and how to find his bearings in the astral world. Hence the need to find a Guru⁴¹ on whom he can strictly rely. In this connection three different ways of development can be distinguished.

1. The Eastern way, also called Yoga. Here, an initiated man living on the physical plane acts as the Guru of another, who entrusts himself to his Guru completely and in all details. This method will go best if during his occult development the pupil eliminates his own self entirely and hands it over to his Guru, who must even advise him on every action he may take. This absolute surrender of one's own self suits the Indian character; but there is no place for it in European culture.

2. The Christian way. Here, in place of individual Gurus, there is one great Guru, Christ Jesus Himself, for everyone. The feeling of belonging to Christ Jesus, of being one with Him, can take the place of surrender to an individual Guru. But the pupil has first to be led to Christ by an earthly Guru, so that in a certain sense he still depends on a Guru on the physical plane.

3. The Rosicrucian way, which leaves the pupil with the greatest possible independence. The Guru here is not a leader but an adviser; he gives directions for the necessary inner training. At the same time he takes good care that, parallel with the occult training, there is a definite development of thinking, without which no occult training can be carried through. This is because there is something about thinking which does not apply to anything else. When we are on the physical plane, we perceive with the physical senses only what is to be found on that plane. Astral perceptions are valid for the astral plane; devachanic hearing is valid only in Devachan. Thus each plane has its own specific form of perception. But one activity—logical thinking—goes through all worlds. Logic is the same on all three planes. Thus on the physical plane you can learn something which is valid also for the higher planes; and this is the method followed by Rosicrucian training when on the physical plane it gives primary attention to thinking, and for this purpose uses the means available on the physical plane. A penetrative thinking can be cultivated by studying theosophical truths, or by practising mental exercises. Anyone who wishes further training for the intellect can study books such as Truth and Science, and The Philosophy of Freedom, which are written deliberately in such a way that a thinking trained by them can move with certainty on the highest planes. Even a person who studies these books and knows nothing of Theosophy might find his way about in the higher worlds. But, as I have said, the teachings of Theosophy act in the same way.

Here, then, the Guru is only the friend and adviser of the pupil, for by training his reason the pupil will be training the best Guru for himself. But he will of course still need a Guru to advise him on how to make progress in freedom.

Among Europeans, the Christian way is best suited to those whose feelings are most strongly developed. Those who have more or less broken away from the Church and rely rather on science, but have been led by science into a doubting frame of mind, will do best with the Rosicrucian way.

• 37. Thomas Alva Edison, 1847–1931.
• 38. “Everything that has been recounted from the Akasha Chronicle”. The reference is to the communications “From the Akasha Chronicle” published by Rudolf Steiner in his journal, Lucifer-Gnosis, from July 1904 to May 1908. Collected edition, Dornach, 1964. English translation published in America with the title: Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man.
• 39. “at one moment up in the skies and at the next down in the dumps”. From Klärchen's song in Goethe's Egmont, 3, 2.
• 40. “a Persian legend.” See Goethe: Notes and comments for a better understanding of the West-Östlichen Divan, “Allgemeines”.
• 41. Guru. In oriental Initiation, he who guides the pupil's occult development; leader on the path of knowledge.

[Before the lecture Rudolf Steiner officially Announces his Proposal for the Composition of the Executive Council. See GA 259]

The Mysteries were, as I said yesterday, spread in varied form over many regions of the Earth; and every region, according to its population and other conditions, had its special form of the Mysteries. But now there came a time which was of extraordinary significance for the Mysteries. It was the time in the Earth’s evolution which began some centuries after the foundation of Christianity.

In my book Christianity as Mystical Fact, it can be seen that what happened on Golgotha gathered together, in a certain sense, what had previously been distributed in the various Mysteries throughout the world. The Mystery of Golgotha, however, differs from all the other Mysteries which I have been describing, in that the Mystery of Golgotha stands so to speak on the stage of history before the whole world, while the older Mysteries were enacted in the obscurity of the inner temples and sent out their impulses into the world from the dim twilight of these inner temples.

If we look into the oriental Mysteries or into those I described to you as the Mysteries of Ephesus in Asia Minor, or again if we look into the Greek Mysteries, be it the Chthonic, or the Eleusinian, or those I spoke of yesterday, the Samothracian, or finally if we look into those Mysteries I have characterised as the Hibernian—everywhere we see how the Mystery in question was enacted in the obscurity of the inner temple, and thence sent out its impulses into the world. Whoever understands the Mystery of Golgotha—and merely to know the historical information available is not to understand it—whoever really understands the Mystery of Golgotha has understood thereby all the Mysteries which had gone before.

The Mysteries which preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, and culminated in it, all had a unique quality in respect of the feelings aroused by them. In the Mysteries many tragic things took place. He who attained to Initiation was obliged to undergo suffering and pain. You know these things; they have been described by me time and again. Before the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, however, if a candidate was to go through an Initiation and was warned beforehand that he would have to face manifold tests and trials, to suffer pain and sorrow, he would still have said: ‘I will go through all the fire in the world, for it leads to the Light, it leads into the Light-regions of the spirit where I may attain to a vision of what can be only dimly divined in ordinary human consciousness on Earth.’ It was really a great longing, and a longing at the same time full of joy, that took possession of one who sought the way to the older Mysteries; he was filled with a deep and sublime joy.

Then came an intervening time. In the lectures that are to follow in a few days I shall have to characterise these things from the historical standpoint. The intervening time led ultimately to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when, as you know, a new epoch began in human evolution. And now we find an altogether different mood in those who are setting out on a search for knowledge of the higher worlds.

We will first of all look once again, by means of the Akashic Records, into the ancient Mysteries. There we find joyful faces, deeply serious but filled notwithstanding with joy. If I were to describe to you a scene which even in these days can be brought to light again from the Akashic Records, a scene for example in the Samothracian Mysteries, I should have to say that the countenances of those who entered the innermost temple of the Kabiri, were full of depth and seriousness but were nevertheless joyful, happy countenances.

But now came the intervening time. And afterwards we come to that which had not exactly a temple, but was rather a gathering together in the moral or spiritual sense, as indeed was already the case also in the ancient Mysteries. We come to what is often described as the Rosicrucianism of the Middle Ages.

If we want to characterise the pupil of Rosicrucianism in the way I have just done for the ancient Mysteries, we shall have to say something very different of the pupil of the Rosicrucian Mysteries. For those who strove after knowledge in mediaeval times, those who endeavoured to make research into the spiritual world, bore not joyful but very tragic countenances. And so true is this that we may say: Those who did not bear a deeply tragic expression were certainly not sincere in their efforts. There was abundant reason why such men should wear a tragic expression on their countenances.

Let me now give you a picture of the way in which those who strove after knowledge learned gradually to relate themselves differently to the secrets of Nature and of the Spirit.

Yesterday I demonstrated to you how the phenomena and processes of Nature were for the man of olden time nothing less than divine. They would as little have thought of treating a phenomenon of Nature apart by itself, as we should think of considering a movement of the human eyes as a thing in itself and not as a revelation of the soul and spirit of man. The phenomenon of Nature was treated as an expression of the God who revealed himself through it. For the man of olden time the surface of the Earth was as truly the skin of the divine Earth-Being as is our skin the skin of an ensouled human being. We really have not the least understanding of the mood of soul of a man of antiquity, unless we know that he spoke in this way of the Earth as a body of the Gods, and of the other planets as brothers and sisters of the Earth.

But now this direct and immediate relation to the things and processes of Nature, which saw in the single object or phenomenon the revelation of the divine, underwent a change. That which is divine in the phenomena of Nature had, so to speak, withdrawn. Supposing it could happen to one of you that people saw in you merely the body—as we do the Earth—neutral, soul-less—it would be horrible!

But this horrible thing has really come about for knowledge in recent times. And the men of knowledge of the Middle Ages felt the horror of it. For as I said, the divine had withdrawn, for man’s knowledge, from natural phenomena. And whereas in ancient times the objects and processes of Nature were revelations of the divine, now comes this intermediary time, when they are only pictures, no longer revelations but only pictures of the divine.

The man of today, however, has not even any right idea of how the processes of Nature can be regarded as pictures of the divine. Let me give you an example, one that is quite familiar to anyone who knows a smattering of chemistry; it will show you what sort of conception of science these men had, who did at any rate still view the objects and processes of Nature as pictures of the divine.

We will take a quite simple experiment which is continually being made by chemists today. You have a retort and you put into it oxalic acid which you can procure from clover, and you mix the oxalic acid with an equal part of glycerine. Then you heat the mixture, and you obtain carbonic acid. The carbonic acid is given off, and what remains behind is formic acid. The oxalic acid is transformed by the loss of carbonic acid into formic acid. This experiment can easily be made in a laboratory: you can see it performed there before you, and you can look upon it as a modern chemist does, namely as a complete and finished process.

Not so the mediaeval man. He looked in two directions. He said: Oxalic acid is found especially in clover; but it occurs in a certain quantity in the whole organism of man, in particular in the part of the organism that comprises the organs of digestion—spleen, liver, and so on. In the region of the digestive tract you have to reckon with processes that are under the influence of oxalic acid. And the oxalic acid that is present in a higher degree in the lower part of the body, is acted upon by the human organism itself in a way that is similar to the action of the glycerine in the retort. Here too we have a glycerine action. And note the remarkable result: under the influence of the glycerine action the transformed product of oxalic acid, namely formic acid, goes over into the lung and into the breath. And man breathes out carbonic acid. You send out your breath, and with it you send out the carbonic acid. You can imagine instead of the retort the digestive tract, and where the formic acid is collected, you can imagine the lungs, and higher up you have once more carbonic acid, in the air breathed out from the lungs.

Man is however not a retort! The retort demonstrates in a dead way what takes place in man in a living way. The expression is absolutely correct, for if man never developed oxalic acid in his digestive tract he would simply not be able to live. That is to say, his etheric body would have no sort of basis in his organism. If man did not change the oxalic acid into formic acid, his astral body would have no basis in his organism. Man needs oxalic acid for his ether body and formic acid for his astral body. Or rather, he does not need the substances, he needs the work, the inner activity that goes on in the oxalic acid process and in the formic acid process.

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This is of course something which the chemist of today has yet to discover; he still speaks of what goes on in man as if it were all merely external processes.

This was then the first question put by the student of Natural Science in mediaeval times, as he sat before his retort. He asked himself: Such is the external process that I observe; now what is the nature of the similar process in man?

And the second question was this: What is the same process like in the great world of Nature outside? In the case of the example I have chosen, the researcher of those days would have said as follows: I look out over the Earth and see the world of plants. In all this plant world I find oxalic acid. True, it occurs in a marked degree in wood sorrel and in all kinds of clover; but in reality it is distributed over the whole of the vegetation, if sometimes only in homeopathic doses. Everywhere there is a touch of it. The ants find it even in decaying wood.

The ant-swarms, which we humans often find so troublesome, change the oxalic acid that occurs all over the fields and meadows and is found indeed wherever there is vegetation, into formic acid. We continually breathe in the formic acid out of the air, although in very small doses, and we are indebted for it to the work of the insects who change the oxalic acid of the plants into formic acid.

Thus the mediaeval student would say to himself: In man this metamorphosis of oxalic acid into formic acid, takes place. And in all the life of Nature the same metamorphosis is present. These two questions presented themselves to the student with every single process he carried out in his laboratory. There was besides something else most characteristic of the mediaeval student, something that has today been completely lost. Today we think: Why, anyone can do research in a laboratory! It does not matter in the very least whether he is a good or bad man. All the formulae are there ready; you have only to analyse or synthesise. Anyone can do it—In the days, however, when Nature was approached quite differently, when men saw in Nature the working of the divine, of the divine in Man, as well as of the divine in the great world of Nature, then it was required of the man who did research that he should at the same time be a man of piety. He must be apt and ready to direct his soul and spirit to the divine-spiritual in the world.

And it was a recognised fact that if a man prepared himself for his experiments as though for a sacred rite, if he were inwardly warmed in soul by the pious exercises he went through beforehand, then he would find that the experiments led him inward to the revelation of the human being and outward to the investigation of external Nature. Inner purity and goodness were regarded as a preparation for research.

I have now given you a description of the transition from the spirit of the ancient Mysteries to Mysteries such as were able to exist in the Middle Ages. If we are speaking out of what was preserved as tradition, then we can say that a great deal of the content of the ancient Mysteries found a place also in the Mysteries of mediaeval times. Nevertheless it was impossible in the Middle Ages to attain to the greatness and sublimity even of the Mysteries that survived comparatively late, such as the Samothracian or the Hibernian.

As a tradition we have still in our day what we call Astrology. As a tradition, too, has come down to us what we call Alchemy. For all that, we know nothing whatever today of the conditions of a true astrological or of a true alchemical knowledge.

It is quite impossible to come to Astrology by empirical research or thought. If you had suggested such a thing to those who were initiated in the ancient Mysteries, they would have replied: You might as well try to get to know a secret a man keeps from you, by empirical research or by sitting down to think about it. Suppose there were a secret known to one man and no one else, and someone were to contend that he was going to find it out by making experiments or by thinking about it. It would of course be absurd. He can learn the secret only by being told it. A man of antiquity would have found it equally absurd to try to arrive at a knowledge of astrological matters by thinking about them or by making experiments or observations. For he knew that it is the Gods alone, or as they were called later, the Cosmic Intelligences, who know the secrets of the starry worlds. They knew them and it is they alone who can tell them to man. And so man has to pursue the path of knowledge that leads him to a good understanding and relationship with the Cosmic Intelligences.

A true and genuine Astrology depends on man’s ability to understand the Cosmic Intelligences. And upon what does a true Alchemy depend? Not upon doing research after the manner of a chemist of today, but upon being able to perceive within the Nature processes, the Nature Spirits, upon being able to come to an understanding with the Nature Spirits so that they tell one how the process takes place, and what really happens. Astrology was in olden times no spinning of theories or fancies, neither was it mere research through observation; it was an intercourse with Cosmic Intelligences. And Alchemy was an intercourse with Nature Spirits. It is essential to know this. If you had gone to an Egyptian of olden times or more especially to a Chaldean, he would have told you: I have my observatory for the purpose of holding conversations with the Cosmic Intelligences; I hold conversations with them by means of my instruments, for my spirit is able to speak with the help of my instruments.—And the pious student of Nature in the Middle Ages who stood before his retort and investigated on the one hand the inner being of man, and on the other the weaving, moving life of great Nature—he would have told you; I make experiments, because through the experiments the Nature Spirits speak to me. The Alchemist was the man who conjured up the Nature Spirits. What was taken for Alchemy later was no more than a decadent product.

The Astrology of olden times owed its origin to intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences. But by the time of the first centuries after the rise of Christianity, the ancient Astrology, that is to say, the intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences, was gone. When the stars stood in opposition, or in conjunction, and so forth, then reckoning was made accordingly. Men had still the tradition that was left from the days of old. Alchemy on the other hand, remained. Intercourse with the Nature Spirits was still possible in later times.

And when we look into a Rosicrucian alchemical laboratory of the fourteenth or even the fifteenth century, we find there instruments not unlike those of the present day; at any rate, one can gain some idea of them from instruments in use today. But when we look with spiritual vision into these Rosicrucian Mysteries, we find everywhere the earnest and deeply tragic personality, of whom Faust is a later and indeed a lesser development. For in comparison with the student who stands in the Rosicrucian laboratory with his deeply tragic countenance, who has so to speak done with life—in comparison with him, the Faust of Goethe is something like a newspaper print of the Apollo of Belvedere as compared with the real Apollo when he appeared at the altar of the Kabiri, taking form in the clouds of sacrificial smoke.

It is verily so; when one looks into these alchemical laboratories of the eighth to the thirteenth centuries, one is confronted with a very deep tragedy. The tragic mood and tone that belonged to the serious and earnest people of the Middle Ages is not to be found recorded in the history books, for the writers of those books have not looked into the depths of the soul of men.

But the genuine students and researchers, who made investigations with retorts to learn about Man and about the wide world of Nature, are none other than glorified Faustian characters in the early Middle Ages. They are all deeply conscious of one thing. They can all say: ‘When we experiment, then the Nature Spirits speak to us, the Spirits of the Earth, the Spirits of the Water, the Spirits of the Fire, the Spirits of the Air. We hear their whispered murmurs, we hear their strangely wandering sounds, beginning with a humming and growing ever into harmony and melody that again turns back upon itself, melody unfolding melody. We hear them when Nature processes take place, when we stand before a retort.’ In all piety of heart, they steeped themselves in the process that was taking place. For example in the very process of which we have spoken, where they experienced the metamorphosis of oxalic acid into formic acid, when they asked the question of the process, and the Nature Spirit gave the answer, then it was so that they could as it were make use of what the Nature Spirit gave for the inner being of man. For then the retort began to speak in colour. And they were able to feel how the Nature Spirits of the earthy and of the watery rise up from the oxalic acid and assert themselves, and how the whole passes over into a humming melody, into a harmonious shaping of melodies that then again turns back into itself. Such was their experience of the process that results in formic acid and carbonic acid.

And if one is able to enter in this living way into the process and feel how it passes from colour into tone and music, then one can enter also with a deep and living knowledge into what the process has to tell concerning great Nature and concerning Man. Then one knows: The things and processes of Nature reveal something else, something that is spoken by the Gods; for they are pictures of the divine. And one can turn the knowledge to good account for man.

Throughout these times the knowledge of healing was closely and intimately bound up with the knowledge of the whole Universe.

Let us imagine we had the task of building up a therapy based on such perceptions. We have a human being before us. The same complex of external symptoms can of course be an expression of the most varied conditions of disease. With a method however that arises from this kind of knowledge—I do not say it can be done today as it was done in the Middle Ages for today of course it has to be quite different—but with such a method we would be able to say: If a certain precise complex is manifest, then it shows that the human being is unable to transform enough oxalic acid into formic acid. He has somehow become too weak to do it.—We would perhaps be able to provide a remedy by giving him formic acid in some form or other, so that we bring help to him from outside, when he cannot himself produce the formic acid.

Now it might easily happen that in the case of two or three people for whom you have made the diagnosis that they cannot themselves produce the formic acid—when you treat them with formic acid, it works quite satisfactorily; but in a third case it gives no help at all. Directly you give oxalic acid, however, the patient is at once better. Why is this? Because the deficiency in force lies in another place, it lies where the oxalic acid has to be changed into formic acid. In such a case, if we were to think on the lines of a researcher of the Middle Ages, we should say: Yes, under certain circumstances the human organism, when given formic acid, will reply: I do not want it. I do not ask for it in the lung or other organ, I do not need it brought into the breath and the circulation. I want to be treated in quite another place, namely in the region of the oxalic acid, for I want myself to change the oxalic acid into formic acid. I will not have the formic acid. I want to make it myself.

Such are the distinctions that show themselves. Naturally a great deal of swindling and stupidity has gone under the name of Alchemy, but for the genuine student who was worthy of the name, this was always the subject of his research: the healthy nature of the human being studied in connection with diseased conditions.

And it all led to nothing less than intercourse with the Nature Spirits. The researcher of mediaeval times had the feeling: I am in touch with the Nature Spirits, I converse with them. There had been a time when men have had intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences. That is barred to me.

And now, since the Nature Spirits too have withdrawn from human knowledge, and the things and processes of Nature have become the abstractions that they are for the physicist and chemist of today, we no longer find the tragic mood of the student of the Middle Ages. For it was the Nature Spirits who awakened in him the yearning after the Cosmic Intelligences. These had been accessible to the men of antiquity; but the mediaeval student could no longer find the way to them with the means of knowledge at his disposal. He could only find the way to the Nature Spirits. The very fact that he did perceive the Nature Spirits, that he was able to draw them into the field of knowledge, made it so tragic for him that he was not able to approach the Cosmic Intelligences by whom the Nature Spirits were themselves inspired. He perceived what the Nature Spirits knew; but he could not penetrate through them to the Cosmic Intelligences beyond. That was the feeling he had.

Fundamentally speaking, the cause of this tragedy was that while the mediaeval alchemists still had knowledge of the Nature Spirits they had lost the knowledge of the Cosmic Intelligences. And this in turn was the cause of the fact that they were unable to attain to a complete knowledge of man, although they were still able to divine where such a complete knowledge of man was to be found. When Faust says:

‘And here, poor fool, with all my lore, I stand, no wiser than before.’

we may really take the words as reminiscent of the feeling that prevailed in many a laboratory of the Middle Ages. This teaching gave men the Nature Spirits, but the Nature Spirits gave them no true knowledge of the soul.

Today we have the task to find again much that has been lost even to tradition. These students of mediaeval times had still the tradition, they still heard tell of repeated Earth-lives. As they stood in their laboratories, however, the Nature Spirits spoke of all manner of things in connection with substances or, by way of description, of the happenings of the world, but never once did they speak of repeated Earth-lives. They took no interest in the subject at all.

And now, my dear friends, I have placed before you some of the thoughts that gave rise to the fundamentally tragic mood of the mediaeval student of Nature. He is indeed a remarkable figure, this Rosicrucian student of the early Middle Ages, standing in his laboratory with his deeply serious and sorrowful countenance, not sceptical of human understanding but filled with a profound uncertainty of heart, with no weakness of will but with the consciousness: I have indeed the will! But how am I to guide it, so that it may take the path that leads to the Cosmic Intelligences?

Countless were the questions that arose in the heart of the mediaeval student of Nature. The monologue at the beginning of Faust, with all that follows, is no more than a weak reflection of his numberless questionings and strivings.

Tomorrow we will look a little further at this earnest student with his deeply-moving countenance, who is really the ancestor of Goethe’s figure of Faust.

To round out the contents of this volume, reference may be made to some further important references Rudolf Steiner made to the cosmic alphabet with the help of which it is possible to read the cosmos, the great book of nature.

In a lecture given in Dornach on 1 August 1924^a he looked back on how for him there had been a kind of shibboleth (test word, motto) for the anthroposophical movement from its beginning to enable people to read the great ‘book of nature’ again in the spirit, to find the spiritual background to the world of nature again. For this, he said, was one of the most important impulses for the new Michael age which had started in 1879. He showed how one can read the book of nature by comparing it with printed books. These involve a specific number of letters, and so does the writing in the book of nature, except that there the letters are categories, archetypes, cosmic thoughts. These make up the alphabet of cosmic alphabet. Just as someone who sees only the individual letters—a, b, c, etc.—and does not know how to combine them properly, is unable to appreciate the greatness of Goethe’s Faust, for instance, so, Steiner said, all that is active and moving in the cosmos, and the way the human being is connected with this, can only be read by someone who knows how to combine the letters of the cosmic alphabet.

In the same sense, he once said with reference to Occult Science: ‘What does it actually say in this Occult Science? [...] Thoughts are written in it, but these are not ordinary thoughts. They are the thoughts which do creative work in the world out there. [...] I may call the powers I have described in it the world-creative powers or cosmic thoughts.’ (Dornach, 24 March 1922, [in German] in GA 211.)

We can understand that the letters of the cosmic alphabet cannot be found with logical or philosophical conclusions but are gained from vision in the spirit. In the course of human evolution, people have again and again sought to read the great book of nature. This is why there are different alphabets, or rather different names given to individual letters in the cosmic alphabet. Rudolf Steiner emphatically referred to Aristotle’s ten categories and the ten sephiroth of the Jewish cabbala as such alphabets. (Dornach, 10 May 1924).^b The same applies to the book of ten pages to which the French philosopher Saint-Martin referred as late as the 18th century.

The Rosicrucians also know of a ten-letter cosmic alphabet. (See German text on the ten metamorphoses of the Sun Logos according to the Rosicrucian chronicle in GA 88; also the discussion of the Rosicrucian words ‘One who is able to understand well the work of numbers, will see how his world is made ...’, [in German] in esoterische Stunden, Berlin, 12 February 1908, GA 266/1.) In his report on the theosophical congress in Munich in 1907 Rudolf Steiner referred, clearly not without purpose, to the fact that the letters E. D. N.—1. C. M.—P. S. S. R. in the programme were ‘the ten initial letters of the words expressing the goal of true Rosicrucianism: ex deo nascimur, in Christo morimur, per spirituatn sanctum reviviscimus.'

A number of statements Rudolf Steiner made show that the results of his spiritual scientific investigations were also due to the ability to read the cosmic alphabet. He said this most clearly in a lecture given in Dornach on 22 April 1924 (in GA 233a).^c Considering Aristotle’s categories, he said: ‘Basically everything anthroposophy has given us and will ever be able to give, is experienced the way anything read in Faust is experienced from the letters [in the book]. For all the secrets of the physical and the spiritual world are contained in these simple ideas which make up the cosmic alphabet. [...] So you see how in ten concepts, the inner power of light and influence needs to be unveiled again, one had what for millennia had been a tremendous, instinctive revelation of wisdom.’

20 years earlier, in the lecture on the Cabbala (Berlin, 18 March 1904, in this volume) he was quite specific about this: ‘You will find it said in my Theosophy that the occult teaching [in the Cabbala] agrees with the things taught in theosophy.’

He put it even more definitely in a lecture given in Dornach on 19 September 1922 ([in German] in GA 344): ‘If we consider the whole human being as I have presented the subject in my Theosophy, in his nine parts, we find that from above down they are spirit human being, life spirit, Spirit Self, spiritual soul, rational soul, sentient soul, sentient body, ether body and physical body. These are nine. They would not connect with earthly life in the right way if there were not also a synthesis, which is the tenth. This gives us ten, and these also appear in the sephiroth of pre-Christian times, though in a form that was right for that time, when I-awareness did not yet wholly exist.’ See also the two undated sketches by Rudolf Steiner (archive Nos. 685 and 712) which follow below.

As the nine becomes the seven which determines all evolution, and as ultimately everything goes back to the three, which in turn must be seen as the two and the one—since everything can only manifest in polarities, with the one as the oneness behind them—all this can be seen from the notes made for J. Peelen and E. Schuré (in this volume).

A look at his cosmological investigations connected with the secret of numbers permitted the following to be said in a lecture given in Stuttgart on 29 August 1906:^d ‘There are thus seven planets with seven times seven states each, which is written as \(777\) in occult writing. In occult writing, the seven in the unit position indicates the globes, the \(7\) in the tens the rounds, and the one in the hundreds the planets. These numbers have to be multiplied with one another. Our planetary system thus has to go through \(7 \times 7 \times 7 = 343\) transformations.’ He then referred to a ‘strange passage’ in Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine, the content of which Steiner said was largely inspired by one of the most sublime spiritual figures: ‘But the great initiates always expressed themselves with great caution; they only gave pointers. Above all they always let people do some work for themselves. The passage is therefore full of riddles. H. P. B knew this. The teacher did not speak of consecutive incarnations, he merely said: Learn to solve the riddle of \(777\) incarnations. He wanted that one should learn that these are \(343\) [states of transformation]. The task is given in The Secret Doctrine, not the solution. This has only been found quite recently.’

The solution was evidently found by Rudolf Steiner himself. It may be found in the fragment written in 1903/04, where he used completely original German terms for the 7 metamorphoses gone through in states of conscious awareness, life and form. In the lectures on planetary evolution (in this volume), he also pointed out that the sum of the digits in these 343 states in the whole of evolution is 10. What does the number 10 signify?

Ten was the number given as the basis of cosmic order even in the occult knowledge of antiquity. The Pythagoreans considered it to be the all-encompassing, all-limiting mother, for it is the sum of the first four numbers: \(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10\). And the four is the sign of the cosmos or of creation, since Earth is in its fourth embodiment—everything we find on our Earth, including the fourth principle in the human being, depends on the fact that this creation is in the fourth state of its planetary evolution (Stuttgart, 15 September 1907, in GA 101).^e As the sum of the four is ten, we speak of ten creative or cosmic thoughts.^*

It is evident from the material presented in this volume that Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual scientific alphabet is differentiated into three and seven letters, the three main letters conscious awareness - life - form, in theosophical terms first, second and third Logos, in Christian terms Father, Son and Spirit, and their possible relationships, of which there are only seven. In the 12^th lecture on planetary evolution in this volume, Rudolf Steiner added the terms used in the sankhya philosophy founded by the Indian sage Kapil: sattwa, rajas, tamas, the three gunas, also with seven possible ways of combining them. These are the foundation of the sankhya system (shankya = number). Here it is enlightening to read what Rudolf Steiner said in the lectures he gave at the end of 1912, when the Anthroposophical Society was founded (GA 142).^f

In 1924, the last year of his lecturing work, Rudolf Steiner had been asked by the Christian Community priests to talk to them about Revelation. Once more the fundamental significance of the principle of number in occult investigation emerged on a grand scale. This completed a great sequence which had begun with Christianity as Mystical Fact in 1902.^g In the chapter on Revelation, he showed the route, as it were, which he had to follow to reveal ‘the cosmic thoughts which are the basis of all things, the ‘fundamental ideas of creation’. Immediately after this—in 1903—he began to work on the unveiling of those cosmic thoughts in writing Theosophy, and the spiritual scientific cosmology which remained a fragment, progressively developing the theme more and more strongly.

H. W.

• a. Steiner R. Karmic Relationships vol. 3. Tr. G. Adams. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1977.
• b. Steiner R. From Beetroot to Buddhism. Answers to Questions GA 353. Tr. A. R. Meuss. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1999.
• c. Steiner R. The Easter Festival. Tr. G. Adams. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1968.
• d. In At the Gates of Spiritual Science GA 95. Tr. E. H. Goddard, C. Davy. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1976.
• e. Steiner R. Occult Signs and Symbols from GA 101. Tr. S. Kurland. New York: Anthroposophic Press 1972.
• *. Why it is ten and not twelve, seeing that the number of the macrocosm is really twelve, may be seen from the lecture on the Cabbala. It ‘distinguishes twelve principles in the world, the first and last of which remain secret because they cannot be put into words at all. Only the other ten are put in words.’
• f. Steiner R. The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul GA 142. Tr. L. D. Monges, D. M. Bugbey. New York: Anthroposophic Press 1971.
• g. Steiner R. Christianity as Mystical Fact GA 8. Tr. A. Welbum. Hudson: Anthroposophic Press 1997.

Working with this volume involves a journey in both time and space, for the Berlin of 1906-7 is something far removed for many English-speaking readers. Yet for anyone interested in the life and work of Rudolf Steiner the journey brings worth-while insights and discoveries.

Taking the lectures published in this volume and in GA 97 (The Christian Mystery. Tr. A. R. Meuss. Gympie, Australia: Completion Press 2000) together, we get some idea of Rudolf Steiner’s work in those years. The lectures in GA 97 were given in various locations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In between his travels Rudolf Steiner would return to Berlin, where he then lived, and continued his lectures for a group of theosophists. These Berlin lectures cover a fairly wide range of subjects, from health and education, volcanic eruptions (in response to an eruption of Vesuvius at that time), to planetary evolution, the Rosicrucian way of initiation, the modern science of the spirit, the Lord’s Prayer, the blood that flowed on Golgotha, and karmic law.

The lectures were given to people with considerable knowledge of theosophical ideas and terminology, and anyone who is new to spiritual science may find it helpful to read one or two of the basic works first.

Echoes come up in these pages of the works Rudolf Steiner had published by that time, especially his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, but one keynote that comes through most strongly is that he was bringing a completely new approach to the science of the spirit. Theosophy was at that time mainly concerned with cultivating the old wisdom. If one reads Emil Bock’s studies of that period in Steiner’s life and work,¹ it is evident that these were themes that must have taken people aback a bit in circles where much devotion had been given to cultivation of the past. Mrs Besant understood this very well and did not consider it a problem, as may be seen from a letter she wrote to Dr Hübbe- Schleiden, the president of the Theosophical Society in Germany:

London, 7/6/07
Dear Dr Hübbe-Schleiden,

Dr Steiner’s occult training is very different from
ours. He does not know the eastern way, so cannot,
of course, teach it. He teaches the Xtian &
Rosicrucian way, and this is very helpful to some, but
is different from ours. I regard him as a very fine
teacher on his own lines, & as a man of real
knowledge. He & I work in thorough friendship &
harmony, but along different lines.

Yours ever sincerely,
Annie Besant²

In one of the two lectures on karmic law published in this volume, Rudolf Steiner struck that keynote, truly a clarion call as he pointed to the future:

Karmic law must above all throw light on our future. We should not think so much of the past, but more of the future. ... For when an individual makes himself more perfect, this will also have an effect on the organism of nation and race in the future.

Berlin, 15 October 1906

At the back of this volume are some notes giving details of the origin of these texts, which are based on notes taken by members of the audience.

Rudolf Steiner always avoided getting too fixed in his choice of words as well as in his approach to a subject. At the level of words, this is apparent, for example, from variation between ‘ether body’ and ‘etheric body’. I have followed this exactly in the translation. The variation between ‘buddhi’ and ‘budhi’ is probably due to the fact that the notes were taken by different people. The German editors left it in, and I have done the same.

Biblical quotes have been taken from the King James' Version where Rudolf Steiner quoted from the Luther translation of the Old Testament, and from Kalmia Bittleston's translations of the gospels (Edinburgh: Floris Books), as appropriate. The publishers were able to allow me plenty of time, and this made it possible to read the translated lectures in our Surbiton study group over several months. It is helpful for a translator to hear the translation read aloud by individuals who have not seen it before, for one hears the rhythms (and the stumbles) and is able to make final adjustments.

Most of the lectures have also been very kindly read through for me by a friend who is an Anglican priest and not an anthroposophist. She was able to make some truly helpful suggestions. Other lectures were proof-read for me by Pat Hague, an Australian living in London. She is an anthroposophist and I am most grateful to her for her careful work.

Surbiton, November 2000
Anna R. Meuss

• 1. Bock E. Rudolf Steiner. Studien zu seinem Lebensgang und Lebenswerk. Stuttgart: Freies Geistesleben 1967.
• 2. Facsimile facing page 196 of the above.

It has been said many times in the course of these lectures that Christianity marks the turning point of human evolution. All the religions have their raison d'etre and have been partial manifestations of the Logos, but none have changed the world so deeply as Christianity.—Those who ‘have not seen’ are those who have not known the Mysteries. Through Christianity, certain fundamental teachings of the ancient Mysteries—for instance those which dealt with morality, the immortality of the soul by Resurrection or the ‘second birth’—were given to the whole world.

Before Christianity, super-sensible truth was revealed in the rites and dramatic ritual of the Mysteries. Since then, we have believed in it as it was revealed in the Divine Personality of Christ. But in every epoch there has been a difference between esoteric truth as known to the Initiates and its exoteric form which has been adapted to the multitude and expressed in the religions. The same applies to Christianity. What is written in the Gospels is the message, the good tidings announced to all the world. But there was a more profound teaching; it is contained in the Apocalypse in the form of symbols

There is a way of reading the Apocalypse which only now can be made public. But it was practised in the Middle Ages, in the occult schools of the Rosicrucians. They paid less attention to the historic aspect of the writing, the question of its author and all the problems which occupy the minds of modern theologians who only seek to discover the outer, historical circumstances. Theology today only knows the shell of the Apocalypse and has neglected its essence and core. The Rosicrucians were concerned with the prophetic utterances, with the eternal truths.

Occultism in general is not concerned with the history of a single evolutionary cycle or period but with the inner history of human evolution as a whole. True occultism is at pains to discover the first manifestations of the life of our planetary system and the earlier stages of man's existence, but it looks forward through the millennia to a divine humanity, to a time when the Earth herself will have changed in substance and in form. Is it possible to predict the far distant future? It is indeed possible, because all that has finally to become physical in the future, already exists in germ, in archetypal form. The plan of evolution is contained in archetypal thought. Nothing comes into being in the physical world which in its broad lines has not been foreseen and prefigured in the devachanic world. Individual freedom and power of initiative depends upon the manner of the realisation of this truth.

Esoteric Christianity is not based upon vague and sentimental idealism, but upon a realisation born of a knowledge of the higher worlds. Such was the knowledge possessed by the author of the Apocalypse, the Seer of Patmos, who gave a picture of the future of humanity.

Let us try to envisage this future in the light of the cosmological principles which we have been studying in these lectures. Certain visions of the past and also of the future were revealed to the pupils in the Rosicrucian Schools and then, in order that they might interpret these visions, they were told to study the Apocalypse. We will proceed in the same way and consider how man has gradually become what he is today and what lies before him in the future. We have spoken of the ancient continent of Atlantis, and of the Atlanteans who had only a primitive consciousness of the ‘I’ towards the end of their period. The Post-Atlantean civilisations were as follows:

1. Pre-Vedic civilisation in the south of Asia and in India—the beginning of Aryan culture.
2. The epoch of Zoroaster, comprising the civilisation of ancient Persia.
3. Egyptian civilisation (including the Chaldean and Semitic). The first germs of Christianity were laid down in this epoch among the Hebrew peoples.
4. Graeco-Roman civilisation, the era of the birth of Christianity.
5. A new epoch commenced at the time of the migrations of the peoples and of the invasions. The heritage of the Graeco-Roman civilisation was taken over by the races of the North: the Celts, the Germanic peoples and the Slavs. We ourselves are living in this epoch. It is a later transformation of the Graeco-Roman culture, brought about by the invigorating impulses of new races under the influence of Christianity mingled with the leaven of the East which was brought into Europe by the Arabs. The essential mission of this epoch of civilisation is to adapt man to the physical plane to develop reason and practical logic, to immerse intelligence in physical matter so that matter may be understood and finally mastered. In this hard and difficult task which is reaching its culminating point in our own day, man has temporarily forgotten the higher worlds whence he came. If we compare our intellectuality with that of the Chaldeans, for example, it is easy to see how much we have acquired and yet how much we have lost. When a Chaldean Magus looked at the sky—which for us simply presents problems of heavenly mechanics—his feelings were quite different from ours. Whereas modern astronomy is concerned with calculations and abstractions, the Magus of old Chaldea sensed the deep harmony of the heavens as that of a living and divine Being. When he looked at Mercury, Venus, Moon or Sun, he not only perceived the physical light of these celestial bodies; he perceived their souls and he knew that his own soul was in communion with these mighty souls of the heavens. Their forces of attraction or repulsion seemed to be a marvelous symphony of divine will; the music of the macrocosm sounded in his being. Thus the ‘Music of the Spheres’ was a reality uniting man to the heavens. The superiority of the scholar in our modern age lies in a knowledge of the physical world, of mineral matter. What was once spiritual knowledge has descended to the physical world, to the world we know so well. But from now onwards we must strive to reach a knowledge of the astral world and of the world of pure Spirit by true clairvoyance.

This descent into materialism was necessary in order that the fifth epoch might fulfil its mission. It was essential that astral and spiritual clairvoyance should grow dim in order that the intellect might develop by dint of precise, minute and mathematical observation of the physical world. Physical Science must be supplemented by Spiritual Science. Here is an example: Comparisons are often made between Ptolemy's chart of the heavens and that of Copernicus. It is said that Ptolemy's chart is erroneous. Now this in itself is not correct. Both are true from different points of view. Ptolemy's chart is concerned with the astral world where the Earth is seen in the centre of the planets, including the Sun. The map of the heavens given by Copernicus was prepared from the point of view of the physical world—the Sun is at the centre of the solar system. The significance of Ptolemy's system will be recognised again in ages to come.

Our fifth epoch will be followed by another, the sixth. This sixth epoch will see the development of brotherhood among men, clairvoyance and creative power. What will Christianity be in the sixth epoch? To the priest in the Mysteries before Christ, there was harmony between science and faith. Science and faith were one and the same. When he looked up to the heavens, the priest knew that the soul was a drop of water from the celestial ocean, led down to Earth by the great streams of life flowing through space. Now that the attention of men is wholly directed to the physical world, faith has need of a refuge, of religion. Hence the separation between science and faith. Faith in the Person of Christ, of the God-Man on Earth has temporarily replaced Occult Science and the Mysteries of antiquity. But in the sixth epoch, the two streams will again unite. Mechanical science will become spiritually creative. This will be Gnosis-spiritual consciousness. This sixth epoch which will be radically different from our own, will be preceded by mighty cataclysms. It will be as spiritual as ours has been material. But the transformation can only be brought about by physical catastrophes. The sixth epoch will prepare for a seventh epoch. This seventh epoch will be the end of the Post-Atlantean civilisations and conditions of earthly life will be entirely different from those we know. At the end of the seventh epoch there will be a revolution of the elements analogous to that which put an end to Atlantis, and the subsequent eras will know a spirituality prepared by the two preceding Post-Atlantean periods.

Thus there are seven great epochs of Aryan civilisation in which the laws of evolution slowly come to expression. At first, man has within him what he later sees around him. All that is actually around us now, passed out from us in a preceding epoch when our being was still mingled with the Earth, Moon and Sun. This cosmic being from whom the man of today and all the kingdoms of nature have issued, is referred to in the Cabala as Adam-Cadmon. Adam-Cadmon embraced all the manifold aspects of man as we know him today in the various races and peoples.

All that lives today in the inner being of man, his thoughts, his feelings, will find expression in the outer world and become his surroundings. The future lies within man. He is free to make it good or evil. Just as he has already left the animal kingdom behind him, so the evil in him today will form a race of degenerate beings. In our age man can to a certain extent hide the good or evil within him. But a time will come when he will no longer be able to do so, when the good and the evil will be written in indelible characters upon his countenance, upon his body, nay even upon the very face of the Earth.

Humanity will then divide into two races. Just as today we see rocks or animals, in that future age we shall encounter beings who are wholly evil, wholly ugly. In our time it is only the clairvoyant who is able to see moral goodness or moral ugliness in human beings. But when man's very features express his karma, human beings will divide into groups of themselves, according to the stream to which they manifestly belong, according to whether the lower nature has been conquered or whether it has conquered the Spirit. This differentiation is beginning to operate little by little. When we derive understanding of the future from the past, and strive to realise the ideal of this future, its plan begins to unfold before us. A new race will come into being to be the link between the man of the present and the spiritual man of the future.

It was taught in Manicheism that from our age onwards the souls of men would begin to transmute into good the evil which will manifest in full force in the sixth epoch. In other words: human souls must be strong enough to bring good out of evil by a process of spiritual alchemy.

When the Earth begins to recapitulate the previous phases of its evolution, there will first be a re-union with the Moon, and then of this Earth-Moon with the Sun. The re-union with the Moon will mark the culminating point of evil on the Earth; the re-union with the Sun will signify, on the other hand, the advent of happiness, the reign of the ‘elect.’ Man will bear the signs of the seven great phases of the Earth. The Book with the Seven Seals, spoken of in the Apocalypse, will be opened. The Woman clothed with the Sun who has the Moon under her feet, refers to the age when the Earth will once again be united with Sun and Moon. The Trumpets of Judgment will sound for the Earth will have passed into the Devachanic condition where the ruling principle is not light but sound. The hallmark of the end of earthly existence will be that the Christ-Principle permeates all humanity. Having become like unto Christ, men will gather around Him as the hosts around the Lamb, and the great harvest of evolution will constitute the new Jerusalem.